COMMAND TO
TEACH
08-28-88
2 Timothy
2:2
This
is the First Baptist Church in Dallas.
And this is the pastor bringing the message entitled, THE MANDATE ‑‑
THE COMMAND TO TEACH. This -- even
though it is in August, this is the beginning of a tremendous fall program of
our wonderful church. And we are
persuaded it will be the greatest year, incomparably so, we have ever
shared.
And
the message this morning is designed as an introduction, as a dynamic, as an
encouragement, as the beginning, the marching creation of a -- of a wonderful
year for the teaching of God's Word.
I
have three texts, one from Paul, one from our Lord, and one from Jehovah
God. The one from Paul is in the
passage you just read, 2 Timothy 2, verse ‑‑ 2 Timothy 2 -- chapter
2, verse 1, "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus.
"And
the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit
thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."
And
all of us from childhood have learned the Great Commission, the last three
verses in the last chapter of Matthew, "All authority," said our
Lord, "is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.
"Go
ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations -- all the people --
baptizing them in the name of the triune God,
"Teaching
them to observe all the things that I have commanded you."
And
the word from Jehovah Lord in Deuteronomy 6, beginning at verse 6, "These
words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart,
"And
thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and you are to talk of them
when you sit in the house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down,
and when you rise up.
"You
are to bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets --
as frontlets is between thine eyes.
"And
thou shalt write them -- mezuzahs -- thou shalt write them upon the
posts of thy house, and on thy gates."
A
command, a mandate to live by the Word of God, "Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God."
When
I think of the Jewish people persecuted through the centuries without a
homeland for millennia, and yet with us today.
Walk up and down the streets of Dallas, and you'll see the Jew. Go to any great city in the world, and you
will see him there.
How
is it that he exists when all of those other ancient peoples have been wiped
off of the face of the globe? And yet
he exists. The reason is found in his
obedience to the great commandment of the Lord, "You're to teach your
children." And the Jewish child is
brought up, taught in the commandments of Jehovah God.
It
has been thus with the Christian faith.
In the beginning, little gospel tracts, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
were written and given to the converts, such as Luke addresses his Gospel to
Theophilus and the Book of Acts describing the presence and the power of the
Lord God in human life. Then these
catechumens were faithfully instructed in the things of Christ.
So
all of these schools, all of them for centuries were Christian schools, all of
them. Every great university in the
western world was founded in the Christian faith. The Sorbonne in Paris, Oxford and Cambridge in England, Harvard,
Yale, Columbia, all of them.
It
is only in the last few and recent years that there has been public, tax‑supported
education. Education has always been in
the hands and under the surveillance and aegis of the people of God. And how desperately does that bring us to
the vital living need in our present time, in this present generation.
I
have in my hands a headline from a paper a day or two ago. The headline is, "Fewer in Poll Believe
Bible Word for Word." Only thirty‑one
percent of Americans now believe the Bible is the Word of God. There also has been an increase in the
percentage of Americans who do not believe that the Bible was inspired by God.
Education
is the major variable with belief in the literal truth of the Bible decreasing
as the level of education increases.
Our educational system is increasingly secular, atheistic,
humanistic.
These
things come from the Gallup Poll of the unchurched Americans of 1988. William Allen White wrote, quote,
"Unless there ‑‑ unless those who believe in a Christian
civilization are willing to sacrifice to educate Christian leaders, they will
find that their dream has vanished."
If
American churchmen fail to support the kind of education that turns out
Christian leaders, American life under another leadership soon will close the
church. You will cease to exist.
Humanism
has taken possession of our public schools and colleges, the entire educational
system. I quote from the Humanist
Manifesto, "We find no evidence for belief in the existence of the
supernatural. We can discover no divine
purpose or providence for the human species.
No deity can save us. We must
save ourselves."
Now,
let's look at the result of this humanist secularist teaching. Result:
In 1940, before the humanist took over our schools, the major offenses
in the public schools were running in halls, chewing gum, making noise, not
putting paper in wastebaskets and getting out of turn in line.
In
the 1980s, after years of tax‑funded humanist infiltration, today the top
offenses are rape, robbery, assault, burglary, drug abuse, arson, drunkenness,
carrying of weapons, vandalism, murder, extortion and gang warfare. It's another world.
You
take your child to Sunday school, and on Sunday he is taught Genesis 1:1,
"In the beginning God created."
You take your child to school on Monday, and he is taught how he
descended and evolved from an ape.
