Truthscript Tuesday: How to Measure Success Biblically

Conversations That Matter

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:32

Welcome, once again, to TruthScript Tuesday. It is the time of the week when we go over some of the great articles on truthscript .com,

00:40

talk about them a little bit, and give you some updates. And there is an important update

00:45

I need to give you, and that is we had our annual men's retreat last weekend at Camp of the

00:51

Woods in Speculator, New York, and I was surprised, honestly, at the people who came, especially the ones who came from long distances.

00:59

We had a gentleman come all the way from California, flying into New York City, renting a car. I mean, you talk about the time.

01:06

I said, did you sleep? And he said, I think you go be a little bit on the plane. But then, you know, straight, he took a red eye from California, gets in his car, drives all the way to the

01:16

Adirondacks, which I think from New York City, that's probably a good five hours at least.

01:22

So anyway, we had people come from Georgia and from Wisconsin and Ohio, and it was just a really great time.

01:31

Of course, I would say most of the people were from New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts area, but there were people from all over, and it was really good to get together with other brothers in Christ and get to know them.

01:43

There were a few people who came from last year, maybe more than a few, but you develop relationships over time, the more you see someone, and I'm just really grateful for that.

01:54

There's some really good godly men out there who are doing the right thing in their community, and it's sometimes easy to forget that when we see the headlines, and I think events like this help remind you that there are people.

02:08

God has his people. There are men who have not bowed the knee to Baal, and they're out there.

02:14

I want to give you a few pictures from that particular event, and then we're going to go over some of the articles from TruthScript.

02:25

I didn't have a professional photographer, so people were just posting some pictures online, and here's one of them.

02:34

That's from a panel discussion. That's the one discussion I think we did not record, but we answered different questions.

02:40

There was a lot of talk on this particular panel on boomer cons and what that was.

02:49

It wasn't the whole thing, but it wasn't an area I was expected to get into, but it became a little bit of a running joke the rest of the week.

02:55

What is a boomer con? Of course, on my other podcast, Conversations That Matter, I have a whole,

03:02

I guess you could say, episode. It was a trail talk edition, so I was hiking while explaining what a boomer con was.

03:10

I'm glad I did it when I did it, because it was before it got really, really big, because now the term is being slung around a lot online.

03:17

Of course, some people take great offense to it, but I view it as more of an affectionate term, to be quite honest with you.

03:27

I don't see it as something to besmirch someone with. Anyway, I guess

03:33

I'm getting into that topic now on this podcast, but you can go watch the other one I did and I explain it. We answered a lot of questions.

03:40

This is a picture from that panel. Just a picture. My brother took this of some of the people from Grace Bible Church, the church that hosted the retreat.

03:50

Here's where we ate. You can see this is the cafeteria or dining hall,

03:55

I guess they call it, at Camp of the Woods. Then just beautiful views. I don't even know what lake this is.

04:02

There was so many lakes up the Adirondacks, and we did a few hikes. This is one of them. Here's the crew that was brave enough to go up there.

04:11

They all made it. I think except for maybe two or three people who stayed just a little farther down, but otherwise, everyone made it and enjoyed it.

04:23

We'll say everyone enjoyed it. Here's the hike. It got a little cloudy on the second day, but you can see it wasn't peak fall at all.

04:32

It was very early fall. That was the one thing I need to apologize for because I said it's going to be peak fall.

04:38

Sometimes it is up there. In fact, I was expecting it to be, and it just hasn't been cold enough. You can see there's a brilliant red tree.

04:47

When it gets cloudy, it just pops. I think as the weekend progressed, we actually saw the colors changing right in front of us.

04:56

Here's the second hike and the people who were brave enough to go on that hike. Anyway, we had a good time.

05:03

I'm looking forward to next year when we do it again. I should say this before I move on to the articles.

05:13

One of the things that my brother, who's the president of TrueScript, David Harris, said is we would like to do events like this in other places.

05:20

Honestly, this is my own thing. They are way more enjoyable to me, and I understand the big conference scene.

05:28

There's been two big conferences. You have right now the TGC conference, I guess, is going on, Gospel Coalition.

05:33

It is big. If you look at the auditorium, there's a lot of people there. The G3 conference is pretty big.

05:39

That just happened, too. I don't even know. It might be bigger than the TGC conference. I'm not sure, but either way, you have these big conferences.

05:49

Nothing wrong with that if you want to go to a big conference. I think there's something special that happens at smaller events where you just get to know people.

05:59

We don't believe in a green room at our events. We don't ever want to do a green room. For those who don't know what that is, where the speakers are just shielded from the audience, you might get to see them in a book signing line, but that's about it.

06:11

You won't actually get to interact with them. I think it certainly can lend itself to thinking of people in terms that are more lofty, perhaps, than they actually meet.

