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In a recent Sunday School Growth Class, we looked at multiple Scriptures to see that the glory of God is the highest priority for all things. Here is that list along with a set of extra verses and questions we could not address due to time. Note that this list is an adaptation from the Appendix in Piper’s Desiring God along with other studies.

Why did God create people?

Isaiah 43:6-7 ()

6 I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
7 everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.

Why did God choose a people for himself and make Israel his possession?

Jeremiah 13:11

For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.

Why did God rescue Israel from bondage in Egypt?

Psalm 106:7-8

7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt,
did not consider your wondrous works;
they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,
but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
that he might make known his mighty power.

Why did God part the Red Sea, rescue Israel, and destroy Pharaoh’s army?

Exodus 14:15-18

15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

Why did God spare Israel again and again in the wilderness?

Ezekiel 20:14

But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.

Why didn’t God cast away his people when they rejected him as king and asked for a king like the nations?

1 Samuel 12:20-22

20 And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. 21 And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. 22 For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.”

Why did God use his sovereign power to bring back his people from exile after punishing four generations of sin?

Isaiah 48:9-11

9 “For my name’s sake I defer my anger,
for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
that I may not cut you off.
10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for how should my name be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another.”

Ezekiel 36:22-24, 32

22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. … 32 It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.

Why does God forgive sins?

Isaiah 43:25

“I, I am he
who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.

Why did the Son of God come to earth and to his final decisive hour?

John 17:1

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you”

Why did God refrain from judgment until he sent Jesus to die?

Romans 3:23-27

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

Why did God predestine our salvation?

Ephesians 1:5-6

5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:11-12

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Why did God give the Holy Spirit?

Ephesians 1:13-14

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Why will Jesus come again in the great day of consummation?

2 Thessalonians 1:9-10

9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Why will every knee bow and every tongue confess Jesus as lord?

Philippians 2:10-11

10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Why Does God do all things?

Romans 11:36

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

If you were not convinced by the verses above, check out this list of some extra questions that will show you that God does what He does for the sake of His own glory.

What was the purpose of Lazarus’ sickness and death? – John 11:4

Why did King Herod die? – Acts 12:23

Why should we do what we do? – 1 Corinthians 10:31, Colossians 3:17

Why will every knee bow and every tongue confess? – Philippians 2:10-11

What was Jesus’ prayer as he approached his passion? – John 12:27-29

Why does God bring salvation and obedience to the Gentiles? – Romans 1:1-3

Why did God raise Pharaoh to power? – Romans 9:17

Why did Christ accept us? – Romans 15:7

Why was Paul praying for the Thessalonians? – 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

Why were slaves commanded to behave well? – 1 Timothy 6:1

Why are our sins forgiven? – 1 John 2:12

Why let your light shine before men? – Matthew 5:16

Why would Peter be martyred? – John 21:19

Why will God bring peace to his chosen ones? – Isaiah 60:21, 61:3

What was God’s purpose in judging Sidon? – Ezekiel 28:22

Why did God command the temple to be rebuilt? – Haggai 1:8

Why will Jesus answer prayers? – John 14:13

Preach the word! The Lord commands it. The body is blessed by it. The sermon is a good and necessary thing for the life of the believer.

In today’s world, the believer has access to more of the preached word than ever before. We can read books of collected messages. We can stream our favorite Bible teachers. We can turn on RYM Radio and hear teaching all day long. We can Google the Internet (I hear that’s what the kids call it), and find videos of pastors of small churches we will never hear of in any other way.

But, as a pastor, one who preaches weekly (and hopefully not weakly), can I warn you of a danger or two in too much on-line sermon consumption? I’m quite grateful for the resources that the Lord has placed at our fingertips, but I fear that some believers may move from being helped to being harmed by their consumption of material on-line.

I Know a Secret

One danger of on-line sermons that I think we would all agree on is the risk of consuming false teaching. This is more likely when a believer is listening to a pastor or scholar about whom they know nothing. If you are listening to a message or reading an article written by someone whose scholarship is not being checked by others, you run the risk of novel and even dangerous teaching.

One of the attractions of many an on-line message is the fact that it teaches you something you have never heard before. It is possible to run across a man who is translating the Hebrew of Genesis for himself and saying things about what it means to be human that no faithful teacher has ever taught. If a believer is not careful here, he or she may come away with a damaging, false belief that was all the more dangerous for feeling like it was something secret that no other teacher has brought forth.

I’d bet that you have heard of the problem of Gnosticism in the early church. Among the dangerous beliefs of the Gnostics was the ego-boosting belief that they possessed secret knowledge that was not available to the general public. It was easy for folks to love the fact that they were let in on the stuff that other, ordinary people could not grasp. See any similarities to how some folks feel about that special teacher they have found on-line?

