False Conversions: The Suicide of the Church Speaker - Mark Dever | Together For The Gospel 2012

let's pray together Lord God in your presence we confess our sinful desire to negotiate with you you offer us forgiveness of sins reconciliation with yourself and Lord we we try to cheapen the bargain we try to offer you little bits of ourselves and the appearances of Allegiance or the appearance of godliness our holiness or humility when you desire holiness in the inmost parts you desire true humility before you humility of heart O God we confess that as pastors this is an occupational hazard for us and so God without trying to impress anyone else just knowing that you alone who knows all about us is the only one who will finally judge us that you O Lord are the one that we desire to teach us by your Holy Spirit from your word teach us the truth about ourselves teaches the truth about yourself and your word and your church and do that even now in this time together we pray for Jesus sake mothers and sisters thank you for this privilege of addressing you it could be that for some of you who know something of me or things that I've written I'm associated in your mind with as al said in his gracious introduction the church or church membership if that's the way you've heard what I've said before or you've read what I've written before tonight's talk is a bit of a prequel how did I get to be like that why should you as a pastor care about those kind of maybe apparently arcane issues why should you as a pastor be concerned about your local church more than just in the obvious ways you would in day-to-day life what's going on I want to talk to you tonight about a topic CJ and Al gave us examples of expository messages this afternoon when I'm in the church that I serve in Washington I'm preaching through James right now I normally expound sections of scripture to you tonight I want to bring a topical message on this topic false conversions the suicide of the local church false conversions the suicide of the local church my text for this evening is first Timothy chapter 4 verse 16 first Timothy chapter 4 verse 16 a passage we frequently go to those of us who are in the ministry we may preach on it when we have a young person going into ministry or an installation service first Timothy 4:16 watch your life and doctrine closely persevere in them because if you do you will save both yourself and your hearers my fellow pastors could it be that many of our hearers each week aren't saved even many of our members in his autobiography mid 20th century poet and novelist Langston Hughes recounted a crucial teenage experience let me give it to you in his own words I was saved from sin when I was going on 13 but not really saved it happened like this there was a big revival of my auntie reads Church every night for weeks there had been much preaching singing praying and shouting finally all the young people had gone to the altar and were saved but one boy and me he was named Wesley Wesley and I were surrounded by sisters and deacons praying it was very hot in the church and getting late now finally Wesley said to me in a whisper I'm tired of sitting here let's get up and be saved so he got up and was saved then I was left all alone on the mourners bench my aunt came and knelt at my knees and cried while prayers and songs swirled all around me in the little church the whole congregation prayed for me alone a mighty wail of moans God had not struck Wesley dead for taking his name in vain or for lying in the temple so I decided that maybe to save further trouble I'd better lie to say that Jesus had come and get up and be saved so I got up suddenly the whole room broken to see if shouting as they saw me rise I couldn't bear to tell my aunt that I had lied that I deceived everybody in the church that I hadn't seen Jesus and that now I didn't believe there was a Jesus anymore Langston Hughes became and remained the best of my knowledge a committed and persuasive atheist some might ask what's the problem with false conversions I mean as long as people at the same time are getting converted aren't the Gospels full of images that prevent us from over worrying about this I mean I think it was a lament and earlier the parable of the sower and we know there there are different responses to the the seed that sown you know a fear of false conversions could lead us to a kind of too cautious extra carefulness which in is a fruit inspecting grace suspiciousness that is ironically a seedbed of all kind of self-righteousness and legalism why not just promiscuously preach the gospel to all in any way I mean wasn't it deal moody that famously quipped to those who criticized his evangelistic methods I like my way of doing evangelism better than your than your way of not doing evangelism well the Bible tells us that there's both opposition to the truth that there will be false convert so why give time to trying to fix a problem that the Bible tells us is simply an inevitable part of gospel ministry in a fallen world well the experience of Langston Hughes is but one example of what I fear must be thousands and thousands of people if not millions and millions merely in the United States that have been taken into our churches unconverted I want to address you tonight as interested Christians and especially as brother pastors to help us understand that this is in fact a problem and a serious problem and what we might do about it in order to help us to do that I want us to look first at a plan then at the problem and then at the source of the problem and I'll conclude with a few practical suggestions I pray that as we consider this topic tonight God may make our churches more faithful conduits of the good news of Jesus Christ both to those inside and outside of that number I pray further that he will help us to see what we might do in our particular local church to be a better Herald of the gospel and a better steward of his name and I want to begin number one with God's plan God's plan God has an overarching purpose to get glory to himself through a people so when God called Abram he called him as an idol worshiping pagan you remember in Genesis 12 he gives him that great promise that through him all peoples on earth will be blessed all peoples on earth would be blessed now God is infinitely glorious we've been considering that in some of the hymns that we've been singing and he rightly wants the creatures made in his image to know him as such so David commanded in 2nd chronicles 16 declare his glory among the nations his marvelous deeds among all peoples and the Psalms are just full of this one of the most edifying things in preparing this we're just looking through the scriptures and the Psalms in this and coming up with so many scriptures most which I had to just cut out for sake of time but brothers if you're looking for a topical sermon just prepare a sermon sometime on God's desire to have his glory proclaim among the nation's just one