Preaching in the Flesh?

In a message Paul Washer preached several years ago, he told of preaching in a church where an elder approached him afterward, saying something like this: “Brother Paul, you preached the truth tonight…. But you did it in the flesh and you need to get down on your knees and repent.” Sobering words indeed.

Though I haven’t researched exactly what sermon I heard Brother Washer say that, the story stands very clear in my mind because when he related it, I could, also, relate. No, I was not rebuked by an elder in the church in that same way; however, there were a few times several years ago, that I have come away from the sermon, convicted even to tears at times, falling on my face before God in repentance. I continually pray that I might be alert, not slumbering to the truth, that I may be ever submissive to Him and constantly communing with Him, so as not to fall again: “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

It is a reminder that we are flesh and blood men. We have not yet been glorified, immortalized, nor yet made incorruptible. That is the awesome glory of God’s grace; that though we are yet sinners, we have been granted the grace and privilege of proclaiming gospel truth; God’s Word! Yes, if we are redeemed by the blood, we are growing in grace, maturing from faith to faith, and increasing from glory to glory as the Spirit of God conforms us to the image of Christ by God’s providence working all things together for good, yet, we are still merely fallen men. Remember, the best of men are merely men, at best. So we are prone to preach in the flesh and that’s why it is so very important that we, as preachers, pastors, ministers, stay in the Word of God by the Spirit’s power through prayer.

Now, before I ask you to CLICK ON the arrow in the center of this 5 minute and 51 second video segment of Mark Driscoll, let me just say that I’m not against Mark Driscoll as a person, nor do I suggest that he is unsaved. In fact, from what I’ve read from him and about him, I would say that, largely, we probably agree theologically concerning Biblical truth. Nevertheless, in this segment he very passionately rebukes sinners using terms from the vernacular (BE WARNED: use discretion when playing this segment with little children around).

The word “hell” is in the English Bible so, in and of itself, it is not a vulgar term. The phrase Brother Driscoll used, however, is of the world and easily recognized as how the unsaved unbelieving world speaks. One doesn’t have to spend a decade and a half in the U.S. Navy as a deep sea diver to detect that. Come on, you know that’s true. I’ve been around unbelievers who have let that very same expression slip out when I was around and when they saw me, they blushed and apologized.

Although Mark spoke the truth, he sunk to the level of depravity of those very same people he was rebuking. In that, was not his use of language as pragmatic as, say, some pastor using worldly marketing techniques to persuade people of spiritual truth? His passionately loud voice is not the issue. Paul Washer has inflected his voice in preaching; Rolfe Barnard did in nearly every sermon he preached; and I even heard J. Vernon McGee shout his words in a Sunday morning message once. Yet, Brother Driscoll’s use of the vernacular seemed to suggest that it was raging anger and not God’s holy wrath: “For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).

For those who would suggest that I’m going a little overboard here, let’s put a little perspective on this. Are the men who have not honored their wives with dignity, even in the slightest way (1 Peter 3:7), who are not ravished in their hearts for their wives (Song of Solomon 4:9), or who are not smitten to the point of love that silly metaphors are used to describe her (Song of Solomon 7:4), are they not also guilty of sin? Are they not also guilty of withholding all that is holy from a true, right, and good relationship between man and wife? We must say, yes, because sin is any lack of conformity to, or transgression against God’s revealed will found in Holy Scripture (1 John 3:4). Granted, Mark may have said those very things I mentioned concerning holy and wholesome relationships between a man and his wife in the majority of the message that was not included on this segment, but how powerful could it have possibly been when he employed the arm of the flesh in his speech. Think about this:

Could it be that the sin that needs to be rebuked in many local congregations today is there because the preaching of the gospel from the pulpit is not given the holiness and reverence God’s Word is due? To somewhat take Brother Driscoll’s own words, let me ask this: who in heaven and earth do we think that we are that we can take the grace and privilege of the precious Word of God given to redeemed men, and soil that Word with the filth of the world? Look, I’m not saying anything to you, or Brother Driscoll, that I don’t face myself daily. This is God’s precious Word we have been blessed to proclaim. When we soil it with expressions that are flesh, however slight it may be, then it has no foundation in truth, no direction in Scripture, and no place in the presence of a holy God (1 Corinthians 1:29; Romans 14:23; Hebrews 11:6).

