A Recap of Two Overwhelming Weeks #2

On the second day of the Semper Reformanda Conference I attended a number of sessions. Here’s a summary of some of the sessions that were prominent for me. The first session I attended in the morning was by Paul Washer. His message was, in actuality, a combination of the session he was unable to give the previous night and the session he was scheduled to give that morning.

In this sitting Mr. Washer spoke of Christ the vine and God the great vine dresser. He explained that the believer’s life originates from the vine (Christ), and God is the sovereign designer of the vineyard. “We cannot erect a trellis to change the shape of the garden.” This is the task of the vine dresser. Therefore, it is our duty to rid ourselves of everything carnal; seeking instead to bear fruit through the new life we posses in Jesus Christ. Our Christian lives are about an increasing dependence upon Christ. Sadly, as Mr. Washer noted, the reason much of the modern church is not bearing fruit is because we have become busy doers; we are endeavoring to accomplish tasks in our own flesh. Hence, when God begins a work in the church, it almost never appears impressive to carnal men. “Christianity is not mechanical, but organic” said Mr. Washer. “We are not business men, we are prophets.”

In other words, as Mr. Shiflet noted on the previous night, it is not our job to innovate how God has prescribed us to worship Him. Unfortunately, we have become so caught up in appearing beautiful in the eyes of the culture surrounding us that we have forgotten that God’s eyes are the only ones that must perceive us as beautiful. As Mr. Washer put it, “We are to seek to be beautiful to God, not carnal men. We cannot use carnal means to keep carnal men.”

Did you hear that? “We are to seek to be beautiful to God, not carnal men. We cannot use carnal means to keep carnal men.”

The church has become so focused upon developing programs and ministries that attract the masses of the culture that we have forgotten that carnal men are not supposed to see the church as beautiful. We spend time, resources, energy, and money trying to create environments within our churches that make unbelievers feel at ease, desiring unbelievers to be able to walk into the church without being convicted of their sinful lifestyle.

“The true Church just wants Christ, not events...when that church comes together, it comes together to minister to the people of Christ” (Paul Washer).

Is Jesus not enough? Why does the church feel she has to utilize unbiblical methods and events to be effective? Oh, that the eyes of the bride of Christ might be opened. Her sole desire must be Christ, nothing or no one else. Mr. Washer later remarked, “Don't dress up your worship to appeal to carnal people.” May that be a constant reminder to us all.

Mr. Washer cautioned everyone, “Don't talk bad about the church...proclaim the truth and love the church!” What a humbling reminder. “God has turned over His bride to our care, we should tremble.” Yes, we must lovingly strive to bring her back to the truth, all with a proper fear of the God who has entrusted His church to us.

Now moving into a new portion of his message, Mr. Washer stated, “We're going to have to proclaim the gospel for God, not just for the men.” He went on to disclose that the reason unregenerate men are so precious to us, the reason we send the truth of the gospel through the mouths of missionaries, is because people are precious to Him. We don't preach the gospel solely for the individual, we preach to the glory of God. Still, beyond this, God has prescribed a particular model for the church which transcends time and culture. And, as Mr. Washer appropriately emphasized, it is not the goal of missionaries to go into a culture, find out what they are like, what they want etc., and then adapt the message to fit them. No, “We have to lead people away from being self-absorbed and self-consumed.” said Mr. Washer. Regrettably, many missionaries do not think this way.

“The church is not,” as many believe, “about having our felt-needs met.” said Mr. Washer. However, as he noted, because this becomes the goal of many churches, we focus on giving people entertainment rather than Christ. In his own words, we become “Foolish little boys playing marbles with God's diamonds.” He continued by unveiling the fact that much of the church today has an unbiblical emphasis on community and what we, the believer, can receive rather than upon Christ, our relationship with Him, and what we can give Him in our worship. Community and fellowship within the church is indeed good, but from the right perspective. If this becomes the emphasis of the church, if we become self-absorbed and seek to gratify our desires, if we stop seeking to exalt Christ, his kingdom, and refrain from cultivating a meaningful relationship with Him, then we don't understand the church.

This was not all that was contained in Paul Washer's message that morning, but I believe the points above are an accurate recount of some of the highlights of his message.

The next session I'd like to make note of was a very practical message by Dr. Voddie Baucham on the subject of Biblical Manhood. Dr. Baucham's overarching emphasis being, how can the church help prepare men to be leaders in their homes. First and foremost, Dr. Baucham noted that this responsibility is not programmatic, it's philosophical. As Dr. Baucham put it, “We have a need for men to operate in the 4 P's (Prophet, Priest, Provider, Protector)...We shouldn't have any program to tell them to do it, we should expect them to do it.” However, this admonition was backed up with a word of caution that went along the lines of, if we're going to champion leadership by men in their homes, then we have to first back it up by being those men ourselves. Does this mean the church is to nonchalantly sit back and expect every man to recognize his calling and undertake it as he should? By no means. Below are some of the steps the people at Grace Family Baptist take to prepare men to lead.

1. Equipping Men to Lead in Family Worship

Oftentimes men are intimidated by the phrase “Family Worship” because they feel as though they have to conduct a miniature Sunday morning service (sermon, music etc...). While family worship should contain the reading and memorizing of Scripture, singing, and prayer, “It is not a complex gathering,” said Dr. Baucham, “...but we're not flippant about it either.” Family worship time must be serious and it should contain discussion of the text being read (as children get older, the discussion will become more and more complex), but we need not try and break the text into points and preach a sermon.