example in Psalm 22 all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nations will bow down before him well I'm sure you know the famous verse in Psalm 46 be still and know that I am God but do you know the rest of that I will be exalted among the nation's I will be exalted among the nation's this is God's plan to make himself known and make his name exalted among the nations in the 86th Psalm there's a little preview of the book of Revelation Psalm 86 eighth among the Gods there is none like you O Lord no deeds can compare with yours all the nations you have made will come and worship before you O Lord they will bring glory to your name for you are great and do marvelous deeds O Lord you alone are God as the Lord says in Malachi my name will be great among the nations from the rising to the setting of the Sun in every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name because my name will be great among the nations says the Lord Almighty okay this is what God said he would do and what he is doing and what he will do now the question how has he how is he how will he bring this about well if we were to go back to Genesis you have Abram at the beginning there in Chapter 12 you go on to chapter 49 you get Jacob giving the blessings of his sons before Jacob dies when he comes to Judah you remember he gives us famous prophecy in genesis 49:10 the scepter will not depart from judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nation's is his of course this ruler is the Lion of Judah Jesus Christ that's how God would do this through Jesus Christ and we know that this lion is also the lamb as we see in the book of Revelation this is gloriously fulfilled in revelation 5:9 where the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fall down and sing a new song to the lamb because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation and then that great multitude appears two chapters later in Chapter 7 verse 9 where John describes it as a great multitude that no one could count from every nation tribe people and language standing before the throne and in front of the lamb and and what of these purchased people well remember when Peter confessed Jesus as the Messiah the Christ Jesus promised that he would build his church his people his assembly on Peter and on that confession that he had made that's in Matthew 16 and then in Matthew 18 he gives his own authority to this assembly this church and what does he promised his disciples at the end of Matthew in Matthew 28 that he who had all authority in heaven and on earth Jesus would be with them always to the very end of the age and that they were to go and make disciples of all nations so how would God accomplish his plan to bring himself glory among all peoples through Christ and specifically through the Church of Jesus Christ so we're not surprised then when we move on from the Gospels into act we find that this is what those first Christians did it's not merely a story of evangelizing the lost but of congregating the converted that's what they did they planted churches now again this shouldn't surprise us this pattern of God working with the people is the pattern that we already saw in the Old Testament this is the way God works he's done it from Adam and Eve he did it with Abram and we keep going on through in Leviticus chapter 20 we read the Lord said to his people in the wilderness through Moses I am the Lord your God who has set you apart from the nation's you are to be holy to me because I the LORD am holy and I have set you apart from the nation's to be my own so you see Israel's obedience was to lead the nations to blessing and to glorying in the true God his people were the means to bring him glory that's been God's plan from Genesis to Revelation to have his name be brought glory by his people so as it was in the old so it is in the new our lives individually yes but also together uniquely in the local church were meant to be and are the means of bringing God glory throughout the nations so brother pastor I hope you're encouraged that what you're about is maybe even bigger than what you were thinking about when you came in tonight what you're about is something at the very center of God's plan for existence this is how he intends to do this but that did brings me to point to the particular problem and the problem is simply that God's people in the Old Testament were unfaithful they had his name on him they God had set them in the middle of the nations indeed they're famous spread among the nations because of what God had given them but instead of honoring God's name and bringing glory to God among the nations they quote Psalm 106 here they mingled with the nation's and adopted their they worshipped their idols when the people of Judah were in exile in Babylon God explained to them again and again that he does all he does for the sake of his own name that's why he called Abram and put his name on the descendants of Jacob again and again though we find the Lord saying in Ezekiel things like this for the sake of my holy name which you have profaned among the nations my great name which has been profaned among the nations the name you have profaned among them so in Romans 2:24 Paul quotes the Prophet God's name is blaspheme among the Gentiles because of you that's why God exiled his Old Testament people so that the the nations would see his disapproval of their unholiness of their misrepresentation of him Old Testament Israel brought shame on God's name instead of being what they were called to be a light to the nation's whatever God did for his people whether it was to bless them and set them apart or to give them over in his wrath whatever he did it was always for the honor of his name that the nations would know that the Lord is God you've never read through the Book of Ezekiel looking at that notice that particularly just decide this week you're gonna read through the whole Book of Ezekiel and notice write down everything the Lord says he's going to do for the sake of his name or so that he will be known as being the Lord this is what God does God does all that he does for the glory of his own name and just a side note on this non-christians hate that message they hate it Christian's love it you preach that from your pulpit and you'll get a very quick test of what's going on in your church spiritually but this is what God is about it's been his plan throughout the ages if God seems harder on Israel for their sins it was because he had said his name on them so that their their holiness was especially attached to his reputation and glory can you hear the echoes of this teaching then in the New Testament so when Jesus teaches his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven Christian's actions reflect on God what's the result of our lives of good deeds praise to us no not ultimately ultimately there to bring glory to God praise to him dare to reveal his character to his creation so bring him glory that's why Peter writes