The Sword Room

Here in the Pacific Northwest the churches have one thing in common with Starbucks–there is one on every corner. Well, almost. Then there is the main regional competitor to Starbucks here in Whatcom County, Woods Coffee. After that you have Tully’s, Seattle’s Best, and a host of small mom and pop operations following in their wake. No one seriously threatens Starbucks, although in certain locations Woods puts a small dent in their business. The smaller shops specialize in exotics and offer a homier atmosphere. They know they will never be up there with the giants of the designer coffee industry, so they don’t even try.

In the past two months I have had a sampling of churches in the area: big churches, tiny churches, mid-sized churches–you name it, I’ve seen it. After thirty-two-plus years of preaching myself, the church-hopping experience has been a real eye opener. The really big churches that are filling their buildings to capacity offer two things: production-quality music and specialized small groups for every imaginable demographic category and sub-category. In the services of these churches there is very little emphasis on sound doctrine or the preaching/teaching of the Word. There are quite a few smaller and mid-sized churches trying to implement their model in hopes of keeping a few more bodies in the building.

Yesterday on a whim I attended a small congregation that has been around for years. I have driven past it literally hundreds of times but have never visited on a Sunday. There were maybe forty very warm and friendly believers there who seemed to know and like each other. A very sincere man stood and led in some of the great old hymns. The congregation then spent about ten minutes sharing needs and praying for one another. The young pastor preached a really passionate sermon on the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The message was well-prepared and well-delivered. The content was excellent, and his theology was sound.

I couldn’t help but be amazed when I thought that every week scores of people pass this church on their way to one of the mega-congregations. This young guy preaches his heart out week after week, and he is like a well-kept secret. To change the figure, he is like the hole-in-the-wall diner frequented by a select few who are in the know and love good old-fashioned food, while hundreds of others plough through the drive up line at the Burger King down the street for whoppers and fries.

My heart goes out to this young preacher, his family, and his congregation. I have been where he is at, and I have done what he is doing. Only I started back in the 1970s when you could at least find a few believers who knew the Bible and cared about sound doctrine. This young man has a whole career ahead of him and, honestly, I don’t envy him a bit, considering the direction our culture is headed.

But we need young men who are devoted to God and His Word. Now is not the time to throw in the towel and adopt the if-you-can’t-beat-them-then-join-them philosophy. The reason Americans are so biblically illiterate and doctrinally ignorant is that from the schoolhouse to the churchhouse and everywhere in between we have de-emphasized Scripture and theology in favor of feel-good humanistic philosophy. Just go to the local Christian book store and you will see. It used to be that these venues offered Bibles and a few other assorted items. Now they are massive emporiums of self-help, psychobabble, so-called Christian fiction, magazines, music, greeting cards, plaques, and other assorted varieties of knick-knack items, trinkets, and junk.

So you young bucks preaching the Word keep your chin up and be faithful to the Word. No one will write books about you, but God sees your faithfulness. You might need to take outside work to support your family, as I had to do. But one thing I can tell you from experience–I would not trade the years I have spent immersing myself in God’s Word for anything. There was a time when I looked enviously at the guys leading the huge churches. But I have seen them fall time and time again, so much so that I can assure you that all that glitters is not gold. Hang in there, my brothers in ministry! You need not be Starbucks to offer a great cup of coffee.

In Proverbs 29:18 we read that, “Where there is no vision the people perish.” Last night I had a great phone conversation with a close friend living in Seattle. For years I have watched him grow in his faith and develop into a first-rate Christian thinker. God has blessed him with a wonderful Christian wife. The Lord has taken him through some real wilderness wanderings in terms of his employment situation. But in talking with him last night I sensed a focus and vision that was never apparent in him before. He has had the opportunity to do substitue teaching in some private Christian schools lately, and his passion for this vocation is at the highest level ever. I love it! Out of his desert experience has come a clear sense of the Lord’s providential hand. This guy is going places now–believe it.

His story resonates with my own recent experience. Three months ago I thought my pastoral ministry was over. For the first time in my thirty-eight year history as a believer I questioned the call of the Lord on my life to preach and teach. But God’s Spirit has changed that! Suffice it to say the past three months have been the most exciting for us in years. This site has reached thousands of people who have watched the videos and read the blog posts. We are running a spiritual fight club every Wednesday night, and God blows me away every week with the sheer spiritual edification the brothers provide with their genuine fellowship. Many calls have come in asking when I will resume the teaching of the Word; and we have planned a get together by invitation for those who have indicated an interest. Like my friend in Seattle, my sense of focus, calling, and vision has never been this sharp.

