Bro. Ben M. Bogard told me one day, many years ago when I was a boy preacher, that one should allow the position of the brethren to play a large part in our deciding what was right religiously, denominationally, and what service from this might result in our determining what to believe and what to practice.

This position served me well in my earlier ministry. When I began to learn a few things from the Scriptures which were not taught me by Bro. Bogard or by the school of which he was then the President, I had to give serious thought to whether the brethren were right and whether they had a right to limit my thinking about the Word.

Yes, now that I am an old man, may I say to my juniors, the word and wisdom of our elders is valuable. But they were human and could make mistakes. I have, many times myself, and I am sure they would have acknowledged the same. We ought never to get so set in our ways that we feel our church cannot make a mistake, or our brethren who love us, could not have been wrong.

From the standpoint of a man who has continually served the Lord as a pastor and a teacher for more than sixty years, and considering the state of the churches today in comparison to those when I began to preach in 1938 it is very evident that somebody has made a number of mistakes. A man's mistakes are serious enough when allowed to influence no one but himself, but when we consider that no man liveth to himself (Romans 14:7), his influence for good or evil is spread over many of his acquaintances, his brethren, and others. In fact, the denominational influence is frightening when we consider how it controls whole churches and whole groups if his position is such as to lend credence to his language.

God Gave His Church A Name
"But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).

The Truth is very powerful. In the hands of men who are seeking the wrong, that is, the glory of themselves, it may be perverted to great damage. The church is in the world to preserve the message of God among His saints. He is the living God and will exalt His name from the lips of humble men.

I did not mean that God gave his church a name by which it might be called. He gave her a position of power and influence. With our Lord as her Head and His Spirit as Her Comforter we may be sure her message is Truth. Reading the rebukes to certain of the seven churches of Asia in Revelation 2 and 3, we can see that early in her history wrong influences were wielding great damage to her members.

Surely there is a bad or wrong influence which is allowing the churches as a whole to lose their influence for good upon the world. Likely it is not a single factor, but a combination. My whole ministry has carried a burden through the years for what appeared to me to be a lack of concern for the Truth. It may be simply a lack of dedication, yet the Truth is powerful enough to hold a heart, if only the individual would make the Christ his adoration, and allow Him to have all the glory.

Historically, people have always had to work for a living. Often they found themselves either having to make a special provision to attend all of the services of the church, get a different job, or in some way become more dependable. Today, we explain our negligence and soon feel satisfied that it is not our fault. We have to make a living, so church will have to give up on us.

Nature Is Filled With Lessons
There is a price to pay if we are to remain faithful to the Lord. Is He worthy of our giving up some of the things our neighbors think are valuable. For a number of years it has appeared to me that many Missionary Baptists have decided that learning the Truth is too much for their limited education. Have the pastors conveyed the impression that only by learning Greek, or Hebrew can the people in the pews ever attain a working knowledge of the Bible? So we do not have the time! Is this really the problem? I think not. We find the time for things we like, places we like to go, for all those things which please us.

Also, we have picked up another serious error. The Bible is dull. Children must have it broken into little pieces and made into entertainment for them to be interested. This is based on a false assumption as to what is interesting. Parents and teachers use adult minds to figure out what is fun for children. Can we not believe that God has given His word in a form which makes it very interesting? We figure the way to get them interested and keep them coming is to separate them from the adults, give them separate times, and reduce the lessons to infantile proportions. Are our children less intelligent than our parents were, or our grandparents? We provide them games, give them food, or treats. The lessons are changed to make them interesting.

The whole of education is turned into a psychological process of tricking children and adults into making commitments to something they have never yet had truly touch their hearts.

I suppose that during my lifetime psychology has become a science and we are all supposed to learn enough about it to use it in certain ways to slyly produce results. I shall never forget that a course in psychology was introduced to senior students in my high school days. I felt then, and I think I know now, that what I did not like was the assumption that people had to be tricked into learning and doing right.

Let a child show you if he is dumb or smart. Buy him a toy. He likely can figure what it will do if he tries it, but his interest may be greater in the carton it came in than in the toy. Children still make up games and see a sense in them. They understand figures of speech often better than adults. They are interested in nature and ask all sorts of questions. It is a way to learn. We do not have to trick them into believing what we may feel they do not need to know yet. Their questions will come in time, and then will be plenty of time to explain what we thought was too hard or too secret for them. The parent who hurries with information the child is not yet ready for will only confuse him and disgust him. It may even become an excuse for the child to try experiments which would not have occurred to him otherwise, things which he should not do at all.

The natural world holds the secrets of about everything important, including the essence of spiritual truth. A child, given the opportunity to grow up in the country, where the world is open to his observation every day, has a better opportunity of learning about God, about relationships, about compassion, our appetites, about promises, hopes, fulfillment, patience, in fact, every virtue. Your son or daughter is not handicapped, only illiterate, but he will soon make up for that when given an opportunity. And his illiteracy in spiritual things will be dissipated more rapidly than you can imagine.

