Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

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

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: There is one thing which can never be said about Paul. He was never for a moment, a professional Christian. He was uninterested in the spiritual cliche and totally indifferent to ecclesiastical pomp or position. He had one all-important interest: the Lord Jesus Christ.

Narrator: Whenever he met a person who had been brought to the Savior, he could not forget him. Immediately, he had the believer in his heart, and that heart was more and more enlarged to embrace the whole company of those who put their trust in the Savior.

Choir: Thy Word is Truth, for Godly gained to teach, rebuke, correct, and train. Equip us by Him, we can trust the work God has for us to do. God's Word is all a Christian needs to grow in grace and to good deeds.

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, The Apostle Who Did Not Forget.

Those who are famous and influential may become conceited and begin to disregard common everyday people. The Apostle Paul is one of the most famous, influential persons in history, and yet, he was ever mindful of the common everyday believer who made up the body of Christ.

How can we reflect his attitude of love and concern for our fellow Christians? The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans chapter 16. We're looking at verses 3 through 16. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled, The Apostle Who Did Not Forget.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto our Father and our God and in the Holy Spirit. We thank Thee for the oneness which we have with all the believers of all the ages and of all the world. Help us to realize afresh what is the true communion of the saints.

We thank Thee that it is not talking to the spirits of people who were once here on the earth, but that it is being in Christ, even as they were, and knowing our oneness with Him and with them. In this hour, we ask Thee to bless all who own thy name. Wherever they may be, and however mixed up in doctrine or walk. Build thy people that we may grow in Christ and be drawn closer to Thee and therefore to each other. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In the last chapter of Romans, there is one word that comes in again and again: greet, greet, greet, greet. The Greek word that is translated greet and salute is found 21 times in the last chapter of the letter to the Roman church. It gives us the picture of the Apostle Paul, who did not forget.

There are many things that are revealed to us which show us the greatness of the Apostle Paul. He was one of the greatest minds in the history of the human race and has had a far greater effect on this world than have Plato, Aristotle, or any of the other ephemeral philosophers of the varied civilizations that have dotted this earth.

Paul's influence has gone wherever the Bible has gone, and he is read in more languages than is any other writer in human history. He was a great theologian, a great teacher, a great missionary, and a great soul winner.

Now there can be no doubt that Paul had his moments of depravity. At times, we see him as stubborn, impatient, angry. But all of his faults melt away when we read his devotion to Christ, and we know him as the channel through whom God brought so much of grace and love and power to all the church through all the ages.

Paul's whole life was one of poured out ministry in the name of Jesus Christ and on behalf of those for whom Christ died. Another thing we know about Paul: he was always willing to serve all other believers, but in no case did he ever use a fellow believer for his own advantage.

He remembered their participation with him in the gospel and that his own ministry was bound up with theirs. The Philippians sent him an offering, and he responded with a reminder that they were the only church that had ever done such a thing. And that, as a result, they were the partakers of the spiritual dividends that might accrue from his work.

Now in the last chapter of the Roman letter, we find Paul in a reflective mood. It's almost as though he were dictating the epistle at the close of a day of tentmaking, when he knew that Phoebe was about to set out for Rome the next day, and he wanted to finish the letter in time for her to take it with her. He goes over in his mind all those who had passed through Corinth on their way to Rome, or all those of whom he had heard, who were now at Rome but in Christ. And one by one, he mentions their names. The names of those who had helped him, the names of those for whom he had prayed.

The list breaks down into what we might call a spiritual biography. Some were chosen of God, some were the firstfruits of his ministry, some were fellow laborers and some had been fellow prisoners. Now let's look once more at this chapter and see how these people had been such a blessing to Paul, and then let us look past them to the heart of Paul, where we can discern the motives for his ministry.

We can follow Paul's thoughts through these believers to his Lord, who is also our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in whom is all grace and graciousness. We have seen enough of the names and conditions of the men and women in this chapter to be able to pass by most of their names, but use them rather as indications of the spiritual progress of Paul, in his life in the Lord, and in his service for Him.

