Responsibilities to the World, Part 3

Introduction: The Final Message on Church Membership and Prayer for Boldness

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, May 3rd, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Mockville, New Jersey.

0:14 Now, as we come this morning to the eleventh and final message in this relatively brief series of messages dealing with the subject of the privileges and responsibilities of membership in the Church of Christ, let us pray that God would grant us the aid of His Spirit, that the theme that is treated this morning will be written upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and that with it may come in God's grace a new dimension of holy aggressiveness in our total involvement as a Church in the great privilege and responsibility

0:55 of proclaiming the gospel of the grace of God to others. Amen. Amen. Amen.

1:00 Amen. Amen. Let us pray.

1:06 Our Father, we bow again in Your presence because we have at least some little measure of our felt inability to grasp spiritual realities unless Your Holy Spirit comes and performs a present and powerful ministry to our minds and to our hearts. We acknowledge that while we naturally have a tendency to indifference to unconcern, to selfishness, we have no native tendency to a compassion for the lost,

1:47 a zeal to reach them with the message of life, boldness where necessary to confront them in their sins, tenderness to set before them the glory of Christ. Lord, these things are not in us natively, and we cannot plant them in each other's hearts, nor can we cultivate them in one another. So we come to You and ask that the Spirit by the Word would effect in us this morning that which we cannot do for ourselves. Hear us as together we make our plea known to You through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2:29 Amen. Now, for those of you who are visiting with us and who have not been present for the previous ten studies in this series, your presence among us this morning is sort of like handing you a book and then asking you to turn to the last chapter and begin to read. Or to change the imagery, it would be like coming into the last half of the last movement in a symphony hall where the orchestra was playing the latter part of an extended composition, and you have to try to pick up from that last segment something, perhaps, of the overall

3:12 theme of that entire musical composition, for obviously we can't go back to carry on the imagery and play the whole symphony or take you back to chapter one in the book. All I can hope to do is, by way of briefly reviewing, give you at least some feel as to where we are and then together to open the Word of God for that aspect of truth which I trust the Spirit of God will indeed write upon us. Amen. All right, let's get this started.

Review of the Series: Privileges and Responsibilities of Church Membership

3:43 Let's get started. Let's get this started. We want to break down a few of the greater issues in our hearts this morning. When we began this series on the privileges and responsibilities of membership in the Church of Christ, I attempted to set the field into a broad but very definite biblical framework by opening up Acts 2, 41 and 42, a passage in which two very vital questions are addressed.

4:06 First of all, who was admitted to membership in the Apostolic Church? and secondly, what were the primary activities by which those who were admitted carried on their internal church life and fellowship. And after expounding those verses, we then began in a topical way to take up the issue of some of the specific duties and privileges of membership in the church of Jesus Christ. And I tried to set before you as an organizing principle for these duties

4:46 the visual concept of a circle which represents the church and everything within it, its activities, and then three sets of arrows, two arrows pointing directly upward within the circle, the duties and privileges we have with respect primarily to God himself, and then two arrows pointing inward, the duties and privileges we have with respect to one another, and then two arrows penetrating the circle to the outside of the circle, our duties and privileges with reference to those who are without. And when we came to that third division,

5:31 our duties and privileges to those who are without, I asserted that our duties to those without can be subsumed under two major rules. We have the duty and privilege of authentication and the duty and privilege of proclamation. Under the heading of authentication, we turned to the scriptures and saw together that our life as a church must authenticate our identity as the new humanity in Christ. By our love, our unity, and holiness, we are to make it evident, in our life together, that we are not a religious club,

6:15 we are not a social organization, that we are nothing less than the gathering of those who have experienced the new creation in union with Jesus Christ, that we are part of the new humanity in the language of Galatians, the one new man in Christ Jesus. And then our life together, in terms of our worship, must authenticate our true identity as the temple of God. We are not only identified in scripture as the new humanity in Christ, but as God's living temple.

6:58 And what we experience in our corporate worship and prayer and ministry of the word must authenticate that identity, so that even the unbeliever coming among us will cry out in his heart, God is of a truth among you. 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 26. And then our individual and family lives must authenticate our professed submission to the word of God. The great concern of scripture in the most practical directives of personal and family life is that the word of God will not be authenticated.

7:40 It will not be blasphemed. That we will walk becomingly to those who are without. That we may be blameless and harmless, shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. And then last Lord's Day, we took up that second great privilege and responsibility that we have, not only that of authentication, but of proclamation.

8:09 And I only had time to preach two-thirds of the sermon. I had three headings under the duty and privilege of proclamation. We covered two of them. First of all, there is to be the incessant internal proclamation of the gospel.

