Latest / Reformed Thinking / Cooperation and Separation in Gospel Partnership

Transcript

Cooperation and Separation in Gospel Partnership · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome to Reformed thinking. I want you to imagine a man
0:03
standing on the very edge of a sheer Cliff in the remote
0:06
Canadian wilderness. Oh, wow.
0:08
OK, Yeah. It is a very dark scene.
0:11
He is completely out of his mind on this volatile mixture of
0:14
narcotics and whiskey, and he is fully intending to end his life
0:18
right there. That is just awful.
0:20
It really is. So what does it take to pull a
0:23
man back from that kind of absolute total despair?
0:26
And more specifically, what does a radio tower halfway across the
0:31
world and a highly technical theological debate about church
0:35
partnerships have to do with saving his life?
0:37
Well, those seem like totally unrelated things.
0:39
Right. But today we are looking at the
0:42
often tension filled balance of Christian cooperation and
0:45
separation in global missions, and we are drawing from a
0:47
fascinating stack of material to guide our discussion for you.
0:50
Yeah, we have a rigorous mythological text on the
0:53
theology of gospel partnerships by Tim Cantrell.
0:56
We also have a detailed historical case study analyzing
0:58
parachurch movements in India. Right.
1:01
And then we have an absolutely striking personal account of
1:05
radio evangelism reaching into the darkest corners of the
1:08
world. So we are looking at a central
1:11
tension that every believer has to confront.
1:14
You know Christians are commanded by Christ to make
1:17
disciples of all nations. Which is a massive global
1:20
mandate. It is, and logically it requires
1:24
wide scale cooperation among believers.
1:27
But the question is how do you partner with others across the
1:30
globe without compromising the pure truth of the biblical
1:33
gospel? OK, let's unpack this.
1:35
Well, that tension you just highlighted is the ideal place
1:37
to begin, because before we can even attempt to map out how
1:41
Christians work together, we have to establish the boundary
1:43
lines of who we are actually working with.
1:45
Right. Which brings us directly to the
1:46
doctrine of separation. Precisely, and this is a concept
1:49
that makes a lot of modern evangelicals highly
1:51
uncomfortable. But in the mythological text we
1:54
are looking at, Tim Cantrell presents a thesis that
1:56
challenges a lot of modern assumptions.
1:58
He looks at John chapter 17. Which is Jesus High priestly
2:01
prayer, right? Yes, offered right before his
2:04
crucifixion. And in that prayer, Jesus prays
2:07
for the purity of his people. He asks a Father to sanctify
2:11
them in the truth before He ever prays for their unity.
2:13
Oh, that is a fascinating sequence.
2:15
It is crucial. Sanctification through the truth
2:18
inherently means separation from the world and separation from
2:22
error, and that is the absolute prerequisite for genuine
2:26
Christian unity, right? We see the very same logic in
2:29
James chapter 3 verse 17, where the wisdom from above is
2:33
described as being first pure, then peaceable.
2:36
Yes, purity must precede peace. You cannot have biblical peace
2:40
without biblical purity. You know that sequence of purity
2:42
before peace is incredibly difficult for you to keep in
2:45
mind, because our human nature naturally desires peace and
2:49
unity first at almost any cost. We just want to get along.
2:52
We do. We want to build large
2:53
coalitions, but when we look at the historical record,
2:56
specifically the Old Testament warnings, we see what happens
2:59
when the people of God ignore that sequence.
3:02
Unholy alliances almost always ended in complete disaster for
3:05
Israel and Judah. Like King Jehoshaphat, right?
3:08
Yes, exactly. I mean spot on.
3:11
You think about King Jehoshaphat forming a military alliance with
3:15
the wicked King Ahab. Which, on paper, pooling their
3:18
resources might have looked like a brilliant strategic move to
3:21
fight off a common enemy. Right.
3:23
But God rebuked Jehoshaphat for helping the wicked and loving
3:26
those who hate the Lord. Those alliances always brought
3:30
idolatry right into the center of Israel's worship.
3:32
Yeah, it never ends well. And the text points out that
3:35
this is not just an ancient problem relegated to the Old
3:38
Testament. We see modern warnings as well.
3:40
Right, like the document known as Evangelicals and Catholics
3:43
Together? Yeah, that is cited as a prime
3:45
example of an ecumenical partnership that weakened the
3:47
clear gospel witness of the Church.
