Acts 11:19-24
No Crisis Experience #4
Pastor Martin continues his series on 'No Crisis Experience,' focusing on the fourth principle: there is no post-conversion crisis experience promised or commanded by God as normative for the Christian life. He expounds Acts 11:19-24 and Colossians 2:6-7, arguing that these passages, along with others calling for total consecration (Romans 6:13, 12:1, 13:14; Colossians 3:5, 8, 12), do not teach a 'second blessing' experience. Martin critiques the misuse of the Greek aorist tense, the neglect of biblical context, and the disregard for the cumulative teaching of Scripture, urging believers to walk daily in Christ as they received Him, growing in grace rather than seeking a singular, radical post-conversion event.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 7 sections · 57 min
- Opening Prayer and Introduction to the Series 0:02
- Biblical Exhortations to Young Believers: Antioch and Colossae 2:33
- The Fourth Principle: No Post-Conversion Crisis Experience 9:30
- Critique of Misused 'Baptism in the Spirit' Passages in Acts 13:30
- Critique of Misused 'Total Consecration' Passages 20:05
- Errors in Interpreting Consecration Passages: Tense, Context, Cumulative Teaching 32:17
- Pastoral Application: The Daily Walk vs. 'Get Rich Quick' Schemes 48:16
Key Quotes
“If such a post-conversion crisis experience is the key to walking as a victorious, useful and fruitful Christian, then surely if Barnabas was a good man, full of the spirit and of faith, he would have taken these young, unspoiled converts in the most direct line from where they were as being merely converted into this glorious experience which would have not only made them more fruitful but which would have immunized them against any heresies that they would meet in the future.”
“Rather, he takes them back to the beginning and says as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, as Christ was all you needed on the threshold, so Christ is all you need as you walk in the Christian life.”
“When a man or a woman gets preoccupied with something for which there is no clear command or promise, he or she is in grave danger.”
“And therefore, there is not a shred of evidence that the experience of the apostles and the early disciples that came in definite stages is to be repeated in the lives of those who are brought into the blessings of the new covenant, now that all of those blessings have been established in God's purpose and will through the person and work of the Lord Jesus.”
“I want you to be armed against error and when error comes floating on pseudo-scholarship it is very dangerous and I want you to be armed enough that when someone says the heiress imperative means a definitive once for all act Sunday before Christmas in 1992 you learn better you turn to a few passages and say no, no don't base a doctrine on a misuse and an overstatement of the implications of a Greek tense in the scriptures”
“too little is made of the cumulative teaching of the word which sets before us as God's norm for His children a life of growth a life of developing a life in which we set our hearts upon cleaving to Christ living by faith walking by faith and not by sight”
“you see we're back again to this yearning for some get rich quick scheme in the spiritual realm and there's a weariness with the old path of daily hacking and hewing and plucking and casting and putting to death”
“don't open yourself up to those things that hold out this post conversion crisis experience it will either lead on the one hand to cynicism or self-deception and I've seen it do both”
Applications
All listeners
- Maintain a balanced New Testament perspective in teaching and expectations concerning conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the church.
- Be armed against error, especially when it comes disguised as pseudo-scholarship, by understanding proper biblical interpretation.
- Respond to each additional measure of understanding of God's grace and mercy with a commensurate response of gratitude and joyful self-surrender, making it a continuous pattern of life.
- Set your hearts upon cleaving to Christ, living by faith, and walking by faith and not by sight, as the norm for Christian life.
- Come to your Bible with a determination to let Scripture interpret Scripture, rather than relying on men's motives or godliness.
- Walk in Christ as you received Him, finding in Him your wisdom, strength, power, and grace for all that God's will brings, feeding upon Him daily and abiding in Him.
- Present yourself daily as a living sacrifice unto God out of gratitude for salvation.
- Walk as Christ walked, looking at the details of His life in the Gospels and praying for strength to imitate Him in relating to enemies, the unsaved, and stumbling disciples.
- Do not open yourself up to teachings that hold out a post-conversion crisis experience, as it can lead to cynicism or self-deception.
- Turn from your sin, self-will, and self-trust, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, throwing the whole weight of your needy soul upon Christ alone as He is offered in the Gospel.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 60 paragraphs, roughly 57 minutes.
