The Church Needs to Be Protected From the Inside - Jesse Barrington

Guarding the church against wolves

is not fun.

It's very hard.

But we are to follow the
example of Jesus Christ

to lay down our lives,

to lay down our comfort,

to lay down our reputations,

and defend the church from wolves.

I was sharing with Mack
and Tim earlier today,

when I was thinking of the Lord's calling

in pastoral ministry,

I thought about the responsibility

to protect the church,

but I always had in my mind

that this protecting
of the church would be

from outside coming in.

I thought, yes, we'll protect against

heresy from coming in.

We'll protect against the
cults from trying to break in.

We'll be protecting the church

from all that's trying to
get into the church,

but if you paid attention
to what Paul said here,

he said "fierce wolves will
come in among you,

not sparing the flock,

and from your own selves will arise

men speaking twisted things

to draw disciples away after them.

Therefore, be alert."

Yes, pastors, we must equip our people

and protect them from outside assaults

of the enemy in untruth and heresy.

But I would say even more pointedly,

you must protect the church

from wolves within

infiltrating the assembly,

teaching twisted things -

sometimes outright heresy

and sometimes by magnifying
something else

above Jesus Christ and the Gospel

as the centrality of the church.

Again, I think I could bring every
pastor in this room up

and they could give example

after example after example

of having to deal with
this in the local church.

I'll tell you that these wolves typically

come into the church

very passionate people,

speaking a lot openly with seeming joy

about the Word of God.

They're often very vocal.

And another characteristic of them

is they're often very likeable.

And the reason why is they
draw people unto themselves.

But it's not too long before they begin

to teach twisted things to the sheep.

And I want to exhort myself

and all the pastors here:

be on the alert.

You guard the flock from within.