3:49
Because by trying to find common ground for the sake of cultural
3:53
influence, the signatories ended up muddying the waters on the
3:56
doctrine of justification by faith alone.
3:58
Which is a massive issue. When you compromise imputed
4:01
righteousness for the sake of a coalition, you lose the gospel
4:05
entirely. You really do.
4:07
And to help us avoid that kind of devastating compromise, the
4:11
text outlines 3 distinct categories of separation.
4:15
First, there's personal separation.
4:18
Right, which is the daily fleeing from sin and worldliness
4:21
as we strive for Christlikeness. Yes, and second, there is
4:24
ecclesial separation from false teachers, meaning the Church
4:28
must actively separate from those who distort the Gospel
4:31
message. And then third, there is
4:33
ecclesial separation from disobedient brethren.
4:36
Right, which brings in the necessity of church discipline
4:38
for unrepentant members as outlined in Matthew chapter 18.
4:42
So those 3 categories show us that the Gospel itself is the
4:45
primary boundary issue driving the need for separation.
4:49
We separate because we love the truth.
4:52
But you know this brings up a massive challenge, especially in
4:54
the realm of global missions. Drawing a hard line in the sand
4:57
can sound incredibly unloving to the modern ear.
5:00
Yeah, it sounds counterproductive.
5:01
Tribal and exclusionary people might ask why we would restrict
5:05
our partnerships when there are billions of lost people who need
5:08
to hear about Christ. Because the assumption is that
5:10
more hands on deck always equals a better outcome.
5:13
Right. But if we think about the nature
5:15
of truth, boundary lines are not unloving.
5:19
They are necessary for preservation.
5:22
If you remove the boundaries, you lose the very message you
5:26
are trying to proclaim. I think you write that people
5:28
view this as tribal gate keeping.
5:30
So let me push back a little bit on behalf of the listener.
5:32
Sure, go ahead. I hear you quoting John 17 and
5:36
James 3 but drawing boundaries. But practically speaking, if I
5:40
am in a famine struck region of India and a Roman Catholic
5:44
relief agency offers me a massive shipment of grain to
5:47
distribute to starving children, am I really supposed to say no
5:51
thanks? Your view of justification is
5:53
wrong. While people starve in front of
5:55
me. Doesn't that make our theology
5:56
look incredibly callous? That is a very fair question to
5:59
bring up. I think an analogy helps clarify
6:01
this distinction for the listener.
6:03
Imagine you have a glass of perfectly clean, filtered
6:05
drinking water. OK, I am picturing it.
6:08
Now imagine you have a large picture of water drawn from a
6:11
stagnant, contaminated swamp. Yuck.
6:13
If your goal is to have more clean drinking water to give to
6:17
a thirsty person, you do not pour the contaminated water into
6:21
your clean glass. No, of course not.
6:23
Right, because the moment you mix them, you do not elevate the
6:26
quality of the swamp water. You simply pollute the clean
6:30
water. The entire glass is ruined.
6:32
That makes a. Lot of sense.
6:33
The physical boundary of the glass is what keeps the water
6:36
pure and useful, and in the same way the boundary of sound
6:39
doctrine keeps the gospel pure and effective for the salvation
6:42
of souls. We can hand out grain together
6:45
as a civic good, but we cannot mix our spiritual water.
6:49
Well, that analogy of the water filtration clarifies the tension
6:52
beautifully. We have to distinguish between
6:54
temporal relief and eternal salvation.
6:57
Mixing the water ruins the cure. It really does.
7:00
And this aligns perfectly with a quote from David Doran included
7:03
in our text, where he states every great revival has drawn a
7:06
line between truth and error. He concludes that genuine gospel
7:10
unity flows from genuine gospel separation.
7:13
Which is very consistent with our theological framework.
7:16
As believers who adhere to the Westminster Confession of Faith,
7:20
we understand that the purity of the visible Church is vital to
7:23
its witness in the world. Right.
7:25
Chapter 25 of the Confession teaches that particular churches
7:28
are more or less pure, depending on how the gospel is taught and
7:31
embraced, how the ordinances are administered, and how public
7:35
worship is performed. So maintaining that purity is
7:37
not some abstract academic exercise for theologians in an
7:41
ivory tower. It is an act of strict obedience
7:44
to Christ. We guard the boundary because
7:47
Christ commanded us to guard His bride.
