Calvinism: Its Implications to the Ministry

Introduction: The Interrelation of Theology and Ministry

0:04 As I mentioned this morning, it's not necessary to give any extended review when one has a captive audience, and I hardly know how to preach without reviewing. I find I have to exercise great discipline in just moving into fresh material when it's so necessary, and I hope that you will never forget this, regardless of what the homileticians have said, that one sermon should never carry over into another. We see evidence in the life of our Lord and his teaching, the prophets, the apostles, and the great preachers of the past that they were not afraid to repeat themselves in order to press home basic, necessary truths to the people of God.

0:46 We have been attempting to give a broad overview of Calvinism or Reformed thinking, particularly as it relates to the subject of God's saving work, the theologically-informed field of God. This morning, we considered the implications in one's practice, personal life, of this view of the majesty and sovereignty of God, and then something of the implications on one's own personal life when he embraces the biblical teaching concerning the truth that God saves sinners.

1:27 This afternoon, the field of our, upon the implications of Reformed or Calvinistic thinking, upon the Christian ministry, again let me repeat, not in any way, boxing up a man's life and his ministry into two exclusive categories. The life of the ministry is the life of the minister, and these two are interrelated, but for the sake of study and understanding these matters, we must separate them in our thinking, even though they overlap in practical experience.

2:10 May we look to God in prayer for his help upon our study together, that once again we might consciously recognize our, utter dependence upon thee. We confess that we are so slow to learn what it is to truly trust thee, and to constantly repudiate the arm of flesh,

2:39 and to acknowledge that apart from the assistance of thy spirit, both in proclamation and in reception, the time we spend together will be in vain. For without thee we can do nothing. We acknowledge this and consciously turn to thee, that thou will be our help. We plead thy promise before thee.

3:02 Blessed is the man whose trust is in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. Meet our waiting that one's ministry into life and practice of his theology. Emphasize that at the very outset of our study this afternoon,

3:47 that theology and one's true theology is reflected methodology. There are some who seem to be able to hold positions theoretically, which are completely denied in their methodology. Well, in reality then, their real theology is that which shapes and molds and determines their methodology. The other theology may be called their shelf theology, but their real practical blood and guts theology is the thing that shapes methodology of the man or woman considered.

The Message: Content and Manner of Delivery

4:31 Will you consider with me the implications then of thinking in one's life and ministry in terms of the message, the methods that are employed, the motives, and the methods that are used in the Christian ministry, as it touches the matter of our message, first of all, as to the content or substance of the message, and then secondly,

5:16 as to the manner in which we deliver that message, as to the outset that there is nothing more vital in the Christian ministry, not only for pastors and preachers and evangelists and missionaries, but for mothers, Sunday school teachers, and all who minister in one way or another, than the content of the message, communication, In a day that focuses much attention upon methods and forms and technique, we need to remind ourselves that the content of the message is the all-important issue. And generally, where there is failure in the method and form and means of communication,

6:00 it is because there has been an erosion in the realm of the content of the message. When we deal with symptoms instead of causes, and where there is weak preaching and ineffective teaching, we so often focus upon methods to help shore up the teaching and preaching as far as the actual art of communication, when the real problem lies in the fact that people have failed to come to grips with the content of divine truth, which has an inbuilt power to produce a natural eloquence and authority. 1 Thessalonians 2.

6:40 2 and verse 4, we have the Apostle's concept of the message of God coming to him as a trust from the living God. First chapter of 1 Thessalonians is Paul's paragraph of praise to God for his mighty work in converting sinners at Thessalonica, and then in establishing them into a virile, useful apostle, vindicates his ministry and the ministry of his associates, and in so doing, gives them the power to preach the gospel. 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 4, we have the Apostle's concept of the message of God coming to him as a trust from the living God. First chapter of 1 Thessalonians gives us the marks of a true minister and of a God-owned ministry.

