Forbidden Ministry

If you would, please take your
Bibles and turn to the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke, where we’ll
actually spend some time this morning. If you’ve been with
us, I say that tongue-in-cheek because from time to time in
our study of the Gospel of Luke, we’ve dipped into some of the
other Gospels. I was tempted to read a major
portion of a list that I compiled over the last few years. I shared
with some of you, parts of it in times past, things that I
have had to study in the last five years. And when I first
set out, I knew that I had studied a lot of different things, but
When I really began to compile the list, it really is amazing
the numbers of rabbit trails that I’ve had to take. And I’m
not just saying, you know, just passages that I’m studying, but
I’m talking major doctrinal issues that have come up and, you know,
at times threatened to overwhelm the church, impact our family,
impact friends of mine that come to me for help. major, major
issues. And I think I’ve told you in
times past on an eight and a half by 11 piece of paper, I came
up with three columns of things that I had to study. But there’s
an interesting thing. that during my Home Depot years,
those three years where I worked full time and wasn’t able to
devote a lot of time to that discipline of studying various
and sundry issues, there were a lot of so-called issues that
came and went. And I guess what I realized first
is that as a pastor, it was rather humbling. Because we get in our
mind’s eye as a pastor, this idea, this attitude that it’s
us that end up defeating some of the Lord’s enemies. And here
I had come out of the other side of this dark tunnel of working
three years only to find that there had been issues that had
come and gone that I had nothing to do with. Humbling. And you know what it told me
is that there are issues that I don’t need to wage war against
every day. There are some things that are
going to take care of themselves. There are some things that I
don’t need to make a major focus of my ministry. Essentially, that’s what is in
play in the passage at hand. The Lord, as you know, had been
trying to instruct His apostles, trying to train them, prepare
them for their own ministry. And it seemed like at every turn
they were ready to take a rabbit trail. And this is no exception. They were ready to focus on anything
but themselves, and we saw that they had need to focus on themselves
last week, didn’t we? They were unable to raise The
demon, Christ said that they had need to focus on themselves
then. They had need to focus on themselves on the Mount of
Transfiguration when they suddenly blurted out this crazy idea of
building three tents. The apostles best effort would
have been directed at focusing upon themselves, making sure
their own ministry was in order and in check and not worrying
about the periphery, everybody else. But that’s where we find
them. And interestingly, that’s where
we find ourselves, isn’t it? We focus and we find it much
easier to focus on everybody else than us. We can easily point
out other people’s problems and shortcomings, the error in their
theology, But to our own, it is too often like the case of
bad breath. If you have bad breath, you’re
usually the last one to know, right? Well, let’s fix our bad
breath this morning. Let’s do as Jesus instructs the
apostles to do. And let’s look at ourselves.
Look at ourselves. Look with me, if you would, at
Luke chapter 9, just two verses this morning with a portion of
Mark thrown in. Luke chapter 9, we’re going to
look at just verse 49 and 50. John answered and said, Master,
we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to
prevent him because he does not follow along with us. But Jesus
said to him, Do not hinder him, for he who is not against you
is for you.” And then, just for good measure, I want to pick
up that little comment in Mark’s gospel as well. Mark offers just
a touch of a different thought there. Mark inserts, Do not hinder
him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in my
name and be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Now, you
know, the context we had just had the apostles on three of
them, at least on the mountain with the Lord at the transfiguration,
three of them came down and no doubt were overwhelmed by what
they had seen deeply touched. They came down to an argument. An argument of bickering between
the tribes and the rest of the apostles, the nine, because they
couldn’t do a simple healing, something that they were equipped
by God’s grace to do, sent out specifically to do. One of the
three things they were sent out to do, they couldn’t do. And
yet in their audacity, what flows out of that is an argument of
who is the greatest. The things don’t seem to fit,
but that’s the important part to notice. Things don’t fit with
the apostles. They don’t have everything figured
out yet. And look at how gracious the
Lord is to continue this ministry to them of instruction and care
and bringing them along. What a gracious God we serve. I entitled the message this morning,
Forbidden Ministry. Forbidden Ministry. And essentially,
what I want to look at this morning is the idea of dealing with,
or how we deal with, a self-styled servant. One that maybe takes
matters into his own hands and bumbles along, seemingly unsent,
unequipped, seemingly, And all we can do is stand back and criticize. I want to look at how we deal
with the self-styled servant. And what I’ve done is just lay
out four considerations for us this morning in responding to
what we may even call an unorthodox minister. Now, I want you to
pause. I don’t want you to judge me.
