Do You Hate Evil?

All those who profess Christ as their Lord and Savior should hate evil. How many don't? Could this be the reason so many professing Christians, those who proclaim they are truly born again, do not meet the test of 1 John 2:6, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” (NKJV)?

I think the answer to the question is frightening. Someone who says he or she abides in Christ and does not hate evil is not a Christian. And, the first thing, the VERY first thing many immediately jump to is that I am “expecting sinless perfection.”

Let me go on record: I am not talking about sinless perfection. First of all, that false doctrine is not biblical, and secondly, the sinless perfection accusation seems to always be the last ditch effort of someone unable to handle the argument. In fact, when Jesus taught His disciples to pray, he told them to pray to the Father: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:14 NKJV). Christ and evil do not mix, do not go hand in hand, and those who do not reject evil as a way of life are not Christians!

If you are truly regenerated, born again, by the Spirit of God then the inclination or bent of your life should be one that hates evil. That is how Christ walked. He hated evil. He died to conquer evil. What's your excuse?

Think of what evil did to you when you were born into this world. You were not only born with an evil, sinful nature but you were also conceived in sin (Psalms 51:5). Your innate evil nature made you unable to hear, understand, or respond to the claims of Jesus Christ revealed in the Gospel (Romans 3:10-18; Ephesians 2:1-10; Romans 8:7; Colossians 1:21; James 1:14, 15; Matthew 15:19).

"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Note the phrase: “...nor can he know them...” the man born into evil has not even the ability, to exercise himself Godward. This is what evil has done to the human race.

So evil were we, in fact, that in order for God to get through to us with His Gospel, the Son of God had to become the God-Man, die on a cross for sin, resurrect, and ascend to His royal place at the right hand of the Throne of God (Ephesians 1:19-22). Then, while we were yet dead in our sins and could not—unable to know the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14), God had to draw us to the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (John 6:44). We could not come otherwise. Then God had to, while we were still dead and unable to come to Christ, make us alive in Christ, saving us by His Grace:

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),” (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Tell me, is this not reason enough to hate evil?

I haven't been in a Christian Bookstore in years. It isn't that I don't like them or that I made a decision to avoid them. It's that I live in another country and there are few “Christian Bookstores” and those that exist can be hard to find. I can recall, however, when frequenting Christian Bookstore in America that there always seemed to me to be a ton of books devoted to “Victory,” “How to be Victorious in the Christian Life,” or “We are More than Conquerors.” These types of books lined the shelves.

I have to admit I never purchased any of these books but was always curious to note how many variations there were of the general theme of how to overcome the circumstances of life that seem to come in the form of trials and tribulations in the Christian's walk with God. Whether these books were correct in their doctrine and consequent advise I do not know, but I have been thinking lately of what the Bible teaches with regard to this issue. And, after all, it is the Bible we want to consult as the final authority for faith in practice.

First of all, the Bible does indeed say that in the midst of circumstances we are “more than conquerors through Christ.”

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? According as it is written, For thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we have been reckoned as sheep for slaughter. But in all these things we more than conquer through him that has loved us." (Romans 8:35-37; Darby)

The Apostle Paul, who penned these words, spoke under the most incredibly and dramatic circumstances in bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to his countrymen and Gentiles. And yet, he was, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, convinced to say that in the horror that he had to suffer for the cause of Christ, he “more than conquered through Christ who loved him.” Another version puts it like this: “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37; NJKV)

Now, dear Reader, your circumstances in life may not even come close to rivaling those of the Apostle. You may be in the battle of trying to trust God in situations of your own making with the fault lying squarely on your shoulders for the mess you find yourself in. I cannot count the times where this has been true in my life. The trials and tribulations (or even temptations) were of my own doing and in what a mess I found myself involved. What is one to do?

No matter the circumstances, God's Word is true. We can be more than conquerors through Christ who loves us. No matter the degree of the severity of the trial, let me make some suggestions.

Number One: Examine yourself. Take whatever time you need to be alone and pray. Ask God to open your understanding to what actually is happening to you. Ask God to show you how, if at all, you have sinned in this trial and then confess your sin to God (1 John 1:9).

Number Two: Continue to read in 1 John, specifically 1 John chapters 2-3, paying close attention to 1 John 2: 3-11. Examine your part in your trials or tribulations to see, as says ch.2: 6, whether you have been abiding in Christ and walking as Christ walked when He was on this earth. Confess any sin after this self-examination.

Number Three: Give thanks for the situation in which you find yourself. Some who claim to be true believers will look at you like you have a hole in your head when you ask them if they have given thanks for the cancer diagnosis just given to them or to a family member. But, this is what God says to do in 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

Number Four: Granted, there are trials and tribulations that God will in His Sovereign Grace allow or direct to happen in your life where it is absolutely due to no fault of your own. I know this from personal experience. I suffer from a syndrome that afflicts me with a number of maladies that pretty much torture me night and day. The medicines work, sometimes, to alleviate the pain but God has seen fit not to heal me from this incurable disease.

Then there are trials and tribulations that are indeed due to our own disobedience to the commands of God. A cheating spouse destroys not only his or her mate but also the children, relatives, friends, and the cheater; someone who is dishonest in filing tax returns does untold damage to conscience and reputation; someone who drives drunk and wipes out an entire family does seemingly irreparable harm to scores. Is a Christian to give thanks for these tribulations? Yes. In fact, glory in them.

