01 - T4G 2018 Mark Dever - Holiness Together

friends little open our Bibles please to second Peter chapter three second Peter chapter three while you're turning there I'll tell you what I hope to talk with you about during this time holiness together holiness together that is leading the local church to sustain and advance holiness 2nd Peter chapter 3 beginning at verse 8 but do not overlook this one fact beloved and with the Lord one day is a thousand years and a thousand years as one day the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness but is patient toward you not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved in the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed since all these things are thus to be dissolved what sort of people want you to be in lives of holiness and godliness waiting for in hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be set in fire and dissolved and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burned but according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells let's pray together well God we pray that you'd help us to think well together about your very character and what you call us to and give us in Christ give us wisdom about how we can serve those for whom Christ has died that you have entrusted temporarily to our care we ask in Jesus name Amen friends God is holy that's where our conference begins we've begun there in song we have to begin there conceptually and he calls us to be holy as we'll be thinking about in every message that we have together in these few days the truth is given our Romans 7 experience and a fallen world it is hard to be holy dangers of unholiness abound the world around us does not like us they don't like being told that they need Christ in order to be forgiven for their sins the church is too often defended sin as virtue like racial apartheid or even slavery ligand Duncan at a pre conference this morning gave a harrowing account of the way Orthodox doctrine that we would all affirm was deployed for centuries to support and defend slavery human slavery it seems like Christian pastors make headlines weekly or almost daily for sexual sin and other actions that get confessed with soft words like unfortunate or inappropriate to many Christians just seem like the world sexually and financially so many of us spend our money and our intimacy in ways that are indistinguishable from our non-christian peers we're tempted to the very kind of hypocrisy Garrett was just talking about the hypocrisy that would have us not live our religion every day but just put it on like a Sunday suit and take it off when we get home hypocrisy and a sinful self protection grow like mold hidden in our own lives and in our congregations our hopes in our fears to often seem just like those of our non-christian neighbors because let's be honest too often they are the gulf is wide between what we say we believe and how we really live honestly too many of us just don't seem that interested in God or even in God himself not just his ways but who he is so Kevin's young and his message is gonna be talking to us about God Kevin often talks about God and Kevin often gets questions like why are you talking about that as if it's surprising that Christians would be interested in God instead we're very interested in hearing what God can do for us even the hues of our gospel presentation changed from including the dark shades of God's condemnation of us and our sins in Christ to only presenting the brighter colors of the Cross as as a show of God's love for us friends on so many levels the witness that seems to set us apart from the world around us fades and grows dim conformity of life to the world is the herald of the final silencing of our witness we become so much like the world we provoked no questions and we provide no answers speaking on behalf of those who will preach and teach in the next few days Lord willing it is to address this challenge to the gospel that we have come together and I pray that these messages will be inspiring and encouraging and instructive and challenging for us all we pastors occupy a key position in addressing the matters that are before us and helping our members to as we read in Romans 619 present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification France what a wonderful glorious privilege the new life is that we're given in Christ if you're feeling down about the topic of holiness read Romans chapter 6 later this evening Romans six sevens as we've been set free from sin not only in this sense of being freed from the coming condemnation but also from its undisputed power in our lives brothers and sisters you realize that holiness is freedom freedom from the bitter taskmaster that is sin in this first message I'm going to help you pastors lead your churches to greater holiness too often Christians don't understand that the local church is meant to be not only the the focus of our alternative life that were to live but it's one of the main means that God has given us to cultivate that kind of alternative life and this is what we pastors must help them understand by our own examples by our own preaching and teaching and explaining and praying so let me share with you some words of counsel to pastors in order to help your members realize how life in the local church is designed by God to help us live holy lives some of these may be obvious to you others less so number one commit yourself to preach through the Bible commit yourself to preached through the Bible now this may seem like a point so obviously it doesn't even need to be said but friends I've heard even in this last week about one pastor whose self consciously decided a couple of years ago to stop preaching expositionally and how do you think that's affected his church it hasn't been good expositional preaching is preaching where the point of the passage of the bible is the point of your message very often if it's a shorter passage where you walk through it and explain it and help to break it out for people but friends we've read in God's Word into Tirana me8 man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord brother passes away you assure that you keep preaching the gospel is by committing yourself to preach the Bible the way you make sure you keep preaching the gospel is by committing yourself to preach the Bible our fundamental message is that God set forth his son as a propitiation for our sins to assuage his own right wrath now this is not a message you'll