MIND YOUR LANGUAGE! What your talk says about you.

We live in an age of irreverence. Is anything not turned into a joke and ridiculed? When vulgarity and ignorance abound, what is sacred is devalued and decried. This is especially so where speech is concerned.
Whereas filthy ‘four-letter’ vulgarity reflects ignorance and bad taste in ordinary conversation, swearing and blasphemy indicate enmity against God.

This evil tendency is highlighted in the Holy Bible in the Third of the Ten Commandments: ‘YOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD YOUR GOD IN VAIN, FOR THE LORD WILL NOT HOLD HIM GUILTLESS WHO TAKES HIS NAME IN VAIN’ (Exodus 20: 7).

WHAT’S IN A WORD?
Words are more than mere sounds. Together with actions, they express our inner thoughts and feelings, attitudes and dispositions. As bad grammar and vocabulary suggest ignorance, so blasphemy and swearing reveal rebellion towards God. The word reveals the heart.

LOVE AND LIP
As we speak respectfully of those we love, so God should be spoken of with reverence and majesty. It is common to speak well of friends and badly of enemies. Thus we indicate what is valuable or valueless in our
estimation. Thus, ‘to take God’s name in vain’ reveals that God means nothing to us.

WHY CHRISTIAN BLASPHEMY?
It is remarkable that swearing usually violates the sacred names of Christianity: ‘O my God!’, ‘Good Lord!’ and ‘Jesus Christ!’ are common.  Why is swearing confined to these? In the increasingly multi-faith west, we
don't hear ‘O Buddha!’, ‘Good Vishnu!’ or ‘Mohammed!’ Sometimes, ‘Good Lor!’ (from ‘Good Lord’), ‘Gorblimey!’ (derived from ‘God blind me’) and ‘Crikey!’ (derived from ‘Christ kill me’) are seen as less irreverent substitutes.

It is not uncommon for bishops and other clergy to use these expressions in an attempt to be ‘trendy‘. During the 1960s, John Robinson, Bishop of Woolwich attempted to update our understanding of God with a heterodox book entitled Honest to God. An orthodox reply was called For Christ’s Sake. Pleas for social action by clergymen have often included such expressions borrowed from the language of irreverence and blasphemy.

WORDS THAT CONDEMN
The fact remains that an evil tongue reveals an evil heart. Filthy talk reveals filthy thoughts. Swearing is a symptom of a spiritual disease. Let us see how the Bible uses the tongue to diagnose our true state:

1. The Lord Jesus Christ compares our nature and inclination to a hissing snake! ‘Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things’ (Matt.12: 34).

2. Quoting from Psalms 5: 9, 140: 3 and 10: 7, the Apostle Paul exposes human sin similarly: ‘Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practised deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness’ (Rom.3:13-14).

3. The Apostle James doesn’t waste words exposing religious hypocrisy: ‘But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so’ (Jas.3: 8-10).

Notice how the snake or serpent is invoked in every case. Satan assumed this form in the garden of Eden (see Gen.3:1-15). Human nature is infected with his poison. Thus to blaspheme and swear is to side with God’s enemy. Hence Christ could say, “You are of your father the devil...there is no truth in him...he is a liar and the father of it” (Jn.8: 44).

Since the ultimate falsehood is to blaspheme God’s holy name, it is no wonder that human guilt is specifically measured in these terms in the third commandment. A godless tongue, reflecting a godless heart, is the source of atheism and all utterances against the being, majesty, holiness and goodness of God. Even to speak of other deities and prophets in language applicable only to God in Christ is to take His holy name in vain!

WORDS THAT JUSTIFY
Since sins of the tongue define our guilt so specifically, our need of salvation is sharply focused. A Christian is one whose heart has been purified by faith (see Acts 15: 9). When the Holy Spirit brings us to repentance and faith in Christ, a change of speech reflects a change of heart: ‘for if you confess with your mouth the
Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation’ (Rom.10: 9-10).
Confessing Christ as Lord and Saviour is thus the way we are acquitted from guilt. Sinful words of unbelief are cancelled out by righteous words of faith: ‘But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgement. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned’ (Matt.12: 36-7).

CHRIST OUR ADVOCATE
Cleansing from sin and truthful speech are linked by the Apostle John (see 1 Jn.1: 5-10). However, every Christian knows that believing hearts are far from perfect (see Matt. 26: 74). Hence we must pray with David, ‘Unite my heart to fear your name’ (Ps.86: 11). Our hearts struggle with falsehood still, like an ongoing civil war within (see Paul’s experience in Rom.7: 13-25). Hence the Apostle John describes Christ as our ‘advocate‘: he speaks with perfect righteousness and judgement before God on our behalf (see 1 Jn.2:2). Thank God for the Lord Jesus ‘who committed no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth’ (Isa.53: 9; 1 Pet.2: 22). Those who speak for Christ may be sure that Christ speaks for them. Those who love his name are beloved of him. Those who hate to take his name in vain will never trust him in vain!

Dr Alan C. Clifford
NORWICH REFORMED CHURCH
www.nrchurch.co.nr
 

Can Church Failure Last?

Evangelicals in the mixed denominations must take responsibility for two things. First, they must seek to convert those who do not preach the Gospel and teach the truth; and second, on failing that they must condemn them and their teaching for the good of the Church and the glory of the Church's Great Head and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

To fail here is to fail everywhere.

Having succeeded in those two essentials, they must then remove every member from the church role and start again.  John Wesley's method might prove a good guide here.  Not only must prospective church members profess their faith in the triune God, they must also give evidence that their faith is alive and that they are assured of their standing before God.

