Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

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

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: We must see that the Kingdom of God is not identified with any particular sect or denomination. Any church that calls itself the only true church, meaning its organization, is far, far from God. I recognize clearly that the Presbyterian Church in which I am a minister of Christ is not the whole Kingdom of God. It is a denomination.

And I look upon all churches as being denominations, whether it be the Roman Catholic denomination, the Baptist denomination, or any other denomination. Again, let me quote Hastings. This is a hard lesson to learn. In every religious communion we find a widespread temper of unrest and dissatisfaction. The man who wishes to take advantage of this unstable temper is always at hand.

You must change your sheepfold. But what most people need is not a new church, a new rite, a new system of doctrine, a conversion from one denomination to another, but a new surrender to the will of God and a greater increase of trust in His redeeming power.

Narrator: 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 Not Rules, But Righteousness.

Many action movies and television programs typically feature maverick heroes who don't play by the rules. Believers must never be loose cannons with no regard for authority. But at the same time, genuine heroes of the Christian faith don't play by the man-made rules of legalistic religion.

Is your spiritual life a set of rules, regulations, do's and don'ts? Or do you hunger and thirst to lead a life of authentic righteousness? The Scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans chapter 14 and verse 17.

Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled, Not Rules, But Righteousness.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto our Father and our God and in the Holy Spirit. Lift our hearts to Thyself in this hour and reveal unto us the glorious truths that Thou hast for us in these days. While the world moves on to its doom, we thank Thee that thy believing people move on to the glory which Thou hast prepared for us who love Thee.

Arouse the unbelievers and all sleeping Christians and give Thy people courage to witness against this wicked generation as we preach the glories of Thy spiritual kingdom which spreads from heart to heart. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text today is in the 14th chapter of Romans and the 17th verse. The Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

And we come now to the final phase of our study of the Kingdom of God. Today we treat this theme in the context in which it is found in the Epistle to the Romans, the spiritual kingdom. Our text declares that this kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

It's almost startling to find the phrase the Kingdom of God in the book of Romans. This is the first and only time the phrase occurs in this epistle. One would be tempted to suspect that the phrase had been interpolated here. But all the manuscripts, without exception, agree at this point.

Well, why does the Lord use the phrase here? It would have read smoothly if He had said the sure standard of conduct is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, or if we had read the guide in the way of life, or the Christian way, or the Spirit-led walk. But no, the Lord tells us here that the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

What is the reason for our uneasiness at finding the phrase here? Is it not because we have allowed other aspects of the kingdom, such as that of His literal reign on the earth, to dominate our thinking in such a way that we have perhaps failed to realize that the church itself is the very Kingdom of God in its present form?

Of course, I am not saying that the church in its organizational form is the Kingdom of God in any respect. It was a sad day when men in the church began to think of the church organization as an earthly thing. The Lord had given to the true church, the invisible body of believers, magnificent spiritual principles.

Men began to forget that the true Kingdom of God was righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit and thought that it meant rule and authority. Thus, they built up a false theology, and their councils and synods became arenas of contest for power.

When men forsook the spiritual aspect of the kingdom for the concept of the outward church as an outward kingdom, their worship was reduced to mere rites and ceremonies, spectacles, shows, pomp, and ceremony.

In Christ's spiritual kingdom there is no indecent ostentation, no pretentious display, but the great simplicity which the Lord God desires, as Christ Himself stated, God is Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. The Father seeketh such to worship Him.

One perceptive writer has stated it, "Thus among the learned, the substance of things hoped for, passed off into notions, and for the unlearned, the surfaces of things became substance. The Christian world was for centuries divided into the many that did not think at all, and the few who did nothing but think."

Neither of these reflected on the inner spiritual things of faith. One group because they could not think, the other group because they did not have anything to think about, except the processes of thinking. And thus the masses drifted into the gross darkness of sensual life, and the thinkers into the sterile speculation of the mere intellectual life.

Only rarely in the history of those early centuries do we find record of men who knew, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that the marks of a citizen of the true Kingdom of God were in the character that came from the Lord Jesus Christ in the new birth.

The marks of a citizen of the divine kingdom are not to be seen in his shibboleths, in his uniform or dress, but in the fact that he has become a partaker of the divine nature. There are many imitations, but those who know the reality can never be fooled by the imitation.

A Swiss citizen, who lived in a chalet in the Alps, making wonderful cheese, once said that some people used skimmed milk to make a thing they called cheese. But those who had seen the real thing and tasted it would always know the difference. It's just as simple as that.