I’m not saying that we turn a blind eye to unorthodox doctrine, to
heresy. I’m talking about one whose methods
or perhaps whose commissioning seems somewhat unorthodox out
of the norm with what we consider orthodox. First and foremost,
in order to justly treat the self-styled servant, first of
all, we must consider his nature. We have to look at exactly what
his ministry is. Let’s look at this man’s ministry. It just records an abrupt transition. John answered. John wasn’t asked
a question. It’s a rather odd construction.
He blurted out. Literally, the silence was begging
for a response from somebody and John stepped in it. Usually, we might assume that
this would be something Peter would do, and it is kind of a
ripe opening here for Peter himself. But in this case, it’s John.
One of the rare occasions where we find John speaking. John answered. He wasn’t asked a question, but
in order to quell the silence, John answered, Master, we saw
someone casting out demons in your name. I’ve already shared with you
the context, the transfiguration, the healing of the demon possessed
boy by Jesus when the apostles couldn’t. And then the ensuing
discussion about who was the greatest. And there likely was
this pregnant and silent pause. And John answered. On the surface, some have said
that there’s no connection between this paragraph and the ones that
proceed or the ones that follow. Some have suggested various suggestions
as to what the connection is. Some say there’s no thought connection
of any kind. Others have said this, that John
was actually embarrassed by this reprimand, this rebuke that he
received from Jesus. And in order to break the embarrassed
silence, he just blurts out. And I do think there’s somewhat
of some truth to that. Some have said that this little
paragraph, verses 49 and 50, was brought on by the words in
my name that Jesus just had uttered. And that’s a possibility. I think
that the answer is to be found probably in a combination of
these things, but I think the fourth suggestion is especially
true. John’s conscience I believe,
was pierced by what Jesus said. He knew that they should have
been able to heal this man. He knew that there was not going
to be a greatest, as it were, in the kingdom of heaven. I believe
John’s conscience was pierced by what Jesus said. And rather
than by embarrassment, John humbled himself and began to think back
to when they had been sent out. Remember? They were sent out
two by two, equipped by God’s grace to go preach the word,
cast out demons and do healing. And while he was out there, they
came across one unorthodox minister, one who wasn’t one of the twelve,
and yet one who was having an active ministry of casting out
demons. We’ll see more about him in a
moment. I believe John’s conscience was pierced Because he remembered
that they tried to stop this man. And I think John is already
on the path to learning what Christ is trying to intimate
here. If He’s doing it in my name, why are you stopping Him? Let’s take this little sentence
and dissect it a bit. He says, we saw someone. He doesn’t
name him. We have almost no detail about
him. We saw someone casting out demons. If he really wanted to torpedo
this man’s ministry, put an end to it, he could have brought
his name to the Lord Jesus Christ and said, Lord, this is it. Here’s
the man. Put an end to it. Perhaps he didn’t know his name,
but then again, perhaps it wasn’t important. Because really, there
are a lot of someones that we might title self-styled servants. Those who don’t wait for a formal
request of the local church. Those who see a need and stand
up and meet it. A certain someone. And I would
present to you that that’s where most of the work of the church
is done. By a certain someone. Someone
who doesn’t need a recognition. Someone who doesn’t need a reward.
