tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31298428356354016152024-02-20T02:32:01.693-06:00Reformed GraceNathaniel Penlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13089148708330130436noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129842835635401615.post-53704700372642584162015-01-25T00:03:00.000-06:002015-01-25T06:20:11.466-06:00Fighting Against The Flesh To Obey The Word - 2 Corinthians 10:3-6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b>My Sermon at Pine Ridge Home in Rome, Georgia </b></div>
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<b>Saturday, January 24, 2015</b></div>
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<iframe width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/187752482&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true"></iframe>Nathaniel Penlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13089148708330130436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129842835635401615.post-81732477217326478832014-08-14T14:54:00.000-05:002014-08-14T14:57:29.738-05:00Exposition of Exaltation<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The title of this blog post says a lot about my thinking lately. John Piper once said that every sermon a pastor preaches should become an "exposition of exaltation." He said it many years ago yet it is one those statements that I have never forgotten. Before I moved to Lawrenceville, GA in August of 2013, I had been a pastor for six years. Five years I spent at a small church in Selmer, TN and about a year and a half at a small church in Grand Junction, CO. Those were difficult years, but they were also precious years. Most every Sunday and Wednesday throughout those years I was either preaching or teaching something from the text of Scripture. When I read John Piper's statement above I felt compelled to always make that my aim. Most anyone who has some degree of speaking ability and knows something basic about the Gospel can preach a sermon. But not just any one can exalt Christ in the process. When John Piper said a sermon should be an exposition of exaltation, God used it to remind me that I am not just preaching to feed the sheep or to teach others something about God. I am preaching as an offering of worship to Him. As I preached, I needed to be worshipping. I needed to love the One I spoke of so much that every ounce of me wanted to tell the truth about Him to others, to exalt in Him as I spoke about Him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This past year I have hardly done any preaching or teaching at all. And I do admit that was by design. In December of 2011 Lori and I went through a very difficult circumstance in our lives where I was fired from my church for preaching and teaching what I felt was biblical and true. After that I did not know what to do. I was hurt and very discouraged because I had given five years of my life there and planned on giving the rest of it. Over time I met with another pastor of a Reformed church who needed help in Grand Junction, CO. So I moved my family out there. The church was a mighty blessing to us after the hardship of the last one. They loved us and served us. And eventually they voted me in as their second teaching elder. What a joy it all was to pastor along side a like-minded man, who believed in the same doctrines and preached with the same passion for truth that drove me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I thought I could spend the rest of my life there. But after about a year of that I noticed that although my wife put on a good smile everyday, she was sad inside. She was still broken over the tragedy of the last church. She was hurting and I was not caring for her very well. In an effort to quickly get back into "ministry" I forgot to care for my wife. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The church in Colorado allowed us to live in the church building rent free, but other than that they could not afford to pay me. So I worked two other jobs just to pay our bills, and buy groceries. On top of preaching and teaching I realized I was doing too much.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">God opened up an opportunity for me to work in Atlanta, GA for enough of a salary that I would only need one job. Lori needed some time away from full-time ministry. She needed to live in a home that was only ours. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I was preaching and teaching, which I love almost more than anything, but my sermons were no longer expositions of exaltation because I was tired and weary and even sad myself. And at the same time I was not caring for my wife the way that Christ commands husbands to in Ephesians 5. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So in August of 2013 we moved to Lawrenceville, GA, started attending a Bible believing reformed church, which I am extremely thankful for (thank you Brother Robert & Christ Reformed) and I took a break from full time ministry...I took a break from preaching and teaching.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I never intended for this to be a permanent break. Both Lori and I agree on that but after almost a year now, it has been a good break. A needed break. We moved into our own home for the first time in a year and half and we have just enjoyed being a family. I have come home every night, attended our church on Wednesdays and Sundays and spent time in the Word together and with no other expectation on me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So, now to the point of this blog post. Just because I have stopped preaching and teaching and do not know when I will start again on any kind of regular basis, doesn't mean that the desire to preach and teach is no longer there. The desire never once left me. I hear something or I read something in the Bible and immediately I start wanting to tell others about it and to teach on it. I am just built that way. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am not ready yet to return to the pulpit, so instead I am going to start using this blog again as my outlet for truth, my outlet to teach and preach. My prayer above all else is that every post will become for me an "exposition of exaltation."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I look forward to sharing with you soon. But I would write this blog whether any one read it or not.</span>Nathaniel Penlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13089148708330130436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129842835635401615.post-83206165412625994232013-04-14T01:21:00.001-05:002013-04-14T01:23:18.457-05:00The SIN (wretchedness) of Abortion Exposed<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">READ, UNDERSTAND that Abortion is ALWAYS murder. </span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2013/04/11/9-things-you-should-know-about-the-gosnell-infanticide-and-murder-trial/"><span style="color: yellow; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2013/04/11/9-things-you-should-know-about-the-gosnell-infanticide-and-murder-trial/</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When we, as a society, wink at, turn our heads and even approve
of the murder of unborn children, the first problem is NOT the conditions it
takes place in, the first problem is that we have already become an accessory
to murder. The only reason people are talking about this particular case
is because of the degree to which this doctor performed abortions. But the most
horrible thing about all of this is that this will be seen as an extreme case
that everyone should be against...some abortions are better than
others...NO...NO...NO!!! Abortion is sin whether it happens in a garbage dump
or a palace, whether it happens immediately after conception or at 9 months.
