The Grace Discipleship Group

I recently saw this article by Tullian Tchividjian.    He does a great job in helping others to evaluate whether they are sitting under sound Bible teachers (or as in my case - to evaluate yourself if you are a teacher of the Word).  Go through his questions and see if the teaching in Grace Fellowship gets a passing grade.

Here is his article …

A few months ago I mentioned from the pulpit at New City that God grows Christians by feeding them his Word. One way he does this is by providing the church with teachers and preachers, explainers and exhorters, of his Word. This means that if we are going to grow we need to be sitting at the feet of reliable carriers of God’s truth. This, however, begs the question, how can we identify a reliable carrier of God’s truth? The Bible makes it clear that there are many unreliable carriers of so-called truth. Satan masquerades as an angel of light seeking to deceive. So we need a lot of biblical discernment here. Just because a teacher or preacher comes in Jesus’ name with a Bible under his arm doesn’t automatically mean he is reliable. Thankfully both the Bible and church history give us some direction here. So I want to provide you with a brief list of five questions (based on the five sola’s of the Reformation) that can help you discern the reliability of a particular teacher or preacher.

Question 1 (Sola Scriptura): Does the preacher ground everything he says in the Bible? Does he, in other words, begin with the authority and sufficiency of Scripture? A reliable carrier of God’s truth seeks to revel in, wrestle with, and expound from, the Bible. He starts with the Bible. All of his comments flow from what a particular passage in the Bible says. He doesn’t simply use the Bible to support what he wants to say. That is, he submits to what the Bible says, he does not seek to submit the Bible to what he says. He cares about both the Old Testament and the New Testament. He refuses to take verses out of context. He recognizes the unity of the Bible. He acknowledges that both the Old Testament and the New Testament tell one story and point to one figure, namely that God saves sinners through the accomplished work of his son Jesus Christ.

Question 2 (Sola Gratia): Does the preacher freely emphasize that because of sin, a right relationship with God can only be established by God’s grace alone? Beware of any teaching that emphasizes man’s ability over God’s ability; man’s freedom over God’s freedom; man’s power over God’s power; man’s initiative over God’s initiative. Beware of any teaching which subtlety communicates that a right relationship with God depends ultimately on human response over Divine sovereignty.

Question 3 (Sola Fide): Does the preacher stress that salvation is not achieved by what we can do, rather salvation is received by faith in what Christ has already done? It has been rightly stated that there really are only two religions: the religion of human accomplishment and the religion of Divine accomplishment. Does the preacher emphasize the former or the latter? A reliable carrier of God’s truth always highlights the fact that God saves sinners; sinners don’t save themselves.

Question 4 (Sola Christus): Does the preacher underline that Christ is the exclusive mediator between God and man? Does the explainer both affirm and proclaim that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” and that nobody comes to the Father but by Christ? Does he talk about sin and the necessity of Christ? Remember what I have said on numerous occasions: we will never know Christ as a great Savior until we first know ourselves to be great sinners. Any sermon that does not explicitly include the exposition of sin and the exaltation of Christ is unreliable. Any teaching that leads one to believe that Christ is unnecessary is highly unreliable.

Question 5 (Sola Deo Gloria): Does the preacher exalt God above all? A reliable explainer will always lead you to marvel at God. A true carrier of God’s truth will always lead you to encounter the glory of God. A God-centered teacher is just that: God-centered. He will preach and teach in such a way that you find yourself hungering and thirsting for God. You will listen to sermon after sermon and walk away with grand impressions of Divine personality, not grand impressions of human personality.

I suppose there really is one more question: Does the preacher highlight the Biblical fact that this world is not all that there is? While God calls us to participate in the transformation of this world, we do so by living in this world with the next world in view. In other words, the only way we will ever be of any earthly good is if we are heavenly minded. So, to pick on one recent title of a bestselling book, our best life is not intended to be now. For the Christian, the best is yet to come.

This is just a start, but I hope it serves as a resource to help you determine the reliability of a particular teacher or preacher.

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