Tag Archives: Church

Social Justice, Guilt and Grace

What is the Mission of the Church?“Doing justice means not showing partiality, not stealing, not swindling, not taking advantage of the weak because they are too uninformed or unconnected to stop you. We dare say that most Christians in America are not guilty of these sorts of injustices, nor should they be made to feel that they are. We are not interested in people feeling bad just to feel bad, or worse, people thinking there is moral high ground in professing most loudly how bad they feel about themselves. If we are guilty of injustice individually or collectively, let us be rebuked in the strongest terms. By the same token, if we are guilty of hoarding our resources and failing to show generosity, then let us repent, receive forgiveness, and change. But when it comes to doing good in our communities and in the world, let’s not turn every possibility into a responsibility and every opportunity into an ought. If we want to see our brothers and sisters do more for the poor and the afflicted, we’ll go farther and be on safer ground if we use grace as our motivating principle instead of guilt.”

- Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert

 

Preachers and Sex Sermons: Then and Now

J. Sidlow Baxter and the Sex Sermon Preachers
I have always enjoyed J. Sidlow Baxter’s (1903 – 1999) material. I regularly still use his classic “Explore the Book”, a complete Bible survey course that is outstanding. It’s still in print and there’s also a Kindle edition.)  His devotional writing style, reverent approach to scripture and keen insights into God’s Word, make him a joy to study. In 1974 he released a book entitled “Rethinking Our Priorities: The Church, It’s Pastor and People.” It covered a wide range of subjects and while much in it was very helpful, it also reflects the values and upbringing associated with a man born in Australia in 1903 and raised in Lancashire, England. Baxter’ like all of was a product of his time. He attended Spurgeon’s Theological College in London and was a pastor in Scotland and England. Even so, some principles and priorities are timeless and deserve to be revisited.

What struck me when I read the following was just how true the statement is that “the more things change, the more things remain the same.”  What many perceive as a problem now, Baxter did then.

Preachers and Sex – From “Rethinking Our Priorities” by J. Sidlow Baxter

“Is it not overdue that some of us should inveigh against the new over-proneness to talk sex from pulpit and platform? Let me here utter a protest against those preachers nowadays who seem to think that in order to appear modernly psychological or bravely attractive they must always bring sex into their public speaking. I, for one, am nauseated by it, and I believe that a long suffering majority of others feel the same way. The jolting over frankness with which some ministers and conference speakers talk about marital relationships and sex experience is disgusting.

 

They tell me that one has to be boldly frank in order to deal with the sex problems of the day. I deny this. Much that goes by the name of frankness is veneered vulgarity. Sometimes the speaker can scarcely disguise his own sickly relish and morbid pleasure in the subject. Far fewer of us are deceived than such speakers think; and when they punctuate their over-intimate comments with jocular sex anecdotes or remarks which evoke a few inane giggles from folk in the congregation who will laugh at anything spicy, we despise them.

 

Let us get a few things straight. If for some acute reason sex  matters simply must be publicly spoken of in some Christian service or conference, it should be done without descriptive detail, with very carefully restrained phrase, and with becoming reticence. That which belongs to private counseling is not for public parade. I have known persons for whom these public expatiations on sex matters have created problems which they never had before. Instead of solving problems the speaker has inflamed them.

 

In these days, when there are so many books written on sex and marriage, including wise and useful publications by Christian ministers, doctors, and psychologists, what need is there for this pulpit and platform lingering with face-reddening intimacy over the sex quarrels, sex-disappointments, sex-fulfillments, or sex-estrangements, and so on, of married couples and others? To me it is like a conducted tour of drains and sewers, and the preacher seems to love being down there.

 

One of the most angering things of all is that the sexual matters descriptively dilated upon could be referred to far more effectively with respectful restraint. People know well enough what we mean, and how we are trying to help, without a lot of smutty elaborating…
Today, we live in a sex-mad society. We should avoid anything in our Christian services and fellowships which adds to the general sex emphasis. We should do everything we can to restore a sense sacredness to the subject of marital relationship. Things which were divinely meant to be private and sacred and referred to only with reverent respect are discussed with blatant freeness, until nearly all the decency and dignity of life is being martyred. Such trends do not engender social purity and happiness; they bring uncleanness and misery.

 

Our churches and Christian meetings should strike a deliberate contrast. Instead of lingering on fleshly, ugly, animalistic aspects of nuptial and sexual relationships, we should keep turning the minds of our people to the higher and purer and holier aspects of love and wedlock and family life. It is in the light of those higher levels of thinking and 0f Scripture teaching that most matrimonial problems find true solution.

 

Perhaps someone still objects: ‘Oh, but the Church should face up to the sex problems of the day.’My reply is threefold. (I) They should not be ‘faced up to’in the brazen way which is common today. (2) They should never be thus ‘faced up to’ in mixed meetings, with males and females, married and single, parents and children, older and younger, all together. ( 3) Any such public ‘facing up’ should be avoided in favor of private counseling.

 

Finally, all such public “facing up” in the objectionable way which I have here denounced is utterly unscriptural. Listen again -to Ephesians 5:3. It says, “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints:’ In other words, there are some things which, in Christian gatherings, instead of being “faced up to,” should be faced away from.

