Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

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

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Fall on your knees before the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that God has said that your knees shall bow to Christ. There is no possible escape.

And so as His ambassador, I say to you, come and kneel before the day when you will feel the iron grip of an angel upon you, leading you to the place where you shall kneel in spite of yourself, because you would not now kneel of your own will.

Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.

Announcer: 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, Every Knee Shall Bow. In stark contrast to the unbelieving world, Christians willingly and joyfully bow before Jesus Christ and submit to His sovereign Lordship. There will come a day when those who refuse to bow the knee to Jesus Christ in this life will be forced to bow before Him and acknowledge His supremacy before entering into eternal condemnation.

Will you bow in submission to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior now, before it's too late? The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans chapter 14 and verse 11. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, with a message entitled, Every Knee Shall Bow.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto our Father and our God and in the Holy Spirit. We acknowledge, our Father, that we are an unclean nation, and that we richly deserve judgment from Thee.

But we who are seeking to be yielded to Thee, ask that Thou wilt not judge us according to our deserts, but rather deal with us in accordance with Thy grace. We want nothing that is not for our good, as Thou dost see our good. And we want everything from Thee that Thou knowest is best for us.

So speak to us in this hour we pray Thee, for we ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We continue now in our study of Romans 14:11. As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God. God has sworn by an oath that every creature shall bow to Him.

Now, this is not because God loves power. It's not because God is proud, but it is because God knows that all goodness is in Himself, and that men can be filled with joy only when they are yielded to Him. A man who does not yield to Him, refrains from this surrender because he wants to run his own life.

This means actually that he wants to be God Himself, and live according to his own will. Since God is all goodness, all holiness, all righteousness, He has told us that He is going to change the whole universe someday, so that there will be only goodness, only holiness, only righteousness. This means that He must judge those who insist on going their own way, instead of going His way.

Our Lord described this coming judgment in these words. At the close of this age, the angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire. In an earlier verse in this same 13th chapter of Matthew, He says, the Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire.

In this passage, Jesus Christ proclaimed what He Himself proclaimed before He came into this world, to be the Word made flesh. The original prophecy is in the book of Isaiah, and it is so important that we quote the entire passage. We read the following in the book of Isaiah chapter 45. Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together, you survivors of the nations.

They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a God that cannot save. Declare and present your case. Let them take counsel together. Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God beside Me.

Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn, from My mouth has gone forth in righteousness, a word that shall not return, to Me, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Only in the Lord it shall be said of Me, our righteousness and strength.

To Him shall come and be ashamed, all who were incense against Him. Now, God quotes this oath through Paul in the New Testament to establish the principle that He alone is God, and that all accounts are to be settled with Him.

In our study of the last verses of the 13th of Romans, we saw two different days in biblical prophecy. First, there is a day when the Lord will deliver the godly from the trial that is to come upon the world, and when He will judge His own. Following this comes the great tribulation. Ending with God's judgment of the unregenerate and the establishment of His righteous kingdom upon the earth.

In our present study, we shall confine ourselves to the judgment of those who have not bowed the knee to the Lord during their lifetime. The bowing of their knees is reserved for that great day of judgment. In his book, Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis contrasts what he calls the Jewish concept of judgment, with that which he calls the Christian concept of judgment.

By making this distinction, he falls into the great error of thinking that there is a contradiction, and writes, I think there are very good reasons for regarding the Christian picture of God's judgment as far more profound and far safer for our souls than the Jewish.

Mr. Lewis has not understood that the Psalms declare the judgment of the unrighteous, when all believers will stand with God against those who have flouted Him and trampled His Son under their feet. The New Testament sees judgment from two different points of view. It reflects what is set forth in the Old Testament, and adds the concept of our responsibility to our Heavenly Father in the light of His grace.

More and more, I am convinced that it is impossible correctly to interpret biblical matters without understanding that there are to be two resurrections, and that the judgments to take place on those two occasions differ as to time, place, persons, principles, verdicts, and sentences.

Since I have treated this at length elsewhere, it's enough to remember one or two verses which are so definite and absolute, that there should be no hesitation about accepting their teaching. Speaking of believers, the word of God says, they came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life again until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no authority. It's almost impossible to gauge the amount of damage that has been done through confounding these judgments, and introducing the erroneous idea that believers and unbelievers will be judged in the same moment.

My knees have bowed already to our Lord and our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What a delight to waken in the morning and bow once again before His Majesty, and to bask in the love that He sheds abroad in our hearts. And each evening, as the events and thoughts of the day are reviewed before Him, sins of commission and especially sins of omission are acknowledged in that awesome light.

