There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Mortification of any sin must be by a supply of grace. Of ourselves we cannot do it…. Let this, then, be fixed upon thy heart, that if thou hast not relief from him thou shalt never have any. All ways, endeavours, contendings, that are not animated by this expectation of relief from Christ and him only are to no purpose, will do thee no good; yea, if they are any thing but supportments of thy heart, in this expectation, or means appointed by himself for the receiving help from him, they are in vain.
— John Owen
Cited from The Mortification of Sin in Believers in The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 81.
Recently, I came across The Mortification of Sin in Believers by John Owens. Grace supplied by Christ, according to Owens, is the way to bring about mortification. Mortification has to do with the mortifying or putting to death the inner impulses to sin and resisting the external temptations to sin. Christians have been united with Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry out the calling to mortify sin.
John Owen (1616-1683) was an English Puritan minister and prolific author. He served as rector of Fordham, Essex (1642), vicar at Coggeshall (1646), vice chancellor at Oxford (1652-1657), and dean of Christ Church Cathedral (1651-1660). From 1660 onward, Owen ministered as a preacher and writer. He was friend to John Bunyan, who helped in getting published Bunyan’s classic The Pilgrims Progress.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. 2 Cor. 7:10.
Conviction of sin is best portrayed in the words—
‘My sins, my sins, my Saviour.
How sad on Thee they fall.’
Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses a man’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God—“against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.” Conviction of sin, the marvel of forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God’s grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: ‘I have sinned.’ The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself.
The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man’s respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for ‘the gift of tears.’ If ever you cease to know the virtue of repentance, you are in darkness. Examine yourself and see if you have forgotten how to be sorry.1
Walk the streets by moonlight, if you dare, and you will see sinners then. Watch when the night is dark, and the wind is howling, and the picklock is grating in the door, and you will see sinners then. Go to yon jail, and walk through the wards, and mark the men with heavy over-hanging brows, men whom you would not like to meet at night, and there are sinners there. Go to the Reformatories, and note those who have betrayed a rampant juvenile depravity, and you will see sinners there. Go across the seas to the place where a man will gnaw a bone upon which is reeking human flesh, and there is a sinner there. Go where you will, you need not ransack earth to find sinners, for they are common enough; you may find them in every lane and street of every city, and town, and village, and hamlet. It is for such that Jesus died. If you will select me the grossest specimen of humanity, if he be but born of woman, I will have hope of him yet, because Jesus Christ is come to seek and to save sinners. Electing love has selected some of the worst to be made the best. Pebbles of the brook grace turns into jewels for the crown-royal. Worthless dross he transforms into pure gold. Redeeming love has set apart many of the worst of mankind to be the reward of the Saviour’s passion. Effectual grace calls forth many of the vilest of the vile to sit at the table of mercy, and therefore let none despair.
Reader, by that love looking out of Jesus’ tearful eyes, by that love streaming from those bleeding wounds, by that faithful love, that strong love, that pure, disinterested, and abiding love; by the heart and by the bowels of the Saviour’s compassion, we conjure you turn not away as though it were nothing to you; but believe on him and you shall be saved. Trust your soul with him and he will bring you to his Father’s right hand in glory everlasting.1
Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually.
Imagine you are driving along a narrow two-lane road, and you come upon a warning sign. The sign warns of possible rock slides ahead, and a detour sign points to a good alternate route. Would you ignore the warning sign and drive on?
King David ignored many of God’s warning signs along his path, and he plunged deeper and deeper into sin. He knew that the Lord did not approve of lust, adultery, or murder. But one sin led to another as David deliberately ignored his conscience, which God uses to remind us of His truth.
David had done such a remarkable job of not listening to God that God had to use the bold voice of the prophet Nathan. Perhaps David was puzzled as Nathan began to tell him a story about a poor man’s pet lamb. At the end of the tale, David still did not hear God’s message. Nathan had to spell it out for him: “You are the man!” He then recounted everything David had done and how the Lord felt about his sin.
When David’s ears finally heard the truth, he repented immediately. David said, “ ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die’ ” (2 Sam. 12:13 nasb).
