Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Narrator (Male): The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals presents the timeless teaching of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: I am hopelessly in debt to God. God says, God says, it is God who says that He is satisfied with the death of His Son instead of with my death. God cannot collect a bill twice, and having collected from Christ, He certainly can never collect from me.

Therefore, I rest in the love of Christ, my debt of sin has been paid. I am freed from the bondage into which I was born as a child of Adam's race. And that is the end of it.

Choir: God's word is what the Christian needs to grow in grace and do good deeds.

Narrator (Male): Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the weekly radio outreach which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.

The application of God's word as taught by Dr. Barnhouse is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago. The message we will be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled A Church Conspicuous for Faith.

The apostle Paul wrote that the Roman Christians were spoken of throughout the world for their faith. Sadly, there are churches and Christians today that are well-known for something else. Many churches are famous for their beautiful architecture, the size of their congregation, their fanaticism, or even for who is buried there.

How can believers today be known throughout the world for our faith and faithfulness to Christ? The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is Romans chapter 1 and verses 9 through 13. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with the message entitled A Church Conspicuous for Faith.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto Thee, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. We thank Thee that we can come with that holy boldness through the Lord Jesus Christ and be sure of being received by Thee, our loving Father. Wilt Thou bless the truth to each heart in this hour? And we pray Thee, our God, that there may be rich blessing upon the word. And we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We are studying together in the first paragraphs of the Epistle to the Romans. Paul was anticipating a visit to Rome, the capital city of the world, and was preparing his way with this epistle. He had been known as a dangerous person, having killed the earlier Christians who did not hold to his racial view of divine grace.

Also, he had been the center of difficulties in several cities of the Gentiles. He had caused a riot in Ephesus and had narrowly escaped arrest in Thessalonica. If such a man is coming to visit, the way must be prepared. He begins by telling them that he had been praying for them, thanking God through Jesus Christ for all of the little company that their faith had been spoken of throughout the whole world of Christian activity.

Little groups of Christians were by now planted in a thousand centers throughout the Roman Empire. And the believers who moved back and forth across the traveled lanes of commerce spread the news that the church which was then in Rome was a vigorous church, filled with people who had been illuminated by the Holy Spirit and who were holding fast to the great revelation of truth that centers in the risen Lord Jesus Christ. And thus, their faith was spoken of throughout the Roman world.

In all of the history of Christian thought, there have been many examples of individual faith which have been spoken of throughout the world. In the 11th chapter of Hebrews, we have a summary of the faith of certain individuals who stand out like mountain peaks in a landmass.

Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, the parents of Moses, Moses himself, Joshua, Rahab. And what shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.

Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tested, they were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.

But such a pantheon of men and women of faith covers a period of 4,000 years. Seldom in that time was there a mass movement of faith. It was centered rather in individuals. Elijah indeed complained that he was the only believer left, until the Lord revealed to him that there were 7,000 others who had not bowed the knee to Baal.

These cannot, nevertheless, be considered as men of faith in the larger sense, for they had not sufficient faith to make it known, and it was evidently known only to God who sees the hearts of men.

But here in the city of the Caesars, in Rome, there was an entire group of believers whose faith was spoken of throughout the world. It was a rare thing. The New Testament records but one other instance, that of the church at Thessalonica, soon to be so bitterly persecuted.

Paul writes to them: "For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance. And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit.

So that ye were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spreading abroad, so that we need not to speak anything."

Now let us ask a few questions about our text. What was the nature of this faith which was spoken of throughout the world? Can true churches be famed for things other than faith? Are there churches today that are noted for their faith?

Is the possession of such a concentration a guarantee for its continuance? Or can such faith be lost? And finally, is it possible to develop such centers of faith? And how is such development to be established?

First then, what was the nature of this faith that was spoken of throughout the world? The word is another of the intangibles that is talked about a great deal and frequently destroyed in false definitions and ideas.

We spoke in our last study of the false ideas that had grown up around the meaning of prayer. There are just as many errors encrusting the meaning of faith. Faith is, after all, a very simple thing. It is believing God's word and acting upon it.

There are those today who hold the soft, gooey concept that faith is a mushy attitude that allows one to sit around and smile seraphically, but which has no relationship to the down-to-earth realities of daily living.

You'll see some person dragging along like a man walking through mud to his knees, and someone will comment: "But he has such sincere faith." No, there may be something of sincerity, but is there really anything of true faith? And after all, is sincerity worth even a plugged penny by itself? There must be something far more than sincerity to meet reality.

