Threats To The Gospel (part 2)

All right, here's what we're going to do tonight. I'm not in 1 Thessalonians tonight. I'm in a mini -series called

Threats to Gospel Ministry. Spiritual warfare is real. Satan is real.

Demons are real. The flesh is real. The world is real. And since God loves

Christ Jesus and the gospel, the gospel and its work will be attacked.

So what are some of those attacks? So you know about them and so you can pray about them and be informed.

Let me give you four that we looked at last time in review and then tonight we'll look at five, six, and seven or something like that.

I don't know where we'll end up. Sometimes I come on Sunday nights just to hear what I'm going to say and see where I'm going to end up.

This morning I had to end at end of Romans chapter six because it's chapter by chapter. But on Sunday night we have a little more leeway.

Threats to gospel ministry. Number one, the first threat we looked at was when the church assumes the gospel.

When the church of Jesus Christ just assumes the gospel. Hey, everybody's a Christian. We don't have to keep preaching the gospel to Christians now, do we?

The answer is we need to keep preaching the gospel all the time to those who are saved, those who are lost.

Side note, I went and visited someone a while ago and they said they were Roman Catholic and maybe,

I mean, some Roman Catholics believe in the real gospel in spite of the Catholic church. And so I said, by the way,

I don't need to know if you're a Christian or not. I'm assuming you are. You just told me you are because the same thing that I'm going to give you, the same thing that I would give to an unbeliever are a believer.

You need to learn about who Jesus Christ is and to see Him again. I have a friend, he was in the hospital.

He's got cancer. I don't know if he's going to die or he's not going to die, a neighbor. And I thought to myself, I don't know if he's a

Christian or not, but I know what he needs because Christians and non -Christians need to know about the gospel.

Unbelievers see the gospel and they're confronted with their sin and they need to look to the Savior through faith and repentance and believers need to know the gospel too like we learned about this morning in Romans chapter six.

Second threat to the gospel is making the gospel more about personal appropriation versus making the gospel a proclamation.

In other words, the gospel can be under threat when the only way we talk in our Christian life is here's how

I receive the gospel versus this is the gospel. And we talked about that at some length.

Number three, the third threat to the gospel and gospel ministry is not making the gospel the top priority of the church.

Remember, everything in the Bible is important, but some things are more important than others. And at the top of the list,

Paul says, I deliver to you that of what? First importance. The gospel of Christ Jesus is the most important thing in a church.

By the way, if you say, well, I'm not a pastor. If you teach Sunday school, the gospel is the most important thing.

You say, well, I do a council time at Awana. The gospel is the most important thing. I do junior church.

The gospel is the most important thing. What are we going to spiral into?

Let's teach people about how to be good like David or maybe an adulterer like David, or maybe we better teach people to be like other people.

No, we want to know about the gospel. Number four, the fourth thing we looked at, finally in review, one of the threats to the gospel is being known for what we're for and not what we're against kind of attitude.

People run around all the time today and they say in evangelical churches, we want to be known for what we're for and not what we're against.

To use a military illustration, if you're for peace in World War II, you are against Nazism.

If you're for the gospel, you're against anything that attacks the gospel. Number five, you're going to be surprised now as we look at new information, the fifth threat to the gospel and gospel ministry is the preacher himself.

Preachers can be a threat to gospel ministry. Please turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 1 this afternoon, this evening.

1 Corinthians 1. We've been in 1

Corinthians for a long time at the church, but this has probably been four years since we've been in chapter one. So I want to go back here and I am a preacher, but I don't want to be a threat to the gospel.

I don't want to eclipse the gospel with my oratory. You probably say, well,

Pastor Mike, I know you and it's going to be pretty much impossible for you to do that. And for that, I would be very, very glad.

Take a look at verse 17 of 1 Corinthians 1. Remember the

Corinthians, they loved excellent speakers and rhetoricians and those that had eloquence that would come out of their mouth, speak eloquently rather.

He says in verse 17 of chapter one, for Christ did not send me to baptize. By the way, that makes us realize you don't get saved by getting baptized.