If you have been turning a deaf ear to what the Lord has been trying to tell you, it is never too late to ask forgiveness and travel on His road.
Dear heavenly Father, sometimes I have ignored warning signs along the way. Forgive me. Put my feet back on the right path.1
1 Stanley, C. F. (1999). On holy ground (p. 340). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
The great news of the gospel is that we have a forgiving God. When we come to Him, open our hearts, and confess our sins, God does hear us and forgive us. He’s just waiting for us to come and ask Him. God puts confessed sins behind His back as far as the east is from the west. He buries them in the deepest sea.
God forgets what He forgives. Yet there’s a postscript: The Lord won’t erase history. Some consequences may be set in motion while we are out of fellowship with God, and we must reap what we sow. Even when we have been restored to fellowship through the forgiveness process, sometimes we have to “pay the piper.”
It is impossible to get away with sin. You can’t do it. Numbers 32:23 says it this way: “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Just as surely as you can’t get away with sin, you can’t get away from God’s love. No matter how evil your conduct, God loves you. The reason you have that hurt in your heart right now is because you’re God’s, and He doesn’t want you out of fellowship with Him.1
The problems we are facing go much deeper than culture and politics and thus cannot be resolved with a mere changing of the guard. Our sinful hearts are the issue. They are the root. They are the source of all the rot and decay, misery and injustice, corruption and oppression we see in our world at present. Thus, if we are ever going to see any substantive transformation, it must begin here, at the source, and nothing less will do. God Himself must have mercy. Every other recourse be damned.
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)
The reality of human sin is one of the most obvious and indisputable facts of our world. It doesn’t require any special powers of perception in order to detect, nor does it take any particular context or set of experiences in order to perceive. Rather, sin makes its presence known the same way a pile of manure does: by its rancid odour and unpleasant effects. The stench in the nostrils, the burning in the eyes, the sudden confluence of flies, maggots, and other unsavoury creatures all work in concert to alert even the dullest of chumps that he is standing knee-deep in a pile of excrement.
Sin, in other words, is ubiquitous. And it doesn’t take a genius to see it.
At the same time, we also have to note that human beings have an impressive knack for denying reality — even when it’s overflowing their boots and running down their legs. And nowhere is this skill more evident than in our dogged evasion of our own depravity. As the firestorm of the last several years has demonstrated, we will use anything — or anyone — as a scapegoat, if it means shielding ourselves from a confrontation with our moral rot and decay. The determined effort to boil all of society’s ills down to one or two causes (i.e. “Trump!” or “the patriarchy!”) is simply evidence of this trend. Anything will suffice as long as it allows us to locate the source of the world’s evil “out there” instead of our own hearts.
Malcolm Muggeridge put it well when he said, “The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.” This is true. We simply can’t bear to admit that we are sinners.
“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”
Hebrews 4:15
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Jesus Christ provides us with the perfect example of how to defeat temptation.
Perhaps you’ve heard the joke, “I can resist anything but temptation!” Unfortunately, that is all too often true in our lives. Learning how to successfully resist temptation is vitally important, for we sin only when we yield to temptation.
Christians throughout history have recognized the importance of resisting temptation. One early believer wrote, “Fly from all occasions of temptation, and if still tempted, fly further still. If there is no escape possible, then have done with running and show a bold face and take the two–edged sword of the Spirit.” The desire to escape temptation has led many in the history of the church to attempt heroic but ultimately futile feats of ascetic self–denial. So desperate did one monk become that he threw himself into a thicket of thorn bushes! Unfortunately, that did not bring him the relief from temptation that he so desperately sought.
The way to successfully resist temptation was modeled by our Lord Jesus Christ when He was tempted. We must first understand our enemy’s plan of attack and, secondly, make use of our spiritual resources.
Satan made a three–pronged assault on Jesus—the same three ways he tempts us. First, he tempted Jesus to doubt God’s goodness by commanding the stones to become bread (Matt. 4:3). That implies that God didn’t care enough about Jesus to provide for His physical needs. Second, he tempted Jesus to doubt God’s love, suggesting that He test that love by leaping from the pinnacle of the temple (Matt. 4:5–6). Finally, he tempted Jesus to compromise God’s truth, promising Him the kingdom without the cross if Jesus would worship him (Matt. 4:8–9).