7:23 He contented his message in verse 4, but as we were allowed, or better translated, approved of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak not his pleasing men, but God who trieth our heart. He said God approved us, trust us with the gospel. In other words, there is a body of truth which God himself has shaped. and molded. And he commits that body of truth to me as an apostle, Paul says, that I might

8:03 preserve that body of truth and that I might proclaim it. He says in another place, I am set for the defense and the proclamation of the gospel. And so vital is that gospel in its content. Thus, in his letter to the church of Galatia, the most scathing denunciation of anyone who would in any way tamper with that content. For he says in those verses,

8:32 though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. He reaches into the grab bag of Greek vocabulary and drags out the strongest word he can use, let him be anathema. And it's as though someone said, now Paul, you've just been a little bit heated and your rational powers have been suspended under the pressure of emotion. You really didn't mean that, did you? And he says, as I said before, so say I again.

9:03 If anyone preach any other gospel, let him be anathema. Let him be accursed. The context to which he is speaking the gospel, it was just the plot sign that they put after the gospel and added a little bit. And the apostle says, if anyone takes this gospel and puts a lump of the body of human thinking on it, let him be accursed. Takes the knife of human

9:32 rational philosophy. And thinking and just whacks a little piece off of it. If he touches the form of that gospel in any way, in addition or subtraction, let him be accursed. Because the gospel, with all its saving benefits, when it is received as a missionary, was to discharge this trust

10:09 from God, the gospel as it came to him. And in its promise, I submit to you that the things that have been nicknamed Calvin, the biblical truth, the biblical truth, the biblical truth, the biblical truth, the biblical truth, the biblical truth, the biblical truth, the biblical truth, the biblical truth, the biblical truth concerning the true proof, concerning the true position of God as the enthroned one, sovereign in every realm of nature and of grace, these are not contraband goods to be hidden away in the back shelves and under the counter, only to be sneaked out upon request.

10:49 Like the literature in some of our stores, the right people know where it is, and when they requested it sneak. That is the way, I am surprised, some people I know say they espouse these things. I was talking to someone on the street when it ended, you know, they steps after the morning session, and they talked with a well-known evangelical leader about these concepts of biblical truth, and he said, I believe all of that, but that's for the study. When it comes to the grassroots of the ministry, we must not touch upon such high themes, lest we upset and disturb just common ordinary Christians. Under Calvinistic

11:31 thinking as touching our message, these elements of truth come as a trust from God, not to be hidden away as contraband goods, but to be set out as front-window display goods.

11:47 He can be well heard. Get thee up unto a high cities of Judah. What? He has lifted up thy

12:23 voice with strength. Get up, be not afraid. Behold, in his transcended majesty, the ascension, the God who will come is judged, the God who holds the tender lambs in his bosom. I submit to you that the implication, as far as the content of our message is, is that we are not to be hidden away as contraband goods, but to be set out as front-window display goods.

12:53 We will proclaim these things in an unembarrassed, positive, that men might know the mind of God concerning their salvation, concerning his truth, concerning this matter. Such thing is preaching Christ and him crucified, unless we preach what is nowadays called Calvinism.

13:25 Calvinism? Calvinism is the gospel and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel unless we preach the sovereignty of God in his dispensation of grace. Nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah.

13:44 Nor do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of his elect and chosen people, which Christ wrought out upon the cross. Nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall in our generation and preach and teach in an unembarrassed way the doctrine of an offended God. The holy law of God. So that men view sin not in terms of felt need primarily or psychological

14:28 terminology, but they see sin as scripture sets it before us. Anarchy against the sovereign God. So that we don't come to men as is so popular in our day with a preachment of the general love of God and tell men as a first truth God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives. No, we tell them God made them. We tell them that God made them. We

14:51 tell them that God made you. And you were made to live to his praise and you have wickedly offended him and he could dispose of you justly and cast you into the pit of burning and you couldn't twitch a pinky.

15:10 Let us dare to proclaim an impotent creature who by his own sin has brought himself to a state of bondage where he has not only forfeited all claims to God's favor, but he has enmeshed himself in the tentacles of sin in such a way that he is helpless to deliver himself. To proclaim distinguishing grace that God said his heart must dare to cope with equal force. The first part of John 6, 37 as well as the last. The circles where we heard from

15:48 childhood. Him that cometh unto me. Parts of the verse are these. The Father giveth me shall come. Him that cometh unto me. I will in no wise cast. Churchly dishonest to

16:07 preach the sure offer of mercy without saying all that the Father giveth me. There is an electing love. There is an electing love. There is an electing love. There is an electing

16:15 love. There is an electing love. There is an electing love. There is an electing love.

