One of the blessings and liabilities of snow, at least in the South, is that it tends to stop everything.  That can be a problem.  Those whose jobs cannot be halted, as in emergency personnel, no doubt find snow to be something of a burden.  When snow prevents the church from gathering, as it does today, that is a burden  because we very much need the public means of grace.  We need to be together as God’s family on earth, in this place.  We need to worship together and to hear the Word of God together.  Perhaps not being able to meet together will be used of God to sweeten our taste for Sundays in His house!

But, then there are blessings in being stopped from our hurry and busyness!  It is a blessing not to be able, without unnecessary risk, to go anywhere.  It is a blessing to be shut up to our families.  Perhaps we will rediscover, if need be, the enjoyment of marital and family fellowship.  Perhaps we will talk about things that we seem too busy to trouble with in our ordinary days.  All this is good, a great blessing, as is enforced rest.

Solitude can also be a tremendous benefit, if we put it to spiritual use. 

Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

I suspect these inspired words are familiar to most of us.  But, how few of us practice stillness in order to know God as God!  Stillness is strange to us.  Our lives are defined by rush and noise.  Everyday it is here and there…go, go, go…hurry you are late…no time for this, for that…rush.  And, everywhere we go there is noise.  The noise of talk.  The noise of machines.  The noise of music (and I love music, but sometimes it gets in the way of serious thought).  Stillness, do we know what it is? No rush, no noise, stillness.  How seldom do we experience it until we fall asleep from utter exhaustion.  To be still and fully awake, that is a rare thing for most of us.

Yet, being still is of no real benefit to our souls unless we energize our souls to take advangtage of the opportunity afforded by stillness to meditate on God and on all that God may be saying to us.  The Psalmist provides several things to think upon in Psalm 46:  he wants us to imagine all sorts of severe troubles–I mean really severe troubles like the earth being removed and the mountains cast into the seas; then he wants us to imagine a refuge of perfect safety; but not only a hiding place of safety, also rivers of gladness in the middle of the trouble.  The refuge is God.  The rivers which make glad in the day of trouble flow from the special presence of God in the midst of His chosen city.  For New Covenant believers that translates into God’s presence in our souls by the unique indwelling of the Holy Spirit and by His wonderful visitations into our corporate gatherings.  The psalmist wants that we should ponder these things in our stillness.  The worst trouble imaginable (not comforting, yet not far away).  He wants to use our imaginations with respect to those feelings of fear and panic and sorrow and woe which we so much dread.  Be still and imagine.  You have been in such places of grief and dread.  Remember and feel.  Now, imagine being in a place of complete protection and peace as the trouble breaks around you.  A horrible tornado is blowing to pieces everything you can see; yet, in the midst of it, you feel not even a breeze, just calm and peace.  But, imagine more.  Imagine that in the storm you are actually enjoying this most wonderful inner gladness.  There is inexplicable rejoicing, although the world (your world) is being ripped apart by the winds.  It is hard to imagine such.  We must have stillness and time in order to enter into the world we are summoned to imagine by the psalmist (the Holy Spirit).

The message from God to His people is that such is His power and such is His commitment to us that He can be to us both the refuge and the gladness when the worst trouble comes.  More than that, we do not need wait for trouble to come, sufficient unto the day is its own peculiar troubles.  Right now, we may experience the calm of His protection and the joy of His presence.  He is with us through Christ.  He is our refuge now.  The rivers of His love flow in us now.  We must believe in Him.  We must train our souls to believe in Him now.  The day of peace is the time to train our souls to believe and rejoice so that when the day of trouble comes we are in the blessed habit of experiencing our rest in Christ.

Snow days can be blessed days if they result in being still and listening to God as He speaks to us by His Word.  One of the things I enjoy most about Southern snows is venturing out late at night and listening.  There is utter silence.  Few humans are out and about.  The snow seems to insulate from all echoes and noise.  It is quiet.  A wonderful opportunity for productive solitude.

Exhortation to Prayer by William Cowper

What various hindrances we meet
In coming to a mercy-seat!
Yet who that knows the worth of pray’r,
But wishes to be often there?

Pray’r makes the dark’ned cloud withdraw,
Pray’r climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love,
Brings ev’ry blessing from above.

Restraining pray’r, we cease to fight;
Pray’r makes the Christian’s armour bright;
And Satan trembles, when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.

While Moses stood with arms spread wide,
Success was found on Israel’s side;
But when thro’ weariness they fail’d,
That moment Amalek prevail’d.

Have you no words! Ah, think again,
Words flow apace when you complain;
And fill your fellow-creature’s ear
With the sad tale of all your care.

Were half the breath thus vainly spent,
To heav’n in supplication sent;
Your cheerful song would oft’ner be,
“Hear what the LORD has done for me!”

