A Primary Purpose of Revelation

The history of Israel is a history of redemption and judgment; redemption in the Lord forgiving their sins of idolatry, oppression of the poor, evil judgments against their own people, and these very things because they said within themselves that they were free of the Lord, and would not be constrained by His righteous laws and worship of Him as the only true God.

What is the purpose of this revelation?

Is it not to show that, though God chooses a people, delivers them out of bondage again and again, that, left to their own natural inclinations, they will always turn from Him, without exception, until He, of His own accord, council, and mercy delivers them once again, finally, by the coming of the promised Messiah, and that, in spite of their fickleness?

The other day, I heard from one of our brethren that, at the church they go to, they hold to “the true Reformed doctrine,” and that is why they are saved.

The same church does not minister to the poor among the congregation, does not much care for the teaching and preaching which stresses mortification of the flesh (it means someone other than them), and considers themselves blessed by God because they have good jobs, bank accounts, have never been subjected to severe trials, and looks down on those who have been.

And this is a Reformed church!

No care for the poor, the orphans, the widows, the strangers in their midst – it is like they read an entirely different Bible than I do.

It seems we have our own false sheep, and they will not even listen to their own teachings, counting their blessings while their brethren among them suffer, and salving their consciences by making donations to areas like Japan and Haiti where disasters have hit, while the needs of and the ministry to the saints goes unheeded by uncaring charlatans, professing Christ with their lips, yet their hearts are extremely far from Him.

Can you say “Modern Day Pharisees?”

The Lord has something to say about these things:

Isaiah 58:6-7:  "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Romans 12:13:  Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Jas 2:1-9: My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place," while you say to the poor man, "You stand over there," or, "Sit down at my feet," 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? 8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. 9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

These are but a brief cross section of what God has to say about the care for both the needy in the congregation; failure to do such showed either an apostate church or one approaching apostasy of the kind which was of the Pharisees in our Lord’s first advent (and I would say this is the primary interpretation and application of most passages as those quoted – the Lord expresses His hatred of such practice in a plethora of such passages throughout the Scriptures), as well as the needy in the neighborhood of the local church, and out from there.

This is something that non-Reformed folk have noticed when they have come to see what it is we believe and practice (orthodoxy and orthopraxy) among certain of our churches – they have seen an adherence to doctrine in some (thank God for this!), but the same lack of love the Ephesians were admonished for in our Lord’s Revelation (Revelations 2:4-5).

Then, there are those who hold their Canons, their Confessions, their Catechisms, their Creeds, as proof of their salvation, yet they feel no remorse of their ungodly, unworldly, behavior, no repentance of their sins, no humiliation that it is only by God’s will, and the perfection of His Son’s sacrifice, that they are even able to be included in the elect.

Their standards of faith, which Reformed history has always held to be exposition of Scripture without the inspiration of Scripture, has become the vehicle by which they oppress the poor and widows and orphans and strangers among them, and they congratulate themselves, after hearing a sermon of how wretched they are outside of Christ’s grace, with no resource in themselves for blessings, either temporal or eternal, of their temporal blessings, totally missing the messages they repeatedly ignore of how blind, naked and in need of being clothed in the righteousness of Christ and having their eyes anointed with the eye salve that will allow them to see their wretchedness outside of them.

I am all for Confessions, Creeds, Catechisms, and Canons – we are right now studying through the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, and will be going through a Catechism (being a group of believers where some are new to Reformed theology); once we have done so, we will continue to be Confessional and use the various means of grace that are based on the Scriptures – we will recite the Scriptures when doing so, however, and expound upon them, making certain that all know “blessed are the poor (bankrupt) in spirit, for theirs IS the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

May God grant His mercy to again show the repentance and mourning over our sin among all our Reformed brethren and churches, and the love by which the world knows we are the disciples of Christ (John 13:34-35). May He again grant His mercy, that we take care of our own, our neighbors, and those others who have need, that we may not experience His judgment.

To the glory of our God alone, and the building up of His children – Bill Hier