Who doesn’t need a trophy after a faithful entire year of service. Question. We may not know why it was prompted,
but he just asks about this vague, unnamed someone. We don’t know. But we do know
he was doing a good work. We do know he was doing a work
that nobody else seemed to be able to do. The Jews would try
from time to time. They would have all kinds of
elaborate ceremonies to cast out demons. They would try. They
had what they called exorcists with all kinds of strange incantations
that they would call down. They would try. This man didn’t
try. Look at the next line. We saw
someone casting out demons. He was doing it. This casting
out implies that the man was effective. God was blessing his
efforts. He was using the authority of
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to expel demons. By faith, he
had grasped the power that was in Christ’s name. He knew. He
believed. I’m certain that he was a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew that Christ was the Son
of God. And his concern for these unfortunate
people. Remember, that was one of the
points that we observed about the Pharisees or rather the scribes. Here they are surrounded, this
demon possessed boy. Their compassion is almost absent
completely for the boy himself. Not this man. He says, I know
the Lord Jesus Christ. I can minister to these people.
I can do something. People, we can do something.
We can do something. Look at what he does. We saw
someone casting out demons in your name. He may not have had
a formal commissioning. In some sense, it may be a faulty
faith. Maybe he was running on ahead
of God unsent. He no doubt was not an apostle. We would agree with that. But the man believed in the Lord
Jesus Christ, he believed in the power of the name. I’ve already
pointed out the interesting context that the disciples had been confounded,
ridiculed, rebuked for their inability to cast out a demon.
This man just sat about to do it. He didn’t wonder whether
he could. He just went about to do it.
Can you imagine the first one that he approached? He’d never
done it before. Maybe he’d never even seen it
done. What faith that took for him to even try. And then the
confidence that must have come to him when the demon fled, that
first demon possessed individual. Some have asked, was this man
legitimate? Let’s look at another scenario. Keep your finger in the gospel
of Luke and look over to Acts chapter 19. Here was an illegitimate
case of casting out demons. And watch what happened in this
case. Because you never hear Jesus utter even a single word
of rebuke about this man. Look at Acts chapter 19, however.
In Acts chapter 19, we pick up in verse 13. But also, some of
the Jewish exorcists who were in this place, attempted. Here in our passage, he did it. He didn’t just try. He did it
in this passage that says they attempted to name those who had
evil spirits in the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure
you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. They didn’t know him, but Paul
did. They’re trying to play spiritual
middlemen. Verse 14, seven sons, one of
Siva, a Jewish priest, were doing this. And the evil spirit answered
and said to them, I recognize Jesus and I know about Paul,
but who are you? One of the great lines of Scripture. I didn’t know that demons did
humor, but it seems almost humorous. Who are you? And the man in whom was the evil
spirit leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them
so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. These
were not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. They did not believe
in the power of the name. They did not have the authority
to cast out demons. And look what happened to them.
The demon chased them out naked and shamed. Look at verse 17. This became known to all both
Jews and Greeks who lived in Ephesus and fear fell upon them
all in the name of the Lord. Jesus was being magnified. Many
of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing
their practices. This was greatly used by God
to bring about, in a sense, a small revival. Not the casting out of demons,
but the inability to cast out demons. These men were frauds, phonies,
charlatans just going around trying for money’s sake to cast
out demons in another man’s name. They didn’t believe in Jesus
Christ. Remember even one of the most profound passages, frightening
almost passages, Matthew 7.22. It records that many will say
to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name
and in your name cast out demons? These men were charlatans, phonies. This man, I believe, back to
Luke if you would, was in all probability a true believer in
Jesus, but imperfect. But listen to how it may have
gone with him. He had believed. He had listened
perhaps even to Jesus’ words or perhaps the apostles in their
preaching. And he had given his heart to Him. Even yet, it hadn’t
established any real close ties with either the apostles or with
the Lord Himself. He just sat about to get busy. One more detail about the man’s
nature. Look at the end of verse 49.
