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Tag: John

Preaching Biblical Doctrine to Ourselves
FROM the Word of God

TO the saints of Christ’s Church

Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.
Second letter of the Apostle John 1:9 – CSB

ONLY Scripture – Sola Scriptura

IF you squirmed a bit while reading my last Saturday Post laser-focused on your PASTOR and mine, prepare to become even more uncomfortable this week as we point the BIBLICAL TEACHING finger back at ourselves.

‘Upbuilding the saints‘

By review, in our look at the theology of Dr. Martyn LLOYD-JONES on the Christian Life, subtitled: DOCTRINE AND LIFE AS FUEL AND FIRE, we observed his teaching of important distinctions.

Best NOT Preach This

“Preaching is the primary business of the church, and preaching should have two main objects in view: ..

Upbuilding the saints AND evangelizing the lost.

SAINTS & HOLY ONES
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WE are the saints of Christ's Church and Kingdom to come.
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O when the saints go marching in,
O when they crown Him Lord of all,
O Lord, I want to be among the number..

O when all knees bow at His name,
O when they sing the Saviour’s praise,
O Lord, I want to be among the number
When the saints go marching in!

excerpt source:
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Gotta love them ole hymns evangelizing Jesus as Lord and Saviour!

The Spirit-led saints of the Church proclaim the victory of Christ on the Cross.
- “Our church is really good at evangelism, but as for our membership we might as well have a revolving door.
Sound familiar? (It’s a common challenge.)

Is that YOUR church too?
- Multitudes of evangelized faces — yet so many souls forgotten as they slipped out some Sunday through the revolving doors of our ‘church’.
THREE Marks of a true church:

In the fourth of his key distinctions, The Distinction between Right and Wrong – Understandings of the Marks of the Church, Lloyd-Jones states THREE Marks of a true church:
1. the Word is truly preached (our current focus)
2. the sacraments are truly administered (can’t go there today) and (3)
3. discipline is truly exercised. (Today: a bit of admonition to self-discipline concerning Scripture)
more about Jason Meyer, author of the Lloyd-Jones resource used here & his church

While proclaiming and evangelizing the Gospel to evangelize ‘outsiders‘ through missions distant to our personal lives, WE as Christ’s saints must NOT neglect a personal relationship within our local church, our fellowship of the saints to each other.

So in addition to EVANGELIZING the lost (to come take a look at our ‘church‘), the other oft’-neglected responsibility of church leadership to the Lord of the harvest is the upbuilding of Christ’s flock, the saints of our local church.

But DON’T blame your Pastor

He’s just one evangelist with a high roof over a pulpit lit up on Sundays.

Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Ephesians 4:12 CSB +(every version from the Bible points to Christ’s gift)

The finger of response points back to ALL of the church — including the Pastor AND including YOU and ME.

And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, equipping the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.
- some evangelists
- some pastors and teachers
- EQUIPPING THE saints (That’s US, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus)
- FOR THE WORK of ministry (YES, saints, we are ministers + AND WHY?)
- to build up the body of Christ (that is, His Church)
Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.

But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head — Christ.
Ephesians 4:15 [context 4:12-15] + Grow up in Christ.

For your Upbuilding (Edifying, Building up)

Of grace and freedom of the saints Paul writes to the church at Corinth:
- All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. – 1 Corinthians 10:23 LSB
Be encouraged by Scripture and the Word of God through the Apostles.

Paul writes to the church at Thessaloniki:
- Therefore, [encourage] comfort one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. – 1 Thessalonians 5:11 LSB
..We speak in Christ in the sight of God. And all these things, beloved, are for your building up.
a Second Apostolic Letter to the Church at Corinth 12:19b

What do YOU and your LOCAL Church believe?

Last year I shared a post on BIBLICAL Doctrines of the Church from an agreed statement of the International Council of Biblical Inerrancy.

(It may help you to first, sort out what you believe about the inerrancy of the Holy Bible and secondly, give you some insight into the theology you hear from the pulpit of your church.)

Do YOU AFFIRM True & DENY False DOCTRINES?

