Reflections
Today's sermon was on Acts 20:17-38, and Pastor Nick made two good points on the passage.
We should be proclaiming the whole counsel of God. (v.27)
We should be on alert and aware of the wolves in our midst. (v.29-31)
Proclaiming the Whole Counsel of God
This is one of the most important pieces that I think we must get right while failing miserably at it. I can think of a dozen verses off the top of my head that would be glossed over or altered with dozens of qualifiers before given them to the congregation. e.g. 1st Timothy 2, 1st Corinthians 11 and 14, Ephesians 5, 1st Peter 3, etc. The list goes on. I've railed quite a bit against the egalitarianism in the church today and sadly the horse is not yet dead so beat it I must.
Today I'd like to point to another thing that came to me. In my daily bible reading, we've been going through Numbers this last week and we reached Chapter 15:
Numbers 15:32–36 (NET 2nd ed.)
32 When the Israelites were in the wilderness they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community. 34 They put him in custody, because there was no clear instruction about what should be done to him. 35 Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death; the whole community must stone him with stones outside the camp.” 36 So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the LORD commanded Moses.
How many pastors would preach this not just as a thing that happened, but as something that was good? Not dressed up with the qualifiers of "but we aren't under the law anymore" or "that doesn't apply to us" or some such response?
The Lord commanded it, therefore it was good. We should be careful not to change the text or the context to make ourselves feel better. God hates sin. We should never forget that and be comfortable with our sins.
Being Alert and Aware of the Wolves
The second point is something I've written about before and will continue to point out. Pastor Nick had this to say:
"What draws away the disciples is not blatant lies but subtle misdirections."
Amen, brother. When people are looking for false teachers they typically think of the big flashy types like Joel Osteen or Paula White. What they don't see are the more subtle ones, or at least the ones that start out subtle. A good example of this is Leighton Flowers and "Provisionism." This is just blatantly repackaged Pelagianism, and you can see that here.
What Leighton does is exactly what Pastor Nick was talking about in his sermon: Reshape Jesus (and by extension God) into something more palatable. He downplays the severity of sin, and oversells the ability of man. Leighton's hatred of Calvinism and the Doctrines of Grace distorts his theology and he ends up eisegeting every text he can find. The worst part is, people fall for it. A lot.
Why does false teaching work so well? Pastor Nick addressed that too:
"I can only lie to you about someone you don't know well."
Lack of biblical literacy is a central contributor to the rampant heresies of our day. Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism. Egalitarianism. You name it, lack of knowing Scripture is probably right there in the middle. The false teachers will twist and change and distort scripture, and the rest of the flock they are leading astray will clap and nod along and follow them straight into the abyss.
Closing
Biblical literacy needs to make a comeback, and reclaiming doctrinal clarity is paramount. We must not let our people starve for lack of knowledge and sound teaching. This blog is my attempt to do my part, and I hope it is beneficial to you in some way.