"You Need These Books; You Need This Material!"

Consider carefully and prayerfully the inserted passage and observations.

1. The passage teaches that when Christ returned to the right hand of God, He prepared men to provide truth to direct the early church in the truth (Acts 2:42; John 14:26; 16:13; 1 John 2:20, 27; Phil. 3:15-16) until their work was full-grown–fully developed, resulting in the body of truth we know as the Bible, “the unity of the faith.”

2. From this passage, we learn that this complete and fully developed faith (Jude 3) has a number of specific objectives: (a) It makes possible the maturing (perfecting) of the individuals (saints), (b) it provides direction for the work of ministering (service), (c) it enables the body of Christ to be built up, (d) it will enable saints to avoid being “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men in craftiness, after the wiles of error,” (e) it equips the saints to speak the truth in love that we all might grow up in Him who is the head of His church, and (f) finally, it makes possible for the body of Christ, the church of Christ to build itself up in love.

Application

Personally, points “a” through “f” above teach us that each child of God should develop into a servant of the Lord, able to help others to mature and serve so that the body of Christ might build itself up in love, and able to speak the truth in love without being tossed to and fro by the cunning craftiness of men.

Oversight, Those in leadership should take seriously their goal to be sure that the congregation under their direction builds itself up, avoiding error, able to speak the truth in love, so that their congregation might advance the building up of the body of Christ throughout the world.

Congregations, must take seriously the objectives set forth in points “a” through “f.” The congregation of which we may be a part may not be as mature as it should be. We must dedicate ourselves to seeing that the congregation is maturing under the guidelines established by the inspired apostles and prophets, the architects of the Lord’s church.

Expediency

When God gave orders to the inspired leaders of the church He made provision for expediency in carrying out His directives. With obligatory items, there is inherent an area of expediency. Expediency does not alter the authorized action. Expediency takes into view what would provide advantage, without altering the obligatory action, in carrying out the will of God.

Expediency may be contrasted with the idea of impeding a given duty or is the same. To impede an action is to hinder that action; to expedite an action is to give advantage to carrying out that action.

Support Materials

In planning and presenting our annual lectureship, we have kept in mind the above matters as well as other principles from the Bible that support the same philosophy.

In the 2007 volume we are emphasizing the need to understand the God of the Bible. This is a most important issue. If we know that God is no respecter of persons, then we know that what He requires of all men today is the same. Likewise, we know that what God does for one He does for all.

With a proper view of God as revealed in the Bible, we may avoid the multiple false claims made by Pentecostalism. This volume should provide a starting point in this most needed study.

In the 2006 volume, Do You Understand Restoration? We focused our attention on the need to place the Bible as supreme in our pursuit of serving God. We have no desire to be a part of any “movement” dedicated to men. We maintain in this volume that we can return to the Bible and make proper application of its truth to our life today. If we keep in view the Ephesian passage cited above, we must understand the concept of restoration. How else may we “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:1-6)?

In the 2005 volume we asked the question and provided Biblical directives to Do you Understand Church Growth? Surely a respect for Ephesians 4:11-16 requires us to give serious attention to growth and development under Divine directives.

Not all growth is sanctioned by the Bible. Do we know the difference? Can we help others to understand this needed component of Christianity? I know of no better place to start this study than the materials prepared by our writers of this volume.

In 2004, we asked the question Do You Understand the Grace of God? It is possible to receive the grace of God in vain (2 Cor. 6:1), and some would turn the grace of God into a license to sin (Jude 4; Rom. 6:1-2).

If we are to develop souls for God, we must understand the grace of God. Some would model their view of grace from the ideas and concepts of men; however, we call attention to the need to return to the Bible for the proper understanding of this blessing from God (Tit. 2:11-12).

In 2003, Do You Understand Fellowship? became our point of emphasis. Fellowship with God means walking in the light/truth. Fellowship with God means forgiveness of sins (1 John 1:1-10).