7:50
So now that we have established why boundaries are a strict
7:52
necessity for preserving the truth, we need to map out what
7:55
those boundaries actually look like in real world practice.
7:58
Right, and the text uses a highly effective model to
8:01
visualize this. It uses a concentric bullseye.
8:04
Yes, at the very edge of this bullseye is the absolute
8:08
outermost boundary. This is the tall, unbreakable
8:11
fence that separates the ministries affiliated with the
8:13
true church from the activities of the world.
8:16
Everything outside this fence is not Christian ministry.
8:19
And that outermost fence is defined by Jude verse 3, which
8:24
is the faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints.
8:27
This is the biblical gospel. Yes, this barrier specifically
8:30
precludes spiritual partnership with groups that teach a
8:33
different gospel, such as Mormons or Roman Catholics.
8:37
Outside of the biblical gospel, there is no Christian fellowship
8:40
or ministry partnership whatsoever.
8:43
However, the text makes a very careful distinction here that
8:46
answers your earlier pushback about the starving children in
8:49
India. Oh, right, let's look at that.
8:51
It distinguishes between partnering with non believers
8:54
for temporal civic causes versus partnering for spiritual
8:58
ministry. We can practice what Francis
9:00
Schaefer called Co belligerence. Right, and that concept of Co
9:04
belligerence brings a lot of clarity to how we operate in
9:06
society. Christians can and often should
9:09
collaborate with non believers on temporal causes.
9:11
Like pro-life advocacy, human trafficking rescue, or local
9:15
community disaster relief? Yeah, you might work alongside
9:18
someone of a completely different religion to advocate
9:21
for the unborn or to feed the hungry in your city.
9:23
That is a civic good. You are handing out the grain.
9:26
But the hard line is drawn when it comes to spiritual ministry
9:29
and evangelism. You cannot link arms with
9:32
someone who denies the biblical gospel and go out to preach a
9:35
joint message. You cannot mix the water.
9:38
That is a very clear boundary. Now, as we move inside that
9:41
absolute boundary, we enter the first three rings of the
9:44
bullseye, which represent parachurch and
9:47
interdenominational cooperation. OK, so let's break those down.
9:50
Ring One is Christian Fellowship.
9:53
Yes, this is the broadest level of cooperation among those who
9:56
hold to the true gospel. It is governed by the idea of
9:59
unity and essentials, liberty and non essentials and charity
10:03
in all things. Right, so we are thinking of
10:05
things like Christian camps, massive choirs, and broad radio
10:09
ministries. Moving one step closer to the
10:11
center, we find Ring 2, which is evangelism and mercy ministry.
10:16
This involves believers from different doctrinal convictions
10:18
coming together to meet urgent physical needs.
10:21
So we are talking about Christian hospitals, orphanages
10:24
and disaster relief organizations.
10:26
Right. A Baptist and a Presbyterian
10:28
might disagree strongly on infant baptism, but they can
10:31
completely agree on the gospel and work together to fund an
10:34
orphanage in a war-torn country. Yeah.
10:37
And the key requirement here is that these endeavors must always
10:40
direct new converts back to faithful local churches.
10:43
Absolutely. Then in ring three we have
10:47
Christian education. This focuses on worldview
10:50
training and theological knowledge.
10:52
This includes Bible colleges, seminaries, and Christian grade
10:56
schools. And these institutions support
10:58
the global advance of the gospel, but they do not require
11:01
all participants to agree on every single detail of local
11:04
church covenants to function effectively.
11:07
Looking at those first three rings, you know, fellowship,
11:09
Mercy ministries and education, it begs a massive question that
11:13
I want you to consider as you listen.
11:15
OK, what is the question? With all of these massive, well
11:18
funded para church organizations doing such incredible work
11:21
globally, why do we even need anything closer to the center of
11:25
the bullseye? That is a very common thought.
11:27
Right. If a group like World Vision has
11:29
billions of dollars, unparalleled logistics, and the
11:33
ability to build a hospital in a week, why shouldn't we just hand
11:36
them the keys to the Great Commission?
11:37
Yeah, why drag a slow, messy local church elder board into
11:42
this? Why can't these para church
11:44
ministries just take the reins and finish the job on their own?
