Conference Questions and Answers

Correcting Biblical Error: Public Sin, Private Sin, and Local Church Accountability

This is the question and answer time for our 2015 Reformation Celebration Conference, and there are a lot of questions. I have a handful. I've previewed some of them, but not all of them, and some of them are directed to any speaker, and some of them are directed to specific speakers.

If a speaker has left, we will allow someone else to answer it, just so everyone understands what's happening. This first one is for everyone. The culture has infiltrated the church, which has led to error being taught or permitted in many churches.

When should a Christian correct someone promoting biblical error, either in person or online, and when should we not engage someone? And that's open to everyone.

Should we engage publicly or privately?

It says, when should a Christian correct someone promoting biblical error, either in person or online, or when should we not? I think the question is, are there times when we let it go, or should we always engage?

I think that's the question, and I guess we can speak to the how as well, should it be public or private? But I think the question is, should we ever just sort of kind of let it go and not worry about it?

I think that's the gist of the question. Am I getting that correct? Well, go ahead, however you guys interpret that.

I don't think everything, you have to die in every hill. I think there are certain things that we need to deal with, and if they're point-blank heresy where it affects the tenets of our faith, deal with it.

But I just think we need to be real careful how we deal with things online, the whole social media thing. And also, you've got to ask yourself, are you dealing with the church, your own church, or these other Christians to have another church or whatever?

So I think just dealing with other people, we have to be just real careful that we're not just getting into a bunch of needless battles, just wasting a bunch of time arguing with people on social media when we could, you know, love is love, bigger fish to fry.

I would definitely say that every Christian has a responsibility to hold each other accountable in the local church. I also think it's important to definitely ascertain your time on social media. I know a lot of times it can become pejorative.

One person can post something, and you all know when you send an email or you say something online, it can always be mistaken for something else. The whole purpose is not to publicly humiliate, but in error, it's for restoration, you know, bringing someone, restoring someone, especially someone you care about, back into fellowship.

So I think that's important. I would definitely encourage you to focus one-on-one in working those issues out with people you care about in private, again, so it doesn't become as construed as public humiliation.

Again, we talk about principles. Am I on? Yes, sir. Keith, I think in general, public sin needs to be reviewed publicly for public repentance. Private sin should be reviewed privately for private repentance, if possible.

Second of all, of course, we operate by the rule of Scripture. Probably the most dramatic answer might come out of Galatians chapter 1, right, and 2. Paul understood correctly that to add any kind of works righteousness to the Gospel was such a vital error that he was willing to confront even the Apostle Peter and say, you're not walking in an orthodox way, and he said to the Judaizers that basically, may you be cursed, may you be damned, anathema on your head, let me say it again, let you be cursed.

Don't say that at me, it's rude. No, but so, I mean, that would be an example of extreme confrontation, and it would be necessary. If it was a matter, again, if we go to the Scriptures, that you might have offended a brother by eating meat sacrificed at the heathen temple, then that's probably not going to affect someone's eternal destiny, but it's something that's very important for the life of a church and needs to be handled.

So, wisdom would be the major issue there. Are you willing and able to differentiate between what's absolutely essential to a saving Gospel and what more pertains to the closeness and the unity of the fellowship that can be handled more personally?

But we need to know the Bible. That's my bottom line. You need to know what the Bible says about addressing these things. It's got to be sufficient to answer that question. Amen. I think that's great.

I don't have anything to add. That's wonderful. I'm going to move now to the second question. This one is specifically for Jeff. I've heard many pastors use the verse Luke 10 to, the harvest is great, but the laborers are few.

How can you reconcile with your experience that people are not hungry for the Gospel, knowing that we've been told that the harvest is great?

Human Deadness, Divine Sovereignty, and the Harvest

Well, it doesn't change human nature. The reality is that men are dead in their sin. The Bible tells us very clearly that men are enemies of God. In Romans, it says that they're not searching after God.

No one understands. So, it's what the Scriptures tell us clearly, that man is not going after God. Man is running away from God. And it's clear, no one's going to chase after God when they're dead in their sin.

Only when God awakens that person, does that person have a desire to come to God, and God places and gives that man a new harvest, that woman a new harvest. The harvest is determined based upon God himself.