To each of Satan’s temptations, Jesus replied, “It is written” (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10). He thereby showed us the resource for defeating temptation: the Word of God (cf. Eph. 6:17). Do you find yourself overcome by temptation? Then follow our Lord’s example and take up the sword of the Spirit today!
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Suggestions for Prayer: Pray that God would make you alert to Satan’s attacks.
For Further Study: Make a list of specific verses you can use to combat the specific temptations you face.1
“And I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.”
Romans 7:9–11
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The law shatters all of man’s attempts at self–righteousness.
The old saying “ignorance is bliss” is rarely true, and in the spiritual realm it is deadly. As a Pharisee, one of the rising stars of first–century Judaism (Gal. 1:14), Paul thought himself very much “alive apart from the Law.” When convicted of his utter sinfulness by the law, however, Paul “died”; that is, his false sense of security and self–satisfaction was shattered. The enormity of his guilt became evident to him, and he realized he could not save himself. He recognized he was “helpless” (Rom. 5:6) and desperately in need of the divine Physician (Matt. 9:12).
To his dismay, Paul found that the “commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death” for him. The law was given to provide blessing and joy (Prov. 3:1–2) by guiding men in the path of righteousness. That purpose, however, can’t be accomplished in the unsaved, since they lack the ability to keep the law. Shut out from its blessings by their disobedience, they face its curses. Instead of providing Paul with a rich, meaningful life, the law devastated him.
Paul further realized that he had been deceived by sin. He had thought himself “blameless” (Phil. 3:6), doing God’s work by persecuting Christians (cf.John 16:2). But instead of satisfaction, he found only misery, disillusionment, and disappointment.
Like Paul, millions today are tragically deceived. The deceitfulness of sin leads them to think they can please God and obtain His blessing by their good works or religious activity. Such trust in self–righteousness is the hallmark of all false religion. But those who trust in themselves will see no need for a Savior and will be eternally lost. What are you trusting in? Can you say with the hymn writer:
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
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Suggestions for Prayer: Ask God to help you obey His commandments.
For Further Study: Read Hebrews 3:13. Are believers also in danger of being deceived by sin?1
When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full–grown, brings forth death.
James 1:15
Most people think of sin as an individual act or behavior. But today’s verse says that sin is not an act; it is the result of a process.
Sin starts with desire, which is related to emotion. It begins when you desire to be satisfied by acquiring something, when you have an emotional longing to possess what you see. Temptation then affects your mind through deception. You begin to justify and rationalize your right to possess what you desire. Your mind is deceived into believing that fulfilling your lust will satisfy you and meet your needs.
Next, your will begins to plot how you’re going to get what you want, and when lust is seduced (so to speak) by the baited hook, it becomes pregnant in the womb of a person’s will. Finally, the act of sin occurs.
Knowing how sin is born should help you in avoiding temptation.1
Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
James 1:14
Temptation doesn’t come from God but from within. The term drawn away was used in hunting contexts to describe animals being lured into traps, and enticed is a term used to describe catching fish with bait. Every person is tempted when the trap of sin is baited with that which appeals to his lust. A person’s lust responding to enticing bait deceptively draws him away to the point where he is trapped.
What pulls us so strongly to the bait? It’s not God. And it’s not Satan, his demons, or the world’s evil system that entice us to sin, although they bait the hook. It is our lustful nature that pulls us to take hold of it. Our flesh, our fallen nature, has a desire for evil.
From a spiritual perspective, the problem is that even though we’ve been redeemed and have received a new nature, we still have an enemy within. The resident passion of the flesh, not God, is responsible for our being tempted to sin.1
“What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ ”
Romans 7:7
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God’s holy standard exposes man’s rebellious heart.
So far in Romans, Paul has told us what the law can’t do: it can’t save us (3–5) or sanctify us (6). At this point the apostle anticipates and answers a question that naturally arises: What, then, was the purpose of the law? Was it evil? In the next few days we’re going to consider three important purposes the law served.