11:47
Well, to answer that question, we have to look at what happens
11:50
when para church ministries operate without a tether to the
11:53
local church. Our sources provide a brilliant
11:56
historical analysis by Sammy Williams focusing on the context
11:59
of India. Yes, this case study
12:01
demonstrates precisely what occurs when the para church
12:04
eclipses the bride of Christ. To understand the rise of the
12:07
Para church in India, you have to grasp the desperate,
12:10
staggering needs that existed there in the year 19101.
12:14
The life expectancy in India was just 23 years.
12:17
Wow. Only 23 years.
12:19
Yes, the physical suffering exacerbated by the caste system
12:22
and widespread disease was immense.
12:25
So naturally there is a massive influx of Christian hospitals
12:28
and schools. And the response from Western
12:31
believers was to send medical and educational aid, which was
12:34
desperately needed. It was Even today, Christian
12:37
schools in India are so highly regarded that they enroll 74% of
12:42
the non Christian student population.
12:44
They built an absolute empire of educational and medical
12:47
infrastructure. The sheer scale of that
12:49
logistical work is astounding, and we should praise God for the
12:52
physical relief and education provided to millions of people.
12:56
However, the text issues a severe warning about mission
12:59
drift when organizations become untethered from the specific
13:03
spiritual mandate given to the local church.
13:06
And that first warning involves prioritizing social justice
13:09
without the gospel. Right the text sites
13:12
organizations like World Vision which is one of the largest para
13:14
church ministries operating in India.
13:16
Their stated purpose focuses heavily on development, relief
13:20
and advocacy to pursue fullness of life for every child.
13:23
But the warning here is that when social welfare and physical
13:26
liftment become the primary focus, without an explicitly
13:29
gospel oriented purpose clearly stated and practiced, the
13:32
organization drifts from its original spiritual mission.
13:35
Yes, what happens to the gospel message when a hospital is
13:38
primary metric of success becomes purely physical healing.
13:42
You end up with a well funded humanitarian agency rather than
13:46
a vehicle for making disciples. The physical needs eclipse the
13:50
spiritual reality of sin and judgement.
13:52
And then the second warning revolves around prioritizing
13:55
ecumenism over truth. In the pursuit of broad unity
13:58
and massive numerical growth, doctrinal clarity is almost
14:02
always sacrificed. Yes, the text highlights Donald
14:05
Mcgavran and the Church Growth movement.
14:07
Mcgavran looked at the sociology of India, particularly the caste
14:11
system, and developed the Homogeneous Unit principle.
14:14
Which suggested that people prefer to become Christians
14:16
without crossing racial, linguistic or class barriers.
14:19
Right. And while he influenced much of
14:21
modern missiology, the early para church movements in India
14:24
focused so heavily on developing unity across denominational
14:28
lines to boost numbers that it led to the historic creation of
14:31
the Church of South India in 1947.
14:33
Which was massive merger combining Anglican,
14:36
Congregational and Presbyterian bodies.
14:38
Yeah, and while it looked like a triumph of unity on paper,
14:42
consider the mechanics of that compromise.
14:45
When you merge denominations with fundamentally different
14:47
views on church governance and the sacraments, you immediately
14:51
hit a wall. Oh absolutely.
14:52
I mean, who administers communion?
14:54
Do we baptize infants or only professing believers?
14:57
Right. To keep the peace and maintain
14:59
the coalition, you have to lower the theological stakes.
15:02
You have to stop talking about of those defining doctrines and
15:06
suddenly your theology is watered down to the lowest
15:09
common denominator. And the third warning is perhaps
15:12
the most concerning from a strict ecclesiological
15:14
standpoint, divorcing missions from the Church entirely.
15:18
Yes, in an effort to speed up the process of sending workers
15:22
into the field, many parachurch organizations began bypassing
15:25
the local church completely. They viewed the local church is
15:28
too slow, too bureaucratic, or too focused on local issues.
15:32
So they created their own independent training schools,
15:34
reduced the focus on rigorous biblical theology, and began
15:38
recruiting and sending missionaries directly.
15:40
And the biblical concept of a local sending church became
15:43
incredibly rare. The missionary was accountable
15:46
only to a distant parachurch board of directors, not to a
15:49
biblically qualified plurality of elders in a local
15:52
congregation. Right.