John blurted out, essentially, answered and said, Master, we
saw someone casting out demons in Your name. We tried to prevent
him because He does not follow along with us. He’s not in our
club. He’s not doing things the right way. He’s not part of our
denomination. See, the reason for their complaint,
he does not follow us, was really born out of this party spirit. That’s what Jesus begins to rebuke
here. They acted in this way, trying to forbid him because
he did not belong to their particular little band. He wasn’t one of
the openly acknowledged followers of Jesus. But they hadn’t even
determined the man’s inner convictions. It doesn’t say anything about
what they said to the man, only that they tried to forbid him.
They didn’t try to find out whether he had a true and genuine relationship
with the Lord Jesus. Essentially, what I think it
comes down to, they were jealous. And I don’t believe it was because
of his name. I believe it was jealous about
his ability. He was going around doing what they were supposed
to be able to do that they weren’t able to do. You know what? It doesn’t end
there. That kind of mindset continues even to this day. If they’re
not of us, we don’t want them to have the power. We don’t want
them to have success. Listen to how one pastor described
it. In this very way, we are apt. Pardon me. In this very way, how apt are
we to imagine that those who do not follow Christ at all or
those do not follow Christ at all, who do not follow him with
us? And those who do nothing well,
who do not do just as we do. You see, we like our methods.
We like our ways. We like our club. We like our
relationship with the Lord, and we want to put against the wall
and close them up. Anybody who doesn’t do it exactly
like we do it. Matthew Henry goes on and says,
but the Lord knows them that are his in whatever way they
are dispersed. And in this instance gives us
needful caution to take heed lest we be carried by an excessive
zeal for the unity of the church, for that which we are sure is
right and good to oppose that which may yet tend to the enlargement
of the church. Matthew Henry says the same thing
that the Lord taught me in those three years, we don’t need to
fight against every stinking little thing. We don’t need to
fight. The Lord is able to fight his
own battles. And you know what? It’s interesting, if we didn’t
know that Christ was omniscient, we might imagine him greeting
the apostles and listening to their report in this manner.
John suddenly blurts out, we saw someone casting out demons
in your name. And silence as if Jesus was waiting
for the punchline. Yeah. So what else? What’s your point, John? Think
it through, John, we saw someone, someone. Not anybody with a title. We
saw someone casting out demons in your name. Perhaps even John,
as he finished his sentence, stopped himself in his tracks.
What am I saying? The unorthodox minister, unorthodox
in his method, not his doctrine. One who is zealous, but naive. He’s enthusiastic, but he’s untaught. He doesn’t have everything figured
out, but he’s zealous to go accomplish the work for God’s kingdom. He’s
passionate. But he’s imperfect. He’s willing,
but he’s unrefined. Isn’t that the man that God uses?
Isn’t that the kind of people that God wants to use? We say,
but he has no seminary, no formal training, no ordination. He’s self-styled. You know what? This man didn’t do everything
the right way. Perhaps he didn’t even know there was a right way.
But you have to at least acknowledge his passion, his enthusiasm to
get in the game, to get about the ministry of ministering to
those who were burdened with these demons. You know, I mean,
I am not boasting and I want to stop you from even the thought.
I’m not boasting, but this is the story of my life. I don’t
even think I was two months old in the Lord. My church, they
made a big announcement. We need Sunday school teachers.
The second time they made it, I squirmed. The third week they
made it, I knew that the Lord was talking to me. I needed to
serve. So I got up and I went and served.
I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know there was an Old
Testament and a New Testament. I didn’t know what all the numbers
meant. And in a sense, it was foolish of me to get out there
and try, especially when during the second or third Sunday school
class, we came across the Ethiopian eunuch And I was suddenly forced
to try to describe that. That’s what propelled me into
seminary. So off to seminary I went. A
learning process that would take me not to one, not to two, but
three seminaries. I didn’t have anything figured
out. Much less everything. And you know what? This is the
story of Peter’s life. unorthodox, impetuous, we might
even call him bumbling. People, that’s the people that
God wants to use. Willing. We used to say faithful,
available, teachable. And what a great illustration.
