The Whole Counsel of God Part 2

If you have your Bible, we’re going to be back in Acts 20:26-38 tonight. If you remember last week, we somehow got way behind schedule and didn’t come close to finishing all of the chapter so this evening, we are going to expand on what I originally had prepared and finish the chapter. Last week we talked about the duty and the work of the pastor and we did this so that you all can know what to look for when you leave here and go out to hopefully find your own church to be a part of. We’ll keep bringing that in to our message tonight but before we even get there, I want to take the first 10-15 minutes and preach an entirely different sermon if that’s alright. I want to do this because we have been having quite a bit of behavior problems, some of which have up to a time, gone competely unnoticed but over time, things come to light. Guys, I don’t take this lightly and I’m not even exaggerating but in almost 10 years of youth ministry, I have never had a group that I have loved more and have had my heart broken more. I say that because I hear some of these things that you are doing out of the church and then I hear and see the things that you are doing in the church and to paraphrase Paul from Galatians 4:19-20, I’m perplexed about you. I was up practically all night last Wednesday because you all were on my mind and it just pains me to see some of you walking the path that you are walking. We actually had a “emergency meeting” this past Sunday with Pastor Wayne, the youth leaders, and even the kids ministry leaders because they’re their own breed as well with behavior problems that shock me, and we had this meeting basically to try and nail down what we need to do as leaders to work out some of these problems. What we all decided was that we do need to crackdown on some of your behavior. There needs to be consequences and accountability. This isn’t just directed towards one specific person or one specific group, this is for everybody. I’ll be honest, I’m tired of being lied to. I’m tired of being pushed to the brink of exhaustion for some of you and still being treated like crap. I’m tired of hearing apologies over behavior that’s totally wrong and then people going right back to it. I see you all as my spiritual children and when I see my children make mistakes, over and over, I blame myself and I’m tired of that. You need to get a grip. So, we had this meeting and here’s what we decided: you need to check in when you get here and you need to ask a leader to go to the bathroom. And you are going by yourself and if for some reason you need someone to go with you, a leader will be outside the door. I’m tired of treating you like adults when you are only going to act like children. We’re going to have a strike policy with each and every one of you that each and every leader is able to enforce and you all will receive a copy of that tonight so you know what is expected of you. If your behavior gets to a point that is totally out of control, we’re gonna ask you not to come. We’re gonna tell you that you can’t go on the fun trips with us and I have no problem telling Denny Hardee that some of you won’t be able to go to Refuel. We will take your phones if we see you on them while I’m teaching. Bible app is fine, the stray absolute emergency text is fine but those don’t happen every 30 seconds. I’m tired of pouring my heart and soul into lessons that you need to hear but only a quarter of you are listening to. I am fine putting days of work into each lesson for one person but I would really love for that not to be the reality. If we have a problem, you will be stuck sitting next to a leader and being with them the entire evening. You won’t escape their sight and if it gets to a point where you just refuse to listen and work with us, we’re gonna ask you not to come for a bit. If you come back and there’s still problems, we’re gonna ask that you don’t come back at all unless change is really seen in your life. I want you all here but a time comes when a decision has to be made to protect the sheep from the wolves. If your “influence” is negatively impacting the faith of someone in this group, you are going to be asked to leave. I know your teenagers, there is not a single person here that expects you to be perfect and we aren’t holding you to a standard of perfection that is unattainable. We are holding you to a standard of what is good and what is righteous and what is beneficial for your soul and the good of the church. What I want to briefly do now is look at Ephesians 4:17-32 and bring your attention to a couple of key phrases. Let me just say too that tonight really is shrouded in love for you. What tonight isn’t going to be is: Point 1- You’re stupid. Point 2- You’re hopeless. Point 3- We hate you for this. That’s not at all where this is coming from. What we’re saying tonight is because our love for you is so great, we need to talk about this. Because we want to show you grace and mercy, that’s why we’re doing this. So that’s where my head’s at and hopefully that’s where your head’s at. Before we do that, I want to pray for us and our time together tonight. Paul writes:

Ephesians 4:17–32 (ESV)