Opening Prayer and Introduction to the Series
The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, December 20th, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Ask God for the help of His Holy Spirit in the study of His Word together. Let us pray.
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, and especially we thank You for those portions which set for us a model of how we, Your people, are to seek Your face for Your work of enlightenment, for Your work in our hearts, disposing them rightly to perceive and to receive and joyfully to obey Your Holy Word. We therefore take the words of the psalmist and make them our own. Open Thou our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things. Out of Your law, make me to go in the path of Your commandments.
Incline not our hearts unto covetousness. O Lord, we would make all of those prayers ours, and pray that You would so dispose our hearts that we may be prepared to receive the Word, and then grant us that illumination, and then that motivation and strength to run. In the way of Your commandments, bless, we pray, the opening up of the Scriptures. Be the portion of hearer and preacher alike.
In our own sense of felt need, we come unto You, the living God, and thank You for the promise sealed to us in the blood of our Lord Jesus, that if we ask, we shall receive. Hear us then in His name. Amen. Will you follow with me, please, as I read?
Portions of the Word of God, as an introduction to our study in the Scriptures this morning. The first is found in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 11, and I shall read verses 19 through 24.
Biblical Exhortations to Young Believers: Antioch and Colossae
They therefore that were scattered abroad upon the tribulation that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none save only to Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned unto the Lord. And the report concerning them came to the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, and said, And they sent forth Barnabas as far as Antioch, who, when he was come, and had seen the grace of God, was glad. And he exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit, and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. And then to the book of Colossians chapter 2, Colossians chapter 2, the opening paragraph, Paul informs the Colossians that though he has not seen them personally,
he does pray for them, and he rejoices as he hears the report of the order in the church and the steadfastness of their faith in Christ. Then in verses 6 and 7, he gives them an exhortation, As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and builded up in him, and established in your faith, even as ye were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Now I have read in your hearing two passages which contain the very crucial directives given to young believers in two different geographical locations. In Acts 11 we have the record of the exhortation of Barnabas to the young believers in the city of Antioch. Young believers who as far as we know from the record had not been confronted with any of the major heresies that were floating about in the Roman world and infecting the churches subsequent to that record, and perhaps in some areas even prior to that record, they were raw young converts. And the exhortation of Barnabas to such people
was that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Once he saw the evidence of converting grace among them and rejoiced, he exhorted them to cleave to the Lord upon whom they had believed. The passage in Colossians contains an exhortation to a people who have been infected with heresy. Verse 8 of that same chapter identifies at least part of that heresy.
Take heed, lest there shall be anyone that make it spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. There were those seeking to spoil the believers at Colossae with heretical teaching. And in that context, Paul's exhortation to these believers is that as they had received Christ the Lord, that is, as they had found Christ as presented in the Gospel to be sufficient to their need as hell-deserving sinners, so they were now to walk in union with Him, they were to be rooted and builded up in Christ, established in their faith as they had been previously taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Now it is clear that in both of these passages there is no suggestion either from Barnabas on the one hand to these raw young converts, unassailed by heresy, or in Paul's exhortation to more mature converts, assailed and afflicted and perhaps in part infected with heresy,
there is no indication that they urged upon these Christians to go on from merely being converted and to seek and obtain some glorious post-conversion crisis experience. If such a post-conversion crisis experience is the key to walking as a victorious, useful and fruitful Christian, then surely if Barnabas was a good man, full of the spirit and of faith, he would have taken these young, unspoiled converts in the most direct line from where they were as being merely converted into this glorious experience which would have not only made them more fruitful but which would have immunized them against any heresies that they would meet in the future. But we look in vain for any hint of any such exhortation and the context indicates that as this exhortation was obeyed the result was not a low standard of Christian experience. But God wonderfully blessed that church and it greatly increased numerically and in spiritual strength and eventually became the very launching pad for the gospel to the Roman Empire
through the labors of Paul and Barnabas later separated unto the work to which they were called. And likewise in exhorting the Colossians, though they had been infected with heresy, Paul does not in any way suggest that the reason they were vulnerable was they were merely converted. If only they had had this post-conversion crisis experience they would never have flirted with the false teachers and with the heresies that he calls philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men. There is not the slightest suggestion in Paul's exhortation.