You see the very heart of all of Paul's thinking was bound up in his tremendous faith in the sovereignty of God. He knew that there was no life nor being apart from Him, and that men were dead in trespasses and sins until they were touched by the Lord. And thus we find him speaking of Rufus as chosen in the Lord, chosen in the Lord.

This takes us to the book of Ephesians, where he speaks of the sovereignty of God in electing grace. When he speaks of this Rufus as chosen in the Lord, he's going back in his mind to the counsels of eternity, even as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. He destined us to love. He destined us in His love to be His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will.

And next, in the statement that is made about Epaenetus, we see how Paul considered those whom he had brought to the knowledge of Christ as fruits, grown on him as a branch, but from the vine who is Christ. In the 15th chapter of John, the Lord Jesus has told all believers that we are joined to Him as the branches of a vine are united to that vine.

I have seen grapevines so old and so well cared for, that the branches extend for more than 100 feet in each of two directions and bear several hundred pounds of grapes, like the famous vine in Hampton Court, which dates from 1768. Well, these people of whom he writes, and whom he speaks as his firstfruits, we may call them Paul's converts.

He bore fruit for Christ. How important it is that we recognize this principle. There's a famous anecdote about the man who came to Dwight L. Moody, insisting in tone and accent with heavy alcoholic content, that Moody should know him. "Why, Monsieur Moody," he says, "You ought to know me, Mr. Moody, you converted me!" And Moody replied, "You look like an example of what I could do in converting somebody. It's evident that Christ has had nothing to do with it."

Now Paul would have been in sympathy with that sentiment. He knew beyond all else that Christ was right when He said, "Without Me, ye can do nothing." Now in passing, let it be said that the 15th of John is a passage that is talking about fruit-bearing and not about salvation. There are those who have tried to use it to teach that a true believer could be cut out of Christ and burned as a discarded branch. But the believer who is cast forth in this parable is not cast out as a son. He's only cast out as a branch.

And Paul ever remained as a simple branch, and he reminded his readers that the man who was the first convert in Achaia was fruit that was born for Christ. Now in the next place, we find in this chapter that believers were beloved of God and therefore beloved by Paul.

In 1st John 1, we read, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the expiation for our sins." And when we know that we have been beloved of God, it should start a stream flowing from our hearts that will encompass everyone who has come to the knowledge of the Savior.

Do you truly love other believers? Do you love the profound theologian who sits in the corner of his library, toiling away for 40 years in order to establish a better Greek text of the New Testament, so that multitudes can come closer to the divine revelation as God gave it? Do you love the enthusiastic man of low intelligence, who's willing to clap his hands and shout Hallelujahs because he knows that he's been redeemed?

Do you look out upon all men with your first thought to wonder whether they know Christ as their Savior? Oh, unhappy the man who looks upon others as sales prospects and thinks nothing of their souls. Oh, do not misunderstand. I know men who are top salesmen, and who quite properly think of other men as prospects for their line of goods.

But underneath it all, there's always the warm desire that those who are to learn the value of a product that is being sold shall also know the value of the person who is able to transform life. In all of our chapter, we find Paul loving men.

And next, we find by a careful scrutiny of this list that Paul rejoiced in those who had helped him in his ministry. He was not a man who would have hogged the spotlight. He knew that the Lord's work was entirely the work of the Lord. What rage he brought against the Corinthians because some of them dared to use him as a standard for a church party?

"Are you not of the flesh and believing like ordinary men?" says he. "For when one says, 'I belong to Paul,' and another, 'I belong to Apollos,' are you not merely men? What then is Apollos and what is Paul? Servants, through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. For we are fellow workmen for God, and you are God's field, God's building."

Now it's in this spirit that Paul breathes his greetings through to the believers in Rome. So many were workers and his fellow workers, and he loved them. And again, we note that Paul remembered those who were behind the scenes, providing for his earthly needs so that he might carry on his spiritual ministry. Our older version speaks of Mary who bestowed much labor on us, and some manuscripts change the us to you.

