This is Connect with Skip Heidzig. Thanks for joining us for today's program. At Connect with Skip, we're all about helping you connect with God's Word in a deeper way. That's why we make messages like Today's available to you and others across the globe. And right now, when you sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails, you'll receive a free download of Chapter 1 from Skip's book, The Biography of God.
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Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip's son Nate Heitzig. It's easy for us as Christians to Lower our guard. to put our spiritual lives in cruise control. Tell ourselves, well, I go to a good Bible-teaching church, so I don't need to read the Bible for myself. But we don't realize that we're driving without seat belts on.
And Satan would love nothing more than to scrape your dead body off the pavement. See, Satan won't stop when you're down. Satan wants you dead. Satan won't stop when you fall. He doesn't want you to get back up again.
Satan doesn't stop when you look. He wants you to lust. And if we aren't daily making conscious efforts to do what God has called us to do, then we'll naturally begin to do what Satan knows we shouldn't do. But understand this, nothing is ever free with Satan. I bet if you could ask all the pastors who have fallen in ministry, not just the pastors, if you ask all the people who have made bad decisions and lost their families, lost their careers, lost their lives, if you were to ask all those people in the world, What was going through their head?
I bet everyone would have said, thought I could get away with it. I thought I could hide it. I thought I could get off scotch free, but nothing's free with Satan. He promises you the world, but that's not what he gives you. With Satan, there's always strings attached.
For Samson, the cost was his strength and his eyes. For David, the cost was his son and his testimony. For Judas, the cost was eternity. The thing is that Satan will never tell you the cost of your sin before you do it. He won't tell you that the cost of sex is lust and emptiness and a lack of self-worth.
He won't tell you that the cost of addiction is helplessness and slavery. He won't tell you that the ultimate cost of your sin is eternity. And some people think that because they've been baptized as a child or as an adult, because they've taken the Lord's Supper or confessed their sin to a priest, that everything is now kind of just swept under the rug. And that's kind of the perfect way to describe it, right? Just swept under the rug.
It's what my kids do when I tell them to clean their room. Kids, clean your room.
Okay. 30 minutes later, is your room clean? Yeah. Are you sure? Uh-huh.
And you walk in and everything looks good on the surface, right? But then you open the closets. Then you look under the bed. Then you look behind the cupboards. Then you look in the drawers.
And you're like, your room's not clean. All you've done is hide the mess. You haven't fixed the problem. You've just hidden it. And that's what so many people are doing.
Their sins are really just undealt with. They've just pushed their sins into the closet. They've pushed their sins behind the cupboards. They've pushed their sins under the bed. They've swept it under the rug.
And the mess is still there. You just can't see it. The root hasn't been cut. and as a result they'll only come back to haunt you with a greater vengeance later.
So number one, we've got a problem. Number two, it starts at the top.
Now although we all have a problem, I do want to say, because of the context of this passage, it starts at the top. James 3:1 is a clear warning against becoming a teacher. Why?
Well, the text says it, because teachers face a stricter judgment. See, as a teacher in the church, there's two primary standards by which we are judged. Mm-hmm. And when we fail to do either of these things properly, we run the risk of leading people astray. The first has to do with our character and our conduct, the second has to do with our communication.
Let's look at the first sub-point of that: conduct and character. Look at what Romans 3:21 says. I'll read it to you. You, therefore, who teach another, Do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal.
Do you steal? You who say, do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? The message puts it this way, and I love. the layers that this adds. I have a special word of caution.
For you who are sure that you have it all together yourselves, and because you know God's revealed word inside and out, feel qualified to guide others through their blind alleys and dark nights and confusing emotions to God. While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you? I heard years ago, I don't know who said it, but I know my dad said it to me when I first started preaching. He said: Never get up in the pulpit and teach a message you haven't taught yourself. And every message that I teach, I'm getting digging into it.
I'm like, woof. Parts of this really hurt. There's parts of this that I need to look at my life and evaluate and change and adapt. And that's healthy. We need to make sure that our pastors and our teachers are teaching the word because we know that if they're teaching the word, they're having to ingest it themselves.
It's why I get so leery of preachers who get up there and just talk nonsense for 45 minutes and get everyone excited because they're not saying anything. And so I'm sitting there questioning, like, well, Do you know what the Bible says? I was at a really prominent church many years ago and it was their Vision Sunday and The pastor was talking all about this principle that he wanted the church to take home: that you are the one. You're the one that God wants to give blessing to. You're the one that God wants to use.
You're the one that God wants to do miracles through. And get this church, his anchor text for the entire weekend was Nathan coming to David and telling David, you are the one. And if you don't know the context of that verse, that was after David had sex with Bathsheba and killed her husband. And then Nathan had to go and like do a little parable and show David that he was the one who did it. And I heard the pastor say that, I was like, ooh.
