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: I’m not interested in setting forth these truths merely as a historical account of Paul’s working and of the psychological forces that motivated him. I want you and me to draw the analogies that link us to this text. What causes us to act the way we do? What makes us tick?

As we watch Paul at work and as we consider his explanation of his motives, may we not gain much by standing beside this towering giant and measuring our failures against his successes?

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 Serving as Priests.

Prior to the Protestant Reformation, the priesthood consisted of a special class of men, uniquely trained and set apart for religious duties. But the reformers recovered the biblical concept of the priesthood of all believers. If you trust in Jesus Christ, you too are a part of a royal priesthood, set apart unto the Lord to minister to others in His name.

The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is Romans chapter 15 and verses 15 and 16. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled Serving as Priests.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto thee our Father and our God and in the Holy Spirit. Come within our hands that we may touch people with thy touch. Be within our eyes that we may look thy look of compassion. And take glory from our lives. We ask in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text is in Romans 15:15 and 16. "But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit."

When General Lew Wallace wrote the historical novel Ben-Hur, he gave it the subtitle A Tale of the Christ. In it, the Lord Jesus overshadows the whole narrative without coming too much into the foreground of the scenes that are presented. In the magnificent motion picture version of this great tale, one incident stands out that marks the whole plot.

Ben-Hur has been sentenced to the galleys because he was responsible for an accident that caused a loose tile to fall and injure the Roman governor of Jerusalem. As Ben-Hur, chained as a slave, marches northward through Nazareth, the brutal guards refuse to give him water. But as he lies there in his torment, the hand of Christ appears, holding a gourd of water to his lips. He looks up into the face of Jesus and what he sees never leaves him.

Through his years as a slave, through the adventures that lead to his freedom and restoration, the memory of Christ always haunts his mind. There comes the day when he recognizes Jesus Christ as the Savior, carrying his cross to Calvary, and Ben-Hur is able to give back a cup of cold water to the thirsting Christ. This magnificent concept finds more than an echo in our text from the close of Paul’s epistle to the Romans.

The great apostle had begun his epistle by reminding the Romans that he was debtor to them, because of what Christ had done for him. He was the embodiment of his own doctrine when he wrote to the Corinthians, "The love of Christ constrains us, controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all. Therefore all have died. And He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for Him who for their sake died and was raised."

And so now in our text, Paul writes to the Romans, "I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles." It was this grace of God which drove Paul on day by day, leading him to go beyond the bounds that common social standards might dictate. With Ben-Hur, it was a cup of cold water.

With Paul, it was the grace that Christ had manifested in taking him out of the fanatic obstinacy of his intolerant bigotry and bringing him to salvation in the full freedom of the gospel. But even more, he was not merely saved negatively from the deserved destiny of eternal separation from God. He was saved positively to a life of service.

God gave to Paul the great grace of telling other men about Jesus Christ. And he was always conscious of this grace and the obligation that it placed upon him. Christ said, "Everyone to whom much is given, of him will much be required. And of him to whom men commit much, they will demand the more."

How much more shall it be said that to the one to whom God commits much shall much be required? Paul, however, was looking at his life from a much higher point of view than this. While the epistle to the Romans begins with the thought that he was coming to them because he was debtor to them, under great obligation to preach the gospel, the epistle draws to a close with the thought that he came to them with the truth because he was pushed on by the grace of God to deliver this truth.

It seems to me almost as though Paul had learned much and had grown in grace through the writing of this epistle. How could it have been otherwise? While he wrote these truths, while the Holy Spirit began to speak through his heart and mind, how much he must have grown even in the dictation of the epistle. At all events, his motivation now is that he is in the priestly service of the gospel, and that he cannot do otherwise than show forth the grace that has been given to him.

Here, he bares his innermost heart for them, and for all the church of all the centuries. His one aim was that those to whom he ministered might be acceptable to God. Oh, do not take the pressure off your conscience by saying, perhaps smugly, that you have not been called to the ministry. The fact is that if you are a believer in Christ, you have been called to His ministry.

Oh, it may not be as a career Christian, earning your living from some sort of religious work. But no matter what you do or who you are, you are a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is more important than your home, your business, your life itself. Now this doesn't mean that you run out and resign your job and try to become pastor of a church.

It may mean that you shall continue in whatever situation you find yourself, and that there shall be no change in outward occupation even to the end of your life. But the way you budget your time will be different. Your attitude toward your possessions will be different. And above all, your attitude toward every human being whose life touches yours will be different.

In the last words which he spoke before ascending into heaven, Christ commissioned you and me to be witnesses for Him. There’s no getting around this. And anyone who attempts to avoid the responsibility will find himself in the same situation as the man in Christ’s parable, who buried the talent that the master had given him, and argued that the maintenance of the status quo was all that mattered.