16:16 They shall come to me. There is an efficacious grace. That's why an Arminian path to the door and then shut yourself in and had God put a calvinistic padlock concept in our day. Free will gets through the path and into it. Then free grace shuts the door and locks

16:44 you in. Oh no. If you want an Arminian path to the door, you've got to stick with a door that has no padlock on it. He locks the man in is because free you of the pathway. They

17:11 shall be received.

17:26 men and women and fellows and girls, and wound them with the threats and wound them with the promises. And by God's grace, sometimes have pled with them with tears. And there they sit like bumps on a log.

17:56 How coercing their will to get them to decide for Jesus. I'd quit. I've tried everything. I can go into that pulpit Sunday morning in all the expectation that this might be the day.

18:16 We'll be shaken up.

18:24 There's a mere theoretical flight.

18:29 Whether or not I go into that pulpit with expectancy, I'll run from it in disgust. And when these two open into the work and roof of your message, not as the contraband goods, but stones will not be there. Such a message, shaped and molded and framed by these biblical concepts, will be like the cool breath of celestial wind amidst the arid air of humanism and the man-centeredness of our day. We'll be done with our little peach-beating sermonizing delivered by young theologues who tremble lest they might say something

19:11 which is an intervarsity. ...groups to come and speak at a retreat.

19:20 And then they say, I say, now, you've got any idea what you'd like for a theme? And they say, well, Mr. Martin, just so you have something relevant. And you know I've had to consciously resist the gist to say something like this.

19:33 Well, you know it's a shame you said that because you know what I was hoping you'd let me speak on? I've been doing a little research. Speak on what the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal about King Josiah's reasons for using olive oil in his foot baths. ...had to resist the terrorists.

20:08 Or to say, I'm very interested in the Puritans, and I've just discovered why Jonathan Edwards wore a wig. To digest our food, to help digest the principle. You know what's behind that fear of many of these students? Is that they've been brought up in the gospel that has so little inherent weight and glory and power the only way they feel they'll get a hearing about the latest, the contemporaries

20:48 with these glorious truths of an enthroned God who will be thought an obscurant

21:26 to even introduce it into a service with an unsheltoned Edwards and McShane often in delight that feel they've got to be so contemporaneous that they're shot through with a mere parroting of one

22:09 in the sea of our own generation. They won't be worth anything ten months from now if they're worth anything now. But you can pick up McShane and Edwards and Calvin and Spurgeon and read them with tremendous profit why their message had this substantial content of these glorious truths permeating the warmth and warmth of the entire world. I preach.

23:05 Men said, and I'm paraphrasing, stood aside while you older gents talked for I figured it's only good sense for young men to be quiet when old men speak and that is good sense in spite of the opinion of our present generation that because we've got two years of college under our belt we're warranted to talk down anybody who's over 30 is part of the whole spirit of anarchy and I trust you're not infected with it. The scripture warns us to listen to the hoary head and its rebellion against the precepts of God if we do not give the benefit of the doubt to the hoary head. And I'm concerned that this spirit has worked its way over into our Christian service.

23:51 Somebody who's been down the road a little bit further than you and I just may know a few things we don't know. The answer to these men is they're over I better shut up and listen. And so he listened and he analyzed but he didn't listen in an unthinking way he evaluated.

24:25 He said, gentlemen, if I may not be impudent in speech I can't be silent any longer he said, my heart, is like a wineskin into which new wine has been poured and it's about to to their ends with his assessment of what the great need in Christendom is and he listens and he evaluates has been fed upon these glorious truths

25:07 the agony of reading Time magazine from cover to cover and another regular news week out of the newspaper I'm not talking about being an obscurantist but I'm saying that the implication of reformed thinking to the message of the ministry is that this will be the dominating shaping influence

25:51 and though there may be reference and analogy and application to contemporary situations you will not feel that you have got to be always speaking on the wavelength of the latest thought that is drifting across the scene you have been an instrument to plant these will shine as monuments to the grace of God for time these truths will affect not only the content of your message but the manner of its delivery. And now I...

