Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Guest (Male): The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals presents the timeless teaching of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse. Among the greatest honors in this world are to receive such recognition as that which comes with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the French Legion of Honor, or with knighthood from Britain's sovereign.

And yet these honors must fade into insignificance when compared with that which belongs to some poor, unknown Christian, who is the object of someone's sneer, because he has been willing to walk closely with the Lord, thus bringing upon himself the same attacks as those which came against his Savior when he was here on earth.

(Singing) God's word is good for what he gave, to teach, rebuke, correct and train. Equipped by him we then pursue the work God has for us to do. God's word is all the Christian needs to grow in grace and do good deeds.

Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of 10th 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'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled The Christian in Adversity.

Scripture is filled with wonderful truths and promises from God that we embrace and cherish. But there is one we tend to overlook that may not seem so wonderful to us. The Bible plainly states that all of us who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

The Christian walk is often a difficult and confusing pilgrimage through a lost and fallen world, and we will face adversity along the way. How can we learn to face adversity with biblical wisdom in a way that will please the Lord and bring honor to his name?

The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible: Romans chapter 12 and verses 12, 14, and 17. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled The Christian in Adversity.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ we come unto our Father and our God and in the Holy Spirit. We recognize clearly that there is nothing in man that can bless man. Thus we are forced back on thee, because thou art the only source of life, light, power, understanding, and all other good gifts.

We appeal to thy sovereign grace, that thou shalt fulfill thy promise to us, to use the word which thou hast spoken and make it so alive to us, as we speak and as we listen, that we shall enter into thy full purposes for us in this hour. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Our text today is in Romans chapter 12, three clauses from the 12th, 14th, and 17th verses: "Be patient in tribulation," "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them," "Repay no one evil for evil."

Now the true Christian life is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ lived within the believer. When we have come to the knowledge that we are the objects of his grace, when we know that we have eternal life because we have been joined to Christ, who is the Lord of life, then we are to go out into the world and be Christ, the word again made flesh in the midst of the world at whatever point he places us.

Now as soon as we have learned this lesson, we are at perfect peace. Whatever our lot, we will learn therein to be content. In earthly affairs, the good qualities of a man may be overlooked and there may be inferior men who get ahead because of influence, connivance, or accident. But with God, there are no such possibilities, and he will always reward his own in his good time.

There may be those who continue through the entire course of this present life without getting out of what the world would consider to be a rut. But in the day when all things are made clear and plain, the Lord will reward every believer in accordance with the principles of truth, as he, the Lord of all truth, has seen and recorded the motives and the performance of every one of us.

Now the Lord knows that he has placed us Christians in an adverse world. It is not normal for the Christian to be in a place of ease and popularity. The Lord himself said, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and flog you in their synagogues. And you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear testimony against them and the Gentiles."

Now perhaps it's not possible for many believers living in the midst of our Western prosperity to understand the meaning of these words. The life which we have in our country is so abnormal from a biblical point of view that it becomes almost impossible for us to see into the inwardness of much of Christian truth.

There must be a great humbling on the part of believers and a return to that for which the Lord has placed us here. Too many of us seem to be saying to the Lord that we will be glad to enlist in his army if he will provide us with air-conditioned quarters and sumptuous rations, first-class transportation, and all-around lavish living.

But a close study of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving careful consideration to his words and his example, will reveal to us the path which the true Christian is to enter. To some, this may be a hard saying, and as in the time of the Lord, there will be those who will turn back because the way seems too difficult.

But we must recognize that we are dealing with the God of all grace. He knows the ways into which he desires to lead us, and he will bring us through and provide for our every need as we walk moment by moment in simple trust in himself.

Moreover, the nature of such a walk will teach us to turn to him and to walk in him, to bask in him, I may say. For there is a warmth and a delight in yieldedness to his full leading that cannot be described in any other terms than those of soaking up strength from exposure to the genial heat of his presence.

There is an exhilaration, a strength, a warmth, a joy that comes from such yieldedness to the Lord for which there is no parallel and for which there can be no human explanation. Now such a life must inevitably draw the hatred of those who do not know it. To live supernaturally in the midst of a natural world is a silent rebuke that becomes intolerably galling and brings the hatred of those who are not willing to follow.

Thus it is that our present section of the epistle to the Romans, dealing with the details of the Christian life, forearms us for the conflicts that must result when we draw nearer and nearer to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the central target of all of the earth's hatreds.

The first of these salutary injunctions is to tell us to be patient in tribulation. The nature with which we are born wants to defend itself. It wishes to be right at all times and to fight for its supposed rights at every point.

