An Open Message to He or She Who Hath an Ear to Hear

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!