15:54
They became free agents, entirely disconnected from the
15:57
accountability of the local body.
15:58
If we connect this historical drift to the biblical text, we
16:02
find a much needed corrective. The very word parachurch
16:06
contains the Greek prefix para which means alongside.
16:10
Right. By definition a para church
16:12
organization only exists to assist and run alongside the
16:16
local church. It was never designed by God to
16:18
replace it. We can look to the Apostle
16:20
Paul's methodology in the book of Acts for absolute clarity on
16:23
this. In Acts chapter 19, Paul goes to
16:25
the major Pagan city center of Ephesus.
16:28
He does not start a humanitarian agency.
16:30
And he does not start a standalone seminary disconnected
16:33
from a congregation. No, he establishes a local
16:35
church and focuses heavily on intense discipleship and the
16:38
preaching of the Word for two years.
16:40
And the text says that from that local church in Ephesus, all who
16:44
lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord.
16:46
So the local church itself was the engine for reaching the
16:49
entire surrounding region. Yes, and that brings us
16:52
perfectly to the inner rings of our bullseye model, because the
16:56
para Church cannot fulfill the Great Commission alone.
16:59
Because it lacks the biblical authority of the keys of the
17:01
Kingdom. Exactly.
17:03
So we have to move past those outer rings into the intense
17:06
gravity of the local church. This is where a true gospel
17:09
partnership reaches its highest, most concentrated form.
17:13
We are looking at rings 4 through 7 dealing with local and
17:17
closely associated churches. OK, so ring 4 is church
17:20
planting. The text argues that
17:22
establishing new local churches in new contexts is the most
17:25
direct biblical fulfillment of the Great Commission.
17:28
Right. The para church ministries in
17:30
the outer rings exist to support this specific goal.
17:33
Then we move inward to ring 5, which involves local church
17:36
membership and deacons. This is where the unseen
17:39
spiritual unity of the invisible Church becomes visible through
17:42
water baptism, adherence to church covenants, and strict
17:45
agreement on sound doctrine. And the text specifically
17:48
highlights the role of deacons here, noting that men of
17:51
blameless character are appointed to minister to the
17:54
physical needs of the body, which guards the unity of the
17:56
congregation and frees the elders to preach.
18:00
Then moving even closer to the center ring 6 is pastoral
18:03
training. The text points to Second
18:05
Timothy chapter 2, verse 2, showing the biblical mandate for
18:08
the local church to train its own future leaders.
18:11
Yeah, Paul tells Timothy to take the things he has heard and
18:14
entrust them to faithful men who will be able to teach others
18:17
also. Well, standalone seminaries are
18:19
incredibly helpful. They function best when they
18:22
were under the close oversight and strict accountability of
18:25
partnering local churches. And finally, we arrive at the
18:28
absolute center of the bull's ring. 7 the LS.
18:32
Yes, when it comes to participation in ministry, the
18:35
deepest level of spiritual unity outside of marriage is found
18:39
among fellow overseers in a local church.
18:41
Because of the sheer weight of spiritual responsibility
18:45
entrusted to them, God holds a plurality of elders to the
18:48
highest possible standard in life and doctrine.
18:51
They are tasked with teaching sound doctrine, refuting those
18:54
who contradict it, and defending the flock from wolves.
18:57
I think a solar system analogy works incredibly well to
19:00
describe this dynamic for you. Imagine the local church,
19:04
specifically the plurality of elders and the faithful
19:08
preaching of the Word, sitting at the very center, just like
19:11
the sun. OK, I'm with you.
19:13
It's immense gravitational pull is what keeps everything else in
19:17
the correct orbit. As you move further out to the
19:20
different rings, the seminaries, the orphanages, the Christian
19:23
camps, the gravitational pull get slightly looser, but they
19:26
all still firmly orbiting that central life giving source.
19:29
Right. And the catastrophic problem
19:31
occurs when a parent church organization out in one of the
19:34
distant orbits decides it wants to be the Sun.
19:37
Yes. When a planet loses, that
19:39
gravity goes rogue. That's what happened in India.
19:41
That parachurch became a rogue planet.
