The Place of Preaching in the Church Part 4

Rev. Martin Geluk. Trowel and Sword, July 1995.

Preamble: In this, the final instalment of “The Place of Preaching in the Church”, Martin ties all four parts together with conclusions that should be compulsory reading for all RTC students, all ministers, all elders and every CRCA member sitting in the pews; and in truth, every Christian, regardless of church affiliation. To illustrate, the following is a sample of what he has to say: “So preaching is a serious business and listening to preaching is a serious business. We don’t come to church to hear a ‘nice sermon’. Nor do we come to hear a dynamic speaker gifted with marvellous oratory. And we don’t come to hear what the speaker might have to say on this or that subject. We come expecting to hear the word of Christ.” If any person has any doubts about why they attend church services this article, and this series of articles should dispel those doubts for all time. Read it! Share it! Take it to heart and let it be your guiding light all the days of your life.

The Place of Preaching in the Church (4)

So far we have considered three observations which we believe rest on Romans 10:14-15, and its context. First, that the aim of preaching is to have people call on the name of the Lord for salvation; secondly, that preaching is the church’s most important calling; and in our last article we dealt with a third observation: that the church should resist human substitutes for preaching. We now offer our last observation.

The Word is the means through which God speaks. It is a sad thing that so much confusion has been created in Christian circles about how God speaks to us. We hear well-meaning Christians say that God spoke to them personally and directly. Some claim that if God so wish­es He can still have His people prophesy today.

Some of these claims are not mere trivial issues. Those who believe that God still speaks outside and in addi­tion to His written Word are sincere and genuine Christians and it is their conviction that Scripture itself teaches that this is what we can expect God to do. But the confusion and the disagreements that face us because of this belief are also partly caused by careless use of certain words and this, of course, makes for unnecessary misunderstanding.

For example, a Christian reads a passage in the Bible and the Holy Spirit might make him see the truth of that passage for the first time. That believer may then say to someone else: ‘The Lord said to me the other day that …’, and goes on to say whatever it was. Now if the person hearing this believes that God still actually speaks today like He did many years ago to Abraham or Moses or the apostle Paul, or other New Testament prophets, then he will be most impressed and keen to hear what message the Lord gave to this Christian believer making the claim. However, if a Christian does not believe that God speaks like this anymore but now only through the word of Christ, which he considers to be the Scriptures, then such a Christian will not be excited by the claim and will merely conclude that the person claiming that God spoke to him is either repeat­ing something that God has already said in His written Word, or is imagining that God spoke to him directly.

If Christians repeat something that is already in the Bible, then it prevents confusion when they make that clear. If what they want to say is not straight from the Bible but something that logically follows from the Bible’s teaching, then they ought to humbly preface their remarks by something like: ‘I believe that Scripture is teaching us …’, and leave room for others to also examine the Scriptures, to see if that view is in keeping with biblical teaching.

Many in the historic Christian church have held that the only way God speaks, after the last NT apostle died, is through the written Word. They believe that the Reformation Confessions hold to this. They believe this is what Scripture itself teaches. God does not give direct, personal messages anymore, except those which are the word of Christ in the Word of God written. The Bible is sufficient and gives all we need to know in order to call upon the Lord for salvation. The Bible provides the Christian church with all she needs to know in order to preach the Word and let its light shine on all of life.

Now preaching the Word is, of course, not limited to the sermons you hear in church on Sundays. Preaching is proclaiming the Word of Christ and wherever that is done according to the truth of God’s Word there it is the Word of God. Preaching, therefore, can also take place in a radio or TV broadcast, by way of the printed page, and so on. But where possible Christians should come together for worship and there hear the Word of Christ.

But what we want to stress here is that preaching is the proclamation of God’s Word. It is to proclaim Christ, it is to minister His word to the listeners. The preacher must try his utmost to let the Word speak. It is the mighty and powerful Word of God that must be heard. Therefore, the preacher must make sure that he under­stands the passage, or the text, as God means it to be understood. He must harmonise the passage or text with the rest of God’s Word. He must explain the Word correctly, and the application he makes to today’s situation and to peoples’ lives must also be in keeping with the Bible’s overall teaching.

All this requires that the preacher understands some­thing of the original languages the Bible was written in. He must know of the situation when the Bible book was written and why and to whom. The preacher must have a good grasp of biblical doctrine because truth is not many things unrelated but truth is one thing. The preacher must also understand something of how people think and live in today’s world, so that the message he draws out of the Word is relevant, meaningful, and timely. Indeed, there are many things required of the preacher in order to have Christ speak through him. To regularly preach sermons that truly proclaim God’s Word takes hours and days of serious and prayerful preparation every week again.

So preaching is a serious business and listening to preaching is a serious business. We don’t come to church to hear a ‘nice sermon’. Nor do we come to hear a dynamic speaker gifted with marvellous oratory. And we don’t come to hear what the speaker might have to say on this or that subject. We come expecting to hear the word of Christ. Preaching is not lecturing, it is not entertainment, nor is it giving a devotion or a meditation. We do our devotions and meditations at home or at the Bible study. When the preacher is in the pulpit, then he is to preach. Preaching is a forthright proclamation of the Word of God.

We come to church to worship God and worship is our response to God speaking to us. It is to hear Christ. We come to listen to Him and to call on His name. If Christ does not speak, if He has not been heard, then it has not been preaching. The listeners must know for sure that it was Christ who said to them: ‘…come to me and I will give you rest, … repent and believe; … your sins are forgiven … go in peace.’

From this it follows that the preacher has really no message of his own. He is Christ’s ambassador. He is nothing more than the herald of Christ. An ambassador must deliver the message as given to him by the one who sent him. He is not there to give his personal opinion, his own view of things, or his own philosophy. He may do that at the Bible study, in a discussion meeting, or in his research, just like everyone else may do that.

But when he gets up to preach, then it must be the gospel of Christ. He dare not give stones for bread because God holds him accountable for the way he rep­resents Christ in his preaching. If he cannot say with his preaching: ‘Thus says the Lord.’ then he had better not get up to preach, for not being a true ambassador for Christ will get him into serious trouble with God.

How important for the church, therefore, to have the Word of God preached in its worship services. The task of the elders of the church is to watch over the preaching. They are responsible, with the preacher, that not the word of men but the Word of Christ is heard. The elders, therefore, must also know the Word. They must be diligent students of the Word. They must encourage the preacher or put restraints on him if he strays from the truth. An elder has a most responsible task. They are the watchmen on the walls of Zion. The church that gives up on its oversight of the preaching is a church that is no longer vigilant. And preaching that is no longer the Word of God is like salt that has lost its flavour and therefore worthless.

Finally, who is going to get up and preach? Can just any Christian do it? Was it Christ’s intention that every Christian be a preacher? Preaching is not the same as witnessing. All Christians are called to witness in word and deed at the right time and the right place, depending on what God has given the Christian to do and with what gifts. In our witness we may give our opinion, and reflect on our knowledge of Scripture, as we seek to be true to Christ’s gospel. But as we said a moment ago, preaching is much more than witnessing.

The command to preach the gospel was not given to every individual Christian but to the apostles and through them to the church they represented. God entrusted His Word of truth to His church. It is the church’s task to preserve, interpret, and preach the Word. The church fulfils this calling through the ministry of the Word. The church calls the preacher and sends him forth to preach. It gives him the authority to do so.

In the tradition of the Reformed Churches the hand­ shake the elder gives to the preacher at the opening of the worship service means: ‘As the God -ordained elders in this church we give you the authority to preach the Word of God.’ And the handshake at the conclusion of the service is to say: ‘On behalf of the elders of this church we have accepted the preaching as the Word of God.’

It stands to reason, therefore, that the church has to make sure that preachers have been adequately trained. The church has the authority to take away the right to preach when the life and doctrine of the preacher is an offence to the gospel of Christ.