ever gain from staring at the stars at night you won't get this from a beautiful beachfront vacation this is not resident within the image of God and your moral conscience this is a message you only get from outside of ourselves because God has revealed himself to us so Paul says in God's Word that man does not live by bread alone so we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles nobody would have thought up this message friends every part of God's Word is given to us because we need it every part preaching through the whole Bible helps us to make sure that our gospel doesn't become misshapen friends how many times do you think you will clearly teach your congregation about divorce or about hell if you're not committed to preach through the Bible preach consecutively through books of the Bible preached from the old testament and the new preached from the prophets and the Pentateuch preached from the Gospels and the epistles because all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training in righteousness all scripture commit yourself to preach all of it have you noticed the kind of comprehensive teaching that we are enjoined to do in the Great Commission what does Jesus tell the disciples to do go make disciples baptizing them teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you when Paul is reflecting on his own preaching ministry four years in emphasis what does he say in acts 20 I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God we must teach our people what's revealed in the Bible and all of it we must teach them doctrine and practice so commit yourself to preaching through the Bible so that you and your church's members will keep being reshaped by God's Word number two emphasize what the Bible teaches about God emphasize what the Bible teaches about God I think it's Don Carson who's observed that you don't remember everything a professor taught you but you might remember everything he was really excited about well that's true isn't it it's what somebody gets excited about it tends to make an impression on us brother preachers as we are teaching through the Bible if we would like our congregation to be encouraged in holiness then they need to especially be taught about the Holy One the one from whom all holiness derives God himself so of course holiness is God Lee Ness it's being like God in our character so we have to be especially careful to teach what the Bible teaches us about God so for example in our understanding of God himself we're told in Romans 3:25 let's go to that it's a classic gospel passage we're told in Romans 3:25 that God put forward his son as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith but if we ask why God has done this we find that God has done this most fundamentally to show his own righteousness why do you think God saves people I mean the most common answer I think we would give is well because God loves us he's acted to save us we read in John 3:16 for God loved the world in this way He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life this is what we usually think about when we focus on the question of why God would set his decision to act in such an extraordinary way as he has in order to save us and it's true praise God it's true but look here in Romans 3 in verses 25 and 26 we read that God saves us not simply because He loves us but because well because he loves himself he wants that truth about himself and particularly about his righteousness to be known out there in the middle of verse 25 this was to show this that's his setting forward his son as a propitiation this was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance he had passed over former sins again it was it that's his setting forth his son is of appreciation for our sins it was to show his righteousness he repeats it at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus if you are here and you do not know what it means to know God if you do not know what it means to be forgiven of your sins that's language you want to understand for the good news is that you can actually be forgiven of the very kinds of things that Garrett was just talking about you can be forgiven because of what God has done in Jesus Christ because Christ died as a sacrifice satisfying God's right and correct good wrath against all that is wrong including us if you'll repent of your sins and trust in him God raised him from the dead he ascended to heaven where he presented his sacrifice to his heavenly father where was accepted the book of Hebrews tells us accepted for all of us who would repent of our sins and trust in him that could be you today o friend think carefully about what it means to know God and to be forgiven for your sins because of Christ if you want to know more about this you could not be in a better room you do not need to come forward at the end at the end of this time just turn and talk to the person next to you they're all preachers just talk find out what it could mean like in your own life for you to be a Christian friends by saving us God shows his righteousness and this righteousness in Romans 3 is like passages like this it's not merely one of a list of God's attributes like his omnipresence like one of so many superpowers a superhero might have no God's righteousness is the moral core of his character it is his holy love his utter goodness this is who God is and God is communicating this to us by the fact not only that he saves us but even in the very way he saves us he's teaching us about his holiness and his love he wants his righteousness to be known he wants he himself to be known if we teach the church its identity in the storyline of the Bible about how God is glorifying himself through his people then we get all kinds of wisdom about what we are to be alike as we see God reveal himself we have to work hard to keep God's revelation about himself more clear in our minds and our hearts it's our work as pastors to keep God before the minds of our hearers of our churches members because the world is constantly conspiring to erase memories of God and truth that we've learned about him and his actions for us that is why the activity of remembering is so important when God has revealed himself how many times the Old Testament are God's people told to remember to remember to remember why do you think that is because we naturally forget and forget and forget we must labor then as preachers to present God his word his promises to our people constantly to know him who is his present