"Sovereign Surprises" - by Dr Ern Baxter - Part 3.

The final part of this amazing sermon. Ern deals with the two greatest "Divine Interventions" in the history of the time-space world - the Incarnation of Christ and the Day of Pentecost.

Now we come to the example par excellence. God Himself is going to rend the heavens and come down. How? Panoply and splendour? A great retinue of angels? No. He takes off the toga of His co-equal authority with the Father and the Spirit and lays it over the back of His throne chair and in the mystery of the Incarnation comes down into time and space and snuggles into the virgin womb of a girl by the name of Mary. And in the mysterious process of the Father making a body for Him in that womb and His identification with that Body – we have the breaking of God into time in a most unusual way. The angel Gabriel talking to Mary – I just can never get over it. Suddenly here is a little girl devout – a God-lover, obedient to her parents, walking in all of the ethical requirements of Judaism and suddenly she is confronted by this great creature. It seems every time these great creatures appear, they strike fear by their sheer presence. “Fear not Mary, don’t be afraid”. Mary was doubtless trembling as she stood in the presence of this celestial creature.

I remember when I was in South Africa many years ago travelling with William Branham. We were going through a time of bitter persecution by the Dutch Reformed Church plus the press. Thousands of people were coming to the meetings in South Africa and it was stirring. And he and I were alone one night holding our case before God. Suddenly I was aware of a Presence. Now I know the Presence of the Holy Spirit and I wasn’t getting the same registration. Brother Branham said in his very quiet way, “Brother Ern – don’t be frightened. The angel of the Lord is in the room”. Well he didn’t have to tell me. The next night, still under persecution, a Dutch Reformed minister who was bitterly opposed to us, was on his way home and he felt a hand on his shoulder. There was no one around him and he couldn’t understand it so he hurried home. It was a warm night and he had just been wearing a white shirt. He took his shirt off and looked at the back of it and a print of a hand was burned into the back of it. This was carried on in the front page of the Cape Town press I believe. Needless to say it reversed much of the criticism we had been receiving. I hadn’t laid my hand on him – Branham hadn’t laid his hand on him. Somebody had laid his hand on him and left a print. Now we were living in the realm of divine intervention that turned the whole course of our time out there. The next few days I found myself talking to Dutch Reformed ministers who couldn’t understand it – I didn’t understand it either! I’m not talking about understanding – I’m talking about having the faith to believe it can happen.

Jesus’ whole ministry is a series of surprises. His resurrection was a surprise. Finally the Day of Pentecost. Taking His disciples over the brook Kidron, He blessed them and was received up into heaven. Now just before He did that, He said, “I want you to tarry in Jerusalem until you receive the promise of the Father”. So they watched Him going up. That must have been quite a sight. Two men dressed in white appeared and said, “Why stand you gaping?”. We need those two men again to say to a large portion of the church, “Why stand you gaping?”. I believe in the Second Coming of Christ – but I can’t stand gaping. Do you remember what He said to you, “Now get on with your business”. And in the Bible it says they are daily in the temple praising and glorifying God. Daily in the temple. Now there were all kinds of groups in the temple – that wasn’t unusual. Jewish sects were there. But this was different – you can imagine someone coming up and saying, “And who are you people?”. “Well we are the followers of Jesus”. “Oh that was that prophet fellow who was crucified”. “Yes”. “Well what are you doing?”. “Well we are waiting from something to come from heaven”. “Oh. Why are you doing that?”. “Well Jesus told us to do that before He went away”. “Before He what?”. “Well, before He went back to heaven”. “He went back to heaven … ?! He was crucified!”. “Oh yes, but He rose from the dead!”. “Ah He rose from the dead ah? And then went back to heaven!? Well what are you waiting for?”. “Well … He told us it was the promise of the Father”. “Oh and what’s that?”. “Well … we don’t know”. (*laughter*). You don’t like to be put in that spot do you? I don’t like to be put in that spot! I want to know! I’m nosy! I’ve got enough nosiness for the whole congregation!

(*At this point Ern begins to sing*) “And when the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were altogether of one accord in one place and there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty rushing wind, and filled all the place where they were sitting and cloven tongues like as of fire sat on each of them and they were all furnished with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance”. Where did that come from??! Where in the world did that come from!? Surprise! Surprise! (*laughter*).

Well I want to turn to one Scripture with which to conclude this morning. What translation have you got Stanley? May I borrow that? I don’t like this one. The Living Bible is great at times but other times it isn’t … great. You thought I was going to say something else didn’t you?! (*laughter*). I try to be careful. Ephesians 1:10. God told Moses some of those things that were going to happen. Others were hidden from him. Here’s something God has told us is going to happen. Now how is hidden from him. Listen. “He made known to us the mystery …”. Now ‘mystery’ is a sacred secret. Something you can’t attain to by sense investigation. It’s got to be revealed. “He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His kind intention which He purposed in Christ with a view to administration (that’s a form of house keeping) suitable to the times that is the summing up of all things in Christ – things in heaven and upon earth in Him”. Alright – that’s all.

God revealed through Paul specifically this fact – that in this age which you and I are living which is the age of the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son – that in this age, God is going to gather all things in Christ. Now I don’t how. All I know is that He said to us, that we are to go into all the world and make disciples of nations. Have we ever thought about it, have we ever talked about it, have we ever considered it? Now I don’t want to be unkind about this because I’m as guilty as most. When I was a pastor I was concerned with my congregation – my church – my Sunday school and that was alright but it’s too limited! All I’m asking you this morning to do is open your heart to expect God to do something else that is going to be of such a nature as you hadn’t thought about before. How many would have believed the Pentecostal visitation at the turn of the century? How many would have believed the Charismatic visitation? In our own century we have had such divine manifestation that is unprecedented and exciting. God is not dead! He’s alive! If there’s any charge of death, it belongs here. We are dull of hearing. We are unexciting! We are unresponsive to the divine activity. The world is dead – it’s had its day. Why be concerned with ghosts fighting in the graveyard? That’s all it is! The earth is the Lord’s! God is the One who is in charge! We’re His People! Now all I’m asking you is to make some room in your faith – make some room in your spirit for some new exciting happenings in your life – in this congregation – in Dunstable!

Don’t go off and do something silly and try and make it happen. That’s where the problem occurs! I was in the Healing Movement for many years and what bothered me so much was that when God wouldn’t act, they acted for Him. In the Charismatic dimension they simulated God. I don’t want to simulate God! I don’t have to learn the Gregorian chant to sing in the Spirit! I don’t have to simulate a confirmation service where there is no impartation, when people can get the baptism of the Spirit properly!

“God is moving by His Spirit moving through all the earth – signs and wonders when God moveth, move oh God in me”.

God I’m a candidate for a surprise! I can’t make it happen. God I deplore the pornography, the sexual perversion, the permissiveness in society! I deplore it God! But unless you rend the heavens and come down and I’m saying to you this morning, God I’m not going to lift a carnal finger to make a good meeting – I will worship you and keep my spirit open but I won’t simulate a prophecy and I won’t manufacture a healing. But God, like the ancient king with the women and children when our enemies are so vast that they intimate and appal us – here we stand. Our eyes are upon you! God this morning our eyes are on you! We’re not match for international problems – we’re no match for this thing or that. We’re Abraham in Ur – we’re a little boy in a manger! We’re a child in a carpenters shop! As far as the world is concerned they walk right past our door. They don’t hate us! We don’t even deserve their hatred. They ignore us. If they hated us it would mean that we drew their attention but they don’t hate us because they don’t even know we’re here. And God there is no way we are going to try and make it happen. We’re not going to go out and confront them on the street – no we don’t want that Lord! But oh! Rend the heavens and come down! Visit this vine which Thou hast planted! This is Your people Lord! You said you’d prune and visit and water them! You said you’d make them flourish and make them grow! And God we want to open our hearts to that element of surprise that has characterised You from that moment when You spoke worlds into existence right down to the time when you incarnated Yourself in the virgin womb of a peasant girl! Right down to that time when You came into our lives with such an impact of Your glory that we didn’t expect. Do it again Lord! Do it again!

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A Sharp Rebuke to "Gaping"!

This quote comes from the section of the sermon "Sovereign Surprises" that I will put on the website tomorrow, but I couldn't resist highlighting it now. It is something we need to hear! Ern Baxter said this:

"Taking His (the Lord Jesus's) disciples over the brook Kidron, He blessed them and was received up to Heaven ... so they watched Him going up. That must have been quite a sight! Two men dressed in white appeared and said, "Why stand you gaping?".

