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: Christ Jesus proclaimed, "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another." In our day, almost any movement among believers that is away from union and fellowship is a breach of love. The principle must be extended to all the phases of your life. The true believer will erect no spite fences.

And even when someone has erected a spite fence against him, the believer will continue to love the unhappy man who is filled with envy or jealousy or hatred or bigotry, whatever the cause of the spite may be. The force of love will be seen to be the mightiest. And even in the midst of the wrangling which might take place, the observer will see that the yielded believer will have no part in it.

He is seeking to display Jesus Christ, seeking to live in such a way that the onlooker shall know that he is like Christ, or at least that he is directing his life in love toward the goal of being more like Jesus Christ.

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 "The Importance of Christian Oneness." Adam’s act of disobedience against God in the Garden of Eden poisoned our relationships with God and with each other. Today, sin manifests its deadly effects in all of our relationships. Millions of people live in hostility and enmity against God. Nations war against nations. Families are ravaged by divorce, abuse, and adultery, and the church has splintered into countless factions.

How can the people of God recover the importance of Christian oneness and pursue lives of peace and harmony with all men and with the Lord? The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans chapter 12, we’re looking at verses 16 and 18. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled, "The Importance of Christian Oneness."

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto Thee, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. There is only one God, Thou the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thou hast said in Thy word, "I am the Lord Jehovah, and beside me there is no other." Wilt Thou perform Thy purposes in this hour? And by the going forth of Thy word, prosper Thy plans and bring to pass that which is Thy will? We ask this in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We turn now to the 12th chapter of Romans, a phrase out of verse 16 and a phrase out of verse 18. "Be of the same mind one to another." "If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all." Paul has spoken to the true believers to tell them how they are to act with one another in Christian love. The man who is filled with the spirit is to be marked by godliness of life. He is not to be conformed to this world, but he's to be transformed by the renewing of his mind.

He is to have no exaggerated ideas of himself, his thinking processes, or his attainments. In relationship to other believers, he is to consider himself a member of the same body and to realize that he needs all other believers, even as the foot needs the hand and the eye, and each part of the body needs all other parts of the body. Since he knows that the Holy Spirit has come to live within him, he is to realize that he has been given some supernatural gift to exercise for the good of all other members of the body of Christ.

He is to be animated by genuine love so that he hates all that is evil and cleaves to all that is good. He is to be unflagging in zeal, aglow with the spirit, serving the Lord. And now, the Holy Spirit speaks to the believer about his relationship with other men. Human history shows us abundantly that men are selfish by nature. Human history is stained on its very first pages with abominable hatred that ended in the murder of Abel by his brother Cain.

The man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells is to be the utmost opposite of this. Live in harmony with one another. But at this point, the Holy Spirit shows us that God Himself is very practical, for immediately this thought is modified with the further expression, "if possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all." Now, in the course of the concluding verses and in the chapter 13 of this epistle, the believer is exhorted concerning all of his relationships with other men so far as getting along with them is concerned.

First, there is a believer's relationship with other believers, then his relationship with unbelievers, and ultimately, his relationships with an alien government that will from time to time bring horrible persecutions upon those who are faithful to Christ. The older version reads: "Be of the same mind one toward another. If possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men." Let us consider this with reference to believers in Christ.

There can be no doubt of the fact that this is an exhortation that has been honored more in the breach than in the obedience. How disastrous has been the splintering of Christendom into a welter of sects. This could not have occurred if men had obeyed what is set before us here. The division must be healed in the measure that men bring full obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the earliest days of the church, we find men began to divide into parties. How terrible that Paul was forced to write to the believers in Corinth: "It is reported to me that there’s quarreling among you, my brethren. What I mean is that each one of you says, 'I belong to Paul,' or 'I belong to Apollos,' or 'I belong to Peter,' or 'I belong to Christ.'" Such a state of affairs could never have come into existence if men had been truly yielded to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe that the King James version is more accurate than the Revised Standard at this point. "Live in harmony one with another" does not convey the deep underlying oneness that is demanded by "be of the same mind one toward another." Our word harmony comes directly from the Greek which is spelled practically the same way. The Holy Spirit did not choose that word, but a much stronger one.