"And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." (Romans 5:3-5; KJV)

Number Five: What about trials and tribulations that are the result of yielding to sin that we know is wrong? First of all, how do we as believers know the difference between right and wrong? Through His Word, God tells us and He does so plainly. What God says in His Word to seek, we seek. What God tells us to avoid, we avoid. Not to do so essentially demonstrates the truth I cited about in 1 John:

"But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked" (1 John 2:5-6; NKJV)

If you are not keeping His Word so that what can be said that characterizes you is that you are walking as Jesus Christ walked, then it is time for some deep soul searching questions: “Are you even truly saved, born again?”

If you find you are really in the faith, then how about beginning to do what is so obvious: AVOID THE TEMPTATION TO WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN YIELDING AND WHICH HAS CAUSED SORE TRIALS AND TEMPTATIONS?

How about walking in the way of obedience, rather than disobedience, to God's Word. This of course implies you having to get to know what that Bible that is sitting on your shelf collecting dust actually says. Do not give the Devil the chance or opportunity to tempt you. Are you praying to be spared the temptation? Are you asking God to “lead you not into temptation but to deliver you from the Evil One (Satan)? Did you know this exactly what the Lord Jesus told His disciples as the very thing to have victory over the temptations to which we so often yield causing so much heartache (those pesky trials and tribulations) in our lives?

"Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak." (Mark 14:38;)

Our Lord and Savior, Who by the way was tempted in all things as we yet without sin (see Hebrews 4:15), exhorted His disciples to do this very thing lest they fall into (yield) the temptations: “Watch and pray!” These were His very words to His disciples, Christ's doctrine, for avoiding and yielding to the temptations that, if yielded to, bring on all manner of trials and tribulations.

"For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted." (Hebrews 2:18)

Whether your trial and tribulation is the result of Providence or because you yielded to sin, we as Christians have got to be ready “in season or out” for the eventuality of temptations and trials. It is going to happen. And, Christ’s advice, His very words, is to “watch and pray, lest you fall into temptation.”

Always be on the watch because the Devil himself is for those from whom he can rob God of the glory He so richly and rightly deserves.

Faith and Trust as a Rule of Life

Many times we as Christians regard faith as something we use when we need something from God. The car is going on the fritz and what do we do, we pray. The kid is sick, and sometimes seriously, we pray. The church needs a new roof, we pray. We should indeed pray for these things. After all, did not Paul tell the Philippian church that, “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus?” (Phil. 4:19) If it is a need, we should pray, right?

The problem I have is with the word use. It sounds like how we use a screwdriver when we want to tighten a bolt, or when we want to use the right kitchen implement. Is faith a “tool” we get out of the “prayer shed” when we have a need for it and then put it away when were done with it and until the next time we need to use it?

Faith is not to be regarded as a tool that we need to use when a need arises. It is not to be thought of as something we only get out of the drawer when something goes wrong and then put it away when things cool down. Faith is the rule, practice, moment by moment manner of life, and not the exception, by which we live in the physical and spiritual world. It is not something we use when we are in trouble. A true child of God, a real Christian, lives by faith as a rule of life.

Look at this text of Scripture:

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6,7)

Another translation put the clause, “In the same way you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him...”

How did you receive Christ Jesus the Lord? According to Ephesians 2: 8,9 it was “by grace through the instrumentality of faith,” that we were brought to faith and trust in Christ Jesus. The text goes on to tell us that it was the act of God alone and not of ourselves. Even the faith to believe was a gift of God. We could not generate the necessary faith. God had to make us alive from the dead, regenerate us, in order that we might believe unto salvation.

In that way, the way in which we were brought to faith in Christ, is how Colossians 2:6 and 7 tells us we are to walk in Him. By grace through the instrumentality of faith we are to walk in Christ. That is how we received Christ Jesus as Lord and that is how we are to walk in Him!

I want to make a connection between what I just said and the Word of God.

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

In the tenth chapter of Romans, Paul speaks to the Gospel and shows us another instrumentality by which we were brought to faith and trust in Christ: by the hearing of the Word of God. Beginning with the 14^th verse of chapter ten, he makes the point that it is through the preaching of the Word of God that the Gospel message is heard. Linked to the Colossians 2:6,7 text, “In the same way you received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him,” we could also say that it is through the hearing of the Word that we are to walk in Him. Just as faith to believe savingly comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, so does faith to walk in Him come by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Do you see that?

In other words, faith exercised in prayer is not a Sears and Roebuck mail order catalog to order what we think we need from a deity. Faith is the instrumentality, means, by which we not only come to faith in Christ but how we are to live in this world. It is by faith in God and His Word that we live as a rule of life if we are truly born again.

I want to share a very practical application to what I have just written. If we are to live (walk) by faith in God and the promises of His Word, how exactly does that work? What does this look like in the life of the believer?

Take for example Paul's explanation in Galatians:

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” (Galatians 5:6,7)

Does not this pretty well sum up the point in the Christian's life? Walk in the Spirit and you will not do the evil within your sinful flesh that you do not wish to do? (See Romans 7) But how do you do this thing of “Walking in the Spirit?”

Now, in 1 John:

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” 1 John 5:14,15

And, Philippians:

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Phil. 2;12,13)

Now, think with me through this:

1. Does God want us (Is it His will?) to Walk in His Spirit that we not fulfill the lusts of our flesh? According to the Galatians 5 text the answer is, yes.