We need those two men again to say to a large portion of the church, "Why stand you gaping?". I believe in the Second Coming of Christ! But I can't stand gaping. Do you remember what He said? "Now get on with your business! ... Go and make disciples of nations!".

"Sovereign Surprises" - by Dr Ern Baxer - Part 2.

Alright? I am just picking some of these at random. The world is waxing worse and the wickedness and the wickedness is growing and God repents that He has made man. He calls one man aside because he is perfect in his generation and He contracts with this one man to build an Ark. He said that He was going to flood the earth. Now as I understand it, Noah had no idea how He was going to flood the earth. If it was true that the earth had been watered up until that time by a moisture that came up from out of the ground – that there had been no rain, that had not been one of the features then how was it going to happen? Can you imagine Noah building this Ark and not knowing what it’s all about? And then there comes a time when He tells Noah to enter the Ark and what he’s to do. Then the fountains of the deep are broken up and the heavens start to pour rain. Another divine surprise! God broke in and destroyed humanity save one family. It’s a surprise! Divine intervention and again men then gives himself to opposition against God’s purpose and decides to build a tower. God came down, looked at the tower, didn’t like what He saw and one morning the people woke up and couldn’t understand each other. He confounded their tongues! Now there was nothing in the records to indicate He was going to do that. I have no reason to believe that anyone had the slightest hint that He was going to do that. It was a divine surprise. They woke up one morning and they can’t communicate! Their tongues are confused. God has broken in again. Now there was no way that men talking to one another as they built the tower could imagine the possibility of speaking anything but the same tongue. It was just very obvious that they communicated with one another this way – they would communicate with one another this way tomorrow and the day after and the day after, next week, next month and next year. This was a fixation in their society and there was no reason to believe it would ever change. There was no precedent for it. Yet they wake up one morning and its happened and their languages are confused.

Abraham is doing very well in Ur of the Chaldeans – he has a flourishing business. It’s an idolatrous community, it is true, but he is doing quite well until one day out of the blue, the voice of God comes to Him. “Abraham I want you to leave your kindred – I want you to leave where you are living and go to a land that I will show you”. Suddenly God breaks into history – God breaks into a single man’s situation, picks that man out, imposes on him a divine decree and sets him on a journey that is going to affect history for all time. Was it in Abraham’s mind? Never. It was this extra dimension that man does not consider and unfortunately a lot of Christians don’t consider. I dare say this (and I’ve no intention of being unkind to any of us as I recognise our creatureliness) but I will suggest this morning that you and I are much more bound by circumstances than we are by revelation. We determine our tomorrows in terms on what’s going on rather than what God has said.

Moses – his whole life is characterised by intervention. Pharaoh had issued a decree that all the male babies should be thrown into the Nile. Moses is born and kept for 3 months. A beautiful child and the mother just can’t bring herself to destroy that child. At last they make a little Ark – make it waterproof and put the little Moses in it. She put him down by the place where Pharaoh’s daughter comes down and sees the Ark and has it brought to her. As she lifts the blanket, at that very moment an angel reaches down and pinches Moses and Moses starts to cry. Pharaoh’s daughter, being a woman, sees the tears and can’t resist the little fellow. Do you realise that the whole purpose of God hung on a tear that day? I’m sure if she had lifted the blanket and seen a Hebrew boy laughing at her, she’d have probably said, “Throw him into the water”. But when she saw him crying, she couldn’t resist him. God loves His purposes to rest on threads so many times. Well you know he’s taken into the household and trained in the ways of the Egyptians and eventually gets into a problem by killing an Egyptian who’s hurting an Israelite and has to flee and go to Midean. And he’s there in Midean taking care of sheep. He decides he’s going to live there – he’s got a wife by the name of Zaphorah and a fairly nice father in law and he figures this is the way it’s going to be. He’s out tending his sheep one day and as he walks along … bingo! He sees a bush burning. He looks at it and thinks, “Oh that’s interesting, it must have been hit by lightening. Just a minute! It’s not being consumed. I must go over and have a look – that’s unusual”. And he moves over towards it and a Voice speaks. “Moses don’t come any closer. Take off your shoes for you’re on holy ground”.

Now in that bush, Moses is commissioned. Moses is commissioned to deliver the children of Israel. Are you ready for a bush? If God suddenly breaks into your life and you see a phenomenon like that, are you ready for it? Is it in your thoughts at all, this whole process of divine intervention? Or is tomorrow going to be like today? Are we just going to go in a kind of hum-drum existence, or do we have the biblical right to expect that God has historically engaged in a process of divine intervention that gives us hope? Now I think Isaiah understood this when he said, “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down. Then would the mountains run down at Thy Presence”. I think the New Testament people after the first persecution got it when they prayed, “Oh Lord Maker of heaven and earth, behold the threatenings of these people and anoint Thy servants that they may speak the word with boldness”. And the place wherein they prayed was shaken. What were they saying? They were saying, “We recognise after we have done all that we should do – when we’ve attended to all our duties properly we still have not resolved the situation, because there is a missing dimension”. Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down! You don’t think Isaiah had some basis and precedent to believe that God could intervene? You don’t believe that these early Christians had some basis and precedent that enabled them to pray “Oh Lord maker of heaven and earth, break in on our situation – confirm our gospel, deal with these Gentile powers!”. I can understand Moses reluctance to go on that mission can’t you? Whatever ability Moses had to communicate he apparently had lost it tending sheep in Midean because he said, “I can’t talk – I’ve got an impediment in my speech, God get yourself another boy”. God said, “I’ve got my boy – you’re My boy!”. And he fussed with God and God got angry with him but he made a concession. He said, “Alright you don’t have to do it alone – your brother Aaron will be your prophet. He will speak for you. He will be your mouth. You get the revelation and tell him and he will articulate it”. With some limited knowledge as to what was going to happen as they confronted Pharaoh – can you imagine how Moses lived on the lip of constant expectancy? God kept him there too. Successfully they worked through the confrontation with Pharaoh.

Now they’re out. Hallelujah! It’s all over. It’s never all over. I have had interventions in my life – you’ve had interventions. I mean spectacular crisis kinds. In fact I look back on my life and God has always dealt with me that way. A phone call and suddenly my whole dimension has changed! A letter! A “chance” meeting! Now all I’m trying to get over to you this morning is this; do you have an exciting expectation factor in your situation? Or would you welcome God breaking in on your nice routine? “I appreciate what he’s trying to say but I hope God doesn’t inconvenience me with any of these things”. Oh He’ll inconvenience you. My friend said every time God calls him, He calls him to inconvenience. But it will be redemptive and it will be thrilling. It will be great! Well Moses gets the children of Israel out of Egypt – almost 3 million of them. What now? Oh lots of surprises Moses. How are we going to get over this Red Sea? That’s a great one. Who’d ever been at the Red Sea before? Who was ever in a dilemma like this in the past? Here he stands with the elders barking about bringing him out there to die. Pharaoh’s army is coming up and there’s no escape to the left or to the right and here’s this water in front. “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!”. Well what does that mean? He’s suddenly going to send a squadron of jet planes? He’s going to create an ocean liner? No. Well what’s He going to do? I don’t know. But within the promise of His salvation, He will come up with something. Now this is what I’m talking about. Every time I come to the last point of a message like last night, I realise that’s the point where I’m going to hit a stone wall. Don’t upset my comfort. I have got everything nice. I got to the church. I teach in the Sunday school. This is nice. But what about the world? What about the mandate? Well – don’t inconvenience me. That’s for special people. No. No it’s not. It’s for us. We are the holy nation!

Well what shall we say about David? A young lad with peach fuzz on his face and his red curls dangling down over his shoulders. His shepherds crook standing by and a harp in his hand, and as he keeps his eye on the sheep he's composing psalms. He's a shepherd! He's a boy! He's got big brothers! There's nothing very exciting expected of him for years. His future's very clear - he's going to look after sheep - it's very obvious. Seven brothers ahead of him - man, he's eighth on the list. So he's out there tending sheep - he's content with his lot. All young brothers tend sheep when they're at the end of the line. Suddenly a messenger comes rushing over the hill. "Master David! Master David!". "Yes, what is it?". "There are things going on in your home town - the prophet has come! He's holding a holy convocation and in that convocation your brothers were called up before the prophet. And the prophet looked at them and from where I was sitting he just looked at them and moved on! Then he went over to your father and whispered to your father, and your father called me over as a trusted servant and said, "Go get David". They want you in there for some reason!". So the Bible says, and this is very interesting that David left his sheep "with his helpers". I'd like to become ecclesiological at that point and talk about shepherd's helpers but I will just leave that.

