Men of Conviction I
Lord our God we do thank you for this gathering. We thank you that You have promised that even where two or three are gathered together in Your name there You will be in their midst. Thankfully, we are more than two or three. We are not a huge crowd, but we thank you, Lord, for these men that You’ve gathered here, and we pray that You would come by Your Holy Spirit throughout the entire conference and even in this hour. Use Your Word to feed these men. Use Your Word to strengthen them in their hearts. Use Your Word to encourage them to persevere in the work of the Christian ministry. Lord, we cry to You because we are weak; we are helpless; we need Your grace. So, we pray that You would give Your Holy Spirit to all of us in this very hour, and we ask for this mercy in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The day was April 18th, 1521. Gathered in the large Imperial palace in the city of Worms, Germany were over 200 officials. This was well documented by witnesses at that occasion, so this is not just guesswork. There were over 200 officials, including the Holy Roman Emperor Charles Ⅴ, various dukes, princes, barons, ambassadors from other countries, archbishops, and representatives of the pope of Rome. Martin Luther, a preacher of the gospel, was summoned before this council in order to repudiate his biblical teachings and writings. Luther understood that he would be condemned as a heretic if he did not repudiate his teachings, and that he would probably be burned at the stake if he did not do so.
Listen to Martin Luther’s clear words of conviction regarding his beliefs on that occasion. Here I quote Martin Luther:
I cannot submit my faith either to the pope, or to councils, because it is clear as day that they have frequently erred and contradicted each other. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason, I am bound to the Scriptures I’ve quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand. May God help me. Amen.
Well, listen to these words of conviction from another Reformer. These are not famous words, but words of conviction from another Reformer.
When we enter the pulpit it is not so that we may bring our own dreams and fancies with us. As soon as men depart, even in the smallest degree from God’s Word, they cannot preach anything but falsehoods, vanities, errors, deceits. We owe to Scripture the same reverence which we owe to God, because Scripture has preceded from God alone and has nothing of man mixed with it.
Those words were the words of conviction regarding the Bible as the authoritative Word of the Living God, and they explain why John Calvin—who is the author of those words—it explains why he faithfully expounded in a sequential manner entire books of the Bible. He believed, without reservation, without apology, with conviction that the Bible is the infallible, inerrant, and all-sufficient Word of God. Therefore, John Calvin submitted his own brilliant mind—and he was brilliant—and his heart and his life to God’s Word, and he proclaimed it, being fully persuaded, not half-heartedly persuaded, but fully persuaded that that was exactly what all of the people in his hearing needed.
My messages today are about the desperate need for men of biblical convictions.
Now, following the pattern of my beloved mentor, Pastor Albert N. Martin, what do I mean by this phrase ‘biblical convictions’? Two simple words, but I’m going to briefly explain them anyways.
A conviction is a firmly held belief. It is the quality of showing that one is firmly convinced of what one believes. That’s a conviction.
What is a biblical conviction? Well, biblical truths which one firmly believes and loves—you don’t just believe it, you love it—truths which one is willing to speak of, defend when necessary, promote in a godly way, truths which one is willing to live by and die by.
Martin Luther and John Calvin were men of biblical convictions, and though it may be true that none of us in this room will ever be of the same stature of Martin Luther of John Calvin, we can imitate them as they imitated Jesus Christ, and be like them and be like Christ; be men of biblical convictions.
Grievously, we live in a day and a culture—and I think your Hispanic culture is probably the same as American culture—we live in a day and culture which is aggressively promoting so-called ‘toleration.’ When you examine that ‘toleration,’ of course, it is actually very intolerant. It is especially intolerant of anyone who proclaims biblical convictions regarding right and wrong, regarding truth and error, regarding godliness and ungodliness, righteousness and sin. Political leaders, news media, so-called ‘experts’, psychologists, teachers, even sadly, religious leaders, and a host of other non Christians—they are urging us as Christian men, as pastors, they are pressuring us, they are even harassing us that we should not be intolerant; we should not be judgmental of others; we need to be inclusive.