in 1st Peter 2:12 1st Peter 2:12 live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us so this is where we come to the significance of the members of the church who live worldly carnal lives just consider the man in 1st Corinthians 5 dear brother pastor that the problem that I am pointing to is not just out of the occasional hypocrite lost in their own unrepentant sin but I'm talking about systems which seem to produce false converts so much that it's not just one man like that situation in Corinth but whole congregations that like Israel of old are typify dand characterized not by holiness but my worldliness you see something of the dimensions of the problem let me mention four dimensions of this problem briefly one it's a problem for the individuals who are deceived it's a problem for the individuals who were deceived they're deceived about their own state before the Lord in 1st Corinthians 5 Paul gives one reason for urging the church to put this man out of their fellowship he says in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 verse 5 so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord it's just not right or loving for a congregation to leave men and women made in the image of God with the impression that they're reconciled to God when the truth is other than some decision recorded in 1973 there is no evidence whatsoever that they are reconciled to God that is not a loving thing to do for them number two it's also a problem for the church's internal love because the church's internal love is hindered what what I mean is the very nature of the congregation is affected by this when a person is being left in the membership as Paul was talking about the yeast working through the whole batch of dough what are the implications is not just one so I'm not just even talk about one like it verse means five but in a church where there are many such persons in fact some congregations where there are hundreds of them how does that change our life together does it make it less loving less forgiving less joyful less hopeful and just a side note again since I'm speaking to this group what told it take on its leaders friends think about this Hebrews 13:17 says that we should make the task of the leaders of joy and not a burden pastors used to dealing with sins you know we deal with our own hearts we understand that most of us are married we have families to shepherd we have churches which are composed exclusively of sinners so all of our time is spent dealing with sinners even when we're alone but congregations are to be composed of born-again repenting sinners there's a certain subset of sinners that Christian churches are to be filled with and made up of when a congregation is made up of many people whose lives more resemble the works of the flesh than the fruit of the Spirit the experience of following Christ together of of love and encouragement and spurring on and mutual edification and accountability all of this is eroded and cooled and diminished the church becomes more like the world it's wrangly to a third problem that's created one which the people of Israel so ominously foreshadowed the church's witness to the nation's is subverted the church's witness to the nation's is subverted we've become so much like the world they have no questions they want to ask us it appears that we have no hope that's any better than theirs we have no hope of a better a more humane a more god-honoring life to hold out to them when the world is in the church the church begins to disappear from the world we're to be the light shining in the dark place but if our words aren't true or if they are but our lives don't back them up then the very group meant by God to be beacons of hope and life that very group is doomed the way to God seems to disappear hope vanishes and what is worst of all number four fourth problem of this God's name is defamed God's name is defamed back to what we were saying before ultimately the reason God sets apart of people for himself is for his own glory but now what was designed to before his praise actually ends up as he said in Ezekiel being grounds for his name to be profaned or blasphemes I've always been struck by how Paul tells the Corinthian church in their disunity and divisive nasai in Chapter 1 he deals with him he asks this penetratingly theological question I don't know about you but as a pastor if I've got divisions in the church I kind of immediate want to know okay who is it what's going on i certain things sort of practically pragmatically politically Paul just goes right for theology he hears this divisive disses is characterizing the Corinthian church and he asks is Christ divided chapter 1 verse 13 you see the theological assumption behind and underneath that it's that the local church is to reflect the truth about God how can this Corinthian church reflect the truth about Christ when it is unlike Christ divided he goes on and pursues this church about whether its holiness is reflecting God's holiness whether it's love is reflecting God's love because our churches are to reflect the character of God so that he will be brought glory among the nations that's his plan this has always been his plan this is what he he has done and this is what he is doing and this is what he will do but we work against him when we build churches that camouflage his character it seemed to hide it rather than display it our lives and the life of our congregation together is not to slander the character of God but to reflect it and to bring praise and glory to God false conversions obscure God's plan so you see that there's four problems there's the one we think of initially well the individuals deceived and that's bad but more than that the life of the whole congregation is affected that second problem but ah even more than that did you think of it the third problem is even looking out to the nations all of a sudden the witness that we're supposed to give positively is subverted and then you find the biggest most basic problem of all in this is God's name is defamed all of that is going on when we have churches that are increasingly characterized not by members who are truly converted but by people whose lives are indistinguishable from the world so number three now big number three one was God's plan two was the problem I just had four sub points for the problem number three what's the source of the problem what is the source of the problem why are there so many churches where it would appear that the dominant number of people don't evidence the fruit of the Spirit don't seem to be born again how does this happen what do we do that would help to create such false conversions well we have to begin by looking at ourselves I'm gonna say three basic things in this point teachers doctrine and life I want to begin though with teachers because I bring this message to us especially because the role of the pastor the teacher the leader in the church and the New Testament is so crucial