Five Ways Pastors Fail

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Today, God has blessed us with countless numbers

00:00:07.640 | of faithful men who lead churches well.

00:00:11.080 | And we praise God for each man who closely guards his life

00:00:14.800 | and his doctrine for the sake of his own soul

00:00:17.260 | and for the sake of the souls entrusted to him.

00:00:20.600 | Such faithful men will go unnoticed by the world

00:00:23.520 | and maybe even under thanked for their work

00:00:25.680 | by the people they serve.

00:00:27.360 | But we thank God for you men,

00:00:28.680 | many of you listen to this podcast.

00:00:30.200 | So we are grateful to God for you, each of you.

00:00:33.960 | At the same time, one of the most painful topics

00:00:36.960 | we see pop up in the inbox regularly

00:00:39.040 | is the fallout over the sins of unfaithful pastors.

00:00:44.040 | Pastors can fail their people by not watching their lives,

00:00:47.760 | not watching their doctrine.

00:00:49.440 | And these situations are tragic and very painful

00:00:52.320 | and often devastating.

00:00:54.000 | The heartbreaking stories we hear bears this out.

00:00:57.280 | No church is immune from this.

00:00:59.000 | The compromise happens in huge suburban mega churches

00:01:02.800 | and it happens in very small rural country churches too.

00:01:07.800 | And it was a problem even among the priests

00:01:10.180 | of the Old Testament calling for the stern warnings

00:01:13.640 | we read in the prophets.

00:01:14.960 | In fact, God reserves some of the harshest language

00:01:18.620 | in the Bible for priests who morally fail,

00:01:22.240 | as we'll see today in Malachi 2, verses one to nine.

00:01:25.820 | This text remains relevant for pastors today

00:01:28.360 | as Pastor John explained in 1987

00:01:31.080 | in a sermon from about 34 years ago.

00:01:33.680 | Here now is Pastor John to explain.

00:01:35.440 | - But we noticed in verse seven of this text

00:01:40.240 | that that wasn't the only task of the priest,

00:01:42.240 | namely to sacrifice.

00:01:44.200 | Let's read verse seven.

00:01:45.640 | The lips of a priest should guard knowledge

00:01:48.240 | and men should seek instruction from his mouth

00:01:51.020 | for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

00:01:53.840 | In other words, priests were teachers

00:01:55.200 | and not just sacrificers.

00:01:56.960 | And that's why the text is relevant today.

00:01:59.360 | This text addresses ministers of the word

00:02:03.240 | and it shows that they can fail miserably and grievously

00:02:09.160 | and that they can succeed gloriously.

00:02:12.360 | That's what the text is about.

00:02:13.880 | That's why it's so relevant

00:02:15.000 | because it's all around us today,

00:02:16.920 | ministerial failure and success.

00:02:20.960 | I ended with an overview last time

00:02:22.680 | and began what I wanna begin this morning,

00:02:24.800 | namely a list of these failures

00:02:26.200 | and then turn to the success of the ministry.

00:02:28.440 | Let me give you that overview again.

00:02:31.680 | Verses two, eight and nine

00:02:34.120 | give us five failures in the priestly ministry,

00:02:38.200 | five pastoral failures.

00:02:41.400 | Verses five, six and seven

00:02:44.880 | describe the success of the ministry of the word,

00:02:47.960 | what it's supposed to look like.

00:02:50.160 | And the thing I didn't mention last week

00:02:52.960 | were the threats made against the priests, the pastors

00:02:57.960 | to sanction the commands in verses five to seven

00:03:04.200 | and to redeem them and get them to clean up their act

00:03:09.880 | with regard to their failures.

00:03:12.080 | And those threats are found in verses two, three and nine.

00:03:17.080 | And it may be well to begin right here.

00:03:19.560 | Let's just start with the threats

00:03:22.600 | and then we start here because they're given

00:03:24.960 | mainly not for themselves,

00:03:27.200 | but to awaken these failing priests,

00:03:30.040 | rescue them from destruction and bring them to success.

00:03:35.040 | Here's the lesson I get from these threats

00:03:36.800 | before I look at them in detail.

00:03:38.920 | Pastors, ministers of the word

00:03:41.400 | will not be spared judgment in the last day.

00:03:44.080 | It's occurred to me this week as I've pondered this

00:03:47.280 | that when I stand before Christ at the last day,

00:03:52.920 | every one of these sermons will be thrown on the table

00:03:57.120 | before the judge and Romans 2 21 will be read

00:04:02.120 | in the courtroom as I stand before Christ.