He is sovereign, and he elects those by which are going to be saved, and he uses the means of a preacher to save those. I don't know exactly who's going to be saved, but hungry for the Word of God. The only people that are hungry for the Word of God are those who have a new heart, and God's hunger is within them, and God puts the desire to come.

It is only when they come. And how big the harvest is? Well, you know, how do we count those numbers, really? How do we count them? Is it like a crusade where you've got a bunch of people coming up making decisions?

Or, ultimately, is it over a period of many years? I've seen people come to the Lord. I've seen people repent and get right with God. So, as far as the harvest is concerned, only God knows the numbers of the harvest.

All right. Since that one was just for you, unless somebody else answered. Oh, yeah. I was just kind of leaving it open there.

I'll add one thing to that, too. I believe it was John Owen that once said that he said something to the extent of the rule of free will. Free will is deformed darlings' corrupt nature, the palas or beloved self-conception of darkened minds.

In regards to free will, he made a good point. No one seeks after God on their own. Even R .C. Sproul said the neutral view of free will is impossible. It involves choice without desire. I think that's important that we all understand.

Unless the Father speaks to the heart and draws the person to Him, we will not come to Him on our own. Romans 3 would certainly testify to that. No one understands God. No one seeks after God. They all turn to side.

They all become unprofitable. So I just wanted to add just a quick word on top of what you just said.

Coexist, Neo-Paganism, and the Exclusivity of Christ

I think I know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask all of you to give a quick thought. What are your thoughts on the Coexist movement? The Coexist stickers and everything. This is hey? One of our young people asked, and I think that's a good question.

What do you think about the Coexist do you know what we're the Coexist, do everybody understand? Yeah. You see the signs on the back of the car, and it's got all the different religious symbols, and it spells out Coexist with a Muslim, you know, star and crescent is the C and the different letters.

What do you think? I would just say it's another sign of the neo-paganism we're living with. Amen. Right? I mean, we've lost the ability to distinguish between differences, hoping that everything and everybody is going to be the same, and that the poker sticker is just an expression of that.

I think that's true. You guys want to add anything? Well, Christ would be the most intolerant, as far as the person ever walked the face of the earth. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.

There is no other way. You know, he wasn't saying all these other ways are, you know, on equal terms. You know, he clearly divided. He said, I'm the only way. So, it destroys that whole concept.

Preaching Challenges and the Burden of the Preacher's Own Soul

This is something I think each of us can answer. The question is, please share with us the challenges on preaching in the service. Now, I think the heart of the question is, what are some of the challenges of being in the preaching ministry?

It's a heartful question, or thoughtful, rather, question for the heart. What are some of the challenges you guys face?

Well, I'll go, starting again with Jeremiah. These false prophets, if they would have stood in my presence, then they would have had something to say. They're saying, I've had a dream, I've had a dream.

Jeremiah replies, oh, what does my word have to do with dreams? What is the likeness between the chaff and the grain? Is not my word like a fire that burns away the impurities, and is not my word like a hammer that breaks the hard rocks?

The greatest hindrance to my preaching is me. If I don't spend time in the presence of the Lord, I'm not going to have anything to say. And God tells me, I think, in every preacher, don't speak unless you're spoken to.

And when you've been spoken to, then you better speak. So it's the condition of my own soul that's the biggest hindrance. My own innate sinfulness, my fleshly desires, my hurriedness, sometimes before I run without something proper to say.

And I consider it a lot in terms of the Old Testament prophets. God gives burdens. I really believe this. God gives burdens. And my job is to make sure I discern what the burden is correctly, and then I discharge it, that burden, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I'll just begin there and stop. I can't add to that. Yes. I agree as well. I think the Puritans especially are clear on this. The word that would be channeled through me has no power to change other people's lives unless it's first changed my life.

And that is the cost of discipleship. That's great.

I agree. We'll move on. I think that you speak for all of us. The biggest hindrance often is ourselves. This is actually a specific exegetical question, and so you may have to open your Bible. He did write the verse out.

This is from another young man in the congregation. And one of you mentioned this passage, and I think it was you, Sonny, Revelation 19, 12, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

The question is, is the name something we can't pronounce, or is the name something only he can be called, that false prophets can't steal? Why is it that no one knows but himself?