2. Does God promise that whatever we ask according to His will that He not only hears us, but we can know that we have that which we have asked of Him in 1 John? Yes.

3. Does God tell us in Philippians that we can “work out our salvation (Walk in the Spirit) with fear and trembling because it is He, and He alone, who works in us the desire and the doing of His good pleasure (His will)?” Yes.

Then as a child of God go to Him praying in believing faith:

“My Lord and God, I thank you for the promise in Your Word (1 John 5:14,15) which tells me that whatsoever I ask according to Your will that You hear me. And, if I know that You hear me in whatsoever I asked I can know that I have that which I have asked of You. Therefore, grant me the Grace I need to obey your Word where you command me to Walk in Your Spirit (Gal. 5:16,17) that I not fulfill the desires of my flesh. Thank-you that it is, again according to You Word, You Who is working in me this desire and it is You and You alone that will work in me the doing (Phil. 2:12,13) of walking in the Spirit. I ask these things in Jesus' name Who said that whatsoever I ask in His name You would give me (John 15:6-8). Amen.”

While I do not mean that you should pray this pray literally, what I am meaning is to show you the connection between prayer, faith, and the Word of God. What is expressed in that prayer example is a life ruled by faith in God and the promises of His Word. That is what should characterize the life of the believer. That is the principle by which we should be living if we really are men and women of God.

Do you have a need in your life? Whether it is a physical or spiritual need, find in God's Word a text of Scripture that matches that need then claim it according to the promises of His Word. Have as your heart's desire the glory of God in His answering that prayer:

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” (John 15:7-8)

Inviting Christ Into Your Heart: But there are none who do good

If you are a child of God today it is because God chose you unto salvation from before the foundation of the world, even time itself. It is a choice made in eternal love by the Triune God (Ephesians 1:3-6). God's electing Grace in which He chose some to eternal life while passing by others was an eternal exercise of the Divine volition with eternal motive and intent.

This is a Divine act worth our feeble human thought and pondering on a daily basis. For it was the Divine intent and motive to save us not only from our sin-wrecked lives but also to purify us (Titus 2: 11-15) and set us apart (sanctification) unto a holy manner of life and to eventually glorify us. His infinite and unchanging character guaranteed that His eternal volition to save us would be carried out in our behalf. There is never the risk of those whom He has chosen of not coming to saving faith in Christ.

But lest you, O Reader, become arrogant over this, rest assured that God choosing you to come to faith in Christ Jesus was not because of something He saw in you. It was NOT because of some foreseen exercise of your will He saw from eternity past. It was from the sheer collective pool of fallen humanity, all without exception deserving eternal damnation, that God elected some and did not elect others unto salvation.

So prevalent in Evangelicalism today is this idea that the basis of one's salvation goes something like this:

“I am a Christian because I once made a decision based on an act of my will to invite Jesus into my heart...”

What one is saying in making this sort of profession of faith is that becoming a Christian is based squarely upon the decisive act of human volition. In other words, when push comes to shove, getting saved, or not saved, is dependent upon a human being deciding to accept Jesus into their hearts or to reject Him. This makes salvation a human work, does it not?

Let me further illustrate this: Let's say for the sake of argument that it is a correct proposition that getting saved is dependent upon someone hearing the facts of the Gospel and making a positive decision to invite Christ into his or her heart. The questions that come to my mind are as follows:

Would inviting Christ into your heart be a righteous decision? The obvious answer is, of course, yes. It certainly is not an unrighteous decision. However, in Romans 3:10 it says that man is not able to make a righteous decision:

“As it is written: There is none righteous, no not one;” Romans 3:10

Would not inviting Christ into your heart have to imply a certain level of understanding of the facts of the Gospel and what is involved with a certain degree of a seeking after God? However, it says in Romans 3:11 that there is none who understands or who seeks God.

“There is none who understands, there is none who seeks God.” Romans 3:11

And, this description of man in Romans 3 under sin gets worse and worse as we read:

12 They have all turned aside;

They have together become unprofitable;

There is none who does good, no, not one.”

13 “ Their throat is an open tomb;

With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;

“ The poison of asps is under their lips”;

14 “ Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”

15 “ Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16 Destruction and misery are in their ways;

17 And the way of peace they have not known.”

18 “ There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

So the problem I have with this idea that dominates the Evangelical churches today that man, when he hears the facts of the Gospel, will either choose, as an act of his human will, to receive Christ into his heart or reject Christ is, HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE based on the description of all mankind under sin as Paul wrote in Romans 3:10 -18? How is it that any man, woman, or child can exercise their volition Godward in a salvific sense?

Note the carefully what the text says:

There is no one who has the righteousness to come to God through His Son in saving faith (vs. 10)

There is no one who is able to understand the things of God much less seek him (vs. 11).

There is no one who is able to exercise his or her will Godward in saving faith because being under sin (Rom. 3:9) ALL have turned aside and become unprofitable (Rom. 3:12)

There is no one who has the goodness that coming to Christ would most certainly require. I mean, can we agree that it would be a good thing, a good and excellent decision, to come to Christ and invite Him into your heart? The Bible says: “There is none who does good, no not one (Romans 3: 12).

The list goes on ending with verse 18: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

So this idea that saving faith is when someone makes a decision as an act of his or her human will doesn't work. It is apparently, according to Romans 3:10-18, in error. It is wrong. Man is not able to exercise himself Godward in saving faith because in his humanity he is under sin.