8:24 Some who are without spiritually are within geographically. Our unconverted children, unconverted spouses and friends and visitors. And so the church in its life together is to be involved in an incessant internal proclamation of the gospel. And that is done not only when God furnishes the church with pastor-teachers who formally preach, but when the church gathers to the Lord's table, we are told in 1 Corinthians 11, 26, we together preach forth the Lord's death until he come.

9:06 And then the second way in which we engage in proclamation is what I described as the aggressive external proclamation of the gospel by men recognized, sent and supported by the church. And we looked at the various passages in the word of God which clearly demonstrate that every church that claims to be a biblical church ought to be involved in prayerfully seeking to see the Lord of the harvest in the Holy Spirit. And I think that's the key thing. Raise up those who will be recognized, sent, and supported by the church in the work of extending the truth of the gospel.

9:49 And, of course, both these forms of proclamation, the incessant internal dimension and the aggressive external dimension, make demands upon us as God's people to be a people of prayer, to be a people of discernment, to recognize those whom God is raising up among us, to be a people of expectation that the incessant internal proclamation of the gospel will be,

10:20 and then we must be involved in sacrificial giving that these ministries of proclamation within and without may receive due support that men living of the gospel, men preaching the gospel, may live of the gospel. Well, that's an attempt to distill into five minutes what it's taken several hours to cover in exposition. Now, that brings us this morning to the third aspect of this great privilege and duty of proclamation given to the church and, therefore, the responsibility of church members.

The Manifold General Proclamation of the Gospel by All God's People

11:05 And it's what I'm describing this way, the manifold general proclamation of the gospel by all of the people of God. So you see the three major ways in which we engage. We engage in this privilege and duty of proclamation, the incessant internal proclamation, the aggressive external proclamation, and now the manifold general proclamation of the gospel by all of the people of God. Now, I've chosen the words carefully after much consultation with my synonym finder and the dictionary.

11:48 I've used the word manifold. And I use it in the sense of one of its primary usages, and here I quote the dictionary, having many and varied forms.

12:03 Someone may go out on a walk in a nature trail and come home and say, I thoroughly enjoy the manifold voices of nature. What does he mean? Well, he heard the singing of the birds, the babbling of a brook, the rustling of the leaves, and perhaps the thundering of a waterfall. Well, he heard the many voices of nature coming in varied forms.

12:30 So he said, I enjoyed the manifold voices of nature. So when something is manifold, it has many and varied forms. And I've chosen the word purposely. And I've chosen the word general.

12:48 And I use it in the sense, and I quote, And again, existing or occurring extensively, common or widespread. We say there is general unrest among the people during allergy time. And it's one of the things I prayed about. The Lord would help those of you, those of us who suffer with allergies.

13:08 During this season of the year when allergies can be particularly aggravated, a dullness can come over us. And we can say there was a general dullness upon the congregation. What do we mean? Well, we mean...

13:22 That spirit of dullness was existing or occurring extensively. It was common or widespread. Now, come back to my heading. In this wonderful privilege and solemn duty of proclaiming the gospel, the scripture sets before us as a church this truth.

13:43 That there is to be a manifold, that is, having many and varied forms, general, that is, widespread or extensive proclamation of the gospel by all of the people of God. Now, in opening up this aspect of our duty, I'm going to follow three lines of thought. First of all, the duty and privilege established from the word of God. And then, secondly, the duty and privilege qualified by the word of God.

Establishing the Duty from Scripture: 1 Peter 2:9

14:19 And then, thirdly, the duty and privilege, its demands made upon us by the word of God. First of all, then, the duty and privilege established from the word of God. Now, here, many biblical paths could open up before us. It would be possible, for example, to establish our corporate duty, our duty as members of the church of Jesus Christ to be engaged in a manifold, general process, a proclamation of the gospel, by looking at the universal duty of confessing Christ.

15:01 The scripture tells us in Matthew 10, 32, He that confesses me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven. We are told in Romans 10, 9-11, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, for it is written, He that believeth shall not be ashamed. So we could establish the duty in terms of the universal duty of confessing Christ.

15:41 Or, we could establish it from the general principle of the relationship between the heart and the mouth. Matthew 12, 34b says, Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Whatever fills your heart flows out on your lips. If your heart is full of schemes and ways to make money, your lips will be filled with conversation about those schemes.

16:10 If your heart is full of the Mets or the Yankees, your speech will be full of discussion about why they should have done something else yesterday so they would have won and not lost. If your heart is full of your favorite ball team, your mouth will speak about them. Now, we could establish the duty and privilege on that basis, for surely we can establish from Scripture that the heart of every Christian is to be full of Christ. And if the heart is full of Christ, then the mouth will speak often of Christ.

16:41 But I pass that by. We could establish it along the lines of the general demands of evangelical law-keeping. Every true believer is concerned out of love to Christ with no thought of earning stars or earning brownie points. He desires to obey the Lord Jesus and to keep the law of God.

