Part 3

It is always important that we have the proper attitude in anything that we do. Attitudes make all the difference in whether we are commended or condemned for what we do. In Israel we see an illustration of how easy it is for people to lose their prospective in regard to serving God. One of Israel’s failures was that she selfishly turned aside unto doing only what pleased the flesh. We see God’s indictment of the nation in Malachi 1:6: “A son honoreth his father, and servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests that despise my name.” The relationship between God and His people demands a proper attitude on their part. Self-seeking always prevents giving due honor to the Lord, which is why the Lord’s first requirement for following Him is self-denial (Matthew16:24). It is easy, even in one s conviction, to be motivated solely by self-seeking, and to have no regard to the glory of God. Lost people can often be talked into doing things just to ease the conviction that they feel. Be clear about this. God does not save souls primarily to keep them out of hell. He saves primarily for His own glory. He saves few of those who are highly esteemed in the eyes of man, but He saves those of us who are, by nature nothings, that He might make something of us by His grace, and so, for His glory. So it is written in 1 Corinthians 1:29, 31: “That no flesh should glory in his presence. . .That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

History repeats itself with monotonous regularity, and today we live in a very self-centered age when God’s honor and glory is generally secondary to the will of the flesh. This self-seeking of individual honor is an effective preventive to living by faith, which is God’s requirement for every one of us. Listen to what the Saviour Himself said in this regard in John 5:44: “How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?” This cannot be too strongly emphasized. Too many of God’s people are trying to make a name for themselves in one way or another instead of honoring the name of the Lord that every saved person bears, and the name that He has given to His people in their capacity as an organized people-Baptist churches. Many are “willing to pastor the largest church in town for the glory of God.” But how many have you heard say that, “I’m willing to pastor the smallest church in town if God is glorified thereby”? That is strangely inconsistent, isn’t it? But it simply evidences our pride.

However, as we observe others who are bringing reproach upon our denominational name, we have to be careful that we do not allow wrong attitudes to develop in us. Nowhere do we find God calling any of us to a ministry of calling the kettle black, which often smacks of self-righteousness. Our own pots are too besmirched to qualify any of us to do so. Not only so, but this also tends to distract us from what we are called to do. You may have noticed, as I have, that those who are the most critical of others often do not have a very positive ministry of their own. Sadly, it is sometimes a deep-seated spirit of envy that moves a person to be critical of others who may seem to be accomplishing what he is not. Is not this criticism of others what is warned against in Romans 14, where, after rebuking a judgmental attitude in verse 4, Paul was inspired to emphasize personal responsibility in verses 12-13? “So then every one of us shall give account of himself [not others, for God calls no one to be a tattletale] to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or occasion to fall in his brother’s way.” And the fact that this only deals with incidentals does not detract from its applicability to more important things. And it must be remembered that it is our Lord Himself Who alone walks amid His churches with feet of brass [which symbolize judgment] (Rev. 1:13-15). Beware of usurping Jesus’ judgment ministry.

There are instances where our denomination generally would be better off if a so-called “Baptist church” did not bear this honorable name. But because the Lord’s churches are required by Biblical principles to be independent of all other spiritual authority on earth, we have no way to compel erring churches to remove “Baptist” from their churches when they have departed from the faith. I confess that there have been times when I was ashamed of the actions of such a church, and wished that they did not bear the denominational name that I cherish. However, I am convinced of God’s perfect wisdom, as well as of His absolute sovereignty, which enables Him to remedy such situations as pleases Him. He does not need my puny strength or paltry sagacity to protect His name and the name of His churches. Let me rather see to my own doing, recognizing my own great need for His grace and strength and wisdom. Often God allows evil to play itself out simply to manifest the evil to which fleshly wisdom and pride will come if given its head. The flesh must always be controlled.

Even a Judas Iscariot, who was about the ultimate in self-seeking, may be used in God’s great eternal purpose, if just to warn ambitious and avaricious souls of the high cost of such attitudes and actions. After his departure to go “to his own place,” as we read in Acts 1:25, the Lord led that first church to replace him, and then to get on with their business to which they had been appointed. And it is interesting to observe that the Jerusalem church did not engage in an extended period of bemoaning the deleterious effects of Judas’ apostasy, nor run around expecting that his hypocrisy was going to destroy the Lord’s work. There have always been apostates, and always will be until our Lord returns, and there will be more and worse ones as we approach the end of the age. So much so, in fact, that our Lord Himself asks in Luke 18:8ff.: “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find the faith (so the inspired text reads) on the earth?” He was not asking if there would be any believers on earth at that time, but rather whether the body of doctrinal truth—”the faith” as it is often referred to in the New Testament—would be around. It is most instructive to check out the appearances of “the faith” in a concordance. “The Faith,” as T. T. Eaton brought out almost one hundred years ago in his little book “Faith and The Faith,” which has been recently reprinted, is the object of our belief, and so, is the church’s doctrine. This is simply Bible doctrine, and therefore Baptist doctrine. At our Lord’s return will He find sound Baptist Churches? How this thought challenges every one of us to be more faithful. Our beliefs must rest on “The Faith” or be misplaced. There is no faith apart from a proper object. Our greatest need is to see to ourselves, lest we be found faulty because we have allowed our sinful self-seeking to turn us aside from our God-given faith and function. When that shout of the archangel sounds, and the resurrection trumpet blares out the good news, will you be found faithfully at your task. Or will you be found to have buried your talent, and sat down upon the stool of do-nothing to pessimistically await your home-going, while criticizing those who are serving God, albeit perhaps imperfectly.

