Having shown that our conservative, traditional churches are not guilty of legalism, it is also necessary to show that our\u00a0 familiar form of local church polity is still closer to the New Testament pattern.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s letter to the church at Galatia was written mostly to combat (true) legalism, but it was also written to expose the antinomian license that can occur when believers fail to appreciate just how Christ has made them free from sin.<\/p>\n
Paul told the Galatians that there is an \u201coffense of the cross\u201d that must not cease (5:11).\u00a0 The Judaizing legalists would not be offended if Paul would also preach circumcision as necessary for salvation.\u00a0 Paul couldn\u2019t do that and so his gospel of salvation without the works of the law remained an offense to them.\u00a0 However, the Galatian libertines would not be offended if Paul would quit preaching on the sins of the flesh.\u00a0 But Paul said, \u201cThey that are Christ\u2019s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts\u201d (5:24).\u00a0 To the Roman and Colossian believers, he called this \u201cmortifying\u201d the flesh (Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5).\u00a0 Therefore, the doctrine of sanctification remained a stumblingblock to the libertines.\u00a0 Paul would end his great epistle by saying, \u201cBut God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world\u201d (6:14).<\/p>\n
Peter\u2019s great error in Antioch had been that he was afraid of the Pharisees, withdrew from the other believers and sided with these Judaizers.\u00a0 This caused some others, including Barnabas, to \u201cdissemble\u201d with him.\u00a0 The word dissemble means \u201cto be a hypocrite with\u201d (sunhupokrinomai).\u00a0 Now if Peter can be a hypocrite by joining the Judaizers, he could also be a hypocrite by joining the libertines as Demas once did.\u00a0 One error is as serious as the other.\u00a0 Either one is to cease from the offense of the cross rather than to crucify the flesh and its desires.\u00a0 As Paul wrote, \u201cFor do I now persuade men, or God?\u00a0 Or do I seek to please men?\u00a0 For if I pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ\u201d (Gal. 1:10).<\/p>\n
The Evangelical movement of the twentieth century sought to please men more than Christ and withdrew from their more conservative, fundamentalist brethren toward the world in hopes of winning the world.\u00a0 Though the experiment failed in comparison to the conservative movement,1<\/sup> many conservative churches are now \u201cdissembling\u201d with them, leaving their conservative roots to join a movement that is libertine in its local church philosophy.\u00a0 The offense of the cross has become weary to them and they seem glad to be in the good graces of the world.\u00a0 They asked the world what it wanted the church to be and then changed to that end.\u00a0 Of course, they have tried desperately to argue that this was good change, but the praise of the world hardly qualifies as a proper evaluation of the church.<\/p>\n The conservative church must remain what it is convicted it should be.\u00a0 Not only do we have Scripture on our side but we have the history of the church and evangelism also.\u00a0 No one is saying that this is an easy day to be conservative and traditional.\u00a0 Our young people have little stomach for it and it brings little recognition or success.\u00a0 But these things cannot be gauged by such standards, not even by the number of converts or the size of our churches!\u00a0 Our success can only be determined by our allegiance to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Somewhere God\u2019s people have to turn from the broader way and seek those things which are strait even if it seems costly.<\/p>\n \n Antinomian license, like true legalism,\u00a0 has misused the law of God.\u00a0 A legalist is working to earn God\u2019s grace because he has not let the law of God thoroughly condemn him in the flesh.\u00a0 He is still relying on his own ability to gain favor with God.\u00a0 But the antinomian has misused the law of God also.\u00a0 He feels no conviction for his sin, his conscience only excusing but not accusing his sin.<\/p>\n The problem of antinomian license is a far greater problem in the churches today than legalism.\u00a0 The sins of the flesh can keep a lost person from coming to Christ, since he cannot come without repentance, but these sins can also draw away believers into an ungodly and backslidden life.\u00a0 This person has experienced the law\u2019s conviction at salvation but has later stopped applying the Word of God to his Christian walk thinking that\u00a0 Christ\u2019s further commands have nothing to say to him at all.\u00a0 This state of carnality is a plague to the church.<\/p>\n \n A church will be conservative if it is holy.\u00a0 What is holiness if it is not being as God is?\u00a0 Jesus Christ \u201cloved righteousness and hated iniquity\u201d (Heb. 1:9).\u00a0 Holy living is the proper outcome of the gospel.\u00a0 Throughout the epistles we have these statements, \u201cAs ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him\u201d (Col. 2:6).\u00a0 Though there are three aspects to sanctification (past, present, future), the great majority of its application is to the present Christian walk.<\/p>\n When a sinner is under the condemnation of the law of God but is still yoked to the bondage of his fleshly nature, he is not living in liberty.\u00a0 Neither is a Christian exercising true liberty who allows his old nature to control him through the flesh. From the moment of salvation, old things ought to begin changing and new things ought to appear.\u00a0 I have written often that it is the older generation who understood this and practiced it when they first came to Christ.\u00a0 They went through this proper Christian transformation and have never gone back.\u00a0 The antinomians today accuse the older saints of not changing but the fact is they have!\u00a0 Now they are waiting for the younger generation to take the same step and venture out into the true liberty in Christ, the liberty that frees one from the old nature.\u00a0 Sadly, the younger generation does not change but continues to languish in the weakness and unprofitability of the flesh.\u00a0 This is not Christian freedom but bondage.<\/p>\n \n The local church is God\u2019s house made up of God\u2019s people.\u00a0 The church is not the world and though worldlings may visit with us they cannot be part of the church, the body of Christ.