06:25

Maybe that's not the best way to put it. You get an image, is what I'm trying to say, of someone when the only thing that you hear is their podcast or their preaching.

06:34

That includes me. When you see me in a context of there's no green room. I'm out there.

06:40

I'm sitting with the audience. I'm enjoying the other speeches. I'm there the whole time. I'm not coming in for my speech and then leaving.

06:45

I am there. You get to talk to me. You get to know who I really am. Not just me, but the other speakers.

06:53

I think that's one reason I really enjoy smaller gatherings. I'd love to do more of them across the country for smaller groups.

07:02

Maybe even cap it if we get too many. I don't know. We haven't talked about it. If people out there, if you're listening to this and you say, yeah,

07:09

I really want to host a conference, whether that's on just some basic Bible study, hermeneutics, theology, or you want to do something on cultural topics, whatever it is, reach out to TruthScript.

07:22

Info at truth script .com. We will be sure to get back to you. Someone will. If you have a church or a building, or maybe you say,

07:30

I don't know where to go. I don't know how to go about this. I don't know if I have the resources, but I'd really love to have something.

07:36

Here's what I can offer. Just reach out because we'd love to be the ones to facilitate that for you.

07:44

If we don't, if we can't, we'll send you to someone who will. In fact, Tom Rush spoke,

07:49

Andrew Rappaport spoke. Both of them speak all over the country when they're invited to places.

07:55

Andrew even said, it doesn't matter how small the church is. He'll go anywhere even if they can't pay him. There are resources out there, thank

08:03

God, for smaller churches and communities, more rural areas. This is just my sense that moving forward, it is going to be in those outlying areas where orthodoxy is best preserved.

08:17

I'm not saying there aren't going to be good churches in urban areas, but I don't think it's as likely. I think the pressures in those areas really exert themselves on pastors to the point that pastors, even conservative ones, will tend to shift subtly towards social justice thinking or even just classical liberal valuing personal autonomy and that kind of thing and pluralism.

08:42

It's just what you do when you're in an urban area. It's hard to avoid it unless you're very strong and you know exactly what you believe.

08:51

I just think it's going to be outlying areas more so. I think we're already seeing it and that's going to continue. Anything we can do to encourage that, we are there.

09:00

All right, well, we need to talk about some stuff, some articles.

09:06

I should mention as I'm pulling this up that if you want to donate to TruthScript, it is 501c3 and you can do that by going to truthscript .com.

09:17

Then if you scroll down to the bottom, there's a little tab that says donate.

09:24

You can click on that. If you want to submit an essay or an article to TruthScript, you can go scroll down to the bottom where it says publish and click on that.

09:36

I'm very grateful, by the way, to our web designer, Joel. He hasn't taken a cent. He has done this purely on a volunteer basis, creating the website, and he does a great job.

09:47

I just wanted to give him a shout out. Okay, we have four articles. I didn't do TruthScript Tuesday last

09:53

Tuesday. I'm trying to remember now. Did I do it last Tuesday? I don't think I did. Part of it,

09:58

I think, is just we had the retreat and then there was just so much going on last week. Some of you have asked me to.

10:05

I should probably say this on the other podcasts, my conversations that matter, whether or not

10:10

I am going to talk about the G3 stuff and some of the memorials coming in from the

10:17

CREC and just that whole conversation or multiple conversations over the weekend concerning...

10:24

I don't even know what word to use because there's a number of words. Racism, kinism, antisemitism.

10:32

I think there were some other isms, but all kind of around this idea of race, people, ethnicity.

10:38

Yeah, I do plan on talking about that. It's not for TruthScript Tuesday.

10:45

I stick to the material that we're talking about here on the TruthScript podcast, but later in the week,

10:51

I do plan to talk about some of that stuff. I just want to let people know that. Anyway, we have four articles, though, and we're going to start with this one.

11:01

This is an article written by, as I understand it, a pastor,

11:07

I think in Finland, yeah, and I hope I am able to pronounce his name.

11:16

Junas Lajanen, I think is his name. Junas Lajanen, and he graduated from London Reformed Baptist Seminary.

11:26

He serves as a pastor of Lahti Reformed Church, the first Presbyterian congregation in Finland. He's married to Deborah, and they have a son,

11:33

Habakkuk. Great name, by the way, great name, Habakkuk for a son. I like bringing in some names.

11:40

So anyway, this article is interesting to me, just because I think it speaks to something that we're currently experiencing in evangelicalism quite a bit, and that is there are many evangelicals that are converting to Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, and I don't know how many.

11:59

I think it's probably more to Eastern Orthodoxy at this point, and I would say maybe 10 years ago it was Roman Catholicism, and don't get me wrong, there are people converting from Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy to evangelical denominations.

