by Dan Phillips

Offensive title, eh? What do you figure this post will be about? About racism? About how we shouldn’t still see ourselves as slaves of sin, but as free men? About how slaves get into a slave-mindset that’s hard to break, like men who’ve been in prison for decades?

Actually, it’s about going to church — and many other things.

In Why you need to be in a church this Sunday, I laid out an inductive, cumulative case for why anyone and everyone who names Jesus as his Lord must involve himself, in person, in a “local assembly of believers wherepastors lead, the Word is preached, theordinances are observed, and discipline is carried out.”

Much of the response was positive, personal, heartfelt. Then there were scattered demurrals. Two had in common that they refused to interact with the Biblical content of the post — which is to say, with just about all of the post. Both hate Biblical teaching about authority and submission. As I showed, that means they hate the institution of God, and reject Him (Romans 13:1-7). Thus there really isn’t much to discuss, beyond pleading with them either to repent or toss off the false name of “Christian.”

I might summarize the other “But’s” and critiques in that meta and elsewhere — many of which were doubtless well-meant — thus:

But I’ve had bad church-experiences (accompanied by many and varied details and stories)!
But it’s hard to find a good church!
But it’s hard for me to be with people!
But churches sometimes aren’t friendly and welcoming!
But I’ve had really, really bad church-experiences (accompanied by many and varied details and stories)!
But I’ve known bad and abusive and lame and inept and unfit pastors!
But that’s just barking out commands and duty, not explaining how it’s really good for me!
But God just hasn’t led me to a church; just to the internet!
But the churches around here aren’t all that good!

Now, I’ll be candid with you, shall I? At first scan, that looks like a fairly diverse list of eight or nine different reasons, doesn’t it? And you’re thinking, “Yikes, if he responds to every one, this is going to be a long, long post.”

But no. I can roll them all together, and deal with them all in one. Every one of these excuses, though presented in great deal and with great conviction, shares the very same fatal flaw.
Every one of them views
the Christian life
as a process of
negotiation.

That is, among the demurrals, there wasn’t one serious and honest attempt to counter the Biblical case. It was tacitly accepted by most that the Bible indeed does paint us into that corner: God says that He expects us to be involved, in-person, in a local assembly. God said it, yes… but!

Now this sort of thinking is perfectly appropriate, if God and we are peers.

But it is wholly inappropriate if God is our Lord, and we are His slaves.

What is the tenor of our relationship, as depicted in Scripture?

“If you love Me” — what? “If you love Me, you will give Me a shot at convincing you that My way is in your best interests?” Is that how you read? Or is it not, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15)?

“This is love for God that we” — what? Is it “that we wait until we feel led, and find it easy and stress-free and effortless, to give the nod to His suggestions“? Or is it not “that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:3)?

Is the person called to Christ as a freeman Christ’s peer, His debating opponent? Or is he not Christ’s slave (1 Corinthians 7:22).

Are we to keep the parts of our body as our own, to use at our convenience and according to our preferences? Or are not rather we to present them all as “slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification” (Romans 6:19) — which would include getting them to church, whether it was convenient and easy or not?

And if it be countered that we are not merely slaves, but also sons, I’d have more questions. Is a son his father’s peer? Or does a son not owe his father honor and obedience (Deuteronomy

21:18; Malachi 1:6; Colossians 3:20)? If so with our earthly fathers, is it not much more the case with our heavenly Father (Hebrews 12:9)?

Look, this is a crucial point, whether we’re talking about church attendance, or doctrine, or marriage, or any other area of Christian living. When we respond to Divine commandments with a “But” or a series of excuses, we echo the Serpent, and treat God as our peer — or our inferior.

This is not thinking like a slave. And make no mistake: if we are not slaves of God, then we are slaves of sin (Romans 6:15-23). But we are slaves!

So here’s where the rubber meets the road: what do you do when faced with a clear commandment, with clear teaching of Scripture, that crosses your will?Today, it just happens to be the fact that you need to be involved in church, learning and growing, serving and submitting and accountable.

Tomorrow it will be how you treat your spouse, or whether you keep your pants/dress on, or whether you keep your hand out of that guy’s pocket, or whether you keep your fingers from around his throat, or whether you deny or fudge that unfashionable doctrine.

You see? It’s all one. Jesus is Lord, or we are. If we are, He isn’t; if He is, we aren’t.

You and I need to think like a slave; and not only a slave, but a crucified slave, who has died to his old master, and come to life for another.

