3: Living in Grace & The Sufficiency of Scripture

This is the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring to light the legalism and abuse in the independent fundamental Baptist movement, and to encourage believers to grow in grace through the scriptures. Now here's your host, John Holyfield. Welcome back everybody to the For Freedom Podcast. I am your host, John Holyfield, and it's good to be back with you. I do want to say a word before we get started about the production of the podcast. I appreciate your patience with me. I'm working on getting a lot of the wrinkles ironed out. This is something that I'm doing completely by myself. I have had some help by our casual Friday guest, James, who's helped me with different graphics and things like that, getting the podcast launched. But recording it and editing it and all of that stuff, I've been learning as I go. So I did not know how to do this stuff to get started with. And one of the things that I've been trying to make right is the sound of the recording, the microphone, that kind of thing. I've been having some struggles and difficulties with that, but I'm just trying to work out some wrinkles and get that better sounding for you. So this is the next episode. This episode is going to be about grace and truth or grace and the sufficiency of Scripture. Now, the number four in the name For Freedom comes from the four aspects of the podcast. So the freedom comes from the play on Galatians 5.1, For freedom, Christ has set you free. Therefore, don't be enslaved again to a yoke of bondage or a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5.1. The number four encompasses four aspects of how we are presenting, how I'm presenting the podcast and the ministry. And that is, number one, exposing and teaching against legalism. Number two is the exposing and the counsel or helping of abuse. Number three is the teaching and growing in grace, utilizing grace in the Christian life beyond legalism. So when we remove the aspect of legalism and we walk away from legalism, what is replaced there? Well, what's replaced there is grace. So that's number three. And the fourth aspect for the number four encompasses all three of those by the work of the Scriptures, the sufficiency of the Word of God. So using the truth rightly interpreted in the Bible for those three aspects. So that's the number four for freedom, and I play on that verse. And so we did a—the first episode was about legalism, what is legalism, and introducing that subject. The second episode was sort of introducing the aspect of abuse within the independent fundamental Baptist movement. And so reading the article—I know that's not easy to listen to somebody read for 40 minutes. And I probably will never do it again, but I thought it was very—I still stand by the decision to do it because I think it's important for us to look at that. Sarah Smith's team there at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram did such a fantastic job in research and presenting that. So I thought that was appropriate to do. And so that outlined the abuse. And so we're going to dig more into that—both of those subjects as the podcast continues on. So the next—this next introductory episode is going to cover the next two aspects. That is living in grace and the sufficiency of Scripture with those elements. Okay, so grace. This is a word that is often used in the church world, in the church culture, in Christianity. Probably the most famous hymn that's ever been sung, Amazing Grace. That's where it is. Grace is an amazing word, and it is an amazing truth. We are saved by this grace. The Greek word in the New Testament for this word grace is charis, C-H-A-R-I-S. Charis is how you put it over in English. This is understood as God's unmerited favor, okay? God's unmerited favor, meaning God's grace is God displaying favor on any individual or any person or anything that never deserved it. No ounce of deserving at all. Let me say this as bold as I can. We did not deserve it. We still don't deserve God's favor, and we never will deserve God's favor because God is holy and we are sinners. Now, I know for those that may be coming out of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement that have been told that they're nothing, that they're worthless, these are hard, these may trigger some things within you, but I ask you to stay with me here. Stay with me for this because theology matters, especially this part, okay? So this word grace, God's grace, God's unmerited, undeserved favor that He bestows on us, it is amazing. In fact, John, the Gospel of John, John 1, verse 14 says, and the Word, speaking of Jesus, became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as the only Son from the Father. Watch this. This describes Jesus and His ministry. Full of grace and truth. Full of grace and truth. One preacher said at one time, if all you have is grace, you have liberalism. If all you have is truth, you have brutality. But grace and truth is the balance. So let's define grace in the Christian life. Now, I'm going to read a lot of quotes. There is a book out there. I think I've recommended it before as well, and I highly recommend it. I'll try to put a link to the book in the show notes. The book is The Grace Awakening by Chuck Swindoll, and I'm going to read a couple of quotes from that book and use some of the information that Chuck Swindoll gives in that book because it is just so excellent. And he says this, In a world of darkness and demands, rules and regulations, requirements and expectations demanded by the hypocritical religious leaders, Jesus came in and ministered in a new and different way. He alone, full of truth, introduced a revolutionary different way of life. And this is what Jesus was doing. Jesus came in to those, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, those guys that were implemented into the system of the law, which they, let me say this, they distorted the