TRIUMPH -- August 1958
Editorial
A wonderful year has passed since we sent out the first edition of "TRIUMPH." I say "wonderful" because God has prospered our efforts more than we had dared to expect.
The first issue was sent to 800 homes. Many of these names were obtained from cards sent me while convalescing in the hospital. Each month until now our mailing list has grown so that now we send "TRIUMPH" into some 2200 homes. Every month we get letters from those who tell us that they have been blessed and helped in one way or another. We are still waiting for the first letter telling of salvation because of reading the paper, but we are sure that such will be forthcoming.
Some have inquired as to the financing of this project. When sending out "TRIUMPH" to the original 800, it cost us around $30.00 monthly. Now, each issue costs us between $90 and $100. We have decided--and that from the beginning--never to ask for money to maintain this work nor to charge for subscriptions. God has honored us in this by laying upon the hearts of many interested people to help us with their gifts. Each month as the cost continued to mount, the funds continued to come in to meet the need. We have never been in the "red" as yet. We are confident that God will continue to supply our needs as He has in the past.
To make this coming year of publishing the gospel of God a real success we need your constant prayer interest. We have habitually exercised our Scriptural privilege of asking for your prayers throughout the past year and we shall continue to do so this coming year. We shall stand or fall together depending on the faithful performance of this God given grace.
We send our thanks to all of you for reading and for helping us with "TRIUMPH."
Your servant for Jesus' sake,
Art Gordon
Dear Shut-In
"And they glorified God in me," said the Apostle Paul. This he said concerning the churches of Judea who when they heard of the great change in Paul, "glorified God."
Paul, thinking that he was pleasing God when he was persecuting the church of God, finally was saved himself. He immediately began to preach the gospel which he had before violently opposed. This dramatic change caused the wonderment and praise of the Christian world.
But, please note to whom the praise and glory was directed. They "glorified God in me."
I don't intend to be critical of those who intend to be kind but so many times--too many times--people have said something to me that has amounted to just the opposite of that which Paul said. They commend me for my faith in my present affliction. It might be said, "they glorified me in God." They recognize that I am a child of God but they give me the credit for the faith. As flattering as this may be to unregenerate ears it is still far from the truth and dishonoring to God.
The song title, "To God be the glory," expresses this same truth. After all, what have we that hasn't been given us by God? Even our faith is His gift to depraved humans. There is no faith, in or out of afflictions, apart from God's grace. I cannot be joyful in affliction, cannot be filled with hope and faith except as God bestows these upon me. Surely, we must be willing recipients of these gifts, but no glory belongs to us for this. If I am joyful in tribulation, it is only that He has given me something to be joyful about. If I have faith and hope, it is only that He has given me One in whom to place my faith and hope.
Learn well this lesson, my reader, whether under affliction or not, anything we have is from our loving God. Praise not, nor glorify the human instrument but God who giveth freely all things for life and eternity. If we have, it is because He has given. "Glory to God in the highest." "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost."
???????????????????? WHY TRACTS ??????????????????????
While I was in the pastoral ministry I paid little attention to the ministry of writing. I did have a few ideas that I hoped some day to have published in tract form, and I occasionally wrote out my sermons, but this was about the extent of it.
Since my battle with polio, however, and having to reconstruct my ministry, I found--much to my delight--that the writing ministry was one which could be rewarding and fruitful indeed.
If I were permitted by God to resume my former ministry, I think I have learned at least not to neglect this important phase of witnessing.
Reading the pamphlet, "The Triumphant Tract," put out by the American Tract Society, and written by Herbert Lockyer, I came across a statement that to me graphically explained the ministry of writing, and especially that of tracts. It went as follows:
"Tracts can go everywhere. Tracts know no fear. Tracts never tire. Tracts can be multiplied without end by the press. Tracts can travel at little expense. They run up and down like the angels of God, blessing all, giving to all, and asking no gift in return. They can talk to one as well as to a multitude; and to a multitude as well as to one. They require no public room to give their message in: they can tell it in the kitchen or in the store, the parlor or the workshop, in the railway car or in the bus, on the broad highway, or in the footpath through the fields. They take no note of scoffs, of jeers, or taunts. No one can betray them into hasty or random expressions. Though they will not always answer questions, they will tell their story twice, thrice, or four times over if you wish them. And they can be made to speak on every subject, and on every subject they can be made to speak wisely and well. They can, in short, be made vehicles of all truth; the teachers of all classes; the benefactors of all lands."
-------------------------------------------------------
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
Quotes from the sermon delivered by Earl Osborn, July 13 at Beulah Baptist Church, Russellville, PA.
"Love is the basic law of life around which all other laws revolve."
"Until God expressed His love for us through Jesus Christ, we didn't know what love was."
"God is only love to those who will be loved."
"Whether you have accepted or rejected His (God's) love will be the determining factor as to whether you walk through the gates of heaven."
"Jesus Christ who is now your Defense Attorney shall be your Judge when you come before Him---without Him."
