The church isn’t a boiler room but neither should it be an ice house. We have the greatest and grandest of all messages, Jesus is the Messiah. He was crucified and he was dead, but he is dead no longer. He lives not “within my heart” but rather he lives objectively, really, historically. He was seen by hundreds, touched, and heard. As Jim Boice used to say, what you use to get them in the door you will have to use to keep them in the door. Let them come to see risen Christ placarded before them in warm and truly evangelical preaching and let them stay to see vestiges of the life-giving power of the risen Lord in the communion of the saints. July 3, 2023 by Chris P
Category: Uncategorized If a Christian was on a mission to study the Bible to retrieve the God-given roles for a Christian marriage, he or she might be surprised to find that roles are generally identified. Largely missing are the prescriptive details – the “how to's.” The ideas of leading, loving, serving as a head, and instructing children are attributed to the role of husbands. Submitting, honoring, respecting, and loving the family through the home are attributed to wives. General encouragement for men to provide for the family and general encouragement for wives to care for their children, administrate the household, and love their husbands are also stated in Scripture. Yet, godly elders are also characterized by their management of the household and keeping their children under control, which underscores the fact that domestic roles within the home or outside the home are not confined to only wives or only husbands (1 Timothy 3). When male and female roles are emphasized, it doesn’t take long for 1 Corinthians 11:3 to be brought up. Some authors and teachers will draw from this text the idea that all women must by nature submit to men. Of course, if it is by nature, then it would be only natural, wouldn’t it? here is a link to a chapter in a book that is helpful for understanding the history of the law/gospel distinction as well as for preaching it.
copy and paste the link and it works. We have a tendency to fall in love with a particular teacher or two and follow them much too closely. We come to trust them and just take their word for things when we ought to investigate further. Dynamic personalities get our attention. Of course as we study Scripture we want to see what others have thought. But we often end up uncritically following them. We are to take everything back to Scripture to see if it is true as Paul commended the Bereans in Acts 17. Evangelicals are known for being gullible. This is not how it should be. We get offered more fullness or a better experience and we are all ears and our minds get shut down. We follow study after study, podcast and sermons and books by the same individuals and before long we get offended whenever anyone questions something about them no matter how significant, or insignificant, the question is. I know many recovering from following these celebrity protestant popes. I know of pastors frustrated when they bring up a simple question and are met with, but so and so said it, it must be true. It is easy for me to read some of my favorite authors and say that sounded good, I need to look into that more and then not have the time to look into it more. It is not wrong to have some favorites, listen to others who have had faithful ministries, listen to a variety of voices and avoid an echo chamber, but do so with your antennae up. Protestants are not supposed to have Popes. Much has been made of celebrity Christians. Some start out well and perhaps pressure from publishers, money, prestige and other attractions start to lead them down a bad path. Their opinion becomes very powerful to the watching Christians. Just because a famous person says a pastor is a heretic does not mean he is. Just because a famous person says someone is orthodox does not mean that he is. You can consider their opinion, but we should not just assume it is true. May we be watchful and vigilant to what we are listening too. One of my favorite pastors once said “All of our heroes have clay feet.” They all make mistakes. This can be difficult. It is hard when a favorite teacher who we learned much from stumbles badly. We however, do not need to make the same mistakes that they do. May we openly ask questions of our Bible studies, may we know the missionaries we support are sound and orthodox. May we not blindly follow authoritarian or dynamic teachers and may our churches not become enthralled too much with any one individual. May we be committed to the local church and to the Scriptures, not to big name personalities. This is nothing new. Corinth struggled with this to (1 Cor 1:10f). May conversations like these become less frequent… After preaching someone comes up and says “but pastor Dr. Mr. so and so famous on the radio says the opposite of what you said.” “I listen to him a lot, he is my favorite.” The pastor responds “Mr. parishioner did you hear the passage we read? Did you hear the exegesis of that?” he responds