I was translating John 9 , and was struck by the following dialogue (super-functional translation warning):

The blind man said to Jesus, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshipped Jesus. Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and so that those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees who followed Him around heard what He said, and said to Him, “We are not blind as well, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were really blind, you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim that you can see, your sin remains.”

Blind beggar, born blind for the purpose of this very encounter with Christ. Makes fools out of the religious elite by having common sense in seeing God’s hand in his own healing (was that not the unpardonable sin in Matthew: the twistedness of those who saw in the work of the Spirit the mark of Satan himself?). Is cast out for his troubles. Jesus seeks him out (Shepherd seeks the lost sheep—very next chapter!) Jesus identifies Himself, speaks of faith. The man believes and worships. What does his faith and worship produce? Jesus explains that He has come for a purpose, and it is not what you normally hear about during the 14th verse of Just As I Am. He has come for judgment, and the judgment involves sight. The blind are made to see, the seeing are made blind. Obviously, though He has healed a blind man, the action was metaphorical in the sense that it pointed to a greater reality: the physical healing pictured a spiritual reality (just as in John 11 and the raising of Lazarus!). The blind man could see what the Pharisees could not. They who thought they could see were, in reality, blind, and when Jesus says this, the little group of spies who followed Him around, trying to catch Him in His words, reporting to the big-wigs back in Jerusalem, knew He was talking about them, and so they ask Him bluntly if His words applied to them. He just as bluntly says yes: since they claim to see (and in fact do not), their sin abides or remains.

We need to be reminded, often, of the powerful Christ, the Christ who walks the pages of the gospels, but whose presence is often muted by our traditions and our fear of the faces of men. The Jesus of the Gospels tramples all over the canons of political correctness.

SCARBC Reformation Day Service with Dr. James White

at the Colony High School Auditorium

3850 E. Riverside Dr. Ontario, CA  91761

Sunday Evening – October 25 @ 5 pm

Sponsored by the Southern California Association of Reformed Baptist Churches*

Free and all are welcome!

James White is the director of Alpha and Omega Ministries, a Christian apologetics organization based in Phoenix, Arizona. He is a professor, having taught Greek, Systematic Theology, and various topics in the field of apologetics. He has authored or contributed to more than twenty books, including The King James Only Controversy, The Forgotten Trinity, The Potter’s Freedom, and The God Who Justifies. He is an accomplished debater, having engaged in more than seventy-five moderated, public debates with leading proponents of Roman Catholicism, Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormonism, as well as critics such as Bart Ehrman, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, and John Shelby Spong. He is an elder of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, has been married to Kelli for more than twenty-seven years, and has two children, Joshua and Summer.

For more information you may contact us at:
www.sgbc-ontario.us or  (909) 986-9476

SCARBC Members are:
Centinela Baptist Ch – Lawndale;  El Monte Reformed Baptist Ch;  Escondido Reformed Baptist Ch;   Free Grace Ch- Lancaster;  Mountain Reformed Ch- Crestline;  Reformed Baptist Ch – Riverside;  Sovereign Grace Baptist Ch – Ontario;   Trinity Reformed Baptist Ch – La Mirada

“Hey, I’m not that bad of a person.  I’m no Hitler or Stalin, you know.  Besides, I believe that all men are basically good.”  Such is the response we often hear when we inform our unconverted friends that they’re in trouble with God, that their sin has separated them from God.  “Are you telling me that you are ready to face God in judgment and that you are confident that you’re good enough to be accepted by Him?”  “Yeah, I’m basically OK with God and I don’t see why He wouldn’t be OK with me too.”  There is no fear of God before their eyes (Rom 3:18).

How do you want to be dressed when you come to stand before the King?  Isaiah speaks of two garments with which men are clothed.  Which of the two is the best dressed?