People have gone preaching without being sent and have argued that where they were there was no church to send them, or the church was corrupt, or the church just failed in its task. All that may well be the case. But the fact remains that the church of Christ must reform itself and send preachers to preach, for Rom. I0:15a makes it clear that they cannot preach unless they are sent.

The place of preaching in the church, then, is most important and the church that neglects it does so at its own peril. But what a blessing when the church guards the gospel well, and what a blessing to the Lord’s people when they may receive regularly the much-needed spiritual food from Christ. We all know that one sermon may come across better than another and one preacher is better at preaching than another. And sometimes it is not the fault of the preacher but our listening was not as it should have been. But thanks be to God when the Word of Christ is preached and heard. His Word is a lamp to the believer’s feet and a light for his path. It’s the Christian’s spiritual food and the believer must return to it regularly and faithfully.

Martin.P.Geluk

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The Place of Preaching in the Church Part 3

Rev. Martin Geluk. Trowel and Sword, July 1995.

Preamble: Rev. Geluk continues speaking to us in his four part discourse on the place of preaching in the church. After summarising the purpose of the first two articles he now goes on to show why: “The church must resist human substitutes for God-ordained preaching,” and in clear concise terms explains exactly what he means by that.

The Place of Preaching in the Church (Part 3)

In two previous articles we made two observations. First, that the aim of preaching is to have people call on the name of the Lord for salvation. Second, that preaching is the church’s most important calling.

Before we proceed with the next observation we need to be reminded what worship is all about. When the church gathers to worship God then the NT shows that a number of things ought to take place. Broadly speaking there is to be a speaking of God to the worshippers and a response from the worshippers to God. And so in the worship services we read the Word of God and that Word is expounded in the preaching. Then in response to God’s speaking to the church, the church speaks to God through her prayer, songs, in her confession of faith, and has an offering for the work of the Lord. Around these two main aspects – the speaking of God and the response of the congregation, the church structures its worship services and gives it a certain order. We are familiar with all these things because we have them in the Sunday worship services. In these articles we are considering just one part of the worship service, the place of preaching in the church. And we are saying that preaching is the most important part.

Without the preaching of God’s Word the church would not know what to say to God, nor know how to serve Him. Indeed, how are we going to meaningfully give God our worship if God has not first spoken to us in His Word?

In our first article we wrote that preaching has to do with calling on the name of the Lord for salvation. Romans 10:14-15 makes it clear that in order to call on the Lord to be saved you need to believe. No one is going to come to God for salvation and no one will speak to Him in prayer if that person does not believe in God. But in order to believe one has to hear Christ first. Christ has to make Himself known. But Christ is in heaven and we are on earth and so God has ordained preaching. The Word of God is communicated to us through preaching. That’s how we hear Christ speak.

And so we came to say in our second article that preaching is the church’s most important calling. It is the Word of Christ to us.

We now proceed with another observation that rests on this passage from Romans 10. The church must resist human substitutes for God-ordained preaching.

There is no doubt that we live in times in which, generally speaking, the Christian church appears to have lost faith in its own preaching. God has commanded His church in the world to: ‘preach the Word, in season and out of season’, but the preaching in the church’s worship services frequently fails in what it is supposed to do – to open the Word of God and let Christ speak.

And so it happens that sometimes the speaker gives his own view on a certain subject, sometimes there is an interesting story to tell, perhaps about an experience from his own life, or from someone else’s life.

Sometimes there is a dramatization of a Bible story in a play, or a film, or in music, or some other form of expression. A worship service can take on a whole different character and you can’t quite tell if it was worship, or a concert, or entertainment. Of course, all of life is to be a form of worship of God. Yet, when the church calls its members together for the purpose of meeting with God then there ought to be a speaking of God in Christ which is what preaching is all about.

We must be careful not to give the impression that preaching is in decline everywhere. There are many churches who open up God’s Word every Sunday and their preachers do their very best to faithfully minister God’s Word to God’s people. These churches don’t make the headlines and they are not interested in that either. They want to have Christ speaking to them and they believe God’s own Word when He says that the Scriptures are His Word. Therefore they resist the pressure to do away with preaching or to give it a lesser place in the worship service.

It is most important that the church keeps listening to the Word of God. The word of man cannot save, how­ever interesting and entertaining. At times the words of men can be very moving, yet the word of man has not the power the Word of God has. Only God’s Word can open the sinner’s stubborn heart. Only God’s Word can move the sinner to come to Christ. Only God’s Word can make the believer persevere in his journey of faith. Only God’s Word possesses that power. God spoke at creation and out of nothing things came into being.

The whole theory of evolution is in essence nothing more than substituting God’s Word with man’s word about the origin of all things.

It is the same with many other things.  In January of this year the chief justice of the family court said it was time society accepts the homosexual couple with children as a family. That was just another attempt to give the word of man more authority and truth than the Word of God. We live in a society where God’s Word about sex, marriage, family, men, women, children, work on Sunday, education, etc., is ignored and substituted with the word of men.

The Word of God has so much to say about all of life and every aspect of it. If we only take the ten commandments and the Lord’s prayer and apply them to all of life, as, for example, the Heidelberg Catechism has done, then we hear God’s Word of authority about how life is to be lived to God’s glory and to our own well­ being. But men think they are wiser than God and substitute His Word with their own insight and their own wisdom.

The danger of all this is greatest when the church itself is doing it. That chief justice of the family court was told by an interviewer that the church, and he named a particular denomination, radically opposed his views.

But the judge could reply that there were also many others in that particular church who shared his views.

Why are some in the Christian church speaking as the world does? It is because they have substituted the word of men for the Word of God. They really no longer believe God’s Word is unique. They have lost that conviction about God’s Word because somewhere along the line they have begun to pay mere lip service to God’s Word being divinely inspired and having divine authority. And because they no longer stand in awe of the uniqueness of God’s Word, they have reduced the Bible to being a word of men about God.

Thus many in the wider Christian church do not preach the Word of God. They may still use God’s Word but they reinterpret it so that they make it appear to say something else, so that it fits in with the wisdom of the age, of contemporary men. This sad develop­ment allows people in the world, like the judge, to use the church’s divided voice to further their own cause.

The real tragedy is, of course, that we have a society which is increasingly shaped and governed by the word of men and not by the Word of God. It is a secular society, meaning that the forces that shape the thinking and actions of people are not biblical but worldly. Not the Word of God but individualism and humanism are the deciding factors. Not the straightforward teaching from God but man’s reasoning and logic determine the way things are thought about and done in society.

We are all so familiar with the way things are done in today’s society that we are in danger of accepting it as being normal. But it is godless and also terribly sad because a society which does not listen to God’s Word is doomed. It’s people will perish.

Therefore, the church everywhere must go back to preaching the Word of God and not the word of men. For unless the church preaches the Word of Christ, people will not hear Christ, and when they do not hear Christ, then they will not come to faith, and when they have no faith then they will not call on the name of the Lord to be saved, and not saved means remaining lost forever.

Indeed, how can Christians themselves live by faith unless they regularly hear Christ speak to them in the preaching of His Word? The only way I as a Christian can surrender to God my life and my death, for time and eternity, is by putting my faith in the Word of Christ. It is only by faith that I can live and work in a society that has turned its back on God; only by faith can I say that I am righteous in Christ whilst facing my personal sins and shortcomings; only by faith do I have hope in the midst of despair; only by faith do I have the peace of God when surrounded by misery; only by faith can I go on with Christ when my experiences remind me that I am guilty, that I am the cause of the trouble and that it is I who deserves to be punished. Without faith I will sink, without faith I am lost. And unless I regularly hear the word of Christ I will not have a faith.

It is faith that makes the Christian confident that he is right with God through Christ. It is faith that enables him to say that God loves him, protects him, keeps him and will give him full salvation. It is faith in Christ that makes a Christian a Christian.

