Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.
(Proverbs18:1-2)
One year ago, I began writing this blog, not really knowing where it would go, but
believing that The Lord had prompted me to do it. Well, 12 months, almost 20
articles & close to 38,000 views later, I am privileged to publish an
anniversary piece written by my Pastor, Matthew Fisher. He, his family & I
have shared many cups of coffee,
conversations & meals, during which he has exercised a biblical & pastoral oversight of my life [as a member of his congregation] & of this work. Wherever & whenever necessary, my Pastor has gently [but firmly] removed my big foot
from my equally big mouth. I am extremely grateful to God for Matthew, his
family & our fellowship, Calvary Chapel, Yeovil, so, without further ado…
An Open Message to He or She who
Hath An Ear To Hear
Therefore, brethren, since
we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of
Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us
through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a
great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with
a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water.
Therefore, since we have so great
a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every
encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run
with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on
Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before
Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has
endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow
weary and lose heart.
(Somewhere in Hebrews)
Whereas
David can spend several blog posts building a case in detail about the Word-of-Faith movement and unbiblical non-Christianity, I do not have such a
privilege. As the main teacher in Calvary Christian Fellowship, Yeovil, I
can spend several sermons teaching and reaffirming the same point; I do not
have that ability here.
David has asked me to write this anniversary blog post
and I agreed without really thinking about what topic I was going to cover.
In our fellowship, we study through the Scriptures systematically, meaning
that those of us who teach are rarely required to 'think up' the topic for the
sermon as each week begins where the previous sermon left off. It turns
out that thinking up a topic to discuss is difficult; I have wavered several
times. In the end, I decided the scatter-gun approach is probably best; not
just one main topic but several smaller issues, though not unimportant, that
have burdened me for a long time. I also want to be totally honest with
you and tell you my conclusions as part of the introduction. Here they
are (and like a good preacher there will be 3 points).
Firstly, read the
Bible; secondly, find the least-worst church within your travelling abilities
then attend and commit; thirdly, support and encourage your church leaders to
“lean not on their own understanding” rather to teach diligently the word of
God.
At
present our fellowship is studying the book of Revelation with the stated aim
of encouraging members of the congregation to read it for themselves. If I
could encourage the people who read this blog to do anything, it would be to
read the Bible. You are free to stop reading here and start reading the
Bible, I really don’t mind! When I was about 30 I remember being asked by
a friend if I had read through the whole Bible, I answered that of course I
had. As I returned home I figured out that I had never read all of it.
So, I began! Having attended church since I was a kid I had great
confidence that I knew the Bible and what it contained. I was amazed to
make it only to Genesis 19 before I read something that I had never even heard
of. Don’t just turn to Genesis 19, start in chapter 1, that is where it begins!
Turning
to the other end of the Bible (please read the 64 books in-between) and the
reader finds the only writing from Jesus in the whole of the Scriptures.
I agree with David Pawson in that there appear to be two types of
Christian when it comes to the book of Revelation, those “you can’t get out of
it” and those “you can’t get in to it”. Since the Bible has been
available in English Revelation appears to be the most neglected book in the whole of
Scripture. Read what the reformers said about it and perhaps that explains why?
Jesus writes to seven churches, this is not the time to debate whether
the dispensationalists, or others, are right in their reading of these letters.
If you are reading from a “red-letter Bible” then you will see that this
section is in red; these are messages that Jesus has for churches. Here
is the second point I want to encourage you to do and think about. Apologies if
this is sounding like hard work. Nowhere in these letter, or in any Bible
book, is it considered acceptable not to attend a fellowship. Throughout the
messed-up-crazy-churches written to in any of the Epistles, no one ever writes “It’s
ok just give up and stop going”.