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away (Isa 64:6).  Weave a garment out of your own supposed goodness, and you’ll dress yourself with a filthy garment. We are not as repulsed by this picture of a man clothed in filthy rags (KJV) as Isaiah’s readers would’ve been.  E.J. Young informs us that these words refer to used menstrual cloths.  That’s disgusting enough no doubt, but all the more in the Old Covenant culture that viewed everything associated with the birthing of a sinner as ceremonially unclean.  We are born in original sin with a sinful nature and have become like one who is unclean.  In that depraved state, our attempts to be righteous, to be obedient enough to satisfy the perfect standards of God’s Law, to be good enough for God, are comparable to dressing up in a garment of filthy rags.  No doubt, we feel all proud of ourselves, having stitched this garment out of our own self-inflated goodness, but when we come before the King, the truth is made known and we discover that we’re dressed in disgusting filth.

Isaiah speaks of another garment of exquisite fashion in 61:10.  I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Here is the garment of salvation, a garment made by the Lord and placed upon us in grace.  It is a garment suitable for the King’s wedding, that picture of the heavenly banquet of eternal joy.  It is a robe of righteousness, a coat stitched from a perfect human obedience to God’s Law, a sinless compliance to God’s will.  Here is the only clothing for a man to be acceptable to our holy God: the garment of salvation, a robe of righteousness.

The filthy garment is stitched out of our depraved sinfulness, even when we think we’re doing righteous deeds, we’re actually weaving a garment of filth.  But where is this garment of perfect human obedience, this sinless impeccable alignment with God’s righteous Law?  Whose life and deeds can be woven into a robe of righteousness?  Only one Man: Jesus.  His sinless, perfect obedience has fashioned the garment of salvation.  His perfect love of God and love of neighbor, His essential holiness in all that He felt, thought, said, and did, produced the threads of perfection that God knit into the robe of righteousness.  Only Jesus has lived a life that is so obedient, so perfect, and so good as to be acceptable to God.  Only Jesus has lived without sin (Heb 4:15).

Think of that!  Without sin!  Thirty-three years of true human existence and not one second of sin!  Not one thought, not one reaction to provocation, not one glance of the eye, one emotion, one word, one deed – no sin, ever, in private or in public!  Here is a marvel more wondrous than anything on display in any museum, more valuable than any deposit in any bank, more beautiful than any work of art, even anything ever created by God!  Look at Jesus: perfect, sinless, impeccable obedience in every aspect of His true humanity.  What a man!  What a life lived!  Only His life weaves that perfect robe of righteousness. In Jeremiah 23:6 we learn who Jesus is: this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The Lord our righteousness.’

The good news of the gospel is that God freely gives every repentant believer this robe of righteousness stitched out of Jesus’ sinless obedience.  The invitation of grace comes to sinners and urges us to take off our supposed goodness, and acknowledge that in the sight of the holy Judge, all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.  Repent of such arrogant self-righteousness.  Then turn by faith to Jesus and be wrapped with a robe of righteousness, Jesus’ righteousness, Jesus’ obedience, Jesus’ perfection.  Come before your Judge united to the Lord who is our righteousness. With joyful humility and astonished wonder to the praise of Jesus, come before your Judge clothed with the garments of salvation, not with the dress of damnation.

So, who’s the best dressed?  Is he the man who fashions his own garment out of his own supposed goodness, or the man who repents and trusts in Jesus and is wrapped by God in grace with the robe of Jesus’ sinless obedience?  Next time you hear someone tell you that they’re ready to come before God dressed in their own native goodness, tell them about Isaiah’s fashion show and ask them if they really want to be dressed in filthy rags?  Isn’t the sinner clothed with the garment of salvation, wrapped in the robe of righteousness really the best dressed?