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

One thing that I will stress now is that I am talking to those of you that identify and claim to be a Christian. The conduct that we are looking at is the conduct of the believer. If you are not a Christian, there is a reason that you walk in sin and love sin so much and that is because you have not been made new by Christ and you do not have a newness of life. We’ve asked the question before: Why do lost people act lost? It’s because they’re lost! Paul is clearly addressing Christians in this passage and the entire letter is addressed towards Christians. Paul contrasts the who and what that Christians with that of the world. He associates the lost with Gentiles and the reason that he does this is because in a sense, the Gentiles didn’t know any better. The eyes of their hearts were so darkened because of sin and they live totally alienated from God. They have given into every form of sin and impurity imaginable and they have done it joyfully! Paul at that point immediately turns to the believer and says, “But that is not the way that you learned Christ!” If you are a Christian, your life is to look differently. You should be sticking out like a sore thumb and not for the wrong reasons. John Calvin said, “The doctrine of Christ teaches us to renounce our natural dispositions. He whose life differs nothing from that of unbelievers, has learned nothing of Christ; for the knowledge of Christ cannot be separated from the death of the flesh.” Really what Calvin and Paul are saying is that if you are a Christian, you should know better because you’ve been taught differently! You should live differently because you know differently! As Paul is writting this letter to the Ephesians, he is well aware that almost directly across from the city is the great city of Athens. On one side of the Aegean sea you had the city of Ephesus and directly across on the other side of the sea you have the city of Athens. It’s almost as if Paul as he is addressing this knowing and learning of who Jesus Christ is that he is contrasting it with the learning that would be happening 200 miles away and he’s saying, “look at all of that knowledge and look what is has led to!” In the grand scheme of things, the only knowledge that will have any everlasting value is the knowledge that you have of Jesus Christ. Paul is saying look at what they have learned and look at what you have learned which is far better. I would challenge you in the same exact way. There are things in this world that are just simply not compatible with the Christian life. You see what the world values and you have heard of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you know His work, His very personhood, you know His innermost being and His greatest desires, you have learned Christ, so what are you going to do with it? Keep walking in the old? God forbid it! If you have learned Christ in the way of a Christian, your life looks different now, not 50 years down the road when you are ready to settle down! You have been made new now! Look at the next part of the verse that I highlighted and put in bold lettering: All of this assumes that you have heard and were taught in Him at all. It is entirely possible that you hear these things but you don’t know them. You heard the things of Christ but you are not truly united in Christ because if you were united in Christ, the old way of life would be cast aside so that the new life could begin, one that is created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. If you are a Christian, live for Christ now. If you are claiming that you have repented of your sins and have turned to Christ, stop living in those sins! Put them to death or they will be the death of you! Live for Christ now or don’t do it all. Some of you have been coming here for years and years and you’ve made claim after claim and you keep saying, “Next time will be different” but what has that gotten you? You keep living for yourself! Jonathan Edwards once said, “How can you expect to dwell with God forever, if you so neglect and forsake him here?” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (ESV)

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Paul says, “This is not who you are anymore! You used to be unrighteous, you used to be all of these awful things but not anymore! You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of Christ!” Now what is amazing about this reality is that the Gospel really is full of mercy and grace. The Gospel is not for the perfect person! It is for the imperfect person that will be made perfect at the last days. The Gospel isn’t for the high and mighty, isn’t for the strong and powerful, isn’t for the ones that are perfect and have all their ducks in a row, the Gospel is good news for sinners. It is good news for those that are the rejects, the outcasts, and the heavy laden. Look again at Ephesians 4:25-30

Ephesians 4:25–30 (ESV)

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Is this not almost the exact same thing that Paul tells the Christians in Corinth? Put it all away he says! Notice too that Paul brings up all of these things that Christians aren’t supposed to do and he simply just says, “Don’t do these things!” He says, “if you’re a thief, don’t be! Don’t steal anymore! Don’t talk with corrupting talk. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit!” He doesn’t say, “Ask God to do these things for you or have a prayer meeting about it.” He just says stop! So look at the things in your life, and maybe this is an oversimplificaiton but I don’t think it is, there are things as a Christian that you need to just stop doing. “Well, I like to smoke.” Then stop buying it! Stop bringing it! You don’t need God to give you this sense of power and presence to stop doing these things, ya just stop! “I’m addicted to porn and sex!” Then stop allowing yourself to be on the internet. Stop spending time alone with this person! Because you don’t need it and if you stop giving the devil an opportunity to ruin your life, you can stop! You can be better because if you’re a Christian, you’re already new! You might drive through the old neighborhood but you don’t live there anymore. You aren’t in the slums, you’ve been moved to the Ritz Carlton! So, take a second and think of it like this, if the Spirit of God Almighty is living inside of you, what are you exposing Him to? Are you profaning the righteous with unrighteousness? How dare we? Paul says in Romans 6:1-2 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” If we have truly died to sin, if we have truly been made new in Christ, there is no way that we can possibly still live in those sins! Obviously one that is dead is completely different than someone that’s alive. John Stott said that our lives as Christians is a book of 2 volumes: who we were before Christ and who we are after we’ve been saved by Christ. We may struggle but we aren’t enslaved any longer! God knows we struggle, God knows we have moments of relapse but if you are a Christian, you are not enslaved to those struggles. Charles Spurgeon in one of my favorite quotes from the man said, “If Christ has died for me – ungodly as I am, without strength as I am – then I can no longer live in sin, but must arouse myself to love and serve Him who has redeemed me. I cannot trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend. I must be holy for his sake. How can I live in sin when He has died to save me from it?” You guys need this come to Jesus moment. You need to remember, if you are a Christian, who you are and what you have been purchased from and the cost that it took for make your new life a reality. I know some of the circumstances in your life have been terrible but those circumstances do not dictate the person that Christ wants you to be. Look, I love you all so dearly and I am telling these things because I love you so dearly. To tell you all of this, is just to tell you the whole counsel of God and with that in mind, let’s look back at Acts 20:26-38

Acts 20:26–38 ESV

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

So, we’re back on track from last week.

