Only yesterday, I received some distressing news. In fact, the news went with me to bed. It lay next to me and stared into my open eyes. It was on the ceiling, and it whispered in my ear. It haunted me until the ebb and flow of consiousness exited, and sleep took hold in a blur of restful worry.
It was this simple statement: “[They are] going to see if Rob Bell can come to Wayland and speak at chapel.”
Some of you don’t really understand how much that worries me or for that matter, why it worries me. While this is not a post about the harms of a ministry like that of Rob Bell’s, I will say that my first concern is not for what is there in his ministry. Rather, it is a concern for what is not there. Namely, the gospel of God, clearly taught and preached. I know that this comes from a lack of respect for God’s Word. Where you find a lack of respect for God’s word in a ministry, there you will find a lack of faith in God’s Word in a ministry. Where a minister has a lack of faith in God’s Word, there you will find those to whom he ministers lacking faith in God’s Word, too. Frighteningly enough, very few of today’s evangelical church members even know what the gospel is, and this is due to an infantile and weak understanding of the Bible and of the very religion to which we hold. What’s more, while they will be held accountable for not searching deeply and heartily the Scriptures on their own, their pastors, entrusted by God to guide them, will be held accountable all the more. May they tremble at that truth. You who seek to lead God’s people through the preaching and teaching of the Word, tremble at that truth, too.
That is all I will say about Rob Bell. Unfortunately, many of my friends really like him. I say this to them with respect, gentleness, but honest and concerned boldness: If you want to grow closer to God, you could do a whole lot better than to listen to this man.
Nevertheless, my point is this: Worry haunted me into the night.
How does one fight this?
I suggest this one truth: preach the gospel to yourself.
Listen to the edifying and eloquent preaching of a newborn heart, and spurn the dismantling and eloquent taunting of indwelling sin.
It comes to this: To whom will you listen? The fleshly man or the spiritual man.
Here is a concept by Dr. Paul Tripp, a Biblical counselor whom I discovered through the ministry of C.J. Mahaney,
“No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do. You’re in an unending conversation with yourself. You’re thinking to yourself all the time, interpreting, organizing, and analyzing what’s going on inside you and around you.”
It’s really true. Who do you hear most of all? Not mom, not dad, not friend, not pastor, not brother or sister, not girlfriend or boyfriend. More than anybody else, you hear…you.
Isn’t that an amazing truth? It’s true because you live inside yourself. The only one who knows you better than you is God, so as far as mankind is concerned, you are the most influentual person in your life.
So, you have to decide: When should I listen to myself?
First and foremost, you must understand, how incredibly depraved you really are.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick, who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9
Must I also type out all of Romans 7 for you to display and present the complexities of the human condition. Paul knew it…you know it.
So friend, who do you listen to? I share with you one quotation from D. Martyn-Lloyd Jones’ book Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures:
“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?”
Did you see that? Read it again.
My problem last night was that I was not telling myself what is true.
That statement from Martyn-Lloyd Jones set me free last September when I first read it. It set me FREE.
What do I need to do? Preach the gospel to myself.
Jesus Christ, the living and abiding Son of God, came to earth and lived a sinless life. He NEVER sinned. EVER! He lived a sinless life, and he was scourged and beaten and mocked and reviled and hated until he was led like lamb to be slaughtered on a device of torture, that bloody-yet oh so beautiful-cross. That’s the most beautiful blood in the World! It poured and spilt to the ground as he died, praying for those who killed him. And on that cross, he bore my sins. When he died, reigning sin in my life died, too. Death died, too! There is nothing in my future that will take that from me! Nothing! Christ has finished it. What’s more, three days later he rose again. He killed my sin, and he killed my shame. I am free in Christ. What have I to worry about. “He who did not spare his own son but freely gave him up for us all-how will he not with him freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32
Because of Christ, what have I to worry about? It’s finished. Seek first his rightousness, that rightousness imputed to me by faith in Him. That is the gospel.
My response: Repentance and belief.
If you are worrying about tomorrow, repent and believe the gospel of God.
If you are worrying about this country, repent and believe the gospel of God.
If you are worrying about your friends because many times, they don’t seem to be concerned about holiness, repent and believe the gospel of God.
Preach the gospel to yourself.
I suggest C.J. Mahaney’s sermon from New Attitude 2008 entitled God’s Word and our Feelings at www.newattitude.org. In it, he exposits Psalm 42.
It set my brother free, and it will set you free, too. So what can I say about the possiblity of this guest speaker coming to speak to lost souls who need the gospel here at my school? I cite this truth:
“And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole word as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come….false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.” Matthew 24:10-14, 24-25
I think the key here is that people like this man will come and lead many astray. “See, [he has told us] beforehand.” People will even attempt to lead astray God’s elect. But Jesus is so careful when he adds, “if possible.” I praise God’s name that a man like Rob Bell has no power to touch God’ s elect. It’s not possible. In addition, the gospel WILL be proclaimed to all the nations. There is no doubt about that because my Lord said it will be.
I am arrogant and prideful to think that Rob Bell has enough power to thwart God’s will. And oh how many are much worse than he. Even Oprah and her pluralistic mysticism can’t touch my Lord and his sovereign will to gather his people to himself.
Truth has set me free from worry. Listen to the truth of the newborn heart, born again by the living and abiding word of God. Cultivate that truth in your heart by hiding it there. Do you even what’s true? I tell you where to find it: God’s own Word. Know the Word, and you’ll know how to fight worry. That’s how I do it.
Working with you to listen intently to the eloquent preaching of a newborn heart,
Vince R.
