Friday, May 3rd, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
“How to Love Your Spouse Scripturally”
(For the general public)

Saturday, May 4th
8:00 – 9:30 am
“Puritan Evangelism”
(For pastors and preachers)

10:00 – 11:30 am
“How to Lead Family Worship”
(For the general public)

6:30 – 8:00 pm
“How to Raise Children and Teens”
(For the general public)

Registration
We are pleased to offer this conference free of charge to all.
There will be an opportunity to give an offering. For information
about local hotel accommodations please call 401-826-3121, or
e-mail psrventura@verizon.net

All meetings will be held at
Grace Community Baptist Church of R.I., in North Providence.
621 Woonasquatucket Ave., North Providence, RI 02911

Dr. Joel R. Beeke is president and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, a pastor of the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, editor of Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books, president of Inheritance Publishers, and vice-president of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society. He has written, co-authored, or edited seventy books (most recently, A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life, Living Zealously, Friends and Lovers: Cultivating Companionship and Intimacy in Marriage, Getting Back Into the Race: The Cure for Backsliding, Parenting by God’s Promises: How to Raise Children in the Covenant of Grace, Living for the Glory of God: An Introduction to Calvinism, Meet the Puritans, Contagious Christian Living, Calvin for Today, Developing a Healthy Prayer Life, and Taking Hold of God), and contributed 2,000 articles to Reformed books, journals, periodicals, and encyclopedias. His Ph.D. is in Reformation and Post-Reformation theology from Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia). He is frequently called upon to lecture at seminaries and to speak at Reformed conferences around the world. He and his wife Mary have been blessed with three children: Calvin, Esther, and Lydia.

Jeremiah prophesies that Christians have the law that God wrote on stone tablets, the Ten Commandments, written on their hearts by the Spirit of God sent by the Son of God (Jer. 31:33; 2 Cor. 3:3). The Spirit of God also causes us to delight in God’s law and obey it (Ezek. 36:27, “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”). The New Testament gives us the way in which the Ten Commandments are to be applied by Christians. Though this seems clear and is, by far, the majority view of the Christian church throughout her history, some disagree. To be fair to those who may disagree, we must admit that some statements of the New Testament make this issue difficult to understand (Rom. 6:14, for example). In light of this, let us consider four typical objections and interact with them.

1.      The Mosaic law in the Old and New Testaments always refers to the entirety of that law, the whole thing, the whole law of the Old Covenant, the law for ancient Israel.

“Since Christians are not under the Mosaic law as a whole, then they cannot be under it in any of its parts,” so goes this objection. “So the law in Jeremiah’s prophecy cannot have anything to do with the Old Covenant and its law.” At first glance, this appears to be a very strong objection, but let us interact with it.

We are not arguing that the law in Jeremiah’s prophecy has anything to do with Christians in their present relationship to the Old Covenant or being under any law in order to obtain either the temporal blessings promised to God’s ancient people in the Land of Promise or worse salvation and eternal life. This is a prophecy of the New Covenant, of a new day for God’s people. What I am arguing is that Jeremiah’s prophecy refers to the basic fundamental law of the New Covenant, which is the same for the Old or Mosaic Covenant. We are not under Moses’ law like the ancient Jews were, but we are creatures created in the image of God, just as they were, with the law re-written on our hearts. We do have duties as Christians that are very much the same as Israel did under the Old Covenant. We are to love God and neighbor, which Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 in Matthew 22:37 and 39. One thing we learn from this is that some laws of the Mosaic Covenant transcend that covenant and can function outside of it. For example, we are to worship the one and only true God of the Bible. This has always been the case. We are to worship the one and only true God of the Bible the way He says to. This has always been the case. We are not to take God’s name in vain. This has always been the case. We must rest for the purpose of public worship and we must work or labor. This has always been the case. We owe respect and obedience to parents and all authority figures in our lives. This has always been the case. We must respect life and not murder others either by taking their lives unlawfully or even by hating them. This has always been the case. We must keep ourselves sexually pure, neither committing adultery in our acts, words, or thoughts. This has always been the case. We must respect the property of others and not steal. This has always been the case. We must tell the truth and not lie. This has always been the case. And we must be content with what we have and not commit idolatry by coveting things and people. This has always been the case. These are the Ten Commandments. As a matter of fact, the Ten Commandments did not become holy and good at Sinai. These things are always right or wrong in light of who we are as creatures made in God’s image. These simply reflect the ethical absolutes woven into the fabric of our being.

Maybe looking at it this way will help. Just as God incorporated the law written on man’s heart at creation (Rom. 2:14-15) into the Old Covenant (Exod. 20:1ff.), He does the same in the New Covenant (Jer. 31:33; 2 Cor. 3:3). This natural law became what it was not at Sinai; it was formally published by God Himself on stone tablets. That same law is incorporated into the New Covenant. This law, then, is not only trans-cultural but trans-covenantal. Since it is coextensive with our status as image bearers, this should not surprise us at all.

2.      If the law in Jeremiah refers to the Ten Commandments, why didn’t God repeat them word-for-word in the New Testament exactly as they come to us in the Old Testament?

“If repeated then binding; if not repeated, not binding,” so goes the argument. Again, this appears to be a sound objection, but is it really? God already revealed the Ten Commandments twice in the Old Testament (Exod. 20 and Deut. 5). He prophesied their presence in the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:33. He confirmed their presence under the New Covenant in 2 Corinthians 3:3 (and elsewhere). The Ten Commandments are either quoted or assumed to be good and right by the New Testament writers in many places. Remember, it is the essence of the Ten Commandments that are binding, not any particular form in which they have been revealed in Scripture.

For example, Paul references the fifth commandment as that which is right for children to obey (Eph. 6:1-3). Do you really need God to repeat, for example, the sixth commandment–“You shall not murder”–in order to believe that murder is sinful? By the way, it is interesting to note that murder was wrong and sinful prior to Sinai–Cain killed his brother Abel, which is recorded in Genesis 4, and John tells us in 1 John 3:11-12 that Cain was of the evil one and an example of someone who did not love. There is no command to love or any prohibition of murder recorded in Scripture prior to Genesis 4. Do you want to argue that love was not expected and murder was not prohibited until we read of an explicit command to love or an explicit prohibition concerning murder? I hope not.

How about the tenth commandment–“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor”? That command, as given here, is not repeated in the New Testament (i.e., word-for-word). It is, however, reduced to its essence–“You shall not covet” (Rom. 7:7; 13:9). God does not have to repeat the Ten Commandments word-for-word for them to be relevant for Christians.

Did you know that the first four commandments are not repeated in the New Testament word-for-word and neither are the ninth and tenth? In light of this, no one in their right mind argues that only the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments carry over into the New Testament and, therefore, are the only ones applicable to Christians. The essence of all ten of the Ten Commandments carries over into the New Testament. This is what we expect from Jeremiah’s prophecy (and elsewhere).

3.      The New Testament says that we are not under law but under grace. We do not have to obey the law of God; we just need to bathe our souls in the grace of God.