But we—whether we’re Americans or Colombians or Costa Ricans or Dominicans or citizens of any other country—we do not need men of unrighteous compromise, or wishy-washy opinions, of flexible views that change when our circumstances change, that change when the current popular opinion changes. Neither do we need Christians who are harsh. I am not saying, when I say we need men of biblical convictions, I am not saying that we now need to be harsh, we need to be unloving, we need to be sinfully judgmental of others, we need to be censorious. I’m not saying that! We need to be like Jesus Christ, who was a man of biblical convictions and a man who definitely was a man of love, who loved people.
We need men who have been born again by the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ and His gospel, and who have become men of clear, comprehensive, courageous, gracious, holy, biblical convictions.
If that’s what we need the question should be—hopefully it’s come to your mind—“Well, how do we, how do I become such a man of biblical convictions?” What I’m going to present to you is certainly not exhaustive, but I hope this is helpful. How do we become men of biblical convictions?
1) By being born again of the Spirit of God.
First of all, by being born again of the Spirit of God. I’m going to have to have you turn to different passages in the Bible. Some of them will be very familiar to you. I still would like you to turn to them. So first of all, John chapter 3, verses 5 through 7. How do we become men of biblical convictions? First of all, by being born again by the Spirit of God.
In John 3:5 Jesus answered Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say unto you, except one be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you, ‘You must be born again.’”
Merely being a religious leader in a church will not make you a man of biblical convictions. Nicodemus was a religious leader, and yet he was ignorant of basic spiritual realities. I could stand here and assume that every single one of you is born again, and I actually do believe that, but at the same time I’ve been a pastor long enough, sadly, to see men who were in the ministry depart from the ministry, depart from Jesus Christ. So, I start off with this foundational reality. You will never, I will never be a man of biblical convictions unless you are first of all truly born again by the Spirit of God.
We’re at a Pastor’s Conference, and you could say, “Well, that’s so elementary. Why do I need to be told that?” You should not have that attitude towards this basic, foundational truth. You must be born again. Are you born again? Because there are men who also seek the office of a pastor for unsound, unbiblical reasons, for carnal reasons.
That’s my first point here. I’m not going to spend more time on it. Are you born again? What do you think of Jesus Christ? What do you think of yourself? Do you view yourself as a servant of Jesus Christ, born again by the Spirit of God? That is foundational.
2) By an experiential love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Secondly, how do we become such men of biblical convictions? By an experiential love of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, you need to daily, as best as the Spirit of God can help you, you need to daily experience the reality of the love of Jesus Christ for your soul and you need to love Him in response.
Remember Paul’s words to the Philippians?
“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
When Paul wrote this letter to the church in Philippi, he had been arrested, he had been placed on trial for rebellion. He had appealed to Caesar; he was eventually sent to Rome, awaiting his final verdict. Paul faced the possibility of execution. He experienced the anxieties that attend the prospect of dying. Dying is an enemy! No Christian should be saying, “Well, I’m not afraid of death.” I mean, in one way Christians should be able to say, “I do not fear death. I am in Christ,” but death is an enemy, according to the Bible! And it would be unnatural to not have some fear of that.
Even Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, the thought of not only the wrath of God but I think the experience of death overwhelmed His soul. Well, Paul was a normal human being, a normal man. He experienced normal human emotions. He did not relish the thought of being isolated and all alone. He clearly had fears. He speaks about them in his letters. He needed courage. He was not a rock of granite that had no feelings whatsoever.
The reality of living supremely for his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ—that however was what gave him the grace to face the reality of death. Death, he understood, would usher him into the presence of his Saviour who loved him and gave Himself for him.
This is why he could write, “For me to live is Christ, but to die is gain.” Think of other words of Paul that he pinned on other occasions. He said, “Faithful is the saying worthy of all acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
He also wrote, “I know Him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded..” See the conviction? “I am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”
On another occasion he said, “The love of Christ constrains us, we judge that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all that they that live should no longer live for themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14.)
In Philippians again Paul said, “All of the things that I could’ve said were gained to me I now look at them and regard them as rubbish, garbage, because what I want supremely is Jesus Christ.”
