This sermon was delivered at
the fifth annual Trinity Pastors Conference held at the Trinity
Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. This is the first
in a series of studies entitled Our Vision for These Days and
the title of this message is A Recovery of the Biblical Gospel. Now each of you who has had some
acquaintance with the printed schedule will know that the subject
announced for our meditation in the scriptures this evening
has been our vision for these days. And I believe just a word
of explanation is in order with reference to that title and the
rationale that lies behind it. When the elders met prayerfully
to consider the various subjects and the themes that should be
dealt with at this particular conference, And it became evident
to us, as you already know, those of you who are part of the conference,
that we felt it was a very opportune time to draw our attention to
the 1689 Confession and to concentrate in the public ministries of the
Word in the morning upon those biblical themes and subjects
that will be altered or expanded in the proposed changes in the
Confession, that in the evening session there ought to be at
least one slot where the overall picture of that which binds us
together in a fellowship of shared commitment and concern should
be articulated. and so it was the direction of
my fellow elders that on this occasion I should speak to you
on the subject of our vision for these days and under that
heading to make an effort to give in capsule form the burning
concerns that lie at the heart of our own life and ministry
here and we believe which explains why Most, if not all of you,
are here because you share in that vision. Now in addressing
the subject, our vision for these days, I want to make a dual disclaimer. We claim no extraordinary or
direct commission from God to these things. None of us has
had a visitation in the middle of the night, let alone in the
middle of the day, in which God has spoken to us by the voice
of an angel or an audible voice from heaven, articulating those
things which ought to be the focal point of our concern as
we seek to minister in our own generation. And so in using those
terms, we claim no extraordinary commission, and furthermore,
we claim no exclusive commission to these concerns. We believe
and have contact with many of God's people in many parts of
the country who are not here at this conference and many of
his people and his servants in other parts of the world whose
hearts beat as one with us in these concerns and so we make
this disclaimer on the very threshold of our study that as surely as
we make no claim to extraordinary commissions from the Lord in
these matters, so we make no claim to an exclusive commission. But rather, as we have sought
to search the Scriptures and to know the mind of God is revealed
in them, and then to assess the particular circumstances in which
we are called upon to minister at this point in history, these
concerns that constitute what we are calling our vision for
these days are but a distillation of biblical truths on the one
hand, and of fallible judgment on the other hand, but we trust
judgment which has had something of the promised wisdom and guidance
of the Holy Spirit. Well, with that bit of explanation
as to the origin of the subject matter, and then those two disclaimers,
we come now to consider the subject our vision for these days. And it has been a rather traumatic
thing to try to reduce to the irreducible those things which
do indeed constitute our vision for these days. Those notes of
inscripturated truth which form the pivots around which the entirety
of our ministry turns to change the imagery those elements of
divine truth which drive the wheels of our day-by-day endeavor
as we seek to run down a track of obedience to the Word of God. And in addressing the subject,
I have attempted to reduce our vision for these days under three
simple headings. It is a vision, first of all,
of seeking a recovery of the biblical gospel, a renewal of
biblical holiness, and a return to biblical churchmanship. First of all, then, our vision
for these days is that of seeking a recovery of the biblical gospel. Nothing is more important in
any generation than the maintenance of the integrity of the gospel
and the proclamation of that gospel in the power and demonstration
of the Holy Spirit. I say that nothing is more important
in any generation than the maintenance of the integrity of the gospel
for the simple reason that the gospel is the exclusive divine
remedy for man in the manifold complexities of his sin and lostness. Romans 1.16 stands as a beacon
light, continually reminding us of this elementary truth.
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation. God has but one appointed instrument
to bring to bear His glorious salvation in Jesus Christ, which
at every point of its marvelous provisions answers to the intricate
complexity of man in his state of sin, and because the gospel
and the gospel alone answers at every point to man and his
sinfulness, nothing is more important in any generation than the maintenance
of the integrity of that gospel. It is for this cause that the
mind and the soul and then the pen of the great apostle Paul
expresses in language that is nothing short of vitriolic. what he says in Galatians chapter
1, when in his own generation there were those who would tamper
with the integrity of the gospel. And Paul writes in Galatians
1 verses 8 and 9, But though we, or an angel from heaven,
should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached
unto you, let him be anathema. As we have said before, so say
I now again, if any man preaches unto you any gospel other than
that which you received, let him be anathema. Let him come under the fearful,
frightening curse of Almighty God. And why does he speak with
such holy invective, such sanctified vituperation as to say, let every
man be damned if he dare tamper with the integrity of the gospel.
