The PuritanBoard - View Single Post - Did baptism really replace circumcision as the sign/seal of

pastorway · #47 (**permalink**) 06-13-2004, 11:41 PM

Reading this thread and other various posts this week I had a thought:

Perhaps we should ALL learn to discern the presence of condescension in our lives (and tongues) and root it out. If we know EVERYTHING and can speak EVERY language, but are condescending (ie. have not love) then we are just making noise.

Further, EVERY single fallible page that men write about the infallible Scriptures gives us more opportunity to confound the Word of God. The discussions of late about Sola Scriptura have neglected the doctrine of the [i:7388028759]sufficiency[/i:7388028759] of the Bible.

We do not come to know God through the writings of men. We come to know Him through His Word. It is in His inspired, infallible, inerrant Word that He has chosen to reveal Himself to us, so Bunyan would have been fine with ONLY a Bible. He did not need the other two books he had. They were not necessary. Only the WORD of GOD is necessary and sufficient.

How can I say that?

Because Bunyan had something that a lot of Confessional Christians overlook. He had the Holy Spirit. In fact, I vernture to say that a major weakness among us confessional believers is that the confessions, creeds, catechisms, etc, as good as they are, tend to be used to replace serious exegesis of the text (because "greater minds" than ours have already done the work) and when that happens we prove we have become lazy and careless, and it is not too much longer before we make the same mistake of the church growth/purpose driven crowd.....we replace the Holy Spirit with the methods and programs of men. Why study the Word when you can read word for word Rick Warren's sermons - you know, the ones that produced the desired results.....why study and apply the Word for yourself when you can read [i:7388028759](insert favorite theologian here)[/i:7388028759] and hope for instant church growth/ spiritual maturity/ superior understanding/ reformation/ etc?

We have become disciples of Charles Finney all the while denouncing his doctrine. We have adopted his methods and believe that our systematic is useful to produce the results that ONLY the Word of God is able and guaranteed to deliver!! Use the right really reformed formula and you will be a true believer/church/family.

So where is there even room for the Holy Spirit? Did He finish His work in the 1600's? Is He done?

As Leonard Ravenhill stated decades ago, "The Holy Spirit could leave the church today and no one would miss Him." We have things so figured out, so systematized, so detailed, so programmed, that we forget the need to rely on the Holy Spirit. He could leave and we would not miss Him, because we have "His work" in greater (dead) saints than we, so we can rely on what He did through them and not think that He wants to do things throug US!!

Sorry for the rant...but then I am not really sorry...it has been brewing for a while now.

Many here on both sides of the denominational aisle are becoming more and more narrow, judging others severely, making false accusations....we are seeing the hand say to the foot, "you are not of the Body." Who are WE to judge the servant of ANOTHER? Who are we to JUDGE at all?

These things need to stop, but they will only stop by God's grace. We need to learn that the true basis and foundation of unity is not learning, theology, or knowledge. It is [b:7388028759]humility[/b:7388028759] (Philippians 2:1-11). And the enemy of humility is KNOWLEDGE, for knowledge [i:7388028759]by itself[/i:7388028759] PUFFS UP. This would be knowledge ABOUT God and His Word. We do not need to know ABOUT God or His Word. We need to KNOW God and His Word.

Every time Jesus taught His disciples on humility they seem to have ended up arguing over who was the greatest. Well Jesus said that the greatest was the least, the servant of all. How backwards we are.....

We MUST esteem others as better than ourselves - not as stupid dolts who are poor milk drinking saps that God has chosen to leave behind while He moves others to solid truth, meat, maturity, and the seat on His right and left hands in the kingdom.

And the difference between milk and meat has nothing to do with anything any mere man has ever written. It has everything to do with reading, memorizing, and meditating on the Word of God.

Read Psalm 1.

Phillip

[Edited on 6-14-04 by pastorway]