When in the presence of the Holy, I repent just because I exist as sinful flesh. It’s no shame for the minister to fall on his face daily. I believe that we must; but deeper still, it is a grace also granted to us, to know the grace, glory, and goodness of repentance because of the hope of the glory of Christ Jesus; and we are so unworthy.

If the grace of God through Jesus Christ does not move me to desire holiness that I may please a holy God, then I cannot expect His people to be holy from my preaching, no matter how true the words that come from my mouth may be.

It’s not about us siding with John MacArthur or John Piper on the Mark Driscoll issue; it’s about the holiness of God and the glory of God. Yet, even as I type this, I realize this: who am I to even say such things? Yet, the Lord seems to remind me that I am a dying man preaching to dying men. It is my sincerest desire that Mark Driscoll know the joy of repentance before a holy God because, it seems to me, that the Lord may desire to do much, so very much more, through him if he would go before his Redeemer in brokenness. My heart pours out for him because it is a serious and sober responsibility to minister among the Lord’s flock, whether that under-charge is a small gathering like mine, or a much larger one like Mark’s; it is a responsibility that requires supernatural strength beyond the means of any mere man.

After the Laughter

On October 7th Justin Taylor posted an interesting article on his Between Two Worlds weblog. The article is titled, “How to Train People to Laugh at Anything” (click on the title to read that blog). When you read his article you realize that the title is meant to be ironic as he writes of John Piper’s speaking engagement for the American Association of Christian Counselors held in Nashville, Tennessee on September 16, 2009. Here is how Justin Taylor opened his article:

“A few weeks ago John Piper spoke at a conference for the American Association of Christian Counselors. You should listen to the first five minutes. Piper decided to be as transparent as possible, given the audience, and to discuss some of the prevailing sins that he has struggled with his entire life. And the audience laughed uproariously. Piper was obviously perplexed and commented on how strange their reaction was.”

Justin also refers to Greg Gilbert’s article from the 9Marks blog site, which was also given a rather ironic title, “How to Train Your Church Not to Take Anything Seriously” (click on the title to read that blog). Greg Gilbert’s article had focused upon a particular aspect of the event, but one thing that would be especially important to note before I continue with my article is that many of the original comments made concerning the laughter at this event were rather harsh, suggesting that the people laughing were not Christian. Greg writes, “Some of the comments I’ve seen about it—that these counselors are being deliberately dismissive of sin, or even that they cannot possibly be Christians—are ridiculous and beyond the pale. I don’t think that’s true at all.” I would agree with that; Greg continues, “In fact, I think the reality of what happened here is enormously instructive for us.” And I also agree with that. I think that I will be adding a few more dimensions to some of the things that Greg pointed out.

Listen to the first five minutes of John Piper’s presentation here: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/MediaPlayer/4216/Audio/

Dr. Piper commented (beginning at 4:09 minutes of the Desiring God audio segment), “I know that you’ve been set up for an hour and a half, maybe a little bit differently…” From piecing together from other blogs hither and yon, coupled with that comment, it would appear that several of the speakers prior to John Piper’s message told jokes to lighten up the audience prior to their talks (John Piper’s comments about the audience’s laughter were not included in the transcript of the message). As you can tell from the audio clip, John Piper opened a very serious list of some of the sins that have beset his own life, but this list was received with laughter.

Here are some of my own observations:

First, though I was disturbed by the laughter, I basically blocked it out to hear the words of a man that has been greatly used today in conveying the Word of God (so the laughter wasn’t my focus in my first hearing of the message, and for that, I’m truly thankful). The list of sins that Pastor Piper presented, however, struck an incredible chord within my own soul. Some specifics notwithstanding, every sinful point the pastor made was identical to a list I might have prepared. Does every pastor continually repent of the sins that are in many ways very similar and very common to men who are called to the pulpit, called to feed the Lord’s flock? The confession of Pastor Piper is a very sobering and important one, not only for pastors, but for congregations that they serve as well. Fellow ministers can take heart and be encouraged that they are not the only ones weeping in repentance daily before their Savior and Sovereign. Yet, equally important is that the congregation realizes that their minister struggles beneath the same sins that so easily beset them; therefore, they might, in great love, pray that much more earnestly for their beloved pastor, pleading with God to lavish grace more abundantly upon him.

The responsibility to bring forth the glory of God’s grace and the majesty, splendor and holiness of the gospel message of Christ crucified weighs so heavily upon the sinful minister saved by God’s sovereign grace that if he has never realized Paul’s words, “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling,” while standing in the pulpit, then more than likely, he wasn’t called to a preaching ministry in the first place; that is, in my humble opinion.

