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Discipline is one of the main
characteristics that leads to diligence in service and devotion
to God. This is the chapel platform coming to you from Bob Jones
University in Greenville, South Carolina. After the hymn, today's
speaker is the late Dr. Gilbert Stenholm, who was the
director of ministerial training at the university for many years.
He makes references to events that had occurred up to the time
he delivered this message on Thursday, July 1st, 1971, at
a university chapel service. If we wonder at the sloppy actions
and poor character witness of Christians today, often the need
is to discipline ourselves in our faith in Christ and His Word.
We must be consistent. If you have your Bible, please
turn to Ephesians chapter 4 verses 10 through 15. Listen now to
Dr. Stenholm's message of standing
for Christ titled, What is Lacking in Christianity. Turn to hymn
number 44, Blessed Assurance. Blessed Assurance. Stand together. Lord of glory, faithful, glory
be thine! There is salvation, perfect surprise, Born of His
Spirit, once in His blood. This is my story, this is my song, Praising
my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my
song, Okay, we'll slow it up on the
chorus like we want to do it. This is the rapture, now come
to my side. Angels descending, praise from
above. Chambers of mercy, birthplace of love. Hail to my glory, this
is my song. Praising my Savior, all for Him alone. Hail! Bring me my Savior, Lord of all. This is my story, this is my
song, Praising my Savior all the day long. From the fourth chapter of Ephesians,
beginning with the tenth verse. He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill
all things. For he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in
the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that
we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried
about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the
cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking
the truth in love may grow up unto him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ." Paul, a prisoner for Christ, is writing
to encourage those who have been saved under his ministry, and
knowing that he is in his last days of his ministry, is trying
to encourage those who are following in his footsteps to carry on
the same opportunities that were afforded him, knowing, of course,
some of the pitfalls and the difficulties that he encountered
and they which, in return, will also face. There were a lot of
things that were lacking in the lives of these people. There
were many types of religions, as there is today. There were
many who compromised even then, as they do today. Human nature
has never changed. God's never changed. He has set
the pattern and the rule, the Old and the New Testament. He
gave us a way to live, and we have rejected that. We've gone
the way of our own interests and selfishness, our self-righteousness,
and there are many things that we lack as Christians. Now, time
does not permit. to bring in all we'd like to
say. But I thought of some of the things that we lack today
as Christians. The opportunity that is afforded
us. Now, Paul says that God has given
to us various gifts. Now, as we look over this audience
today, we don't know everyone, but we know most of them. And
we see a potential, the possibilities of leadership, the possibilities
of being an influence on others by your ability, your personality,
by the things that you are able to do that God has given to you.
Now, God didn't make us all alike. If He had, we might be in a mess.
When He made you, He made me, He threw away the pattern. That's
probably a good thing. You certainly wouldn't want to
be like me, and I don't want to be like you. But He gave to every
one of us. a potential opportunity for leadership. And we are shirking that leadership
today in our country. Now, if there's any place, as
we were reminded yesterday by Dave Harrison, we have the greatest
opportunity of any group in this country and the world to manifest
our Christian testimony around the world. But even in a place
like this, it's easy to become calloused and hardened to the
conditions and to take things for granted. And when we do,
we better take heed lest we fall. Now you know that in our office
we are very much in touch with pastors and churches and Christian
organizations and religious groups. We've had an opportunity during
the course of the years to observe very carefully the trends that
have taken place, churches and groups that started out faithfully
determined to stand true to the principles and policies for which
those organizations and churches were founded. But as time has
gone on, they've cut the corners. They have allowed certain things
to creep in. They have gone away from some
of their doctrinal positions. They have lacked in their Christian
discipline. They have become tolerant to
the movements that are surrounding them. And today we look back
and we say there doesn't look like much hope for this group.
I'm afraid that in most of our churches today, in most of our
schools, we can write above the doors, Ichabod, the glory hath
departed. I hope it'll never be said of
this place, the glory hath departed. You and I have a great opportunity
and we cannot emphasize this too much on this dedicated campus. Maybe sometimes we feel, oh,
there's too much emphasis on this. We cannot be too emphatic. God founded, through Dr. Jones Sr., this institution.