Anyway, it is a new day for my friend in Seattle. It is a new day for the ministry of Grace Community Church. May God renew your sense of passion and vision and make the day new for you.

In the opening verses of Acts Fifteen we see how Satan attempted to inject chaos into the life of the Gentile church in Antioch, thereby quenching the work of the Holy Spirit. One of the enemy’s favorite devices for achieving this end is legalism. Legalism is simply telling people that God commands them to do something which in fact He has not commanded. In this case it was circumcision: “Unless you are circumcised according to the tradition of Moses you cannot be saved” (v. 1). You could substitute circumcision with baptism, speaking in tongues, joining the church and any number of other conditions. The tricky thing here was that God had in fact commanded circumcision; but he had not commanded it for these Gentile believers. And it was never a condition of salvation.

Notice that the introduction of the legalistic requirement automatically relegated the uncircumcised believers to the realm of the unsaved. Think of how many genuine Christians have lost assurance of salvation because some so-called Bible expert came along and told them they had to follow this or that rule to be saved. The entire book of Galatians deals with this problem, and it crops up frequently in Paul’s epistles.

The first order of business at the Jerusalem Council was to establish the fact that these Gentile believers had been genuinely saved by faith in Christ–apart from circumcision or any other legal requirement. Here is a great theme of the New Testament: we are pronounced righteous, or justified, by faith alone in Christ alone.

However, the Jerusalem Council does not stop there. They wrap up their deliberation by drafting a letter to be read in the churches of the Gentiles. In this letter they instruct their brethren to abstain from four things: meat sacrificed to idols, fornication, things strangled, and blood. The only item on the list strictly forbidden by Scripture for Gentile believers is fornication. But all four items have something in common: they are elements of pagan religion in which idolatry and temple prostitution played a central role. Basically, the spiritual leaders of Jerusalem are offering wise counsel to the Gentile Christians to keep their new found faith in Christ in balance, or perspective. Salvation by faith means freedom from legalism, but it does not mean freedom to live a lawless life.

In Romans 6:1 Paul addresses this potential overreaction: “Shall we continue in sin that grace might abound?” Sometimes it is wise to accept the exhortation of older and wiser believers when it comes to questionable issues that are neither condemned nor condoned in the Word of God. Yes, we are free in Christ; but we are free to serve and glorify God, not our flesh. The cry of the heart of a truly regenerate believer is to glorify God. Yes, the flesh has its cravings too, unfortunately. But God’s Spirit is more powerful than indwelling sin, and progressively He transforms us into the image of Christ through the process of sanctification.

Bottom line: don’t allow legalism to sap you of your joy and assurance. On the other hand, don’t assume it’s open season to do whatever your flesh tells you to do. When in doubt seek the godly advice of a seasoned saint whose counsel you value and trust.

“So shall my Word be which goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:11).

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16).

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, and of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).

As I read through Acts I am impressed by the Apostles’ commitment to the Word. They resist all temptation to pander to the wants and “felt needs” of their hearers. They stay on message. That is the job of the messenger–to communicate the truth precisely and intelligibly. The result, or effect, is God’s responsibility. We see how in Acts 13:48 when the Jews rejected the message and Paul turned to the Gentiles, they “glorified the Word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”  This is the pattern throughout the Bible: preach the Word and let the chips fall where they will. You see it in the prophets of the Old Testament, in the ministry of Christ, and in the book of Acts. Be true to the word and leave the results with God. Hungry sheep will devour an accurately handled word, and goats will turn up their noses and continue to feed on garbage.

I was really blessed last night at our fight club meeting. I and another brother were ready for an encouraging word, and one of the guys was really jacked up about some things he had learned in John Ch. 4. We had a great time listening to our bro. as he excitedly shared his thoughts with us. It was so simple and yet so powerful. Hungry sheep and a sincerely shared word. To me it doesn’t get any better than that. I love it!