Article IV: The Church and Its Mission are not detailed in this post, but below. – RH

Source: ICBI – THE CHICAGO STATEMENT ON BIBLICAL APPLICATION

The Church and Its Mission
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We affirm that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit gives the Bible its canonical authority, and the role of the
church was and is to recognize and affirm this authority.
We affirm that Christ the Lord has established his church on earth and rules it by His Word and Spirit.
We affirm that the church is apostolic as it receives and is established upon the doctrine of the apostles
recorded in Scripture and continues to proclaim the apostolic gospel.
We affirm that identifying marks of local churches are faithful confession and proclamation of the Word of
God, and responsible administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
We affirm that churches are subject to the Word of Christ in their order as in their doctrine.
We affirm that in addition to their commitment to a local church, Christians may properly involve
themselves in parachurch organizations for specialized ministry.
We affirm that Christ calls the church to serve Him by its worship, nurture, and witness as His people in the
world.
We affirm that Christ sends the church into the whole world to summon sinful humanity to faith, repentance,
and righteousness.
We affirm that the unity and clarity of Scripture encourage us to seek to resolve doctrinal differences
among Christians, and so to manifest the oneness of the church in Christ.
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- HOW ARE YOU DOING WITH THESE AFFIRMATIONS OF YOUR FAITH?
  - All “YES’ & Amen?
NOW think about the doctrine you hear preached each Sunday and what you do NOT believe & therefore must stand firmly AGAINST.
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We deny that the church can grant canonical authority to Scripture.
We deny that the church is constituted by the will and traditions of men.
We deny that the church can bind the conscience apart from the Word of God.
We deny that the church can free itself from the authority of the written Word of God and still exercise valid
discipline in Christ's name.
We deny that the church can accommodate itself to the demands of a particular culture if those demands
conflict with scriptural revelation, or if they restrain the liberty of Christian conscience.
We deny that differing cultural situations invalidate the biblical principle of male-female equality or the
biblical requirements for their roles in the church.
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These are the very doctrines -- the lines in the sand -- of the PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
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HOW’D YOU SCORE?
- Can you DENY false preaching and false doctrine?
- Do you recognize false preaching and false doctrine when you hear it?
Returning now to the first letter of the Apostle John to the Church:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

1 John 4:1-3 LSB
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Do you hear this preached as written by God in Scripture through the Apostle John? 
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In our NEXT Saturday Post we’ll take a look at some familiar characters from your local church as described by one of the theologians mentioned previously: John Bunyan.

Jesus Christ is Lord!
October 8, 2022
Distinction between the Kingdom and the Church of Christ
Kingdom OR Church?

Is distinction lacking in the Gospel of YOUR Church?

WE like to think that OUR Church has a great vision of Gospel grace, but do we PREACH any distinction between DOCTRINES and the WORK of evangelical ‘christians’ from OUR stages of worship?

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him for “WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
Romans 10:12-13 LSB
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That's very nice - a good glance at WHO could be part of the church. 
BUT the Bible bids us to make some distinctions.
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So you will return and see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.
For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every worker of wickedness will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them aflame,” says Yahweh of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”
Malachi 3:18-19 [4:1]

What are the distinctions of Denominations?
- ARE SOME ‘christian‘ churches the chaff of wicked false teaching?
- Is the gospel of YOUR church drawing in sinners while making no distinction of sin?
- SHOULD some DENOMINATIONS be sifted as anathema to Christ’s Church?
  - (So they want to leave PROCLAIMING their SIN proudly?
  - Let them go!)
WICKEDNESS is nothing NEW in any 21st century church OR limited to the Old Testament.
- Do SOME lead worship or TEACH a class you attend NEVER ASKING:
  - Do YOU make any distinction?
  - between
    the damned of the world
    and the repentant sinner SAVED by CHRIST JESUS?
Listen to Paul’s approach to making distinction between gifts and their usefulness to believers of the church:

.. what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching? Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp?
For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?
The Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Church at Corinth 6b-8

Listen to the trumpet! SOME in the church are chaff!

FOUR Distinctions of Church Doctrine

As we continue discussion from our last Saturday Post just a reminder here that teaching is doctrine. (And so is preaching doctrine, as well as what doctrines which we neglect to preach. – RH)

The theologian Lloyd-Jones outlines

What are the distinctions of Denominations?

The First Distinction

The essential difference between the church and the kingdom of God is that the church is an “expression” of the kingdom, but cannot be “equated” with it.
The church is an expression of the kingdom “wherever the Lord Jesus Christ is acknowledged as Lord.”
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – source

The Second Distinction

The Distinction between the Spiritual, Invisible Church

AND

the Local, Visible Church

FROM Paul and all the brothers who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia: – Galatians 1:2

ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις ho ekklēsia –TO: The Churches

Paul and his Christian brothers write to the churches. They are not claiming to write to everyone in Galatia or Corinth or EVERYONE anywhere else in the idol-worshiping gentile world.