The French have a proverb which says, "He who does not advance, loses ground." In spiritual things, there is real danger that this could be the condition of the believer. For this reason, there are many exhortations, warnings, beseechings, and pleadings, and much counsel and teaching, all designed to keep us pressing on in the Christian life, in the manner in which the Lord desires us to live it.

Paul had an aim, and it is expressed here in definite terms. "For my constant endeavor is to present the Gentiles to God as an offering which He can accept because they are sanctified by the Holy Spirit." Now if we see what he was trying to do, we can understand what we must seek to do. Paul preached the gospel to everyone he met.

For him, he tells Timothy, there were only two times to preach the gospel: when it was in season and when it was out of season; when it was called for and when it was not called for; when it was in order and when it was not in order; when it was socially acceptable and when it was not socially acceptable.

His words to the young disciple were these: "You must go on steadily in those things that you have learned, and which you know are true. I urge you, as we live in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, whose coming in power will judge the living and the dead, I urge you to preach the Word of God. Never lose your sense of urgency, in season or out of season. Prove, correct, and encourage, using the utmost patience in your teaching."

I once talked with a man who earned his living by selling life insurance. He told me that he had schooled himself to think in terms of selling life insurance. When he met a man for the first time, his mind was alert for points of further contact in order that he might sell him life insurance. Even at a social function or at a church service, or at a funeral or at a wedding, he was thinking in terms of forming new contacts in order that he might get a new customer for life insurance.

He spoke to the attendant at the gas station and to the clerk in a grocery store, to men who fitted him with shoes and to the tailor from whom he bought his suits. The result was that he sold a lot of life insurance. Now Paul had exactly this type of mind. But he was pleading with the lost to find eternal life insurance.

And for those who had received the life of Christ as their own, his desire was that they might grow. To the Galatians he wrote, "My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you." To the Corinthians he writes, "I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband."

To the Ephesians he writes, "I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called." To the Philippians he writes that he was willing to be kept out of heaven a little longer if he could only stay and strengthen their faith.

"I am hard pressed between the two—a speedy entrance into heaven, or a life of continued labor on behalf of the believers. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account." To the Colossians he wrote, "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the church."

To the Thessalonians he wrote, "You remember our labor and toil, brethren. We worked night and day that we might not burden any of you while we preached to you the gospel of God. You know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory."

And thus we see the same yearning toward each of the churches to which he wrote. He didn't care what happened to himself personally, so long as they were brought closer to Christ. He showed this in one of his letters to the Corinthians: "I seek not what is yours, but you. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls."

It is in the sight of God that we’ve been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. Again I say, let us stand beside him and ask ourselves if there is any of this in our thinking and our motivation in life. Are we more interested in the growth of souls of those we touch than in anything else in this world?

Does this take precedence over home, car, garden, friends, work, and all else? Or must we join the sad song? "Look how we grovel here below, fond of these trifling toys. Our souls can neither fly nor go to reach eternal joys. In vain we tune our formal songs, in vain we strive to rise. Hosannas languish on our tongues and our devotion dies."

"Dear Lord, and shall we ever live at this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to thee, and thine to us so great. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove, with all thy quickening powers. Come, shed abroad a Savior’s love, and that shall kindle ours." Ah, Isaac Watts felt this when he wrote this hymn.

And that’s the only thing that can kindle our love and set us to doing the thing that we’ve been left here to do, that the Holy Spirit shall shed abroad a Savior’s love. We look at that Savior’s love and we remember why it took such a price to redeem us. Isaiah tells us this: "Listen to me, you that follow after righteousness."

And that address should shock us into complete attention. Am I truly following after righteousness? If so, the answer continues: "You who seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit, the quarry from which you were digged." And David did exactly this.

He looked back at the pit from which he had been digged, and he sang: "He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God." Now this experience we must know for ourselves.

The pit from which David, Isaiah, and Paul had been dug was such a reality to them that it made the grace of God a living thing and not merely a doctrine. Can we not look back and realize what we would have been if God had not saved us? It’s especially necessary for those who were brought up in Christian homes and who have never known the dark background of utter iniquity to look through the cross and see why it took such a price to redeem us.

My own life was so ordered from my earliest days by loving parents and Christian home and Christian friends urging me on, praying for me, helping and teaching me, that I would find it difficult to realize the difference between death and life if I had not looked deeply into the eyes of a witch doctor in Africa, and of demon priests in India, and of the sophisticated professors in great centers of culture and realized just how terrible life without Christ can be.