We are always aware that deeds done here will be brought out at the judgment of believers. From time to time, as I hear news broadcasts, or read of horrors that are taking place in the world, I rejoice with God that one day the evils of the unregenerate world will be requited. The knees that have not bowed in this life will certainly be brought low at the judgment of unbelievers.

In my preliminary notes for this study, jotted down months before the actual writing of the message, I noted an illustration from another work by C.S. Lewis that I intended to use, and will use later in this study. I have read almost everything that Lewis has written, and thus possess a considerable segment of his mind. And I know that out of the abundance of his heart, his pen had spoken, and so I have come to love him without having seen him.

A day or two before this present writing, his new volume, The Reflections on the Psalms, came to my desk. It brought me magnificent blessing and bitter disappointment. For here, clearly revealed, was the explanation of the vague questions that occasionally arose in my mind as I read his amazing parables, his penetrating analyses of motives, and his breathtaking unmasking of the hypocrites.

The explanation of the questions in my mind, is that Mr. Lewis has a human Bible, instead of a divine revelation. His blade is loose in the haft. And although his hand is firm, his sword occasionally gives no more than a glancing blow when it should strike to the marrow of the bone.

To him, the author of the Psalms is not God, but David. And the other writers of the Psalter are the originators of these great works. According to him, the biting denunciations are not declarations of divine judgment, but are from man, and are to quote Mr. Lewis, naive, childish, diabolical, petty, vulgar, terrible, contemptible, bad, vindictive, festering, gloating.

If Mr. Lewis had known that the entire Bible is from God, he would have looked deeper. We agree with him that we should be wicked, if we in any way condoned or approved of any merely human hatred. And that we would be even worse if we used it to justify similar passions in ourselves.

But we must not forget that when we are born again, our bodies become the temples of the Holy Spirit, and God actually dwells in our hearts by faith. From that moment, we are focal points in the world for everything that God is, both His love and His wrath.

Too often we think that love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control, form the total picture of what we shall be when God possesses our whole being. But we are also focal points for the wrath of God. If I cannot hate spiritually, the things that God hates, then He does not fully possess my being.

Mr. Lewis himself reflects the divine wrath, when he describes his reactions to a conversation of a group of British soldiers in the compartment of a train. They were talking of the wholesale cruelties of the Nazi regime. They took it for granted, without argument, that this was all lies, all propaganda put out by the British government to pep up the troops.

They took it for granted that a government should lie in such a manner. Lewis adds, if they had perceived and felt as a man should feel, the diabolical wickedness which they believed our rulers to be committing, and then forgiven them, they would have been saints. But not to perceive it at all, not even to be tempted to resentment.

To accept it as the most ordinary thing in the world, argues a terrifying insensibility. Clearly, these young men had, on that subject anyway, no conception of good and evil whatsoever. And thus the absence of anger, especially that sort of anger which we call indignation, can in my opinion, I'm still quoting Mr. Lewis, be a most alarming symptom. And the presence of indignation may be a good one.

Well, to this I say, bravo, Mr. Lewis. And that divine indignation is what we should feel when we read the Psalms, and when we think about our text, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow. And we, in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, must feel the throbbing longing for the end of evil on earth.

But what about these stories where God commands someone to snatch up a Babylonian baby and beat its brains out against the pavement? Let us understand a little more about some of the goings on in the invisible war. The sixth of Genesis tells us that fallen angels followed Satan in his rebellion, who kept not their first estate, but fell a second time into such sin that the Lord sent them long before the time when the rest of Satan's host shall be judged, to a premature judgment, as we read in 2 Peter 2:4 and in Jude 6.

Now a close reading shows that there was an attempt by Satan to impregnate the human race with a demon strain, which would, of course, have made it impossible for Christ to be born of such a mother, half human, half demon. God intervened with the flood, and destroyed all the race except Noah and his family. God should have intervened.

He was forced to intervene in order to protect His promise that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head. The sixth of Genesis tells us that the Nephilim, the giants, the Hebrew word is the Nephilim, were on earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men of old, the men of renown.

The phrase and also afterward leads us straight to the passages which describe the entrance of the children of Israel into Palestine. Satan knew that the promises of the land had been made to Abraham and his seed, and that they had been confirmed by the oath of God.

Some of his followers again plunged over the barriers that had been set for them by God, and entered Palestine, and, as in the time before the flood, peopled it with a similar race of monsters. We read this in the 13th of Numbers. When Joshua entered the land against these monsters, God once more gave the order to kill all, both men, women, and children, and so it was.

And when some sought to escape, the Lord God killed them with hailstones from heaven. We read in Joshua 10. Now there are indications that this satanic rebellion will be allowed to break out once more, and that the children of Babylon will be thus demon possessed.