Hebrews 11:1*¶ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

The unseen is greater than all that we can see and test by our senses. Life challenges us at so many points. But, virtually every challenge involves the temptation to worship what we see or experience in this material world. That worship may involve desire or it may involve fear; but the temptation is to set our hearts on some aspect of this world. Our hearts may be set on money, not because we crave something new, bigger, or more stylish, but because we fear what will become of us if we do not have enough. Whatever dominates our hearts is our god. Cancer may be our god. No one lusts after cancer; however, should we live in a dominating fear or dread of it, cancer has assumed the place of god to us.

The proper faith in the supernatural casts out both dominating lusts and dominating fears. Nothing in the visible world compares with either the goodness or the power of the supernatural.

Yet, is it proper to speak simply of the “supernatural”? Such talk seems to perceive the supernatural to be some sort of force or power, impersonal and unknowable. The answer to the question is “no”, we should not speak or think of the supernatural in these ways (impersonal and unknowable). God is Person. He alone is supernatural. Thus the supernatural is the Person of God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Our loves and fears must be directed to God only! Yet, in our worship of the Triune God we must think always of the supernatural. He is greater than all these things. Both the things that we think have the power to “make” our lives and the things that we think have the power to “ruin” our lives. The personal God is over all things. He controls all things. He is better than all things. He is more to be feared than all things.

Christmas, properly defined, is the miracle of the supernatural Person of God the Son entering this material world as a real material and spiritual human. The supernatural became natural as well as supernatural. Amazing! When Peter said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, he was looking into the face of an ordinary young man in His early 30s. For all that Peter’s eyes could see, Jesus was no different than himself. But, when Jesus fed 5000 plus with a few loaves and fishes and then fed 4000 with seven loaves and a few fish, Peter knew there is more to Jesus than meets the eye. When Jesus walked across water to reach His disciples on the lake and enabled Peter to walk on top of the water also (so long as he believed), Peter realized that the supernatural was wedded to the natural in Jesus. He was material, natural man. He was supernatural, invisible God. Both in One.

The coming of the supernatural into the natural declares that we have hope. God is not distant and uninterested in our plight. Neither is He offended at our sin so as to abandon us forever to our misery and death, as deserving as we are of both. God is offended; but, His love for our kind is greater than the offense. He so loves mankind that He became an ordinary man (though sinless and in that sense greatly extra-ordinary) in order that He might resolve His offense toward us at His own expense, not at ours. Thus, Jesus surrendered Himself to capital punishment (undeserved) and coincidental to that punishment endured the angry wrath of God (deserved by us). By the sacrifice of His holy and innocent and natural humanity, Jesus removed from God the offense of all those sinners who believe in His supernatural virtue and power. The resurrection of His natural self from the dead declared that the offense was indeed gone. The supernatural God was reconciled to the fallen natural man.

That is our hope! Nothing can be against us if we are reconciled to the supernatural God through believing in the supernatural-natural Jesus. He is greater than all our sins and all the disease and misery and death that sin has brought into this natural world. He is better than all the glitter and sparkle that so dazzles us in this material world. Jesus is solid. Solid joys and lasting pleasures are His gifts to all who believe in Him. His unseen mercy and strength attend His people every moment of their lives in this world. May we have “eyes” to see His supernatural presence and sufficiency more than we do!

I pray that as you celebrate your family traditions connected to Christmas, you will look beyond all these good things to your very best things which are hidden in Christ. Though you may be hurting through grief or fear, may God enable your faith to behold your safety and blessing in the triumphant Jesus. God has come and He has given Himself for you and to you. You are rich! Enjoy His lesser gifts,  but rejoice most in Christ Himself!

*Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. *

*

Most in our scientifically oriented world would say, however, that a belief in the supernatural is superstitious, naive, and ignorant–belonging to another day, a day when the world was thought to be flat.

Is it accurate to assume that the only things that exist are those things that we are able to observe, analyze and explain? Or, is there warrant for believing in the supernatural?

In fact, every person (including the most ardent worshiper of naturalism and materialism) knows that the supernatural exists. That is true because every person knows in his conscience that God exists. God exists in and of Himself. He exists eternally. He exists outside the world He created, both material and spiritual. God’s presence pervades all things, but God Himself is outside or above and beyond all that He has made. God’s power sustains and controls all things (Hebrews 1:3) yet Himself is controlled by nothing. What He  has made and brought to be by Providence has no power upon Him. Supernaturalism is reality because God is reality. God has created other powers, angelic powers, that are beyond the powers or understandings of humans; but, these angelic powers (both good and evil) are entirely subject to God’s will and authority. God is over all.

So, we have warrant to believe in the supernatural. Actually, not to believe in the supernatural is be unfaithful to what we know to be true. It is impious.