by his Spirit through his word friends knowing him is the only thing that can make sense of our life as we grow in knowing God we grow in loving God and so hating sin David Wells says summarize the Bible's teaching on this point without the holiness of God sin has no meaning and grace has no point without the holiness of God sin has no meaning and grace has no point we must emphasize what the Bible teaches about God a third thing emphasize how you become a Christian and what it means to be one and our teaching through the Bible we must especially be clear in teaching what it means to be a true Christian and how you become one Prince testimonies are so useful for this especially as we recount the cost of following Christ and the joys that come regularly sharing summaries of the good news will catechized your congregation will sensitize them to the words that they sing will prepare them to share the gospel when they're with their family and friends friends we need to teach our churches not to believe all the false teaching that's out there and help them to not be subverted into a false religion of fleshly selfishness the Bible calls us to real conversion and therefore our evangelism needs to be not simply selling unsaved people benefits they already in their flesh want wouldn't you like some purpose in your life not a good way to share the gospel people who hate God like purpose they like to feel important friends we need to share the gospel like we see it in the Bible if we want to see conversions like we see them in the Bible we have to think very carefully even in our local churches life about how apparently exclusive we should be what you say I said how apparently exclusive we should be should our churches calibrate the meeting and the length of our sermons and the style of our music to the unbelievers we want to reach how much is our gathering for the sake of those who are not Christians do we understand our meetings fundamentally or mainly in terms of evangelism to non-christians or are they for the building up of the congregation and the members of Christ in it this is another way to ask the question rather than the often discussed how inclusive should we be of course everybody wants to be inclusive this is obviously loving the the question of how apparently exclusive we should be more quickly gets to the point of how we think are transparent differences of life and doctrine reflected deeper pleat change that the non-christian is going to have to self-consciously own by self consciously being aware first that they are subject to God's right wrath before they can understand and accept God's love in Christ and so turn from their sin and turn to Christ here's the kind of thing I say in sermons at my church here's one I grabbed this out of a sermon my non-christian friend there is an unavoidable discontinuity between our lives and your life and we actually serve you best if we're clear about that difference if you've been enjoying the people the friendliness and helpfulness of the people in our congregation that's wonderful I hope that continues and the good news I have for you in this is that there is even more than you've experienced brother pastor I think this raises some very important questions about the idea of belonging before believing we must be careful of giving non-christians the theological lie that is that they in the most profound sense belong in the most profound sense they do not belong and we serve them well if we tell them that now of course our congregations we can be deliberately inclusive in all kinds of ways but we should show them there's something more than the horizontal community the vague sense of God's presence or our kindness that's why in your churches you teach that only baptized believers take the Lord's Supper one of the things we try to show in our own congregation we have the Lord's Supper we ask our visitors to remain seated in those members of our church to stand and read reaffirm our church covenant together we want to show that there is a division we want to invite people to Christ our evangelism is actually fueled not just fire individual holiness but by the living witness of the community showing non-christians what it means to be a Christian again and again by God's grace I have seen non-christians impacted by love shown in the local church if got stories like this maybe those are some of the things that you should be talking about this week and sharing with each other I think of the older professor of psychiatry I think of the young atheist from Georgetown I've seen God use the witness of the community of the local church that cause the gospel to resound in their ears as they hear it because then they look around and they see people who seem to be affected by it bill the professor he's been a member of our church for 14 years now when we first began meeting together before he was a Christian he told me he had been struck how in the meetings of our church people of different races and different ages are together and intact families so often and how many young people talk to the old people that are there just simple things that socially he as a professor of psychiatry with a particular specialization in group dynamics was not used to seeing or I think of a few years before that of the young Georgetown atheist that was converted and is now the executive director of nine marks may ask Ryan Townsend and he will tell you that the holiness of the local church so many people being thoughtful and kind was used by God both to intrigue him and finally to convict him friends holiness helps our evangelism it's not if you're not evangelistic you get into holiness know if you want to share the good news with people you show them what it looks like when somebody's converted and you pray that God will do that with your whole congregation so when you're teaching in your practice you must emphasize how you become a Christian and what it means to really be one number four teach Christians to commit to love treat teach Christians to commit to love and this is harder than I think pastors often first appreciate so hear me carefully brother pastor we must teach Christians not only to love that's the comparatively easy part that's more expected it's a very popular message when you teach people to love we must teach people to commit to love each other we want to help our members in cultivating the renewed desires that the Holy Spirit has given if they're truly converted God gives us a desire to love his people