The Manner of Delivery: Natural Eloquence and Directness

26:29 I urge you young men who feel God's hand may be upon you for the ministry to listen I ask you to listen and evaluate it in the light of scripture we believe that scripture is a sufficient as well as the only rule of faith and practice and I believe it has something to say about training men for the ministry practical effect as to the manner of our delivery in that they will give a natural eloquence to the man who

27:13 has received them as warm living truth by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is a natural eloquence expressed by a man whose heart and mind are pregnant with an overpowering truth. Repeat that there is a natural eloquence expressed by a man whose heart and mind are pregnant with an overpowering truth. Turn to Jeremiah for a moment helped me in seeking to be a proper frame of mind to preach

27:50 he was known of God in its biblical sense to be known of God extinguishing purpose forth out of the womb. I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet to the nations.

28:24 Jeremiah reads chapter four years convincing you by all the present arts of communication and the science graphic in words Jeremiah quite an effective man out of you so don't let your inexperience or your immaturity trouble you I've got just the

29:09 and he said Jeremiah you've missed primarily looking for a man of illusional gifts or of great experience if you're to be my prophet here's the basic issue notice the Lord said unto me say not I am a child for to all that I send thee be not of great interest for I am with thee saith the Lord what is God saying to this prophet Jeremiah the issue is not whether or not

29:53 you've got the know-how to preach the issue is this if in obedience to my call you stand in the place of my appointment with the word of my choosing in the consciousness of my presence you'll be a prophet.

30:09 wanting with all their hearts to be in the place of God he has given until it becomes not well-arranged mental furniture but the living substance

30:54 of the inner life I absorbed them they became part of the fingernails of spiritual existence of the flesh and blood of God and he's covering your gifts your light in the community of the saints of God I believe it so strongly that I've encouraged the church to take the action which it recently took in calling a church to be a church in calling a church to be a church in calling a church a young man on an apprenticeship basis cultivate his gift

31:39 and to more clearly discern what they are that before he goes out into the ministry and blesses or curses a church he might have a church with its eldership that recognized his call agree in that wholeheartedly I'm not talking about an I, me and nobody else subjectivism that if I feel called to preach all you lucky people here I come I am not speaking of that granted the whole aspect of the gift coming to life in the midst of the community and all of these aspects which Mr. Clowney deals so thoroughly with in his book the call to the ministry if you don't have it please get it and read it I give it out to all the young men that I have a privilege any privilege to work with in this area but having said all of that

32:23 and putting it in that context I still submit that the principles upon which God dealt with Jeremiah are the principles upon which God still makes a preacher in the place of God's appointment with the word of his word by choosing in the consciousness of his presence it is this that will give a natural eloquence I have never yet standing in a strategic place who was alert to impending danger who did not find it in his heart to have a natural eloquence to plead with loved ones to escape the burning house or to move away from the oncoming train why? because they stood in a place of danger

33:06 confident that they perceived danger and words came and words flowed that we import all of the latest insights of the arts of communication and impose them upon young men that aspect has not been learned where the truth of God has not been burned into the spirit urged again and again to cultivate the consciousness of the presence of God as they preach

33:42 something less than preaching you ought to tell them and if he's got nervous habits you ought to correct them sure we need help in some of these things I again submit and stick by the principle that we must not see preachers produced in our generation until these grand glorious begin to make hearts that will produce a natural eloquence but they will also produce

34:24 a natural directness to his hearers he's not going to be content to shoot over their heads he's going to want to aim straight at their hearts that the people before him must see that they are depraved or they will never flee to Christ and then he's going to roll up his sleeves and go to work to see how under God with the scriptures and the enablement of the spirit he can convince his hearers they are depraved that depravity is not just a theological term it's a stark naked reality and he'll go to work let a man be convinced that men must see the supremacy of God and he will go at it with analogy and simile and metaphor