I have not exegeted that passage in a while, unless someone has a Greek New Testament, and about 20 minutes.

That's a heavy question. Anybody else thought about that, what that means when it says there's a name written that no one knows but himself?

I hate to speak before I thought to. I guess I come to Matthew 11. Jesus rejoiced greatly in his spirit. I thank you, Father, that you've hidden these things from the wise and prudent and declared them to children.

Such was good in your sight. What does he say? All things have been handed over to me by the Father. No one knows the Son except the Father. No one knows the Father except the Son, and knows that the Son is willed to reveal him.

So there certainly is this shared knowledge of identities and names between the Father and the Son. So I'd go to that place and say, well, the Father knows the name, and maybe that's the best thing to draw from that at the moment.

This is a specific identity that Christ claims for himself that no one else has. What did you say?

The Father would know. In that same context, it also says after his robe was dipped in blood and his name was called the Word of God in the same context. So I'd say I think that's fairly accurate from what you're saying.

In the same context, that's a name that no one else can counterfeit because he's now revealed in his second coming.

All right. This one I think all of us may want to respond to. You meet many people during the course of your day. Next to you is someone you have a few moments with or a few minutes. What can you say to open the conversation about Christ, and what do you say to make it effective?

You've got two minutes to share the gospel. What do you do?

Well, each conversation can be a little bit different based upon where you're at and what you're doing. Are you sitting next to someone on an airplane, or are you going through the cash now somewhere?

I think the heart of the question, and I actually know the person asking, is ideas on how to open that conversation wherever you are, whatever it is you're doing. What are some of the ways that you use to engage people?

Maybe that's a... And we all probably do it differently. I'll answer my thought, and if you guys, maybe that'll help. One of the things Paul Washer referenced was, and very recently has taken a great influence for me, is just asking people the question, have you ever really understood the gospel?

Because that kind of cuts through all the nonsense. Oftentimes we say, well, you've got to talk to them about where they work, or where they fish, or wherever. You've got to swing from the natural to the spiritual.

We've all heard that, and there are times when certainly that's necessary. But if you only have a few moments with someone, and you really want to ask them a question that has eternal significance, have you ever really understood the gospel?

Nine times out of ten I ask people that, they say, you know, I really haven't. Or they'll say, does anyone? I've had many people say, does anyone ever really understand the gospel? I say, well, I do. Can I share it with you?

Can I tell you what the gospel is? If you don't know what it is, can I tell you what it is? And then there's no pretense in the conversation. They know exactly what I'm going to give them. I'm going to tell them what the gospel is.

That's, and again, that's Paul Washer, and he said, I think he heard it from someone else, but it was just a very simple introductory question.

Have you ever really understood it? It's a good question for Christians, too. Oh, sure. It's a good question for the counseling room, because everything goes back to the gospel. I frequently will ask, are you interested in spiritual things?

A generation ago, people would clam up and say, no, I don't want to talk about that. Today, in a postmodern kind of world, people kind of warm up to the idea, yeah, I'd like to talk about it.

I use the same introduction about spiritual things. Do you have a belief in God? They say it doesn't exist, which is a great opportunity as well. Or they're just, their definition of the God that they've created in their own mind.

Getting them talking about spiritual things. I think we can just be transparent, too. I don't see any reason to be discreet or to use savvy relevance in anything that we're doing. I mean, it's just a matter of when we go door-to-door witnessing every Wednesday in our congregation, we just tell people who we are, and we tell them, you know, passing out tracts about the gospel, we would like, you know, the opportunity to share this with you, and we're just very transparent.

You don't have to, you know, kind of use any type of eloquent words or lofty speech or wisdom. Just, as the Bible says, proclaim Christ and Him crucified. That's all you have to do. That's sharing His gospel with people, as you're commanded to do.

Can I ask you guys to do a favor? Can y 'all share the black microphone? For some reason, that cord seems to be, I just don't want to mess up the video. Can you just set that on the ground, and y 'all can just share that back and forth?

I just don't want it to...

I was going to say as well, real quick, too, that I learned some open-air techniques through a gentleman by the name of Robert Flockhart, who was an open-air preacher back in the time when Spurgeon was around, and he would just call people out, and we would, you know, intentionally dialogue.