have you noticed how many warnings there are about false teachers in the New Testament I started to compile them for this talk and there were just too many it's all over the place in the New Testament Paul warns Timothy have nothing to do with godless myths he warned the false teachers that would come among the church in Ephesus and deceive them the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine instead to suit their own desires they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear he told us this would happen and it's not just Paul Peter warned the Christians that he was writing too there were also false prophets among the people just as there will be false teachers among you in their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they've made up and it's not just Paul and Peter John could refer to those who are trying to lead you astray and that's why john told the christians that he was writing to not to believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world other pastors we see why our role is so important if God has this great plan that he's about but he's undertaken for the ages and if his people are such a crucial part in that plan maybe just an individual by ourselves our character is just not sufficient to show everything that needs to be shown about the character of God no matter how sanctified we get because there's something with a bunch of us related together in a committed way that displays his character that's unique to that how many fruit of the Spirit can you show on a desert island I have a couple of them but most of them are gonna come out in difficult members meetings you know in a deacons meeting that starts not to go well I mean that's where you really see if you've got the fruit of the Spirit or just merely carnal convenient civility going on in your church it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit evidenced in your church the teachers have a particular responsibility and accountability for this that's why he says in James 3:1 not many of you should presume to be teachers my brothers because you know that we you teach will be judged or strictly we know that we must give an account to God I think that text I started worth with first Timothy 4:16 is a good summary first Timothy 4:16 watch your life and doctrine closely persevere in them because if you do you will say both yourself and your hero's life and doctrine in order to prepare this I walked through the New Testament and tried to find any evidence I could for what the writers are saying shows that someone is a Christian what seems to bless the church or on the other hand what seems to subvert it and as I sort of made it into categories I saw some of them were more about what behaviors are going on and others of them are about what teachings are given and what teachings are done and so I just want to divide it under these two head and share heads and share a few of both of these with you and let me start with doctrine first because I think doctrine gives rise to our lives we need to know that we can teach the wrong things with disastrous results we can teach the wrong things with disastrous results we know as as al was telling us about from Romans 10 that saving faith comes only by the hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ all right so what happens if there's another message what will false teaching do will it be completely ignored no evidently not no false teaching will bring converts but false converts as I looked through the New Testament I could see this again and again five truths that I noticed we're especially being distorted then which still are today that I think if we want to preserve God's church for the purposes for which it's been established we pastors want to be especially guarding these always attacked closely related truths I'll give them to you in fairly brief order at least I'll try to five truths you should be especially careful to preach and be clear on in your teaching number one God's judgment is coming God's judgment is coming second Peter chapter three first of all you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come scoffing and following their own evil desires they will say where is the coming he promised ever since our fathers died everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation friends if we deny or even ignore God's role as creator and King and judge of the world then people will as he says here follow their own evil desires you realize you can easily fill a church with people who will follow their own evil desires that's not hard to do but beware this temptation avoiding the doctrine of hell is one step away from denying it altogether but when you get this right when you begin to teach clearly and regularly that there is a judgment then there's an appropriate care and humility that begins to characterize your congregations life together as we realize the brevity of life in its seriousness and the certainty of judgment we feel ourselves to be more objects of mercy than judges more pilgrims than settlers more stewards than owners so we want to be clear that God's judgment is coming but number two similar but slightly pressed in we should be judged by God we should be judged by God we are lost depraved under the good right fearful and certain judgment of God we don't merely teach sin that there is a judgment out there for someone but we need to know and feel our own helplessness we have to be clear not just simply that judgment exists but that because God is good and we are not we deserve God's judgment if God is as good as he says he is he should judge us that's the moral imperative we need to be clear on that in our teaching this is what Paul argues in Romans one two three we know that by God's righteous decree that all those who do such things deserve death and by chapter three in Romans he's argued clearly that's all of us again since I'm speaking to pastors one side note on this that we need to especially appreciate is our natural state spiritually we must understand from the Bible and teach clearly that part of our lostness means that all people have a natural indisposition to believe in our message people naturally do not believe our message men love darkness rather than light by knowing and teaching this we preserve ourselves from the mistake of thinking that if we can just keep fiddling with things we'll get the right combination where then everybody responds and until we get everybody responding we must not be quite doing quite the right thing be very careful with that reasoning brother pastor that can land you up far far away from the biblical gospel that is so unpopular meditate on Ezekiel three and the call gave God gave to Ezekiel how many churches seemed to downplay if not deny natural human depravity and lostness but friends we know John tells us that those who are from the world as he puts it will not accept the gospel and any gospel they would accept would only be because there's been a change