This sponsored post was provided by Together for the Gospel.
Together for the Gospel (T4G) is a biennial three day gathering that encourages pastors and church leaders to stand together for the gospel. Registration is now open for T4G 2018, scheduled for April 11-13, in Louisville, KY. Speakers include:
- Albert Mohler
- John Piper
- Mark Dever
- Kevin DeYoung
- Matt Chandler
- CJ Mahaney
- Thabiti Anyabwile
- David Platt
- Ligon Duncan
- John MacArthur
While there are 10 speakers, T4G 2018 has one theme: Holiness.
Why a Conference About Holiness?
Our fallen world has never been friendly to God’s way and God’s will (James 4:4). For some of us, this ever-present truth has become even clearer in recent years. The academy calls Christian morality bigoted. The courts choose the sexual revolution over religious liberty. Hollywood alters a nation’s moral sympathies from one season to the next. And racial animosity continues to rear its ugly head. How should we respond?
Together for the Gospel 2018 offers this: the culture may call churches to conform, but God calls us to be distinct. Sanctified. Set apart. Holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:16).
If we want to make a difference in the culture, we must be distinct. It’s definitional for Christian discipleship. It’s part of the church’s mission. Renouncing the world for the sake of the world. Rejecting sin in order to save sinners.
In other words, it’s not nostalgia that our churches need, or strategies to reclaim the culture, or more political posturing. Nor should we separate ourselves and forsake our neighbors. Instead, we encounter the world with something otherworldly. We respond to cultural chaos with a new culture—a culture of faith, hope, and love, a culture steeped in grace and truth, a culture exulting in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Together For the Gospel, Distinct from the World
In preparation for T4G 2018, here are six exhortations from various T4G gatherings that address the intersection of holiness, the church, the culture, and the gospel.
“Most Americans believe that what their problem is something that has happened to them, and their solution is to be found within. In other words, they believe that they have an alien problem that is to be resolved with an inner solution—when the gospel says that what we have is an inner problem, and the only solution is an alien righteousness.” —Albert Mohler
“Those most passionate about the gospel of God’s free grace should be the most passionate about the pursuit of godliness.”—Kevin DeYoung
“In spite of all of our guilt; all of our wicked loves; all of our hatred of his authority; all of our stone dead coldness to his sweetness; all of our blindness to His glory—grace in spite of all of that, in every way, is the remedy for that enslaving bondage.”—John Piper
“If love does not mark your church, then it may attract spiritual hobbyists and theological accountants who like to play at religion and theology, but not people of real Christian love who inconvenience themselves for others.”—Mark Dever
“If we are desensitized to the horror of sin, we will be desensitized to the glory of righteousness.”—Thabiti Anyabwile
“Pastor, you can contextualize to a fault, where you try to make the gospel ‘cool’ enough for people to like it. It will always reek of death to some if you’re proclaiming it in its fullness. People who are blinded by sin think we are absurd.”
—Matt Chandler
Register for T4G 2018 today for the lowest prices, and join us to further consider this crucial topic as we gather together for the gospel.