We call it dialoguing in the open air, where you try to stop someone, and they're walking past you, and, sir, are you right with God? Are you ready to stand before God? I don't believe that God exists!

You know, they'll stop, and they'll start, you know, contending, and then it will usually cause, within other people, give them confidence to be able to lash out at the preacher, too, because this guy is, and a lot of times, within a few minutes or so, you can have two or three hecklers on you, wanting to debate back and forth, and next thing you know, you have a good crowd of, you know, sometimes, you know, 50 to 100 people standing around, based off just getting one person to stop.

And that's kind of what we do to build crowds. We don't use gimmicks or pragmatism or anything like that. We just, as people are walking by, we try to dialogue with them to get them to stop. You know, we just throw, shoot arrows out there.

Finally, something will connect, and they'll stop and start dialoguing, and then other people will start standing around, and you'll start seeing that someone else will get some boldness, and they'll want to shout something out, and you're dialoguing with that person going back and forth, handling their questions.

Then someone else will start heckling you, and within about, you know, 10, 15 minutes, you get 50 to 100 people standing around, and these three hecklers keep heckling you, and the crowd just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and then you're able to really just proclaim the gospel.

I would just add, if this is a personal conversation, unscripted and unplanned, most of the communication is nonverbal, right? And people will pick up on whether the fact you genuinely are concerned for them.

They'll somehow subconsciously know whether you are trying to love them. Hopefully the answer will be yes, and they'll be willing to talk.

I had a young girl, when we were out doing the evangelism booth, half way through the conversation, she said, you're talking to me like I'm stupid. And I stopped. And I said, that's not what I want to do.

And if that's what I'm making you feel like, I'm sorry. I said, I care about you. And I wasn't trying to make her feel stupid, but I was talking to her in a way she probably hadn't been talked to before.

I was talking to her about her sin and her need for a savior. But she heard me in not a loving way. So I had to stop. I had to apologize, and I had to say, I care about you. I ended up talking to her for another 15 minutes after that.

She was ready to walk away. You're talking to me like I'm stupid. I'm walking away. And I said, then I'm going to change the way I talk to you. But I'm not going to change what I'm saying. But I need you to know my heart yearns for your salvation.

I hurt that you are lost. And if I'm talking to you like I'm stupid, like you're stupid, I'm sorry. So yeah, that's what you just said about. Because I didn't realize that was what I was communicating.

And also, for the person who asked the question, gospel tract. Somebody mentioned having good gospel tracts with you to give someone. They can be a doorway to communication. May I give you this? What is it?

It's the gospel. Why are you giving this to me? Because I care about your soul. You know, that's a simple thing.

You were going to say, brother? No, I was just going to say, even when you're driving down the road, I mean, just coming up here, driving down here from Kentucky to Florida, you're going to pass billboards that just say, heaven or hell.

There you go. There's a perfect example for you. If you die tomorrow, where are you going to go? It's something that the Savior said in John 3 .36. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever does not obey the Son does not have eternal life, but the wrath of God that abides in him.

And when you start talking about end-of-life matters, you're going to catch people's attention. I just went down to UK with a dear friend of Jeff. UK is University of Kentucky, and we simply asked that question and were just surrounded by students.

And as he was saying, sometimes there are certain things that you say from God's Word, and it will cause people to surround you. And we had probably anywhere between 50 to 75, and probably 50 to 75 students in just a matter of, you know, five minutes surround us by asking that question.

Some were scoffing, but some, through our peripheral vision, were literally just this countenance on their face that it just really mattered to them. And they were asking, and they were thinking to themselves, and they were raising their hands wanting to ask questions.

So that's one of the things I've taken away from a lot of these street preaching brothers. That's how I found Brother Jeff, by watching a lot of the preaching he does online, and seeing the guys actually putting their faith into practice, on the streets, and to be able to preach to people that would not come into the congregation.

You know, homosexuals, Catholics, and people that would never step foot in a church like this, or my church, or my brother's church here. And you'll reach them on the streets. So you'll learn just by being transparent, and just by, you know, kind of cultivating your own methods, just by saying, heaven or hell.

I mean, it's a simple question, because that's the reality of what it's going to come down to, heaven or hell.