The Apostle Paul elaborates on his Romans 3 description of man's inability in Ephesians 2:1-10 and it isn't any better a picture of man's fallen nature. Man, writes the Apostle, is:

1.) Dead in his trespasses and sins.

2.) Walking in the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air (Satan).

3.) Conducting himself or herself as a son or a daughter of disobedience in the lusts of the flesh and conducting himself or herself in the lust of his or her flesh and mind.

4.) By nature a child of wrath.

If this is the state of man's nature, how can anyone exercise his or her spiritually dead human will Godward in saving faith? How is it even possible? How does a human being who is dead in sin, walking according to the Devil (see point #2 above), behaving as a child of disobedience, living in his or her flesh, and is, by nature, a child of wrath make a righteous decision Godward? How?

It is not up to your fallen human will to make a decision Godward. If you are a believer today, truly born again, it is because God, in His infinite and rich mercy, chose you. You did not choose Him, but He chose you.

"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:44)

Those whom God the Father has chosen in God's timing draws those to Christ.

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” (John 6:37)

Those whom God the Father has chosen unto salvation He, in God's timing, not only gives to the Son, but those whom He gives to the Son will come.

“But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” (John 10:26-29)

To try and sum this all up: The above text makes the case plainly. It is His sheep that hear the voice of the Savior and follow Him. If you are a true believer it is not that you made a decision to invite Christ into your heart. It is because God chose you before time itself to be holy and blameless in Christ and predestined you to that end (Ephesians 1:3-4). And, in His timing, while you were yet dead in your sins unable to respond Godwardly, God made you alive together with Christ so that (and not a means to) you could respond in saving faith (See Ephesians 2:1-10). God made you a sheep so that you could hear His voice and follow Him. You did not make yourself a sheep. God did it from start to finish. That is why Paul wrote in Ephesians 2: 1-10:

"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:4-9)

Recommended Reading by Stan Palmer

Why We Must Be Tested: God's Sufficient Grace

Let's face it: The trials and tribulations of life that God sovereignly brings into our lives (those which He has ordained before the foundation of the world) are not fun. In fact, they are not pleasant, meaningful, exciting, and, in our carnal minds, we wonder just what is going on and if God has deserted us. The trials and tribulation are so severe sometimes that we find ourselves crying out in despair, unable to eat or drink, and are often so incapacitated by them that we are unable to respond to our families and friends. (See the Old Testament book, Job)

And yet, it is about the trials and tribulations of life that God in His inerrant Word commands us to count or regard as joy when we encounter what can seem to us overwhelming trials of life.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” (James 1:2-3; NKJV)

Faith never grows so well as when we are under various trials and tribulations. This is a biblical fact and no matter how much we kick and scream against the goads, it is true whether we like it or not. It is the storms of life when the winds are blowing at tornado speeds and wreaking destruction, when the floodwaters rise up to our necks, when faith is the most disciplined and enlightened.

It is often because of the degree of our arrogance that the degree of our tribulation is the greatest. Think about it: The Bible tells us we are but “earthen vessels” all frail, delicate, breakable and yet upon whose sufficiency do we depend to get through life? Our own. Why then do we moan and cry out so when our own sufficiency fails us and we are in trouble as the result? Do we not make it worse when we try to claw our way out of tribulation rather than “count it joy” and depend upon that “treasure” we have in our “earthen vessels” to sustain us?

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10; NKJV)

[May I humbly suggest that the “this treasure” in the above text is the “Grace of God” via the ministry of the Holy Spirit.]

We never regard ourselves so weak, much less as earthen vessels, until we find ourselves in circumstances that knock the wind from our self-sufficient sails. What do earthen vessels do? What can they do but sit around until someone comes along and plants a pretty flower in them or knocks them off the shelf. It is when the earthen vessel hits bottom that the realization of just how weak and fragile it is becomes apparent. It cracks up and breaks.

Don't you see that getting knocked off the shelf is exactly why God not only gives us trials but also often does so in such degree so that we can see just how weak and frail we really are apart from His enabling Grace? We never would confess our sinful self-dependence and reliance apart from being rendered weak from the tribulations that God sends us. We never would know how weak we are apart from the trials and tribulations of life. And it is exactly in the position of weakness where God wants His children because that is when we learn to depend on the power and strength of the Grace of God in the middle of trouble. That's why and how we can “count it all joy when you encounter various trials...”

“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10; NKJV)

Complaining

“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world .” (Phil. 2:14-15)

Christians are some of the biggest cry babies on the planet. The degree of their whining and griping can, at times and in some, rival if not exceed that of the non-Christian. It is such a trap into which we can so easily fall and become ensnared into a habit of complaining and disputing that ends up betraying our profession of faith.

When the rod of discipline (Prov. 3:12; Heb. 12:6) strikes the so-called Christians cries the loudest, “What have I done to deserve this from God?”

I have been exercised in this very thing as of late and have had the profoundest conviction of my sinful complaining to God as though I should deserve something better from the hand of the Almighty. Let me ask you, dear Reader, that which I asked recently myself:

“Why should I complain of God's working in my life? Just what is it I think I deserve from the hand of God: all sunshine and never a storm cloud and a life where all the good guys wear white hates and the black hooded bad guys always lose the battle between good and evil?”