Choose-Your-Own-Doctrine

Do you remember choose-your-own-adventure books? These were popular before video games took the idea to a whole new level. A reader would follow the story of a hero until a particular turning point: enter the cave or climb the mountain? The reader would turn to a different page of the book to find out what happened to the hero depending on the choice the reader made for the hero. Perhaps the cave contained a dragon. Perhaps the mountain led to a castle and a princess. The point was to give the reader a sense of adventure by being able to pick the kind of story he or she wanted to read.

Similar to the draw of novel and dangerous doctrine is the temptation to pick and defend your own favorite teaching. Sometimes people will have a particular point of doctrine they want others to agree with. Instead of examining faithful teaching of faithful teachers, the eager learner will scour the Internet for the one teacher who says it just the way they want to hear. Want to find that Calvinist who dunks on your Arminian friends, no problem. Want to find that Arminian preacher who makes your Calvinist friends look like cold-hearted robots, piece of cake. Want to find somebody who interprets a particular passage in accord with your strange preferences? This one might take a bit more work, but the Internet is a big place, and lots of people have said lots of crazy things over the years; so it can be done.

Romance Novel Religion

Perhaps the biggest danger, especially for folks who will not be dragged down the road of false teaching by obscure teachers on the corners of the Web, is what I am calling romance novel religion. When you talk with a believer who spends a lot of time during the week listening to a lot of sermons from a particular teacher or group, you will start to notice that this eager listener begins to develop a respect, perhaps even more than a respect, for the teachers on line. Like a wife reading too many romance novels and beginning to wonder why her own husband falls so far short of the fictional leading men in her books, the eager sermon consumer begins to wonder why his pastor cannot deliver a blistering, hour-and-fifteen-minute masterpiece like his favorite conference speaker.

But stop and think. Why is it that a husband cannot live up to the picture of the man in the romance novel? The man in the novel is not real. Nobody ever mentions, in the books, that the handsome and modest yet muscular Amish man who sweeps the city girl off her feet to carry her back to a simpler time also hasn’t taken a bath in 4 days and has been working the fields that whole time. Fiction is fiction. Real life goes much deeper.

Similarly, when we listen to sermon after sermon from pastor after pastor and scholar after scholar, we develop in our minds this idyllic picture of what our local pastor should be. He should be as scholarly as Mohler and Sproul, as bold as MacArthur, as passionate as Platt and Piper, as funny as a pre-fall Driscoll, as fatherly as Rogers, as sophisticated as Keller, as keen with illustrations as Swindoll, and somehow develop the accents of Begg and Ferguson. No pastor is all these men rolled into one.

Before you find yourself sad about the fact that your pastor cannot be a Frankenstein’s monster of all your favorite on-line personalities blended together, read this vital truth: God does not want you to have such a pastor. God wants you to have a human pastor who has strengths, who has weaknesses, and who knows and loves you. You do not need a perfect on-line teacher. You need a shepherd. Unless you have a few connections, none of those on-line pastors know you. They have no idea who you are or what you are going through. Neither do they know the situation of that person who sits next to you in church and who is struggling with their own particular messes—messes for which you have no patience.

Gorging without Exercise

God loves feasts. We should be able to figure that out by how often the Old Testament commands that people feast for joy in celebration of the Lord. Yet there is a problem when feasting leads to nothing but more feasting. Our bodies need movement, exercise, and breaks from constant consumption of food and drink.

Feasts are special breaks from the day-to-day work. The Sabbath was to be one day in 7, not a life of laziness. Even Jesus, when he took the 3 atop the mountain of transfiguration quickly led them back down to the ordinary.

As a pastor, I run into people who tell me about how many on-line sermons they listen to in a week. And I am glad to know that they are filling their minds with faithful teaching. But I often want to ask a question. It is not necessarily a nice question, so my wife tells me not to ask it. But, since we are all friends here and nobody will notice, I’ll ask it now: So what?

You took in an entire conference of teaching on the trinity this week, so what? You listened to 45 lectures on evangelism this week, so what? You sat through an entire biblical counseling conference before breakfast, so what? You finished a big series on marriage on Monday, so what? These all are great things to listen to. But, and here is a big question, what impact are they having on your day-to-day? Have you only filled your head with knowledge? Or is what you have listened to making you love the Lord, love your spouse, love the church, and love the lost better?