But, what warrant do we have for believing that God would exert Himself supernaturally in our behalf, for our benefit? In the broad definition of what is good and needful, God works for the profit of all. He sends rain and sunshine upon the just and the unjust–those who believe and those who refuse to believe. However, He has not committed Himself to act for the highest good of any except those who believe upon Him according to the words which He caused to be written in His special revelation to mankind, the Bible. The central message of the Bible concerns His alienation from us on account of our sin. One implication of that message is that we cannot approach God acceptably in our sins. His Holiness is offended by us. His Justice condemns us and calls for our damnation. This is not hopeful for our expectation of receiving supernatural help in our lives. However, the most central part of the most central message of the Bible is that God in His unfathomable grace has made reconciliation for Himself whereby His Justice and holiness are satisfied toward sinful humans without their being personally judged for their sins. This reconciliation, of course, is in Christ. It was affected by His incarnation and self-sacrifice and resurrection and ascension and intercession for all who believe in Him according to God’s promise. Trust in Christ, out of a repentant heart, brings the assurance that God is at peace toward us. For the sake of Christ, and for the sake of His love for us, He hears us. He invites us to come boldly before Him. He promises to hear us and to answer us when we call in sincere, earnest faith (Heb.4: 14-16).

This means that according to God’s own provision and promise, those whose hope Jesus is have large confidence for calling upon God to be supernaturally active in their lives. God made Abraham to be the father of the faithful and as such the example of living by faith. Note what is said of Abraham’s faith in Romans 4:17:

(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed — God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;

Abraham, with the rather meager amount of revelation given him, believed in God as the One Who raised the dead and brought into being things that did not exist. In other words, he believed God for the supernatural. Consequently Abraham “did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (Rom. 4: 19-21). This was the kind of faith which brought Abraham into a justified standing with God: ” And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness’” (Rom. 4:22). If we have justifying faith we will also believe in the supernatural power and faithfulness of God to keep His promises to us. This means that an absence of expectation for the supernatural in our lives could mean that our faith is not of the same sort as Abraham’s.

Sincere faith in the supernatural (the activity of the living God according to His promises) is not to be  assumed. This faith must be exercised. We must think in these terms with minds filled by the actual words of God. Even more, this faith must be expressed to God by focused and serious conversations. We must call upon God. We must speak to God intently concerning our needs and concerning our believing expectation that in some way He will meet our needs as He has promised. The low emotional state that we too often experience in the face of very real and daunting problems in this world may be due to our inconsistency in learning and focusing upon God’s actual words and then exercising our souls in speaking to God according to faith in His words. No doubt the realization of our sinful unfaithfulness also plays into our failure to have such direct and intense conversations with God. However, there is nothing we can do about sins past except to repent in the believing conviction that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us when we confess. It is not according to faith for us to permit our sins, as ugly and inexcusable as they are, to hinder us in believing God.

Let these words of God through Isaiah saturate your soul and ask the Holy Spirit for fresh measures of faith to take them to your heart :

Isaiah 12:1  And in that day you will say: “O LORD, I will praise You; Though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me. 2 Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’ ” 3  Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation.

Trust Him, your Heavenly Father Who has taken all your sins away. Believe that for Christ’s sake and because He loves you with everlasting love God is ready to act for you. He is your strength. He is your salvation. Make Him your song. Plead your needs with Him in very explicit terms. Expect that He will come to your aid. Continue to call. Do not faint and do grow weary in believing. God has prepared exceedingly good things for those who believe and call through Christ. Wait and see the salvation of the Lord. He is for you and nothing can stand against you. You are called to a supernatural life in Christ. Live that life by believing expectant continuous prayer.

Something of the sweetness and effectiveness of Beddome’s life and ministry may be discerned when we read his words about the nature of true, Christ-centered religion. Here’s that portion of the letter in Beddome’s own words for your encouragement in Christ (original punctuation and spelling preserved):

“Look well then to the foundation upon which you are built, and seriously examine your State God-ward: See that you lay Christ at the bottom of your Religion, as the Support of it; that you place him at the top of it, as its glory; and that you make him the Centre of it, to unite all its Parts, and add Beauty and Vigour to the whole: Remember that Growth in Christianity is Growth in the Knowledge of Christ: Seek that Sorrow, that Peace, that Holiness, that Establishment, which flow from Christ: For (as the great Dr. Owen observes) ‘To take up Mercy, Pardon, and Forgiveness absolutely on the Account of Christ, and then to yield all Obedience in the Strength of Christ, and for the Love of Christ, is the Life of a true Believer.’ As Christ is the Sum and Substance of experimental, so he is the Spring and Source of practical Religion; and the Spiritual Improvement of his Blood by Faith, is as necessary for our Sanctification and Comfort, as the shedding of it was for our Justification and Acceptance with God…

Carefully distinguish between the Means and the End: Bless God for a Gospel Ministry, but do not rest in it: Practice Duties, but do not depend upon them: Attend upon Ordinances, but be not satisfied with them: Let Christ be the Glory of your Religion, and then your Religion will be the Glory of Christ.”