Sure, we are more than conquerors through Christ but read the entire text:

“ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37)

What exactly does, “...all these things...” refer to? Well, if you check the preceding verses, 1-36, you will find what this phrase “all these things” is speaking to:

“Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

As it is written:

“ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us...” (Romans 8:35-37)

You cannot be a conqueror with out something over which to conqueror, right? This is talking about the trials and tribulations that God in His sovereignty ordains in our lives. If you never have the tribulations, distresses, persecutions, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword, then you will never know what it is to be a conqueror. So, why gripe about it?

Think about how much of the carnal nature you still have in your life and you will soon come to realize just how much you need God's loving hand of discipline (the rod), harsh as it might feel, to draw the corruption out of you. Figure out just how much there is of the flesh there is left in you mixed with what sanctification you have and then can you really bellyache over the discipling hand of God that has come to rid you of it? Is the tribulation really too hard to bear when you need it so badly to make you more and more into the imagine of our Precious Lord Jesus Christ?

Look at it this way: Does not the fact of trials and tribulations in your life prove that there is much to do with regard to the Holy Spirit's sanctification in your life? Does not the degree of pain and agony in the problems you face indicate that there is much to purge from your sinful flesh to be conformed to the imagine of Christ? (See Romans 8:28-30) And the louder and louder you scream in despair in the trials of your life does this not prove just how much you lack submission to the will of God in your life?

The harder and louder you kick and scream against the trials of life the harder they will be and the longer you will have to endure them. The sooner you recognize and submit to the fact that it is God hand that has wrought the tribulations the quicker you will be able to endure them with the help of the Spirit of God. God corrects in love and in doing so has in His mind the goal to change you into a more holy creation. Stop resisting.

Hebrews 12:6 (New King James Version)

For whom the LORD loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”

Hope In The Day of Evil

In His Word, God never tells us that the life of Christians is going to be a cinch. He never intimates that life will be one big roller coaster ride with us eating cotton candy and watching clowns that make us giggle our way through our earthly existence. Our walk through our path of life will have days of enjoyment and days when it feels like all the air has been sucked out of our lungs. Life is not a bed of roses and God never promises that in His Word.

There are times when passenger cars on the roller coaster fly off the tracks, the cotton candy makes us sick, and the clowns that made us laugh with glee now are striking terror in our hearts. And, we begin to wonder through what seems now to be days upon days of dark clouds and storms, whether there ever was a bed of roses that we used to admire for its beauty.

We come to ask, “Where is God in all of this suffering and pain?” Worse yet, we ask, “Surely this should not be happening to me; I am a Christian!”

Don't think that dear Christian much less say it!

Perhaps it seemed easily exciting when you were first brought to faith in Christ by the Sovereign working of God. Persecution was nonexistent; hardships seemed remote; exciting truths from the Bible were learned and you increased in knowledge; Christian fellowship was sweet and never ending. Then, the storm clouds rolled in, imperceptibly at first, until darkness seemed to cover everything in your life.

The most heroic of God's children have had to endure the most painful of trials and tribulations:

"...Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us." (Hebrews 11:35-40)

In Hebrews chapter 11, we are given the not only the definition of what faith is for the Christian but are also shown examples of how our brothers and sisters of the early church endured harrowing trials and temptations and did so by faith. Their horrid circumstances are in this chapter as a lesson to us that no Christian escapes trials. Tribulations are given, writes James, to give us opportunities to show a watching world (and other believers) that no matter in what package life arrives at the doorstep of our lives, we can have joy. Plus, endurance or patience is built into our character. But, warns James, we must let patience or endurance have its “perfect” work in us so that we will become perfect and complete and lacking in nothing. (See James 1:3-8)

No matter how unpleasant the thought, the Biblical fact is that in order to become full-grown children of God (and I am speaking to the issue of sanctification) in our experience or condition upon this earth, we have to have our faith tested through trials and tribulations.

We need to, no, it is essential that our faith be strengthened through trouble, problems, tragedies, unclimbable mountains, unsolvable puzzles, that will force us to deny our sinful dependence upon our flesh and trust in the Triune God. This is how it is and there is no avoiding it. Our God gives grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:4; James 4:6).

God is our hope, strength, and sustenance in the day of evil (See Jeremiah 17:17).

Can Christians Practice Sin as a Way of Life?

She lies constantly. Each time she is asked her age, she tries convincing the inquirer that she is fifteen to twenty years younger than she actually is. If pressed, she verbalizes an elaborately planned out scheme, presented in a most convincing manner, to cover her fraudulence. Not only is she a chronic liar she also is a pathological gossip. Her gossip is so laced with lies and half-truths that she can't even keep track of what is reality and what isn't. She has undermined at least one couple's marriage with her meddling and has been working on a second one.

This woman claims to be a Christian.

“For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. ” (1 Corinthians 6:20)

In redemption, the shedding of the blood of the Messiah for our atonement, we were purchased. God bought us, body and soul, by a terrible price. The death, resurrection, ascension paid a price we could not possibly pay and made us God's. We are His if indeed Christ is us and we in Him (Gal. 2:20).

Because in body and spirit we are not our own but God's, there can be no neutrality in our hearts and minds. In word, thought, and deed we are either His or we are not. If we belong to Christ then we take everything, even our thoughts, captive to Jesus Christ.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-6)

No neutrality; there is only obedience to the One Who bought us if we profess the name of Christ in our hearts and lives.

If this is so, then Christian, who do you trust? On whom do you rely? Who is it that comes up in the conversation with your neighbors? To what do you yield your tongue when asked your age or anything else? The revealing of one's age isn't the point. One could always say something like, “I'd rather not discuss my age.” But to lie and to do it chronically is to practice sin. One has a false profession of faith if there is the practice of lying or any sin in one's life.