And our country stands and watches with an eye of approval, until images that
shock us come out that reveal not an isolated instance, but the truth about all
abortion...it is sin. And the wrath abides not only on those who perform them
but on all those who approve of them. Why is this nation Shocked at Dr. Gosnell
and the conditions of his clinic and his actions? Because they are embarrassed
that the true condition of abortion itself was exposed and not hidden behind a
neat, curtain or wall. America needs to wake up but it will not. The world and
it's lusts are passing away...true believers in this nation will alone stand
against this horror, not because it is first hurting women and babies (and it
is), but because it is against God and we love Him more than this world and the
things it approves of. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Romans 1:32 </span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>and although they know the ordinance of
God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do
the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Planned Parenthood itself are the BIGGEST hypocrites of all
in all of this. Because they think what they are doing is different than what
Dr. Gosnell does. That is almost laughable!!</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Nathaniel Penlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13089148708330130436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129842835635401615.post-18824220258457754922012-02-03T15:10:00.001-06:002012-02-17T23:34:30.337-06:00Reforming The Church is living our lives by the doctrines of grace Part 2<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>John 17:4 </b><br /><i>I glorified You on the earth, <b><u>having accomplished</u></b> the work which You have given Me to do.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">These are the Words of Christ just before He goes to the cross. This is a prayer from God the Son to God the Father.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is my favorite verse in my favorite Gospel in the NT. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">These are, in my opinion, the most important Words spoken by Christ during His earthly ministry in all of Scripture.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And there are two reasons I have for believing this. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">1) First of all, the fact that He speaks these words to His Father just before He goes to the cross is amazing to me. It is amazing because He has not yet done the final work He was sent by the Father to do, to die on the cross.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">2) And that is the second thing that amazes me about this text. He uses the past tense verb of <i><b>"having accomplished"</b></i> the work. Yet on the cross we know that He says, <i>"It is finished!"</i> (John 19:30).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jesus had not even gone to the cross yet, and still He says to the Father, <i>"I glorified You on the earth</i> (during His earthly ministry) <i>having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do."</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The question I find myself asking here is how can Jesus say that He has accomplished the work that the Father sent Him to do and yet He has not even physically died on the cross yet?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The answer I come to sends me into a glory-filled song of praise. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">We cannot simply read isolated verses and have an accurate view of their meaning. We must read all Scripture in the context in which God placed it. T</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">herefore John 17:4 is in a chapter of the Bible where Jesus is praying to His Father about the very specific work that He sent Jesus to do. And when Jesus does that work, God the Father is glorified.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The question is, what is the work which God the Father sent God the Son to accomplish? The answer allows us to see how He can say here that He has both accomplished the work and yet still says on the cross, "It is finished."</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I believe that work is expressed best in <b>John 17:12</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Christ came to keep and guard those men which God the Father gave to Him. Look at how well He kept and guarded them.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"Not one of them perished."</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And He only adds the <i>"son of perdition"</i> (the son of hell, Judas Iscariot) here because it was ordained for Christ to choose Judas to betray Him.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">In other words, Christ kept all of those who were meant to be kept. He guarded all of those who were meant to be guarded. Not one person who God the Father elected for salvation perished under the watchful care of Jesus Christ. Not one.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">In John 17:12 Jesus was only speaking about the eleven disciples, but those are not the only ones Christ was sent to keep and to guard and to pray for.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>John 17:20 is proof of that fact:</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their Word;</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let me make something very clear here, "their word" is referring to the Word of God itself. The disciples were the first men commissioned by Christ to preach the true Gospel and many of them even wrote Scripture itself. T</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">heir Words were the Words that began the process of bringing salvation to men who would believe on Christ and be joined to the church.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Acts 2:41-43</b> is the first and most powerful example of that fact</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>So then, those who had received his word</i> (the Word of God through the mouth of the Apostle Peter) <i>were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Added to what? Added to the first local church there in Jerusalem.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Back to John 17. Christ not only prayed for those eleven disciples before He went to the cross, but He also prayed for all the rest of those who would be saved and follow Him. He was praying at that moment for all of the elect children of God around the world who would ever come to faith in Him.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">They will have the same care over them as the disciples had - the care of Christ. The result of that care will be the same as the disciples: <i>"Not one of them will perish."</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here is where we come to the greatest truth in all of Scripture and why I love the Word of Jesus in <b>John 17:4</b> so much.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">None of the elect will perish because He was sent by God the Father to die for them, to substitute His life for theirs beneath the wrath of God, and He would send the Word of God to them.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">When they hear the Word of God their hearts will be regenerated, they will believe in Christ, repent of their sins, and spend their entire life serving Him in their local church.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is the beauty of the Doctrines of Grace. They hinge on one glorious fact - substitutionary atonement. All who God the Father sent Christ to die for, will come to Him and all who come to Him, He will not cast out and they will never perish!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>John 6:37-39</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me, I will certainly not cast out...this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is the foundation of the Doctrines of Grace...A completely victorious Savior...why would we not glory in Him? He will have victory as the one who accomplished everything the Father sent Him to accomplish...He already has.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />All that is left now is for Him to return and claim His prize!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">In my next post I will summarize what the rest of the Doctrines of Grace teach and how the church is reformed by them.</span></div>Nathaniel Penlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13089148708330130436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129842835635401615.post-26356810475954573172012-02-03T13:28:00.000-06:002012-02-17T23:33:08.188-06:00Reforming The Church is living our lives by the doctrines of grace, Part 1<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">A very wise pastor of over 30 years once told me, <i>"There is a big difference between preaching reformed theology and actually reforming the church."</i></span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">To that I gave a hardy amen. I have seen that difference up close and personal. People can live with their pastor preaching right doctrine. Many times they even invite it. They may question some of it or simply not understand all of it. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">But as long as their pastor is patient and willing to show his people that these doctrines are biblical, most of the time they will at least be willing to listen, even if they disagree.</span></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">2 Timothy 4:2</span></b></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.</span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Most of the time people are willing to at least listen if all you ever do as a pastor is preach right doctrine; however the problem becomes when you try and take that right doctrine and place it in people's every day lives and challenge them to live by the Word of God.<br /><br />That is when I find that most of the objections begin. </span><br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some of you, who have been through splits and revolts in your own church due to doctrine (such as Calvinism) are questioning my sanity right now, thinking of all kinds of instances where people rose up in arms over doctrine they did not agree with. I understand that and it does happen. But I believe the doctrine itself is a small part of the issue for most people. <br /><br />Most people only get upset when they start to understand what the doctrines demand of them personally.</span><br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">But if you are listening to doctrine that does not demand anything of you personally then you are listening to there wrong doctrine!</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Matthew 10:37-39 </b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.</i><br /><br />That is what the Christ does and so that is what any doctrine that promotes Christ does. It pin points the areas in your life where you have placed your family or your comfort or anything in this life before Him and calls you to repent and follow Him!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I will give you a perfect example I have experienced in my own pastoral ministry:</span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">There was a woman in my congregation who called me after listening to one of my sermons and she asked me, "Pastor, are you a Calvinist?" As a man who does not like to be labeled by a term that could or could not describe me based on the definition of Calvinism, I quickly responded by saying, "Well, that depends on what you mean by 'Calvinist.'"</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And she rattled off mostly untrue statements about what Calvinism meant, mainly that men were mere puppets and that we did not believe in evangelism or holding people accountable in their walk with Christ. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So I went over to her house the next day and spoke for several hours on what I did believe as a Calvinist or someone who holds to the Doctrines of Grace. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">While I was there I came to find out that what she was really upset about was not the doctrine itself but what the doctrine meant to her pride and to her family.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">At one point she stopped me and said, "So what you are saying is that even though I have been a Christian for 30 years, that I have been wrong about how God saves people the whole time." </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And I responded by challenging her and saying, "Well, if you were, wouldn't you want to know? Doesn't the Bible tell us to examine everything we believe by the Word of God and not simply by what we have always been taught?"</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">She responded with the fact that she could not handle that. And then the conversation quickly spiraled out of control as her emotions took over. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I found out that one of her sons was currently lost and living in the world and she was afraid that by believing that God had elect people that He sent His Son to die for that her lost son would not be included and she could not handle that either.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Which, by the way, is not a Calvinistic problem at all but a faith problem. I would argue that the God that Calvinism presents would actually give her a greater reason to hope in her Son's eventual salvation than any other doctrine or God could she could believe in. Why?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because there is absolutely no sin or no amount of disbelief that her son could currently be living in that would keep an elect child of God from the regeneration that Christ purchased for him on the cross.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">She must continue to simply pray for him and be a loving witness of the Gospel to him in the meantime. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">She was placing more faith in what he could do for his own salvation than what God has already done on the cross. And that is not faith. That is a stubborn pride filled desire to see her family members saved in her own way.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have talked with countless people who come to the same conclusions about what they will or will not believe based on what it means for the salvation of their living or dead relatives.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">One pastor I know started preaching correct doctrine and then applying that to leaving behind cults and false teaching. None of his people had any really problems with that until they started to see that following this would mean having to reject the Masonic lodge. And then war broke out in this pastor's church. Many of his deacons and prominent leaders were Masons and would rather forsake the church than their precious but heretical lodge.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">People are fine with doctrine that sits on the page of Scripture but does not have to touch them in their homes where they live, and in their businesses where they work, and in their marriages and parenting. Why? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because that is where doctrine calls for change. That is where doctrine invades the wrong in our lives and seeks to correct and change it and kill it and create the new and the right.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The whole point of knowing right doctrine is to allow it to conform us into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">If we are not first willing to change, if we are not first willing to see the wrong ways we live in our homes or work in our businesses, then we are not willing to turn from these things and repent.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">If the pastor keeps preaching that doctrine must change these things, then they not only question the change, but they question the doctrine. They tell the preacher to stop preaching so much on the these things that they have heard over and over again. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why? Because they are not offended by the doctrine but by the God with whom the doctrine brings them face to face. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">They do not love Him and they want to avoid Him. But they find that in the kind of preaching that brings the doctrine so close to their lives that they cannot avoid Him.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">This what it means to reform a church: to take the right doctrine and place it in their living room where they cannot avoid the one true and living God who is absolutely sovereign over all things, most importantly the salvation of His church.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Psalms 115:3</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Our God is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">When a pastor decides that He must preach the God of the Bible, the people who sit under his ministry must face the God who is, instead of living in a world where they make Him up based on their fears or preferences.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">They will either face Him in a humble admission that their lives are full of sin and pride, repent and allow Him to change their lives, or they will face Him in a prideful arrogance that says "I will only believe in Him if He is the God I always wanted."</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2 Timothy 4:2-4</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>A WORD TO PASTORS: </b>Pastors I encourage you to never stop preaching the God who is, because your people need a real God who deals with real sin in their lives. They may not like it, but not only were you not called to please them, but when God does open their eyes for the first time to see Him, they will run to Him and your church will quickly move from those who simply tolerate doctrine to those who love the God of Scripture.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">My next post will be part 2 of what it means to "<i>live our lives by the Doctrines of Grace"</i> and I will lay out briefly what these doctrines mean and how they not only teach us who He is, but also how we might live in response to who He is.</span></div>
</div>Nathaniel Penlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13089148708330130436noreply@blogger.com0156 Bramblewood Drive, Selmer, TN 3837537.09024 -95.71289111.6301275 -136.1425785 62.5503525 -55.2832035tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129842835635401615.post-4753214942136419052012-01-20T14:28:00.001-06:002012-01-24T00:48:45.521-06:00Reforming the church is embracing God's gift of pastors part 2<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2 Timothy 4:1-2</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.</i><br /><br />Did you ever notice how strong Paul's language is here to young pastor Timothy?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is no request or suggestion. This is a charge. Not just any charge, Paul adds extra emphasis with "solemn charge."</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">In Greek, this carries the idea of a <i>"severe warning."</i> A warning that carries a great cost to himself and his ministry if he fails to carry out this charge. Because this charge is not simply from the apostle Paul, it is from Christ Himself.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The charge is to preach Christ to His church and nothing less than Christ.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Earlier in this same letter the apostle Paul reminds Timothy where this charge originates:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><b><u>Guard</u></b>, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you...</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">This treasure is a two fold treasure: the treasure of the Word of God itself and the calling to preach it. This is the treasure that Christ Himself has entrusted to Timothy.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2 Timothy 1:6</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands...</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">First Christ gave Timothy the gift to preach the Word of God, which is the same as calling him as an elder and pastor and then He gave Timothy as a gift to the church, so that they could benefit from Word of God and the ministry that Christ called Timothy into.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why did Christ charge Timothy to preach the Word to the church and to <i>"guard this treasure, which has been entrusted to him?"</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why is the apostle Paul warning Timothy that everything depends on the preaching of the Word of God in the church? Why such a serious charge?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2 Timothy 4:3-4</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Paul is so urgent with Timothy and calls the preaching of the Word a "trust" that must be guarded because the church needs the preaching of the Word, but the world around (and in) our local churches is constantly attacking that Word and seeking to pull believers away from it.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is why the church never stops needing instruction. Remember Paul urged Timothy to preach the Word continually, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"in season and out of season."</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I think that is one of the biggest problems in the local church today. God gives a preacher, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">who rightly understand the urgency of his calling,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> to a local church, and yet most of those who sit under his teaching do not see how desperately they need the Word.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is a huge reason why so many people in the local church do not embrace their elders and pastors as gifts from the hand of Christ Himself.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I think that is why the author of Hebrews pleaded with congregation members to obey their leaders and listen to them. Because even if they don't see the urgency of their need, their leaders do. That is what their leaders (their pastors and elders) have been gifted and called to see).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><b><u>Obey your leaders</u></b> and submit to them, for they <u><b>keep watch</b></u> over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">But rebellion is in the heart of every sinner. And sinners fill up the church. And that is why when God was commenting on the state of his people in Isaiah He called them rebels from birth:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>You have not heard, you have not known. Even from long ago your ear has not been open, because I knew that you would deal very treacherously; and you have been a rebel from birth.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And that is why when Christ set up the church He set it up with structure in mind and authority. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Authority always brings out some rebellion in sinners. Everyone is fine until someone tells them something they don't want to hear. Or tells them to change something that they don't want to change.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you have been sitting in a church for even a few months and you never hear something that your flesh does not like, then you are in a bad church. A pastor that only preaches the parts of the Word of God that make you feel good is not preaching the Word. He is purposeful using the Word to gain followers, not to show sinners their need for Christ.