Paul’s testimony and policy in this verse is a strong rebuke to our reluctance to surrender our personal preferences, even for a short while, in order to remove barriers to the Gospel among people different to ourselves.  Whatever Paul’s preferences in life-style choices not prescribed by the Law of God, he voluntarily denied himself those choices in order to conform to the preferences of the perishing souls before him.  If such people refused to hear the Gospel, it would not be because he offended them by the practice of his liberty.

This policy ought to instruct us in our efforts to evangelize our increasingly God-less generation.  The proper application of Paul’s example has proven to be a hot topic for entire congregations in the noble attempt to remove unnecessary hindrances in making disciples of all nations.

My purpose is not to discuss how I think this text ought to be used or should not be used in the out-working of corporate evangelism, except for one dangerous abuse (as I see it).  This abuse has to do with using Paul’s challenge (to become all things to all men) as the basis for conforming ourselves to one segment of American culture in our approach to worship.  “All things to all men” is not the same as becoming “all things” to one particular group of people.  Unless our congregation finds itself utterly surrounded by one distinct class of people (such as 3rd Street in Mebane swiftly becomes a predominately Polish community), we must aim at all the many subsets of people comprising the melting pot that is America.  We are deceiving ourselves if we change in order to reach one particular group yet in undergoing that change we actually alienate other groups.  That is what Paul purposed not to do.  If a congregation made a concerted effort to appeal primarily to the wealthy, most of us would easily recognize the imbalance and inappropriateness of such an effort.  But, what if a congregation deliberately tailors its services to reach white upper-middle class folk—is that in keeping with Paul’s policy, or are we simply pleasing ourselves?  Or, what if a congregation tailors its services to reach 20-30 year olds and thereby ignores the preferences of “baby boomers” which comprise the largest demographic of the American populace?  Is that becoming all things to ALL MEN, or is it becoming all things to just one portion of all those who are perishing?

The danger here is that we use 1Co. 9:22 to be what we really want to be while professing to be making an attempt to reach the unreached.  The target group is the world…at least that portion of the world that is within our reach.

It seems to me that in our cultural mix churches must develop their own unique culture.  That is a culture that is somewhat beyond being labeled, lest we become a stumbling-block to some.  This is a challenge that few of us are willing to tackle.  All things to all men would mean that we do not conform to any specific group; rather, that our styles (dress, music, ethos) are comfortable to all without being preferential toward any.  People who insist that their peculiar preferences be followed are tempting us not to be all things to all men.

Paul’s policy is much more difficult for churches to apply to themselves than we suspect.  We must be honest about our own prejudices, including which group of sinners we would prefer to reach as opposed to all the groups that we ought to reach.

Of course, the temptation is to resolve the issue by arguing that our services are only concerned with God’s worship and that 1Co. 9:22 does not apply.  The problem is that God has not prescribed the particulars of our outward church culture.  We must choose.  Do we choose to please ourselves?  Do we choose to please one specific group of people (the one we most prefer to reach)?  Or, do we seriously attempt to be bland enough to be non-offensive to all men?

In the throes of this upheaval, I was made aware of “Reformed Baptist” churches.  That was so long ago that I am unclear now if that title was self assumed or imposed by others.  At any rate, that is how these churches were known to me.  Many things drew out my interest in these congregations (at the time very few in number).  The obvious seriousness in the worship of God was refreshing.  The preaching was the most impressive feature, being more authentically Bible based than any preaching I had heard (and I was exposed to fairly solid preaching from my youth–preaching which professed to be implicitly biblical).  There were numerous differences to the fundamentalism of my youth.  However, the one thing that drew me above all others was the determination to be wed to the Bible no matter what!  After being trained in an institution which made that claim, it was revolutionary to find serious men who were actually doing that!  The willingness to take a fresh look at every subject or practice in light of biblical exegesis was unlike anything I had ever witnessed.  It was so clearly right.  And, it was so invigorating!  I recall learning in those days that this work must be on-going as long as we remain in this world–we must ever be examining the Scripture and reforming our thoughts and practices accordingly.  We must not settle upon our accomplishments because we do not receive all the light we need at any one time.  There must be a humble and diligent and prayerful study of the Scriptures continually, both to strengthen our correct convictions and to improve in matters where our present understanding may not be completely clear or accurate.  That too was so obviously right!  Here was a work to give oneself to for life–the fresh study and application of God’s Word.

That was almost 40 years ago for me and it is embarrassing to look back and realize how poorly I have adhered to those original principles!  But, I am thankful to God’s grace for a continuing conviction that those principles are right!  The Word of God is alone sufficient to guide us in righteousness; yet, we must be ever in the Scriptures expecting to be established in right things and to be stretched by fresh and deepening understanding of things not so accurately known before.   It is exciting to anticipate improvement and growth in understanding and in practice. Indeed, there is much to learn and many needs for improvement.