First, the law reveals sin. Sin is a violation of God’s righteous standard (1 John 3:4); if no such standard existed, there would be no sin. In Romans 3:20 Paul said that “through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” Romans 4:15 adds, “Where there is no law, neither is there violation,” and Romans 5:13 reveals that “sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
To the question “Is the Law sin?” Paul replies emphatically, “May it never be!” Such a question is as absurd as it is blasphemous; an evil law could never proceed from a holy God. Paul goes on to say, “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law.” The law brought the proud Pharisee Saul of Tarsus face to face with his utter sinfulness, revealing his need for a Savior and preparing his heart for his life–changing encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.
The specific commandment Paul cites, the injunction against coveting, is revealing. Coveting is an internal attitude, not an external act. It was the realization that God’s law applied to his attitudes, not merely his external behavior, that devastated Paul. He was forced to realize that all his external self–righteousness was worthless because his heart wasn’t right.
I pray that you too will be “obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed” (Rom. 6:17).
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Suggestions for Prayer: Pray with the psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps. 139:23–24).
For Further Study: Read Isaiah 1:14–20; Amos 5:21–27; Matthew 23:25–28. What does God think of mere outward conformity to His law?1
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.
James 1:13
Although some believe in the ancient idea that God is responsible for our temptation and sin, James forbids such a thought in today’s verse.
James warns against rationalizing our sin and blaming God in the midst of our battle against temptation. When you are fighting temptation and near to yielding, don’t make the excuse that God is tempting you.
Assuming that no one would accuse God of directly causing him to sin, James is saying that we should not even think of God as the ultimate cause of our sins. Most people don’t go as far as to see God as the direct tempter, but they do believe God is indirectly to blame by having permitted the situation and the possibility of failure. But God is not the near agency of temptation, nor is He even its remote cause. Don’t ever look at yourself as a victim of God’s providence.1
“I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”
Romans 6:19
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You must live consistent with your new nature.
It is a truism that in the spiritual realm, no one stands still. Sin leads to more sin, while holy living leads to further righteousness. All unbelievers are slaves of sin and have no choice but to sin; yielding to sin comes naturally to them. They are inwardly full of “impurity” and hence outwardly given to “lawlessness.” They continually spiral downward; sin leads to more sin, which leads in turn to still more sin. Ultimately, sin will drag a person into the depths of Hell.
For Christians, however, the spiral is an upward one. Having become new creatures at salvation (2 Cor. 5:17), believers are no longer servants of sin. The Christian life is the process of bringing one’s lifestyle into line with one’s nature. As believers “present their members as slaves to righteousness,” the inevitable result is further “sanctification.” Decreasing frequency of sin, therefore, is a sure sign of a mature believer.
Paul knew all too well from his own experience that the believer’s body is a battleground. In his spiritual autobiography he wrote, “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:21–24).
How are you faring in the daily battle with sin? If victories are few and far between, perhaps you have forgotten Paul’s exhortation to “present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1).
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Suggestions for Prayer: Pray with the psalmist, “Establish my footsteps in Thy word, and do not let any iniquity have dominion over me” (Ps. 119:133).
For Further Study: Identify one area in which you lack self–control. Use a concordance to see what Proverbs teaches about your problem.1
Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Romans 5:12.
The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin; but that the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race by one man, and that another Man took on Him the sin of the human race and put it away (Heb. 9:26)—an infinitely profounder revelation. The disposition of sin is not immorality and wrong-doing, but the disposition of self-realization—I am my own god. This disposition may work out in decorous morality or in indecorous immorality, but it has the one basis, my claim to my right to myself. When Our Lord faced men with all the forces of evil in them, and men who were clean living and moral and upright, He did not pay any attention to the moral degradation of the one or to the moral attainment of the other; He looked at something we do not see, viz., the disposition.