Now as the young lad comes all starry-eyed into that convocation - he sees his seven brothers and they all look a bit sullen. He sees his father who looks a bit perplexed. And there is the prophet - the man of God. You know the story. God had told Samuel to go down and anoint a king. Samuel said, "I don't want to go down there God. Saul's still alive! If I go down there, Saul will have my head". Well ... God's not above a little planning. He said go down there and hold a series of meetings. (*laughter*). And in the course of the series have a "laying on of hands" service. God wants to help you keep out of as much trouble as possible! (*laughter*). So when David came in, Samuel looked at him and God said, "That's him". So he anointed David. Now that shepherd boy out there tending the sheep couldn't quite get over that and he said years later, "You called me from tending the sheep! - I was just a shepherd, I wasn't anyone really!". That never left David that a shepherd boy was made the most illustrious king that Israel has ever had!

"Ah" you say, "It wouldn't be me". Why are we so blind to the ways of the Lord? History is replete with stories of people who were nobodies but by the intervention of the God became somebodies. I'm not so interested in persons as I am in communities this morning. Because we have adopted the same attitude for our groups as we have for ourselves. "Well it will be tomorrow as it is today". I can imagine the scenario that if this people will admit a factor of excited expectation of divine intervention and pray like the early Christians prayed, "Oh Lord - maker of heaven and earth!". You will notice that the creation motif that runs through the Bible again and again, when they face a difficult situation they say, "Oh Lord maker of heaven and earth" - God if you could stand in the loneliness of infinity and speak into existence all of these marvellous material things that confound our human ability to understand then you're the God we want to plug into!

If you created heaven and earth, then you can do something in Dunstable! You can do something in this community! You can bring the dimension of Your glory! We can't tell you what to do, but Lord we're on tiptoe to see what You might do. Are You going to create a world? Are You going to call an Abraham? Are You going to send a flood maybe? Going to anoint a David? How many hear what I'm saying? See I'm preaching to me this morning. This is a soliquy and you're listening to it.

Tomorrow Ern Baxter moves onto possible the two greatest Divine Interventions - the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

Article Reference List of this website available here.

"Sovereign Surprises" - by Dr Ern Baxter - Part 1

Here is the promised first part of this outstanding sermon preached at New Covenant Church, Dunstable in September 1983.

This message is something that’s been in my spirit for some time and I think I shared it tentatively with a group of leaders in Chicago but I felt released to use you as my second group of guinea pigs to try it on. Last night I don’t know how many of you were here (I’m afraid to ask) but last night I finished my study by making reference to our mission as the people of God and the great salvation process – that is to make disciples of all nations. Now I realise that as I start to talk about this across the world, I feel a withdrawal on the part of many people. It’s just too much. Hand out some tracts? Yes. Knock on some doors? Hmm. Witness to your next door neighbour? Hopefully. Talk to the chap at work? Could be. But what’s this business about making disciples of nations. What’s it all about – this matter of touching the world? Changing a world? What’s it all about? Well I think that traditionally we have been too confined. I think that our evangelical preaching and teaching, at least in the last 150 years, has not only been a bit exclusivist, but it has also had a kind of novel futurist aspect to it. So that instead of looking at the world as a field of activity – we look at the world as something to get out of. Many evangelicals are conditioned to wanting to get away from it. Even our teaching on separation makes us a bit self righteous and improperly withdrawn. I believe in separation. I think that there are things that we ought not to be involved in. But I don’t believe that gives us the right to not fulfil the mandate that has been given to us – to do something about evangelising the world and bringing the nations to Christ not only as Saviour but to bring them under His influence as Lord.

Now with that in mind sometime ago I see my own heart. I don’t know how impressed you are with current events. I’m a very news conscious person. Well I’m just nosy – that’s all (*laughter*). Just plain nosy. I want to know what’s going on. Maybe I got that from my father. When the newspaper came in the evenings (we always got an evening newspaper), my father read it from beginning to end, including all the ‘Wanted’ ads. All the ads, the obituaries. It seemed like my father was everlastingly reading the evening newspaper. Well I guess some of that rubbed off on me. I read all the little parts (Ruth is smiling – she knows) I just have to know it all and I’m always surprising people with some little thing I got out of the paper. They didn’t get I – I got it, because I’m nosy! (*laughter*). Unless you’re nosy like I am, you’ll miss a lot of those things. But that has an adverse effect because if I don’t protect my heart against that nosiness about what’s going on in the world – it starts to influence my faith. And it starts to influence my attitudes and affect my philosophies of life. So let me cut through all that just to say this – I don’t want to take my theology or my philosophy of life from current events. I don’t want the television newsman to tell me what I should be believing. I don’t want the newspaper to tell me what I should be believing. I don’t want to become an obscurantist either and sit there with my head covered so I won’t find anything out – I don’t think that there’s any advantage in that. But for you and me there is a dimension of information that unregenerate men do not have.

One of my early mentors and a man to whom I’m greatly obliged for what he put into my life – Dr E W Kenyon – put out a little booklet entitled; “The Two Kinds of Knowledge”. This little book has been a tremendous blessing to many thousands of people – many servants of God (some of whom are unwilling to acknowledge him as their source). But I confess my deep indebtedness to him as one of the men who has made input into my own life and philosophy. He based it very simply on two Greek words for ‘knowledge’ – now I don’t think we can prove this in any through-going way and I’m not a Greek scholar – but there are two Greek words for ‘knowledge’ – one is ‘knosis’ and the other is ‘epinosis’, which has been translated “full knowledge”. Dr Kenyon built on this, I think with care. He said that knowledge or ‘knosis’ is that information that comes to you through your senses. This is available to all men that through their five senses they can acquire information. But that there is another kind of knowledge that is supra-sensual, that is ‘epinosis’ – it is “divine revelation”. No man unhelped by the Spirit and the Word can attain to this information. It can’t be discovered in a scientific laboratory. A simple reading of the history of philosophy will indicate that all man’s philosophical research hasn’t brought him close to it. Philosophy is a very frustrating study because it is by and large the attempt of man to understand himself and his behaviour apart from a whole source of date. So that man doesn’t have all the information at hand that is cosmically available. And so he makes determinations that are fractional and fragmentary because he doesn’t have all the data. Everything is not in the computer so when he gets a computer reading, it’s a reading based on inadequate input.

The Christian on the other hand, if he knows how to hold these things in balance, not only can become a very well informed person through his senses – educationally he can explore the scientific realm and all the academic resources with his senses – he can be a very well informed man, but with the added dimension of added revelation which course we believe is confined to the Word of God. This is the content of revelation and the Holy Spirit within you, is the ability to understand it. So that you and I not only have the capacity to take in all the things that are available to us through our senses but we also have this added dimension. Now in this added dimension God not only gives us insights on the things that our senses are able to acquire but He gives us information on the things that are above the senses.

Now that’s the area I want to talk to you about this morning, and you have to pray that the Lord will help me because this is a very disorderly talk. You see I told you I had no idea where I was going. Other than I know what I want to do to you and I want to do for you and what I want you to get out of it. A lot of Christian life is very plebeian and ordinary and mundane and unexciting and uninteresting and it shouldn’t be so. There should be an area of valid excitement that comes from having faith. I noticed last night; whether it was fatigue or the kind of response I often get when I came to talking about the world, that there was a kind of withdrawal. Somebody said, “Look all I can do is to handle my house – my kitchen is my area. Here is this man talking about the world. This is where I get off the bus. I’m just not going any further”. We can’t get off the bus!

We don’t have the option to get off the bus; for the simple reason that we are the ones who carry the mandate to change the world. It’s not the Conservatives, its not the Liberals, or the Progressives or the Communists or anybody else. We are the People of God! We are the new nation! We are the leavening agent! We are the light of the world – the salt of the earth! We are the people! Now in the light of that – look at yourself in the mirror and drop dead! (*laughter*). I mean that is a ludicrous suggestion! You’re a fine bunch of people. But you’re pitiful small in light of the great population even of your area. But you see there again we are making sense evaluations. Remember the feeding of the Five Thousand? The disciples said ‘let them go away and eat’. Jesus said, ‘They need not go away – you feed them’. Immediately Philip gets his pad and pencil out and says to Judas, ‘How much have we got?’. Judas said, ‘Well we’ve got about 50 dollars in the kitty’. What was he doing? He was figuring out how he would meet the Lord’s command with their human resources. Every time you and I do that we have abandoned the dimension that God has made available to us. There is no way this morning – now lets get this clear – there is no way that this body of people in terms of your human resources are going to affect Dunstable the way it should be affected. So lets rule that out. Your energy – your sincerity – your commitment – that’s all tremendous but without the added dimension of divine intervention there is no way you’re going to handle it.