The lexicon defines the Greek verb phroneō as follows: to have understanding, be wise, to feel, to think, so to think as to think soberly, to be of the same mind towards one another. And in some cases, the lexicon says the word means to direct one's mind to a thing, to seek or strive for, to seek one's interests or advantage, to be of one's party, to side with him. We might also say, in the light of this verse, that the true believer should say to himself frequently, "What can I do to advance the interests of others? How can I be a blessing to other believers?"

I will admit at once that this attitude toward life is comparatively rare, and yet it is the attitude that the Holy Spirit is seeking to inculcate in all believers. It is sad that it was necessary for the Lord to add, "if possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all men." This shows that there are times when it is not possible to live at peace with all men. There are some men who exclude others in spite of every attempt to be at one with them.

I would have no right to expound this portion of the Bible if I were not ready to answer a public inquisition on my own attitude in this matter. I can say, as God knows my heart, that I do not hold anything against any man on this earth. There is no one to whom I wish any ill, and there is nobody for whom I do not wish positive good. Now, this must be explained, of course.

If I say that I wish positive good for a communist leader, I know in my heart that the only positive good for him is that he should come to trust in Jesus Christ and thereby cease to be a communist. For the man who comes to the communion that is in Jesus Christ will forever be separated from the communism which is Satan's substitute for it. I am all the more ready to speak of my desire for the good of all men and complete absence of ill will for any man because it is only in the last few years of my life that the expanding love of Christ in my life has brought me to this place.

There were times when I found it very difficult to love some people. There were times when I definitely excluded men from any thought of fellowship on grounds that I would not dream today of holding as grounds for division. I am convinced that this must be the path of all who are being drawn closer to Jesus Christ. It is a great sorrow to be forced to say that there are some who will not permit us to live at peace with them.

Let us go back into history to show this. I have made reference to the fact that in the days of the first disciples, there were divisions. Some were of Paul, some were of Peter, and so on. The party of Peter became very strong. Little by little, men devised false standards of fellowship and especially struggled for conformity to words of a creed. Now, I must make it very clear that I am a strong believer in the word of God, and I hold the great truths of the scripture to be very precious.

I even believe that some of these truths are destroyed if they are not stated in certain verbal patterns. Yet, there comes a point when such verbal patterns must not be allowed to separate believers one from another. I would seek to be at peace and spiritual oneness with every man who will say that Jesus Christ is the Lord God Almighty, the eternal word become flesh, and that his death upon the cross is the only way whereby a man, estranged from God by sin, can be brought back into fellowship with God.

To me, this includes both the virgin birth of our Lord and his bodily resurrection. But as soon as we pass beyond this central core of truth, I am very hesitant about excluding another from the circle of Christian fellowship. I would have so much in common with him if he believed these things that I would certainly want to live at peace with him if he would have it that way.

But in the early centuries of church history, the believers who lived in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, and whose economic, political, and spiritual ties were centered in Constantinople, began to differ sharply from those believers whose economic, political, and spiritual ties were centered in Rome. I believe that any honest historian will admit that the differences between the two were differences that arose out of pride and a desire to promote self-interest before the interest of the other.

Ultimately, the tension grew so great that it was only a matter of choosing the point at which the break would come. When men cannot tolerate each other because of base, selfish reasons, they do not advertise their true grounds of difference but seek a cause that will make heroes out of themselves even when they're doing the blackest deeds. The tension between the two branches of the early church came to the breaking point in the midst of a church council.

Men were discussing the Christian creed. They agreed on point after point, but each was demanding that the other bow in submission. Finally, when they were discussing the doctrine of the Holy Spirit—what irony—the western branch proposed that they should agree that the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father and God the Son. This was the straw at which the eastern branch grasped. They would fight on this question of doctrine.

Banners waving, the eastern group stalked out because they would not accept the one Latin word *filioque*, "and the Son." It has never been possible for them to live peaceably with one another since that day. Surely if the Holy Spirit had filled both parties, the division would have been impossible. Thus it was down through history. Finally, there were leaders in the church grasping for power who made temporal claims, and obedience to man-made commandments became more important than obedience to Christ.

