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: A girl shows the worth of the man she loves by the way she acts. A boy shows the worth of the country he protects by the way he carries himself in uniform. And we, we present our bodies as a joyful outflow of fragrant perfume to the God who loves us and the Savior who has redeemed us. We live as whole men and women, holy unto the Lord. Such a life is acceptable to God. He wants us this way because he knows that we will be living in the way that is best for us when we thus live for him.

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'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled, "Intelligent Worship." According to the Bible, the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. True worship, pleasing and acceptable to God, flows from a sincere heart that loves God and is overflowing with gratitude for his redeeming love and grace. Do you go through the motions, or is your worship energized by love and thankfulness to God? The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans chapter 12 and verse one. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled, "Intelligent Worship."

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto thee our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. We pray thee that in this hour, thou shalt bless the going forth of thy word. Lord, it is all of thee and we ask that once more thou shalt do the miracle of the ministry, that we may be so cleansed and yielded to thee that thy word may go in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, that our faith may not stand in the wisdom of men but in thy power, oh God. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We come now to our study of Romans 12:1 and speak of a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual worship. The true Christian life has to be lived inside, within the heart. If the whole of man's spiritual being is possessed by the Lord Jesus Christ, the life of the Lord will be manifested in everything we do. In our last study, we saw that the body is to be yielded to the Lord, and that means, of course, that the motor controls of the body, which are governed by our will, must be yielded over to the Lord.

We saw, using three illustrations, that the foot on the accelerator pedal of the car will make us drive as a Christian should drive, that the tongue in our mouth will speak nothing but words which will glorify God, refraining from all that will hurt or hinder in anyone's life, whether our own or another's, and that our eyes, which are by nature filled with lusts and which can stand for an illustration of all the baser acts of our body, shall instead be filled with the glory of the Lord and shall bring us onward to know him better and to love him more.

The concluding phrase of the text states that such a manner of life is a living sacrifice, that it is holy, that it is acceptable to God, and that it is an act of intelligent spiritual worship. Let us look first at the statement that such a life is to be a living sacrifice. It is necessary before establishing the right meaning of the term to get out of our minds the common meaning. The word sacrifice, not only in English but in its equivalents back through the Greek and Hebrew of the Bible, had a primary meaning of the slaughter of an animal as an offer to God or to some pagan god.

From this, the meaning enlarged to include the destruction or surrender of something valued or desired for something that has a more pressing claim. And then the word sacrifice came to include a loss incurred in selling something below its value for the sake of getting rid of it. Now, in our text, the word has none of these meanings. The dictionary gives, almost as an afterthought, not even in a paragraph by itself, "the surrender to God or a deity for the purpose of propitiation or homage of some object or possession, hence in a figurative sense applied to the offering of prayer, thanksgiving, repentance, submission or the like."

Now, I'm convinced that this definition also misses the point that is presented here in our text. For when we present our bodies to the Lord as a living sacrifice, we're never to think that we're giving up something that is dear and desirable, but rather that we're getting something that will prove to be far dearer and far more desirable. Oh, it's true that in the Old Testament there was an offering of blood which was called the sacrifice, but we must not forget that there was another offering, which was the burning of sweet-smelling fragrance before God.

The sacrifice which we make of our whole being given over to God is certainly in the latter category, and we shall discover as we offer it that it will come back upon our heads as the perfume came back upon the head of Mary when she wiped the Lord's feet with her hair and the whole house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Thus, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only a sacrifice for sin in the sense of an offering to God in payment of the fine that we had incurred by our sin, but it was also such an expression of love, such a pouring out of the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ that it was seen by the Father and accepted by him as much more than the payment for sin.

Thus, we read in Ephesians 5:2, "Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance." When the Philippian church sent a large missionary gift to Paul, who was, we might say, their foreign missionary, he answered, "I have all, having received the things that were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God." Peter tells us in his first epistle that we were saved in order that we might offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

The most significant verse in the New Testament on this subject, however, is found in the last chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. There we read, "Through Christ then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." Now, in the light of these verses, we can clearly see that the offering that we are to make, the whole center of willing and being, the offer which is to be manifest to others by the way which they see our bodies acting—foot, lips, eyes, every member of the body—is something by which we will be infinitely the gainer and in no wise the loser.

The world may look at the true Christian and think that he's not getting much pleasure out of life because he is sober, righteous, and godly, but he is getting infinitely more out of life than the one who is living in self-indulgence and whom God says is dead while living. Illustrations are difficult to find in this sphere, but I have one which some may consider slightly daring, but which I use because it parallels so closely much that is taught in far bolder language in many parts of the Bible.