You see, he knew that Christ loved him, and he loved Christ in response, but if you are like me—thankfully you’re really not a lot like me in some respects, you would not want to be like me I’m sure—but if you’re a normal man, a normal Christian man like me, I at times struggle with knowing experientially that Jesus Christ loves me. You have to know that not just up here, but experientially, if you are going to be a man of biblical convictions in this world.
How do you take what is I think sometimes elusive? It’s hard to grasp. The Bible’s plain; the Bible’s clear. The problem’s not the Bible. The problem is not Christ; the problem is not the Holy Spirit. The problem is remaining sin; the problem is our weakness in humanity. How do I grasp that Jesus Christ loves me? How do you do that? I’ll tell you how I do it.
I take time and I think about biblical truth, and apply it to my heart and life. I think about the cross of Christ. I don’t think about an image of a cross. I certainly don’t think about a crucifix like is in Roman Catholic churches.
But I think about the historical reality that there was a time, a day when the Son of God hung on a wooden cross outside of Jerusalem. When He did all of Jeff Smith’s sins, all of my sins were put to His account, were laid on Him; my sin in union with Adam, my first father, my sins since I came forth from the womb of my mother speaking lies. I have lied even as a Christian, sadly, and have had to confess my sin of lying to God and sometimes to other people. By God’s grace I am not a liar, but I have sinned by lying. On the cross of Christ all of my lies were put upon Him.
The sin of pride. Again, by God’s grace I think I am a man who has humility, by God’s grace alone. But even yesterday my wife said to me, “Jeff, you are defensive. Why are you so defensive about that?” Something stupid, something ridiculous. So, I confessed my sin to her. I said, “Julie, please forgive me for speaking in a defensive, prideful, sinful way,” and I confessed it to God.
Well, that’s sin of pride. Call it what it is. It is ugly, stinking pride. It is sinful. It is wicked. It was laid on Jesus Christ, and God poured out His righteous fury, His righteous anger, His righteous wrath upon His own beloved Son. He punished in His Son all of my sins, all of my iniquities, all of my transgressions, all of my failures to do what God commands me to do.
Why? Why? Why did God do that? I deserve to be in Hell. I don’t deserve mercy. I should have been left by God on that broad road that leads to eternal destruction, but God, in sovereign grace, in sovereign mercy reached down in time, brought the gospel truth to my mind and heart from another Christian, and rescued me out of that broad road that leads to eternal destruction.
Not only that, now I am not guilty before God, because of Christ’s work on the cross.
“Now there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
There is no condemnation to me, and if God declares me innocent, God says there’s no guilt, God says there’s no condemnation, what man will condemn me? No man.
That’s not all that God in Christ has done for me or for you, as a believer.
God also gives to me the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. I have no righteousness in myself, but God also gives to me the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. So that when God looks upon Jeff Smith He doesn’t see Jeff Smith in one sense, He sees the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness of God!
Not only that, in the death of Christ on the cross God has adopted me as His Son. He has given me His Spirit, given me spiritual life, regenerated me, and He has adopted me as His son. He is still my God and Creator, that is true and will always be true, but He is now my God and heavenly Father.
If your were here last night you would have heard my illustration about the fact that I have a son who is adopted. I have three children who are adopted. They were all adopted when they were three or four days old. They know they’re adopted. My eldest son, about five years ago, said, “Dad, I hope you’re not upset with me, but I decided to find out who my biological father is.” You understand me? He’s adopted, but obviously he had a biological father and mother. So, he said, “I decided to find out who he is.”
I said, “Josh, I’m not upset with you at all. That’s fine. What did you learn?”
Now, Joshua is a born again Christian. He said, “Dad, he’s not my father. You are my father.” That is the way it is with us, as Christians. Satan is not your father, and of course no one else is ruling you, but God is your heavenly Father, if you’re a Christian.