not of them but in the gospel that we preach the French will meet when we get this right and we teach that we deserve God's judgment well then you protect the church against those converts who are offended by the idea that they have done anything wrong let alone anything so wrong that God should judge them imagine how that more general humility as we just consider the previous point of the awesome judgment of God how it's increased when we consider more particularly that we deserve that judgment our general sense of God's grace becomes in a keen sense of God's mercy that we need but that we ourselves have never deserved but that someone else has deserved for us as we were just singing about so movingly in those hymns I remember once doing a membership interview at our church and a young man who was a college student had been attending and he liked our church and one of these you do in our membership interview is you sign the statement of faith and the church covenant the statement of faith what we believe the church covenant how we will live and they'd had a class on each of them so he knew what it was so when they come to the interview that they know that will happen well when it was when we were come to the statement of faith we have a statement in our statement of faith about God's judgment and about the eternal nature of that judgment well this man was a young Christian and he didn't like that he said well I think I'm more of an annihilation just but you know I like everything else and I love this church so I assume it's fine if I'm just a member and I said well actually you need to be able to sign this in good conscience and he said well is it really that important point I said well I think it is because what you're saying about that about God's judgment actually gets to the nature of it and so I suggested a couple of things for him to read in Scripture and some other some other articles and I said why don't you just get back to me in a couple of weeks well he called me back much sooner than that it was a few days later he was a little irritated with me that night when I kind of put him off membership but a few days later when he phones back his voice is full of emotion and he says mark thank you so much for putting me off I've read those things you suggest I read and now I see and I understand what the Bible teaches on this and what I didn't expect is since I've come to that conclusion the cross of Christ has become so much sweeter to me because I understand what I have deserved and the extent and weight of what I deserved and I understand therefore what Christ has suffered for me the extent of his sufferings for me what he bore for me friends how many people have said it he who thinks lightly of sin will think lightly of the Savior so if we think seriously and biblically about sin we'll more appreciate what God has done for us in Christ friends this is what we want to be clear of in our churches that we deserve judgment a third thing we need to be clear on in our teaching is that our only hope is in Christ number three our only hope is in Christ we must make it very clear in our teaching that we're to trust not and who we are or and what we have done but in who Jesus Christ is and what Jesus Christ has done in his substitutionary death and justifying resurrection as the Incarnate son of God become a substitute in our place and the firstfruits of the final resurrection so any idea that some preachers would teach that some people are converted through our own works must be rejected we must be clear not only on the person of Christ but also in its work first John we read this is how we know what love is Jesus Christ laid down his life for us we need to be clear over against theological liberalism that any denial of the bodily resurrection is according to the Bible a denial of Christ Himself what else is Paul's majestic chapter 15 of 1st Corinthians about that so many was just preached on two days ago but that the bodily resurrection is an essential part of our message we must teach and preach clearly on who Christ is what Christ is done how Christ is our only hope now without this you can make converts to fatalism or converts to an ethical Society the so many of our Protestant churches have become but you cannot have a truly Christian Church without this message about Jesus Christ clearly and your preaching and teaching and when we give this right well then we begin offending and attracting all the right people the self-righteous and the wrongly self-confident are offended at such talk of a savior but those who know themselves to be sinners in need of a savior hear the news and they rejoice that there's such a savior to be found only true converts finally respond to the truth about Jesus Christ number four another truth we need to teach clearly is that we don't see the fullness of our salvation in this life we don't see the fullness of our salvation in this life let me explain what I mean by this and why this so important Christ's death and resurrection secure for us forgiveness and reconciliation with God ultimately and his sustaining presence until then but it is an error to teach that following Jesus is mainly for present this life benefits that's not true read Hebrews 11 and preach through that any authentic version of Christianity includes waiting our basic posture in a fallen world as believers of the Bible is waiting we wait for our Lord to return that's the Blessed hope that we have that glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ that's why Paul said what he said in first millions 1519 if only for this life we have hope in Christ we are to be pitied more than all men brother if you're thinking about doing a certain topical series on life tips what would first million is 15:19 be doing in that series if only for this life we have hope in Christ we are to be pitied more than all men what did Paul mean by that what message do we need to teach clearly to the people that God has provided for us to care for it's one of the reasons I love that book that we're giving out the health wealth and happiness gospel friends get that book and use it in your ministries even the carnally minded person can understand the desire to better their own life vast crowds can be assembled who want meaning and purpose in their lives but that is not the same thing as repenting toward God for your sins brother pastors when you get this right and your own head and heart personally and in your own teaching publicly you prepare the ground to live fearing God more than the Kings anger accepting disgrace for the sake of Christ seeing him is worth more than all earthly treasure trusting all of God's commands even when they would seem to jeopardize your hopes in this life we were getting ready to have our service on Sunday morning too days ago and and I get the news from several different sources about what had just gone on in Nigeria how at least it seems 20 of our brothers and sisters had been blown up in