Is the answer to the problem of departure from historic faith a compelled uniformity? No! Both Catholicism and Protestantism have been historically renowned for their endeavors to enforce uniformity of belief and practice, by physical force and threat of eternal perdition. Yet this has not worked for them. But Baptists have been much more successful because the power and wisdom of God has generally accompanied their labors, as the Head of the Churches promised in John 16:13-14. “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak; and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” The unity of the Spirit spoken of in Ephesians 4:3-7 necessarily requires a unified people, and this is impossible in a mixture of denominations of various creeds. The Christian ideal of unity is, therefore, impossible on Catholic and Protestant terms.

As much as we would like to prevent any dishonor to our Lord and to His churches, we cannot enforce conformity to the truth by any outward force. Multiplying religious inventions or organizations is not the way to insure uniformity or to protect our Baptist name and heritage. That would be a betrayal of two of the most basic of our principles—obedience to Scripture, and the independence of the churches. But where the Spirit of God is given the lead, there will always be unity of faith, and this results in unity of practice. Hence, only the conformity that results from obedience to the truth will ever succeed. But this will require self-denial, subjection to Scripture in all things, submission to the Spirit’s interpretation of Scripture, and to His leadership in regard to all Christian work, and therefore, subjugation of all thoughts to the obedience of Christ, as demanded in 2 Corinthians 10:5. There is therefore no room for pride in anyone.

It is hard to live honorably if one does not have an honorable name. Up until this shameless age in which we now live, when so many rush into the news media to announce the illegitimate children that they have begotten, the lack of an honorable name was considered a great handicap. Illegitimately born people had a hard life simply because they did not have an honorable name. It is sad to say that most of professing Christendom is bastard-born church-wise, for every religious denomination except Baptists is compelled to trace its origin to some man who started the group several centuries after our Lord began His church. And do not misunderstand me! I rejoice in every truly born again person of whatever religious denomination he may be. I have several precious Christian friends who are not Baptists. But many of them who are saved are saved in spite of what their church teaches, and not because of it. Many are saved because someone bootlegged the Gospel in to them.

The Lord has given an honorable name to His people and His churches, and we are all obligated to live up to that high name, for which over fifty million martyrs died to preserve its faith so that we today could inherit it. Brethren, we are heirs of the martyrs of the past, and shame, shame, on us, if we betray them by selling out our spiritual ancestors and spiritual heritage for a mess of spiritual pottage.

Protestantism has sought to justify itself in all its varied forms by a misinterpretation of the parable of the mustard tree in Matthew 13:31-32. The mustard tree is interpreted to be Christianity, which from a very small beginning grew to great size, having many branches of various and heterogeneous kinds, but all being supposedly good, true, faithful Christianity. According to this theory there is the Methodist branch, the Presbyterian branch, the Baptist branch, etc. But this is not only contrary to Scripture, it is contrary to horticultural fact.

In all the ten parables that Jesus taught in this “Kingdom of heaven” series in Matthew, Mark and Luke, He taught, not the great expansion of the kingdom of heaven, but the continual corrupting of it. So it is here, for the birds come into this mustard tree and break down and corrupt and defile it. Not only so, but this tree is, in all its branches, still the mustard tree, with no indications that any branch differed radically from any other. Nature will not tolerate even intergrafting of radically different plants. For years, my hobby has been fruit trees, and because I found that purchased trees were not only unreasonably expensive, but most were mislabeled or defective, I began grafting my own. At one time I had 330 varieties of apples alone, all grafted with up to seven varieties to a tree. But the grafting was only successful within the specific kind of fruit. Stone fruits, such as peaches, apricots, plums, and others could not be grafted on apples, or vice versa. Even Scripture teaches in Romans 11:17, that the olive must be grafted on olive.

Protestantism, however, has endeavored to graft itself on to true Christianity, without regard to how alien it is to Biblical Christianity in regard to its beliefs about God, sin, salvation, church truth, and all the other great verities of the faith. Without doubt some, perhaps most, of the Reformers were genuinely saved, but they were tragically ignorant of Scripture truth in several areas, and they proudly wanted the esteem of the world, and so, were an easy prey to compromise. It is recorded that Martin Luther, the first Protestant that the world ever saw, first courted the favor of the Anabaptists. Let me pause here to say, as I’m sure you all realize, that Baptists are not Protestants! They never have been. They never can be if they are real Baptists. “Protestant” is only applicable to some religious denomination that originated out of Catholicism in protest against her corruptions in the Sixteenth Century or later, or which descended from a group that had done so. All are Rome’s daughters or granddaughters, and they are presently being summoned to “come home,” and will do so in the end of this age so as to constitute a great world church under the Antichrist.