But to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom like the

Corinthians wanted, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

What you preach if you're a preacher is important, but how you preach it is important as well.

Content and the way we preach go together. The good news is preached in such a way that the good news is amplified, not eclipsed.

There's a way to preach the gospel, look at the verse again, that can make the cross of Christ void.

We're not talking about work salvation. We're not talking about people who talk about you're going to be good to get to heaven.

No, the real cross of Jesus Christ, the only way of salvation, substitution and atonement, can be preached in such a way that the cross of Christ is made void,

NAS says, or ESV says, emptied of its power. How could that happen? How could that happen?

It's easy for us as evangelicals, as pastors, to say, oh, these other people, they don't preach the gospel. Have your best life now.

That's not right. But then I could end up preaching the real gospel in a way that makes you not think of the gospel, but you think of me and the way

I talk and my smooth speech. Listen to Leon Morris. He said, the faithful preaching of the cross results in men ceasing to put their trust in any human device, and relying rather on God's work in Christ.

A reliance on rhetoric would cause men to trust in men, the very antithesis of what the preaching of the cross is meant to affect.

Boy, he's a great speaker. Boy, he's a great preacher. How dynamic.

When the preacher shouldn't be after that, the preacher should be after, I want you to see the greatness of Christ.

I don't like a lot of personal confessions in the pulpit from pastors. I just don't think that's the way to go.

But I'll give you one here. We'll make an exception tonight. I wanna be a great preacher.

I wanna be an excellent preacher. I'd like to be one of the greatest preachers.

But see, that's the wrong attitude. What you do, you don't want to do poorly. I mean, I don't wanna get up here and bumble and stumble and throw my glasses when

I'm not supposed to, or mispronounce things. But it's not about me.

I'm not the one. Frankly, when these churches now, big churches have this, they say, well, we have five campuses.

And once every five weeks, you get the real pastor, all the other weeks, you get the video pastor.

That's really bad for lots of reasons, including, you need to know your pastor, and you need to know that he is just a frail, sinful, nobody like everybody else.

But when he stands up in the pulpit and he tries to show you Christ, then you say, Lord, thank you for somebody who will do that.

But the pastor can't get up and say, look at me. And by the way, that lady that said to Spurgeon, after he got done preaching, she said,

Spurgeon, that was the best sermon I've ever heard in my life. And he said, I know, madam,

Satan's already told me that on the way down from the pulpit steps already. Now, sometimes when

I stand at the door, it's usually maybe an older person, they look at me and they'll say, that was a great message.

You know what I usually do? I think the cloud over their head is really saying,

I love you. But what comes out of their mouth is, that was a great sermon. You're a great preacher.

Friends, don't ever tell me that again. The only person I ever want to hear that from is from my wife.

I don't need to hear it. I'm trying to preach a great Savior to you. You watch me and you follow me around.

Eventually, you'll see some sin. If you say, well, you know what? I like that preaching pastor on the big screen.

We get him once every five weeks in person, but you're never going to see him in his life that he's just a regular person.

Preaching with a style that earns your love and earns your respect and earns your applause.

It's okay to respect a pastor for his office, but not for who he is. Orators back in the day of Corinth didn't care about anything except did they get approval from the audience?

How can I establish my prestige? How can

I get a bigger base? See, because once I realize, you know what?

I need to get more people here at this church, then I'm going to stop talking about this man who was on the cross for six hours, naked, tortured for you sinners.

You should have been on that cross, naked, tortured for all those hours. That doesn't really build a crowd now, does it?

Garland said, Paul finds it contemptible to think that preachers could ever exploit the proclamation of one who is crucified as a means to upgrade their own worldly status.

Preaching to please, preaching for ovations, preaching to look good, preaching to get followers, preaching to get you to praise eloquence, preaching to get you to admire me, it's difficult.

I like Don Kistler when he would say, when someone says to you at the door, Pastor, that was a great sermon. You know what he says to them?

So what are you going to do about it? Okay. But he's like from New England, so let's just kind of bring the cookies down to the lowest shelf.

I want you to teach with excellence if you're a Sunday school teacher. And if you're a WANA instructor,

I want you to do it with excellence. If you get to teach from the pulpit, I want you to teach with excellence.