There are extreme positions parroted by some with this subject. We must understand the extent and limit of fellowship if we are to please God. We must not be swayed by men in this regard. We must be merciful and longsuffering in this regard, considering continually our need to be peace makers as well as defenders of the faith (Jude 3; Matt. 5:9).

This volume was prepared with these goals in mind, and we are confident that it will provide the diligent student of the Bible with supporting material for the teaching of the Bible on fellowship.

In the 2002 volume we asked and provided answers to the subject of worship–Do You Understand Worship?

If we return to the Bible for directives we know that worship is a major element of our service to our God. God seeks true worshipers, and we desire to be a true worshiper of God (John 4:22-24).

One of the first signs of a departure from the faith comes in the manner of worship. Many have come to the conclusion that God’s mandates for worship should be more pleasing to man than to God. Are you mature enough to deal with some of the false views of worship? Are you aware that many of the false views of worship have been answered in years past? If you have this volume, you will have an excellent source of supporting material to help the congregation of which you are a part to avoid being led astray by uncertain sounds that are bombarding unstable and unsteadfast souls (2 Pet. 3:15-18).

In 2001, we turned our attention to leadership. (Do You Understand Leadership?) As has been mentioned earlier in these reflections, we called attention to the need for leaders of the Lord’s church to take inventory of themselves (Acts 20:28). Leaders, how are you feeding the flock under your oversight? Leaders, how are you preparing those under your protective care to be aware of the attacks from both within and without the body of Christ?

There are many “change agents” who have as their agenda to change the church of Christ, and they know that this means changing leadership. Do we understand the seriousness of this threat? Do we manifest a proper concern for the threat? This volume on leadership will provide a starting point in having materials to confront the enemy, protect the innocent, and encourage the faithful. You, we, need this volume.

In the 2000 lectureship volume, preaching was the focus– Do You Understand Preaching?

In our Life of Paul Class at the Florida School of Preaching, we emphasize the role of preaching using Paul as our primary model. The objective of the class is to show that “You can not evangelize the world more rapidly than you can establish and stabilize churches.” Likewise, you can not establish and stabilize churches without someone doing the work of a preacher. Preaching involves talking, but it is more than making a speech.

Some have no true understanding of the role of preaching. Does your, my, view of preaching come from men or from God? There are but these two possibilities!

Leaders in the church need to understand the great value of Bible based preaching. Preaching has the potential of saving souls or leading souls into condemnation (2 Tim. 2:14-26; 1 Tim. 4:16).

The Board of Directors of the Florida School of Preaching, in December of 2006, approved for 2008 the lectureship theme, Do You Understand the Biblical View of Man? This topic is being developed at this time. The Board is confident that it will make a valuable contribution to the mandates of God as written by Paul in Ephesians 4.

Conclusion

We have provided this brief overview of a series of our lectureship volumes that are still available in hard back editions as well as on CD format. Great care and energy has been exerted by those who have provided chapters in each volume.

Great care should be given to our personal growth and development if we are to develop faithful Christians and leaders. How are we to evangelize the world without stabilizing congregations.

You need these books; you needs these materials! I am confident that these published volumes developed by the Florida School of Preaching will be of lasting value world wide.

You do not just need one of these volumes, you need all of them. Each volume singles out one issue, defines it and provides both positive and negative items relative to that subject.

If we are to be New Testament Christians, we must know what that means. In understanding what it means to be a Christian, we must understand the God of the Bible, Restoration, Growth, Grace, Fellowship, Worship, Leadership, Preaching, et al.

If we are to understand the attacks made against the religion of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible we will have to address these and other topics.

You need these books; you need these materials! You can help evangelize the world by distributing good teaching materials.

Do you have these volumes? If you are not a preacher, does your preacher have these volumes? Be sure that these volumes are in the library of your congregation. [Jackie M. Stearsman, Editor] Ω

Florida School of Preaching
32nd Annual Lectureship
Do You Understand The God Of The Bible
January 15-18, 2007

Click here to view 2007 Lectureship Schedule