12:10

There's no question about it, but I think young politically conservative intellectual types are more likely to convert to Roman Catholicism, and I think there's some reasons for that.

12:24

In fact, I had a friend recently, I've had a few friends, but I've had one just recently who converted to Roman Catholicism, and I'm still his friend.

12:33

It's not like we're not friends, but I did warn a bit, and I did try to at least show here are some of the root issues to be concerned about there, or at least the differences.

12:43

We should at least be aware of the differences before doing something like that, and I do think, and this isn't the only reason, but I do think the smells and bells definitely have something to do with it.

12:54

I think feeling a connection to the past, because these are older rituals. Some of the rituals, they're not all early church rituals.

13:03

A lot of this developed over time, but I would say the incense and the liturgy and just even the architecture and things,

13:14

I think it makes people feel a connection to the past that they're not getting anywhere else.

13:19

I think that's one of the reasons that young men are attracted to do this. They see the slate wiped clean when it comes to heritage and history, and there are some places that still seem to have a vestige of it, and one of them is the

13:32

Roman Catholic Church, and when you're in an evangelical church that reinvents itself every 10 years, it's even more tempting.

13:38

Not all, by the way, I should say, not all Protestant or even evangelical churches are like that. There actually are very high church

13:45

Protestant denominations, whether that's in the Anglican church or the

13:52

Presbyterian churches or Lutheran churches. You get that, I think, a similar sense.

13:58

You get the liturgy. I remember the church. My mom was Lutheran growing up, so when we would go to the church she grew up in, stone architecture, stained glass, robes, choir, pipe organ.

14:13

I mean, it was the whole nine yards, liturgy, and obviously not Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, but I digress.

14:21

We should probably get into the article here. Shepherding Those Under the Temptation of Roman Catholicism is the title, and it starts off this way.

14:27

Years ago, I preached in the open air, and a man my age listened attentively. He was deeply affected by the message, which led him to take his faith more seriously.

14:37

Later, he embraced Reformed theology, and we became close friends, even attending the same local church. Sadly, he later abandoned the core principles of Sola Fidei and Sola Scriptura for Roman Catholicism.

14:47

And we are, I should just say, for those who are listening who are Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox or something else, this is a

14:54

Protestant website, TruthScript, and we're pretty unapologetic about that. So it's not that there's any hatred towards Catholics or anything, but we do have

15:03

Protestant convictions. So anyway, this is one of the reasons I have spent time studying and researching to address the question, how to shepherd those under the temptation of Roman Catholicism.

15:13

I'll try to answer the question concisely but substantially, explaining the common struggle and offering four ways to shepherd and prevent this temptation in your church.

15:23

So he goes on to talk about the struggle. He says, Rome's apologists commonly attack the epistemological foundations of evangelicals.

15:30

Now, let me know if you've heard this in the comments. How can you be sure that your beliefs are truly biblical and apostolic?

15:38

The doubt they want you to have is this. I've been wrong many times. Can I any more base my beliefs on my understanding of the scriptures?

15:47

To this troubled mind, Rome promises to give the perfect solution, the infallible authority of the Roman church that Christ promised would not fail.

15:55

And I will say this. I've never been satisfied. I don't know exactly why this is so tempting.

16:01

I mean, I can give it a gander, I guess. But for me, this has never been that compelling because I think, well, if I'm flawed in my own reasoning, then what's to say my reasoning isn't flawed when it comes to church tradition, right?

16:14

What's to say that I don't also have flawed reasoning when I'm looking at not scripture, but something that's papal infallibility or authority or decrees or bulls or whatever?

16:27

I have the same mind I'm bringing to that. But anyway, you no longer need to wonder what baptism accomplishes or what happens in the

16:35

Lord's supper. You can simply receive the apostolic doctrine. Charles Hodge acknowledges the power of this temptation.

16:40

He says, there is something simple and grand in this theory. It is wonderfully adapted to the tastes and wants of men.

16:46

It relieves them of personal responsibility. Everything is decided for them. Their salvation is secured by merely submitting to be saved by an infallible, sin -pardoning, grace -imparting church.

16:58

So there is, I guess, a security that one gets from thinking, okay, I'm just going to rely on other men throughout time who have been vetted to make decisions on some of these doctrines.

17:13

They might question the fruit of Protestantism marked by numerous conflicts, divisions, and denominations. I think that's a big cause of this, to be honest.

17:21

But it flows both ways. You have people leaving the Catholic church because it's corrupt, and Pope Francis is a social justice warrior, and what about all the young boys who have been abused, and these kinds of things.

17:32

But you have people coming from the Protestant church to the Catholic church thinking, it has to be better than what I'm leaving because I've been just part of church splits for the last 30 years.