00:04:07.880 | Goes like this, "You who taught others,

00:04:11.560 | did you not teach yourself?

00:04:13.680 | Think long and hard before you envy your pastors

00:04:19.760 | at the last day."

00:04:20.720 | And James said, "Let not many of you become teachers

00:04:24.960 | for they will be judged with greater strictness."

00:04:29.960 | Now let's read these threats.

00:04:33.800 | Verses two and three, and then I'll drop down to verse nine.

00:04:37.960 | "If you will not listen,

00:04:39.920 | if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name,"

00:04:42.760 | says the Lord of hosts, "then I will send a curse on you.

00:04:46.400 | I will curse your blessings.

00:04:49.600 | Indeed, I have already cursed them

00:04:51.480 | because you do not lay it to heart.

00:04:54.800 | Behold, I will rebuke your offering or your seed,"

00:04:58.280 | perhaps referring to the crops,

00:05:00.000 | "and spread dung on your faces.

00:05:03.600 | The dung of your sacrifices I will put

00:05:06.480 | and I will put you out of my presence."

00:05:08.480 | Now down to verse nine.

00:05:09.840 | "And so I make you despised and abased

00:05:14.840 | before all the people in as much as you have not kept

00:05:18.400 | my ways but have shown partiality in your teaching."

00:05:22.600 | Now there are four threats in those three verses.

00:05:25.520 | Number one, verse two, "I will curse them."

00:05:29.600 | Number two, in verse two,

00:05:32.200 | "I will make your blessings a curse."

00:05:33.960 | That is, I think he means the words that you speak

00:05:37.120 | which are intended to be the blessing of the people,

00:05:39.160 | I'm gonna turn them into a plague upon the people.

00:05:42.240 | Number three, in verse three,

00:05:46.160 | "I'm gonna rebuke your offspring or your crops," perhaps.

00:05:50.160 | The word seed could go either way there.

00:05:52.840 | In other words, the curse is gonna spread far beyond you,

00:05:55.600 | whether to your children or to your land.

00:05:58.920 | And finally, number four,

00:06:00.160 | "I am going to smear the dung of these mangy,

00:06:04.880 | broken-legged, blind sheep in your face."

00:06:09.880 | Or as verse nine explains,

00:06:12.440 | "I'm gonna make you despised and contemptible

00:06:15.080 | among the people."

00:06:16.200 | Now, why is God so angry?

00:06:18.480 | You know He's angry, don't you?

00:06:21.480 | I mean, when you talk about smearing dung

00:06:23.200 | in somebody's face, you're not dealing dispassionately

00:06:26.160 | with some minor disobedience.

00:06:28.080 | You're on the brink of rage.

00:06:31.520 | Nothing is more horrible to imagine

00:06:37.120 | than the beauty of holiness

00:06:41.200 | turning against you with omnipotent rage,

00:06:45.040 | which is what's happening in these verses

00:06:47.760 | towards the pastors of Israel.

00:06:51.800 | He is angry because of five failures.

00:06:54.600 | Let's look at them.

00:06:55.560 | Number one, the failure of listening to God

00:07:00.160 | or failing to listen to God.

00:07:01.640 | Verse two, "If you will not listen."

00:07:06.480 | It's a failure because you can't herald what you can't hear.

00:07:11.280 | Number two, the failure to have a heart

00:07:14.440 | for the glory of God.

00:07:15.880 | Verse two again, next phrase,

00:07:17.880 | "If you will not lay it to heart

00:07:21.360 | to give glory to my name," says the Lord.

00:07:23.880 | And that's the root of the matter,

00:07:25.240 | brothers and sisters.

00:07:26.480 | We're gonna see more clearly than ever this morning

00:07:28.440 | as we move to the success.

00:07:29.920 | That's the root of the matter.

00:07:31.800 | A pastor who has no heart for the glory of God

00:07:35.720 | is a failure, no matter how full his church is,

00:07:39.840 | nor wide his ministry.

00:07:42.640 | Number three, they have turned aside

00:07:46.680 | from the ways of God and live lives out of sync

00:07:50.400 | with the teaching of God.

00:07:52.240 | Look at the first line of verse eight.

00:07:54.920 | "You have turned aside from the way."

00:07:58.560 | And look again at verse nine.

00:08:00.240 | "I make you despised and abased

00:08:02.960 | before all the people inasmuch as you have not kept my ways."