We’re just willing, we’re there, we’re ready to serve. Let us
get busy and direct us. You know, the New Testament offers
a perfect example of this. Flip back, if you would, to the
book of Acts. This time, Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18 records that there
was a Jew in verse 24 named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent
man. This man has some gifts. An eloquent
man came to Ephesus and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This
man had been instructed in the way of the Lord and being taught
and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus. He had some
understanding. Mighty in the Scriptures. Going
about doing what the apostles were sent out to do. Preaching
the Word. But it also notes at the end
of verse 25, being acquainted only with the baptism of John.
Imperfect. An imperfect, unfulfilled man. Verse 26, And he began to speak
out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila
heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way
of God more accurately. They refined him. Now they take
him and they put him as it were through seminary. Now they equip
him more fully. But those are the people that
God takes and uses are the people that are already in the game,
willing and active. In fact, I would even say that much
of the commendable acts and activity recorded in Scripture were done
by those who didn’t have a divine mandate. They were just doing
what they believed in their heart was asked. They were never asked.
They were never sent. They were never commanded. And
that’s the problem with us. Too many people wait for a booming
voice from heaven before they will get up and move and serve.
Get busy, do something and let God direct you. If it needs refining,
you can bet since the Lord is the Lord of his kingdom, he will
give you refinement. He will direct your path. He
will clarify your methods. Not if you’re sitting on the
couch. I said that there were four considerations
in responding to the unorthodox. We’ve seen his nature. He is unorthodox. We don’t know
who he was. We know that he wasn’t an apostle. And we can rightly say of him
that he was an unorthodox minister, he was a self styled servant. But secondly, we have to consider
that the standard response. And this is as true of us as
it was of the apostles, the standard response is a restrictive sanction. Stop it. Stop doing what you’re
doing. Sit down. Look at what they did. We tried to prevent him. He wouldn’t
even obey us, Lord. And how true is that today? If
He doesn’t fit our mold, if He isn’t exactly the man that we
think He’s supposed to be, we try to prevent Him. One said
it this way, it’s a pitiful specimen of partisan narrowness and pride
by this beloved disciple, John. This man was doing the Master’s
work in the Master’s name and with the Master’s power. But
he didn’t meet with John’s approval. I don’t know, I think it was
a Donald Duck cartoon. Pardon me that I don’t remember
exactly. But in a cartoon, I think it was Donald Duck. Donald Duck’s
flying the plane, suddenly finds, you know how they are, the thing
develops, suddenly Donald lands in a plane, he’s flying a plane.
Right? Goofy flies up next to him and
says, you don’t know how to fly a plane. And suddenly with that
news in his head, the plane crashes and all you see is a puff of
smoke. You know what? Imagine the man who comes to
Christ, he begins to feast on God’s word, he grows in grace,
he begins to love and serve his Christian brothers and sisters.
Eventually, by God’s uncommon grace, he even becomes a pastor
and he serves humbly and faithfully until one day. Someone comes along and asks
him where he received his degree, where he went to Bible college,
where he went to seminary. His calling, his challenge, his
confidence becomes eroded, his ministry is derailed and God
loses a faithful servant. You know what, God, I believe
the Almighty God can do anything with anybody, anything he wants. And we sometimes go to impossible
lengths to keep people from innocently and simply serving the Lord Jesus
Christ if it isn’t done exactly how we think it should. According
to our standard, exactly according to what we think is the right
way. I think I’ve told you this before
when I was in candidation mode years ago, I stopped sending
resumes to churches that demanded ordination. Stopped it. If you’re going to set up that
kind of unbiblical, excessive standard, you wouldn’t be happy
with the Lord Jesus Christ or the Apostle Paul. So you’re sure
not going to be happy with me. People from time to time, I say
this enough that it begins to sink in. I don’t hear anybody
calling me reverend anymore. They say it. I know as soon as
you get ordained, they say it out of some kind of respect.
