THE DANGER OF DISQUALIFICATION

 

God’s preachers are ever but one stumble from falling. There is the danger of disqualification. Paul feared it—and if such a champion was “running scared,” how much more should I be alarmed at the possibility!

Disqualification begins with IGNORANCE. The Apostle asks the question, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?  Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” (v. 24). We may be ignorant of the peril, sprinting along without an awareness that Satan has set his snares to snag us. The Devil is intent on bringing the man of God down and if you think you cannot fall, then you are headed for one!

Disqualification becomes more likely through INTEMPERANCE. “And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.” (v. 25-26). Temperance—self-control—does not come naturally, but is the fruit of the Spirit. To the contrary, the works of the flesh mark the intemperate man. When we focus on the pleasures of this world rather than the prize of the world to come, little by little we weaken by intemperance. Paul says you have to fight to stay fit!

Disqualification becomes inevitable through INDIFFERENCE. “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” (v. 27‬‬). Ignore the warnings of the Holy Spirit, become indifferent to the proper nutrition from the Word of God, and the prayerful direction in seeking the face of God—and this spiritual atrophy of the faith muscles turns a potential champion into a pastoral casualty. We are often shocked when we hear of someone who has stumbled—someone once held in high regard and now a stain on the church’s testimony.  It did not happen all at once. The practice of spiritual disciplines is not optional!

I think of King Saul. He was a man of such potential. God might have used him, but in his arrogance, he did not draw close to the Lord, and in the end he lost his crown!  It can happen to any of us. It can happen to me. As I am headed down the homestretch toward the finish line, I must be ever conscious of the danger of disqualification, “lest having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.”  If I do not deny self, die to sin, and direct my heart to the Savior, then I am headed for a fall. 

When you hear of a preacher in shameful scandal, never say, “I would never!”  Instead cast yourself on the grace and mercy of God, and plead, “Jesus hold me up, or I will fall!”

I am praying for my brother preachers today and ask you to pray for me.

LET IN THE LIGHT

Spurgeon had this to say about the use of illustrations in a sermon:

We are of the same mind as Joshua Shute, who said: "That sermon has most learning in it that has most plainness. Hence it is that a great scholar was wont to say, Lord, give me learning enough, that I may preach plain enough.'" Windows greatly add to the pleasure and agreeableness of a habitation, and so do illustrations make a sermon pleasurably interesting. A building without windows would be a prison rather than a house, for it would be quite dark, and no one would care to take it upon lease; and, in the same way, a discourse without a parable is prosy and dull, and involves a grievous weariness of the flesh. The preacher in Solomon's Ecclesiastes "sought to find out acceptable words," or, as the Hebrew has it, "words of delight": surely, figures and comparisons are delectable to our hearers. Let us not deny them the salt of parable with the meat of doctrine. Our congregations hear us with pleasure when we give them a fair measure of imagery: when an anecdote is being told they rest, take breath, and give play to their imaginations, and thus prepare themselves for the sterner work which lies before them in listening to our profounder expositions.  

Riding in a third-class carriage some years ago in the eastern counties, we had been for a long time without a lamp; and when a traveler lighted a candle, it was pleasant to see how all eyes turned that way, and rejoiced in the light: such is frequently the effect of an apt simile in the midst of a sermon, it lights up the whole matter, and gladdens every heart. Even the little children open their eyes and ears, and a smile brightens up their faces as we tell a story; for they, too, rejoice in the light which streams in through our windows. We dare say they often wish that the sermon were all illustrations, even as the boy desired to have a cake made all of plums; but that must not be: there is a happy medium, and we must keep to it by making our discourse pleasant hearing, but not a mere pastime. No reason exists why the preaching of the gospel should be a miserable operation either to the speaker or to the hearer. Pleasantly profitable let all our sermons be. A house must not have thick walls without openings, neither must a discourse be all made up of solid slabs of doctrine without a window of comparison or a lattice of poetry; if so, our hearers will gradually forsake us, and prefer to stay at home and read their favorite authors whose lively tropes and vivid images afford more pleasure to their minds.  