The Fourth Principle: No Post-Conversion Crisis Experience
Rather, he takes them back to the beginning and says as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, as Christ was all you needed on the threshold, so Christ is all you need as you walk in the Christian life. As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and builded up in Him and established in the faith. Now you may ask if you are visiting among us, Pastor Martin, why take this time to state the obvious? Well, that's a fair question and my answer, I hope, satisfies you.
I have read and briefly commented upon these two passages showing both their diversity and the common denominator within them to lead into another study of our present series of studies in what we have entitled A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church and in that manifesto we are concentrating on the ninth affirmation which is this. We are determined by the grace of God, we are determined to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning conversion, the Christian life and the mission of the church. And with our focus upon the doctrine of the Christian life, I've been stating some basic principles in the Word of God and then showing the biblical tap roots of those principles and seeking to make pertinent applications to this congregation. We have seen first that there is no one master key to living the Christian life. Secondly, that there is no escape from tension and conflict in living the Christian life. Thirdly, that there is no cancellation of the use of any of our God-given faculties in living the Christian life.
And now we are dealing with this fourth vital principle. There is no post-conversion crisis experience promised or commanded by God in conjunction with living the Christian life. Now in opening up this fourth principle, I've explained what I mean by post-conversion crisis experience. We've looked at the five or six major manifestations of this teaching in church history.
And for several weeks I've been seeking to demonstrate from the Word of God why we do not believe that the Bible teaches the necessity or even holds out the promise or expectation of a post-conversion crisis experience as normative for the people of God. We have seen that among the general commands and general promises of the New Testament, there is not one clear command or promise pointing to a post-conversion crisis experience as the will of God for His people. When a man or a woman gets preoccupied with something for which there is no clear command or promise, he or she is in grave danger. Secondly, in addressing the broad spectrum of the thorny problems confronted by the New Testament churches, there is never proposed as the divine solution to any one of those problems a post-conversion crisis experience. And then the third line of Biblical evidence that we began to take up last week is this. The Scriptures used to encourage the desirability and availability of a post-conversion crisis experience are not intended to teach what they are made to teach.
Critique of Misused 'Baptism in the Spirit' Passages in Acts
And we looked at 2 Peter 3 and 2 Timothy 2.15 indicating that as servants of God are committed and are responsible to cut a straight course in the word of truth, there are those who twist the Scriptures, who use the Scriptures but do not use them for their divinely intended purpose. And last Lord's Day we looked at the four Pentecost or baptism in the Spirit passages, in the book of Acts, which are frequently brought into the service of demonstrating that it is the will of God for all of His children to have a post-conversion crisis experience called by different names but described in Acts 2, Acts 8, Acts 10 and Acts 19. And I must say by way of an aside how encouraged I was with the feedback from many of you that you found that study helpful and clear. And convincing in your own conscience. And as we leave that without even reviewing it, I want to give you just an illustration as a P.S.
I didn't have time to give it last week. I was prepared to give it but had no time. When people forget that the book of Acts is recording a transition period in which God is dismantling the old covenant and everything that pertains to it and establishing the new. When they forget that, then they take these passages in Acts and try to make them normative for the entire period of the new covenant and that is their fundamental flaw.
For God did not dismantle the old and establish the new in a day. He did it over a period of time. Therefore, for those who were alive during that time period, their experience of the full-orbed blessings of the new covenant would be given to them in stages. But once God has fully established all of those blessings in the history of redemption, those who come into them do not come into them in stages.
But the moment they are united to Christ, they become heirs of all of the blessings of the new covenant. The illustration is this. A man is building a new home. The roof is up.
The walls are up. The external siding is on. But the plumbing is not completed inside the house. There are no flushing toilets.
There is no running water. The stove has not yet been placed in. The electrical circuits have not all been completed. But due to a number of pressures, he is of necessity forced to move in with his family.
So when he moves into the house, he is protected from the rain and the snow and from wind and hail, but he doesn't have the convenience of a bathtub with running water, hot running water. It doesn't have a telephone that operates. But in a few weeks, the plumber comes and he's got running water and can use the bathtub and use the sink. In a few more weeks, the electrical circuits are all completed.
And after six months, the house is completed. Now, what has happened to this man? Well, during that six-month period, he has entered into the benefits of the completion of that house in stages. There's a given day when he's protected from the rain and from the hail.