I
hold in my hands a last issue of Texas Education Today, the publication
of the Texas Education Agency. The
headline is, "Teaching of Evolution Mandated in Texas
Textbooks." And the first
sentence, "For the first time, the State Board of Education has mandated
that the teaching of evolution be included in all high school textbooks
approved for use in the public school system."
A
new day, a new mandate, and one that is bringing tragedy unspeakable to the
American life.
As
we face the exigency of this time, what do we do? What is our answer? Our
answer is not in word, but in deed. It
is a dedication to a great mandate from heaven.
It
is not something optional for us. It is
something commanded of us of our Lord God Who reigns over this earth and
history and the destiny and consummation yet to come.
And
I have several things to say this day to which we are dedicated in this house
of God.
Number
one: Our teaching ministry in our Sunday school. Some time ago we had twelve thousand two hundred fifty here in
Sunday school. There was not one in any
area or in any division or any class that came and said to me we were
overcrowded.
We
are one church that I know of out of the throngs of churches, thousands of
churches that able in facility can gather together a great community of
families, children, teenagers, fathers and mothers and teach them the Word of
God.
We
have these gifts from heaven. God has
done it five blocks down here in this great city. And we can do it.
Last
Sunday we had seven thousand seven hundred ten whatever in Sunday school. If each one of our classes has one-half of a
person in attendance added next Sunday, we'll go over eight thousand. All we need is just one-half of a body in
each class. We can do it easily, and we
owe it to God and the destiny of America to do it.
All
right. Another thing, our answer. I would like ‑‑ I've already
asked the staff to do it. I would like
for us in our reporting, instead of "Sunday School," let's use the
word "Bible Study." I've been
thinking of that for a long time, ever since the legislature by law opened
these doors on Sunday.
If
you have Sunday School, what are these people who have to work in the stores on
Sunday? What we need is Monday school,
and Tuesday school, Wednesday school, Thursday school, Friday school and
Saturday school. We need Bible
study. And Sunday School is just one
part of it. Bible study.
And
I'm looking forward -- with help, I'm looking forward to having services here
every Saturday night. Why, my dear
people, when I was a country preacher, for years and years I preached every
Saturday night, every Saturday night, gathering the people together to listen
to the expounding exposition of the Word of God. Bible study.
And
not only in these days of the week, but in these institutions, wherever there
is an open door, there we've got somebody who is committed to the infallible,
inerrant Word of the Lord to teach God's revelation of Himself to us.
About
two days ago I went right across the street to the YMCA. And I talked to some of the administrative
leaders over there about our having Bible study in that downtown Y. They have seven thousand members in that
Bible ‑‑ in that YMCA.
And
this is a letter that I received a day ago, "It was good to talk to you
today regarding the possibility of the YMCA weekly Bible study being sponsored
by the Educational Division of the First Baptist Church.
"We
want to offer more events to our members that emphasize the C ‑‑
the C in the Young Men's Christian Association. Let's make it a point to review the possibilities of the near future. I'm here to help you." Signed by the leadership of that downtown
YMCA.
It
is a Christian institution, Young Men's Christian Association. And as such, they say to me, "We are
delighted in the prospect of opening our doors for your Educational Division to
come and to teach the Word of God."
We
can go into every institution that will thus invite us. One of our divisions, the Berean Adult
Division, has a ministry of teaching out at Tremont Nursing Home. How about Autumn Leaves? How about a thousand others? And how about all these corporate places,
these big, big companies?
What
about teaching the Word of God to those, say, at a noonday hour who'd be
willing to share in the depths of the riches of the grace and mercy of the
Lord? Why not?
I
found out there's been going on things here beyond what I'd thought for, that
Bernew, for example, has four Bible study classes. I didn't realize that.
And
on the pages of The Reminder, we'll have Bible study, and then there
will be Sunday School, this many over twelve thousand, and then there will be
these that are on Monday and Tuesday and in the days of the week studying the
Word of God.
What
I'm saying is I would like to see our church, in a great dynamic thrust, to
bring the message of God to all the people of this great metroplex. And we can do it. We can do it.
Another
instrument in our hands, I think, is to be found in our homes, in our
houses.
Last
night right here I presided over a beautiful wedding, two of our precious young
people out of the Singles Division. And
as I visited with them and talked to them, I found that they met each other in
a Bible study in a home beginning with just four.