In the gymnasium, they’re always pushing one another to higher levels of achievement.  Unlike a spa, a gymnasium is not a place for leisurely relaxation.  It’s a body disciplining facility.  In the gymnasium, football players pump iron; wrestlers pound one another into the mat; high jumpers push for the extra inch; basketball players push each other to higher levels of excellence.  Regarding the church assembling together, the writer to the Hebrews says,

“and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,  not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

This stimulating one another, or spurring one another on to higher achievement reminds me of a gymnasium weight room scene I witnessed.  The red faced bench presser was straining and wanted to quit lifting the weights.  But his spotter (helper) refused to assist him in lifting the bar off his chest and shouted, “Come on!  One more!  You can do it!”  And he did!  I’ve seen the same thing in the pool as a swimmer’s teammates cheer him down the home stretch to higher levels of performance.  We need to be in churches that stimulate and spur us on to higher levels of godliness

Christians should avoid churches like the contemporary pragmatic types that model themselves after an entertaining theatre, a talent show, a relaxing lounge, a feel-good spa, or a country club.  Instead, Christians should become a part of churches that biblically model themselves after a gymnasium.

Resolve not to be satisfied with being a part of a church that is a pampering spa of spiritually flabby, sluggardly professing Christians, who make you feel good, because you fit right in with them.  Instead, let’s resolve to seek out a spiritually challenging gym, where Christians have the eye of the tiger, to serve Christ with all their might.

Ah, to be in a church where Christian brothers and sisters come alongside one another and say, “Come on, friend, you can do one more!  Don’t quit now!  You can get the upper hand on one more sin!  You can establish one more godly habit in your life!  The Spirit of God will help you do this!”  If you can’t help reform your own local church, find and join one, or establish one, that views the church not as spa, but as a gymnasium.

Perhaps this has always been a tendency; but, there is a “rock star” phenomenon plaguing modern evangelicalism.  I use the word “plaguing” because it is a problem with serious implications.  To what am I referring?  Certain authors, preachers, and musicians have become so popular that conferences and concerts featuring these personalities are drawing thousands of people.  And, the driving force for these large gatherings may be becoming more the personalities and their fame than the actual message they are proclaiming.  To use contemporary language, these Christian workers are developing “groupies” who will traverse great distances just to hear them.  These people are being treated something like “rock stars” or “celebrities.”

At this point, I want to make an important distinction (at least it is important to me).  I want to distinguish most contemporary Christian musicians from the preachers to whom I am referring.  For the vast majority of contemporary Christian musicians with whom I am acquainted, their music is performed as entertainment and as a means of income.  They charge for their performances (sometimes large sums of money).  That does not mean that they are insincere or that one cannot be edified by listening to them.  It does mean that their work should not be considered ministry neither should their performances be called “worship”.  Both ministry and worship are free. If material support is given to those who minister or lead in worship, it is purely voluntary and is never a condition or prerequisite for being allowed to participate.  Those who charge for admittance to their concerts are professional entertainers.  Some may not like that designation; however, that is the way it is.  We must be truthful.

My concern in this article is with preachers who proclaim the Word of God.  The conferences where these preachers preach are often sponsored by churches.  Yet the cost of the conferences may understandably be too much for the churches to pay on their own; thus, there may be a charge to attendees.  That is fair and understandable.  It is good, however, when arrangements are in place for those who wish to attend but simply cannot afford the cost.  None should be eliminated due to cost.  On the other hand, if any of these preachers charge set fees to speak anywhere, any time, that to my mind renders them professional public speakers and not ministers of the Gospel. Ministers of the Gospel are servants who proclaim the “Good News” without charge.  True they must live and they should live of the Gospel.  Which means that the churches who profit from their free service have a responsibility to honor them by supporting their material and physical livelihood.  However, that is entirely different from charging a fee for preaching.  I have been told by people who are in position to know, that some of the most “popular” preachers and authors receive nothing personally from their labors (especially their writing).  The monies received from their books go directly to the churches they pastor, not to them.  This is highly commendable.