A man whom I have known through my ministry was going with a girl who some of us thought was not at all worthy of him. And some breathed a sigh of relief when he went away into the army and was gone for two or three years. For the girl drifted around with other fellows and most happily, the worthy young man met a very worthy girl in a distant city, fell in love with her and married her. When the war was over and he had returned to his home with his bride, the first girl drove by the house one evening and dropped in to see her old flame and meet his wife.

But the wife was not there. The first girl made no attempt to hide her affection for her former friend and moved in such a voluptuous way that he realized that he had but to reach out his hand and that she would be his. He told me about it afterwards. There was within him all that goes with male desire, but there was something much more within him. And he began to talk about what a wonderful girl he'd married. He showed the pictures of his wife to this first girl and praised his wife to the skies, acting as though he didn't understand the obvious advances of the girl.

And it wasn't long before she left, saying as she went, "Well, she must be quite a girl if she can keep you from reaching." You know, the young man was never more joyful in his life. He told me that in that moment, all of the love between him and his wife was greater and more wonderful than ever. He could think of his wife in a clean, noble way. A philanderer might have scoffed at him, derided him for sacrificing his pleasure. But there was not the hint of sacrifice in the generally accepted sense of the word.

There was, however, every sacrifice in the sense of our text. The turning of his heart and mind and soul, yes, and body to the love of his true wife was the living sacrifice which praised her and made him all the more noble because of it. It is in this sense that the believer in Christ presents his body as a living sacrifice to his Lord. The next word that is used to describe this relationship to our God is the word "holy." In English, this word is nothing but the older word "whole," now spelled "w-h-o-l-e," which means hale, sound, entire, complete.

The inference is that when we do not present our bodies to God, we are less than true men. We do not know what complete humanity is when we degrade the body to something that is animal-like. When we live in a clean fashion, speaking clean words from the abundance of a clean heart, looking clean looks from eyes that are the windows of a cleansed soul, doing honest actions from a mind and heart made clean by the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, manifesting his love through our every gesture, then we can know that he wants us to be thus, complete, mature, whole, and holy.

Following this, our text says that such a life is "acceptable unto God." It's very important that we realize again that God can never accept anything whatsoever that is merely human. That which comes from the natural nature, if we may so speak, is most offensive to God. Adam rebelled and fell far from God. That which comes out of the human race before it has been touched by God in grace is wholly offensive to him. This is what the Lord Jesus meant when he said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."

And this is what the Holy Spirit meant when he said in Romans 8:7, "The carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Oh, if only men and women could be brought to see how much God hates everything that man has touched until man has passed through Jesus Christ. We read in Ephesians 2:8 and 9, "Not of works, lest any man should boast," and that is balanced with the next verse, "created in Christ Jesus unto good works." And thus, we see that there are works which are hated and works which are acceptable and accepted.

The unsaved man will not see it, however. Oh, how many there are who think that God could be pleased with something that man could do. Such thoughts arise from the proud heart of unbelief that even goes so far as to drag God down and attempt to force him to be judged by their standards. But when we have seen the truth as it is in Christ and all the mercies which flow to us from Calvary, where God, made flesh, died that we might have eternal life, then these mercies woo us to love him. Then it is that we see in him such beauty that our hearts can never look elsewhere again.

Then it is that we want to do that which is well-pleasing in his sight. Then it is that our love for him grows and grows and grows, and we want to live in such a fashion that our bodies are presented to him for we want no lesser love to touch us. And lest anyone have the perverse thought that this would lead to any solitary asceticism that would take us away from all the noble loves of life, let us stress that the contrary is true. The highest fulfillment of our text, presenting our bodies to the Lord as a living sacrifice, is to be found in presenting ourselves in the ordinary relationships of life.

We are to present ourselves wholly to a partner in marriage. This brings us into a trinity with the Lord: husband, wife, and Christ, that makes us know him better, taking us inside of the relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit. We are to present ourselves to our children in family love that lets us know the heart of the heavenly Father. And we are to present ourselves to all men around us in a way that lets us know a little of what it meant for him to give himself for all mankind. Such a life is traced for us by God, and such a life is acceptable to him.

Mark well that this life can be lived only by one who has committed himself first to Christ. Twin brothers may look alike, act alike, and have similar reputations for character with their neighbors, but the man who is doing good works in the strength of his natural forces can never be acceptable to God while the man who has bowed before the Lord can henceforth, by the power of the Lord within, do that which can be acceptable to him. The outward lives may appear the same to the onlooker, but God sees the heart and knows the source.

