May we pause again for a moment
of prayer that unitedly we might confess our dependence upon God
the Spirit and beseech his aid as we look into the scriptures
together. O Lord our God, once again we would
pause to consciously acknowledge our helplessness and our utter
need and dependence upon the ministry of your Spirit You have
told us in Your Word, Cursed be he that trusteth in man, and
maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
You have declared to us that apart
from You we can do nothing, and we confess with shame how painfully
slow we are to unlearn the ways of creature confidence. O our
God, to the extent that it can be to the glory of Your name,
To the good of men and women who are not savingly joined to
your Son, and to the blessing and edifying of those who are
your own, grant to your servant liberty in the utterance of your
truth. Grant to hearers that illumination that comes by the
present ministry of the Spirit. Bind the powers of darkness and
all the subtle workings of the enemy of our souls as we come
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, hear our cry and answer, Amen. I would invite you to turn
with me to the passage that was read for our scripture reading
tonight, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. I shall read verses 2 through
the first part of verse 5. We give thanks to God always
for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience
of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father. Knowing, brethren beloved, or
perhaps the of God should be there, knowing, brethren beloved
of God, your election, for our gospel came not unto you in word
only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much
assurance. As the apostle writes to this
people at Thessalonica, a relatively new church, an infant church. He introduces his letter, as
he does so many other of his letters, by recounting his continual
thankfulness to God for this people on whose behalf he continually
supplicates and now to whom he writes. And as he declares to
them the things for which he is thankful, he mentions their
work of faith, their labor of love, and their patience of hope,
And he says in the midst of this, he is assured and is confident
that they are indeed the elect of God. That this body of believers
who are assembled together at Thessalonica, a called out group,
are indeed part of those whom God has had on his heart from
all eternity. And so he says in verse 4, knowing
brethren beloved, your election of God Now, what was it that
convinced the apostle that they were the elect of God? What was
it that became to him solid evidence and sound indication that these
were indeed God's chosen people, those who He marked out in Jesus
Christ before the foundation of the world? Let me say at the
outset, it was not because they believed or disbelieved the doctrine
of election. He doesn't say, knowing, brethren,
beloved, your election, because you believe the doctrine of election.
Now, apparently, they did believe it. He mentions it again in his
second letter, and said, God is to be thine, that He chose
you from the beginning to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. But the fact that they believed
in this doctrine of election was no proof to Paul that they
were the elect of God. Nor is there any indication that
they were particularly free in their talk about the doctrine,
and this made an impression on the Apostle. He said, why, since
you talk so much and so often about this doctrine, then you
must be the ones included in this marvelous truth of those
whom God has set apart for Himself. Nor was it because they were
particularly convinced that they were the elect. No, he said,
brethren, I am convinced of your election of God because of the
visible evidence of that election. Notice, knowing, brethren beloved,
your election of God, for our gospel came to you in power. In other words, Paul says, the
reason I'm convinced of your election is that I see the manifestation
of the secret purpose of election in the obvious effectual call
of God, drawing you into fellowship with Himself and producing in
you and through you those fruits which only God produces by the
Spirit through the effectual call in accordance with His eternal
purpose of electing grace. Paul is pointing out, by way
of an indirect reference, the truth that the purposes of election
are hidden in the heart of God. They are known only to God. And
those secret purposes of election only become visible in the effectual
call of the Gospel. We find those two things joined
together beautifully in Acts 13.48. That text in which we
read, and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed, ordained
to eternal life the secret purpose of God in election, that purpose
which was actively present when the gospel was proclaimed, as
recorded in Acts 13. But the way that the secret purpose
of God in election became manifested was through the effectual call
of the gospel, bringing men and women to faith and repentance.
As many as were ordained to eternal life, the secret purpose of election
believed the visible manifestation of the effectual call of God.
Now, to carry the line of thought on, Just as the invisible purpose
of election becomes visible in the effectual call, the only
proof of the effectual call of God is that there is a manifestation
of the power of God. Notice, knowing brethren, beloved,
your election of God for our gospel came unto you not in word
only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. And from verse 6 to the end of
the chapter, we have all of those indications of the manifestation
of the power of God. Power is ability to do, ability
to perform. And we find all of these words
following. Ye became followers of us. You received the Word. joy of
the Holy Ghost in samples to all that believe. The Word sounded
out, your faith to God, your waiting for His Son from heaven.