Every architect will tell you that he looks upon his windows as an opportunity for introducing ornament into his design. A pile may be massive, but it cannot be pleasing if it is not broken up with windows and other details. The palace of the popes at Avignon is an immense structure; but the external windows are few that it has all the aspect of a colossal prison, and suggests nothing of what a palace should be. Sermons need to be broken up, varied, decorated, and enlivened; and nothing can do this well as the introduction of types, emblems, and instances. Of course, ornament is not the main point to be considered; but still, many little excellences go to make up perfection, and this is one of the many, and therefore it should not be overlooked. When wisdom built her house she hewed out her seven pillars, for glory and for beauty, as well as for the support of the structure; and shall we think that any rough hovel is good enough for the beauty of holiness to dwell in? Certainly a gracious discourse is none the better for being bereft of every grace of language.  

Meretricious ornament we deprecate, but an appropriate beauty of speech we cultivate. Truth is a king's daughter, and her raiment should be of wrought gold; her house is a palace, and it should be adorned with "windows of agate and gates of carbuncle." 

Illustrations tend to enliven an audience and quicken attentions.  Windows, when they will open, which, alas, is not often the case in our places of worship, are a great blessing by refreshing and reviving the audience with a little pure air, and arousing the poor mortals who are rendered sleepy by the stagnant atmosphere. A window should, according to its name, be a wind-door, through which a breath of air may visit the audience; even so, an original figure, a noble image, a quaint comparison, a rich allegory, should open upon our hearers a breeze of happy thought, which will pass over them like life-giving breath, arousing them from their apathy, and quickening their faculties to receive the truth. (Lectures to My Students, Charles Spurgeon, Kindle edition, pp. 350-351). 

DON’T BE A “KNOW-IT-ALL”

The context of this text was a conflict in the Corinthian church over whether one could eat meat that may have been offered to idols. Some felt they were free to eat good meat, for they were not sacrificing to pagan gods—indeed they knew there was only one God. Others, recently saved out of that background had a weak conscience and were offended and  might even be tempted back into heathenism. Liberty is not license to bring a brother or sister down. Love is the motivation to lift them up. 

Paul always called on preachers to be true to sound doctrine. But, knowing theology is never enough. Satan knows Scripture and can quote it—for all the good it does him!  

It is but one side of the coin. He said we are to be “speaking the truth in love,” (Eph. 4:15). The Pharisees were orthodox in doctrine, but the love of God was absent from their heart. They branded Christ as being of the Devil and demanded His crucifixion. 

LEARNING CAN BREED EGOTISM. The Apostle essentially says that a “know-it-all,” is actually a “know nothing!”  Leaders are learners. We should pursue knowledge with a humble awareness that there is always more to learn. We will never be omniscient. Yet, there are some so intense about the theological system in their head, that they forget to cultivate love in their hearts. These become Bible bullies who berate and belittle the man and woman in the pew. People leave the assembly driven down instead of lifted up. 

LOVE WILL BRING EDIFICATION. You certainly cannot help the saints to be built up without teaching them Biblical truths, but the learning in your head must flow from the love in your heart. We are not programming computers, but feeding lambs. I have said it many times—a lesson from John Maxwell—“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care!”  Leadership is influence, and you cannot lead people unless you love people. Adrian Rogers commenting on this passage, put it this way, “It is more important to influence people than to impress them,” (Adrian Rogers Legacy Bible, p. 1288).

May we remember that as we stand behind the sacred desk this Lord’s Day!  I have written this in my Bible as a reminder, “The mass of trouble in a congregation is quite unbelievable. And they come to the church, looking to you to help them, hoping for some word to bring them through.”  (A. J. Gossip). 

The ministry of the Word is not about you—it is about loving God and loving people. Don’t be a “bullfrog preacher,”—you hop up, puff up, and hop away!  Remember that one day you will croak! Then, “for every del word men may speak, they will give account of it on the day of judgment,” (Matt. 12:36). 

AN EVANGELISTIC CHURCH

“Great things are done by the Holy Spirit when a whole church is aroused to sacred energy: then there are hundreds of testimonies instead of one, and these strengthen each other; then advocates for Christ succeed each other and work into each other's hands, while supplication ascends to heaven with the force of united importunity; thus sinners are encompassed with a cordon of earnest entreaties, and heaven itself is called into the field. It would seem hard in some congregations for a sinner to be saved, for whatever good he may receive from the pulpit its frozen out of him by the arctic atmosphere with which he is surrounded: and on the other hand some churches make it hard for men to remain unconverted, for with holy zeal they persecute the careless into anxiety. It should be our ambition, in the power of the Holy Ghost, to work the entire church into a fine missionary condition, to make it like a Leyden jar charged to the full with divine electricity, so that whatever comes into contact with it shall feel its power. What can one man do alone? What can he not do with an army of enthusiasts around him? Contemplate at the outset the possibility of having a church of soul-winners. Do not succumb to the usual idea that we can only gather a few useful workers, and that the rest of the community must inevitably be a dead weight: it may possibly so happen, but do not set out with that notion or it will be verified. The usual need not be the universal; better things are possible than anything yet attained; set your aim high and spare no effort to reach it.. Labor to gather a church alive for Jesus, every member energetic to the full, and the whole in incessant activity for the salvation of men. To this end there must be the best of preaching to feed the host into strength, continual prayer to bring down the power from on high, and the most heroic example on your own part to fire their zeal: then under the divine blessing a common-sense management of the entire force cannot fail to produce the most desirable issues. Who among you can grasp this idea and embody it in actual fact?” (Lectures to My Students, Charles Spurgeon, pp. 346-347, Kindle Version).