But from where do I get this faith? How can such faith stay with me? Where can I go when that faith needs strengthening and teaching? Can other people give me such a faith? Can the word of men strengthen and teach that faith? Will those, who themselves are subject to weakness, sin and death, be able to give me that powerful, marvellous faith? Of course not! The blind cannot lead the blind. All are darkened in their under­standing, corrupt in heart, inclined to sin, and selfish by nature. Let us not be naive and think that among the noblest, friendliest, most wise and knowledgeable of people there will be someone who can be for me the perfect teacher, saviour, guide and protector in matters of life and death.

Each of us needs to hear Christ, the Son of God! Only when I hear Him speak to me personally can my faith in God carry me through all of life with its different situations. Only Christ can work such a faith in my heart. I, therefore, must hear the Word of God. I must hear the voice of Jesus say to me: ‘Come to me and I will give you rest.’ He must say to me: ‘Come and eat and drink.’ The Lord must call out to me in my spiritual grave: ‘Come out from the dead and live.’ The dead sinner, the forgiven Christian, and all people, must hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and only then can they surrender all to Christ and follow Him. Christians can only live by faith and only the Word of Christ can make faith live. The church, therefore, must resist human substitutes for God-ordained preaching. Next time we consider the last of our four observations.

M.P. Geluk.

M.P. Geluk. The Revd. Martin Geluk is Pastor of the Gosford Reformed Church (N.S.W.)

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The Place of Preaching in the Church Part 2

Rev. Martin Geluk. Trowel and Sword, June 1995.

Preamble: As the title suggests this is the second of four articles written by Martin Geluk on preaching. We need say no more as Martin himself has written an introduction.

The Place Of Preaching In The Church (Part 2)

In our previous article we began to consider some observations that arise from the passage Romans 10:14-15 and its context. The first one we looked at was: the aim of preaching is to have people call on the name of the Lord for salvation. We now come to a second observation. Preaching is the church’s most important calling.

For a relationship to exist between God and people, God has to speak and thus make Himself known. Man will never know God by what other people have to say about Him or by what they may have experienced about God. Truth is not with man, it is with God. The speaking of God has become known as the Word of God.  In paradise Adam and Eve had a true relationship with God because God spoke to them. After the fall into sin, God again spoke to men. Had that not happened then all of mankind would have remained forever in the spiritual darkness of sin amidst their superstitious beliefs and idolatry. However, up to the time of the Flood there were a number of generations who called on God because God had spoken to them.  Enoch and Noah, for example, believed in God because of His Word to them

After the Flood, God again came to men to speak to them. Abraham was called to follow God. The same with Isaac and Jacob. God spoke much to Moses.  In those days God spoke directly.  They heard His voice from heaven.  Or God’s Word came to them in dreams and visions. When the number of God’s people grew into the OT nation of Israel, then God appointed prophets and through them He communicated to His covenant people. What God said through His prophets was often written down as well and in time this became the Old Testament.

When in the fullness of time God sent His Son into the world then He spoke through Him. God made Himself most fully known through Christ. Christ was God’s last and final Word. In the OT times leading up to Christ’s coming God gave many messages about Christ through His prophets. Many of these prophecies were fulfilled by Christ and others will be fulfilled when He comes again. At the conclusion of His time on earth, before Christ returned to heaven, He commissioned His apostles to go to all nations and teach them to obey everything that He had commanded them. The apostles wrote all this down in letters to the churches and much of their writings became the NT.

Together the OT and NT are the Word of God written.  It is Scripture. The Scriptures are about Christ and God has said in Christ everything that He wanted to say. God warned that no one should add to His Word or take anything away from it. The Scriptures, therefore, are the only Word of God and the final Word of God.

The word of Christ is a very full gospel. It’s about God, about Christ, about His church and kingdom, about His second coming and much more. To be part of all this is to be of Christ, and to be of Christ is to live in and through Him. It is to be forgiven of sin, to receive the fullness of life, to have the Spirit of God in you, to have hope and purpose, to have righteousness, holiness and knowledge. In short, it is to have salvation. But to have it, said the apostle Paul, you have to call upon the name of the Lord. But to call on the Lord for salvation you have to believe in Christ. But to believe in Christ you need to hear Him first. And God’s Word is Christ speaking. But to hear Christ you need to have someone preach the Word. That someone has to be sent.

You can now understand why God commanded His prophets and apostles to proclaim the Word. It is the only way lost sinners can hear Christ speaking.  Paul commanded Timothy to: “Preach the Word.” [2 Tim. 4:2].  Paul himself said he was “… not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes… ” [Rom. 1:16].

Now all those who believe in Christ, all who have called on the name of the Lord and are continuing to do that, together they are the church. The church is not the leadership and the church is not the organisation. No, the church is made up of all those who belong to Christ. They know His word because it was through the Word that they got to know Christ and called on Him for salvation. The church, therefore, consists of the believers, of Christians. To the body of believers God has said: preach the Word. Do it all the time. At every opportunity. In season and out of season.

The church, therefore, came into being because of the Word spoken by God. The Lord knows from all eternity aII those whom He has chosen to save.  Through the preaching of the Word God’s elect are called and gathered into the church. But the church is not yet full. We will know when the church has reached its full number. It is when Christ returns. Until that happens the church must preach the Word in order for God to keep adding to the church all those whom He has appointed in His plan of salvation to hear of Christ and be saved.

But the church is not only about evangelism. Whilst it is most important that those elect of God, but not yet saved, get to hear the Word and are gathered into the church, it is just as important that with the same Word of God the church feeds its existing members with the spiritual food the Word provides.

The Word is sufficient to sustain the people of God in every way. The Word is the Christian’s life-blood. The believer cannot live without the Word.  It is his daily bread. Scripture says that the Word of God “… is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” [2Tim.3:16,17].

The church, therefore, must see the preaching of the Word as its most important mandate. We need the Word to help understand the purposes of God, to know the power of sin and death and how Christ the Saviour has broken these terrible powers.  We need the Word to realise the full implications of Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection. We need the Word to understand the dark nature of the world and how to overcome the world in the power of the living Christ.  We need the Word to recognise the subtle schemings of the evil One and how to withstand him with the spiritual weapons Christ has provided.  We need the Word to develop a Christian mind.

The Christian and the church are nothing without that Word of God.  The Word guides us, trains us, protects us, keeps us, and holds us together. The Word does all that because it is God speaking to us in Christ. From the moment the sinner is born again by the Spirit of God and begins to have faith, and then right through the believer’s life until death, his life is and must always be dominated, controlled and influenced by the Word of God.

For all these reasons the Christian loves the Word of God and lives by it. It is in his mind and heart, and even when through sin he strays away from it, he can’t forget it altogether. Sooner or later, in one way or another, God will speak again to His wayward child and through His Word call that child back to repentance and service. The Word of God, says Heb. 4:12, “… is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

The Word of God, then, is everything to the church and to the individual believer. Through it God draws sinners to Himself for Him to save them from sin and death.  Then again through the Word God constantly feeds His people with the riches of Christ and the believer is enabled by God’s Spirit to live meaningfully and to the glory of God. And should the believer fall into temptation and be dragged into acts of disobedience that do not please God, then again the loving Father calls the sinner to return and break with things that can only do him great spiritual harm.

Like the shepherd is to his sheep, so Christ is to His people. They hear His voice and listen. It is God’s Word to them. He goes on ahead of them and they follow Him because they know His voice.  They will not follow a stranger because they do not know that voice.  In fact, they will run away from strangers because they do not recognise the things the stranger is saying and teaching. It is a false gospel to them. The Lord’s people will know how to pick the differences between the voices they hear. They will know it when they know the Word of God.

When the Lord’s people have allowed themselves to become unfamiliar with the Word of God, when they have stopped feeding on that Word of God, when they have not given the Word of God the attention and time that it deserves, it is then that they become unsure about the Word of God and cannot clearly hear the difference between it and the voice of strangers. It is then that they get into the wrong sheep pen. In fact, it is not a sheep pen at all, they are in the den of wolves.  Because of their lack of knowledge of the Word, they were not sufficiently able to recognise that the wolf came to them in sheep’s clothing.