35:08 anecdote and illustration until his end is realized go to the man who is consumed with a passion to do people good what greater good can be done than to convey to men these glorious truths of God and that is what God will produce on his throne who Christ is a victorious savior what salvation is the mighty exertion of the power of God to rescue sin God will produce not only a natural eloquence but a natural directness we want to know that he's not merely

35:53 saying good things in the hearing of people but he's saying necessary things to the hearts read the sermons of McShane read the sermons of Whitfield read the sermons of Edwards read the sermons of the great Calvinistic creatures of the past and they have this without exception a directness reading them 300 years after they were written or 200 years you feel that somehow that message is weeping out of the page and nailing it to the wall don't you get this when you read them you don't just read them and say well isn't that nice you knew that they were aiming at the hearts why because they had

36:37 great truths which they knew must be conveyed concerning the great God and the great Savior symmetry trying to give them one big glob of truth and hoping to hang it on the end of their nose like a Christmas ball structure it and give pegs to hang it upon I submit that if your sermon is good for publication it isn't worth preaching

37:21 to a popular audience just as you delivered it would look good for publication it isn't fit for a popular audience I'm driving at this in delivering a message from the word of God to the hearts of men seeking to sense be sensitive to whether or not there's that interaction and perception you will deliberately repeat yourself you'll pick up the theme and when you move to one heading go back over the other recognizing that the human mind is so constructed that it can't retain all that is said but by repetition certain main thoughts can be driven home and you won't deny the God of creation

38:06 by forgetting that when you preach you'll honor him and you believe that the God who's ordained the end has ordained the means and though men are born again by the word of truth to the sovereign purpose of God James 1.18 that sovereign purpose does not bypass the natural laws of the mind and you will find again that the great Calvinistic priests recognize this principle and their sermons have order and structure and again and again are shot through with questions that force the hearers to reckon with the truth they were communicating well so much then for how these truths in a general way will affect the message

The Methods of Ministry: Church-Based and Preaching/Prayer Centered

38:50 both to its content and the manner of delivery now I want to get into the area of methods what will the doctrine of an enthroned God then an almighty savior do to our methods the regulative principle the word of God is the only and sufficient rule of faith and of wagon and the goods in it but it tells you the kind of horse that ought to draw the wagon today you say well if you've got the wagon of right theology and the right goods

39:35 of Christian doctrine it doesn't matter what horse and the wagon and horse and the goods in the wagon ought to be scriptural goods and scriptural wagon and scriptural I suggest method by which these glorious truths be communicated according to the word of God are one church based church directed activity and number two within the framework of the church preaching and praying will have absolute prominent activity in first Timothy chapter three and verse fifteen

40:20 thou mayest not behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God the pillar and the crown of the church of God in the sense of the church universal no in its context it is the church of the living God the pillar and the crown of the church of God in the sense of the church the day the coming of the last day the day of the

41:04 coming of the light and the of the end of the beginning of the new day so we continue the days as the earth of God and the in the church of the living God, those local assemblies duly constituted with office bearers. And that church, he says, is the pillar and the ground of the truth. It is both the foundation and the lolly columns.

41:46 And I break up the foundation, the slab upon which your house is built, and I knock out all the lolly columns, those metal columns that go and support the main structural... Your house is built by the church, for the church is called the pillar and the ground of the truth.

42:08 This gives no place to the lie of Rome that she is the mother of the Bible and the mother of truth, and can therefore shape and mold and discipline truth, for that very church is the spirit of truth, it stands under the judgment of truth, but in this aspect by the church.

42:37 ...repute in our day, and some of you young men have gotten rather...

42:43 ...disgraceful.

42:43 You see those old saints, and you hear what's going on in little group movements, and faith in action and all the rest, and you're tempted to say, well, maybe the answer's out there. I submit the answer. The sovereign God upon the throne, in the administration of His purposes, through Jesus Christ, has constituted the church as the pillar and ground of the truth.

43:26 You and I better settle it, that if we are to find a scriptural expression of these glorious truths of our Reformed heritage, biblical truths, it must be from a church-based, church-directed, meshed in extra-church methods and means of communicating the message, at the expense of building them into confrontation with the truth.

