In This Issue

• "LORD, IS IT I?"
• WORSHIP IS NOT FOR OUR ENTERTAINMENT
• "GOD JUST LAID THIS ON MY HEART"
• NON-JUDGMENTAL
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"LORD, IS IT I?"

Matthew records an account of Jesus’ last Passover with His apostles: "Now on the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, ‘Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?’ And He said, ‘Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, "The Teacher says, ‘My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.’"’ So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. Now when evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. Now as they were eating, He said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.’ And they were exceedingly sorrowful and each of them began to say to Him, ‘Lord, is it I?’ Then He answered and said, ‘He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.’ Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, ‘Rabbi, is it I?’ He said to him, ‘You have said it.’" (Matthew 26:17-25).

Preparation for the feast took place on Thursday afternoon. The feast itself was eaten that night, but since the Jewish day began at sunset, the meal was eaten on what to them was the first part of Friday. To us, it would be Thursday night.

It is interesting to note that, although Jesus had known from the beginning of His ministry which of the apostles would be the betrayer, the other apostles did not suspect Judas at all. As far back as John 6:54, John tells us that "Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him." In verses 70-71 of that sixth chapter, John writes that Jesus asked His apostles, "’Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?’ He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve."

We might do well to remind ourselves that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote their accounts of the life of Jesus several years after the events they recorded had occurred. By the time they put their messages into written form, they were well aware that Judas was the betrayer, and they made mention of his treachery every time they mentioned his name. But as Matthew indicates in our text, at the time these events were unfolding, they did not so much as suspect Judas of being a traitor. When they were informed that one of them would betray Him, they did not ask, "Lord, is it Judas?" but "Lord, is it I?" We, too, should realize, even as they did, that there lurks within each of us the danger of doing evil as well as the power to do right. God grant us the will and the strength to do the right, and refrain from the evil.

--CRJ

WORSHIP IS NOT FOR OUR ENTERTAINMENT

There is an erroneous idea today that the main reason we attend worship is to "get something out of the service", rather than going there to give our worship to God. This is a selfish motive on our part. This is the reason people cannot be satisfied with the worship service when their emphasis is not on the proper object of worship, God. People want to "do their own thing" in the worship of the church. What the Bible has to say about worship for many people is of little consequence as long as they are happy and feel good. We must be concerned with what God says on how He is to be worshipped instead of what we might want to offer Him.

The United States has produced the most entertainment-oriented people the world has ever known. We have more forms of amusement than has ever been know to man, but we still want more. In our age everything is designed to appeal to our emotions and to entertain us. We seem to have forgotten our worship service is to bring glory and honor to God, and not to entertain ourselves. When we have choirs to sing to us and concerts to entertain us, we are not worshipping God; but we have become the spectators who are being entertained. Worship is not a spectator event. We dare not become spectators, because in worship it is God who is the spectator. People have the roles reversed. People expect divine will to conform to what seems right in their own eyes. Proverbs 12:15 says, "The way of the fool is right in his own eyes." The emphasis is how can the worship service be made more entertaining to people to please themselves and not God.

Worship to God is holy and sacred. To pervert and corrupt it with entertainment and what we can "get out of the service" in trying to please and gratify ourselves is nothing short of blasphemy! The sacredness of true worship must not be sacrificed on altars of entertainment-oriented quartets, choirs, and other entertainment groups. We are as Hebrews 13:15 says to "Offer the sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." In worship we must be the participants, not the observers. We want to please and entertain ourselves. In Galatians 1:10 the question is asked, "Do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Worship is God-centered not man-centered. When our worship is to please God instead of ourselves, then and only then will our worship be much more meaningful and spiritually uplifting to us and acceptable to God.

When people seek an "emotional high" from worship and don’t get it, they are disappointed and start blaming the song service, the preacher, etc. The world wants their worship service to be "more entertaining", thus they are failing to worship God in spirit and in truth. Where in the Bible can we go to show that our worship is designed to please the worshipper. The desire to have an experience or an encounter along the lines of mysticism also gives little regard to what God says in the Bible.