19:43
It had mass, it had momentum, it had funding, but it was
19:46
completely out of orbit. Yeah, when a parachurch tries to
19:50
act like a local church attempting to administer the
19:52
sacraments or sending missionaries without elder
19:54
accountability, the gravity is lost and the whole system starts
19:58
to tear itself apart. Well, that analogy of the rogue
20:01
planet captures the tension Florida State, and it aligns
20:05
seamlessly with Reformed ecclesiology.
20:08
In Matthew chapter 16, Christ promised I will build my church,
20:12
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
20:14
He did not promise to build the parish church.
20:16
Right. He gave the keys of the Kingdom
20:18
to the Church. Therefore, the local church
20:21
alone possesses the authority given by Christ to administer
20:25
water baptism, to fence and administer the Lord's Table, and
20:29
to carry out church discipline. A board of directors at a
20:32
nonprofit cannot excommunicate an unrepentant center.
20:36
Only a local church can do that. The para church is an incredible
20:39
tool, but it remains a tool in the hands of the Bride of
20:42
Christ. It must always act as an
20:44
assessment to the local congregation.
20:46
So if the local church is the ultimate goal of all these
20:49
partnerships, a massive logistical question arises.
20:52
OK, what is it? How do we reach people in areas
20:55
where local churches are literally illegal or where they
20:59
simply do not exist? If a country has closed its
21:02
borders to physical missionaries, how do these broad
21:05
outer ring pair of church tools function effectively to spark
21:09
church planting in those highly restricted dark places?
21:12
That is a fascinating question, and this leads us to our next
21:16
source, an account by Edward W Cannon regarding the Far East
21:19
Broadcasting Company or FEC. Yes, this organization started
21:24
in 1945, right at the close of the Second World War.
21:28
And with a vision that sounds almost like science fiction for
21:31
its time, using radio waves to bypass geographic borders,
21:34
hostile governments, and physical walls like the Bamboo
21:37
Curtain. They viewed a simple radio
21:39
receiver as a portable missionary capable of going
21:42
where human beings legally could not step foot.
21:45
The strategy behind that portable missionary is firmly
21:48
rooted in Scripture. The text points to Romans
21:50
chapter 10, verse 14. How will they hear without a
21:53
preacher? Right, in a hostile context
21:56
where a physical preacher cannot cross the border, the radio
21:59
signal carries the preacher's voice directly into the living
22:02
room. But the crucial element here is
22:03
not just the technology itself. It is the substance of the
22:07
broadcast. In the secular broadcasting
22:09
industry, there is a common phrase content is king.
22:13
Right, but FEC customized that phrase for their mission.
22:17
Content is king when the king is the content.
22:20
Yes, the goal was never to amass high listener numbers through
22:24
light entertainment, cultural commentary, or superficial talk
22:27
shows. The singular goal was making
22:29
disciples through the faithful, rigorous exposition of God's
22:33
Word. To accomplish that massive goal,
22:36
the text outlines 3 specific pillars of broadcast strategy
22:39
for these hostile environments. OK, let's hear them.
22:42
The first pillar is utilizing indigenous voices.
22:45
They knew that many cultures are highly suspicious of foreign
22:48
Western influences. To build immediate trust, the
22:51
voice coming to the radio needed to speak the local language
22:54
utilizing the precise local dialect.
22:57
That makes total sense. The second pillar is local
23:00
awareness. A broadcaster cannot just read a
23:02
translated script written in a comfortable American context and
23:05
expect it to resonate in a persecuted village.
23:07
Right. They have to understand what the
23:09
Hindus, Muslims or Buddhists in that specific listening area
23:13
already believe about God and the world and address those
23:17
specific worldviews biblically. And the third pillar is
23:20
establishing listener feedback mechanisms.
23:23
Even in dark, hostile places, they needed ways for listeners
23:27
to ask questions, whether through smuggled letters, phone
23:30
calls or texts. Yeah, to ensure the broadcast
23:33
was actually being understood and to facilitate further on the
23:36
ground discipleship. What's fascinating here is how
23:39
they measured their success. The metrics of success for FEBC
23:43
are completely countercultural to modern media standards, which
23:46
usually chase clicks and broad appeal.
23:48
Yes, over decades of tracking listener feedback, initially
23:52
through millions of handwritten letters smuggle out of places
23:55
like China and Russia, and later through digital apps, they found
23:58
a remarkably consistent pattern. And the most requested
24:01
programming was never the music, and it was never the light
24:03
devotional material, no. The overwhelming demand from
24:07
these isolated believers was for pure verse by verse Bible
24:10
teaching. That spiritually hungry response
24:13
proved that the strategy was working.
