Mike Abendroth's Blog, page 21

Carl Trueman Interview–On Celebrity Culture

On today’s show, Pastor Mike interviews Carl Trueman. Carl is Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary. He is also a church historian and author. You can read articles by Carl at Reformation 21.

Biblical Illiteracy

According to a recent article in Christianity Today, Christians do not know their Bibles very well. So, how well do YOU know your Bible? Do you have a daily habit to read and study the Word? On today’s show, Mike and Steve discuss this topic and give some helpful tips and encouragement.

 

Usurping the Authority of Christ

Remember your old Webster’s dictionary you used to grab(at least for those who lived before the internet) when you came across a word you didn’t know the meaning of? Well, here is Webster’s definition of…

U`surp´

v. t.

1.  To seize, and hold in possession, by force, or without right; as, to usurp a throne; to usurp the prerogatives of the crown; to usurp power

It is one thing to usurp the power of a government official and that without right. It is quite another thing to seize and hold in possession a throne from a king. Well, that is exactly what many churches and pastors do. You ask, from which king do they usurp authority? Answer: From the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who is the Head and the Lord of His church.

 The follow-up question is important. If you haven’t thought of it already, here it is. How do churches and pastors usurp the authority of Christ?

 Churches and pastors usurp the authority of Christ when they do not practice church discipline.

In Matthew 18:15-17, Jesus outlines the process of church discipline.

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

There are 2 purposes for church discipline.

The first one is for the purity of the church. The reason Jesus gave His life for His church was

“that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

(Eph. 5:26-27)

In his excellent little book In Pursuit of Prodigals, pastor and author Stephen Davey  explains the other purpose for church discipline.

“Contrary to the common notion, the objective of discipline is not punitive, but restorative. While punishment may be observed as one of the consequences of church discipline(2 Corinthians 2:6), it is never the motive or the objective for exercising it. Condemnation is not the goal; restoration is. …The main objective of church discipline is the restoration of the unrepentant believer to the blessed, productive lifestyle of godly obedience and intimacy with Jesus Christ.”(p. 12)

Well, you might say, church discipline is not a very loving thing to do.

In Things That Go Bump in the Night, pastor Mike Abendroth (Yes of NoCo fame) responds.

“The absence of church discipline is unloving. …. Negligence in performing discipline shows that we are not loving the church. “Oh well, my body has treatable cancer, but I’m worried about what chemotherapy will do to my hairline.” Sin in the body of Christ can affect other people. It’s dangerous, but it’s also correctable. So for the love of others, it must be dealt with according to the Bible. If you really hate other Christians, leave them totally alone when they get stuck. Love wants to reclaim offenders. Love for the lost sheep goes into the wilderness to restore them(see Luke 15). Loving God, loving the church, and loving the unrepentant sinner do not add up to a witch hunt in the church. Not going to the wayward person would actually be the most hateful thing you could do. Should you warn your neighbors when their house is on fire, or should you let them sleep through it?”(p. 170)

Granted that the New Testament church epistles and pastoral epistles are very prescriptive as to “how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.”(1 Tim. 3:15) Have you ever considered though that the Lord of the Church, Jesus Christ, only mentions the Greek term for church, ekklesia, only twice, both times recorded in Matthew’s Gospel?

One time it is simply a declarative statement that He will build His church(Matt. 16:18). And the second instance is here in Matt. 18:15-17. And what does He NOT talk about? He does NOT talk about worship. He does NOT talk about evangelism. He talks about church discipline. And why? For the sake of the purity of His church. After all, that was the purpose of His sacrificial death on the cross(See Eph. 5:25-27).

Now if you asked any pastor with any sense to them, “Would you ever even consider usurping the authority of Christ?”, I am sure you would get an unequivocal “No” for an answer. Yet in practice, because there is no church discipline, that is exactly what they are doing.

Matthew presents Jesus as King. To not do what He clearly instructs here in Matt 18:15-17 concerning church discipline, is to usurp the authority of the King. On the other hand, to do what He clearly instructs, is to practically affirm the Headship and Lordship of Christ over His church.