17:06 And the second table of the law in its distilled essence is this. We should love our neighbor as ourselves. And surely if we have the greatest commodity on the face of the earth, which alone can meet the greatest need of our neighbor, it is a crass expression of hatred. It is a crass expression of hatred.

17:23 It is a crass expression of hatred. It is a crass expression of hatred. It is a crass expression of hatred. It is a crass expression of hatred.

17:24 It is a crass expression of hatred to withhold from him that message of life and salvation. For God says if we see need and we are indifferent to it, how does love dwell in us? But I have chosen to set aside those avenues, for I have established those in other days, in other contexts in this congregation. And I want us to focus upon one text of Scripture which, to my present understanding, is the clearest and most convincing text in all of the Word of God, with reference to this duty and privilege of the manifold proclamation of the gospel

18:08 by all of the people of God. And that text is found in Peter's first letter, 1 Peter, and chapter 2. 1 Peter, chapter 2. We had occasion to consult 1 Peter 2 when we were establishing, 1 Peter, and chapter 2 when we were establishing, the vertical arrows, our great responsibilities and privileges to God himself in the context of church life.

18:39 Verse 5 tells us that we as living stones are built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And it is this biblical perspective, that lies in the heart and dictates both the form and substance of our public worship. We are God's temple as a people, and we are the priesthood within the temple. And we are all intelligently, and I trust with the whole energy of the soul, engaged in offering up the sacrifices of praise,

19:23 of adoration, of worship, of a broken and a contrite heart, of worship, of a broken and a contrite heart, giving of our substance, and bringing to the word of God a reverent and a submissive spirit. But this passage is not only crucial in underscoring and highlighting with unusual clarity our privileges and duties as church members with respect to God, but also with reference to those that are without. And this is done in verse 9. But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession,

20:06 that you may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Now, in the context, Peter has just described the unbelieving, the disbelieving, who stumble at the message of Christ and at Christ Himself. Look at verse 7. For you, therefore, that believe is the preciousness, but for such as disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

20:46 For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. But you are, you see the contrast, He has described those who are confronted with the message of the gospel. And at the center of that message is the proclamation of Christ crucified as the wisdom of God and the power of God. As some of you here this morning who may be strangers to God's salvation and to the biblical way of forgiveness of sins, you will be confronted this morning with the biblical message that the only way you can be forgiven is locked in,

21:28 inextricably bound up in God's provision for sinners in the person and work of Christ. And that message and that Savior whom God sets before you in the gospel either becomes the door into life and salvation or a stone over which you stumble to your own damnation. And He has described those who stumble, who stumble over that message and that Savior. But now by contrast, He describes the true people of God.

22:03 First of all, in this fourfold description, notice, But you are an elect race, that is, a chosen race, that is, a race upon whom God has set His eternal, sovereign, selective grace. You are an elect, a royal, you are part of a kingdom of priests. No longer is there a special class of priests who alone can draw near to God and who must do so by means of special rituals and special sacrifices.

22:47 All of God's people are priests who have the privilege of direct access into the holiest place by the blood of Jesus. That's our idea. That's our identity, an elect race, a royal priesthood. Thirdly, a holy nation, a nation set apart from the pollution of the world and the bondage of sin, set apart unto God and to His service, for that's the concept of holiness, separateness, separated from and unto.

23:21 And then the fourth part of their identity literally is this, a people for possession, a people for God's possession. And the translations supply the word God and rightly so, but it is literally a people of or for possession, a people whom God desires to have for Himself. Now that's our glorious identity. And I must simply pass over expanding on those descriptions because what we want to see is that we are a people of God.

The Purpose of Our Identity: Publishing God's Excellencies

23:58 want to see is in the next part of the verse, the purpose for which we have been given this status. Why has God given us as his people the status of elect race, royal priesthood, holy nation, a people of possession? Now look at the next word, that. And the use of the word hopos in this context has all the force, you Greek students, of a hena, clause of purpose.

24:32 And though hopos is not used anywhere near as much as hena, all of the responsible grammarians right down to Robertson's big thick volume agree that it had all of the force of a hena clause of purpose. And we could render it and do justice to the significant of that word by translating it in order that. Now follow. Why has God made you a member of that elect race? Why has he made you a member of that royal priesthood, a member

25:10 of that holy nation, part of that people of his possession? It is in a second-person plural use of the verb, not that some of you, a few of you, are the people of that elect race. But that all of you who comprise the elect race, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, a people of possession, that all of you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now the two key words in this part of the

25:52 verse, which deals now not with the peculiar privileged identity of God's people, but with the purpose for which they have been given that identity. The two key words are obviously show forth and excellencies. And we've got to pause to do a little study of those words. Now the word show forth is found only in this verse in all of the New Testament. So we can't

26:23 take other usages and compare them, believing that Scripture interprets Scripture. But what we must do is go over it. And what I am going to do is to read this. And it's a small passage, but I'm going to repeat these words. Here we go. I'm going to read the first part of the verse.