What God Desires
My short answer: Act like adults. Yes, adults can play with their children, but they must always remember that as adults their children are mindful of the way you act as an adult. In relationships are found the lessons which others need and will learn. A person who is kind, happy, at peace, and responsible, is teaching some of the greatest lessons there are to be learned. Where you go, where you love to go, what you do there, will provide the great lessons a child needs, if your own values are correct. Is going to church important to you? Why? Does your child see this? He may not ask questions immediately, depending on his age, his knowledge in general, but he will think of your deportment and will allow it to influence his own. Your attitude as the time draws near for attending church services will have a great influence on your child. I look back to my own children and I see these lessons even better now than when I learned them from my parents.

One lesson is specially difficult. Moral and spiritual lessons are not learned well by force. A parent under a bad influence may fail to convey a proper impression. He may know what is right or wrong, but does his own heart reflect this fact. It does, but it may be the wrong influence. How can a bad situation be remedied? Always we are to go to the Lord in prayer. If it is done as a matter of form only, the child will soon feel this and will reject the lesson, or resent it. A child required to wait for his breakfast until it gets cold or unpalatable, while his father reads a lengthy passage from Ezekiel may come to despise the Bible. Psychology may teach us that this is wrong, but a better way is for Bible reading to come from a warm heart and a disposition which humbly reflects the worthiness of the Lord who gave it. It will also include a burden in prayer for the children, the wife, and for the man's own heart. Formality, legalism, and mere duty performance will soon be viewed as hypocritical. Sincerity is a noble virtue. Yes, one may be sincerely wrong in his convictions. All of us has had this experience. But repentance is open to every honest heart.

If we believe God knows everything about everything, including ourselves, our first attitude toward any idea is to see if God has taught it or endorsed it or warned against it. His Word is an all-sufficient rule of faith and practice. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). As we learn more and more from the Scriptures we will soon find that every topic which comes to mind in daily living is dealt with either directly or indirectly. After reading it for nearly 80 years, studying it diligently much of the time, I am still surprised some days to learn that the way things are said is often directly to our needs in any given moment. I found that true in the longer passage at the head of this lesson, Psalm 78:5-8. In much the same way the passage in Psalm 77:2-12 serves us in an hour of need. The Psalmist lets his mind run back over those things he has learned of old (historically). And finds that his experiences are like those of other men. Always, the all-wise God has the answer for our disturbed heart. Even when it keeps us from sleep, like a running sore, He is near and His Truth meets the needs of our heart. It may help if you will now read this whole Psalm.

It occurs to me that memory is a wonderful helper when we are in any difficulty. In Psalm 77 the writer is remembering "days of old." He thought about God and was disturbed. He reached out, in prayer, toward God, but found no immediate comfort. He credits God with keeping him awake. How else shall we continue to pray through the night. He was so troubled that words to pray did not come. His thoughts ran over former days, days when God seemed closer, when joy extended into song, but not just now. Maybe it was the song which made his heart begin to meditate and to ponder the "good old days." He begins to wonder if God will never respond in kindness again. Will God reject one ultimately? It occurs to Him that maybe God is not always merciful. But His spirit makes him see that God has not changed. He thinks on the deeds of the Lord, doubtless mindful that he was blessed when he was not as well informed, and maybe was not even giving Him the credit He is due.

He knows God has been good. Is He not yet? He turns his thoughts to God's ways of old, determines to meditate and muse on Him. What wonderful progression of thought. One can only see God as Good when his mind is turned away from his own sleeplessness. He forgets, at least for the moment, the trouble like a running sore. Such thoughts only prop ones eyes open the more. But thinking on God makes him realize that God is holy. Great is our God! He reveals Himself and explains why disturbances come. God's strength is seen in His people. He is their redeemer. The great operations among His people evidenced His goodness and caused this sleepless man to think on God's holiness, His power, and His deeds of mercy.

This line of thought continues into the morning, perhaps, and causes this sleepless, troubled man to realize that God's people exist because God has preserved them as His own. The very preservation is a testimony of God's mercy and grace. As he thinks back to Moses and God's revelation of His mighty hand to that people, his mind is caused to review His working in nature itself. It occurred to him that the very waters heed God and respond to every situation. Its thunder is harsh and the arrows it thrusts across the heavens (lightening) are frightening. But in his meditations it testified of God's care. He does not forget; He does not change. As I read the words of His thoughts I wondered if there had actually come up a thunderstorm in the night to turn His mind to such power and care for His people. At least He has it right. How good it is to read what God's men of old have learned, believed, and been comforted.