So you see for the Apostle Paul it was his knowledge of the love of Jesus Christ for his soul, and it was his responsive love back to Jesus Christ, thinking about all that Christ had accomplished for him, all that Christ was presently doing for him, all that Christ would yet do for him in the future, that made him the man of biblical convictions that he was.
You can face many things and many trials and difficulties in life without emotions, not like a granite rock, but you can face many things in life when you know, “I am the purchased property of God in Jesus Christ. He is my Lord and Saviour. He loves me. He will always love me. He’s a faithful, loving Saviour.” I can therefore stand in the face of trial and difficulty as a pastor in the Church. Do you believe that? Do you know that? Do you know what I’m talking about? You should.
Let’s move on. How do we become men of biblical convictions?
First of all, by being born again of the Spirit of God; secondly, by an experiential love for Jesus Christ the Lord; thirdly, by continuous communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.
3) By continuous communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Turn to John 15, and verse 4 please.
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abides in the vine, so neither can you except you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he that abides in Me and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
If you would be and continue to be a man of biblical convictions, you must also continue in union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. You must abide in Him! Separated from Jesus Christ and His Word you will never be a fruitful Christian, you will never be a man of biblical convictions, because that is, I believe, part of the fruit of being united to Jesus Christ. It is only through daily feeding upon Christ and His Word, daily communing with Christ in prayer that genuine, spiritual fruit will be produced in your life, including being a man of biblical convictions.
We read of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it came to pass when the days were well-nigh come that He should be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. He was facing death, even as Paul later on did, but He was facing crucifixion; He was facing humiliation; He was facing humiliation not just before those people in Jerusalem who could see Him hanging on the cross, but He was going to face humiliation before all of the spiritual world as well. He knew that! He knew He was going to be a sin offering to God, and that prospect did not make Jesus jump for joy. He knew that He was facing the prospect of the wrath of His Father in Heaven, but we’re told there in Luke 9, “Jesus steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.”
Why? Well, for the joy that was set before Him He did that, thinking of all of the unnumbered hosts that He would redeem. Yes, that is true, but still there is more. He did this because He knew this was the right way to go. He had no other choice to accomplish His mission. He was a man of biblical convictions which were nurtured and strengthened by His daily communion with His God and Father.
Have you ever asked yourself when you read the New Testament, the gospels, have you ever asked yourself: how did Jesus know so many Scriptures? Maybe you wrongly think, “Well, He was God.” I don’t think that’s true. He is God, that’s true. He is God, but He is totally man, as though He were not God, totally God, as though He were not man. How did He know so many Scriptures? He was taught them by His parents. He heard them in the synagogues. He read them when He had the opportunity to read the scrolls. He memorized Scripture.
You see, He didn’t sit back and say, “I have nothing to do.” He took the Word of God into His own heart. He communed with God with the Word of God, and that’s how He became a man of the Scriptures and thus a man of biblical convictions.
How did He have the emotional strength He had? You could say: Well, He was God. Again, He was truly man! We see in the Scriptures that He truly had emotions, sinless emotions. How did He fight against those fears that He had? Not sinful fears, sinless fears. How did He deal with that sense of loneliness? You see, He communed with His God in prayer. You see that even in the garden of Gethsemane.
How did He persevere even through opposition? He persevered through opposition because He daily communed with His God and Father in the Word and prayer. If you are going to persevere through opposition which you will face in your church—if you’ve not faced it yet you surely will if you’re a pastor for more than a few years—you’re going to face some opposition from people! Sometimes, sadly, from genuine Christians.
What will cause you, what will help you to persevere through them, to do what is right, to be a man of biblical principle? You have to persevere, and you will as you commune with God your Father as Jesus Christ did: in His Word and in prayer.
Are you doing that now? You should be.
4) By continual transformation of your mind.
Fourthly, how do you become such a man of biblical convictions? By continual transformation of your mind.
Turn to Romans chapter 12, verse 1 please. You need a continual transformation of your mind. In Romans 12:1 we read:
“I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. And do not be fashioned according to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
You see, negatively what does Paul say? He says, “Don’t permit the world around you in your country, in your culture, to squeeze you, to mold you, to shape you according to its teachings, its philosophies, its perspectives, its ways, its lifestyles. Don’t do that! Don’t let it happen! It will happen if you do not resist it!