This objection is often based on Romans 6:14, which says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” At first glance, this verse may appear to undo much of what has been said above. How should we respond? It is one thing to be under law as a sinner as a means to life (which is impossible to attain since the fall), as a means whereby one obeys to get salvation and eternal life, as a means to get right with God or earn an inheritance; but it is quite another thing to obey because we have received eternal life, because someone else made us right with God, because someone else has earned an inheritance for us. We are bound to obey God’s law, not that we may live, not that we may gain salvation and inherit eternal life, not that we may be right with God, but because we live, because we have received eternal life, because we are heirs of life. We do not obey to life; we obey from life. Being a Christian does not mean we do the right things to get to heaven. It means that we believe the gospel. Christians believe that Christ has done everything necessary to earn heaven and the eternal state of glory for them. Our obedience does not get us to glory; Christ’s does. The basis of our justification and entitlement to glory is what Christ did for us. What we do for Christ is a result of His work. The efficient cause of what we do for Him is that which He does to or in us by His Spirit, a promised blessing for all in the New Covenant. What we do is a reflection of our love for Christ in light of what He has done for us and it is impelled by His Spirit in us forming us into Christ’s image in conjunction with the written word of God. Obeying God as a believer is a result of grace in our lives; it is an effect of God’s grace in us (Eph. 2:8-10). But, it is also a response to the grace of God in us (1 Cor. 15:10). We obey God’s law by grace. Because our souls are soaked by God’s grace, we want to obey God’s law.

4.      This would mean that the fourth commandment carries over into the New Covenant.

Well, my short answer is, “Yes, that is certainly true.” The essential principles of all ten of the Ten Commandments carry over. Time to work and time to stop work for the purpose of special worship are both necessary if we are to please God. But, someone says, “The fourth commandment is not repeated in the New Testament.” Neither is the first commandment (at least not word-for-word) but that does not make having other gods before the true God virtuous or only for Old Covenant Israel. And the second commandment is not repeated (at least not word-for-word) but that does not mean you can make idols and expect that (or any other humanly devised forms of worship) to be acceptable worship to God. And neither is the third commandment (at least not word-for-word) but that does not mean you can take the name of the Lord in vain.

But, someone says again, “In order for the fourth commandment to carry over we would expect the New Testament Christians to meet for worship on the seventh day of the week. In fact, they did not; they met on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day.” Yes, they did. But they met on the first day of the week because of the resurrection of Christ in celebration of redemption won and the inauguration of a new creation. Let’s think through this a bit.

This objection assumes that the application of the Ten Commandments must look the same as it did in the Old Testament era if they are to be obeyed under the New Testament era. Is this, in fact, the case? Must the application of one of the Ten Commandments look the same as it did under the Old Covenant if it is to be applicable under the New Covenant? I think not. For example, the second commandment is still in force but the laws for what constitutes acceptable worship have changed (Heb. 9:1-10). This change is due to the coming of Christ and His work which is the fulfillment to which the ancient elements of worship pointed. We worship the way we do in light of the coming and resurrection of Christ and the revelation explaining the implications of those events recorded in the New Testament. However, idolatry is still a sin (1 Cor. 10:14; Col.3:5; 1 John 5:21). We do not offer animal sacrifices at a physical temple through a Levitical priest, though all believers are priests who offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ (1 Pet. 2:5) in the new house of God, the new temple, the church (1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15). Things have changed due to fulfillment in Christ, but fulfillment does not cancel the moral principle of the law, though it may change its application. In other words, the application of the second commandment looks different than it used to in light of the coming of the Son of Man and His entrance into glory. We worship how we do in light of the coming and resurrection of Christ. It is the same for the application of the fourth commandment. We worship when we do in light of the coming and resurrection of Christ (Heb. 4:9-10; Rev. 1:10[1]) but Sabbath-keeping is still our privilege (Heb. 4:9) and we do not meet on the seventh day of the week, looking back to the original creation and redemption from Egypt or forward to the first coming of Christ. Just as the historical basis for the application of the fourth commandment under the Old Covenant is two-fold–creation (Exod. 20:8-11) and redemption (Deut. 5:12-15), so the historical basis for the application of the fourth commandment under the New Covenant is also two-fold–the resurrection is both the formal inauguration of a new creation and the guarantee of our redemption.

A similar case can be made with the fifth commandment on two levels. The fifth commandment is ours to obey irrespective of our age. However, honoring parents when you are two years old looks different than when you are 50. Also, in Eph. 6:2-3, Paul references the fifth commandment, applying it to children in first-century Asia Minor. However, in its first revelation to us in the Bible, obeying the fifth commandment promised longer life in the Promised Land (cf. Exod. 20:12, “that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you”). The application may change due to various factors, like the inauguration of the New Covenant due to the sufferings and glory of Christ, without cancelling the essence of the commandment.

Just as the application of the second commandment looks different under the New Covenant due to the sufferings and glory of Christ (i.e., the elements of public worship have changed), so the application of the fourth commandment (i.e., the day for public worship has changed). The application of the fourth commandment takes its shape based on redemptive-historical realities connected to Christ’s death and resurrection. The Christian’s Sabbath does not look backward to the original creation or to redemption from Egyptian bondage, and neither does it look forward to the first coming of Christ. It looks back to the inauguration of the New Covenant (i.e., the new creation and much better redemption) and is a foretaste of His second coming and the eternal rest that will be brought to eschatological fulfillment at that time and forever afterward. The Lord’s Day or Christian Sabbath is a present symbol of a better creation and a better redemption which we enjoy in part now, but in full in the state of consummation.

Special Thanks to Richard C. Barcellos – Pastor of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Palmdale, CA for this great article. 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I pray this may bless the brothers and sister much! Might even be great for devotions with older ones.

SDG!
Ligia Ramos

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

Phil.3:8a

Reformed…

The name ‘Reformed’ refers to the distinctive historical and theological roots of these Baptists. There is a body of theological beliefs commonly referred to as the ‘Reformed’ faith. Such great biblical truths as sola fide (justification by faith alone), sola gratia (salvation by God’s grace alone), sola scriptura (the Bible alone is the basis for faith and practice), solus Christus (salvation through Christ alone), and soli Deo gloria (the fact that God alone is to receive glory in the salvation of sinners) are all noted hallmarks of the Protestant and Reformed faith.

Yet, the Reformed faith is perhaps best known for its understanding that God is sovereign in the matter of man’s salvation. This is to say that God has, before the foundation of the world, chosen or elected certain sinners for salvation. He has done so sovereignly and according to His own good pleasure. Additionally, the Reformed faith teaches that, in time, Christ came and accomplished salvation by dying for the sins of those elected by God. Furthermore, the Reformed faith teaches that the Holy Spirit, working in harmony with the decree of the Father and the death of the Son, effectually applies this work of redemption to each of the elect in their personal conversions.  As a result of this emphasis on the sovereignty of God in salvation, the Reformed faith also promulgates the ‘doctrines of grace’: doctrinal truths which set forth the total depravity of man, the unconditional nature of God’s election, the limited or particular nature of Christ’s atonement, the irresistibility of the effectual call and the perseverance and preservation of the saints.

The Reformed faith, however, touches on far more than these foundational truths regarding God’s glory in salvation. It is also concerned with God’s glory in the church, in society, in the family and in the holiness of the believer’s life. The Reformed faith has a high and God-centered view of worship, regulated by the Word of God alone. The Reformed faith embraces a high view of God’s law and of His church. In short, the Reformed faith is no less than a comprehensive world and life view, as well as a distinctive body of doctrine.