Before we move on to see what the Kingdom of God is not and what it is, let us look at a few passages from Paul's Epistles, which emphasize the oneness of the church and the spiritual kingdom. Paul flatly states that the Kingdom of God is existing in this age.

We read, "Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, He catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile. So let no one boast of men."

"I will come unto you if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power. For the Kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power." Thus he wrote to the Corinthians. And again to that same church, those who are true believers in Christ are equated with those who enter the Kingdom of God.

This rises out of Christ's own words, except a man be born again, he cannot see or enter into the Kingdom of God. All that Bullinger and the superdispensationalists try to say in separating the church and the kingdom is proved false when we read that the redemptive work of Christ qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. And that to the Colossians, in one of the prison epistles. Paul calls those who worked with him in the spreading of the Gospel, "My fellow workers for the Kingdom of God."

Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to lead a life worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. And to this same group of believers who were in the midst of persecution and tribulations, the Lord said that these trials were evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be made worthy of the Kingdom of God for which you are suffering.

Now in the light of all these passages, it is simply prejudice to deny that the church is the present phase of the spiritual working of the Kingdom of God. This does not mean that the purpose of our life and work is to establish a material kingdom upon this earth. That establishment is clearly Christ's own work at His second coming.

But it does mean that the great truths of God in Christ are being spread from heart to heart as we tell the story of Christ and see individuals plucked up from their roots in the world and planted together with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now let us go on one step further and see what the Kingdom of God in its present spiritual form is not. Our text says it is not eating and drinking. Remember that this was written to people who lived in a heathen society.

I understood this better after I traveled through rural Japan. A friend took us to the home of Christian Japanese, who in turn, led us along the edge of a rice field to the home of pagan Japanese. These allowed us to go into their home and see their manner of life.

After we had removed our shoes and stepped onto the clean tatami mats that cover the floors, we saw the god shelf in the corner. There were small pictures of some of the family dead. There were symbols of the pagan gods, and there were tiny bowls of rice and tiny jars of sake, rice wine.

In most of the heathen homes of the world, a bit of food and drink is always provided for the gods. In the ancient world, a few drops of wine were splattered to the ground before drinking. This was the drink offering mentioned in the Bible, the libation, which Paul said he was willing to be, as he was poured out for his beloved Philippian friends.

Now in Rome, as in all the ancient heathen world and as in Korea and Japan today, there is always a big argument about the attitude of a new Christian towards these pagan practices. Should a Christian eat food which has been first offered in the marketplace to a heathen god? Some said yes, some said no.

There was a tremendous division among believers. Paul was a little annoyed by it all. He knew that he could eat anything because nothing was unclean of itself. But he recognized the importance of his personal example, and said that he would personally abstain. Not because there was wrong in the food or drink, but lest he be a stumbling block.

But here, in our text, he's giving the doctrinal basis for our position in grace. The Kingdom of God, in its spiritual aspect today, is not eating and drinking. How can people be so confused as to think that God can look down from heaven and be concerned about whether a man has fish protein in his digestive tract rather than beef protein?

God has called all things clean. A believer who knows the doctrine of grace can eat a slice of ham even on Good Friday. If one becomes trapped in formalistic religion, he will be as confused as the prostitute who would never remove the golden cross from her throat, and who was careful not to eat meat during Lent, even while dining with a paramour.

A yielded believer in Christ must live his life, not arguing about the unimportant things, such as Sabbaths, ordinances, modes of baptism, and similar matters. He is to live according to the great principles of the righteousness of God in Christ. He is to be so yielded that Christ lives in and through him.

Forms and ceremonies, liturgies, and such are secondary matters. We may even say that they are of no concern, and all the church regulations and ordinances can never make them important.

We can state with all the authority of the Bible behind us that God simply does not care what we eat and drink, or when we eat and drink, or how we eat and drink, so long as our eating and drinking does no damage to ourselves or to anyone else. Therefore, since God does not care, these things simply cannot be regarded as important. The Kingdom of God is not and never will be occupied with such things as these.

Now these same principles can be applied to all forms of church service or ritual. A paragraph from James Hastings will illustrate this. "I do not believe," he writes, "that the doctrines of sacerdotalism and of sacramentalism, which are so much in vogue and which some people would seem to wish to make the very essence of Christianity, as a power of sanctifying the human soul, are doctrines of a true priesthood or a true sacramentalism."

"There is a sad fact which we cannot hide from others, nor ignore ourselves, which destroys all the comforts that would naturally flow from this conviction that all good men are really laboring for what they believe to be the extension of Christ's kingdom, the cause of righteousness, and the good of the souls of men. Namely, the fact that excessive ceremonialism is often attended by moral torpor and religious decay."