Sin is a thing I am born with and I cannot touch it; God touches sin in Redemption. In the Cross of Jesus Christ God redeemed the whole human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a man responsible for having the heredity of sin. The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but if when I realize Jesus Christ came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let Him do so, from that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “And this is the judgment” (the critical moment) “that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.”1
Righteous God, as far as the east is from the west, so far have You, Lord God, removed my transgressions from me. “In those days and in that time,” You say, “the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; for I will pardon those whom I preserve.” You will cast all my sins into the depths of the sea. Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity?
All we like sheep have gone astray; I, too, have turned to my own way; and You, Lord God, have laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. He shall bear my iniquities. Therefore You will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for us transgressors. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world!
Thank You, Jesus, for dying for my sin—and thank You, Father God, for sacrificing Your Son for that specific purpose.
I have not written thus far on the latest sad case of a Christian leader and his very public fall, partly because I likely would not say much of anything different from past articles that I penned discussing Christian leaders and pastors who had sinned in similar fashion. The same biblical principles apply, although individual circumstances will of course vary.
And I do not know all the details about this latest case, and in some ways, I do not really want to know. But the very first reaction of any real deal Christian upon hearing about a well-known Christian who has a sexual – or other – fall should be one of prayer: pray for the one who has fallen and all those adversely affected by it.
It should not in any way be a reaction of ‘I knew it’ or some sort of glee in pointing out his sins and rejoicing in any way in his fall. These things should sadden us greatly, and they should send us straight to our knees, praying not just for the latest situation, but indeed, praying for ourselves.
So we all now should be praying for Steve Lawson. The 73-year-old preacher at Trinity Bible Church in Dallas, and President of OnePassion Ministries, and a major figure in the Reformed world, has stepped down due to an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman.
He is well known as an able expositor of Scripture. He was mentored by R. C. Sproul and has taught at Ligonier Ministries, and he was also associated with John MacArthur and his Masters Seminary in California. I just looked it up, and I own seven of his books.
Speaking of which, when Ravi Zacharias also sadly started to go off the rails toward the end of his ministry, his publishers and Christian book sellers pulled his books. I have all of his books, and will still hold on to them, with so much of value found in them. The same with Lawson’s books.
But let me repeat a few basic principles that always must be kept in mind in such situations. Two vital biblical texts MUST be kept in mind always at times like this. The first is 1 Corinthians 10:12 which says: “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”
And the second passage actually follows immediately on from the first. I Corinthians 10:13 says this: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
While other passages can be mentioned here – and I will share a few more in a moment – these two pretty well cover how we should look at these matters. The most important thing to do is simply remember who we are. And we are all frail, fallen and fallible creatures – even as Christians.
Verse 10 gives us the exact attitude that we all should have. If you are looking down at Lawson right now and viewing him with disgust, then you need to remember what Paul has written here. The one standing, looking down on a fallen brother, is a prime candidate for falling as well. ‘Pride goes before the fall’ (Proverbs 16:18).
And no, none of this is to make excuses for sin, nor is it to pretend what happened was no big deal. Sin can never be excused, sin is always horrific, and sin always has terrible consequences. And there is not a Christian on the planet who has not fallen in so many ways. It may not be this sort of sin, but many other sins nonetheless have occurred.
Moreover, we are foolish in the extreme if we go around bragging, ‘Well, I am better than him – I never committed adultery.’ Um, go back to the words of Jesus please: “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). I am pretty sure that includes all believers everywhere.
Some real humility is essential here. In this case, an often-misused saying is still relevant: “There, but for the grace of God go I.” Again, this is NOT to minimise sin nor make any justification for it. It is simply to keep us from adding more sin in this case – the sin of pride.
At this point let me mention something that occurred a few days ago. I had been asked by a terrific Christian leader to give a short devotional on sexual integrity to an online prayer group. After some thought and prayer, I decided to speak on 1 Peter 4:17 which tells us that judgment must begin in the household of God.
I told the group that we must keep an eye on ourselves and our churches. That does NOT mean we can never speak to sins in the world until the church is perfect, for the simple reason that the church never will be perfect, since no Christian ever will be perfect in this life.
I then actually mentioned both Zacharias and Lawson as examples of this. I then finished by quoting two other American Christian leaders. I had just come upon both these quotes in the past few days, and they seemed to be God-sent – not just coincidences!
