THE CHURCH AND ITS WORK

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

The following is an extended quote from Studies in Theology, written by James Denney and is from a lecture delivered at the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1894.  This particular lecture is titled, “The Church and The Kingdom of God”.  Denney was a Scot Presbyterian Conservative Scholar in a time when conservatives were becoming scarce in both Britain and the U.S.A.

It is evident that the conservative church of Denney’s day was wrestling with the same problems that are so worrisome for us.  They were worried by the “how to” mentality, the church’s social involvement, the political activity that was to be entered, and the general thought that the church had all the answers.  If the church or the Kingdom of God is held responsible for the perfection of the Social Institutes then it is a depressing failure.  If it is understood as the engine for the calling and building up of the elect then there has always been and will continue to be an overwhelming success to celebrate.

Please read this which I have found so interesting.

“All that is binding on citizens of the Kingdom is binding on members of the Church.  They are to carry the new life into every department of human activity, and by so doing to Christianise all.  In the calling in which Christian men are called they are to abide with God.  Whatever line of business a Christian man works in, he must work in it as a Christian.  If he is an artist, he must be a Christian artist; he must recognize a responsibility to Christ and to the brotherhood in all the use he makes of pen or pencil.  If he is a capitalist, he must be a Christian in the use of his money, and of the power it gives him, remembering what Christ says about the dangers of wealth, and that the soul of the poorest workman he employs is worth more to God than all the money in the world.  If he is a politician—and in a free country every man ought to be one—he will carry Christian conviction, Christian cleanness of hand and of purpose, into his politics, and remember that Christ’s will is supreme over nations as over individual men.  All this, you will say, is commonplace, and so it is; but it is commonplace the disregard of which has brought upon the Church many of her perplexities and dangers.  Take, for instance, those economical questions that arise in disputes between capital and labour.  People cry out fiercely that the Church ought to mediate, that the Church ought to be on the side of the poor and oppressed, and so on.  The Church ought certainly to be on the side of justice and of mercy; but it needs more than sympathy with justice and mercy to decide on the merits of the whole circumstances of the case, and that, it is impossible and unnecessary for the church to have.  It is no part of my business as a Christian man, or even as a Christian minister, and therefore it is no part of the business of the Church, which is the assembly of Christian men, to understand mining, docks, engineering, railways, or any industry, so as to be able to give sentence in cases of dispute.  To do that is the work of Christian men who in God’s providence are called to live the Christian life under the conditions in question; and it should be left for them to do.  When representative Christian ministers—like Cardinal Manning, or the Bishop of Durham—interpose in economic disputes, in their character as ministers, it tends to put the Church in a false position, and though the present distress may excuse it, it is on larger grounds to be regretted.  All life has to be Christianised; but the process is to be accomplished, not by dragging everything under the scrutiny and sentence of the Church as it exists among us, but by sending out into all the departments of life men to live and work there in the Spirit of Christ.  The Church is the home of the Spirit, the nurse and the educator of the Christian life; but her power to leaven society, and to be the salt of the earth, will not be increased if she makes it her policy, in the name of practical preaching to lay down the law about all the details of existence.  Christian ethics is not casuistry, still less is it the doing of other people’s duties for them.  There were things Christ refused to do; there are things that the Church, and the ministers of the Church, should refuse in His name.  We shall speak often of money, if we speak as He spoke; but we shall not divide the inheritance.  We shall not assume that because we are Christians we are experts in economy or in legislation, or in any branch of politics, any more than in science or in art.  We shall believe that the Church which cultivates in all its members the spirit of humanity, the spirit of liberty, justice, generosity, and mercy, will do more for the coming of God’s kingdom than if it plunged into the thick of every conflict, or offered its mediation in every dispute.  The Church does nothing unless it does the deepest things; it does nothing unless it prevails on sinful men to have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and to walk in love even as He loved us.  Let us fix our minds on this as the first and supreme interest, and everything else will come out in its proper place.”

ADAM’S GUILT AND SHAME …Romans 5:12, 18, 19

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Romans 5: 12, 18, 19

¹² Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 

¹⁸ Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 

¹⁹ For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

Adam, my father in all his goodness and greatness—without either necessity or excuse--sinned.  Every Bible student knows and believes this.  But it is at this point that differences begin.  The question is what effect did that sin have upon his posterity.

The Westminster Confession of Faith in chapter 6, paragraph 3 states: They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.

This is truth outlining the result of Adam’s sin.  It points us to the guilt which was punished with death and corruption of nature which is the root of human depravity.

As the believer sees this sin of Adam and understands the results he can understand Ephesians 2:1-3.

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, ² in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, ³ among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

The child of Adam comes into the world dead to anything and everything that matters to God.  He does not know God.  He does not love God.  He does not obey God.  As the writer of Psalm 10:4  states, The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts.

This dead man is all the more lively.  As Ephesians 2:2-3 so plainly states the dead man lives a life of committed depravity.  Into this sucking black hole Paul writes in Ephesians 2:4-5 ⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).