he loves his people his people are not in and of themselves loveable but true of the churches we serve it's true of us and yet God loves us when we're saved we are reoriented he gives us new heart new joys new love I remember being a freshman in college I was feeling very alone the first few weeks there I was on the first floor of my dorm and all the parties every Saturday night were held right on that hallway right outside my door with all the accompanying spilled beer and other liquids which end up being on the floor and they dry overnight and in the morning I'm the lone man in the dorm getting up trying to walk out to the bathroom through all the sticky mess and I remember taking a blank sheet of typing paper and writing in frustration and joy psalm 4 verse 7 on a piece of paper and I put it on the door facing out to the hallway you have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound just one of the advertised they're tired of throwing up on Saturday night I've got something better God gives new loves part of that love that he gives that new desire that new joy is to love his people and what that means is we begin to love more like Christ loves we're thinking on 4 verse 19 we love because he loved us if anyone says I love God and hates his brother he is a liar for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen and this commandment we have from him whoever loves God must love his brother you could tell John heard what Jesus said by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have law for one another but here's what you especially need to realize as a pastor loving may be less daunting than committing to love see if I'm just told to love I can fill in the blank of who I'm gonna love I can love my wife I can love my kids I can love my friends but the commitment to love critters and to love even a particulars set of Christians the fellow members of our local church that they will surely not be predisposed to love entirely but the proof of our love is loving those that we would not love outside of Christ that's why that local church membership is so important that's why church covenants have proved so helpful in cultivating a love that is distinct from the world because see with this covenant we promised before God and each other to love and care for one another so I've coveted with these people I've been coming in with you guys I'm glad you're here but these are the people I've coming into with the members of the Capitol Baptist Church pray for two pages every morning great for two pages this morning some of the folks who are volunteering here try to pray through the whole thing every month I encourage our members to do the same we have coveted together to walk together and brotherly love as becomes the members of a Christian Church and exercise an affectionate care and watchfulness over each other and faithfully admonished and entreat one another as occasion may require you see the local church is not just a collection of your personal friendships it's much more like your immediate and extended family only where Christmas gatherings happen every week sometimes we have young folks at our church who like to read thick books of theology by John Piper or John MacArthur and yet they're not happy to get up early come an hour early to give an older person a ride to church when I hear things like that when they told me by their own mouth right to my ear I've often said someone go honestly I don't know if you're converted I don't know if you're a Christian demons and he'll know all about the good theology doesn't affect how they act toward people you know all about good theology doesn't affect how you act toward people you're not saved you're not a Christian friends the good news is God changes us and the evidence that we see of that very practically there he's set it up is for us to see that in those people that we relate to regularly in our local churches that's why we have to teach Christians to commit to love number five pray that we be more concerned about our members than the number of our members let me say that one again pastor listen up pray that we be more concerned about our members than the number of our members where the parable Jesus told about the lost sheep Matthew eighteen ninety-nine there one wanders away shepherd goes and gets the one that wanders away see my worry and this point is that too many of us would frankly not really be that concerned about one member wandering away from the flock so long as ten more turned up the next Sunday as long as you know we had a hundred this week we got a hundred and nine next week we're good that one that wandered off that's you know we're looking we're reaching more people we're reaching more people some pastors can't see the people because of the numbers the numbers are where their eyes are really on friend you know how ridiculous that is that's like you just counting how many people your dinner table and not caring who they are really yeah we got five let's eat well what if Tommy's not here what if Lu Shay is still over there I mean you care who's there the truth is that the church is not so much a growing number of people as a number of people who are growing brother pastor we must work to supplement our concern for the number of members with a concern for each of the members our work doesn't end when somebody joins our church in many ways that's when I work begins when someone joins our church so we want to learn how to love others and help them grow spiritually we want to be an example of that I love the JC Rael quote and his great book holiness and we got lots of copies of holiness for you and if you've never read JC rouse holiness if you have read JC Ross holiness stand up if you have read JC rawls book holiness stand up okay all the people sitting down should literally look up to the people who are standing up all right you want to read that book thanks you can be seated we've got loads copies of book JC rile are yle holiness rile says and have a sanctified man will try to do good in the world and to lessen the sorrow and increase the happiness of all that is around him you see how practical our faith is we want to see people blessed so pastors when you're talking to people in your church do you ever ask them questions like this how's your spiritual life and what particular ways have you grown in your understanding of the Christian life and what particular ways have you grown in your practice of the Christian life and one particularly you disappointed