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm not saying that your pastor should be a jerk either. But he is an authority. He is a steward of the Word of God. And as a steward, He must speak for Christ, not for himself. And the first thing Christ does with every sinner is expose the places in his life where he is still in rebellion to His Word. And then He takes the Word and slowly begins to cut out your will and replace it with His.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Rebellion comes from pride and the first place we see pride rear its ugly head in the local church is when its members decide to come up with every excuse in the world not to obey their leaders and not submit to their teaching.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">If this wasn't a problem, the Lord would not have inspired these words. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Hebrews 13:17</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><b><u>Obey your leaders</u></b> and submit to them, for they <u><b>keep watch</b></u> over your souls as those who will give an account.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And in the NT you see this kind opt language over and over again about the role of a pastor, <i>"keep watch," "Guard," "lead," "be alert."</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why? Because rebellion is always at the door way of every local church and in order for the Gospel to thrive there, rebellion must be killed and the desire to submit and follow the Word where it is preached must live!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">In </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2 Timothy 1:14</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">, Paul urges Timothy to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"<b><u>guard</u></b>, that which has been entrusted to him."</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">He tells him to guard the Word because it will be attacked, and then in <b>Hebrews 13:17</b> the writer is pleading with the congregation to see that is exactly what their elders have been called to do on their behalf, <i>"for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account."</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Christ sent elders into the local church to <b><i>"guard the Word"</i></b> as a precious treasure and only as they guard the Word from being attacked can they then effectively <i>"keep watch over the souls"</i> that Christ has given into their care.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Pastors are not simply preachers of the Word, they are also guardians of it and watchers over the souls of their people.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Most people who sit in local churches today have no clue of the heavy responsibility this is to their pastor. Which, again is one reason why they do not embrace him as a gift.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The church never stops needing the instruction of the Word of God from their pastor and elders. Never. You can never know too much about how the Gospel applies to your marriage or to your parenting or to your work life or to your relationship to your parents. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">You always need instruction and your pastor is called by God to give you that instruction. And to protect you from following any other instruction but the Word of God. That is his calling.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So unless you have strong Scriptural evidence that his instruction to you is unbiblical...<b>DO NOT REJECT IT!</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Your pastor is called by Christ to, "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction."</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why? Because you never stop needing to be <i>"reproved, rebuked, exhorted and instructed"</i> by the Word of God.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because the moment you stop allowing your pastor to preach the message of the Gospel into your heart and life, the moment you start shutting off your ears and closing down your heart because you get your feelings hurt, is the moment that you are the most vulnerable to attacks and the lies of Satan.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The moment you stop listening to the Word is the moment you start listening to self. And Satan will start pulling on your heart strings. The pride within you will raise its ugly head and convince you that you deserve to be treated better and you don't need your pastor's wisdom and instruction anyway. And then you will start looking around for a message that is more appealing to your flesh.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2 Timothy 4:3-4</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">On one occasion, the apostle Paul was encouraging the Ephesian elders to continue faithfully instructing the Ephesian church because if they failed to do this the people would fall into the temptation of Satan. True teachers of the Word must remain faithful because false teachers (vessels of Satan) are always there to whisper in their ears and pull them away.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><b>Acts 20:28-29</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><b><u>Be on guard</u> </b>for yourselves and for all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>You need to wake up.</b> Your pastor was not given to you to appeal to your flesh and to make you feel good about yourself. He was given to you by Christ to preach the Word of God into your life so that you might repent of sin and be <i>"conformed into the image of the Son."</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The word of God is not a gentle pillow that you can rub your ego on at night and rest softly in your sin. The Word of God, according to <b>Hebrews 4:12,</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>is sharper than a double-edged sword, and is meant to pierce through your flesh and dive into your soul...it judges the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Word of God, faithfully preached by your elders is meant to expose your sin and show it to you. Don't reject that. Because the moment you do, Satan is ready to destroy you.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1 Peter 5:8</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.</i><br /><br />Christ gave you a pastor and elders because we not only need to constantly be instructed by the Word of God, but we need called and gifted men to protect protect us from following error.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So leave your pride that says that can never happen to you. If it couldn't, the Word of God wouldn't warn you so much about it and it certainly wouldn't urge pastors to watch out for it.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Your job is to remain humble and teachable toward him in that instruction. Because God has given him to you for that very purpose. God gave pastors to His people for their good. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Embrace your pastor and your elders as the gift of a guardian and a watchman for your soul. When he accepted the call to pastor your church, he laid down his life for that purpose.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2 Corinthians 4:5</b><br /><i>For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake.</i></span></div>
</div>Nathaniel Penlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13089148708330130436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129842835635401615.post-53231327156775248852012-01-14T00:17:00.536-06:002012-02-09T17:02:47.636-06:00Reforming the church is embracing God's gift of pastors<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What should the church want from their pastor-elders? What should they look for in a pastor or elders? What should the church expect their role to be?</b><br /><br />The most important question that the church should ask when addressing issues like this is, "Who decides the role of the pastor?"<br /><br /> Where did the role of the pastor originate? Where did it come from? <br />Did it come from pastors? <br />Did it come from congregations? No. <br /><br />The role of the pastor did not originate from any man. The role of the pastor did not even originate in the church. It originated from Scripture. And therefore Scripture alone must dictate what the role of the pastor should be in the church. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Believers should want what the Bible wants. They should want a pastor that lines up with the Biblical qualifications not with their own feelings, thoughts and opinions. Our opinions really do not matter when it comes to deciding who our pastors should be and what his role is in the church. <br /><br />Only God's truth matters when it comes to things that originate with Him and everything does! He chooses equips godly men for pastoring and shepherding the flock and then His Spirit alone calls them into the ministry.<br /><br /><b>Acts 20:28</b><br /><i>...the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God.</i><br /><br />Therefore when it comes to deciding who our pastors should be and what role they should carry out in the church we must start with Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), "conforming everything in our lives to the Word of God."<br /><br /> <b>NOTE: </b>Let me preface all that I am about to say with this quick note. I am going to write a separate blog at a later time about those men who call themselves pastors but who are not faithfully preaching the Word or shepherding the sheep. Because there are those men out there and they are a threat to the church rather than a blessing to it. Paul spends a lot of time in his letters to Timothy warning him about these false teachers and urging him to remove them from the body. But today I am only addressing how the church should treat men who are truly called to the position of elder and are faithfully carrying out that role.<br /><br /> So this is going to be my first series of posts on the same topic: how the church is called by Scripture to view their pastors and elders. I'm not sure how many of these posts I will do, so bear with me. I just know that if I try to shove everything into only one you will sit here for far too long.<br /><br /> I have one major issue to deal with in this first post on the role of the pastor and I will leave the rest to the following posts. And that is that Christ gave pastors to the local church and therefore the embers of the church are called by God to recognize them as a gift to them from His hand.<br /><br /> In my previous post on our view of the local church, I mentioned that because worldliness has crept into the church it has given many of its members (professing believers) a low view of the church.<br /><br /> The first place where that becomes the most visible is how the congregation treats their pastor or elders.<br /><br /> That is why we must correct our mistreatment of pastors and change our wrong expectations of their role by pointing out very clearly this biblical truth: God gave pastors to the church. God gave pastors to the bride of Christ!<br /><br /> <b>Ephesians 4:11-13</b><br /><i>And He gave some as apostles and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stare which belongs to the fullness of Christ.</i><br /><br /> Because God gave pastors and elders to the church to lead the church, it makes perfect sense that if you have a low view of the local church then you will have a low view of your God-given leaders. And you will develop wrong expectations as to why they are there.<br /><br /> In order to keep us from developing unbiblical expectations of the pastor's role, let's begin by looking at two biblical words from the text we just read: "He gave"...<br /> <br /><br /><b>Ephesians 4:11-12</b><br /><i>And He gave some...as pastors and teachers</i><br /><br />Let's just think about those two words for one moment. "He gave."<br /> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Where else do we see those two words in Scripture? The first place that probably came to your mind was<br /><br /><b>John 3:16</b><br /><i>For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son...