True, the Psalmist did not have as much of the written record as we do, but he had enough to reach a practical solution to the disturbance of the hour.

If our readers will turn and read this 77th Psalm, noting carefully the points in his musing, his meditation, you will be blessed. He had started out in a prayer, crying out and reaching out to God in his disturbance. He winds up, not so much talking in words of prayer, as in the beginning, but in a conclusion reached through faith, as He meditated. This is not imagination, but a remembering of experiences of former days. How we need such thinking among God's people today. We have the written Word. I fear we disturb our minds with grammar, vocabulary, syntax, and argument. Even these difficult efforts will lose their confusion when we meditate on God's works in our lives and the lives of those whom we know who have dealt with God and publicly praised Him for being God.

(Note: In my study of this passage I was using the NAS95, a late modern English translation, but I do not use this often. It could help someone who has not read the old English as much as any Bible reader should. I love the Psalms, and find the doctrines of the faith pretty well covered there.)

Finding Bible Answers To Modern Problems
The pain which Missionary Baptists are experiencing today is great. We see the churches shrinking in size, many members going off to other denominations, or at least to some Southern Baptist church. We are no more than fifty years behind the convention in devising ways and explanations which, we hope, will recover us from this dilemma. Many have decided that the problem is certain new light teachings which come along. The trouble goes much deeper.

Missionary Baptists saw the liberalism and modernism, as some called it, showing up when the Southern Baptist group formally organized in 1845. Their emphasis was on mission work. That is an old topic and it has been neglected. Our Lord taught us that disciples made should be taught to observe all those things which He has taught the original group. That word observe is "keep" in the original text, as in Matthew 19:17 "And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."

Here we see what "keep" means. One does not make sure he has a copy which he may consult on occasion, but he is to keep them. I feel that "observe" is a providential rendering in Matthew. 28:20. It does not solve the problem to learn what has been commanded if we are not willing to walk in obedience. But we Missionary Baptists are afraid of the word obey. It means "persuaded by a ruler." We forget that Christ is the Messiah who will rule the whole earth when he comes.

Going back to the original word "keep," the sense is "under-hear," that is, listen submissively. Is that not the problem. John in his Gospel tells us that Jesus spoke often of the fact that men did not believe him? They accepted mentally that he could feed thousands with a little boy's lunch, and they wanted more such miracles. But their believing missed the heeding in submission to Him.

Having learned the doctrines of the New Testament, possibly even better than most other Baptists, we sit back and wonder why others do not believe Baptist doctrine.

A Case In Point
They said "This is a hard saying." John 6:60: "Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?"

Jesus had been teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum and had just explained that He was the bread which came down from heaven. The lesson had been that the manna in the wilderness was not from Moses but from God. It did not make for eternal life, but it was a picture of the bread down from heaven which gives eternal life. He explained that He was that bread. Note that bread is the old English for food, nourishment, though it may not be only bread. Some countries would think of rice in that way. English speaking people think of bread as basic.

In order to make it simple Jesus actually said, my body is flesh indeed. Go back up to John 6:47 and see how questions are answered in detail. First, one must believe on Him to have life. He is the bread of life. Eating of Him enables one to live forever.

The Jews, using their logic, began to strive with one another, and ask, How can this be possible? Spiritual truth does not conform to human logic, though it is very reasonable when the light of God is turned onto it. Verse 56: "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." Logic asks, How can a man dwell in another man's body of flesh. That seems even more difficult than Jonah's living in the prepared fish down in the ocean. Note the present tense of "eat" and "dwell." Eating, progressive, is continued, not by sitting at the table all the time, but by coming back at regular intervals. "Dwelling" suggests that one remains. The original word is remain, not live in a building). The verb is indicative mode and results from a choice, but it must needs be always present. The choice must not change through laziness, folly, indifference, or carelessness. The relationship is spiritual. Perhaps this explains so much of the disposition reflected in church members today.

The language is designed to represent Christ as our life. We must choose to live in Him. One choice when one is saved is not enough. Just how each man was thinking may not be entirely obvious, but at least when he said, "This is a hard saying," we know he did not have spiritual discernment when he said, "Who can hear it?" We conclude that he was dismissing the idea. Why? Because he did not believe it.

It may seem harsh to some of my readers to say that many of these people were simply not believing. I do not mean that they had never believed, never had trusted Jesus as Savior, but they had never come to the relationship of feeding on Him, eating and drinking. So they were not living ("walking") by faith. And without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6) "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

This seeking Christ that we might live in Him simply means that our being in Christ is the result of a constant faith which trusts, walks, accepts, enjoys, and shows the life of Christ in himself. If one will go back over the description of what it means to believe in Jesus it will become apparent that it is not something accomplished in a moment of time. It is a life of trusting, obeying, serving, repenting, returning, following, and enjoying the relationship. I suggest one read John's Gospel with the goal in mind of determining what is the meaning of believing. We never know the real value of anything until we have tried it and observed its working in our own experiences. So it is with the Christian experience. We used to call it "an experience of grace." What became of that valuable expression. Now it seems only to accept the idea from words we have been taught.