26:31 Where it says, it says, yet that he most truly had knowledge of the Lord Lord Jesus Christ. Agora, into the family of the words from which it is taken, and without exception, the family of words has to do with publishing abroad, to tell forth. And so the word show forth is perhaps a weak translation. Showing forth certainly can include a verbal showing forth.

26:58 You kids, do they still have show and tell in school, or am I showing how old I am? When my kids were in school, they had show and tell day. You still have show and tell? Kids, raise your hand. Oh, they do. Good. All right. At least one does. But on show and tell day,

27:15 they had to bring something special, and they had to hold it up and show it forth, and then they had to tell what it was and why it was special. They had to tell, show and tell. There's a sense in which we can tell by showing, but there's a sense...

27:30 There's a sense in which we can show without telling. And this verb, exangello, could be translated not show forth, but to publish or tell forth, to publish abroad. And it is an activity that must engage our tongues, as well as other means by which we may show forth or tell forth a message. Now, what is it that we who are the elect race, the holy priesthood, I mean the royal priesthood, holy nation, the people of possession, what is it that we are to publish abroad or

28:13 to tell forth, all of us, who are part of the people of God? What are we to publish abroad? Well, we are told that it is the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into marvelous light. Tos aretos.

28:31 The Greek word arete. Now, the word can mean the qualities or virtues inherent in something or someone. It's used that way in Philippians 4, 8. Whatsoever things are pure, lovely, if there be any virtue, if there be any arete, if there be any inherent worth or noble quality.

28:59 It's used that way in 2 Peter 1. And verse 5. 2 Peter 1 and verse 5. For this part, adding, for this very cause, adding on your part all diligence in your faith, supply, here's our word, virtue. Supply those

29:18 qualities of inherent worth. But then the word can also mean those qualities or virtues as manifested in the deeds. In Acts of someone, in pagan Greek literature, when someone would tell forth the mighty deeds of the gods, he was showing forth the virtues, the arete, or plural, the aretos of the gods. That is, the virtues of the gods as they came to expression in the mighty deeds of the gods.

29:58 Now then, what is it in this passage? Well, it's interesting that Peter, Peter uses this word several times and in 2 Peter 1, I am personally convinced and you'll find the lexicographers divided on the matter, but there is sufficient authority to declare that this is a legitimate use of the word. 2nd Peter 1,3, his divine power has granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, to the knowledge of him that causes the camel to His serenity. 3. He has called for the branch in in the

30:34 He called us by His own glory and virtue. Now, in calling sinners, you see, God does not merely display His inherent glory. He manifests it in a mighty act of delivering grace. And so, when we, the people of God, are told that God has given us this glorious status as elect race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people of possession, in order that we may publish abroad, what is it we're to publish abroad?

31:13 We are to publish abroad God's own inherent virtues and to it in His mighty deeds on behalf of sinners. And why do I say that's the meaning in the passage? Well, if you look at the passage, you will see. It is a showing forth of the virtues or the excellencies not of Him who created the world, though that would be true, nor of Him who sovereignly orders all events and circumstances of the world,

31:53 but the God whose virtue we are to be declaring is the God upon whom the focus comes in terms of this, the One who... ...who called us, effectually and powerfully drew us out of our bondage to the realm of darkness,

32:16 that realm in which sin and the devil reigns. And what did God do? He called us, not merely summoned us, but effectually and powerfully drew us out of that realm of darkness. ...a marvelous light of people who in time past...

32:37 ...had no people, had nothing to commend ourselves to God.

32:41 But two great qualities of God have come to focus in His calling us out of darkness into marvelous light, His grace to... ...and His saving...

33:07 ...pollination the people of possession.

33:09 It is your duty, it is your privilege, all of the details of your experience of being called... ...but the virtues...

33:34 ...witness...

33:46 ...manifested glory of the...

The Focus of Our Witness: God's Virtues, Not Our Past

33:57 ...see the focus of our publishing abroad is not the glamorous or the unglamorous, the exciting or the boring details of our pre-converted state.

34:10 The thing that keeps some of you from speaking freely of Christ is your life was very ordinary before you became a Christian. There is nothing exciting about your pre-converted state. You were just an ordinary, lost, hell-bound sinner. You weren't turning the town upside down with your wild and reckless life.

34:34 You weren't being thrown into jail and summoned before the magistrate. You were just a polite, ordinary, lost, hell-deserving, damned son or daughter of Adam. And you say, well, my life was so ordinary that there's not much to testify. God hasn't called...

34:53 ...to publish abroad...