Out of this theological understanding came a great stream of confessions and creeds: the Synod of Dort, The Savoy Declaration, The Westminster Confession of Faith and The Heidelberg Catechism. Similarly, this Reformed tradition produced some of the great names of Church history. John Calvin, John Knox, John Bunyan, John Newton, the famous Bible commentator Matthew Henry, the great evangelist George Whitefield, the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards, Adoniram Judson, William Carey, C.H. Spurgeon, A.W. Pink and a host of others all held tenaciously to the Reformed faith. We must underscore that Reformed Baptists do not hold these truths because of blind allegiance to historic creeds. Nor, do Reformed Baptists hold them merely because great men of church history stood in this tradition. Rather, Reformed Baptists hold these truths because Jesus and the apostles so clearly taught them.

The confession of faith embraced by Reformed Baptist churches takes its place among, and is deeply rooted in, these historic Reformed documents. In most places the 1689 Confession is an exact word for word copy of the Westminster and the Savoy.  Consequently, the term ‘Reformed’ Baptist is not a misnomer.  Reformed Baptists stand firmly on the solid ground of the Reformation heritage.

Baptist…

The name ‘Baptist’ summarizes the biblical truths concerning both the subjects and the mode of baptism. To speak of the ‘subjects’ of baptism, we refer to the truth that baptism is for disciples only. Reformed Baptists owe a great debt to the Reformed paedobaptists because their writings have shaped, challenged, warmed, and guided them again and again. Yet, the Bible is not silent about the issue of baptism. The fact that baptism is for disciples only is the clear and indisputable teaching of the Word of God. The subjects of baptism are not to be discovered in Genesis but in the Gospels and in the Epistles. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Covenant which must be understood in the light of New Covenant revelation. There is not one single shred of evidence in the pages of the Old or New Testament to support the notion that the infants of believers are to be baptized. Every biblical command to baptize and every biblical example of baptism, as well as every doctrinal statement regarding the symbolic nature of baptism, proves that it is for disciples only. The Bible is equally clear concerning the mode of baptism. The term ‘mode’ refers to the fact that baptism is properly and biblically administered by immersion in water. The common Greek word for immersion or dipping is the word used in the New Testament. The argument that the word has an occasional historic example meaning ‘to pour’ or ‘to sprinkle’ is surely special pleading. There are perfectly good Greek words which mean ‘to sprinkle’ and ‘to pour.’ Yet, the New Testament employs the word for immersion.

The name Baptist is also meant to convey that only those who are converted and baptized have a right to membership in Christ’s church. This is often referred to as a regenerate church membership. A careful reading of the NT epistles shows that the Apostles assumed that all the members of Christ’s churches were ‘saints,’ ‘faithful brethren,’ and ‘cleansed by Christ.’ Sadly, many Baptist churches today are more concerned with having a ‘decisioned membership’ and a ‘baptized membership’ rather than a regenerate membership. It is the duty of the pastors and people of true churches to ensure, according to the best of their ability, that no unconverted person makes his or her way into the membership of a church.

Reformed Baptist…

Reformed Baptists are distinguished by their conviction regarding the sufficiency and authority of the Word of God. While all true Christians believe in the inspiration and infallibility of the Word of God, all do not believe in the sufficiency of the Bible. All true Christians believe that the Bible was ‘breathed out’ by God and that it is infallible and without error in all of its parts. To deny this is to call God a liar, and hence, to lose your soul. But while all true Christians believe this, all do not seek to regulate the life of the church in every area by the Word of God. There is a common belief, whether it is clearly stated or not, that the Bible is not a sufficient guide to tell you ‘how to do church.’ This is behind much of what we see in the modern church growth movement and it is founded by and large upon a belief that the Bible is silent regarding the nature and purpose of the church. It is for this cause that many feel the freedom to ‘reinvent the church.’ For some reason, many believers seem to argue that God has no principles in His Word concerning the corporate life of his people! In these days, the clarion cry of all Christ-appointed shepherds of sheep needs to be that of the prophet Isaiah: “To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them.”

Reformed Baptists have a conviction that the Bible and the Bible alone defines what a church is. The Bible and the Bible alone defines the offices of the church. The Bible speaks of their number (two offices–elders and deacons), their qualifications and their function. The Bible is a sufficient guide regarding what worship is and how it is to be given, as well as who can be a church-member and what is required of those members. The Bible is also sufficient to instruct about what the church ought to do, how to cooperate with other churches, how to send out missionaries, train men for the ministry and a host of other things related to God’s will for His people.

Reformed Baptists are distinguished by an unshakable conviction that the church exists for the glory of God. Because the church exists for the glory of God, the worship of God and the Word of God are central to its life. The church is God’s house and not man’s. It is the place where He meets with His people in a special way. However, this does not mean that it is to be a dull, grim, unfeeling, insensitive place. The place where God dwells is the most glorious place on earth to the saint and it is an oasis to the thirsty soul of a sinner seeking the grace of God. However, the place of God’s dwelling is also solemn and holy. “How awesome is this place, it is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven,” was Jacob’s exclamation in Genesis 28. It is this conviction that explains the reverence and seriousness of the Reformed Baptist worship of God.

Reformed Baptists are distinguished by their conviction that the local church is central to the purposes of God on the earth. The present time is the time of parachurch organizations. It is the time of independently-minded Christians who float from place to place without ever committing themselves to the church. This attitude is not only spiritually dangerous, but it is thoroughly contrary to the revealed mind of God. While many have rightly diagnosed the failure of the church to do its mission, the answer is not to abandon the church, but rather to seek its reformation and its biblical restoration. The church alone is the special dwelling place of God upon the earth. The great commission of the church is fulfilled as preachers of the gospel are sent out by local churches to plant new churches by means of conversion, baptism, and discipleship. Many well-meaning organizations are seeking to take upon themselves the task that the living God entrusted to His church. To whom has God entrusted the missionary mandate? To whom did God give instructions for the discipleship and encouragement and shaping of believers? To whom did God entrust the equipping of the saints and the training of men to lead the next generation? If the all-sufficient Bible answers that all these are the responsibilities of the local church, we are not free to ignore it in light of the status quo.

Reformed Baptists are distinguished by their conviction that preaching is foundational to the life of the church. How is God most often pleased to save sinners? How is God most often pleased to exhort, challenge, and build up his saints? How is Christ most powerfully displayed to the mind and heart? It is through the preaching of the Word of God! Therefore, Reformed Baptists reject the trends of the day toward shallow teaching, cancelled preaching services, the giving of the services of worship over to testimonies, movies, drama, dance, or singing. The Word of God is to be central in the worship of God. Paul warned of the day that would come when professed churchmen would no longer tolerate sound doctrine. He stated that according to their own desires they would heap up for themselves teachers who would tickle their itching ears. The apostolic command thundered forth to Timothy, that in the midst of such mindless drivel he should ‘Preach the Word!’

Reformed Baptists are distinguished by the conviction that salvation radically alters the life of the convert. It is tragic that such a thing needs to be mentioned. Today is the day of decisionism. The idea is that one prays a certain formula prayer and is therefore declared to be saved. It matters not whether one breaks with sin or pursues holiness. One can live like hell and go to heaven! What a bargain! Many popular Bible teachers claim this as a great defense of the grace of God. This is a “turning of the grace of God into licentiousness.” When Paul describes the conversion of the Ephesians he uses the greatest antonyms in the human language: “you were darkness but now you are light in the Lord.” And in 2 Corinthians 6:14 Paul asks the rhetorical question: “What fellowship has light with darkness?” Jesus is a great Savior. He does not leave His people in their lifeless condition. Jesus came to save His people from their sins. If anyone is in Christ he is a new creature. Jesus came to make a people zealous for good works. It is an unbiblical notion that a man can embrace Christ as Savior and reject His Lordship. The word of God nowhere teaches that Christ can be divided. If one has Christ at all, one has received a whole Christ–Prophet, Priest, and King.