17:41

Anyway, the article goes on to say, if the Reformation was the work of the Holy Spirit, how can this be the case? There are serious temptations that many people struggle with.

17:49

And he says, shepherds have the responsibility here. So how to shepherd? With love and concern.

17:56

With love and concern. Do not allow the person to bypass the main question. The material difference between the institutions that claim to be

18:04

Christ's church is the gospel. And this is the tact I've taken. Don't get hung up on the secondary things.

18:12

There's a lot of differences, I suppose, you could find between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. But don't get hung up on that.

18:20

Don't get hung up on the differences that are secondary or minor. Go to the root of it. Go to salvation and their doctrine,

18:29

I should say justification, and their doctrine of that. I would say maybe even the

18:36

Mariology, you could factor into this if she's a co -redemptrix and that kind of thing. They are locked into philosophical difficulties or seeking certainty on secondary issues.

18:45

Make it plain that they are not considering questions like Postmill versus Amill. Try to demonstrate that the gospel preached by Rome is radically different.

18:52

All right, so this isn't just another flavor of Christianity. Now, it is part of Christendom, right?

18:58

Roman Catholicism is. I'm comfortable saying that and saying that there's Christian ethics, there's, of course, insofar as they agree with the

19:06

Athanasian Creed and the Apostles' Creed, there's an orthodoxy there. But it's been merged with things over time, developed through tradition, that are not good, that have undermined the theology of Rome.

19:18

And it is a very serious undermining. Does that mean that all Catholics aren't saved or something? No, it doesn't. In fact,

19:24

I think a great many Catholics are trusting in the finished work of Christ, not their own merits, not the merits of the church, not some kind of an infused righteousness which

19:34

Christ gives them and enables them to then do good works for the glory of God. I think they are trusting in the finished works of Jesus Christ.

19:41

And I don't know how many. I think there are many. But it does run counter to the official positions of the

19:47

Roman Catholic Church. So it says, on the last day, God will not accept these considerations as excuses for embracing a false gospel.

19:56

And so he goes on and he says that the true gospel will also lead to accurate conclusions about authority.

20:04

Where there is no true gospel, there is no Christ. Where there is no Christ, there is no church.

20:09

Where there is no church, there is no religious authority. So he says everything pretty much roots back to this issue.

20:16

Expose the lie of the temptation. He says the promise of certainty made by Rome can be objectively challenged.

20:21

To begin with, one can point out that the choice to join the Roman Catholic Church is based on the fallible judgment of the individual.

20:27

So I kind of made this point earlier. If someone decides that Rome is the true church, but an equally knowledgeable person leaves

20:33

Protestantism to become Eastern Orthodox, a valid question arises. How can a person ever be certain that they have investigated or read enough to make an informed decision?

20:43

So this gets you into, I suppose, a hopeless state of just skepticism.

20:51

So is it driven by Scripture, is what he's trying to get at? Is it driven by Scriptural exegesis?

20:57

Is it conviction? Answering the doubts. Demonstrate to the person that Protestants are much more united than Rome claims.

21:05

So this is another thing you'll hear, is that you don't even know the number. It's like hundreds of thousands of denominations in Protestantism, and look, there's only one true

21:12

Catholic Church. Now those who are familiar with Roman Catholicism know that's not quite true.

21:19

That's not quite true at all. In fact, you have your traditional Catholics who enjoy Latin mass, who don't believe in Vatican II, right?

21:26

And then you have your Catholics who are post -Vatican II. There is now, maybe it's not as much at all as the difference between some

21:34

Protestant churches, but there definitely is differences, are differences within the Roman Catholic Church. It's not like everyone's united and on the same page on everything.

21:44

At the same time, you can own the fact that Sola Scriptura leads to different conclusions. Not all interpretations of Scripture are equally valid or likely.

21:51

You can ask if the individual believes that God's Word is so unclear and chaotic that only a divinely protected, infallible magisterium can provide the correct interpretation.

22:00

Surely no one wants to disrespect the Bible in such a way. We should also consider the influence of the church era we live in.

22:06

Without realizing it, we might inadvertently be endorsing the idea that truth is relative and uncertain, which aligns with postmodern agnostic theories.

22:15

I'm going to skip ahead here. Once you have established the clarity of the Scripture, you can help him, the person deciding that they want possibly go to Rome, you can help him to see how having

22:27

Baptists, Presbyterians, and Lutherans in the same city is not destructive of Christ's promises to desire for unity.

22:33

All true evangelicals are united in the most important things. I think this is one of the most, theologically, that's very true.