law. And much like we see in the Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement and those legalistic systems of religion where they distort the truth. I said earlier that all truth and no grace is brutality, but I have to preface that by saying that that may lead you to think of some of the legalism within the Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement, but my problem with it is that most of what they proclaim as truth isn't truth because they get the interpretations wrong so badly. And so that's what happened with Jesus' times with the Pharisees. They distorted the law, added to the law, and left really what the law was intended there to do for the people of Israel. And Jesus came in and he turned it over on its head. A pastor that's now passed away, Donald Gray Barnhouse, said that love goes upward is worship. Love that goes upward is worship. Love that goes outward is affection. And love that stoops is grace. If you claim, Swindoll said, if you claim to be a messenger of grace, if you think you are really preaching grace, yet no one is taking advantage of it, maybe you haven't preached it hard enough or strong enough. I can assure you of this. Grace-killing ministers will never have the charge brought against them. They make sure of that. Think about that. Think about that. If people aren't taking advantage of their grace, are we sure that we're actually preaching grace? That scares us to death, doesn't it? It scares preachers to death. Because the one thing that fuels legalism is the fear that people are going to be living in sin. And so with that, I talked about this in the legalism episode. With that, we then go into playing the Holy Spirit in people's lives, telling them what they can and cannot do. But when we extend grace, we step back, allow the Holy Spirit to govern people's life. And you know what? Here's the truth of the matter is. It is messy. It is messy. Because people make mistakes. And let me say this. So do we. The Christian life is a progression of growing to be more like Christ. I am not... I am more like Christ today than I was 10 years from now. And what happens is, is we already are up to this point and we want everybody to catch up to us right away because we know what's right or wrong and it bothers us. We start getting twitches. When we see somebody that's doing something that we know is wrong and we've got to set them straight. And we've got to say, oh, and then we start judging. Well, are they a Christian if they did that? And we forget so quickly how our journey on the Christian faith has been and where we came from and what we gave up and how the Holy Spirit worked in our lives to grow us. Instead of utilizing grace as God grants us each day in the Christian walk. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones was a British preacher in England in the first half of the 1900s, of the century of the 1900s. So he was a doctor. He was a medical doctor who then got saved and then felt that he was called to the ministry and called to preach. He started a little bit of a... as an under-shepherd under G. Campbell Morgan and then he became a pastor and wonderful, wonderful preaching ministry. And I believe he died somewhere in the 80s or 1980 or the 70s or something like that. But a lot of his stuff still wrote a fantastic book on spiritual depression. He said this. Now, this is a lengthy quote, but I want to read it to you because this is excellent. If it is true that where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded, well then, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound yet further? First of all, let me make a comment. To me, a very important and vital comment that the true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone, it does not matter at all what you do. You can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. That is a very good test of gospel preaching. And my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding. Then it is not the gospel. Let me show you what I mean. If a man preaches justification by works, no one would ever raise the question if a man's preaching is, if you want to be Christians and if you want to go to heaven, you must stop committing sins. You must take up good works. And if you do so regularly and constantly and do not fail to keep on at it, you will make yourselves Christians. You will reconcile yourselves to God and you will go to heaven. Obviously, a man who preaches in that strain would never be liable to this misunderstanding. Nobody would say to such a man, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Because the man's whole emphasis is just this, that if you go on sinning, you are certain to be damned and only if you stop sinning can you save yourselves so that misunderstanding could never arise. Nobody has ever brought this charge against the Church of Rome, but it was brought frequently against Martin Luther. Indeed, that was precisely what the Church of Rome said about the preaching of Luther. They said, this man who was a priest has changed the doctrine in order to justify his own marriage and his own lust and so on. This man, they said, is an antinomian, antinomian, and that is heresy. That is the very charge they brought against him. It was also brought against George Whitefield 200 years ago. It is the charge that formal, dead Christianity, if there is such a thing, has always brought against this startling, staggering message that God justifies the ungodly. That is my comment. And it is a very important comment for preachers. I would say to all preachers, if your preaching of salvation has not been misunderstood in that way, then you had better examine your sermons again. And you had better make sure that you really are preaching the salvation that is offered in the New Testament to the ungodly, to the sinner, to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, to those who are the enemies of God. There is this kind of dangerous element about