in your own pursuit of holiness how are you currently serving in the church for in simple direct questions can be loving we serve our churches in this so many ways in working to working to raise up elders and cultivating other leaders teaching the Bible studies giving out good Christian books working for a culture of disciple encouraging folks to regularly share stories about how God has used all of these things help people to grow the local church is the most natural setting for encouraging discipleship and growth by the grace of God how many people I have seen turn up at our church as immature Christians if that and then see their lives turned upside down what a glorious memory to start recounting person after person after per can you do that do you understand that's part of what means for you to be called to be a pastor pray that we'd be more concerned about our members than the number of our members number six teach the congregation must choose between hypocrisy and church discipline the congregation must choose between hypocrisy and church discipline it will be one or the other you cannot have neither you will have either hypocrisy or you will have church discipline it is possible to have both but we don't need to go there in this talk Mike McKinley once observed to me that it's easier to look holy than to be holy it's easier to look holy than to be holy and I think that's true for us as individuals it's true for us in our churches to friends hypocrisy doesn't have to involve self-conscious deception because we can be self deceived we can claim to be following Christ honestly and be wrong if we say we're serving Christ when we're really serving our sin so church discipline is all the ways we teach each other it's formative discipline like what's happening right now and corrective discipline where you see and you confront someone on an idea or a behavior in corrective discipline it can go all the way to the stage that we see in Matthew 18 or first Corinthians 5 of excommunication of putting someone outside of the fellowship of the local church not to damn them to hell but to plead with them with the church as a whole that they would repent and return to following Christ and live up to the profession with their lives that they're making with their lips friends the challenging words of 1st Corinthians 11 show us that the Lord's Supper regularly forces this question on us church discipline is what we do when we say only baptized believers should come to take the Lord's Supper church discipline is the antidote God has given us to Hippocrates so if you want to begin leading your church to patrol its distinctness through the world you've got to use the biblical practice of church discipline and you'll definitely find some challenges in it you need to make sure that you have a thought through practice of church membership a culture of committed love it's only in that context the practice of discipline makes sense I mean you can hardly expect somebody to care about being excluded from something they don't really know they're included in you have to teach people what membership in the local church means my fellow Christians this is ultimately about God's name considering that should make us careful unrepentant sin that we allow in our congregation not only hurts the individual in sin and the church as a whole it misrepresents God we sang of him earlier as Holy we're not gonna live that perfectly in this life but do we live it really are our lives repeated examples of self-sacrificial moving in this way loving in this way in order to obey the Lord and to bless others we read in Romans 2:24 the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you we don't see God's name blaspheme because of us but friends that's what Christian hypocrisy does how many times have you run into a non-christian maybe an uber uber driver here this week already you start to share the gospel and they object about all the hypocrites that there are in the church I can't tell you how many times I've heard that objection and the thing is that objection is kind of right it's true experientially it's true Theologiae it's just not an appropriate excuse brothers and sisters hypocrisy is very at home in the world it should not be in the church I remember when I first moved back from England my mother wouldn't we meet an older relative that I didn't really know its distant relative and so she brought me to meet her and I was meeting this person in talking with him over a cup of coffee and she was very happy that I'd done a PhD and it's very respectable and she said now what did you come back to the states to do and at that point you know I always have the decision how am I gonna play this and somebody asked me what I do I could say I teach I could say I'm a pastor or I could go full full throttle and say I'm a Baptist pastor so I was feeling provocative that day so I just said well I've come back to the States to be a pastor of a Baptist Church and her accountant just fell I mean she looked down to her coffee started stirring and she said I don't have much use for organized religion I said really why is that she said I think the church is full of hypocrites full of vipers it's literally what she said I said you mind if I ask you a couple of questions about that she does now go ahead I said do you think the world outside is really so much better she thought for a moment she said I guess not she said at least the world outside they know they're vipers and I said well you know you might be surprised how much I agree with you I think the world outside is full of vipers I think that's certainly true and I also agree with you I think the church is full of vipers the church is a pit of vipers but I would say that's why we're there I think actually the world outside doesn't know they're vipers and I think the people in the church we know we're vipers that's why we're in any church I ever go to we're gonna know we're vipers and I said you know what we've always got room for one more to slither on in I know she ever did but friends I know that as a congregation we have to choose this kind of holiness we have to be like Jesus going to be that Shepherd out away from the flock to the strange sheep to bring him back you'll notice when he does he rejoices over it more than over the 99 that went astray thanks Jason I think of people in our own church that had been excluded that have been the subject of public discipline and how they've repented and come back I think of Patrick I