Positively Paul says, “Be transformed..” Be metamorphosed, as it were, from a caterpillar to a butterfly. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You do that by knowing, he says, “The good and acceptable will of God.”
Well, how do you know the good and the perfect and acceptable will of God? By studying the Bible! You know, this is not rocket science. I don’t know if you use that phrase in the Hispanic world. This is not rocket science in one sense, but it’s amazing to me how we, as pastors, how older saints sometimes just overlook the basics of the Christian life. Sometimes, wrongly, it’s like, “Oh well I’ve gone beyond that.” Really? Really? You’re so mature as a Christian you don’t need to read your Bible anymore? I think that’s arrogance.
So you study the Word of God in order to become transformed in your thinking, in order to resist the world’s pressures. Every teaching, every philosophy, every practice, every evangelical promotion, every evangelical article in the Internet on the websites and blogs, everything must be brought to the touchstone of Scripture, and your mind must be transformed so that your life is transformed.
True Christianity is not just the mind, but true Christianity always involves the mind. It’s not to be bypassed.
5) By implementation Christian military principles in your life.
Fifthly, how do you become a man of biblical convictions? By implementation of what I’m calling ‘Christian military principles’ in your life.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 16:13. “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”
I think some here—Pastor Dunn, probably Pastor Piñero, maybe Pastor Vater—know that I was once in the United States army. I was an officer in the United States Army. So, when I read a verse like this I do think ‘military.’
“Be watchful.” If you’re in war you have to be watchful.
“Stand firm.” In this case for the Christian in the faith; for a military officer or a soldier you have to stand firm in your duty.
“Act like men.” You don’t win a war by being a coward.
“Be strong.” You don’t win a war by being weak and a wimp.
That’s why I’m saying: how do become a man of biblical convictions? You have to implement in your life as a pastor, what I’m calling ‘military principles’ in your life.
1 Corinthians 16:13. In this verse there are four commands which emphasize that you, as a man, as a Christian pastor, must be a Christian of unwavering principle, courage, and convictions.
So, what is Paul saying here? He’s saying, “Don’t be oblivious to the temptations and dangers which surround you, your family, and the members of your church.” You need to be watchful. You need to be spiritually alert. You cannot be oblivious to what’s going on in the world about you, in your country. You cannot be oblivious to what’s going on in your church. You cannot have your head in the sand or your head so far up in the sky that you’re not aware what’s going on in your congregation.
The command to be watchful reminds us that we are in a spiritual warfare. The Christian life is a warfare life. The temptations that assault you and your people enter in through the eyegate and the eargate via smartphones, via Internet, via TV, movies, music, teachers, work associates, neighbors, entertainment. You need to be not aware of the sin involved in these things, but you shouldn’t be ignorant of the fact that the single men or married men in your church can access pornography on their smartphones. If you think that never happens to any man in your church you are being oblivious.
Real Christian men, I mean truly, born-again Christian men, can take a smartphone and fall into that sin of fornication, adultery by using a smartphone. Are you aware of that, or are you oblivious to it? All the same, you need to be a watchful pastor. You’re not to be oblivious to these realities. You shouldn’t take your smartphone and see if this can be done.
I have Covenant Eyes, a software-filtering blocking on my smartphone and on my laptop and on my daughter’s laptop and on my wife’s laptop. I don’t know the codes to my daughter’s computer or my wife’s. Covenant Eyes sends an accountability report every week to my wife and to Pastor Shehzad Khan in my church. It shows them exactly what I do in my smartphone and my computer.
I’m not saying you have to do that, but I say: don’t be oblivious. Be watchful over your own heart and soul. I can’t cope with that stuff. I cannot deal with it.