Let me make this point even clearer. If you profess to be a Christian, you cannot practice sin as a way of life. Christ became Lord or King over you when and if you are really saved. How then are you serving your Lord and King? What is it you are taking (have taken) captive to the obedience to Jesus Christ? Or, I should say, what is it you are hanging onto sinfully and not yielding to your Lord and King?

If you think that you can call yourself a Christian and serve sin, like my lying friend I mentioned, run, don't walk, away from this thing in your life to the cross of Jesus Christ. Run to Him and yield your obedience to His Scriptures and do what He says. To be a liar means you cannot be a Christian. Obey Christ and not the sinful inclinations of your flesh. Demonstrate your love for Christ in willing obedience to His word.

The true and only proof that you are really saved is that you obey His commandments.

“Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” (1 John 2:3-6)

If you abide in Christ as 1 John 2: 6 says, then you have to walk as Jesus Christ walked. You have no other choice or option. Jesus was not a liar or deceiver of men. His walk matched His profession to being the Son of God. Your walk, your actions in word, thought, or deed have to match your profession of faith in Christ or you are not a Christian!

I close with a most sobering verse regarding lying:

“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8)

An impenitent liar will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

The Source Of Our Life

By virtue of our union in Christ, Christians have one source of life: Christ. The same person and power that called forth raising Lazarus from the dead is the very same person and power that calls His elect forth from being dead in trespasses and sin (Ephesians 2:1-10). Just as Jesus' friend Lazarus could do nothing to get up and walk out of his place of death and obey Christ's command to “come forth,” neither could we “come forth” to Christ's call when we were also dead and unresponsive to God's message of salvation.

Think of it for a moment: How could a dead man in his grave clothes and tomb have heard the call to “come forth” from the grave much less get up and walk to the opening of the tomb as Jesus bid him? Dead men do not hear anything nor obey a command to get up and come forth! He had to be first and foremost raised from the dead. He had to be made alive from his dead state. Then and only then could Lazarus rise from the tomb and obey the words of Jesus. That same person and power raised us from being dead in our sins so that we could (and risk nothing other than) obey the command to come to Christ in saving faith.

And, in coming to Christ in faith we are joined in union with Him in the likeness of His death and resurrection.

Because of this union, Christ is now the source of our life on this earth. It is in and through His life that we find reason for existing. He is the Person to whom we take all thoughts and actions captive (2 Corinthians 10:5). In doing so, we proclaim that nothing in this sin-filled world of God haters, of those who reject all that God is, can offer us nothing to satisfy our spiritual thirst and hunger.

Why because of our union with, in, and by Christ would we point to any other source to comfort us in times of sorrow and trials, for consolation, for eternal sustenance, or for all things in heaven and on earth? Why would we turn to the things of the world emanating from the vain efforts of men for meaning and help when it is Christ Who is our life?

Charles H. Spurgeon said this:

“Where there is the same life within, there will be, there must be, to a great extent, the same developments without; and if we live in near fellowship with the Lord Jesus we shall grow like Him. We shall set him before us as our Divine copy, and we shall seek to tread in His footsteps, until He shall become the crown of our life in glory.”

For the Christian, our sole source and example for life is in and through Christ. “For me to live is Christ.”

“Christ who is our life.” Colossians 3:4

At The Place of Power

To sit at someone's right hand is to sit in a place of power. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus who is the Christ, was once hated by men, beaten, bloodied, and crucified on a cross for our sins. However, He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and assumed his rightful place at the right hand of God. He is in His proper place of power sitting at the right hand of God as our advocate (1 John 2:1.2; Hebrews 7:25).

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1)

The word advocate can mean many things. It often refers to an attorney, backer, champion, defender, and many other definitions. I personally like the word backer to indicate what Christ is to us at his exalted place of ascendancy. He represents us as our eternal and Divine backer: a person who supports or aids a person, cause, enterprise, etc.

When Jesus died on a cross for His people (elect), we had a cessation from God's wrath or redemption from sin's penalty. In His resurrection, He effected for us deliverance from sin's power and control over our lives. When Christ ascended to the right hand of the throne of God (the place of power), He effected Grace and Truth in us and through us. As our advocate and because of what took place on the cross, Christ is our representative head. The raising (His ascension) and the seating of Christ at the right hand of God is His elect's exaltation too.

“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:2,3)

This seating of Jesus Christ at the right hand of the throne of God, His exaltation, is indicative of God's acceptance of our Great High Priest as our Backer (Advocate) and therein lies our assurance of salvation.

This is not only our assurance of salvation, but it is our place of power to survive the tribulation and trials of our sojourn in this world that is hostile toward our heavenly Father. What threat can harm us? What insult can flatten us? What problem is too great for our Representative head who is seated at God's right hand?

“Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” (Romans 8: 34)

Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of God, that position of power, is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. What is too hard for Him, the Backer of our faith? What shall overcome us when He in Whom we are hidden (Colossians 3:1-4) is absolute Omnipotence?

The context of this passage is speaking about Christ, our Backer, in whom we are hidden:

"...which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. ” (Ephesians 1: 21-23)

If we are in union with Christ, then what is it that can sway us? Who can harm us? What can shipwreck us in our faith? What enemy of His elect is not under His feet?