A woman may have taken care of a sick child for days and be so dead on her feet that she hardly knows what she's doing. In the middle of the night, the child cries. And the woman stirs from her fatigue-drugged sleep and sincerely, oh so sincerely, gives the child a spoonful of medicine out of the wrong bottle.

The child dies. The mother was sincere, oh so sincere, but sincerity must have its hand on the right bottle. A person may be sincere and be sincerely wrong. And faith is not a maudlin or moronic apathy that sits around and waits for something to happen, or which follows the legendary ostrich to bury its head in the sand.

There have been people who have refused to call a doctor when a loved one was sick on the grounds that it would not be according to faith. Now, such faith is a lie in view of the fact that the Lord Jesus, when He was here on earth, said categorically: "They that are sick need a physician" (Matthew 9:12).

It changes nothing to deny its existence or to pretend that evil, pain, sorrow, suffering, sickness, and death are errors of mortal mind. I am reminded of a story of a mother who held these foolish ideas and who attempted to teach her little girl that there was no such thing as pain.

She taught the child that when she fell down or bumped into a chair or stubbed her toe or any such happening in the life of a normal child, she should not cry, but should stand straight and exclaim: "Truth, truth, truth!"

One day there was a great clatter and noise, and the mother came running to find that her little girl, with her dog in her arms, had fallen down the cellar stairs. The child stood there in pain, and in her brave effort to obey her foolish mother.

The mother asked what had happened. The child answered: "Fido and I fell all the way downstairs. I got up and I said truth, truth, truth! But Fido ran away saying error, error, error!" And in the light of the word of God, the dog had the best of it.

It is strange how many people confuse credulity and faith. Faith is more than belief; it is belief rightly placed. You may drive a car at 70 miles an hour down a road that you know and cross a bridge that is well-built and strong.

It was not your faith that carried you over the stream; it was the bridge. If you'd had the same faith on a stormy night when a flood had taken away the foundations of the bridge, you might come down the same road in your accustomed manner, with the same faith, and the bridge would collapse beneath you, and you would find yourself in the raging flood.

Faith, to be worth anything, must have proper foundations under it. That is why true faith can be in none other than the living God. That is why faith must never be in tradition, but only on the Bible, the word of God.

The counterfeits which the enemy of souls loves to pass claim the allegiance of some, but they are a debased currency and faith in them is valueless. Again, I say that true faith is a very simple thing. It is believing God's word and acting upon it.

Day by day, we act upon the word of people all around us. We pick up a telephone and call the information desk of a railroad, learn the hour of a train to a distant city, and on the word of a clerk whom we have never seen in our lives, we pack our bags, get in the taxi, and drive to the station a few minutes before the hour that was told us on the telephone.

You mean to say that you'd go to all that trouble on the basis of the word of a person you've never seen? Why, of course, we exercise such faith every day of our lives. The course of the nation's commerce and transportation is based upon such exercise of faith on the human level.

And in another domain, a young man calls upon the girl he loves and asks her to marry him. She says yes. Fundamentally, it was a five-word conversation. He spoke four words; she answered with one. But it was the right combination of words.

Now what is the result? On the way home, he begins to figure his finances on the back of an envelope, and if he makes a few other economies here and there, he'll be able to make the down payment on a diamond ring in about a month.

And then it will be time to examine the literature on the construction of a home. She, on the other hand, begins to revise her plans about the course of her work. Now, faith in God is very similar to the action based on belief, to that action.

I am a sinner in the midst of my need. God tells me that He's done something about it. That which He has done was to send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come into the world and die for sinners, that the justice of God which had been outraged by man's rebellion might be satisfied and that God's love might be fulfilled in pouring out His grace upon needy man.

I am hopelessly in debt to God. And He announces that He's paid the debt for me on the simple condition that I shall believe His word about it. His life is put to my account, and His righteousness written down to my credit, where I had nothing in my favor.

Life is communicated to me, and I live because of Christ. Henceforth, all of my thought may be directed towards honoring the Lord and glorifying Him by the character and nature of my day-by-day living, espousing the causes of righteousness and justice, and seeking to do the bidding of Him who is love and holiness.

Faith is an individual matter. But when you get a group of people who are like-minded in this faith and in their surrender to it, you have a situation that becomes the talk of the world. If the world is not much interested in the churches today, it is simply because they have become famous for things other than faith.

There are churches that are famed for their architecture, their rose window, their flying buttress, the reredos, the stalls, the wood carvings, the nave, the apse, the dome, the treasure. There are churches that are famous for the bones of those who have been buried within the walls.

