Deepening Love for God: A Christ-Centered Ministry

um cultivate a love for the scriptures and the love for God and the love for people and um focus on the reality of the text um St CLA and I were talking about the danger among some of loving the text more than you love what the text is about and I think that makes for a either a pedantic Ministry or a short-term Ministry and therefore the what what you want to do is to penetrate through the Bible to the reality of what the text is about and that means having an Impulse like John MacArthur's where you read a devotional and all day long you're asking some questions about it what about this what about this what about this until you get through words to reality and your people will know whether you are real you're real and you've seen real or whether you're just performing whether this is an academic exercise whether you're just a lecturer on theology or whether you've met God you know God you've seen something glorious and you want them to see what you've seen so I think that would be the front end of my my plea is that push through texts to see reality which is the mainly God himself know him love him Delight in him be satisfied in him so that it's obvious to the people that you are exalting in him as you preach his word [00:36:32]

and of course that involves prayer because as you push into texts you're just crying out open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things out of your law incline my heart to your testimony satisfy me in the morning with your steadfast love so so prayer and thoughtfulness about the word move you into the reality of communion with God and then you stand in the pulpit and you exalt over the text as you draw people to it I don't ever think you should you should do an in run around the words they they'll catch on to that you know put a system on it or put your experience on it put a story on it or put some movie on it or put some put cultural event on it and you put it on instead you're saying in the first half of verse 25 it says on that day a fugitive pause explain some things push in move on they can see you you're getting your reality in and through the the text so that would be my suggest [00:38:11]

um they they want to they want your heart and in that kind of preaching your heart for the Lord comes through and for for me since God's clearest revelation of himself was Christ I wanted to go immediately to Christ because people would argue about church polity they would argue about theology but but you really can't argue about Christ and you get in the gospels and I did that early on and it's just Christ every week month after month after month after month after month the glory of God shine shining in the face of Jesus Christ and he he literally dominates a church so years in the Gospel of John when I first came then nine years in Matthew nine or 10 years in Luke five years in mark back to three or four years in John so 25 years or more of my 50 years here was Christ every week every week every week every week every week and you know this is because early on I was captured by 2 Corinthians 3:18 as we gazed at his glory we're changed into His Image by the work of the the Holy Spirit and if the work of sanctification is to conform us to Christ we have to know what Christ is we have to focus on him [00:39:33]

so I think the the combination of the exaltation that you're talking about John I I'm lifted when I'm talking about Christ I'm elevated I'm um I'm energized uh and what comes through is it's not about yelling or style it's about intensity and passion and joy and all of that and I I just found Christ to be absolutely irresistible and all I wanted to do as as a pastor was hide behind him just just hide behind him and make them engage with him in the text bore down as you said dig down clear the Clutter uh and let Christ put himself on display by his spirit in the minds and the hearts of the people and along with that a great measure of patience because people in a church are at whatever point they're at when you arrive because somebody they cared about took them there and you may think they don't have the right ecclesiology or the right theology they need correction the worst thing you can do is impose that on them you haven't earned the right to do that you've got to take them there through the pages of scripture until they affirm in their own Hearts the truth [00:42:27]

so what you're doing when you exposit scripture is not simply telling them what a text means you're showing them why it can only mean that amen there's no other possibility that could mean anything but that and now the text has gripped their heart and as you do that week after week month after month they're conformed to sound Doctrine and to christlikeness and the process you're patiently loving them through that and I think I saw that first in Christ who was saying the same things to his disciples at the end of three years that he said at the front end like oh you of little faith I mean they didn't progress very well they were still arguing about who's the greatest in the Kingdom at the end like they didn't get the main point um and they they were ridiculous when it all came to the trial and the cross and they were all over the place obviously completely disconnected from the reality they should have known so I understood even for Jesus it's hard to move people from where they are to where they need to be even if you're the Lord Jesus Christ you're going to find a massive amount of disappointment with the people in whom you invest the most so be really patient [00:43:14]

well first of all some categories we we understand that there are divisions of responsibility in the economy of God in the world there is government government has a role there is the family and father the parents have a role um and uh the church doesn't become the father to the family it's not the parents and the church is not the government and the government cannot rule the church I mean we we' talked about that we did a document Christ as head of the church not Caesar but at the same time the church informs everybody of what that role means we tell the parents how to parent we tell the government how to govern because it's laid out in scripture uh so the division of authority doesn't mean that we sit back and let the government be whatever it wants to be or let parents be whatever they want to be we have to bring the the word of God to Bear the Bible is crystal clear that that whoever rules over men must be just ruling in the fear of God for example so we're always going to be the conscience of the the family the conscience of parents individuals uh and the government [00:46:35]