think of woody I think of mondo I could keep going wonderful examples of God working through the loving hard work of a congregation to love teach your congregation they must choose between hypocrisy you'll tolerate the hypocrisy as a member of your church as part of what you're advertising about God or you won't you have to choose between hypocrisy or church discipline number seven teach the church how to find the right pastors teach the church how to find the right pastors pastors are crucial to our actually being able to lead our local churches to be the islands or the previews of the coming holiness that they are meant to be but how can our churches get the right pastors pastors are not best identified by resumes personality inventories business practices or weekend assessments and please hear me I'm criticizing most everyone in this pastures are not best identified by resumes personality inventories business practices are weakened assessments they are best attested by other pastors who know them and by pastors who are known and trusted by the church brothers and sisters so giftedness may appear immediately holiness is best seen over time it presumes relationship and the right leaders are crucial to the church and its mission of holiness it's our role as pastors to teach the church not only what a church is we got to teach them that but to teach them what a pastor is may seem awkward to teach your own job description but you're the only one to do it and if you don't there are people who will pay in money to do it for them as consultants today's sermons are preparing your members to pick tomorrow's pastors today's sermons are preparing your members to pick tomorrow's pastors we read in Titus 1:8 that pastors must be upright and holy friends we want to cultivate our own personal holiness and work to encourage the personal holiness of other pastors so one thing this means very practically is that when you find a good pastoral candidate feeling called you help him your local church should help them pay for seminary your local church should do anything you can don't just be concerned for your own local church realize we're in this for all local churches that preach the gospel we want to try to help the gospel of Jesus Christ go out so we want to see more pastors and more elders raised up not just for service in our church but in service of other churches it's a very practical way to love other churches I love Paul's logic in second Corinthians 4:15 he says so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase Thanksgiving to the glory of God well do you want to see God receive more and more Thanksgiving then we should work to see his grace extended to more and more people and seeing new Christians spiritually born and older Christians raised up for the eldership is how that happens thank God for how each of us elders and pastors have been raised up by God through the instrumentality of others and of other local churches none of us here is self-made not only is God the Holy Spirit crucially involved but other local churches have been in Weld so as well as of myself I am personally indebted to the First Baptist Church of Madisonville Kentucky I am personally indebted to black know Memorial Presbyterian Church in Durham North Carolina I am personally indebted to Eden Baptist Church in Cambridge England and that's not even to mention Lieberthal and Baptist Church or Grace Community Church who both contributed hugely to my growth and understanding as an elder and a pastor friends the blessing of others is not how our world tends to think about leadership our world things about leaders have been very selfish ways but it's what we learned in the context of the local church it's what we've seen example by the leaders who've gone before us Hebrews 13:7 remember your leaders those who spoke to the Word of God consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith Paul could write to the Thessalonians for you remember brothers our labor and toil we work night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God you are witnesses in God also how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers all that pastors were once again a byword of righteousness in the community for the way we treated our members all that women knew that if there's any place there'd be treated treated well it would be by the pastor's of their local church pray that our congregations be like that be known as that where did Christian leaders get this distinction from Jesus said you know those who are considered rulers of the gentiles they lord it over them they're great ones exercise authority over them but it shall not be so among you I love the way the Spirit of God speaks through David and the last words of David ii same 23 verses 1 to 4 now these are the last words of David the Oracle of David the son of Jesse the Oracle of the man who was raised on high the anointed of the God of Jacob the sweet psalmist of Israel the Spirit of the Lord speaks by me his word is on my tongue the God of Israel has spoken the rock of Israel has said to me okay what is it here it is when one rules justly over men ruling in the fear of God he dawns on them like the morning light like the sun shining forth on a cloud this morning like rain that makes grass sprout from the earth we live in a culture that can't hear the word authority because they only hear authoritarian they only hear the abuse which is exactly what Satan's been strategizing for since the Garden of Eden he doesn't want us to hear we can be told no by God that God still love us he wants us to hear no as always I don't love you and what we get to experience from God through Christ is a no and a yes we get to see his wonderful love and we're called to be like that ourselves and our own relationships and our own families and in our own churches so we need leaders who are not proud that who are humble we want brothers to serve as elders who want to serve other people not be served and how our churches know how to find the right leaders to be examples of holiness and to teach them how to be holy well Paul wrote to Timothy what you have heard from me and the presence of many witnesses entrust of faithful men who will be able to teach others also we have to teach the church how to find the right pastors gonna know more about this I did a whole message on this this last September at southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary that you can find in the nine marks website finding pastors number eight