There are churches that are famous for their organ or for their choir, for the cantatas that are sung at Christmas and Easter. There are churches which run a certain vogue because of the suave and unctuous manner of the preacher of the moment.

His diction, his mellifluous voice, his use of poetry for illustration, his logic in the persuasive art of denial of fundamental truth, all bring a swirling mass of people around for the moment. He passes, and it's observable that he has written upon the surface of the water and the ripples soon die out.

There are churches that are known because of the millionaire members who attend. "That, my dear, is Mr. So-and-So's church." Frequently it becomes thereby so much the less the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

An individual member can dominate a church, ruling it and spoiling it and destroying its possibilities of being a church famed for faith. And there are churches which are famed for fanaticism. A few years ago on our American scene, we had a church that grew rapidly and its reputation spread over the nation because a curvesome female was able to stand before a lot of folk retired from the drab life of Midwest farms in the pre-auto, pre-radio days, and she would swish herself before them with all the allure of a nightclub hostess.

Alas, there are more churches famed for other things than there are churches famed for faith. And as time goes on, the number of churches of faith seems to grow rarer. The Sunday evening service in many places has been abandoned.

The prayer meeting has gone. The social room becomes the center of attraction. The church becomes a second-class restaurant. What a scandal on the name of Jesus Christ! Well then, are there churches today that can be compared with the infant church in the city of Rome, famed for faith throughout the world?

Most certainly there are. How famed was the Aldersgate Chapel in London in Wesley's day? And Spurgeon's Tabernacle was thus famed for a generation until a bomb destroyed it during the war.

We dare to say that there are individual churches throughout the United States that are famed for their faith. There are thousands and thousands of Christians throughout the Midwest who have heard so much about the faith of the Moody Church in Chicago that many thousands of weekends have been planned by those who were visiting Chicago so that a service in that great church could be part of the itinerary.

They were not drawn by architecture, the literary appeal of the sermons, or the quality of the organ, but by the widespread reputation for the simple faith that has centered around the place.

And I dare to hope that the church of which I am pastor has a renown for faith and for nothing else. There are movements that are famed for faith in addition to local churches. In England at Keswick, so many men of faith have gathered at the annual conference in that beautiful spot beside Derwentwater that the influence of the faith has gone literally throughout the whole world.

There are thousands of missionaries in China, India, Africa, South America, and in the islands of the sea who thank God that the faith of the Keswick movement has been noised throughout the whole world.

And there are churches in small towns, unknown at times to the people who frequent the great buildings on the boulevards, where little groups of people gather around the word of God and where the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ is proclaimed and exalted.

In our office, we receive a never-ending trickle of letters asking about churches in certain localities. Someone is moving to a certain city and wishes to know a faithful church there. The answer can never be a set pattern.

In one town, it's a Baptist church that's the faithful one. In another town, it's the Presbyterian church. We advise Lutherans to go to a Methodist church in a certain place and a Methodist to go to a Lutheran church in another place.

Most certainly, faith does not rest on denominational lines in our day. Often these churches of faith are despised and rejected of men. Those who live in adultery with the world cannot understand the heart of those who live in faithfulness to Christ.

They that live godly in Christ Jesus have not been promised popularity but persecution. Faith does not follow the brittle brilliance of the passing fashion in preachers, but may walk with the pedestrian mediocrity of those who just keep on keeping on.

There are churches centered on faith today, and it is the duty of every Christian to pray and work to the utmost that the center in which he is established shall ever tend towards the simple obedience of faith. Nothing is to be prized above this.

And now there comes the question whether possession of such collective faith is a guarantee of continuance. Can such a famed faith be eclipsed? The answer of history as well as the answer of the word of God proves that such faith can be lost by churches.

Individuals die or move away. Somewhere a turning is missed. The Lord says that if the first love is not maintained, He Himself will remove the candlestick of the church from its place. The record of the churches of the New Testament proves that faith can be lost.

Where are the churches to which the epistles were written? Look over the roster of the churches of the epistles and then travel to these centers, known some of them only to archaeology. Where is the church of Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Thessalonica?

I have sat on the broken stone of a fane in old Galatia and looked out over the ruin of that desolate scene. How infinitely sad to contemplate the ruins of a great civilization. How much sadder to contemplate the ruins of a great faith.

One who walks in the catacombs of Rome, even though the smell be musty and dank, is conscious of the spirit of a living faith that is lost as soon as one comes out into the all-judging sunlight that illuminates the haunts of vice and avarice that crowd the squalid streets above.