22:39

Protestants, they do have a belief, singular, right? It's not, yeah, they have all these other beliefs too on secondary matters, that's true, but there is a core to Protestantism that's united that makes me able to, on this podcast, you've even seen it, interview

22:58

Presbyterians and Lutherans and Anglicans and Baptists and non -denominational and Methodists and Nazarenes, and I've had

23:08

Pentecostals, I've had all of these people on this podcast. How can I do that? And how can I call them brothers?

23:14

And how can I fellowship with them? And how can, well, because we do believe the same things. I mean, we would share some beliefs with the

23:19

Catholic Church, like we have the same idea, let's say, of the Trinity or the Incarnation of Christ, but also we have, you're united in our views on the

23:29

Atonement, on the Solas, and so we would be against Rome on those particular things.

23:42

All right, Protestants may endlessly debate the interpretation of specific scriptures, but this pursuit is worthwhile because we acknowledge the

23:50

Bible's infallibility and divine origin. It goes on to say, it might be that some enter into this temptation because of our naivety as pastors, we have taken for granted that all our people understand what it means by sola scriptura and sola fide.

24:09

This is a great point. Do we assume that everyone is deeply rooted in the glories of imputed righteousness or the difference between objective and subjective peace with God?

24:17

Here are some ideas to help prevent someone from having an ecclesiological crisis. Show that you care about Christ's work in the ages past.

24:26

Okay, I can't emphasize this enough. Basically, enrich your sermons with illustrations and quotations from the early church.

24:36

You should understand Nicaea, you should understand the Council of Chalcedon, you should be able to use examples in your sermons from church history.

24:45

This is a you know, taking church history and starting it when

24:57

Martin Luther, well, I guess jumping, starting it in the early church in Acts, and then, you know, somewhere around 70

25:05

AD, it just, there's no church history anymore, and it's picked up again when Martin Luther nails 95 theses.

25:11

That's not all Protestant churches, but I would say that that does characterize some.

25:17

So make sure that your scope is bigger. Instruct. Deliver a series of sermons or teachings on Sola Scriptura, Sola Fidei.

25:25

Okay, so teach people the doctrines. Let's see. Proclaim. Announce all the promises God has offered to sinners.

25:31

And then, predict and invite. Explain what Rome's temptations can be like and invite them to seek help if they struggle with these questions.

25:38

So be open. Don't take it, don't be defensive when you hear that someone's curious. It makes sense why people are curious about other denominations, especially if there's issues.

25:48

Like, if you're in the SBC right now, and you're probably, the thought crossed your mind at some point, man, this ship is going down.

25:55

I wonder where else I can go, right? And then you go through the options, and you're like, man, they're all facing the same problem.

26:02

So I get it. I really get it. All right. That's the article on Roman Catholicism.

26:09

Tom Rush, our actual speaker for the Overcoming Evil, he was our main speaker, Overcoming Evil Men's Conference over the weekend.

26:17

He wrote an article, and it's called Belief Predicts Behavior. That belief predicates behavior is an axiom of truth.

26:27

So he talks about this. Psalm 23 7 says, For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

26:33

And he talks about how our thinking is what actually controls our actions. And he says, you know,

26:39

Scripture's explicit on this. He uses the example of same -sex attraction, and he says there's certain people who believe that a person who has same -sex attraction is born with that as an orientation.

26:54

If this is so, then it means that they should not be held accountable for thinking in accordance with their alleged orientation. But he's saying that's all wrong, because thinking is what the

27:04

Bible goes after and says you need to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

27:11

He quotes Philippians 2 5, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So the key is acting like Christ, thinking like Christ.

27:19

He quotes Bob Utley, who, by the way, free Bible commentary, I think it's .org, it's great.

27:25

Bob Utley is a Southern Baptist. I think he was Southern Baptist, might still be. Bible commentator, and he makes all his stuff available for free, which

27:33

I think is awesome. And he says your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, or he doesn't say that.

27:40

I guess that's the NIV translation, but he says have this attitude in yourself. This is a present active imperative.

27:46

Believers are commanded to continue to think like Christ. The goal of Christianity is

27:51

Christ -likeness in thoughts and deeds. So how do you do that? Well, renewing your mind.

27:58

Romans 12 1 through 2. This is the only way that we can fulfill God, the will of God for our lives.

28:04

And in 2 Corinthians, Paul clarifies that the renewal of the inner man should take place day by day. So this is a progressive thing.

28:10

It doesn't happen instantly. You're not zapped. We know that thought precedes,

28:16

I should say, action, and that is why Paul was insistent on this point. You can never live the life of a

28:22

Christian until you genuinely have the mind of a Christian. And once you do, you'll follow the example set for you.