44:00 ...unborn generation of what we would call paid ministry.

44:24 The apostles are not to be encumbered even with serving the tables of widows, for they must give them to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. ...of the Gospel.

44:36 ...of the Gospel.

44:37 ...of the Gospel.

44:39 ...of the Gospel.

44:40 ...of the Gospel.

44:41 ...of the Gospel.

44:42 ...of the Gospel.

44:43 ...of the Gospel.

44:44 ...of the Gospel.

44:45 ...of the Gospel.

44:46 ...of the Gospel.

44:47 Preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel, and they are the elders, according to 1 Timothy 5.17, who labor in the Word and in doctrine. And again, we fall into the day when preaching has come under a terrible attack, as though preaching is passe. Who's going to come and listen to someone spill out his thoughts for 20 minutes or half an hour Sunday by Sunday?

45:04 And we've lived in a day that despises the office of a preacher. office of a preacher and the ministry. I want to remind you of several passages in the book of the Acts to show the supremacy of preaching in the saving purposes of God. In Acts chapter 15, we have the record, counsel at Jerusalem, to give to the controversy. In verse 7, we

45:43 have a very interesting observation. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth and belief, that the Gentiles by my hands should see the gospel demonstrated in active social concern and be one to Christ. He did not say that by my life men might see an adornment of the gospel and have their appetites wedded

46:24 to be saved. He said God made choice that by this instrument of verbal communication his eternal life. Not saving purposes as extending to the Gentiles might be realized. He made choice that by my mouth. Assisting that your life better amen your mouth and your hand better amen your

46:50 mouth. To say a man to a man that God is concerned about him and not to demonstrate it where necessary is a contradiction. To say the gospel is a powerful gospel and not to demonstrate the power in life is a contradiction. Agree. But notice the price.

47:10 Not only shall God cause discipliment to be successful in His face but also will forbiden egotism,aming of Christ, and the death of all that befall a man should not be successful in that measure. ermeans will cause silicide to be difficult to be ибulatory while he Аllinging His infirmities by Hisistle and that of his nerve sakes will make His saviour be unjust and will be aimed at reason and the ripeness of the질s, saying at that very moment that I am not a living man. He did not say that throughout his life the spiritual justice had no clinicians that

47:50 now knew to serve God andãw Nicodemus. The disciples of the Lord of the side just mentioned the wykor exams, the epitLANہ t늦ls, to understand reason, the placing or to answer the task of the various antonyms. to Paul in the night. Now notice what the vision was. There stood a man of Macedonia

48:11 and prayed him, saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us in this problem or that. Just come over and help us. Here's the vision. A man probably standing with arms outstretched and for some reason Paul recognized him as a Macedonian and out of his mouth came the words, Come. That kind of a vision. Well, notice the conclusion. After he had seen the

48:45 vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach. We had grieved. This was the day of the Roman Empire. A lot of slaves being treated in ways they shouldn't be. A lot of social and economic problems.

49:14 This primary ministry without a priest. In 2021, he testified to Jews in grief, to repentance toward God, faith toward God, to the building up of the saints.

49:57 I must say, it's to be interpersonal relationships. It's to be group therapy. It's to be this or it's to be that. I object. The teaching of scripture is that preaching is to have

50:12 the primary place in the building up of the saints. When we read in Ephesians 4 the particular gifts of the ascended Christ, apostles, pastors and teachers for the purpose of the saints, what do they all have in common? Apostles, prophets, evangelists. Pastors, teachers, coaches. They all have a message. They are distinctly qualified to

50:43 communicate a message for the perfecting of the saints. And further on in that fourth chapter he says, but speaking the truth in love may grow up unto him in all things who is the head. The apostle Paul has given some of the things that the saints there in Asia Minor need to know. And then he tells Timothy, having given the content, he says in 1 Timothy 4.11,

51:12 And teach. Sit down and draw them out by the non-directed method of counseling. I spend hours in it. Here again with an answer that says, preach. It's all new in a general preaching

51:36 that is thoroughly biblical and closely applicatory. We're solving a hundred problems that will never need to come to the council or the counseling. Only that God is again and again in our own situations need counseling granted. The pastor knows this, but I'm speaking now of the primacy of the place.