It is in this regard that we must confront some “dangerous assumptions”.   There appears to be several assumptions present among  Reformed Baptists that are disturbingly similar to the assumptions of the fundamentalists of my past–associations  that are not in-keeping with the essential principles identified above.  One such assumption appears to be that Reformed Baptist churches attained to a decree of maturity and even perfection in the 1970s.  I am referring now especially to the form of our public meetings.  But, not exclusively that, also included is the thought that we had figured out how to do evangelism sufficiently well that nothing new or innovative should be introduced.  The assumption of an achieved maturity expresses itself by the explicit conviction that any change introduced in the forms or “circumstances’ of our public meetings must necessarily be a decline away from the perfection already achieved.  Now, I have not heard any one actually put it in such crass terms as this.  Hopefully, every one draws back from the idea that perfection or complete maturity has been achieved.  However, is that not the undertone of the immediate suspicion of any change brought into public worship or in the church’s efforts at evangelism–efforts involving bridge building with the unconverted for the sake of the Gospel?  Is not it not implicit that Reformed Baptist churches do not change because they do not need to change and they do not need to change because a measure of perfection has been achieved!

Of course, I am writing this from the perspective of an eldership that believes that change has been and continues to be necessary with us.  We fully agree that change is unsettling and that no change should be undertaken unless the pressure of the Bible makes it necessary and even then it should take place with instruction and care.  No change should be made simply for the sake of change or to bring about greater conformity to the expectations of current thought or culture.  On the other hand, we have concluded that in certain areas our practice has not measured up to the actual teaching of Scripture.  Not surprisingly, from our perspective, we have discovered that there are elements of Biblical teaching that we had not understood or considered with sufficient care.  Thus, after serious study and an effort at the instruction of God’s people, we have endeavored to bring about changes so as to have greater conformity with the actual words of the Bible.  We fully expect that such conviction and change will continue to occur.  It is not our thought that we are now fully mature.  No doubt further alterations will be required as the Word and Spirit of God continue to illuminate our minds.

I have not mentioned the particular changes that we have made, because that is not my concern.  There are dear Brethren who will not agree with those changes. That is understandable.  I will just say that such has been our conviction, again from actual words of Scripture, that for us not to change would have been a form of rebellion.  Nonetheless, the area of concern just now is an attitude which resists all change and would suggest that any and all change is indicative of an erosion of fidelity to the Bible, even a compromise of commitment to Christ.  That is a very dangerous attitude and assumption.  It is a denial of an accepted principle of Reformed Baptist theology, at least as I have understood it, namely that being reformed means ever reforming in conformity to  a maturing understanding of God’s Word.  To dismiss that principle as a conscious operating principle is to cease being genuinely reformed!

Another dangerous assumption is that the Holy Spirit has in some sense ceased giving gifts to the church, or that He has ceased giving illumination and wisdom and utterance as in previous periods of the church’s history.  Again, no one has actually said this (as far as I know); however, it is clearly implied in a stubborn refusal to accept almost anything coming from Christians that are contemporary with ourselves.   The refusal to read anything that is not 100-500 years old or to sing anything that has not been part of accepted church hymnology for 100 years (preferably more) implies that the Holy Spirit is in no sense a part of what has been written in the contemporary church either in terms of theology or exegesis or music for congregational worship.  Surely, we would not reject what we believe to be in some respect the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work in the modern church!  Do we not criticize and lament the scorn heaped upon Whitefield and Spurgeon by their contemporaries…how could those people have been so foolish, we ask?  Thus, given that stance, it must be assumed that the refusal to read contemporary authors or even to  consider singing contemporary hymns reflects the conviction that we are not making the same mistake of Whitefield’s or Spurgeon’s brethren.  Our refusals are based upon a deep-seated persuasion that the Spirit of God is not present in these modern works.

1Corinthians 12:3 creates some difficulty in holding anything approximating this perspective:

1 Corinthians 12:3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

Surely that does not mean that no one can verbalize the words “Jesus is Lord” except through the inner work of the Holy Spirit.  But, it would seem to indicate that speaking those words with heart conviction is reflective of a work of the Spirit in grace.  Therefore, if people are writing true and biblically accurate things about Christ and the Gospel and give every appearance of being genuinely convinced that those things are true, does that not speak of the presence of the Holy Spirit?  Granted no one can read everything that is being written in Jesus’ name and not everything written for congregational singing is worthy.  That is very true.  However, to take the position that if it is contemporary we should not waste our time with it because it is inevitably inferior, would seem very dangerous.  Perhaps the Holy Spirit is still active, even powerfully active.  Perhaps the Holy Spirit is illuminating the minds and hearts of Godly men with  superior insights on important Biblical subjects.  Perhaps there are Godly scholars who while deliberately standing on the shoulders of the Reformers and Puritans, are being brought by the Spirit to a more mature understanding of crucial truth (which I believe is happening).  If that is at least possible, would it not be dangerous to hold a position that only the old stuff is profitable, that everything new is shoddy and carnal and of little profit?  Might that not be an insult to the Holy Spirit?  Might that not deprive ourselves and the people of God of insights that are desperately needed?