He says those words in that spirit because he knew He understood
and was committed to the reality that the gospel maintained not
in mere shadowy outlines of its reality, but the gospel maintained
in its undiluted integrity was the power of God unto salvation. And therefore, when its integrity
was threatened, he calls down the curse of Almighty God upon
any man or angel or apostle who would dare to tamper with that
integrity. And our vision for these days
involves nothing less than a recovery of that biblical gospel. Brethren, it is not an overstatement
to say that by and large our generation has lost the gospel. It has lost the gospel, and amidst
the plethora of gospel endeavors so-called Seen in the proliferation
of radio broadcasts and television ministries and evangelistic campaigns
and endeavors of all sorts and sizes, it is no overstatement
to say that by and large our generation has lost the gospel. And our vision for these days,
if our hearts are touched with any measure of genuine concern
for the souls of men, any genuine concern for man as he really
is, according to the description of Holy Scripture, we cannot
help but have a passion that there would be a recovery of
that gospel which alone will meet man in his real need with
real deliverance and a real salvation. Now let me break down this heading
into three major subdivisions. I would assert tonight that we
desperately need a vision for a recovery of the biblical gospel
in three areas. Number one, in its essential
doctrinal content. Secondly, in its appointed means
of communication. And thirdly, in its efficacious
power. We need a recovery of the biblical
gospel, first of all, in its essential doctrinal content. There is abroad in our day a
notion, assumed by many, expressed and even defended by some, that
the gospel is a kind of theological nose of wax. And as long as the
wax contains the ingredients of Christ and something of forgiveness
and peace and joy and a little bit of the cross somewhere there
in that wax, we are free to shape that in terms of the felt needs
of men in any given place. in terms of the socio-political
climate in which the gospel comes, and to accommodate it in terms
of that climate, as the well-known pop psychologist who calls himself
Dr. Robert Schuler has said, to preach
the gospel means to find a hurt and heal it. And in such a climate, There
is a desperate need for a recovery of the biblical gospel in terms
of its essential doctrinal content as defined by God Himself. And there are two major motifs
of gospel content to which I would direct your attention First of
all, following on from quoting Romans chapter 1 in verse 16,
we look at verse 17. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and
also to the Greek, for therein, that is, within the gospel, is
revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith as it is
written, but the righteous shall live by faith. And here the Apostle
Paul informs us by the inspiration of the Spirit that the central
truth which is revealed in the gospel is that of a revelation
of a righteousness of God. That is, a righteousness that
God Himself has provided, a righteousness with which God Himself is pleased,
a righteousness which God imputes to the ungodly by faith alone. Now we are told in our generation,
legal concepts are relatively non-existent. We live in a day
in which the concept of retributive justice has well-nigh been banished
from the awareness of our generation. The penal institution system
is considered far more as remedial than punitive. And so we are
told you can't communicate the gospel to this generation in
terms of the imagery of God as a judge, man as a subject, man
accountable to God in terms of law, man guilty and culpable
in terms of a violated law. God as an incensed and angry
lawgiver, man as the culpable guilty criminal, we have a generation
that no longer thinks in those categories. Therefore, we dare
not present as the heart of the gospel that in it is revealed
a righteousness of God from faith to faith. We are told, rather,
let us accommodate the gospel to the areas of felt need and
existential awareness among men. If we are ministering in a generation
whose great concern is its horizontal dilemmas, the dilemma of the
horrible scourge of age, The dilemma of the horrible scourge
of addiction to illicit drugs, the horrible and frightening
scourge of child abuse and international tension. Surely, if we're going
to get a hearing for the gospel, we can't be talking mumbo-jumbo
about a righteousness of God. No one will listen to us. Therefore,
we must take the gospel and present it in its dominant emphases as
that which has something to say about the plague of AIDS and
the plague of drug addiction, etc., etc. What do we say to
that? Well, we say this, if we have
a generation so out of touch with the reality that Almighty
God is the judge of the earth, And every man, woman, boy, and
girl is regarded by that God as a subject accountable to his
moral law. And if reality is that every
man, woman, boy, and girl has been regarded in the court of
heaven as guilty and worthy of death from the moment Adam sinned,
and has a culpability and exposure to divine wrath and anger intensified
by every word, every thought, every motive, every deed that
has not been in strict mathematical parallelism to the law of God,