00:08:07.800 | So the third failure is the failure

00:08:10.000 | of practicing what they preach.

00:08:12.600 | Their lives are way over here.

00:08:14.040 | They're not walking with God.

00:08:15.360 | They say one thing and they're doing another thing.

00:08:18.560 | Number four, they have shown partiality in teaching.

00:08:23.560 | The last line of verse nine.

00:08:25.400 | "You have not walked in my ways,

00:08:28.640 | but you have shown partiality in your instruction."

00:08:33.640 | Now what does that mean?

00:08:36.880 | It means that they are doing the very same thing

00:08:39.720 | with the Word of God that they did

00:08:41.480 | with the sacrifices of God.

00:08:43.800 | You remember what that was?

00:08:45.880 | They gave just those animals to God

00:08:49.880 | that would leave maximum money in their pockets.

00:08:54.320 | Broken-legged sheep, blind sheep, mangy sheep.

00:08:57.960 | You can't sell them, give them to God

00:09:00.600 | and keep your pockets full.

00:09:03.240 | And that's exactly what they're doing with their teaching.

00:09:06.520 | They give precisely that teaching to their congregations

00:09:10.600 | that will keep their pockets full.

00:09:13.000 | They play to their audience.

00:09:14.360 | They tell Daddy Warbucks what he wants to hear.

00:09:18.120 | They say, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace.

00:09:21.800 | They do what Micah chapter three, verse 11 describes.

00:09:26.800 | "The heads of Jerusalem give judgment for bribe.

00:09:32.120 | Its priests teach for hire."

00:09:34.160 | You hear that?

00:09:35.000 | "Its priests teach for hire.

00:09:37.720 | Its prophets divine for money."

00:09:41.120 | When the glory of God no longer satisfies

00:09:45.000 | the heart of a preacher, he can do two things.

00:09:48.200 | Leave the ministry or stay and preach for money.

00:09:51.520 | Would that they all left.

00:09:54.200 | Number five, the failure of what results from all of this

00:10:02.960 | in the middle of verse eight, do you see it?

00:10:05.680 | You have caused many to stumble.

00:10:10.680 | Let me ask you this.

00:10:14.880 | Do you think the sins of pastors,

00:10:19.480 | Christian leaders are more grievous

00:10:22.720 | than the sins of others?

00:10:24.160 | I do.

00:10:26.560 | Not because a sin in and of itself

00:10:32.840 | is of a different nature or quality,

00:10:36.880 | but rather because the sin of Christian leaders

00:10:41.440 | is compounded by the fact that the weight

00:10:45.480 | of public responsibility should all the more

00:10:48.880 | have hindered it, and he didn't let it hinder it.

00:10:52.560 | I don't know if you've opened up yet

00:10:55.120 | this week's Christianity Today.

00:10:56.840 | It's in our library.

00:10:57.760 | I commend it to you.

00:10:58.800 | There are two or three articles

00:10:59.880 | on the sins of Christian leaders

00:11:02.040 | and whether they can be restored.

00:11:04.400 | And there is a short article by David Neff,

00:11:07.520 | the associate editor.

00:11:09.320 | And here's what he says.

00:11:11.320 | The leader who philanders has broken a trust

00:11:16.320 | placed in him by a wide community,

00:11:19.960 | trusting his vision, reliability, wisdom, and veracity.

00:11:24.960 | And the essence of leadership is that trust.

00:11:29.520 | And so a leader who violates trust

00:11:31.800 | in a fundamental and public manner

00:11:34.000 | is ipso facto no longer a leader.

00:11:39.000 | And I believe he's right.

00:11:40.960 | Now, I want to turn so badly

00:11:45.440 | to the success of the pastoral ministry,

00:11:48.120 | but before we get there,

00:11:50.200 | I want to apply what I've said so far

00:11:52.240 | to those of you here today

00:11:55.440 | who have been victims of priestly failure.

00:12:00.440 | Now, have in mind people who have seen

00:12:04.520 | in the ministers of the word

00:12:07.960 | enough hypocrisy and expediency and inconsistency

00:12:12.720 | and worldliness and partiality and greed and cowardice

00:12:17.720 | and pettiness and harshness and insensitivity

00:12:22.320 | that you have stamped a big question mark

00:12:27.040 | over the whole Christian enterprise.

