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 are reminded that our Lord awoke early in the morning and went to the temple before the time of sunrise. He spent whole nights in prayer before great times of testing and after great times of victory. We need no example beyond this, although many could be found in the lives of those who were merely men and who needed diligence in spiritual preparation far more than did our Lord.

Laziness in spiritual life is the cause of defeat in spiritual life. Is it not true that vast numbers of Christian men spend more time on bathing and shaving than they do on their soul? Is it not true that there are multitudes of Christian women who spend more time on their hair and their faces than they do on their souls?

It is for this reason that there is such poverty of soul and so much leanness of spirit. I believe that every Christian should consider this matter of lazy spiritual living and should understand the sin that is involved in neglecting the spiritual principles that are set forth in our text.

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 "The Christian's Business."

If you are meddling in someone else's affairs, they might tell you to mind your own business. But sadly, Christians often pay far too much time and attention to our own business rather than our Father's business.

Once when Jesus was a boy, Joseph and Mary searched for him throughout Jerusalem for three days. When they finally found him in the temple discussing the things of God with religious teachers, he said, "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?"

Do you share a similar passion to be about your Father's business? The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible: Romans chapter 12 and verse 11. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with the message entitled "The Christian's Business."

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto Thee, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. To whom should we go? For Thou alone hast the words of eternal life, and in Thee is our only hope.

We pray Thee in this hour that we may be so filled with the Holy Spirit that Thy word may go out in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, so that our faith may stand not in the wisdom of men, but in Thy power, O God. Speak to each heart, we pray Thee, in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We turn now to our study in Romans 12. The famous, oft-quoted text: "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." And this text is one more illustration of the great truth that the Bible needs constant re-translation, every fifty years at least, to keep up with the changes in language.

If you should ask the first thousand people you met to define the word "business," you would in all probability not find more than one or two who would give you any definition other than that of trade or commerce. No one can count the number of laymen who have taken our text as a slogan for a pep talk to tell men that they should be diligent in their daily work.

James Boswell, in the volume of his journals published under the title *Boswell in Search of a Wife*, tells of another misapplication of this text. He records his activities on a certain Sunday and says: "Visited prison. Such an audience. Young divine preached: 'Be not slothful in business,' etc. Not at all applicable to his hearers. Great genius required for a jail preacher.

I did not like to hear the divine in his prayer talk of a disgraceful death; 'twas too shocking to his unhappy hearers. He should have preached on patience, on the necessity of punishment, on the corruption of man's nature, on the mercy of God. They sang psalms in a doleful tone."

Well, to use this text for a sermon to condemned prisoners is indeed very bad taste. It's possible that the young divine of whom Boswell speaks did not have any other available sermon, or that he was no more than a time-server who did not truly care for the souls of men. But the modern misuse of the text as a peg on which to hang an exhortation to increase profits and dividends is more than bad taste; it's real ignorance.

Now, it may be a very good thing to be diligent in your daily work, providing that your daily work is honest and constructive. But you cannot use our text as a motto for such a thought. If you do, you lose the true meaning that God meant to convey in the original Greek.

The translators used the word "business" in its older sense of "busyness." The Revised Standard Version translates our text: "Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the spirit, serve the Lord." Now, while it's true that the believer in Christ is not under law, we must realize that the whole direction of the Christian life is to move us toward the fulfillment of the will of God.

When we find truth expressed in the Bible that shows us the heart of God, we then wish to follow His way and do what pleases Him because we have learned to love Him. So, the true meaning of this first clause, "not slothful in business," or "do not flag in zeal," may be found by looking at the other verses in the New Testament where the same Greek word is used.

When Mary wanted to talk with her cousin Elizabeth about the news which the angel had given her concerning the incarnation of our Lord, she went into the hill country "with haste," we read in Luke. It's the same Greek word. Salome went "with haste" to ask the head of John the Baptist from the king.

Now, these two usages of the word in the Gospels show the element of speed in two women, one doing a good thing and the other doing a horrible thing. We've already found this same word in the 12th chapter of Romans, where those who rule are told that they are to do so "with diligence."

The word is translated "diligence" in four other verses in the epistles: in Corinthians, Hebrews, Peter, and Jude. Other instances refer to the earnestness of the Corinthian people to raise money for the poor in Jerusalem. They were filled with earnestness. The same earnest care that was in the heart of young Titus as he diligently sought to meet the needs of the suffering people.

And finally, this word which is here translated "business" is used elsewhere to describe the spiritual revival that was caused in the hearts of the Corinthians by the terrible lashing that they had been given by Paul because of their tolerance of evil. After speaking of their godly sorrow which caused them to repent of their slackness toward sin, he wrote to them: "For see what earnestness" (the King James Version "what carefulness") "this godly grief has produced in you.

What eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves guiltless in the matter. So, although I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong, nor on account of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your zeal for us" (and this is what the Greek says) "in order that your zeal for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God."