pray publicly and specifically about hopes and problems pray publicly and specifically about hopes and problems self-confidence is the enemy of holiness and holiness we can't get from ourselves but only from the work of God's Spirit friends prayerlessness is self confidence by our public prayers we appeal to God for his aid we publicly acknowledge areas of shortcoming and of our neediness we catechized our congregation through specific prayers about matters in which we want to see growth that's one of the reasons I love that Reformation worship book that we just gave eight copies to for our friends from Australia because you see how again and again in these Sunday morning services the Reformers crafted their thinking about God they're thinking about sin they're thinking about Christ and they're praying about all these matters in praise and thanks and confession friends we catechized our congregations by what we pray about every Sunday we pray for the very challenges we face specifically I love in act 6 when there's ethnic division threatening the local church this isn't new to the church this isn't the first generation that's ever felt ethnic struggles in the church look at Acts chapter 6 what did they do the Apostle said they had to devote themselves to the Ministry of the word and to what else to prayer and in Acts chapter 6 you look at verse 6 the Apostles prepared those who were too laboured especially for the unity of the local church to fight friction to promote unity how they prayed how is this done in your congregation reorient your people by praising God in prayer pray confessing your sins we can pray for fruit from special events that have gone on we can pray for the regular preaching of God's Word III was leading a Sunday evening service once Ligon this was kind of for you and Terry Johnson was in the congregation minister in Savannah BCA Church Terry's a godly man strong convictions and he was just visiting our evening service and he came up to me afterwards was very encouraging but then he said mark I noticed you prayed for this missionary and for that that lots of specifics but I noticed she didn't pray for the regular preaching of the word aren't you a kind of ordinary means kind of guy I said oh yeah Terry I am then brother you should be regularly praying for the regular preaching of God's Word because God's Holy Spirit owns those means every Sunday since then at the Capitol Hill Baptist Church we have obeyed our Presbyterian brother and his biblical insight and we have prayed for the regular preaching of God's Word those are the kinds of things that we need to pray about do you want to see your congregation become more diverse ethnically do you want to see your missionaries flourish do you want to see your daily lives at work and at home committing the gospel doing good honoring God then pray about those matters what image is your church projecting only one of strength and progress or are you projecting one of continual dependence upon God you realize that prayer is all about depending on God rather than depending on ourselves and what we can do so the time we spend on prayer and our services advertises that we depend on God spend so much time in your public service praying that the people who only pretend to believe in God get bored by it pray spend time in prayer show advertise that he is utterly dependable pray publicly and specifically about hopes and problems one more explain how holiness doesn't compete with missions but is essential to it holiness doesn't compete with missions but is essential to us I kind of began this a little bit earlier when we were thinking about true conversions but sometimes people have the wrong idea that a stress on Holies is somehow inward-looking and self-serving that it contributes nothing to evangelism and to the spread of the gospel around the world the truth is that our example of holiness teaches our congregation the way to obedience to the Great Commission concern for holiness and world missions are like two feet walking in the same direction and you won't get very far without both of them the self-denial that is involved in holiness should be cultivated in our congregations and that very same self-denial in holiness will help us to evangelize a neighborhood and a world that is just not interested in the message we come to bring them they are not begging us to tell them the truth we accustom ourselves to love as we should to help others as we should not simply to go with the flow of our own comforts furthermore as pastors we want to explain to our congregation how our distinction from the nation's is there as part of God's plan to help us reach the nation's ultimately for God's glory for his reputation in the nation so we learn we pray we plan we pay we send for God's glory for His Holiness it's a concern for holiness it's not self-absorbed or inward or selfish friend your most important contribution to others is your knowing God in a way that makes you different from others that's the whole nature of the contribution you have to give them this is how we'll bring other people in with a compelling holiness yo you like different things you love people I find hard to love you keep loving in a way that doesn't seem to reward yourself immediately that's not because I'm such a good person it's because I'm overwhelmed knowing how God has loved me in Christ how else can I respond than to give out my poor version of that wonderful love of Christ to me you see how closely the Christians Ministry of being ambassadors reaching out 2nd Corinthians 5 is with our being called God's temple second Corinthians 6 they're together this ambassadorial evangelism and this concern that we be holy holiness and evangelism reinforce each other a church which tolerates the unholiness of unrepentant sin today is a church which will not be sending any missionaries tomorrow we must help our churches to understand that protecting our own congregations holiness is an essential part of fulfilling the mission God has given us to proclaim and display his glory to the nation's and friends they will not understand this if you don't put this together if you don't see it in Scripture and show it to them from God's Word that's why you're called to be a preacher we must explain how holiness doesn't compete with missions but is essential to it friends I hope the importance of this topic of holiness together is clear to you John Piper I remember one time being a conference and you you so often have such a punchy way