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: We're told in humility count others better than yourselves. And thus by grace, the likeness of our Lord which we received in regeneration may be seen in our obedience, and we shall be like Him in the humility of our service for Him. If we fail in this, we are actually thinking that our carnality is better than someone else's carnality.

But the old Adam in us is no more pleasant than the old Adam in another believer. We should be willing to become bondslaves of others for the glory of God, even as Jesus Christ was. As Christ the word became flesh to dwell among men, so we should be Christ made flesh.

Is there any possibility that someone might mistake you for Christ? Complete identification with the vast company of the redeemed will keep us from ever being ashamed to call them our brethren, even as He was not ashamed to call us brethren. Oh, may the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant us this attitude.

God's word is good for our gain

To teach, rebuke, correct, and train

Equipped by Him we can pursue

The work God has for us to do

God's word is the Christian means

To grow in grace and do good deeds.

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 Likeminded in Christ.

You may have heard the familiar saying great minds think alike? Jesus prayed that His people would be one in mind and spirit. Too often, however, we demonstrate disagreement and disunity rather than true Christian unity and fail as a body to think God's thoughts after Him.

How can we learn to be likeminded toward one another in Jesus Christ? The scripture text for today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans chapter 15 and verse 5. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled Likeminded in Christ.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto Thee, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. We thank Thee that Thou hast saved us and called us and made us one in Jesus Christ. May all who truly name His name seek to have His attitudes toward all believers.

Heal the breaches between believers that the outsiders may see by our love that we have been moved by God, and thus glorify Him because of what they see in us. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We come now to the 15th chapter of Romans and the 5th verse. "May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus." The older version translates this, "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus."

Here is a text that is perhaps one of the most needed in the Christian world. It is a great urge of the Holy Spirit that those in whom He dwells shall fulfill the prayer which the Lord Jesus uttered in the garden on the night in which He was betrayed, when Christ prayed, "that they may all be one, even as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me."

There was one occasion at least when Christ groaned within His spirit. The great yearning desire of God must manifest itself, and I find here in this text a similar groaning. The Holy Spirit seeking to bring together those who have been redeemed by Christ. Out of this crawling world of humanity, God has saved a vast company by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But even in the days of the apostles, there arose divisions among these redeemed. Could the heart of God be otherwise than grieved at these divisions? Could there be any other cry than a groan because of such divisions? If we are to understand God's desire for our wholeness, we must look closely at our divisions. They are not new.

They are described in the pages of the New Testament as their first appearances were noted. There were divisions caused from without and those that arose from within. In saying farewell to the Ephesian elders, Paul said, "I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them."

Our text, however, is not concerned with the divisions which have come from without. The thrust of the argument here is not against those who deny completely the truths of our faith, but it is directed against those who are brothers in Christ, but who are not in harmony with each other.

This state of affairs existed in the days of the apostles, and there is even a new twist to disharmony in our day which seemingly did not exist in former times. The new twist to disharmony in our day is that some true brethren are calling other true brethren false.

The effects of such gross sin are incalculable, not only in our own country, but also throughout the world among the younger churches where emissaries of our own disunion have frequently gone for the unique purpose of spreading American divisions.

On a recent journey in South America, I heard of a Spanish-speaking preacher in the Argentine financed with American money who was preaching against the supposed errors of an American translation of the Bible and which he called Revised Standard Version.

I'm sure that the sermon must have been a dark cloud, for in the minds of his even more ignorant listeners, and this must have led them to believe that true Christians in the northern hemisphere were an odd lot of people who were to be feared and distrusted.

This sowing of discord among brethren is a terrible thing, and I'm always delighted when I hear of its failure, and when I hear of the success of those who seek to bring harmony. An American visitor to a great city in Brazil had as his purpose the creation of tension and division among Christian brethren.

He hired a large hall and secured the services of a venerable British believer as his translator. Eyewitnesses reported the scene as follows: the creator of division spoke his first sentence: "We are living in desperate days." And this was duly rendered into Portuguese.

"Men of the Antichrist are appearing in the midst of the church." And again the translator gave this idea in the language of Brazil. "I am going to be specific and name names." And this too was translated. "The Reverend so-and-so has become an apostate."

The translator turned to the speaker and said in English, "Do you mean so-and-so, pastor of such-and-such a church?" "Exactly," replied the North American. "But this is not so," said the British translator. "He's a liberal and a modernist," insisted the visitor.