Against the black canvas of guilt and depravity the grace of Christ shines all the more brightly.  And speaking as one who has seen the blackness, I without hesitation say, “I care nothing for anything that contest that grace”.  Grace is the Triune mercy of God seeking out the sinner, saving, keeping, and glorifying him.

Rock of Ages has always been my favorite hymn.  Augustus Toplady is one of my heroes.  With him I lift my voice,

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

IMPUTATION – ROMANS 4:5-8 NKJV

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Romans 4:6-8

⁶ just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
⁸ Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”

Impute:  To charge; to attribute; to set to the account of .  American dictionary of The English Language, Noah Webster 1828

The Bible teaches a threefold imputation.  Adam’s sin is imputed to his lineal posterity, or all those who fall under him as the covenant head of the covenant made with him in the Garden.  The sin of all who are in the Covenant with Christ (the Messianic Covenant) are imputed to Jesus.  The righteousness of Christ (both active and passive) is imputed to all who are in covenant with Him as their Head and Savior.

Once this is said and accepted, the importance of imputation in the Scripture can hardly be overemphasized.  Many theologians and most philosophers find this way of God dealing with man unacceptable.  But a brief investigation will reveal the virtue of God’s way.

1.  The imputation of Adam’s sin.
1. For God to have chosen this method of covenantal association requires us to think of it in the light of His perfections.  As His wisdom is infinite this must be the wisest way for Him to treat us as our God and Creator. 

As He is infinitely just there can be no accusation of injustice against Him.  His justice is so certain that no other way can be considered as plausible for Him.

2. The only way any sane thinking person would want to represent himself is to be ignorant of Adam’s superiority and the favor he had with God as he stood in covenant with God.

His intellect was as perfect as man’s mind can be.  His spiritual perfection was that, without flaw.  He had no taint of evil, and was created holy.  And to encourage him in spiritual perfection he had constant fellowship with God.  There was nothing wanting in Adam to cause him to fail in his covenant responsibility.

How foolish anyone is to want to represent himself before God.  Having only the merest of reflections of Adam’s greatness none can stand for a moment.

O, the mercy and grace of God to give us such a great father and head.  But then that is only a drop in all the oceans compared to Grace given in our Covenant Savior.

Adam was greater but Jesus is infinitely greater.

CONSIDERING MAN – PSALM 8:4

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Psalm 8:4

⁴ What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?

There seems to be three questions that demand an answer when the question of man arises:

1.      What is man’s origin?

2.      What makes him unique in his environment?

3.      What makes him common with his environment?

It is helpful to take these questions in the order in which they are presented above.

First, what is man’s origin?  There are two answers to this.  One is the answer of natural science.  Then there is the answer from Scripture.

The origin of man derives from God.  He is a creature.  God is the creator of all things and therefore the creator of man.  As much as this may appeal to reason, it is by the commitment by faith to the Scripture, an act of faith.

The Scriptures give an account of man’s origin.  This account tells us of God’s creative act.  The Christian believes the Scripture so he believes man is created by God.

Man’s uniqueness is part and parcel of his creation.  There are three facts in his creation that contribute to the separation of man from all the other created forms of life.

First is that his creation is a result of the counsel of God.  Genesis 1:26 gives the distinct sense that there is in the Triune God consideration and the result of that consideration to “make man”.  This personal attention is not found in any other part of creation.  ²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Secondly this consideration results in man being made “in the image of God”.  It does not matter how the debate rages on what is the “image of God”.   It is stated of man as it is not of any other created life.  As man comes forth from the creative hand of the Triune God he is an image bearer of the Trinitarian Divine Being.

Thirdly man’s life is directly from the Divine Being.  Genesis 2:7   And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.  The life that animates man, by which he has his intelligence and eternal soul is a result of the breath of life he received directly from God.

After this has been said, and as Christians there is general agreement, we are confronted with undeniable similarities of man with other creatures.  The differences are those listed above.  From whence comes the similarities?

All of God’s animal creation had been brought forth from the earth.  Genesis 1:24 “Let the earth bring forth” is the repeated formula for God’s created order.  So when in Genesis 2:7 man is formed of “the dust of the ground,” his affinity to his environment is guaranteed.  There is this element which works out to the similarities in the creatures, but it does not rise to the high order of Adam being in the image of God and having the divine breath as his soul.

So it is with wonder the Psalmist exclaims, “What is man?”  The writer of Hebrews considers this Psalm.  And in 2:9 gives us the only sensible conclusion, “But we see Jesus.”  To consider man separately from Jesus is futile and fruitless.

GOD’S HOUSE THOROUGHLY FURNISHED…Bill Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

II Timothy 2:20  

Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. 

Paul’s doctrinal genius is undisputed by all who are familiar with the whole of his writings.  The fact of bad conduct, careless living, and false teaching has a long history among God’s elect people.  This is as old as the people of Israel.  And it is the common concern of the Prophets as well as the Apostles.

From 2:14 to 2:19 Paul reminded them of the fact that there was foolish babbling and false doctrine.  This was to be expected because “in a great house,” diversity which included error was to be expected.  Therefore the fact of it should not discourage those who had to experience it.