28:37

The excuse that many have is, well, I'm not Jesus. No, you're not. But with the help of the Holy Spirit, you can grow to be more like him, conformed to the image of his son,

28:45

Romans 8 29. So quote 2 Corinthians 10 3 through 5, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

28:53

He talks about that the relationship of the heart and the mind to the physical world is an important one that requires our bodies being brought into subjection and being yielded to the

29:04

Lordship of Christ. This is manhood stuff. This is discipline stuff. This is for everyone, men or women.

29:10

But there is a mind over matter sort of discipline going on.

29:16

It doesn't mean you're just gritting your teeth and you can do it because you need the help of Christ.

29:21

You need for sanctification. But there is an element of you're trying hard.

29:27

You're fighting. It's not easy. There's a battle going on.

29:34

Decisions are made in the soul, the seat of our will, our mind, our emotions. We can obey the

29:39

Spirit, a godly influence, or we can obey the flesh, the world, and the devil. Our senses are the body.

29:46

Sin is supernatural from the devil or his demons. It is social. It's from the world. It's everywhere. And he gives an illustration of the trap of temptation.

29:55

Thought leads to action, leads to attitude, leads to habit, leads to stronghold. And that is really what a stronghold is, right?

30:02

You have a well -worn path in your mind, right? You've walked that way so many times before, it's easy to walk it because you've done the hard work of bushwhacking it.

30:14

You keep it mowed. So of course you can go down that well -worn path, but it's a path downward that leads to perdition.

30:25

The only way to behave in a godly manner is to think in a godly way. So set your mind on the things above.

30:34

The view espoused by many evangelicals today that allows someone to believe that they can, like we said in the beginning, think sinful thoughts at the same time, maintain they are right with God is unbiblical.

30:45

So set your minds above, not on the things of the earth. Paul goes on, he says, to put to death evil actions, including passion, evil desire, and covetousness.

30:58

The key to success in this most important spiritual discipline is to let that look at pornography, for example.

31:31

No one's seen them doing this. But the thing is, when you poison your mind like that, when you continually do that, when it becomes a stronghold, right?

31:40

And this is the well -worn path that you keep going down, it will corrupt you in such a way that it will come out in your actions.

31:48

Maybe someone won't identify it as pornography. Maybe someone will. But either way, it is going to come out.

31:54

It is going to change the way you think about, if you're a man, it'll change the way you think about women. It'll change the way you think about maybe your own wife.

32:01

If you're married, it'll change so many things in your life. And it will come out in one way or another, in one form or another.

32:10

So the next article is by Justin Puckett. He's written a bunch of great articles. He's one of our regular contributors here.

32:17

What makes a church successful? Which is a good question. What does make a church successful? Is it the size of the church?

32:24

Is it the education level of the pastors? Is it the amount of elders? Is it the diversity of the church, right? These are all different metrics we hear about all the time.

32:32

And he says, as we live out our Christian lives, there are some lessons we learn through the wisdom of others. A brother or sister will speak godly wisdom to us, and we gladly accept it and obey it as a word from heaven itself.

32:43

Other lessons are learned the hard way, through embarrassing failure and humble repentance. Then there is a category of lessons that we have been taught over and over.

32:50

Those lessons which challenge our very way of thinking and penetrate into the depths of our cultural ethos.

32:57

One of those lessons is measuring success not by worldly standards, but by biblical ones.

33:04

So he talks about taking a cultural class in college, and he says that they try to define, you know, the aspects, different aspects of cultures, and many of these characteristics we don't even realize are unique to our culture.

33:18

This particular, Justin, this author lives in southeastern

33:23

United States, so I am familiar. So he says, if you don't know, we tend to do and say things a little differently than other parts of the country.

33:33

Now, I would say where I am living right now in New York, we do things a whole lot different than other parts of the country too.

33:40

And in fact, someone said, I have to say this, someone said there was a word,

33:45

I'm trying to remember what word it was, that I was a little appalled that I said, I think it was tournament, tournament, right?

33:52

And I guess the rest of the country says tournament, but I say tournament. And he goes, that's a

33:58

New York thing. I thought about it. I think you're right. I think you're right. And my accent is pretty flat.

34:04

I've lived in the South for a few years. I think because I like Southern culture and because I listen to a lot of country music and that kind of thing,

34:13

I think that I picked up some of that. And some people, even in New York think I'm from the South, which is funny or from California or the

34:20

Midwest or somewhere that's not in New York. And, um, and so I thought that I didn't really sound like a

34:26

New Yorker. I'm a culturally, I'm not really that New York, but, but they're definitely growing up here. There's definitely aspects of me that are

34:33

New York. There's just, that's where you grew up, right? So you're going to take on some of that. And so I say tournament. So, and I'm not repenting of it because I think it, it, it, it's like a good pair of, uh, you know, well fitting jeans.

34:45

Like, uh, that's what I've been putting up, put on every day of my life. And I'm going to keep putting it on because it's going to feel weird to say tournament who says tournament anyway.