Reformed Baptists have a conviction that the Law of God (as expressed in the Ten Commandments) is regulative in the life of the New Covenant believer. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:19 that, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, keeping the commandments of God is what matters.” The present age is an antinomian (lawless) age of Christianity, which makes no demands on its ‘converts,’ but God’s way of holiness has not changed. The law written on the heart in creation (Romans 2:14, 15) is the same law codified in the Ten Commandments on Sinai and the same law written on the hearts of those who enter into the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:33 and 2 Corinthians 3:3). The Apostle John wrote “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Jesus told His disciples that the way in which they would demonstrate that they truly loved Him was by obeying His commandments. Jesus said in Matthew 7 that many professing Christians will find themselves cast out on the last day because they were “practicers of lawlessness” who did not do the Father’s will. Among the laws of God none is so hated as the thought that God requires believers to give of their time to worship him and to turn from worldly pursuits. In recent years many have leveled an unrelenting attack upon the Fourth Commandment. The Presbyterian pastor and Bible commentator Albert Barnes once wrote,

“There is a state of things in this land that is tending to obliterate the Sabbath altogether. The Sabbath has more enemies in this land than all the other institutions of religion put together. At the same time it is more difficult to meet the enemy here than anywhere else: for we come into conflict not with argument but with interest and pleasure and the love of indulgence and of gain.”

John Bunyan wrote, “A man shall show his heart and life, what they are, more by one Lord’s Day than by all the days of the week besides. To delight ourselves in God’s service upon His Holy Day gives a better proof of a sanctified nature than to grudge at the coming of such days.”

Modern man is so addicted to his pleasures, his games and his entertainment that the thought that he must give them up for twenty-four hours to worship and to delight in God is seen as legalistic bondage. It is a particular grief to see those who profess to love Jesus Christ shrink from turning from their own pleasures. To God’s people, who love His law and meditate upon it to the delight of their blood-bought souls, such a commandment is not bondage, but a precious gift.

Reformed Baptists are distinguished by a conviction regarding male leadership in the church. This age has witnessed the feminization of Christianity. God created two sexes and gave to each a different corresponding role. While the sexes are equal in Creation, the Fall and Redemption, God has nonetheless sovereignly ordained that leadership in the home, the state and the church is to be male. Those whose minds have been unduly influenced by this generation find Reformed Baptist worship, leadership and family structure to be jarring. When the Bible speaks of husbands and fathers leading the home it is not culturally conditioned. When the Bible speaks of men leading in prayer, teaching, preaching and serving as elders and deacons, Christians must bow with submissive and dutiful hearts. Culture must not carry the day in the church of Jesus Christ!

Reformed Baptists are distinguished by a conviction regarding the serious nature of church membership. Reformed Baptists take seriously the admonition of Hebrews 10:24, 25 to “stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” Reformed Baptists take seriously the duties and responsibilities of church membership. In other words, membership actually means something in Reformed Baptist churches. There ought not to be a great disparity between Sunday morning and evening attendance. The same membership is expected to be at all the services of the church. It is impossible for one to share in the life of the church in the manner which God intended and yet be willingly absent from its public gatherings. Few churches would make such a demand, but biblical churchmanship presupposes such a commitment to God, the pastors and to the brothers and sisters.

Adapted from a sermon by Jim Savastio, Pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of     Louisville, KY.    Edited by Francisco Orozco.

From Reformation Heritage Books: A Portrait of Paul: Identifying a True Minister of Christ, by Rob Ventura and Jeremy Walker  Click here for a summary and review on the book

Reformation Heritage Books

For more information and quotes about Pastor Ventura’s new book, please go to Endorsements.

A Portrait of Paul now translated in Korean

Increasingly, we hear the charge that the church has lost its way in terms of the missionary call of the Bible. Many think the church has curved in on itself, trying to maintain the status-quo. The mandate to reach the lost for Christ seems far removed from what churches are doing. Even churches that heavily support missions seem to divert their resources to other countries as opposed to areas close to home.

Rather than becoming defensive, let us take such a reproof in the spirit of meekness. It would be better for us to humble ourselves and look in the mirror of God’s Word. The church indeed has lost its way on many fronts, and only in returning to the Lord will things truly change for the better.

Changing Contexts:

When discussing the church’s lack of outreach, people often raise the matter of a changing culture. In fact, a relatively new word has made itself into Christendom: “contextualization.” When it is used, it usually means something like “translating concepts into different contexts or cultures.”¹ Seminaries started using the term a few decades ago, as did mission boards. Now it is heavily in vogue for Christians all around us to use it. Ministers might hear the following: “Pastor, you need to contextualize your message to today’s culture.”

Even though they didn’t use this term, our spiritual forebears understood at some level that everyone is a child of his time and culture. Many saw incredible cultural shifts through the world wars of the twentieth century. Moreover, those who immigrated to a North American context would not help but note that the culture they left behind was different from the culture they were entering. Of course, many tried to retain parts of the culture they were used to. People were at different stages in that process, and churches often reflected the position of the majority of their members. The American churches came from an earlier wave of immigration, the Ontario churches came from a later wave, and the Western churches from yet a later wave.

Culture:

The word “culture” is another fairly recent term, appearing first in the nineteenth century. Nowadays, people would define culture as a set of codes of conduct (usually unspoken) that enable people to relate to each other, make sense of shared experiences, and navigate through challenges and difficulties. The term comes from a Latin word that means “to cultivate. “ As people cultivate themselves and cultivate relationships with each other, a “culture” develops.

In some cultures, you look people in the eye when you speak with them. In other cultures, that would be offensive and rude. In some cultures, people are quickly on a first-name basis. In other cultures, that would be unimaginable. In some cultures, you decline an invitation a few times before you accept it. And so on. We are all used to various cultures and we move within these different cultures without much difficulty.² There’s the culture at the doctor’s office; another culture at the company we work for; and yet another at the border crossing. There are certain things that would be acceptable in one place that would be considered a problem in another context.

Awareness:

I believe there are some dangers with a heavy emphasis on context and culture. And yet, there are some benefits as well. Very basically, it helps us be aware of what messages we are sending that we might not realize we are sending. And this is important for the following three reasons:

1.        It belongs to our duty to examine ourselves. In self examination, we seek to bring our actions, words, thought, and emotions under the scrutiny of God’s Word. We seek to uncover our motives, our aims. And though we seldom analyze how we relate to and project our “culture” in various situations, there is certainly no reason why we shouldn’t. Just as we should examine whether we are using our tongues in the most God-honoring way, so it is important to examine whether we are conducting ourselves in the most God-honoring way in all circumstances.

2.        It may help us see where we are mixing God’s commands with our traditions or desires. Scripture frequently warns us not to treat our traditions with the weight that the Word of God alone can have (Mark 7:13; Col. 2:8). This does not make all traditions necessarily wrong; there are many good ones. But we should take care not to confuse mere tradition with the Word of God.