And then we can have fresh amazement at the providence of God which has been known to us from birth. How can a man remain proud when once he has realized the nature of the grace of God? How can we do other than want to follow the man who died for us and to let all men see what is the fellowship of this mystery?

Now when we remember what we were and remember that to which we have been called, we desire that all those we touch should be brought closer to God. Like Paul, we must realize that Christ died for those with whom we come in contact. He died that they might live. So we must tell them the good news.

And when we see someone turn toward that good news, we must immediately be filled with joy and with great concern that this one shall go forward on the road to spiritual maturity. We must look at each believer as an architect looks at a vacant lot or as a sculptor looks at a rough block of marble. What can I do to bring the likeness of Christ to sight in those whom I meet?

Throughout my own life, I have sought to teach, teach, teach the Word of God, knowing that spiritual growth comes from a knowledge of the Word of God, as Christ said, "Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth." And I feel a deep and urgent apology to every believer who has ever crossed my path and whom I have either hindered or not helped on as I should have done.

And I rejoice that so very many have come back to say that they have been helped. May our whole thought be to draw each believer closer to Christ. This may change some of our social customs, but so much the better. It may eliminate certain topics from our conversations, but so much the better.

When once we know that each believer is a shrine, a temple of the Holy Spirit, then our whole behavior toward them must be with the holiness that the Holy Spirit lends to us. Then our whole effort and prayer must be directed to our mutual edification that together we may be builded up into Christ.

And it should be noted also that such an awareness of the purpose of life will cause us to act when it is necessary with all boldness. There will be no hanging back because of any opinion that others might form about us. Paul was not in the slightest concerned, nor should we be, what anyone ever thinks about us, so long as we know that we have sought to live in such a way that the Lord is pleased with us.

Paul said to the Galatians, "If I were trying to win human approval, I should never be Christ’s servant." With this coming of spiritual boldness, there will be the departure of hypocrisy, of social lying, of all play-acting in conformity with merely social codes. If we’re in the will of Christ, we shall not care if some offense comes to those who are not going in our direction.

So long as it is the offense of the cross and not the offense of the Christians, we’re on sure ground. Finally, note that Paul states that this living for others with a desire to build them in Christ is the priestly service of the gospel of God. I can illustrate what this means by a story.

Several years ago, I was seated on a train when a man came and sat beside me, dressed in clerical black and with a reversed collar. I judged that he was a Roman Catholic priest and it turned out that he was. I was reading a scholarly book on the principles of ethics. He noted it and struck up a conversation.

We talked for quite a while, and the nature of our conversation was such that each knew that the other had been grounded in philosophy. Finally, he said to me, "What do you do?" I knew that we had a couple of hours before we reached our destination and that I would have full time to explain, so I smiled and said, "I’m a Catholic priest."

He showed great astonishment, noting of course that I was wearing collar and tie, and he began to ask me questions. I said, "Well, let’s come first to a few definitions. I’m a believer in Christ. I am baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and I belong to the universal church.

Every Sunday morning, I recite the Apostles’ Creed in which I say, 'I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic church.' Therefore I’m a Catholic, though not a Roman Catholic. Secondly, I’m a priest because the New Testament teaches that every true believer is a priest. In fact, Peter, in his first epistle, says of all believers, and I insist all believers:

'You are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. You who once were not a people but who are now the people of God.'" I had opened my testament to show him this quotation from Peter, and he looked at it with great interest.

Then I continued: "To us, this is one of the most important truths in the New Testament, the fact that every believer, whether man or woman, every believer is a true priest, offering the sacrifice of praise on the altar of a yielded heart. Yes, we’ve been ordained, and the hand that was placed on our head was not the hand merely of another pastor or bishop, but the wounded, pierced hand of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Then I said to him, "Now I happen to be a Presbyterian, and I may truly style myself a Presbyterian Catholic. And accepting God’s Word by faith that I am a member of the new priesthood of believers, ordained with the pierced hand of Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit, I live my life for Him.

You are a Roman Catholic priest and I am a Presbyterian Catholic priest. You are the member of one denomination and I am the member of another denomination. But the point on which we can approach each other is in Jesus Christ and in Him alone."

Now it’s in the light of this great truth that Paul speaks to all, all the believers who were at Rome. They and we are all in the priestly service of the gospel of God, and thus we sacrifice our hearts and our lives to Him and to each other and for all His glory. And our God we pray thee to bless the truth to each heart in this hour. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Guest (Male): Jesus Christ is our great High Priest, and every believer is part of a royal priesthood. We’re called to declare His praises and to glorify the Lord in our service to Him. We hope you have benefited from today’s message, Serving as Priests.

To listen to additional 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 Serving as Priests, or simply request message number R15-21.

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 ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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