Yes, there will always be false prophets and false gospels. And they will not present straight out lies but a mixture of truth and error. For that reason the Christian must spend much time with the Word of God.  If that Word has not infiltrated his life sufficiently, then he will be easy pickings for the false prophet and the false gospel.

But as we speak so much about the Word of God, then do not think of it as a mere book with lots of pages and difficult passages.  No, the Word of God is the living Word of Christ. When we hear the Word preached then we hear Christ speaking to us. The Word of God being the Word of Christ preached is what makes the Scriptures come alive. But the Word is alive only to those who are calling on the name of the Lord to be saved. The Scriptures are a dead letter to those still dead in trespasses and sins. But when the Spirit of God has made the dead sinner alive in Christ through the Word, it is then that His Word becomes living and active.

The church must continue to proclaim the Word to the spiritually dead. The Word of God has the power to bring life to the dead. Christ stood in front of Lazarus’ tomb and called: “Lazarus, come out”, and the dead man lived and came out!  So also will the speaking of Christ today, through the proclamation of the Word of God, bring spiritual life to the spiritual dead.

Next time we hope to say something about the folly of using human substitutes for God-ordained preaching.

M.P. Geluk. The Revd. Martin Geluk is Pastor of the Gosford Reformed Church (N.S.W.)

We look forward to receiving feedback about any of our posts. We also encourage you to share our posts with family, friends and acquaintances; in fact anyone you think may appreciate and/or benefit from the knowledge and wisdom handed down to us from ages past.

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The Place of Preaching in the Church Part 1

Preamble: It has been 10 years since Martin Geluk was called into the presence of the Lord. But he left behind a legacy in the hearts and minds of the congregations he served throughout his ministry, (Geelong being one of those congregations), as well as through his contributions to Trowel and Sword. For the next four weeks we will be publishing, D.V. a series of articles that Martin wrote for T&S in 1995 titled “The Place of Preaching in the Church”. Today, as then, Christians often need reminding of the purpose and importance of preaching in the worship service.

Rev. Martin Geluk. Trowel and Sword, May 1995

What is the most important task of the church of Jesus Christ? Some will know what that is, and others will not. There may also be those who are not so sure about it anymore and their uncertainty may be caused by what is happening in the Christian church today.  We refer to the preaching of the gospel as the most important task of the church.

Those who have always believed in preaching will need little convincing.  But you may have sometimes despaired about the manner and the content of the preaching.  The church’s history will reveal that poor preaching weakens the church’s vitality but good, biblical preaching makes for a robust church.

Those who did not know that preaching is the church’s most important task, might have thought that fellowship was it. One can think of many reasons to support that view.  In so many ways the church is a place where people meet, where there are a variety of activities going on, and where you have friends who will stand by you. Of course, you knew that in each worship service a considerable amount of time was given to preaching but you think it is vital that a church is first of all friendly, caring and open to the community.  A place where you are made to feel welcome and experience warm fellowship. So you would say that the emphasis would have to be on all those things in the church. To have good preaching as well would simply be seen as a bonus.

Those who have become uncertain about the place of preaching have perhaps been to worship services where many other interesting things were done besides preaching and the preaching did not even take up most of the time. There was a lot of music perhaps, maybe some drama and skits, or a bit of puppetry. Some of it was pretty good, you thought. You may have also heard people talk excitedly about their faith experiences with the Lord and there seemed to be a message in it for all who were present.  Such services were far from dull. And you have heard people say that when there is too much emphasis upon preaching then it all gets too intellectual. Now you are not so sure anymore as to what the church ought to be doing when it meets for worship.

A passage like Romans 10:14 -15 , and its context, has something to say about the place of preaching in the Christian church. In this and subsequent articles I would like to make a few observations from this portion of Scripture which I believe to be relevant to preaching.

The aim of preaching is to have people call on the name of the Lord for salvation.

In this Romans passage the Apostle Paul is asking a number of simple questions with the aim of leading the reader, or listener, to some obvious truths. People will sometimes use this method when they want you to see for yourself that the final truth can only be one thing. After you have answered the first question, you will get the next question. When you have answered that question, then there’s another.  The questions keep on coming, until finally their sequence leads you to the all important truth your questioner wants you to realise.

The all important truth Paul wanted the Christian church to know is that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved [vs.13]. But many Jews of Paul’s day could not see that it was necessary for them to come to Christ. They regarded themselves as the already chosen ones of God, which in itself was true, but unfortunately the Jews based their election on them being Jews. Because they belonged to Israel, because they were from Abraham, and because they had the law and the temple and the sacrifices, they thought that all this reaffirmed them, automatically, as being God’s chosen people. For centuries they had been thinking along these lines and it proved most difficult to persuade them otherwise.

However, belonging to God and receiving His gift of salvation has always been based on grace and never on works. The only way to be right with God is when you have been given the righteousness of Christ, and the only way to receive that was through faith in Christ. And faith in Christ comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ [vs.17].

Many Jews, however, were so used to believing they had earned their own righteousness, through zealous keeping of the law, factitious though it was, that the very idea of calling upon the Saviour Jesus Christ to atone for them was extremely distasteful. Because of their rebellion to the whole idea of salvation by grace, God did what He has always planned to do, to reach out to the Gentiles and save many of them. Thus the Lord sent the apostle Paul to the Gentiles to proclaim the gospel to them and whoever called upon the name of the Lord for salvation was saved.

However, God did not completely write off the Jews. Anyone of lsrael who also called on the name of the Lord will be saved as well. For Christ is the only Saviour for both Jew and Gentile.

And so the all important truth that Paul wanted all people to know is for them to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus for salvation. But how would both Jew and Gentile come to know about that? And what does it mean to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation? Well, God has that all worked out.  It is to hear the word of Christ and through hearing Christ the Spirit of God will work faith in the hearts of all those whom God had appointed to be saved. But all people have an inclination to save themselves. It’s part of their sinful nature.  People find it very hard to believe that they can’t save themselves and that they need the Saviour Jesus Christ. And so Paul found it necessary to ask a number of questions that would lead people to see that the word of Christ must be proclaimed and that this is the most important task of the church.

Firstly, how can they call on the one they have not believed in? Yes, how can sinners call on Jesus the Saviour when they don’t even believe in Him? How can they come to kneel before the Saviour of men and pray: Lord, save me?  The answer is, of course, that they can’t and they won’t.  They need first to hear about Jesus. The truth about Him has to be proclaimed and the false things that are said about Christ have to be cleared up before people can know Him, become convicted of their sin, start believing in Him and then pray for their salvation.

So, here comes the next question: How can they believe in the one whom they have not heard?  The answer is: they need to hear Christ! The Lord Himself has to speak to them.  Well, that is also obvious. People need to hear Christ speak.  But how is that going to happen seeing that the Lord has ascended to heaven?  When Jesus had come from heaven to earth then He Himself went around teaching and proclaiming the gospel. But the Lord is back in heaven, so how is the gospel communicated now?

Well, the next question has again the obvious answer in it.  How can they hear without someone preaching to them? So preachers are needed through whom Christ can speak. The gospel is to be spread through preaching.  But who are the preachers and where do they come from?

The answer to this is in the last question. Paul asked: How can they preach unless they are sent? So not anyone can start preaching. They have to be sent.  Someone has to approve of them and give them the authority to preach Christ.

How will it happen, then, that sinners needing salvation will begin to believe in Christ and call on Him to save them?  Well, in order to believe and come to Christ they need to hear Christ speak.  In order to hear the word of Christ someone has to preach Christ’s Word to them.  In order for that to happen preachers need to be sent.