That’s why I do this, but therefore I ask men in my church properly, privately, in a godly way, having a pastoral relationship with them, “Brother so-and-so, do you struggle with this?” It is more common than I could wish it was. I wish it was not. You know what? These Christian men are relieved that I, as a pastor, had the courage and the heart and the love to ask them that question, because they are ashamed, because they’re true Christians, they’re ashamed of what they have done. They’re afraid to speak to their wives. They shouldn’t be afraid, they’ve got good marriages, but there’s this fear aspect. There’s this sense of, “I can’t talk to anybody; I can’t say this. What will people think of me? What will my pastor think of me?” You have to be a man of biblical convictions. You have to be a faithful shepherd. You have to be watchful.
Furthermore, Paul says here, “Don’t be fickle. Don’t be compromising. Stand firm in the faith.” “In the faith” meaning in the body of truth in your Bible. You should not be having doubts about the veracity of the Bible. If you do, you need to speak to somebody else—Pastor Piñero as an example—and say, “I’m struggling with this.” You need to have total confidence that all of the Bible—from Genesis 1:1 to the conclusion of Revelation—is truly the authoritative, infallible, inerrant Word of the Living God.
No fickleness; no compromising; stand firm in the truth—including those things that today’s culture does not like. In America, you know, it’s almost to the place that you will be pilloried, you will be buffeted, you will be maligned if you dare to say, “I believe homosexuality is wrong, and I don’t call it ‘marriage,’ because it’s not marriage in God’s sight. Homosexuality is a perversion of God’s created order.” It is not gay; I don’t call it gay, because it’s not gay. I don’t even use their terms, but saying those kinds of things in this day and age, you know you can get yourself into a lot of hot water!
I’m not saying you should go out and be stupid, as a pastor, and do something ridiculous to stupidly draw persecution to yourself, but when the time comes and you have to speak the truth in love boldly and courageously, you will stand firm in the truth.
Don’t be moved or shaken from your biblical convictions by the latest evangelical trend. Just because it’s published in the evangelical magazines or blogs doesn’t mean it’s biblical and right. I’m not saying you should be cynical; I’m not saying you should be nasty, but you need to be discerning. You need to stand firm in the truth. You need to be like the Rock of Gibraltar. I hope you all know what that looks like. Those from the Canary Islands or Spain should certainly know. I hope you all know what the Rock of Gibraltar looks like. We need to be fixed, immovable in the truth of God’s Word.
Paul goes on. He says, “Don’t be immature and childish. Don’t be petulant. Act like a man.” Remember Paul’s words earlier in 1 Corinthians? He said, “When I was a child I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child, but now that I am become a man, I put away childish things.”
Remember Jesus’ words on one occasion in Luke 7? He said, “How should I describe this generation? They’re like children in the marketplaces who say to one another, ‘We piped to you, but you didn’t dance and sing.’” “You didn’t do this with us either. I’m going to go home.”
We, as pastors, should not be like children in the marketplace. You should not be children in your heart, in your thinking, in your relationship to your family, in your relationship to the people of God. Your country does not need children in the bodies of men. Your country does not need pastors who have the bodies of men, but they’re children inside. We need men, by the grace of God, who are biblically mature and stable, consistent in their lives of godliness, who are predictable in the way they think and act, who are faithful, because they are men of biblical convictions.
Furthermore, Paul says here, “Don’t be weak and faint; be strong, Christian men spiritually and practically.” Biblical truths which are embraced and loved and implemented in your life, in your marriage, in your family, in your ministry, will enable you to be strong even in the face of persecution and death. So, be men of strength, with unwavering biblical convictions.
I would like to briefly give you now, after giving you those principles to become a man of biblical conviction, I would like to give you briefly some compelling examples of men of biblical convictions from the Bible.
1. Joseph.
First of all, Joseph. I give you these examples, because we often say in English, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and we do learn a lot from observing others in the Bible and in Church history and in our present lives.
Remember Joseph in Egypt? Potiphar’s wife is daily tempting him to commit adultery. What did Joseph do? What did Joseph say? Joseph said to Potiphar’s wife, “How then could I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”” You see, Joseph was a man of biblical convictions The Bible tells us he was a handsome man. He was clearly physically fit. He was a normal man, sexually, but being tempted by this woman, he had the convictions biblically, that that would be sin against his God. It would be great wickedness.