Now here’s what I want to talk to you about. I want to talk to you about “Sovereign Surprises” and you may do a lot better with this after you hear what I’m going to say and then you can work it out in the laboratory of your own situation. All through the Word of God there runs a line of information that tells us about God surprising people with His intervention. I don’t know how good your imagination is and I don’t know when the angels were created. If you do – maybe you’d let me know. But apparently from a passage in Job, the angels were a created species at the time that the time space world was made. I don’t think that our minds can handle what that was like. What is God like at home? What was the Triune God like before anything was made? Where did He live? What was He like? And when He made the angels – what were they like? And where did they live? There aren’t many answers. We are just given little glimpses into it. But now I was going to say ‘one morning’. But they didn’t have mornings. Mornings didn’t start until after the creation. Well then – one time. Well they didn’t have time either because time wasn’t made until after the creation. Well – whenever. Well there is no ‘whenever’. Well – whatever. You see, we break down as we try to bridge the gap between the finite and the infinite. So let me break down and speak of time.

There came a time in eternity (that in itself is a contradiction) but there came a point when God surprised the angels and out of nothing He suddenly spoke the whole cosmic situation into existence as we know it. Now I was reading this morning in the magazine section of the Telegraph (you do get some decent things out of there) where in New Mexico in the United States, you have got these giant saucers that are reaching up into the heavens and are drawing radio information. Now its too much for me – that’s not my area. But they say that outside the realms of our galaxy, there are vast quasars and these are gigantic bodies of energy, and they are wondering if we can’t plug into these things to switch on our light bulbs. But the more that scientists probe into the universe, the more mysterious, the more intimidating, the more interesting it becomes. Now before that was ever spoken into space, the angels were doing what angels do and suddenly they looked and God had done this thing. I would call that a divine surprise. And do you know what they did? The Bible said that the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy! What had happened? They had been surprised! By a divine act that wasn’t on their calendar – maybe I was wrong. Maybe God told them He was going to do it. But if you will allow me this liberty I would suggest that He didn’t tell the angels. And the angels thought that they were the whole of the situation. God had made them and they were it. Then suddenly they look and there was this whole vast panorama of material – all out there. The angels looked at it and broke into a loud hurrah – a loud acclaim. God had wrought a divine surprise.

I think they must have been surprised when God made a man. When God made the heavens and the earth and the angels looked down at it and I’m sure they didn’t understand at all what was involved. I picked that up from the fact that they ‘desired to look into a lot of the things that God was doing’. But you can imagine with what wonder as they watched God reach down and take a handful of dust and start to architecturally structure this magnificent creature called a man and you can imagine how they watched with amazement as God reached down and kissed into his lips the breath of life and he rose up a living soul, and they marvelled at what they saw. Another divine surprise! Or when the first divine operation took place and God anaesthetised Adam and took a rib out of his side and created woman. Can you imagine the angels looking at that? Not only the angels, can you imagine Adam looking at it? Adam had tried to be cosy with the animals. He was suspicious that something was missing because right about ‘go home’ time, he noticed that all the animals went home in pairs. And Adam jogged off home alone. And I guess many times he wondered. The way in which our Bible puts the whole introduction of Eve is very interesting. Because it says that God created the animals and He brought them to Adam to be named. As the animals went by Adam named them but he didn’t get any vibrations. (*laughter*). Adam had absolutely no desire to date a giraffe. And a hippopotamus did absolutely nothing for him. (*laughter*). As they all went by he named them, but didn’t want to date them. Now the Bible very significantly says, “And there was not found among all the animals a help-meet for Adam”. Now is Adam condemned forever to celibacy? Is he going to live alone forever? God put him into a deep sleep and took a rib. The Hebrew indicates it was not only living tissue but the Bible said He took “a side” from Adam. Have you ever said about somebody “You know I’ve never seen that side of them before?”. Not only living tissue but a part of Adam. Part of Adam’s personality – part of Adam’s equipment was taken out. Adam came out of the anaesthetic and he saw walking down the garden under the leafy boughs of Eden on the arm of Yahweh, the most exquisite creature he had ever seen. The Living Bible said that as he looked, he said, “This is it!”. Now he’d seen that other parade go by and this was a great improvement. That was a divine surprise! Adam had probably wondered what was going to be done for him and here was the surprise.

Part 2 coming shortly!

Article Reference List of this website available here.

In Pursuit of His Glory ...

I've been quiet over the weekend because I've been up in Birmingham visiting my dearest friend Michelle, staying up till the early hours talking and remembering old haunts. I love Birmingham. It's a city that is so ripe with potential. Anyone who is up that way should be sure to visit my old church, West Birmingham Family Church - led by the impressive Jonathan Bell. While I was there he adopted a Lloyd-Jonesian style of preaching verse by verse through Ephesians!

However I had to come back to loads of emails to answer and to see what's happening on the bloggy thingy. I hope that Mark has recovered from his mad Puritan party. Luke's given me the tip-off that edition 2 of the outstanding "Closer to God" study notes are out - yay! Gavin wrote of an awesome time his church had in the Presence of God backed up by some impressive quote from Charles Simpson. And finally there's a suggestion that apparantly some think that Mahaney and MacArthur are fighting along with a plea for us all to be nice. I never even imagined that. To me the impression from the TG4 blog was that Mahaney is nothing but MacArthur's greatest fan. Still Phil Johnson responded with some great backup for the fact that its a mistake to speak of "tone" in isolation from "content".

But best of all, Jul reminded me of a Spurgeon quote - as to what the quest of our (or at least my) New Covenant life should be:

"Do you have the Spirit? If you do have Him within you, do you only have a small measure of His life? Do you wish for more? Then, go to where you went at first. There is only one river of the water of life; draw from its floods. You will be lively, bright, strong, and happy enough when the Holy Spirit is mighty within your soul."

Go to where we went at first! There is a danger for any I guess who study theology to forget "first love". Do I have the Spirit? I believe so. Do I wish for more? Yes - yes - YES!

Article Reference List of this website available here.

Numbers in Churches - Good or Bad?

Apologies to Luke who left some comments on an entry I wrote this morning before running to work. I was disturbed to find some nasty spam mail had made it onto the entry again so I deleted it, investigated the problem and found that I can do a clever thing that verifies comments as "real" ... or something. Anyway - apologies that you now have to enter in a few letters before commenting. Please don't let that stop you! I love reading comments and being challenged.

The entry in question was thinking through a number of comments left on Dave Skipper's blog by a theologian called Gary North. North belonged to a group of theologians that came from the USA in the late eighties called "Christian Reconstructionism". They were very en vogue at my home church in Dunstable for a time, and we had David Chilton and Greg Bahnsen to come and speak. For those who don't know, Christian Reconstructionism can be summed up with seven 'Ps' (thanks to my pastor Dr Stanley Jebb for this). 1. Post-millenial in eschatology. 2. Preterist in their interpretation of Revelation. 3. Positive in their expectation of victory. 4. Presbyterian in their churchmanship. 5. Paedo-baptist in their view of baptism. 6. Powerful in their scholastic ability. (Founder R J Rushdoony had a personal library of 30, 000 books!) 7. Prolific in their writings.

The quotes from Dave's site struck a chord with me as being extremely similar to the quote I found by Bryn Jones in the January 1978 Restoration magazine. North said;

"There are well over six billion people alive today. About five billion either have not heard about Christ's mercy or have rejected the message. These people are running out of time. Only one thing can save them: mass conversion".

Bryn Jones said:

"It is tragic to hear Christians self-congratulatingly referring to their church as numbering over 200 or 300 people without mentioning the fact that this is still one thousandth of the population of their city!".

The question that I posed was whether we had any right becoming obsessed with numbers. When someone asks, "How is your church?" should our first response be, "Oh it's growing you now ... we now have X amount of members!". Or rather should our concern be with the prayer meeting, the personal devotion and commitment of members, the disciples that are being made (THAT was what the mandate from the Risen Christ was - not to fill pews!).

Now Luke challenged me quite rightly, that we shouldn't swing to excess and be afraid of numbers. He cited a key prophecy that was brought at Church of Christ the King in Brighton that was quite simply; "7 x 7 = 14". The prophecy was weighed and felt to be concerning growth and the fact that their congregation would double. As a response to this word, Peter Brookes (the former senior pastor) preached an outstanding visionary message on it that I was actually fortunate enough to be at and hear. Furthermore they doubled their meetings to begin having evening meetings. So yes - lets not be afraid of numbers. They are a measure and mark of God's blessing I guess. But on the other hand, lets not allow numbers to become our sole passion - and rather wonder whether it should be an issue of quality over quantity.