But at all events, this unknown Mary, who was toiling behind the scenes, had her place in the regard and affection of the great Apostle. We remember in the days of David that some men went to battle and others stayed with the baggage. And when the battle was over, we read in 1st Samuel 30, that the fighters thought that the baggage guards did not need to have any of the booty that had been taken.

But David said, "You shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike."

And from that day forward, he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day. Now how true this is. I often think of it in connection with my ministry. I would never have been on the air preaching the word of God throughout this continent, if we had not had the participation of the tens of thousands of givers in the course of my generation. And as Paul appreciated this unknown Mary, who bestowed much labor on believers, so I enter into his heart and thinking toward you who listen in this hour.

Oh, how wonderful it is, and I do appreciate all those that make my work possible. The editors that work with me, the secretaries, the engineer who prepares the tapes, everything in connection with it, just as Paul had this whole band of people and thanked God for them, so my heart reaches out in this way.

Gerald Cragg of Canada has a beautiful paragraph on this seemingly dry list of names. A list of greetings such as this shows how often his mind turned back to those with whom he had formerly worked. It suggests the gratitude with which he recalled the favors he had received, the concern with which he watched over his converts' growth in grace, the solicitude with which he remembered his friends as he lifted them into God's presence.

All this is the very antithesis of the impersonal professionalism which efficiently discharges necessary obligations, and yet permits the personal equation to drop from sight. We forget people we should remember simply because we have allowed them to be strangers to our thoughts. Oh, we say sometimes that we can remember faces but not names. We might be nearer the truth if we admitted that all of us would remember other people better if we really cared about them more.

Paul recalled all sorts of men and women because he found room for them in his prayers. We have here an evidence of the close and affectionate relations which existed between Paul and his converts. We unconsciously assume that the Apostle may have been a great man, but that he was probably a forbidding companion. Having read through Romans, some might view with alarm the prospect of spending an informal evening in Saint Paul's company. We may study his letters for the good of our souls, but we think that we would not instinctively choose him as a friend.

Well, there's plenty of evidence, however, to prove that Paul not only felt a deep affection for his converts, but he aroused in them an answering regard. For here, from beginning to end, the word beloved, beloved, recurs again and again in his reference to his former colleagues, and his friends reflected genuine love that could not but have been mutual.

There is no touch of condescension in the Apostle's tone. He is writing to those whom he held dear, and the warmth of his greeting shows how intimate was the tie which bound them to him. Now let's ask ourself a question. Why did Paul remember so many of these unknowns? He did not need to remember them. He was not that dependent upon them that he had to remember them. He was, in one sense, quite self-sufficient. He could have used them and then ignored them.

He tells the Philippians that he had a family tree, social position, religion and character before Christ met him on the Damascus road. But these things he cast aside in order that he might find Christ and be found in Him. This is what had transformed him, and given him all of his outlook and attitudes. It's very popular today to speak of a man's world philosophy, and even to say it in German, Weltanschauung, but there can be no doubt that Paul's worldview was through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He saw no man apart from Christ. Any man who was in Christ belonged to Paul as much as his right arm belonged to him. The doctrine of God's elective grace was not a slogan or a shibboleth. It was a vital experience that transformed life and all of its relationships. Paul knew the depth of the pit from which he and they had been digged, and he knew the heights of joy to which Christ had brought him and to which he could bring all others who would come to Him.

To all who had made the start and were living that life of Christ in whatever degree, Paul poured out his heart. He knew that though he had been given much, very, very much, he had not been given a patent or a copyright on God's grace. Paul was a channel and he knew it, and all that had been manifested to him was to be manifested through him to others.

Paul knew that he had but one purpose, to manifest the Lord Jesus Christ to others. There have been times when people have come to me rather apologetically because they knew that I was always busy. Well, many years ago the Lord gave me an answer for such hesitancy. I've always said that my business is not sermons or books or editorials and church work. My business is people.