if that's reality, and this generation is so out of touch with that
reality, the answer is not to reshape the gospel. It is to
thunder into the ears of this generation the God who is, and
the law that is, and the sin that is, and the wrath that is,
and the damnation that is, and the court that is, and the sentence
that is, to fall upon every guilty sinner. And I say to you, my
brethren in the ministry, our vision for these days must be
nothing less than a recovery of the biblical gospel in its
essential doctrinal contents. And according to the clear emphasis
of Romans 1, 16 and 17, and all that follows in the exposition
of that gospel in the epistle to the Romans, it comes couched
in, bristling with, surrounded by forensic, legal concepts And
we have no liberty to change its dominant emphases. We have
the marvelous privilege as well as the awesome responsibility
If necessary to begin with its foundational corollaries, if
our generation is so out of touch with the God who is, and so out
of touch with what they are as described biblically, then we
must labor to sound forth those truths which under God will create
a climate of spiritual perception in which the announcement that
there is a righteousness of God will be the best news in the
world men and women have ever heard. And there is one other strand
of emphasis in terms of what I would call the dominant doctrinal
content of the gospel. It came before us in our consecutive
reading yesterday in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. The word reconciliation is the
n-word in our day, but alas, in most gospel preaching, it
is reconciliation at the horizontal level. But Paul's gospel of reconciliation,
what we might call not a twin dominant note, but the second
Note in order of dominance is found in 2 Corinthians chapter
5 and verse 18. But all things are of God who
reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave unto us the ministry
of reconciliation to it that God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself. not reckoning unto them their
trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation. We are ambassadors therefore
on behalf of Christ. As though God were entreating
by us, we beseech you in behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to
God. Him who knew no sin, He made
to be sin on our behalf. Now notice the fusion of the
two dominant notes, that we might become the righteousness of God
in Him. Do you see that the dominant
note in this gospel of reconciliation is not reconciliation at the
horizontal level, Blessed be God for everything that the gospel
effects at the horizontal level. And I am not denying that element
of truth either in its manifestation in the content of gospel effects
as we see them in scripture or in our own experience. But Paul
says as an ambassador who is sent on an errand by his king
His message of reconciliation was pervasively God-word. All things are of God who reconciled
us to Himself through Christ. Christ is the mediator. has been sent forth that we might
be reconciled unto God, that the enmity God were to us and
ours to Him through the work of Christ and subsequently the
work of the Spirit, that that mutual enmity might be removed,
that we might be brought unto God. There is a God-centeredness
in the message of reconciliation. We beseech you on the behalf
of Christ be reconciled unto God. And why do I emphasize this? Again, for the simple reason
that Christ has been looked upon not primarily for what he says
he is as the Savior of men. I am the way, the truth, the
light. No man comes to the Father but
by me. who gave Himself for us, the
just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God? But if the note of reconciliation
is sounded, it is one which terminates on horizontal matters. Christ
has come to help you get your act together, to get your own
fragmented pieces all integrated again. Christ has come to reconcile
the husband and the wife who are estranged, the nations that
are at one another's throats, and all of the other dimensions
of horizontal reconciliation. The great emphasis of Scripture
is this, as surely as the gospel holds forth a righteousness of
God, it sets forth this marvelous truth that in Jesus Christ there
is a way for man to be reconciled to God, eternal life, Eternal
light, how pure that soul must be which, placed within thy burning
light, it shrinks not but with calm delight, can live and look
on thee. The spirits that surround thy
throne may bear this burning bliss, but 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 my naked spirit bear the uncreated being. There's the
great dilemma of reality. God is holy. I am defiled and
polluted and banished from His presence. Bless God for the next
stanza, there is a way for man to rise to this sublime abode,
an offering and a sacrifice of Holy Spirit's energies, an advocate
with God. These, these prepare us for the
sight of holiness above, The sons of ignorance and night may
dwell with the eternal light through the eternal love. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel! How sons of night and darkness
can dwell in peace with a God of light. And brethren, we've
lost that gospel in our generation. And we are, I trust, committed
to this common vision that in our days there would be a recovery