The bottom line, therefore, is that God has put preaching in its place as the way for sinners to hear Christ speak, thus get to know Him, and then with that knowledge believe and call on Christ for their salvation.  Preaching, therefore, is not the brain­ child of preachers, nor is it a mere custom or tradition of the church, it is the God-ordained way to save sinners.

Next time we consider the observation that preaching is the church’s most important calling.

M.P. Geluk. The Revd. Martin Geluk is Pastor of the Gosford Reformed Church (N.S.W.)

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Babel and Pentecost

God’s Multi-lingual Answers to Rebellious Ambition

Rev. John de Hoog. Trowel and Sword, June 1995

Preamble: You may remember that in Dec. 1977 Bill Deenick wrote about the church year in his article “Annus Liturgicus” (see TSR, Jan. 1, 2024). Next Sunday, May 19, is Pentecost Sunday; another important event on the Christian calendar, celebrated as the day that the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples 50 days after Easter and 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven. In this article John de Hoog outlines a connection between Pentecost and the attempted building of the Tower of Babel. John points out that the spirit of Babylon is rebellion – “We will displace God.  We will  rule ourselves. If we work together, we can do it!” Sound familiar? How about, “The climate is out of control. We don’t need God. We will fix it. If we work together we can do it.” Compare that with: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22).

Babel and Pentecost

“Now the  whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly. ‘ They  used  brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.‘” Genesis 11:1-4.

The claim of the tower of Babel is the claim to be independent of God.  Babel represents a united mankind, doing things their own way.  After the flood, God had commanded mankind to fill the earth (Genesis 9:1).  Mankind rebelled against that command.  Instead of spreading out and filling the earth, the people decide to stick together and build a city with a tower reaching to the heavens.

The name of that city built on the plain of Shinar was Babylon (Genesis 10:10). The name Babylon means “gate of God” in the Babylonian language. Babylon is the great symbol of human pride and self-confidence. The gate of God – Babylon.  Where we drag God down to us, or where we reach up to God. Our tower is so high, it reaches to the heavens!

Here is the spirit of Babylon, of the tower-builders.  “We will displace God.  We will  rule ourselves. If we work together, we can do it!” What leads the people to build this great city and tower?  Three things: pride, ambition and fear.

Pride was a factor. See how the development of the city comes in stages. First they discover how to make bricks, and how to use tar for mortar. Flushed with this success, the next step is to build a city, with a tower reaching to the heavens. Pride in their own achievements leads to disobedience to God’s Word.

Ambition comes next.  “Let’s make a name for ourselves.” Isn’t this so typical of the spirit of the world right down through all of history?  The project is typically grandiose.  The people describe it excitedly to each other as if it is the ultimate achievement. This is going to be it! Mankind seeks to glorify itself, to go its own way without listening to what God wants.

There is pride and ambition here. But there is also fear. “Let’s build ourselves a city so that we will not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. ”  The people were afraid of being scattered, they sought safety in concentrated strength. They no longer believed the promises God gave in the covenant with Noah. God had promised to preserve the human race on the earth.  In faith, they should have dared to spread out across the whole earth and subdue it.  That was their calling in the covenant.

They were afraid of dispersal because they no longer believed. They were no longer bound to each other and to God by faith, they no longer had true unity in God.  So they sought outward unity to give them human power.

Babylon is still being built, isn’t it? Think of modern culture in the world today. Isn’t it true that everywhere we see pride, ambition and fear as the motivating forces behind  human  society?  Pride expressed in going our own way, with no concern for God’s will. Ambition expressed in grandiose schemes to solve every problem and make the world a better place, all without even thinking of God’s way. And underneath, a basic fear that unless we stick together, unless we strive  for  unity  and  external consensus, we are doomed as a race. It’s the modern world, just as much as it was Babylon.

It’s like the wall of a house that is cracking when the foundations are sinking.  You can stick wall-paper over the cracks, but eventually they reappear. Human beings seek power and security in outward  unity, political  consensus,  a kind of superficial peace that spreads paper­ thin over the violence and hatred boiling underneath.  But it doesn’t work, does it? Deep down, people are not changed. Always the cracks will reappear.  Something else is needed.

God will not allow rebellious actions, fuelled by pride, ambition and fear, to succeed. The Lord acted decisively against the Babylon­ builders of Shinar.  “But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan will be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. ‘ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ” (Genesis 11:5-8)

The Lord comes down to see the city and the tower.  So this is the tower that is supposed to reach up to heaven! It’s almost as if the writer is saying that the tower falls so far short of heaven that God can hardly see it! He comes down to look at it. Mankind’s highest achievement is pathetic in God’s eyes! The tower of Babel stands as a monument to how impotent we are before God. The city ends up half-finished, a laughable achievement.

And yet, God takes it very seriously. Not because the tower is threatening to displace him from heaven, not because he is personally afraid of mankind’s achievement. But because mankind’s actions in Babylon go against God’s ultimate plan to preserve and redeem his people through Christ.  Here is human strength and power growing out of all proportion.  If  this continues, unbelief will soon be total.  The whole human world is united in looking to Babylon for strength and security, but that is the wrong place to look.

Do you see that God’s scattering of the people throughout the earth is an act of grace?  There is no salvation in superficial artificial consensus and unity.  Which is better, a single human race unitedly waving its gigantic fist in God’s face, or division and separation with the hope that some would turn to God? If anyone at all is going to continue to trust in God, the false unity of the culture of Babylon must be shattered.  And that is exactly what God does by confusing their language.

God gives us the meaning of what he did in verse 9.  “That is why it is called Babel – because there  the  Lord  confused  the language of the whole world. ” The people had called their city Babylon – the “gate of God”, the gateway to God. But God changes one letter in the language and calls it Babel, the “place of confusion”. God mocks the builders. You called it Babylon, I call it Babel! God will never allow pride, rebellion and a trust in human expertise to succeed (Isaiah 14:13- 15 & Revelation 18:2-5). Going it alone in defiance of God will ultimately  lead to failure and judgment.

But the hopelessness of Babel is not the last word. A new chapter in the story comes on the Day of Pentecost.  Listen to how Luke introduces the witnesses to the outpouring of the Spirit.  “Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing  Jews from every nation under heaven.” (Acts 2:5) Every nation under heaven? What does Luke mean?  Were there Australian Aboriginals in Jerusalem at the time? No!

Luke  lists  the  nations represented in Acts 2:9-11. If you consider where these places are on a map and trace them back to Genesis, you see that Luke includes in his list descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth. Luke is giving us his ‘Table of Nations’ parallel to the one in Genesis 10. On that Day of Pentecost the whole world was there in the representatives of the various nations!

What did these people all hear on that Day of Pentecost?  They heard the gospel being proclaimed in their own tongues. One gospel in many tongues. At Babel, human languages were confused and the nations were scattered. On the Day of Pentecost, the language barrier was supernaturally overcome as a sign that the nations are now being drawn back together. How are they drawn back together? By the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, who has saved people from “every nation and tribe and people and language” (Revelation 7:9). At Babel, earth tried proudly to ascend to heaven, the result was confusion and scattering. On the Day of Pentecost, the blessings of heaven descended to earth, the result now is that the message of salvation is open and available to all nations.

There is a final stage to look forward to.  Zephaniah 3:9 points us to the grand conclusion. He is speaking about the Day of the Lord. “Then I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech (or “to one speech”), that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and  serve  him  shoulder  to shoulder. ” On that day unity will finally be restored, and all of God’s people will praise him in one tongue. The international church born at Pentecost will then be complete. The point is this – only in Jesus Christ is everlasting peace and unity possible amongst human beings.

John de Hoog Revd. de Hoog is Pastor of the Reformed Church of Hawkesbury (N.S.W.)