The Law of God regulated Joseph’s thinking, his actions, his relationships to others. His love for his God and Saviour controlled his thinking and heart, and interestingly, if you’re think about it, it was not just his love for God. Joseph—by refusing Potiphar’s wife and her advances—Joseph was not only manifesting love for God his Saviour, but he was really showing love for his Egyptian master: Potiphar! That would have been extremely wicked and unloving for Joseph to engage with sexual affairs with his master’s wife. So, he was actually showing love not only to God, but to Potiphar!
He was really actually also showing love to Potiphar’s wife. That would not have been love to do that with Potiphar’s wife! Egyptian culture, Egyptian social pressures, this woman did not squeeze Joseph into their mold. He was a man of unashamed, clear, biblical convictions.
Sexual sins are the fall of many a pastor. I can think of at least two without any difficulty right now who are no longer in the Christian ministry because of adultery. Do not be deceived. “He who thinks he stands let him take heed, lest he fall.” Joseph is a vivid example.
2. Daniel.
Secondly, Daniel. We read in Daniel 6:
“When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his chamber towards Jerusalem); and he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom.”
No one was permitted to pray at that point in time to any god except to the king, but Daniel was a man whose biblical convictions shaped his thinking, his affections, his life, in every circumstance of life! What he ate and drank, his prayer life, when he prayed, to whom he prayed—that was all determined not by Babylonian culture about him, not by the pressures of society upon him, which were no doubt very real, not by the sinful commandments of men, but by the Word of God.
3. Stephen.
Thirdly, Stephen in the New Testament in Acts chapter 7.
“Now when they heard these things [the Sanhedrin] they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on Stephen with their teeth. But he [Stephen] being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.”
Steven proclaimed his biblical convictions to the Sanhedrin, and he lived by them. Because of that he was falsely accused. He was seized; he was arraigned on trial before the Sanhedrin, and what did Stephen do? Did he give up his convictions under the pressure of the Sanhedrin? Did he compromise his convictions to escape persecution? No. He stood firmly rooted in his biblical convictions. He feared God, not men. He loved God and he loved men, and he loved them so that he faithfully proclaimed God’s truth to them.
That’s what you must do in your churches. That’s what I must do in my church. Now, I don’t want you to sit there and think, “Well, it sounds like Pastor Smith never has fear.” That is definitely not true! “Well, it sounds like Pastor Smith is always bold as a lion.” That is definitely not true!
There have been many, many times over the twenty-two years or whatever that I’ve been a pastor at Trinity Baptist Church, the same church, where before I get into my car at night to go to a pastoral meeting I say to my wife, “Honey, please pray for me.” I tell her where I’m going. I don’t tell her the problems. I just say, “I’m going to meet with this couple. It’s not going to be easy. I would rather be shot in the head than go to this meeting.” Of course, I don’t really mean that, but it’s nevertheless expressed to my wife the truth, sadly, of my feelings.
There are other times when I say to her, “Honey, I would like to get a job at Staples.” Do you know what Staples is here? You know, it’s this store that sells office supplies. I’d like to just be at the cash register. No problems, just do the work at the cash register. Do you know what my wife says to me? She says, “You would be so unhappy, and you would end up becoming manager. Then as manager you would have problems. Then what are you going to do? Leave Staples and find another job?”
So I’m not giving you these examples as though somehow I have no struggles. I look at these examples when I have struggles.
4. Jesus.
The last example is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the supreme example of what it means to be a man of biblical convictions.
It is just remarkable. When you read your Bible, when you read the four gospels, you and I should frequently say, “Lord, make the gospel accounts fresh to my heart and soul.” We can become so familiar with the Bible and the gospels themselves, they’re even kind of predictable, because we’ve read the gospels so many times. You’re reading through Mark and you know what’s coming next. You even have a lot of it memorized. It can be predictable. It can be the same, and not fresh. That’s not good.