so the division of authority doesn't mean that we sit back and let the government be whatever it wants to be or let parents be whatever they want to be we have to bring the the word of God to Bear the Bible is crystal clear that that whoever rules over men must be just ruling in the fear of God for example so we're always going to be the conscience of the the family the conscience of parents individuals uh and the government so that's just a kind of a categorical way to look at it um what I've seen in the Evangelical movement for the last 20 years or so when evangelicals have gotten into politics is that they are very busy trying to manipulate the political picture they they want to go to Washington and they want to set up organizations that lobby with politicians um you you even here I think it was Tim Keller who made some statements about we have a an urban mandate to speak to the cities well the urban mandate for example is it'll be better for Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for you if you've heard the gospel and rejected it the urban mandate is to pronounce judgment on the rejection of Christ on every city that does that [00:47:19]

and the responsibility for the church is not to S somehow gain favor with the government by lobbying which leads to compromise which leads to compromise that is so severe and so bad that it can take a large denomination and fragment the whole thing into chaos we've just watch that play out the church has to speak gospel truth we have to do this we have to talk about righteousness self-control and judgment to come what Paul told AG gria that God has a righteous standard you have exhibited the inability to live up to that standard you are under judgment we don't have we don't have the political power to move the government the only hope for a government is the only hope for a quiet and peaceful life in godliness is to pray for the Salvation of the ruler First Timothy 2 so it just struck me that I hadn't seen this done and I mean we've done things like that I had written letters before to the state congress about certain homosexual issues but it seemed to me when when the governor decided to quote Jesus to support abortion that he had gone off the edge and I I was terrified for his Eternal Soul [00:49:09]

well I think we have to anticipate it um whatever vestages of judeo-christian Ethics or whatever vestiges of Christianity were were still in the in the culture have have have been evacuated they're gone I I wouldn't even call this a postmodern culture I would call it a pre-christian culture pre-christian this is like paganism 2.0 it's as if Jesus never came it's as if there never was a cross and a resurrection and a new testament and a church and and a Bible this is this is like Rome or like Molech worship or Bal worship this is blatant paganism and um it it is a kind of paganism that has Le to control everything with the control of the technology and social media um what this what the current Zeitgeist in the world hates most is the truth I'll give you an illustration we want our case with the covid lockdowns with the county and the city there were 12 different hearings that they set up for us the judge in our case was a man married to a man socalled married yeah but he wasn't any Ally of ours that's what I'm saying so and yet he kept postponing the 12 times he postponed the case because he says until you guys settle the First Amendment issue we can't go to the merits of this case so he kept pushing it back to the Constitution finally in frustration because I was being given a jail sentence every week and a fine they were all mounting and accumulating and um finally our attorney said we want to depose the health department we wanted to depose the top three officials in the LA Health Department our lawsuit was against the governor the state the county and all that so we said we're going to depose the health officials in 24 hours they dropped all charges all fees all fines and paid all legal bills almost to a million milon dollar because the one thing they couldn't cope with was the truth and that's the truth about Co they could not let that out so they're trying to control everything to sustain The Narrative they don't even want you to they don't want that the the governor just is in the process of signing in California a bill that would basically say if you're you're a medical doctor in California and you go against the current narrative you can lose your license so they're trying to control everything if they want to control those kinds of things then H how welcome how much welcome will they give to the truth of scripture virtually nothing so I I think it's a short step from controlling narratives about political issues and social issues and structural issues and education and medicine and whatever and whatever to shutting down the spiritual and the biblical so I think that's coming um and that's I mean that's going to be Fisher cut bait right that's going to be I mean you're going to have to pick sides then you're either going to be faithful or you're going to compromise I saw this week that one Church opened up after 900 days of being closed that that's that's rolling over in a pretty extreme way but but I think we are going to the Evangelical Church the fa the faithful biblical church is going to very soon become the Target because we don't accept anything Vanderbilt Hospital has a gender reassignment surgery big part of their operation you may have seen about it um they they will brutalize uh they they will M young girls and young boys um and the head of the hospital is a video basically said anybody on the staff who doesn't agree with that get another job and then they hired a bunch of homosexual Advocates to go with every child that comes in to talk to a physician they send an activist so that the doctor can't talk the child out of having their breasts cut off this is a hospital that's a historic medical school um I just don't know in in a in a culture like that where Christianity becomes anything but the arch enemy of everything of everything and I and I think you know we've had a couple of hundred years in America when it's been different than most of history and most of the world that's right that's right but but we're there y this is a pagan country and they don't want to be confronted with Biblical truth and there's going to be some price to pay I'm I'm confident of that we have to be ready for that and we have to be faithful and then we have the joy of watching the hand of God in Providence do what it's going to do and the end has already been written and uh the Lord will trumph [00:57:24]