34:54 ...to publish abroad...

34:55 ...to publish abroad...

34:55 ...to publish abroad...

34:56 ...the origins of your sinful, pre-converted state.

35:02 You had an extraordinary history before you were converted. You did disturb the town and disturb your household and disturb anything and everyone that got within a hundred yards of you. You were wild in your furious pursuit of a life of ungodliness. But you're not to declare that forth either.

35:23 No matter what our pre-converted state was like, that is not the focus of what... ...we publish abroad.

35:32 Whether it's glamorous or unglamorous, it's exciting or unexciting record, we are to tell forth the fame and the virtue of the God who called us out of darkness into His mark. And you see, the focus of what we publish abroad is not the dramatic or the mundane method of our conversion.

35:59 The Bible does not call us to declare forth the details. The details of our conversion. Some of you, just as you lived an ordinary life in sin, you had a very ordinary conversion. You can't even tell when you pass from death unto life.

36:15 God's dealings with you were so gradual and imperceptible that where you sit here this morning, conscious that if God gave me what I deserved, I'd be in hell, and you have no reservation in saying that.

36:31 Conscious that if your sins... ...are forgiven,

36:34 they are forgiven only because of the perfect obedience of Christ. Obedience even to the death of the cross in which He bore the wrath of God on your behalf. You have no reservation, no tongue-in-cheek, no words get stuck in your throat when you sing.

37:00 When you sing, nothing. Nothing! In my hands I bring, simply to thy cross, I cling. I to the fountain.

37:16 That doesn't get stuck in your throat. You know as you sit here today, though God's dealings with you are hard to trace out, that you love the things for which you once had no appetite. You're at home with the people who once you thought were a bunch of coots, and now you're one of them. And you feel comfortable where God is exalted and Christ is praised.

37:40 And you know that you're a child of God. Well, God's dealings with you are very ordinary. And you say, well, what can I testify to? My friend, listen.

37:51 It's not the ordinariness or the extraordinariness of your conversion experience that counts.

38:00 It's the use of the God in you. And in that, we're all together.

38:06 We're all together. Whether your conversion was as dramatic as that of Saul of Tarsus, or as what was probably true in the case of Timothy, a gradual, gradual dawning into life and grace. We are all called upon to declare forth the same thing. The virtues, the manifested excellencies of the God who has called us out of darkness and into marvelous light.

38:40 You see, as surely as verse 5 teaches, that within the church, worship is God-centered. God-centered. Being centered. Not need-centered.

38:56 Not man-centered.

39:00 Look, we've been made a living temple and a priesthood to do what? To offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. To God! To God!

39:13 And what cannot be offered to God on the basis of the warrant of His Word, God doesn't want in His worship. He rejects it.

39:26 He uses it. He says, He says, Who has required this at your hand?

39:32 And if we cannot say, Oh God, I bring it, because you require it, you better not bring it.

39:40 Worship is pervasively God-centered in the temple of God's own making. So is witnessing. You see that? Verse 9.

39:50 He's made you this wonderful reality described as elect race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people of possession, in order that you may publish abroad, in order that you may declare and tell forth. See, the great theme of Christian witness is not our pre-conversion lifestyle, nor even the details of how we were brought from death unto life. It is testifying to God in Jesus Christ

40:32 and God's amazing grace in ever calling, ever calling us out of the realm of darkness, where we saw no beauty in Christ, no suitableness of Christ to our need. And now to us in the language of the earlier part of the chapter, to us who believe, He is precious. And we know that the only way Christ would ever be enshrined as precious in our hearts is that God did a mighty work of calling us out of darkness into marvelous light. The only way Christ can be precious to us is because in and through Christ our great controversy with God

41:15 because of the issue of sin has been brought to resolution. For the great theme of Scripture is announced in those opening words of the angel who comes to a troubled Joseph, wondering what all this means, that Mary is pregnant and he knows he's not the father. And he says, Fear not to take unto you Mary your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she shall bring forth a son. Now notice, He doesn't say, Thou shalt call His name Great Revealer, for He shall reveal the pure essence of God's glory.

41:56 That's not the Gospel. Coming to a sight of the pure essence of God is not the Gospel. It's not the Gospel. He doesn't say, Thou shalt call His name Liberator.

42:08 For He shall come and relieve all of the inequities of society. That's not the Gospel. Thou shalt call His name, what? Tongue-chick-tickler?

42:20 Chin-tickler? Because He shall ease men of all of their hang-ups and stroke them and make them feel good? No, that's not the Gospel either. Thou shalt call His name Jesus, Jehovah our Salvation, for He shall save His people from their sin.

