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.

Walking in Saving Faith

If I had but two things to share from the Word of God that would show a believer what it is he or she should seek, they would be these two: A life of saving faith, and a life of walking by that saving faith. To understand these is to understand Biblical Salvation.

These two issues are crucial to the life of the true believer. You will never find a life of saving faith unaccompanied by true piety; nor will you ever find a genuinely pious life that does not have as its foundation the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. And the thing is, you cannot have the one without the other!

There are those who would try and have a cold and calculating orthodox faith bereft of true piety. They have lined all their theological ducks in a row but there is no Christ likeness in them. Then, there are those who seek to mimic true piety but, in their imitations, they have no actual true saving faith.

We must have a living, genuine, saving faith as the foundation of our lives with real and lasting piety as the building that is built on the foundation.

What possible use is a foundation, just the foundation, if there is no building on it? Can one shelter oneself in a storm on foundation? There must be a building erected upon the foundation where one can hide from the dangers of the storm. But, one must have both. If the foundation has no building, then one is not safe. Nor is there safety if there is a building without a foundation. The dangers of the storms of life threaten both.

We need a life of saving faith (the foundation), and a life of walking by that saving faith (the building), if we are to have peace in times of problems and trouble. We cannot seek a life of walking by saving faith (piety) if the foundation of saving faith is not there. To do this is like trying to live in a house with no sure foundation. The winds of life will blow it down.

As therefore ye have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and assured in the faith, even as ye have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. (Col. 2:6,7)

The Great Apostle Paul or The Misogynist ?

Do the pages of Holy Scripture ever refer to a situation as being a cultural circumstance and not applicable to the 21^st century? Are there cultural issues in the Bible that perhaps might be changeable for our “day?” I think in answering this question one has got to exercise a great deal of exegetical wisdom and apply a remarkably reliable hermeneutic to come up with the answer. And, how exactly can we know the difference? How can we be sure what we are looking at in Scripture so we do not become guilty of bringing into question the infallibility of the “God breathed” (inspired) Word of the Living God?

A text that some take as being cultural is found in 1 Cor. 7 regarding marriages. Paul's exhortation to remain single seems to be tied to the persecution of the times. Another text, and in my view a stronger one, is the issue of eating meat sacrificed to idols. Regarding head coverings in 1 Cor 11, Paul even says, “judge among yourselves” whether it is proper for a woman to wear a head covering (verse 13). The thing to realize is Paul appeals to custom or tradition if it is not in conflict with the imperative principles of Holy Scripture.

Matthew Henry says: “The Christian religion sanctions national customs wherever these are not against the great principles of truth and holiness; affected singularities receive no countenance from any thing in the Bible.” ¹

A text that is NOT speaking to a cultural issue, but is often thought of being just a “cultural thing,” is found in 1 Timothy 2:11-15:

“Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.”

How do we know this is not some misogynistic ploy by the Apostle Paul to bring those rebellious women under control? Why isn't this a trick to make all Christian women into some inferior beings subservient to all those nasty men in the church?

“In other words, if the biblical passages merely reflect the chauvinism of a first century rabbinic Jew, they are unworthy of our acceptance. If, however, Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and if the New Testament is the Word of God, then the charge of chauvinism must be leveled not only at Paul but at the Holy Spirit Himself - a charge that cannot be leveled with impunity.” ²

I can give you the answer in three words how we know we are not dealing with the culture of the first century: Creation Ordinance Hermeneutic.

Hermeneutics is defined as: “the study of the methodological principles of interpretation (as of the Bible) ” ³

The 1 Timothy 2:11-15 text is an excellent example of Paul presenting a truth of Scripture and appealing, not to culture, but to Creation itself as the basis for his Divinely inspired, infallible, and Apostolic teaching.

Rejection of this passage as anything other than what it is, absolute Truth, stems out of liberal theology. “Of course Paul would say this. He is a man.” It is relegated to the boondocks of the cultural boogeyman by those who don't think it is “fair.” When has “fairness” ever been a valid hermeneutic for exegeses of Holy Scripture? (I'm just saying.)

Paul's hermeneutic is to use Genesis chapter one through three as the basis for what he has just said. Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and in exercising his Apostolic authority, says women are to keep silent in the church and uses the Creation Ordinance in Genesis as his Divinely inspired reason. He gives no cultural “judge for yourselves” in this text.

R.C. Sproul said:

“One of the chief considerations in determining the question of principle or custom is whether the matter involves a Creation ordinance.”

And, my dear readers, 1 Timothy 2:11-15, as distasteful as liberal theology regards it, is tied directly to a Creation Ordinance.

