Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

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

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: If you are learning to be triumphant over evil, if you are learning to overcome evil with good, then know that this is because you are becoming more like the Lord Jesus Christ. How far He went in practicing this truth. When the nations were raging and the peoples imagining a vain thing, He did not move to destroy them.

He did not destroy Adam when he sinned, but promised a savior and began the long course of history, so that man could have opportunity upon opportunity to repent and to return to God. He did not eradicate the wicked and sinful peoples of history. He did not destroy us when we were ungodly sinners.

He came from heaven in order to save us. He came into the camp of His enemies and allowed them to do their will against Him, in order to establish the foundation for our redemption. When we were without strength, when we were enemies, Christ died for us. He saved us. He saved us by letting us kill Him. How astonishing this is.

So, when we turn to Christ, He transforms the life from active evil to positive good.

Announcer (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 radio ministry, 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 The Christian and His Enemies. How do you respond when you are treated spitefully?

Years ago, a young Christian soldier prayed by his bedside every night, despite the jeers, taunts, and insults of the other soldiers in his barracks. One night after a long, exhausting hike, the other soldiers threw their muddy boots at the believer as he knelt in prayer. When they awoke in the morning, they found that he had cleaned and polished their boots and lined them up next to each man's bed.

How can we learn to glorify the Lord in the way we respond to our enemies? The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans chapter 12, we're looking at verses 20 and 21. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, with a message entitled The Christian and His Enemies.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto You, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. You are the one true God. This is why we pray to You in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, because You have ordained that sinners shall come to You through Him. And You have said that no one can reach You unless he comes through Christ.

It is with full recognition that You are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that we bow before You. Bless us in this hour and speak to each listening heart. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In Romans chapter 12 and verse 20 and 21, we read: “No, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him drink. For by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Now, having taught in our last study that vengeance belongs to Himself, God now tells us that we are to act in positive love toward our enemies. Since we know that He will protect all who are His own, and that He will bring justice and truth to full light in His own time, we can rest quietly and wait patiently for Him to fulfill that which He will surely bring to pass.

Before entering into a discussion of this great passage, which lays down the principles governing our attitudes toward those who have done us evil, it is worthwhile to pause and note that this is the third quotation from the book of the Proverbs in this one paragraph of our chapter.

One wonders if Paul had been reading the wisdom of Solomon at the time of writing this portion of the Epistle. We should note too that the basis of Christian morality was revealed in the Old Testament. Charles Simeon of Cambridge has an excellent thought on this fact.

He says, “The writings of the Old Testament exhibit a system of morals incomparably superior to any that was ever promulgated by the wisest philosophers. In extent it equals the New Testament. It is quite a mistake to say that our Lord inculcated sublimer morals than ever had been revealed before. He only removed the false glosses by which the commands of God had been obscured and enforced observance of those commands by motives of a higher nature.”

“Still, however, it must be confessed that the New Testament brings the sublimer precepts more clearly into view and expatiates upon them in a more authoritative and convincing manner.” This can be seen in the text we are considering, which is as concise, as comprehensible, and as forcible as words could express it.

The principle by which a Christian is to live is the principle of overflowing love, which will ultimately be overcoming love. If your enemy is hungry, feed him.

I cannot pass by this phrase without noting that there are six different Greek words translated by our single English word “feed.” There is “bosko” to feed an animal in the field. “Poimaino” to feed a flock as does a shepherd. “Trefo” to give suck as when a mother nurses her child. “Kortazo” to fatten as when farmers prepare their cattle for the market. And “psomizo” to break food into little bits and put them into the mouth of a child. And this last word the Holy Spirit uses here.

If your enemy is hungry, feed him as you would a child who is not able to take strong meat. We can understand why this must be if we think of what happens within the body of a man who is really angry. The phrases have come into the language to describe this. This turns my stomach. This makes me sick. This gripes me.

If anyone has this attitude against a Christian, the believer is to answer by loving him. The man is all tied up in knots within himself. And this is why his heart is at enmity. It is self that causes people to lie, to cheat, to slander. If you are the object of their selfishness, you must stand in Christ and love them in return.

Without condescension, they must be treated as children. The only thing that can ever clean out their warped systems is love. Break up the food into small bits and feed them as children.

There's a great national lesson to be learned at this point. The strongest arm that our country has against Communism is the grace of Christian love. This is more important than any hydrogen bomb. If we continue to help those who are in need, we can be sure that God will take care of our interests when we need His help.

We are the richest nation on earth, and we must share what has been given to us. We may put “in God we trust” on our coins. But if we do not feed those who are hungry, we might as well change the motto to “Am I my brother's keeper?”