Last Sunday as I sat enduring another Sunday morning sideshow, I looked at my wife and son and read the expressions on their faces. Imagine the look on the face of a famished person who had waited an hour for his meal and then was served a rice cake. I cannot help but think there are scores of hungry sheep out there who long like babes for the pure milk of the Word. Yes, milk. As the old TV commercial said, every body needs it. I have been a believer for many years, and I have studied and taught Scripture for my entire adult life. And I need the Word. The pure basic simple Word, with no frills. On a daily basis I talk to beleaguered believers, mostly males but some gals, who are craving the Word just like I am.

The upshot of this blog post is that my experience in churchgoing has led me to this conclusion: Pastor Pete will never feel comfortable sitting in the pew because he belongs in the pulpit. I told Connie that her husband has never been a pew-sitter, and he is not about to start now. We are gearing up to start a new Bible study soon. There is an informational meeting about this coming up. We are not making the details known publicly, but if you are interested in knowing more, please use the contact link to get in touch with us, and we will pass along the pertinent info. to you.

This seems to be the guiding principle of much of today’s ministry. After thirty-two-plus years of preaching virtually every Sunday, it is a real eye-opener to visit various churches. One Sunday I was greeted in the foyer by a bank of coffee and espresso makers and an assortment of muffins, croissants, and scones. Another Sunday half the service was taken up by a young man wearing a Seattle Seahawks jersey running through the auditorium interviewing various small group facilitators and blowing a whistle every few minutes. Without exception every church I have visited has had a full worship band playing production-quality music. The words to the songs–many of which I was unfamiliar with–were projected on screens in various locations. Very pleasant and nicely done.

About the most curious thing I noticed was that almost no one seems to carry a Bible to church anymore, and no more than about twenty minutes is spent on the sermon. In fact in one service I visited the pastor did not open his Bible once or make any reference to Scripture. As I surveyed the crowds in attendance at these churches, everyone seemed to be having a whopping good time.

When I contrast what I have seen in the churches the past few weeks with the picture of church life presented in Acts I feel an uneasiness that goes beyond culture shock. In Acts 2:42 it tells us that the first Christians were “continually devoted to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.” Then over in Acts 11:26 we read how Paul and Barnabas labored for an entire year teaching the gentile converts in Antioch. The teaching of the word was so important to Paul that when he was in Ephesus he rented a lecture hall and taught the believers there for two years (Acts 19:9-10). In Paul’s farewell address to the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20) he reminds them of his commitment to the teaching of the Word and warns them to use what he has imparted in combating false teachers (wolves). In 1 Corinthians 14 the emphasis is on edification, or the spiritual  up-building of believers through the intelligible communication of divine truth.

Nowhere do you see the apostles sitting down and putting their heads together to find out what the “felt needs” of the unbelievers were. Nowhere in Acts do you see any reference to music or to the apostles emphasizing the need to put together  quality worship teams in the churches. There are two references to singing in the Pauline Epistles (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16), but the clear emphasis is on teaching and admonishing.

What am I saying? Should the teaching of the Word be given equal time with the music ministry? No! It should be given priority. Much of today’s so-called worship music is emotional fluff with no doctrinal content. It makes you feel good in the moment, but it gives you little or nothing in terms of true edification and spiritual growth. Feed on it for years, and spiritually you are no better off. Junk food tastes great to little kids. They will choose candy and chips over nutritious food every time. Imagine parents feeding their kids junk food every night just to get them to the dinner table. This is what many churches do. They offer fluffy music and slim to no teaching. This makes for happy goats and sick sheep.

When I go out to eat in a restaurant, I couldn’t care less about the fancy wallpaper or furniture. The expensive lighting fixtures are pleasing to the eye, but I am not there for the aesthetics. Violin players and cute waitresses are fine; but one thing trumps them all for me–the food. All other things considered, my first trip to your restaurant will be my last if you do not feed me a good meal–tasty, nutritious, and in sufficient quantity. Same with churches. I don’t care how fancy your building is, or how professional your music is. I am not there for refreshments or an entertaining dog and pony show. That pastor had better open his bible and keep it open long enough to dispense some hearty food for the soul. If he doesn’t, nothing else he does or doesn’t do amounts to a rat’s rump to me. And I won’t be back.

And neither should you.

Is it just me, or are there a lot of famous people lately saying very outlandish things for which they must then apologize? It is one thing to speak the truth, and it is another to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). Sometimes biblical truth hurts, and there is no way around it. No apology necessary there.