Is that OUR approach?
- Isn’t it nice to watch some preacher online (or on T.V.) and conveniently claim to the culture that you are ‘a christian?”
  - ARE YOU?
    Simply because YOU watched some christian preacher saying graceful things?
Lloyd-Jones declares that Paul speaks not of “one unit divided into local branches” but of individual churches or a plurality of units in Galatia.

Of course we’re talking about the SPIRITUAL INVISIBLE CHURCH here.

Which ‘christian’ are YOU?
- Spiritual Christian of the Invisible Church PLUS a Local MEMBER of a Visible Church
- NOT a member of Christ’s Invisible Church, BUT a visible MEMBER of YOUR LOCAL church
- NOT a Spiritual Christian OR a MEMBER of any visible Local Church
  - (YOU just ‘go to church’ occasionally.)
- Spiritual Christian of the Invisible Church, BUT invisible worshiper NOT a MEMBER of ANY LOCAL CHURCH.
The Third Distinction

Biblical Unity or Ecumenical Unity?

‘The ecumenical movement has tended to minimize doctrinal definitions of what makes someone a Christian.. ecumenical unity is a far cry from Biblical unity.’

“..believers cannot have church unity without unity around the apostle’s teaching..

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. 2 John 1:9-11 ESV

“..the Doctor explains:

The significance he [John the Elder] attaches to doctrine and to truth is so great that he says, in effect, ‘You mustn’t receive the man into your house because if you do you’re encouraging him. If you give him a meal and send him on his journey you are encouraging his false doctrine. Don’t do it.’”
Lloyd-Jones, The Church and the Last Things

If there are spiritual and doctrinal marks that make one church true and another church false, then those marks must be clearly stated and explained.
The Doctor’s Doctrine, p. 106

The Fourth Distinction

As if dealing with the previous three distinctions was not already enough to consider, Lloyd-Jones now adds an even more challenging look at THREE marks of a TRUE CHURCH.

The Distinction between Right and Wrong
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Of course by now we must NOT be asking once more, 'What is truth?' as if truth or 'right and wrong' are a matter of subjective personal opinion rather than an objective Biblical standard by which Christians may claim God's Word as Good News to those who will believe.
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1. the Word is truly preached
2. the sacraments are truly administered, AND (look out, here..)
3. discipline is truly exercised
Right Preaching and Wrong Preaching

The church is “essential to believers,” because conversion means they are “born as babes in Christ” and desperately need to be “instructed” and “warned against error and safeguarded against heresy.”
Lloyd-Jones, The Church and the Last Things
Of course since I am NOT a preacher, I could say anything I want IF subjective truth rather than Biblical truth was our standard of right and wrong.

But by the standard of doctrine rooted in Biblical truth NO theologian (even Lloyd-Jones or your preacher) should take subjective liberties in preaching the Gospel.
2 Timothy 4:

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 teaching.
And what does the Apostle Paul prophesy to his disciple of the way, the truth and the life as REASON ENOUGH to remain faithful to Scripture?

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, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
Second Letter of the Apostle Paul to Timothy 4:3-4 LSB

ARE WE THERE YET?

Preaching in the last days
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Again, the standard isn't mine (IF you accept the Doctrinal line in the sand of Scripture.
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.. in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts..

The Apostle Peter reminds the church in is final letter, The Day of the Lord Will Come:

The Lord .. is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up].

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way,

what sort of people ought you to be…

What sort of men and women proclaiming Christ Jesus OUGHT WE to be?

READ more from 2 Peter 3:11-
September 24, 2022
Divinity, Doctrine and Denomination
As I pointed out in our last Saturday Post WE, the church, seem to have some differences dividing our approach to divinity.

Denominations / Why can’t we all just get along?

~800 MILLION Protestant Christians [37% of the world population] can be divided into < 40,000 denominations

What does it mean to be called a “Christian?”

Who are all of those ‘denominations‘ that call themselves, ‘Church?’

And what do doctrine and divinity have to do with it?

Divinity

God IS God! (and WE are NOT)!

Anyone who denies THIS has a humility problem!

Look it up:

ĕlōhîm – אֱלֹהִים

θειότης – theiotēs From θεῖος from Godhead

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Romans 1:20 LSB

Doctrine

This entire Saturday Post series (including Church) addresses doctrine. READ MORE: What is Doctrine?

But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.
Titus 2:1 Legacy Standard Bible

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
Galatians 6:7 LSB

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.. Romans 1:18

Denomination

Martin Luther originally gets much of the blame for his PROTEST against false teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

Luther’s theology stood on the truths of Scripture and faith.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS WILL LIVE BY FAITH.” – Romans 1:16-17 LSB

Denominations / Why can’t we all just get along?