These were all of the manifest, visible fruits of the operation
of divine power. So will you follow those three
lines of thought with me? God's purposes of election are
secret. but they become manifest in the
effectual call of the gospel, that work of God's great subduing,
that disposition in men which would make them forever run from
light and the claims of the gospel until they destroyed themselves
in hell, that mighty operation that subdues that bent of the
heart, And the first actings of that transformation and regeneration
being repentance and faith, yet repentance and faith are still
but the hidden operations of the heart. How can I know that
this effectual call has been my portion? because the repentance
and faith will always be manifested in the fruits of faith and repentance,
and so the only proof that I have been effectually called is that
there is evidence that the gospel has come in power, with ability
to do, ability to perform and to transform, and to move me
in the direction of God, of his will, of his word, and of his
precepts. There is another allusion in
this text that should be a very disturbing one. And it forms
the basis of the question that I want to ask, which will be
the focal point of our entire meditation tonight. From what
Paul says in verse 5, it seems that there's a terrible possibility
that the gospel could come to us inward only. When Paul said,
our gospel came unto you, not in word only, the clear inference
is that it's possible to be exposed to the word of the gospel, and
to even embrace the word of the gospel, but to be an utter stranger
to the power of that gospel. Now, any gospel Paul preached
would be the true gospel. Remember his words in the book
of Galatians? Though we, or an angel from heaven,
preach unto you any other gospel than that which we have preached
unto you, let him be anathema, accursed of God." And it's as
though someone said, now, Paul, you were just a little bit too
heated. You spoke in the impetuosity of your zeal. Now, you really
didn't mean that, do you? He says, again, I say unto you,
let him be accursed. So jealous was Paul for the proper
content of the gospel that he declared by inspiration of the
Spirit that any who would tamper with its content, putting pluses
or minuses. That was the whole problem at
Galatians. They weren't striking out anything, they just put some
plus signs. And he says, put any minus signs or plus signs
and tamper with that message which is divine in origin and
the curse of God is upon your head. So the gospel Paul preached
would be an orthodox gospel. It would be straight theologically.
But he says it's not enough that you be merely exposed even to
the pure gospel. The gospel which is that declaration
of God's intention to save sinners by His Son Jesus Christ is a
glorious message. I would venture to say that probably
All, or maybe five or ten in this building, all but five or
ten, have not only been exposed once or twice, but dozens and
even hundreds or thousands of times to that gospel. The gospel
has come to you, many of you from the time you were this high.
As you grew up into consciousness and began to think and reflect
and learn, you never remember a time when you did not believe
that George Washington was the first President of the United
States. You can never remember a time when you did not believe
that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the Savior of sinners.
Some of us have been brought up with the facts of the Gospel,
the Word of the Gospel, a constant and continuous part of our consciousness. Others of you perhaps came into
that awareness later on in life, but I venture to say that almost
all, if not every one of us here tonight, are very familiar with
the word of the gospel. That announcement of God's design
to save sinners by a Savior, Jesus Christ. But my question
to you tonight is this, and I want to press it upon the conscience
of every one of my hearers, My dear ministering brethren, students,
visitors, and I trust you take it to heart. My question to you
tonight is this. Has the gospel come to you in
word only or has it come in power? Now just isolate yourself from
everybody else tonight because that's the way you'll be when
you stand before God. You were born alone, you'll die alone,
and you'll stand before God alone. And I trust that the Spirit of
God will enable you tonight to shut yourself in with that question
with the book of God and the God of the book and face that
question just as honestly and thoroughly and individually now
as you must face it in that day when you stand before it. Has
the gospel, you know that gospel, it's come to you often, has that
gospel come to you in word only? Or has it come to you in power
and in the Holy Ghost? and in much assurance. If Paul were to live with you
for six months, if he were to be your companion in the home,
if he were to be your companion at work, if he were to be your
companion out at the marketplace, better yet, if he were to be
a silent, unnoticed onlooker in your place of business, in
your living room, when you sit down to fill out your income
tax, when you drive your car along the highway, and better
yet, if you were able somehow to read your thoughts in your
free moments, when the mind is not engaged by the demands of
work and the responsibilities of life and is let free to go
where its natural bent will take it, After living with you or
with me in the home, in the shop, in that social situation, in
the classroom, in the place of prayer if you have one, would he have to say of you,
knowing brethren, beloved of God, your election For it's obvious
that the gospel has come to you in something more than word,
but I have seen things that have no explanation but that there's
been and is right now an operation of divine power. In other words, is there anything
about you in thought, action, Better yet, in reaction, for
my true self is revealed far more in my reactions. My actions
may be studied with the stakeholder carefulness of the actor, but
my reactions are perhaps a greater revelation of what I really am.