It's all very well having churches of thousands and thousands of churches, but what is the use if none of them have a clue about the God they have been invited to know? That is why Luke's shameless plug is so timely and apt. Let us hear Terry Virgo's call:

“It’s difficult to overstate the value of systematic Bible reading. To do so with the aid of helpful notes from a gifted Christian teacher simply multiplies the blessing. Let me encourage you to take advantage of Closer to God and ‘discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness’ (1 Timothy 4:7 NASB).”

Article Reference List of this website available here.

Concerning Shepherding.

This blog entry has been quite some time in coming because I wanted to write it carefully and not just off the top of my head. "Shepherding" is a term that is probably most infamously connected with Dr Ern Baxter and his brothers known as the "Fort Lauderdale Five". These men were Derek Prince, Bob Mumford, Don Basham and Charles Simpson as well as of course Ern himself. Mention Ern Baxter to many critics and you will hear phrases like, "heavy shepherding". So this entry is an attempt to put the record straight from Ern Baxter's point of view - as I have had a number of emails asking me if he gave direct teaching on it, and whether he responded to the errors and excesses that he saw. While I have experienced the damage of heavy shepherding myself, I am too young to remember the impact of the excess in those days, so I have restricted my observations to a bare minimum - this is a transcript of what Ern Baxter himself said. And may I point out, that despite my experiences of heavy shepherding and loveless authoritarianism, I STILL believe in the principles of it! There is too much good to be lost by abandoning it because of the bad!

Ern addressed the error and excess that occured in the Shepherding Movement in the interviews he had with Dewey Friedel entitled "Life on Wings" - the manuscript of the entire interviews are here.

Friedel asked Ern Baxter what his rationale was for joining together as 'Shepherds':

Baxter: I’m skipping a lot of detail here but the thing in my spirit was the Charismatic Movement was so full of the charismata – my understanding of the Book of Corinthians was that they had charismata all over the place, but that they were not developed – that they were immature – which was Paul’s whole message to them. He said, “I would like to feed you meat but you are not yet able to bear it so here’s some more milk”. And we didn’t have any great agenda’s to take over the Charismatic Movement. The title given to the effort in those days was “Christian Growth Ministries”. The whole idea was that we were called the teachers and we would acknowledge all of the charismatic activity as being valid but to say that there needs to be maturation in this or we will have a vast Corinthianism where everyone is doing the charismatic thing but there are no quality, on-going maturing situations.

And contrary to much opinion among many, that somehow it was a smoke-filled backroom vehicle move of some kind, that we had somehow planned to take over all of the Charismatic, all of that is made out of watching too many romantic movies. We were men whose hearts were towards God – I know mine was and I felt for the first time in my ministry that I had found a relational situation. I had been alone, I had a big church, I had been under stress and strain and I had failed in many ways because of my loneliness and now I felt that one of the things we said to each other was that wherever we were in the world if one of us got into trouble the other at his own expense would fly to their side. And to me it was a very beautiful thing and for the first time in my life I felt protected. I felt that if I had started to go wrong in any way that there were some men who were going to say, “Look Baxter – straighten up and fly right”. And we had some beautiful years together and of course we were confronted. We were considered to be challenging a lot of things and we were. And we found out to quote one of Bob Mumford’s statements that the thing that made relationship difficult was unconfessed sin, vested interests and there was a third one – I forget what it was, but what we were trying to do was to walk openly with one another in a relationship.

Friedel asked him about the Shepherding Controversy itself:

Baxter: And I think that the things that we begin to address – and I need to say here Dewey – that all the things we addressed whether we addressed them improperly and we probably did in some instances and certainly practiced them improperly – but they still have to be addressed. If you’re going to be a Bible person, and the Bible is the highest court of appeal in all that we do – then you’re going to have to address submission. You’re going to have to address shepherding. You’re going to have to address the nature of church – all of these things you are going to have to address. Now when you address authority you also have to address authoritarianism and I think that one of the areas that we were not able to manage and handle properly was authoritarianism. And whether it was us or some of our disciples, there came authoritarianism where instead of shepherding being caring for a person, it got into a different context.

Personally – and it may be a dangerous thing for me to say but at my age I can afford it – personally, conceptually I have never altered any of my views. Now how I did the things I did and how successful I was remains for the judgement seat of Christ to determine. But I believe that there’s a place for godly authority – I think the opposite of authority is anarchy and we can’t afford that. I think there’s a place for submission – that it isn’t the total submission of all of us to each other – to say nothing of us submitting to our leaders – and of course we’ve got problems. But I think that need to address shepherding. I think our whole church policy needs to be looked at very closely so that all the things that we addressed, including discipleship – I think all of these things, if we addressed them poorly and if we failed in addressing them as many people rejoiced to think then so be it. But I’m simply saying at this point, another generation is going to have to address them because they are still biblical situations and if I look around the groups where they’re not being addressed – they are evident everywhere.

Baxter and Fridel again discussed the Principles of Shepherding or Pastoring:

Baxter: The thing that attracted me was the shepherding concept and one of my principles of discipling was that discipling should be through shepherding. I didn’t have a lot of messages on discipling – I had a lot of messages on shepherding because I saw that the discipling hand had to be in the glove of shepherding. That I couldn’t just disciple men principally – I had to disciple them relationally and I felt also that I wanted each man to come forward in his God-given personhood and this is the way I didn’t issue commands. I would seek to direct as the Lord Jesus did, He said, “Father I have given them Thy Word, I have talked to them about you”. And I always felt that, and this may sound self-serving and it’s not intended to be, but I just want to candidly say where I saw it. I felt some men in the discipleship movement were discipling but they were not shepherding. And in their discipling they were drawing more attention to themselves than they were saying to their sheep, “I want to introduce you to the Father”. And “I want to introduce you to the Son and to the Holy Spirit”.

And one point I want to make while we were the eye of the storm (sort of) that out beyond the periphery of our immediate influences there were many many who had large churches and situations that were putting into practice the things that we were teaching – and this is not the place to name them or identify them and I wouldn’t do that without their permission but I went to large churches with 3, 000 or 4, 000 members where they were practicing our principles though they had never publicly stated that they were supporting us. This was our intention – our intention was to serve in the Body of Christ and bring about maturity and we were withstanding the attempts to make us a denomination – that some of the denominational people came to us and said, “Look if only you were a denomination then we could attack you – the proper way”. There was a lot of pain but I think we made mistakes – no question about it.

Fridel asked about the leadership responsibility:

Baxter: Division I don’t think comes from the flock. I think division comes from the top – its leaders that create division. And I think its important that there be leadership dialogue because leaders need to adjust one another and in America especially where there is so much individualism and independence.

You mention the man who bad-mouthed us on TV, about authoritarianism. He put out an order overnight, “Erase all the tapes of these men!”. One man! He did it unilaterally. In those days none of us did anything unilaterally. We functioned together and I believe that’s how it should be. That our decisions have to come out of some kind of plurality. I don’t ever want to make a major decision that I haven’t consulted with from 12 to 25 men who I consider to be within the care of my relationship – to get a godly consensus. And I feel that this is necessary and I feel sorry, out of personal experience, for the man who is all-alone at the top. Running everything – and he’s heading for a fall. God didn’t make us – its not good for a man to be alone and when they enter into that kind of religious autocracy they sit on their ivory towers and bark out commands – its very heady but its also heading for a disaster. And I’m strong for the one and the many.

Article Reference List of this website available here.

The Swans Are Not Silent.

Once again I love the postman! I got the latest copy of John Piper's biographies entitled, "Contending for our All" today! It carries the biographies of Athanasius, John Owen and J Gresham Machen and is indeed a powerful book. Interestingly enough much of it is devoted to the question of controversy - and whether there indeed are occasions when matters should be faced headon, at the risk of offence but for the sake of truth.

However I was incredibly impressed again with the foreward that John Piper wrote to explain the title of the now four-set series - "The Swans are not Silent". Apparantly when St Augustine's replacement as bishop of Hippo stood up, he said, "The cricket chirps, the swan is silent". Piper's message is that in producing a series of books like this, the swans are actually not silent - their voices still speak. And Piper rightly says, "And we will do well to listen". How can we hear these swans? Piper wrote;

"You can hear them by studying what they wrote and by reading good biographies. This use of your time is probably wise than staying up-to date with news that will be forgotten in a fortnight and with ideas that will prove powerless in ten years".

In finishing this introduction, Piper said, "I invite you to feel the "clean sea breeze" blowing from the fourth, seventeeth and early twentieth centuries ... Their lives are not only pleasant as refreshing breezes from distant times but are also needed as exemplary contenders for the purity and preciousness of biblical truth".

