Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

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

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Oh, how marvelous to know that because Christ has died, the holy God of all the universe looks at believers only through his son, Jesus Christ. God revealed through John that he is light, and that in him dwelleth no darkness at all.

When we have Christ, we have light. When we have light, we have Christ. When we have Christ, we have all the armor. We cannot be touched but go forth as conquerors. Yes, more than conquerors, through him who loved us.

Christ is coming back again. The day, God says, is about to dawn. Put on the armor. Walk honestly, walk becomingly. It becomes us to obey our Lord. The night is slipping away. The day is at hand. Put off the old, put on the new. Walk in Christ. This is his desire for us.

Guest (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, “Clothed with Christ.”

If you are working in your yard, you can wear dirty jeans and an old t-shirt. But if you wore those to a job interview, you might not get hired. You would be ushered to the parking lot if you tried to wear that outfit to a formal black tie event. Certain occasions in life demand that we have the proper attire.

And in the spiritual realm, the proper attire for the believer is to always be clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ. How can we learn to put off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light and live godly, Christ-like lives in the midst of our dark and fallen world?

The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans chapter 13, we're looking at verses 12 through 14. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled, “Clothed with Christ.”

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto the our Father and our God and in the Holy Spirit. Thou has saved us and brought us out of death and into life. We live by thy grace. We are kept by thy grace. We walk by thy grace. And it is by thy grace that we shall be brought through to the salvation that is ready to be revealed at the last time.

Speak to our hearts in this hour. If there are those who are yet dead in their sin, speak with the quickening voice that can bring life. While for those who live, speak the arousing word that shall cause them to live for Christ. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

We come today to the last verses of the 13th chapter of Romans, our concluding study in this chapter. And we look at the phrases which speak of the equipment that God has given us for the Christian life. Let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, becomingly. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the Bible teaches us that the Lord Jesus is coming back again. We who are redeemed are going to meet him. The time is much closer than you think. Man's night will soon end, and the great dawn of God's day will shine upon us. In the light of this, our chapter calls us, believers, to take inventory and to live in keeping with the righteousness and holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In a previous study, we have seen how far the night is spent. We have studied the approaching day and what it will bring. We have considered the sins, which the Holy Spirit commands us to avoid. Now, we are told how to live the Christian life. Our dirty garments are to be flung aside, and we are to put on divine clothing. We are to wear the godly armor which God has provided for us. We are to be clothed with Christ.

Let us look at some passages in other epistles which contain the same teaching. To the Thessalonians, Paul wrote, “Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” To the Corinthians, he wrote, “In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left.”

The most detailed and best known passage about the Christian's armor is in the letter to the Ephesians. One translator puts it in the straightforward language that gives us the feel of the fight. “In conclusion, be strong, not in yourselves, but in the Lord, in the power of his boundless resource. Put on God's complete armor so that you can successfully resist all the devil's methods of attack.”

For our fight is not against any physical enemy; it is against organizations and powers that are spiritual. We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil. Therefore, you must wear the whole armor of God, that you may be able to resist evil in its day of power, and that even when you have fought to a standstill, you may still stand your ground.

“Take your stand then with truth as your belt, righteousness your breastplate, the gospel of peace firmly on your feet, salvation as your helmet, and in your hand the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Above all, be sure you take faith as your shield, for it can quench every burning missile the enemy hurls at you.”

Now, balance this passage with our text in Romans and you have a wonderful equation. Put on the whole armor of God. Put on the armor of light. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, everything we need is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As a budding preacher, still in my teens, I planned a sermon on Ephesians 6:10-17, this story of the whole armor of God. And I made my outline in the following way. In one column, I noted the pieces of the armor: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, salvation, the word of God, and faith.

Opposite each item, I noted a scripture verse which described that quality in terms of Christ. Opposite truth, I wrote John 14:6, where Jesus Christ says, “I am the truth.” Opposite righteousness, I wrote 1 Corinthians 1:30, “You are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us righteousness.” Opposite peace, I wrote Ephesians 2:14, which tells us, “Christ is our peace.” Opposite salvation, I wrote Psalm 62:2, where the psalmist says, “God only is my salvation.”

Opposite the word of God, I wrote John 1, 1 and 14, which declares, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” By this time, in my boyish way, I was quite pleased with my sermon outline, for I was sure that putting on the armor and putting on Christ were the same, because it appeared that every part of the armor was Christ.