I don’t respect them anymore for saying it. So why they say
it is beyond me. It’s a frightening thing. You
get a degree in seminary and people just suddenly begin to
fall like you’re somewhat different above them. J.C. Ryle, one of my heroes,
said it this way. Thousands in every period of
church history have spent their lives in copying this mistake
of John. They have labored to stop every
man who will not work for Christ in their way.” They’ve tried to stop him from
working for Christ at all. They’ve imagined in their petty
self-conceit that no man can be a soldier of Christ unless
he wears their uniform and fights in their regiment. You know what? Moses faced a
similar situation in Numbers 11. Numbers 11, verse 26, it
says this. Two men remained in the camp.
The name of one was Eldad and the name of the other was Medad.
And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those who
had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent. And
they prophesied in the camp. Imagine the gall. So a young
man ran and told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in
the camp. Little tattletale. And Joshua, the son of none,
the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, Moses, my Lord,
restrain them. But Moses said to him, Are you
jealous for my sake? You worried about me? Think somebody
is going to steal ministry from me? Would that all of the Lord’s
people were prophets. What a great attitude towards
ministry that Moses had. Would that all of the Lord’s
people were prophets and the Lord would put His Spirit upon
them. That’s the attitude that was
missing from the apostles. They looked at this man as their
competition. And I want to acknowledge, people,
there are lots of questions. Lots of very important questions
about ministries that are going on in our days. The main question
that we have to remember, though, are they forsaking Christ? Or
are they merely forsaking some cultural method that we hold
dear? These kinds of restrictive sanctions
were applied to Christ. They were applied, we know, to
the prophets. Eventually, they would be applied to the prophets
themselves and to Paul. And we do the same thing. We
do the same thing. If they haven’t been to the seminary
that we hold dear, or if they don’t hold exactly to our narrow
doctrinal perspective, we judge them to be wholly unusable in
God’s economy. That same arrogance displayed
by the apostles is often too often displayed by us, isn’t
it? Arrogant, spiritual snobbery. You know what? These apostles
should be thankful that we are not in charge. Because if we
had been running the show, one false move like this, one act of faithlessness like
Peter, that would have been the end of their apostleship. We
would have replaced them, wouldn’t we? Look at how gracious and patient
the Lord is. And that’s the point of this
whole thing. It isn’t so with Christ. It’s a ministry of gentle
correction of taking mere men There’s nothing different about
any of God’s servants. They’re no better. They’re not
cut out of any better cloth than you and I. Mere men taking mere
men and lovingly molding them into weapons of warfare for God’s
kingdom. That’s the ministry, isn’t it?
Isn’t that the ministry of the New Testament? Listen to what
Paul tells to Timothy as part of his ministry. The Lord’s servant
must not be quarrelsome. Don’t go writing people off.
Don’t go scratching people off the list of potential servants.
The Lord’s bond servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind
to all, able to teach, patient when wronged. Why? With gentleness
correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God. God may grant
them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. You see,
God wants us to bring people along. He wants us to confront
them in their error if there is such. But He wants us to restore
them and retain them for ministry’s sake. You know what was interesting? Last week, we forgot to do my
devotion at our picnic. You know what my devotion was
on? The book of Jude. In the book of Jude, there was
an interesting thing at the end. You think of the book of Jude
as being the whole thing about apostasy. And it’s there. It’s
about apostasy and false teachers. Absolutely. But listen to this. At the end of the book of Jude,
it says, have mercy on some. Have mercy? Bear patiently with
them. Appeal to them. Teach them. Have
mercy on some who are doubting. Save others. Snatching them out
of the fire. And then there are the others.