Conclusion

On-line preaching can be tremendously helpful. But it brings with it a few dangers. Watch out for false and novel teaching. Watch out for the temptation to find a teacher, any teacher, any teacher at all, who agrees with you and goes against what others are telling you. Use your resources wisely. But do not let your resources take you out of faithful Christian living in your local church. Do not daydream about having a legend for a pastor or feel the urge to reshape your pastor into your favorite conference personality. Be grateful for faithful teaching, but do not assume that simply consuming content has sanctified you.

Really, I want you to listen and learn on-line. But, how many sermons do you need in a week? Please do not consume so much content that you have no time for people and no patience for the real world. Use your resources to look up things you need to learn. But check your work by being sure your sources of teaching are also faithful teachers who hold to orthodox, biblical doctrine.

Be careful as you learn, not to turn up your nose at simple, faithful, time-tested theology. There is, after all, a reason why the church has had to battle down heresy for two-thousand years. Heresy is tempting. False teachings sometimes ring a bell in our souls. And this is why we need the protection of our own pastors and of faithful theologians of the past. No, they do not have biblical authority. But, yes, many have heard and rejected the new things that some guy on YouTube thinks he came up with long before the YouTuber ever taught it.

Bottom line, love the Lord. Love his word. Love faithful teaching. Love your church. Love your pastor. Love your brothers and sisters in Christ. Love the lost and share the gospel. Do these things, and you will use but not over-use on-line content.

How do you feel when you read through on-line posts? I know that my own experience is a mixed bag. Some days I am encouraged. Other days, I find myself thinking with Obi-Wan, “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.” Some days I find fun things that make me laugh. Some days I find nasty rants that make me want to turn from the Internet for months. And, sadly, the good, the bad, and the ugly are posts I find when looking at the feeds of folks I know to be genuine believers.

One of the beautiful things about blogging and posting on social media is the fact that we can engage important issues in a pseudo-public square. Obviously, the Internet is not a truly public square, as we are not face-to-face, and there is always a chance that the owners of the platform will ban or hide content with which they disagree. But the Internet is still a place where we can communicate with far more people than many of us would otherwise speak to in our daily lives. And I do not want to give up on attempts to honor God, encourage believers, address issues, and even share the gospel on-line so long as the forum is one, we can access.

Sadly, as I’m sure you have seen, decorum in conversation on-line can sometimes leave something to be desired. The anonymity of on-line conversation and the physical distance between participants lends itself to a level of harshness and cruelty on-line that would be highly unlikely in a civilized public setting. Some folks are just mean from the keyboard.

Some who write with a harsher style are simply mean and sinful. Some, however, genuinely believe that it is right to speak and write strongly, sharply, about issues of importance. After all, Paul was pretty harsh with the Galatians and Corinthians. Jesus was sharp with the Pharisees, calling them whitewashed tombs and a brood of vipers (little snake babies).

The concept of decorum in on-line discussion came to my mind this morning as I was reading through Paul’s second letter to Timothy. In this letter, Paul is facing his own execution. And the apostle wants to prepare Timothy to do ministry in the years to come, years when Paul will not be there to guide his protégé. Notice how Paul tells Timothy to address problem people and controversial topics.

2 Timothy 2:23–26

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

While I will not present this little paragraph as the final word on all forms of communication, and while I will not be the one to police the tone of others—especially not those who are not part of the church where I serve—allow me to call your attention to some of the final words Paul has for a young minister. In these 3 verses, we find three important reminders that should guide how we interact in person and on-line, especially when dealing with controversies. And this advice applies in conversation with the saved and the lost.

First, avoid foolish arguments. Not every topic requires your opinion. Not every error of every person needs your hand of correction. There are issues out there that simply do not matter. There are topics that only breed quarrels and arguments, and God is clear here in his word that we do not need to be quarrelsome. If you pride yourself in being argumentative on-line, you are priding yourself in something that Paul warns against.

Second, be kind. Even when you do find the need to engage in controversial discussion, if kindness is absent, something is wrong. In this passage, God says to you to be kind to everyone and to correct others with gentleness. Kindness and gentleness along with patience are fruit of the Spirit. No Christian should be engaging in discussion of topics without the fruit of the Spirit.

Third, engage with the glory of God and the good of the other’s soul in mind. If you are arguing with a lost person, your desire should be that the Lord, by his sovereign power, would save this person’s soul. While that does not mean you compromise on telling the truth, it should impact how you write. Do not treat others as if they are faceless robots or enemies in a video game. Engage people as—get this—people made in the image of God who need the grace of God as much as you. And when your interlocutor is a believer who is mistaken on a doctrine, keep their good in mind as you tell the truth. As Paul told Timothy, you want to see them freed from the snare of the devil. Your goal is that other person’s good, not to crush them and make yourself feel big.