Ern Baxter would not have liked to have compared himself to any of these three men, but I for one am massively encouraged that Piper has seen this important practice of not allowing the "swans to be silent". Much of Ern's ministry risked being lost and for a number of years now I have carried a passion that this does not happen. And I can vouch personally that to immerse myself in the truth and revelation that Ern Baxter brought to his listeners, he is indeed a powerful wind that refreshes and revives our concept of God!

"I Beseech Thee, Show Me Thy Glory" (Exodus 33:18).

Every preacher, I think, has a "greatest sermon" when the anointing of the Spirit of God rests powerfully upon him. I have always loved and had a deep respect for Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones since reading his sermons on John 1:22 entitled "Joy Unspeakable". However I was quite literally floored when I heard him preach during his Revival series on this prayer of Moses. It is strongly still in the vein of God "breaking out" as I was writing yesterday, so I wanted to include some key portions here. But above all, I want to urge you if possible to get the series and HEAR this sermon! It will change the way you see God breaking out (or ERRUPTING as the Doctor puts it!) into history forever.

"It is possible for an individual on his, or her own to have any one of these experiences that we are describing and illustrating from Scripture". Note that - it will be important to remember in some of the other things the Doctor says.

"Do we know anything about these advancing steps and stages? As we look back across our Christian experience, do we know what it is to rise, like this, from step to step, and from platform to platform? Do we know increasing boldness in the Presence of God, this increasing assurance and desire for yet more and more?".

"I am asking whether we know anything about this, simply because I have an uncomfortable feeling that it is true to say of so many of us, yes even those of us who are evangelical people, that our main characteristic is self-satisfaction. We have the feeling that we have arrived because we are converted ... all we have got to do is maintain the position and we may even be feeling superior to those who have not come yet as far as we have".

"How much evidence is there of a striving, of a seeking, of rising on the wings of faith, following in the footsteps of Moses and saying, "Oh I thank You for what you have promised but show me now Your glory?".

"What is the matter with us my friends? We who like to boast about our superiority over the Old Testament saints ... how do we compare to them in actual experience?".

"There is no doubt that as we advance in faith and in knowledge and in experience, we shall more and more desire God Himself and not only and not merely the things that are given to us by God".

"Christianity is to know God".

"Ah, but someone says, that has only happened to men in the Scriptures. No, that is not so. This is something that has gone on happening to God's people who have realised the possibilities and who, throughout the running centuries, have sought God Himself. Have you ever read of Jonathan Edwards describing his experience on it in a forest while he was there kneeling in prayer for about an hour? Have you read of David Brainerd, the great apostle to the American Indians, experiencing the glory of God and literally sweating, though it was cold? What was causing the sweating? Oh it was the glory, the character and transcedence of the glory!".

"You will find that when God manifests Himself by an outpouring of the Spirit, whose special work and commission it is to manifest the Lord Jesus and His glory and through Him, God Himself. You will find that you will often read of this; that men and women in the Presence of the glory and of this presence, have literally fallen to the ground, have fainted".

Note this quote! It is my favourite Dr Lloyd-Jones quote EVER!

"We were never meant to be content with a little".

Let me quote it again!

"We were never meant to be content with a little".

Oh go on - once more ...

"WE WERE NEVER MEANT TO BE CONTENT WITH A LITTLE"!

Dr Lloyd-Jones closes the sermon with some amazing quotes from Jonathan Edwards and C H Spurgeon. Let me indulge and quote Spurgeon:

"There is such a thing on earth as an infallible assurance of our election. Let a man once get that and it will anoint his head with fresh oil, it will clothe him with a white garment of praise and put the song of the angels in his mouth. Happy, happy man who is fully assured of his interest in the covenant of grace, in the blood of the atonement and in the glories of heaven!".

"What would some of you give if you could arrive at this assurance? Mark, if you anxiously desire to know, you may know. If you heart pants to read its title clear, it shall do so ere long. No man desired Christ in his heart with a living and longing desire, who did not find Him sooner or later".

Dr Lloyd-Jones has the last word:

"Are you on these steps? Hope, faith, assurance, full assurance, enjoyment, glory? Ask Him for it. Climb the steps. Follow the example of Moses. Enter boldly in faith and say to God, "Show me Thy glory" ... Seek glory. For yourself, SEEK IT!".

Article Reference List of this website available here.

The Lord our God is Breaking Out!

I have been transcribing a sermon that Dr Ern Baxter preached at my home church, New Covenant Church in Dunstable back in 1983 called "Sovereign Surprises". It is my hope to put it in its entirety on the blog for your use.

But I just couldn't resist giving a preview of some awesome quotes.

"A lot of Christian life is very plebeian and ordinary and mundane and unexciting and uninteresting and it shouldn’t be so. There should be an area of valid excitement that comes from having faith".

"We don’t have the option to get off the bus; for the simple reason that we are the ones who carry the mandate to change the world. It’s not the Conservatives, its not the Liberals, or the Progressives or the Communists or anybody else. We are the People of God! We are the new nation! We are the leavening agent! We are the light of the world – the salt of the earth! We are the people! Now in the light of that – look at yourself in the mirror and drop dead!"

"All through the Word of God there runs a line of information that tells us about God surprising people with His intervention"."Now in the burning bush, Moses got comissioned and is comissioned to deliver the children of Israel. Are you ready for a bush? If God suddenly breaks into your life and you see a pheneomenon like that, are you ready for it? Is it in your thoughts at all, this whole dimension of divine intervention? Or is tomorrow going to be like today?".

"Are we just going to go on in a kind of hum-drum existence - or do we have the biblical right to expect that God historically engaged in a process of divine intervention that gives us hope?".

I hope that gives a good preview! It really is a fantastic sermon that just had me riveted as I listened to it. This whole concept of God "breaking out" is one that isn't often spoken about. Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones seemed to touch on the same concept in his great sermons on "Revival" which I am reading again at the moment.

He said;

"We must ask ourselves how we can succeed if we do not have this authority, this commission, ths might and strength of power. We must become utterly and absolutely convinced of our need . We must cease to have so much confidence in ourselves and in all our methods and organisations and slickness. We have got to realise that we must be filled with God's Spirit" (p19)

"Are you really concerned about the present position (of the Christian church)? Are you desperately concerned about it? Are you praying about it? Do you ever pray for the power of God in the Church today?" (p19).

"(We must believe) the truth concerning the sovereign, transcendent living God who acts and who intervenes and erupts into the history of the Church and of individuals. I must start with that!" (p37).

The two sound very similar! I love that. We must believe in a sovereign, transcedent living God who acts, intervenes and ERUPTS into the history of the Church! I must finish by quoting this outstanding song that we sang at Stoneleigh Bible Week 2000 that really captures this essential concept of God "ERRUPTING" into history.

"Our God is strong and mighty, He's lifting up a shout,
It's rolling down like thunder, can you feel it shake the ground?
And every stronghold trembles, as we hear the Lion roar.

He's breaking out! The Lord our God is breaking out!
He's rising in this nation, He's coming into view.
Go tell it in the city, what Jesus' power can do.
We're losing our religion, He's even greater than we thought!
O God of mercy, God of love, come show us the glory of Your Name,
We're touched by the passion of Your heart, and nothing will ever be the same!".

Article Reference List of this website available here.

A Gem Found in a Haystack of Comments.

It is quite thrilling sometimes to read through the comments section of various blogs and find comments that sometimes far outshine the blog itself. I don't mean that in a derogatory way - it happens in most of my blogs if I'm the one writing! I wanted to highlight this particular extract by my friend Don. It is a fantastic and so true insight on the debate about the gifts of the Spirit. Read it!

"Cessationism forces God to work only in ways acceptable to minds trained by anti-Christian Enlightenment thinking: rationalism and skepticism. Cessationism is *really* based note on Scripture, but on a *perceived* lack of trustworthy evidence for the gifts continuing ... I submit that God's heart has not changed from ancient times. Moses wished all his people would prophesy. Paul wished all the Corinithians would prophesy. God today still wishes all Christians would prophesy. Why? To release His loving wisdom and edify the beloved Body of Christ, which so desperately needs both. It's all about releasing more of the power-filled *love* of God into this world. The death of Jesus on Calvary was the single best expression of God's love -- but He is so loving and so giving, He has many, many more expressions of His love that He wants to release, to glorify Jesus before living people today. The charismatic gifts are excellent, God-designed vehicles to release that love, particularly in combination with the properly preached and taught Word of God".

I think that quote carries much wisdom and insight and it thrills me.

Article Reference List of this website available here.

Pioneers versus Settlers.