"You don't know what a liberal and a modernist is," said the older believer. The speaker, with the audience listening to this interchange, said, "Are you going to translate me or aren't you? You were brought here to translate what I say."

"Well, I certainly am not going to translate such nonsense," said the old man. And turning to the audience, he said in Portuguese, "This man wants me to say things that I know to be malicious distortion of the truth. I will not be a party to any such thing." And he left the platform.

Oh, I'm sure that the Saint Paul of our text and the Holy Spirit behind him would have agreed with a hearty "Amen" to the faithfulness of the old man who sought to live in accordance with the truth of our text.

In order to maintain this attitude toward all true believers, we must draw strength from the God who calls Himself the God of patience and consolation, the God of steadfastness and encouragement. Our text demands true harmony among all who are true believers.

Let us ask ourselves these questions. Who are the parties to this harmony? What is the basis for this harmony? And what sacrifices must be made in order to achieve harmony? This text in Romans 15 forms part of this epistle to the Roman believers.

This epistle is addressed to those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all God's beloved who are called to be saints. There is no suggestion that believers should live in any sort of accord with the world that crucified Jesus Christ.

God has given us strict orders concerning our relationship with the evil world. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.

And the world passes away and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever. And of those who refuse the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we are told, "if anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, that the Savior Messiah has come in the flesh, do not receive him into the house where the believers are gathered to break the communion bread, or give him any greeting. For he who gives him any greeting shares his wicked work."

But where all are trusting in Jesus Christ as God incarnate, Savior and Lord, God commands that there be harmony and that the brethren be likeminded. This likemindedness must exist among brethren who are designated as strong and weak.

The weak are not to criticize the strong for their liberties in Christ, and the strong are not to expel the weak from the church. Rather, the two groups are to live in a oneness for mutual good and edification. Believers are not to think in terms of being a good Presbyterian, a good Baptist, a good Lutheran, a good Methodist, a good Roman Catholic, a good Anglican, or any other such category.

But only in terms of being a good and faithful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and, because of Him, good and faithful servants one of another. This is what the word of God means when it tells us to be likeminded.

It does not mean that all believers must agree on the manner and mode of baptism or on the manner and mode of ordination or on the details of events connected with the second coming of Christ. But it does mean that we are to agree on who Christ is, what He came to do, on the fact that He accomplished what He purposed to do, and that He is on the throne of the Father today in order to be Lord of the church.

If we can be in accord on these things, true harmony should then flow from our yieldedness to the Lord Jesus Christ, who certainly is seeking to draw all believers into Himself. Now it's evident in the second place that we can never reach a true basis of accord until we have the mind of Christ.

Our text, if read with great literalness, is a desire that He might give you the same mind according to Christ Jesus. It should be recognized at once that our text is not concerned with the mind of Christ in relation to doctrine, but that it is concerned with the attitude of Christ in relation to others.

Back in the 12th chapter, we had the exhortation, "Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly." This is a plea for social harmony among believers. Our present text is a plea for harmony of tolerance among believers.

In the epistle to the Romans, the Greek word *phroneō* is found 10 times and in our present text, we come to its last usage. In each instance, the idea is centered in the set of the affections and the whole bent of life. The minding of the things of the flesh or those of the spirit, the regarding of a day.

These are the things that reveal the inwardness of a life. Just as the set of a sail marks the course of a ship and the riding of a log on a stream shows the direction of the current. This same word is used in Colossians where we read, "Set your affection on things above, not on the things on the earth."

So we are to set ourselves to be of the same mind as our brethren, to live in harmony with them. When Christ was here on earth, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem in order to do the Father's will. There was purpose. There was determination.

And this must be the frame of mind of the believer. This does not mean, of course, that we abandon liberty and originality, and certainly it does not mean that we seek to force our brother to abandon his liberty and originality in order to conform to our pattern of thinking.

Some time ago, I published an editorial on this subject in which I pointed out that although God wants us to be brethren, He does not mean that we are to be identical twins. I know several brothers who are distinctly different from each other.

One is an artist with an artist's sensitive mind and outlook. Another has his doctor's degree in linguistics and is deeply concerned with the origin and development of words and language. A third brother is an engineer who can do anything mechanically, like taking a block of metal and machining it down to a tolerance measured in thousandths of an inch.