52:04 I'm speaking now of preaching, both in evangelism and in the building up of the saints of God. Then I said in the second place within the church, not only preaching, a man who believes that only God can give life is the man who will be found on his knees pleading with that God to grant life. You see, if an Arminian doesn't pray, he's only being consistent with his theology. He'll do everything in his power to put enough pressure so there will be moral suasion to get the man to make a decision, right?

52:40 He must, as it were, vote for Christ before Christ will save him. So anything you can do to put pressure, psychological, emotional, anything, get him over that to where he raises his hand for Jesus, no amount of psychological pressure, moral suasion will bring a man over the hump. God must, if we really believe that, what are we going to do? We're going to give him the seed of divine truth. Never going to be found pleading with that God that he might

53:11 be pleased to make the seed germinate. The apostle says, we must give, he said, we must give our lives to the Lord. We must give our lives to the Lord. We must give our lives to the Lord. We must give our lives to the Lord. We must give our

53:18 lives to the Lord. We must give our lives to the Lord. We must give our lives to the Lord. We must give our lives to the Lord.

53:20 We must give our lives to the Lord. We must give our lives to God. We must give ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Listen to the words of Charles Bridges as he touches this very matter of the minister as a preaching praying man.

53:32 The preacher, therefore, is that he gives himself. On this account some inferior brethren are more honored than others of more talent than Oliver, from whom this resurrection issue would be다가ul by the adopting of his own femal И. Sermons obtained cheaply by meditation and prayer are weighty and powerful, while those of a far higher intellectual character like yourselves,wavely become people of their sound. by the neglect of prayer, are unblessed.

53:58 It is therefore upon good grounds that the most eminent servants of God have given the preeminence to this part of pulpit.

54:09 Massalon says, The minister who does not habituate himself to devout prayer will speak only to the ears of his people, because the Spirit of God, who alone knows how to speak to the heart, and who, through this neglect of prayer, not having taken up his abode within him, will not speak by his mouth. And then he goes on to say, We must not forget the work of subsequent as well as preparatory prayer. You see, prayer before the sermon may be mixed with many kinds of impure motives. I don't want to fail.

54:42 I don't want to be a flop. But the real proof of my conviction that only God can quicken sinners and edify the saints is that after I've delivered my soul, I go back to the closet and ask God to bless that seed. What farmer ever took his vacation in the springtime after he plowed and sowed his seed?

55:09 Fertilization. Watching over the crop. Then after the harvest is in, he might take a week or two. Someone will come and milk his cows to go down the clock.

55:22 Praying up a storm prior to our preaching, but not pleading with God subsequently.

55:29 We see that God alone can bring light.

55:35 Owen reminds us, according to John Owen, to preach the word and not to follow it with prayer constantly and frequently is to believe its use,

55:45 neglect its end, so I submit that we extend in many directions the basic method that God has ordained is church-based, church-directed activity in which preaching and teaching of the word of God is the primary place both in evangelism and in the edification.

The Motivation for Ministry: God-Centered, Not Man-Pleasing

56:19 Now, in the last place, I'd like to touch on how these rules will affect the ministry in the realm of motivation. It's at the center of your thinking. His happiness, his needs, then you become a slave to man's reactions to your message.

56:40 If man is at the center of your theology, his needs,

56:46 his happiness, then you will become a slave to his reactions at the center of your message. Then the motivation will be I have a trust from God to deliver on behalf of God and I will do so as a man or woman accountable to God. Therefore, God at the center of the thinking in theology means that God is at the center in the realm of Thessalonians 2 for a beautiful example of how this works out in practical experience in the life of a preacher. It's stated, as we read earlier, that his concept was

57:30 that he received the gospel as a trust from God. Will you notice carefully how he enlarges on this in the latter part of verse 4 and on into verses 5 and 6. 1 Thessalonians 2 Even so we speak, not as preachers, as pleasing men, but God who trieth our hearts for. Now he's amplifying this thought.

