What a great encouragement it is to realise that there are at least some evangelical and reformed minsters who not only believe but seek to implement the reformation principle of the final authority of Scripture in every aspect of church life. And they do exist, even in Northern Ireland. While there are many men who take the reformed evangelical tag, not all of them seek to submit everything in church life to the touch stone of Scripture. "To the Word and to the testimony" is not really in their vocabulary at all. And their church life demonstrates little or no evidence that this is their practice.
How often we see how local church leaders try to pressurise the minister of the Gospel into applying increasingly lower standards to church life, and all in a bid to increase numbers in the congregation. And how frequently it is that these church leaders try to squeeze the minister into their narrow and at times worldly mould.
But thank God for those good men who are prepared to stand up and proclaim the authority of Scripture in the church of Christ. This is an urgently needed emphasis in the church today. Men try to implement all their schemes in order to attract the world into the church of Christ, and they do this under the pretext of evangelisation. In reality, they want to be able to boast of their numbers and activities. They multiply organisations and in so doing bring division into church families and therefore into the church itself. Many churches have become caterers; they want to cater for every special interest group within its bounds. All age groups must be catered for, both (or all) genders, all needs.
But as it clearly the case in the biblical church, the greatest responsibility of the Christian Church is to be the proclaimer of the Gospel of saving grace in Christ Jesus alone. No other body has been given this responsibility, none. This is the church's unique domain and calling - to preach the word (Gk. keruxov tov logov, 2 Tim.4:2). Acts 2:42 details the practice of the infant church in Jerusalem, and they were all exclusively spiritual activities.
Once the church gets into all kinds of entertainment-type activities, she has departed from the clear mandate of Acts 2:42. The moment she becomes, or tries to become, 'all things to all men,' in the sense of trying to run something for everyone, she has diluted her energies by so doing.
The most pressing need for the church today is a return to the full and final authority of Christ in His Church. She must again submit herself to Christ's Lordship in all things. She must yield herself totally to her Lord and Saviour, a surrender that must become part and parcel of her activity and life. It is not sufficient just to renew a covenant of some kind if there is not a hearty response to the terms of the covenant. There must also be a constant drive for increasing submission to Christ as He has revealed Himself in the Scriptures. The church today must prostrate herself before God's Throne, seek His forgiveness for her coldness and unfaithfulness, and reconsecrate herself to Him in all things. She must be the church and not an mere institution. The life of Christ her Lord must not only be confessed but demonstrated in and through her life.
That will be a most costly business. She will have to deal with the unbelievers within her membership if she is to be submissive to Christ as Lord. She must ensure that her elders are godly men, and not, as so many are, filthy-mouthed, cursing and swearing blasphemers, not a few womanisers, and some extremely poor role models for the new generation. She must look again at her ministry and ascertain who is and who is not preaching the Gospel with power and faithfulness. A man may be an evangelical by profession but if his preaching is not a passionate presentation of Christ in all His saving fulness; if it does not plead with sinners to come to Him Who alone can save them; if it does not 'nail sinners to their pews' as they listen to the preaching, then they must be asked to re-train as preachers, or at least promise to conduct a deep assessment of their preaching ministry - its content and its approach - with their peers in the ministry who are preachers, and even bringing in outside specialists who have proved themselves as preachers of the Gospel. Ministers who are mere time-servers - and there are many - must be encouraged to leave the ministry or take early retirement, and not allowed to become Sunday supplies for the rest of their lives.
The ministry needs a radical shake-up if it is to 'cut the ice' in today's decadent world. The church be seen to be different from the world, not like it - as many are becoming.
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