42:42 He's come to deal with man's greatest problem and controversy with God, the issue of sin. And when God has called us out of darkness into marvelous light, He then gives to us the privilege not to blether on about our rotten life, whether it was ordinary or extraordinary in the course of sin. It was all rotten, and we're ashamed of it in its dramatic or undramatic patterns. It is that of which we are now ashamed as we bear witness not to the details of God's dealings with us, for they vary.

43:24 The ways of the Spirit are like the wind, but we delight to publish abroad the virtues, the manifested glory of the love and mercy and power of God in Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners, to declare the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Well, that's the purpose for which God's made us what we are, that we might publish abroad the glories of who He is. Now, secondly, and much more briefly, I wanted to establish it firmly upon the text. Now, what factors should regulate our practice

Qualifying the Duty: Four Regulating Factors for Proclamation

44:06 with respect to this duty? Am I trying to whip up the troops so each of you will go back this afternoon, stand in the middle of your street, get up on a soapbox and say, I'm declaring the virtues! The virtues of God! Everyone listen!

44:23 Well, for some of you, nothing else would be a liberating experience for you. It might not hurt you. It might land you in the local police station, but it might do wonders for you, as street preaching did wonders for me as a young Christian. Four times a week on the street corner, facing all the guys I used to play football with, all of my classmates in high school knew me, and I became a marked man, and I thank God for that experience.

44:48 But I don't think that's what the text is saying. What are we to do? All of us be organized into teams, every member bang on doors, house to house? No, I don't believe that's what it's saying either.

45:01 We must take the duty that Scripture lays upon us and regulate the performance of that duty by the Word of God. And let me suggest there are four very basic principles that should guide us as we seek to fulfill the duty and perform the privilege activity, of declaring abroad the virtues, the glory, the worth, the manifested excellence of the God who has called us out of darkness into light. Here are the four things. Number one, your own peculiar spiritual gifts.

45:36 Your own peculiar spiritual gifts. Romans 12.3 says, Each of us is to make a sober assessment of his gifts. And generally speaking, generally speaking, spiritual gifts are a delicate, delicate combination of natural endowments, acquired skills, and divine grace.

45:58 Spiritual gifts are generally a delicate combination of natural endowments, acquired skills, and divine grace. And each of us must soberly assess what his gift is. Some of you, by divine gift, have an unusual facility of meeting total strangers and engaging them. I was fishing for a word, and the best one I could come up with was hooking up and locking in to the ability to make people feel at ease with you as a total stranger.

46:29 I've marveled at the gifts some of you have in that area, a gift I don't have. With certain kinds of strangers I have that gift, but with others, and there are some among us who have that gift to a degree I doubt I'll ever have it. And I admire and, in a sense, covet their gift, but it's a distinct and unique gift. I've been with them.

46:51 When with total strangers, they've been able to hook up and lock in in two or three minutes and earn the right to be addressing the central issues of the gospel with plainness and passion in a way which, if I did, I know I would have turned the people completely off. A peculiar gift. Some of you have a facility for writing. It's difficult for you to put your thoughts in words, but, oh, your heart can gush out all over paper and pen.

47:19 You have a peculiar facility, and in writing your deepest thoughts, some of you have a unique ability, a gift of hospitality. You can make strangers feel at ease in your home, and when you get them on their territory and get in one of these people who can lock in verbally, then you've got a good team, you see. You may have that gift of making a home feel so comfortable and inviting and everyone feels at ease. The minute they come through your front door, that's a gift.

47:49 It's a combination, you see, of natural endowment, acquired skills and divine grace. Now, I don't want to take all the time going the full spectrum. I've given you enough examples. Well, God wants you to fulfill this duty of telling forth His virtues in a manner consistent with your own peculiar spiritual gifts.

48:12 And because we all have gifts differing according to the grace that is given unto us, gifts at differing levels of cultivation, this is why as a church we don't organize the entire membership into teams of confrontational evangelists to go house to house. For some of you that would be a form of emotional and spiritual rape to force you into that activity. While there are others of you who have a peculiar gift and aptitude for that, and we want to give you a channel of expressing that. But God does not call you to do that.

48:51 He calls you to function in the duty of declaring forth the virtues of the God who's called you in a manner that runs contrary to your own peculiar spiritual gifts. Secondly, your own present station in life. Your own present station in life. For example, if you're a father, you know one of the ways in which you're to declare forth the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness.

49:20 Ephesians 6-4 gives you chapter and verse. Fathers, nurture your children in the chastening and admonition of the Lord. Any father who's not an evangelist to his children is delinquent in his duty. And I say pathetically, pathetically delinquent in the fulfillment of one of the highest privileges any mortal can have to evangelize his own children by divine mandate.

49:50 Fathers, nurture them. But you may be a child with unconverted parents, and you're to be submissive to them and honor them, and you're in that place where you're not free to bring your neighbors into the living room and start a Bible study because your station in life is such that as a child you're to honor your parents and you have no right to defy them even to fulfill. 1 Timothy 2-9, 1 Peter 2-9. Now, if they demanded you do something contrary to God's law, you'd have to defy them.