24:15
They did not need to water down the theology to gain an
24:17
audience. The pure preaching of the Word
24:20
was exactly what the elect in those nations were craving.
24:23
That macro level view of international radio strategy is
24:26
astounding, but we need to zoom in.
24:28
We need to transition from the massive scale of broadcasting
24:31
towers and millions of letters to the micro reality of one
24:35
single listener. OK, how does the Sovereign Guide
24:39
use these distant outer ring partnerships to reach down and
24:43
save a specific desperate person?
24:46
This is where we look at the testimony of Nathan Giesbrecht.
24:49
Yes, his story is one of the most gripping accounts of God's
24:52
sovereignty we'll ever hear. We need to detail precisely
24:55
where Nathan was in his life because the contrast between his
24:58
total depravity and God's irresistible grace is
25:01
staggering. It really is.
25:03
Over a decade ago, Nathan was swallowed by absolute grief.
25:06
He was going through a bitter divorce and he just lost his
25:08
father. And his coping mechanisms were
25:10
completely destructive. He was drinking whiskey daily
25:13
just to numb the pain. He went to a psychiatrist who
25:17
put him on six different antidepressants, none of which
25:20
helped his despair. So he started mixing in heavy
25:23
narcotics and sedatives. He was living with a woman who
25:26
actively practiced witchcraft. It is just a total downward
25:30
spiral, yeah. The shame of abandoning his
25:32
children eventually pushed him to the absolute brink.
25:35
He actually walked to the edge of a high Cliff with full
25:39
suicidal ideation, fully intending to jump and end it
25:43
all. Which brings us back to that
25:44
image from the very beginning. Right.
25:46
And the only thing that stopped him from stepping off that ledge
25:49
was a fleeting thought that he wanted his children to know.
25:51
He never stopped loving them. The depths of his desperation
25:54
were total. His life was entirely ruined by
25:57
his own sin, his rebellion and his severe substance abuse.
26:01
He was fired from his professional career as a speech
26:03
and language pathologist because he was constantly under the
26:06
influence. Yeah.
26:08
To make ends meet, he took a grueling night shift job in the
26:11
middle of the dark British Columbia forest, cutting fence
26:14
posts. And it is in this precise
26:16
setting of extreme isolation, addiction, and despair that we
26:21
see God utilize highly unorthodox means of grace to
26:24
reach Him. Yes, Nathan found an old broken
26:28
cassette player and radio. The numbers were completely worn
26:31
off the dial. To keep himself awake during his
26:34
dangerous 8 hour shift at the saw, he spent time wiring up
26:38
metal coat hangers just to get some kind of crude antenna
26:41
reception. Through the heavy static in the
26:43
middle of the Canadian wilderness, he managed to catch
26:46
one single station. It was a broadcast announcing a
26:49
man who was unleashing God's truth one verse at a time.
26:53
It was a Grace to You radio broadcast featuring Pastor John
26:56
MacArthur. Right.
26:57
For the very first time in his life, Nathan heard a clear
27:00
biblical exposition regarding the absolute, terrifying holy of
27:03
God and the reality of human sin.
27:05
Here's where it gets really interesting.
27:07
You have to picture this incredibly visceral scene.
27:09
He is in the middle of a dark, freezing Canadian forest,
27:13
covered in sawdust, listening to a broken radio he rigged
27:16
together with coat hangers, and the radio announcer offers a
27:19
free resource to listeners. Nathan desperately wants it.
27:23
He grabs a thick lumber crayon, the heavy kind used for marking
27:26
raw timber, and he scribbles the Radio Ministries address onto a
27:29
torn piece of the cardboard box lid so he wouldn't forget it.
27:32
That is just an incredible detail.
27:34
He mails the request for the resource.
27:37
Sometime later, the reality of his severe drug addiction
27:40
catches up with him again. He is driving under the
27:43
influence of heavy narcotics and actually falls asleep at the
27:46
wheel of his vehicle. By a sheer act of God's
27:49
preserving mercy, his vehicle leaves the road and crashes into
27:52
the one tiny clearing in the dense forest where there were no
27:55
trees. He survives unharmed.