Yes, faith can move from city to city, from building to building, and from church to church. A church famed for faith can become a wilderness. The strong light can become a guttering candle and then a smoking wick and then a waxen image of darkness.

Now our final question then should be: is it possible for us to develop true centers of faith? And how? The answer comes from the eternal truth that truth is eternal. Therefore, it is possible for faith to break forth today.

We have spoken of churches that are famed for faith in our day. The reason in every case is that they are centered on the word of God. The Lord has never promised to bless oratory, though He sometimes uses it.

He has never promised to bless music, though it may gush forth from the pressure of true blessing. But He has promised to bless His word. If we cleave to the word, there must be blessing. It may be at first the blessing of a single individual, alive to every shade of meaning in the voice of the loved Savior.

It may be at first the conviction of a single soul that determines an absolute obedience to every line of the divine revelation. Then when two or three such like-minded children of faith are gathered together, there He is. Christ is among His people according to His promise.

Faith that is built upon the written word will ever center upon the living word. Faith will center upon Christ, and Christ will produce the true life of faith. Doubt will look at the obstacles; faith will look at Christ. Doubt will look within our hearts, but faith will look at Christ.

Doubt will look around at others, but faith will center on Christ. Doubt will call attention to our sins; faith will look at the Savior and the cleansing stream that flows from Him. And as we walk with Him, feasting upon Him, our faith is built up.

Our strength becomes stronger. Our last works are more than our first. We know that He who hath begun a good work in us will keep on perfecting it until the day of Jesus Christ. You and I are not accountable for the faith of our denomination or of our congregation.

But we are accountable for the faith of our own hearts. I of course, as a pastor, am accountable in some way for the faith of my congregation. But you who sit in the pew are not accountable for the faith of all the congregation.

What you must do is to pay attention to the fact that faith must be accounted for in our own hearts. And if you pay attention to that and associate with others of like precious faith, then we shall discover that we are in the path of the just, the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

And if our light grows strong, we have the hope that others will learn to take their first steps in its rays. May the Lord make us to be men and women of simple faith, abandoning the credulities of life in order to center on the eternal word that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And our God and Father, we pray Thee that the Holy Spirit shall take this message to every heart in this day. If there be any one soul, Lord, or many, who need Thee in salvation, wilt Thou bring them to the knowledge of Christ as Savior?

And may their faith be bound to Him that they may be bound to Him forever. Give restlessness to any who have not been born again. And upon all Thy believing own, may Thy grace, Thy mercy, and Thy peace abide, and a new sense of the reality of faith.

And to Thee be the glory, the majesty, the dominion, and the power, now till our Lord Jesus come again and forever. Amen.

Narrator (Male): True biblical faith is believing God's word and acting upon it. When we are well-grounded in the Bible and walking in obedience to it, we can transform the world by our faith.

We hope you have benefited from today's message by Dr. Barnhouse entitled A Church Conspicuous for Faith. Listen to additional Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse via the internet. Visit us at alliancenet.org.

An audio copy of today's teaching is also available by calling us toll-free: 1-800-488-1888. Today's message again is entitled A Church Conspicuous for Faith, or simply request message number R1-10.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled Overcoming Fear in Witnessing. Does fear hold you back from telling your family, friends, and coworkers about Christ?

This free booklet will help you overcome the barriers to effective witnessing so you can share the gospel clearly, in love, and without fear. If you want to be a bold, confident witness for Christ, ask for your free copy of Overcoming Fear in Witnessing when you call or write.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is the radio ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We exist to promote a biblical understanding and worldview.

Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of Reformation theologians from decades and even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching which will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place.

The Alliance also produces the radio broadcasts The Bible Study Hour, featuring the teachings of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and Every Last Word, featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken.

For a full list of stations carrying our programs, visit our website, alliancenet.org. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible comes to you through the generous gifts of listeners like you. If you have benefited from the broadcast and would like it to continue, please prayerfully consider a donation to help us keep this ministry on the air.

For more information or to make a contribution to help further our work, contact us by calling us toll-free: 1-800-488-1888. That's 1-800-488-1888. Write to us at Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103.

Visit us online at alliancenet.org. Be sure to ask for a free resource catalog featuring books, audio teachings, commentaries, booklets, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding reformed teachers and theologians, including Drs. Donald Grey Barnhouse, James Montgomery Boice, Martin Lloyd-Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken. Thanks for listening. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.

Choir: God's word has commanded work to do God's saving work. Amazingly, the life-imparting word of God.