False teachers all the same. They want sexual favors. They want money. They wear a cloak. They'll flatter you to gain you.
And then they'll strip you naked. Paul says, I have not put a spiritual robe over my greed. I'm not in the ministry for money.
I'm not in the ministry to get you. It's been said that in the body of Christ, we belong to each other, we affect each other, and we can't escape each other. Those words magnify the need for strong biblical leadership in the church. But that doesn't mean the call for spiritual leadership is just for pastors. If you're a Christian, you need to be able to influence your family and those around you in a God-honoring way.
John MacArthur helps you with that today in his study, called Leading the Charge. John, we're airing this series with fathers in mind. Father's Day is coming this Sunday. So as we consider the notion of spiritual leadership not only in the church, but also in the family, let me ask, what specific areas of life do men need to focus on in order to become the strong, spiritually wise fathers that Scripture calls us to be? What counsel would you give men?
Well, that is a big subject, but it comes down to one thing that a spiritual father needs to be, and I think it's simple. Christ-like. Christ-like. That basically means you're a man of the truth. You're a man of conviction. You're a man of character. You're a man of virtue. You're a man of love and affection, compassion, kindness, all the characteristics of Christ.
I mean, that's why the Bible says, looking unto Jesus, set your affections on things above. The model for manhood is no other person than Jesus himself. And that's been my objective through my whole life as a young married father, as an older married father and grandfather, and now as an old man with great grandchildren.
My objective has always been, in the back of my mind, how can I be Christ-like in every setting? Christ spoke only the truth. He believed the truth. He loved the truth. He made the truth clear.
He lived the truth. This is spiritual manhood. And this is what the Lord expects from every Christian man. So that's the model you follow.
And if you do that, you're going to give your children the best picture they could ever have to trace their life after. Amen, John. That's great advice for all of us. And so, friend, to learn how you can grow into that kind of model spiritual leader, follow along as John continues his series, Leading the Charge. I invite you to turn in your Bible to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 1 through 6. If I were to title these six verses, I would title them fail-proof spiritual leadership, fail-proof spiritual leadership. Everybody knows there is a great premium on leadership. And everybody realizes that there are fewer leaders than are needed, fewer faithful leaders than are expected. We also know that leadership is very difficult. Even in the world, when the team doesn't win, they fire the coach.
And when the employees don't produce, they fire the president. The question that comes to mind then is how can spiritual leaders be effective? How can spiritual leaders be successful spiritually?
How can they have a genuine and lasting impact on their charge? Is there a path to genuine spiritual effectiveness for the leader that God has identified in His church? For in these marvelous six verses, Paul shares with us the principles for an effective ministry. What are the ingredients that made for effective spiritual leadership?
Why was Paul's ministry so dynamic in Thessalonica? Because 1, he was confident in God's power. 2, he was committed to God's truth. 3, he was commissioned by God's will. 4, he was compelled by God's knowledge. And 5, he was consumed with God's glory. All of us live lives that reflect our view of God.
Now let's look at these five. Number 1, he was confident in God's power and that gave him tenacity. Point 2, he was committed to God's truth. He was not only confident in God's power, but he was committed to God's truth and that gave him integrity. That gave him integrity. A third essential element of effective ministry is brought out in verse 4, the first part. He was commissioned by God's will and that gave him authority. Not only tenacity and integrity, but he had authority. He was commissioned by God's will, verse 4, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak.
Stop at that point. Boy, I love that statement. Why do you speak, Paul?
Why are you doing this? Because we've been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak. We've been commissioned by God's will. I'm under divine authority and yet I have divine authority, a delegated authority. He didn't teach error?
No. In fact, he taught truth and it was the truth that God entrusted to him. God entrusted him with the good news. So he moves from commitment to the truth to the commission of God by which he had that commitment. Look at the phrase, just as we have been approved by God. It's the Greek verb, dakimadzo, which means to be tested and found valid, found good, to be approved after testing.
It's a perfect tense verb which means it indicates a lasting approval. We have been and continue to be approved by God. God tested us, we passed, and we are the authorized ministers of the gospel. Paul is saying, I'm not self-appointed.