A few weeks later, he has the benefit of running water. A week or two later, he has lights, etc. Now, when it's all completed, and the house is all furnished, and they're going to have a housewarming party, and they invite a dozen of their closest friends over, what happens to their friends? Well, the moment they step through the front door, they enter into all of the blessings of the completed house the moment they come through the front door.
Now, the man who owns the house and is the tenant, he entered into them over a period of six months. You see the point? Now, this is what God did in redemption. With those disciples who were present under the preaching of John, they entered into the house that God is now erecting, His new covenant community.
The roof is on and the walls are up. But God has not completed, all of the furnishing of that house. It is not complete until the day of Pentecost, when the ascended Christ sends down the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the ascended and exalted Lord, and comes and fills His new covenant temple. And then, in a sense, even some further shingles are put on with the apostolic ministry and the establishment of the churches of proper order, and then the completion of the New Testament canon, so that now, when hearing the gospel, hearing of the Lord Jesus, hearing the summons to repent and to believe, when sinners turn from sin and lay hold of the Lord Jesus and step into the threshold, what do they find? Not the incompleted house of the transition period recorded in those portions in Acts, but the completed house and all of its furnishings. And therefore, there is not a shred of evidence that the experience of the apostles and the early disciples that came in definite stages is to be repeated in the lives of those who are brought into the blessings of the new covenant, now that all of those blessings
have been established in God's purpose and will through the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Well, I hope that little P.S. will be helpful to those who were here last week.
Now, this morning, we press on to demonstrate further from the Word of God. We do not teach, nor are we open to any teaching, that there is a post-conversion crisis experience available for God's people as a normative Christian experience, because the Scriptures use to encourage such an experience. Simply do not teach what they are made to teach. We looked at the four Pentecost passages.
Critique of Misused 'Total Consecration' Passages
Now consider with me the passages which mandate a definite act of total consecration of ourselves unto God. There are passages in the New Testament which mandate a definite consecration of ourselves unto God. And it is such passages that are used by men and women to teach both the availability and the desirability of a post-conversion crisis experience, which is our response to these passages which call us to a definitive or definite, either word is proper, act of total consecration of ourselves unto God. Now, in opening up this line of thought, I shall ask three questions. Question one, what is the general thrust of this teaching? Well, perhaps I can do no better than to give you several quotes of those who actually teach it.
One from a Swedish Pentecostal teacher, and I'll read it in English, it's been translated into English, and the other from the saintly, godly, much revered Andrew Murray of South Africa, whose books on prayer have been a great help to many, but who alas, I believe, was in grave error on the doctrine of healing and on the doctrine of sanctification, and certainly on this matter of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the post-conversion crisis experience. Listen to the Scandinavian Pentecostal writer. As you were justified and regenerated by faith and sanctified by faith, so also you must receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire the comforter by faith. I am supposing you have yielded to God at every point. Are you willing to go all the way with Christ? They have had wonderful experiences and surrender after surrender has been made, but because they have not come all the way and made the yieldedness complete, they have not seen the fullness of the blessing.
You see the emphasis upon complete yieldedness.
Every point yielding to the Holy Ghost. There is this emphasis upon total consecration of ourselves unto God, which is the prerequisite for this crisis experience that will bring us to a new level of spiritual power and vigor. Andrew Murray writes, When once we strive to take in the full meaning of this preparation, the entire emptying of self and of everything this world can offer, we begin to understand how it is that there is often much prayer for the power of the Holy Spirit without any apparent answer. It is because the Holy Spirit claims nothing less than an absolute and entire surrender for the life of heaven to take complete possession and exercise full mastery. That's from his book entitled Back to Pentecost. Now notice, it is not the Holy Spirit who so lays hold of us and so reveals Christ and so elicits a response of gratitude to Christ that we come to absolute and entire surrender.
No, no. He is saying that there is no baptism in the Spirit, there is no experience of personal Pentecost, until we bring to God nothing less than an absolute and entire surrender for the life of heaven to take complete possession and exercise full mastery. Now you say, if that's the general thrust of this teaching, question two, on what biblical text or biblical emphases is it based? These men, we have reason to believe, are Christians who believe the Bible to be the Word of God.
They must have seen something in their Bibles that on the surface of it seemed to at least lend some semblance of credibility to such teaching. Well, what passages do they bring forward? Well, let me give you a specimen. Let's turn to the book of Romans.