So, we might sum it up by saying that Paul's reproof of the Corinthians brought them with great haste to a completely changed attitude toward the sin that they had tolerated, and a complete renewal of their zeal toward him—that is, of their desire to follow the teachings which he had given them.

Now, when we put all of these together, we discover that our text, "not slothful in business," really means that as believers, we are to be extremely alert as to what should be our course of action in anything. We are not to be lazy in our busyness. As Martin Luther translated it: "Be not lazy as to what you ought to do."

Now let us apply this in several ways. First, we should not be lazy in our spiritual life. Man is a soul, and he has a body and he has a spirit. We must spend a great deal of time on our body—letting it sleep and recuperate its powers and keeping it fed and clothed—but we must not be lazy in spiritual matters.

A Christian student must understand that it is sin for him to be lazy in his studies. For many years, I've told the young people in our church that one definition of sin must include laziness of mind. It is a sin to get a B in class if the student has a brain capable of getting an A.

If there is clear recognition that there is no more than a B capacity, then the student must strive for that B and know that it is a sin to get a C. Now, if this be true of the mental side of our spiritual life, it must also be understood of the religious side of our spiritual life.

We are reminded that our Lord awoke early in the morning and went to the temple before the time of sunrise. He spent whole nights in prayer before great times of testing and after great times of victory. We need no example beyond this, although many could be found in the lives of those who were merely men and who needed diligence in spiritual preparation far more than did our Lord.

Laziness in spiritual life is the cause of defeat in spiritual life. Oh, is it not true that vast numbers of Christian men spend more time on bathing and shaving than they do on their soul? Is it not true that there are multitudes of Christian women who spend more time on their hair and their faces than they do on their souls?

It is for this reason that there is such poverty of soul and so much leanness of spirit. I believe that every Christian should consider this matter of lazy spiritual living and should understand the sin that is involved in neglecting the spiritual principles that are set forth in our text.

There is much talk in the churches about the importance of tithing our money, but little talk about the greater importance of tithing our time. What a difference it would make if Christians would begin tithing their time, giving the Lord a tenth of the minutes that we possess. There would be much less talk of "pastimes." What a satanic word that is—pastime—in the light of eternity.

There are 96 periods of 15 minutes in the course of a day. This means, then, that a quarter of an hour is approximately one percent of your day. Ten percent, to be exact, is two hours and 24 minutes. Well, how many Christians are there who give anything approximating this amount of time to spiritual matters, including prayer, Bible study, and all matters in connection with the work and ministry of the gospel?

When we look at it in this light, we can easily see that there are many people who are merely playing at being Christians. To them comes this exhortation of God: "Be not lazy in your spiritual life." The text may be applied also to the way we carry on our life with respect to others. It can be extended to cover any phase of life—from the way a mother raises her children and the way she keeps her house clean and the way she greets her husband when he comes in from work, all the way to the manner in which the man carries on his place in the community, in the commercial world, or in his home.

Now, I'm not contradicting what I said in the beginning. The text does not refer primarily to business as we know it in the commercial sense, but to busyness. When this is considered in connection with the second of the three phrases in our text, the difference can be seen at once.

We are to be, in addition to diligent in our zeal, we are to be fervent in spirit. I am positively delighted with the translation that is given to this in the Revised Standard Version, for there we read that we are to be "aglow with the Spirit." Now, this will keep a man from running around in business activities that are nothing more than time-serving or dollar-chasing.

And yet, he may produce more goods and earn more dollars than the man who is merely active without the glow. Several years ago, I ran across an item about Orson Welles, the motion picture director and actor, which has always remained in my mind.

It's a very well-known fact that the great lights that are used on a movie set can illuminate a bead of perspiration so that it will shine back into the camera and spoil a picture sequence. At a moment when they were working with one of the well-known actresses, a cameraman said to Mr. Welles, "You'd better wipe that sweat off." Welles turned to the man and said, "Horses sweat, men perspire, she glows."

Well, he was speaking of the physical glow of personality, which is the gift of certain individuals. The advertising agencies have exploited this physical glow to its utmost. It's so well known that we need not to describe it further. What is less known, because it is even more rare, is the personality that is so filled with the Holy Spirit that the presence of Jesus Christ is radiated from that personality at all times.

It does not require conformity of physical measurements to meet Hollywood standards. Woman or man, filled with the Holy Spirit, can be aglow with His presence. It will be said of them as the rulers of Israel said of the early disciples when they saw their power and their work: they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

This glow of the spirit is the warmth of the soul that is touched with the love of Christ. This glow cannot come apart from the knowledge that we have been loved, that we have been redeemed, that Christ gave Himself for our sins, and that He sent the Spirit to dwell in our hearts.

Such knowledge must yield to full surrender to Him and to His lordship. The Holy Spirit who dwells in all believers will glow through those who will allow Him to come to the surface of life. The glow of the Holy Spirit is a beauty that is beyond anything that can come from physical glamour. This is why God gave instructions to women on the nature of true beauty.