To fail here is to compound failure everywhere.

Barnes and Noble Ebooks - Hazlett Lynch

The Barnes and Noble website now features for sale 16 of my books.  Please click here to find something of interest to you.  When you buy any of these ebooks, they are instantly downloadable to your computer or ebook reading device.

This is my ministry and only means of support.  Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

English Defence League, Norwich march: Dr Clifford responds

PUBLIC STATEMENT

 

Since Norwich City Council's ban of Norwich Reformed Church is cited as a reason for the planned EDL march (Norwich Evening News, 21 June 2012), I wish to provide the following clarification:

 

1. I have no connection with either the EDL or the BNP, even though they rightly endorse my Christian criticisms of Islam.

 

2. My objections to Islam are ideological not racial. Indeed, I have more affinity with Asian Christians than English atheists.

 

3. Opposed to both 'Left' and 'Right' political extremism, my stand on the Islamic threat is faith-inspired.

 

4. Norwich City Council's intolerance towards me is to be blamed for the planned EDL march. Extremes provoke one another.

 

5. The appalling collapse of Christian conviction in the UK is also to be blamed for Muslim encroachment. 

 

6. Cowardly 'PC' Christian capitulation before the Muslim menace, is to be blamed for political fringe activity.

 

7. The liberal-secular dismantling of the UK's Christian heritage is to be opposed by all lawful means, religious and political.

 

8. The only hope for a harmonious, prosperous and peaceful society is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

The Revd Dr Alan C. Clifford

Man-Made Confessions OK, But Man-Made Hymns Not OK!

There is an irony, is there not, when certain churches refuse to use what they describe as man-made compositions in the worship of God, but stick rigidly to man-made confessions to measure a man's or church's orthodoxy? 

Man-made confessions are used to ensure a particular interpretation of Scripture but man-made hymns must not be used under any circumstances.

In fact, they would fight and argue against, and demonise, those who say a wrong word about man-made confessions, defending such man-made confessions to the hilt.  However, they do not defend the use of hymns (also, in their view, man-made compositions) in the worship of God.

How do they differentiate between these two practices?  The only way is by using verbal gymnastics to convince those who are still undecided, and they do it to their own satisfaction.

Never Preach From Notes!

Dr Clarence Edward Macartney was quite a remarkable man.  From Scottish stock, his family moved to North America.  Approaching his final year in theological seminary, he was determined to follow the two precepts given to students by Dr David J. Burrell, which were:

"always have a clear outline and never preach from notes or with a manuscript."

Where would this leave some of us, I wonder!  In an eariler post I had stated that probably the reason why so much preaching is powerless is that the preacher places too much reliance upon his study preparation than upon the Lord's gracious enabling at the point of sermon delivery.  

Macartney never preached from notes and in 1946 he published a book entitled, Preaching Without Notes.  This book was reprinted by Baker Books in 1976. 

My challenge to preachers and to myself is to preach without notes.  To make this a bit easier, take only the briefest outline into the pulpit with you, and allow the Lord by His Spirit to give you the message He has for the congregation on that occasion.

What a challenge!  Are you up to it?  Am I?

Charles Simeon's - Don't Be A System Christian

The great Cambridge theologian and preacher, Charles Simeon, told his students not to be system to

"Be a Bible Christian and not a system Christian."

How needed this counsel is today, a day in which a Christian's orthodoxy is assessed by whether or not he adheres to a theological system, however revered.

Not only this, but it depends upon which system a man prefers.  If he adheres to the Westminster system of theology (with its theological children and siblings), then he is truly orthodox.  However, if he subscribes the Three Forms of Unity (Canons of Dort, Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession), all thoroughly reformed confessional standards, then he is regarded as sub-orthodox.  How strange.

For many 'reformed' men, the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion do not even appear on the Richter scale of confessional correctness, but nevertheless teach reformed and biblical doctrine.  This gets rid of people like Jim Packer, Alec Moyter, Dick Lucas, etc.

These doctrinal standards are all slightly different in their theological emphasis but they all are reformed in emphasis.

DMLJ was not sold on Westminster theology, so he ought to be written off as a reformed man, but he is not.  What some reformed men do is that because his major publisher is the Banner of Truth, the unthinking assumption is that he holds strictly to its doctrinal standards.  This is manifestly untrue. 

There is a great tendency within the reformed constituency to assess a man's theology with the man-made confessions of history and not with the Scriptures themselves.  The irony is that a man can be totally faithful to Scripture in his theology but not in total compliance with a confessional standard, yet it is the man-made standard that is the canon for assessing the situation.

Despite the 'rule of faith' for many churches and denominations which claim that the supreme standard of this church is the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and that confessions are subordinate standards.  In reality and in practice, however, the reverse is rather the case.  There is urgent learning required by ministers as to how they might maintain the supremacy of the Scriptures while having their confessional standards.  Confessions are good and helpful but only in so far as they reflect the clear teaching of Scripture, which is accept as perspicuous.  When scholastic philosophy is used to reinterpret clear Scriptural statements, such as , Jn.1:29; 3:16; 1 Jn.2:2; Heb.2:9; 2 Pet.3:9; etc, there is a serious problem afoot.  Where a man in convinced in his heart that the confessional standards of his church are wrong in some respect or another, then he is obliged by his ordination vows to submit conscience to no other authority than that of Christ speaking in the Scriptures.

I appeal to all evangelical ministers not to be system Christians but Bible Christians. 

I think Simeon has got it just right - "Be a Bible Christian and not a system Christian."