We find three of them frequently used by such writers and preachers. Romans 6 and verse 13. We start with verse 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey the lust thereof, neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness.
But now look at the language. But present yourselves unto God as alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. And those who are serious will say, look, this is an aorist imperative. And some of them know a little Greek just enough to be dangerous.
And they'll say that the aorist is the tense of definitive action as opposed to the present which is continuous action. And they say here we are called to a definitive, a definite, a crisis experience of total surrender. Present yourself once for all and forever unto God until you make that total entire surrender of yourself unto God. You'll never enter into the victory that is mentioned here in Romans 6 in which sin will not have the dominion over you.
You will be in the lowlands and in the bogs and in the quagmire of a stumbling, struggling, oft-times falling, failing, unfruitful Christian. But when you come to total yieldedness, entire surrender of yourself unto God, then God will fill you with the Holy Spirit and you will have victory over sin, fruitfulness in your witness and usefulness in the work of the kingdom. And this is one of the texts that is pressed into that service. Another one in Romans is found in chapter 12.
Paul has been expounding the marvelous mercies of God in the gospel. We to respond to that exposition. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy. You see you have cleansed yourself from all known sin.
You have made everything right that needs to be made right. You have met all the conditions so you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable or spiritual service. And they point out that here again we have an aorist, not an aorist active, but an aorist infinitive. Here is a presentation that is to be a once for all definitive act of presenting ourselves as living sacrifices unto God having dealt with all known sins so that it is a holy sacrifice and well pleasing to God.
This is the kind of text that will be pressed into the service of teaching a definite act of total consecration of ourselves unto God which is the condition of entering in to this crisis experience which will bring us into rich and full blessing in Christ. Another passage would be Romans 13 and verse 14. To live in the light of the nearness of their salvation. Verse 13 of Romans 13 Let us walk becomingly as in the day not in reveling in drunkenness not in chambering in wantonness not in strife in jealousy would you get out of once and for all any kind of involvement in those kinds of sins? Here is how you do it. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ an heiress imperative middle put on for yourself once and for all in this definite act of total consecration dress yourself panoply yourself with the Lord Jesus only then only then when you have had this crisis of total surrender in which you clothe yourself with Christ and all the graces that are in him only then will you be able to fulfill the last part of the verse
make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. I am not setting up a caricature. These are some of the verses that are used and set forward as holding out as desirable and available a post conversion crisis experience based upon a definitive act of total consecration unto God. And then there are other passages in which we are called to a decisive break with all sin and these passages are used for example Colossians 3 and verse 5 Colossians 3 and verse 5 in the first four verses we are told what we are these people many of them would say positionally what we are in union with Christ but now what are we to do that what we are positionally may become ours experimentally verse 5 put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness passion evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry and they point out that this is an aorist imperative doesn't say continually put to death but put to death once for all in the decisive crisis of total surrender
put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth and then they would point us to verse 8 and do ye now also put them all away an aorist imperative middle is the verb put them all away and Colossians 3.12 the same form of the verb put on therefore put on for yourself therefore God's elect holy and beloved a heart of compassion etc. now it is passages such as these that constitute the texts or the emphases of scripture on which these people base their teaching that there is a definite act of total consecration of ourselves unto God which is the prerequisite to experience this post conversion crisis experience whether it is called a baptism in the spirit sealing of the spirit entering into victory entering into the higher life to the Christ life whatever terminology is used this is the common denominator passages which mandate a definite act of total consecration of ourselves unto God so we've asked and answered two questions what is the general thrust of the teaching on what biblical text or emphases is it based third question
Errors in Interpreting Consecration Passages: Tense, Context, Cumulative Teaching
what is wrong with such teaching and I answer three things number one too much is made of the use of the Greek tense in these passages too much is made of the use of the Greek tense in these passages in a very helpful little book called Gods or the Way of Holiness by K.F.W. Pryor the book is entitled The Way of Holiness K.F.W. Pryor on page 87 makes this very helpful observation most Christians of course who can look back on many years of Christian discipleship can detect a number of points at which God seemed to speak to them in some special way and as a result they were able to make a big step forward in their Christian progress it may be that when these stages of Christian growth are compared one stands out above others but in its depth and in the effect it had on the person's life yet this does not mean we have a second experience which is the norm for every Christian whenever we see challenges in God's word our response should be immediate and decisive