a bit irritated “Yes, but this other Mr. Big shot speaks at all the big conferences said the opposite as well.” “O.k. sir,” the preacher says patiently “did you hear the passage and the explanation of it? You realize that this is in keeping with the synod of Dort, WCF, Belgic confession, LBC 1689, Heidlberg catechism, 39 articles and other creeds and confessions of the church throughout history as well right?” “Never heard of them” says the parishioner confused, “but Mrs. Famous who preached last week at Mr. Celebrities church said…and who are you” he says angrily “to contradict these Bible teachers?” The preacher leaves frustrated that the man did not hear the sermon and does not understand that what the pastor said is what historic Christianity has always said and the man is angry because his favorite teachers were contradicted. May we return to the creeds and confessions of the church and away from protestant popes. They may be celebrities, but they are not popes and dare I say some of them are not very good for your soul. Here are some questions to help us as we listen to teachers from a Sinclair Ferguson (makes my top ten list of favorites) sermon on Colossians. 1) Who is being exalted? Who is the one that is made big? 2) What is the teacher not saying? This can be a bit harder, but perhaps you have also heard many sermons where everything the pastor said was true, but he never talked about Christ and what he was saying could not be found in the passage that was supposedly being preached. All true things without the one true thing is error. 3) What is the effect of the teaching? Is the teacher puffed up and not the body of Christ built up? 4) Does it enslave me to the person teaching? 5) Does it focus on man-made rules rather than the glory and honor of Jesus? No, I propose the historic creeds and confessions are a much better foundation than a charismatic celebrity, weather famous or the one in your pulpit. The celebrity will die, the confessions live on. Of course there are no paper popes either. Having something written down that can be evaluated that says this is what we believe Scripture teaches eliminates ambiguity and provides something to be accountable to. The historic creeds and Protestant confessions have stood the test of time. If the Bible teacher you look up to doesn’t point you to Christ, maybe you shouldn’t look up to them anymore. AuthorJay Wipf The Law and the Gospel by John Colquhoun is a great resource for understanding the law and the gospel better. Understanding God's law and it's uses and the gospel and how the two are not the same and yet work together is of great benefit to the Christian life.
here is the link to a free book and resources to go along with it A Treatise on the Law and the Gospel (Colquhoun) - Free Edition (heritagebooks.org) Home - The Law and the Gospel Over my years of study, one essential thing I have learned is that the Reformation was a return to patristic roots not only in worship,1 but also in theology. It was not a wholesale repudiation of history; nor did it cast off the medieval and patristic writers who came before. For instance, article 9 of the Belgic Confession states,
We willingly accept the three ecumenical creeds—the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian--as well as what the ancient fathers decided in agreement with them.2 Those who subscribe to the Belgic Confession are confessionally rooted in the Fathers, especially the creeds they produced. But we also accept their writings, which agree with the creeds. Following the footnotes is a great methodology to pursue if you want to understand a theologian and his work. When reading the Reformers, you regularly find them interacting with the church fathers, many of whom were rediscovered in the Renaissance and became the roots of the Reformation. We are only enriched when we, like the Reformers, return ad fontes—when we go back to the sources and interact with the Fathers. As a church planter teaching through the Heidelberg Catechism, I was thrilled to follow the footnotes in Ursinus’ Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism to a short patristic work on the Apostles’ Creed. In this article, we will explore the influential nature of this work on the Heidelberg Catechism. I’ll never forget the first time my wife and I worshiped in a Presbyterian church. I was raised in independent Bible-churches where it was a given that we believed the Bible, but Roman Catholics relied on tradition. We affirmed “no creed but Christ,” which ironically is a creed in is own right—albeit a short creed. I knew of the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, but thought of these as relics of the past, which functioned as an end run around the authority of Scripture. This is why, I suspected, that Roman Catholics recited them. You can imagine how we were taken aback when the Presbyterian faithful recited the Apostles’ Creed with great gusto, including the line which, at the time, I could not bring myself to repeat, “one holy catholic and apostolic church.”
