Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Since I am a minister, I have occasion to associate with many ministers and missionaries in different parts of the world. I believe that I can say sincerely before God that I have grown spiritually through the years and that this growth has been marked by a change in some of my attitudes.

At times in my earlier life, I seemed almost unaware of the existence of a verse such as my text, even though my ordination vows included the promise to study the peace, the unity, and the purity of the church. In my conscience, I knew that where peace and purity were at variance, I would have to stand for the purity of the church even at the expense of peace.

But in doing this, I later saw that while I was absolutely right in the stand that I took for the purity of doctrine in the church, I did not always pursue what makes for peace. I believe that I could have done just as much or even more to maintain doctrinal purity if I had been more assiduous in considering the things which make for peace.

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 Peacemakers for Christ.

During the Christmas season, we exchange greeting cards and sing carols that proclaim peace on earth. But in a world of hostility, alienation, cruelty, and broken relationships, do we really understand what true peace is? Jesus came to give us peace with God. And if we are his disciples, we must follow his footsteps and promote genuine peace on earth.

How can we live as true peacemakers for our Lord Jesus Christ? The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible: Romans chapter 14 and verse 19. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled Peacemakers for 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 for thy grace and faithfulness. We pray thee for all who listen in this hour: the prisoner in his cell, the sick at home or in the hospital, for those who are worn with care, for the children who are being asked to be quiet so that the word may be heard, for the man or woman driving along the road. Wherever we are or whatever our circumstances, meet with us in this hour to build us in thy love. 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, verse 19: “Let us then pursue that which makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” The narrative of this epistle continues now in its down-to-earth practicality. The believer is being told how to live, what to do, what should be the course of his life, how his aim should be determined, what are to be his objectives, and how to pursue them.

We can determine that much from the text itself. The context, however, shows us this same truth in connection with the strong war that the Holy Spirit is waging through Paul against legalism and above all, against critical judgments of the life and work of others. We simply are commanded to keep our noses out of other Christians' lives, and we are ordered not to criticize what we see in other Christians.

If we see some believer commit an act of sin that is a public scandal against the name of Christ, our attitude towards this must be dependent upon our position in the church. If we're ordinary members, not deacons or elders, we pray about it, love the offending brother, and do everything we can to restore him, considering ourselves lest we also be tempted.

If the scandal is so great that there is danger of hurting the public witness of Christ, it might be necessary for the individual to communicate his information to a pastor or an elder, but with no other motive than the exercise of church discipline for the cause of Christ. The Bible flatly states that an accusation against an elder, which includes pastors, must not be made except before two witnesses.

If, on the other hand, a pastor, an elder, or a deacon learns of some sin that could hurt the public witness of the church, it is his duty to go to the offender, pray with him, reason with him, and seek to bring him to repentance. If the offender will not give heed to such an admonition, the older believer, the one who is trying to help, should report the matter to one other elder, deacon, or pastor, and the two should return to the offender and seek lovingly to bring him to repentance and restoration.

If this fails, then the matter is to be brought before the congregation, and the offender is to be excluded from the communion table. In all of this, there must be the desire, first, to uphold the good name of the Lord Jesus Christ; second, to help the offender to return to fellowship with Christ so that he may be restored to fellowship with other believers; and third, to help any other parties who may be involved in his sin. Apart from such procedure, there must never be any discussion of the offenses of any other person.

In everything we think, say, and do in connection with any other believer, we are to bear in mind that our thought, speech, and actions must work for peace and for building up the spiritual life both of ourselves and the other. We can be sure that anything that creates tension between believers is contrary to the will of God, and anything which tears down, rather than builds up, is also contrary to the will of God.

It would be possible to say all that has to be said about such an attitude of life by summing it up in one sentence: “Owe no man anything but to love, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” Unfortunately, we cannot resort to such a résumé because the body of believers in Christ profess to love but live almost devoid of Christian love.

While I was writing the previous chapter in these studies, sitting in a motel room in a city away from Philadelphia, I was visited by a friend who has an executive position in a certain Christian work. He comes into contact with a great many missionary executives and has broad experience of problems within the church. I discussed our present text with him: “Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding,” or as Phillips puts it, “Let us concentrate on the things which make for harmony and on the growth of one another's character.”

I handed him a piece of paper and asked him to write down in two columns the positive characteristics which the Bible says we are to pursue, which make for peace and growth, and the negative characteristics which the Bible says tend to destroy harmony and to drag down spiritual life. He replied, “This gives me great delight.” For two hours, he sat in his corner while I finished my work, and then he handed me the paper written on both sides with the double list.