Voddie Baucham had said this: “The wisest man in the Bible fell into sexual sin, the strongest man in the Bible fell to sexual sin, and the godliest man in the Bible fell to sexual sin. For me to think I’m above falling into this sin is to think that I’m wiser than Solomon, stronger than Samson, and godlier than King David.”
And John Piper said this in a moving sermon:
Some of you might say, ‘Wait, there are as many PhDs in theology who commit adultery as less-educated people.’ To which I would say, ‘Probably more.’ Why is it that people with PhDs in theology commit adultery? They don’t know God. You can read theology ten hours a day for forty years and not know God as beautiful and all-satisfying — as the highest treasure of your life. Who cares about knowing God the way the devil knows God? He hates everybody. His knowledge of God helps him hate people.
I closed my remarks by saying that there is just 18 inches between heaven and hell, between a godly life and a carnal life: that is the distance from the head to heart. We all can have plenty of head knowledge about what is right and good. But it has to pierce our very soul; it has to capture our heart.
When I finished, the organiser said that was not what he had originally wanted me to speak on, but he said it was what we needed to hear. I guess the older I get, the more I am aware of my daily and hourly need for grace. I need it every moment.
Sure, I will still call out sin, still deal with the culture wars, and still seek to be salt and light. But the more I know who God is, and the more I know myself, the more I know how weak and fragile I am, and how much I need God every second of my life. As I just wrote in a piece yesterday:
It was John Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion who famously spoke of the need for a proper basis of all true knowledge: the knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves. And in that order. As we begin to know God as he really is, that cannot but help impact us and help us to see ourselves more truly and more accurately. As we get more and more genuine knowledge and understanding of God and self, the only real result should be for us to be humbled. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2024/09/26/on-humility/
Another very important passage worth highlighting in this regard is Galatians 6:1-3: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”
That is a crucial word to keep in mind. But let me wrap things up by sharing just a bit from some others. Many articles and podcasts have already come out over the past week on this case. Let me briefly mention a few, and just share a few quotes or thoughts that I found to be helpful from each one.
Albert Mohler has a 13-minute talk on this. He said that none of us should look at this with any sense of moral superiority, and he said that “no man at any age is beyond temptation and the risk of falling.” And he mentioned something a pastor had told him: ‘You will not have sex with a woman not your wife if you are never alone with a woman not your wife.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7XsapHBc4s
James White also spoke to this for around 13 minutes. Two quick quotes from him: “You cannot ground your faith in men.” “All of your favourite people are going to disappoint you at some time or another. Maybe not on this level, but…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwYngPXPVXc
Alley Beth Stuckey spent some 48 minutes on this. One quote: “Satan is loving this … Sin makes you stupid. That’s what Satan does: he exaggerates the pleasures of sin and minimises its consequences.” She says that yes, we all sin, as did King David, but we must not minimise sin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lrBm7AtEZs
Speaking of David, one last commentator, Tim Meshginpoosh, wrote a piece on this. He looks at King David and his sins, and all the many consequences that followed this, even though he was forgiven. He said this is what leaders who fall need to do:
-You need to be honest about what you did. This was not an “oopsie.” You cut corners on integrity at various stages in your life. You put your gratification before the vows you made to your wife, God, and the Church.
-If you’re going to use King David as an example, then look to how he sought to make it right with Bathsheba. He chose their son Solomon as his successor. Likewise, you need to take ownership of that baggage and work—as far as it depends on you—to settle matters with those you have wronged.
-While your sins are forgivable—thank God that God forgives all manner of sin—you must accept your consequences, which may include permanent disqualification from church office. The Church doesn’t owe you a job.
While it is fair to grieve that such ministers—some of whom have been helpful for us at key times in our lives—have failed terribly, we should also grieve for their victims, demanding full accountability, honesty, and transparency. And while we should all want their restoration to the Body of Christ, we also need to hold the line for Biblical requirements for church office. In other words, your pastor is not King David. https://julieroys.com/your-pastor-is-not-king-david/
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