But in many cases it is not a matter of what one says, but how he says it. “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1). Then, again, there is the problem of speaking without listening and in so doing speaking to a point that is non-existent. Ever had someone inaccurately respond to what he thought you were saying? “But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger” (James 1:19). I suspect in the cases of the celebrity slip-ups it is a matter of engaging the mouth before the brain. When this happens we end up with our foot jammed into our mouth, and then we are left with the chore of pulling it out. Messy embarrassing business.

As Christians we are encouraged to speak words that are “good for edification, according to the need of the moment, that they might give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29). I knew a woman once who claimed to be a believer, but never had a good word to say to about anyone. The first word out of her mouth was always a critical, negative, challenging statement. She offended and repelled others, but did not seem to care. But God does not want us to use our tongues as instruments of bitterness, self-righteousness, arrogance, rudeness, and hate. Instead we must make it our ambition to speak words that build up our fellow believers and point unbelievers to the Savior. Make this your prayer daily, and be on the lookout for opportunities to bless rather than curse with the tongue.

Like the celebrities mentioned you will probably need to apologize for a hasty flippant statement at some point. It happens to all of us. Just don’t make a habit of it.

We are well aware that saving faith is a free gift (Eph. 2:8-9) that does not originate in us as sinners but is bestowed on us by God in the process of regeneration. Thus, no one is able to boast in having come to his/her senses and trusted the Savior.

What about repentance? Whenever I talk about justification by faith alone someone will object: “But what about repentance? Isn’t repentance necessary for salvation?” Interestingly enough, in the one book of the Bible written specifically to tell us how to be saved (See John 20:31.) faith and believing are mentioned scores of times, but there is not a single reference to repentance. Likewise in Romans, another book with a strong focus on faith and salvation, repentance is not stressed. Does this mean repentance is not necessary?

Not at all. But what is repentance? Contrary to what you might have heard, repentance is not a turning from sin. It does not necessarily involve feeling sorry for sin, weeping, going forward in a meeting, or promising to try harder. The word we translate repent is metanoia in Greek, which denotes a changing of the mind. The word is to be understood in terms of its object, whether it be wrong thinking about God, sin, salvation, or the church. If a person does not believe he is a sinner he must repent and change his thinking about this. If he thinks of God in a pantheistic sense he must think differently to be saved. Repentance, then, is  presupposed or implied when we talk about salvation. And not only salvation: as we grow in the process of sanctification, our minds are renewed daily, which involves ongoing repentance in many areas. Just as we continually trust Christ after initially believing on him for justification, so too we repeatedly repent whenever God’s Word and Spirit convict us of bad thinking. So in this sense repentance can be doctrinal and theological as well as moral. If our theology stinks (Hint, hint, all you dispy-Arminian-psychobabbling da-dee-ists.), then we must repent of embracing false doctrine.

In Acts 11:18 the Jews responded to Peter’s report of the conversion of Cornelius and his household by saying: “Well, then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.” Like saving faith, repentance is gifted to us in the process of regeneration. What this means is that just as you cannot by human persuasion cause a sinner to believe, so also by intellectual debate you cannot cause a sinner whose mind is darkened by sin to repent. Only God can produce genuine repentance in a person’s heart. So stick to the gospel message and trust God to regenerate hearts and produce faith and repentance according to His sovereign will.

The ground is level at the cross. God is no respecter of persons, regardless of their power. prestige, and position in the world. This is a strong theme in Acts Ten.

Upon meeting Peter Cornelius fell at his feet, but the apostle told him to get back to his feet, “For I too am just a man” (v. 26). The irony here is that under normal conditions the big fisherman would be fearful of this powerful military commander, just as he cowered in the courtyard of the high priest on the night of Jesus’ arrest. At the snap of a finger a man like Cornelius could have a Jewish man scourged, beaten, or even killed. He could force him into some act of labor in the service of Rome.

Peter will have none of it. Unlike many of today’s prominent preachers, he was not interested in drawing Cornelius to himself, but instead pointing him to Christ. Peter does not receive the worship of man, nor does he defer to the authority of this Roman officer. For Jesus Christ alone is the one before whom everyone must bow the knee. As we read in Galatians, this was a lesson Peter had to learn more than once: God is no respecter of persons. What he has called clean let no one call unclean. The ground is level at the foot of the cross!

