Scott Price"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints." Jude 3
Is there such thing as too much unity? How little is not enough? Of course I am referring to unity in the gospel. Let's examine the question of whether or not people in local churches should be in unity with anyone else outside their local church they attend. What are we responsible for? How much should we be concerned about other people or churches that believe the very same gospel and worship the very same Christ that we do? In other words those who have a "common salvation", or a salvation just like ours.
Most who have read my articles for any length of time know I am not merely talking about someone who makes claims to be religious, who prays, and goes to church, or say they believe in God or Jesus. Who doesn't say they believe that who claims to be "Christian"? I'm not talking about compromise with false religion. I am talking about the folks who believe the only true God and His gospel of free and sovereign grace of God in Christ, which excludes works of the sinner. A gospel that records how Christ accomplished an effectual blood atonement for the loved and chosen people of God and meriting for them a righteousness that will be imputed to their account, being the ground of their justification. A gospel that has a complete, full, and finished satisfaction that was rendered by Christ to Law and justice, which God the Father demanded and exposes all other "gospels" to be false.
People who believe the truth of pure grace are very few and far between. This is true in Scripture according to Matthew 7:13-14 as well as true to our own experience.
Should there be any effort to communicate to anyone outside the local church body who believes like us? Should we fellowship with them during special meetings and conferences? Should we listen to their tapes, read their literature, or visit their web sites? Should we attempt to network at all with them?
Let me first say loud and clear that there is not even enough of this done within our own local church with the ones we worship with every week. I am afraid this is the case in many gospel churches. I have been to churches where people assemble at the last minute and run out the door as soon as the message is over. Do they not enjoy fellowshipping with the people of God? Hebrews 10:24-25 says; "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works: not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much more as we see the day approaching." Notice the exhortation to do this increasingly and progressively as time goes on.
Many people scattered all over the world who are believers do not have a church body within comfortable driving distance to attend. I have heard of people driving 4 to 6 hours to worship and fellowship in the gospel. There are many small groups of believers all over the place meeting together without any pastor and they listen to tapes and have Bible studies with each other. Are we concerned about them? Are we concerned with churches that find themselves without leadership because the teacher/preacher has died or moved on? Are we concerned with people in other congregations, besides ours, who are sick? Should we refer a friend or relative to a church in their area that you know preaches the gospel?
Let us not be like the Roman Catholic Church in the Dark Ages, before the invention of the printing press, how they kept the Scriptures hidden from the common man. Those who believe the same gospel we do should dominate every media outlet available to make use of the means to get the gospel out. If you can write then write. Have you ever visited your local "Christian Bookstore"? Mostly garbage is there! If you know how to build a web site, build one. If your local newspaper allows articles to be written in it, then write them. God uses means! We say it but do we believe it?
The bottom line is that we should be in constant action in confirming, promoting, publishing, proclaiming, and defending the gospel of grace. We are to use any God-honoring means available to get this job done. There is no excuse not to be actively doing this as much as possible, not only locally but also as far and wide as we can. We should all be going extremely out of our way to do this. Start now if you have not yet.
The glory of God should be our primary motivation, next is the salvation of sinners and edification of God's elect. Get to know the members of your church better and meet their needs, then join with them and reach out to others outside your church. You may not ever know how much your effort and care is appreciated by others. My prayer is that God would give us zeal and boldness and that He send us revival that would turn the world upside down. People of God, unite today on the basis of the gospel of Christ.
Because They All Should Think Alike
"But I exhort you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" 1Cor 1:10
Are the hot issues in the local gospel church the Presidential pick, a favorite sports team, make and model of our cars, favorite type of music or movie, or what style of clothing you wear? I hope not! If this were the case there would be much division because there is so much diversity in opinion based on the subjective experience concerning personal preferences, which is all relative and constantly changing.
The Scripture speaks of the liberty we have as God's children to have individual likes and dislikes when it comes to many things in the world we live in. We are not so legalistic that we cannot talk to each other about our styles, tastes and opinions, but this must not take priority and it must be done with care. Of course the Bible puts certain commands in place to regulate how we are to think on these matters (Rom 14 and other places). It would be a very disappointing shame for the church to be split into various cliques and clubs based on tastes and styles. Bottom line is that people are different with different personalities, likes and dislikes.
Where the church is to think the same is in doctrine, in the gospel of grace. They all have the same Savior, the same Father and same Spirit. All God's people are on the same level playing ground to their God based on the merits of another; The Lord their Righteousness, Christ Himself. As they hear doctrine that comes in the church they use their mind to see if they recognize the truth of it as it funnels and filters through the gospel of grace. The gospel of Christ is our kindred link that we fellowship in and have our bond. This is evidenced mainly by our attendance and willful involvement in the church, which includes many things that are developed as ways and means to give ourselves over to the honor and glory our Lord in the church.
Those in the church must do all these things in love and by faith. Nothing is to be done if not done in love and the same goes for faith. Whatever is not in love is vain and whatever is not of faith is sin. God's people in the church are to build each other up (edify) not tear down. They are to help not hurt. They are to show compassion not harshness. They are to bear one another's burdens and pray for one another. They are to encourage the people of God with all the positive language of Scripture, the language of victory in Christ and the benefits of all spiritual blessings that are found in Him as their Head.
The fellowship of the church in the gospel takes work because all the members are sinners saved by grace. There is still the potential to think ill thoughts, be selfish, be covetous, say hurtful things, show respect of persons (favoritism), be jealous, feel the need for vengeance, be bias, be suspicious, be prejudice, become cold, show disrespect, etc. These things are still very real and at work in the warfare of our daily experience as non-gospel influences press us in competition for the priority-spot in our lives.