Would he be forced to say there's something about that man, that
woman, that fellow, that girl, that student? There's no explanation
but that the gospel That's the question I press upon
your conscience. A more important question you
cannot consider. You say, Mr. Martin, how can
I tell? By what rules shall I gauge my
life in order to answer that question? Well, we could go through
this entire first chapter of 1 Thessalonians. and take all
of those things which were to Paul an indication that the gospel
had come in power. We could start with verse 3 and
take those three things, the work of faith, the labor of love,
the patience of hope. We could drop down to verse 6
and speak of their following the apostolic pattern and the
pattern of our lore, we could speak of their glad reception
of the Word, the exemplary conduct as we find it in verse 7, their
aggressive zeal for evangelism as found in verse 8, their living
faith in God later on in verse 8. We could take all of these
things and spend a few minutes on each, but I believe the key
that will unlock all of these The one thing that lies at the
bottom of all the others, that which forms the broad base upon
which all the others were built, that which is the hidden spring
out of which all of these streams flow, is found in verse 9. Will you look at it with me,
please? What was it that became to Paul
the great indication that the gospel had come in power? He
says in verse 9, For they themselves show of us what manner of entering
in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve
the living and the true God. What is the one great thing that
the power of the gospel effected in these lives? which became
the spring of all others, here it is, ye turned to God. Whenever the gospel comes, not
in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much
assurance, it will always do this thing. It will make the
one to whom it comes in power a God-centered man or woman. ye turn to God." Whatever your
life was here, running out in a thousand directions in order
to gratify natural, sinful appetite and desire, the specific expression
of it here being the worship of idols, whatever it is in its
expression of depravity, when the gospel comes in power, it
will always effect that change. which brings men to an entirely
new perspective, he turned to God. You see, we have emphasized
the gift element of the gospel at the expense of the shift element
of the gospel. Now it is true that the gospel
announces a wonderful gift, for by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And grace
is free, not only in the sense that we do not buy it, but that
it's uncaused. When the old Scottish Presbyterians
spoke often of free grace, they did not mean what many in our
day mean. Simply that you don't earn your way to heaven, they
meant that grace was free. The only cause of it was in the
heart of God. It was distinguishing particular
grace that flowed about upon the heads of God's elect for
no other reason than that God chose it to be so. But not only
does the gospel announce free grace and the gift of God, it
also says there will be a radical shift in the one to whom the
gift comes. And this is that shift. Ye turned
to God. For whenever the gospel comes
in power, there is not only an operation of divine forgiveness,
but there is also an invasion of divine power. The blood and
the Spirit are inseparable in the New Covenant. In a very wonderful
way, in Hebrews 8 and in Hebrews 10, we have it laid out that
in the New Covenant, the two great provisions are the objective
provision of a new record through the blood of the Covenant and
the subjective experience of a renewed heart and nature by
the Spirit of the Covenant. And the blood and the Spirit
are inseparable in the working of God. And all who are cleansed
by the blood are subdued by the Spirit. Wherever there is the
gift and free offer and conference of forgiveness, there is the
mighty invasion of divine power. So how am I to know if the gospel
has come to me, not in word only, but in power? The Scripture commands
me to examine myself, to prove myself, if I be in the faith.
The Scripture commands me to make my calling and election
sure. When I turn to passages such
as those in Matthew 7, I experience inner trembling. Many will say
unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in thy name? And in thy name cast out devils,
and in thy name do many mighty works. Don't relegate that to
liberals. They don't call him Lord. In
the Jewish context, to say to Christ, Lord, was to ascribe
to him that place of exaltation belonging only to deity. They don't believe in the supernatural.
They don't believe in demons. No liberal would ever say, didn't
we cast out demons? The only demon they know is some
kind of psychological inner itch. There's no direct invasion of
supernatural demonic powers. These are people who believe
in the supernatural. Have we not cast out demons in
thy name? I will profess unto them. Apart
from me, I never knew them. Now, that can be a little sprinkling.
No, he said many. And you tie that in with verse
14 of the same chapter. Broad is the road that leads
to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat." Many
of the many on the road to destruction are those described in verse
21 who have a very thorough acquaintance with the word of the gospel.