STAY THE COURSE

 

Paul reminds us in this text that God is sovereign. He sets the terms of our service. He ordains the place where we serve and the period for our service. We are tempted when seeing the apparent success of others to covet their status. Why them?  We may be tempted to give up when facing adversity. Why us?  We need to hear the Apostle’s challenge to us. 

He calls for COMMITMENT to our calling. “Let each one remain with God.”  It is not so much what we do for God, but who we are in God. He is shaping us into the image of Christ for His glory. Sometimes we will be painfully pruned in order to bear much fruit. Abiding is the key, (cf. John 15). I heard a pastor this week who had complained at a Bible Conference that he was being mistreated at his church. The evangelist asked, “Have they nailed you to a cross yet?”  Lesson learned. To follow Jesus is to walk the Calvary Road. 

Paul demands CONTENTMENT in our calling, “remain…in that state in which he was called.”  We must stay in that state—even if it is Arkansas!  God divinely directs us. In His providence, He places us where He knows best. God does not want us to be tumble-weeds but trees that are rooted.   For trees that are rooted become fruited!  Unpack your bags, hang the pictures on the walls of the pastorium, throw away the business card of the moving company, and be grateful for the high and holy privilege of serving Him. As my mentor in ministry told me, “God knows where you are and He can get you where He wants you to be!”

Love and prayers to you my brothers—may we stay the course!

THE DUTY OF DISCIPLINE

 

As concerning church discipline, when all is said and done, there is often more said than done. We may be hearers of the Word, but not doers of the Word—and that is self-deception. Too often we use grace as a license to tolerate the intolerable. That is what had occurred in the Corinthian church as we hear Paul forcefully confronting a matter of egregious promiscuity in 1 Corinthians 5. 

Paul underscores the duty of THE ASSEMBLY, “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit,” (v. 4a). The saints assemble in the name of the Lord to proclaim the glory of His name. All that occurs in that assembly is to honor Him. If we tolerate that which He would never endorse, then we defame His name. Notice that Paul calls on the church to take action. He does not act on his own, nor tell the pastor to excommunicate the unrepentant member. The sin was public and so the correction was to be public also. 

Church discipline does not begin here. There is a process as our Lord declared in Matt. 18:15-20. But if one on one confrontation does not bring repentance, then there must be two or three to communicate the seriousness of the sin, and should that fail it is the duty of the assembly to demand repentance, or else the member is to be removed.

This action rests in THE AUTHORITY, “with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (v. 4b).  When the church assembles, the Living Lord Jesus Christ is present with the congregation. It is not human authority, but heavenly authority that is foundational to such a grave action. In Revelation, we see Jesus walking among His churches, (cf. Rev. 1-3), and over and over He calls out to them, “Repent, or else!”  

The church is not the pastor’s church.  It is not the people’s church. It is the Lord’s church—and He carries absolute authority. So, the body of Christ can act with authority in directing and disciplining the membership as those who are under His authority. The body cannot be healthy unless its immune system defends against the infection of iniquity. Failure to do so brings the eventual death of that congregation.

The seriousness of church discipline is seen in THE ACTIVITY, “deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus,” (v. 5‬‬). When a member is excommunicated from the body, they are moved from the church’s spiritual protection and thrust into the domain of Satan. They will suffer physically in order to be saved spiritually. 

The activity of discipline is not ultimately punitive, but restorative. The church’s responsibility is not ended when the wayward member is removed. Through intercession and compassion, they may be led back to the fold as they confess their sin. The act of discipline reveals whether they are a straying saint or a stubborn sinner—the difference seen in Peter’s repentance after denying Jesus and Judas’ recalcitrance after betraying Jesus.