3.        It may help us identify some of the unnecessary obstacles in bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth. The natural heart of man, of course is the real obstacle to faith in Christ. By nature, man cannot and will not surrender to the claims of a sovereign God, or come into subjection to the grace of God. All the contexualizing in the world will not take away this fundamental, spiritual problem. Nevertheless, there may also be obstacles that we are putting in the way, perhaps without even realizing it. For instance, if we give the impression, even without realizing it, that people first need to look and dress and talk like us before they can become Christians, we have cast a stumbling block before them.

The Reformers did not use the word “contextualization,” but they frequently use the Greek word adiaphora. This refers to things that could be considered indifferent; you could go one way or another without violating biblical commands. Of course, we need to be careful; sometimes people have widened the definition of indifferent matters to include things Scripture clearly does address. In addition, churches have mutually agreed to adhere to common policies that may go beyond the Scriptures, so we should not break our agreement without first ensuring that we may do so. All in all, however, we must be more attuned to what cultural choices we are already making and why.

Beware:

If, however, by contextualization we mean (what is being commonly argued today) that we can “separate” the timeless truths of Scripture out of their culture and simply translate these truths into our own – provided we know our own well enough – we have sadly left the track of Scripture. The Bible cannot be handled with a knife that cuts out this and chips away at that with the excuse that these things are cultural. Note the following necessary cautions:

1.        Beware of the baggage of contextualization. This term comes with rationalistic baggage from recent philosophies.³ I cannot go into it in this short article, but the philosophy of existentialism and neo-orthodox theology brought us the term of contextualization, and there are huge problems with both of these movements.’

2.        Beware of captivity to our present culture. Reaching our culture is not as simple as “translating timeless truths through timely trends,” as it is often said. Our society has shed many traditional values, many of which are derived at least in part from the Bible or Christian foundations. Thus there are cultural pressures that absolutely must be resisted. In a way, this is nothing peculiar to our age. Our grandparents faced the pressure to join Masonic lodges and unions. Now there is the pressure to be “politically correct” so as not to offend anyone, regardless of right or wrong. There is the pressure to abandon the biblical definition of marriage; the pressure to work on the Sabbath; the pressure to be tolerant of all views and behaviors. These are pressures that come with our contemporary culture and these must be resisted.

3.        We need to beware of removing the offense of the gospel. John McArthur once heavily criticized the emphasis on contextualization: “I function under a divine mandate, not under a cultural one.”⁴ This is indeed an important point. Dealing with issues of context has a place as a preliminary matter, but it can never become a major, and certainly not the main, preoccupation of the church. Attention to culture will never remove the offense of the gospel – of a sovereign God saving people lost in sins and trespasses and unable and unwilling to submit to the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Mark Dever, senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C., put it this way: “In fact, one test you can use very practical[ly]… is to ask if [you have] made the offense of the Gospel clearer.”⁵

A Biblical Culture:

Our failure to reach people around us should not make us open the flood-gates to our current culture. The culture we need is that of the Holy Spirit as set forth in the Scriptures. We need His cultivating work upon our hearts and lives. This spiritual cultivation will bring into being a culture that will both bridge many human cultures and be at odds with any culture.

Having rebelled against God, the human heart loves enslavement to anything besides God and His law, especially if the person can still believe himself to be free. Thus it is no surprise that the church would enslave itself again and again. For this reason, the Christian church needs to be reformed (reformata) and always reforming (semper reformanda). We need continuing reformation.

To that end, the Holy Spirit uses the preaching of the gospel. By means of His Word, the Holy Spirit exposes our idols and our captivity. He exposes how short we fall from what we have been created and called to be. But He also leads into the truth of Christ and His finished work. Through the preaching of the Word, the Spirit remakes sinful men, women, and children after the image of Christ. He brings us under subjection to the commandments of God and calls us to be prophets, priests, and kings in this world.

Have you ever experienced a greater closeness to Christians from other cultures than to non-Christians from your own culture? I remember a couple telling me about being guests at the home of Christians in Eastern Europe, who knew no English. An interpreter who was scheduled to be with they could not be present, and as a result they could not converse together. Yet together they experienced an extraordinary sense of fellowship over a loving meal and over singing of hymns filled with the name “Jesus.” These things bridged the great cultural distance. How true it is that the Holy Spirit cultivates the hearts of Christians to create a new culture – a radiant culture of tender love.

A Culture of the Holy Spirit:

Allow me to highlight five aspects of this culture of the Holy Spirit. It will be:

1.        A Culture of God-centeredness.⁶ The Spirit directs His people into the love of God and the patient waiting for Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 3:5). A community that thus centers on the Triune God will be a great antidote against captivity to any human culture.

2.        A Culture of Truth. The Spirit guides His people into all truth (John 16:13). They cherish the scrutiny of God’s Word and the guidance it affords through the twists and turns of our world. The Spirit will cultivate His people to be single-minded witnesses to the free grace of God in Christ.

3.        A Culture of Repentance. As the Spirit applies the truth of God’s Word, the church will become a place of continuing repentance (Rev. 2:5, 7a). Thus we will not place ourselves above others and alienate them needlessly through pride and self-righteousness.

4.        A Culture of Prayer. The Spirit is called the Spirit of grace and supplications (Zech. 12:10). He will bring His people to fervent prayer. Then we will not be complacent and content with the status quo, but seek God’s glory in the conversion of sinners.

5.        A Culture of Mercy. The Spirit cultivates the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), which includes mercy and love. When God pours out His love in our hearts, we will be melted with the plight of the lost among us and around us. We will not hide behind rules and regulations, but reach our lost neighbor out of the mercy God has shown to us.

We could mention more things. It will be a culture of covenant and discipleship; of witness and care; of singleness of heart and meekness. It will be a culture of sacrifice and service. It will be a culture of heat and light.

No, it will not be a perfect culture.⁷ It will not be heaven on earth. Even the best saints have only a beginning of the new obedience. There is strife and coldness among God’s people. there is indifference to the condition of the lost around us. But, as Spurgeon would say to himself, every time he climbed the pulpit: “I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit.” As the Holy Spirit cultivates the garden of His church, something comes about that God is not ashamed to call “His habitation” (Eph. 2:22), and people will be added to the Lord (Acts 11:24). This is the culture we need.

We’ve all heard a lot in recent years about the great obstacles that faces us in reaching our generation.  We are seeking to reach a generation raised in a post-modern setting, where the old values and ideas are no longer meaningful.  We simply can’t present things as we once did or assume certain common ground as before.  This new generation is suspicious of religion, has no appreciation for authority, has an evolutionary bias, and is biblically illiterate.   Different remedies are being suggested to reach this generation.  We must become post-modern in our approach, some say.  Others say that we must engage the culture by becoming more relevant and in touch.  We must watch the movies and the televisions programs; we must seek common ground through music, etc.  Others have said that we must transform the way that church is to be done.  Though I am exaggerating in what I say here, you could get the impression that the biggest stumbling block to the gospel is a tie, a piano, and hymnbook.
But you see the problem is much worse than that.  The problem cannot be solved by drinking more beer, watching more R-rated movies, spending hours before perverse television programs, opening our collars, untucking our shirts, piercing our ears, getting “ink”,  playing electric guitars, and beating drums.  The obstacles cannot be overcome by turning the worship of God into a night club and using dirty language to tell Bible stories.  You see, the problem is far worse than post-modernism.  The problem is not with my neighbor’s liberal education or entertainment. The problem is with his soul.  You see my neighbor is dead in sins and trespasses.  He is at enmity with God.  He is not subject to the law of God and in fact, cannot be!  No matter how I seek to present the gospel (clearly, persuasively, passionately, and lovingly); it is either foolishness to him or a stumbling block.  If he is dead, a newer tune, power-point, and showing clips from Shrek isn’t’ going to cut it.