A brief note: I was interested to note that there were a number of comments flying back and forth on the official report from the Shepherds Conference on "Evangelical Charismatics" given by MacArthur's research assistant. My good friend Don once again shared his invaluable and quite rare history within the confines of SGM there as well, so its worth a visist. The jist of the dilemma seems to be that there it is difficult to sketch out a "radical middle" (Gordon Fee) in the divide between 'continuationists' and 'cessationists'. They both preach and believe the same Word of God - yet can the same Word of God in one breath say that the gifts of the Spirit have ceased and in the other that they continue? Surely not. However the seminar of course went on to note that MacArthur and his people do not have a problem allowing a continuationist like Mahaney to preach from MacArthur's pulpit - so what is going on?

I however will resist getting bogged down in that debate. (I have deleted a number of drafts already!).

I wanted to use this entry to reproduce a very helpful table of comparison from Gerald Coates book (now out of print) entitled "What on Earth is this Kingdom?". This theme of "Pioneers versus Settlers" is really on my heart, particularly after reproducing Ern Baxter's notes on the "Kadesh Crisis" - and also with the upcoming Brighton Leaders Conference in mind. Pioneering is ALWAYS on the agenda at Brighton!

Settlers:

1. Are always counting and generally resisting the cost of change.

2. Giving themeslves to God to a degree, but it's calculated and is only 'upto a point'.

3. Doubleminded, afraid of making mistakes, continually stifled, their concerns are seldom translated into actions.

4. Using 'church' language - meetings, services, traditions, constitution, headquarters, balance, love (fear or sentiment in disguise), moderation, "we ought to", committees, reverence, "it can't be done".

5. Predictable, always on time, precise over tenth-rate issues, generally middle class, only relating to other middle-class folk and cautious to the point of immobility.

6. Eternal life is to be safeguarded and truth defended.

7. Concept of God - a perfect gentleman who never raises voice, never interupts plans already made (always agrees with and submits to the notice board), has a number of attributes some of which are better than others!

8. The Holy Spirit is talked about in a vague, often sentimental way. He is not actually expected to do anything and is often discouraged from doing so, hence the lack of miracles, specific answered prayers, certain gifts of the Spirit etc. He is regarded as being present at meetings and services, but in reality is only referred to when nobody knows what to do.

9. Sin is breaking with tradition, failing to observe cultural etiquette, abandoning cultural standards which are particularly offensive to middle-class, 'reverent' services/meetings. It often entails doing anything differently from the way it's been done for decades, even hundreds of years.

Pioneers:

1. "Constant change is here to stay" is their motto. They understand that change is the essence of organic growth.

2. Daily giving themselves to God in total abandonment and utter dedication to God's known will.

3. Single-minded, unafraid of making mistakes, doers and not merely thinkers.

4. Using kingdom language. Moving on, devotion to Jesus, obedience to His Word, taking the Scriptures seriously, heartfelt worship, serving others, God's rule in all their affairs, honouring the truth, sharing what they have with others.

5. Unpredicatable, less concerned about time but reliable, unconcerned about class and cautious only when it serves God's purpose.

6. Eternal life is to be enjoyed and explored and truth released.

7. No static concept of God, having only a living voice. God is seen as gracious but not British, in the habit of interupting plans made in His Name that He has little or nothing to do with.

8. The Holy Spirit is the dynamic, active, powerful breath of God. He is God and is therefore to be worshipped and obeyed. He may be in danger of being made too much of, which is a reaction to not being made anything of among the settlers.

9. Sin is doing anything that makes God unhappy - turning back from the course God has set, failing to seek after and obey the truth. In fact a pioneer deliberately risks making mistakes so that the vision, firmly implanted in people's hearts, may be implemented.

Article Reference List of this website available here.

"Paul, The Spirit and the People of God" by Gordon Fee.

I have been challenged and then hugely challenged following the sermons broadcast from Church of Christ the King, Brighton. It's a weekly Sunday afternoon treat for me! It's been even more interesting that the elders have been encouraging a re-read of Gordon Fee's great book; "Paul, the Spirit and the People of God". What a book! It is so eminently quotable, and furthermore it ties together two vital passions - the Church and the Spirit as these two are indeed inseparable.

This issue was raised in a previous blog by a reader who read a book entitled "Stop Dating the Church". The book includes a list of ten factors that are vital for choosing a church but, the reader noticed that the Presence of the Spirit wasn't included. This is concerning - and it is something that Gordon Fee would know nothing about. It is not surprising I guess that the Holy Spirit and His Presence is so high on Newfrontiers agenda, if they are encouraging such an outstanding book as this. Here are some of the most noteworthy quotes:

The Church and the Spirit.

"This personal, powerful experience of the eschatologial Spirit not only transformed them individually but made them effective in their being the people of the good news in pagan Greco-Roman culture. And this is why I think they had the better of it, and why we would do well to recapture something of that reality" (pix).

"Despite the affirmations in our creeds and hymns and the lip service paid to the Spirit in our occasional conversations, the Spirit has been largely marginalized both in the halls of learning and in the life of the church as a community of faith" (pxiv).

"This fresh reading of Paul will make clear that for him the Presence of the Spirit as an experienced and living reality, was the crucial matter from beginning to end" (pxv).

"The gathered church is the place of God's own Personal Presence by the Spirit" (p19).

"As with Moses but now by the Spirit we are unveiled as we enter the sanctuary to behold the glory of the Lord" (p21).

"By the Spirit's Presence one is now behind the veil in the very Presence of God, not only beholding God's glory in Christ but also being transformed into God's likeness from one degree of glory to another" (p21).

"It is for God's people of a later time like ours once more to grasp these realities by experiencing them if we are truly to capture Paul's understanding. Perhaps a beginning point for us would be to downplay the impersonal images (wind, fire etc) as rich as they are in terms of aspects of the Spirit's ministry and to retool our thinking in Paul's own terms, where we understand and experience the Spirit as the Personal Presence of the eternal God" (p22).

"God is not simply saving diverse individuals and preparing them for heaven, rather He is creating a people for His Name among whom God can dwell and who in their life together will reproduce God's life and character in all its unity and diversity" (p72).

The Spirit and His Gifts.

"Because the Spirit was present with His people, for Paul - His giftings were as normal as breathing and were intended for the building of the people in the present as they await the consumation" (p162).

"The prophet spoke to God's people under the inspiration of the Spirit. In Paul, such speech consists of spontaneous, understandable messages, orally delivered in the gathered assembly, intended for the edification or encouragement of the people" (p169).

"The evidence is considerable that a visible, charismatic dimension of life in the Spirit was the normal experience of Paul's churches" (p173).

"The reason for the gifts in the assembly is to build us up as we live out the live of the future in the present age. The Holy Spirit as the renewed Presence of God is with us in our gatherings for this very purpose" (p176).

Article Reference List of this website available here.

The Significance of Kadesh Barnea.

Some weeks ago I posted a blog on Ern Baxter's understanding of "The Land" and it's significance to us as believers. Of course anyone familiar with the story in the Old Testament will know that the children of Israel had been instructed to go into the land but ... "They came to Kadesh Barnea". In digging through my files I found an outline of Ern Baxter's sermon on this topic, and once again was profoundly amazed by the lessons that we as a people MUST learn - should God ever move in revival on His church again.

The Kadesh Crisis. (Numbers 13:26-14:38).

A. The Divine Timing. (Deut 1:6, 8; "You have dwelt long enough in this mount ... behold I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land").

i) Great revival moves are divinely timed.
ii) The present "charismatic" thing is divinely timed.

B. The Beginnings of Disobedience - the Spy Plan!

i) (Deut 1:21,22) "You came near unto me, everyone of you and said, "We will (God's will vs man's will) send men before us (man's direction vs God's direction) and they shall search out the land ...".

1. God had not said, "Go in and see if you like it!".
2. Since when were they to determine "by what way we must go up?" ... what had happened to the cloud?
3. They would decide whether they liked the will of God and if they did in what manner they would do it.

C. Moses Stoops To Pressure. "Vox populi, vox dei".

i) Deut 1:23 - "And the thing pleased me".
ii) Numbers 13:17 - "Moses sent them to spy out the land ... see the land, what it is (God's country) and the people that dwelleth there whether they be strong or weak, few or many (so what?) .... the land ... whether it be good or bad (God's land - bad?)".

1. It is NOT easy to be a leader!
2. Caught between God's Word and People Pressure.
3. God had said, "Go".

D. Who Were the Spies?

i) Numbers 13:3 - "All those men were heads of the children of Israel".
ii) Tribal leaders therefore responsible men.
iii) It is invariably the decisions of leaders that influence the people of God.