Dear friends, I am not suggesting for a moment that we compromise the truth of God to shield the feelings of others. Sometimes we will have to say things that, because of the very truth they represent, are offensive to the lost and to those caught up in godless thinking. Tell the truth. But speak the truth in love. No, I do not assume that, if you are kinder, you will persuade people to the faith with your sweetness. But, for the glory of God, by the fruit of the Spirit, in obedience to Scripture, tell the truth with patience, kindness, and gentleness. If you trust in the power of a sovereign God who changes hearts, you can honor him by writing respectfully, kindly, and clearly without being nasty, quarrelsome, and mean-spirited.

As society shifts away from rationality, our ability to agree on morality slides into obscurity. Without a little thought about how to think, how to reason, how to avoid fallacies, we are doomed to wallow in the mire of conflicting emotional opinions.

For fun, let me share with you two logical fallacies that I find myself hearing on a regular basis. These are in the church from time-to-time. They are certainly on the television and the Internet. And, if we learn to spot them, perhaps we can help people to get past dangerous, faulty reasoning.

Inflation of Conflict Fallacy

Inflation of conflict is the term for a logical fallacy in which a person claims that disagreement between opposing viewpoints means that no valid viewpoint can exist. If expert A and expert B disagree about subject Y, then we assume that nobody can know anything about Y. We may as well give up any study of Y. Certainly we cannot suggest that a wise, modern, forward-thinking person can hold a position on Y.

Without advocating for either side, consider the discussion about masks from our most recent health crisis. One set of healthcare experts declares that masks prevent the spread of diseases. Another set of experts declares that masks in fact do nothing to help temper the spread of disease. The inflation of conflict fallacy would lead one to conclude that, therefore, nothing at all can be known about masks and the spread of disease.

But ask yourself, is there no actual answer? Does the disagreement between the two expert groups tell us that nothing can be known by mankind regarding masking? Or is there a possible alternative solution that better befits logic? One might consider that one group is simply wrong in their conclusions or dishonest about their supposed opinion. The presence of disagreement, however, is no proof that there is no such thing as a correct answer.

Try another example, this time from doctrine. Baptists declare that only believers should be baptized. Presbyterians declare that infants born to believers should be baptized. If a person concludes, therefore, there is no correct position on baptism, that person would be committing the inflation of conflict fallacy. The presence of a conflict between a Baptist and Presbyterian theologian does not indicate that there is not a correct position to be found or that nothing can be known about baptism.

You might say to yourself that you would not fall prey to this fallacy, but you may find that it is more common than you think. When you are faced with a difficult issue, and when you believe—genuinely believe—that smart people have made good arguments on both sides, you may find yourself tempted to pretend that no answer exists. Be careful. It is good to acknowledge when smart people have made cases on both sides of an issue. This prevents you from disrespecting people who disagree with you as if they are dumb dumbs. But the presence of smart people in one camp does not make that camp’s position correct. In point of fact, both camps can be wrong. But nothing here indicates that there is no possible way to know the truth.

In medicine, masks are either helpful or not helpful, and there is a way to know. In doctrine, babies either should be baptized or they shouldn’t, and there is a way to know. The same holds true for arguments regarding issues of atheism, gender, sexuality, Calvinism, women in the pulpit, and the age of the earth. Just because experts disagree does not exclude the possibility of a true answer to a question existing. And to pretend that disagreement between experts allows you to do your own thing without repercussion is fallacious.

The Golden Mean Fallacy

Argument to moderation, also known as argumentum ad temperantiam or the golden mean fallacy, is a fallacy where a person claims that, when views differ, a compromise between the two views will be the correct solution. If expert C suggests that 10 units is proper, while expert D argues for 6 units, the right answer must be 8 units. While compromise can be a helpful solution to some problems in society, it is logically fallacious to suggest that all disagreements must be settled with compromise.

From what should be absurd, imagine that an evil political dictator wants to put to death 50% of the population of a nation. The evil man’s political opponent, a good man, wants none of the population to be murdered. The golden mean fallacy would suggest that the murder of 25% of the population would be an acceptable solution.

Without illustrating further, I believe that you can see that a press to compromise is not always a proper solution. This is true in the church and in the civil arena. Compromise can be a sweet way to solve problems, especially regarding issues of preference, but when we are dealing with claims of truth, doctrine, and morality, seeking a middle ground may simply be walking both sides into error instead of leading to a right conclusion.

Conclusion

Have you found yourself using either of the above fallacies in your reasoning with others? Have you refused to make an argument about an important life issue because experts disagree? Have you pressed for compromise in situations where taking a stand, an absolute stand, is actually what is right? I would urge you to guard your thinking. Do not compromise truth for the sake of comfort by the means of logical error.