But there remained that last little word, faith, to be matched with Christ. And taking my large concordance and beginning with Matthew, I looked up every reference to faith in the New Testament, but found no verse where Christ and faith are equated. Then I searched the New Testament in reverse order. From Revelation, I began to go back up the column to Matthew, but with no success. I was very much disappointed to find no verse in the New Testament that equated faith with Christ.

For I would not have preached the sermon if only five out of my six points were solidly established, since that would not be an honest exposition of the word of God. Suddenly, looking through the concordance, I was thunderstruck by two facts. First, the word faith occurs only twice in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 32:20 and in Habakkuk 2:4. And the latter verse solved my problem.

The Apostle Paul made this Old Testament verse on faith the central thesis of three of his epistles: Romans, Galatians and Hebrews. In the New Testament, Habakkuk 2:4 is quoted to read, “The just shall live by faith.” In all three passages, Paul reads it that way: “The just shall live by faith.” But back in the Old Testament, in the book of Habakkuk, the original is, “The just shall live by his faith.”

At once, I thought of Galatians 2:20, to which I had paid little attention as I searched the New Testament references on faith. Galatians 2:20 says, “The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” And there, I discovered the second great fact. The faith of Christ is the source and fullness of life. Christ is everything, and all that we need to win the battle.

All truth is related to him. All true righteousness has its source in him. And so on through the list. Put on Christ, and you put on the whole armor of God. Put on the whole armor of God, and you put on Christ. Note well that we must gird ourselves with this armor because we face a great fight.

As the night of this world draws to a close, opposing forces will use every stratagem to intimidate or defeat us. God has furnished us with everything that we need to wage spiritual warfare. If we are defeated by sin, it is not because our armor was not sufficient, but because we have neglected to put on the armor and use the weapon, the sword of the Spirit, which God has given to us.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing? Were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing? Dost ask whom that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he. Lord Sabaoth his name. From age to age the same, and he must win the battle. When Martin Luther wrote that hymn, he knew this secret of victory, and he triumphed greatly because he put on the whole armor, and so put on Christ.

The first piece of armor is truth. It is the belt which binds together all the other pieces of equipment. God calls himself in the Old Testament, “the God of truth.” And in the Psalms, he desires truth in our inward parts, or as Paul puts it in Philippians, we are to be sincere and without offense. The Lord hates a lying tongue, and Satan himself is said to be the father of lies.

Since Jesus Christ is not merely a phase of truth, but truth itself, the living word, and since the written word, the Bible is his truth, how important it is to be totally yielded to him, that his truth may speak through us.

Secondly, the righteousness, which covers us like a breastplate, is the very righteousness of God. This is the first effect of the death of Christ as applied to us. Because he died for our sins, when we believed on him, the righteousness of God was put to our account. This is the righteousness, which is unto all and upon all them that believe.

God removes our sins from us by virtue of Christ's poured out life, and then clothes us with Christ and divine righteousness. This is why we sing, “When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh, then I shall in him be found, dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.” And again, “Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress. Mid flaming worlds in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head.”

Oh, how marvelous to know that because Christ has died, the holy God of all the universe looks at believers only through his son, Jesus Christ. We cannot face the terrible conflict of the last dark hours of this age, if we are not sure that we stand before God in Christ, clothed with his righteousness.

The third item in the armor is the gospel of peace for our feet. We live in the midst of a warring world, so our feet must be well shod. The Greek word translated preparation is used in modern Greek for army equipment. And in this case, it means boots. Anyone who has been in the army understands that among the most important items of a man's gear are his shoes. Proper footwear enables a soldier to move easily over difficult terrain.

We shall be walking aright if we go in the zeal of the gospel, to tell men that Christ has died for them, and that peace has been declared. What a wonderful message we have to declare. God has nothing against you. God is satisfied with what Christ did in your behalf. He is waiting to receive you and to restore you to fellowship with himself. Peace. You don't have to deal with the justice of God. You only have to face the love of God because Christ died.

And let us bear in mind also that the man who is properly shod, does not get his toes stepped on. “Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing, nothing shall offend them.” To live in this world without taking offense at the world's abuse, is sure proof that we are becoming like our Lord Jesus Christ. When he was here, when he was reviled, he reviled not again. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.

And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. And we can follow his example, when our feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The next item of our armor is salvation. Salvation is our helmet. And the helmet is what protects the head.

The great difficulty with many people is that they have been hit over the head with modern education, without having their heads protected by salvation. I believe that the sorriest spectacle in the world is a highly educated lost soul. The man who rejects God's revelation, and turns to the figments of human imagination, unprotected by salvation, is in a precarious position.