1  Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible Public Domain

2   R.C. Sproul

3  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hermeneutic

Following Christ

Are you a Christian, dear reader? What I mean to say is did you, under the crushing weight of your sin, cry out to God for mercy and confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead kind of Christian? (Romans 10:9) If you are that kind of Christian then you are not only saved from the penalty and power of sin but are also a follower of Christ your Lord and King.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27)

Just as sheep hear and follow the sound of their shepherd's voice, so do we when we hear the voice of The Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ. In fact, our Great Shepherd has the right to lead us wherever He deems fit since as His sheep, we are not our own. He bought us with the price of His own blood when He redeemed us (1 Corinthians 6:20). We are His.

It should be noted that we betray our profession of faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior if we dare shut our ears to His calling and directing. We have no right to question His leading and, if we do, we do so at our peril. Obedience to our Lord and King is our solemn duty.

But, some may say, “What if I cannot go where He leads and do what He demands?” Know this, that where and how God leads us, it is His doing and He will provide the means, the needs, the strength, the protection, the courage to do what it is He is directing us to do and where He commands us to go.

Augustine's Confessions: "Give me what you command and command what you will".

Whatever our Prophet, Priest, and King commands you to do, know that He is already there (Omnipresence), He already knows what you need to do His will (Omniscience), and He has the absolute glorious power to supply what you need to do His will (Omnipotence).

No matter if the road to which Christ is directing us is hard, perilous, long, and exhausting, we can have assurance that it will end in everlasting glory with us in the perfect will of God and His loving care. Even if following our Lord's direction leads to death, it will have lead us to the city of God!

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. ” (Hebrews 11:10)

Follow your Lord and King no matter where and even if you do not know where you are going.

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)

Put To Death The Deeds of The Flesh

I received a phone call from a woman, a professing believer in Jesus Christ, who was going through some sort of tribulation that was vexing her soul. Her first words after explaining to me what was happening were,

“God already knows I am a woman of great faith, so why is He bringing these trials and tribulations into my life?”

The only thing I can say in her favor is that she accurately understood the Biblical explanation for trials and tribulations in the lives of His people:

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1: 2-4; NKJV)

My acquaintance got the connection between how God brings into His elect's lives trials and tribulations to test their faith with the consequent result of patience, a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5: 22-23) being produced in the lives of Christians. She got that. A star for her.

What she so tragically did not get was that she was expressing to me on the phone that she believed she had arrived at such a place in her professed faith in Christ where she no longer needed God to produce patience in her life through the medium of trials and tribulation. In her mind, she had reached a level of perfect sanctification where it was, according to her, no longer a need that the Triune God keep perfecting or completing her.

“Why more trials when I am already there? I've reached the goal. I've arrived!”

“...being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;” (Philippians 1:6; NKJV)

You see, what the Bible teaches is that the good work of salvation, initiated by God in the lives of His elect, won't be completed until the day of Christ Jesus. In other words, the work of completing or perfecting believers will never end until the death of the believer or the second coming of Jesus Christ for His church.

Yet, like so many others with dubious professions of faith in Christ, there is a kind of pride. It is a sinful boasting of having been perfected in grace when in reality there is a total lack of Biblical grace in their lives.

People like that, if they are even Christians to begin with, actually think they have reached a goal while the rest of us sit around in anguish lamenting our pain and suffering. They either are ill taught or are not believers to not know that “until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6) means that a continual flow of the Grace of God must be constant in their lives to enable them to cope with the multitudinous tribulations that God will indeed providentially bring into their lives.

To deny this is directly from their sinful flesh. In the boast of having arrived at some falsely conceived level of perfection the rest of us are still waiting for, is to glory in one's carnal and base instincts. It is to glory in the self-aggrandized “I have already arrived” state of thinking instead of glorying in the Person and work of Christ and the strength only He can work into your life to enable you to cope with the trials and tribulations God has ordained for your life.

Put to death the deeds of your body and mind (Romans 8:13) to keep yourself from reaching such a prideful notion that you have arrived at a level of completion or perfection and no longer need to have your faith tested by the Loving, Providential, and Sovereign Hand of God. Glorify in the One who can supply you the strength to endure by:

Spend a protracted amount of time in prayer seeking the strength of God.

Spend more time in meditating on the wonders and care of God in His Word. Read the Scriptures diligently and carefully.

Glory in God's strength, the only One who can keep you from falling.

Live nearer to God by watching and praying lest you fall into the temptation of pride and arrogance.

Let your conversation in front of the people of the world ALWAYS be seasoned with the Grace of God.

Let your heart be scented with the aroma of Biblical love for the lost souls of the world.

Let the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart be such that men want to know what is in your life that's not in theirs.

“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12)