By, in, and through our Backer (Advocate), there is no chance of being destroyed.

The Abomination Of It All

I've taken a small rest from writing about the doctrinal error known as Easy-Believism. I have several blogs on this subject and hope my readers will check this blog's archive and read what I've been writing. What has sparked my interest to take this theme up again was an event to which my wife was a witness in an evangelistic opportunity with a very young woman last night.

She sat with a distressed 21-year-old woman who has been living with a man three years older than she is. He is a police officer. They have a small child together. They've never married. Now this man has thrown her out and the woman has recently learned he has had another woman all this time that is now pregnant. The young lady is understandably devastated and in shock.

My wife began talking to this woman about her relationship with God. In the course of the conversation, my wife learned that this woman regards herself as a Christian. When my wife asked her how she knew she was a Christian, a believer in Christ as her Lord and Savior, the woman replied that since she made a decision years ago for Christ in this protestant church, she was a Christian.

Do not miss what is being sadly said in this woman's response to my wife's question: the basis upon which this woman believed herself to be a Christian, a believer in Christ as her Lord and Savior, was on a decision for Christ years prior to her deciding to live and fornicate with a man to whom she was not married.

My question is just where was the Lord of her life when she decided to have sex with a man to whom she was not married?

Further investigation by my wife revealed that this woman used to belong to a church in which Easy-Believism is taught. She apparently and obviously never heard from the pulpit of this church that one cannot claim to be a Christian, a follower of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then live one’s life as though He does not exist. She had never heard from the teaching elders of this church that to be brought to faith in Jesus Christ is the result of God the Father giving them, the fallen human, to Christ.

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44)

No one apparently told her the Biblical fact that if she was indeed a true believer then it is not because she decided for Christ. It was not that she made her mind up about anything regarding salvation. It was not that she, as an act of her will, decided to accept the facts surrounding the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, who is the Christ. Besides, it isn't facts to whom the Father draws anyone. It is to a Person: Jesus the Christ. And, unless that human be drawn by the Father to the Son, that human can in no way come to Christ in and of his or her self. It is, as a matter of Biblical fact, impossible (Ephesians 2:1-10).

This, my dear friend, is a perfect example of the faulty and abominable doctrine that is being preached in the vast majority of Evangelical churches today. They are teaching that God has done His part and now you must do your part in making a decision, as an act of your will, for Christ lest you burn in eternal Hellfire.

So, what exactly is this Decisionalism or Easy-Believism salvation? And why does it produce such flimsy and false professions of faith in which these so-called believers can go about their lives after their decision and live like everyone else in the world?

“The term “easy-believism” is a usually derogatory label, used to characterize the faulty understanding of the nature of saving faith adhered to by much of contemporary Evangelicalism, most notably (and extremely) by such Dispensational authors as Charles Ryrie and Zane Hodges. The term was popularized in an ongoing debate between Hodges, to whose theology the label “easy-believism” was affixed, and John MacArthur, to whom the term “lordship salvation” came to be applied.” ⁱ

This doctrinal error or heresy teaches that all one needs to do to come to faith in Christ, or to come to a saving faith, is the acquiescence to some facts about the Gospel followed by an appeal to Christ for salvation. It is not required, so say the advocates of this soteriology,ⁱⁱ that someone submit, in any sense of the word, to Christ's rule or Kingship over his or her life. Amazingly, some of the advocates of this very dangerous error actually teach that someone can even be unwilling to obey the commands of Christ after making this appeal for salvation and still be considered a Christian.

I cannot begin to fathom the exegetical reasoning behind this theological position.

In recent months, I have been personally involved in the moral crisis of families in my own church in which this easy-believism doctrine is taught: “God has done His part and now it is up to you to do your part.” This semi-pelagianism, and that is exactly what this abomination is, shows its practical result in the morality, or lack thereof, in the lives of those who believe this lie. They think that because they made a decision for Christ, as an act of their fallen and totally depraved human wills, that they are now, “Once Saved Always Saved,” and it does not matter how they then live their lives. Obedience to the commands of God never entered or enters the salvation equation and the outcome of this theology is painfully and tragically all too apparent.

"Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." (1 John 2: 3-6)

Do not miss the point of this text: The proof of one's claim to know Christ in a salvificⁱⁱⁱ sense is: “If we keep His commandments.” If you say that you “know Him” and do not keep His commandments (to keep the commandments is another way of saying to obey the commandments), then you are a liar and the truth is not in you! If you say you are in Christ then you have “to walk as Christ walked.”

If you claim to be a believer in Christ as your Lord and Savior then you MUST be living as though He is indeed your Lord and that will be evident by you keeping His commandments. If your heart and life are not inclined to keeping His commandments, then stop professing falsely that you are a Christian. It is just as simple as that. Read First John for confirmation of what I have just said.

This is serious and it is dangerous. The vast majority of professing Evangelical churches all over the world are teaching that you can decide yourself into the Kingdom God by a mere exercise of your sinfully fallen and depraved human will without any change whatsoever in your life.

God's answer in His Word (1 John) to that proposition is that it is a lie!

ihttp://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/qna/easybelieve.html

iiSoteriology is the doctrine of salvation

iiiSalvific sense = salvationally or in a salvation sense

What Is Your Passion?

The true Christian, the genuine believer in Christ as Lord and Savior, will be characterized by the unassailable passion to glorify God in his or her life. Everything else in the life of the Christian should be secondary. The driving inclination in the believer's life is that the glory of the Triune God would be manifested in and through his or her life.