</i><br /><br /> And who did God give His Son to? The world? Yes, in a sense, but if you read that verse in context He actually gave Him specifically to the church that is presently in the world. He gave Him to the elect, who live in the world among every tribe and tongue and people and nation.<br /><br /> <b>Revelation 5:9-10</b><br /><i>...for you were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.</i><br /><br />When God gave His Son to the world, He was specifically giving Him to the church in the world, to purchase them out of the world. <br /><br /> It was a sacrificial giving. It was a giving of Christ to take on the punishment of the cross. Christ went to the cross not for a general purpose but for a very specific purpose: to purchase the salvation of His elect children around the world. Every one of them will one day come out of the world and live with Him eternally in heaven because He purchased them.<br /><br /> So God gave His Son to the church and He gave the church to His Son.<br /><br /> <b>John 17:6</b><br /><i>I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your Word.</i><br /><br />As we discussed in my last post, there is nothing more precious to Christ than His bride. It is a gift to Him from His Father. He laid down His life to purchase her out of her sin and gave her new life. First the Father gave Christ to save the church, and now that Christ has saved His bride, now He wants to nourish her with the Word of God.<br /><br /> So Christ gave a special gift to His bride, to serve her like He does, to lay down their lives for her and preach His Word to her. Christ gave His church pastors.<br /> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Those same two words that are used to tell us that God the Father gave Christ to His church are now being used to tell us that God the Son gave pastors to His church.<br /><br /> <b>Ephesians 4:11-13</b><br /><i>And He gave some as apostles and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, </i><br /><br /> Why did Christ give pastors to His church, to His bride? How do they best serve the church?<br /><br /> <b>Ephesians 4:11-13</b><br /><i>And He gave some...as pastors and teachers, <b><u>for the equipping of the saints</u></b> for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;</i><br /><br /> He gave pastors to His bride to equip them and build them up in their salvation.<br /><br /> The church is called the body of Christ because it has His name on it - it has His blood on it. It bears His death marks, His seal.<br /><br /> Therefore there is nothing more important to Christ than to uphold the reputation of His name and His Father's name by strengthening and building up the body of Christ.<br /><br /> How does He do that? By giving to them pastors and elders who will faithfully and patiently preach and teach that Word to them, thus equipping them with a greater understanding of the Word of God.<br /><br /> <b>2 Timothy 4:1-2</b><br /><i>I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.</i><br /><br /> Do you realize your great need for the Word? Are you hungry to understand it better and to apply it to your life? <br /><br />Then be thankful! Be thankful that God gave you a pastor that is willing to study hard to teach it to you and your family.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1 Thessalonians 5:12-13</b><br /><i>But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work.</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1 Timothy 5:17</b><br /><i>The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is the Scripture not clear on this point? Christ is a gift to the church to save the church and to give it life, where there was only death. Pastors are a gift to the church as well, to work hard to continually point the church back to Christ!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you love Christ, then you should love your local church. And if you love your local church, then you should love your pastor who serve you in that church in order to point you to Christ, the life and breath of the church.<br /><br /><br /> Based on everything I have discussed in this post, I have three major challenges for you. And I am giving you these challenges with the presupposition that you actually have a biblically qualified pastor or elders in your church. Because if you don't you should honestly evaluate why you are still in that church.<br /><br />1) So first of all, if you have elders that are faithfully pastoring you with the Word of God, then you only have one option: You must view them and their ministry as a gift from the hand of Christ to you and your church. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />2) Secondly, if he is a gift from the goodness of Christ to you, then do you treat Him like a gift? Do you encourage him? Do you faithfully pray for him? Do you go up to him from time to time and just tell him how much you appreciate the fact that he spends hours in his study preparing to preach the Word of God to you and your family every week.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />3) Finally, if he is a gift from Christ to your church, and if he is spending hours preparing to preach the Word of God to you and your family every week, are you listening? Are you listening to the Word as intently and as passionately as he is preaching it? If you are sitting there during His sermons twiddling your thumbs and day dreaming, you are not receiving Him as the gift Christ intended Him to be! You should be preparing your heart throughout the week to hear the Word of God and learn from him. And then you should seek not only to hear it, but to apply it your life and be changed by it. If He is preaching the Word of God to you, then every week is an opportunity to grow or change something in your life so that you can move closer to Christ and further out of the world. <br /><br /><br />That is not only what every true pastor wants from his people, but more importantly that is what Christ wants from His people. Pastors and elders are simply called to lay down their lives to make sure that you know exactly who Christ is and what He is saying.<br /><br /><br /> The more you start viewing your pastor as a gift, the more you will start really listening to Christ and being changed by His Word.</span></div>Nathaniel Penlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13089148708330130436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129842835635401615.post-38921036849838017062012-01-13T16:15:00.004-06:002012-01-18T22:47:31.377-06:00The progressive path of this blog: The Word of God driving The Church of God<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I have been writing and working on this blog now for half of January and I just want to make sure everyone who is reading it or following it understands where I have been because then you will have a better understanding of where I am going.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">First of all let me mention again the previous three blog entries:</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>REFORMING THE CHURCH</b> is conforming our lives to the Word of God</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>REFORMING THE CHURCH</b> starts with having the ears to hear the Word of God</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>REFORMING THE CHURCH </b>means teaching believers to love the church the way that Christ loves the church</span></li>
</ol>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So these three posts have simply laid the foundation for everything else I will be discussing through the life of this blog:</span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What <b>reforming</b> the church is</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Where <b>reforming</b> the church starts</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And what <b>reforming</b> the church means</span></li>
</ul>
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<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Okay, so you obviously see the trend here: God has given me a passion to see the church as a whole in America go through a <b>reformation</b>. When I looked up the definition of reform one of the basic meanings was <b><i>"change."</i></b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">But here are some synonyms that were listed with it:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">re-organize</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">re-structure</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">transform</span></li>
</ul>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So why do I feel the need to see the local church change? Be re-organized? re-structured? transformed?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Because we live in the world. A very dark and very wicked world. And the local church exists in this world of sin and wickedness. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That is why Christ said this prayer before He went back to be with His Father:</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">John 17:15</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>I do not ask that You take them </i>(believers) <i>out of the world, but keep them from the evil one.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That is the key, <i>"keep them from the evil one."</i></span></div>
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</span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Now Christ is praying for true believers here and because of that true believers will be kept from the evil one, but that does not mean that the evil one will not tempt them and kick them and seek to drag them into the pit with him. I think the first way he seeks to do that is by surrounding believers with the world, inside the local church.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And that is why the local church struggles so much in this world. Because it is not the final bride of Christ. Local churches are filled with both true believers and false believers.</span></div>
<div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">As long as we live in the world, the prince of this world, the evil one, will place <i>"tares in amongst the wheat," </i>weeds will be mixed in with the true crop (Matthew 13:25-30).</span></div>
<div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So every few years the church gets so filled with the world you can no longer recognize the church, at least true believers can't.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Word of God for the most part has stopped being preached and stories and jokes have taken its place. But because this happens so slowly and so craftily by Satan, in Matthew 13:25, it says that Satan does this, <i>"While the master's men are asleep,"</i> even true believers don't always recognize this is happening until it is too late.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">But then the Lord awakens them and it is obvious to them what has happened while everyone else is either still sleeping or doesn't care. That's why most churches are filled with empty pews or sleeping parishioners. Because the true believers have left in search for the Word of God and the rest simply stay because they have developed a dead religious ritual that is comfortable for them and their family.</span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>What happened</b> to the living vibrant, local church that desperately longs for the preaching of the Word of God?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>What happened</b> to preachers who long to give that preaching to their people?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>What happened</b> to verse by verse expositions through books of the Bible? </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>What happened</b> to preachers being able to freely address the common sins of our day and our culture without being run out of town for it?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>What happened</b> to parishioners who long to learn the Word of God from their pastor and are willing to believe and live out that truth?</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That is why Paul Washer recently made the comment, <i>"There are very few churches in America."</i> What he means is that there are very few, true, biblically minded, Christ exalting churches in America. There are a lot of church buildings, a lot of brick and stone and metal with steeples sitting on top of them, but there are very few churches scattered across this land who are willing to hear and live out the Word of God!</span></div>