I don't think he knows what that means. And it's funny, but it's also serious. This is why it's so important to make sure that pastors are learning and teaching themselves before they try to teach anyone else. There is a great responsibility to all believers who name the name of Jesus Christ, but there's an even greater responsibility on those who are leaders in the church. And this isn't a new problem.
The Talmud itself charged three of the most illustrious rabbis with adultery. Jesus said, beware of the scribes who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, and best seats in the synagogues and best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive greater condemnation. Again, Nathan said to David after his fall, by doing this, you've made enemies. of the Lord blaspheme his name.
Abraham lied when he told Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister. And then when Pharaoh took Sarah into his harem after the discovery, Abraham and Sarah went away, and Abraham had no more testimony for God before the Egyptians.
So this is a problem back then, but of course this is still a problem with us today. There are many in the church who seem moral. Who live seemingly spiritual lives, but inwardly it's a different story altogether. Look at the church today. When you type pastor scandal into Google, you'll get 2,430,000 results.
Ranging from sex scandal threatens a Texas pastor's empire to the affairs and scandals of Trump's pastor to a list of Christian evangelist scandals. How sad is that? You've heard it said that God's calling is God's enabling, but calling without character leads to catastrophe. And I've seen a lot of people who are so called to ministry. I've seen a lot of people who are so gifted in ministry.
They have raw talent and gifting, but they haven't spent the time to focus on their character. And so, unfortunately, their gifting propels them quicker than it should, and they don't have an opportunity to mature and grow and deepen and let God truly change their lives and their character, and it catches up with them eventually. It catches up with them. Think about it this way: if you feel any sense or calling in a ministry, let God worry about your calling. You focus on your character.
If God's called you, He'll open the doors. If God's called you, he'll give you the opportunity. Don't go striving for those. Don't go striving for the next platform, the next opportunity. You just be faithful to do what you're doing.
You be faithful on working on your character and your conduct. God will take care of the rest. God will honor you in your time. And it's not anything that man can take, it's only something that God can give. Many people will say, well, he won't give us more than we can handle.
On the other hand, we would be fools to think that Satan doesn't set his sights on leaders, knowing full well that if he can take down just one, many others will follow. Keep in mind, Satan is a shrewd tactician. He's smart. He's not an idiot. He can spend his time attacking individual Christians to great success, or he can say, if I can get that one.
Yeah. Big fish.
so many others will fall. And so he attacks pastors.
Now, why do I tell you all this? Remember to pray for your pastors. Hebrews 13, verse 7 says, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken the word of God unto you. Pray for your pastors, not just for your pastors, pray for all pastors. Spend some time each day praying for pastors, you know, and just.
General prayers that God would put a hedge of protection around their family, that God would protect them from sin, protect them from temptation, that God would continue using them as a mouthpiece and a voice. The second standard by which Teachers are judged is our communication. The second standard applies. Not as much to what we as pastors do, but more primarily to what we are called to do or called to say. And what is that?
Simply is that pastors are called to preach the word. The primary duty of teachers as given in scriptures is to teach the full counsel of God's Word. Not politics. not morality, not psychology, not social issues.
Now, we'll deal with some of those in light of scriptural teaching as we get to it, but the text is always the foundation that we build upon. I want to let you know something. God has not called me. God has not called Pastor Skip. God has not called any of the pastors at this church, Nick, our college pastor, Caden and Santi, our youth pastors.
God hasn't even called our children's team who is over there right now teaching your kids. God has not called us to be motivational speakers, giving you little pep talks. God has not called us to be political activists or protesters. God has not called us to be psychologists. God has called us to be pastors and teachers.
And every area of pastoral ministry is secondary to this calling. And this is so important because if pastors aren't teaching biblically, there is a stricter judgment because they're leading people astray. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to today's message, what does real spiritual maturity actually look like and how can you achieve it? In his new series, Adulting, A Study Through the Book of James, Pastor Skip gives straight talk from scripture on how to grow up in your faith through trials, temptations, and daily life.
This eye-opening 21 message series is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help reach more people with God's Word through Connect with Skip. Request your CD package or digital download of adulting when you give at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888.
Now, let's get back to today's teaching from Pastor Skip's son, Nate Heitzig. Gotta tell you, there's a lot of false teaching in the world today. There always has been from the onset of the Gospels. There were the Gnostic Gospels, and there were all these other things that rose up to try to distract people from the truth. But it seems that there is more of an abundance of false teaching in 2024 than ever before.
And it should come as no surprise to us that there are false teachers and false prophets among us because Jesus said there would be in the last days. Jesus in Matthew 13 told the parable of the wheat and the tares, and when asked the meaning of this parable, he said, The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age. We see this tactic being used today in the church. We have predators in pulpits and pretenders in the pews.