When we act as believers should act, it is said that we heap coals of fire upon the heads of our enemies. There are several ways in which this ancient proverb must be considered. First, the coals of fire may be considered as the words of hatred that are poured upon us, and which we do not return.

In another of the Proverbs we read, “A worthless man plots evil, and his speech is like scorching fire.” That speech comes from the abundance of the heart of your enemy. You accept it without denial or complaint. That is, you do if you are like the Lord Jesus Christ. And then further, we must understand this proverb as an illustration of the two results, either of which may come in the life of the enemy.

He speaks or does evil against us. And we return all with kindness and love. The man may be melted into repentance, or he may be hardened. If our enemy curses us, we are to bless him. If he uses us spitefully and persecutes us, we are to do good to him and pray for him.

Perhaps all this will melt him down, and he may come to have a life that is in the love of God. Perhaps one of the finest illustrations of this truth in the Bible is that in the life of David, when he was treated evilly by King Saul. Could there have been a more relentless enemy than the wicked king?

Could any foe have more persistently pursued the life of a man than Saul hounded David? Yet, when Saul came to sleep in a cave where David was hiding, David would not take advantage of the one who had become his enemy. David cut off the edge of the king's robe and used it to prove his love to the king. Listen to him crying out after the king, as the latter left the cave, unaware that a piece had been cut from his garment.

“My Lord, the King,” David called out after him. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and did obeisance. And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Behold, David seeks your hurt’? Lo, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some bade me kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will not put forth my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed.’

“See, my father, see the skirt of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the skirt of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me upon you. But my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness,’ but my hand shall not be against you.

“After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog, after a flea? May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it, and plead my cause, and deliver me from your hand.” This beautiful story is in 1 Samuel 24.

Now, there was no boasting on the part of David. There was no arrogance. David himself, anointed by God to be king, would not speak or act anything against the ruling king. He was surely heaping coals of fire on the head of Saul. And listen to the result.

When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.”

Now, of course, there will be those who will cry out at once that such results do not always obtain, and that we must exercise care. Charles Simeon has well expressed it. “Many arguments will arise in our corrupt minds against the discharge of this sublime and self-denying duty of not being overcome with evil, but overcoming evil with good. Some may say, ‘The persons who have used us ill do not deserve kind treatment, and the exercise of continued kindness to them will only encourage them to proceed in their injurious conduct, whereas a proper display of spirit on our part will tend to intimidate and restrain them.’”

“Now this may appear to be just reasoning, but it is directly contrary to God's command. We are not to consider what others deserve to suffer, but what we are required to do. As to the use that others will make of our kindness, that is no concern of ours. We have only to obey God and leave all events to Him. To yield, to turn the left cheek to him that smites us on the right, and to return good for evil, may sound to us as hard sayings, but they are the path of duty, of honor, and of happiness.”

“Yes, and they are the path of ultimate triumph.”

Nor may we leave this ancient proverb without turning it to its most terrible side. We're in this world not only to witness to those who will be moved by our actions and our words. We are also to act as witnesses in the judgment that will ultimately descend upon those who know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The believer is here to be a savor of death unto death, to those who will not believe. Listen to God speak in 2 Corinthians 2. “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God, among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing. To one, a fragrance from death to death. To the other, a fragrance from life to life.”

Is it any wonder that Paul adds to this the trembling question, “Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not like so many peddlers of God's Word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.”

Now, it's not comfortable to have to teach these things. But if we are faithful to God's Word, we must teach the hard things as well as the pleasant things. Some men will not be moved by love. Some men will take advantage of love. Some men will even trample on the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Savior was so kind and tender. He said of Himself, “I am gentle and lowly in heart.” And yet men crucified Him. Their evil will one day burn against them. The coals of the fires of judgment will burn upon them, and they will be separated from God forever. Listen to the prophetic word concerning the coals of fire that shall be upon the heads of the wicked.

“Those who surround me lift up their head in arrogance. Let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them. Let burning coals fall upon them. Let them be cast into pits, no more to rise. Let not the slanderer be established in the land. Let evil hunt down the violent man speedily.” In another of the Psalms of judgment, we are told, “The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and His soul hates him that loves violence. On the wicked, He will rain coals of fire and brimstone. A scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.”

Now we have no right to pass by such statements without emphasizing their factualness, and also the momentous truth that these judgments are swiftly approaching. They are approaching each unbeliever with the speed of passing time. And death will end all opportunity to repent and be saved.

And they are approaching according to the plan of God, who has announced that the moment is coming when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.