of this biblical gospel. This biblical gospel, with its
emphasis upon the legal, the forensic realities of who God
is as the righteous judge of the universe, what man is as
a guilty criminal before his court, and who God is as the
great, eternal Father of our first father, Adam, but the Father
who has disinherited all of Adam's sons because of sin. but who
offers a way of reconciliation, who has effected a way of reconciliation
to himself, that once again man, the creature, may not only stand
in the court of heaven credited with a perfect righteousness,
but brought face to face with his God, to know Him, to love
Him, to commune with Him, to feast upon His glory, and to
count His greatest prize, precisely what Jesus said, is the essence
of eternal life. For this is life eternal, that
they may know Thee, the only true God, then Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent. And you see, brethren, when we
begin to be consumed with a passion For a recovery of the biblical
gospel in its essential doctrinal contents, we will not have any
rest or peace until we begin to sense that by the blessing
of God our preaching is creating a climate in which the dominant
emphases of imputed righteousness and God-centered reconciliation
can begin to become glorious. good news. And when we do, then
we will find ourselves in our gospel preaching, constantly
engaged in two glorious, blessed activities, continually announcing
the grand indicatives of the gospel and continually thundering
out the sober imperatives of the gospel. For you see, the
Gospel is essentially comprised of those two elements. It has
its grand indicatives. It declares what God has done. 1 Corinthians 15. This is the
Gospel we preached unto you, the Gospel by which you are saved. If you hold fast to this truth,
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried. He was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures. He was seen. He ascended. He sat down. He sent forth the
Spirit. The gospel is not primarily an
announcement of subjective feelings. It is a declaration of the most
glorious indicatives ever warranted upon the face of the earth. The
second person of the Godhead has taken to Himself a real,
a true humanity. And in the marvelous mystery
of the hypostatic union, the Eternal Word takes to Himself
flesh. And while never, never ceasing
to be what He always was, Eternal God, He begins to be something
He never had been, true man. And as the God-man, he lives
the life we should have lived. He dies the death we dare not
die. He validates the worth of his
work in life and death by a glorious resurrection. And the Father
vindicates him by sitting him at his right hand, handing over
to him the full reins of authority in his mediatorial kingdom. And in that glorious, unique
God-man, and in the virtue of his perfect life and death and
resurrection and session and mediatorial reign at the right
hand of God, we are then able to announce the sober imperatives
of the gospel. Repent and believe and you shall
be saved. Paul said he testified repentance
towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, Acts 20,
21. Well, our vision for these days,
brethren, is nothing short. than that of a recovery of the
biblical gospel, first of all, in its essential doctrinal contents,
but secondly, in its appointed means of communication. Again, we need a recovery of
the biblical gospel, not only in terms of its content, but
the divinely appointed means of its communication. We live
in the day of gospel acting troops, gospel guitar-twanging, drum-banging
groups, ear-splitting, mind-blowing, rock gospel groups. We live in
the day of gospel mime groups and gospel clown groups and gospel
warbling groups and gospel everything groups. as though God had nothing
to say about the means by which He has ordained that this glorious
message be brought to impinge upon the consciousness of men. But He has an appointed means,
and I direct you to passages you all know. If you've come
for something new and profound, you may as well leave while it's
early and get a good night's sleep. Because I have no novelties,
my brethren. We read in the 10th chapter of
Romans that marvelous, wonderful gospel promise. We read in Romans
10 and verse 13. We could back up to verse 12.
There is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord
is Lord of all and is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Now the
great question, how then shall they call on Him in whom they
have not believed? If there is no object of faith,
how can there be the cry of faith? It was when blind Bartimaeus
heard that Jesus of Nazareth passes by that he cried, Son
of David, have mercy upon me. Though blind, he believed the
report, and he called, and he was healed. Paul says, by an
escapable logical sequence, yes, whoever calls will be saved,
but how shall they call on him in whom they've not believed.
And how shall they believe in him? Not of whom, but whom they
have not heard. The one upon whom they call is
the one whom they hear. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold. They, they shall hear my voice. How shall they call on him whom
they have not heard? Well, how are they going to hear
the great shepherd who is out in the earth seeking his sheep? This is how they'll hear him.