Just as the muscles of a corpse can be stimulated to jerky movements by the application of an electric current, so the Adamic nature of each individual can be roused by any trespass on its fancied rights. The Christian is called upon to yield all of life to Christ so that we shall be crucified with him and thus made like him in his death.

God is calling us to Christ-likeness in this whole phase of life. We are to be crucified with Christ so that we do not react to the persecutions that living in the world will bring us. For a Christian to take offense is a sin. "Great peace have they that love thy law," we read in Psalm 119, "and nothing shall offend them."

Now I'm aware of the meaning of the Hebrew word and of the great change that has taken place in the meaning of the word "offend," but I purpose to speak of it in its present meaning. The Hebrew word originally referred to a stumbling block, and the newer translation correctly says "nothing can make them stumble." But there is a sense in which we can understand this in a more modern meaning of offense.

Those who are resting completely in Christ cannot be made to feel hurt or resentment. Nothing can anger, nothing can insult, nothing can vex the true believer who has come to rest in the love of God revealed to us in Christ. Now if we examine this, we can readily understand why.

There are only two things that could ever be said against us: something that is true and something that is false. Now if someone in our circle discovers something against us that has been caused by wrong in us, we have no right to be offended. As the modern world would say, we had it coming to us.

This is why the Holy Spirit tells us to be patient when we suffer for the things that we have done wrongfully. We read in First Peter 2, "For what credit is it if, when you do wrong and are beaten for it, you take it patiently?"

And thus if I learn that someone has circulated a criticism against me for something which I have done which is wrong, I must be driven back to the feet of the Lord and acknowledge before him that I have been a poor witness, and ask him to forgive me for having dishonored his name in such a way that discredit has come upon him through the wrong action of one whom he has redeemed.

And at the same time, I thank him that he has allowed such a small percentage of my misdeeds to become the subject of such alien criticism. For all the world ever finds out against us is only five percent, we may say, of what they might find out against us.

Now someone may interject that this attitude is quite understandable and that it's only when there are unfounded criticisms that our antagonisms may be raised. One man whom I know well has lost a great deal of his ministry because he has mistakenly defended all his actions, even when they were bad. Seemingly he has but one verse and that is, "Let not your good be evil spoken of."

But as we shall see when we come to a discussion of that verse, it says, "Let not then your good be evil spoken of." The omission of the word "then"—let not then—changes the entire meaning of the verse. In reality, it cannot be used as a crutch to maintain us in our self-righteousness and self-defensiveness.

There are too many strong commandments against our defending ourselves. Listen to Peter: "If when you do right and suffer for it, you take it patiently, you have God's approval. For to this you've been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. Even if you do suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord."

"Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, so that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or a wrongdoer or a mischief-maker. Yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God. Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful creator."

Now in the light of all this, we can well understand why Christ himself spoke so directly about acceptance of persecution. The last two of the Beatitudes cover this question fully. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Thus we recognize that if anyone says anything about us that is not true, attacking us because we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, we can consider that God has brought us to the place where we have an honor from him greater than the honor that earth's highest decoration could bring to a man of courage in the midst of visible war.

Among the greatest honors in this world are to receive such recognition as that which comes with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the French Legion of Honor, or with knighthood from Britain's sovereign. And yet these honors must fade into insignificance when compared with that which belongs to some poor, unknown Christian, who is the object of someone's sneer, because he has been willing to walk closely with the Lord, thus bringing upon himself the same attacks as those which came against his Savior when he was here on earth.

Think of some of the things that were suffered by our Lord Jesus when he was here on earth. We do not include here the suffering which he endured in his final passion and death, nor the sufferings which he underwent because he had accepted the weakness of the human body.

The sufferings which he accepted from God for our sin were greatest. The sufferings which he took upon him when he became flesh and thus knew cold and hunger, weariness, homelessness, fatigue, loneliness were also great. But the sufferings which he took for righteousness' sake may well have been the most galling.

To have had his holy character assailed by evil men because he refused to conform to the social standards of a depraved people was something which will ultimately draw great retribution from God. Jesus was called a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of the collaborationist tax-gatherers who worked for the occupying Roman forces. He was called a friend of sinners.

To climax it all, he stood calmly while his enemies watched him cast out a demon, heard them say that he was operating by the power of the devil. In all the events that led up to his crucifixion, he acted in such a way that he fulfilled perfectly the prophecy which had been made about him: "He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth."

We must not forget that it is in all this that he has left us an example that we should follow his steps. Our lives are to be lived in such a way that we are patient in tribulation. When anyone persecutes us wrongfully, we're to pray for them, asking God to bless them.