The Right Response to the Gospel is Not…

Getting the Gospel right is critical for a number of reasons. It is of “first importance” (1 Cor. 15:1-3). Furthermore, only the Gospel is the power of God for salvation(Rom. 1:16) And anyone who teaches a different gospel is pronounced accursed (Gal. 1:8-9)

To get the Gospel right, especially in our culture with so many different “gospels”, you must first understand what the Gospel is NOT.

 

Not only is getting the Gospel right critical, but so is getting the right response to the Gospel. What do I mean by the right response to the Gospel? I simply mean, after presenting the true Gospel, what is the biblical response we should ask for?

The right response to the Gospel is NOT…

…pray the sinner’s prayer.
…ask Jesus into your heart.
 …receive Jesus Christ as your Savior.
…love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength
…do unto others as you would have them do unto you
…discover the purpose driven life
…find out God’s wonderful plan for your life
…believe in yourself
…have a healthy self-esteem
…make Jesus Lord(God the Father has already done that SEE Acts 2:36)
…let go and let God(Though I did see a recent sermon series entitled “Let It Go”. Must be the Gospel according to “Frozen”)

 

 

The right response to the Gospel is in 3 simple yet profound words,

Forsake
Faith
Follow

Yes, I know, the 1st and third are verbs(responses) while the 2nd is a noun. OK.

Forsake
Believe
Follow

You see. Now you’ve completely ruined my alliteration. How will I ever sleep tonight?

1)  Forsake

In his own testimony, no less that 3 times Paul says that everything he counted as “loss” for the sake of Christ.

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ”

Phil. 3:7-8

From the context, what did Paul count as “loss”. His religious credentials.(v. 5-6)

circumcised on the eighth day
of the people of Israel
of the tribe of Benjamin
a Hebrew of Hebrews
as to the law, a Pharisee
as to zeal, a persecutor of the church
as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

In other words, Christ was sufficient and therefore he did not need to add to Christ. Those things he counted as gain at some time were now a loss. He forsook them.

You see you cannot add Jesus to the mix. It is not Jesus plus…

…your confirmation
…your baptism
…your religion
…your morality
…your good deeds

It is Jesus plus nothing!!!

So, the right response to the Gospel is to forsake and abandon all other means of salvation you may be clinging to other than Jesus Christ.

2)  Faith. Oh Yeah, I forgot. Believe.

The right response to the Gospel is faith in Christ. We ask people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31)

3)  Follow

This is what Jesus asked for. And no, this was not an invitation to a post-conversion commitment to discipleship. This was the sine qua non of salvation.

“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

Mark 8:34-36

So, forsake, believe(faith) and follow.

Whom do I gain when I forsake? Christ

Upon whom do I believe? Christ

Whom do I follow? Christ

The right, biblical response to the Gospel is all-inclusive and all-exclusive.

As A. W. Tozer wrote in That Incredible Christian,

“To accept Christ is to form an attachment to the Person of our Lord Jesus altogether unique in human experience. … This attachment is all-inclusive in that it joyfully accepts Christ for all that He is. There is no craven division of offices whereby we may acknowledge His Saviorhood today and withhold decision on His Lordship tomorrow. … Further, his attachment is all-exclusive. The Lord becomes to him not one of several rival interests, but the one exclusive attraction forever. He orbits around Christ as the earth orbits around the sun, held in thrall by the magnetism of His love, drawing all his life and light and warmth from Him.”

Get to know your Enemy

“The highest being God ever made, this anointed, angelic being wanted to be like God and in the sin of pride he was thrown out of heaven and Revelation 12 says – Like a great dragon he fell and with his tail he swept a third of the angels with him. So, Lucifer, this fallen angel, the highest of the angels leads a host of one third of all the angels that God ever created. And there are literally millions of them. And these then become the demonic enemy. This is the devil. Jesus believed in him. He talked with him in Matthew 4. He talked about him in John 14, John 16, and elsewhere. The apostles believed in him, Paul talked about him, Peter talked about him, James talked about him. If you look at history you know there is a devil he tempted Eve in Genesis 3, he tempted Christ in Matthew 4. He perverted God’s word in Matthew 4 and he opposed God’s work in Zechariah 3. He hindered God’s servant in I Thess. 2 and he hinders the gospel in II Cor. 4. He snares the wicked in I Tim. 3; he desires the nations in Rev. 16. He’s an angel of light in II Cor. 11, he fights with Michael in Jude. He brought sin into the world in Genesis 3. He now has the whole world lying in his lap in I John 5. He’s been all through history.