Church History
Are you thinking of the record of the Baptists through the ages, as Jones, Benedict, et al.? Well, that has its value, but what I want you to see and learn is Matthew. 28:18-20:

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

There is a prophetic history of the Lord's church, that group which began with His ministry on earth, His teaching of them for most of three years. Now He is giving it away, for their comfort, their instruction, and their commissioning until He shall return at the end of the age. That is true prophecy.

Do note that some worshipped, but some doubted. His first word to that assembly is that all authority had been given to him in heaven and in earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations." The orders extend to all the earth. It is the scope of the new covenant activity. Note that "therefore." The translators felt this was in order, but Jesus spoke with the assurance of the Master teacher. "I have all the authority in heaven and on earth. You, having gone into all the world, disciple all the nations." The word disciple means make learners. It was not simply a charge to make Jews of the Gentiles, but make learners. Such is the sense of the word disciple, rendered teach in the King James Version.

What a tremendous order. It is for all the nations. We even minimize it when we say "make disciples of every nation." True, never will every man in any nation become a learner from the Lord. But the church, then being instructed, has the promise that Jesus would be with them and His authority would uphold them. I appreciate the words of an old Baptist who wrote on this passage in Matthew, John A. Broadus: "Jesus gives assurance of his perpetual spiritual presence with all engaged in discipling others and in observing his commandments. Obedience to the Great Commission is based on his universal and complete authority (v. 18), and encouraged by the promise of his unfailing and sustaining presence. And this clearly applies, not merely to the apostles, but to disciples of every period, even to the end (comp. Matthew 18:20). True Christian workers may be despised by skeptical philosophers and some pretentious men of science or men of letters; but history has shown that they are a power in the world, and that power is explained by the perpetual presence of their Lord and Redeemer."

The Prophetic history within the passage identifies the people for the whole of the age to the coming of Christ. They were to disciple all the nations and then teach them to observe those things which Jesus had taught the original group. This shows us that the work was to go on year in and year out. "Lo, I am with you all of the days till the finish of the age, Amen." That is as the original says it -- "all the days to the finish of the age." Can we hear the real significance of this promise? Unless he is crowded out of the church, as at Laodicea (Revelation 2:14-20), He is with His church. She was the one charged. She is the one authorized to baptize the disciples made. She is the one authorized to teach them all that Jesus taught her originally. She is the one to whom the Spirit was promised (John 14:17; John 15:26; John 16:13). She became the pillar and ground of the truth." "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).

Here we have genuine church history and on this truth hangs the very authenticity of the Lord's church. No such history and the pretended church is not His church. She has been here "all the days until the finish of the age." Without this mark the claimed church is only a human organization or a group with false claims.

I may not be able to trace this history through the years, but I can be sure it is there, for Jesus claimed he would be with her. He is with the institution and that always seen in the form of a local congregation. Her doctrines and her practices will conform to those He taught her in the beginning or she is no church.

The problem in our thinking is that we suppose that since we cannot trace her every step then how can we know she is the one today? The entire matter of our being in Christ is an extension of the "experience of grace." That experience is one which may be conscious, very real, including the sweet peace and the conviction of truth. The "spirit of truth" affords the Lord's body that assurance. We ordinary believers may say that we cannot depend on our feelings, but God has a way of using those experiences to teach us. In the first stages of it Saul was told, "It is hard for you to kick against the pricks" (Acts 9:5). If one resists the Spirits leadership in the church today he will find it difficult to "kick against" it.

We have a written Word, inspired of God, and if we go against that Word we will be rebuked. It may be possible to resist for so long until God's lets us alone and we face the consequences at the judgment seat of Christ.

The Bible is not there for the mental gymnastics or emotional outbursts we may feel rising within us. We must become aware of when it is Satan who is pressing His mind upon us for our ruin. We have the "mind of Christ" is the way it can be and will be if we daily give ourselves into His hands. God is surely able to make us understand His Word, and if we refuse the very obvious sense which God intended we will immediately feel the guilt of one who resists Him. If we yield we will know the sweet spirit of Christ as the peace, Christ's peace, which He gave to those original disciples, his church.

We claim to believe the Bible. Is this true, or do we simply believe the voice of tradition which has been handed down to many through the years. We should settle it in our hearts that God is right; He knows best; and I am willing to accept what He tells me. He told you when you had no experience in salvation, at the first moment of your believing, did He not? Is it that you have forgotten that He speaks. He can do it yet, if we yield to Him.