Today marks the birthday of Scottish reformer John Knox (1513-1572). Anthony Curto provides an intriguing introduction to “John Knox: The Watchman of Scotland.” Best known for his fearless efforts to reform the Church of Scotland by uncompromisingly butting heads with the thrown, he also faithfully served to instill personal piety and adherence to the word of God in the homes of Christian families. In 1559 he wrote,

Dear brethren, if you look for a life to come, of necessity it is that you exercise yourselves in the book of the Lord your God. Let no day slip or want some comfort received from the mouth of God.

Open your ears, and he will speak even pleasant things to your heart. Close not your eyes, but diligently let them behold what portion of substance is left to you within your Father’s testament. Let your tongues learn to praise the gracious goodness of him, whose mere mercy has called you from darkness to life. Neither yet may you do this so quietly that you admit no witness. No, Brethren, you are ordained of God to rule your own houses in his true fear, and according to his word.

Within your houses, I say, in some cases, you are bishops and kings; your wife, children, servants, and family are your bishopric and charge. Of you it shall be required how carefully and diligently you have instructed them in God’s true knowledge, how you have studied to plant virtue in them, and [to] repress vice. And therefore I say, you must make them partakers in reading, exhorting, and in making common prayers, which I would in every house were used once a day at least.

But above all things, dear brethren, study to practice in life that which the Lord commands, and then be you assured that you shall never hear nor read the same without fruit. And this much for the exercises within your homes.

The February 22, 2005 airing of the 700 Club featured a story entitled “The Osteens on the Power of Positive Believing.” Lisa Ryan interviewed Joel and Victoria Osteen from their Houston home. They talked about how Joel reluctantly inherited the ministry after his father, John Osteen, passed away in 1999. The discussion centered around their feel-good positive message, the run away growth of the gigantic Lakewood Church, and Osteen’s recent New York Times best seller. When the pre-taped segment cut back to the studio, Pat Robertson said, “That’s amazing. ya know, John Osteen was a good friend. He was a Southern Baptist minister, who was baptized in the Holy Spirit, and the Southern Baptists kicked him out – bottom line.” (mp3 audio clip)

The statement seemed odd since, contrary to their narrow-minded reputation, the Southern Baptist Convention doesn’t make a habit of kicking people out. Unlike other denominations, the SBC holds no authority over its pastor’s or the autonomous local churches that they serve. Baptists believe that Christ alone serves as the head of His church and therefore, they resist denominational hierarchical structure. In Southern Baptist life, church discipline takes place within the local church because no higher authority exists. The SBC could not have defrocked John Osteen because the convention does not have the jurisdiction to do so.

I decided to do a little checking into the matter. Shortly after his death, Charisma Magazine published an article that mentioned the debacle. they reported:

“The explosive growth and freedom in the Spirit that have characterized Lakewood Church from its beginning did not come without a price. Joel’s father had been a successful Southern Baptist pastor throughout the 1950s – until he was baptized in the Holy Spirit in 1958 while pastoring Hibbard Memorial Baptist Church in Houston. Southern Baptist officials subsequently put him on trial for heresy. Rather than battling it out and furthering division, Osteen chose to leave the denomination and start his own church.

Charisma – August 2000

I’d be interested to know the identity of these so called “SBC officials.” The Southern Baptist Convention does not hold heresy trials. The more likely scenario probably involved fellow pastors, at the local association level, who called into question Osteen’s aberrant theology and practices.

Charisma has a history of spinning their stories to make the SBC look extremely antagonistic to their cause. Even so, they state here that John Osteen did not get kicked out. He left Baptist life under his own accord, in order to avert any theological accountability.

Ironically, Pat Robertson’s 700 Club airs on FamilyNet, the broadcasting network owned by the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. For some reason Pat Robertson, Charisma Magazine, and others who give a voice to these circles like to paint Southern Baptists as anti-Holy Spirit. Nothing could be further from the truth. I personally know of at least one church where this gross misconception has caused division and strife. Robertson’s words serve to deepen the wounds and hamper understanding. Whatever the motivation, the evidence indicates that John Osteen did not get kicked out of the SBC for being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Pat Robertson has his facts wrong and owes Southern Baptists an apology – bottom line.