How shall they hear, not without a mind? Without an actor? Without a warbler? Without a
drum pounder? A guitar twanger? How shall they
hear without a preacher? Without a preacher! And how shall
they preach so as to truly be the voice of Jesus Christ, except
they be sent That is, they have a bona fide scripturally based
call to proclaim the name and the message of the Savior. What is God's appointed means
of communicating this glorious gospel that has its focal points
of imputed righteousness and reconciliation to God? The appointed means is proclamation
by a duly sent herald. And that perfectly tallies with
what we are told in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter
1. The Apostle says in verse 21,
foreseeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its
wisdom knew not God. It was God's good pleasure through
the foolishness of and if you have the old American standard
you'll notice the rendering is preaching but with a marginal
rendering Greek thing preached and you see the translators hung
up when he comes to Kerugma Because the Word brings together two
inseparable realities. The kerugma is the thing that
is the message with specific delineation of its contents. It is the thing preached, but
it is also the preached thing. And kerugma brings into inseparable
relationship The content of the biblical gospel and the appointed
means of its communication. That communication is proclamation. Proclamation in the name of the
sovereign. Proclamation from the heart of
one who says, with Paul, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus
as Lord in ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. Proclamation
in the spirit of the apostle who said, we were willing to
impart unto you not the gospel of God only, but our own souls,
because you were become dear to us. I am not in any way overlooking
these dimensions of preaching that exist in the heart of the
preacher, his spirit of servitude to those to whom he preaches,
his deep solicitous yearning that he says, I was willing to
impart my very soul unto you in preaching. But at the end
of the day, we come back to the question, what is the appointed
means of communicating this gospel in the purity of its content?
And it is proclamation. In what God calls vessels of
clay, we have the treasure in earthen vessels. And it's a message
that men regard as utter folly. That's what he means when he
says, God is ordained by the foolishness of the thing preached,
that which men regard as utter folly, to say that in one who
came out of Nazareth, expelled from his womb as any other child,
amidst blood and mucus and the cries and groans of his mother,
raised in a humble home, pounding pegs in a carpenter's shop with
his father, that in that person of such humble origins, who claimed
to be God's Messiah, whose death upon the cross is set forth as
a death of nothing short of cosmic implications, reconciling to
himself things above the heavens and beneath the earth, Men look
at that and say, what a bunch of nonsense. But wonder of wonders
when a vessel of clay proclaims Christ as the wisdom of God,
Christ as the power of God, Christ crucified as the only hope of
sinners, Christ raised and exalted as the object of the faith of
sinners. Almighty God puts forth the arm
of His power, and Paul says to those who are called to Christ
in that message which men by nature regard as foolishness,
he comes to them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Brethren, our vision for these
days is not only a recovery of the biblical gospel in its essential
doctrinal content, but in its appointed means of communication. That's why we're committed to
the primacy of preaching. That's why we are committed to
seeking to excel if we excel in nothing else. To excel in
accurate, earnest, pathetic in the sense of suffused with papos
and entreaty. We're committed and we're crying
to God and laboring that God would do up, raise up preachers
If God gives us some authors who embalm their rich thoughts
in printer's ink, good and well. If God gives us men who leave
other legacies, good and well. But my brethren, face it, face
it, the labor of a preacher goes with him to his grave. But hallelujah,
it'll meet him in the day of judgment. Are you willing to
spend and be spent, be consumed with the very fire of gospel
passion until it takes you to your grave? Believing that in
so doing you've given yourself to that which God will make effectual,
to give to our beloved Lord Jesus the fruit of His sufferings. end of his death. That's our
vision. We're not trying to mold cool
communicators in this academy. You know, gospel chatters. Hello
folks. So nice to see you. It's good
to have you here. Hope you all feel comfortable.
Now the last thing we want to do is offend anyone. We can assure
you whatever we're going to tell you is going to make you feel
so nice. I tell you my friends, that kind of gospel preaching
is probably taking more people to hell than the heresy of the
Jehovah's Witnesses. Men who can talk of sin, and
of the cross, and of hell, and of the open wounds of an incarnate
God immolated, dripping with men's spittle, buried beneath
the billows of divine wrath, and no passion No sense of breathless
wonder! No wonder men don't believe it.