So thorough was their acquaintance with it that they could proclaim
it to others. It's apparently so eminent in
their gifts that they were brought to places of leadership in the
Christian ministry. Oh, my dear preacher friends,
if you can read a text like that and not spend some moments in
honest searching of heart before God, I fear God may have already
given you up to a delusive spirit of presumption. This is an important issue, isn't
it? Has the gospel come to me in power? If my sins are cleansed
by the blood, then my heart must be no stranger to the operations
of his spirit. But you say you haven't told
us how, and we know you. Verse 9, He turned to God. When that gospel comes in power,
it will produce the God-centered life. Now why is this so? Will
you think with me for a few minutes? As we try to bring into focus,
backing off from details to the broad overview, what is the whole
purpose of creation? When we understand that, we'll
understand why verse 9 was to Paul the great indication that
the gospel had come in power. They turned to God. They became
God-centered men and women. Why was this an indication to
Paul that the gospel had come in power? For Paul saw, as none
of us perhaps will ever see, the side of glory, the purpose
for which God made man. You know the first question of
the Shorter Catechism. What is man's chief end? His
main goal, what did God make him for? Man's chief end is to
glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And when God placed
Adam and Eve in that garden, surrounding them with a thousand
delights, God so made Adam that none of the things that He made
could ever satisfy the deep longings of His heart. God made Adam for
Himself. And as Adam was surrounded with
all the things God gave him, those things were on the outside,
and only God dwelt in that inner shrine of the heart. And the
person of God was the object of Adam's delight. There's a
clear indication of that. After the fall, as God comes
walking in the garden in the cool of the day, there seems
to be some indication that this was a common occurrence, that
there was some, perhaps, visible manifestation of the living God
who came at a certain time for special communion with Adam,
and his greatest delight was to walk and commune with his
God. God's person was the object of Adam's delight. No thing could
take the place of his person. God's will was the focus of Adam's
occupation. When God said, dress the garden
and keep it, no indication that Adam went and had a march for
a shorter working hour. No indication he tried to form
a little union. No, when God said, dress the
garden and keep it, Adam gladly responded to do the will of his
God. But it isn't long before we see the terrible effects of
the fall of man. And what happened in that fall,
everything became reversed. This is the tragedy of the fall.
The greatest tragedy of the fall is not to be found in what happened
to man, considered only in terms of himself. The greatest tragedy
of the fall is found in terms of what happened to man and his
relationship to God. From a creature made to delight
in God, to do the will of God, we come to that terrible, sad
picture of humanity. In Paul's summary description
of humanity in Romans 3 verses 10 to 20, and he says in verse
10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one, there
is none that understand it, there is none that seek it after God. I think those are a few of the
saddest words in the Bible. Think tonight, two and a half
billion, is that the population? the present moment, and exclude
those who have been the objects of God's special distinguishing
mercy and grace, and of all those other teeming millions of people
God inscribes over all of them as the great common denominator
of their singfulness, there is none that seeketh after God. You mean the creature made for
God, the delight in God, to do the will of God, utterly turned
from the very purpose for which he was made. None that seeketh
after God, the God who made the creature for himself, finds no
delight in the God who made it. Jeremiah states it in a way that
is graphic. He said, My people have committed
two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters, and have hewn them out, cisterns, broken cisterns,
that can hold no water. That's the picture of all humanity.
And when you dig down beneath all the grosser or less or more
refined evidences of man's sinfulness and get down to the core, here
it is! He's a creature who's turned from the very purpose
for which he was made to delight in his God and to do the will
of God. Now, what is God's purpose in
redemption? I think it should be obvious, isn't it? May I say
it reverently? God has pledged Himself and put
into operation His eternal purposes and the mighty power of His Spirit
and all the terrible sufferings and agonies and humiliation of
His Son. What's all this for? To get back
to Himself a people who delight to fulfill the purpose for which
they were made. To delight in that God and to
do His holy will. And when you turn to the book
of the Revelation and look at the picture of the redeemed in
heaven, what do you find? Listen. And it says, His servants
shall look upon His face. Delight in their God! And it
says, They followed the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. They
performed His will. It's one of the last pictures
of the redeemed that we receive in Revelation chapter 22. And so when we turn to 1 Peter
3.18 and read the purpose for which Christ died, it's clear.
He suffered for us, for just, for the unjust. Why? That He
might bring us to God. Why did He suffer? To bring us,
the total man, to God, to that God-centered life, to that God-centered
perspective in all of life. How does He do it? A whole scheme
of redemption enters in here. But in its application, He does
it by the mighty working of the power of His Spirit, who awakens
us to our estrangement from God, who brings us to that sense and
consciousness of our guilt that we have offended Him and turned
from Him. By the same Spirit, He opens
our eyes to see that in Christ there is mercy, there is hope.