2. Equipping Men to Lead in Catechism

That word might scare some of us, but catechism is just a series of questions and answers based upon Biblical principles that fathers should ask their children at some point during the day. An example would be this well known question from the Westminster Shorter Catechism “What is the chief duty of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Dr. Baucham illustrated this in a very comedic fashion for those fathers who believe they must have memorized the catechism prior to teaching it to their children. He demonstrated that you, the dad, hold the book, you ask your child the question and wait for him to respond. The beauty of it is, you have the answers! So you can learn right along with your children. It's really quite simple.

3. Equipping Men to Lead in Education

“Christians have a biblical obligation to give their children a Christian education.” said Dr. Baucham. As the father, it's your responsibility to see to it that that, indeed, occurs.

4. Equipping Men to Lead in Evangelism

5. Equipping Men to Lead in Marriage

6. Equipping Men to Wash Their Wives With the Water of the Word

7. Equipping Men to Live With Their Wives in and Understanding Way

8. Equipping our Children for Marriage

9. Equipping Fathers to Evaluate the Methods of Entertainment

These were just a few of the highlights of Dr. Bauchams' message, and I know that I missed a few here and there. I'd encourage you to take these points and personally study them in light of Scripture.

The following session I attended was one by Paul Washer entitled “The Gospel and Culture.” At the outset of his message, Mr. Washer probed his audience with these questions, “What part of your Christianity should be exported, and what part should be quarantined? Do you have a devotional life worth exporting?” He answered these questions by stating that we must have things to export rather than things to quarantine. Missionaries export truth. They proclaim the Savior, not a savior. This is the scandal of the gospel. Why? Because as Mr. Washer explained, men want to be seekers of the truth, but no one wants to say they've found it. “We are hated and seen as arrogant if we claim we have found it” he said.

But it's not merely the truth that is scandalous; it's what is required as a result of accepting the truth. When speaking to this, Mr. Washer said, “When we preach the gospel, we are calling for a complete paradigm shift” (no, that didn't come from College Revolutionized ;) ). As he stated, we must understand that when we exclusively state that Christ is the Savior, what we are preaching is a scandalous message, and, yes, it's supposed to be.

“Men have always hated the gospel and gospel preachers” he went on to say. “We should desire not to offend God's majesty by adapting our message to make it appealing to the culture.” The gospel does not need innovation or adaptation for different cultures. If it did, then as Mr. Washer stated, “The message of the gospel would have died at its birth had it depended upon the eloquence of its preachers. The fact that it survives today is proof of its truth.”

Knowing, then, that the gospel is a scandalous message, we should not expect anyone to give us a hearing when we preach the gospel. That is, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit and His power. “It's not strength, it's not brilliance, it's God.” Amen! Bear in mind that the gospel we're speaking of is not only the transforming message of salvation, but the life we've been set apart to live as a result of that salvation. In speaking on this subject, Mr. Washer made a statement that has become a personal favorite of mine, “You preach in a place where there is one of two possibilities: a revival, or a riot.” However, he was quick to remind us that only the power of God can bring down man's corruptness, no amount of preaching can ever compare with it.

Oftentimes we become caught up in trying to prove the validity of the gospel, and although we must be prepared to give answers to those who question us about our faith (1 Peter 3:15), we need not try and defend its accuracy. In his own words, “The Gospel does not require a defense to validate it...if we proclaim it, it will take care of itself. We don't need to defend the gospel any more than we need to defend a lion. Just let it out and watch it defend itself.”

The last session of the conference, entitled “Starting from the Ground Up,” was given by none other than Dr. Baucham. What does it mean to start from the ground up? Start with Christ, He is the chief cornerstone. In this message, Dr. Baucham exegeted Ephesians chapter 4, but before doing so, he noted that Ephesians has two major sections. Ephesians chapters 1-3 contain orthodoxy (the defining of the dogmas of Christianity), and chapters 4-6 contain orthopraxy (how our doctrine is to be lived out). Additionally, Ephesians 1-3 is comprised primarily of indicatives (i.e. that is a chair). While chapters 4-6 is comprised primarily of imperatives (i.e. sit in the chair).

As Dr. Baucham noted early in his message, “If you want to lift up the body, lift up Christ.” An important point he made was that the church of God is not built on the power of men.

1. The Church is the Body of Christ

If this is the case, then it is thus important that we understand who Christ is. We must know how to reflect Christ. If we are going to be distinct from the culture then the church must look like Christ.

2. If people are Wrong About Christ, They're Wrong About Everything

As Dr. Baucham stated, everything we preach about, we preach in light of who Christ is. “We preach Christ until we see Christ, one way or the other.”

Believe it or not, that's it! Now, as I said at the outset, this is merely a highlight reel of some of my favorite sessions at an incredible conference. Also, it doesn't help that it has been three weeks since its culmination, unlike last year when I was nearly live blogging the conference. I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Mp3's :)

Nevertheless, this was the consummation of only one third of an overwhelming 2 weeks! Still, the truth presented at the Semper Reformanda Conference proved to be the most fitting foundation for what was ahead of us in San Antonio.

Part three is on the way.

Stand Fast!

Josh