He designs and makes missile parts. Now these three men have an intense bond of brotherhood and yet their lives and interests are far apart. They live in three different worlds and they think in different directions. But they have a oneness of love that is wonderful to see.

On the other hand, there are occasional sets of identical twins who look alike, act alike, and think alike. It's possible to predict the action of one when confronted with a new set of circumstances by knowing how the other reacted to the same set of circumstances.

Now God is not interested in turning believers into identical twins. But we must remember that we are brothers in Christ, even when the direction of someone's thinking seems quite different from our own.

May I point out to my fellow believers who call themselves fundamentalists that they must realize that there are true believers in Christ as Savior and Lord who think in terms of philosophy and who hold the same great truths that we hold but express themselves in more philosophical language.

They are nevertheless brothers in Christ, and we must respect them and live in harmony with them. And may I point out to my fellow believers who think in philosophical theological concepts that they too should realize that there are true believers in Christ as Savior and Lord who think in the most simple vocabulary and who are almost unable to express themselves religiously apart from a direct quotation from the Bible.

These too are brothers in Christ, and we must respect them and live in harmony with them. The Lord Jesus Christ moved from the throne of God down, down to the likeness of sinful flesh and being found in human form, humbled Himself to become the servant Lord.

He washed the disciples' feet and then went to the cross to die for them and for us. The grave question that we must face is: are we willing to have this same sacrificial attitude toward one another so that we might make the death of Christ increasingly fruitful by the lives that we live for Him?

I've been thinking of the greatest difference that exists in the Christian world, that between the Roman Catholic and evangelical denominations. What price would have to be paid for more harmony between us? Thoughtful men must be willing to consider the differences and see whether there is any possibility of healing such breaches.

Now in primary matters touching the person and the work of Christ, there can be no compromise whatsoever. But in secondary matters of organization, liturgy, sacraments, and so on, no true believer can maintain his position with inflexible finality. He cannot demand abject surrender by all who hold other positions.

Now when Christ's ministry began to take prominence, John the Baptist said, "He must increase, but I must decrease." This must be the attitude of every believer who would have the mind of Christ. Each must realize that it is not degrading to take a position of equality with all other believers, accepting the place of no reputation so that by grace we may be transformed and the divine nature manifest in us.

In fact, we're told in humility count others better than yourselves and thus by grace, the likeness of our Lord which we received in regeneration may be seen in our obedience, and we shall be like Him in the humility of our service for Him.

If we fail in this, we are actually thinking that our carnality is better than someone else's carnality. But the old Adam in us is no more pleasant than the old Adam in another believer. We should be willing to become bondslaves of others for the glory of God, even as Jesus Christ was.

As Christ the word became flesh to dwell among men, so we should be Christ made flesh. Is there any possibility that someone might mistake you for Christ? Does that question jolt you? Complete identification with the vast company of the redeemed will keep us from ever being ashamed to call them our brethren, even as He was not ashamed to call us brethren.

Oh, may the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant us this attitude. And our God and Father, we pray Thee that the Holy Spirit shall take these words today. How Thy church is separate, how the hand fights against the foot, how men take selfish, proud positions.

Oh, come among us in revival spiritual power that we may in honor prefer one another and follow Thee and allow the Holy Spirit to dominate. Hear us we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing

He chastens and hastens His will to make known

The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing

Sing praises to His name, He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining

Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine

So from the beginning the fight we were winning

Thou, Lord, wast at our side, all glory be Thine.

We all do extol Thee, Thou leader triumphant

And pray that Thou still our defender wilt be

Let Thy congregation escape tribulation

Thy name be ever praised, O Lord, make us free. Amen.

Guest (Male): When the people of God allow our hearts and minds to be transformed by His word and His spirit, we will learn to be likeminded in Christ toward one another. We hope you have benefited from today's message entitled Likeminded in 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 Likeminded in Christ, or simply request message number R15-7.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled Promises to Live By. We have all been disappointed by people who have let us down or not kept their word to us. But God is always faithful to His word and to His promises.

This free booklet will show you the glorious and unshakable promises from the word of God that will give you strength in any situation in life. If you want to build your life on the strong, sure foundation of the promises of God, ask for your free copy of Promises to Live By 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.

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 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, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken.

Thank you for listening. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.

The Bible has commanding words

To do God's saving work

Which draws our souls from death to life

And rescues us from needless strife

Amazing gift, on us bestowed

The life-imparting word of God.