The believer might want to see success in life's endeavors but only to the extent that God is glorified. A professing believer is not evidencing a credible testimony if there exists any other motive than to show God off, to glorify Him, in any and all aspects of the believer's life.

The Bible is explicit in this regard. It is very clear, it is precise, that we are to glorify God. But, why?

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20)

Christ redeeming us with the price of His blood purchased us for God. It is because of that terrible price that we are not our own. If we have been bought by the blood of Christ, if we are therefore Christians, then we have no right to do anything other than glorify God in and through our bodies.

Glorifying God has got to be our soul's desire. To glorify God has got to be the basis for all our affairs. There is nothing in our lives this does not touch. Whether business, fame, fortune, marriage, children, church, driving a car, there is nothing in life that escapes the command to glorify God in our bodies.

And, we must grow in our desire to glorify God. We must search out any nook or cranny in the cupboards of our hearts where He is not being glorified and crucify that thing afresh to the glory of the Living God.

Let it be an ever-increasing passion!

How Does God Speak Today?

My wife and I have this friend. She is bright, in her 40's, but not formally educated in systematic theology or Biblical Studies. Yet, when in a woman's Bible study where she was asked, “How does God speak to you?” she responded correctly, “He speaks to me through His Word by means of the Holy Spirit.” Well, you would have thought from the responses she got that she had uttered absolute blasphemy. The participants proceeded to inform her that God speaks to them all the time and in various ways and that our friend should not be so “black and white.”

Of the many foundational truths of the Reformation, one that has to do with the above paragraph and the point of this article is that the Word of God is the absolute authority source for faith and practice.

“The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience, although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will which is necessary unto salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in divers manners to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his church; and afterward for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan, and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which maketh the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.
( 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Isaiah 8:20; Luke 16:29, 31; Ephesians 2:20; Romans 1:19-21; Romans 2:14,15; Psalms 19:1-3; Hebrews 1:1; Proverbs 22:19-21; Romans 15:4; ) ” (London Baptist Confession; Chapter 1; #1)

The above quote from the LBC has been one that has given definition to the Reformed movement for centuries and indeed has been a central component to professing Evangelicalism. But note I said “...indeed has been...”

Though the LBC represents my personal conviction regarding Divine revelation, there has been a change floating about in theological circles that has worked itself into the hearts and minds of professing Evangelical for some time now. Some are now offering a new understanding of the Word of God, which says God now speaks to believers apart from and in addition to the Bible. It is an attempt by some to change the historically orthodox view of the “sufficiency and finality of Holy Scripture (R. Fowler White).”

Even a former professor at Dallas Theological Seminary wrote:

“In order to fulfill God’s highest purposes for our lives we must be able to hear his voice both in the written word and in the word freshly spoken from heaven. . . ”

Don't miss this point here. If this former Dallas Theological Seminary professor is correct, then those of us who adhere to the theology of the Reformation that the Word of God is our one and only authority for faith and practice are not only wrong but are also quenching the Holy Spirit.

Essentially, what these folks are suggesting is that God speaks to His people as He always has when He would deliver Truth to the prophets in supernatural means and extra-written: Burning bushes, handwriting on the walls, and talking donkeys are some examples.

So, are these guys like our seminary professor friend right? I do not think so.

What these advocates fail to realize and acknowledge is that in the days in which God did speak to His people through supernatural and other means, it was done in a time when little, if any, of the will of God was in written form. In those days, God's elect were forced out of necessity to rely on what they did have of God's will in written form plus other means. However, today we have a closed canon of Scripture and agree with ages of orthodoxy and orthopraxy that what we have in written form, the Bible, is our sole source and therefore the only authority for faith and practice. And, how and why do we affirm this?

“But why does the church affirm that the canon is closed? The only demonstrable basis for this affirmation is that God’s giving of revelation, spoken and written, is always historically joined to and qualified by God’s work of redemption. Now that God has accomplished salvation once-for-all, in Christ, He has also spoken His word, once-for-all, in Christ and in those whom Christ authorized and empowered by His Spirit (Heb. 1:1-2; 2:3, 4; Matt. 16:15-19; John 14:26; Eph. 2:19, 20). With the completion of salvation in Christ comes the cessation of revelation. Consequently, the church now lives by a "Scripture only" principle of authority To tamper with this principle invites a host of theological and pastoral problems. The proof of this observation can be seen in the effect of these "prophecies" upon many who are being led far afield from the sufficiency of the gospel itself. Its finality and complete sufficiency is, in reality, subtly assaulted by these claims to modern prophecies. ” (R. Fowler White)

In addition, the Word of God itself gives us no indication that He speaks to His elect through anything other than the Holy Spirit illuminating our hearts and minds through the Bible. What those who believe otherwise do when they say that God speaks to them through supernatural and extra-biblical means is detract and distract from the all sufficiency of Holy Scripture and how exactly is that extra-orthodox position not “quenching the Spirit?” (R. Fowler White)

My opinion is that they are doing exactly that, “quenching the Spirit,” in their advocacy of extra-biblical revelation. That's just how serious this issue really is. It is God's Word, Holy Writ, in which God's elect hear His words and receive guidance by the illumination of the Holy Spirit through His written Word.

“The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof; therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.”
( 2 Peter 1:19-21; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 John 5:9 ) (London Baptist Confession; Chapter 1; #4)