“Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7).

E.A. Dicus (“Dike”) preached for over forty years for the Lorain Avenue church of Christ in Cleveland, Ohio (where my family attended while I was growing up). He was well-loved and respected by those that knew him. Even though I was not quite ten years old when he passed away, he made an early impact upon me and his example continues to influence me today.

Lewis Willis spoke at his funeral and wrote an obituary that appeared in Guardian of Truth magazine a month later [available online here]. From time to time I go back and re-read Willis’ comments about Dike, just to be reminded about who he was and the work he had done. Today is the twenty-first anniversary of his passing. I wanted to share his story with the readers here, in particular the following excerpt:

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The concept of salvation by faith alone is quite popular. Many have been deceived into thinking that all God requires of man is a simple mental affirmation of Jesus being the Savior. As long as one believes this, then he will be saved.

There are several passages that brethren use to refute the concept of salvation by faith alone. The clearest was written by James: “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). If you get out your concordance and look up this phrase, you will find that this verse is the only one that says anything about “faith alone,” and it denies that we are saved on this basis.

The truth is that our salvation is attributed to many things — God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8), mercy (Titus 3:5), and love (John 3:16), the blood, death, and life of Christ (Romans 5:9-10), the gospel (Romans 1:16), our faith (John 8:24), repentance (Luke 13:3,5), confession (Romans 10:9-10), baptism (Mark 16:16), obedience (Hebrews 5:9), and more*. To claim that we are saved by faith alone is simply not compatible with Scripture.

One item in the list above that is vehemently attacked by sectarians is baptism. Despite the fact that Peter said, “Baptism now saves you” (1 Peter 3:21), many will adamantly deny that baptism is necessary for salvation. In light of this, truth teachers will often spend a good deal of time explaining the vital role of baptism in our salvation.

As a result of this, some incorrectly assume (or dishonestly charge) that those who affirm the necessity of water baptism for salvation must believe in salvation by baptism alone. In case there might be any confusion on this matter, let us notice why baptism alone does not save us.

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The existence of false teachers is a sad reality. Just as there were false prophets in the past, Peter said, “There will also be false teachers among you” (2 Peter 2:1). Our responsibility is to mark them, turn away from them (Romans 16:17), have no fellowship with them (2 John 10-11), and refute their error (Titus 1:9; 2 Corinthians 10:5).

But what makes one a false teacher? The seemingly obvious answer to this question — teaching what is false — is disputed by many. The argument is made that teaching what is wrong does not make one a false teacher (at least not necessarily), but rather, one is a false teacher based on evil intentions and deliberate attempts to deceive.

So, is one a false teacher based on his message or his motive? Let us notice a few passages to help answer this question.

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Recently I’ve preached  a few lessons about things that threaten unity within a local church. The outlines have been posted on my other site – DIY Sermon Outlines. Below is a list with links to the various lessons in that series.

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In the previous article we looked at the parable of the sower, noting the four different soils which represented four different types of hearts. Each one responded differently to the word when it was sown among them. Despite these differences, we saw that the message (the seed, the word of God) was not changed. Rather than trying to change the message, we should strive to develop the “honest and good heart” (Luke 8:15) that Jesus says will be receptive to His saving gospel.

Jesus explains the illustration of the good soil: “But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance” (Luke 8:15). Let us be reminded of what the honest and good heart will do, and how we can develop this type of heart.

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The parable of the sower is one of the more familiar parables spoken by Jesus. In it, He teaches an important lesson about the type of message that is required in order to produce fruit.

“‘The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled under foot and the birds of the air ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great.’ As He said these things, He would call out, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear’” (Luke 8:5-8).

Jesus spoke of four different outcomes from the sowing. Each type of soil produced a different result. But there was one constant — the seed. The same seed was sown by the roadside, on the rocky soil, among the thorns, and in the good soil.

As Jesus went on to explain, “the seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11). The four soils represented four different types of hearts that might come in contact with the gospel message — those who are uninterested [the roadside], those who have only a shallow faith [the rocky soil], those who are worldly minded [the thorny ground], and those with good and honest hearts [the good soil] (Luke 8:12-15). The sowing produced different results in each case, but the seed — the message of the word of God — remained constant.

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As Paul concluded his epistle to the Romans, he praised God for His ability to establish them (Romans 16:25-27) — that is, to make them strong, complete, and equipped to follow Him and to face the trials that exist in this life. Is God able to establish us today? If so, how?

Earlier in this letter, Paul expressed a desire to come to them. He wrote: “For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established” (Romans 1:11). What were these spiritual gifts that Paul would impart to them in order to establish them? These miraculous gifts of the Spirit are enumerated in the first letter to Corinth and included such gifts as knowledge, prophecy, and the ability to speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). Do we need to have some miraculous spiritual gift in order to be established today? If so, we are in trouble, for Paul later says that such miraculous spiritual gifts would be “done away” and replaced with the completed revelation in the word of God (1 Corinthians 13:8-10). This is what we need in order to be established today — the word of God. In our text, Paul describes the word in several different ways, showing how it is able to establish us.

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