The Hypocrisy of Offense

Christian liberty has become a "touchy" subject of late in my neck of the woods. Christians who are more than pew sitters are reading their bibles and beginning to see and understand that some of the old "traditions" that have become law in their churches fall short of being biblical. Certain taboos that believers refrain from under the guise of "holiness" or "being a good witness" or "not offending" are being challenged. It is the "offense" part that I want to address here. Yes, offending one's brother is not a good thing. (a side note here: offending your brother is not simply doing something that he disagrees with. It has evolved into that meaning today, but that is far short of the true definition) It is to be avoided if possible, but not at the expense of truth and leading our weaker brothers into a legalistic form of righteousness. What my "non-offending" brothers need to realize is that in their great zeal to not offend, they do truly offend! Not only do they look down upon the non-taboo brother or sister, but they deny them certain privileges in the church due to their "sin" as well as gossip and slander them to other church members. These things ought not to be.

There is to be a sort of give and take in this matter according to Scripture. Romans 14 is very clear in this matter. The strong/mature believers are not to lord their liberty over the weak/immature believers and the weak/immature are not to judge the strong/mature. Each are to serve the Lord under the guise of their own conscience....in love. Each is to allow the other believer to follow Christ within the boundaries of his understanding of scriptural teachings. Word of warning here. This freedom among brothers only applies to "gray areas" of sanctification, it does not apply to heretical teachings and false doctrines. These are to be resisted at all costs. There is no agreeing to disagree in the areas of heresy.

So remember my taboo loving brothers. Not only are you disobeying Romans 14 by judging your stronger brothers, but you are accomplishing the very thing that you say you wish to avoid: Offense! By sidelining them, gossiping and slandering them, and just overall treating your brothers who disagree with you in a "gray area" as second class Christians.

~ The Biblejunkie

The Christian's Bill of Rights

The Christian's Bill of Rights
1. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we have only one right: and that is to give up all rights to ourselves (2 Cor. 5:14-16; Romans 14:7-9).
2. We have the right to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him (Mt. 16:24-26).
3. We have the right to esteem others more highly than ourselves; and love our neighbor as ourselves (Mt. 22:39;
Phil. 2:1-5).
4. We have the right to fulfill the law of Christ in bearing one another's burdens of sin (Gal. 6:1-3).
5. We have the right to be wronged and to maintain a faithful testimony (1 Cor. 6:1-8).
6. We have the right to live in unreciprocated, self-sacrificial love (Eph. 5:1-2).
7. We have the right to forgive others the smaller debt, as God in Christ has forgiven us the larger debt (Eph. 4:31-32; Matthew 18:12-35).
8. We have the right to suffer for the gospel and to take the blows for the One who took the blows for us (1 Peter 2:21-24)
9. We have the right to be "subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be uncontentious, gentle, showing every consideration for all men" (Titus 3:1-2).
10. We have the right to not be political agitators trading the truth of His Word to play politics with men's souls; thinking that true spiritual change occurs through legislation rather than the transforming power of the gospel of grace. (1 Peter 4:10-16).
11. We have the right to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39).
12. We have the right to be stripped of all earthly things (Matthew 5:40-42).
13. We have the right to not repay evil for evil and to be at peace with all men as much as it depends on you (Romans 12:17-18).
14. We have the right to love our enemies, do good to them that hate us, bless those who curse us and pray for those that despitefully use us (Matthew 5:44-45).
15. We have the right to pursue holiness-not personal happiness (1 Peter 1:13-16).
16. We have the right not to be ashamed of the gospel (2 Tim. 1:6-18).
17. We have the right not to harbor revenge, anger, bitterness, clamoring, wrath, malice and slander when wronged by another (Ephesians 4:31).
18. We have the right not to quench or grieve the Holy Spirit. (Eph. 4:30; 1 Thess. 5:19).
19. We have the right to repent of and not cherish our sins (Psalm 66:18).
20. We have the right to guard the trust; and to contend for the once for all delivered to the saints faith (1 Timothy 6:20; Jude 1:3).
21. We have the right to train our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:1-3).
22. We have the right to reflect God's covenantal relationship with us by honoring our vows in the covenant of marriage with our spouse Mt. 19:6).
23. We have the right to worship Christ Jesus as God of very God; Creator; Redeemer; Sovereign Lord and Ruler of all (Col. 1:15-19; Hebrews 1:8; Phil. 2:5-11).
24. We have the right to present our lives as living sacrifices everyday to God (Roms. 12:1-2).
25. We have the right to live in the expectancy and hope of the Lord's return by which we purify ourselves (Roms. 12:1-2).
26. We have the right to march daily on our knees in prayer; praying for our leaders in government; our church leaders; our fellow believers; our families; and the lost (1 Timothy 2:1-3; Ephesians 6:18-21).
27. We have the right to praise and glorify God according to how He has revealed Himself through the pages of His Word (Col. 3:16-17).
28. We have the right to honor our local church pastors; for they keep watch over our souls as those who will give an account (Hebrews 13:17).
29. We have the right to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20).
30. We have the right to have no rights apart from Christ Himself; "for whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it" (Matt. 16:25: John 15:5).