Kaduna in bombs left there deliberately because Christians would be gathering at church on Easter morning see what a lot of our people went to church on Sunday and our churches here in this land they went thinking about seeing friends and singing some happy hymns and what they'd have for lunch but on Friday night at our Good Friday service I'd had the opportunity to talk to a Nigerian pastor who was visiting and he said that for his friends now in northern Nigeria especially in what central in northern Nigeria Fridays and Sundays are very dark days the congregations are concerned they're fearful but yet they gather they gather in bravery and courage they gather by the hundreds and by the thousands and if Nigeria literally by the millions and why do they gather because they understand that salvation is not just for this life for present this worldly benefits because they really believe in the resurrection of the Dead and so they're willing to give away this life if need be for them to witness to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ you see why we want to be clear on this and our teaching brother pastors when you get this right in your own head and heart then I think how powerful an engine of building up and encouraging and self-sacrifice is a church where Christ is prized above all the last thing that we need to be clear on in our teaching number five is that we can deceive ourselves and others about our relationship with God we can deceive ourselves and others about our relationship with God please teach this clearly please teach this clearly it's counterintuitive in our culture it is clear in the Bible if we would prevent our churches from being characterized by an unconverted worldliness then we must be clear in our teaching that we can deceive ourselves today we think we are the world experts on us but second Corinthians 13:5 examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith test selves friend if I were to come to your church on Sunday and just read those words from Scripture what would your congregation understand them to mean examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith test yourselves friends I think when we give this right there is a humble joy and a sharpness of God's grace and a childlike reliance on him that can increasingly mark our congregations with an open handed joy so think of them as people that you've baptised in this last year have you taught them these five things that I've gotten from the New Testament have you taught them these things clearly have get somebody in mind a specific person that you've baptized with in this last year do they believe that God's judgment is coming do they believe that vain a chirally should be judged by God today no and believe that our only hope is in Christ do they understand that Christ's salvation of us is not limited to this life until they know and believe that we can deceive ourselves and others about our relationship with God other pastors if we are often any of these things it can result in lots of false professions because false teachers create false converts and false converts guess what they do they hire false teachers false converts hire false teachers don't ever ever ever take refuge in the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and think oh you know what I'll go ahead and just not worry about that because you know the elect are gonna get saved anyway and what does it matter otherwise Wow that's off on so many levels just talk with your friend you're sitting next to you afterwards if you want to know what's wrong with that way of thinking but just one very practical thing think of what it does to the future of our congregation there is this symbiotic relationship between false converts and false teachers brother pastor if you want to make sure that your successor doesn't preach the gospel just admit lots of people into membership who aren't truly converted well that's doctrine from first ability 4:16 I want to turn to life for a minute watch your life and doctrine closely because friends if our churches are characterized by wrong living that can be just as damning as wrong teaching those who listen to the gospel also watch how we live let me just share three common errors that is again as I looked through the New Testament I saw were there that jeopardized the spiritual health of these congregations that the first churches were plagued with that I think we are today - it's an error number one to present a church without holiness to present a church without holiness holiness may thrive in unholiness rather may thrive in some churches as pastors ignorantly avoid teaching on sin fearing that it will undermine grace I'm so looking forward to the message Kevin Young is gonna be bringing in this conference unholiness can thrive in churches with no accountability churches that are built to cater to our culture's individualism and commitment to privacy but in the New Testament it is clear that the Christian life is presented as being motivated by love of God that is contrary to the love of this world again preached through first John on this point it's very helpful or Hebrews 12:14 without holiness no one will see the Lord friends how tempting it is for us to do something else but that's why the Lord has left us things like in Galatians 5 the fruit are the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit to take these up and examine our own lives and consider teaching our people what it means to live as a Christian that's ultimately why we have a local church to wake us up from self-deception when we would be confused when our spiritual slumber if left to ourselves would be our undoing forever how tempting it is to present the church as affirming and tolerating all sins even those that people don't repent of but the truth is there is a wonderful beauty and health and freedom in holiness as God gives us the new birth is spirit helps us begin to live lives that we were literally made to live we've been hearing we've heard five testimonies just today about how the Holy Spirit came in and saved Sonya and trip and meds and Harshit and John and every one of those lives beginning to remake them as he meant them to be now imagine not just an individual but a whole community in which we begin to reflect God's character more and more and are changed more and more into his likeness do you see the powerful witness that is for him the powerful encouragement in our own lives so it's an error to present a church without holiness to concede to worldliness it's also an error to present a church with no suffering a church with no suffering this is a temptation to all of us left to ourselves we would all avoid poverty and sickness and in one sense of course avoiding poverty and avoiding sickness our Feingold's for our lives and our work but not as ultimate goals such goals are far too small for biblical Christianity and if we espoused those as our gold and if that's what we teach and Shepherd like