But that is different than teaching with eloquence so that people look to you.

Man, he's a good preacher. Man, he's a great preacher. Man, he's a great Sunday school teacher.

Everybody's talking about that Sunday school teacher. I believe that Paul is correct when he says there's a way to preach the cross that makes it void.

Look at what he says in verses 18 and following. How can you talk about the cross and then want to look good while you do it?

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discernment of the discerning. I will thwart. Where's the one who's wise?

Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

The problem is not simply that manipulative rhetoric causes the cross to vanish under the weight of rhetorical ornament.

The problem with this style is that it earns the preacher of the crowds golden opinions.

Be good to pray for your pastors. It's difficult. Pray for your elders. All right, number six threat to the gospel.

The sixth threat to the gospel is when the gospel is given to address wrong needs.

When the gospel is given to address wrong needs. It's still talking about sin and substitution, Christ dying on the cross for sinners, but it's given for felt needs.

It's given for prosperity. It's given for building a better life now.

How do you take the cross, God's inflexible justice against sin combined with His infinite grace and mercy, and then figure out how to talk to people about self -fulfillment and felt needs that's literally infiltrated the churches these days?

Loneliness, managing relationships, relationship breakdown, family and parenting things, money, finding fulfillment, coping with stress and worry, mental illness, bereavement.

Now, sometimes the Bible addresses a few of those things. But the biggest need you have is how are you right with God?

I'll never forget as long as I live. Eight years ago, someone came in and they said, we're leaving Bethlehem Bible Church, okay. I said, well, why are you leaving?

We're not getting fed from the pulpit. I know

I'm not John MacArthur. I know I'm not John Knox. I know I'm not John Wesley. But basically my bills are paid so I can study to try to give you a meal.

Instead of just throwing something together. Not getting fed from the pulpit.

I said, well, what do you mean? Well, we're just not getting anything out of it.

You know what they meant? I'm not talking to their felt needs. I'm not stroking them.

That's exactly what they were talking about. See, here's the thing.

The Gospel is addressed because the ultimate glory is God's glory.

That's the ultimate priority. Tozer was right when he said, the new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him.

It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self -respect. To the self -assertive it says, come and assert yourself for Christ.

To the egotist it says, come and do your boasting in the Lord. To the thrill seeker it says, come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship.

The Christian message is slanted in the direction of current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.

Forgiveness is the issue. You can have a great marriage and still go to hell. Come to Christ on His terms.

That's what we need to preach. Rick Warren said, it is my deep conviction that anyone can be one to Christ if you discover the key to his or her heart.

That key to each person's heart is so unique, it's sometimes difficult to discover. It may take some time to identify it, but the most likely place is to start with the person's felt needs.

Kind of different in 1 Peter 2 that Jesus is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

Number seven, this is what I really want to talk about tonight. When the church wants to be popular and successful over faithful, that is one of the problems in Gospel ministry that threatens.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians 4. Success -driven churches, popularity over faithfulness.

Closely related to the last one, and so that's why we want to make this number seven. When a church chooses to be successful instead of faithful.

I don't know, Bolger probably heard it when he was at seminary too. I'll never forget it as long as I live. MacArthur said to all the seminary students, men, you've got a choice to make.

Either be faithful or popular. Choose one. What are you going to be? Faithful or popular?

Choose one. It's good for lay people too. He says in chapter 4 of 1 Corinthians 1, this is how one should regard us.

Remember, they're saying, oh, this is a great speaker. They're looking up to all these people that talk all the time in Corinthian area.

Greek speakers. Putting them on pedestals. How should you think of pastors? This is how one should regard us.

As servants of Christ and stewards of the mystery of God. I've been entrusted with oversight.

I've been told here's a house to manage. It's not your house. And you're responsible for the people, for the building, for the finances.

And a steward back in those days devoted all his time and energy and talents to his master's interests.

Household slaves. How should you think of a pastor? He's just a slave. Now before you get going, may

I remind you, beloved, I'm not your slave. I'm the Lord's slave. I'm to serve you, yes.