I am challenged by Paul’s words to the church in Thessalonica.  I am unable to limit this counsel to the age of the Apostles:

1 Thessalonians 5:19-21  19 Do not quench the Spirit.  20 Do not despise prophecies.  21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.

I take that to mean that we will have things to test until Christ comes and that not all of it will prove to be bad.  Some of it will be good, the gift of the Spirit’s present ministry in the church.  Every preacher wants that to be true of his own preaching each Lord’s Day, why would we deny that it might be true of books and songs as well?

Unquestionably the most important, the most clearly revealed truths, have been formulated in a way that does not admit of change.  We will not discover a nuance of “justification” which will require that we rework our doctrinal statements. Though we may well discover depths of the doctrine that we have not recognized.  On matters less substantially defined, we may come to see that some of the views we have adopted from others, more than from our own prayerful study, are not adequate.  Recently in an on-going exposition of Colossians trying to understand 3:16 and comparing other New Testament passages speaking to the public meetings of the church, I was convicted that in a zeal to uphold the primacy of worship I had neglected to see the bi-directional emphasis of so many such passages.  Worship must be at the fore-front of the gathered church, but not in a way that loses focus on the need for ministry to one another.  That is a strong teaching of the New Testament epistles to which I had not given sufficient emphasis in my preaching.  That represents a change.  This one did not arise from reading anything other than the Scriptures.  Another example, in recent years I have become a stronger Baptist than ever before.  I now am convinced that we  may have conceded too much to the hermeneutical  philosophy of our highly esteemed paedo-baptist friends. Other examples could be given.  The point has to do with matters that are not at the fore of orthodoxy; but are nonetheless crucial to our faith.  Could we possibly need more light?  Could we need to change in certain ways of thinking and acting?

The fact is that the Holy Spirit is working in the church, just as He always has since Pentecost.  There are sermons, prayers, books, and songs being produced through the grace of the Holy Spirit.  It is extremely dangerous to deny that or to attribute to purely naturalistic factors what is in fact a gracious work of God.  These works of the Spirit are recognizable by their conformity to the Word of Christ.  Everything, both old and new, must be tested by the Scriptures.  In the process of such testing much will not pass muster.  However, in that same process, we may increase in knowledge and holiness.  Sanctification is change.  We believe in both personal and corporate sanctification.  Some of that sanctification will come about by the fresh insights of Spirit taught men–men contemporary with ourselves, insights which may sound new and strange but upon careful examination will prove to be accurate, Scriptural and needed.

What makes us resistant to the contemporary?  Perhaps it is fear.  Perhaps it is pride (we might have to admit that we were unwittingly in error in something we have done or said).  Perhaps it is an unwillingness to concede or to have our people think that anyone outside of our immediate circle has anything substantial to contribute to our church life.  Perhaps it is the reluctance to do the testing necessary.  Or, perhaps it really is our conviction that we should (must) never change in any respect because what we have is as close to being completely right as we will ever come.

Let me say again, I have not heard any one say that Reformed Baptists have actually achieved perfection or that the Holy Spirit has been withdrawn.  I am confident that no one would actually say either.  However, there are attitudes which imply both of these things and do so quite strongly.  And, my point is that both of those insinuations reflect very dangerous  assumptions. The purpose of this writing is to affirm the established Reformed perspective that being genuinely reformed will inevitably involve continuing reformation, some of which will be open and public.

I’m not sure where I first heard the expression, “We are all natural-born Pharisees.” But I know that when I heard it, I had to bow my head in humble agreement that it rang true in the way I sometimes related to God, even as a Christian. Sadly, I believe this problem is pervasive among the professed people of God. We know and believe the gospel. But we so easily fall into a pattern of relating to God on the basis of our performance, rather than grace through Christ. When Christians allow the gospel to drift from center in all their dealings with God and others, the effects are manifold, predictable and profound: joy flies away, assurance eludes us, a critical spirit sets in, hard thoughts of God fester, prayer stops, forgiveness of others fails, personal conflict arises. The list could go on.

Because the danger of self-righteousness is so destructive to the souls of men and yet so subtle in its workings, we must be able to identify it in ourselves and others. When we see it in ourselves, we must crucify it again and again at the cross of our only Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. When we see it in others, we must be “preachers of the gospel”, pointing one another again and again to the cross.

Its because this subject is so important and the problem so pervasive that I’m recommending Tim Keller’s book as necessary reading for every Christian. In it, Keller expounds Jesus’ famous parable of the prodigal son in a fresh and insightful way. Fresh is not always good, especially if it means “novel.” But Keller is not being novel. Indeed, he admits to borrowing the idea for the book from a sermon he heard. Rather, he opens the parable with the kind of freshness that causes its familiar truth to hit us with powerful force. The focus of his exposition is the elder brother. With Keller’s help, most of us will see something of ourselves in the elder brother in ways we’ve probably never considered before.