We need to remember that the gospel has come to other cultures were the outer obstacles were surely as great if not greater.  What if our neighbors were not simply the university educated, Oprahized,  porn-addicted, post-modern hedonist…but let’s say the citizen of a city that was built around the worship of a goddess, or the center of  immorality, let’s say that he was a homosexual who ate things sacrificed to idols and partied with male Temple prostitutes?  What if they knew nothing of the Bible and had never heard the name of Jesus?  What could possibly reach such?  Or let’s say that they were the product of years of apostasy from true religion given over to cold legalism and self-righteousness?  Sounds pretty hopeless, doesn’t it?  Sounds like we’ve got a lot to overcome!  But it was into just such environments that the gospel came with power.  Thriving congregations were left in Ephesus and Corinth and Jerusalem .

The old ideas of preaching the gospel, with the solid foundation of holy living (pursued in the fear of God), Christ-like love in our churches, and benevolent mercy to the lost, may seem lame and old fashioned in light of the many new ideas promoted today.  Nevertheless, God has used plain gospel preaching in the past, empowered by the Word and the Spirit to reach the lost, and I am confident that He will bless it in the future.

Pastor James Savastio

We in the New Covenant participate in a great Exodus.  Christ, our Passover Lamb, has delivered us from Satan’s dominion.  We are now aliens, sojourners in this wilderness, en route to our Promised Rest in the consummated Kingdom.  In this wilderness we, as ancient Israel, are called to warfare.  In this wilderness, we are also called to uphold the worship of God.  If we are to be successful in waging war, and if we are to uphold God’s worship, it is absolutely essential that God Himself be with us.  Exodus 33:14-16 And [the Lord] said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.”  Then [Moses] said to Him, “If Thy presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.  For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Thy sight, I and Thy people? Is it not by Thy going with us, so that we, I and Thy people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?”  Our identity and security in this wilderness journey is that God dwells among His people.  The rest of Exodus concerns the construction of the tabernacle.  The book ends with the glory of God’s presence filling the tent (Ex 40:34-38).  In Leviticus the sacrificial system is regulated – why?  The sacrificial system provided the atonement necessary for the holy Lord to dwell among sinners and not consume them in His holiness.  God gives His people the provision of atonement, and they, relying upon that provision, make priority of worship.  The priority for a wilderness people is worship: experiencing the presence of the living God.

When Jesus commissioned His church to wage war by making disciples, baptizing them and forming them into local churches to be taught obedience to His commands, He also gave this imperative: Lo! I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Mt 28:20).  Lo is a command given to individuals.  Pay attention to this.  See this.  Experience this.  I am with you (plural): the church.  Let each Christian see and experience this: the presence of the living Christ dwelling in the midst of His people.  Our priority during our wilderness journey is to worship the Lord who walks in the midst of His lamp stands, who builds His temple for His dwelling out of living stones: regenerated believers.

Here is why we are adamant about committed churchmanship.  “Lo!  God is here: let us adore, and own how dreadful is this place; let all within us feel HIS pow’r, and humbly bow before HIS face.” (Gerhard Tersteegen: Trinity Hymnal #308)

Why do we embrace the Lord’s Day as the Christian Sabbath?  Because the essence of Sabbath blessing is living with God.  From creation, through the Old Covenant, into the Incarnation of the Lord of the Sabbath, through the New Covenant first day taste of resurrection life, on into eternal Sabbath Rest, the essence of Sabbath blessing is to know the presence of God Himself.  The sanctity of the Lord’s Day is the presence of the Lord of the Sabbath who dwells in the midst of His gathered people.  Lo! I am with you.

Why do we adhere to what we call “The Regulative Principle?”  Because God is here!  We bring no strange fire before Him.  We do not behave before Him as the nations behave toward their idols and gods.  We approach Him who says Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it (Dt 12:32).  As Ligon Duncan says in Give Praise to God, we “Read the Bible, preach the Bible, pray the Bible, sing the Bible, and see the Bible.”

Why our emphasis on exegetical, expository preaching?  Because in God’s presence, we would focus on God’s words and hear the voice of our Shepherd.  We would not gather in His name and then give our ears to the words of politicians, entertainers, or listen to ourselves.  Now then, we are all here present before God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord (Acts 10:33).

Why our emphasis on corporate prayer?  My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations (Mk 11:17).  We are His house and He has the right to determine what His house will pursue: prayer for all the nations.

Why our concern for the ordinance of baptism?  Because baptism depicts our union with Christ.  It announces that we are dead to sin in Christ, and alive to righteousness in Christ.  It makes us transparent to Christ, embedding us into Christ’s death and resurrection.  It marks the initiation of our discipleship and transitions us out of the world into union with Christ’s Body the Church where we demonstrate our discipleship to Christ by loving other disciples in obedience to Christ.

Why our concern for the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper?  Because during the Supper we commune with Christ.  I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me (Rev 3:20).  The word dine is the word supper in 1 Cor 11:20 where Paul urges us to eat the Lord’s Supper.  We remember His past work as our Passover Lamb.  We fellowship with Him as our living exalted Lamb.  We have a foretaste of the Marriage Supper (Rev 19:9 – same term) of the Lamb.  Lo!  I am with you.

Why our concern for fellowship, for purity of speech, and for the one-anothers” of biblical body-life?  Why our concern for distinctive gender roles, for disciplined family life?  Why do we endeavor to cultivate a climate of order and reverence in corporate worship? Because we are a holy temple in the Lord, a dwelling of God in the Spirit (Eph 2:21,23) and we would not quench nor grieve away the Spirit from His own house!  We’re to look and behave in such a way that if an unconverted or untaught man comes among us, he will recognize something of the God who created him reflected in the beauty and orderliness of our worship.  We’re to proclaim the words of God so that he will experience God addressing the secrets of his heart.  He will be impressed, not so much by us or by the preacher, but by God: he will fall on his face and declare God is certainly among you! (1 Cor 14:25)

In this wilderness, we need to be a worshipping people.  We desperately need God to dwell among us in power.  We need to experience His presence which will delight our souls and transform us into Christlikeness.  As we experience Him dwelling among us, we will then be victorious in spiritual warfare.  We will witness of Him.  Our witness is determined by our worship.  If we would be effective in witness, we must know what it is to live with God – the God who dwells in our midst.  Look who’s here!  Lo!  I am with you.

I was asked to write to you about why I go to a Reformed Baptist church. The answer is simple: my church does what I need a church to do. Since you are probably told much about what your congregates need, I thought I might take the time to give you some inside information. Here are five things I as a lay congregate need church to do for me, and five things I can do without.

5 Things I Need Church to Do:

1. Preach the Gospel

I need to be told over and over again that I am a sinner, and that Christ died to save sinners. Both parts are crucial. Without an understanding of sin, its weight and its consequences; salvation becomes incoherent and Christianity is simply reduced to a set of arbitrary cultural signifiers. I’ve got my pick of cultural signifiers. I need to understand sin, I need to understand redemption, and I constantly need to be reminded of the reality of both. That is what Church offers exclusively over everything else that I could be doing on Sunday morning.