the true presentation of the doctrine of salvation. But like I said, we can't do that. We have to clarify everything. We have to be... We're so scared to death of grace sometimes. But as Swindoll says, grace is risky. But grace is worth it. And listen to this. Grace is godly. I have this... I often say this... I've said this to our church many times as I've preached on this area of sin. You are no more like Satan than whenever you give in to your pride. The root cause of Satan's exile and downfall was his pride. The most satanic sin that we can commit is pride. Now watch this. One of the most godly things you can behave like is exercising and granting grace. Grace is a godly act because God grants us grace. It is a divine, unmerited favor for those who don't deserve it. And we, or those within the IFB who try to withhold that grace, we are setting ourselves up higher than God. And we must be very, very careful for that. What does grace produce in your life? I reworded some of these, but I took these from the Grace Awakening as well. What does grace produce in your life? Number one, you will emphasize grace over works. Now, is works part of the Christian life? Absolutely. James talks about this. Show me your faith by... he wants, basically he says, you want to show me that you have faith in Christ, that you are a Christian? You want to show me that you have faith? Show me your works. Basically, what he says is this. The way that you prove that you're a believer is by the works that you do. Now, that does not progress your sanctification. That does not progress or cause your salvation. But, that is part of what comes with the new birth or the new life in Christ. Works. But, when you start to embrace a life of exercising grace, you tend to treat other people with grace, emphasizing that over judging what you see. Their works. Number two, when you embrace a life of grace, you don't give others a list of do's and don'ts. So, we're talking about replacing legalism. You replace legalism with embracing this life of grace. You don't give others a list of do's and don'ts. What's the list of do's and don'ts? It's a biblical list. It's what the Bible says is sin. And, when we start going beyond what the Bible teaches is sin, let me say this. We better be very, very sure when we get to the Scriptures on what we mark as a sinner or not. But, we don't give people that list of do's and don'ts. Now, the Bible has a very clear process of what to do with people that are in sin. Real sin. Biblical sin. And, that is called church discipline. Now, one of the problems with church discipline today, and I say this, and I may trigger a bunch of people and they say, oh, he's not. He's still IFB. One of the problems there is that church discipline has been so misused and so misappropriated in churches all across the country for so many years that when you say church discipline, people think that it is the worst thing in the world, that it's unloving, it's unchrist-like, it's unchristian. Church discipline when enacted biblically and correctly with love and grace is very vital and important to the church. Maybe that might be something we should do an episode about is the proper application of church discipline. So, you don't give others a list of do's and don'ts. You emphasize grace over works. Number three, you allow room for gray areas. You allow room for gray areas. We have to be very careful when we come to a... A lot of times I find this. When we come to a passage in Scripture, when there may be gray area, we tend to err on this. A lot of times, fundamentalists will jump on the side of the right and then make that a black and white situation. Whenever you have many other passages that might counteract that. And so, when we allow room for gray areas, then we insert grace in those gray areas. Number four, you eliminate a judgmental attitude toward those who may not agree or cooperate with my plan. a judgmental attitude who may not agree or cooperate with my plan. And this is a death nail to pride because it's not all about me and it's not about how I think and how I do it because we leave room, get this, we leave room for the possibility that we may not have it 100% right. Now, I believe my theology and my doctrine is correct or else I wouldn't hold it. And this is the way I like to say it. We all have blind spots. We all have blind spots. If I knew what my blind spots were, I would change it, but I don't know what my blind spots are. And I love how my pastor says it, Pastor Steve, he says, you know, we may get to heaven and find out that we had it wrong on baptism. I'm a Baptist. Still, I am still a Baptist, so I believe in baptism by immersion, but he said, we may get to heaven and find out we had it wrong there. He said, I don't think we do, and I don't think we do. But it's, we don't leave, and the fundamentalists so often will not leave room for the possibility that they may be wrong. And when they do that, we eliminate cooperation with others. We eliminate the possibility of working with others or fellowshipping with others or growing the body of Christ with others. And that's just, that's very sad. So, wrapping the subject of grace up, and then we're going to move on to the fourth aspect that encompasses legalism, abuse, and grace, which is the sufficiency of Scripture. What kind of freedom does grace living bring? Here's a quote from Chuck Swindoll that I want to finish with this. What kind of freedom does grace living bring? Free from oneself, free from guilt and shame, free from damnable impulses, I couldn't stop when I was in the bondage to sin, free from the tyranny of others' opinions. Think about that. Free from the tyranny of others' opinions. Free from the tyranny of others' expectations or demands, and free to what? Free to obey, free to love, free to forgive others as well as myself. Whenever we read Galatians 5, 1 and say, it is for freedom that Christ has set you free, what freedom? Free to obey, free