practically in our Sunday schools and in our churches then we will mislead others about what Christ saves us from he saves us from ultimate bankruptcy and death that is true but not necessarily from suffering in this world indeed true Christianity will call us to suffering CJ was talking about this earlier Integra needs forming some of the dying preacher the preachers who are dying you realize health and wealth preachers are false teachers we must be clear on this and our preaching but we also need to ask ourselves do we do more mild versions of the same thing in the way we present things do we think of healthy churches is one in which a kind of of constant triumphalism and everything from our smiles to our music suffuses the whole atmosphere of our gatherings Carl Truman asked and his excellent R a number of years ago now what do miserable Christians sing what if I turn up at church on Sunday and I just had a terrible fight with my wife or I just lost my job what if I feel like a lot of the Psalms time of lamentation it's not that I have no faith it's not that I don't believe in God but what if I'm hurting did the services we have at church have any space for quiet for serious reflection for those among us every Sunday who come who are hurting how can we lead them to hope or do we push them away by assuming they must have immediate happiness to fit in when they walk in the door have you preached through first Peter lately I love this little book in Chapter two we're told that Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps from Chapter three we're told it's better if it's God's will to suffer for doing good than for doing evil chapter 4 if you suffer as a Christian do not be ashamed but praise God that you bear that name so then those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good friends we've we've had the privilege of having many non-christians and our services over the years I get to talk to a lot I'm in the back as they leave one things I hear sometimes is their appreciation of the fact that our church seems to address topics seriously that we want to engage with them when very often they felt in evangelical churches and I'm just passing on things they've said to me in evangelical churches they feel they already have to be a part of a kind of happy Club to even get near them nobody's gonna listen to them seriously and empathetically to hear what they're feeling I think our churches should have great room for joy we have the hope of Jesus Christ we have that in the context of hearing where people are and understanding and ministering the gospel to them so will it be God's will for all of us to suffer well if you want to get a lot of fake Christians in your church just tell them that there is this free gift that entails no self sacrifice and that trouble and cross bearing are only for those super Saints who chew extra large when they order their spiritual meal the truth however is no cross no crown no cross no crown Jesus taught us that in this world you will have trouble he told those who were considering following him if anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me friends what wonderful reality can be found in our churches what truth and goodness when we both frankly and realistically acknowledge the fallenness and darkness of our own hearts not just the world out there but of our own hearts and of the world that we live in and oppose this darkness with God's strength and in confidence we also have to say that it's an error number three to present a church without love a church without love you know what I mean let's say that you've got a hold of holiness you want to behave differently than the world in an apparently godly way and you're all you're all okay with the suffering thing you've got the grim determinism down just fine alright so your doctrinally sound you are Orthodox you have a grim willingness to suffer but friend if love does not mark the church then it may attract spiritual hobbyists you know it may attract theological accountants who like to play at religious ideas and theology but not inconvenience themselves and love for others I often tell this in our membership class that because I preach hour long sermons at our church and I know you're hoping it's gonna be that short tonight but because I preach hour long sermons at our church we have the kind of church where a lot of people come and they read books by Puritans and heavy books of theology and John Piper and they sit around and read this stuff all the time and I've had occasion many times to tell a young man who likes to read such books that if you're not willing to get up an hour early on Sunday to give a nine-year-old man a ride to church I don't know if you know Jesus I don't know if you're a Christian at all I understand you like theological knowledge but look even the demons believe in tremble the demons could ace every test at Southern Seminary good now yeah oh yeah I think good yeah they would get a better grade than any of us would get going through seminary but it doesn't there's not a life faith that typifies the unregenerate there's not the love that's the mark of the one who's truly known themselves to be objects of God's loving mercy first John teaches us that if we walk in the light we have fellowship with one another that's why he writes anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness first John 3 we find that even a distinguishing mark of those who are truly converted we know that we have passed from death to life because he says we love our brothers anyone who does not love remains in death whoever does not love does not know God because God is love friends have you experienced life in a Christian congregation which is suffused with love where care is initiated and griefs empathized with and meals cooked and rides given and offenses overlooked and appropriate affection expressed and help offered and forgiveness extended and joy shared freely well friends I pray that is the experience of every single one of us here imperfectly yes but really in our local church one of the most striking needs our world has is church is full of true Christians who are truly giving themselves away to each other and others in love the world celebrates cheap imitations and partial renditions of that love experiencing the real love with authority and kindness and correct ability to correct and self-sacrifice and wisdom experiencing that kind of love is bracing even shocking true many are repelled but it's also true that by God's grace many will be attracted by this message of the self giving love of God in Christ I have to say if you're here tonight and you're not a Christian what would I be doing if I'm not a Christian at a pastors conference well I don't know tell me you know but in a crowd that's large you tell me you know none of you are non-christians maybe you came with a family member maybe they offered to pay so you would sit here and hear all these messages but listen if you're