50:21 But God's law does not demand that you have a Bible study in their living room. And if they say no, it's no. So you see, we must look at our station. Am I a parent?

50:30 Am I a child? Am I in a place of leadership in my business? Is it right in my office in conjunction with my station in life to put some cryptic little saying on the wall that may precipitate conversations about the gospel? Well, if it's my office and the man over me has said, you can put anything you want in there, you can put anything you want on the wall short of defamation of the company, then I'm free to put cryptic little sayings.

50:59 Life now, what later? Question mark. You're free. Your station in life warrants it through this whole matter.

51:11 I give you a few examples to get your wheels going. That's all. Thirdly, your own providentially ordered circumstances. Your own providentially ordered circumstances.

51:24 It seems clear. From the early chapters of Acts that the major public proclamation went on by the Apostles. But in Acts 8, God scattered the church and the Apostles remained at Jerusalem. And it says they that were scattered abroad went everywhere proclaiming the word.

51:43 Now the word for preaching, proclaiming is not the word for official proclamation by a designated Herald. That's why some have translated it or paraphrased it, gossiping the gospel. I don't like the term because gossip is a sinful verbal activity. But they've tried to capture the concept that this was probably the rank and file of God's people who providentially scattered and taken away from their present spiritual leaders and the framework that they were used to.

52:15 God intensified the measure of gospel testimony. Just look at the Apostles themselves. Paul in one chapter is in the midst of multitudes preaching. A few days later, he's got his feet and his hands in stocks.

52:29 So with his companion Silas, what does he do? It says they were singing hymns and songs of praise at midnight. They were extolling the virtues of God. Even with their hands in the stocks, they couldn't be out in the street preaching.

52:42 So what did they do? They sang the praises of God in the jail. And God was so pleased, he sent an earthquake. He said, I like what's going on down there.

52:49 We'll shake things up a little bit. Because he had someone else who was part of that elect race. Right? He was in that jail.

52:57 And he was out to get his man. So he put two of his men in jail to get one of his men who was in jail out of the prison house of sin. And what did he use? Just some people telling forth the virtues of him who called them out of darkness into marvelous light.

53:13 In keeping with their providential circumstances. They weren't there cussing and chafing, saying, we've got to get out of here and preach! They just lay there with their hands in the stocks, singing songs of praise to God. Providential circumstances.

53:29 How many of you brothers committed to your God-given task? Does God expect of you the measure of verbal witness that he expects of that woman who in his providence is presently in the marketplace? Where people pass her day after day. The woman who on her block has a half a dozen young mothers.

53:50 Both sides of her within 50 yards this way and that way. They have a lot in common. Does God expect the same of that farmer's wife? out in the middle of acres and acres of land, the nearest house a half mile one way, two miles the other.

54:04 You see, you assess your providential circumstances in the fulfillment of this duty, and then you assess your own present measures of grace. Galatians 5.22, the fruit of the Spirit is love, and love is outgoing and enterprising, and we need to cry to God that we be full of love, the love that looks for ways to seize opportunities to speak of the virtues of the great and gracious God who's called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. This is why we must assess our own present measures of grace, and if we find, well, really, I don't care that people are going to hell all around me.

54:48 Tell God that. Say, Lord, my heart is a mass of carnal indifference. You move upon it so it'll be a heart like Paul's that has strength. It's a heart of sorrow and heaviness for those who are lost.

55:03 And so I lay before you those four simple factors that should govern your practice of telling forth the virtues of Him who's called you out of darkness, your own peculiar spiritual gifts, your own present station in life, your own providentially ordered circumstances, your own present measures of grace. And I noticed that I put in my notes, as an illustration, assignment of airline seats. I try always to pray, Lord, as I make my request for an aisle seat, non-smoking, if you've got someone you want me to speak to, you guide that computer that spits out my card.

55:46 Lord, if you know I need time to be quiet and read the Word, you spit out a card that gives me some empty seats next to me. See, I used to feel, if I did not aggressively go and find someone and grab, but it's a wonderful thing to believe God can guide. He can cause all the circuitry to do what it's supposed to do, that if He's got one there that I'm to speak to, God can put me next to Him. And some of the most wonderful opportunities I've ever had to declare the virtues of Him who called me out of darkness into marvelous light have come because God matched me up in the seat assignment computer.

56:22 And there are times when God's given me blessed quietness to be able to sit and read, and there are times when I didn't know whether I was in a plane or in heaven, God knew I needed time to be alone. You see, to be Christ's free man, on the one hand, not indifferent that there may be a needy soul who needs to hear and God has ordained that he should hear from my lips, but to know that if God is one of His sheep and it's not my witness that enters in to His purpose to save Him, I can relax in the will of God and enjoy communion with God over my Bible, or if my mind needs sheer mental relaxation, reading a sports illustration. Not the bathing suit edition. And I don't say that to be funny.