See, I knew what you were thinking. You've got the slave. Pastors are not freelance operators.

Spick said no matter how many times or how extensive the powers of a steward were, they were not the owners of the treasures of truth and grace.

They are entrusted to them. As they administer these treasures, they must remain aware of their dependency and of their accounting that they will give.

There's going to be an accounting. So what do you really want in a steward?

Verse 2. I can't tell you how many times in the middle of the night I think of this verse right here.

I can't control the universe. I can't get people to stay. I can't get people to come. I can't grow the church in numbers. I can't do a thousand different things.

But you know what? I've never been called to do that. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found what?

Successful, popular, eloquent, good old boy,

Marlborough man, somebody I'd follow into battle on D -Day. Sorry.

Stewards are meant to be found trustworthy, are faithful. That's it.

We have a mystery from God, something that no one could come up with and God has revealed, and our job is just to be faithful.

I always love the illustration, but it's so classic. If you go to a restaurant, it's the kind of restaurant they give you one of those little kind of tents, those plastic tents with a number on it.

You order something, maybe even is it Carl's Jr. kind of thing, and you say, I'd like this kind of thing, hold the pickles, hold the peckles.

I hate peckles. When I was a kid, I liked them, but I was forced to eat them. Hold the pickles, hold the mustard, double this, double that and all that stuff.

And then you sit down at your table and you just kind of put that little tent thing there, 12 it says. Then the person who's the waiter or the waitress or the person, they just come out and they just give you what you ordered.

They don't say to themselves, that guy doesn't really think he doesn't like pickles, let's give him a lot of extra pickles.

Nah, you know what? He said no mustard. He said, you know, if you're in California, he said vegan.

What's all the other stuff that they... Kim, help me. Gluten free. He's not gluten free.

No, the person's job is, you get it from the cook, don't sneeze on it, don't change it, and you just deliver the goods.

I have a message from God. Here's the message. I want to try to help you like it as you get it, but this is the message.

I have no other message. Here it is. That's stewardship. I'm telling you,

I've told you guys this a thousand times. You go to pastor's conferences and the very, very first thing that happens, everybody's sizing everybody up.

Hi, who are you? Where do you live? And what's the very next question out of their mouth?

I can't stand it. You say, that's just because there's nobody here. Well, that's true.

It'd be a lot better if there were 10 ,000 people. They're all about 10 ,000. So I told you a long time ago,

I just lie now. I mean, it's just better just to lie. And so people say, pastors say, well, how big's your church?

And I just say, about 3 ,000 or so. I don't count. And you know what they do? Pat, you should write a book or something.

Man, you've got it going on. You manage this. You get these people. You know what to do. Have all the hierarchy and everything else and Maslov's, da, da, da, da, da.

And you're like, you know something. And then I say, well, you know what? I'm just kind of lying. Maybe just a few hundred.

But then you know what I want to say? Here's what my heart wants to say. 350 show up probably on a

Sunday, but 350 in New England's like 5 ,000 in Dallas, baby. I want to say it.

Want a lot of people. No, see, we can't do that. We can't chase that.

Because doesn't the Lord give the growth? Our responsibility is faithfulness. And if five come, if 15 come, if 15 ,000 come, that is irrelevant.

Stewards must be found faithful. And I could bring it down into the Sunday school classes. It's the same thing.

Faithfulness. Well, you know, 15 people come to my study. Oh, 25 come to my study.

I could care less how many come. Are you faithful? Or do you do the typical, well, you know what?

It's Saturday night. It's like 10 o 'clock and I've got to teach Sunday school tomorrow. I've got to throw something together.

Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.

That's Matthew 24. Whatever the Master commands, by the grace of God, we want to be faithful to do.

Look at verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 4. But with me, it's a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.

In fact, I do not even judge myself. See, I answer to the Lord. It's not a popularity contest.

I'm listening for one person to say, well done, and it's not you. The last day is what

I'm looking at. I can't even judge myself. I'm not aware of anything against myself. Verse 4, but I'm not thereby acquitted.

Why? Because I'm not omniscient. Only God's omniscient. But I'm not thereby acquitted.