<div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Most church buildings today are filled with people who do not love the Word and the preachers are no longer giving it to them. They barely show up for services and when they do it is only to complain or vote the preacher out. That is exactly what this day and age is still seeing in most of its churches. </span></div>
<div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">WE NEED A RADICAL REFORMATION IN THE CHURCH!</span></b></div>
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</span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Is there some change happening? Absolutely! But God is not nearly finished yet. So back to my point, this blog is a progressive chain of entries that start with the most basic foundations of a true and biblical church and will extend into many different areas of our lives that need to be reformed in the process. </span></div>
<div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And what will guide us in this reformation? What will be the magnifying glass through which we look at the errors in the church of today and then turn around and give us truth on how to change those errors and reform the church? <b>THE LIVING WORD OF GOD!</b></span></div>
<div>
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<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I will most likely use the phrase Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone) in every blog entry, because of how important that truth is to me and to the church as a whole.</span></div>
<div>
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<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Protestant Reformers of the 1500s and 1600s used five phrases to explain the only way that the church will ever be vibrant and effective again. It must hold to these 5 non-negotiable truths:</span></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Sola Scriptura</b> (Scripture Alone)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Sola Gratia </b>(by Grace Alone)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Sola Fide</b> (through Faith Alone)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Solus Christus </b>(in Christ Alone)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Soli Deo Glori</b> (All for the glory of God Alone)</span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>ALONE, ALONE, ALONE, ALONE, ALONE!</b></span></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There is <b>only</b> one book that we need to know and follow God and that is <b>the Bible</b>. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There is <b>only</b> one reason that God would choose any vile, dead sinner for salvation and that is because of <b>His grace</b> </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There is<b> only</b> one necessary gift that God gives dead sinners when He saves them and grants them life and that is <b>the gift of faith</b> to believe in Him and follow Him.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There is <b>only</b> one person who was able to extend God's grace to dead, wretched sinners and give them faith and that is <b>Christ alone</b> and His blood on the cross</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And finally The Bible alone leads us to understand the grace of God, grace that gives us the faith to believe in the only source of life and forgiveness, the person of Christ. And when we trust in Christ alone through faith alone by His grace alone, and not because of any thing that we are or we have done, <b>God receives</b> <b>all the glory and all the praise for it!</b></span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We would know none of this without the Word of God! So that is primary. I hope if this is the first blog entry you are reading from me about the reformation of the church that you will please stop right here and go back to the very first entry. Go back and read it first, then read the second and then the third. All of them build onto one another and will help you understand the context of everything I am writing.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
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<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>A word to pastors: </b>I hope if you are a pastor this blog both challenges you to preach the truth where you are and encourages you to stand firm in that truth when you are being persecuted for it.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>A word to parishioners (lay people in the church): </b>I hope that if your pastor is not leading your church in a biblically healthy way, that this blog will give you the courage to either speak with the pastor personally about your convictions and pray for change, or it will confirm that you need to leave that church and find a better place for your family to be nourished by the Word of God.</span></div>
<div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In the end, my heart longs to be as passionate for the bride of Christ as He is!</span></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">John 2:17</span></b></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"Zeal for the church has consumed me."</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And by the way, if it is going to be real zeal, the kind of Zeal Jesus has for His church, then it must be a zeal to see the church be everything Jesus wants it to be and not everything we want it to be.</span></div>Nathaniel Penlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13089148708330130436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129842835635401615.post-1858458518467703742012-01-11T14:46:00.001-06:002012-01-17T17:02:20.178-06:00Reforming the church means teaching believers to love the church the way Christ loves the Church<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">How should believers view the local church?</span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And of course as I have been saying over and over again, the church should want what the Bible wants. So again we must start with Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>"conforming everything in our lives to the Word of God."</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This is a crucial idea for our Christian walk...because </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b><u>ONLY</u></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> as we conform our lives to His word, does He then conform us into the image of His Son.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>2 Corinthians 10:5</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God</i> (His Word), <i>and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ </i>(to being His Word).</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">God has no greater desire for His children than to make them all look like Christ. That is what we were predestined for. (Romans 8:29).</span><br />
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</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So if we have an opinion about how we as believers should view the local church we should examine our opinions with Scripture. Let's ask what the Bible says our view of the local church should be.</span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So in asking this question it is best if we look at what Scripture says in light of what the world around us says or does. And because we as believers still live in the world, sometimes the world comes in and hurts the church by skewing our love for the Word.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">If that was not a problem in the church then John would not have warned Christians to not love the world...</span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">1 John 2:15</span></b><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him</span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So in light of this, one place where the church has allowed the world to creep in is that they have begun to share the world's view of the church. The world has a low view of the church but many Christians have begun to feel the same way without even realizing it. And I am not forgetting the great possibility that many people who are members of local churches are not Christians at all.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So let me clarify for you how the Bible describes the church. It is nothing less than the ransomed bride of Christ. The Father chose a bride for His Son. He chose the bride. He chose her arms and her eyes and her legs and her feet and her hands. He chose everything about her. And He was very specific how He chose her because He was choosing her for His Son. And then He sent His Son to get her and to die for her and to cleanse her from all unrighteousness. And then to bring her back to Himself.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And then the Son looked at this filthy, sin filled, broken bride that His Father had chosen for Him and He gladly laid down His life for Her...why? So that she would be beautiful for His Father! He wanted to go and get her in her filth, completely and radically change her by His righteous blood and then turn back around and present her to His Father...</span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Ephesians 5:26-27</span></b><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Christ laid down His life for the bride...So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.</span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">To have a low view of the church is to have a low view of what God the Father and God the Son considered priceless. And you don't have to do much to have a low view of what God considers priceless. All you have to do is be uninterested or unpassionate, in her. All you have to do to develop a low view of the precious bride of Christ is to view her as optional for your life.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">To view what Christ views as worthy of dying for as optional or uninteresting, or unworthy of giving your entire life for, is to have a low view of the church.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">During my last blog post I mentioned that those who "have ears to hear the Word of God" are true believers and true believers learn to love everything their Savior loves and hate everything He hates. And there is nothing that Christ loves more than His church.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And if you love the universal church then you will also love the local church because it is a localized gathering of worshippers who not only love Christ but they love each other and they learn from one another. And they know that when they gather they grow from the Word and from the fellowship they receive in the body.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">And these people who love the local church express their love by longing to be with the church as often as possible.</span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"Pastors don’t have to call them and look for them and knock on their doors wondering why they aren’t worshipping regularly with the body. These people are running to the church building every time the doors are open because they can’t wait to hear what they now have ears to hear with - the voice of their Savior through the Word of God!"</span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Apostle Paul commanded us to do good to all people but then He went out of His way to specify that the first people we need to serve and do good to are our brothers and sisters in Christ in the local church.</span><br />