to love, free to forgive others as well as myself, free to allow others to be who they are, different from me. Oh, I could go on a rabbit trail right there. Free to live beyond the limitations of human effort. Free to serve and glorify Christ. But, having been freed, and now living by grace, can we go too far? Well, yes. We call this license, we call this antinomianism. Basically, it's a total disregard for any commands of Scripture, anything the Bible says that is sin, and just say, oh, we're under grace. And, this is something we want to avoid as well, because the Bible is our authority, the Bible is sufficient, and so we still want to uphold the same Bible that gives us the liberty, and gives us the freedom. We also understand that it gives us guardrails by manner of, hey, do this, don't do this, for a happier, more, happier life, more pleasing to God. But freedom is frightening. Swindoll said, there are people who want to be told what to do and when, how to believe in why, and the result is tragic. Perpetual adolescence, without being trusted, without being freed, maturity never happens. Never learn to think on your own. So many that leave the IFB movement, I think a lot of people that leave that movement struggle with this. Well, let me say it this way. Those who see issues but don't leave the IFB movement are struggling with this. They're scared. They like the structure. They may recognize that the commands or the legalism that's been put upon them by some preacher is beyond scripture, but they like the structure. And so they stick with it. So, Swindoll offers three practical suggestions for guarding against extremes and going into a balanced form of living. First, guard against extremes if you want to enjoy the freedom grace provides. Second, treat grace as an undeserved privilege rather than an exclusive right. live gratefully not arrogantly. Live gratefully not arrogantly. Third, remember that while grace came to you freely, it cost the Savior his life. grace living should lead us to thankful living. Let me read the passage one last time before we move on to the next subject. For freedom Christ has set us free. So, stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. glory. And I hope that verse brings on added meaning as we covered the aspect of grace. Now, I want to spend the rest of the time with this subject of the Bible because I still hold to a very strong view of the Bible. This is what is called the sufficiency of Scripture. I believe the Bible is God's Word. Does it stand the test of reason? Yes. But that is not the source of that conviction. It is the inner witness of the Spirit to our hearts. It is the Spirit that witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God. It is the Spirit that witnesses with our spirit that the Word of God is in fact true and reliable. We can stand on the truth of the Word of God. I did a study at our church on the Bible. I think I did 22 lessons on the doctrine of the Bible and I came away with it not King James only but more settled and confirmed in my heart that the Bible is God's Word and that it is sufficient and authoritative. The Bible carries with it authority. Now, how does the Bible carry out in our lives? Well, Psalm 19 is what I want to examine for this. Psalm 19 is considered the psalm about the Bible. Psalm 19 is sort of a miniature version of that. And verses 1 through 6 talk about God declaring the sky and the earth declaring the handiwork of God. Verse 4 says, or verse 5, verse 3 says, there is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice, speaking of nature, speaking of creation, goes out through all the earth. Their words to the end of the world in them. He has set a tent for the sun. Verse 6, its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them and there is nothing hidden from its heat. So then you get to verse 7 of Psalm 19 and it begins to tell you what the word of God does. So it uses terms like the law, the precepts, the commandments, all of these are referenced to God's word, what we call the Bible. So verse 7 says, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. And then verses 10 through 14 talks about our response to the word. It says, more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. I want to look at verses 7-9 as it talks about what the word of God does. Now, how can we bring the word of God or scripture or the Bible to bear to help with the legalism or the abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, spiritual abuse, that comes from the IFB or other religious institutions and dealing with grace living in the Christian life. And I think Psalm 19 holds the answer to that because it declares to us what the Bible can do. And so as we move forward, I'm going to examine this passage, but then understand that the goal of the podcast is to prove that. As we go forward examining the details of these issues using the Bible as it says it can do here in Psalm 19. So there's six titles of Scripture I talked about that. The law which is God's this is the Hebrew word Torah, God's instruction manual for man's life. The testimony of the Lord in verse 7 is the testimony or witness. The statutes or precepts of the Lord is in verse 8 is the pointed truths, the principles, the doctrines, the commandments of the Lord is the ordinance. It is a mandate. It is authoritative. So this describes what the word of God is. The fear of the Lord, this is morally reverence or dreadful, and then the judgment of the Lord. This is the order, the determination, the verdict of God that we find in the word of God. And so then next I want to look at six attributes of Scripture in this passage. So the law of the Lord is perfect. Perfect. This means complete, undefiled, it covers all aspects of life. And you may be saying, and I hope you stay with me here, just please stay with me. Because I know some of you that have left this movement have been so hurt and so done wrong. Some of you may have even