And we are determined, as we have read the Bible and as we
carry out our creed, that this school is going to be true to
those principles and standards. Now, what are some of the lacks
we have today in Christian circles? Well, first of all, the lack
of instruction. Now, why were most schools founded, Christian
schools, on a doctrinal position on the Word of God, that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, that he was born of a virgin, that
the Bible is the inspired Word of God, that we are justified
by faith through grace, that there is a literal hell, a literal
heaven? We believe that God deals with
men and he meets out his penalty. Now, these doctrinal statements
are located in most of the articles and bylaws of the schools today.
If you look at some of the catalogs of these so-called Christian
schools, church-related schools, you'll read the bylaws and the
articles, and you'll say, I find nothing wrong with those. I can
subscribe to that. That sounds good. But isn't it
unfortunate they don't carry out these of particular doctrines. Why is it that they've gone away
from those very doctrines that made that school? Well, there might be a number
of reasons. They've allowed personnel and faculty to come into the
schools that do not believe in these great heritages, these
great truths. And so they give their liberal
views, and it doesn't take long until the whole school is contaminated
and the school is gone. It doesn't take long for any
church, organization, if they're not faithful to this word, there's
going to be a falling away. And that's exactly what could
happen to this university, a lack of instruction. Now, we believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. If he isn't, let's close
this place up. If the Bible is not inspired,
let's close this place. If there's not a literal hell
and a literal heaven, then let's close this place and may the
day never come when the liberal forces take over this place.
But there's a lack of instruction today in our churches. You ask
the average church member today, I don't care what church it is,
what does your church believe? What do you believe about this? and this doctrine and that doctrine.
Well, I don't know. Ask the average Baptist. He says,
well, I guess it means water baptism. We have a pool. What does your
Baptist church believe? What are your distinctives? What do you believe on this and
that? I really don't know. And I'll tell you one of the
reasons why we have a mess today when they give the The close
of the meeting and they open the doors for the membership
of the church. They come down the aisle. This may be one of
my pet peeves. Come down the aisle and they
want to join the church. The clerk walks up with her notebook
or his notebook. Pastor says, you come to join
the church? Yes. How do you come? I want to come
by letter. I want to come because I believe in Christ. Well, He
doesn't even ask him if he owes many bills, if he's had problems
marital, if he's had some record in the community. What kind of
a man is he? To say you come by letter doesn't
prove anything, nor does it prove anything if you say, I know the
Lord. Let's find out a little bit about
him. We're so eager to have big churches and make an outstanding
report to our particular association or our conference or our senate
or something else. Sounds good and looks good on
paper, but I'll tell you right now, I'd rather have quality
than quantity. And we just take them in just
to have membership. That will not work. And when you take in men and
women in your churches today that really don't know the doctrinal
truths of the Word of God, they contaminate others. They're the
ones that create your problems when you bring up something that
has conviction, and they begin to rebel, and before long, you've
got a split in your church. Now, this school believes in
the doctrinal position of the Bible. Now, we may differ in
some viewpoints that maybe we'd call minor, but we all believe
that God created. We believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. We believe the Holy Spirit works
in the lives of people today, convicting men of sin. We believe that someday, praise
God, we'll be absent from the body and present with the Lord.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Now, with just lacking instruction,
why Sunday school teachers that are asked to teach Sunday school
classes come to a Sunday school class and have a boy and a girl
in the class? Maybe they've gone for several
years and you say, are your boys and girls saved? No, I've never
had the opportunity of seeing my boys and girls saved. Well,
I'd take her out of there as a Sunday school teacher. Do you
mean to tell me that a child six, seven, eight years of age
and you as a Sunday school teacher, supposedly having read the Bible,
should know something about the truths that you haven't even
led your children to Christ in your class of all people? What's
the matter? I guess I just lack the instruction.
I don't know the word. And I'm afraid that we could
look all over this country today and see people that are supposed
to be participating in the church who are lacking instruction.