I will be preaching on the subject of baptism this coming Sunday and so I thought now would be a good time to finish up a project I began last year. I have just placed another public domain work online; “Evangelism and Baptism: The New Testament Model,” by J. M. Frost (1916). The book consists of two parts. The second part gives his notes from 5 lectures delivered at a State Workers Institute in Arkadelphia, Ark., Feb. 20-25, 1912. The first contains 15 articles by Frost that previously appeared in various publications. All the articles center around the theme of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper serving as evangelistic tools. Baptism, rightly administered, pictures and proclaims the heart of the gospel. Frost urges his readers to see baptism, not only as something done after evangelism has taken effect in the life of a believer, but as a beautiful means by which the gospel can be communicated to the onlooking lost through incarnational symbolic action.

He challenges the readers of his day to follow the New Testament model of evangelism which included, as an integral part, the demonstration of the gospel through the picture of baptism. He wrote:

“See how word and symbol combine in the apostolic ministry. They made large and noble use of the symbolic import and worth of baptism to illumine and enforce the most momentous matters ever presented for human consideration.

They preached Christ crucified but risen from the dead with the fullness of saving power, while baptism showed in figure and picture his resurrection and the empty sepulchre left behind in the garden-with the oft repeated word, ”He is not here. He is risen as he said; come see the place where the Lord lay.”

They preached the believer’s union with Christ, his spiritual resurrection and his being a new creature, his prior need of a new heart within and a new life without as one risen from the dead; and while baptism cannot work the change within, cannot make the heart new or help to make one clean of sin, cannot save or help to save, yet in marvelous fashion this wonderful ordinance gives an outward expression of these inner changes, demands a new heart of all who would be baptized, sets a line between the old life and the new, and requires newness of walk in all who wear its badge of distinction and honor.

They preached that we do not belong to ourselves but to him who hath washed us in his own precious blood, to whom we owe all allegiance and loyalty – while baptism is the obedience of one saved through faith in Christ, and whose baptismal vows are his pledge to honor and serve the King.

They preached triumph for this life with the final resurrection of the dead to follow-while baptism in a figure, clear and bold, is a forecast for the fulfillment of the promise, when the voice of the Son of man shall speak the word and the dead shall come from their graves.

This New Testament ordinance holds all these great truths in symbol, and sets them out with something like dramatic effect in the immersion of a believer upon profession of faith in Christ Jesus as his Saviour and Lord.

Today, as we seek to reform our evangelistic methods, I believe this biblical insight needs to be heard afresh. Let us not view baptism as little more than a perfunctory ritual tacked onto the end of a worship service. Instead, let us hear the challenge of J. M. Frost to recapture the New Testament evangelistic model of proclaiming the gospel of grace visually through the Christ exalting picture of water baptism.

I asked three of our church members to help me in one of my illustrations. The first person represented a human being. The second, I said, represented God – just for the sake of illustration. The third person represented sin. We turned to a very familiar passage, Romans 6:23. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We took the verse one half at a time. First, I asked the person representing every human being, to go over and do some work for Sin. When complete, he went back to sin and received his paycheck – the wage of death. A person receives a wage, because they earn it. They deserve it. The person in the illustration worked for sin and deserved an appropriate wage. The person playing Sin pulled out a check labeled “DEATH.” So now the person who received this check would be dead. We took the time to look at a few different passages of scripture that confirm that a person without Christ lies “dead in their trespasses and sin.”

I turned to the congregation and said, “Lets be perfectly clear. Is this man spiritually alive or dead?” “Dead” came the answer.

“And what is God’s gift according to Romans 6:23?”

“Life” came the reply.

What does the dead person need?”

“Life.”

What does God have?”

“Life.”

Then the man who represented God, in the illustration, came and offered the person a gift. He held in his hands a large package with wrapping paper and a bow – symbolizing the “gift of eternal life.” Now a gift differs from a wage in that you do not earn it or work for it. The giver gives the gift based on their willingness to give. So the man representing God held out the gift of eternal life and the person playing a spiritual dead human reached out and accepted it.