Personal Demands for Effective Witness

57:06 I say it to show how sickening it is. You can't even mention a sports magazine without having to qualify. Well, in closing, my third head and again more briefly, what personal demands does this make upon us? If God has called us as His people to show forth the virtues of Him who called us out of darkness into light, what demands does it make upon us?

57:33 Well, obviously, it makes this demand upon us so to live as to authenticate our witness. More harm comes to the cause of Christ when people with shoddy lives have blabbering mouths about the Gospel. We've had to hang our heads in shame in recent weeks. No more need be said.

58:00 That's why Peter says in chapter 3, verse 15, sanctify Christ always as Lord in your heart, being ready always to give to every man who asks you a reason of the hope that is in you. With meekness and fear, the implication is if Christ is continually sanctified as Lord, that is, if I'm living in the fear of God and in communion with Christ, my lifestyle will precipitate question for a convincing witness.

58:41 The reason some of you can't witness boldly in your life, in your place of work, is your shoddy life. You laugh at the dirty jokes when they go around instead of withdrawing yourself or openly objecting. You compromise on business ethics along with your companions. The reason you can't declare the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness is there's some question whether you belong to the holy nation, whether you're a people of God's possession, or whether you're still half the world's possession.

59:17 If we would fulfill this duty, dear people, we must have a lifestyle that authenticates our witness. Secondly, we must maintain vital communion with God so that our witness is fresh. It's not the stale mouthings of last week's communion with God. It is today's declaration of today's sight of the glory of Him who called me out of darkness into marvelous light.

59:52 And then thirdly, we must pray that God will give us grace to fulfill our duty because to our shame, though sitting here in a congregation, we say it's unthinkable that I would not readily and joyfully and spontaneously speak forth the virtues of the God who has saved me. We know to our shame that remaining sin so acts upon us as to make us guilty of sinful shame and sinful silence. And there's not a one of us who's been in the way any time at all who hasn't had to confess, Lord, you set the opportunity right in front of me. But it was my shame of you,

60:36 my fear of men, that ensnared my tongue. So we need to pray that God will give us grace to fulfill our duty. And then fourthly, we need to look for opportunities and seize them. We need judiciously to seek to make the opportunities and cultivate a skill in seeking to turn conversations so that we may declare not our sinful past or the details of our conversion necessarily, though there may be a place for the latter from time to time, but essentially and primarily declare the virtues of Him who has called us out of darkness

61:19 into marvelous light. Well, dear people, that's our great privilege and duty with regard to those that are without. Authentication, proclamation. What happens when you have a church that is proclamation with no authentication?

The Danger of Imbalance: Proclamation and Authentication

61:38 Well, you have blasphemy and cynicism. When people who sit here this morning for the first time hearing something of the gospel get up at the end of the service and mingle among you, God's people, there ought to be an undeniable authentication that Christ is precious to those who believe that we are indeed a holy nation. We are indeed a people who are God's unique possession. And when there is proclamation without authentication, blasphemy and cynicism result.

62:09 And when there is apparent authentication without proclamation, though I doubt the condition can truly exist, apparent authentication without proclamation, there is a grieved spirit and horrible stagnation. The Dead Sea is what it is because there is no outlet. There is no outlet. And the people who are concerned about authenticating the gospel but indifferent to its proclamation become a people stagnant and ingrown.

62:40 And when that happens, all kinds of carnality breed and break forth with a horrible stench not only in the nostrils of God, but in the nostrils of men. May the Lord be pleased to make us by His grace in the days to come a people who will experience as never before the outworking of our grave privileges and responsibilities as a congregation, authenticating the message that is preached and proclaiming it in the ways of God's appointment. Let us pray. Our Father,

Closing Prayer: A Renewed Sense of Privilege and Commitment to Duty

63:25 we marvel that You would give to us whose lips once spoke in horrible ways of You, some of us who constantly had Your name upon our lips in profanity, others perhaps even blasphemy, all of us lips that spoke enthusiastically of many things but never of You. We thank You that You've given to us who once were no people, who once were lost and in darkness, the unspeakable privilege of declaring abroad,

64:04 publishing forth Your excellencies to those around us. Oh, fill us with a renewed sense of our privilege and give us a renewed commitment to our duty and grant us the power of the Spirit resting upon us and the virtue and grace of Christ working in us to will and to work, that which is well pleasing in Your sight. Be with those who are yet in darkness. We pray that You'd own the proclamation of Your word to be the very instrument of calling them out of darkness and into Your marvelous light.

64:45 Seal then Your word to our hearts, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.