You need to pray that it would not be that way, because you read the gospel accounts and you think about how Jesus was assaulted verbally by the enemies of Christ, the enemies of truth, on many occasions, and how He never, never sinned. He didn’t sin in His thoughts; He didn’t sin in His emotions; He didn’t sin in His attitude; He didn’t sin in His words; He didn’t sin in the tones of His words; He didn’t sin in His behavior. He never, never, never deviated from being a man of biblical convictions. He spoke the truth. He spoke the truth boldly; He spoke the truth lovingly.
Consider Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. In Matthew 26, verse 39 we read,
“And He [Jesus] went forward a little, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.’”
Here you see the wonder of the glory of the God-man. He knew God as His Father perfectly. Here He is pouring out His heart to His Father in Heaven saying, “Let this cup..” He understood the reality of the wrath of God in a way that we do not, because He was truly God. He understood the heinousness, the awfulness of sin, our sin, in a way that we do not. So, He did want to recoil from that.
“Let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.’”
There you have the supreme example of Jesus Christ, your Saviour, your Lord, being a man of unshakable, uncompromising, biblical convictions. If He was not, you and I would have no forgiveness. We would not be saved!
Applications
Let me conclude by giving a couple of practical, brief applications. As a pastor, you need to embrace the reality that you will experience trials. As a pastor you will suffer. You need to embrace that reality. You don’t need to go out looking for suffering. You don’t need to go looking for persecution, but you need to realize it will happen. It will happen not just once as you serve as a pastor. It especially will happen when you are a man of biblical convictions.
Joseph had trials. Why was he in Egypt? Daniel had trials in Babylon for sure, didn’t he? Stephen faced persecution and death. The Lord Jesus Christ received much opposition. So did all of the prophets; so did all of the apostles; so do ordinary Christians; so will you. Do not live in a dream world thinking somehow, as a pastor, you will never have to face opposition, you will never suffer. You will, but it’s there that your convictions can shine forth to the glory of God.
You will then say, “It is not in me. I am not a man of strength. I am a man of weakness, but it is the strength of Christ in me that you see.” Yes, I am a man of biblical convictions, and when I say “by the grace of God” I am not just saying that, dear brother, dear sister. I’m not just saying that to you men here, because that’s the nice thing to say, the correct thing to say, “Well, by the grace of God I am this.” That’s the truth. If you are a man of biblical convictions it will be because God, in His grace, has made you such.
The application for you is that you need to embrace the reality that to be a pastor of biblical conviction requires hard work. It doesn’t just happen. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say unto you, a servant is not greater than his lord, neither one that is sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these things blessed are you if you do them.”
It requires work! It is God who works in us, that’s totally true, but at the same time the Bible teaches we too are to work, not just work out our salvation, but we are to take biblical truth and apply it to our hearts and to the concrete situation of being a pastor everyday. Being a pastor is not glamorous; being a pastor is not sensational; being a pastor can often be very difficult and heartbreaking. Aside from one or two things in my personal life, as a Christian, most of my heartbreaks have been because I’m a pastor.
But when you do the work of Jesus Christ, as a pastor, and serve Him from the heart in love to Him, love to the Church, love to the people of God, you will one day be rewarded by your Saviour, and you will hear His words with your own glorified ears, “Well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will set you over many. Enter into the joy of your Lord.” You need to remember those future words as you slug it out as a pastor and the difficulties that come.
I would also say, because I don’t want to be imbalanced, there are many delights of being a pastor as well. I’m sure you know that. I’ve experienced it. There are joys as well. Be a biblical man of biblical convictions, and there’s joy as well.
Let us close now in prayer.
Lord our God, we plead with You that You would work in each one of our hearts and lives, that by Your grace and power, by the work of Your Holy Spirit in us, we would be men of biblical convictions. Help us, Lord, to be such when things are difficult, when there are trials, when there’s opposition. Lord, grant us grace to be such even in times of joy and prosperity. We pray that You would help us to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before us, the prophets, the apostles, many other Christians, and especially our Lord Jesus Christ. Please answer these prayers that we bring to You now in His name. Amen.
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