34:54

Uh, so he says, um, I've, I've totally gotten away from the article and now I'm trying to get my place again here.

35:01

Uh, okay. So he's Southeastern United States. We don't call ground beef, ground beef. It's hamburger meat.

35:07

Um, in fact, I think I call it hamburger meat too. So I shared that with him. We described distances in minutes, not miles.

35:16

Yeah. Yeah. And your country mile, right. If you're in a rural area, uh, and have strange unwarranted names for stores, such as Wally world.

35:25

And I'll, I'll add to this Piggly Wiggly because look in the Southeastern United States, when you go to a Piggly Wiggly, you're just the assumptions from everyone from the

35:33

North is that this is Hicksville. When you see that sign a Piggly Wiggly, what is that?

35:40

One time there was a barbecue place. I saw Hogley Wogley, right? So I just thought, man, that's, you just need a

35:47

Hogley Wogley next to a Piggly Wiggly and you, and, uh, you'll be all set. So anyway, got a frog in my throat from the weekend.

36:00

I don't think the cold's quite left me. He says, um, if you have never experienced life outside of your culture, you will assume everyone else is the same and be shocked when you find out they are not outside of Western society.

36:14

The world knows we are obsessively task oriented. We have business, especially in New York, we have business meetings and we want to talk about nothing but business.

36:26

When we go to lunch after the business meeting, we want to talk business while we eat. So this, he just getting into this, this, uh, workaholic mentality.

36:38

It's kind of sad to me that that's in the Southeast now, especially in urban areas, because that's one of the things I thought was kind of cool about Southerners is they knew how to spend leisure time.

36:49

And, uh, and, and that's changing everywhere. It's like, you should always be engaged in business. If you're going to be successful, that's what success is.

36:56

That's how we measure it. Right? So business, um, and he says, you know, this mindset is built the largest economy in the world, but it's utterly foreign to the

37:05

Bible. The context of scripture is Eastern, Eastern cultures in general have a completely different view of life, family, and business.

37:12

It is built upon the honor of the collective rather than the individual. This is so good. People want to know what kind of family you come from, not your personal achievements.

37:22

This is by the way, I I've got to say something. This was, it was this way in Western culture up until very recently.

37:29

It really was, um, being a Christian gentleman, even meant you were from good stock.

37:36

It meant that you had generations of good family decisions, good on the honor of your family name, the coat of arms defending that.

37:45

I mean, this is, it's a recent thing to have this very atomistic individual look, uh, perspective.

37:53

Anyway, uh, business is viewed in the longterm, not in the short term, quarter to quarter business. If someone acts disgracefully, it disgraces the whole family.

38:00

And if a leader is disgraceful, the whole nation is disgraced. Um, do we have any sense of that today?

38:06

I mean, we're a little bit embarrassed by our president, right? But I mean, Hey, he's not my president. That's kind of what people say.

38:13

Likewise, as Christians, when we act in a disobedient, unbiblical way, we disgrace Christ in the church. This is foreign to our culture's obsession with independence and individualism as Christians.

38:22

We must measure our success based upon what glorifies and honors God. Uh, okay.

38:27

So success in the early church, how did they measure success? Acts two mentions 3000 souls are added to the church, but verse 47 says the

38:34

Lord was adding to their number daily. 3000 people were not added to the church on the day of Pentecost because Peter had the perfect sermon illustration, dramatic opening video, and clever three -point alliteration.

38:45

It was the Lord. Yet we can say with confidence that Peter was successful that day.

38:55

How? Well, by all the Western worldly standards, Paul would be considered a failure. He was poor, persecuted and imprisoned.

39:01

When he went into town to preach, he was thrown out and most of his friends abandoned him. Indeed, he drew numbers wherever he went, but rarely was that a good thing.

39:10

Yet biblically, there is hardly a better example of what it means to be a successful Christian apart from Jesus Christ himself, because Paul had a different view of success.

39:20

He sought for quality, not quantity. And it goes through some of the passages where you can see this impulse yearning for the knowledge of Christ and maturity and, and all of those kinds of things for the churches he wrote to.

39:38

He doesn't, uh, he doesn't admonish Timothy about or encourage him to, um, have a ministry that's marked by the size of a large congregation or money or things like that.

39:49

He reminds him of two things, remain faithful to the Lord you serve and no matter what, preach the word. So Christ has not grown us to grow, uh, called us to grow the church.

39:57

That's his work. This is a great reminder. Um, he has commanded us to make disciples by teaching and preaching.

40:03

So, so here's the deal. When you see big ministries and you think, man, that they're so compromised or man, you know what?