I'm not doing this on my own. I was called by God. And of course, we all remember his calling, don't we, in Acts chapter 9 on the Damascus road as he proceeded to try to execute Christians. God slammed him in the dirt, made him blind, and made him bow the knee to Jesus Christ, and then put him in the ministry, brought along Ananias. He was baptized and he was sent on his way preaching Jesus Christ, whom he had once persecuted. He had been entrusted with the gospel.
That particular phrase he likes to use, and he uses it on a number of occasions. 1 Corinthians 7.25, concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy. He says, God trusts me.
I love that. God trusts me. He trusts me with his truth. He trusts me to be his agent. He trusts me to be his emissary. He trusted me to be his minister.
Ephesians 3, verse 8, to me the very least of all saints this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles. God gave me the grace to do it. It isn't that I am worthy apart from grace, but I am worthy in his grace. So he says, I'm not self-appointed. I'm divinely commissioned.
That puts authority in my life. When I speak, I speak in the place of Christ. When I speak, I speak in the place of God. I've been entrusted with the gospel. We can get so far afield from that. The primary calling we have, we who preach the word of God, is to dispense that which we have been entrusted with.
The good news and all of its ramifications and implications. Paul says, God called me. God set me apart. He says even in Galatians that he didn't even consult with men.
He had such a unique training time. God trained him personally and set him apart for this ministry. In 1 Timothy 1-11 he says, the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into service, who before was a blasphemer and so forth. We, if we are in the ministry rightly, have been put there by Christ. Titus 1-3, at the proper time manifested even his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior.
So here you have a man who is under command, under authority and yet has delegated authority. And I believe that we have authority in our ministry. When we speak, we speak as those who have been chosen, approved and placed by God in this world to preach his truth. So we speak.
I love that. Literally our speaking, present tense. We speak with the authority of God who approved us for ministry. In fact, at the end of verse 6 he says, as I read earlier, we have a right to assert our authority because it is the authority of God. And I don't believe that any of us can be effective without that authority. And what gives authority to your ministry speaking the word of God powerfully and clearly? Your authority doesn't go beyond the scripture, but boy when you come, you better come with the message entrusted to you and know that when you preach it with power and conviction you carry the authority of God. That's what makes an effective ministry.
There's a fourth element in this. He was compelled by God's knowledge. He was compelled by God's knowledge which gave him accountability. He not only had a ministry marked by tenacity, he had a ministry marked by integrity and he had a ministry marked by authority. He also had a ministry marked by accountability.
And that's the balancing point to authority in many ways. Notice again verse 4, the middle of the verse. Picking up that little statement, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. For we never came with flattering speech as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. Why? God is witness.
What's he saying? I am compelled by God's knowledge. What do you mean by that? I mean God knows everything. What motivates me is his omniscience. He examines my heart. He witnesses everything about me.
That is a great measure of accountability, isn't it? Verse 4, he says, I don't come as pleasing men. I wasn't commissioned by men. I don't preach the gospel of men. I was commissioned by God.
I preach the gospel of God. I do not preach it to please men. Nowhere does he make that more clear than in Galatians 1.10 after he has just blistered the Galatians up one side and down the other. He says, for am I now seeking the favor of men or of God?
Am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. Apparently some had accused Paul of being a men pleaser, and after he had laced them a few times, he then says, does that sound like a men pleaser? He was no men pleaser. He spoke the truth, not to please men, but to please God.
There is one exception to that of great interest to us, and I would just draw it to your attention, lest you be confused. 1 Corinthians 10, 33. In 1 Corinthians 10, 33, Paul says, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own prophet, but the prophet of the many that they may be saved.
What he is here saying is quite different. When he says I do not please men, he means I do not preach a message for the purpose of pleasing men. What he means when he says I do please men, in 1 Corinthians 10, 33, is that I will gladly sacrifice my own prophet and all my own benefits in order that they might be saved.
That's what he means. He doesn't mean I will fit a message that will make them happy. He means I will give my life to get them saved. I will please all men in all things in the sense that I will reach to them and try to touch them and embrace them with the gospel at any cost. But apart from that intent, which is much like what he said also in Corinthians when he said I become all things to all men that by any means I might win some, he is simply saying in this context, I want to please them in the sense that I want them to know that I would give my life for them that they might know Christ. But I do not want to please them, back to 1 Thessalonians, to the extent that I sacrifice truth, purity, or true motives. So he says, back to our text, not as pleasing men, but God.