E. Yet Light In Darkness.

i) Numbers 13:16 - "And Moses called ... Joshua".
ii) Before the spies go into the land and the people refuse to obey, God has already marked out a man for something that WILL happen forty years later.
iii) In every move God is preparing a man to GO ON when that particularly movement of God dies through unbelief.
iv) The good of the past is perpetuated in the better of the new.

F. The Report of the Spies.

i) The Majority Report - "We are not able".
ii) The Minority Report - "Let us go up AT ONCE!".
iii) The Majority Rebuttal - "We are IN OUR OWN SIGHT as grasshoppers".
iv) The People collapse - "Let's get a new leader and go back to Egypt". Note: They died in the wilderness and didn't go back to Egypt.

G. The Divine Response.

i) Pardon - "I have pardoned them according to your word" - God listened to Moses intercession.
ii) Punishment - All were to be punished apart from Caleb and Joshua. The slanderous leaders died INSTANTLY ("Be not many leaders brethren ...").
iii) Promise - (Numbers 14:21) "As surely as I live - ALL the earth SHALL be filled with the glory of the Lord!". It was possible for Canaan, but failing that it WILL happen!

Summary: Pardon did not avert punishment. He continued to supernaturally provide for them until their death (common grace does not necessarily depart even if a generation has ignored God). He looks to a new man and a new people. "As SURELY ...!".

Article Reference List of this website available here.

Why HAVE a Conference?

In commenting on the Life in the Spirit Conference and the Shepherds Conference, a question caught my eye. Apparantly I wasn't very forthcoming on whether I would have liked to have been at either conference. That question got me thinking about conferences in general - and just WHY do we have them? And more particularly what do I seek to gain from going to the conferences that I do? For I realised that I do actually have a stringent criteria on which conferences I go to (because I do not have a pastors budget like some!).

For some it is to go to hear preachers of a sometimes internationally renowned standard preach and expound God's Word. For others it is to fellowship with like minded people in similar situations and environments (i.e pastors conferences). For some it may be simply to experience worship in a far larger situation than they normally have Sunday by Sunday. For some it may be even simply to add to their bookshelves! For others it may be actually to have a holiday among Christians where they know their children may be safe.

However Ern Baxter (and therefore I) was always very impressed by the verses in Exodus 23, Leviticus 23 and Zechariah 14:16-19 concerning Holy Convocations of the people of Israel and the fact that they would - "go up annually to worship". It seemed to me that God instituted these convocations for two reasons. 1. To worship Him. 2. To remember Him. Dr John Piper said that "Mission exists because worship doesn't". Worship is our absolute highest calling. There can never be any getting away from worship. John Stott said that the soul who does not worship is a pitiful soul. And it seems that God has promised faithfully in His Word that He is indeed present in a powerfully manifest way when His people gather in unity to exalt His Name.

The second reason for a conference in my mind is to remember Him. This is more than just preaching (if preaching can ever be described as 'just'). To me this is a re-statement of vision. A corporate look at where we have come from, where we are at and most importantly of all - where we are going. In my short experience of going to conferences, the most powerful of all have been when God Himself has come down and stamped His own theme upon the conference. Who can forget the Brighton Leaders Conference when John Goves prophecied about 'a second half'? So this remembering can indeed come out through the prophets present, but it most definately should be coming out through the preached Word. And for that reason, I am not often hugely excited about visiting preachers anymore. I used to be - and was known to chase some over the country! But an assessment of vision comes best through the fathers of a family of churches - therefore much of my excitement is saved for hearing what Terry Virgo has got to say. It used to be the same when I went to an SGM Celebration in Nottingham - I wanted to hear what C J Mahaney had to say!

So while I would never begrudge a conference that addresses criteria other than those that I have mentioned (all conferences have their uses I think) for me personally at present with a limited budget and limited annual leave, I must restrict myself to conferences that fulfill this: That I go to worship God - and to remember Him.

Article Reference List of this website available here.

Life in the Spirit ... and the Shepherds Conference.

This has been quite an unusual week for a conference lover like myself. I haven't actually been at any conference, but I have been keeping in touch with two conferences that seem to be going on virtually simultaneously - yet they are radically different. Life in the Spirit has been held at High Leigh, Hertfordshire (they did have a website but it doesn't seem to work anymore) and the Shepherds Conference has been going on in California, USA. I've been keeping in touch with Life in the Spirit through a pastor friend of mine there, who has been providing me with daily texts and if I'm really lucky, the occasional phone call. I've been following the Shepherds Conference through the liveblogging (a new phenomenon to me) from Tim Challies.

Speakers:
The speakers at Life in the Spirit were Greg Haslam of Westminster Chapel, London and Paul Reid of Christian Fellowship Church, Belfast. The speakers at the Shepherds Conference were, of course, Dr John MacArthur, Al Mohler, R C Sproul and Ligon Duncan. And yes, if three of the four from Together for the Gospel were there, you won't be surprised to know that C J Mahaney was also at the Shepherds Conference (he even played golf with MacArthur).

Themes:
The themes from the Shepherds Conference were again perhaps unsurprising. Having almost 15 years of familiarity with John MacArthur's ministry (I was introduced to him through reading "Charismatic Chaos") a lot of time was given to discernment, Romanism and judging heresy. One seminar that caught my eye was entitled; "Evangelical Charismatics" given by MacArthur's personal assistant. Apparantly the seminar opened by paying tribute to "charismatic men who have impacted his walk for Christ" - these were John Piper, C J Mahaney and Wayne Grudem (I would question whether at least two of those men actually even are charismatics).

There was a useful and interesting look at the continuationist versus the cessationist views. The seminar ended by asking the question perhaps on many people's minds. How is it that if MacArthur and Grace Community Church are such avid cessationists, yet they can stand with 'certain continuationist leaders' together for the gospel? (One supposes Mahaney is born in mind here). The answer? There are three levels of doctrine in the speaker (and therefore MacArthur's mind):

"Level 1: Doctrines necessary to recognize someone as a Christian, and in particular doctrines regarding the gospel and the person and nature of Christ. We cannot have unity with anyone who does not share these beliefs.

Level 2: Doctrines important for the formation and operation of a church or seminary. There are issues which must be confirmed to be on staff or to be member in a church. These would include, for example, infant or adult baptism, the charismatic gifts, etc. These do not forbid us from having a person teaching or preaching on occasion.

Level 3: Doctrines that we can disagree on but still have unity within a particular church. This could include dispensationalism eschatology, and so on. These are not issues that are unimportant, but are issues that do not mean a person cannot join a particular staff or church."

This was helpful for me in clarifying exactly what is going on in the USA particularly with TG4.

An interesting point I picked up on, came during the "annual Q and A" session that happens at the Shepherds Conference apparantly. MacArthur was asked about the practice of "naming and shaming" a public ministry if there is something that one doesn't agree with. He replied;

"When a book or ministry is public, it is exposed to necessary and public criticism. MacArthur invites criticism of his words. Once we put something out there it is subject to assessment and evaluation to guard both the truth and the people of the truth".

The themes from Life in the Spirit were to do with 'the Cross'. I suspect that theme was something of a broad outline as the messages didn't seem to follow that theme at all. Paul Reid spoke on Church culture and how it should touch (but often alienates) the seeker. Greg Haslam's messages were drawn from Exodus and Numbers - to do with Moses, and were apparantly extremely powerful (I have the CD's on order!). There was a seminar on the issue of "Emerging Church" presented by Andrew Whitman and Peter Cockrell.

Differences:
Life in the Spirit has traditionally been set up for the purpose of "Reformed Doctrine and Charismatic Experience". Therefore the worship is lively with contributions welcome. The worship leader used to be, till a couple of years ago, Chris Bowater - the well known songwriter, it is now a young leader from one of the Conference Committee's churches. Apparantly the conference benefited hugely from Greg Haslam's presence there - he brought a number of key prophecies that set the meeting alight so it seems!

By contrast the reporter from the Shepherds Conference noted that the "worship" was "several songs" led by a choir and orchestra and there was "one hand raised".

So What? ...
A good question. Well I wanted to write on this week because it has been quite unique. I am bound as I am able to only writing things on this website that I feel Dr Ern Baxter would have had an interest in - and I feel sure that he would have had a keen interest in two very different conferences that were occuring in the worldwide church of God (he did of course speak at Life in the Spirit in 1991).

But I must confess to being very impressed with the liveblogging that Tim Challies brought from the Shepherds Conference. I found it useful and could almost imagine myself there at the conference. Maybe this is something that we in the UK could learn from and put into practice for the conferences we are going to? Although being an IT-nerd, I wouldn't have a CLUE how to liveblog!

Article Reference List of this website available here.