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Tag: Lloyd-Jones

Best NOT Preach This
REPENT! For why should I believe your preaching
IF you will NOT preach truly from SCRIPTURE?

Last time in our Saturday Post series on Doctrine (of and for the Church) we examined some DISTINCTIONS of D. Martyn Lloyd Jones on the Christian Life from a Jason Meyer biography, DOCTRINE AND LIFE AS FUEL AND FIRE.

Distinction between the Kingdom and the Church of Christ

“Preaching is the primary business of the Church, and preaching should have two main objects in view: upbuilding the saints and evangelizing the lost. – M. Lloyd Jones

This Saturday we will not only continue with some of those distinctions, but I will introduce some Scriptures your Sunday gathering will never hear in YOUR church – the kinds of Scriptures you’d best not preach to a culturally-constructed church freed from bondage of a Holy Bible.

Our Two Main Headings (for today & our NEXT Saturday Post):
1. Preaching Church Doctrine to the Preacher AND
2. Preaching Biblical Doctrine to ourselves (the ‘church’)
“Failure is being successful at the things that don’t matter.”
.. There is a category of saved fool–of those who are saved by grace, but whose lives were not well spent.
Rico Tice, Faithful Leaders and The Things That Matter Most

DOCTRINE – What do you believe? Can you affirm it to others?

Pastor, You’d best NOT Preach THIS!

a letter of the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth 3:

And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshly men, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it..

10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.

For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
- Pastor, you’d best not preach this to the fleshly infants gathered to your church.
14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

But I’m winning the world to JESUS.

“WE’RE NOT REFORMED! ” a pastor once added as an apologetic for his preaching?

‘So you’re NOT Protestant, then?’ I thought, as I wondered why this evangelist in the pulpit suddenly counterattacked the doctrine of the church in his own sermon.

‘NOT like Luther or Zwingli, NOT like Wycliffe or Wesley, NOT like Bunyan or Newton, NOT like Spurgeon of Edwards?

But of course, they suffered for their Christian faith and for the Doctrine of the Church. A 21st century church is built on a different foundation for a fiscally well-heeled audience.
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Continuing in Lloyd-Jones' four key distinctions of the Doctrine of the Church:
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The kingdom of God [*] is “wider and bigger than the Church”..
*[‘God‘ the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’]

because it is the “the rule and reign of God [*]” over everything.
The Doctor’s Doctrine, p.104 + [*] my trinitarian reminder – RH

Daniel 5:27 תְּקֵל תְּקִילְתָּה בְמֹֽאזַנְיָא וְהִשְׁתְּכַחַתְּ חַסִּֽיר׃

The writing NOT on your wall

The church is an expression of the kingdom “wherever the Lord Jesus Christ is acknowledged as Lord.”
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Great Doctrines of the Bible

ONLY CHRIST?
- Do YOU, dear PASTOR of Christ’s church, preach and acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord?
“You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I am commanding you.
Deuteronomy 4:2 LSB

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 3, KJV + from the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
- Are YOU wise, dear proclaimer of God’s word in the pulpit of Christ’s Church?
ONLY SCRIPTURE?

Galatians 1: [Version of the King]

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Letter of the Apostle Paul to the church at Galatia 1:6-9 Version of the King (James)

..for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 1:10b-12, King James Version [under the heading: Perversion of the Gospel + Let the Preacher beware.]
- NO version of this rebuke from any Bible will tickle the ears of my growing church–best NOT preach this.
A Second Letter of the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth:
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Recall that in his first letter the Apostle called them 'fleshly men, as to infants in Christ.'
NOW Paul addresses them as 'saints' or 'holy ones.'
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live.
- Pastor, if THIS is the ‘Christian‘ LIFE—you’d best not preach affliction, burden and despair of this life..
For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.
2 Corinthians 2:17 Legacy Standard Bible

The Gospel of the Glory of Christ 2 Corinthians 4:

2 but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation [visual evidence] of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus.
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Christ Jesus as Lord, the Shepherds of Christ as bond-servants or slaves; metaph., one who gives himself up to another's will those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men
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For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
2 Corinthians 5:11
- I can’t preach that all must be judged by Christ–ALL judged by the clear evidence of our good deeds or bad. So best NOT preach THAT life with judgment by Christ. (I need much more GRACE than that for THIS life.)
Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law?[scholar] Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?
It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us — our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:20,30-31 Christian Standard Version
[at one time written on the wall behind your preaching,
a gospel for all to see that you ‘are not lying’ (to borrow from Paul)]

The writing NOT on your wall

“Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

– The Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John 2:5 CSB + writing to the church at Ephesus from Patmos

All of us, like sheep, have gone astray..

DOCTRINE – What do you believe? Can you affirm it to others?

DOCTRINE

+ a line in the sand for the evangelical CHRISTIAN preacher
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TO BE CONTINUED, God-willing, + with a line in the sand + for THE CHURCH...
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October 1, 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