\u00a0 It is futile to try to make the lost world understand this.\u00a0 If they really did, they would immediately repent and believe the gospel.\u00a0 The purity of the church is vital to its relationship to Christ.\u00a0 He is the Head of the body, the Shepherd of the sheep, the Foundation of the house, the High Priest of the nation, the True Vine over the branches, and the Faithful Husband waiting at the altar for the virgin bride to be presented to Him without spot or wrinkle.<\/p>\n Within this wonderful group of God\u2019s saints, meeting in such privileged positions, is the command of the Head to be separate from the world.\u00a0 We don\u2019t need to be reminded that this separation is not monasticism nor cultic compounds but we do need to be reminded that we must \u201ccome out\u201d from among the things of this world (2 Cor. 6:17-18).\u00a0 In the space of one chapter Paul told young Timothy to \u201cshun,\u201d \u201cdepart,\u201d \u201cpurge,\u201d \u201cflee,\u201d \u201cavoid,\u201d and \u201cturn away\u201d (2 Tim. 2) from the world.<\/p>\n The purity of the church is so vital to its stewardship that it must purge the old leaven from among its midst (1 Cor. 5:7) lest the sin spread throughout the whole body.\u00a0 If the sin so spreads that it cannot be purged, the believer must separate.\u00a0 Paul removed the believers from those places where they could not remain pure (Acts 18:7; 19:9).\u00a0 This is not a defeatist or \u201choly huddle\u201d attitude (if you think so, I feel sorry for what you have missed), but rather an inner zeal for the Lord\u2019s house and a desire to enjoy freedom and fellowship with the brethren; to let His house be a house of prayer not a den of thieves.\u00a0 It is not that we don\u2019t want lost people to attend our churches, on the contrary, it is necessary for their eternal souls that they experience our culture not that we mimic theirs.<\/p>\n \n The great debate of the last century or more has been over what makes the church most effective for the gospel\u2019s sake.\u00a0 Fundamentalists have insisted that a compromising church cannot be as effective for God as an obedient church.\u00a0 Even when the so-called standards of success (usually nickels and noses) are applied by observers, the church abides by the standard of the Word of God alone.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 True work of God is not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of God (Zech. 4:6).\u00a0 The world\u2019s preferences are not the church\u2019s mandates.<\/p>\n This has been the principle and understanding of dissenters throughout the church age.\u00a0 Even persecution is better than compromise because the power of God can still rest upon a church that is obedient and holy.\u00a0 \u201cIf ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified\u201d (1 Pet. 4:14).\u00a0 \u201cAnd he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.\u00a0 Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me\u201d (2 Cor. 12:9).<\/p>\n The contemporary church is not more powerful because it has larger crowds.\u00a0 It is only large and flabby if it has compromised God\u2019s commands for holiness in His house.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s gospel was \u201cin power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance\u201d (2 Thes. 1:5).<\/p>\n \n The love of the brethren is greater than the love of the world.\u00a0 Though there is a love for any believer simply because he\/she is a kin to Christ, there is a vast and comprehensive love for what the brethren should be and, if you will, the ideal brother.\u00a0 This is a love for all that Christ asks us to be or become; for His commandments are not grievous but are as easy as His burden is light.\u00a0 Sin and immaturity are challenges to be overcome, not glorified and exalted in the church.\u00a0 Immaturity, laying hands too quickly on novices, hinders the love of the brethren.<\/p>\n If this be true, there is no greater joy than to be around those saints who have grown into maturity with Christ; those fathers (and mothers) who have known Christ from the beginning.\u00a0 Even the struggle of their older years (which is met with gracious acceptance, courage, and even humor), becomes the greatest example of all as their conversation is more and more in heaven where they look for their Savior and the changing of the corruptible into incorruption (of whom the world is not worthy!).\u00a0 We ought to feel sorry for the churches which have turned such saints out into the streets.\u00a0 Imagine young men telling the fathers they can get in or get out but they can\u2019t exercise their influence!\u00a0 Shame on us for such thinking.<\/p>\n \n I wonder if we are just afraid we will lose something here on earth.\u00a0 Will we lose our church buildings if we do not grow?\u00a0 Will we lose our schools if this generation doesn\u2019t choose our campus?\u00a0 Will we lose our support base for missionaries if our giving doesn\u2019t remain high?\u00a0 Will our children not like us and not walk in our same path?\u00a0 Will we (perhaps most feared of all) lose our popularity and platforms and applause, the ability to measure ourselves by ourselves and compare ourselves among ourselves?\u00a0 Then, brethren, we have our reward!<\/p>\n If we have but two or three gathered in His name who are seeking favor only with the Lord Jesus Christ, then we should be happy in church, in witness, and in fellowship.\u00a0 It just may be, if that is indeed what we desire, that the Lord again may give us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, not as our motive for service, but as a result of His blessing.\u00a0 Then we could truly say,\u00a0 \u201cUnto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.\u00a0 Amen\u201d (Eph. 3:21).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Having shown that our conservative, traditional churches are not guilty of legalism, it is also necessary to show that our\u00a0 familiar form of local church polity is still closer to the New Testament pattern.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s letter to the church at Galatia was written mostly to combat (true) legalism, but it was also written to expose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[143,164],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-church","tag-legalism-license-liberty"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Problem of the Law<\/h2>\n
The Blessing of Holiness<\/h2>\n
The Church as the Church<\/h2>\n
The Church Must be Effective<\/h2>\n
The Love of the Brethren<\/h2>\n
And So . . . .<\/h2>\n