It is the Lord who judges me. Human courts and tribunals.

No, the fidelity of a pastor, the fidelity of a church member. No human judgment is final.

Paul says I can't even be objective even judging myself. It's the

Lord who judges me. And then what does it say in verse 5? It says, therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time.

Before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of God.

And if you're not careful, you're going to think He's going to go negative here. Then each one will receive his paddling from God, his spanking from God, his discipline from God.

It's kind of interesting. Final day. Judgment's in view. You're going to get your rebuke from God on that last day, aren't you?

No, he didn't say that at all. He says that each one will receive his commendation from God.

Receive his commendation from God. He's the one that brings to light the hidden things in darkness.

So here's what we're after at Bethlehem Bible Church. We're after faithfulness. Well done, good and faithful servant.

If we decide that we're going to go for numbers, then I think we're sunk. It's easy to get numbers by the way.

I've used this illustration before and I'll use it now because it's just everywhere this exact kind of thing.

Tampa Tribune, not that many years ago. Churches are always asking for money, but we're going to turn it around said the

Reverend Tim Dyson of the Church Alive in Tampa. The church plans to give away checks and gift certificates to newcomers.

The most, a check for $2 ,004 in the year 2004. Friday's evening event will include clowns and a light show and music from rock musician

Clint Brown. The pastor said it takes creativity to reach out to new members. Dyson's been often known to roar into services on a

Harley Davidson motorcycle. He's also delivered sermons from a boat hauled into the sanctuary and set up a boxing ring to fight demons of drugs and divorce.

That'll pack him in alright. Or he could do what the

Wall Street Journal talks about also in 2004. For the first time in 10 years, Mary Wilkinson went to church one

Sunday in January. Why? She sat in the back pew at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Stamford, Connecticut listening intently to the priest's sermon.

What drew Mrs. Wilkinson back into the fold was a new monthly program the church introduced,

Holy Communion for Pets. The 59 -year -old portfolio manager carried her 17 -year -old tiger cat to the altar, waited in line behind three panting dogs to receive the host, and had a special benediction performed for her cat,

Purbox Jr. I like that.

The other parishioners here are animal people. Mrs. Wilkinson said, "...with

pews hard to fill, a small number of otherwise traditional clergy are welcoming animals into the flock. Some are creating pet -friendly worship services while others have started making house calls for sick animals."

This is Wall Street Journal by the way. Some are starting to accompany pet owners to the vet when they euthanize a beloved pet.

Occasionally, clergy are even officiating pet funerals and bark mitzvahs.

You know what? I could laugh or I could get super angry right now. I could get so angry.

I'll tell you what I think should happen to cats. I hate cats. I hate them with a passion.

And yet you still come. Man, that pastor hates cats, but people still come.

Actually, the ladies here that like cats and guys too, they still love me. I don't even judge myself.

Last summer, a member of St. Francis Episcopal Church in Stanford began bringing her King Charles Spaniel on Sunday mornings according to Wall Street Journal.

Soon, several other attendees were regularly bringing their dogs. They felt that they were welcomed because we have a long history of blessing the animals.

It's easy to get numbers. You can do anything you want. You go, how do I get the young kids? Here's how we get it.

Rock, music, wall of sound. That's how we get it. Anybody can get the place filled up.

I'm not saying we should be unfriendly. We should be friendly people. But there's a reason why

Paul wrote, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of salvation. Power of God for salvation.

There's a reason why Paul said, I determine to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Popular or successful?

MacArthur said, whenever pragmatism exists in the church, there is always a corresponding de -emphasis on Christ's sufficiency, de -emphasis on God's sovereignty, de -emphasis on biblical integrity, de -emphasis on the power of prayer, and de -emphasis on spirit -led ministries.

The result is a man -centered ministry that attempts to accomplish divine purposes by superficial programs and human methodology rather than by the word or of the power of the

Spirit. What happens at the church when everything goes? Let's say starting next week, no

Awana, no ladies' study, no home group, no Sunday school, no youth group, no music, no electricity, no guitars, no bongos.

Why do we have a bongo here? Eric, aren't you a deacon? You play the bongos? Everything goes and the only thing you get is

Bible preaching. Then who comes? Some come.