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Prayer And Lack Of Concentration

Prof. K. Runia. Trowel and Sword, December 1962

Preamble: We had decided some weeks ago that this week should be an article on Jesus ascension as this week, Thursday 9, is recognised as ascension day, a day that often slips by without due recognition; often being overshadowed by Pentecost on the 19th. We were somewhat surprised that we were unable to find a single article relating to Jesus ascension into heaven. Thursday evening and no article for the following Monday. As it happened, my attention was drawn to an article written by Prof. Runia of the RTC 62 years ago. Reading the article I recognised some of my own shortcomings when it comes to prayer. But as always Prof. Runia not only points to problems but also offers practical solutions to those problems. This is an article from which we can all benefit in improving our prayer life, and therefore also our relationship with our creator and redeemer.

Prayer And Lack of Concentration

Prayer is the HEART BEAT of the Christian life. If there is something wrong with our prayer life our whole Christian life suffers. If the heart of your body does not work properly, your whole body is suffering.

Of course, you and I know this.

But – what are we doing about it?

How is your prayer life? Is it vigorous or is it languishing? And if the latter is true, did you ever try to find out, what might be the cause of the trouble? I am sure, if you have heart trouble, you would not wait a minute, but see a doctor about it in order to find the cause and, if possible, to get some effective treatment?

Why is it that so often we do not care to take any trouble to find out what is the cause of our weak prayer life?

Of course, there can be many different causes. Just as in the case of heart trouble. The disease appears in many different forms due to different causes. But in ALL cases the result is the same: you have heart trouble.

In this short article we will mention one particular difficulty, which troubles many Christians in their prayer life. It is the LACK OF PROPER CONCENTRATION in our prayers. I think we all know it by experience. We begin our prayer in the right way, we feel that we have real contact with our heavenly Father and then, all of a sudden, we discover that our thoughts have completely wandered off. We are not praying any more, but thinking of entirely different things. Perhaps of our work of tomorrow, or the need of a new dress, or the talk we had with Mr. X this afternoon.

Can we do something about this?

I believe there are several rather simple means that can help us in this difficulty.

The first and easiest and most effective is: TO PRAY ALOUD! When you pray, put your thoughts into words and say them aloud. Speak to the Lord, as you would speak to your friend with you in the room. If you do this, you will soon notice that your thoughts have no opportunity to wander off. No more than this happens, when you speak to your visiting friend.

In the second place: ‘ORGANISE’ your prayer. I know this sounds awful, but it is really not as awful as it sounds. I simply mean that you should think about the contents of your prayer before you start. Why not take a slip of paper and write the topics down. Put down all the things you want to thank the Lord for, Put down all the things you want to ask Him and bring before Him. And put down the names of’ those you want to remember in your intercession. Perhaps a small notebook is even better than a slip of paper.

And then follow this list and stick to it. It will certainly help you to concentrate on your prayer and avoid wandering thoughts.

In addition, it will help you to realise how many things and persons you have to pray for. I believe that too often our private, personal prayers are extremely ‘poor! We often simply repeat some traditional phrases, and that is it. On this point we all have our own ‘traditions’, and just as all traditions they easily become lifeless and purely formal.

Thirdly, before you start your prayer, SET YOUR MIND ON GOD. Make yourself aware of the fact that you are going to speak to HIM, who is the Living God, the God of Heaven and Earth, your Father in Jesus Christ. Bring yourself in His presence by consciously opening your heart for Him. And you will discover how REAL He is and how REAL your fellowship with Him is.

K. RUNIA

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Sure? Are You Sure You Are a Christian?

Steve Voorwinde, Trowel and Sword. August 1994.

Preamble: “I believe; help my unbelief!” These were the words of a father who had brought his son to Jesus to be healed of an evil spirit (Mark 9:14-27). Many, perhaps most Christians can identify with this father when faced with the question, “Are you sure you are a Christian.” This is also the question Steve Voorwinde addresses in some detail in this article. Steve declares that: “…every believer should be able to give a clear and positive answer.” And yet, most of us struggle with our faith from time to time, just as Peter did in Matthew 14:31. The conundrum may well be that we know in our heads that we are Christians but do we believe it with all our heart?

Are You Sure You Are A Christian?

Do you know you are one of God’s elect? Are you confident that you will go to heaven when you die?

These are rather searching, personal questions. They are also questions to which every believer should be able to give a clear and positive answer. Yet the fact of the matter is that these questions are often answered vaguely and evasively:

‘I think so” “I hope so.’ ‘I don’t know. But then, who does?’

It is not just the average Christian who has trouble with these questions. Theologians have often come up with conflicting answers. Church leaders have differed from one another, with the result that believers have been encouraged to look for answers in rather different directions. Some put their confidence in the strength of their conversion experience. Others emphasise good works, the fruit of the Spirit, or the active use of spiritual gifts. Still others are told to distrust their experience altogether and rely only on the direct promises of Scripture.

So where does the truth of the matter lie?

As is so often the case with issues of this kind, we would be wise to learn the lessons of history. How did earlier generations of Christians handle these questions? Can we benefit from their insights, and learn from their mistakes?

The doctrine of assurance was not an item that was high on the agenda of the ancient church. Although Augustine did touch on it, it remained largely a neglected area of theological discussion. The sad result was that during the Middle Ages it was generally believed that assurance of faith was impossible. A clear representative of the medieval viewpoint was Pope Gregory the Great. In the year 604 he wrote: “The greater our sins the more we must do to make up for them. Whether we have done enough to atone for them we cannot know till after death…  Assurance of salvation and the feeling of safety engendered by it are dangerous for anybody and would not be desirable even if possible.”

Over the years this became the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. By the time of the Reformation the church was therefore completely withholding the blessing of assurance from simple believers, reserving it only for ‘saints’ who had a surplus of merit.

The Reformers reacted strongly against the Roman denial of assurance. Both Luther and Calvin held that every believer has assurance of his salvation. In his ninety-five theses of 1517 Luther wrote: “The Gospel testifies that God is gracious, and that is objectively true; but it is the believer’s privilege to know subjectively that God is gracious to him in Christ Jesus.

Calvin agreed with Luther that assurance is an integral part of saving faith. In his Institutes he argued strongly that Christ is our righteousness by faith. From this he draws conclusions highly critical of the Roman Catholic position: “For if righteousness is supported by works, in God’s sight it must entirely collapse: and it is confined solely to God’s mercy, solely to communion with Christ, and therefore solely to faith.”

From this it follows, argued Calvin, that believers have assurance because their righteousness lies in Christ and not in themselves. Such righteousness is theirs only by faith.

The early Reformers thus emphatically maintained that faith involves certainty. No faith can be a true faith without assurance. Assurance belongs to the essence of faith.

Although both Luther and Calvin were seeking to base their doctrine of assurance firmly on Scripture, they were also reacting strongly against denials of assurance that had been entrenched for centuries. It would perhaps even be fair to say that they were over-reacting. As Reformed theology developed, these early formulations would be both modified and enriched. An early modification of Calvin’s view is found in the Heidelberg Catechism (1563). In Lord’s Day 32 it teaches that ‘we do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits.’

This point is developed more fully in the Canons of Dort (1618-19): “The elect in due time, though in various degrees and in different measures, attain the assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election, not by inquisitively prying into the secret and deep things of God, but by observing in themselves with a spiritual joy and holy pleasure the infallible fruits of election…’ (1:12).

With their emphasis on the fruits of faith and election, the Catechism and Canons made a significant advance on Calvin’s view. Further developments were yet to take place. In Britain the Puritans thought long and hard about their assurance of salvation and spoke of it in the loftiest terms. For them it was ‘the pearl of great price’ and ‘heaven on earth’. The finest flower of their assurance theology is found in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1648) which devotes an entire chapter to the subject. Chapter 18, entitled ‘Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation’. is the fullest confessional statement we have of the Reformed doctrine of assurance. While the statement is too lengthy to be quoted in full in an article like this, its four paragraphs do deserve at least a brief summary:

(a) Although hypocrites may deceive themselves with a false assurance of faith, sincere believers may ‘be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace’.