Second, you just can’t get away from the laughter. It’s there; and during a sinner’s confession, which is when he is most vulnerable, it’s hard not to hear it. As Brother Greg mentioned in his blog, I don’t suggest that these people were not Christian. I believe that most of them probably were Christians; many of them, perhaps, more sincere and devout than I could ever hope to become. Yet, it is by this reality that we should recognize that it could have been you or me. It may have been you and me right there in that audience laughing at our friend, treating his vulnerable position and his sinful condition with the same tenderness and compassion as Job’s companions. Many of us sometimes tend to think, “Had it been me in the garden, I wouldn’t have…” or “Were it me at the Pavement at Pilate’s judgment seat, it wouldn’t have been me that cried ‘crucify’…” Beloved, you and I are as guilty as if we were there; for the guilt of Adam’s sin, as well as the guilt of rejecting Christ, was upon us all: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8; cf. Romans 5:12).

Third, another thing that came to my mind after listening to the introduction of Dr. Piper’s message was something that was addressed by Greg Gilbert in his article. He suggests that because the previous speakers used humor, the conferees were already conditioned to laugh. And because they were conditioned to laugh, Greg draws a parallel to what may happen in the church if humor takes a prominent place in pulpit preaching:

“Apparently the conditioning of that audience to think everything is funny took no more than a couple of days.

“How deep do you think that conditioning would be for a church who sat under a funny-man pastor every Sunday for fifteen years?” (emphasis in original)

As far as conditioning goes (and I’m no expert), but it seems that laughter, like crying, &etc., is a manifestation of an emotion. Emotions are not evil in and of themselves; neither are their manifestations. Nevertheless, the manifestations of emotions can either be appropriate or inappropriate. How odd it would be to read the gospel writer record in John 11:35 that “Jesus laughed” while the Lord Christ stood outside of Lazarus’ tomb. Equally fantastic would be if we read in Luke 24:52-53 that the disciples “worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great sorrow: and were continually in the Temple, weeping and crying before God” after seeing the risen Savior.

When our emotions do not follow the truth that has renewed our minds, it is apparent that the work of the Holy Spirit is not moving in its fullness; that’s because one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control (Galatians 5:23), which is not manifested when there is an outburst of emotion that is inappropriate or untimely. Then, we must ask ourselves, “Was the impact of the truth of sin (in this particular instance) illuminated to their souls by the teaching of the Spirit through the washing and cleansing of their minds?” That, indeed, is a very sobering question to consider.

The funny thing is (and I really didn’t mean it as a pun initially, but since I wrote it, I decided I ought to leave it in because it is pretty pun-ny), that with my ALS I’m prone to laugh or cry at things that might not be funny or sad, and a bit uncontrollably at that. This is especially sobering for me because I do not want to bring shame, controversy, or even the appearance of inappropriateness to the name of Jesus when proclaiming His truth. I truly have asked the Lord that when I am unfit to preach, teach and pastor His flock, to let me know very clearly and quickly.

Fourth (and I probably could have placed this much closer to the top of my list), as a minister, as a preacher of the gospel, and as pastor called to a congregation to teach and exemplify God’s grace, I had to ask myself, “Can I deal with such a situation with grace and humility?” Honestly (and if I could only be as transparent to write this as Pastor Piper was to preach his message), I have to confess that I could feel indignation rise in the depths of my being as the introduction continued and the laughter did not cease. I didn’t rant; and no one would have known had I not written it; yet, it was there. I do pray, that by God’s grace, that I may continue to recognize that I am the chief of sinners and the least of the Lord’s ministers, and certainly not the most eloquent of His mouthpieces to proclaim Christ crucified, buried, risen, ascended and coming again. If someone laughs, disagrees, or misunderstands something I’ve said, I pray that I may be able to handle it with as much Christ-honoring humility as John Piper.