whenever we see a challenge from the word of God our response is to be immediate and decisive this seems to be the reason why the aorist imperative that's referring to the Greek tense is so often used in the New Testament is there a sin to forsake? this calls for a definite act of repentance so the Laodicean church were called to repent with an aorist imperative although they were commanded to be zealous in the present imperative Revelation 3.19 Jesus says to the Laodicean church be ye being zealous therefore and decisive radically repent or else or else I will spew thee out of my mouth a decisive response is called for in the words of Jesus if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away and then he quotes another author that James Phillips realizes that is crisis enough in the believer's experience in that it demands drastic action to put matters right just as in the sphere of medicine appendicitis is a crisis requiring immediate surgical intervention to safeguard life and health but this drastic crisis action in the spiritual realm is therapeutic and in every very important sense
and in one very important sense only preparatory to the real business of Christian growth this cutting off of the hand removes the hindrance to growth and makes it possible but it is not the growth itself just as surgery removes the cause of illness and makes possible better health in the future however a word of caution is called for here whereas the use of the heiress tense does imply a decisive step of obedience we are not entitled to build on this a doctrine of a once for all crisis of surrender subsequent to conversion and then he goes on to demonstrate how the heiress intent and imperative many times indicates a call to an action which is not a once for all action for example 2 Timothy 4.2 Paul commands Timothy preach the word what does he mean well he says let your whole life be a life in which you proclaim the message and yet the heiress imperative states things as one grammarian put it in a more harsh and blunt intensive manner it is harsher than the more gentle present imperative and then without wearing you with matters of grammar let me use the illustration that the author uses
perhaps an illustration will help I may say to my little boy eat up your dinner and if I were speaking in the Greek of the New Testament I might well use an heiress imperative because I want them to make a definite act of obedience immediately I could not however mean that this one act of obedience will be enough to last him the rest of his life it is quite likely that whenever he is confronted with something to eat I will say the same thing in the same way so it is with the command to yield in Romans 6 it does not say yield yourself to God and then you will have a life of constant victory although there are other verses in the New Testament where the heiress imperative is used in this way we are commanded to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thou shalt be saved Acts 16.31 but we know from the rest of the Bible that if that faith is real we will continue to believe it does not mean simply believe once for all and then it is done and forget it but the urgency the intensity the focused mandate of God comes to expression in the heiress imperative now why have I taken the time to introduce grammar on a Lord's Day morning what could be more boring and unedifying dear people listen I want you to be armed against error and when error comes floating on pseudo-scholarship it is very dangerous and I want you to be armed enough that when someone says the heiress imperative means a definitive once for all act
Sunday before Christmas in 1992 you learn better you turn to a few passages and say no, no don't base a doctrine on a misuse and an overstatement of the implications of a Greek tense in the scriptures so if you ask the question what's wrong with this teaching I answer it makes too much of the Greek tense for it's very interesting certain things that are commanded in the heiress imperative in one place are set forth in various forms of the present tense either verbs or participles in another for example, Colossians 3.5 put to death therefore heiress imperative Romans 8.13 uses a present if you by the Spirit are mortifying a different Greek word for putting to death but the same basic concept if you are mortifying present tense the deeds of the flesh ye shall live well you see if I'm called to a definitive once for all dealing with matters in Romans 6 why do I need a present mortification in Romans 8 and if I've had the overall total dedication in Romans 6 why do I need some additional dedication in Romans 12 so that moves us to the second part of the answer to my question what's wrong with the teaching it not only makes too much of the use of the Greek tense
too little is made of the overall context of these decisive imperatives too little is made of the overall context of these decisive imperatives Romans 6.13 for example it is not teaching us that there are Christians who are genuinely saved but who have never yielded themselves up to God that would be contradicted throughout this entire sixth chapter for again and again in this sixth chapter Paul asserts that if we are truly united to Christ we have already become the servants of God he has stated that look at verse 17 thanks be to God that whereas you were the slaves of sin you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching unto which you were delivered and being made free from sin ye became servants of righteousness you became servants of righteousness verse 22 but now being made free from sin and become servants to God you are having your fruit unto sanctification in the end eternal life you see the passage is not teaching that you are saved and you have taken the benefits of the cross of Christ but you have never come to this place of total yieldedness