I asked the congregation if the man receiving the gift deserved the gift, worked for the gift, or in any way merited the gift. The answer came back a unanimous “no.”

“Wait a minute! Let’s re-enact this again. I feel we have missed a crucial point.” As we focus on the difference between a gift and a wage, we must not overlook the very serious difference between life and death.

Again God held out the gift and the man reached out to accept it. As his arms left his side to reach out for the gift I hollered, “Freeze!” Do that again. He did it again. Again I commanded him to freeze in mid motion of reaching up to receive the gift.

I turned to the congregation and asked, “I thought ya’ll said this guy was supposed to be dead. Isn’t that what Romans 6:23 says? Ephesians 2:1? etc etc.”

I said, I do not know about ya’ll, but if I went down the street to Edmond Fay’s funeral home and walked up to a casket and the corpse reached out his hands like this fella just did, I’d be out the front door!”

I looked at the guy and said, “Let me see that paycheck again.” He showed it to me with “DEATH” written across it. I said, “You are supposed to be dead buddy.” At that he fell to the ground motionless. I checked his pulse – nothing. I lifted one of his arms, let it go, and it flopped lifeless on the ground. He lay their stone cold dead.

I turned to the congregation and said, “Let me ask you again. Is this man spiritually alive or dead?” “Dead” came the answer.

“Are you sure this time?”

A resounding, “yes” came back.

“And what is God’s gift according to Romans 6:23?”

“Life” came the reply.

What does the dead person need?”

“Life.”

What does God have?”

“Life.”

Now we can re-enact Romans 6:23 with a little more accuracy. God walked over to the man who lie cold on the floor. The dead guy could not reach up to accept the gift. He had no desire for the gift. He didn’t look at the gift and say to himself, “Oh I wish I could have that gift.” He did not go and work to earn the gift. He couldn’t even reach out to grab the gift. He lay there dead.

The persons total inability to obtain for himself eternal life left him hopeless apart from God’s initiative. The person playing God took the gift, opened the box, and poured the contents out on the lifeless corpse. With the gift of new life applied, the sinner began to move, stood to his feet, and embraced God in gratitude.

That is what Paul was saying in Romans 6:23. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

God does not come to a spiritually dead sinner and say, “If you have faith, then I will give you this gift.” A spiritually dead person can not muster up the faith needed to obtain eternal life. Dead men do not exercise saving faith. God unconditionally grants new life to the dead sinner. The sinner then springs to life, fully equipped with a new heart of faith. God gives the new life. God gives the new heart. God alone deserves the glory and praise.

Over the last few days I downloaded the talks from the November 2004 Radical Reformission Conference, popped them on my mp3 player, and walked my way through five fascinating messages. John Piper, the key note speaker, delivered three sessions saturated with Christ-centered, God exalting, relevant, practical theology. I admit being already partial to Piper as a recent enthusiastic convert to Christian Hedonism, but I must say I don’t think I’ve ever heard Piper more radically poignant. He tackled current issues such as Greg Boyd’s Open Theology, N. T. Write’s New Perspective on Paul, popular misconceptions about Calvinism and Evangelism, communicating the truth of the gospel in a postmodern culture, and more. He titled his three messages, “The Whole Glory of God: Governing and Knowing All that Will Come to Pass,” “The Whole Glory of Christ: Imputation and Impartation of His Righteousness,” and “The Whole Glory of the Gospel of God: From Him, Through Him, and to Him.” Well worth the listen.

Chris Seay, author of “The Gospel According to Tony Soprano,” and pastor of Ecclesia in Houston spoke on “The Studious Saint.” Mark Driscoll hosted the event and traced eleven false gospels attempted by man as seen in the first book of the bible. He demonstrated that faulty hermeneutics, feminism, male chauvinism, family, community, government, self rule, spirituality, or even a virtuous dead guy can’t overcome the sin problem. Only Jesus Christ, sovereign of the universe, can crush the dragon’s de minion over our lives and bring us to worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.