Franklin Camp
All one needs to do to sense the difference between the preaching that is being done today and that of the past is to read some of the books of sermons or the writings of the pioneers of the plea for restoration. Their preaching was Bible-based, distinctive in its message, and simple in its appeal to people to lay aside the doctrines and commandments of men and return to the Truth of the Gospel of Christ. This distinctive message that characterized the church in the past is almost an unheard of thing today. Instead of being distinctive, it seems that the philosophy of our day is to see how near we can ape the sectarians and denominational people in their rejection of the Bible. Many sermons that are preached today could be preached in any denominational building without upsetting anyone. I cannot think of anything more tragic than for a sermon to pretend to be the Gospel of Christ to be such as could be preached in the hot bed of error without causing any objection.
The emphasis that has been given to positive preaching, while repudiating anything negative, has also contributed to the lack of a distinctive message. If preaching is to have any effect in the lives of people, it must be the Gospel of Christ itself. First, therein alone can preaching be authoritative, and second, it must be preached with conviction to enable people to understand what sin is and what sin does. Let us realize that the changes that have taken place in the last twenty-five years have carried the church down the road toward the very verge of apostasy. We need to remember that in the changing world in which we live, there are some things that are unchangeable. When we attempt to change the unchangeable we are fighting God, and it can only lead to our own ruin and condemnation. May we give careful and prayerful consideration to a restudy of the things that cannot be changed, and let us hold to them with all the fervor and zeal that we can command.
Change in Attitude Toward Sin
The change in attitude toward the Bible and a lack of knowledge of it has caused a change in attitude toward sin. Sin is no longer sin today. What used to be sin is now sickness. The Bible says that sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4), but we have those in the church today that deny that the Christian is under any kind of law. They insist that grace eliminates all law, in spite of the following passages:
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law (Rom. 3:28).
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).
To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law (1 Cor. 9:21).
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth serein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed (Jam. 1:25).
Note that each of these passages mentioned the law, which is equal to the gospel of Christ. If grace abolishes all law, then a Christian cannot sin, as sin is the transgression of the law.
Certainly, there has been a change in attitude toward sin as a result of the teaching that grace excludes all law. There has been a change in attitude toward the sin of drinking. It is becoming a common thing to find social drinking defended today. Even some in the church defend it. All attempts to defend drinking ignore what the Bible teaches. It is folly for people who claim to believe the gospel, to try to distinguish between drinking and drunkenness. The evidence of the cost of drinking is too evident for anyone that will look at what is taking place. Those who defend social drinking not only close their eyes to what the Bible says about drinking, but they refuse to look at the tremendous toll that drinking is taking in the lives of people today. Parade Magazine had the following to say about drinking. I do not think that anyone could accuse Parade Magazine of being narrow-minded. Note the following quote under the heading, “What Price Alcohol?”
There are roughly nine million citizens with serious drinking problems in the United States. More than twenty-five thousand alcohol-related traffic fatalities, fifteen thousand alcoholrelated homicides and suicides, and twenty thousand deaths from alcohol-related diseases, twenty thousand fatalities due to alcohol-related accidents and two million arrests for simple drunkenness are recorded annually. One out of ten U.S. workers are alcoholic, or has a serious drinking problem, resulting in a twenty-five billion dollar a year drain on the economy.
Surely, anyone looking at these figures and the cost in human life alone would refuse to defend social drinking. Yes, there has been a change attitude toward sin, but this change has been brought about, not because we have learned something new about the Bible that people a generation ago did not know, but because we have tried to water down what the Bible teaches. Read the passages in both the Old and the New Testament that condemn drunkenness. Where drunkenness is condemned, you may be sure that drinking is likewise condemned. The only way that one can become drunk is by drinking.
Still another example of the change in attitude toward sin is seen in the defense of homosexuality:
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10).
These verses are still in the Bible. The Twenty-First Century has not changed the nature of these sins, including the sin of the homosexual. The defense of some homosexuals that God made them that way is a blatant denial of James 1:13. If God is responsible for the homosexual’s condition, then James was wrong, and there are some sins that God is responsible for. No one who believes the Bible can believe that God is the cause of any sin.
The change in attitude toward sin has produced a generation that has lost all sense of shame. Even in the pagan day of the First Century, there were some things that it was a shame to even speak of (Eph. 4:12). This is surely not true today. There is nothing that is shameful to speak of, as is demonstrated on television, or in almost any public speech today. Pornographic stores, peddling their filth, can be found in almost every town. City officials try to close them, and the courts restrain them in the name of freedom. Such is not freedom, but slavery of the worst type. “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is servant of sin” (John 8:34). “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Rom. 6:16).
Change in Things That Compete for One’s Interest
A generation ago there were far less things to compete for the attention of people. The increase in the field of entertainment today has multiplied the appeals to people to spend their time in some kind of entertainment. The present-day society has been brainwashed into being made to believe that life is one round of entertainment after another. The present generation is led to believe that if something does not entertain, it is worthless. What can the church do in the present situation? It does not need to stick its head in the sand and pretend that such condition does not exist. Neither does it need to leave its responsibility of teaching the truth of the gospel and try to compete with the world to try to entertain. Yet it seems that some churches have done just that. I am amazed at the gimmicks that are used today to try to get people inside a meeting house. From clowns to giveaways are being used to try to get people to attend meetings. In many instances, elders are not looking for a preacher who knows the Book and will teach it, they are looking for the best entertainer. Many preachers today are better after-dinner speakers than preachers. The gospel preached and practiced is all the church has to use to reach the lost. Entertainment never saved the first soul. The sensational may draw a crowd, but the Christ of the gospel lifted up is the only drawing card that will save (John 12:32).
Change in Attitude Toward Spiritual Values
There has been a tremendous change in attitude toward spiritual values. How could it be otherwise? The change in attitude toward the Bible has surely had an effect on people’s attitude toward things spiritual. The Bible is the only source for understanding the importance of spiritual things:
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:9-14).
But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace (Jam. 3:14-18).
Materialism has captured the hearts of people. Multitude walk down the same road of the man in Christ’s parable of Luke 12:16-21. Most of us believe that the Lord was wrong when He said that “life does not consist of the abundance of the things which we possess” (Luke 12:15). Too many live so much for “things” until they have only about an hour to give to the Lord on Sunday. They cannot make it back to Sunday night’s services because they are so busy with “things,” and, of course, they are so busy spending their time working for “things” during the week that it would be impossible for them to consider attending a Wednesday night’s Bible study. Such lives are empty while being filled with “things.”
Man’s greatest needs are spiritual and all of the material things of life will never satisfy this hunger. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mat. 16:26). A return to Bible preaching and teaching is the only cure for the sin of materialism. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Mat. 6:33). There must be a return to the realization of the real values of life. Spiritual values must have priority if life is to have any real meaning. The psalmist knew the only way to avoid the way of materialism:
Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness (Psa. 119:36).
I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies (119:59).
The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver (119:72).
I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation (119:99).
Let us give careful consideration to the sentiments set forth by the psalmist that we may not be caught up in the philosophy of the materialistic.