I soon learned that many Protestants still recite these ancient creeds. In fact, these creeds serve an important purpose in many of those churches whose roots are deeply planted in the Reformation, and committed to the full authority of Scripture. The Heidelberg Catechism even utilizes the Apostles’ Creed as a basic summary of those things which every Christian must believe. If you were to ask, “what is it that defines Christianity?” my answer now would be “the definition of Christianity is given us in the Creed.” Question 22 of the Heidelberg Catechism asks, “What, then, is necessary for a Christian to believe?” Answer: “All that is promised us in the Gospel, which the articles of our catholic, undoubted Christian faith teach us in summary.” The articles of our “catholic, undoubted Christian faith” are then unpacked in the following questions and answers (Heidelberg Catechism, Q & A 22-58). This “unpacking” amounts to an exposition of the various doctrines set forth in the Creed by demonstrating their biblical basis. Protestants do not believe that creeds, confessions, and catechisms are infallible–that can only be said of Scripture. But Protestants who utilize these documents do believe that creeds, confessions, and catechisms are authoritative insofar as they accurately summarize the teaching of Scripture, which is their primary purpose. There has been a good deal of debate about whether the Second London Baptist Confession of 1677/1689 (2LCF) is a serviceable confession for Baptist churches. Some have argued it’s far too detailed for a whole congregation to affirm, and they suggest that a shorter confession like the New Hampshire Confession or the Abstract of Principles would work better. They argue that only the most theologically unified congregations could possibly hold to such a robust confession as the Second London Baptist Confession, and that its detail is an obstacle in church planting situations. People have insisted that an encyclopedic confession like the Second London Baptist Confession would prohibit new converts and immature Christians from joining a local church that holds to it. But I would argue that a local church can faithfully hold to a robust confession like the Second London Confession without stumbling into any of the problems mentioned above. I recommend the following manner of subscribing to the Second London Baptist Confession, though I also recognize that some faithful Reformed Baptists will disagree with me on some of these things. 1. Any believer should be allowed to join a local church, provided he does not have a divisive spirit. A local church should be a “Professors Church.” That is, all who have a credible profession of faith are fit candidates for church membership (Rom 10:9-10). Credible profession involves (1) a true articulation of the gospel along with (2) a testimony of sincere faith and repentance of sin, and (3) evidence of a holy life. The Second London Baptist Confession teaches that a credible profession of sound conversion is prerequisite to membership. Chapter 26, paragraph 2 says: “All persons throughout the world, professing the faith of the gospel, and obedience unto God by Christ according unto it, not destroying their own profession by any errors everting the foundation, or unholiness of conversation, are and may be called visible saints; and of such ought all particular congregations to be constituted.” Most historic Baptists have also held that those who give a credible profession of faith should be biblically baptized before they join a local church. Scripture says, “We were all baptized into one body” (1 Cor 12:13). That is my personal view, but it is not a requirement of the Second London Baptist Confession, which leaves the question open. Baptists were divided on whether baptism by immersion upon a person’s credible profession must precede membership at the time the confession was written. But beyond the two universal requirements of (1) a credible profession of faith and (2) biblical baptism (my own position), there may be a great deal of disagreement about many doctrines among the members of a local church, even on the doctrines in their confession. Yet the church can still enjoy great unity in the gospel of Christ. 2. Churches that subscribe to a detailed confession should use a “subscription of unity” among church members. One of the most difficult circumstances a pastor will face is offering counsel in the wake of a death in the church. Death often comes upon a church with little to no warning. I can remember sitting in my study one Tuesday morning as I was engrossed in my sermon preparation when the phone rang. I picked up the receiver and could barely discern the words on the other end of the line through the tears and sobbing, “My sister committed suicide . . .” I immediately recognized who it was and told them, “I will be right over.” I got cleaned up as quickly as I could, jumped in the car, and took off for this person’s house. As soon as I arrived, I was greeted at the door by a congregant who was obviously in emotional shock. As my mind raced through the various things that I could say, I eventually settled on silence.
Just as likely, however, the programs are a response to pressure from the congregation and the community. One of the questions pastors get most often is, “Do you have a program for such and such?” The answer to this is more or less binary: “Why yes we do!” or “Well, no, I’m sorry we don’t.” If the pastor can meet market demand, then he may gain a customer. If he fails to satisfy market demand, the customer will go to the service provider down the street.
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