The “not only….but also”, continues with us.  However we desire “only vessels of gold and silver”, that will   not be all that we shall have to see and hear.  There is going to be, “wood and clay, some for honorable use, and some for dishonorable use.”

There are three lessons for us in this verse. 

1.  The one who owns the house furnishes it to serve his use.  Different vessels made for different uses have different standards for their construction  But all are built to satisfy the intention of the owner. 

2.  The different construction of the vessels does not mean that they will not serve their purpose.  Pharaoh was raised up for a particular purpose.  Judas was “the son of destruction”.  Their construction was in order to their usefulness. 

3.  When our understanding is most in line with the Scriptures we will see that no matter whether the construction of the vessel was to honor or dishonor “God’s firm foundation stands”.  There is also the unchanging Biblical demand that “everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

As you must expect the purpose of Grace is always a holy expectation.  The seal of God’s foundation is written on both sides.  One is to assure us of the everlasting quality of grace.  The other is a demand for righteousness worked out with fear and trembling.

Please read Romans 6:1-2.

THE INTERNAL CAUSE…Bill Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Mark 7:14-23 ESV

¹⁴ And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 

¹⁵ There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 

¹⁶ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”

¹⁷ And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 

¹⁸ And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 

¹⁹ since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 

²⁰ And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 

²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 

²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 

²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Defile – To make common; hence in a ceremonial way to render unholy, to be polluted, unclean

The conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees was one of sharp disagreement.  In VSS 6, 7 He quotes a statement from Isaiah which is a blatant accusation of hypocrisy.  But this is not the critical issue.  That which is so critical is the issue of sin and the responsibility for its cause.

The critical statements are in 7:14 and 7:20. First, the environment cannot cause sin.  Second, sin issues from the heart, which is the origin of all manners of evil, cf James 1:14-15.  The responsibility for sin is placed squarely on the person committing it.

The foolishness of shifting this to an outside source is revealed in such a silly excuse as to be comical by Aaron in Exodus 32:21-25. Note VS 24.

²¹ And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” 

²² And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 

²³ For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 

²⁴ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

 

We may see this and even smile at it but how often are our excuses no better than Adam’s.  Genesis 3:12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”  We will be so bold as to blame God for our sin if we have no one else.

The Lord Jesus emphatically removes that old subterfuge.  He, with the greatest clarity, puts the issue in the place where it belongs.  All those evils come from within.  Mark 7:23.

It is not as though you cannot be a Christian and be as foolish as Aaron was.  He was a believer when he failed and when he refused his part in his fall.  The problem is that growth stops here.

It is not until you are ready to find the cause of your sin, “from within out of the heart,” that you are able to repent and begin to grow in spiritual knowledge.

It is when each of us recognizes that though others may be the occasion for our sin, they are not the cause of it.  It is the evil that ever resides in our own hearts that is the cause.

In the brutal honesty that is characteristic of him, John states in his first epistle 1:10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 

There may be enough honesty to not deny sin, but not enough truth to take full responsibility for it.  The failure to accept full responsibility, and to “Adamize”, is a failure in honest repentance.  Christian growth is stunted.  In truth God is blamed for the sin and self is justified.  The excuse of the child, “I didn’t do it.  The cookie fell out of the jar and I ate it so it wouldn’t spoil on the floor”, is no worse than the dishonest believer.

Please read Luke 18:13

THE FOX (OOPS! THE WOLF)…Bill Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Acts 20:29 KJV

²⁹ For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

I read recently an article in which the author with some chagrin stated that allowing a particular teacher to practice in a Christian school was “putting the fox in the hen-house to care for the chicks.”  He made at least two mistakes.  First it should come as no surprise that something like this happens.  And secondly, it is not fox that we should expect, but by Paul’s description “ravenous wolves”.

The Savior in Matthew 7:15 gives the warning.  The vicious destructive nature these have in their opposition is described as “ravenous”.  This same word is used in other places to represent “pillage, plundering, robbery, extortion.”  You really can never go wrong following the money trail.

In the New Testament every writer at some point points out this inevitable presence and danger in the church.

Peter, in II Peter 2:1 guarantees the certainty of these destroyers.  The question is, “were there false prophets before?”  Yes, there were.  Read  Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and Nehemiah.  These are replete with the fact of false prophets in the Old Testament church.  Then we must say there are false teachers now.  It is critical that we recognize this and act accordingly.

The facts are that there are churches who by their long standing confession, some a hundred years or more, state their opposition to cardinal Bible truth.  I mean to state plainly, they who deny the Trinity, the Being of Christ, the fact of His atoning sacrifice, sin, the ruin of sin, the bondage of sin, the necessity of the New Birth, and bodily resurrection of Christ are certainly not Christians.  This is to say if that person’s confession is a denial of the fundamentals of Christianity he is not a Christian.  And to bring them in as teachers is to admit “ravenous wolves”.

In our city this last week there was a prayer meeting for all Christian ministers to be held at a confessional Non-Trinitarian church.  This prayer meeting was for orthodox Christian ministers.  The implications of this are indicative of the present condition of the church and the danger it faces.

Please read Titus 1:9 NKJV.