Current Events & Comments
WELCOME, ALASKA!
We welcome our friends to the northwest as the 49th state. We also look forward with great anticipation to Hawaii becoming the 50th star on our flag. We are honored indeed to have them with us as full-fledged states. I think, too, they must feel honored to be an integral part of so great a union of states.
But, when the celebration is over and everyone settles down once again to normality there is yet another side to this picture. With this great privilege there comes also responsibility. The Alaskans, many have realized it already, will have added responsibility, one being the new and larger taxes. Also, instead of being more or less only the recipients of the good graces of the United States they will have to pitch in as the 49th and largest state and help shoulder some of the weight of existence in a "cold-war" world. I am sure they are willing to carry their share.
Is there not an application here for Christians? Before we joined ourselves to Christ we went along with the crowd enjoying the good grace of God in a thousand ways. The sun, rain, and the very air we breathed were given us freely by God, and even the next breath itself came from Him. We enjoyed these benefits, many times without so much as a "thank you."
But then one day we met the Savior and chose to join the union of believers. Having thrown in our lot with the Lord and following the ecstatic feeling of, "all's right with the world," we came to realize that with our new privileges there were also new responsibilities.
As with the new state which must pitch in to help the United States, so the new convert must with zeal pitch in to help promote the cause of Christ. He must represent his Master and his Master's Kingdom. He must stand wholeheartedly with fellow believers whether in war or in peace, whether by life or by death. And he MUST support the cause with his dollars.
The federal government could not long exist were it not for the taxes which each citizen pays into it each year. And no less important are the tithes and offerings given to promote the Kingdom of Heaven by its members. We are not forced to pay but we are expected to. Sad to report, however, the Christian has failed to shoulder this particular responsibility. As a result Christianity has suffered loss on every strategic front.
Communism, on the other hand, continues unabated, spreading throughout the world. Why? Because the communist is dedicated, body, soul, spirit, and pocketbook, to the cause of communism. He gives into the organization every penny above that which is necessary to supply his bare necessities. Christians need not think they can turn back the evil tide of communism until they are willing to make at least equal sacrifice.
The average Christian (?) groans when he is asked to exemplify the Old Testament tithe of ten per cent. I am of the opinion that he should go even farther and emulate the Macedonian Christians of whom Paul said, they "first gave their own selves to the Lord." The old Indian who put the offering plate on the floor and stood on it to show his dedication to Christ might have expressed it rather crudely, but I say, we need for Christians with such a spirit of dedication.
Sermon Series - XIII
The First Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians - (Continued)
Chapter 2, verses 13-16
"For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost."
YE RECEIVED . . . OF US
Our present study brings us to the end of the first main point which I have called "REMINISCENCE." In chapter one Paul reminisces of the character of his converts in Thessalonica. In chapter two, he reminisces of the character of the preachers. Now, he draws his remarks to a close by summarizing the most outstanding and important characteristic of both the people and preachers, (vs. 13-16)
THE WORD . . . WHICH YE HEARD OF US
The preachers had one mission, and that, to preach the Word of God. They wasted no time presenting the philosophies of men, not even their own, but their one continual passion was to faithfully proclaim, "Thus saith the Lord." In another place Paul says, "woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel." Billy Graham came to a point in his ministry when he knelt and prayed, "O God, I have got to get out of the ministry unless I can find a message with power." Then he testifies, "As I prayed, I accepted the Bible, by faith, as God's Word. From that moment my ministry has been different." Of him, Song Leader Cliff Barrows says, "The now-famous phrase 'The Bible says,' became a fixture in his sermons."
My one purpose in sending out this devotional paper is to herald forth God's Word. After all, it is by His Word men live eternally or eternally die, according to their response to it. We are not held accountable for their response; for their opportunity to respond, we are.
YE RECEIVED . . . THE WORD OF GOD
The apostles preached the Word; the people received the Word. They received it not as the mere words of men, "but as it truly is, the word of God." Such a reception guarantees the result as seen in the Thessalonian converts: the effectual working of the Word. If the Bible is God's Word as it claims then it should effect a change in all who accept it as such. The trouble is that many want to erect their own "truth" or adopt someone else's. Too many people are like the sick lady who went to the doctor and was given some medicine for her sickness, yet wondered why she didn't improve even though she took none of the prescribed medicine. The Bible, God's medicine, works wonders for the sin-sick soul when it is received as He intended: divinely inspired and received by faith.
Jake DeShazer, war hero, while confined in an enemy prison discovered the power of the Scriptures to transform a life as he read and reread, and believed what he read of Holy Writ. I, too, alone with the Word in a Liberty Ship on the Atlantic, experienced the workings of God's Word on a believing heart.
You may make this discovery--the greatest of your life--if you will follow the example of the Thessalonians and receive by faith, the Bible as "it truly is, the word of God."