We read in the Bible: "Let not yours be the outward adorning with the braiding of hair, the decoration of gold, and the wearing of robes; but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in God's sight very precious." Now, it should be well recognized that this verse is not a prohibition against arranging the hair, the wearing of gold, or the wearing of clothes.

What it is doing is pointing out that the woman is to be one who does not live for these things. A Christian has every right, yes, even the duty, to be well dressed and to be well groomed. There is no sin even in a person being dressed smartly and in line with the latest fashions. There would be sin only when the heart is turned toward the world of ornament and fashion so that these things take precedence over spiritual matters.

But the Christian does not necessarily have to be dressed smartly or in fashion. Our text says that we are to be adorned with the glow of the Holy Spirit. When I was preparing this message, seated at my typewriter, I asked my wife to name Christian people whom she had met in the course of our travels and who impressed her by their Christian glow.

The first name she mentioned was that of a girl, a Japanese girl whom we met out on the island of Hokkaido, whose clothes were secondhand but whose spiritual life was firsthand. She knew the Lord Jesus Christ in power, and the presence of the Holy Spirit gave her the inner glow that marked her as one who was dominated by the supernatural.

And then my wife mentioned half a dozen other names, this time mentioning couples, as though she had said the Smiths. The couples she mentioned were people we had stayed with on the foreign mission field. They were not dressed in fashion. Their clothes had not come from Paris or from Fifth Avenue.

They might have been called seedy by some who had seen them out of their context. But they had impressed us by their glow. And as they were fulfilling the first clause of our text—not lazy in their activities—and as they were glowing in fulfillment of the second clause, so they were serving the Lord as the final clause of our text requires.

Some of the old Greek manuscripts read: "serving the time." The idea is that we are creatures who live in a passing world. There is so little time, and it is so soon gone. In another epistle, Paul speaks of "redeeming the time." The idea is similar in this case. Because time is so fleeting, we must be on the alert to seize every opportunity to do that which is good.

The more familiar translation can cover this idea also, for if we are truly thinking about the Lord and serving Him, we will not lose any opportunities for service to others. The greater contains the less. And whatever the original may have been, the text that has been adopted in our modern versions is great enough to embrace the lesser.

Writing to the Colossians, Paul spoke to those who were servants—slaves, if you like—and told them that they were to serve their masters even as they served Christ. Oh, what a difference this would make in the attitude of all who are employed if they realized the desire that God has for faithfulness in those who follow Him.

The true Christian is not to be a thief. And that includes too frequent trips to the water cooler during working hours. To steal 10 or 15 minutes a day from an employer is the same as stealing cash out of the cash drawer.

We're all familiar with the various cartoons which try for a laugh over an office situation where everyone is at work when the boss is around and slacking when he's not there. It's not funny. It is truly condoning sin. The true believer in Christ will work just as hard and as steadily when the boss is not there as when the boss is there.

The reason for this is that Christ is always there and the believer is serving the Lord and not the boss. The boss merely profits by the good services of the yielded Christian who does his utmost for Christ's sake. But this service of the Lord goes into more than our employment.

The student studies as unto the Lord. And when the time for sports comes, runs or plays the game as unto the Lord. The Christian student can ask the Lord for strength to hit the ball, and more strength to get to first base and then on around the bases to home plate.

The true Christian can ask the Lord to let him play to the utmost, that the body may be fully rested in its re-creation—for that's the way to pronounce recreation. We read as unto the Lord. We listen to radio as unto the Lord. We talk to our friends on the phone as unto the Lord. We look at television as unto the Lord.

Someone may exclaim that this will revise their methods of living. Praise God, that's the purpose of a text like this. If a message like that which comes from this verse does no more than fill in a few minutes of your time, it has been wasted.

But if it can change you to the movement of the gears of God, then you will go at the pace He has for you. High gear, if that is God's will for you; low gear, if that is His will. You may be active in an advertising agency, or you may be lying on a bed in the home for incurables.

But you will never, never be lazy in your busyness. You will be aglow with the Holy Spirit. You will be truly serving the Lord. And our God and Father, we pray Thee that the Holy Spirit shall take this lesson to each heart, and shall use it that we may know Thee better and love Thee more and walk before Thee as Thou wouldst have us walk, since Thou didst buy us at the price of Thy blood that we might be yielded to Thee. And so it is through Jesus Christ that we bring Thee all the glory and praise. Amen.

Guest (Male): As children of God, we must always be about our Father's business as we minister to others, spread the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ, and seek to glorify the Lord in all we do. We hope you've benefited from today's message entitled "The Christian's Business." To listen to additional teaching by Dr. Barnhouse, visit us online anytime 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 "The Christian's Business," or simply request message number R12-23. We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled *Becoming a Christian*.

If someone asked you, "How can I become a Christian?" would you be able to give a clear, biblically accurate response? Too often the answer to this question is not clearly stated from our pulpits and the average believer is not always able to give a correct explanation.

This free booklet clearly outlines the biblical path to becoming a Christian and experiencing the wonderful gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. Ask for your free copy of *Becoming a Christian* 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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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. Thanks for listening. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.