The Whole Counsel of God

To preach the whole counsel of God means that we as pastors are not to hold anything back that is profitable for you. We are to preach a whole Bible and a whole Gospel. We aren’t to take anything out or add anything in. We are to preach everything that is easy and hard to swallow. We aren’t to take out the doctrines that might appear offensive to people. We can’t preach all love. To know God is to know His wrath, His judgement, His vengeance and stance towards sin and sinners. We need to preach a whole Christ. There needs to be a balance in our preaching. Pastors shouldn’t be a broken record. We don’t sing to one tune. We cover the spread and we do it faithfully. This is why it is so important for you guys to find preachers who take you verse by verse through the Bible because when a preacher goes verse by verse, they aren’t skipping the hard to swallow or hard to understand parts. They have to come face to face with the whole counsel of God. They can’t take the good and leave the bad. They can’t take just the easy parts and leave the hard for someone else or just hope that it isn’t important. We also aren’t to be pursuaded by man’s opinion. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was once asked to tone down his sermons to make them more approachable and Lloyd-Jones said, “When I was a medical doctor, I never let the patient write the prescription. I’m not going to start doing so now.” We don’t preach to please the desires and opinions of the world. We preach Christ crucified and raised from the dead. Charles Spurgeon said, “The Word of God is the anvil on which the opinions of men are smashed.” Preachers aren’t to hold anything back. I sometimes think of the day when I stand before the Lord and I think what will I say if the Lord were to ask me, “Brady, what did you hold back? What about me did you not make clear?” I want to apply to my life and my ministry what Paul says in Colossians 1:28-29

Colossians 1:28–29 (ESV)

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

That is the goal of the pastor. To present everyone mature in Christ and to do this, we have to teach the whole counsel of God, from the pulpit and in private. It is our duty to rebuke, to correct, to train in righteousness and we can’t do this while cherry picking Scriptures. Finally, as we preach the whole counsel of God, we are preparing the church to be on the lookout for false teachers. Let’s look at verses 28-32 again.

The Dangers of False Teachers

Acts 20:28–32 ESV

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

The greatest danger to the church comes from the inside. Notice that Paul says that the elders are to pay close attention to themselves and to the church because he knows that after Paul is gone, fierce wolves will come in from within the church that will seek to push people away. This is a reminder that just because you attend a church does not mean that you are a part of the Church. Just because your name is in the church records does not automatically equate you with salvation. The greatest threat to the church is not the world, it’s false teachers that stir up trouble from within the church. That is why it is so important for pastors to faithfully preach the Word and guide the flock. I’ve mentioned this before but on my desk in front of my computer I have a little plaque that has a quote from John Calvin and it reads: “The pastor ought to have two voices: one, for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means of doing both.” I see this quote every day and every day it inspires me to do all I can to teach you what the Bible teaches and every day it gives me a great desire to point you to strong Biblical teaching. This is part of the reason why I quote so many other pastors. It’s because I want you to surround yourself with Biblical truth so that when the day comes, not if, when the day comes when false teaching makes its way to your church, you’ll be able to stand. You might think, “Not my church!” If the church of Ephesus can fall with teachers like Paul, Timothy, and John, who are we to say that our church is untouchable. A firm standing in Biblical truth will always protect against false teaching and this is something that we are going to dive into more deeply next month as we dive into 1-2 Thessalonians. What can we do then? We can know our Bible. We can know our Savior and we can know the things that He teaches. We don’t believe because a loud voice says it in a church, we believe something because we find the truth that is proclaimed in Scripture. Where the Bible speaks; God speaks. We need to be like the believers in Berea in Acts 17 where when we hear teaching, we immediately cross-reference that teaching with Scripture. In fact, I strongly encourage that you check what I am saying with Scripture because I want to be right. Not out of a desire to make myself great but out of a desire to lead you in spirit and in truth. And again, we don’t believe every little thing that someone says because the name of Jesus is attached to it. John warns us of this and writes in 1 John 4:1-3

1 John 4:1–3 (ESV)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

We need to consider not only how we listen but what we listen to. We don’t fall at the feet of anyone that claims to be religious or spiritual but we run headlong to the Word of God. Are you on the lookout for the wolves? Are you keeping an eye out for false teaching? Do you desire the greater things of God and a greater understanding of His Word and His person? I pray that you do and I pray that as we leave here today and as we worship together that our eyes are set to whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. And hoepfully what you have learned and received and heard and seein in me and the other pastors in your life, you will be able to put into practice. Surround yourselves with Christians and with pastors that desire to you sanctified and instill in you the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In this life you all only have one chance, you have one life. There are no do overs, there is no starting over after you go around once. Only one life ‘twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last. With this one life that you have, surround yourself with the Word of God, surround yourself with Biblical teaching and teachers, and live for Christ now while there is still time. Let’s pray.