He has personal titles. The Bible calls him in Ezekiel 28 the anointed cherub. In John 16, the prince of this world, in Ephesians 2 the prince of the power of the air, in II Cor. chapter 4 he is called “the god of this age.” And in Luke 11:15 “the prince of demons.” Fifty-two times he is called Satan which means adversary. That is his most common title. Thirty-five times he is called devil, diabolas, which means slanderer. He is called the old serpent, the great dragon, the roaring lion, the evil one, abadon, appolyon, tempter, accuser, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience.

He is described by our Lord in John 8:44 as a murderer and as a liar. He works overtly and covertly with flat-out doctrines of devils and with seducing spirits. He is a sinner in I John 3:8, he is an imitator in II Cor. 11:13-15. He is some formidable enemy.

Lucifer, fallen from heaven, the ruler of a vast host of demon beings who have been around for centuries and thousands of years since first they fell and first they were created. They’ve been here a long time they are wily they are clever they are cunning, they are subtle, they are invisible, they are super-human and they are our enemy. And it says in verse 11 they operate on the basis of the wiles of the devil. Methodia, methods and the word is used in Ephesians 4:14 and translated cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive us. About what? Like children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine.

The emphasis is that the wiles of the devil are lies, false doctrines, false religion, false teaching. He is a liar and the father of it. He is a deceiver. His whole system deceives subtly, supernaturally, cleverly, powerfully. He has deceived mankind the world over with false religious systems. It’s incredible how sophisticated they come.

Can you believe that in the Old Testament Satan deceived Israel into worshipping idols and turning their back on the true God? Can you remember that in the New Testament Satan deceived Israel into murdering their own Messiah? Would you believe in the future he will deceive Israel into thinking the anti-Christ is Christ? He is a deceiver. He is subtle. His area is lies, heresies and false doctrine. He will lie about everything whether simple or sophisticated. And if I sometimes get upset about false doctrines and false cults and false teaching the reason is because I believe all of that stuff whether it is a denial of the truth of the word of God or whether it is Zoroastrianism, whether it’s the new liberation that denies God’s order for the family, whether it’s homosexuality, the new morality, whether it’s the cults and isms and schisms and spasms and the rest of that stuff or whether it’s old line religions of the world, if I get excited about that it is because those things should be blasted with the fierceness equal to their hellish origins. Because they are from Satan. They are the wiles of the devil. And he is clever. He moves into the world and prevents the word from reaching the hearts of men. He snatches the word, Luke 8 says. He twists and perverts it. He has men stand in pulpits who deny the authority of Scripture, deny the deity of Christ, deny salvation by grace, deny the second coming, deny judgment, deny sin, deny everything. He teaches a lifestyle that damns. He involves himself in politics and governments and nations as well as individual lives.

To Christians he comes and creates doubt in their minds as he did to Eve and did throughout the history of God’s people. He creates persecutions against them. He hinders their service. He infiltrates the church with his tares, he tempts us to self-reliance, to doubt, to lies, to immorality to worldliness, to pride to discouragement to on and on and on. And this is subtle, really subtle. People might think the longer you are a Christian and the more mature you become the easier it gets. No. Because the more you know the more subtle the temptations become. And so this is a formidable enemy. But it isn’t just the devil, look at verse 12.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,” and keep it in mind, people, our enemy is not the system, the world as we see it. You know, they may persecute us and someday they may do to us what they did to Jesus, John 15 he said -Don’t be surprised if they persecute you and kill you and hate you they hated Me, they persecuted Me they killed Me, you wouldn’t expect them to treat the servants any different then they treated their Lord. So don’t be surprised but the real enemy is not flesh and blood, the real weapons of our warfare are not carnal but principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. Those are all terms to describe demons. It is a demon empire that is the real enemy and we wrestle and the word wrestle is not talking about a simple athletic game.”

– John MacArthur  (The Believer’s Warfare, Part 1 Ephesians 6:10-13 April 22, 1979)