166: Reformation Stubbornness

Christ the King and the Necessity of the Local Church

To the Ruled Church Podcast. This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas?

You see that one in Pechote, Mexico? Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it. The church is not a democracy, it's a monarchy.

Christ is king. You can't be Christian without a local church.

You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, visible congregation.

October in Arkansas. Oh, it's a great month, but it kind of feels like, sadly, like June in Wyoming, you know? Maybe that's why I love Wyoming, because I love October. It's just like almost fall, but there's still some hot days.

So you wake up in the morning, and it's a little bit chilly, nice. Like this morning, it was the low 50s. We'll have low 40s. Usually we have a frost at some point, but then in the day, sometimes it can warm up.

Like, it's not unheard of to hit the low 90s sometimes in Arkansas. So, but it's October. I love October. Welcome to the Rural Church Podcast. I am your host, Alan Nelson. I'm one of the pastors at Providence Baptist Church here in Perryville, Arkansas.

We are a confessionally-reformed Baptist church in central Arkansas, just on the outskirts of Toad Suck, some 45 minutes northwest of Little Rock. And it is October, and October is Reformation Month.

Reformation Month and Its Historical Witness

And what I want to do in this episode, just a short, hopefully encouraging episode, but I did this crazy thing the other day. I ran 11 miles, and for me, that's crazy. The longest I've ever ran is that, 11 miles.

Three years ago, I ran, like in August of 23, I ran 10 and a half miles. So, it's the longest I've ever ran, and I just kept running. And then I had a goal. When I started out, I was like, I would like to at least do 10 miles.

But then, once I got running a little bit, I was thinking, man, if I'm gonna do 10 miles, I might as well try to beat the longest I've ever ran and do 11 miles. And so, sure enough, I made it 11 miles.

Kinda crazy, but on that 11 mile jog, I was thinking about the Reformation. I was thinking about the Reformation Month. I don't really have notes in front of me, so you're gonna wanna double check these dates.

But of course, October's called Reformation Month because we have the central piece, if you will, the so-called beginning of the Reformation. You gotta put, I know history doesn't work that way, right?

I mean, we wanna go back and pinpoint exact starts and stops and all that. History doesn't work that way. But we give the start, the unofficial, official start of the Reformation as October 31st. Now, I do know that date, October 31st, 1517.

And so, that's the date that Martin Luther, of course, nailed his 95 Theses on the Church of the Castle Door or the Castle Church Door in Wittenberg. And we know what happened over the years since then.

But there's some other important things that happened in October. October 5th, which this is, maybe I shouldn't even mention this one because it's not really a Reformation era, but it is Jonathan Edward's birthday, October 5th, 1703, I believe.

So he's like almost 200 years after the Reformation, but still definitely one of our stalwarts of Reformed theology, at least when it comes to big God theology, if you will, the sovereignty of God, the glory of God.

October 6th, 1536, I'm pretty sure I have that date right. That is when they strangled William Tyndale. And because of his status, they strangled him. They didn't burn him to kill him, they strangled him, I guess out of mercy or whatever, respect, and then they burned him, they burned his dead body.

That was over the idea, well, let me come back to Tyndale in just a minute. You have October 16th, I believe, 1555, that's when Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer were burned at the stake by Bloody Mary.

That's the famous last words there of Hugh Latimer when he says to Ridley, which I guess Ridley was, as we would expect, as any of us would be, discomforted, of course, that's an easy way of putting it, by the flames.

And this is for their gospel beliefs, their evangelical, you know, Protestant beliefs. So Ridley is struggling there under the flames and Hugh Latimer looks at him and says, play the man, Master Ridley.

And of course, I'm gonna be paraphrasing this. We're gonna light a candle today. And sure enough, you know, these men and women, not just in the month of October, but during the Reformation, of course, Baptists were drowned and men were killed and women were killed and all for standing for the truths that we honestly sometimes hold kind of carelessly today.

Maybe that carelessly is not a great word, but we hold them, but we kind of take them for granted. So going back to Tyndale, I was thinking about the fact that, you know, he tells that Cardinal, of course, I'm gonna completely modernize this one, but basically, the Cardinal says something along the lines of, look, we're better to not have God's law than to not have the Pope's.

Tyndale's Resolve to Put Scripture in English

And I think this was when Tyndale was like a tutor for a family and he looks at the Cardinal and he's like, oh, you know, I defy the Pope. And if I have my way, essentially, then one day, the boy that drives the plow is going to know the scriptures better than you.