But as I started to say, in the beginning Martin Luther courted the favor of the Anabaptists, and was inclined to join them until he saw what the cost would be. They were all a hated and reviled people, without the learning that characterized the false churches. Nor did they have the vast numbers of adherents that infant baptism brought into false churches, including many high-born people who commanded the world’s respect. They were only a simple and peaceful people who had all professed to have experienced salvation by grace alone, and had been immersed upon profession of their faith. All these things made membership in the Baptists too humbling and too costly for him, and so, Martin Luther and his followers ended up creating their own church, and persecuting the Baptists almost as severely as had the Catholics.

I have said all this in order to call attention to the fact that Scripture says that “The whole family [of God] in heaven and earth is named” after God Himself (Eph. 3:14-15). There are no denominational names, because of the unity of the Spirit where it is a true Christianity. See the seven unitys in Ephesians 4:3-6. All Protestantism is defective on some of these things. Our Baptist name is only necessary as an earthly designation, to distinguish us from others. Sadly, many true saints either ignorantly or willfully refuse to be known by this honorable name. When a person goes under an alias, it always makes questionable his honesty. Now no one of sense believes that only Baptists are going to heaven. To hold such a theory is to imbibe Catholicism’s proud theology, for she originated the idea that membership in a true church was necessary to be saved, and that none could be saved outside of “The Church.”

An ambiguous or meaningless name cannot gather respect for others of its kind, which is one of the several reasons why a distinctive, denominational name is needed in this present world. Either as individuals or as churches, “None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself” (Rom. 14:7), and so, we must take into account the effect of our actions on others who share our beliefs. The news media, because it is wholly under the domination of Satan, delights to blazon abroad any wrongdoing by anyone bearing the name “Baptist.” There are both positive and negative sides to being publicly known as Baptist, which is why those of us bearing this honorable name have a great responsibility to do nothing that could be even misconstrued as evil. “Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thess. 5:22).

It used to be enough for people to be called “Baptist,” for most people recognized this as defining a definite religious people. But then many so-called Baptist churches compromised and entered superchurch organizations, such as conventions, associations, fellowships, etc., by means of which they could be more conveniently, though unconsciously, herded into unscriptural beliefs and practices. Satan loves such organizations because they enable him to control people, for if he captures the organization, he controls all that belong to it. Now none of us really enjoy so standing out from others as to be accounted misfits, non-conformists or rebels and that is the almost unconscious power that any such superchurch organization exercises over its adherents. Thus, it is often reasoned by those in such organizations that “We don’t want to go contrary to the convention—association—fellowship, etc.—and so we’ll go along with the program even though we don’t agree with it.” And so, departure from The Faith is gradually but surreptitiously accomplished.

Later, some conscientious Baptists disavowed this tendency to organizationism that had such a corrupting influence on churches, and so, these began to be called “independent Baptists”—another honorable designation, which I am proud to bear. But then it wasn’t long before some of these began to get machinitis as the itch to be more than a pastor of one lowly flock moved some to start other ecclesiastical organizations that would invent offices with higher sounding titles than “Pastor” or “Elder.” Carnal ambitions to be Popes-to be overlords over other brethren—is not dead even among Baptists. How true are the wise man’s words in Ecclesiastes 7:29: “Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.” The religious realm is filled with human inventions, all of which are, by their very natures, indictments of the wisdom of God, as if God didn’t know how best to do things.

The best of all ways to use our Baptist name is to so use it that all will be compelled to respect it because it is made honorable by those who bear it. We all need the ambition that David had in Psalm 26:8, when he said, “Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth.” God’s glory is localized in His House. It has always seemed to me that this is the Old Testament equivalent to Ephesians 3:21 which says, “Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” If God’s glory is our primary concern, then we will bring all our own deliberations, desires and deportment into submission to God’s will. If not, then our self-serving agenda will dishonor the honorable name that God has given to His churches, and which it is our privilege to bear. People of carnal attitudes will resort to one of three means of getting away from the convictions wrought by the Word of God. They will resort to: (1) Isolation as they try to get completely away from the Word of God. Or, to: (2) Insulation as they try to insulate themselves from the Word by means of worldliness. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 13:22. Or, to: (3) Inoculation as they imbibe enough false doctrine to counteract the Truth.

In closing a warning. In Luke 9:26 our Lord said “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in the Father’s, and of the holy angels.” Does not this include the “word”—Baptist—by which He has designated His people in Scripture? When our Lord returns He will call for us all to stand before Him to be rewarded for our faithfulness to Him. Then all those who were ashamed to take their stand with Him and with His faithful people because they didn’t want to bear reproach for His sake, will be ashamed, and will suffer loss of reward. In which class will you be found?