now totally yield yourself to God and you will enter into victory Paul says no if you have truly believed you are united to Christ and if you have truly believed and are united to Christ then you have experienced a radical fundamental divorce from the tyranny and the lordship of sin and self and God and Christ and righteousness are now your gladly owned masters too little is made of the context of these passages for example again in Romans 12 if Paul means to teach that by one great crisis of surrender we enter into victory why does he immediately follow that exhortation with this word in verse 2 be not fashioned according to this world but be continually transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God and if he has already stated in Romans chapter 6 you have become the slaves of God the slaves of righteousness why does he now need again to say present your bodies a living sacrifice well it's the simple principle that with each additional measure
of understanding of the grace and mercy of God we had it in our regular reading this morning there needs to be a commensurate response of gratitude to the God of grace to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little to whom much is forgiven the same loveth much and the more we understand the magnitude of God's forgiveness the greater will be our gratitude the greater our gratitude the greater our joyful self surrender and so there is a continual process greater light greater measures of conscious self surrender unto God increasing appreciation for God's mercies increasing presentation of ourselves not as a once for all definite act of a crisis subsequent to conversion but as the continuous pattern of our lives so that in a sense every day when our feet hit the floor we say Lord I'm not my own I've been bought with a price this day I offer myself up a fresh a living sacrifice unto you oh Lord help me this day to have my mind molded by scripture not by this present age that I may prove in my experience the good the acceptable and the perfect will of God if you will take all of the passages that you hear used to support this matter of a definite act
of total consecration unto God and look at the overall context in which the passage comes you will see that these verses will not bear the weight that is put upon them and then thirdly what's wrong with this teaching too much use is made of the Greek tense too little is made of the overall context of these decisive imperatives and too little is made of the cumulative teaching of the word of God that is too little is made of a systematic theology of the Christian life that's the cumulative teaching of the word of God as we saw in the earlier hour systematic theology is gathering the total witness of God concerning a given area of biblical revelation and what we find as part of the total witness of biblical revelation is that once we have truly repented and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ in the language of Colossians 2 as we have received Christ the Lord when God's grace has taken out the heart of stone and imparted a heart of flesh we are then to do what we are to grow in Him we are to be rooted and built up in Him we are to abide in Him Jesus said if you have my word and keep it then are you my disciples indeed you will manifest in that path of clinging to me and to my word
that you are truly my disciples in other words the exhortation of Barnabas is the exhortation that every good man full of the Holy Ghost will give to the people of God in spiritual infancy and what is that exhortation once they have entered into the grace of God in conversion that exhortation is not to describe some marvelous experience it is to say with purpose of heart you should cleave to the Lord on whom you have believed as in your lostness you turned away from all confidence in yourself and in your own works and in your religious heritage and performances and rituals and through your guilty soul upon Christ as He was offered in the gospel so in the Christian life having received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in Him find in Him your wisdom, your strength, your power the grace needed for all that the will of God brings to you as a child of God too little is made of the cumulative teaching of the word which sets before us as God's norm for His children a life of growth a life of developing a life in which we set our hearts upon cleaving to Christ living by faith walking by faith and not by sight
and certainly not by feelings and the overarching teaching of the word of God is that in that path God may give us various crises in conjunction with the tailor made pattern of His dealings with us and when they come they may be crises to humble us David's crisis after the visit of Nathan was a marked period in his life a crisis of deep humiliation and God may bring such crises to us to deal with some of the fibrous remains of pride in the heart He may bring a crisis of humiliation He may bring a crisis of revelation some of us or I should say illumination not revelation but illumination some of us can remember when certain truths were first unfolded to us from the scriptures it's like we took off in our appreciation of God and His salvation and His glory and there was a crisis of humiliation of illumination sometimes there's a crisis of guidance we've been wrestling and struggling with an issue and then God brings light and by providence He hedges up this way and that way and what had been a source of deep agitation and at times great spiritual trauma when God opens the way before us there's a tremendous sense of liberation I'm not denying that there may well be various undefinable crises
Pastoral Application: The Daily Walk vs. 'Get Rich Quick' Schemes