The Roman Empire fell, and there were those who wished to take over all its civil power into the church. And such temporal claims divide the world of Christendom today. Those of us who wish to live peaceably with all are blocked completely from exercising that peace. How can souls who have bowed before the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ ever bow in submission before men who demand the stifling of conscience and the abdication of the mind, will, and heart to a fixed program of human devices?

Alas, it does not lie within us to live at peace with such ideas, and therefore the responsibility for the division rests wholly with them. But there are other divisions that lie much more close to home, where we would desire with all our being to see peace and to live at peace. Within Protestantism, there are separations, some of which are purely nominal, but others of which are bitter. We do not need to deal with those which are nominal.

Many of the divisions within Protestantism are of no more consequence than the differences between the armed forces of the United States: the Army, the Navy, the Marines, and the Air Force. In peace times, these differences may be deep. Yet, if war should come, at a moment when the admirals and generals were almost apoplectic with rage against each other in the midst of a Senate hearing, the union of the two would be immediate and the differences would disappear in the face of the common enemy.

We thank God for the fact that many seemingly important differences within Protestantism are no more than such inter-service quarrels. There are other divisions which are not so pretty because they are grounded in human pride. There are stories that are supposed to be humorous that describe these divisions, but in the light of the word of God, they are far from funny. In fact, they will be grounds for severest judgment by our Lord when he comes.

One of the stories concerns the divisions within my own denomination. A traveler in a small town in Western Pennsylvania, it is said, came to a crossroads where church buildings were on three of the four corners. He asked a boy what the churches were, and the reply came, "Well, these are the United Presbyterians, and these are the Reformed Presbyterians, and these are the Presbyterians that are neither united nor reformed."

The causes of difference lie so far in the past that few but historians could outline them. Another story tells of a church fight in a group calling themselves the Church of God. The seceding group built a building in the next block and called it the True Church of God. A second split took another group to a building across the street, and their sign proclaimed that this was the Only True Church of God. Now, such differences cannot be qualified by any term other than that of sin.

Christ Jesus proclaimed, "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another." In our day, almost any movement among believers that is away from union and fellowship is a breach of love. Recently, a Christian leader broke through great barriers of division between his group and another and proclaimed that the latter were brothers in Christ even while disagreeing with several of their favorite doctrines which he still held to be serious errors.

The fact that they truly believed in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ was sufficient ground to proclaim that they were brothers in Christ. I believe that that was in the direction of Christian love and in obedience to the word of God. Amazingly, leaders in certain branches of the church cried out in horror at this declaration of love and fellowship. People were warned against the leader who had displayed love and acknowledged truth.

He was not to be followed, some said, because he did not exclude enough people from the circle of Christian oneness. The resolution of such problems will come, of course, at the judgment seat of Christ. Finally, every listener should apply these texts in the circle of his own living. Perhaps I have given large emphasis to these problems of ecclesiastical oneness because my life is lived so much of it within the confines of these questions.

But the principle must be extended to all the phases of your life. The true believer will erect no spite fences. And even when someone has erected a spite fence against him, the believer will continue to love the unhappy man who is filled with envy or jealousy or hatred or bigotry, whatever the cause of the spite may be. The force of love will be seen to be the mightiest.

And even in the midst of the wrangling which might take place, the observer will see that the yielded believer will have no part in it. He is seeking to display Jesus Christ, seeking to live in such a way that the onlooker shall know that he is like Christ, or at least that he is directing his life in love toward the goal of being more like Jesus Christ. And our Father, we pray Thee that day by day Thou wilt make us more like the Savior.

Taking from our hearts the tawdry, the petty, the little things, the things of pride and greed and envy and selfishness, and causing our lives so to be filled with Jesus Christ that He may overflow and that people may take knowledge of us that we have been with Him. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Amen.

Guest (Male): If possible, and in so far as it depends on us, God’s people are to live in peace with everyone. Glorify the Lord by pursuing harmony. We hope you have benefited from today’s message by Dr. Barnhouse entitled "The Importance of Christian Oneness." Listen to additional teaching by Dr. Barnhouse via the internet, 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 Importance of Christian Oneness" or simply request message number R12-28. 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.

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Write 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, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken. Thanks for listening. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.