And he was resolute and determined to get the Bible into the language of the people. And he did, and he achieved that in many ways. And in fact, I don't know the percentage, I think it was like high 80s or something of the King James, 80-something percent, maybe higher, 90%, the King James' influence or directly by Tyndale.

If you have a Bible in English, if you're reading a Bible in English, you have Tyndale to thank. In fact, I would just give this small exhortation, but what are we doing when men like Tyndale gave their lives, John Wycliffe before him, of course, he wasn't, they never killed him, he died before they could, but they did exhume his body and burn it, showed Wycliffe, but they killed men like Tyndale all because he wanted to get the Bible into the language of the people.

So what are we doing if we're not people who care about reading God's word? But where I wanted to talk about Tyndale for a second and then to really to apply this to pastors, you know, I guess really the theme of the podcast today is to have a godly stubbornness.

Pastors Must Persist Toward Church Health

And I hope that makes sense as I go on explaining, a godly stubbornness, not pridefulness. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So we can't be a prideful people as pastors, but we can have this godly stubbornness, this godly resoluteness, this godly, I'm putting my hands to the plow and I'm not looking back.

And you're thinking about Tyndale. I'm going to translate the Bible. God's gifted me with the languages and I'm going to translate the Bible into English. I'm not going to stop. I'm going to press on.

You think about that with men like Luther. And, you know, I know Luther back then, he would have had, as far as me anyway, killed or at least, he may not have had me killed, but he at least wouldn't have cared if the state, you know, tried to kill me because I'm a Baptist, which he's a Reformed Baptist now, amen.

But just the resoluteness of men like Tyndale and Luther and John Calvin, and I'm just saying we need a godly stubbornness of this is what's right, this is what I'm going to do, and I'm not going to quit.

This year, 2026, by God's mercy, I have the grace of the Lord to have been at our church now for 10 years. That was back in the summer. So now I can say I've been at this church longer than a decade. I started just after I turned 30, and now I've given a full, my entire 30s was given to Providence Baptist Church, which we became Providence Baptist Church, some of you know the story, in 2023, and we had our own series of Reformation-type events here.

Lord willing, I'll give my 40s and my 50s and my 60s and my 70s and perhaps even my 80s as pastor here, as one of the pastors of Providence Baptist Church. But the point is, I think, I don't know if earned, maybe that comes across a little bit arrogant, but I think I've put in the diligence, and I think I've earned a bit of the right to be able to look back now on my first decade here and to be able to offer some wisdom.

I've been in pastoral ministry now for 20 years. Not all of that was a so-called senior pastor, which even now, we don't consider that I'm the senior pastor. We believe in a parity among the elders, so our plurality of elders were equal, Pastor Jacob and myself.

But I think in 20 years of ministry, in 10 years, over 10 years now, as the pastor of Providence Baptist Church, I think I can look back on some things, and there are some things that we failed at, that I failed at.

There was times when I was more cowardly than I should have been and had to repent of that. But I can look back and say, look, one of the things that I want to encourage pastors as we think about reformation is to, number one, don't quit.

Don't give up. Press on. I was thinking about that. I know it's a silly illustration, but I was thinking about that 11-mile run, and there were a couple times during that run that I thought, you know, it'd be okay to stop right here.

It'd be fine. I've ran good, everything's fine. It was a good run. Mile three, that's a good run. You know, mile five, that's a good run. Mile seven, mile eight even, really, I was really feeling it, mile eight and nine.

Hey, it's been a really good run. But just press on. Finish the race. A lot of people take this highway of reformation, as it were, and they exit way too early because things get hard. I'm thinking about the text that I'm preaching this coming Lord's Day at Providence.

So it's Acts chapter nine, verse 31. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up, and walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

We all want a church like that, right? We all want a church that is in a state of peace and is maturing and being edified, being strengthened, walking in the fear of God, walking in the comfort of the Spirit, growing numerically, isn't that the kind of church that we all want?

I mean, no one starts out in ministry and says, you know, I want a church that's disunified and that is immature and walking in the fear of man and grieving the Holy Spirit and it's dying, a dying church.

Nobody all wants that. We all want a church that's peace, being built up, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit and a multiplying church. That's the kind of church we want.

We want to see healthy churches, amen. The problem is we're not willing to put in, we're willing to compromise. So it's kind of like, hey, I need to lose 50 pounds. I lose 20. Oh, you know what? That's good enough.