YE . . . BECAME FOLLOWERS
Often, the receiving of the Word of God and the resultant change that it brings in one's life, brings about another--not so pleasant--reaction. The believers of Judea had found this out. And now, so had the believers of Thessalonica.
They had become "followers" or "imitators" of the Judean Christians in that they were suffering persecution from their own countrymen. Those who received not the gospel were not content to stop at that, but they actively tried to keep others from receiving it, and persecuted those who did.
Upon the Jews who opposed the gospel Paul lays three major accusations. "They," said he, "killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have chased us out." Having done these things they are found to be actually fighting God, as well as being "contrary to all men." If their cup of sin was not full enough as a result of their dastardly deeds it became full to overflowing when the end of their actions is fully realized. Paul summarizes their acts of violence when he accuses them of "Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved.
Someone might at this point ask, "Why did the apostles take their religion to foreigners anyway?" "Did not they have their own beliefs?" "Were they not satisfied?" The same question has been asked of missionaries today.
Let me go on record right now as saying, "These Thessalonians, and in fact no one else could be saved from hell's torments apart from the gospel of God in Christ Jesus, which Paul preached, which I--with many others--declare today, and which is unmistakably revealed in the Bible." Since this is so, we are guilty of their blood if we do not take to them the Word of life.
The fact is clearly stated by our Lord Himself, "I am the way the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me." Likewise, our responsibility is clear when He says, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
But God help those who are determined to oppose this gospel as did the Jews and others in Paul's day. God Himself has pronounced their judgment, "for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." God will assuredly deal with those who reject His Son but even more, with any who try to hinder others from believing or in believing.
I am afraid that there are people in America who think there is some happy middle ground to these great truths of God's Word. If a middle ground has been found, it is purely of man's making; God's Word never presents such. It is time Christians take a firm stand on "Thus saith the Lord." Eternity will reveal that to take a stand on any other position, whether against or in the middle, is disastrous.
From the Pastor's Pen
Rev. Leonard Uhrich, Pastor Cosperville Baptist Church in Wawaka, Indiana
BE YE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT!
Ephesians 5:18
The Bible tells us that all believers receive the Holy Spirit when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, and that the Spirit of God quickens our spirit that was dead in trespasses and sin. It is then that man (the believer) begins for the first time to have fellowship with God (Romans 8:11; Ephesians 2:1,5). The Bible also says that believers are filled with the Holy Spirit the same time they accept Christ as Savior, (Acts 2:4; 4:8,31; 9:17). To be filled, means to have the Holy Spirit control the life that every word and deed will conform to the will of God. (cf. the use of the word "fill" in Luke 6:11.)
In view of the fact that believers are filled with the Spirit at the time of conversion we might ask the question: "Why are there so many Christians today living an inconsistent, powerless life?" The answer can be found in Ephesians 5:18, where we are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This seems to be a strange command in light of the Acts passages (above), where it is stated that as Christians we are already filled with the Spirit. It indicates one thing, my Christian friend, the believer can lose the filling or control of the Holy Spirit in his life. Certainly this does not mean that there is a loss of salvation, for our salvation is an eternal thing--the infusing of Christ's own eternal life into the Christian.
Let us look a little closer into the command that is found in Ephesians 5:18, that we might discover the joy of the victorious Christian life.
The verb translated, "to be filled," or better, "be ye filled," indicates that it is a command to be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit. This is a constant abiding in the fellowship of our Lord. This rules out the spending of one day on the mountain peak of victory and the next day in the valley of defeat. The Lord wants full control every minute of every day.
The responsibility for the filling of the Spirit rests upon the believer in that he must make certain adjustments before the Spirit can come in to fill. The verb used here is passive indicating that the believer is inactive as to the actual coming of the Spirit, but active in making preparation for His coming. God Almighty cannot fill a vessel that is already filled and still be true to Himself, therefore, we must empty ourselves of worldly things and expect the immediate filling of the Spirit of God.
There is little doubt as to the things that should be removed from the Christian life, for the same Spirit who wants control points out those things that are hindering His coming. Oft times they are the very things we want so much and often the things we try to justify in our lives. There are few Christians who blatantly disobey God's will for their lives, but many find the Christian life a difficult life, and after a few vain tries to empty themselves of worldly things they settle back in defeat and become powerless Christians. The reason for defeat is that they try in their own strength to set aside the things which hinder instead of bringing them to the Lord and letting Him give the strength to put them aside.
So great a giant of faith as Paul would not try to endure in his own strength, but said, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Paul was persuaded that the Lord could handle all his problems and committed his way unto Him, (II Timothy 1:12). We, too, can have this victory if we will have a sincere desire for the Spirit's control, if we believe that the Lord can handle our problems and give strength in the time of need.
Dear friend, prayer alone will not give the victory. God is waiting for you to make room for the Spirit. The Spirit is waiting; clear the way for His control in your life.
--------------------------------------------
GOD CAUSETH US TO TRIUMPH
(II Corinthians 2:14)
Through Jesus Christ alway;