When some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted
by the flesh. It’s the very nature of the epistles,
isn’t it? Corrective. Not this empty sanctioning
that puts people aside and writes them off for good. We’ll talk more about the specifics
in a moment, but I don’t think we need to fight every ism, every
person that doesn’t fit our pattern. We don’t need to apply a restrictive
sanction in every case. That brings me to the third point. In order to justly treat the
self-styled servant, we have to consider his nature. He is
an unorthodox minister. The standard response is a restrictive
sanction. That’s our typical response as
well. But note the corrective truth,
the principle of alliance. Look at verse 50. Jesus said
to him, Do not hinder him. Do not hinder him, for he who
is not against you, is for you. This man wasn’t in competition
with the apostles. We go back to Moses’ example.
Would that they were all apostles. Would that they were all casting
out demons. I’ve said it before. I’d love
it if you were all. All of you men were elders in
the church. Jesus doesn’t praise or blame
this man for being self-styled. He doesn’t even focus in on the
man for not working with the disciples. He simply points out that he’s
doing a good work. We can’t consider him an enemy
because of the work that he’s doing. John Gill, Spurgeon’s
predecessor, said it this way. He was not either. Pardon me.
He was not against Christ. Pardon me again. He was not against
either Christ or his disciples. He was doing the same work. He
was promoting the same interest. He was destroying the kingdom
of Satan, and therefore he did not follow them. And he had not
his commission immediately from Christ, yet inasmuch as he was
opposing the same common enemy and did nothing against them,
he ought to be reckoned as one for them and on their side. Isn’t the devil’s enemy our friend? It is a proverbial expression
signifying that all. That are not against a man and
take part of the man’s enemy are to be accounted as his friends. And people, we end up making
enemies out of people that ought not be our enemies. Another characterized it this
way, if the disciples hadn’t been more devoted to their own
glory than anxious and direst to promote
the glory of their master, they would not have been offended
when they saw enemies that ought not be enemies. I don’t believe everything that
charismatics believe. But you know what? I have to
acknowledge their passionate worship. And if you stack them
up, sometimes our worship is paltry in comparison, isn’t it?
I don’t agree with Arminians who put man’s sovereignty in
his own hands. I don’t agree with them. But
I have to acknowledge their zealous desire to save souls, sometimes
shameful to those who hold to Calvinist perspectives. I don’t
agree with everything that Rick Warren believes or the church
growthers. But you know what? I have to
acknowledge their eagerness, even their creativity to reach
out to their community. Jesus says, these aren’t all
our enemies. I don’t agree with everything
that they do, but they’re not our enemies. They name the name of Christ,
if they haven’t forsaken Christ, they’re on our side and they
are instructable. I talked to a brother the other
day, and he has had great, great inroads into some of the pastors
in his area that hold to some of this church growth stuff.
Just ministering, just promoting the Word and showing them the
Word and showing them the history of God’s Word in action. They’re
instructable. We can’t write them off. You know what? Throughout the history of the
church, it’s been this way. And it really should stop with
us. I’m not talking about becoming ecumenical and embracing and
locking arms with everybody. The most pseudo religious church
in the world. What I’m talking about is focusing
on our own ministry. Promoting our own ministry, being
active in ministry ourself and taking our eyes off of all the
other peripheral issues. Focusing on Christ himself, promoting
Christ only. J.C. Ryle corrected this way
when he said, we forget that no church on earth has an absolute
monopoly of all wisdom. People may be right in the main
without agreeing with us. We must learn to be thankful
if sin is opposed and the gospel is preached. The devil’s kingdom
is pulled down, though the work may not be done exactly in the
way we like. You say, well, that was fine
for J.C. Ryle. But you know what? There was
another one that held to the exact same perspective. That’s the
Apostle Paul. Paul said it this way. I want
you to know, brethren, my circumstances have turned out for the greater
progress of the gospel. He’s writing an update there
in Philippians chapter 1. He’s wanting to tell people how
things are going for him there under the Roman guard. So that
my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known
throughout the whole praetorian garden to everyone else and that
most of the brethren, not all, most of the brethren trusting
in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak
the Word of God without fear. Some to be sure. He acknowledges it. Things are
not perfect. Maybe there were church growthers
even back then. Maybe Arminians. Who knows what
their motive or method was. Some, to be sure, are preaching
Christ even from envy and strife. They were trying to set themselves
up as being in competition with Paul. Some, to be sure, are preaching
Christ from envy and strife, but some also out of goodwill.