00:12:29.840 | You have built a wall, perhaps,

00:12:33.440 | in your soul, in your heart,

00:12:35.640 | that keeps out anything from the Christian world

00:12:40.520 | because you just aren't sure you want to have anything to do

00:12:44.280 | with that mess anymore.

00:12:47.040 | Now, there is a word in this text

00:12:48.920 | to people like that here this morning.

00:12:51.280 | And I want to paraphrase it as best I can.

00:12:54.440 | Let me paraphrase what I think God is saying

00:12:57.480 | to that kind of person here this morning,

00:13:00.680 | the victims of priestly failure.

00:13:03.160 | Here's what he's saying.

00:13:04.960 | I hate ministerial hypocrisy

00:13:09.960 | 10,000 times more than you do.

00:13:13.280 | And I intend to spread dung

00:13:16.960 | on the faces of ministerial hypocrites,

00:13:21.960 | those who have forsaken my glory,

00:13:24.960 | departed from my ways,

00:13:26.800 | teach for hire and cause people to stumble.

00:13:30.440 | Vengeance is mine.

00:13:32.200 | I will repay.

00:13:33.600 | Don't carry it.

00:13:34.920 | Don't carry it.

00:13:37.320 | It is mine.

00:13:40.080 | And I will repay with vengeance

00:13:43.440 | vastly worse than you can imagine

00:13:46.080 | in your little vindictive moments.

00:13:48.360 | What a tragedy it would be this morning

00:13:54.560 | if anyone turned away

00:13:58.040 | from the glory,

00:14:02.040 | the unimpeachable glory of Jesus Christ,

00:14:07.040 | the King of Kings,

00:14:10.520 | because of a hypocritical demeanor

00:14:15.160 | or a failure of one of His messengers

00:14:18.080 | when God Himself intends to spread dung

00:14:21.800 | on the face of that minister

00:14:23.800 | because He loves you

00:14:26.160 | and hates it when His glory is profaned.

00:14:30.320 | Wouldn't that be an ironic tragedy

00:14:33.240 | if you let that hypocrite drag you to hell with Him?

00:14:38.560 | Don't let that happen.

00:14:39.720 | Don't let Satan use

00:14:43.120 | his lightning-cloaked ministers of the Word

00:14:48.120 | to drag you to hell with them.

00:14:51.720 | That's what he's saying in this text

00:14:55.200 | to victims of priestly failure.

00:14:57.600 | - Amen.

00:15:00.400 | That is a sobering but relevant word today.

00:15:02.320 | And more positively,

00:15:03.200 | Pastor John goes on to celebrate the glories

00:15:05.920 | of pastoring well in his sermon titled

00:15:08.720 | "The Glory of Priestly Success,"

00:15:10.640 | preached on November 15th, 1987.

00:15:13.040 | The whole message is online at DesiringGod.org.

00:15:16.440 | This clip was sent in to us by Scott,

00:15:18.520 | a pastor in Atlanta,

00:15:20.520 | who was moved by this clip

00:15:22.080 | to rededicate his ministry to the glory of God

00:15:24.680 | and to double down on personal holiness.

00:15:27.080 | So thank you, Scott, for sending in this selection.

00:15:29.760 | I had never heard this sermon before.

00:15:31.440 | It's very much appreciated.

00:15:33.240 | Well, our clips are now crowdsourced.

00:15:34.920 | You tell us what bits of Piper's sermons impacted you,

00:15:37.000 | and we share that clip with the APJ audience.

00:15:38.720 | And if you got one, email me.

00:15:40.320 | Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title,

00:15:42.520 | the timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio,

00:15:45.160 | and then tell me how it impacted you.

00:15:47.040 | Put the word clip in a subject line of an email

00:15:48.880 | and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

00:15:52.280 | That's our email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

00:15:55.920 | Well, God is our refuge and our fortress.

00:15:59.480 | And in the great refuge psalm of Psalm 91,

00:16:02.440 | we are given this glorious promise

00:16:04.400 | that he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

00:16:07.200 | will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

00:16:10.200 | It's the first verse of Psalm 91.

00:16:12.080 | So how do we do this?

00:16:13.960 | Like, how do we dwell in the shelter of the Most High?

00:16:17.920 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke,

00:16:18.880 | and we are rejoined in studio with Pastor John

00:16:21.200 | for that when we return on Friday.

00:16:23.640 | We'll see you then.

00:16:24.540 | (upbeat music)

00:16:27.120 | (upbeat music)

00:16:29.700 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Five Ways Pastors Fail

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