(b) This certainty is based on the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces to which these promises are made, and the Spirit witnessing with our spirits that we are children of God.

(c) This assurance does not belong to the essence of faith. At times ‘a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it’. Yet by the right use of ordinary means, and without extraordinary revelation, he may attain to it. By living a life of love and thankfulness to God, and by being faithful in the duties of obedience, it is every believer’s responsibility to make his calling and election sure.

(d) There may be times when true believers have their assurance shaken in various ways. Neglect, sin and strong temptation are cited as possible causes, and so is ‘God’s withdrawing the light of His countenance, and suffering even such as fear Him to walk in darkness and have no light.” Yet even this is no reason to despair. If they continue in their life of faith and their love for Christ and the brethren their assurance may, by the operation of the Spirit, in due time be revived.

The strength of these confessional statements lies in the intimate relationship that they establish between assurance and sanctification. This is precisely the perspective of Scripture. When in Romans 8:16 Paul speaks of the Spirit testifying with our spirit that we are God’s children, he is not speaking about some special revelation. The context is all about sanctification.

The same is true when Peter exhorts his readers to ‘be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure’ (II Peter 1:10). The context makes it quite clear how this is to be done. To their faith believers are to add goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love (vs.5-7). These are the very fruits of faith which the Catechism has in mind in Lord’s Day 32. Peter is not here giving the counsel of perfection. To have assurance it is enough for believers to ‘possess these qualities in increasing measure’ (vs.8).

The Bible’s clearest teaching on assurance comes almost at the very end. in 1 John. In fact, this entire Epistle is devoted to the subject.

In 5:13 the apostle says: ‘I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

In the course of his letter there are three basic tests to which he returns again and again:

The moral test – Do you strive to keep the commandments?

The social test – Do you love your fellow-believers?

The doctrinal test – Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh?

Clearly the Christian is not to be afraid to have a good hard look at his life. His behaviour, his experience, his beliefs are all to come under the close scrutiny of self-examination. As the apostle Paul said, ‘Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves’ (2 Cor.13:5).

As I write this article my students have just come through an intense week of exams. To get good results they toiled, they agonised, they worked long hours. To pass what might be called the Bible’s ‘tests of life’ some believers may need to toil and agonise as well. The results will certainly be worth it.

To our ears last century’s prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, may sound little quaint and old-fashioned. Nevertheless he still makes his point very well: “Get then, Christian brethren and friends, get assurance; be not content with hope, get confidence; rest not in faith, labour after the full assurance of faith; and never be content, my hearer, till thou canst say thou knowest thine election, thou art sure of thy redemption, and art sure of thy preservation unto that Day.”

Steve Voorwinde

(Prof Steve Voorwinde is Lecturer in New Testament at the Reformed Theological College, Geelong.)

How Are Things With Your Sunday School?

Rev. K. Warren, Trowel & Sword, September 1968

Preamble: In this article Rev. Warren took some time to outline what other churches were doing with their Sunday Schools, with a particular focus on what was then the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches before they amalgamated to form the Uniting Church. One can confidently say that he was less than impressed with their theology and teaching. But then he turned his attention to Sunday Schools in the Reformed Churches and found that they were not exactly gold standard either, giving a number of examples where there was room for improvement. Fifty plus years later one could rightly ask, has the situation improved or, in Keith’s words, “Is Sunday School teaching (still) not the neglected step-child in the Reformed family?”

How Are Things With Your Sunday School?

Some brothers in the Presbyterian church continue to battle against liberalism. It is good to see that at least some show the spirit of Luther: we can do no other than fight! They need our prayers.

But one wonders about the effect of these far-and-few-in-between local offensives against the firmly established liberal bastion. Is it not like fighting one of those ancient dragons: chop off one head, and seven others take its place! May more and more people become convinced that chopping off heads gets you nowhere with this type of dragon: it needs to be stabbed in the heart!

But at least some of the faithful are trying to have another chop. The ‘head’ they’re aiming for this time: SUNDAY SCHOOL MATERIAL.

The Westminster Society within the Presbyterian Church in N.S.W. prepared and published a booklet some months ago with the title : “Thy children … taught of the Lord?” The booklet gives an analysis of the Sunday School material produced by the Joint Board of Christian Education of Australia and New Zealand. This material is widely used in Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational Sunday Schools. (Editor’s Note: The Methodist, Congregational and many Presbyterian churches amalgamated to form what is now the Uniting church.)

No doubt a number of Reformed people – notably the ministers – will have received this publication for information, and it certainly is good to see plenty of clear language, pointing out the glaring deviations from the orthodox standpoint regarding Bible and Confession.

Here are some samples :

“There is general agreement that the temptation stories (Matthew 4) are record­ed in symbolic language.”

“The book of Jonah is not meant to be read as actual history; it is a prophetic sermon in the form of a parable.”

“It is possible that, as the miracles were told and retold by the early Christians, some details may have been changed and added.”

“The Bible is one(!) of the central ways along which the living Word of God still addresses us today.”

And concerning questions such as:

Why did Jesus allow Himself to be killed? 

Who is Jesus Christ?

Why is Jesus called Saviour? 

How can I know Jesus Christ?

The Joint Board of Christian Education tells us that “these are big questions to which we have no final or complete answer.”

The Joint Board of Christian Education reacted to this booklet!

In a public statement to the churches they answer some of the criticisms and accusations. We learn that the published Sunday School materials are used by half a million people each week in more than 5000 local churches, and that fact alone would make it strange if the material satisfied everybody.

Says the Joint Board: “Christian education is a ministry of the church designed to share the Christian faith with persons of all ages.  The theological position of Christian education materials must be the theological position of the church. The Joint Board has, therefore, always sought to base its lesson materials on the mainstream of the church’s theology.

Our churches permit theological teachers, ministers, and members some freedom in theological viewpoint, says the Board. In dealing with such differences the Board works on the principle that where one point of view must be adopted it will be in the mainstream of the church’s scholarly thinking…. 

Now that’s clear enough isn’t it?

THE MAINSTREAM OF THE CHURCH’S SCHOLARLY THINKING.

That is the rule, the standard, the confession:

Really, this settles the issue!

If the mainstream of scholarly thinking is the basis for past, present and future Sunday School material, concerned orthodox Presbyterians MUST face the inescapable fact that the now in progress initiating Curriculum 1970 will NOT be more true to Scripture and to the Lord Jesus Christ.

For when the ‘foundations’ are becoming more shaky all the time, what will the ‘building’ be?

Added to this is the fact that compulsion is exercised by some State assemblies to force the use of this Sunday School material by all local churches. That is also the case here in Perth. Evangelical Presbyterians are forced to put up with this liberal material and have it taught to their children.

Fortunately there has been some reaction in Perth to the statement of the Joint board. Says the writer: “Surely it is a very dangerous procedure to base lesson materials ‘on the mainstream of the church’s theology’! What if Luther, Calvin or Knox had been content with the mainstream of the church’s theology? There would have been no Reformation.

To sail along on the “mainstream of the church’s scholarly thinking” might seem a safe and pleasant cruise, but there are some pretty big navigational hazards.

The writer continues: “The position in the churches today is that the Church COMPELS deviation from the Confession. One may be as liberal as one pleases, even to the point of denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ; yet large numbers of people who hold to the Confession’s exposition of the Faith, and who adhere to the Confession’s view of Scripture, are DENIED the liberty by some State Assemblies (the West Australian being one of them), to teach the children of the church from materials much more faithful to Scripture, and to the church’s own Subordinate Standard, than those of the Joint Board which are imposed by the church. We maintain in our own denomination’s Christian Education programme a state of affairs in which the liberal has liberty to be liberal, but the conservative has no liberty to be conservative.”

And in closing, the writer of this comment on the statement by the Joint Board of Christian Education, says:

“It is a laughable but grim comment on our church life that the processes of church discipline grind against the home missionary or Sunday School teacher who dares to use teaching literature that is truer to our Confession of Faith, until he is forced either to leave his church or make some kind of miserable compromise; whilst the theological teacher who questions everything and destroys the faith of many is left untouched.”