Primarily, the body of Christ, to whom God has called me to minister as a teacher of the word, and secondarily, to all other men, to whom I witness incidentally concerning their need for Christ, so that when they come to Him, I may continue the nursing work to which the Lord has called me. Now Paul was what he was because of what he had become in Christ.

He wrote to the Corinthians, "I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God which is with me."

And this is what made Paul gentle. The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness, and he had been given the gentleness of Christ. This is why his heart was bound around all the believers whom he met. He wanted to be Christ to them. He wrote to the Romans earlier in this epistle that we could know that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord, to them who are the called according to His purpose. And in the next verse, he explains that that purpose is that we might be conformed to the image of His Son.

Oh, how can it be otherwise that when we become more like Christ, more in His image, we should be otherwise than kind, gentle, loving, and that we should remember others? Now since Paul was in Christ and Christ was in Paul, the image had to manifest itself in the same way that the Lord manifested Himself when He ministered here on earth.

Did Jesus not say, "The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many?" Then we must follow that example and be like Him, who has told us that He is not so unjust as to overlook our work of faith and the love which we show in serving other believers. Oh, sit down today and write a letter to someone who has been a blessing in your life.

Write to that Sunday school teacher who gave herself for you for so many years. Write that high school teacher who aroused your interest in reading or in some other subject. Write to that poor old pastor who perhaps couldn't preach for sour apples, but who poured himself out in love for you in his faithful ministry in your behalf. Try to remember everyone who has ever done anything for you, that has brought you nearer to Christ.

I remember in my life as I look back, I remember a Negro elevator operator. I remember a poor Mexican beside a road at a junction in Old Mexico. I remember a Pentecostal minister in Japan, a missionary who came all the way across Kobe and Osaka to meet us in the rain. I remember a missionary pilot who flew us in many parts of South America. I remember Alfred, the illiterate janitor in Brussels, who was so devoted to me as a young preacher. And I could go on thus for pages, and perhaps I should take my time to do this, though not yours. And perhaps you should spend your time in reverie, covering the years of your growth in Christ.

And if you cannot think of any such people, start loving others and serving them, so that they will have occasion of thinking back upon you in blessing because you brought them closer to Christ. And as I am thinking back over people who have helped me so much, I think of faithful secretaries, and all the staff at the Evangelical Foundation who have made my radio and written ministry possible by taking so many thousand cares from me, and by standing between me and so many oppressing details which stifle the ministry of so many men.

And I think of Ralph Keiper who's done so much research work for me, doing spadework, looking up material, outlining work for me after we've discussed the chain of thought. Beloved in Christ, hard workers, saints approved of God. Yes, and if we seek to become more and more like Jesus Christ, men will recognize that we are the incarnation of His gentleness and graciousness.

The gratitude which we sometimes are prone to express glibly with our lips shall become a part of our hearts' every motion as we live and work for Him. And our God and Father, we pray Thee to make us truly grateful and thankful to Thee for all the others whom Thou hast touched. We feel so closely the bond that binds anyone whom Thou hast saved. Oh, bless us, we pray Thee, and in this hour, give to Thy listening people a sense of memory and gratitude for all who have helped us in any way as the years have gone by, and we give Thee the praise through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Narrator: We must always remember our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world, and think of them with love, compassion, and prayer. We hope you've benefited from today's message, The Apostle Who Did Not Forget. To listen to additional 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, The Apostle Who Did Not Forget. Or simply request message number R16-2.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled, Walking by God's Word. If you try to walk in the dark, you may hurt yourself or become lost. The same will happen if we try to make it through life without the light of God's Word. The Bible declares, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." And this free booklet will help you apply the wisdom and light of the scriptures to every area of daily living. Ask for your free copy of Walking by God's Word 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. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible comes to you through the generous gifts of listeners. 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. That's 1-800-488-1888. Visit us online at alliancenet.org, or write, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. Be sure to ask for our 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.