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<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Galatians 6:10</span></b></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the <span style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Tahoma;"> </span>household of the faith. </i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Then in Hebrews God takes this idea even further and says that we should not only do good to those within our local churches and serve them as we have opportunity, but that we should look for opportunities to be with them and serve them and speak truth into their lives. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>Hebrews 10:24-25</b></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>And let us <u style="font-weight: bold;">consider</u> how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.</i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">So according to these verse of Scripture not only should we look for opportunities to serve them but we work to encourage them to start serving others. We should long for them to pour out their lives to serve the body along with us. According tot he word of God if our hearts don't long for that, if our hearts don't view the church in that way, then we have a low view of the church.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I you are involved in your community or in charity work or in sports activities or whatever it is, and those things begin to take precedence over attending and serving your local church, then you have an unbiblical view of the c</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">hurch. And because Scripture is our standard and not how we feel then it is a low view of the church to treat it any other way.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>Ephesians 4:15-16</b></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">(In your local church)<i> speak the truth in love, while you are growing up in all aspects into Him, who is the Head, Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.</i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Bible often compares the local church to a body with different working parts, well just like in the human body, if the leg is hurting or not functioning properly it does not just hurt the leg, it hurts the whole body. If one member is not serving he body with the enthusiasm and love that the other members are serving with then it hurts the whole body.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Do you have a low view of the local church? Are you going above and beyond to serve the members of your church with the Word of God and with your regular support and attendance? Are you supporting your pastor or elders with your prayers and encouragement?</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">How does Christ view the church? As His bride that He stepped down from His throne to serve and die for. Do you view the church like Christ?</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>Ephesians 5:25-27</b></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would holy and blameless.</i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Jono Simms compared loving the local church to loving your local wife!</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>You say, ‘Well now preacher, I’m a member of the universal church.’ I don't have to attend the local church or be active in it. No, you're lazy. You don’t want accountability. You want to do your own thing, how you want to do it, where you want to do it, and you don’t want to be accountable. I tell you what you can do, sir. You go home today and tell your wife, ‘Baby, I’m just gonna start loving all the women. I’m just gonna love all the women and I’m gonna love her just like I love you, and her just like I love you. I’m gong to spend Thursday with Sally and I’m going to spend Friday with Jessie…and on Sunday I’ll come home, honey, and I’ll spend time with you.' You go see how that works. And likewise you go up to the Lord Jesus Christ and say ‘Lord, I sure do love you, but I have no interest in your local church. I’m not going to tithe, I’m not going to be faithful, I’m not going to sing, I’m not going to give, I’m not going to serve, I’m not going to involved in the benevolence ministry, but boy, Jesus, I sure do love you. You’re the only one for me.’ I’ll tell you what you are brother. You’re as one that beateth the air. That’s just hot air. That’s just pontification. All you’re doing is just blowing steam, because your actions speak louder than your words.”</i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Tahoma; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">My our aim be to love the local church with the same passion that Jesus Christ had when He laid down His life for her.</span></div><i><br />
</i>Nathaniel Penlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13089148708330130436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129842835635401615.post-22176664652659597522012-01-04T23:51:00.000-06:002012-01-13T17:28:09.499-06:00Reforming the church starts with having the ears to hear<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have had the opportunity to speak with many Christians over the past 15 years that I have been a believer. And one of the most common topics of conversation has been the topic of free will. Most Christians, at least in America and especially the south, seem to think that they do have free will. When it comes to this topic they tell me something like this. They say that first people must hear the Word of God and then they can decide by their own free will whether they want to follow Him or not.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have to admit that sounds really good at first. I could believe that if it weren't for the Word of God. Because when you really study the Bible you will find that the idea of <b><u>free will</u></b> is nowhere to be found.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sure you may find a verse here or a verse there. Like Old MacDonald, "here a verse, there a verse, every where a verse, verse." Anyone can take a verse here or there and rip it out of its context and make it say whatever you want it to. But the truth is, those verses always end up explaining more about what God wills and what God has done than what we have done. And what we have done is only because He willed it to be done, not because we were free outside of His will.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>James 4:13-15</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now back to the people who say that once we hear the Word of God preached then it is up to our free will to believe and follow Christ or not.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The problem with their reasoning is they are only partly right. People do need to hear the Word of God preached and people do need to choose Christ in order to know Him. In other words, they must display faith in Him at some point. I have no argument with them over that. All of that is biblical and true. You must hear and you must believe in order to be saved.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Romans 10:14 (NASB)</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">believed</b>? How will they believe in Him who they have not <b>heard</b>? And how will they <b>hear</b> without a preacher?"</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The question is this, is their <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hearing</i></b> and is their <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">believing</i></b> by their own free will? No. That is simply not in the Bible. </span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">John 1:12-13</span></b><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>But as many as received Him, to them He had given the power (the ability) to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, </i>(because) <i>they were not born of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but they were born again <b><u>by the will</u></b> of God.</i></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></i></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the fall in the garden, mankind did not simply fall out of a tree and break their legs, they fell totally and completely and died. God said, that is Adam and Eve ate from the tree they would surely, "die." That is die spiritually. They would;d lose all ability to choose any spiritual good at all. And they did. Now all people are dead in sin.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ephesians 2:1<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And you were <b><u>dead</u></b> in your trespasses and sins…<o:p></o:p></span></i></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div></div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></i></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">If we are going to be <i>“conformed into the image of Christ” </i>we need to start with understanding Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) and molding all of our thoughts to it and not how we feel.</span><br />
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<div style="font: 14.0px Tahoma; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">A few verses down from <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Romans 10:14</b> is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Romans 10:17, </b>which says</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>faith</u></b> comes from <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>hearing</u></b>, and hearing by the Word of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">You see what this verse does? It is the summary verse of how our salvation works. You need faith and you need to hear and your need the Word of Christ. All of those elements together create salvation in the heart of a sinner.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Faith must come from hearing. So we know where faith comes from, but where does <b><i>“hearing” </i></b>come from?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Here is the key to the whole understanding of salvation.</b> The Bible never talks about hearing the Word of God in the physical sense when it comes to salvation. Anyone can show up at any given church on any given Sunday and be physically present with physical ears and listen to the Bible read and preached, but no one on their own can “hear” that what is actually being preached and read is the Word of God and respond to that word.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">No one can “hear” Word of God as the Gospel call on their own and respond. Why? Because they don’t have the ears yet. They are dead. And dead people can’t hear and can’t respond and can’t produce the faith and repentance it takes to be saved!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Isaiah 43:8</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">They are blind, even though they have eyes, and they are deaf, even though they have ears.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">In order to go from simply using physical ears to hear a physical Bible read, to using spiritual ears to hear the living Word of God, <b><u>a person must be raised from the dead and given new eyes and new ears</u></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And do you know whose command accomplishes that? Do you know what sovereign general simply speaks and raises the dead? Simply gives the Word and blind men see and deaf men hear? Jesus Christ!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Romans 10:17</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>faith</u></b> comes from <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>hearing</u></b>, and hearing by the Word of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hearing comes from the Word of Christ. And when Christ gives the Word to a dead sinner’s heart they come alive and hear the Gospel and respond!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">He gives them ears hear what they could never hear on their own! <i>"He who has ears to <b>hear</b>, let him <b>hear</b>"</i> (Matt.11:15).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jesus also said, <i>"Many are called but few are chosen"</i> (Matthew 22:14). Every time a preacher rises to the pulpit and pours out his heart to preach an accurate Gospel message he is in his own ability calling men to respond to that message. He is calling the people who are physically present to receive that Gospel and be changed by it, but unless those people are given ears to hear the Word of God, unless they are chosen by the Word of Christ, they will never come, they will never respond and they will never be changed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">But if they are changed, if they do respond, and again I don't mean physically coming to the altar, or physically talking to the preacher or praying a prayer or signing a card, I mean if they spiritually respond. If their hearts are actually changed by the Gospel message, then they will begin to believe in and follow Christ! They will begin to realize their sin and run after the one who can free them from it.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">John Piper recently asked the question: "<i>Christian, have you thanked God (like Paul) that you heard the words of man as the very words of God?"</i></span><br />