What else? Lacking discipline. Now, Paul
knew that you had to have discipline. He was disciplined constantly.
I'm sure there are many things he'd like to have given up. He'd
like to just quit. What's the use? I can't take
it. It's too difficult. Why, I've
been on a ship, and we've had a shipwreck, and I have nothing
to wear, and I had a cloak that I left to Troas, and I wrote
and told him to bring it when you come. I haven't got anything. The discipline. It's the discipline
that makes an institution, makes a church, makes the home. And I suppose if there's anything
we're criticized for at Bob Jones University is discipline. They
used to criticize us because we weren't accredited. Well,
you know our position on that. We don't want to be accredited
because we don't want to be dictated to by ungodly men telling us
how to run a Christian institution. And it means that we have some
definite opposition because we dare take that stand. But you
know what they criticize us for now more than anything else?
Discipline. I wouldn't be down in that prison
for life or money. Why, you got to do this and you
got to do that. You can't do anything. Well,
listen, you can do anything if it's right. In other words, anybody
that begins to criticize us because of discipline is because they're
not right and they know what they'd like to do to uproot the
very things that made this school. You've got to have discipline
in your business. You've got to have discipline
in your home. You've got to have discipline
in a school. You've got to have discipline in a church. Why,
listen, I think it's sad today as we look over our churches
that one day stood as strong bulwarks of the faith. Now they've
become nothing but social nightclubs. Why, they can have dances and
bingo parties and every kind of a thing going on, and they'll
come by great throngs, but you ask for a prayer meeting and
nobody will show up. The discipline. It's not easy
to be disciplined. By the way, you know, it's not
easy to pray. It takes discipline. It's easy to say, now I lay me
down to sleep. Pray the Lord my soul to keep if I should die
before I wake. I pray the Lord my soul to take.
Amen. Good night, Lord. Dear Lord, we thank you for this
food. Amen. That doesn't take long, does it? But if you get
on your knees and you begin to pray, and we're all guilty of
it, it takes discipline. It takes discipline to read the
Bible. I wonder if we had a test today
from the Bible department. They said, take out a sheet of
paper. I want you to write, for memory,
twenty-five to fifty verses that you know from memory. Absolutely perfect. What kind
of a grade would we get? What kind of a grade would we
get? Well, I'm afraid we wouldn't do very well. Why? We didn't
discipline ourselves and really study the Word. that we might
grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord. And that's a lack
today, a lack of discipline, of being faithful to God, not
being his problem children, saying things against him, denying him,
wishing you could just compromise a little bit so it wouldn't be
so difficult to have to always being told, well, they're a bunch
of fanatics. Like Dr. Jones' old statement,
he got so sick and tired of people straddling the fence, he gets
shot from both sides. Why don't you get on one side
or the other and let just one of them shoot at you? But when
you straddle a fence, it's a lack of discipline. I'd like to hang
on to the world a little bit. I enjoy that. I'd like to hang
on to the Christian activities. I enjoy that too. I want them
both. You can't have them both and
be right with the Lord. But it takes discipline. I want
to be disciplined. I don't want anybody to tell
me what to do. And that's just about what's happened in America.
And now that yesterday, Ohio was the 38th state to ratify
the voting age of the 18s, well, they may have a perfect right
to vote. But I'll tell you one thing, these 18-year-olds and
older that have had the kind of training they've had in the
average school today and the lack of discipline at home and
the activities have been going on in the average community today,
I hate to think what's going to happen. in the next few years
when they become our leaders. They do not know the meaning
of discipline. They don't know the meaning of
instruction. This is going to be a dilemma
in the United States. Thank God, and I repeat it and
I'm proud to say it, thank God for the discipline here. And
I said, I know some of you are saying, I don't like it, it's
pretty rough right now. Oh, it isn't. We haven't hung you yet. No we appreciate it. I remember
when I get ready to leave this leave for home many years ago
become a freshman here. I was going in fear and trembling. Dr. Jones senior I had seen him
at Cedar Lake Conference grounds and we were in that hotel lobby
and was going to sign up to come to school and I looked at that
man and he stared me right in the face and I thought can I
take it. Boy he can stare right through
you. And he said, Son, do you think
he can make the grade? I said, Yes, sir. So we're going
home. My dad said, I'm not at all worried. I'm so grateful that I've met
that man, because if you don't behave down there after he gets
through with you, I'll take care of you when you get home. And
I knew he meant that. A lack of discipline. And there's
a lack of consistency. And many of these Christians
In the word, we're inconsistent. And when you don't have the discipline
and when you don't have the instruction, you're not going to be consistent.
