The Shepherd of Worldliness

Love Not the World Part 1

Too few and far between call the Church to its rightful place place of self-denial.

It is much harder to talk about worldliness today than it was in the 1970s because much preaching has corrupted the minds of many would-be selfless believers and turned them worldly. Many godly preachers have pronounced judgment over the church for the past 200 years due to worldliness.

The Shepherd of Worldliness Almost Sounds Good

How have pastors been able to misguide authentic believers? We know how they corrupt false professors. Jesus said in John 10:1, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber." Again, in 10:5, "A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers." 

The most deceptive pastors are themselves deceived. An unsaved pastor is easier to detect by authentic sheep, but a good testimony and a correctly orchestrated sermon are more challenging to reject. This post's main point: Jesus said in 10:11, "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." There is only one good shepherd, Jesus! Truthfully, only one shepherd can say, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (10:10).

The Shepherd of Worldliness Does not Lay His Life Down

Jesus identified pastors for pay in 10:12: "He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them." To detect a false shepherd, a person needs to watch his life closely, if possible. False shepherds do not typically allow people to get too close. False shepherds focus on doctrine. They sound like good teachers, but do they plead for souls? Do they regularly instruct their people, as Jesus said, to lay their lives down? They will not teach what will drive people away.

A good under-shepherd guides people to Christ without any focus on himself. He is not looking for accolades or a following; he is, as George Whitefield said, that fiery preacher of The Great Awakening,

"Let the name of Whitefield perish, but Christ be glorified. Let my name die everywhere, let even my friends forget me, if by that means the cause of the blessed Jesus may be promoted. But what is Calvin, or what is Luther? Let us look above names and parties; let Jesus be our all in all—So that He is preached. . . I care not who is uppermost. I know my place . . . even to be the servant of all. I am content to wait till the judgement day for the clearing up of my reputation; and after I am dead I desire no other epitaph than this, "Here lies G.W. What sort of man he was the great day will discover."

The Shepherd of Worldliness Does Not Proclaim Christ

I do not say that false shepherds do not preach the Bible or doctrines or even give entertaining sermons. I say they do not proclaim Christ with authority, power, and persuasion that leaves the hearers glorifying Christ who died and calling them to die also. Worldliness calls people to live in the world and how the world lives. The focus is on obtaining things—not just cars and houses but reputations, success, and achievement of many kinds.

The one who preaches Christ brings their hearer into the Gospel, where we see Jesus not behaving like the world, confronting the world, and calling people to repent and not just the lost. Christ lived so humbly that His disciples placed more importance on their place in the kingdom than His. He did not look for applause; he turned away from it and avoided it. His disciples had never seen such behavior before, so they had no way to process it. Preaching Christ from the Gospels raises human behavior as a follower of Christ to a place that men are generally unwilling to go. For this reason, a good shepherd leads his followers to pray much. Less preaching will be far more productive than poor preaching without prayer.

The Shepherd of Worldliness does not Pray Much, if at all. In the 1970s, a saying about the Church circulated: Many people come out on Sunday morning to hear the preacher, fewer people come out on Sunday evening to sing, and hardly anyone comes out on Wednesday evening to pray and meet with God. Do people in the Church love Jesus Christ more than their own lives? For more than fifty years, I have witnessed the Church in decline. For this reason, I have been talking and writing about the Church. I believe that Jesus Christ is building His Church, and it can only be glorious on the final day. Nevertheless, I have not done enough to help steer believers to Christ and away from living like the world.