um in answer to the question what how do you help people get ready for this my my answer would be we should have started a long time ago like from the very first sermon you came to your church you teach your people that you are not first Americans you're first Christians and you're ens and your Exiles on planet Earth and this world owes you nothing and you may expect suffering and that should be preached when things are going as well as they can possibly go because it's built into the nature so in a sense I'm a little uncomfortable with painting The Narrative of the present moment as so extraordinary that that's the reason we need to be ready and I don't know whether you intended that but I I would want from the get-go for 50 years you help people see life is hard you're going to suffer if they persecuted me they're going to persecute you this is just plain Biblical teaching it's not peculiar to America all over the world people are suffer and that would be true if America were heaven and on Earth so you I want to prepare Martyrs I want people to go to the hardest places of the world So my answer to how you preach is that you you preach the sovereignty of God you preach the fact that suffering is to be expected you preach the flip side of prosperity theology the problem with prosperity theology is that it lacks a doctrine of suffering and so pastors you want to build into your people capacities to suffer and not by be a a a child born who can't talk ever and you'll be caring for this child for the next 30 Years or it might be persecution you don't know what it might be so I I think the kind of preaching that the church needs is just first Peter through and through You Preach what the Bible says about suffering blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for the great is their reward in heaven rejoice in that day and be glad so so the the um I I know that you believe this but that what you just did for the last 10 minutes there I think can have an effect of making people angry and sewing seeds of H how do you turn that so I'll stop at the question how do you turn that back to Christian Hedonism because the last thing we want is for people to walk out of church on Sunday seething with anger at their culture that's that's the dominant emotion that they have I want them thrilled with the sovereignty of God thrilled that they're saved thrilled that they have meaning in life rooted in the gospel thrilled that no matter what happens in this world they're going to be able to walk in the truth and joy and and so there there's a a concern in in my heart that the way to get ready for suffering is to namely narrate how bad things are which is what you just did and I know that if you were preaching right there on Sunday you'd have a text open in front of you and you would be leading people into and round and up yeah to God my point in saying that is that the times have changed I mean it's different for us in America now than it was in terms of the tolerance of Christianity that's all I'm saying but the way I've always approached suffering and you can't get away from it if you're expositing the scripture all the time is to go back to James 1 count it all joy when you fall into various trials because they have a perfecting work or take the words of Peter after you've suffered a while the Lord make you perfect God's greatest work is done in our suffering and that's that's in the fabric of of all of the teaching of the New Testament um so on the one hand i'm assessing I think what you said is so important I'm simply saying it's different today and there are things that the church has gotten away with that you're not going to be able to get away with anymore and still be faithful because there's such hostility toward the truth but at the same time you not only prepare to suffer but you prepare to see God do his best work in the suffering um and I think the longer we live John we we would look back and see that the the times when we suffered the most we drew most near to him right no doubt about it bringing this conversation full circle back to the theme of the conference the Puritan conference how have the Puritans in particular shaped your life and Ministry I know Dr MacArthur I've heard you talk through the years about Thomas Watson and Steven charno Dr Piper even in your message last night you talked about John Owen John how and of course the American Puritan Jonathan Edwards so how have these faithful figures from church history how have they impacted you well if you're going to if you're going to include Jonathan ever with of the Puritans the answer is immeasurably um nobody outside the Bible that I'm aware of has had a greater impact on me than Jonathan Edwards and I'll just mention three steps in that I was in a classroom fall of 1968 Dan Fuller was speaking clearly precisely and rationally about God the class was full of Psych stud students who didn't like this so they raising their hands why are you so rational why don't you get more practical and emotional and Dr Fuller said why can't we be like Jonathan Edwards who could be writing a philosophical Treatise that would bend the minds of the greatest intellects and break into a paragraph that would thrill your grandmother's Godly soul and I was out of my chair I I was just on my way to the library I've only heard Jonathan Edwards mentioned in one context sinners in hand Ang God I don't have any idea that he had set anything like that and the book I found was the end for which God created the world that book changed the world for me it just turned everything upside down because the point was God uh is very Gods setter and does everything he does for the glory of God I had learned I'm supposed to do everything for the glory of God I didn't know God did everything for the glory of God and my world changed so that was step number one step number two was the freedom of the will there is no greater book on the planet about the freedom of the will which doesn't exist then Jonathan Edwards doesn't exist with this definition and let us be precise we are Puritans we serve a precise God thought ultimate human self-determination is what does not exist and that's what most people mean by freedom of the will though they don't say it to themselves and that book settled that issue for me I mean it was just phenomenal David well says it is it is a watershed book it's like if you read that book you come down one way or the other and the argument is over and third I'm sitting in a rocking chair in Munich Germany every Sunday night there no Services Sunday night and I'm reading for months just a few pages at a time the religious affections by Jonathan Edwards and my soul is being shredded shredded and my which interestingly enough has been one of my responses to the people who say he was a slaveholder piper he was a slave [01:09:01]