2. Administer the Sacraments

Once, I needed to be baptized. Now, I need to see other people baptized. I need the Lord’s supper. Often, if it is up to me. It is strange and beautiful that the only picture we have of Christ is the consumption of bread and wine. He must have thought that we needed those things to remember and understand Him. I’m inclined to agree with Christ. In a way I can’t fully explain, I need these things like you wouldn’t believe.

3. Teach me the Bible

The Bible is the most complex book I have ever read. The Bible is not just any book, but it is a book. I need men who are going to approach that Book with the intellectual rigor it deserves. The Lord has richly blessed us with a book that bears the weight of a lifetime of serious study. There are connections to be made, there are genres to be understood, there are symbols to be analyzed, there are cultural contexts to be applied, there are translation issues to be recognized, there are motifs to be united, and most of all there is the over-arching plot of redemption. I need church to help me understand those things.

4. Love

The first sermon I really heard didn’t come from behind the pulpit; it was the love displayed by God’s people towards one another and towards me. Paradoxically, nothing destroys my pride like the unconditional love of God’s people. This love is not the same as flattery. It’s active and concrete. I need encouragement. I need instruction. Sometimes I may need discipline. I might need a ride to work. God’s people have offered me all of these things. God has offered me all of these things through His people. Never forget that I too need the opportunity to do these things for others.

5. Provide an Opportunity to Sing to God and About God

If I could sum up my advocacy for traditional singing, it would be this: every individual voice becomes so important, that no individual voice is particularly important. People forget themselves and remember Christ, good and bad voices swell together, and nobody is really paying attention to anyone because everybody is paying attention to everyone. Sometimes, I feel like it is not my voice coming out of my mouth at all, but all the congregation’s voice together. That is when I most understand why God commanded us to do this.

5 Things I Don’t Need Church to Do

1. Sell

Christianity is not a “brand.” Don’t treat it like it is. If you act like a salesman, I’m inclined to treat you like one and shop around. Your focus groups are pointing you to the middle of the road, which is a dangerous place to try to build a house. Stop looking for what I want and give me what I need, otherwise I probably won’t get either from your church.

2. Entertain Me

I am really good at entertaining myself. You are probably not as good at it. You don’t know what I want. I can listen to the music I like, watch the movies I like, and play with the toys I like at my house. What I can’t do is preach to myself and shepherd my soul. That’s where you come in. If your goal is my entertainment, send me an itunes giftcard and let me sleep in.

3. Be Just Like Me

I don’t know if I could bear to stay in a congregation that was just like me. Not because I hate myself, but because it would be perverse. Imagine a body made entirely of eyes, or tongues or livers. Gross. I love my congregation because most of them are nothing like me. Christ ministers to me through their experiences, idiosyncrasies, weaknesses, and gifts. I get to call people from a confounding array of backgrounds and circumstances brothers and sisters. Why would I want you to try and guess who I am and imitate it? I know me; we’ve already met. I need a body.

4. Make Me Laugh

The world we live in is a funny place, and God has probably blessed us with a sense of humor to retain our sanity in it. Because of that, sometimes things you say will be funny. We will laugh. However, the message of the gospel is one of eternal seriousness. If I am in danger of mistaking you for a standup comic, I am in danger of mistaking Christ for a joke. I’m serious about my soul, and I need you to be too.

5. Enlist Me as a Soldier in the Culture Wars

Our religion ought to inform our politics as it ought to inform our whole life. There are some political issues we should not be silent on (abortion comes to mind). However, the “culture wars” in America have duped Christians into enlisting in causes that have nothing to do with their religion. Worse still, it makes our religion into simply one aspect of a larger subsuming culture complete with its own schools, dress, music, television shows and diets. It doesn’t take a large jump before those things all become of similar importance, and Christ takes his place in the pantheon between Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck (or Obama and Al Franken, as the case may be). It’s the devil’s old bait-and-switch. Christ didn’t have a problem with the Pharisee’s actual righteousness, he had a problem with assuming that adherence to arbitrary cultural conventions was righteousness. Christianity is not a culture, it is trans-cultural. When we engage in evangelism, it should not be to make people more like us, but rather more like Christ.

Everyone who visits a new church has his or her share of misunderstanding about how that church is run, and those who visit Grace are no exception. In fact, I believe the common testimony of those among them who have joined is that their new experience was “culture shock”, once they learned how much alike Grace and their previous church were not—in some situations not even close. Unlike the model church of the church growth movement with which Christians in America are most familiar, Grace has firmly in place membership, church discipline, roughly 50 minutes of expository preaching from the pulpit, biblical counseling, and a dignified and God-honoring order of worship that’s God-centered, Christ-centered, and carried out in the power of the Holy Spirit, to name but a few of our distinctives

Those visitors who seriously consider Grace for their home church are pleasantly surprised at our distinctives, especially after they’ve been here awhile and have increased in their knowledge of Bible doctrine. Indeed, once they learn the rationale behind these distinctives, now considered aberrant by most church grown experts, they find them a “welcomed relief”. The rest aren’t so quick to understand what we do here, especially when something stereotypical of modern churches today is strangely absent at Grace. Being good-natured as they are, they usually attribute this absence to simply a limited budget, or limited staff, or maybe even ignorance, and are quick to offer suggestions and resources to make up the lack: “The last church I attended had a great program for this. I’ll get you some information on it.”

I am thankful to all those well-intentioned believers for their concern. They obviously care for the church as well as the target group of that particular ministry that they find wanting. However, much of what they consider a deficiency is due neither to faulty thinking, ignorance, limited budget or staff or both, but actually quite purposeful and for good biblical reasons.

Consider “youth”, one aspect of our ministry, as an example of what I am talking about. The way we operate it has the same shock value as the rest of our distinctives. More specifically, many are shocked to find the traditional methods of youth ministry so sacred to American churches missing. They naturally conclude that we’re either short-staffed, low on funds, or out of touch with what’s taking place in cutting-edge youth ministry. What follows from there is an attempt to catch us up, educate us, and help us to connect. Once again, their concern is admirable, but frankly it’s not grounded in scriptural principles.

I firmly believe that most people in mainline American denominations have a view of youth that has been influenced by the world. This influence is very subtle. All cultures are different from each other, and their differences are what make them distinct. It’s those distinctives that will infiltrate the weak church and recreate it, so that it resembles the culture with those particular distinctives. You might have heard me speak of American Christianity. It’s a pejorative phrase. By it, I mean the church that has been influenced by American culture. Any church that’s influenced by the world will naturally adopt the traits and characteristics of the particular part of the world in which it exists. We might expect there to be British Christianity, Czech Christianity, Indian Christianity, and so on.

American culture has influenced the church in negative ways too numerous for me comprehensively to address here, but I can give you an idea. Christianity influenced by a capitalist, free-market environment is greedy and tries to make a profit off the faith. The faith may be a way of life to many American Christians (at least it’s supposed to be!), but it has also become a way to make a fast buck. Here, the Christian bookstores (which can be found along side ATM machines and actual food courts in the foyers of mega churches) go too far in their retail practices, bordering on sacrilege—You’ve never heard of the Jesus action figure? Churches influenced by capitalist mentality, then, commit Simony (charging for ministry service illegitimately, cf. Acts 8:18-23). Churches influenced by a hedonistic, “if-it-feels-good-do-it” philosophy focus on people’s “felt needs” instead of their real needs and give what people want rather than what they need. Churches influenced by the self-esteem culture discern God’s will by emotions; hence, the now hackneyed expression, “I have a peace about it”. Churches influenced by a permissive society take little responsibility for their sanctification and simply coast through their faith chanting “let go and let God”. The church influenced by the self-willed and fiercely independent culture repudiates membership, submission to godly elders, and the very essence of the gospel. They say, “I can do it myself. I decided that I will be saved, which church to attend, and when it’s time to move on.”