Our worship to God requires commitment on our part. People had rather worship Christ as a babe in a manger than Christ as their crucified savior. Their worshipping Christ as a babe in a manger requires no commitment on their part. They feel they can put Him in a box and live the rest of the year as they please. But worshipping Christ as our crucified savior requires commitment, a complete change of our life, and a willingness to do all that He says. Jesus says in Matthew 10:37, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." God and Christ must be first in our lives, and this requires that we be committed to them.

--Ron Boatwright

"GOD JUST LAID THIS ON MY HEART"

We have become accustomed to hearing it from denominational televangelists, but now the idea is being heard from the lips of our own brethren. Many of our most widely attended workshops, seminars and lectureships feature speakers who boldly assert that God communicates with them beyond the pages of the Bible. "God just laid this on my heart," "I felt strangely compelled of heaven, " "I felt an unusual awareness," and other such phrases are being heard from preachers within the Lord’s church with alarming regularity.

A speaking at one of this year’s major workshops related how he had stopped a husband from having an affair and most probably saved the man’s marriage because God gave him a sense of urgency, at midnight, to go over to the man’s house and rouse him out of bed. According to the speaker’s story, heaven’s timing was perfect. The man’s wife was out of town and he was entertaining a female guest when the preacher arrived. And tales and claims of this nature are being made by our brethren with both an ever increasing frequency and a surprising amount of brotherhood acceptance.

At this point, two things must be said: (1) God does not communicate to men and women in this fashion today, (2) He never has. When Scripture affirms "the faith" as having been delivered "once for all" (Jude 3); and teaches that God’s "divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue" (2 Pet. 1:3), no promise or possibility is left for future additional revelation. We are "led by the Spirit" as we submit to "the law of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:14. And the Holy Spirit’s message, the New Testament, claims both divine inspiration and absolute finality.

But even if this were not the case, even if God were still communicating directly with us today, the claims we are currently hearing do not fit the pattern of biblical revelation. Whether through dreams, visions, or direct revelation, God spoke to various individuals during the days of the Scripture, from His first words to Adam in Eden’s garden to His final words to John the apostle. Bible characters weren’t given special "feelings," "promptings," or "mysterious leadings" from heaven; they were given sure and unmistakable messages. "Now the Spirit speaks expressly" describes the clarity and unambiguous nature of God’s communication with mankind (1 Tim. 4:1).

It would appear that what we are hearing from far too many of our own preaching brethren with respect to claims of God’s present day communications, has come, not from God’s book, but from the worn out phrasebook of denominational pulpit entertainers. Isn’t it about time we started getting our material from the Bible?

--Dalton Key

NON-JUDGMENTAL

In our upside down world one of the greatest compliments is to be described as "non-judgmental." The "judgmental" person is to be shunned and "judged" (by the "non-judgmental") as biased, opinionated or worse. While Jesus condemned harsh, unreasoned judgment in the context of Matt. 7:1 ff., and pointed out that we usually receive the same kind of judgment which we administer, he also taught, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24). Paul rebuked brethren at Corinth for going to law before unbelievers to settle their differences instead of before godly brethren "who shall be able to judge between his brethren" (1 Cor. 6:5). Paul himself said concerning the brother who had committed fornication that he "had judged already" concerning this and that such an one should be "delivered to Satan" and that "when ye are gathered together" (1 Cor. 5:3-5).

But in today’s world, we are not supposed to express our disapproval of people living together out of wedlock. That is judgmental. No onus is to be attached to fathering and bearing children outside of marriage. That is judgmental. The drunkard must be judged to be simply sick. Any other assessment would be judgmental. Not one word of criticism is to be uttered about a backsliding brother or sister. They are just going through a tough time and we must not be judgmental. In my judgment (there! I have exposed my real nature) this non-judgmental business is calculated to offer praise to those who have no convictions from those who have about the same amount of conviction -- none.

--Connie W. Adams, Truth Magazine, March 1, 2001

He who is born of God should grow to resemble his Father.

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