Or we're like, so we don't reach the full goal or we run into a hard situation and we think like, man, if I keep pressing right here, if I keep pressing about soteriology, if I keep pressing about the sovereignty of God, if I really continue to press about church membership, church discipline, about godly worship, worship according to the word, about preaching, robust, theologically rich, Christ-centered, appropriate application sermons, if I keep doing these sorts of things, then there's gonna be conflict.

There's gonna be someone is going to leave. That's why we back off. Now look, I'm not talking about forsaking biblical prudence. I'm not talking about, look, be patient, amen. I've talked about this before on the podcast.

Be patient, be prudent, be wise. Be a man who is humble and listening to the word of God. Love your people, walk with them appropriately. But here's what I am saying. Some people sort of live that way for like 50 years in ministry and they never press anything.

They never, like their church, I mean, their church is kind of on a roller coaster. They'll have a year where they'll have like maybe like five baptisms and then maybe they'll have a year with like 15 baptisms and maybe a year with like no baptisms and a year where the church budget's really, really good, a year where the church budget's bad.

But like all these things are just not the right metrics for a healthy church, right? A healthy church is being edified. It's growing. The people are maturing in Christ, becoming more Christ-like. They are loving, sound doctrine.

They know one another. They're not just see you on Sunday. They're being discipled. They have a big view of God. Membership is appropriate. It's reflecting actually who's there. Discipline is being practiced, both formative and corrective.

And if you don't know those terms, look them up. Google them and seek to apply those. But the whole point is the metrics of a healthy church are not just these things that so many sort of church growth gurus and such would say.

We have to let the word of God, we have to let the word of God determine what is a healthy church. In fact, I was even thinking the other day, would some people even, like do people even care about the word healthy as an adjective for their church?

You know, people use words like we're a missional church, we're a thriving church, we're a church alive, we're a family-friendly church, we're a welcoming church, we're a growing church. Okay, but are you a healthy church?

The Cost and Patience of Reforming a Congregation

And so the exhortation is it's, well, first of all, the principle is it's hard to become a healthy church. In fact, maybe hard isn't the right word. Maybe we should use the word impossible. Because if it's not for the grace of God in the situation, then you won't have a healthy church.

But God's grace also operates through means. God operates through men. And again, I'll come back to this. God operates through men who have a godly stubbornness. I know it's not one of the gifts of the spirit, but stay with me.

Men who are willing to pay the cost. You think about this. Are you willing to say, I will give my life, if it costs me my life, I will pursue the health of the church. And I'm okay if no one knows my name.

I'm okay if I'm never called to the quote-unquote big church. Don't be pursuing that anyway. I'm okay if I never make the conference speaking gig. Like surely by now we've seen God rebuke reformed evangelicalism with the conference idolatry that we've had.

Don't pursue those things. Are you satisfied to just be the pastor of such and such Baptist church and to pursue biblical health and to love the people there and to minister to them, to preach Christ to them, to counsel them?

Are you willing to do that? And are you willing to press them, brothers? Are you willing to say, look, look, look, look, look, look here in the text. This is what the Bible says and this is the road that we must walk and this is the direction that we must go.

I am convinced, and I know I've said it before on the podcast, but I am convinced that one of the reasons most pastors never see reformation is because they get up to the point where they need to press an issue and then they see that it is going to be a problem and so they pull back.

Sometimes they press the issue too quickly. So if you're at your church for six months and you think they're ready now for a plurality of elders, I'm telling you, brother, they're not. Stop. Unless they called you specifically and told you specifically, let's have a plurality of elders.

If it's something you're teaching on, that's gonna take some years, right? You gotta put in some time. That's why I mentioned earlier about being here for over a decade. Used to, I'd say, this is not true.

Maybe it's a bit hyperbolic, but I used to say, I'm not gonna listen to a pastor until they've been at a place for over 10 years. And the point was because I want someone who's put in the time and put in the dues.

And if you've been in pastoral ministry for a little bit of time, you know that you don't really become a pastor till quite a few years in. Maybe not 10 years, but maybe more than five years. And it takes a while to actually become the true pastor of the church.

That's because in a lot of ways, or in many places, churches become revolving doors for pastors. This pastor's here for two years, this one here's for three, this one here's for a year and a half, this one comes for seven, this one comes back for four, and you just never really get used to a pastor.

And it's like, think about a child from the time they're five when they can really remember to the time they're 18, that's 13 years. Some of them have three, four, five pastors in that time. And isn't that sad?

