Very often Christians are impressed by speakers who have "great" public ministry. They heal the sick and cast out demons and work all forms of miracles in Jesus' Name. Very often we are blinded by eloquent speakers and named them as great men of God who have strings of credentials. We welcome them to speak in our Church with opened arms. But one thing we often forget to do. We need to look into the personal lives of all speakers before we invite them to speak in our Church. This is not only a wise thing to do, but also Scriptural.
In Luke 13:24 - 27 Jesus addressed the question - are there few who are saved?
Jesus said: "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us.' And He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,' then you will begin to say. 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.' But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you where you are from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.'" (NKJV, emphasis added)
At the close of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave a similar warning: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'" (Matt. 7:21 -23, NKJV, emphasis added)
Personally, I do not believe that the people who made these claims of working miracles were lying. They had actually done what they claimed. But being able to prophesy, cast out demons and work wonders does not necessarily prove that a person is one of God's elect.
In the Lord's answer to these people, there is one significant phrase that occurred three times - "I do not know you ... I do not know you ... I never knew you." They had never been on the list of God's elect. From His perspective in eternity, He had looked below their public ministry into their personal lives. He had searched for the nature of Jesus, the nature of the Lamb, manifested in meekness and purity and holiness. But in vain!
Outwordly, these miracle workers had busy serving the Lord, but in their innermost character God had discerned something described as "lawlessness" or "workers of iniquity." This expressed itself in attitudes such as pride, arrogance, self-seeking, covetousness, personal ambition. For such, He had no place reserved in heaven. There is one unvarying requirement of God that runs through the whole Bible - "... without holiness no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).
Endurance and Salvation
In His "end-time" discourse (Matthew 24), Jesus revealed another mark which characterizes God's elect - endurance. He gave a brief but vivid picture of the period leading up to the close of the present age (the Church Age).
Jesus said: "Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. ... All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake (verse 9) ... Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved" (Matt. 24:4 - 13, emphasis added).
The phrase, "All these are the beginning of sorrows" was Jesus' description of a "birth pangs" or "labor pains" because they climax in the birth of God's Kingdom on earth. He warned His disciples that they will be subjected to progressively increasing presures.
Notice that the phrase, "He who endures to the end shall be saved" in Greek is more precise - "He who has endured to the end will be saved." In other word, enduring to the end is a requirement for salvation. Only those who have endured will qualify.
It is important to acknowledge that Christians in many parts of the world are already being subjected to tests of this kind. All the things that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24:9 - 13 have actually been happening, and continue to happen, to Christians in communist lands, such as China and in many Muslim nations. Christians in the Western nations in this century have, for the most part, been exempted from test of this kind, but there is no guarantee that this will continue.
Divine purpose of endurance and tests
There is a divine purpose behind these tests, to which both Jews and Christians are being subjected. As the present age draws to a close, God intends to bring forth a people for His name, who will be fit to share His Kingdom throughout eternity. Therefore He will not spare His people any test that is needed to produce the kind of commitment and character that He requires. The same period of testing that faces Israel likewise faces the Church.
This is not a time, therefore, for Christians to stand back and say, "Let the Jews go through it; they deserve it." Rather, all of us - whether Jews or Christians - need to ask ourselves: are we prepared to go through what it will take to make us what God intends us to be? For those who make the right response, the end result will be a people pleasing to God, fit to share His glory.
Importance of blameless personal life of a minister
Recently a Local Church pastor invited Rev. Daniel Leo (not his real name), a retired pastor, as a special guest speaker to preach in a worship service. He was introduced with an impressive string of credentials published in the Church Bulletin - Graduated from a Bible College in a foreign country. He served as a pastor, a seminar speaker, itinerant speaker/evangelist and the like. He was a director in many sections of a denominational Church and so on ... But the pastor who invited him does not know his personal background. He only knows him as a "highly qualified" itinerant speaker - a deception in my opinion.
I got to know this person (Rev. Daniel Leo) when I was in a Local Church where he served as a pastor. In fact I was already a member of this Church fof about 10 years before he came. Being a member of the Local Church Board I was concerned about members not coming regularly to Church. And so I took time to bring this new pastor to visit some of these members. The first member we visited was a doctor's wife (I just call her SC) whose husband was not a believer. SC was a part time educationist who worked from home. She was a member of this Local Church for more than 15 years (much longer that me) but only came to Church twice a year - Easter Sunrise Service and Christmas Eve Midnight Service. When she saw us, she was extremely apologetic and promised she would begin to attend the Sunday Church Service in two weeks' time. In fact she turned up the following Sunday morning.