40:12

Don't let that get you down. Really don't, don't think that, don't compare your ministry if you're a pastor to that and say, man,

40:20

I must be a failure. No, you're not a failure. In fact, you might be the one who's successful and the person in, in who's leading people down the wrong path or, um, having a superficial reward might be the one that's actually not as successful as you are.

40:38

If you're really doing what God calls you to do, you're successful. Talks about pastoral burnout.

40:50

Pastors are overburdened by doing so many things that really isn't in their purview as pastors. I'm going to skip ahead a little bit here.

41:00

Uh, you should read the whole article if you're interested in this. God is doing work in the hearts and lives of people that we cannot see.

41:09

Peter was successful in the day of Pentecost because he stood up like a man and proclaim the truth of the gospel of Christ before thousands.

41:16

He was unwavering in his doctrine and determined to preach what he had seen and heard and knew was the truth.

41:24

For the big church, I exhort you to examine yourselves and your work. Are you building with wood, hay and stubble? Are you attempting to build the kingdom of God by man's methods or by God's?

41:31

Are you faithful in preaching and teaching? Uh, for the small church, the same standard applies.

41:37

It could be that your lack of growth is due to your unfaithfulness. Only you can discern that according to scripture. However you already seek to do and obey these things, take courage and do not believe the lie of the world that you are unsuccessful before God.

41:49

So I should probably say that there is no disdain or looking down or, you know, having a big successful ministry can be a wonderful thing.

41:56

It's, it's not that it's necessarily bad, but it's just that can't be our metric. And then the last article by Lucas Champ, uh, who

42:05

I think is, I don't know if he's written for us before. I don't think so. Um, Lucas Champ, he, uh, wrote an article called the futile effort of trying to stop conversions to Christ.

42:18

Resistance is futile to that. Yes. Colossians 2 13, when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.

42:30

He talks about the Christian life being one of contrast, change, transformation, regeneration, and conversion.

42:36

Every single one of us is saved and has been converted by Christ, the converter of souls. Now he talks about these things.

42:46

We we've all heard it. Stop pushing your religion on me. Right. Um, you know, the evangelicals trying to please the culture have decided to, you know, very clever ways of trying to get the gospel into various places, but they don't want to be direct.

43:00

And, and, um, and, and so we, we, we do, we water things down.

43:05

We say, accept Jesus into your heart, raise a hand, walk an aisle. Jesus say, Jesus is Lord, get baptized.

43:11

You're in. And we stay away from things like conversion, repentance, and transformation. Cause those things, I mean, those things that actually lead to real conversions will get you in trouble.

43:19

Right. So the Bible uses serious language. There can be no error when dealing with the souls of men.

43:27

So, so, so you have to, when you're looking to evangelize, you need to use biblical language.

43:33

The Bible is serious about this subject. In many ways, the days are currently living. We are living through were previously thought to be improbable, if not impossible by most

43:43

Christians in the last several years, there have been multiple arrests of Christian pastors and evangelists across.

43:48

And, and I've, I've seen this myself. I I've, I've heard about it. And a lot of this has been, you know, in England and Ireland and Canada, but man, it's starting here.

43:58

It really is starting here. You know, just, just recently he, he brings up Marcus Schroeder, who was arrested in Wisconsin for preaching and, and Lizzie Marbach, who we had both of them on this podcast for just tweeting.

44:12

There's no hope of, for us outside having faith in Christ alone. And she lost her job. And this just recently happened, both of these things, but opposing that is futile.

44:26

God alone is the one who decides what will happen with his word. He alone is the one who converts lost sinners, brings them to the point of repentance.

44:32

No government or any other human institution can thwart his plans. So not the

44:38

LGBT movement, not the abortionists. No one can stop God from accomplishing this purpose.

44:47

Governments may range or may rage against God, attempting to limit his powerful hand of conversion.

44:52

They may arrest pastors, stifle the word, find those who defy him and try their hardest to silence those who stand with Christ. So they can do anything they want, but Christ is the converter of souls.

45:03

And this is a really good complimentary article, the article we just read about measuring success.

45:10

Success is being faithful to God. The reward for that or the increase or the fruit of that is up to God.

45:18

You just have to be faithful. And conversions are going to keep happening as long as God is working in the hearts of men.

45:26

Well, that's it for TruthScript Tuesday. We have some more articles coming later in the week.

45:32

I hope you will tune into that. And we will,

45:37

I think, have a TruthScript Tuesday next Tuesday. At least that is the plan. And there's an article in the works.

45:43

It was supposed to be posted today. It'll be posted tomorrow, and I'll just tease it about the Roman Empire. You might ask, why?

45:50

Well, because apparently men think about the Roman Empire. And so my wife even came and she asked me, how often do you think about the

45:58

Roman Empire? So we have an explanation at TruthScript .com. Keep your eyes open for that. More coming.