This difference God has everywhere set forth in his word, from Cain and Abel to the two thieves on the cross, and to the division of sheep and goats in one of the judgments that is to come. Finally, we read that such a life is our reasonable service. The old King James version translates it thus. The Revised Standard Version reads, "your spiritual worship." Phillips says that living as this verse calls us to do is "an act of intelligent worship." The reason for the differences in translation arises from the tremendous advance in the knowledge of ancient Greek that is ours in this generation.

The Greek word is logikos, and because it has given us our word "logic," early scholars thought that the word had to be translated "reasonable." But the greatest Greek scholars of our generation all unite in giving the word a figurative meaning that brings it over into the domain of spiritual things and out of the sphere of things of the naked reason. A life of yieldedness to the Lord God in order that he may live his life in us is therefore a spiritual worship. If this changes your concept of worship, well and good. That's one of the purposes of this text.

It is all right to think of public worship in terms of singing the praises of the Lord, of acknowledging him and bowing before him and celebrating his praise through acts, rites, and ceremonies. All this, yes. But there is an individual worship which is above and beyond collective worship. This can readily be seen by the following comparison: a hundred thieves might go into a church service and bow their bodies in prayer, and yet their hearts would still be hard and their purposes in thievery unchanged. Certainly, they would not be worshipping God, who requires that men come before him with humble and contrite hearts.

David knew this when he came back to God after his terrible sin of adultery and murder. David asked to be dealt with on the grounds of atoning sacrifice, for this is the meaning of the phrase, "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." But after this, he saw that there was the necessity of coming to God as a redeemed soul should come. And thus, he prays as a believer who is in fellowship with the Father: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, oh Lord, thou wilt not despise."

And I'd rather see one man, maybe miles from a church, but whose heart was bowed before God, than a hundred hypocrites inside of a church. Now, don't let any man say, "Ha, I don't have to go to church anymore, the preacher said it wasn't necessary." I didn't say any such thing. I merely said that when you do go to the church service, your heart must be humble and contrite before the Lord, not arrogant and stiff-necked. The Lord tells us that if we're yielded to him, we will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

Now, the theme of our text is the giving of the humble and the contrite heart to the Lord as a sacrifice. We have come to God, we have looked at the cross and have seen there the fountain of all his mercies. Now, we're to go out and live in a way that is worthy of so much love. That love is to constrain us. Henceforth, the way we walk and talk will show how we really love him. A girl shows the worth of the man she loves by the way she acts. A boy shows the worth of the country he protects by the way he carries himself in uniform.

And we, we present our bodies as a joyful outflow of fragrant perfume to the God who loves us and the Savior who has redeemed us. We live as whole men and women, holy unto the Lord. Such a life is acceptable to God. He wants us this way because he knows that we will be living in the way that is best for us when we thus live for him. And all of this together is intelligent spiritual worship.

And our God and Father, we pray thee to bless this truth to the hearts of all who have named thy name. And may there be others who, seeing the way we live, shall glorify thee, our Father who art in heaven. Bless the word to each listening heart. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Guest (Male): We must never set the heart and mind in opposition to each other. Authentic worship and Christian living require the right balance of heart and mind, intellect and emotion. You have been listening to Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. We hope you've benefited from today's message entitled, "Intelligent Worship." You may listen to this or an additional teaching by Dr. Barnhouse via the internet. Visit us 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 "Intelligent Worship," or simply request message number R12-5. We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled, "Sex, Marriage, and Divorce." God designed the marriage relationship to be a picture of our eternal union with Jesus Christ. And yet, Christian marriages often fall short of this lofty ideal. This free booklet shines biblical truth upon this vital subject.

Chapter titles include Lust and Christian Marriage, Marriage and the Home, Divorce and Remarriage, and For Time and Eternity. Ask for your free copy of Sex, Marriage, and Divorce when you call or write. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is a radio outreach 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 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, please visit our website 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. You might also write us at Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. You may visit us online at alliancenet.org.

Don't forget to request your free resource catalog featuring books, audio teachings, commentaries, booklets, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding Reformed teachers and theologians, including 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.

Chorus: The Bible has a commanding word

To do God's service here

The saving word on earth is Christ

Who draws our souls from death to life

And rescues us from needless strife

Amazing gift, unthought of God

The life-imparting Word of God.

The Bible has a commanding word

To do God's service here

The saving word on earth is Christ

Who draws our souls from death to life

And rescues us from needless strife

Amazing gift, unthought of God

The life-imparting Word of God.

The life-imparting Word of God.

Guest (Male): Amen.