I won’t say anymore. Get the book. Read it. And learn to delight again in the wonder of your relationship with a lavishly loving (prodigal!) heavenly Father secured for you only and entirely through the merits of Another!

Have you heard of the “family-integrated church” (FIC) movement? If you are familiar with classical Christian education resources like Vision Forum, you have probably encountered the influence of this growing movement. Or perhaps you have seen recent ads in World Magazine for an upcoming conference sponsored by the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches (NCFIC). Speakers at this conference include Ken Ham, Paul Washer, Andy Davis (First Baptist, Durham), Vision Forum’s Doug Phillips, and the director of the NCFIC, Scott Brown (a pastor in Wake Forest, NC).

What should we think of the FIC movement? I’m not writing to tell you just what you should think.
And I’m not writing to cast aspersions on the brethren promoting it. From all that I can tell, the leaders of this movement sincerely desire to promote church and family life regulated by the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. Surely that is a good desire.

But because this movement seems to be exerting a growing influence in circles that are familiar to many of our people, I am writing to urge you to think with careful biblical discernment about this movement. As with any so-called “movement” within Christian circles, we must be careful to test all things by the Scriptures, no matter how biblical they may sound or who may be espousing them.

Here are a couple of things we should keep in mind when evaluating the FIC movement:

1) Obviously, faithfulness to the Word of God is of first importance. But faithfulness to the Word means more than just holding a biblical view about a given issue. Biblical fidelity includes holding that view in due proportion to the weight it receives in Scripture and the place assigned to it by Scripture.

“Issue-oriented” movements like FIC often are reactions against some legitimate problem in society or the church at large. Reactionary movements sometimes (often?) overact and become biblically imbalanced. The proverbial pendulum swings too far, if you will. When I read FIC leaders describe age-segregated Sunday School programs as a serious threat to biblical family order and the authority of fathers, I wonder if they are taking their legitimate concern too far and finding enemies where they should be finding friends. Be careful to evaluate the legitimacy of such assertions according to the Scriptures.

2) “Issue-oriented” movements like FIC tend to so emphasize and so closely identify themselves with their one primary issue of concern that they unwittingly displace the one great issue for the Christian and the church- the gospel itself. I’m not saying the proponents of FIC are denying the gospel or even failing to preach and promote the gospel. I’m saying that issue-oriented movements have a tendency to displace the gospel from its place of first importance. Every local expression of the church of Jesus Christ should desire to be known and identified supremely for its commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ, not by its distinctives. Whenever the church raises such issues to the level of first importance, we risk distorting our true identity and undermining our true calling and usefulness. When I read FIC leaders speaking as if America’s greatest need is the restoration of biblical fatherhood, I wonder if such a displacement is occurring. Be careful to evaluate the legitimacy of such assertions in light of the supremacy of the gospel in God’s plan and man’s need.

3) Lastly, “issue-oriented” movements like FIC tend to hold their particular convictions in such a way that almost inevitably promotes disunity within the body of Christ. This especially concerns me on the local level. The concern I have is this: FIC leaders speak and write much of the “truly biblical” way to order the church and family together. We want to be truly biblical in the ordering of our church and families. That’s a good desire. But care is needed.

We get into trouble when our efforts to define “truly biblical” take us beyond the Bible itself. Especially when we feel strongly about truth and the recovery of certain truths, we also need to exercise humble restraint and spiritual wisdom not only to go where the Bible goes but to stop where the Bible stops. We need the grace to acknowledge the difference between clear biblical principles and the cultivation of personal convictions based on those principles.

Numerous problems result from this all too common practice of going beyond the clear teaching of Scripture and making laws where God has not made any. Not the least is the damage it inflicts on the unity of the church. The basis of unity becomes agreement with the specific way those convictions are worked out, rather than like-mindedness on the more broad biblical principles behind those convictions. Seeking to order one’s family by the Word of God is not enough. It must look a certain way, or it is not “truly biblical.” And that’s where the problem lies.

Here’s an example of what I mean: One writer associated with the FIC movement essentially asked the question, “How could you sit under the ministry of a man who sends his kids to the anti-Christian government schools (emphasis mine)?” In the context, he equates a pastor sending his child to public school with the disqualifying sins of gluttony, failure to properly manage the home and marital infidelity. Now, in all honesty, that angers me. Not because I send one of my children to the local public high school. My conscience is clear on that one. It angers me because it draws a dividing line between brethren on an issue not explicitly addressed in the Bible. Here’s the effect in the local church: those who meet and perhaps agree with his definition of “truly biblical” are tempted to judge and even separate themselves and their children from those portrayed as “compromisers”. This may be an extreme example. We shouldn’t judge the whole movement based upon it. But we should be careful to evaluate such assertions according to the more clear and explicit revelation of the Word of God.