Galatians 1:6 says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. which is no gospel at all. I have a short story about this. I was one time preaching when I was a youth pastor at a really big Christian camp in California, and I had a chance to go there and I was asked to speak for four nights. And the first night, they said they saw the biggest altar call they had ever seen at the camp.
Something like 300 kids came forward and gave their lives to Jesus. And I was preaching pretty straight, simple gospel messages east night. It was pretty much about sin, repentance, salvation, and the fact that we can only truly be happy once we have a relationship with Christ. It was basic stuff.
Well, apparently, come the last night. A bunch of the pastors came to the camp counselors and said, Hey, We're really offended by pastors' talks. He said, what do you mean?
Well, he keeps talking about sin. We don't use that word at our church. And they keep talking about repentance, and we don't use that word at our church. We're really mad that he's doing this. And keep in mind, a lot of the kids from their youth groups were getting saved because they had never heard about sin and salvation.
They're like, what have I been missing out on? And so the camp director came to me and he said, Hey, a lot of the pastors are really offended by what you're talking about.
So, can you change your last message for the last night? And I said, no. And I said, this is basic gospel. This is like gospel 101. I mean, this is the most basic stuff.
And he said, well, if you can't change it, we're going to have to ask you to leave. And I was like, I would gladly leave. I'd love to see my family right now.
So I'll take the free ticket home and I'll see you guys. In heaven, hopefully. I'm out of here. But the world has itching ears. They're itching for a different gospel.
They don't want to be offended. They don't want to be confronted. And carnal believers are easily deceived. This is why the prosperity gospel has flourished. This answers the question as to why there are so many bad churches growing in America.
It's not because God is blessing them, it's because they found what appeals to carnal believers. There's many churches today that will have awesome programs, great music, entertaining videos, but they never teach the Bible. They might hint to it. They might refer to it occasionally to prove a point, but they're not teaching the Bible. When Jesus sent the disciples out, their objective was to preach the word.
Now they had the authority to pray for the sick. They had the authority to perform miracles. They had the authority to do wondrous works. But the primary objective was to preach the word of God. And it's absolutely amazing that so many pastors have lost sight of this today.
There's so many so-called seeker-sensitive churches where the Bible will not be preached from the pulpit or brought in the pews. The message might allude to it in passing, but the emphasis is placed on making people feel good. It's all self-help, no trace of scripture. It's all about having a better tomorrow. It's all designed to appeal to the seeker, and I call this the Joel syndrome.
People who suffer from the Joel syndrome underestimate the raw power of the gospel. Look, I want to tell you right now: the message of the gospel is not making you a better you. It's not having a better tomorrow. It's not about. Gaining wealth.
Gaining popularity. If that was true, then Jesus Christ is excluded from the gospel. The message of the gospel is having a better day today by making Jesus Christ a part of your life, giving your life to Him and letting Christ cover your sins and knowing that you're going to heaven. That is the power of the gospel. And people come to church to know God.
They want to learn what the Bible says. They want to encounter him through worship. They expect, and justly so, for a church to be a church. And when a pastor refuses to do that, God has words to say about it. And God says there's a stricter judgment for those teachers.
because they're leading people astray. Because success or failure in the Christian life depends on how much of the word of God you get into your heart and mind on a regular basis and how obedient you are to it. That's why God cares about it. I'll close this point by a Charles Spurgeon quote. Only way to close the quote when you're talking about how churches could do things better, because Spurgeon had a lot to say about it.
An unholy professor outside the church may batter against the walls with great effect. but inside he would be like the concealed soldiers in the wooden horse, who opened the gates of Troy to the besiegers. It was only an apostle who could be such a son of perdition as Judas was.
So beware you who profess to be followers of Christ. You have great capacities for usefulness, but your position gives you immense capacities for doing damage to the cause of Christ. And that really leads us to our last point. It ends in judgment. Judgment.
is a funny thing. Not likely. Ha ha, funny. I mean, we're talking about judgment here. But the concept of judgment, how we view judgment, how we judge others.
There's a strange human tendency to be critical of everyone except ourselves. Myself included. Jesus warned us of this kind of judging in Matthew 7:5. Think of it this way: it's amazing how horrible your sin looks when someone else is committing them. Have you ever found that to be true?
when someone else is doing the things that you've done you're like how dare you wait a second Yes, somehow they're not so bad when we commit them. And we can work ourselves into a state of self-righteous anger over the sins of others, yet the same behavior doesn't look that bad when it's on us. And I've seen this time and time again: that those who are the most critical are often guilty of a far worse sin in their own life, just hasn't come out yet. It's as though they're personally under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and rather than respond, they're taking it out on everyone else. When David committed adultery, he heard about a man who stole a lamb, and he said, kill that man.