It is not pertinent to our present study, but it will explains that the day will come when God will demand the utter destruction, even to the last babe, of these semi-demonic forces. And a blessing from God will indeed be pronounced upon those who perform His will in this matter.

Then the kingdoms of this earth will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And the Hallelujah Chorus will be sung. Then indeed, the Lord will prepare the table before His people in the presence of their enemies. We like Dr. Moffatt's translation, Thou art my host, spreading a feast for me, while my enemies have to look on.

This is not a human gloating. This is a divinely inspired joy that comes from knowing that evil shall be brought down upon this earth, and that righteousness shall triumph. Now this brings us to the illustration from another of Mr. Lewis's books that I spoke of a moment ago, that I had long planned to use to illustrate this present message.

In his book, The Great Divorce, Lewis presents a magnificent allegory on the nature of human choices. The choices that originally send men to hell, are the choices that would keep them there, even if they had opportunity to leave the place. Lewis opens his book with a description of a place which, we soon discover, is hell.

It's described as a gray, murky city. Something like a horrible warren in the midst of a coal mining region. Dark, shabby, dreary, cheerless. Worst of all, it's inhabited by a snarling, sullen and somber citizenship, mirthless and miserable, who show with every word and gesture that they are the victims of their own willful pride.

I greatly appreciated this description, for I have long taught that if the flames of hell are real, they're strangely different from the fire we know in this world, since they are fire without light. And the whole is called outer darkness.

I believe that hell will be a place of solitary confinement, where no soul will ever hear another voice. And where forever, men will think on the fancied slights and insults which they have undergone. The refrain of the place will be words without music, and will ever sound out its mournful monotone. He did that to me! I wanted this and that and it was not given to me! I did not have my way!

The monstrous record will turn and turn, slipping its groove and repeating its endless note of arrogant disappointment. There is one detail lacking in Mr. Lewis's wonderful description. I would have described them all in terms which showed the men with torn trousers, exposing their knees, and the women with ripped skirts, exposing their knees.

And each of these knees would have the ugliest of scars. For God has sworn it, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow. With this thought, there sweeps over me the flood of humbling joy, because He has won me by His grace. And already I have bowed my knees to Him.

There is no day of my life that I do not ask Him to bring me even lower before Himself. And soon we learn that to be low before our God does not include any crawling. God wants no abject groveling children. And what delights me most, is that when I stand tallest to witness for my Lord, my inner heart can kneel lowest before Him.

My knees have bowed. My knees have bowed often. Even when I stand and walk and run for Him, my heart is still kneeling before Him. And I have the joy of knowing that this shall be so forever. And now, before this study comes to a close, let me appeal to those who have not yet bowed before Him.

Come today. Fall on your knees before the Lord Jesus Christ. Acknowledge that He is the Lord of all, Jehovah God, the second Person of the Trinity. Remember that God has said that your knees shall bow to Christ. There is no possible escape.

But remember too, that when He first announced that your knees would bow, He accompanied the oath with an invitation. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of earth, for I am God and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn, from My mouth has gone forth in righteousness, a word that shall not return. To Me, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess.

So you listen to Him, announcing the judgment, but at the same time saying to you, turn to Me and be saved. And so as His ambassador, I say to you, come and kneel before the day when you will feel the iron grip of an angel upon you, leading you to the place where you shall kneel in spite of yourself, because you would not now kneel of your own will.

Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. And we pray Thee our God and Father that Thou shalt use this message. It is quite understandable that the day shall come when Thou shalt pluck out of Thy kingdom all causes of sin and all persons who offend. And we pray Thee that Thou shalt cause men to see that the day of Thy triumph is sure.

And that their knees must bow someday. So rather let them come while it is day. So rather let them bow before Thee and acknowledge Thy Deity and Thy ways. And that Thy Son came that even they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Speak we pray Thee.

We ask all these things in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Announcer: Every knee shall bow before Jesus Christ, whether by choice or by force. Those who bow to Him in this life will receive everlasting life and enjoy the riches of God's grace for all eternity. We hope you have benefited from today's message entitled Every Knee Shall Bow.

To listen to additional 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, Every Knee Shall Bow, or simply request message number R14-21.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled, The History of Sin. The reality of sin is a stumbling block for many people when they consider the existence and character of God. If God is loving and all powerful, then why does He allow sin, evil, and suffering to exist?

In this free booklet, Dr. Barnhouse carefully and scripturally outlines the history of sin and examines its nature, extent, and course. Ask for your free copy of The History of Sin 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.

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 our website at AllianceNet.org.

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