 

It is time we put away this dirty-puddle-stirring from Christian platforms… this irreverent and blushing ‘free speech’ about bodily relationships, on the plea that it’s being helpfully realistic, is a make-believe of sickly minds. It belongs to the garbage dump not the Christian desk.  It is time some ministers had something more elevating to talk about.”

 

(I’ve abbreviated the article. If you’d like to read the rest, click here.)

The Pillar And Ground Of Truth – Octavius Winslow

Octavius Winslow“That you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15

God has been graciously pleased to appoint His church the great conservator of His truth, and His truth the especial medium of sanctification to His church; there is a close and beautiful relation between the two.

The church may be compared to the golden lamp which contains the sacred oil, which, in its turn, feeds the flame of its light and holiness. The church is to guard with a jealous and vigilant eye the purity of the truth, while the truth is to beautify and sanctify the ark which preserves it. Thus there is a close relation, and a reciprocal influence, between the church of Christ and the truth of God.

Every individual believer in Jesus is himself a subject, and therefore a witness, of the truth; he has been quickened, called, renewed, and partially sanctified through the instrumentality of God’s revealed truth: “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth.” “For the truth’s sake which dwells in us.” “You are my witnesses, says the Lord.”

Here is unfolded one of the most solemn and affecting truths touching the character and individual responsibility of a child of God. He is a subject of truth, he is a repository of the truth, and he is a witness for the truth; yes, he is the only living witness to the truth which God has on earth. The world he lives in is a dark, polluted, God-blaspheming, Christ-denying, truth-despising world. The saints who have been called out of it according to His eternal purpose and love, and by His sovereign, distinguishing, and free grace, are the only lights and the only salt in the midst of this moral darkness and corruption.

Here and there a light glimmers, irradiating the gloomy sphere in which it moves; here and there a spot of verdure appears, relieving the arid and barren desolation by which it is surrounded. These are the saints of the Most High, the witnesses of the Divine character, the omnipotent power, and the holy tendency, of God’s blessed truth.

Let the saints of God, then, solemnly weigh this affecting fact, that though the written word and the accompanying Spirit are God’s witnesses in the world, yet they are the only living exemplification of the power of the truth, and, as such, are earnestly exhorted to be “blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” Let them be careful to maintain good works, and so walk in all the holiness of the truth they profess; let them see that by no carelessness of deportment, by no want of integrity, by no worldly conformity, yes, by no inconsistency whatever, they bring a slur upon the holy doctrines they avowedly maintain and love; but let them show that, with the truth in their judgments, they possess grace in the heart, and unspotted holiness in the life.

“How many of you have seen a baptism?” Four hands went up.

Cambodian Believers After Baptism

Click for a better view.

70 people gathered by a lake on the outskirts of Siem Reap for a baptism service. The NEI church plant in the village had been yielding fruit to the glory of God and now 31 new believers were going to be baptized. After a song of praise, the pastor introduced me to speak. I shared with them of our partnership in the gospel from Philippians 1, encouraging them not to rely heavily on the pastor to share the gospel but to recognize their calling to take the gospel to family and friends.

Afterwards, Johnny Buckner addressed the group to explain the significance of baptism. “How many of you have seen a baptism?” he asked. Four hands went up. Four. This was a completely brand new thing for them. As Johnny explained the idea of being buried and raised with Christ, excitement grew. By the time he was finishing, they were cheering! The group joyfully made their way down to the water where the “bowling Cambodian” was waiting in the water to do the honors.  One after another they entered the water and after confessing their faith they went under.  It was a bit funny because they weren’t certain when to come up! Seems they were waiting on the pastor and he was waiting on them. Some folks were under for a bit… like with bubbles breaking the surface.  After they were baptized, they made their way to the shore where Johnny, Robert Yusi and myself laid hands on each of them to impart a blessing. What an incredible honor to be a part of the celebration.

Halo Around the Sun

Click for a better view.

After we finished baptizing and praying for everyone, we began to praise the Lord as we looked up we were surprised to see a perfect rainbow circling the sun. It was just beautiful. Tim Boden reminded us of a passage in Revelation:

And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. - Revelation 4:3 (ESV)

Later I looked in the scripture for another reference and this one said it well:

“Spread out above them was a surface like the sky, glittering like crystal….  Above this surface was something that looked like a throne made of blue lapis lazuli. And on this throne high above was a figure whose appearance resembled a man. From what appeared to be his waist up, he looked like gleaming amber, flickering like a fire. And from his waist down, he looked like a burning flame, shining with splendor. All around him was a glowing halo, like a rainbow shining in the clouds on a rainy day. This is what the glory of the Lord looked like to me. When I saw it, I fell face down on the ground…”  - Ezk. 1:22; 26-28 (NLT)

I’m sure many could explain it as a natural phenomenon but we had no doubt that God was giving us a glorious sign of His pleasure.

Afterwards we all had a marvelous lunch by the lake. There was joy. There was peace. You could cut it with a knife.

 

Some video from the day:

 

Baptism Preaching from Jeff Ling on Vimeo.

Baptism of Khmer Army Officer from Jeff Ling on Vimeo.