along the way but the point is this are we to seek such crises do we have biblical warrant to claim such crises and I'm asserting no and the passages which mandate a definitive act of total consecration unto God are not to be used to support that teaching too much is made of the use of the Greek tense the aorist tense too little is made of the overall context of these imperatives and too little is made of the cumulative teaching of the word of God now let me say in my concluding application to you who are the Lord's people do you not see that whatever godly motives may be driving the Andrew Murray's of this world whatever godly motives may be present in men whose shoes many of us feel unworthy to unloose men who have done great things for God Hudson Taylor, C.T. Stubb, John Wesley many many others the issue is this coming to my Bible with a determination to let scripture interpret scripture does my Bible hold out to me as an ordinary Christian
that it is both desirable promise that God will give me a post conversion crisis experience that will radically alter my ability to live the Christian life and I'm saying no the Bible holds forth no such promise now that does not mean that we question the salvation of some who have taught such things nor do we question the sincerity nor do we question the heights and depths of some of their walk with God the issue is this what sayeth the scriptures the issue is not men's motives or their godliness the issue is let God be true and every man a liar you see we're back again to this yearning for some get rich quick scheme in the spiritual realm and there's a weariness with the old path of daily hacking and hewing and plucking and casting and putting to death there grows in the human soul a yearning out of weariness and in many ways holy longings for such intimacy with Christ that if we could just be cut loose from this present realm and be shot up to an entirely new realm
how blissful it would be and the earnest hungry Christian is vulnerable dear child of God what God holds out to you is what Paul held out to the Colossians he said as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in Him in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and in Him you are made full we have no theology of more we have a theology that says all is in Christ however we have a theology that says I have not yet appropriated and worked out in my experience all that is mine in Christ and it is my daily privilege and task my hourly privilege to feed upon Christ John 6 to abide in Christ John 15 to present myself daily a living sacrifice unto God out of gratitude for the salvation conferred in Christ upon a hell deserving sinner it is my privilege and my responsibility and duty as you heard last week to walk as He walked to look at the details of the life of my Savior in the Gospels and seeing how He related to His enemies to pray that I may in the strength of His Spirit so relate to my enemies to see how He related to the unsaved and to stumbling and ignorant disciples and to pray
O God may I be like the Savior He that saith He abideth in Him ought to walk even as He walked yes 2 Corinthians 3.18 says but we all with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into that same image from one stage of glory to another dear people of God don't open yourself up to those things that hold out this post conversion crisis experience it will either lead on the one hand to cynicism or self-deception and I've seen it do both I've heard people say look I've been down the altar I've been saved I've had the baptism I've spoken in tongues I've prophesied it's all a bunch of garbage nothing's real I would hate to hear that coming from anyone's mouth in this place but you cannot go to Christ as a needy sinner find in Him forgiveness and acceptance in the Beloved and know that God's controversy with you is over because of the work of Christ and go back to Christ day by day for the needed constant cleansing and forgiveness in His blood and go to Christ for the needed wisdom and strength and power and as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in union with Him no one doing that ever becomes cynical
and no one doing that ever becomes self-deceived and dear people we would see you kept on the way that only way the narrow way that leads unto life and I close with that word that I have in each of these series if you're not in Christ then God does call you to a definitive definite act this morning and that act is to turn from your sin to turn from self-will to turn from self-trust and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to throw the whole weight of your needy soul upon Christ Himself upon Christ alone upon Christ as He is offered in the Gospel let us pray Our Father we earnestly pray that You would take Your Holy Word and so apply it to our hearts and consciences by the Holy Spirit that any who are among us who have been led astray by erroneous teaching in this area would be by Your grace restored to the way of truth and we pray for the many to whom even speaking of these things is strange O Lord we believe that sooner or later they will confront this teaching may You immunize them by Your Word and so establish them in Your Word
that they may be able to see through any specious handling of the Word of God and be enabled to stand firm in Christ we pray O Lord that You would take what has been delivered in felt weakness and honor Your beloved Son and cause that truth to be used to the ends for which You have sent it forth according to Your own word of promise hear us and answer us we plead in Jesus name Amen
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage records Barnabas's exhortation to new converts in Antioch, which Martin uses to demonstrate the absence of a command for a post-conversion crisis experience.
Paul's instruction to the Colossians to 'walk in Him as you received Him' forms a core argument against the need for a 'second blessing' and for continuous growth.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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