The concern just now is not the issue of money.  It is the issue of celebrity and the “cult-like” following that some preachers are being given.  The most astonishing thing about this is that I am speaking now of “reformed” preachers.  They are preaching sound doctrine and are giving clear and accurate (for the most part) expositions of God’s Word.  We are not speaking about preachers of smooth doctrine who please people by their easy words. We are not talking, in other words, about false shepherds.  Rather, these preachers are proclaiming the truths that have been hated for so long and banished from most churches, and still are. These men are preaching the Biblical Gospel and sound historic Calvinism and heart religion that demands self-denial and full-soul abandonment to Jesus Christ.  We should be excited that such preachers are drawing thousands of hearers!!  We should praise God and pray earnestly that their message will gain an ever-expanding hearing.  However, we must not treat them as “celebrities” or “rock stars”!

1 Corinthians 4:7   7 For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

The truth, the gifts, and the success these preachers possess are all gifts from Christ.  Christ alone must be celebrated and adored.  I have the strongest confidence that these men would wholeheartedly agree with this!  They have not and are not seeking to promote themselves.  They, like every other Christian minister worthy of the name, yearn to be used for God’s glory in the fullest and widest way possible.  What minister would turn down the opportunity to preach the whole counsel of God to thousands of people, especially if he is preaching primary truth which has been stifled for decades? The problem is not with the preachers themselves, that is my assumption.  The problem is with the people who hear them.  The problem is with those who wish to be identified with certain preachers, as though that identification gave credentials to their own piety.  The problem is in those who are more devoted to their favorite preachers than to the doctrine those preachers are preaching.  That is the problem.  And, this problem threatens the good work that is being done.  For one thing, God does not share His glory with anyone. If we are giving glory to a preacher that belongs only to Christ, we are placing those preachers in danger–danger of having the blessing of God withdrawn from their ministries.  That would be a tremendous loss to the church.  We are also posing temptations to the men themselves.  However humble and convinced a man may be that he is utterly dependent upon Christ and is nothing apart from Christ’s blessing, if multitudes are fawning over him and treating his words as though they are practically inspired, the tempter will work to exalt that man’s pride and to lessen his trust in Christ. That is a serious threat to the most holy man of God. Therefore, the reasons for reassessing our attitudes toward God’s most popular servants are substantial.

It ought to be noted that this is not a new problem. In the Corinthian church of the first century divisions developed as members aligned themselves with their favorite apostle or preacher, whether Paul, Peter, or Apollos.  During the ministry of George Whitefield in the Great Awakening, a phenomenal popularity came to surround Whitefield. That popularity scared Whitefield and drove him to much prayer lest he be ruined by it. And, it may have been partially due to that popularity that his days were cut short. Of course, that is pure conjecture on my part. Spurgeon also was made into a “star” by the evangelicals of his day.

Yet, it must be added that in each case the popularity also brought harsh criticism toward the men whom God was using. That is also happening today. Suspicion surrounds success in the Gospel ministry, especially on the part of preachers who have never known even a fraction of the success others are enjoying. But, that is another topic for another time.  Suffice to say, that men are to be critiqued by what they say not by their popularity or lack of popularity.

I conclude this blog by referring you to an excellent article written by Keith Green, titled “So you wanna be a rock star.” The response of some to the name Keith Green will be immediately negative. It is my opinion that such negativity is unwarranted. Keith Green did not hold several of the doctrines that we have come to recognize as major strands of Biblical thought. Had he lived longer, perhaps he would have. Also, he was influenced by some views that we would think to be less than thoroughly defensible from the Bible. Nonetheless, that being admitted, God taught Keith Green a great deal about passion for the glory of Christ and for the salvation of the lost. God gave him a heart for the poor and perishing which we would all do well to imitate. Whatever your impressions about Keith Green’s music and ministry (and contemporary Christian musicians could learn a great deal from him about ministry), I urge you to read his article.

It can be found at this web address:

http://www.lastdaysministries.org/Group/Group.aspx?id=1000008644