Keep a Close Watch on Yourself

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our executive director. Mark, this particular podcast certainly is not an occasion for joy because as we were talking about before we started recording, as many who are checking out the podcast are aware, another recent moral failure from a high profile pastor is all over the news. And because you want to care for us and encourage us, you want to talk about that. So talk to us about what's going on here. Not the details of the situation, but how we can think about in response to it.

Mark Prater:

Yeah. I don't plan to use the person's name, the man's name. I don't think that's necessary. It is though a sober warning for those in pastoral ministry. I think even for members of our churches, that we would learn from this. I think what can happen when a high profile pastor or well-known evangelical leader needs to resign because of a moral failure; we can shake our heads and think, oh no, not again, and sort of move on. And I don't think we're supposed to do that. We're to allow something like that to sober us, to warn us regarding our own vulnerability to the sin that still indwells within each of us. This man is 73 years old, married 40 years. And so it teaches you, what the warning teaches you, is that sin is no respecter of age or season of life, that we will have a battle with indwelling sin until we die or until the Lord returns. And until that day we are in fact in a battle.

And that's why I wanted to do a podcast about that, to strengthen us in that fight because we need God's help and we need one another to help us just fight that fight because we can't do it on our own, which I think is one of the lessons that you come away from this. It's very sad. He had to resign from his church and from a ministry that he had and other ministries he was involved in. And this is a man that had written, I think, well over 30 books if I remember right. So he had a wonderful platform and influence and needed to step away from all of it. Our founder, CJ Mahaney, sent a few of us a quote this week from D.A. Carson's book, How Long? Oh Lord. And in that book, he has a chapter entitled Illness, Death and Bereavement.

And this is what Carson says, "But I remember the fate of King Hezekiah when he was under sentence of death. He begged the Lord for 15 more years and received the extra span. And in the course of those 15 years, he blew his entire reputation for integrity in one incident prompted by foolish pride, nor was his reputation alone at stake, the bearing of his action had on the future of his nation was disastrous. That is why I decided there are worse things than dying. I do not know how many times I've sung the words, oh, let me never, never outlive my love for thee, but I mean them. I'd rather die than end up unfaithful to my wife. I'd rather die than deny by a profligate life what I have taught in my books; I would rather die than deny or disown the gospel. God knows there are many things in my past of which I'm deeply ashamed. I would not want such shame to multiply and bring dishonor to Christ in the years to come. There are worse things than dying."

And that is an appropriate sobering quote. There are worse things than dying. And I think it's why you find in scripture, especially as it's written to pastors, this admonition to watch our lives very closely, to pay close attention to ourselves. You see that in Acts Chapter 20 verse 28. This is Paul speaking to and writing to us, speaking to the Ephesian elders: pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. So that "pay careful attention to yourselves" language and then similar language when Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Then he says this, persist in this for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

We as pastors are to keep a close watch on ourselves. And that's not a one-time or a periodic event. We are to persist in this. We are to consistently and constantly keep a close watch on our lives. And I think we need that because the battle with indwelling sin is always going to be there for all Christians. And I think the way that Satan works, he likes to take down Christ's leaders in his church because that has a multiplying effect. And so we especially need to be aware of that tactic of our enemy because we don't only have to battle our own sin, we have to be aware of how the enemy's involved. So brothers, pastors, we must watch our lives closely.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. It's a moment. Moments like these certainly are an opportunity for sober reflection about our own lives, but also for a great deal of humility. I mean, Paul says in one Corinthians, let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall because there is no temptation that is not common to man. And so while we might wonder, scratch our heads and ask how did he get there, we're all capable of making a shipwreck of our ministries, of our faith. And so your encouragement is needed and appreciated. What are some ways that you would suggest to us about how to go about watching our lives?

Mark Prater:

Yeah. Here's what I would recommend, the things that I try to live in my own life; and all of those require the need of God and the need of others, to say it that way. The first is to remember that wonderful work of the Spirit to convict us of sin. So we must pray. We must ask the Spirit to help us there to convict us of sin. And that's important because sin works very subtly. I would guess that this man felt there were probably subtle, subtle, sinful compromises along the way. And we must be asking daily for the Spirit to show us and to convict us of sin so that we can not only confess that to God and receive forgiveness, but walk out steps of repentance. So there's a reliance upon God and upon the Spirit of God to show us our sin and convict us of sin.

Secondly is to just be in regular fellowship and accountability. What's interesting about the Acts text is he's speaking to the Ephesian elders plural. So obviously the admonition there to watch our lives closely is one that we have responsibility for individually. But they heard that as a group. And so I don't think it's too much of a stretch from the text to say by implication they have to help one another watch their lives, which is why biblical fellowship and being in accountability is so important that you don't jettison that because of the busyness of ministry. You make that a priority in your life. And one of the ways that Jill and I practice that is we have community group that we're involved in twice a month, and then the men in that group meet twice a month for fellowship group. And those are contexts where we can talk about our struggles and our temptations and where we need the help and prayers and counsel of others.

I would say this, as men who are called to faithfully preach God's word, that should include where the text allows you to do that, to preach on the doctrine of sin. And that must begin by preaching that doctrine to ourselves so that when we step into that pulpit, we need that sermon. We need that message as much as the people that we care for need it because we need the word of God, which is sharper than a two-edged sword to help us see what's really going on in our hearts and for the Spirit to show us as well so that we can access the grace of God that we have in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And I would just say one other thing is just continue to look at the cross and to be affected by the glories of Calvary, as we've said in the past, that Christ died a horrible death and he paid the greatest price for all of our sins. And that kind of vision of the cross, that view of the cross, that grasping of the cross not only humbles you, it will want you to be sure that you are watching your life, so that you're even honoring the death of Christ by keeping a close watch on your life. So just a few thoughts that I think men already know that are listening to this are pastors, members, men and women of our churches that are listening to this, but they're good reminders at a time like this.

Benjamin Kreps:

Well, it's always good to stir faithful minds up by way of reminder. And so your encouragements are helpful and needed. I was listening to Kevin DeYoung's podcast this morning, actually, and he and the guest he had on, they were discussing, I found this a helpful contribution in light of the recent sad story about this pastor, about how even just a more perhaps organic reality of just living a life of hospitality as pastors, having people in your home, observing your life, family, opening up your life to others is, whether it's like you were talking about in a time where men are in the community group meeting together and specifically talking about stuff, but also just generally living life in the open with others. I mean, in the rigors and challenges of pastoral ministry, sometimes guys can be tempted to isolate and begin to spend more time alone. And that's always going to be a dangerous place for us. We need others, like you said, and more than anything, we need the Lord in all of this.

So Mark, thank you for your care for us. Thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.