So what does all this have to do with youth? The youth culture is yet another aspect of our culture with its own language, style of dress, ideology, music, behavior, and attitude that are unmistakable, and it discriminates against adults. In case you haven’t noticed, today’s youth don’t want to be like adults. They see something bad in growing older and, like the rest of Americans, dread getting old. The youth culture does not esteem the elderly for their wisdom, but considers them used up and in the way.

This sub-culture is a powerful force that has exerted no small influence on the culture at large. No longer under the tutelage and guidance of parents, American youth are understood, and for all practical purposes are expected, to disdain parental guidance, repudiate advice from all authority, be fiercely independent, segregate from adults to be with peers their age, and strive to be different by, ironically enough, seeking it in sameness (e.g., speech, music, and fashion). Our society has acquiesced to the pressures of the youth culture and accommodated it, cheered on by parents who want a family without all the work that goes with it. Responsibility for teaching and raising children lies primarily, and in some cases exclusively, outside the home.

Small wonder why most industries (cigarette, alcohol, fashion, MUSIC) find success in exploiting youth. You don’t really believe that American Idol is about who has the best voice, do you? It no more does than presidential elections have to do with who has the best political ideology.

What does the Bible say about youth? Well, it says quite a bit. Consider its showcase of champions: Samuel, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Mary. These are just a few of the heroes of faith who answered their call to ministry while still youths. Their mature and confident disposition rested on a passionate love for God and His Word and a willingness to listen to godly parents (Proverbs). Consider also the high premium that God places on parenting in the Old Testament, emphasized by the fact that parental directives and commands occur in places where you least expect them. The Abrahamic Covenant includes this reference to children: “to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land . . .” (Gen 17:7, 8). The formal institution of Passover ends with this extended word to parenting:

You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, “What do you mean by this service?”, you shall say, “It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses” (Ex 12:24-27).

Israelites were to use worship services and annual festivals as teaching opportunities. More than this, the Lord expected Israel to use the whole of life as golden opportunities for godly instruction with the family as the ultimate classroom

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise (Deut 6:6, 7).

If the psalms contain theology for practical living, then we should expect to find teaching on youth in them as well. We do:

We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children (Psalm 78:4-6).

The bottom line is that parents are responsible to educate and catechize their children for the glory of God and the preparation of the next godly generation.

The New Testament aggressively promotes the same truth. The

mandate that we’re responsible to carry out with regard to youth is well defined in Ephesians 6:1-4, and its parallel passage Colossians 3:20-21. In both passages, Paul’s command goes out to both children and parents within the context of local church ministry. In other words, the command is given to parents, not to churches, but it’s to be fulfilled under the auspices of local church oversight, which obviously (and properly) involves the church in the process. The primary task of local church leadership with regard to raising a godly generation is to work indirectly with youth by working directly with parents, giving them top priority. If we really care for our youth, we will invest our time in helping their parents to counsel them.

Contrast this biblical approach with the time-honored, traditional, and sacred youth programs of the American church that we know so well and that together have sadly become the measure of an efficient and desirable local church. This phenomenon is rather interesting, in light of several facts. The first is rather obvious, yet often ignored: the New Testament is silent on the matter of top-notch youth ministries complete with youth pastor. The second fact is that the only two New Testament passages (Eph 6:1; Col 3:20) that speak directly to the importance of training youth put the burden of responsibility squarely on parents. First Corinthians 7:14 is not a teaching passage on childrearing, but it speaks of godly influence upon children exerted by none other than a single, believing parent. The third fact is that children appear nowhere in the five people groups that Paul addressed in his letter to Titus. Aside from slaves, all churches have older men, younger men, older women, and younger women, groups in the church to whom leadership need to direct their attention. If Paul saw youth as a group in the church that needed to occupy the leadership’s attention directly, he would most certainly have brought it up here. We are left to assume, and with good first-century cultural support to boot, that ministry to youth was left to parents. We simply find no strong evidence for our 21st century practice of youth ministry anywhere in the New Testament or in the early centuries of the Church.

How does the biblical approach to youth affect the way we at Grace think of traditional youth ministries? Generally speaking, we believe that it is an abuse for leadership to take the time that they should devote to carrying out Scriptural mandates vital to raising a godly generation, namely, equipping parents, and spend it on generating and maintaining the traditional means of American youth ministry that find little to no support from the New Testament.

What about youth pastors? I don’t believe in the concept of youth pastor. According to Titus 2, shepherds shepherd adults directly and shepherd children indirectly through their parents. While it is possible to appoint an elder(s) to oversee the next godly generation, that responsibility would still focus attention mainly on parents and how they work with children.

What about youth events? They should be sponsored, generated, and supervised by parents with support of leadership, such as our Young Men’s and Women’s Group.

What about Jr. Church? We got rid of Jr. Church 10 years ago with no regrets. Since parents are to raise their children in everything, including how to worship, and children learn best from watching their parents as they worship, it makes absolutely no sense at all to remove children from the worship service. Parents must teach their children between the Sundays how to behave, be patient, sit still, and listen, and then simplify the sermon for them during the week, godly habits that characterized Christian households for centuries and have all but been lost in our modern times. I’ll never forget those words by Don Kistler, our first GCCM speaker, on the subject of Jr. Church. If the Puritans could train their children to behave, be patient, sit still, and listen, listen during a worship service that lasted close to three hours, then we certainly can train our children to do the same in an hour and 15 minutes. He said that kids are kids are kids; they don’t change. And if 21st century kids are not well behaved, and we know that they are no different from 18th century kids who were, then what has changed? Parents, along with the culture, that’s what!

What about nursery? In light of our brief study, it is in keeping with biblical principles of parenting for Grace, and any church for that matter, to provide a place for parents where they can be encouraged while they train their children to behave, be patient, sit still, and listen in preparation for time when they will regularly attend worship. That place we call our “nursery” but, as you might expect, it is not a nursery in the strictest sense— we’re not a babysitting service. Sadly, that is exactly what so many have come to expect, and that is exactly what so many churches without a solid knowledge of biblical parenting principles offer. Here at Grace, we never want to give parents the impression that we offer daycare and risk leading them away from their God-given responsibility and burdening other parents who are already training their own children in the “nursery”. For four years now our “nursery” has been a place where parents can prepare their children for worship. And it is thrilling to me to see them enter that “transition period”, when they are introducing their “nursery grads” to the service. I always tell parents at this stage never to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed if their children let out a scream now and again until they are settled; I can preach right through it and the membership understands. While it’s true that we currently have a rotation of parents who take turns minding each other’s children, these parents understand their place and ours regarding child-training. Naturally, parents new to Grace need to understand this before they would reap the full benefit from this training resource, or join the rotation, especially those who need to grown more in their understanding of biblical childrearing principles and who haven’t been in the habit of training their children to behave, be patient, sit still, and listen,. Otherwise, they’ll be frustrated.

See Pastor Bob for more information about biblical parenting. Grace has a wealth of resources, including biblical counselors devoted to working with parents to raise the next godly generation.