Another lesson here is that God saves all kinds of sinners. This is the message of 1 Timothy 2:1 where we are told to pray for those in positions of civil leadership. God can and does regenerate people from all social, economic, and educational levels. Never underestimate the power of His Spirit, for He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him (Heb. 7:25).

In Acts 10:2 Cornelius the Roman Centurion is described as “a devout man, and one who feared God with all his household…and prayed to God continually.” But Cornelius had never heard of Jesus Christ and was technically unsaved. Some will object and say Cornelius was already saved “in the Old Testament sense” (whatever that means). But in relating the Cornelius incident to the Jews in Judea later, Peter recounts that the angel had told Cornelius that “he (Peter) shall speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household” (Acts 11:14). Similarly we read in Acts 16:14 of Lydia, who was a “worshipper of God” before God opened her heart to receive the gospel message spoken by Paul.

The obvious question is: How can an unbeliever be described as godly, devout, and a worshipper of God? The answer to this question is that in these Acts passages we see examples of the calling/regenerating/drawing process of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the elect, as described in John 6:44 and Romans 8:29-30. At the point a person believes the gospel message God has already been working in his/her heart in preparation for the implanting of the free gift of saving faith. This process, which precedes faith, is called regeneration, or the new birth. Contrary to popular opinion, being born again comes before rather than after faith. Why? Because in the unregenerate state man is dead in trespasses and sins and thus incapable of responding to the general call of the gospel (Eph. 2:1). He must be made alive before he can believe, and at the point of faith he has already passed out of death into life (John 5:24). If a person could believe the gospel before he was born again then his saving faith would be a product of his dead unregenerate flesh, and he could boast in having caused himself to be born again. 1 Peter 1:3 declares, however, that God is the one who causes us to be made alive in Christ in regeneration.

Watch my short video series on regeneration where this subject is treated at length. Suffice it to say here that the Bible teaches a monergistic rather than synergistic view of the new birth. Simply put, God unilaterally regenerates us, and we do not cooperate with Him in the process. To be sure we do participate in salvation when we believe; but we do not believe until God makes us alive and imparts the free gift of saving faith.

In terms of evangelism it is encouraging to see that God prepares the hearts of sinners to receive the saving message of the death and resurrection of Christ. God saves sinners! Keep praying for your friends, relatives, colleagues, and fellow students. Pray that God would quicken and incline their hearts toward Him, as he did in the cases of Cornelius and Lydia. May the Lord give us discernment and sensitivity to observe His preparatory work in the hearts of those with whom we associate daily. And may we be ready in and out of season to give a timely word.

Last night I was enjoying a cup of coffee with a Christian brother in the Fight Room. This is the backdrop you see in my videos. It used to be a garage, but I insulated it and finished it with lots of rough wood, concrete floor stained to look like a greasy mechanic-shop; animal hides, heads, and antlers aplenty; leather couch and a few chairs around a pellet stove; my books on the wall; and all my musical gear and sound equipment at one end for jamming. And, of course, a collection of those evil firearms (secured in a locked gun safe but periodically displayed for the mutual admiration of the brothers). No wallpaper or eggshell-colored paint; no doilies, potpourri, or vanilla candles, etc… But Bibles everywhere!! The perfect place to enjoy fellowship with the guys over burgers, dogs, or my famous BBQ ribs! You guys see what you’re missing? When will you losers ever get it through your heads to join us on fight club night? Remember that contact link?

Anyway this brother and I were talking about the 9-11 attacks and how many who lost loved ones also lost their so-called faith in God. Admittedly, it is difficult to understand how the God who “works all things after the counsel of His will” would allow such horrendous evil. Then again, without God the concept of evil is irrational and absurd. The bottom line is that God can do as he pleases, and he can allow evil and natural disaster in His universe if he so chooses. Why he has decreed these things is a mystery. But if we do not believe in the absolutely sovereign God of the Bible, then in times of pain and suffering we have no one who is in control that we can lean on, depend on, and trust. Without God the events of our lives are random events with no meaning,and we are just a bunch of chemicals with no value.

The God of the Bible is the only God there is. Like Isaiah Forty tells us, there is no other. He doesn’t always do things the way we would like; but He always knows what he is doing, whereas we seldom do.