Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
From a sermon by Preacher Clark at Grandma’s house in January or February of 1974
Taken from Gary’s CD-15, Track 1
Jesus asked his disciples, “If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who shall commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” Preacher Clark taught the same thing in these words: “If you owe a man a bill, and you’re not able to pay it, you’ve failed. You’ve failed somewhere.”
Any time that we fail to pay to a man what is justly owed to him, we have failed to serve God acceptably in some area of our lives. When Jesus said “Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and unto God what belongs to God,” he meant for us to understand that we cannot do wrong to one without doing wrong to the other. When we rob God of His tithes and offerings, we make ourselves the enemy of God and a liability to the government under which we live. And when we rob men of what is justly theirs, we damage our testimony and make Jesus appear to men to be the Lord of thieves.
A man who lives beyond his means is unfaithful in “unrighteous mammon”, and he is a thief. He takes without paying, and in so doing, robs honest merchants of the profits they should be reaping from their labor. God’s children are not to live that way. They are to demonstrate self-restraint in their expenditures, lest they become an offense to some soul looking for the God of truth.