By that selfsame Spirit, He subdues our rebel hearts. so that our
eyes are opened to behold the beauty of God in the face of
Christ? Our affections are wooed to love
the person of Christ? Who's a Christian? What's a Christian? A Christian is a man who's seen
glory in Christ that has ravished his heart. That's a Christian. Listen! Paul says in 2 Corinthians
4, 4, that God of this world has blinded the minds of the
unbelieving. Blinded them to what? Not to
the propositions of the gospel. Given reasonable intelligence,
you can learn all the propositions of the gospel, and parrot them,
and even speak them to others, and see them become the power
of God unto salvation in others. No, no, Paul says this is what
the devil has done. Listen. The God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them that believe, not less the light
of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God,
should dawn upon them. They hear, Christ died, yes,
Christ was buried, yes, Christ rose, but they see no glory in
this. They can hear of his death and
walk up and down in front of that cross, I'm speaking figuratively
now, with an attitude, hold on, he died? Too bad. But a Christian is one who's
been arrested in that ho-hum walk, back and forth in front
of the cross, and he's seen in that cross a glory. He's seen
in that tomb a glory. He's seen in that throne and
the one who sits upon it a glory that has ravished his heart and
brought him captive to Christ, so that he is now the willing
bondservant of Jesus Christ. and the aim and bent and thrift,
though imperfectly, is to know and please and serve this Christ. That's how God brings men to
the God-centered life, by revealing the glory of Christ, as we read
in verse 6. But God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, Paul says, has shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And so the eye is open to perceive
the beauty of Christ, and the heart is wooed and the affections
drawn to love Him. Now how can I tell if this is
true of me? How can I tell if I, by the grace of God, have
turned to God? How can I tell if I am not still
in that category of not seeking Him? How can I know that I have
turned to God? How can I know that my eye has
been opened to behold the beauty of Christ and my heart moved
to love Him and to serve Him? As the eye naturally rests upon
an object of beauty and as the heart gravitates to the object
of its love, so the person who has turned to God moves in the
direction of the God who is now the object of his desire and
his delight Now, if this is true, it'll work out very practically.
I want to move now from general theory to some specifics. And
I want you to gauge your life by these principles of the Word
of God. If you have turned to God because
the Gospel has come to you not in word only, but in power, this
will be one of the clearest indications. You will have a delight in the
private reading and meditation of the Word of God. God and His
Word are inseparable. Listen to David as he prays in
Psalm 119, With my whole heart have I sought thee, O let me
not wander from thy commandments. To seek God apart from the Bible
is a baseless kind of a mysticism. To merely be occupied with a
Bible without God is a barren, dead orthodoxy. But to seek God
with an open book is the essence of saving religion. With my whole
heart have I sought Thee. Oh, let me not wander from Thy
commandments. And why does the man who's turned
to God who has a basic hunger for and delight in God. Why does
he instinctively turn to his word? Well, for the simple reason
that God's mind is revealed in that word. And when I love someone,
I delight to know the thoughts of their heart towards me. You prove this every time you
tear open a letter from your beloved when you're away from
home. Not only is it that God's mind
is revealed in this book, and loving Him we love His thoughts,
but God's person is displayed. We read that in the scriptures
the glory of the Lord is set before us. The scriptures are
the mirror of Christ, and they reflect Him to us. And loving
Him, we delight to see His person. God's will is unfolded, and we
can say with David, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea,
thy law is within my heart. There are only two kinds of people,
basically, and they're described in Psalm 1. There's the blessed
man. He walks not in the counsel of
the ungodly, stands not in the way of sinners, and doesn't sit
in the seat of the scornful, but His delight is in the law
of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Then
it describes the fruit of that man. He shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth fruit in his season.
His leaf shall not wither, whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. But the
wicked are not so. Any man, any woman, who does
not come under that first description, not perfectly, but basically,
God describes him as a wicked man. The blessed man is the one
who does not walk with all his thinking and his motivation and
his desires and ambitions and conduct framed by this world
society that is under the control of the devil. But his thoughts,
his motive, his desires, are basically framed and disciplined
and shaped by the Word of God. So he describes the God-blessed
man who meditates in the law day and night, and he says, but
the wicked are not so, if you do not have a basic hunger for
and delight in the Word of God. You have no reason to believe
you're anything other than a wicked person. Oh, but you say, Mr.
Merkin, I'm not a wicked person. Isn't it wicked to be indifferent
to the revelation of the mind of the God who made you? To know
his mind, to think his thoughts after him? Isn't it the essence
of wickedness to be indifferent to what Almighty God thinks about
life and death and eternity and the home and work? and all the facets of life? If God has displayed his character
and the beauty of his Son in this book, isn't it wickedness
to ignore it? If you and I turn our backs when
a great dignitary passes before us in the room, it's the essence
of terrible insult. To turn our backs again and again
upon this book that displays the glories of our gods and insults
them in its wickedness. The wicked are not so. The righteous
man delights in the law. The wicked are not so. Why? Because
he does not seek God, and because he doesn't seek God, he lives
indifferent to the Book of God. But the righteous is not this
way. The Gospels come in power. He's turned to God, and God is
inseparable from His Word. And so there is this basic hunger
and delight in the Word. At times that hunger may be stifled
through indwelling sin. At times that hunger may be weakened
because of physical maladies, because of circumstances, granted
all this is true, but if there is no basic, genuine hunger for
this book, proven by the discipline of taking time to search its
pages, dear one, you have reason to question, seriously question,
whether the gospel's ever come to you in power. May I take the
place, spoken of in Timothy, where Paul says to Timothy, Rebuke
not an elder, but entreat him as a father. May I entreat some
of you who are my fathers in the faith, and some of you who
are my brothers by age and experience, may I exhort you. I shall never
forget the revelation that came to my heart several years ago
when in studying 2 Timothy chapter 3, I saw something that I had
never seen before. This may be old hat to you, But
if it is, we do well to be reminded of it afresh. Notice what Paul
says to Timothy in this well-known passage on the inspiration of
the Scriptures. 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, or back
up to verse 14. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom
thou hast learned them. and that from a child, thou,
here's the key, thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. Timothy, the Scriptures have
had a first, this primary function in your life, they have been
the instrument leading you to an experience of God's grace.