And before we turn to another phase of the truth, in order to end on a more joyous note, let me answer the question that a Bible teacher hears so often, “Is the fire of hell literal fire?” To be perfectly honest with the Bible as I know it, I must answer that there are two possibilities. The fire is symbolic, or the fire is real.

If it is real, it has some strange qualities, for those who are to dwell in it are said to be in outer darkness. Fire without light would be strange indeed. When people ask me this question, sometimes I answer by asking them another. I want to know if the questioner believes that there is a hell.

Christ said there was. And the believer in Christ has no alternative but to follow his Lord and Master. I therefore answer the unbeliever who questions me thus, “I hope for your sake that the fire is real, for according to the principles of biblical revelation, if it is not real fire, it is something so much worse that there is no word for it. And the men who received the revelation wrote down the nearest approximation to that which they were given to see.”

We have an example in our day. Newspaper reporters saw the explosion of the first atomic bomb. A great thing burgeoned into the sky. No member of the human race had ever before seen such a thing. There were no words to describe it. The result was that the observers applied known terms to this horrible thing that had no name. They called it a mushroom cloud.

It was neither mushroom nor cloud. But the name has stuck. Perhaps the biblical vocabulary concerning eternal punishment is like this. Whatever the ultimate truth about this, there can be but one appeal in the light of all of its horror. If you are out of Christ, flee to Jesus and take Him as your Savior.

Then wrath against you will be stilled forever. And He will begin His processes of Christian growth in you. And for all who are believers, there remains this final glorious word. If you are learning to be triumphant over evil, if you are learning to overcome evil with good, then know that this is because you are becoming more like the Lord Jesus Christ.

How far He went in practicing this truth. When the nations were raging and the peoples imagining a vain thing, He did not move to destroy them. He did not destroy Adam when he sinned, but promised a Savior and began the long course of history, so that man could have opportunity upon opportunity to repent and to return to God.

He did not eradicate the wicked and sinful peoples of history. He did not destroy us when we were ungodly sinners. He came from heaven in order to save us. He came into the camp of His enemies and allowed them to do their will against Him in order to establish the foundation for our redemption.

When we were without strength, when we were enemies, Christ died for us. Note that He did not save us by demonstrating His mighty power in some miracle. He saved us. He saved us by letting us kill Him. How astonishing this is.

And when He arose from the dead, He did not judge those who had acted so wickedly against Him. The Jerusalem to which He had held out His arms before He died was still the center of His loving thought. He commanded His disciples to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, but He commanded them to begin at Jerusalem.

Oh, was this not heaping coals of fire upon the heads of His enemies? And did it not melt the hearts of many? Were not 3,000 citizens of that wicked city moved to put all their hope and trust in Him? So, when we turn to Christ, He transforms the life from active evil to positive good.

Newell in his commentary on Romans has a beautiful word on this verse, with which we conclude our study of this 12th chapter. “This plan of setting forth a positive path of good before His saints, instead of a negative, ‘Thou shalt not,’ is the constant way of God in grace. Compare, ‘Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, so that he may have wherewith to give to him that hath need.’

“It's not merely, ‘stop stealing,’ but, ‘begin giving.’ Just as in the following verse of Ephesians we read, ‘Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear.’ Merely to stop doing wrong things will finally make a monk out of you. Doing good will put you in Paul's company. No one is overcoming save those whose time is filled with good, praise, prayer, and thanksgiving toward God, and loving ministry toward men.”

And our God and Father, we pray Thee that Thou shalt day by day fill us with the Lord Jesus Christ, that as we live and move out in love toward those round about us, men shall take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus Christ. We ask it in His name and for His sake. Amen.

Announcer (Male): The Bible commands us to love our enemies and pray for those who spitefully use us. We must never allow ourselves to be overcome by evil, but rather we must overcome evil with good. We hope you have benefited from today's message entitled The Christian and His Enemies. To listen to additional teaching by Dr. Barnhouse, visit us online at alliancenet.org.

Again, our website address is alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today's teaching is available by calling us toll-free, 1-800-488-1888. Today's message again is entitled The Christian and His Enemies, or simply request message number R12-30. We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled Daily Meditations for Family Worship.

Perhaps you recognize the value of family worship and desire to introduce this vital spiritual practice into your home. The only problem is you don't know how to begin. This free booklet will help you establish a fruitful family worship time. The daily scripture readings and meditations are beneficial for adults and children and for personal devotions as well. Ask for your free copy of Daily Meditations for Family Worship when you call or write.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is a 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 broadcast, 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 complete list of radio stations carrying our programs, visit our website, alliancenet.org.

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