Orthodoxy Must Produce Orthopraxy
WORSHIP + WARFARE
A dear friend of mine has a drum he likes to beat. That is, that a church must have two things:
Right worship
Right warfare
Another way of putting this is orthodoxy (not Eastern Orthodoxy, that’s bad) and orthopraxy, obviously. Put simply, proper doctrine and practice. The caricature rears its ugly head of the bobble-head who’s full of knowledge but sits on his hands. The other side of the coin is the zealous fool. Neither are a good spot to be in. There are many more: the apathetic, the immature, etc. However, if we are to be build up into maturity it must be according to our sound doctrine (2 Timothy 1:13) that we must hold fast to and it must work itself out in loving acts (Luke 6:46, 1 Cor. 16:14). Anybody who tries to tell you it’s one or the other should not be trusted, it must be both. Neither is more important than the other.
See, we cannot love a God properly whom we do not know. Yet, simply having information does not in and of itself produce love. Both must be enlivened by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit at work in us.
Monday of last week I got on a plane and flew to LA to meet brothers from Reformed Baptist in Roseburg for a conference. The topics this year were two articles from the 1689 LBCF, Adoption and Sanctification. The conference was encouraging, challenging, and allowed me to buy more books. I came home with so many good books.
One key takeaway was the essential function of the Spirit of God at work in us to produce holiness as we depend on Him (Phil. 2:13) by way of our, you guessed it, adoption. From the font of our identity in Christ and the spiritual blessing poured out and applied we grow in godliness. Don’t let me pretend like I understood everything I heard, some of the content was fast and thick and left my head spinning more than once. Nevertheless, especially at the end of one particular lecture, I felt a great peace as I got to bask in the goodness of God in His sanctifying work in the believer’s life.
This is orthodoxy.
So what about orthopraxy?
Then there’s what happened after the conference was over, besides buying more books. The brothers and I began to work over all we had heard together as we drove to the beautiful, warm and windy pier. I considered the necessity to be adopted by God through Christ, that God would purchase us as sons in the Son, monergistically (that is as the single acting agent), a son doesn’t adopt himself to parents. The new identity, the dignity, the purpose, the life! The very thing the people needed who I would meet over the course of the next two days.
Our sound words would now turn to the loving act of proclaiming the hope of adoption.
We preached and shared the Gospel with thousands of people over the course of two days. I’m not good with numbers, but I don’t think that’s hyperbole. Between the pier, USC, and Chico State we encountered so many people. So many people who were marching through our midst with a father who was wicked, enslaving them to the parental abuses of Satan. They needed adoption. They needed to be united to Christ.
I want to share a few stories from my time evangelizing. The first was at USC.
USC was B-E-A-U-TIFUL. Turns out a private university looks a bit different than state. In the gorgeous California sun we preached, moved around a bit, and preached some more. One young woman rode up on a motorized scooter (they were everywhere) and talked with me for over half an hour. She professed Christ and asked all kinds of questions, not least of all what the signs meant and why we were doing what we were doing. She was thoughtful, patient with several interruptions, and sincere. She asked about predestination, to which we agreed with one another. She also asked why we thought women should be meek, submissive, and modest (1 Pt. 3:1-6). This question produces some of the most fruitful conversations about the imago dei, the difference in function but equal in value, the roles of good men and good women in society. At the end she said something that was both encouraging and heartbreaking. She said, “I wish there were more men like you guys.” It broke my heart because of how competent and quick man and women are to hurt each other, to victimize one another. Women sell themselves to the lowest bidder and trash men treat women like a consumable product. College is a place that cultivates a consumer mentality when it comes to relationships and the image of God gets treated like recycling.
Chico was a slightly different beast. Far more opposition. From 115 decibel music pointed directly at us to threats of violence. Yet, shortly after we got there an older gentlemen found us. He told us he had been following us online and wanted to come meet us. He said that this kind of work isn’t happening on that campus and he was a part of only a few people who evangelized at abortion mills. He was so encouraged to see our witness. Another young woman I got to speak with was eyeing our signs. I engaged her and asked what she thought which prompted her to end her phone call on her headphones and visit with me for some time. She shared, in no uncertain terms, that Christ was her Lord and Savior. In fact, she shed a few tears and she told me that she had been praying for a Gospel witness like this on her campus. She said we were an answer to prayer. I don’t know who trusted Christ because of our preaching there, but I do know that woman was strengthened by what we did. On a campus she referred to as a dark place she felt the cool breeze of the Gospel by brothers, showing her she was not alone.
I share all this to show how ordinary vessels of clay can be used by a great God. That God is at work in our dark world when we might shrink or despair. But, we must not put our light under a bushel. Souls are enslaved to their father the devil. They need adoption papers to come on the lips of people like you and me. We must marry our right worship with right warfare.
It was the last instruction to us by our King, Savior, and brother by divine adoption.
“19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
- Matthew 28:19-20
PS.
The man coordinating the trip managed to find us a place without realizing somehow that it was, in fact, in Compton. Needless to say some of us (I won’t name names) were fairly certain we would not survive.
SUNDAY’S SERMON
Sunday’s message was brought by Lars, an elder at Elm St. Baptist in Sweet Home. He and the rest of the church have been an enormous support and encouragement for our church since we planted. God has blessed us generously with their friendship.
The sermon was, aptly, Paul’s Heart for a Young Church. It was an encouraging reminder that we have what we already require in Christ.
PRAYER REQUESTS
Pray for Scott Steward, a pastor and brother who’s wife was recently diagnosed with cancer.
Pray for John, Adam, Oslo, Hoses, and Lainey who we met in evangelism. Pray also for the many who we didn’t meet but heard the Good News.
Pray for NCM (Northwest Collegiate Ministry) as they have had a difficult month navigating tragedy and challenges.
Pray for the upcoming Autzen evangelism this Saturday.