No wonder they don't take the Savior seriously. If the preacher
doesn't, why should they? But I must hasten, if I'm even
going to get through our first head, for we are committed, as
the vision for these days, not only for recovery of the gospel
in its essential doctrinal content, in its appointed means of communication. But, oh brethren, hear me carefully.
In its efficacious power. In its efficacious power. And what is that efficacious
power? I direct you to two texts of
scripture that are probably already coming to your mind. Just turn
one chapter over in Corinthians. First Corinthians chapter two.
And I, brethren, when I came unto you, did not come with excellency
of speech or of wisdom. That is, I did not come speaking
to you within the categories which your local official doctors
of rhetoric would dictate. That's what he means when he
says excellency of speech. You see, Corinth was a center
of learning. And you have to at least give them credit that
they did not regard a man, a learned man, who could not speak well.
That shows how far we've degenerated. We've got men with PhDs that
grunt and snort and can hardly put sentences together. But there
at Corinth you weren't considered a learned man unless you could
speak well, but speaking well meant careful regard to all of
their established laws of rhetoric, and if they detected your familiarity
with and submission to those canons of rhetorical excellence,
then they would say you spoke with excellency of speech. Paul
said, I did not come with one eye on your canons of rhetoric
to make sure that you ticked me off as a man who spoke with
excellency of speech. I did not come in the capacity
of an orator. And when he says, I did not come
to you with excellency of speech or of wisdom, he was speaking,
of course, of the role of a philosopher. The philosopher who is going
to bless the world with his almighty insights into reality. When you
think of it, the most arrogant, proud people in all the world
are philosophers. To think that with their little, how many cc's
of grey matter does the average man have? Is Dr. Rule here? I
don't know how many, but imagine a man sitting down with just
about a cup full of grey matter. That's right! And seeking to
penetrate all realms of reality and come up with an integrated
system that will explain it all. I mean the arrogance to even
attempt the task is unthinkable. Paul says, I didn't come to you
in the capacity of a rhetorician or of a philosopher. I didn't
come and stroke my beard and say, well, gentlemen, I have
reflected and it is my studied and settled perception that. Look at the text. And brethren,
I came to you, I came not in the role of rhetorician or a
philosopher. Now look, proclaiming There it
is! Proclamation! And what was his proclamation?
The testimony of God. And there is a problem of interpretation. Is that genitive there a genitive
of origin? Is it the testimony of which
God is the author? Or is it the testimony of which
God is the main subject? Well, it makes no difference
because both are true. It was the testimony of God I
stood in the role not of someone who had penetrated the mystery
of the ages. I stood as a witness to that
which I received as testimony from another. For I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
That doesn't mean he just stood up and said, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus, love Him, love Him, love Him, love Him. Just read the
book of Acts and you know that Paul is not saying that. What
he is saying is this, that the thing to which he drove in all
of his preaching, even when he had to begin as he did in Acts
14 at Lystra and in Acts 17 there among the Athenian philosophers,
even though he had to begin with basic biblical theism and move
by steps into the more central nerve centers of the gospel.
He said, here was my passion to know nothing among you ultimately,
fundamentally, but bringing you to see that in Jesus Christ,
immolated and lying under the anathema of God, was the great
answer to all of the mysteries that elude your philosophers. and all of the aches and all
of the unmet needs of the heart, which the rhetorician may momentarily
give some sense of satisfaction by the melodious sound of His
words, but you go away as empty as when you came. I set forth
Jesus Christ in the uniqueness of His person, Jesus Christ is
crucified as the central saving act of the Son of God. Verse
3, and here was my disposition, I was with you in weakness and
in fear and in much trembling. He did not come with the slick
bearing of the average television preacher. It's got it all together. And if he happens to forget,
he's got his flashcards to catch out of his peripheral vision.