So stay, don't give up, keep pressing on, keep abounding in the work of the Lord, 1 Corinthians 15, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. It's hard, it's hard. If you tune in the podcast hoping that's, have the encouragement of, hey, you know, it's gonna get easier, no, it's hard.

Getting serious about the things of the Lord, it's hard. And sometimes conversations that we have to have are hard, and sometimes the reputation we may receive from those in the community, it's hard, okay?

The encouragement's not it's gonna be easy, but the encouragement is that it's worth it, right? That Christ is worthy to press on, to not give up, to don't quit, be a godly, stubborn, reformed Baptist.

I think there's no person that the kingdom of darkness ought to fear more today than a resolved, stubborn, reformed Baptist. Bible in his hand, Christ in his heart, hard-headed when it comes to walking the ancient paths and refusing to give up.

So this Reformation Month, here's a theme, hopefully, that you can have and that would encourage you. Like, don't give up, press on. Look at the men who've gone before us. Think about some of the men we talked about in the podcast, some of the men earlier.

You know, Calvin went through his difficulties too. They finally ran him out of Geneva for like three years. That's a funny story. I think like when he came back, he picked up the next verse that he was preaching.

All these quote-unquote heroes of the faith, which ultimately there's only one hero, our Lord Jesus Christ, but all of these heroes, those that we call heroes, all of these, have had their share of difficulty in trials.

And you know what, dear brother? You've had them too. And it's perhaps sad to you that no one's gonna write books about our trials, but the encouragement is the Lord knows. The Lord knows your trials.

The Lord knows your struggles. The Lord sees your time alone with him in the prayer closet. The Lord sees your time alone with him in the Word. The Lord knows your motivations. So press on. Press on in the Lord.

Keeping Reformation Priorities and Persevering Through Trials

Don't get distracted. Here's another thing that happens with Reformation. Sometimes, I've been guilty of this, we become distracted with lesser things or even things in the church that aren't as important as other things.

And we can kind of get sidetracked and we can kind of make a mountain out of a molehill, as it were, and we can have an unnecessary dust up. So that's not what I'm saying, but I'm saying to stick to the truth of the scriptures.

Think about and press on in things that are most important. And if you're asking me, what are some of the things that are most important? We talked about this recently on the podcast with Blake Bolston, but some of the most important things, I would argue, is getting your membership right.

I mean, once you get your membership right, I mean, once you have an actual true membership and it's regenerate, man, that's kind of the groundwork for other things. But there's other things that are also important, right worship, healthy evangelism, faithful preaching, all of these things, of course.

Sometimes you're gonna have leaders in your church that shouldn't be leaders, unqualified men or women who are teaching or shouldn't be, or maybe leading in service types of things, maybe something like that.

But the point I'm trying to make is get your priorities clear, the biblical backing, stick to your guns, and press on. And you're gonna go through some hard times because that's the nature. I would think back to our text.

Acts 9 .31 is like a summary statement that I'd read earlier. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it multiplied.

That's like a destination verse, that's like a summary verse. And the beginning of it, the beginning of this section in Luke is back in Acts 6 where they bring Stephen before the Sanhedrin and then he dies and then Paul's persecuting the church.

And so there's a lot of trial and there's a lot of victory and it's like a hard road to get from the point in Acts 6 all the way to the point in Acts 9. And so if that's true of the Reformation era and if that's true of the people of the church in the book of Acts, then what makes you think that it's not gonna be true of you?

So again, the exhortation for today, be a stubborn Baptist. Be godly, be humble, but be resolved. Be resolved to reform according to the word of God. Don't be apologetic about it. Take up your Bible and press on in him.

Don't be a jerk to people. Don't be unfriendly, but set your mind on the things above. Set your sight on that celestial city and travel the ancient path. Ask for the good way and walk in it. Stand at the crossroad, Jeremiah 6, and look and go that direction.

And don't you give up. Don't exit early. Don't look for the easy way. That's the thing about life and about ministry is like the easy way is easy now, but it's hard later. Go the hard way. Don't give up.

Press on. Godly stubbornness for the glory of God, for the glory of Christ. Christ is worthy of a healthy church. So this Reformation month, you press on in the Lord. Soli Deo Gloria. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Rural Church Podcast.

Pray it was helpful, edifying to you in some way. If you have any ideas about the podcast, you can shoot me an email, quattronelson at gmail .com. C-U-A-T-R-O-N-E-L-S-O-N at gmail .com. We'll catch you guys next week on the Rural Church Podcast.

If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what God's doing. This is his work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the poimos, the masterpiece of God.

How are you gonna respond?