Now he goes on to say, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, for instruction
in righteousness, that the congregation may be perfect. No, that the
what? That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. Timothy, the Scriptures are not
only to be the means by which you have come into the possession
of saving grace, but they are to be to you the continual means
to perfect that work of grace and to lead you into maturity.
Timothy, the Scriptures are for your sake, for the man of God,
to reprove you, to correct you, to instruct you in righteousness,
to teach you doctrine. Then he says in chapter 4 in
verse 2, preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort. Timothy, Don't you ever seek
to use this word as an instrument of exhortation and reproof to
others until or unless, first of all, it's been the instrument
of reproof and exhortation to your own heart. Brethren, I'm
convinced the reason why there is little penetration in our
ministry is that we are seeking to use truth to tear into the
hearts of others. that has not ripped its wings
through our own hearts and brought us down broken and bleeding and
bent before God. And if we would know that peculiar
something that we've been talking about these days that marked
the men of the Puritan era, that penetration that made men feel
that they had a little judgment day when they heard them preach,
you don't get that by studying the pattern and form of their
sermons. You've got to go to the wells
of that ministry, long, protracted, extended, consistent seasons
before God with an open book, pleading with God that He will
teach you His truth, that He'll reprove and He'll convict, and
that He will instruct you in righteousness. The only truth
that will be powerful in your hands as you minister to others
is that which is pierced its way into your own heart. I said
the other day that the ministry of the Puritans was not anecdotal,
but I do believe there is benefit from illustration and anecdote.
When in the providence of God I was thrust out into an itinerant
ministry shortly after finishing school, I shall never forget
the terrible shock that came to me When I went to church after
church, evangelical churches, and when I would meet together
with the pastor of the church to pray for the meetings and
pray for his people, and we'd get talking about things after
the third or fourth day when we got that facade of respectability
and spiritual pride down and began to be real men with each
other. One of the most shocking things to me was to find pastor
after pastor who had no regular disciplined habits of devotional
reading of the Word of God. This book had become his instrument
for his professional ministry. In five years, I met less than
a dozen men, evangelical men, five years going from church
to church a week or two at a time. Less than a dozen men. who had
any regular, disciplined devotional habits. Is it no wonder that our people
somehow sense we're mouthing words and playing verbal ping-pong
and shooting words across at them and they learn how to handle
them and shoot them across to us? Oh, beloved, I exhort you
and plead with you in God's name. Let's take seriously this exhortation
Let the book be first of all the instrument of our own personal
sanctification, leading us to ravishing sights of our God. If you never shout in the closet
at the revelation of His glory, don't expect people in the pew
to shout either. And if we don't weep at the revelation
of our sins, don't expect people to weep at the revelation of
theirs. Is there this hunger for and
delight in the word of God? This is an indication that we've
turned to God. And may I briefly mention two other things in closing.
There will be delight in secret prayer. Oh yes, by degrees, again,
that consciousness, oh how deep, answered unto deep, as Dr. Packer
was speaking the other morning, of when we would pray, we find
the real me, the renewed me, wants to pray, but there's this
indisposition to any spiritual exercise, and there's the conflict.
Granted, all of this is true. When you dig down to the bottom
and get to the substratum, you find that in a true child of
God, where the Gospels come in power, there's a basic delight
in the secret place of prayer. Why? For the simple reason that
the spirit of adoption is the spirit of suffocation and intercession. Because he are sons, Paul says
in Galatians 4, he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into
our hearts, crying what? Ah, the Father. It's the natural
rising up of the Spirit within to move us in the direction of
the Father. It's here in the climate of secret
prayer that there are those clearer beams of God's countenance settling
upon our spirits. It's here in the secret place
where we are our true selves before our God. Do you know anything
of delight in secret prayer? It's a mark of a wicked man if
you don't call upon God. Did you know that? For I read
in Psalm 14.4, the wicked who call not upon God. The psalmist
says one of the characteristics of a wicked man is he calls not
upon God. Well, what's so wicked about
prayerlessness? Why, it's terrible wickedness. God says that you're
utterly dependent upon Him for the very breath you breathe.