It impressed me so much that I've decided to reproduce it here before going on to speak in detail of some of the outstanding obstacles in the way of peace among believers and of the way by which these obstacles may be overcome. It might be worthwhile for you to keep his list beside you for a time and to check your own practices against it. First, here are the things that make for disunion and that are general causes of trouble in churches and on the mission field:

An unforgiving spirit, self-seeking, a legalistic spirit, playing God for others, hypocrisy, failing to appreciate others' gifts, failing to make allowances for one another, lack of patience, not realizing others' infirmities, including perhaps their lack of gifts that have been given to us. Evil speaking, assuming without grounds that others are at fault, pulling one another to pieces, judging the motives of another, a domineering spirit, a rebellious spirit, snobbery, hatred, grumbling, arguing, murmuring, maliciousness, being a busybody, greediness, bitterness, resentment, a sense of inferiority—that is, not resting in the Lord, not satisfied with the gifts that he has given—lack of security, instability, timidity, spite, laziness, economic sponging, lying and slander, malice, jealousy, thinking too highly of oneself, a critical spirit toward others, carrying on controversy, being ill-informed about the position of another.

That's quite a list, and it would be worthwhile knowing it thoroughly. I want to know that list not to brood on it, but to avoid these things. Near my home, I drive over a small road that is full of frost holes in the spring. I know that road so well that I can maintain reasonable speed and swing from one side to the other, avoiding all the holes and not jolting the car or my passenger.

To change the figure, a river pilot must know every submerged sandbar lest he run his ship aground. A Christian must be aware of the potential evils that lurk within his heart in order to avoid them. Now, in the positive column, my friend listed some of the good things that make for peace and that promote mutual upbuilding. These are the goals toward which we should move in our lives:

Willingness to be in subjection one to another, considering others better than ourselves, an understanding spirit, a sense of intimate relationship to Christ, not insisting on our rights, willingness to confess the wrong spirit, sincerity, a generous spirit, a sympathetic spirit, trusting others, having faith in Christ, not necessarily in others, but expressed as trust to others, knowing that we're in God's hands and belong to him.

Joyfulness, prayer, discretion, a critical spirit toward ourselves, a gentle and quiet spirit, humility, using our gifts for one another, remembering our own mistakes, Christ-centeredness, love in word and deed, fair dealing, integrity, recognizing one's place, a forgiving spirit, doing things decently and in order, conscientiousness, faithfulness, being responsible to perform the tasks assigned to us, not misusing any authority that we have, being willing to follow those who are in authority over us.

Now, there's no line in either of these lists that could not be supported by straight teaching from the word of God. These are the things to avoid, and these are the things to practice. A person who is sincerely trying to live in line with these truths will certainly be a peacemaker and one who builds up others in strength and in the faith.

I want to expand on some of these things, and I suppose that it's only natural that those which come to my mind first are things that affect the type of life I lead. Since I am a minister, I have occasion to associate with many ministers and missionaries in different parts of the world. I believe that I can say sincerely before God that I have grown spiritually through the years and that this growth has been marked by a change in some of my attitudes.

At times in my earlier life, I seemed almost unaware of the existence of a verse such as my text, even though my ordination vows included the promise to study the peace, the unity, and the purity of the church. In my conscience, I knew that where peace and purity were at variance, I would have to stand for the purity of the church even at the expense of peace.

But in doing this, I later saw that while I was absolutely right in the stand that I took for the purity of doctrine in the church, I did not always pursue what makes for peace. I believe that I could have done just as much or even more to maintain doctrinal purity if I had been more assiduous in considering the things which make for peace.

Now, having said this about myself, I believe that I have the right and the duty to present this same truth to others. I know of ministers who are so eager to hold up the ark of God that they rush into situations without being properly informed of the facts. For example, many fundamental preachers accept without verification the charges that other ministers are not faithful to the word of God. They come into a town and refuse to attend the meetings of a ministerial association, sometimes on the grounds that X or Y or Z is an unbeliever and that they cannot, therefore, have fellowship with any ministers who are in an association where this one man is a member.

There came a time when I determined that I would work with any man who claimed to believe that Jesus Christ was his savior and his Lord. Another minister told me that this was not enough, that I must know what a man meant by savior and what he meant by Lord. Now, it's possible, of course, to use Christian words in a sense that is violently anti-Christian. If a man has published material which denies historic Christianity, we take his own statements at face value and acknowledge that there is a sharp division between us and that we accept his own appraisal of himself as being outside the communion of historic Christianity.

Therefore, quite in peace, we recognize he would not expect us to wish to sit with him at a communion table that has no meaning to him as the symbol of a sacrifice which provided a blood atonement once for all by God for the redemption of sinners from eternal separation from God. But there are many, many men whose position is quite different, who do believe that Jesus Christ is God the Son and that he came into this world to die for our redemption.

These men might have concepts that differ from ours on certain points that we deem to be very important. I have discovered that these men are not only willing but are eager to sit down quietly over a friendly lunch, explain their position in full, and listen carefully to a biblical explanation for a position that differs from their own. I have seen some of such men acknowledge that they had never understood certain matters before and that they were delighted to receive new light. And they have become stronger preachers. In return, I have learned attitudes of love and gentleness and a desire to walk more closely to the God of all peace and love.

