Jeremiah 5:5, “I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.”
My all-time favorite Bible preacher is Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001). Dr. Hyles was truly a great and godly man. He was a good man as far as sinful men go. I was thinking today about something Brother Hyles said in a sermon that amazed me about his goodness. He said that over the years several of his church members (in the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana) came to his office and asked him to cosign for their loan.
All banks and lending institutions require that someone who asks for a loan have a cosigner. That means if you fail to repay your loan, the person who cosigned is legally obligated to repay the loan. If they don't pay it, their credit will be ruined and likely taken to court by the lender. Pastor Hyles said that he got burned on $50,000 worth of unpaid loans that church members had asked him to cosign for. That makes me angry when rotten people do that to others. If you ask someone to vouch for your character by cosigning for your loan, and then you drop the ball and fail to repay what you borrowed, that person has to sacrifice for your wickedness.
Just to show you how awesome Pastor Hyles was as a friend to his church members, not once did he ever ask anyone why they didn't repay their loans, he just paid it for them. Dr. Hyles lost $50,000 because of the dishonesty of others!!! That is 'A Friend at Midnight' (a life changing sermon by Pastor Hyles). Brother Hyles said the reason why he just repaid the loans without confronting the people who didn't repay their debts, is simply because he loved them as his church members and didn't want to risk losing them over money. What an awesome pastor and true friend!!!
Having said that, although it is not a sin to cosign for others, it is unwise. God gave us the Old Testament book of Proverbs to give us wisdom to live. I was listening to Alexander Scourby this morning read the Proverbs. I noticed that he repeatedly mentioned having to deal with a horrible loud-mouthed woman. Proverbs 21:9, “It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.” Proverbs 25:24, “It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman and in a wide house.” With 700 wives and 300 concubines, Solomon must have witnessed countless nasty cat-fights erupting between his one thousand women. I have no doubt that they fought like cats and dogs! I humbly believe that Solomon is writing from his own painful experiences when he warns about being trapped in a house with a brawling woman on the warpath.
Getting back to the main point in this blog, King Solomon warns about cosigning (i.e., becoming surety) for someone else. Proverbs 6:1-2, “My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.” Whenever you vouch legally for someone else's loan, you are taking a great risk upon you. Solomon warns that you will be sorry. Proverbs 11:15, “He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretiship is sure.” People still haven't changed in 3,000 years! The very fact that a person needs to secure a loan for money, already shows that they have money issues.
I humbly believe that Dr. Hyles fully anticipated he might end up repaying those $50,000 worth of loans. I believe the only time you should ever cosign for someone, is if you are perfectly okay with having to fully repay the loan and lose all that money. If you are not willing to take a large loss, then you ought not cosign for anyone, and you're a fool if you do because YOU WILL GET SCREWED. Proverbs 17:18, “A man void of understanding striketh hands, and becometh surety in the presence of his friend.”
I have never, and never ever will, cosign for anyone!!! I've had web visitors beg me for money for other people, but I never do it. On Facebook, I immediately unfriend anybody who asks for money, or tries to sell something on my Facebook page. I hate covetousness and greed! I get sick of seeing Renee Roland and Matthew Gordon Correll (aka, JackSmack77) continually beg for PayPal donations on YouTube for all their videos. I have never taken a penny for all my website ministry labors since 2002. I do what I do for Jesus Christ alone (2nd Corinthians 5:20-21). My full reward is in Heaven. You can keep your money, I don't want it. Our nation's first U.S. President George Washington refused to take a salary. So also did President Donald Trump refuse to take a salary, he gave it away to charity.
There are some ungodly fools on social media who slander Pastor Jack Hyles, but they don't know what their talking about. They've never met him, as I did. They didn't have the privilege of shaking his warm hand and counseling with him, as I did in 1993. They didn't have the blessed honor to sit under Dr. Hyles' preaching an serve in his soulwinning ministry, but I thankfully did. I attended and graduated from Hyles-Anderson College in 1993, after 8 long sacrificial years of hard work and struggle to earn my degree in Pastoral Theology. I literally earned my degree with my own physical blood, sweat and tears. I am so grateful for it all.
Dr. Hyles wisely taught me that the foundation of gratuity is the expectation of nothing. That is, if you expect nothing, then you'll be grateful for everything. I am just thankful to wake up each morning, so anything more than that is a bonus for which I am grateful to God. I receive quite a few emails from miserable saints. Their problem is that they choose to focus on the wrong things in life, instead of focusing on all the blessings and goodness of God. Romans 2:4, “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”
Carefully notice that the Bible identifies an unthankful spirit as the root cause of man's rebellion. Romans 1:21, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” People are not thankful because they are happy, they are happy because they are thankful. The foundation of gratitude is the expectation of nothing. Lower your expectations to zero and you'll be happy every day.
Pastor Hyles was a happy man in his old age, because he was faithful to do what he was supposed to do for God throughout his life. Pastor Hyles was the first to admit imperfection, and confess that he had feet of clay, but Brother Hyles died a happy man in the Lord at age 74. Listen to the sermon: 'A Good Old Age,' by Dr. Hyles. You'll hear jealous critics and hateful neo-evangelicals slandering Pastor Hyles, but you'll never hear them talk about how he generously paid $50,000 in unpaid loans for church members who burned him.
I'll give you another example of Dr. Hyles' greatness. One of the men on his church staff came to him with a proposal, to save the church hundreds of thousands of dollars. The proposal was to switch to a different insurance company that offered a cheaper premium. Dr. Hyles rebuked his staff member, reminding him that in the 1960's an arsonist deliberately set fire to the old First Baptist Church of Hammond (FBCH) auditorium and burned it to the ground. The insurance company stood by the church and build a brand new church auditorium.
Pastor Hyles informed his staff member that the insurance company suffered a gigantic loss, because they were honest to honor the insurance and stand by the church in her time of need. So, Dr. Hyles felt it was only ethical for FBCH to stand by the insurance company, so that they could over the decades try to recoup their losses. I love that about Brother Hyles!!! He wasn't short-sighted to only care about saving money for the church. He had empathy to put himself as a businessman in the shoes of the insurance company that lost millions of dollars. Dr. Hyles told his staff member who wanted to change insurance companies to save money, “The insurance company stood by us, and now we're going to stand by them!”
How many pastors today would care at all about helping an insurance company recoup their losses? Less than 1% I guarantee you! Pastor Hyles was a very ethical man, which is how a genuine man who walks with God will behave. We've lost our ethics in the United States. From greedy rental car agencies to shady realtors, from crooked lawyers to incompetent pastors, from dishonest politicians to ungodly insurance companies who find every little reason to deny a claim—Americans have lost their sense of ethics (doing what is right).
Dr. Hyles said that back in the 1940's in Texas, as a well-known pastor he could just walk into any bank in town and obtain a loan with just a handshake and his word. Men had backbone and character back then, and their word was their bond. Today you cannot trust anybody, not even pastors. Wicked people can talk trash all they want, but I know that Pastor Jack Hyles was a great man of financial integrity, personal character, unconditional love and compassion for all people. I sure miss him!
Thank you for reading my blogs.
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