Why, Paul? Why are you so consumed with pleasing God? Because God examines our hearts. God examines our hearts.
He's referring here by the word heart to the inner self, the real you, where thought and feeling and will and motive all meet. He says God scrutinizes my deepest self. God scrutinizes my motives. God scrutinizes my intentions. God knows those deep things. And he knows so much that I am very aware that he will know whether I am seeking to please men or him.
And I am compelled by that knowledge. Turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 4 for a moment. In verse 1 he says, let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In other words, let it be known that we are slaves. We are huperates, under rowers, third level galley slaves, the lowest kind of slaves of Christ. We gladly take the most abject role of servanthood under Christ. And we are stewards, there are guardians of the treasure of the mysteries of God, the new covenant.
And with stewards, one thing is needful, that they be found what? Trustworthy, faithful. You've been entrusted with it, guard it.
You're to be trustworthy. Then he says this, now let's talk about evaluation. To me it's a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by any human court. It doesn't really matter to me what you think or what any human tribunal thinks. In fact, I don't even examine myself. First of all, it doesn't matter what you think because you don't know my heart and you're not the judge. Secondly, it doesn't even matter what I think. Because verse 4, I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted.
Why? Because I'm not omniscient. Even when I don't know anything against myself, God might know a lot of things against me. So you can't judge me and I can't judge me. You don't know me and you're biased against me.
I know me and I'm biased for me. So neither of us are valid. Furthermore, neither of us are omniscient and neither of us can really know all that needs to be known.
By the way, beloved, that will put you in touch with the fact that you don't need to be all the time, all the time, all the time fussing over your motivation. Because even when you don't know something against yourself, God might know something against you points to the fact that you're not even a totally valid critic of your own life. So you just have to yield up what you don't know to God and ask Him to make you what you ought to be. And that's what He says at the end of verse 4. The one who examines me is the Lord.
He lived under that. He says, look, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive for the things done in the body whether they be good or foul us. Yeah, I'm under that. I'm under the realization that someday I'm going to stand at the bemasy judgment and the Lord is going to reward me for what He knows. Verse 5, therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time. But wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the hidden things in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts.
And then each man's praise will come to him from God. That's accountability, beloved. My accountability is not to the church.
And I have said this. Sometimes people say, well, you know, John, you need to have more accountability to men because you might fall into sin. Listen, I could have accountability to a hundred men and you can't, none of those men can guard my thoughts.
None of those men can guard the intentions of my heart. No one can police that but my own heart and the knowledge in my heart that God sees everything. That is the highest level of accountability.
That is the point of accountability. First Chronicles 28, 9 says the Lord searches the heart. Revelation 2, 23, Christ says, I am he that searches the heart. Then in verse 5 He says, look, we never came with flattering speech as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness and He applies it. Hey, God knows.
God knows we didn't do that because God knows everything about us. You might be used to people who flatter you and you might be used to people who are greedy and they come with a pretext or a pretension. And they want gain. They want physical sexual favors. They want money. They want power. They want prestige. We didn't come that way. God is witness. We live under the scrutiny of God. Your typical verbal hucksters may be hypocrites.
Those liars with demon theology spawned by the pit may be hypocrites. We never came with flattering speech. You know what flattery is? It's a form of exploitation. Flattery is based on the fact that everybody's ego loves to hear good things about themselves.
Right? We love to hear good things about ourselves. Now if you say a good thing about a person and you have no intent other than to say good about them, that's not flattery. If you say a good thing about a person and have in your mind some purpose for that which will come to your benefit, that's flattery. So you say something good to someone as a ploy to win them to yourself for self-interest and personal gain.
You set them up for your own deceptive purposes. Proverbs 29 5 says, A man who flatters his neighbor is spreading a net for his steps. Proverbs 26 28 says, A flattering mouth works ruin. And because people are so egotistical, when people say nice things about them, they get sucked in. It's a very vivid illustration of God's attitude toward flattery in Psalm 12 3.
May the Lord cut off flattering lips. The purpose of flattery is to gain power over people. Common ploy among religious charlatans.
Paul says we didn't do that because God's watching. Secondly, we didn't come with a pretext for greed. Not only did they want power, but they want possessions.
This is to gain possessions. The pretext means they hide their real intent. The word pretext is cloak.