And when you don't pray, you're saying, I don't need God. I can
get on my own speed. But one of the great elements
of prayer is the spreading out of our helplessness before God
and the conscious recognition of that helplessness. Isn't that
what prayer is? It's really not to pray. The person who goes
day after day without secret prayers, declaring to God and
to angels and to spiritual powers, I'm a little self-sufficient
God. I can get on in my own steam.
But the man who's recognized a little bit of his creaturehood
goes into the closet and says, oh God, when you say that without
you I can do nothing, that's true. Give me grace this day. You see, a Christian is a man
who's been awakened, not only to the fact he's done some bad
things, but that he's got a terrible, terrible cesspool of corruption
within. No, not a cesspool, an artesian
well of corruption, continuing to pressure up and wanting to
spew out all forms of iniquity. A Christian is conscious of that.
And because he's conscious of it, he goes to his closet and
prays, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. He
watches and he prays. He recognizes that his heart
is a veritable tinderbox of iniquity, and every temptation is like
a spark about to drop upon that tinderbox and move up into a
raging flame of lust or passion. And so the Christian goes to
his God and says, O God, dampen the tinderbox. O God, make wet
those dry leaves within my breast. If you live day after day without
secret prayer in which you spread out your helplessness and dependence
upon God, listen dear, when I doubt you've ever had a discovery of
the corruption of your heart. Jonathan Edwards, in one of the
most searching sermons I have ever read, called hypocrites
deficient in the duty of secret prayer, said these words, and
I quote, When a hypocrite hath had his false conversion, his
needs are, in his sense of things, already supplied. His desires
are already answered, and so he finds no further business
at the throne of grace. He never was sensible that he
had any other need but the need of being safe from hell. And
now that he thinks he's converted, that need is supplied. Why should
he go on to resort to the throne of grace with earnest requests?
He's out of danger, he thinks. All that he was afraid of is
removed. He has enough, he thinks, to carry him to heaven. Why should
he desire more? While under conviction of sin
and the fear of hell, he cried for mercy. But since, by his
own opinion, he is converted, he has no further business about
which to go to God. And although he may keep up the
duty for a little while for fear of spoiling his assurance, Yet
finding it dull business, he will by degrees drop the practice
altogether. The work of the hypocrite is
done when he is supposedly converted, and therefore he stands in no
need of further help." Is that a description of you? Oh yes. You prayed secretly when the
sense of condemnation hung over your head. You cried to God for
mercy when legal terror shook you. And then you got peace and
said, well, all is well. And by degrees you forsook the
practice altogether, and now days and weeks and months have
passed. No resorting to the throne of
grace. My friend, take seriously the
word of God tonight. A man who is a prayerless man
is a wicked man. To quote Jonathan Edwards again,
he who lives without prayer lives without God, and he who lives
without God is not a Christian. And the last indication that
the Gospel has come to us in power and made us God-centered
men and women is this, not only will there be a delight in the
secret reading of the Word, Not only will there be some measure
of delight in secret prayer, but follow closely, there will
be some measure of engagement in private humbling before God
and in confession of sin. He turned to God, but who is
that God? He is the God of eternal light,
spoken of in that tremendous hymn, eternal light, eternal
light, how pure that soul must be. which place within thy burning
light shrinks not, but with calm delight can live and look on
thee. The spirits that surround thy
throne may bear this burning bliss. Surely that is theirs
alone, for they have never, never known a fallen world like this.
But how shall I, whose native sphere is dark, whose mind is
dim, before the ineffable appear, and on thine naked spirit bear
the uncreated being? That's the God to whom we turn
in conversion. Not a God concocted out of the
stuff of our own preconceived notions. A God who is sort of
the daunting, overindulgent grandfather who loves to have the spoiled
little grandchild nestle up to him and smile and show his teeth
and give him a quarter. No, no, dear ones. The God of
the prophets. the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, the God who thundered upon Mount Sinai, the God who
blackened the heavens when His Son hung there in shame, the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, holy and majestic in
His love, in His power. Well, when a poor fallen son
of Adam turns to that God through Jesus Christ, Even though He
is justified and accepted in the Beloved, there is not a complete
rooting out of all the remains of sin. The dominion of sin is
changed, as we heard so clearly in the morning papers. But the
remains of sin are not completely torn from Him. And yet He longs
to fellowship with that Holy God. But He's a God of light,
and so as He draws near to that God, He's made conscious continually
of His sin. So he will be no stranger to
private humblings and confession of sin, for now that God is his
greatest delight, the clouding of the face of God is his greatest
grief." The greatest grief to a Christian is the clouding of
the face of God. You read psalm after psalm, and
the psalmist wasn't complaining because his wife was kind of
churlish. He wasn't complaining because
business was slow. He wasn't even complaining primarily
that he had some physical malady, but what was the complaint of
the psalmist again and again and the different psalmists?