He said, I was with you in weakness. I was with you in fear. And I
was with you in much trembling. You see, only a true preacher
understands these words. Every time is like the first
time. He knows that he comes with a
message that he has no right to alter. He comes in a capacity. He has no right to change. He
is a witness of God's testimony about his Son. He comes as a
proclaimer. And he knows, as Paul knew at
Corinth, that there was in the hearts of men an inveterate prejudice
against his message. Christ crucified was to the Greeks
foolishness to the Jews, the skandalon, the great trapstick,
the great stumbling block. And so he said, realizing that
I did not carry with me inherently the ability to break through
that wall of native sinful prejudice and pride, that I did not have
the power to tear down the bastions of carnal opposition. You see,
his fear and trembling were rooted in the reality of his knowledge
of the true state of man. He couldn't argue them into the
kingdom. He couldn't tickle their funny
bones and get them giggling into the kingdom. He couldn't play
upon their emotions and float them in on their tears. He knew
that Almighty God had to come and do a miracle of intrusive,
sovereign grace. And he said, I didn't carry the
power of God in my pocket, nor was it fused to my vocal cords.
The wind blows where it wills. Will God come? Will God attend
my preaching? Will God come with the wind of
heaven till the sails of my proclamation and carry the ship of gospel
preaching clean through that tremendously heaving sea of prejudice
until it finds a quiet shoal in a man's conscience and there
takes anchor and deposits the Son of God on the shore. That's
what happens when a sinner gets saved. He said, and I didn't
have the power in myself, so I was with you in weakness, fear,
much trembling. But now look at verse four. And my speech, or the thing preached,
the kerugma, the message, content, the message proclaimed and my
preaching I'm sorry kerugma is I think it's logos in verse 4
my word and then my preaching my kerugma were not in persuasive
words of wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and the power that
Your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God. What is he saying? He is saying,
though I came in that disposition of weakness, as I preached, there
was a present attendant power of the Spirit of God upon my
ministry, so that your response was not response to my compelling
logic, It was response to the power of God that you felt and
knew in the very proclamation of that message. And brethren,
in our recovery of the biblical gospel, if we only go as far
as to see it recovered in its essential doctrinal content,
in its appointed means of communication, but stop short of recovering
it In its efficacious power, God have mercy on us. It is bad
enough to have a generation sink into hell with a watered-down
gospel. Worse yet, to sink into hell
with a straight, correct, orthodox gospel that never grips because
it was not preached in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. The second text that affirms
that this is indeed a conscious concern of the Apostle is 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 the Apostle
says that he became privy to God's secret decree of election
with regard to the Thessalonians verse 4 knowing brethren beloved
of God your election how in the world did he discover their election
When he was caught up in the third heaven and heard things
which it was not lawful to speak, did he also see things it was
not lawful to see? Did God say, my servant come,
let me show you the role of my elect? No. Read on. knowing,
brethren beloved of God, your election, because our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the
Holy Spirit and in much assurance or fullness or conviction, even
as you know what manner of men we showed ourselves toward you
for your sake. Our gospel came not in word only
but in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance. Brethren, while there is so much
that is mysterious in the operations of the Holy Spirit in conjunction
with preaching, and while I know my Bible well enough to know
that God will make the preaching of some man effectual to the
salvation of others, who themselves were strangers to its power as
preachers, many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have
we not preached in your name? If God can take the mouth of
an ass and make it an effectual means to turn aside a mad prophet,
God can take the mouth of a fellow mortal preaching the gospel,
who is a charlatan, who is utterly devoid of grace, and God can
even, hear me carefully, God can even make him an anointed
preacher and send him to hell. But as a general rule, as is
the man, so is his unction. Even as you know what manner
of men we were among you, there was an intimate conjunction between
preaching not in word only, but in power, and the manner of their
Christian manhood. That means, my brethren, that
an anointed ministry can't be bought in a one-half night prayer
meeting. It can't be bought in a tarrying
meeting. The price you pay is walking
in utmost integrity before God day after day, keeping a conscience
void of offense to God and man, determining to be one who frequents
the secret place, pleading the promise, if you who are evil
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your Heavenly Father give the Spirit to those who ask By
and large, as a general rule, a man whose ministry is marked
by the entombment of the Spirit is a man who walks with integrity
before God. a man who knows what it is to
wrestle in the secret place, a man who knows what it is to