left Christianity and you're just giving this a try. Just stay with me here. Okay? The Bible has so much to say about all of the aspects of life, and God has granted us truth to help us cope with life and to help us live on in life. I don't think that the Bible gives us some type of life like the health, wealth, prosperity gospels say, that there's no suffering. There is suffering, but there's a purpose to the suffering. There's so much more to God's word. It's perfect. It is sure. It's unwavering, unmistakable, reliable, trustworthy. The precepts of the Lord are right. What is right? It is the path or the guide. The commandment of the Lord is pure. This is clean, clear, lucid, transparent. The fear of the Lord is clean. The rules of the Lord are true. This is fair or pure. True is truthfulness or faithful or right. Then, here it is, the six results of Scripture that we see from this passage. what does it do? We see what it is, now what does it do? The law of the Lord is perfect. So what does it do? It revives the soul. Isn't that what many people that have been abused need? They need a reviving of the soul because most of the time abuse crushes the soul. physical abuse, sexual abuse, it crushes someone's soul and our heart should break for them. If we have a hard time hurting with those that have experienced abuse, we should examine our hearts to see if we are really walking with the Savior because He hurts with them. Converts the soul. This is refreshing, total transformation. The soul means the inner person. Next it says that the testimony of the Lord is sure. What does it do? It makes wise the simple. This is skilled and practical aspects of living. Simple is basically the unlearned. The next one in verse 8, the precepts of the Lord are right and what does it do? It rejoices the heart. It brings joy, merriment to the heart, which is the intellect, the mind. The next one is the commandment of the Lord is pure and what does it do? It enlightens the eyes. This brings glorious light, shining, luminous to the eyesight, to the path that you're going on. And then in verse 9, the fear of the Lord is clean. What does that do? It endures forever. It stands firm. World without end. It means no matter what changes in the world today as technology advances, as society advances on, the Word of God stands firm. God's Word will never pass away. And then lastly, the rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. That's right. is just with all altogether, likewise only. And so you have the right response to Scripture. What is it? Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart. It's commitment. It's commitment. Okay? And so this is, these past three episodes have been introductory episodes. Okay? So as we continue and go forward, we're going to do a couple of things. I'm going to have a couple of interviews here and there to discuss some topics. I've got some things I'm lining up to discuss some more detailed topics. But the solo episodes that I do by myself is going to carry on a line of thought. And the next episode, next week, I'm going to dig into the independent fundamental Baptist movement's history. Okay? This is something I'm working on a book. And I meant to have, hold on, let me see if I can bring it up here. I'll read you off. I'll show you the, this is what the book is going to cover, the chapter headings. So the book that I'm writing on, I still haven't got a title. If you have an idea for a title, you can send me, maybe I'll pick that title. But I have it nailed down a title. But I've already wrote the first two chapters on the history of the movement. So I've done a lot of research on this and put together a history of the movement. So the next few episodes of the podcast, we're going to review that history of the movement. The second part of the book, I'm going to review the bad preaching of the independent fundamental Baptist movement and do an expose on the shallow preaching and bad preaching that's happened in some of the key leaders in preaching of the movement. And then the second part of the book, I'm going to deal with legalism. I'm going to have chapters on the legalism of music, the legalism of dress standards, the legalism of entertainment. Then I'm going to move to part four of the book is going to be on bad theology. And so I'm going to look at a couple of places where I think their theology is majorly errant and has major problems. And so those are pastoral authority, the teaching that the pastor is the sole authority in the church. I think that's unbiblical. fundamental, and I'm going to examine that. King James onlyism, I think, is a major issue. So I'm going to have a chapter, maybe two chapters on that. Sanctification, workspace sanctification. I believe that they may not say that per se, but it's definitely practiced. And then the fact of the matter that they have a lack of theology. There is not a whole lot of room given to deep theology in the movement. movement. And then part five of the book, I'm going to wrap the book up with talking about the abuse and cover-ups and how far back it goes. So that's the book I'm going to do. Now the podcast, as I'm working on this book, the podcast is going to follow a little bit along those lines because as I do the research of the book, it's going to come out a little bit in the podcast. So the next episode that drops is going to be about the history of the movement. So I'm excited about sharing that content with you. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a review and give a rating and even share it on social media. You can find more content on getting this started, still fresh at it, on the For Freedom Facebook page, that's For Freedom Ministries or on Instagram at forfreedom underscore podcast and Twitter at forfreedom men. And thank you again and to God, not the pastor, be the glory.komkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkomkom you

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