57:54 We didn't speak as men-pleasers, but as God-pleasers for. Neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness, nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. He gives these three negatives. He said, We spoke as those who were seeking to please God, not as men who use flattering.

58:25 Now when you flatter someone, why do you flatter them? Well, you have an ulterior motive. You heap insincere or excessive praise upon a man to get something from him. You want his approval or his money or something else.

58:39 Now Paul says a cloak of covetousness. That is, our motive in the ministry was not using the pulpit or the platform of preachment as a means of praise. It was not a means to gain things, nor of men sought we glory. We weren't seeking the praise of men.

58:56 Now what is the common denominator in all of these three things? Blessedness and vain glory. Well, in all three, the man who ministers in a way that is governed by those motives is looking at people as a means to his own end. He looks upon them in such a way that he wants to get something from them by flattery, some goods from them, through this covetous spirit.

59:28 Paul says, no, we were so absorbed in this consciousness that we have a message as a trust from God and must deliver it as men accountable to God that we were only delivered from these impure motives.

59:47 This is one of the greatest elements. When a man is freed from the praise of goods and the adulation of those to whom he's ministering, he is God's free man to speak the message of God. You're never free. You're never free to be a blessing to men unless you're free from the frowns and smiles of men.

60:15 The smiles will open them. You're in bondage. You see, when one preaches, there are only two eyes that really matter. There may be 10,000 eyes looking here, but there are only two eyes that matter.

60:36 Isn't that what he says here? Even so, speak not as with the 10,000 eyes that look at us, but as pleasing God through triumph. And so, the natural tendency of a God-centered theology should be to make us God-centered in our motivation. And that has tremendous practical implications.

61:02 We'll never pare down the message for the preachment of grace that is sovereign in grace that is applied with power. We're not going to preach a cheap grace. We're not going to, as it were, drag our Lord from the throne and huckster Him off on something other than biblical terms. No.

61:27 Confidence is that the God of grace will yet rise up and vindicate the cause of His.

61:39 We'll not be in terms of what we can get from men, but what we must deliver to men in the name of God as those. I often think of the contrary. I read some of the religious periodicals

62:23 that such and such evangelists came to the city and the mayor met him and gave him the key of the city. The only keys Paul ever saw were the keys to the local uskal. And he was usually on the wrong side of those keys. And so he's been booted out of the city.

62:38 He got to Philippi and got his feet down in Thessalonica and booted out of Thessalonica and from place to place. And after a while this gets to a man. So he comes to Corinth and he experiences some opposition there. And God wants to encourage him.

62:57 And so the Lord comes to him in a vision by the night. Acts 18 and verse 9. Visions don't fit in to the theology of some, but Paul had any. ...to Paul in the night

63:16 by a vision. Be not afraid, but speak and hold not the...

63:24 And no man shall need to hurt thee much people.

63:34 Continue there a year by giving him a refresher course in the doctrines of grace.

63:50 I've got much people. They're mine by eternal purpose. They're some of those other sheep I already have that I must...

63:58 All I'm going to bring them is you stick by the simple method that I've ordained. Teaching. Continue there a year and six months.

64:13 And what stabilized him? This deconviction.

64:21 And pledge his presence to save a people he's told me that he has. He has them.

64:30 Preach the gospel in confidence that he will call them.

Conclusion: A Call to God-Centered Ministry

65:05 I have wondered if it's possible to go out in a man-centered age and preach your doctrines better day. I've been privileged to go and I found the same thing in the British Isles. The Lord is resurrecting out of the rubble of neglect and misunderstanding and bringing up a generation of young men. Those discontentances that I've preached at in the past year and a half, the mean age has been in the early 30s

65:50 of young men into whose heart the truth of a sovereign God and a Savior who saves these people perfectly. May God grant that he shall add to the ranks from you young men and you wives and aspiring wives. Don't think that this is non-essential for you for as you understand the theology that's gripped your husband, you'll be able to prayerfully and at times tearfully stand with him seeking by the grace of God to serve this generation and leave a heritage to an unborn generation.

66:35 He's to use these considerations to that end and I'm sure in the day of Christ they will be found in some measure not in vain.