The latter do it out of love. Knowing that I am appointed for
the defense of the gospel, the former proclaim Christ out of
selfish ambition rather than from pure motives. Does Paul
here call down fire from heaven to consume them? What then? Only that in every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in this I
rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice. I don’t like the fact that there
are churches in our day and age that preach 20 minute messages.
The 20 minutes is better than nothing. I don’t like the fact
that a gospel presentation seems to present the ultimate choice
as being mine. But Christ is being proclaimed.
You know what? Paul didn’t even have
a corner on the market on this approach. I want to take you
one more time as we close to the book of Acts. Acts chapter
5. Placing your finger in Luke and
one in Acts chapter 5, I want you to look at a man named Gamaliel. The ministry of the apostles
is beginning to go forth and it’s beginning to reap the expected persecution. Verse 33, when they
heard this, they were cut to the quick and they intended to
kill them. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law,
respected by all the people, stood up in the council and gave
orders to the men to put them in outside for a short time.
And he said to them, men of Israel, take care of what you propose
to do with these men. For some time ago, Thutis rose up claiming
to be somebody and a group of about 400 men joined up with
him. This was the original promise
keepers movement. But he was killed and all who followed him
were dispersed and came to nothing. I remember there was a time in
my early ministry, fresh out of seminary, I was going to make
it my clarion call, my with every ounce of my being to fight against
the promise keepers movement. Listen to what he says. After
this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census
and drew away some people after him, he too perished. And all
those who followed him were scattered. So, in the present case, I say
to you, stay away from these men. Let them alone. For if this
plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown.” What a great
encouragement to us! The prayer of Jabez can only
go as far as men can take it, and no further. Forty days of
purpose will end at day 41. No further. But if it is of God, you will
not be able to overthrow them or else you may even be found
fighting against God. You don’t even need to fight
every one of God’s battles. What we need to do is focus on
Christ and proclaiming Christ. Are we doing what God expects
us to do? rather than majoring on criticism
of other men’s ministries. Fourth and finally, in order to strategically treat
the self-styled servant, we have to consider his nature, the standard
response which is true of us, the corrective truth, the principle
of alliance. And finally, the reasonable observation,
this is where we get from Mark, the thoroughness of apostasy.
And that’s why I said Christ is key. Listen to what these
men say of Christ. You want to see who I fight against?
I fight against Kenneth Copeland, because what he preaches is what
he preaches. Somebody preaches Christ, but
perhaps not in a way, not using the same method, shorter sermon. He uses drugs. He doesn’t use,
you know, whatever. If he’s preaching Christ, He’s
not my enemy. For the sake of time, I’m going
to end there. But it’s a reasonable observation,
one that Mark makes. Don’t hinder him. For there is
no one who will be able to perform a miracle and be able soon afterward
to love me. It’s inconsistent. Preach Christ
and then not undermine. You’d have no minister at all. People, it all, like it always
does, comes back to Christ. And what are we doing with Christ? Are we introducing others to
Christ? Are we promoting Christ in His
ways? We don’t need to become the experts of every other person’s
ministry. We just need to be an expert
in one, our own. Let’s humble ourselves before
Him. Oh, gracious God, examine our
hearts. Correct our approach in dealing
with these self-styled servants of Yours. Father, if there are
those that we truly judge to be contrary to Christ, let us
turn and avoid them. For those others, Let us let
You correct them. If we’re given the opportunity,
give us ample words and clear speech. Father, first and foremost,
let us focus on Christ and Christ alone and let us promote Him
and Him only. Father, may You be glorified.
May Your church be built for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.