You're going to be inconsistent. And you can't be like Billy Sunday
used to say, shine for Jesus on Sunday and be a London fog
on Monday. You ought to shine for him every
day. Now, we're inconsistent. We're not consistent. I like
a consistent life. I always think of Dr. H. A. Ironside,
pastor of Moody Memorial Church. When I looked at him, I saw a
man who was consistent. When he said something, you knew
it was absolutely the truth, and he was honest, and he never
wavered. In one moment, our dear Dr. Haight, that we had on this campus
for so many years, was a great blessing to all of us with her
prayer life, her Christian testimony. If there ever was a saint of
God, she was. But I'll tell you right now,
when you thought of Dr. Haight, she was consistent. There
was never any question in your mind as to her position. She
wasn't one thing one day and then something else another day.
She was every day what she claimed to be. Time flies. Well, the last thing, we lack
courage. Let somebody else do the talking.
Let somebody else do the soaring. I am timid. I don't have the
ability. So, like Moses, we make an excuse.
I'm not eloquent in speech. I don't have the courage to speak
out. Listen, there's not one of you that in some type of activity
have courage when you need it. Don't tell me. Give me that kind
of excuse. When it comes to other things,
you'll sure stand up and have courage. The same thing that
will give you the courage to stand up on other matters will
give you the courage to stand up when it comes to the truth
of God and standing through the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, and
the last point, and we'll get to it, lack of quality and refinement.
God doesn't want a group of dirty, filthy Christians. He wants clean
vessels that he can fill. And when we tell the things that
we do and say things that we say and do the things we do,
it casts reflection on the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a lack
of dignity and refinement that we need. Now, I don't mean the
strong formal type of activity that you have to just act like
you're a king or queen or some royal throne. No, I mean when
you walk, people can recognize that you've been with Jesus as
they did Peter and John, the fourth chapter of Acts. They
must have been very careful in their choice of words as they
faced those Sanhedrins. They presented themselves in
dignity, in refinement as Christian men. They were courteous, polite,
and they took knowledge of them. They'd been with Jesus. You know,
that was the thing that I'm sure made Daniel the great leader
that he was. He was a man that placed himself before that people,
the Old Testament. They knew that he was somebody
when they saw him because he was faithful to God. Now, we
have many things that we lack today, but now let's be faithful
to the calling that God has given to us, that as we so live Christ,
that we might be a blessing to lead others to him. Our Heavenly
Father, we give thee thanks this morning for the great men of
history who have stood strong and stalwart and straight. who
did not bow their knee to the current problems and the difficulties
that surrounded them, but they remained faithful to thy word.
Now we thank thee for this institution. We thank thee for these who are
here this summer, for those who are absent from us, and for the
many splendid reports that we are receiving of the lost that
are coming to Christ, the Christians that are being strengthened.
And we thank thee, our Father, for this base of testimony. May
we ever keep it true until Jesus comes. In his name we pray. Amen. Thank you for joining us for
The Chapel Platform. If you would like a copy of today's
message, just send a check for $5.13 to Campus Store, Bob Jones
University, Greenville, South Carolina. The zip code is 29614. Please mention the speaker, Dr.
Gilbert Stenholm, the message titled, What is Lacking in Christianity,
and make sure to mention today's date. The Chapel Platform has
been sponsored by Bob Jones University. Join us again for The Chapel
Platform.
What Lasts in Christianity
| Sermon ID | 41802113731 |
| Duration | 26:33 |
| Date | |
| Category | Radio Broadcast |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 4:10-15 |
| Language | English |
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