<div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-weight: bold; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1 Thessalonians 2:13</b></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Lucida Grande'; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God, which also PERFORMS ITS WORK IN YOU, who believe.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">In other words, when men accurately preach the Word of God, just because you are physically there and physically hear them, that does not necessarily mean that you can spiritually believe in it as the Word of God. You cannot create your own spiritual ears or your own spiritual heart to hear and believe! It must be created in you.</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And these people…the people with ears to hear and eyes to see and new hearts follow with, they love the church. Pastors don’t have to call them and look for them and knock on their doors wondering why they aren’t worshipping regularly with the body. These people are running to the church building every time the doors are open because they can’t wait to hear what they now have ears to hear with - the voice of their Savior through the Word of God!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>John 10:27<o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">My sheep <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">HEAR</b> My voice and I know them, and they follow Me.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is the heartbeat of the Gospel. So many people today think far too little of God and far too much of themselves. This understanding of the sovereignty of God in salvation reverses that. It thinks much of God and little of man (which is the view of Scripture), so that God is now in His rightful place...the highest and most exalted place possible, where He alone saves sinners according to His will and for His glory!</span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Isaiah 48:9-11</span></b><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">"For My own sake I will act; for how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another."</span></i><br />
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<div style="font: 14.0px Tahoma; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is the heartbeat of reforming the church. It does not matter how well the preacher preaches, if the church is not made up of sheep that long to hear their Savior so they can follow Him in every area of their lives. </span></div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>A word to pastors:</b> So what part do we play? We make absolutely sure that the Gospel we are preaching is the Word of Christ and nothing less and then we feed it to our people over and over again. And as we do that we pray like crazy that our loving God will graciously grant our people the ears to hear. In other words we spend hours on our faces before the throne of grace on behalf of our people. Because before they are our people they are His people. And we must be completely dependent upon God to save Hs people and reform His church. He is our only hope and He wants it that way!</span></div>Nathaniel Penlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13089148708330130436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3129842835635401615.post-25594711300570113222012-01-03T00:06:00.000-06:002012-01-28T19:51:39.047-06:00Reforming the church is conforming our lives to the Word of God<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What does it look like to reform a local church? </span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I believe that it must start where the Protestant Reformation started, with <i>Sola Scriptura</i> (Scripture Alone), which is why this blog is called, "Reformed Grace." Every member of the local church needs to understand that the most basic need they have as born-again believers is the Word of God.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I am not saying that they simply need to read the Word of God or hear it preached. They do need that, but if it stops there, then they have not understood why Christ saved them. He saved (predestined) them according to <b>Romans 8:29 </b>to be <i>"conformed into the image of Christ."</i> That's it, that is God's only purpose for every believer. This is not some special goal for really holy believers. This is God's goal for every believer, that they be conformed into the image of His Son. And He will accomplish that goal.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">But the only way that can happen is if they "hear" the Word of God and begin to actually apply it to their everyday lives.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The application of the Word of God into the lives of each member of the congregation is the process of reforming a church. It is the process of helping them to understand how to live out the Word of God in every area of their lives: how husbands lead their wives, how wives submit to their husbands, how fathers and mothers instruct their children, how children obey their parents, how young people go about finding a spouse, how workers respond to their bosses and to their co-workers, and on and on it goes. We cannot just believe what the Word of God says, we must desire it to inform every area of our lives.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jesus was very compassionate to the teachable. But He had no time and no grace for the proud or arrogant.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">James sums this up when he says, <i>"God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble" </i>(James 4:6).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jesus was the harshest against those who did not realize their own sinful condition. When it came to the New Testament pharisees and teachers of the law they thought they did not need anyone <i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">because they had so much pride in their own abilities and accomplishments.</span></i> Their greatest source of pride and arrogance was their knowledge of the Scriptures.</span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">John 5:39-40</span></b><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me but you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life."</span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">These people have replaced Christ with how much knowledge they have of the Bible. We can <b><i>know</i></b> what the Bible says without truly <i><b>understanding</b></i> what the Bible means.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I like to say it this way, a person can read a book all about how to drive a car. They can study it from front to back. They read how to start the car and how to stop the car and how to steer and parallel park and all of that. Because they have read this manual and know what it says they may start to think they actually understand how to drive a car. But until they get in the car and start the car and drive the car down the street without wrapping it around a tree or killing someone, they do not understand how to drive a car.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That is exactly what it means to reform a church. You want to take people from a cursory knowledge of what the Bible says to the deeper understanding of what it means by placing it in every area of their lives where they begin to live it out. And until they start doing that, then they will never understand the point of the Bible or have a real knowledge of Christ. They know a lot about the car but they have not gotten in and driven the car.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When Christ saves us His Word begins to inform our lives, but if we think that we already know how to live for Christ simply because we have <b><i>heard</i></b> all of this before, we are arrogant and unteachable, and unless our hearts change we cannot grow and begin to be a true church.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This Bible has one purpose and it lines up with the purpose of God, in <i>"conforming you into the image of Christ." </i>The Bible seeks to destroy your thoughts and your desires and your words and give you new thoughts and new desires and new words. That's what the apostle Paul means when He says,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>"We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ"</i> (2 Corinthians 10:5).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Until a church is ready to humble themselves beneath the cross of Christ and hear the Word of God with fresh ears and desire to obey it and submit to it in every area of their lives, they will not grow and they will not prosper.</span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Joshua 1:8</span></b><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, <b>so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it</b>; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.</span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The moment we start to say, "I don't mind hearing the Word of God or reading the Word of God or talking about the Word of God, but I will not follow the Word of God in this area of my life" (forgiving someone who has hurt me, heeding my pastor's counsel, leading my wife, submitting to my husband, obeying my parents, leading my family in the Word, examining the movies or television shows that I watch, refraining from gossip, etc) then we have stopped understanding its very purpose for our lives.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>The very purpose of God is this:</b> to reform His church by conforming all of its members to the Word of God.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And that is also the reason I started this blog, to discuss all of the above areas our lives as we live as the church and examine our hearts with the Word of God. So I will be discussing all of the above topics and more in this blog. My calling is to be a pastor and so I love the church and want to see her grow and prosper and be a light in a dark world. If you follow this blog you will see my heart and hopefully be challenged and encouraged to pray with me for the ongoing reformation of the local church.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Are you helping the church to reform by your willingness to submit to truth or are you hindering it by your unwillingness to examine every area your life by the Word of God?</span>Nathaniel Penlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13089148708330130436noreply@blogger.com1