I don't want to drag this question that much longer, so I'll be quick. I was just saying that you want to connect with other people that are going out, and learn too. I know that was a big part of my own life, and it still is, is that get out with other people who are doing it.

It's really hard to go alone. It's great to go out with others, get excited. As Pastor Jennings said, pray, seek the Lord, you know, and get out there, was something to say. But get out with others, that will encourage you, because it really is a difficult thing to do.

I mean, I know you have, the question was probably intended to be, how do you start a conversation one-on-one with someone that you're sitting next to, or you come and talk to someone, I get all that.

But I'm just saying, for those of you out there who are thinking, maybe you would like to venture out of the seas of open air preaching, or something like that, I would encourage you as well to come to the Herald Society, and maybe like, get connected, because that's where the training is, and that's where they start talking about different ways in which you can get out there, and you can get in contact with the culture, and be able to proclaim the word of God, apologetics, and all kinds of things, really equip you to go out, and be able to know what you're doing out there.

Yeah, and I,.

You know, we talk about our evangelism booth that we do, I tell people, this isn't just, this is training. Because this is putting you in front of a big banner, with a big sign over your head that says, do you understand the gospel, with tracts in your hand, with three other people that are also holding tracts in their hand, it gives you the confidence to do it.

Yeah. Where when you finally get by yourself, you've done this before. And you've done it before with somebody beside you. So, yeah, I like the idea of training and having people beside you. If all that God has chosen will come to him in salvation, then why do some Reformed preachers speak of urgency in evangelism?

After all, God will lose none of the elect.

The Urgency of Evangelism and the Meaning of Calvinism

We speak of urgency because it's not arbitrary, it's an indispensable command, as I told you all earlier. We are commanded to preach the gospel. As Spurgeon once said, yes, God does elect, but that is something that the Father, who is absolutely sovereign, who governs and sustains all things according to his infallible foreknowledge, as the Westminster Confession and the London Baptist Confession teach us.

And if God does things according to his immutable purpose and the free counsel of his will, Spurgeon says that we don't have a big E on our chest. We are not, we don't know who the elect of God are. In fact, I heard a preacher at a conference probably about a month ago, he said, it's a good thing we don't know who the elect are, because we would only love the elect.

When God has called us to love people, to preach the good news of Jesus Christ about salvation. I recently met my first hyper-Calvinist.

And if you don't know what a hyper-Calvinist is, it's a Calvinist that eats too much caffeine. Oh, come on. I live that way, Joe. A Calvinist is a person who believes that God is sovereign in salvation, and that he is the one that opens the heart to believe, and that he is the one who draws men to himself, and that no one will come on his own outside of God's strong enablement.

Do we agree with that? A hyper-Calvinist believes that God does not use means in saving his elect, but simply saves his elect by some unseen force. We believe, as all of us, I would assume identify ourselves at least as being Calvinistic in our soteriology, our belief in salvation, we believe in the doctrines of grace.

We would identify a hyper-Calvinist as someone who says that the gospel is unnecessary to bring a person to salvation. Because that's what they're saying. They say, you don't have to have the gospel, the elect are going to come.

That's what this man said to me. He told me. He said we were standing there doing our evangelism, and he came up and he started quoting scripture. He saw the name of the church, Sovereign Grace Family Church, and he said, well, Sovereign Grace, I know all about that.

He started quoting Romans 9 and a few other passages. And I said, well, tell me about yourself. And he says, well, I'm a 15-year primitive Baptist preacher. And I said, okay. And I knew at that point that at least what I'd heard, primitive Baptists are more hyper-Calvinist.

And I said, well, what do you do now? I'm not in the church anymore. I don't go to church anymore. I said, you know, we're called to love the brethren. And he said, I don't love Christians. I said, you know the word of God says you're not saved, right?

That's pretty clear. You know, if you don't love the brethren, you don't love the bride of Christ. What are you talking about? You don't love the brethren. He said, I don't love them. He said, I don't care.

It doesn't matter if God's going to do what he wants. And I said, so what you're telling me is the gospel is not necessary to save. He said, that's right. He said, God saves anybody. He said, people don't have to believe in Jesus.

God's going to save who he wants. You see, this is misunderstanding the doctrines of grace. If you don't understand that God uses means to bring about his ends, then you have missed the doctrines of grace.