of putting things I remember you saying one time if you're not at odds with sin you're not at home with Jesus that's so true if you're not at odds with sin you're not at home with Jesus God means our local churches to be places full of people at home with Jesus how can we help them as those called to be shepherds of God's flock temporarily committed to our care commit yourself to preach through the Bible emphasize what the Bible teaches about God emphasize how you become a Christian and what it means to be one teach Christians to commit to love pray that we be more concerned about our members than the number of our members teach that the congregation must choose between hypocrisy or church discipline teach a church how to find the right pastors pray publicly and specifically about our hopes and problems and explain how holiness doesn't compete with missions but is essential to it so to pursue God's holiness and delete others to it and through our churches we have to be humble and hopeful we have to be humble and hopeful so that holiness does not become either a threat to you or a license for legalistic pride holiness needs to be considered with humility and with hope first we must be humble consider how important humility is in all these matters John Owen has said that two things are needed to humble us first let us consider God in His greatness glory holiness power majesty and authority then let us consider ourselves and our mean abject and sinful condition so friends and what we just thought about in the first point your very way of approaching preaching should evidence humility don't assume that you know what to say better than God does assume God's Word is what your people need submit your insights and instincts to the plain text of the Bible again we need humility in our theology our knowledge of God or in emphasizing how you become a Christian and what it means to be one we have to call on God to humble us and to humble our hearers and to help us see and acknowledge and repent of our sins consider how humility will aid you in loving and serving others humility and love is what we need both in who you will love I've got to love them yes you've got to love them and in how you will love I've got to do that yes you get to do that and you see what need for humility we have in giving ourselves to help others grow spiritually our members in our local church are dear to us because they are dear to Jesus Jesus died for them to see how precious they are to him that's why they must be precious to us we haven't died for them they're his servants not ours we must always remember that our members aren't there to serve us but then we've been called especially to serve them and what a privilege that is to us is there a pastor in this room that does not know other than being saved yourself that that is the greatest privilege God has ever called you to Christ has entrusted even to our temporary care men and women that are so precious to him in the matter of church discipline we need humility we should lead our churches to be marked by honest confession of sin not a toleration of it it may be easier to look right but we know it's better to be right than to look right and if we want to restart this practice of church discipline in many of our churches we're gonna need greater humility how else could we acknowledge our sins and repent now what about prayer have you ever thought how much humility you need to have a real prayer life to lead your church in prayer prayer opposes our pride prayer promotes our honest and accurate humidity as we depend upon him pastor friend very quietly are you one of those guys who just chafes whenever somebody says let's spend some time in prayer about this that's not the unforgivable sin it is a sin and it shows some pride some lack of understanding how dependent you are on God and how eager he is to be acknowledged and to help you we have to have humility our life to be taken up into God's larger purposes for his own glory if we're gonna move far away from our family and friends whether that's calling us to Mongolia or Pakistan or some other part of God's world far from where we are here today we must be humbled and friends the other thing is we have to be hopeful we have to be hopeful holiness biblically considered should put a smile on your face I know I blessed you with many imperative verbs dear pastor quite a way to start out a conference for a week of encouragement but at its best this should remind us that holiness is the project of Christ himself this is the work that he is committed to we're used to reading Ephesians 5 at weddings well we should remember Paul says he's saying these things about Christ Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish oh brother pastor don't take your identity from some sin you're trying to fight take your identity from the holiness that is coming from that vision of the church without blemish call people forward to that or 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 brother Blake Boylston was just preaching our church on this a couple of days ago so powerfully and it just struck me listening to him read God's Word 1st Thessalonians 5 verse 23 now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely he's praying for God to sanctify us because God does that work completely now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and then he's crucial he who calls you is faithful he will surely do it praise God hmm let's pray Lord that you would be yourself holy and lifted up and that we made in your image would have represented you so terribly and that you would pursue us as you have in Christ to love us as you have and then that you would set about not only to show your righteousness as you show yourself to be both just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus but that you would also work to make us sanctified and that you will surely do this Lord are our minds and our hearts are stunned by your wonderful love and mercy to us in promise promising us that you will make us like yourself without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish Lord it's in our confidence that this is your work that we turn again to work with the congregation's that you've entrusted to our care put this love and this humility and this confidence deep in our hearts we pray in Christ's name Amen

Channel: Jono Brooks

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Length: 61min 28sec (3688 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 15 2018