A Puritan Prayer for Those Who Have Surrendered Their Rights in this Life
"Accept His worthiness for my unworthiness, His sinlessness for my transgressions, His purity for my uncleanness, His sincerity for my guile, His truth for my deceits, His meekness for my pride, His constancy for my backslidings, His love for my enmity, His fullness for my emptiness, His faithfulness for my treachery, His obedience for my lawlessness, His glory for my shame, His devotedness for my waywardness, His holy life for my unchaste ways, His righteousness for my dead works, His death for my life!"



Taken from Steve Camp's site: http://stevenjcamp.blogspot.com/2005/07/christians-bill-of-rightswe-have-one.html

Guys, if the opportunity is still available (the class just finished its first week), sign up for "Maintaining Your Spiritual Health". ITS FREE!!! and its found here:

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The final day, Saturday, was quite good. Robert Godfrey opened with "Wounded for Our Transgressions: The Holiness of the Cross" and made an interesting comparison using the sin of Uzziah in Isa. 6 with the following verses of Isaiah's encounter with God. He made two interesting quotes. 1. " The more that worship pleases you the more suspicious you should be of it" and 2. "Sermonettes produce Christianettes" borrowed from Spurgeon. Of course he then went on to expound a little from Isa. 53. How could he not when dealing with the cross??

Derek Thomas was up next. He was a new face to me and one that I will have to check more into. He also is a Scot and very good preacher.
He spoke on "Be Ye Holy: The Necessity of Sanctification" from 1 Peter 1. He had so much I can only give a few of his points: 1. Holiness is an essential aspect of the Christian life 2. We live for self-fulfillment rather than pleasing God 3. The purpose of theology is to drive us to Christ-likeness and 4. We are saved to be holy. He also made the point that only God can truly satisfy.

The last lecture of the Conference was of course preached by R.C. Sproul and he hit it out of the park. "A Consuming Fire: Holiness, wrath and Justice" was the topic. His sole purpose was to remind us that while God is truly a God of magnificent grace we must never forget His justice and wrath. He pointed out our utter sinfulness before His holiness and our absolute need of Christ as our substitute and sinbearer in order for us to stand in the presence of God. NOT standing in our own righteousness but in a righteousness that is totally outside ourselves and alien to our nature, the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It was great.

I must comment on the music there. We sang many old hymns. One even from the 4th century. They were FILLED with biblical doctrine and always pointed you to the majesty of God and Christ and to our sinfulness and need of redemption. They weren't the watered down syrupy sweet "love songs" we call Christian music today but melodies of great theology that push biblical truths down into the heart and soul. It was quite refreshing.

The Conference was ended on a great note. They asked for volunteers from the audience to gather up front and sing the Hallelujah Chorus. About 150 or so responded. That is one of my favorite songs and it was lifted up to the rafters with joy and praise to the God who sacrificed His only begotten Son for rebellious sinners like us. What a note to end on.

We got an early breakfast and headed for the Conference center the next day looking forward to a packed day of great teachers.

Sinclair Ferguson hit us pretty hard on the Holiness of the Father. Of course he took us to Isa. 6 and how Isaiah being in the presence of the Holiness of God revealed just how sinful a being that Isaiah really was. He stressed the idea that when we truly consider the phrase "O Holy Father" it should really cause us much soul searching. That it is a phrase that we should not take for granted. That we must always remember the price that was paid for us to have the unspeakable privilege of not only being able to call Him "Father" but also being able to enter into His presence.