Scripture tells us how false teachers leaven the Church and the faithful must discern the dangers of false preaching.

Church DE-NOMINATIONS seem to be doubling-down lately into divisions over SOCIAL issues.

AND this phenomenon of churches redefining themselves is not limited to any particular denomination.

What does it mean to be a church?

RE-fitting YOUR church vision to accommodate changing cultural mores doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with divinity or sound doctrine rooted in Scripture and proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As you have seen in my previous Saturday Posts, although gaining downhill momentum toward the pit of destruction, this trend is nothing new.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. .. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words..
These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been kept. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity, they entice by sensual lusts of the flesh, those who barely escape from the ones who conducted themselves in error..
Second Letter of the Apostle Peter to the Church 2:1,3,17-18 LSB

In the beginnings of the first century Church the Apostle Peter mentions an earlier fall of Israel as an example of the ever-present danger of false teaching.

Can we be a ‘church‘ without doctrine?

Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach..
“My teaching is not Mine, but from Him who sent Me. “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God..
Gospel of John 7:14b,16-17a LSB

TEACHING IS DOCTRINE!

Is the Doctrine YOU hear in YOUR church from God?

If YOU think the preacher of the church YOU ‘attend‘ doesn’t have some ‘NON-NEGOTIABLES’ of Doctrine, it’s time for you to listen closer (and think for yourself).
- What DOESN’T he/she say — EVER?
- What Truth will the man or woman with the mike REFUSE to PREACH from the pulpit or have you hear in the good-feeling lyrics of the amplified sounds of worship?
- Which Bible verses have to be bent just a little to connect to OUR audience?
  - DARE WE EVER preach REPENTANCE before grace?
  - Let’s bring Christ down from heaven just a bit, so he feels closer to OUR audience just for an hour (and only on Sunday).
  - As in my previous post on Everythingology for an all-inclusive church, perhaps I’ve overstated this (just a bit) by hyperbole once more.- RH
What makes a CHURCH Christian?
Have BIBLE verses evaporated from the wall of worship behind the stage of OUR worship service?
Does OUR pastor hesitate to mention Christ Jesus?
Is a pressing social issue important to the growth of our church?
Can OUR church be BOTH christian AND other?
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Although I am a lay theologian; that is, I study God and I study Scripture and I study Jesus Christ, I must once again point you toward the teaching of a most respected Christian theologian. 
Although I will add my comments here, seek your own answers about the church you belong to locally. 
(And once your read this and think through the doctrine YOU hear, why not ADD your COMMENTS to this post?)- RH
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Divinity, Doctrine and the Christian Life

“The great divorce of doctrine and life will destroy the Christian life.

Lloyd-Jones on the Christian Life: Doctrine and Life as Fuel and Fire
Foreword by Sinclair B. Ferguson By Jason C. Meyer, Series edited by Stephen J. Nichols, Justin Taylor, Foreword by Sinclair B. Ferguson

Doctrine and life are fuel and fire, not oil and water.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

THINK DOCTRINE, EMBRACE TRUTH, ACT ACCORDINGLY
1. doctrine comes to mind
2. truth captures the heart
3. which then moves the will to act
The Bible starts with God the Father always, everywhere and we must do the same — because that is the order of the blessed Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
“I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
“Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.
Gospel of John 17 – from the High Priestly prayer of Jesus Christ to the Father

..theology must first concede that the finite cannot fully know the infinite. Therefore, theology is sometimes an exercise in negation.
Lloyd-Jones pictures theology as the act of building a fence around the incomprehensible mystery of God.
Jason Meyer
- Does the world HATE you because of any witness of Jesus Christ you claim by faith?
- WE are in the world, so do we recognize the evil one?
Have you even heard your pastor caution his/her church about the evil one?
- Jesus did.
- Do others worshiping the Lord alongside you recognize that Christ has set YOU, me and members of His Body the Church apart for salvation?
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us take hold of our confession. – Hebrews 4:14 LSB

EMBRACE this TRUTH:

Sinful man CANNOT intercede with the HOLY GOD (who WE are NOT) without accepting our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Perfect Sacrifice for our sins – the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Our partial knowledge of God is real knowledge, but it falls far short of comprehensive knowledge.. God alone is
“HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.”
Jason Meyer, quoting the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 4:8b
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NEXT, God-willing, we will continue with Jason Meyer's overview of the doctor of doctrine Martyn Lloyd-Jones and his prescription for this brief moment of our our Christian lives.
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September 17, 2022