Satan is at work to defeat God's people and disrupt the church of God. We are exhorted to have "the same mind and in the same judgment”, which basically means we are to think of who we are in relation to are Lord and we are to have His mind, a mind of humility (Phil 2). God's church is exhorted to simply think alike about Him, the truth, and about each other. By the gospel of grace our thoughts should be brought into conformity to His thoughts and our ways to His ways.
Call it What You Will, But We Need It!
"For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, pulling down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ...." II Corinthians 10:4-5 (The MKJV)
Many are reminded of the historic event know as the "Reformation". October 31st is not only popular for the Halloween holiday but for Reformation Day too. Some profitable writings came out of the time period known as the Reformation that was greatly used of God. I do not want to fight over words or terms with anyone reading this, but want to stress a basic and simple point that I would hope all who know the Lord would agree.
Are you ready?:
We ourselves are not what we should be. Our churches are not what they should be. We are weaker than we should be. We have far too much unbelief. Our character and conduct are in need of improvement. We have many hindrances that should and could be removed. We do not pray as we should. We do not evangelize as we should. We definitely do not love as we should. We do not serve as we should. We do not give as we should. We do not read God's word as we should. We need growth. We do not resist sin enough. We often are lazy and irresponsible. In many things we need to change our minds and we need our minds changed. Many adjustments could and should be made. We need our inconsistencies fixed. We could go on and on about this but I hope you would agree that most of this, if we are honest, see there is a need to make adjustments in many areas.
What am I getting at? We need help. We need help from the Lord by His grace. We need and want what some would call Reformation. Others would call it Revival. Some would call it Renewal or improvement under some other name. This is not some turning over a new leaf or New Year's resolution. Many sovereign grace folks are so afraid to talk about a desire of getting these problems fixed or improved that they fear being thought of as sounding Arminian or humanistic. Some folks think if anything involves effort it is of works (self-righteous works). Why have many fallen for this satanic deception? They have been softly rocked to sleep, giving themselves excuses to do nothing for fear of being looked at as a works-religionist. Pretty stupid huh? Yes it is.
If you think both you and the church you attend are fine just the way you are and need no improvement, I guess this article is not for you. For those of you who realize you need a lot of help let me encourage you to continually look to Christ, our Savior and Advocate and ask for grace to do what He commands us to do in all things for the advancement of His kingdom and glory. I pray God will send a strong dose of His help by way of His Spirit to show His glory magnified in us in His true churches throughout the world. Not sure what you call it, but we desperately need it now.
Satan, The Great Distraction Expert
"For I determined not to know any thing among you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" (I Cor 2:2)
Satan has a easy job in the false church simply because the truth of the gospel is not there. His goal is to weasel into grace churches that believe God's gospel. The first step seems to be his power to distract. Folks get distracted for the proper direction pretty easily. This is why the word of God is filled with numerous warnings. If everything were smooth sailing all the time in this walk and life of faith then these warnings would be useless. I Peter 5:8 warns; "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour."
His power is to deceive and distract. It is to attempt to keep our eyes off of the Lord Jesus Christ the author and finisher of our faith. The facets of this distracting power are many such as mysticism, politics, rules and commandments of men, humanistic philosophy, denominationalism, liturgy, customs, tradition, church government, eschatology, music preferences, legalism, or debates and divisions over any secondary issues not pertaining to the gospel. These are just a few things that Satan uses to divide believers who once fellowshipped in the gospel side by side for years. This is grieving to the Spirit of God when His people allow this to happen. The Lord mentions some things He hates that include "he that sows discord among brethren" Proverbs 6:19b.
Let us get our priorities straight, look to Christ, love and serve one another in the church of God and He will bless the ministry of the gospel. Anything less than this Satan will be laughing at the foolish actions of God's people as they are not on watch for the enemy's crafty ways. May God grant us mercy and the strength to resist the Devil in these evil days of distraction.
The State of Most So-called "Sovereign Grace" Churches in the World
I wish I had a dollar for every time someone has said that the sovereignty of God in election or predestination was advanced doctrine and theology only for the mature believer and should never be preached to unbelievers. The fear was that they would be scared off by hearing it, so they think the trick is to apologize for five minutes before they make a statement about God being sovereign. Some do this while making excuses for their Arminian friends or famous Arminian preachers for rejecting these truths. They say their "heart" is right but they are mixed up in the head. They may say Arminians are like Calvinists when they are on their knees praying. They sometime say the Arminian makes up in their "godly life" where they fail in doctrinal shortcomings.
Compromising preachers will say anything to avoid the offense of the cross. Many paid "pastors" are afraid to stand for the truth because the remaining freewillers in their congregation will stop contributing funds or stop attending altogether. Wow, the freewillers have been there for 10, 20, or 30 years and still are there... what does that tell you about the message that is being preached in that church? That preacher is walking the tight rope well. They may reserve a little sovereign grace teaching once a year in the early adult Sunday school class in the doctrinal refresher course. Most of these type groups say they are sovereign grace on paper, but they stop short in the pulpit. They act as if it is like a mask they can take on and off depending on who is listening....... Hey! That is exactly what it is, a mask of hypocrisy to be more accurate.
These groups are easy to spot when it comes to who they support, who they fellowship with, who they will let in the pulpit, and the literature on the table or tract rack. This world is full of these type fake-grace churches. Beware of them to distinguish the difference between them and true ministries of God's gospel.
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