Steve Lawson was up next. He stressed the holiness of Jesus pointing out that the title "The Holy One of God" is a title of Deity and Supremacy. He made the funny comment on how even the demons recognized the Deity and Majesty of Jesus and how they had a better testimony than what you find in liberal churches today. He went on to emphasize the amazement that the Jews had when they witnessed holiness of life expounding holiness of truth. Steve Lawson has written some really great books. I highly recommend his Foundation series. It is a four book series that traces the Doctrines of Grace from the Scriptures all the way to our present day.

After a break Allistar Begg and his wonderful accent expounded upon the Holy Spirit. Reformed theology has gotten a bad rap over the years of people saying that they neglect the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Poppycock. He pointed out the necessity of Christ leaving, The identity of the Helper and His activity: confrontation of sin and proving the guilt of the world before a Holy God.

Thabiti Anyabwile treated us to "Cosmic Treason: Sin and the Holiness of God" from Numbers 25. His most important point to me was "people live as if there is no danger in sin and the wrath of God and judgment."

And finally D.A. Carson, a brilliant man, regaled us from 1 Peter 2:4-10 "A Holy Nation: The Church's High Calling". He stressed the importance of the Church and how she is to be viewed as "family". How she is a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a special possession. The neat thing is that he took us to all the Old Testament references that Peter was quoting from showing how the Church is the fullfillment of all those promises made to Israel.

Over all a really good day.

We were able to get away around 5:30 am and we made good time. We were even able to stop and get some breakfast before the conference began: 9 am. From 9am until 4:30 pm we were treated to lectures about John Calvin. Its the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth so we were treated to a "mini-conference on Calvin before the real conference began. Teacher, preacher, theologian and so much more we learned of the many ways that Calvin has not only affected the Christian world but the social and political world as well. You can even trace some of the principles of our Republic and Democratic freedoms to the principles taught by John Calvin.

Calvin preached around 4000 sermons in his lifetime. But because of poor record keeping we only have about 1500 of them. His most famous work is "Institutes of the Christian Religion". A fantastic work about the practical outworking of Theology. It is well worth the read. We were told today that a good introduction to Calvin for the layman would be to read his sermons on Galatians and Ephesians. A good intro to the Institutes would be to read the Preface letter as well as Book 3 Chapters 6-10, commonly called "The Golden Booklet of the Christian Life".

Calvin was big on piety which is shorthand for the practice of the Christian life. Calvin referred to it as the experiential love of God as Father joined with a great fear and reverence of God as Lord. Calvin believed that true piety was a matter of the heart. Its not about perfection but about progress: Progressive sanctification. Calvin outlines it into 4 parts: Self-denial, Cross Bearing, Meditation, and thinking about the future life.

His staunch hard nose stand on the idea of Sola Scriptura: The Word of God Alone decides doctrine and practice. He was decidedly against chasing rabbits to no avail. He was of the opinion that if God's word didn't speak of it then it wasn't important enough for us to worry about.

Sinclair Ferguson preached on the Doctrines of Grace. He made the point that the most difficult thing for man to believe is in a salvation in which he can't add anything to it. It comes naturally to fallen man to want to add his "good works" to the act of salvation. But the bible is clear that it is solely the work of God.

Steven J. Lawson treated us to "The Legacy of Calvin" which was a romp through history outlining the many, many influences of Calvin and his theology on areas of social, political, and religious life. It was really fascinating. I had no idea how far it reached.

Well, basically that's a very short version of "cliff notes" for the lectures we heard today. Good stuff but no way I can put it all down here. :)

I will try and take some pictures and post them tomorrow night to give you an idea of whats going on location wise.

This is a great book. While many people have a great time chasing after "fun" things like end time events and who are those giants in Genesis 6, this book gets down to the meat and potatoes of the Christian life. Ten Questions that will make you sit up and take notice as to where you are in your Christian walk. Sometimes after we commit our lives to Christ, after awhile we begin to take some things for granted and whether unwittingly or not, begin to get slack in some things. This little book will help you to see where those things might be and point you in the right direction.

The questions are:

1. Do you thirst for God?
2. Are you governed increasingly by God's Word?
3. Are you more loving?
4. Are you more sensitive to God's presence?
5. Do you have a growing concern for the spiritual and temporal needs of others?
6. Do you delight in the Bride of Christ?
7. Are the Spiritual Disciplines increasingly important to you?
8. Do you still grieve over sin?
9. Are you a quicker forgiver?
10. Do you yearn for heaven and to be with Jesus?

You can find the book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Questions-Diagnose-Your-Spiritual-Health/dp/1576830969/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232499184&sr=1-1