What was it? Will thou hide thy face forever? Be thou silent
unto me, O God, lest I be like unto them that go down to the
pit. Lift up the light of thy countenance
upon me, O thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shunning
for The great burden of the psalmist that caused him to write many
a psalm was the terrible pain of the clouded face of God. And more often than not, it is
sin that clouds his face. And so, because the greatest
chastisement the child of God knows is the clouded face of
God, he is restless and disturbed until the sin has been confessed.
And there's the sweet kiss of God's forgiveness and restored
fellowship. And he says with David, oh, that
the bones you've broken may now rejoice. Then will I teach transgressors
thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Dear ministering
brethren, the most powerful polemic and apologetic for the efficacy
of grace is to stand in the pulpit Sunday by Sunday with the kiss
of forgiveness still fresh upon your own cheek. Then to proclaim grace is not
just theological jargon. You stand before men conscious
you're a sinner, but hallelujah, you're conscious, you're an accepted
sinner, accepted in the beloved. Free grace in its proclamation
will have a ring of authority in reality. that otherwise you
will never have. Do you know anything of engaging
in private confession of sin? Do you? My Bible says in Matthew
5 that the blessed man is one who what? Who mourns. Blessed
are they who mourn. Not who mourned, past tense,
but who mourn. One of the marks of a true Christian
is holy mourning. Holy mourning. See, most of us, if we were caught
in some gross act of sin that shamed us before the Christian
community, perhaps through a thousand motives we might be forced to
confession. The real proof that you hate sin because it's sin
is what you do with the sins which you can tolerate and not
lose face before the Christian community and the civic community
and all the rest. What do you do with those things?
that only you and God know about. The things that if you deal with
or fail to deal with, only you and God will know as far as the
specific issue. Others may know that there's
a new freshness in your walk with God, but they wouldn't know.
What you do with those things is a proof of your basic attitude
to sin. If you're an elder and you get involved in a morals
charge, There are an awful lot of things that could lead you
to open confession of that. You don't want to be humbled
by being excommunicated from the church. There could be a
thousand and one motives to lead to that. But what about when
you think that impure thought, and in your heart you lust? What do you do with that thought
of lust? Do you go to God with this deep repentance in your
heart, knowing that He reckons this is adultery? And knowing
that it was sin, indulged it in the mind which clouded his
face, you go with the same holy violence to the throne of grace,
pleading for forgiveness, as though you had actually been
overcome in the sin that had been known to the public. So you don't hate the sin of
adultery, unless you confess the thoughts as much as you would
the act. It's true of jealousy. John says, who so hates his brother
is a murderer. Oh dear ones, if we're strangers
to private humblings and confession of sin, I fear we're strangers
to the power of the gospel. For when men receive the gospel
in word only and content themselves that they are partakers of its
benefits, they always indicate it by being content with God's
gifts and being indifferent to His person. Whereas the true
child of God to whom the gospel has come in power, and he's turned
to God, the cry of his heart is, O God, strip me of all your
gifts, but do not strip me of yourself. For how tedious and
tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet prospects,
sweet birds, and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness
to me. The midsummer sun shines, but dim the field's stride in
vain to look gay. When I am happy in Him, December's
as pleasant as May. The Christian says, give me a
dungeon and shackles and stripes as long as the sunshine of God's
countenance breaks into my soul. The Christian says, no comfort
from a mansion and all the gifts of God if the blinds are pulled
over that window where the light of His face breaks through. Oh,
dear one, are you a stranger to the power of the gospel? Do
you know anything of heart, experimental acquaintance with God? For this
is life eternal, to know thee the only true and living God.
And Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And if by God's grace we
can answer an amen and say yes, by the grace of God, though weak
and feeble, there is that basic hunger to seek his face in the
Word. There is that basic longing to
do His will and to pray and to turn from my sin. Let us cry
tonight that the power of the gospel may be extended in our
hearts as our hunger for our God deepens and becomes the deep
well on which all the other graces flow. We should go back to our
churches as ministers of the gospel and into our places of
responsibility and witness and task. as men who know their God
and are therefore strong to do exploits. Let us pray.