May the Lord bless these courageous efforts, as this comment goes to Presbytery. Would they result in REFORMATION? Or COMPROMISE? Or SEPARATION?

But what about OUR OWN Sunday Schools? How are things there?

We cannot boast of a Joint Board of Education, and of a curriculum worked out by experts. And the topic ‘Sunday Schools’ has quite probably never been discussed on the floor of Synod. I don’t think that ecclesiastical oversight goes much further than an elder or deacon paying a yearly visit to a class of noisy covenant-youngster and/or non Reformed children.

The teachers are as a rule, keen and hard-working, but without much training. And a variety of material is used (more or less suitable to Reformed teaching), some churches producing their own.

My question is : Is Sunday School teaching not the neglected step-child in the Reformed family? No, don’t get me wrong. Not that there are not enough Sunday school classes and teachers. We thank the Lord for all the dedication and devotion with which many people have been doing this work for years!

But does this work have the attention of our churches? I don’t think so. Not sufficient anyway.

Take only the matter of TRAINING for instance. Do our Sunday School teachers receive adequate training? Many other church workers do. The ministers are thoroughly prepared for their work. The elders and deacons have their literature, conferences, and even a special magazine. The choir members study every week, and the F.C.Y.A. has a training course for senior youth club leaders. Geelong has made a Teachers’ Training Course available, and there’s plenty of opportunity for those who are willing to become better acquainted with e.g. Reformed doctrine and ethics. But what about the Sunday School teachers? Where do they get the training?

Possibly one or two local congregations have a training effort, but that’s not sufficient. The work is important enough to warrant more attention on a local, a state, or even a nation-wide level. Do our teachers have a grasp of the basic teaching concepts? What about the psychological make-up of the various age-groups? And class-discipline? And teacher-child relationship? And are all our teachers born-again Christians, making Jesus REAL in their teaching? And does the session take a REAL interest in this Kingdom work?

Then there’s the MATERIAL used. Is it good? Could it be better? What do others use? Is it not time that Synod requests an extensive report on these matters, and consequently give advice and guidance to the local churches?

These are just some of the questions I’m asking myself. Care to give YOUR answer?

K. WARREN.

Australia, A Vast Mission Field

G. van Groningen, Trowel and Sword. November 1962

Preamble: The following article, written over 60 years ago, paints a picture of Australia as a country urgently in need of missionary endeavours to bring the gospel to its increasingly secular populace. How have we fared since that time? Sadly it would appear, not too well. Have we dropped the ball? It would appear that our missionary efforts are mainly directed at overseas countries while at a synodical level at least, home missions has taken a back seat, with evangelism efforts, where they exist at all, being left to local congregations with limited resources and personnel. One would not need to go far to find fertile ground for evangelism in our own backyard.

Australia, A Vast Mission Field

How does an Australian born and raised minister evaluate his home country? Various ministers would do that in differing ways undoubtedly. The Rev. Alan Walker, a recognised leader in and spokesman for the Methodist Church in Australia wrote an article in an American Theological magazine. (The Christian Century, Sept. 5, 1962). The title is: AUSTRALIA: INSULAR AND HEDONISTIC. Here follow some quotations from the Rev. Alan Walker, and a few comments by the undersigned.

‘Australia’s is a unique society. History knows no other case of one people, speaking one language, under one government, inhabiting a single continental land mass. Australia has experienced no serious internal conflict, nor has war ever ground its way over the countryside. In faith and philosophy it has always been nominally at least Christian.

Having made that statement the author reviews the early political and church history of Australia, Then he refers to a recent poll:

“Gallup polls show that there are many ‘census’ Christians in Australia, that is, people who just remember the church they stay away from. Only 35 per cent of the people questioned in a recent survey stated that they had attended church in the previous week. The facts are that about half our people rarely or never attend church and that on any given Sunday about one person in three attends. Moreover, there are 23,684 people who definitely state that they have “no religion”, and another 855,819 who refuse to state whether or not they have any religious affiliation. These two groups can be regarded as the ‘hard core’ of irreligion in Australia.

Mr. Walker continues then and speaks of the forces of change since World War II. The first force mentioned: migration, which is largely in favour of the Roman Catholics. He adds “if the present trends continue, the Roman Catholic church, now constituting a quarter of the population, will be our largest religious denomination by 1984.”

And now carefully read the next quotation: “But of equal significance is the fact that the immigrants are adding to the non-churchgoing rather than the churchgoing section of the people. “Dead religion” is unfortunately common in Great Britain and Europe, whence many of our migrants come. In other words, the continued influx of new settlers is strengthening irreligion and making the churches’ work harder.”

Is Mr. Walker also referring to many of us – and rightly?

The second force of change is the accelerating industrialisation of the land. Industry is making big and fast moves forward. The third force of change is that Australia is being forced to recognise it belongs to Asia and not to Europe!

The next part of the article speaks of the battle lines that have formed in the recent years. In other words, what and where is it that the Christian has to fight? The first is an intellectual battle line. Agnosticism and Atheism taught by many scientists must be met head on. A second battle line is between spiritual values and materialism – read this quote carefully: “In the greed for money and the harshness of the capitalistic struggle; in the preoccupation of the trade unions with economic issues alone; in the vast public interest in betting-pools and lotteries; in the failure of people and governments to realise the need for the growth of social and spiritual institutions along with the physical expansion of the nation.”

Mr. Walker adds that materialism and hedonism combine to turn huge gambling and liquor interests into principalities and powers against which we must constantly struggle, “Hedonism, the doctrine that pleasure is the chief good, has a tremendous hold on our people. An abundance of sunshine, natural facilities for pleasure and the great sporting tradition of the nation combine to put the emphasis on seeking satisfaction through the senses. Australians work hard in order that they may play hard. They seek money not so much for the security it gives or the comfort and prestige it can buy as for the leisure-time enjoyments it makes possible. Indeed sport bids fair to become a national idolatry among us. The great achievements of our champions in tennis, cricket, swimming indeed in almost every field of athletics are the result of the people’s intense preoccupation with physical prowess.”

The last force mentioned against which we must struggle is insularity – “Australia for whites only.”

Mr. Walker ends his article saying that the picture is not entirely dark. Australia as a whole is not anti Christian or against ministers. They are just indifferent. Mr. Walker adds that the greatest need in Australia is a truly indigenous church – a church which supports itself, and develops its own character and does not continue the character of the church “back home”. Then he also adds that we should re-examine our worship services.

Here now follow the last words of Mr. Walker: “Sometimes I think that nothing matters now in Australia except evangelism. With half the nation living beyond the direct witness of the church, Australia is virtually a vast mission field. Only a church which cares for the ‘lost’, which is ever moving out to those beyond its borders, will be adequate to the remaining years of this century. Through a recovery of faith in the reality of conversion, through a rediscovery of the way the Holy Spirit works, the church could win the battle for a Christian Australia.’

Did you notice those words “Australia is virtually a VAST MISSION FIELD.” Mr. Walker is entirely correct! Synod realised that also. That is why it asked the churches to give approximately £8,000 for Home Mission work. With these £8,000 quite a bit of evangelism work can be done. £5,000 is spent for broadcasting. £1,000 is spent on literature which is for distribution. Another part is for the support of (a) Home Missionar-(y)-ies who should be placed in our key cities right now already.

Some churches find it hard to give their share. Some have a hard time raising money for two ministers, others want their own church building or youth hall first. Indeed, we have many necessities facing us. Yet, the great commandment really stares us in the face ‘ye are my witnesses in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Perth, Darwin and in N.S.W., Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, West Australia and the Northern Territory and beyond.”

May God richly bless us living, working and witnessing in our “vast mission field”, IN AUSTRALIA.

G. VAN GRONINGEN

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