"Can history point to a single age from the womb of time in which an excessive addiction to ceremonialism and the externals of religion was not accompanied by a corresponding and proportionate dullness of the conscience and a deadness to the higher forms of duty? It was so emphatically in Isaiah's day. It was so again, though with a perceptive and instructive difference in outward manifestation."

"The hypocrisy was more highly organized, the mask more skillfully painted in the days of Jesus of Nazareth. And with our present day Epicurean cynicism, cruelly mocking at life, itself secure, abjuring every high aim in the lofty pursuit of personal comfort, checked by no moral considerations whatever, in its forward path of pure selfishness, carelessly wrecking woman's honor, wickedly shattering simple faith."

"Discussing the most solemn verities, at least the most solemn question, over olives and wine, with this unhappy but only too legitimate offspring of an age that has resolved religion into phrases, and God's service into a gorgeous ceremonialism. I do not feel disposed with such to hold either truce or terms."

Further, we must see that the Kingdom of God is not identified with any particular sect or denomination. Any church that calls itself the only true church, meaning its organization, is far, far from God. I recognize clearly that the Presbyterian Church in which I am a minister of Christ is not the whole Kingdom of God. It is a denomination.

And I look upon all churches as being denominations, whether it be the Roman Catholic denomination, the Baptist denomination, or any other denomination. Again, let me quote Hastings. This is a hard lesson to learn. In every religious communion we find a widespread temper of unrest and dissatisfaction. The man who wishes to take advantage of this unstable temper is always at hand. You must change your sheepfold.

But what most people need is not a new church, a new rite, a new system of doctrine, a conversion from one denomination to another, but a new surrender to the will of God and a greater increase of trust in His redeeming power.

All rules of conduct for the Christian, all questions as to legitimate amusements and recreations, come under the same category. These things are not the Kingdom of God. A disciplinary rule as such, that is, a disciplinary rule which begins and ends by being a rule of discipline, is likely to be a hollow and worthless observance.

It would not be untrue to add that a rule of discipline which begins and ends as a rule of discipline, a chain, a fetter, outside and irksome to the heart, may do and often has done more harm than good. It does harm to the man himself because it deceives him and makes him seem to find holiness where holiness is not.

It does harm to those who are around him because it does not deceive them, because they recognize and recoil from an ideal of Christian service which they know to be unreal. The Bible has no express teaching on the question of amusements. It furnishes us with no list of duties or pleasures to which its ethics and principles may be applied.

This has been a disappointment to those who seek in its pages for rules to guide them in every possible contingency. The Bible is not a directory of moral details. Christianity is a temper, a spirit, a divine motive and law, which is meant to pervade and inspire every part of our life, and not a code of minute regulations, by conformity to which we shall be enabled to keep ourselves safe amid surrounding dangers.

The simple truth is that all these are matters affecting the outward man, the external life. They concern the man's hands, but may in no manner concern his heart. That is why God does not want to have us have a guide for daily living other than the Bible. That is why we're not to have a guide that shall tell us what is right and wrong in our life, but rather the Holy Spirit within us to show us and lead us moment by moment.

A man is not necessarily a Christian because he abstains from certain things. Muslims abstain from alcohol, but they are not Christians. A man is not necessarily not a Christian because he does certain things. The long list of sins that believers are told to relinquish proves that it's possible to be truly saved and yet be in the infant stage of the Christian life.

All such considerations touch only the surface of life. And it is thus that we must understand our text. The Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. The citizenship of a child of the kingdom is not determined by any external acts, what he does or what he does not do. It is not determined by those things in which one participates or from which one abstains.

Now, the Lord willing, in our next study, we shall go on and see what the Kingdom of God is in its positive aspects. And we pray Thee our God and Father, that Thou by the working of Thy Holy Spirit shall take the word to each heart in this hour. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Narrator: Don't settle for a counterfeit spiritual life based on man-made rules and Pharisaical legalism. Trust completely in the Lord Jesus Christ and walk with Him in grace and true righteousness. We hope you've benefited from today's message entitled Not Rules, But Righteousness. To hear additional Bible 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 Not Rules, But Righteousness. Or simply request message number R14-37. We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled How God Saves Men.

A Latin poet once said that there were as many opinions as there were men. You can find a wide variety of ideas about salvation even among Christians. This free booklet clears up the confusion by setting forth God's word about how He saves people. You will understand God's grace, love, and power in salvation as you read about God's part in salvation, faith and God's workmanship in your life.

Request your free copy of How God Saves Men 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 complete list of radio stations carrying our programs, visit our website at alliancenet.org.

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