So what’s the point of all this? Simply to encourage you to examine the FIC movement by the clear teaching of the Word of God. I would encourage you to begin by reading a recent critique of the FIC movement written by Pastor Sam Waldron entitled “The Relation of Church and Family.” You can find it here: http://reformedbaptistfellowship.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/the-relation-of-church-and-family/. Pastor Waldron goes beyond what I’ve said here and raises important questions regarding some of the theological underpinnings of this movement.

Where we can be helped and challenged to a more biblical perspective by our FIC brethren, let’s be helped and challenged. But let us always strive to keep the gospel the main thing and to hold our convictions in due proportion to the weight and emphasis given to them according to God’s infallible Word.

Striving together with you,

Pastor Andy

However, the concept of perfectionism is not limited to this erroneous doctrine of achieved sanctification.  There is a more subtle and innocuous version.  In its most popular form it appears in something akin to the American dream.  Part of our heritage as Americans is the hope of a better life, an idyllic life ever-after: the beautiful wife (or handsome husband), wonderful children who are only cutely mischievous, the new and perpetually neat house with the perfectly manicured lawn, the dream autos (at least 2), the vacation house at either the coast or mountains or both, the job that pays a huge salary with no possibility of lay-offs, and a favorite football team that rarely loses and always goes to a BCS bowl.  Many of us grew up thinking that something like this was indeed possible.  Some may have thought that we actually deserve such a life.  Within the Christian church, where we are much too sophisticated to believe in Santa Claus, we may have adopted a less obvious perfectionist dream.

I am referring now to the expectation that because the Bible commands certain ideals that all the real Christians in our world will live up to these ideals.  Thus, the Christian husband expects that his Christian wife will always submit to him and will do so joyously (and, will always be beautiful while so doing).  The Christian wife expects that her Christian husband will love her so completely as to never  be thoughtless or selfish.  The Christian parents expect that if they obey Proverbs they will never have a “foolish” son or daughter.  The Christian pastor expects that if he is faithful to the Bible all true Christians will love him and his ministry.  The regenerate church members expect that all other regenerate church members will treat them just as the Apostle Paul directs in his epistles.  Most of all, Christians expect that if they believe, God will never disappoint their expectations.  In much less subtle forms than just expressed, this kind of perfectionism is wounding its millions within Christianity.  Marriages are failing, people are leaving churches and even organized religion, folk are suffering emotional breakdowns and worse–people are giving into anger and lust, all largely due to bitter disillusionment.  Their expectations are failing.  And, ultimately, God is blamed, if only very quietly.  ‘Biblical religion does not work; thus, there is no reason to continue.’  To varying degrees this type of thinking is frighteningly common.

The problem is related to that form of perfectionism which we have supposedly rejected.  We reject the idea or even possibility of entire sanctification; yet, we seem unprepared to live with the alternative.  This is more than a theological truth:  we live in a broken world and we are broken people.  Redemption guarantees that we will be made entirely new and whole.  We are entirely whole in our position before God through the mediation of Christ.  Moreover, Christ is making us inwardly new.  However, that is very much a work in progress.  While we know that, we seem unwilling to live with the reality.  Our spouses will never be what they are supposed to be.  Our marriages will disappoint perfectionist expectations.  Our children will not be perfect, in fact they will never be Christians apart from a work of God’s sovereign grace.  They will not be what we want them to be simply because they are our children or because we try really hard to parent them well.  Our fellow church members will struggle with sin, including sin against us, all the way to glory.  In addition to all this, God is not going to grant all of our expectations because we have unwarranted expectations.  In other words, life will be a struggle all the way to the end.

However, the reality is that God will be everything we need even in this broken world filled with broken dreams.  He will supply us with special grace to cope with the disappointments of failed expectations.  Perfection is not accessible but perfect grace is ours in Christ.  He Himself will never leave us or forsake us; therefore, we may and must be content.  Above all, we have a perfect future–an eternally perfect future.

The question is will we trust Him until we are there?  Will we seek Him tirelessly for grace to be patient with all the struggling souls in our lives (including those living in our houses with us)?  Will we be faithful to trust Christ for grace to perform our responsibilities toward others, even though we may receive little more than hurt in return?  Will we do it for Christ because He is our hope and because He is worthy, not because it makes us immediately happy?  Will we accept the fact that our perfectionist expectations are wrong?

Please understand, nothing said here excuses failure to do what we are commanded to do.  However, the focus is upon the stiff fact that imperfection is an inescapable reality.  Can we accept that and persevere in light of it?  We need grace.  We need Christ.  We need a robust belief in Heaven. And, we need forbearance with others–the same kind of forbearance that we expect toward ourselves when we fail.  Let us pray always and not faint over the weight of pressing after faithfulness in an imperfect and burdensome world.