Oh, this does not mean that we're to pray God to prosper their evil ways, but that we are to ask God to deal with them in such a way that they shall be brought to see their folly and to repent from their evil ways so that they can come into the place of his true blessing.

The Christian is to live in such a fashion that it can readily be seen that the life within him is not animated by the reaction of original human life, but that he is indwelt by Christ. It might be said that the child of Adam by nature is a rock which when struck brings forth bitter water. The one who has become a child of God has become a new rock which when struck brings forth sweet water.

Thus we will stand in the wilderness of our surroundings as fountains for him. Is this not implied in Christ's wonderful promise and announcement concerning the quality of the Christian life? "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water."

Many preachers have noted through the centuries that the Christian life becomes like that of a rose which when crushed gives forth its perfume. It is in tribulation and persecution that our Lord fulfills one of his purposes in us as expressed in one of the epistles: "Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere."

There is one more phrase in our context which belongs to this same melody. In the 17th verse of our chapter, we read, "Repay no one evil for evil." This carries the thought of our texts into the realm of the action. The first of the phrases shows an attitude of heart, the second an attitude of words, and the third an attitude of works.

In our hearts, we are to be patient in tribulation. In our words, we are to be fountains of blessing with no cursing whatsoever. In our actions, we are to make no gesture of repayment of evil with evil. The man who wishes to pay evil to another in vengeance is trespassing upon the function of God. For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people."

If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us on towards Christ's in patience, in blessing, and in good deeds towards those who have despitefully used us, we will enter into a greater understanding of Christ and we will better know the sovereignty of God.

The older I grow in the study of the word of God, the more I realize that each and every doctrine in the entire Bible stems out of the sovereignty of God. He is all perfection and in him all the attributes of goodness find their infinite perfection: righteousness, justice, holiness, truth, and all the yet unknown qualities which we shall ever be learning about him.

The more we study history, the more we realize that he has ordered all things that we might learn that in man there is no good whatsoever that can satisfy God, but that all goodness is in Christ and through him to us.

And the more we learn of his ways with us, the more we understand that he has ordered every circumstance of life as it touches each of us in order that Christ may be formed in us. God loves Christ so much that he wants to see him reproduced in countless human lives.

Think of the material he begins with: men dead in trespasses and sin, with carnal minds that were at enmity against him, with hearts that were deceitful above all things and incurably wicked, with wills that were depraved and twisted, with souls which had no thoughts beyond themselves. What can be done with such material?

The spirit of God broods over the face of the waters as darkness covers the face of our sinful depth, and then he speaks light to us and plants within us the very life of Christ. This is regeneration. Following this, it is by the processes of his training and development that little by little Christ is formed in us.

This is the sanctifying process which he has characterized as the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is that for which the Holy Spirit led the great apostle to pray for each of his followers: "That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God."

This is why God tells us to count it all joy when we fall into different types of testing. This is why he tells us that the trial of our faith is much more precious than that of gold which perishes though it be tried in the fire. We are being refined and purified. We are being put on the lathe and tooled into the form that will glorify him. We are being burnished with the frictions of tribulation and persecution.

But we have the full confidence that when the process is complete, we shall come forth made like unto the Lord Jesus Christ and we shall be glad for every step of the way. Therefore, faint not; do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we do not look at things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

And our God and Father, we pray thee to bless this truth to each listening heart, for we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Guest (Male): The Christian's life is difficult and there is much hardship and adversity along the way, but the Lord is faithful to his promises and has promised that he will never leave you nor forsake you. We hope you've benefited from today's message, The Christian in Adversity. Listen to additional teaching by Dr. Barnhouse anytime, anywhere via our internet site. Visit us online at 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 in Adversity, or simply request message number R-12-25. We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled Becoming a Christian.

If someone asked you, how can I become a Christian, would you be able to give a clear, biblically accurate response? Too often the answer to this question is not clearly stated from our pulpits, and the average believer is not always able to give a correct explanation. This free booklet clearly outlines the biblical path to becoming a Christian and experiencing the wonderful gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Ask for your free copy of Becoming a Christian 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 broadcasts The Bible Study Hour with the late James Montgomery Boice, and Every Last Word featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken. For a full listing of radio stations carrying our programs, please visit us online at alliancenet.org.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible comes to you through the generous gifts of our listeners. 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 toll-free 1-800-488-1888. Again, that's 1-800-488-1888. You may also write 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 Doctors 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.

(Singing) The Bible has a commanding word to do God's work. His saving work converts, it draws our souls from death to life, and rescues us from needless strife. Amazing gift, oh wealth so high, the life imparted by word of God.