Give me the Word. I want the Word of God. Now, of course, I'm not saying get rid of those things, but those are just all auxiliary things.

How big's your building? How many people come? I told you before, I don't want to go to two services.

Who here hates two services? Who here hates cats?

We're just kidding. But we say, you know what? We keep preaching the

Bible and more people come than the parking lot will allow and this building will allow, so what do we do?

Because stewards are supposed to be found faithful. It's not a matter of I like this or I don't like that. I want this,

I don't want that. People say, well, how do you market the church?

I thought farming was the analogy used in Scripture most often for a church, not retail, said

Doug Webster. The Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many for Me to give

Midian into their hands, lest Israel become boastful, saying, My own power has delivered

Me. So we would just like to be faithful.

If the Lord gives us larger amounts of people, then that's His business. And over the years, here's what

I've seen. This is the church growth right here. That's it.

And I don't know if this gives you comfort or not, but I just probably need to wrap this up. The elders have a commission from God.

The elders love you, but if you don't like Gospel -centered

Bible -preaching ministry, and you think you're going to change the church, you're not.

You need the Word of God to strengthen you, to encourage you, to nourish you. And so if everybody leaves, do you know what?

Everybody leaves. We went through that almost, everybody leaving, except the elect like the pharisees and a few other people, they stayed.

If you're going to leave, we're going to leave. Pastor, if you don't change it, and you don't make it more man -centered, we're leaving.

I'd like to try to convince you not to, but goodbye, because I don't preach for you.

I want you to like it, but if it's the elders and their wives and that's it, then it's the elders and their wives and that's it.

We won't go to two services then. We'll just have one service if that happens. It'll make it a lot easier. I'm not trying to drive people out.

I'm not mad. I'm not angry. I'm just telling you, I've been given the baton from God, and now it's time to run with it.

And then you bury me and you go, you know what? He's sinful and he was weak and he didn't do this and he didn't do that.

But by the grace of God, he stood up and he said, there's free and full forgiveness found in the

Captain, the first and the last Christ, the author of salvation. And you look to him.

I don't know how to amuse goats. I'm not good with entertainment. Three times though,

Jesus told Peter, Peter, do you love me? What? Feed my sheep.

John Wickham said what the church needs today is a new confrontation with the whole council of God proclaimed in the power of the

Holy Spirit with authority and love by men who know their God and who honor his only written revelation.

Then and only then may we expect our deepest needs to be supplied and God's purpose for his church to be accomplished in our day.

Christ is the only King of your studies. Show the people the

Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let's pray. Father in heaven, would you help us to be faithful?

Would you help us to discharge our duties? Not just the pastors here, not just the elders here, but the dear men and women of God in a world that's run by ratings and how many people and how many likes on Facebook and how many downloads.

Father, we just wanna be faithful to you. Well done, good and faithful servant.

Father, help us to do our jobs well. Help us to receive that commendation from you.

I think about the man who built the Statue of Liberty before there was even a plane, before an airplane.

Now we better make sure we finish the top just in case. Let's do that for the Lord. Father, help us to be faithful behind the scenes because you see it all.

And I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church that you would give us a desire to receive just praise from you.

We could live knowing that no one else will praise us. And Father, in light of the homosexual agenda that's getting rammed down our throats, in not too many years, we're gonna have to go to jail because we will not celebrate the sin of unrighteousness, whether that's heterosexual or homosexual.

We wanna praise you. We want praise from you. And think we could ever get praise from you?

It's all because of what Jesus did for us. Help us to respond with faithfulness. And Father, if it wasn't for you and your sovereign grace, we'd be at some dog or cat service.

But God, you've rescued us, and you've given us a desire for true meat of the word.

I pray that you'd bless every person here tonight, encourage them in their week to come, give them an appetite for the word, give them a desire to seek out you through your scriptures.

May your spirit encourage them and convict them when needed. And Father, may

Bethlehem Bible Church never get full of pride because of what we have or who we are.

But Father, help us to point to the Son, Jesus Christ, the one who really should receive all glory, laud, and honor.