The pastor was of course delighted and within a month she took my place in the Local Church Board and was appointed a song leader. By the way she has a good voice. One thing leads to another, and before long, SC became a regular visitor to the parsonage. During that time the pastor's wife had terminal cancer of the lung. SC brought her maid with her to help to do the house chores. Instead of loving, helping and being attentive to her wife and praying for her (who was very weak), the pastor took the opportunity to commit adultery with SC! In fact they were soon caught red-handed by some senior Church members. To make the long story short, the pastor's wife soon died. Members of the Local Church then complained to the Head Office and almost immediately, the pastor was transferred away. Subsequently, SC divorced her husband and married the pastor. The busband of SC soon married again but had died of cancer of the nose within a short period of time. How sad and tragic!
Before the pastor was transferred away with his new wife, he lied to his fellow pastors (in a farewell dinner) in the same city that the Head Office wanted to send him overseas to enhance his music ministry. Of course that was not true. The truth is, he was sent to pastor a small Church in another city.
In my opinion, this pastor's lurid personal life discredited he "calling" as a minister of the Gospel!
What went wrong Biblically?
The shamful things committed by Pastor Daniel Leo, are forbidden by the Word of God - Adultery, divorce and lying.
1. Adultery - Willful sexual intercourse with someone other than one's husband or wife. Jesus expanded the meaning of adultery to include the cultivation of lust: "... who ever looks a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matt. 5:28).
In the Ten Commandments, God emphatically prohibited adultery when He said: "You shall not commit adultery" (Ex. 20:14). Under the Mosaic Law, when a couple was caught in the act of adutery, both parties were to be killed (Deut. 22:22).
Pastor Daniel Leo was not walking in the Spirit, but walking in the flesh:
Paul said: "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the last of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Sprit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do no do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornicaltion, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outburst of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal. 5:16 - 21, emphasis added).
Notice that Paul listed 17 works of the flesh of which "adultery" is numbered first among others. According to Paul those who commit adultery (and other works of the flesh) will not inherit the kingdom of God!
If you invite Pastor Daniel Leo to preach in your Church, you are actually inviting a person who will not inherit the kingdom of God to speak to Christians!
2. Divorce - The legal dissolution of a marriage. The divine ideal for marriage is a lifelong bond that unites husband and wife in a "one flesh" relationship.
Jesus said: "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate" (Matt. 19:4 - 6).
In Matthew, Jesus said: "... whoever divorces his wife for any reason except for sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery" (Matt. 5:32).
In Luke, Jesus said: "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery" (Luke 16:18).
In Mark, Jesus said: "And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery" (Mark 10:12).
According to what Jesus said, and from the standpoint of what pastor Daniel Leo and SC did, it is clear that both of them committed adultery, except that pastor Daneil Leo committed adultery on two counts - one, committed adultery while his wife was still alive; two, committed adultery with a woman divorced from her husband!
It is true that pastor Daniel Leo did not divorce his wife while she was still alive, but SC, his new wife did divorce her husband. Shouldn't the pastor, who knows the Bible, pointed to SC the sin of divorce? There are two possible reasons - one, willful deception or he wasn't sure what the Scripture said!
Another case of a pastor's divorce
It is reported by "Ministry News" that Benny Hinn's wife, Suzanne filed for divorce on Feb. 1, 2010. The divorce papers cited "irreconcilable differences" with the famous healing evangelist. Pastor Benny Hinn and his immediate family were shocked and saddened to learn of this news without any previous notice. The couple has been married for more than 30 years. Although Pastor Hinn has faithfully endeavored to bring healing to their relationship, those efforts failed and were met with the petition for divorce that was filed without notice.
My comment is - you would think that Benny Hinn's wife understood what the Bible says about divorce. If not, wouldn't Benny point out to her even if she refused to listen?
3. Lying - In its very essence, a lie is any statement or act designed to deceive another person. The motivation for most lying is a desire either to hurt the one whom the lie is directed (Gen. 3:1 - 13; Romans 3:13) or to protect onself, usually out of fear or pride (Matt. 26 - 75; Acts 5:1 - 11).
On the other hand, it is possible to be truthful with the intention of hurting another person. The Bible teaches believers to be truthful in love (Eph. 4:24).
The punishment to be meted out to liars is of the severest kind. They are positively and absolutely excluded from heaven (Rev. 21:27; Rev. 22:15), and those who are guilty of this sin are cast into the Lake of fire:
"But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars whall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstones, which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8, emphasis added).
Notice that "all liars" means "liars of all description." Notice also that liars and murderers receive the same penalty!
The psalmist said: "You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man" (Ps. 5:6).
Solomon said: "A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies will not escape" (Pro. 19:5).
Conclusion
It is imperative that we examine the personal lives of preachers before we invite them to speak in our Local Church. Preachers' personal lives reflect their credibility in Christian ministry.
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