A.W. Tozer speaking on true oneness in the church . . .
And I don't mean the oneness of course of passivity and compromise. In order to stay one, some churches compromise, and there's a oneness of passivity –– nobody cares much anyway, so they just compromise. That's the beautiful unity of the dead. And I suppose that there isn't anything that is any more united than a cemetery. Everybody out there, no matter whether they are Democrats or Republicans, or whether they were Tories or Conservatives –– well, while they lived –– they all lie there calmly together –– because they're dead.
And when you go into a church where the pastor's careful never to say anything that can be pinned down because he's afraid of hurting somebody who has a good, big pen and a large checkbook, so he's careful to say nothing at all and take no position. And everybody gathers around him, he's dead, and there he gathers a lot of dead people around him, and they call that a church. Not a church at all! Simply an agglomeration of dead men afraid to have an opinion. The beautiful tolerance of the dead.
~ From Tozer's sermon "Unity that Brings Revival" found at http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1017072247584
Please watch R.C. Sproul's message on Justification, The Article on Which the Church Stands or Falls from No Compromise ~ The 2013 Ligonier National Conference.
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As the Roman Catholic Church was choosing a new Pope this past week, I was doing a little reading on Martin Luther and the Reformation, and was reminded of the motto of the Protestant Reformation:
"Post tenebras lux"
"After darkness, light"
I was familiar with the Reformation Wall in Geneva, but I didn't realize that motto is engraved on either side of the four largest statues there:
Theodore Beza (1519 – 1605)
John Calvin (1509 – 1564)
William Farel (1489 – 1565)
John Knox (c.1513 – 1572)
And beside those four figures, there are three others on either side:
William the Silent (1533 – 1584)
Gaspard de Coligny (1519 – 1572)
Frederick William of Brandenburg (1620 – 1688)
Roger Williams (1603 – 1684)
Oliver Cromwell (1599 – 1658)
Stephen Bocskay (1557 – 1607)
As I looked at that picture, I was profoundly humbled to realize that each and every one of us who are longing for and working toward reformation and revival in the Church, though we are little, yet we too are part of the lineage of the great cloud of witnesses on that wall, as well as all the saints throughout all the ages who were commended through their faith (see Hebrews 11-12:2).
* * *
All of us who are Christians are part of that great cloud of witnesses. Though not all of us will be called to formal ministry in the office of a pastor, etc., yet in some sense we are all entrusted with the good deposit of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, and each of us must guard and steward it well, for we will each be held to account one day before our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I know I will stand before the living God and I know that I will need to give an account of every thought I think, as well as every word I speak, and every word I write here, including every idle and every careless thought and word! And every idle and every careless thought and word is going to be burned up for our God is a consuming fire!
Last week I wrote that I am blogging for your progress and joy in faith (Phil. 1:25, ESV). If you are a Christian, I want you to know the highest felicity that comes from knowing God through our Lord Jesus Christ... But you can't even begin to progress in faith or experience joy in faith if your faith is not rightly rooted, i.e. - if you don't understand the work of salvation as God Himself defines it in and through the Scriptures alone –– as being by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone to the glory of God alone.
Given the dearth of Biblical doctrine in this day and age, given the wide-spread idolatry of tolerance, given the great variety of theological backgrounds from which my readers come, and given the lack of pastors who are valiant for truth (even in so-called evangelical churches and denominations), I have to back up and say that I'm also blogging to lift up the God-glorifying, Christ-exalting, life-giving, darkness-shattering, bondage-breaking, joy-enhancing, holiness-inflaming, mission-fueling Biblical doctrines that were unveiled and brought to light during the Protestant Reformation, and which are now once again being cloaked, minimalized, and marginalized, and all but discarded in the name of love and tolerance and unity –- and I regret to say this is happening even in denominations which had been founded on and rooted in the evangelical tradition. More and more churches are NOT true churches at all in the Biblical sense, for they are dead: the devil has come in as an angel of light, and souls have been bewitched and lulled and finally succumbed to that beautiful tolerance of the dead! Their lampstand has been taken!
Paul wrote the book of Colossians in the 50's A.D. to combat wolves in sheep's clothing who were coming in among the flock with a host of false doctrines in order to undermine the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. In his introductory remarks to his lectures on the book of Colossians, John Davenant wrote:
Now, as to the occasion of the writing, we must recollect that the Church of Colosse was founded in purity, and rightly instructed in the mystery of the Gospel by Epaphras, and other faithful Ministers of the Word. But there soon sprang up ministers of Satan, whose great aim was to obscure the Gospel, and trouble the Church. Some of these, as though the simplicity of the Gospel were unworthy the wisdom of man, obtruded philosophical subtleties upon the Colossians; others, as though Christ were not sufficient for salvation, recalled the abrogated ceremonies of the Law. Thus, whilst they attempted to confound Theology with Philosophy, Christ with Moses, they threw that Church into the greatest danger. The devout Minister of Christ could not patiently bear these troublers; he hastens, therefore, to Paul, then a prisoner at Rome; he gives an Epitome of the Evangelical doctrine which he had been preaching; he shews the errors and impostures of the new teachers. Upon that, the Apostle, under the impulse and direction of the Divine Spirit, confirms the doctrine of Epaphras by his own authority, and exhorts the Colossians to persevere constantly in the same, despising the foolish subtleties and absurdities of all heretics.—Such was the occasion of his writing.¹
I read those words yesterday and started to weep –– to weep tears of joy and thanksgiving and relief... These things are written to us as examples! These things are written to me as examples! All the way back at her very beginnings, the New Testament Church was already under attack, just as she is today. Of course, I already knew that, but I needed the reminder once again! The devil has always sought to work the people of God woe! He is the adversary of Jesus Christ, and therefore he is our adversary. He is a hireling who works to steal, kill and destroy! The father of lies is continuing to prowl and scheme to deceive us and to rob God's people of a fuller and higher and deeper knowledge of God and of our inheritance in the saints, of the unsearchable riches of Christ, and of God's great and very precious promises. Satan is attempting to obscure the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, so we aren't able to see and savor Christ's all-surpassing worth and treasure Him as we ought! Every trial and temptation and testing of the Church in the past is to be instructive to us. And know this: if Christian ministers and Christians today in the 21st century don't have that same Spirit-led response to false teachers and false doctrines that Epaphras had, then we are in a sad and miserable state and to be greatly pitied and in grave danger. Having the closed canon of Scripture, but still in the spirit of Epaphras, we must hasten to Paul (along with all the other writers of Scripture), and seek the wisdom of God through the Spirit of God, so we might reform the Church according to the inspired, infallible Word of God!