There's
no end to it. And under the aegis and
direction and encouragement of the Evangel ministries of our church, I believe
we can multiply the teaching of the Word of God by the thousands and the
thousands among the homes of our people.
When
I hold that Book in my hand, I realize that when I study Christ, I study the
Book. No other place will you find the
study of Christ except in the Book. The
only place that I've run into it where it's even mentioned, Josephus has a
little paragraph, and they say it is an interpolation.
Tacitus
and Suetonius, two Roman authors, mention Him incidentally because they were
describing what happened in the dismissal of Pontius Pilate.
When
you study Christ, you study the Word.
When you study the Word, you study Christ. They are indisably [sic, indivisibly] identified. They are together. They're one and the same.
Christ is identified with His Word.
John 1:1, "In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John
1:14, "And the Word was made flesh.
The Word was made flesh."
The Word is Christ our Lord.
In
Revelation 19:11-13, "I beheld heaven opened, and behold a white horse;
and He that set upon him was Faithful and True...
"His
eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns...
"He
was dressed in a vesture dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of
God."
God
and His Word are identified. When I
teach the Word, I'm teaching Christ.
When I preach the Word, I'm preaching Christ. A man in his word may be two different things, but not God and
His Word. God's Word is like Himself,
the same yesterday and today and forever.
Psalm
119:89, "Forever, O God [sic, Lord], Thy Word is fixed in
heaven."
And
as our Lord said, Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth may pass away, but My
word[s] will never pass away."
Dear
people, to obey that command and mandate is the highest privilege in human
life. Teaching the Word of God.
Now,
in the few minutes remaining for me, let me speak in our church here of an
implementation of that mandate in our Christian institution.
You
just heard deacon Aaron Manley speak of the appeal for support of our First
Baptist Academy. I have here in my hand
a little brochure that they publish.
It's a beautiful thing. It's
entitled, "The Statement of Philosophy -- The First Baptist Academy
Statement of Philosophy."
"For
the students' academic achievement we plan" ‑‑ and then a
whole lot of things. "In superior
education for these young people," then, "For the students' physical
development we endeavor," then, "For the students' spiritual growth
we seek," and then, "For the students' social development we
strive."
It's
a magnificent thing. As you heard Aaron
Manley say, "By law ‑‑ by legal legislative congressional
Supreme Court mandate, you can't teach God in the public schools. You can't have chapel. You can't have prayer. You can't read the Bible. You can't have the name of Jesus'
name."
I
was to speak at one of the great high schools in the city of Dallas where we
live, and the administration of the high school said to me, "The American
Civil Liberties Union has given us a warning that if that preacher turns this
into a chapel, we will close down the school."
I
cannot help, and Paul's here to pay tribute to the Christian leaders and
teachers in our public school system, I praise God for your devotion, and your
love, and I weep with you over the mandates by law, that prohibit you even
speaking of the name of Christ.
Dear
God, what has happened to America?
You've heard Aaron Manley just say that we teach these children for less
than what it costs to educate a child in the public school.
And
in the Independent School District this last year, it cost four thousand nine
hundred twenty-one dollars to educate one child. At our academy, it costs three thousand two hundred ninety
dollars, a great difference.
And
this is the headline of a day ago, "The DISD Hikes Taxes by
14.88%."
The
next headline concerns the, quote, "Big Boot." Then the first sentence, "The Dallas
School Board increased property taxes by 14.88% Thursday night. The school board voted seven to one for the
tax increase." It costs, and it
increasingly costs.
I
don't know the end of secular humanistic America. I don't know the end of it.
We leave God out. We legislate
God out. We congressionally pass law to
prohibit it. The Supreme Court hands
down mandates that make our country secular.
And we are flooded, increasingly drowned in drunks and in drunkenness and
in violence.
When
I first came to Dallas forty‑four years ago, the downtown was thronged
with people. The restaurants were
open. The cafes were open. The movie houses were open. Downtown Dallas was a throng of thousands
and thousands of people.
You
come down here today, and downtown Dallas is a literal cemetery. It's a graveyard. And the people don't come.
They're afraid. They're
afraid. This is the result of what is
happening to our beloved America. And
that's why in the heart of this city, this church, God set it here. God has left it here.
God
has lightened its beacon, and with His help, by His grace we're going to pour
the thrust of our energy and life and dedication and everything our souls are
able to do to bring back to our people a consciousness of God teaching the
infallible, inerrant, saving Word of the Lord.