be weaned from all creature confidence, and hear me now, a man who runs
from the first consciousness of the swellings of pride in
his heart like we would run from a herd of devils were they to
appear before him. The reason some men do not preach
with the power of the Spirit of God is God cannot entrust
to them that measure of his Spirit that would make their ministries
effectual, for he said, Jehovah is my name, and I will not give
my glory to another, neither my praise unto graven images. Well, brethren, that's our vision
for these days. Point one. Maybe we'll preach
points two and three next year if the Lord spares us. Because
it's nine o'clock and we have a full day coming. That's our
vision. If God will write just that dimension
on our hearts, hopefully there will be ample opportunity to
touch upon the other aspects that I had hoped to touch upon
under the heads of a renewal of biblical holiness and a return
to biblical churchmanship But I believe God has said to us
what we need to hear tonight. And I ask every man in this place
who bears the name and title and office of a shepherd of Christ's
flock, is this your vision for these days? Is it this to which
you're giving your life? Is it this concerning which you
can say with Paul in Acts 20, I count not my life as of any
account as dear to myself my life's expendable but one thing
is not that I may finish my course that I may testify the gospel
of the grace of God one of the most liberating things in all
the world is to be able to kneel in the presence of the God who
knows our hearts and say oh God thou knowest with all of my remaining
sin and all of the haunting memories of what I've done and what I've
not been, O God, Thou knowest. If Thy gospel must consume me,
and if I must be poured out as a drink offering in the proclamation
and service of the gospel, O Lord, pour me out, that Your Son may
have the reward of His sufferings. That's what this generation needs
more than anything else, is preachers who have, by the grace of God,
a firm grasp upon the biblical gospel in its essential doctrinal
content, in its appointed means of communication, and in its
efficacious power. And may God grant that such an
army of preachers will be turned loose upon this generation, and
it will do more in ten years to deal with the horrible scourges
of society than Congress with its legislation could do in a
millennium. May God bring it to pass for
His glory. Let us pray. Oh God, our Heavenly Father, when we gaze upon the great realities
that are not seen with these physical eyes, we're conscious
that we are projected into a realm that is more than our frail humanity
can bear. Oh Lord, our Lord, whose name
is excellent in all the earth we worship you, in all the glory,
in all the wonder, Lord, in all the threateningness of your majesty,
of your awesomeness, and of your power. But we thank you that
there is a way for sinful men and women to draw near and to
call you Abba Father. Thank you Lord Jesus for coming
to us in our need by way of Mary's womb, taking to yourself our
humanity in a weakened state. Thank you for your night vigils. Thank you for bearing all that
you bore for us. Thank you for rising from the
dead, for sending the Holy Spirit, for succoring and nurturing us,
ever pleading for us, ministering to us. And oh, our blessed Lord,
we do long to see you loved and known by our generation, and
yet we confess at times we feel so helpless. We feel, Lord, there's
no starting place. have mercy upon us and for your
glory send your spirit upon us and oh God from this very auditorium
raise up a host of men who will become mighty instruments in
your hands for the tearing down of the strongholds of the enemy
hear then our cry Receive our thanks for your presence with
us. And, O God, in our days together, help us that we will not grieve
your Spirit, that what we have known of His presence today would
be increased. We know we've not exhausted the
supplies of your grace. Lord, you've not felt one bit
any loss, even though you've given so freely. Oh, out of the
fullness of Jesus, Give us more of yourself, more of your grace,
more of your power, more light, more love, more holiness, more
zeal, more sensitivity. Oh, Lord, hear our cry. And may you be pleased to take
each of us safely to our homes for those who may be sitting
here who've never beheld the glory of your son, but who sitting
here tonight have known That there's been something more than
people in this place. Something more than a preacher.
Something more than words. Lord, they've tasted. Your Spirit
has pressed to their consciences who you are and your claims over
them. Oh, may they not resist. May it not be said of them, ye
stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, you do always resist
the Holy Ghost. May they not resist his operations
in the public means of grace. But, O Father, we pray that they
would seek you while you may be found and call upon you while
you're near. Deal with the hearts of the unconverted,
we pray. And now, Lord, accept our thanks
for this blessed day in your court. Watch over the loved ones
of the many who are here, who've left wife and children behind. Protect them, keep them in your
love, and grant that these men may pillow their heads in the
confidence that you are well able to care for those loved
ones, though they are far from them. Awake us to the new day,
if it please you, with an eagerness to seek you. Bring us together
with an expectation to hear your voice. Receive now our thanks
and hear us in our petitions. We ask in the name and through
the virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.