Having spoken thus about the necessity for pursuing the things that make for peace among ministers, missionaries, and other Christian leaders, let us now apply our text to other spheres of life. I believe that if this text were considered by husbands and wives, there would be much less bickering within the home. Every minister knows that there are periods of adjustment to be made between couples who have stopped living in single liberty and who must adjust to life with each other.

A man and wife at the time of their wedding are like two planets who have been orbiting around the sun at different speeds and in different paths. Now they must continue their travel but in the same path, and they must learn to adjust their speeds so that they can go together. For if they continue orbiting in the same path at different speeds, sooner or later there's going to be a planetary crash.

Now, how can such collisions be avoided? Each must pursue the things that make for peace. I know a home, for example, where the wife asked the husband to fix an electric light over the kitchen sink. He promised to do it. The next day, she asked him again to do it. Again he promised, but with a little irritation. Two or three days later, she asked him again, and he shouted at her to stop nagging him. Finally, the matter became a source of great tension between the two.

The proper functioning of the light was very necessary to her work at the sink. If she had called an electrician to do the job, the husband might have exploded, and yet, having promised to do the work, he should have done it. Failure to do it showed a lack of understanding of his wife's problems. To her, it revealed a great flaw in the man she loved. Evidently, he did not have a proper sense of responsibility and integrity. He simply was thoughtless and in this case, absolutely wrong.

Now, the way to avoid such difficulties in the adjustment of husband and wife is to have a time of prayer together every day, asking the Lord for keeping in the way of grace. It's also a good thing for each to be willing to face weaknesses in self and to ask the other, “Is there something that I do that annoys you terribly?” And when the answer is found in love, it becomes a small matter for love to seek to remove the annoyance.

At a party of young people, they played a game in which each person was given a four-inch strip of paper and asked to write his name across the top. This was folded over and the paper passed to the next person, who put down his age. After another folding, the papers were passed along again and again, each person adding in turn their pet peeve, their chief abomination, their own greatest weakness, and so on. When sufficient questions had been asked and answered, the papers were unfolded and the whole conglomerate was read aloud.

There was laughter and much guessing as to who had written what. One pet peeve was against leaving shoes ranged under a bureau instead of putting them in a closet. A young doctor said, “Oh, I know without question that's my wife.” Fortunately, he was man enough to take the trouble to put his shoes away. What a small thing to do to alleviate his dearly beloved wife's pet peeve.

Now, carry this same principle into your association at the office, at school, at the store where you work. Think of this in terms of your boss, or if you're the boss, think of it in terms of your employees. Think of it in terms of yielding the right-of-way to the car that is next to you in traffic. Think of this in terms of every human being you encounter and in every phase of life. And if your old fleshy nature cries out that it wants to be first, that it wants to have its own way, that it wants to dominate, just look away to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ask him to crucify that old nature and to lead you into the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. You may find that what you can't do for the boss, or what you can't do for the overbearing driver in the next lane of traffic, or what you can't do perhaps for a dearly beloved wife or husband, you can do for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you will discover that what is done for Christ's sake begins to have a transfiguring effect upon the whole of your being. So then, let us concentrate on the things which make for harmony and for mutual upbuilding, and thus shall we grow together into the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And our God and Father, we pray thee that the Holy Spirit may lead thy people. Lord our God, we want the things that make for peace. We want to pursue them, and we want to build one another. Lord, we pray thee for each one who listens today and for all of the problems that may be in his life or in her life. We pray thee for homes and ask thee that Jesus Christ may be exalted and that bickering may stop, and that each one may stop and project himself into the life of the other and try to look at all the problems from the point of view of those who are round about us and with whom we must live and with whom we must work.

Oh Lord, help us to manifest the Lord Jesus Christ and in our churches, in our homes, in our daily work, in our social contacts, that we may indeed pursue the things that make for peace and that which will build one another in thy love. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Guest (Male): We are truly blessed when we experience peace with God in our personal relationships through faith in Jesus Christ and help others do the same. We hope you have benefited from today's message, Peacemakers for Christ. You may listen to additional teaching by Dr. Barnhouse via our website 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 Peacemakers for Christ, or simply request message number R14-40.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled Overcoming Fear in Witnessing. Are you intimidated about sharing your faith? Does fear hold you back from telling your family, friends, and coworkers about Christ? This free booklet will help you overcome the barriers to effective witnessing so that you can share the gospel clearly, in love, and without fear. If you want to be a bold, confident witness for Christ, ask for your free copy of Overcoming Fear in Witnessing 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. For a full listing of radio stations carrying our programs, 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. Again, that's 1-800-488-1888. You may also write to us at Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103, or 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, Martin Lloyd-Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken. Thank you for listening today. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.