Because he stole a lamb? Yes, kill that man. And then Nathaniel again had to say to David: hey, David, you're the one. And it wasn't a lamb, you stole a man's wife and then killed her husband. Why was he so harsh?
Because you're always harshest with the sins that are lurking in your own heart. It's like a guy with no arm telling someone, hey, you stubbed your toe. And we have in our mind these two groups of people. Every one of us does, whether you admit it or not. We separate people into those who deserve judgment.
and those who don't deserve judgment. And oftentimes it's by really silly external factors.
Well, they're a really nice person.
Well, they're really sweet. They really love their family. And we have these little things that we separate people into our mind of, well, that person definitely should go to heaven, and that person should definitely go to hell. In the book of Romans, chapters 1 and 2, Paul addresses two groups of people: the chapter 1 people, Dealt with your common, fleshly-oriented, non-believer type hold downs and sin. They were sinning because their heart had been darkened and they were completely abandoning God in their life.
Okay. Chapter 2. Dealt with the person who, because of their self-righteous pedigree, thought they were exempt from God's wrath and judgment. And Paul expounds in chapter 2, going into chapter 3, that the chapter 2 guy might even agree with Paul's assessment of the immoral people in chapter 1. They obviously deserve God's judgment, but not me.
They would be more outwardly upright, moral, religious than this other person, and yet Paul hinted that they were even more guilty before God than the person living in flagrant sin. More guilty? How? Because knowledge brings responsibility. The first group does things they know are wrong, and they approve of those who do them.
The second group does things they know are wrong. and they condemn others who do them. It's important to remember that we're going to be judged by the light that we have received. Our knowledge, church, brings an incredible responsibility. And often we think that because we do things a certain way, it makes us better than others.
The way that we do communion, the songs that we sing in our church, the way that we dress, the ministries that we have. But remember, Christianity is not about religion, it's relationship. And it's the self-righteous person, the religious sinner, who, as a modern-day Pharisee, seems to have it all together, but in reality, is a hypocrite. The person who has the proverbial log in the eye, and he can't see clearly enough to pick the speck out of his brothers. They are in great danger because they have a false assurance.
Understand this, there is no respect of persons with God. When James wrote and Paul wrote, the Jewish ordinance of circumcision was a big deal to them. And yet circumcision is worthless if the heart is wrong.
So are Christian ordinances. Baptism. Communion. Singing songs. Wearing what would Jesus do bracelets.
All these Christian ordinances, the things that we think make us look righteous, and the things that, by the way, should follow a relationship with God. But we think in our mind that these things make us okay, but they don't. There's no value in Christian ordinances. if your heart's not in the right place. Nothing is easier.
And nothing is more dangerous than self-deception of self-righteousness in religion. The greater the knowledge, the greater the danger of being content with just the bare minimum. The greater the privilege, the greater the peril. This is why Jesus says that on Judgment Day When people come before him, there will be many in that day who will say, Lord, Lord. Did we not do many wondrous works and cast out demons and prophesy in your name?
And I would add to that: preach great sermons. And do really good things and serve in this ministry or that ministry, or own every elevation worship album, or did we not have it all? Did we have it? We had a Calvary sticker on our car, didn't we, honey? Yeah, we did.
Did we not do all these good things that made us look righteous? And he'll respond to them: Depart from me. I never knew you.
Now, is this all intended to make you feel horrible? I told you it was gonna be a tough message. Do I want you to leave here and say, man, I'm such a horrible Christian, I don't deserve to be saved? No, I don't. I want you to leave here saying awesome.
The world is watching me. I have an opportunity. You know what? I'm going to be an open book. What an incredible opportunity to share the grace of God.
I want you to leave here equipped. I want you to leave here encouraged. I want you to leave here with gumption and fervor in your belly to say. I'm going to start living in. I'm going to start making sure that the name of Christ, which I'm professing, is a name by which I am living.
See, it's all about how you view it. It's all about your heart. If you hear this and say, dang, the world's watching me, that means I can't do anything fun. This stinks!
Well then you probably should be scared by this. And hopefully, it will bring change in you. But if you hear this and say, Praise the Lord, let my life be a living sacrifice, pleasing to God, declaring His glory, well, that's the right answer. And that's my prayer for you. We're so glad you joined us for Connect with Skip Heitzig, today featuring Pastor Skip's son Nate Heitzig.
Before you go, don't forget to request this month's featured resource, Adulting, a study through the book of James, Pastor Skip's twenty-one message series that gives you straight talk from Scripture about how to grow in spiritual maturity and live out your faith in the real world. Adulting is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help share God's word with more people. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. And while you're there, sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails and get a free download of a chapter of Skip's The Biography of God. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Make a connection never foot. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