Our
Academy, our Christian college, our Bible college, our College is not like a
school teaching all kinds of things such as chemistry and physics, geology and
many, many things that you learn in a ‑‑ in a college ‑‑
regular college or university. Our
college is a Bible school.
And
if there is someone who wants an education in Bible study, then that is the
school to attend. It's accredited. The same accreditation that is given to the
University of Texas, to SMU, to TCU, to A&M, to Harvard, to Yale -- the
same accreditation that is given to these great state‑supported or
privately-endowed universities, the same accreditation is given to that Bible
school over there.
It's
a wonder, it's a marvel what God has done for us. And it is definitely needed.
Charles Malick from Lebanon, he's been here in this pulpit.
Charles
Malick, president of the United Nations Assembly says, quote, "History is
decisively in the making today, and yet quality of decision is largely
absent."
There
is an ominous drift. People say they
are overwhelmed. It is as though the
complexity and multiplicity of present issues are too much for the mind of man. America must mean more than bombs and
dollars and technical assistance to Asia and Africa.
More than ever there is a need for teachers
and students who confess Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord and who are
engaged in a serious search for the knowledge of God. The responsibility placed on our schools is greater than ever
before.
I
remember David Lord George who was Prime Minister of England during the First
World War and a great Baptist leader.
David Lloyd George said, "Our biggest foe is not the arsenals of
the corrupt munition factories, but the schools of the college ‑‑
the schools and colleges of Germany."
Germany
was the most il ‑‑ was the most literate, educated of any of the
nations that have ever appeared to the pages of human history, but she was the
most violent. There were eighteen
million men who lost their lives in this last World War II. Why?
Because of the teaching in the colleges and the universities of Great
Britain ‑‑ of Germany. O
God, what shall we do?
I
have time even to mention it. I have
here The Shofar, the letter -- the little magazine of our Bible school
-- Criswell College is impacting our world through. Then it has an article on the curriculum. Then is has an article on the mission
points. And then an article on the
graduates who are going out. And then
an article on KCBI.
I
cannot believe ‑‑ I cannot believe what God has done for us. It would cost you millions and millions of
dollars to buy a radio station of a hundred thousand watts. That radio station, KCBI, people listening
to me over it now is as large as any radio station in America. As large as KCBI -- as large as KRLD, as
large as any other in America. And it
is ours. It is ours.
And
we're building a network around it. We
have nine in Texas, nine other stations.
We have one in Mississippi. We
have one in Michigan. We have two in
Georgia. And we have one in
Nevada. And we are adding to them. Week after week and month after month, a
great network listening to the Word of God.
I
wish I had time to start to commence to say what's in my heart. Do you know when God says, "This gospel
shall be preached to all the world, then shall the end come." How in the earth are we going to preach the
gospel to all the people that are in this earth?
They
are born more than we are increasingly reaching. Yet answer lies in radio ‑‑ in radio. People are listening to radio even beyond
the Iron Curtain. They hold their ears
to that radio transmitter. God has
given us that incomparable arm, that outreach to make known the blessedness of
Jesus. God's done it. I can't realize it.
Now,
I have a two‑fold appeal.
Number
one: KCBI borrowed a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, then again a hundred
and fifty‑nine thousand dollars from our college in order to set up that
glorious increase of power.
I
think we ought to pay it back. I think we
owe it to God and to the school and to KCBI to pay it back. I would love to see us on the first Sunday
in October -- I would love to see us bring an offering for these great
Christian teaching ministries.
Whatever
you'd like to do. The poorest of us
give a little; the more affluent of us give much more. But on the first Sunday in October, we bring
to this house of God a special offering for our Christian schools.
Do
you remember three years ago I made appeal in our pulpit for a special offering
for our church? I asked for a million
dollars, and our people brought one million fifty thousand dollars in gifts
that Sunday.
I
do not know of another church in the history of Christendom that ever on one
Sunday brought one million dollars in cash.
We did it. We did it three
months ago ‑‑ I mean three years ago.
Why
can't we bring a precious offering for our schools, the mandate of Christ
teaching the Word of God? Every one of
us sharing in it. And just seeing God
bless it. And then the second invitation
is now, this minute to give your heart to the Lord.
The
greatest, most meaningful decision you could ever make in your life,
"Today, Pastor, I move my heart heavenward and Godward and Christward, and
here I stand." Or a family you,
coming into the fellowship of the church, or one, somebody you answering the
call of God in your heart.
(Tape cut
off.)