here tonight and you're not a Christian this is what we're all about it's the fact that God has loved us in Christ it's the fact that we have lived in such a way that we deserve God's judgment but because he's the amazing God he is he has actually come himself the eternal son of God has lived a real life as a man that's Jesus of Nazareth he lived of life a perfect trust in his Heavenly Father he had no penalty to pay he didn't deserve his father's judgment but he took it by his death on the cross he made himself a lamb slain a sacrifice offered why would he do that if he didn't deserve it he did it for everyone here and around the world who will ever repent of their sins and trust in him friends if you will repent of your sins and trust in him that's you if you want to know more about this new life and forgiveness you can have talked about that with someone tonight that's the most important thing you can hear other pastors when we get some crucial things right about life and about doctrine we will help to cause the witness of God to shine in this dying world so is it clear that false conversions are the suicide of the local church how can you be a part of preventing this problem from happening or solving it if it already has happened in your church much of what I've said really has implied application throughout let me just end with three summary encouragement 3 summary encouragement number one always be evangelizing always be evangelizing and evangelize as Spurgeon put it steadily and well I love Spurgeon's a little book the soul-winner we've got copies in the bookstore the sole winner by CH Spurgeon remember our saviors words the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind which when it was full they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels but cast the bad away then Spurgeon says do not number your fishes before they are broiled nor count your converts before you tested and tried them this process may make your work somewhat slow but then brethren it will be sure do your work steadily and well so those who come after you may not have to say that it was far more trouble to them to clear the Church of those who ought never to have been admitted than it was to you to admit them ask yourself what temptations you face to evangelize in such a way that false converts seem regularly to be created and in great proportion to true converts be wary of the bigger-is-better culture of the church don't mistake a device of the enemy for the work of God greater numbers don't necessarily mean greater strength number two so number one there is always be evangelizing and evangelize steadily and well number two always be shepherding sheep pasture always be shepherding sheep recenter your thoughts as a pastor on the individuals to be shepherded now exactly how this will look will vary depending on if your church is comprised of 17 people or 70 or 700 or 7,000 church like this but remember that to each person whom you take into membership you are telling them that they are giving good evidence that they are born-again and eternally fine and that is a wonderful role to have what great news to announce again if I could turn to mr. Spurgeon on this he says in his autobiography I'm occupied in a small way as mr. great heart was employed in Bunyan's day I do not compare myself with that champion but I am in the same line of business I'm engaged and personally conducted tours to heaven and I have with me at the present time christiana and dear old father honest and I'm glad he's still alive and active there's Christiana and they're her children it's my business as best I can to kill dragons and cut off Giants heads and lead on the timid and trembling I'm often afraid of losing some of the weaklings I have the heartache for them but by God's grace and your kind and generous help and looking after one another I hope we shall all travel safely to the river's edge oh how many have I had to part with there I have stood on the brink and I've heard them singing in the midst of the stream and I have almost seen the shining ones lead them up the hill and through the gates into the celestial city do not forget God has called you to a great role in people's lives that's why membership and discipline are important that's why if you're a young pastor and you're going to a church and you find a lot of people who are members but they don't attend don't just clean the roles those scores or hundreds of people are individuals made in the image of God that the last thing your church had to do with them to tell them they were fine eternally so don't just try to get your numbers straight they are a field of ministry and of obligation and of responsibility remind yourself that God cares about each one of those people and number three always remember the account that you are to give to God always remember the account that you are to give to God our great accountability to God makes sense when we remember how we started this great plan that God has what he's about is something huge and wonderful and you see something of the crucial role the church has to play in that plan you know one of my goals in ministry to other pastors is to quote this one thing by John Brown so often that it is burned in pastor's mind so I'd do it again tonight in a letter of paternal counsels to one of his pupils newly ordained over a small congregation he wrote and I quote I know the vanity of your heart and that you will feel mortified that your congregation is very small in comparison with those of your brethren around you but assure yourself on the word of an old man that when you come to give an account of them to the Lord Christ at his judgment seat you will think you have had enough first Timothy 4:16 watch your life and doctrine closely persevere in them because if you do you will say both yourself and your hearers whoa before we go did you notice that we'll save yourself did you know preachers can be lost preachers can be lost perhaps you've heard of Gilbert tenets message in 1740 the danger of an unconverted ministry Spurgeon said God never saved any man for being a preacher watch your life and doctrine closely persevere in them because if you do you will save both yourself and your hearers let's pray Lord God we are confident that your great plan will succeed we know that vision that you gave to John was no fantasy it was the future we know that when the lord jesus promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against this church that you were speaking to us what the future will be oh god we pray you would help us to move out in confidence and joy as we go to our churches we ask this Lord for Jesus sake

Channel: Truth Endures

Views: 16,809

Rating: 4.909091 out of 5

Keywords: False, Conversions:, The, Suicide, of, the, Church, Speaker, Mark, Dever, Together, For, Gospel, 2012, T4g 2012, T4G, Together For The Gospel

Id: j2oIlGpaI3M

Length: 64min 47sec (3887 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 11 2012