God states in 2 Peter 3:5 that those who do not believe that he intervenes in world affairs are willingly ignorant. And the charge of willing ignorance is perhaps the worst that can be leveled against the man who prides himself on being scientifically objective. No man can be objective who has not first subjected himself to divine principles. To be truly educated, we must begin with the fact of God, who has said that those who come to him must believe that he exists and that he is the rewarder of them who diligently seek him.

Now as we seek to know God, we must realize that he has all power, including the power to hide himself, and that he reveals himself only to those who know Christ. I believe it is impossible to be an honest skeptic, for skepticism is a form of dishonesty. The skeptic builds barriers against God. Skepticism is also a form of escapism, because the skeptic is seeking to escape from God.

Happy the man who comes to the cross of Christ, and receives the divine wisdom which enables him to live undeceived by the illusions of this world. But this should not put a premium upon ignorance. Every believer should do all that he can to put on the helmet of salvation.

Finally, our offensive weapon is the sword of the Spirit, the Bible, the word of God. “What?” I am frequently asked, “How can you use the Bible when talking to people who do not believe that it's the word of God?” My answer is, “Use it on them.” If an enemy soldier on Guadalcanal had told one of our Marines that he did not believe that the bayonet on the Marine's rifle was real, but that it was a Hollywood prop of papier-mâché, the Marine could quickly convince him by using the bayonet to slit the doubter's coat and prick his skin.

I have seen this technique work a thousand times with those who denied the Bible. Just quote one more verse to them. And then one more, and then one more. The word of God does the work of God. Let's never forget this. I remember one time a skeptic who came to me, it was in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He gave me his card. He was officially connected with an association that was disseminating atheistic literature.

And after a while, he said, “I can't see it.” And I said, “Of course you can't. In 2 Corinthians 4, it says, ‘the god of this world hath blinded your eyes.’” “Well,” he said, “it's foolishness to me.” And I said, “Surely it is.” And I turned the page and said, “Look what God says in 1 Corinthians 1, ‘The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.’” And don't forget, if all the smart people in the world believed the Bible, the Bible wouldn't be true, because the Bible says that sin blinds men, and that they will not come, that they may have life.

Now the last named piece of equipment is the shield of faith. Faith is just believing God. If we believe him, nothing can move us. Only when we allow our faith to be deceived, does our love grow cold, and the enemy strikes us with one of his missiles. When we believe God, nothing can deceive us. No matter what attack is launched against us, if we believe God, the enemy's efforts are harmless.

Paul says, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” And when we take this attitude, we are invulnerable. If we love him, we know. And if we know, we have the shield of faith, which deflects every attack. All this together comprises the armor of light. God revealed through John that he is light, and that in him dwelleth no darkness at all. When we have Christ, we have light. When we have light, we have Christ. When we have Christ, we have all the armor.

We cannot be touched, but go forth as conquerors. Yes, more than conquerors, through him who loved us. Christ is coming back again. The day, God says, is about to dawn. Put on the armor. Walk honestly, walk becomingly. It becomes us to obey our Lord. The night is slipping away. The day is at hand. Put off the old, put on the new. Walk in Christ. This is his desire for us.

And our God and Father, we pray thee that the Holy Spirit shall take these lessons to our hearts. There are many, many, many Christians who walk in defeat, and help them to realize that the reason is because they have not obeyed the simple commands that thou has set forth for us. So we ask thee that there may be many who come to thee, confess sin and to ask that thou shalt strip from them the old garments of self-righteousness, and to clothe them with Jesus Christ, that they may walk before thee in love. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

Guest (Male): The world lies in spiritual night, but the day is almost here. Let us turn away from gratifying the desires of our sinful nature and clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and pursue lives of genuine holiness. We hope you've benefited from today's message, “Clothed with Christ.”

To listen to more Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse, 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, “Clothed with Christ,” or simply request message number R13-19.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled, “First Things First.” If we are to experience peace and victory in the Christian life, we must have a firm grasp of the primary foundational concepts about God. This six-chapter booklet focuses on spiritual priorities including the Word of God, the Lordship of Christ, witnessing, fellowship, and repentance. You will learn the tremendous benefit of putting first things first in your spiritual life. Ask for your free copy of “First Things First” 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 all believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place.

We also produce 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 full list of radio stations carrying our programs, visit us online at 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 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 Doctors Donald Grey Barnhouse, James Montgomery Boice, Martin Lloyd Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken. Thanks for listening today. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.