TEXT: II Peter 3:18

SUBJECT: Six Rules by Brownlow North #3

Brownlow North was a leading man in the Irish Revival of 1859. Thousands came to Christ through his preaching, and this left the man with quite a problem: What do you do with them? He wasn’t their pastor, yet he felt a responsibility to get them started in the Christian life.

What he did was write a little tract. He called it Six Rules for Young Christians. There he gives new believers some advice for growing in the Lord. I think the tract is great—except for one thing. The rules are not for young Christians only, but apply to all believers, no matter how long they’ve known the Lord. We should grow in these things, but we can never outgrow them.

I printed the Rules for you and passed them out two weeks ago. Thus far, we’ve looked at the first four. They are: (1) pray every day, (2) read the Bible every day, (3) do something for Christ every day, and, (4) keep a good conscience.

The key words are "every day". We don’t grow in spurts, so much, but gradually, day-by-day. The same thing is true of backsliding. Believers rarely fall into sin (like though a trap door); no, for the most part, we slide into it. Slowly, gradually, every day, our devotion to Christ slips—not so much as to alarm us—but, still, it slips, until we’re cold and indifferent to the Lord and then open to sins we never thought we would commit.

By keeping the Six Rules—with God’s blessing, of course—we grow in grace and stay clear of scandalous sins.

Tonight, we’ll study Rules Five and Six. May God help us to understand them—and obey them—for Christ’s sake. Amen.

The standard for Christian conduct is not Christians. Not Christians you know; not Christians you read about in Church History; not even Christians in the Bible! The best of these people are wrong on some points. Some are sincerely wrong—that is, they want to do the right thing, but don’t know what it is. Others are less sincere—wrong because they’re proud or stubborn or won’t listen to anyone.

This means you can’t be followers of men. You should respect good men, of course, but you cannot allow them to direct your life or to get inside your conscience.

Think of the bad men who’ve palmed themselves off as servants of God and the damage they’ve done. Jim Jones comes to mind and David Koresh. We have a word to describe a religious person who follows the Leader no matter what—Moonie.

But for us, the real danger is not following wicked heretics, but letting good men get into our heads. People who know the Bible and live pious lives can slowly and subtly become our masters. I’ve seen it happen to good people. In fact, it’s happened to me. Let me give you some warning signs. The first four apply to Teachers in particular, number five applies to anyone.

1. You listen to him uncritically (i.e., you take his word for it without reflection or study).
2. When you’re reading the Bible on your own and find a passage that contradicts his teaching, instead of saying, "Ah, he’s wrong on that point", you look for some way to square the Bible with his teaching.
3. You don’t agree with him on every point, of course, but when asked, you can’t think of any point on which you disagree with him.
4. You won’t listen to anyone but him.
5. You worry about what he thinks of you.

Never allow other people to rule your conscience. Think about them when you make a choice, but don’t let their opinions make the choice for you.

Why not? Because Jesus Christ is Lord of your Conscience! When Saul of Tarsus was struck down, he said,

He didn’t care what Peter’s opinion of him was or what James and John thought was best. He wanted to know what the Lord wanted Him to do!

Don’t follow men! Don’t follow the best men! On the Day of Judgment you won’t have to answer to them. What they thought won’t matter then. And frankly, it doesn’t matter much now either.

On the positive side, North tells us to get our Christianity from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Can we follow the Lord Jesus Christ on every single point? Of course not! Because He is God, He could do things we’re not permitted to do. Because He had a Unique Calling, He had to refrain from things we’re allowed to do (e.g., marry, have kids, own a house, and so on).

But on most points, we should follow the Lord Jesus Christ without reservation.

• Think of His devotion to God and to the life of prayer.

• Think of His patience with friends who misundertood Him and did Him wrong.

• Think of the humble and kind ways He treated really bad people.

• Think of how generous He was even to people who hated Him.

These are some ways in which we should follow the Lord. If others are doing the same—great!—but we’re following Christ and no one else!

Question: Are you "taking your Christianity from Christians?" That’s like taking your water from the toilet! You can drink it; it probably won’t kill you, but why not go to a cleaner source? If that was the only water you had, you might have to drink it. It’s better to do that than to die of thirst. But why go there first? The Water of Life is flowing your way. Why not drink it?

Get your Christianity from Christ. That’s the fifth rule. Here’s Number Six,

Today, most people go on feelings. This is true of ignorant and emotional people, of course, but not only of them: it’s also true of well educated people. Back in the late 80’s I spent several hours listening to the Iran-Contra Affair on the radio. All the main figures were being examined by the Senate—Oliver North, Richard Secord, Caspar Weinberger, Mr. Hakim, Fawn Hall, and so on. As the Senators probed them, I began noticing the word they kept using,

"Colonel North, did you feel you were carrying

"Mr. Hakim, did you feel you were

To the Senators, what they "felt" was more important than what they did or said or thought or believed. When the President was asked, "Did you trade arms to Iran for their support of the Contras in Nicaragua?" he said something to this effect,

In other words, if he didn’t feel like he broke the Law, then he didn’t break the law.

It shouldn’t surprise that unbelievers feel this way. After all, if they deny objective Truth and objective Morality, they have to fall back on something! And that something is their feelings.

But, when I listen to Christians, I often hear the same thing! Formally, we affirm that there is such a thing as Right and Wrong, but then, when they cross our feelings, we act as though there isn’t!

A woman once told me, "I feel God wants me to divorce my husband". I asked her why she felt that way, and she said, "Because I do". Years ago, a very close friend of mine told me he was quitting the church. I asked him why and he stumbled and mumbled and fumbled all over himself. I asked him if the teaching was bad. No, it isn’t. Then I asked if the people are wicked. No, they’re fine people, he said. I poked around in some other places of doctrine, church government, emphases, and ethics, and still, he couldn’t tell me why he was quitting. Finally, he said,

I knew what he meant, but I asked him how he could make such an important decision based on a feeling. He had no answer.

I’m not trying to defend the church or to ridicule my friend, but…You’ve got to do better than that! What you feel is real, of course, and powerful too, but when did God ever tell you to obey your feelings?

Feelings are caused by all manner of things: by what you ate, how much sleep you got, by whether your head hurts, even the weather can affect your feelings. Because they’re caused by so many changeable things, then emotions are also very changeable. And, if so changeable, they cannot be reliable.

This is true in general. But it’s doubly true when compared to the Bible. How in the world can your trust your feelings over the LORD God Almighty? Why would they have an authority He doesn’t have? Why should they command and He only advise or suggest?

When it comes to reading the Bible, we ought to be very honest about our emotions. If you come to a verse or chapter you don’t like, you should say so: "I don’t like that! But it’s still true!"

The same applies to a duty. God tells us to do a lot of things we’d rather not do. But what’s going to rule our lives? The deep and stable Word of God or shallow and passing emotions?

Should you become a stoic? Have no feelings, deny your emotions, and so on? Of course not. Jesus Christ was no stoic; He rejoiced and wept and felt everything you and I feel. But He was not ruled by His feelings!

In the Garden, His feelings said, "Don’t do it", but He prayed,

The Lord created you with a brain for thinking and glands for doing other things. Let the glands do their word, but think with your brain under the Lordship of God’s Word.

When God says this, but your feeling say that, deny your feelings to obey the Lord.