Then you and I take our truckload of excuses and rationales and dodges and rationalizations, we say “Yep, I’m going to need help,” we take them and ourselves to the Cross, we count ourselves dead to them, we plead for the enabling grace of God…
…and we obey.

Here’s the practical key, then: move the “but.”
Until now, it has been: “God says to obey, but I have these

excuses/challenges/difficulties.” And so you don’t start. The issue is still whether to obey. This thinking ill-befits a slave, much less a son.

From now on, it must be “I have these excuses/challenges/difficulties, but God says to obey.” And then you start. Now, the issue is not whether, but how. This is thinking like a slave, and thinking like a son.

Move that “but.”

Then move yours.

So whoever knows the right thing to do
and fails to do it,
for him it is sin
(James 4:17)

14 September, 201814 September, 2018

Spurgeon on False Teachers (Trigger Warning: He Judges).

I would to God we had all more of such decision, for the lack of it is depriving our religious life of its backbone and substituting for honest manliness a mass of the tremulous jelly of mutual flattery. He who does not hate the false does not love the true; and he to whom it is all the same whether it be God’s word or man’s, is himself unrenewed at heart. Oh, if some of you were like your fathers you would not have tolerated in this age the wagon loads of trash under which the gospel has been of late buried by ministers of your own choosing. You would have hurled out of your pulpits the men who are enemies to the fundamental doctrines of your churches, and yet are crafty enough to become your pastors and undermine the faith of a fickle and superficial generation.

These men steal the pulpits of once orthodox churches, because otherwise they would have none at all. Their powerless theology cannot of itself arouse sufficient enthusiasm to enable them to build a mousetrap at the expense of their admirers, and therefore they profane the houses which your sires have built for the preaching of the gospel, and turn aside the organisations of once orthodox communities to help their infidelity: I call it by that name in plain English, for “modern thought” is not one whit better, and of the two evils I give infidelity the palm, for it is less deceptive.

I beg the Lord to give back to the churches such a love to his truth that they may discern the spirits, and cast out those which are not of God. I feel sometimes like John, of whom it is said that, though the most loving of all spirits, yet he was the most decided of all men for the truth; and when he went to the bath and found that the heretic, Cerinthus, was there, he hurried out of the building, and would not tarry in the same place with him. There are some with whom we should have no fellowship, nay, not so much as to eat bread; for though this conduct looks stern and hard, it is after the mind of Christ, for the apostle spake by inspiration when he said, “If we or an angel from heaven preach to you any other gospel than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” According to modern effeminacy he ought to have said, “Let him be kindly spoken with in private, but pray make no stir. No doubt the good brother has his own original modes of thought, and we must not question his liberty. Doubtless, he believes the same as we do, only there is some little difference as to terms.” This is treason to Christ, treachery to truth, and cruelty to souls. If we love our Lord we shall keep his words, and stand fast in the faith, coming out from among the false teachers; nor is this inconsistent with charity, for the truest love to those who err is not to fraternise with them in their error, but to be faithful to Jesus in all things.

C. H. Spurgeon, “Under Constraint,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 24 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1878), 247.

12 July, 201827 August, 2018

Thoughts on the Defeat of Ai

Reading through Joshua the other day, I was impressed by the hubris presented by the king of Ai:

Joshua 8:14–17

¹⁴And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. ¹⁵And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness. ¹⁶So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel.

If you’re familiar with the story, you know that Israel was defeated by Ai in what should have been an easy victory. God allowed the Israelites to be defeated because Achan took prohibited spoil from the great battle of Jericho. So, after the judgment on Achan, God directed Joshua to return to Ai for battle. Joshua set up an ambush that appeared to be a rout for Israel. The entire city of AI went out to defeat the fleeing Israelites, but then were caught in their trap and were defeated.

It is clear that their defeat was ultimately at the hand of God, and by His foreordination (Joshua 8:1). But Ai cooperated in their own demise by their pride and overconfidence.

Pride and overconfidence often go together. As a military strategy, pride and overconfidence are foolishness, a sure-fire path to defeat.

Churches often operate this way. Every effort is made for the battle, but the battle is too often seen as “out there” and there is little consideration for the safety of the city, or in the church’s case, the flock. the warnings in Scripture remind us that the greatest dangers come from within the church (Jude 4, Acts 20:28-30).

Category: Church Life

Things You Should Already Know

Thinking like a slave

Spurgeon on False Teachers (Trigger Warning: He Judges).

Thoughts on the Defeat of Ai