ecclesia reformata semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei
[the church reformed, always being reformed, according to the word of God]
Many people claim to be seeking reformation in the Church, but our efforts must always be according to the Word of God, not according to our own common sense, nor according to our worldly wisdom, nor according to human expediency. We can have a passion and a zeal –– yet it may not be in accord with Biblical knowledge.
Jeremiah 6:16
Thus says the LORD:
Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls.
But they said, We will not walk in it.
Will we walk in that good way in the 21st century, or will we rely on our own understanding?
Proverbs 14:11-12
The house of the wicked will be destroyed,
but the tent of the upright will flourish.
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
In Daniel 11:32, we read that those who know their God will be strong and stand firm, they will not be corrupted or seduced with flattery.
If you don't know God and His way of salvation as revealed through the Holy Bible, you will be corrupted and seduced with flattery, and you will be "tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Eph. 4:14), and though you may think yourself to be saved, you may end up being eternally lost. The remedy we must return to is found in the following verse:
Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ...
We're to speak the truth in love –– no matter what it may cost us, no matter if it may make us unpopular, no matter what. Remember the reaction Jesus Himself received after our Lord spoke the truth in love:
John 6:66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
Are we willing to go outside the camp with Him bearing His reproach? Are we going to be controlled by the love of Christ and a love for His truth and for His Gospel and for His glory and for His renown and for His Church –– or are we going to be controlled by our love for human affirmation and earthly popularity and accolades? Galatians 1:10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
We can't jettison truth. And we can't say we're loving anyone if we are withholding truth from them. We can't say we are loving anyone if we are shaving truth or sugar-coating truth or compromising truth in any way.
Christianity is made up of a body of truth, including this beautiful and precious doctrine of justification by faith apart from the law, apart from works, given to us by the one true God that shows how He justifies unjust sinners... It is not of our own works, so no one can boast! All our boasting must be in Jesus Christ and the cross, and all our glorying must be in the LORD alone! Nothing in our hands we bring, simply to His cross we cling!
On Calvary, the Just One suffered for sins for the unjust, that whoever believes in Him might be brought to God... that hopeless, helpless, powerless, alienated, and dead sinners like us might be saved from God's just wrath and condemnation, by grace through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, our sins might be covered, our guilt taken away, and Christ's righteousness credited to us, so we might be justified and reconciled to a holy God and have peace with God; made alive in Christ, adopted into the family of God as children of God, so we might call on God the Father as "Abba," and be joint-heirs with Jesus, and stand before the throne of God unashamed, and have boldness and access to the Most Holy Place, and enjoy eternal fellowship with God beginning in the here and now.
Truth is not how we define it in the 21st century, but rather truth is what God Himself says it is in His written Word. (I Peter 1:24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.)
Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
Galatians 2:15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
As we read through the New Testament, we find that this is the very same fight that has been fought since the first century: that battle for the cardinal doctrine of justification by faith, for it is "the main hinge on which religion turns" (Calvin), and "If the article of justification is lost, all Christian doctrine is lost at the same time" (Luther). And I'll add here that if the article of justification is lost, all true and genuine assurance and joy of God is lost at the same time, for on this article your highest felicity and your experience of exceeding Joy hinges!
Justification by faith is for our happiness and our joy –– and for the joy of all the nations (remember that the Biblical word blessed = happy!):
Romans 4:1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
to sprout up before all the nations.
* * *
The first and chief article is this, that Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, "was put to death for our trespasses and raised again for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). He alone is "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).... Inasmuch as this must be believed and cannot be obtained or apprehended by any work, law, or merit, it is clear and 25 certain that such faith alone justifies us, as St. Paul says in Romans 3, "For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law" (Rom. 3:28), and again, "that he [God] himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). Nothing in this article can be given up or compromised, even if heaven and earth and things temporal should be destroyed.... On this article rests all that we teach and practice against the pope, the devil, and the world. Therefore we must be quite certain and have no doubts about it....
~ Martin Luther in the Smalcald Articles
(HT: http://bookofconcord.org/confessionsandgospel.php)
May God help and strengthen me by His grace not to compromise but to stand on this article of justification, for your joy, for my joy, for the joy of all the nations, and for His glory!
Related posts:
Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Information on the Reformation Wall taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation_Wall / CC BY-SA 3.0.
¹ John Davenant, "Colossians (Geneva Series of Commentaries)," (Banner of Truth Trust: Edinburgh, 2005, 2009; reprinted from the English translation by Josiah Allport, 1831), lxxii-lxxii.
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peterculter_cemetery_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1629769.jpg by Alan Findlay / CC BY-SA 3.0 / CC BY-SA 2.0.
Work found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ReformationsdenkmalGenf2.jpg by Picswiss / CC BY-SA 3.0.
Work found at http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/files/2013/03/wolf-in-sheeps-clothing.jpg.
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