The means of the gospel and the proclamation of the gospel and bringing souls to salvation is necessary. And so, I just say that in response to the question to say why is there urgency? Well, it's not urgency in the sense that we think God's going to miss somebody, that God's going to lose somebody.

But it's urgency in that we've been commanded to do this and we know God's going to use this. God's going to use the preaching of the gospel. It's either going to be preaching death unto death or life unto life, but it's going to use this.

And the urgency is in the going. We're urgent to go.

Because we've been commanded to go. How shall they believe him who they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall anyone preach unless they be sent?

Can I add one thing out of that too? I wanted you all to be aware too. There's always going to be people that are going to make categorical statements and some disparaging rhetoric against Calvinists being hyper-Calvinists.

Let me explain to you something through this church history. It was actually John Ryland Sr. who once looked at William Carey, a missionary, and said, young man, sit down. If God want to convert the heathen, he'll do so without your help or mine.

And that's kind of a historical example of what hyper-Calvinism is, but that's not Calvinism. To call Calvinism hyper-Calvinism is like calling a military soldier a terrorist just because they both have guns and they both serve in a militant form.

Amen. That's good. I just like that quote.

Salvation by Grace Alone, Imputed Righteousness, and Active and Passive Obedience

Sonny, you said in your message, so this is directly to you, that you said that there's nothing you can do to be saved. Can you elaborate on your comment that there's nothing you can do to be saved? Absolutely.

Matthew 19. The question was asked of Jesus, what can a person do to be saved? Jesus' response was pretty simplistic. With men things are impossible. With God, nothing is possible. Here's why. Because a man's works have nothing to do with his righteousness before God.

Romans 4. If Abraham was justified by works, he would have reason to boast, but what do the scriptures say? Abraham believed in God and it was counted to him as righteous. And if you look theologically through Romans 4, is that the argument here is not that Abraham was not righteous.

But the argument here is that it was not his righteousness, his own, how he gained acceptance with God. You see, a man's good works cannot gain him acceptance with God because a man cannot earn merit or favor with God.

Scripture also reveals to us, too, that in the book of Galatians, it says, for by works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. And it tells us for those who rely upon the works of the law will be, are under a curse.

Cursed is everyone that does not abide by the things written in the book of the law and do them. So you see, it is impossible for a person to earn merit or favor with God because the purpose of the law, according to John Calvin, he said that it functions by fear of punishment to restrain certain people who have been untouched by any care of what is just or unjust unless compelled by the dire threats of the law.

So you see, it promotes civic righteousness. He said it also lastly warns, informs, and convicts us and lastly condemns us of our own unrighteousness and admonishes us for holy living. So the purpose of the law is only to show us what our sin is and what it deserves.

It cannot free us. Deliverance can only come through the gospel. And so that's why the importance that we all have to understand is that the universal rule of mankind, the universal guilt of mankind, both prove free will to be false.

So a person cannot gain merit or favor with God. Salvation is only possible through the person and the work of Jesus Christ by what's called his active and passive obedience. He was obedient to the law when we all have broken the law.

And Jesus Christ paid the penalty for the debt for which we incurred. And he fully and absolutely satisfied the claims that divine justice had upon each and every one of us. That is how we are saved. And I think from the words of Luther when he was asked the question, well, if you take away a man's relics and a man's works, what would you place in itself?

And here's why they had asked that question. Catholic Catechism number 2068 says faith, works are how a man is to be justified. Well, if a man is justified by works, then that would mean something is in them that God must praise and not condemn.

And we know that's not the case because God sees nothing in us. Just read Deuteronomy 7 to concur that.

So, again, it's by the active and the passive obedience of Christ. Sorry I went so long. No, no, that's fine. I know it was your question. I want to add one thought. Sometimes I think that we think of salvation as a transaction.

You believe, God saves you. That's the thing that I think people think of. And that's what, when you say there's nothing you can do, I think people are saying well, where's the transaction?

Okay, I can explain that. It's a one-sided transaction. Let me explain that. Genesis 15, think about what it says. Abraham believed in God and was counted to him as righteous. The word reckon, when you talk about the word imputed righteousness, God literally takes what belongs to somebody else and he credits it to us.