It's an over cloak. Covering the real intent. We didn't come putting a coat over our greed.
Let me tell you, false teachers are all the same. They want sexual favors. They want money. They wear a cloak. They'll flatter you to gain you.
And then they'll strip you naked. Paul says, I have not put a spiritual robe over my greed. I'm not in the ministry for money. I'm not in the ministry to get you. Remember what he said in Acts 20? I have coveted no man's silver and no man's what?
Gold. And I have worked with my hands so that I don't make the gospel chargeable to anybody. God sees my motives. God sees my heart.
I have tremendous accountability. Finally, in the last verse, he was consumed with God's glory and that gave him humility. Verse 6, nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority. We didn't look for esteem. We didn't look for honor. We didn't want praise.
We aren't diatrophies. The word zetao here, seek, means to habitually seek. We weren't habitually seeking honor, habitually seeking awards and laurels and stroking and appreciation dinners and attention and accolades and applause and plaudits and prestige. The only glory Paul ever sought was eternal, right? 2 Corinthians 4, 5.
But he never sought what belonged to God. 1 Corinthians 9, 16, he said, look, 16 to 18, he says, don't commend me. Don't honor me. Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.
I'm not worthy of any reward. I didn't ask to be in the ministry. God placed me in the ministry.
Don't commend me. Even though as apostles we could have asserted our authority, we were too preoccupied with all the glory going to him. We were specially called messengers. An apostle here means in the very technical sense, Paul who was one of the apostles. And in a less specific sense, Silas and Timothy who were apostles, not apostles of Christ that is chosen by him, but apostles of the church chosen by the church.
Apostles can stretch beyond the twelve and Paul to embrace others such as Epaphroditus. So he said we had some delegated authority but we never asserted ourselves and we never sought honor, prestige, we never sought the chief seats, we never sought to be the big shot. We knew our authority had to stop and be balanced with accountability and humility. It's kind of a three-legged stool that you sit on.
If you have a throne, it has three legs. Authority, yes. Delegated from Christ to speak his word boldly and powerfully.
Accountability, yes. You better know that God knows everything you're doing and every thought and intent of your heart. And humility, yes. You better be sure you seek not the praise of men but that you give all the glory to God. Paul never said it better than he said it in the glorious doxology of Romans 11. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever.
Amen. Humility, what makes an effective ministry? Tenacity because you trust totally in the power of God. Integrity because you're fully committed to the truth of God. Authority because you know you have on your life the commission of God. Accountability because of the knowledge of God.
He knows everything. Humility because you are consumed with the glory of God. Let me ask some questions, particularly to those of you who serve in spiritual leadership. Ask yourself this, will you? Am I willing to be bold no matter what the opposition? Confident in God's power? Am I willing to be a pure vessel with a pure message and a pure motive committed to God's truth? Am I willing to wield the sword of spiritual authority, the word without compromise commissioned by God's will? Am I willing to guard my heart motives and be utterly unselfish, compelled by God's omniscience? Am I willing to seek only his honor and humble myself, consumed by his glory? If yes to these, my ministry will not be in vain. Father, confirm these things to our hearts this morning.
Thank you for this rich hour together in your word. Make us what you want us to be. Give us leaders like Paul. We pray in Christ's name.
Amen. That's John MacArthur, chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, looking at qualities that every spiritual leader should have. It's practical stuff from John's study here on Grace to You.
He calls it leading the charge. Well, friend, if this radio broadcast is helping you better understand the word of God, or if it's answering questions that you have about the Christian life, would you do us a favor? Let us know. Drop us a note when you can. Our mailing address is Grace to You, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412. You can also email your letters to letters at gty.org, and be sure to mention the call letters of this radio station whenever you get in touch.
That's very helpful to us. And again, our regular mailing address, Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412, and our email address, letters at gty.org. And if you'd like to review today's lesson from John's current study called Leading the Charge, remember that all of these lessons are available free of charge in MP3N transcript format at gty.org. That's our website, and there you can also download recent series such as What to Look For in a Church and Insight into a Pastor's Heart. There are over 3,600 messages ready to download at the sermon archive, so take advantage of all that content free of charge at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and our entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day, and join us again tomorrow when John shows you what you can learn about spiritual leadership from a nursing mother. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You.