Certain strains of Christianity are filled with people who consider themselves to be
discerning or having discernment ministries. Those who adhere to the
continuation of the gifts, of which I am one (please do not align me with the
money-grabbing-mansion-owning-get-rich-quick-best-life-now-fraudualent-falling-over-barking-like-a-dog
bunch of heretics!) are most guilty of this concept of discernment. Read
1 John 4 and 1 Thessalonians 4 and you will see that nowhere is anyone ever
told that you should listen to something and see how you feel about it and then
make your decision as to whether it is true. Read it for yourself and you
will see it is about “examining carefully” and that we should be wary as false
prophets were in the world already during the time of the Apostles (the real
Apostles not the modern fake ones). It is my experience that those who
talk about discerning the most tend to be the ones who, in direct disobedience
to Scripture fail to fellowship with the saints. As a side note look at
the book of Acts along with what Paul says to Timothy and Titus about the
function of the church and it becomes extremely fair to say that fellowship is
not sitting in your living room where no-one has prepared anything and
chatting; or even worse going to a curry house and just hanging out with each other as
believers. I am reminded of Proverbs 18:1 which states “A man who
isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment”, or
“all sound wisdom”. May a recommend that we avoid being that guy as
much as possible!
These
same people use the beginning of Hebrews 10 to attack (correctly) the Roman
Catholic Church and their concept of the Mass and yet fail to allow their
correct doctrine to infiltrate their lives refusing to let there ‘believing what
is right’ cause them to ‘do what is right’. Hebrews 10 tells the reader
what needs to be done in response to the fact that the body of Jesus was
offered “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10 – oh how we love that verse!).
Hebrews 10:19-25 is the sucker punch…"do not forsake the assembly of the
saints", that is in church; in a fellowship; with people who are like us,
broken and sinful; and right in some areas yet wrong in others. If
Hebrews 10:19-25 is the sucker punch, ending with how much more important it is
to assemble as His body as the time for Christ to return draws nearer, then the
following verse is like being hit with a mallet! A person who claims to
be a mature Christian not attending a fellowship deceives themselves, they are
not mature and they are in rebellion (the Bible knows nothing of people who are
believers and not part of a fellowship). My prayer is that this would not
be us. If that is you, please find a church; the least-worst one…I know
there are some real stinkers. Read the letters to the churches in
Revelation 2-3 and highlight the part where Jesus says “if you are in one of
these mental churches – even the one Jesus had nothing good to say about – then
leave and get out and run”, you will find that your highlighter pen cap stays on.
If this is in the context of a city only having one church, surely
you can find one in your local area. If not, think about moving.
That may sound extreme, but we must decide what is most important in our
lives. If it is anything but Jesus, then let us at least be honest about that.
Once
you have found the least-worst church in your area then please don’t turn into
the heresy police, always looking for what the preacher phrases badly or makes
a slight error on. I have preached many times and I can assure everyone
that the effort and toil that it takes to prepare and preach one is the hardest
thing I do every week. Now, would I want people to point out what I have
said that they disagree with? Of course I would, and they do! However,
there are ways to do this. Firstly, try introducing a 24-hour rule when
the preacher says something you don’t like. That is, don’t say anything
as you are shaking hands at the end of the service, rather, leave it until the
next day. I attended a church a few years ago, and had to use this rule a
lot. The preacher said things I did not like every sermon. If I had
addressed them all do you think he would have listened to me? I found
that only the important issues remained after a night’s sleep and those are the
ones I addressed and where I could I encouraged him when he tried to exegete a
passage as best he could, this is also a good plan.
I
do thank David for this opportunity to share this on his blog and encourage you
to pray for him and us a small fellowship in a small town in Somerset. I
am happy to answer or clarify anything that I have written, just ask. However, if I have really made you cross then give it 24 hours. May the Lord bless you in all that you do for Him. Let
us keep our eyes fixed firmly on our great Saviour, Who paid in full the
price required for our salvation. He is our God and we are His people.
If we love Him then we must find out what He requires from us and that is
found in Scripture, let’s read it and do what it says!