27:58
But the physical impact of the violent crash dislodges
28:01
something from his car's sun visor.
28:03
It falls perfectly into his lap. It is the free CD he had
28:05
requested weeks earlier with that lumber crayon titled The
28:09
Believer's Comfort in Christ's Return.
28:11
That moment is a staggering display of God's absolute
28:14
sovereignty. Right there, in the immediate
28:16
aftermath of a drug induced crash, the truth physically
28:19
lands in His lap. Yes, he listens to the CD which
28:23
features an exposition of Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1
28:26
and 2. That text commands believers to
28:29
walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for
28:32
us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
28:36
Hearing the explanation of the atonement, that real biblical
28:39
love is inherently sacrificial, shattered Nathan.
28:42
He saw his own utter selfishness, especially his
28:45
grievous sin in abandoning his own children, starkly contrasted
28:49
against the perfectly selfless sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the
28:52
cross. That realization, driven solely
28:55
by the faithful preaching of the Word, brought him to his knees
28:58
in total repentance, leading to his genuine salvation.
29:02
The Holy Spirit used that preach Word to regenerate his dead
29:05
heart. And the fruit of that salvation
29:06
was immediate and radical. He instantly walked away from
29:09
the drugs. He literally slammed the Rorsch
29:11
shut on his narcotics and never looked back.
29:13
He left the woman practicing witchcraft.
29:15
He went directly to his ex-wife, confessed his massive failures,
29:19
asked for her forgiveness and successfully secured shared
29:22
custody of his sons to be a father to them again.
29:25
He eventually LED a Co worker to faith in Christ and she later
29:29
became his new wife. He realized the local churches
29:33
he was attending. We're not preaching the Word
29:35
with the same rigor and fidelity he heard on that radio
29:38
broadcast, so he desired to be trained properly.
29:41
He and his wife sold everything they had, moved all the way to
29:44
California to attend the Masters Seminary, and then returned to
29:48
Canada to plant a faithful local church on Vancouver Island.
29:52
If we look at Nathan's testimony through the lens of everything
29:55
we have discussed today, it perfectly illustrates the
29:58
bullseye model functioning precisely as it should.
30:01
You have a massive parachurch radio ministry operating out in
30:05
the broad outer rings. It used broad technology to
30:08
broadcast a signal across international borders into a
30:11
dark forest. But that outer ring ministry
30:13
functioned perfectly as an assistant to eventually produce
30:16
a local church plant in the inner rings.
30:18
Right. The radio broadcast did not
30:20
baptize Nathan. It did not offer him the Lord's
30:23
Table. It delivered the ordinary means
30:25
of grace, the preaching of the Word which the Holy Spirit used
30:28
to save him, eventually driving him into rigorous pastoral
30:32
training and the planting of a faithful local church.
30:35
We also see the immense Providence of God utilizing
30:39
faceless, anonymous partners to enact His sovereign will across
30:43
the globe. That is the ideal point to
30:45
synthesize all of this for you as you listen.
30:47
When you consider the sheer scale of global gospel
30:50
partnerships, it is staggering. We are talking about strict
30:53
theological boundaries, massive historical movements in India,
30:57
towering radio antennas bypassing hostile borders and
31:00
broken cassette players wired with coat hangers in a forest,
31:04
all orchestrated by a sovereign God to build his church.
31:07
It brings us to a final, provocative thought regarding
31:10
anonymous obedience. I want you to consider the
31:12
unseen people involved in Nathan's story.
31:15
Think about the audio engineer who sat in a dark room and
31:18
edited that sermon. Think about the donor who wrote
31:21
a check to pay for the postage to mail ACD to Canada.
31:24
Think about the postal worker who drove it to his house.
31:27
None of those individuals had any idea that they're small,
31:30
hidden actions were being used by God to rescue a suicidal man
31:34
in a forest, restore a broken family, and plant a new church
31:38
on an island. They never knew the result of
31:40
their labor. No, they did not.
31:42
So the challenge for you to Mull over is this.
31:45
What hidden, faithful, anonymous actions are you taking right now
31:49
that God might use to alter someone's eternity, even if you
31:52
never see the result on this side of heaven?
31:54
Thank you for joining us for this deep dive session of
31:56
Reformed thinking. We will see you next time.