Fifth, and perhaps the most important item of note to me, is the context with which this laughter was manifested. It just so happened that Dr. Piper was going through a list of specific sins. At Sovereign Grace Baptist Church recently, as we’ve spent Wednesday nights devotionally covering questions and answers in A Puritan’s Catechism, specifically covering such topics as the fall of man, sin, man's fallen state, the result of man’s fall, and fallen man’s hope in Christ. We have also finished a verse-by-verse exposition of Romans 1-3 in our Sunday morning worship services, going over all the details of man’s radical corruption in his fallen condition; in fact, when we studied the particular passage in Romans 1:29-31, we thoroughly, albeit painfully, examined each and every sin listed. Often, I’ve heard messages that, when they get to a list of sins such as those covered in Romans 1, some of the sins were mentioned briefly, but not every one of them was explained (and for many of the messages, having good reason, as there may not have been enough time with the content of the other issues covered, &etc., so I understand—been there, done that, bought the t-shirt). Yet, I believe that in these days, when there are those who won’t even mention sin at all in the pulpit for fear of offending the hearer, there is greater reason than ever to explain just what God’s Word says about sin. As I stated in the message that Sunday morning not long ago, we hear many people quote Romans 3:23 these days, but we hear so very few quoting Romans 1:26-32. The fall of man brought such total depravity, such complete corruption to the human condition, that when we hear about sin, it doesn’t convict us because it is so general; the general truth doesn’t penetrate us; it doesn’t have the teeth, say, that the identification of specific sins has.

Therefore, when I listened to this clip, although I don’t think that this was the case here, it did come to mind that sometimes outbursts such as laughter, may be kind of a defense mechanism in the flesh to keep us from truly coming face to face with the offense of sinful flesh before a holy God. Again, I need to repeat this: I don’t necessarily believe that, in general, these folks were putting up a defense mechanism to keep them from the horrible truth; however, the situation caused me to think that emotions do often place a hedge around our flesh to keep us from truth, and godly sorrow that leads to repentance. The flesh is filled with esteem for itself; it’s haughty. The carnal mind is at enmity with God; and the flesh lusts against the Spirit.

It seems that, more now than ever, we need to “gird up the loins of [our] mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto [us] at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13); and that we must “walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).

On a final and closing note, and rather an awkward but edifying postscript following what I just wrote in the paragraph above, I do encourage you to listen to the entire message from John Piper. It is excellent.

Calvinism: Christianity without Jesus?

Since about September 29th, I’ve listened several times with jaw-dropping wonder to an audio clip of the careless misrepresentation of Reformed Theology by Chuck Smith, Brian Broderson, and Don Stewart of Calvary Chapel from an airing of their KWAVE “Pastor’s Perspective” radio call-in program. I cannot keep silent any longer.

A CAVEAT: I will say that not all Calvary Chapels take the view aired on this broadcast; and I do acknowledge that there are many Calvary Chapels that may disagree with the doctrines of grace, and that they would probably not openly declare that “Calvinism is Christianity without Jesus,” as Brian Broderson did on that broadcast. In fact, there are a few Calvary Chapels that do openly embrace the doctrines of grace.

Dr. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries addressed this on his radio call-in program, “The Dividing Line,” and posted such on his web log on September 29th, providing links for the Calvary Chapel audio snippet, as well as to the entire broadcast of “The Dividing Line.” As with all of Dr. White’s materials, I highly commend his comments for your education and edification. On the embedded YouTube video below, posted by Alpha and Omega Ministries on October 6th, Dr. White addresses the particular point that Brian Broderson made: “Calvinism is Christianity without Jesus.”

Alpha and Omega Ministries

Alpha and Omega Ministries Weblog: "Brief Debate Commentary, Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel Leaders Demonstrate How NOT To Handle Scripture"

Calvary Chapel Pastor's Perspective Audio Soundbite

Alpha and Omega Ministries "Dividing Line Program"

Reformation Month Sale!

Beginning today, October 1st, until the anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing the 95 Theses on Wittenberg’s door at the end of the month (October 31st), our printed publications will be significantly discounted. Our paperbacks are print-on-demand through CreateSpace.com and we want to make them available at the lowest price possible. We currently have 5 books available.

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Teach Us to Pray (Coming Soon)

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Christian Behavior (in Print)

John Bunyan's classic, Christian Behavior, has been updated in modern English and, though it will remain available as a free e-Book, is now available as a printed publication… a traditional paperback book. This 98-page book is available for only $7.77 through CreateSpace.com, a division of Amazon.com. Click on the book cover to the left or CLICK HERE to order the book... or you can check it out on the Christian Behavior weblog by CLICKING HERE.

Now Available in Print

Fullness of the Time, though it will remain available as a free e-Book, is now available as a printed publication… a traditional paperback book. This 194-page book is available for only $12.95 through CreateSpace.com, a division of Amazon.com. Click on the book cover to the left or CLICK HERE to order the book... or you can check it out on the Fullness of the Time weblog by CLICKING HERE.