Gospel in Words Only

Prayer for Dependence and Illumination

0:01 May we pause again for a moment of prayer that unitedly we might confess our dependence upon God the Spirit and beseech his aid as we look into the scriptures together.

0:18 O Lord our God, once again we would pause to consciously acknowledge our helplessness and our utter need and dependence upon the ministry of your Spirit. You have told us in your word, Cursed be he that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord.

0:42 You have declared to us that apart from you we can do nothing,

0:47 and we confess with shame how painfully slow we are to unlearn the ways of creature confidence.

0:57 O our God, to the extent that it can be to the glory of your name, to the good of men and women who are not savingly joined to your Son, and to the blessing of your Son, and to the blessing of your Son, to the blessing and edifying of those who are your own, grant to your servant liberty in the utterance of your truth, grant to hearers that illumination that comes by the present ministry of the Spirit. Find the powers of darkness and all the subtle workings of the enemy of our souls as we come in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, hear our cry and answer, Amen. I would invite you to pray. I would invite you to turn with me to the passage that was read for our scripture reading tonight, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.

The Gospel in Power: Evidence of Election

2:03 I shall read verses 2 through the first part of verse 5. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of you. In the sight of God and our Father. Knowing, brethren beloved, or perhaps the of God should be there, knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance.

2:54 As the Apostle writes to this people at Thessalonica, a relatively new, new church, an infant church, he introduces his letter as he does so many other of his letters by recounting his continual thankfulness to God for this people on whose behalf he continually supplicates and now to whom he writes. And as he declares to them the things for which he is thankful, he mentions their work of faith, their labor of love and their patience of hope. And he says in the midst of this, he is, he is assured and he is confident that they are indeed the elect of God. That this body of believers who are assembled together at Thessalonica, a called out group, are indeed part of those whom God has had on his heart from all eternity. And so he says in verse four, knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. Now what was it that convinced the Apostle that they were the elect of God? What was it that became to him solid evidence and sound indication that these were indeed God's chosen people, those whom he marked out in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world?

4:18 Let me say at the outset, it was not because they believed or disbelieved the doctrine of election. He doesn't say knowing, brethren beloved your election because you believe the doctrine of election. Now, apparently they did, they did believe it. He mentions it again in his second letter and said God is to be thanked that he chose you from the beginning to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.

4:46 But the fact that they believed in this doctrine of election was no proof to Paul that they were the elect of God. Nor is there any indication that they were particularly free in their talk about the doctrine and this made an impression on the Apostle. And he said, why, since you talk so much, so often about this doctrine, then you must be the ones included in this marvelous truth of those whom God has set apart for himself. Nor was it because they were particularly convinced that they were the elect.

5:17 No, he said, brethren, I'm convinced of your election of God because of the visible evidence of that election. Notice knowing brethren beloved your election of God for says, the reason I'm convinced. I'm convinced of your election is that I see the manifestation of the secret purpose of election in the obvious effectual call of God drawing you into fellowship with himself and producing in you and through you those fruits which only God produces by the spirit through the effectual call accordance with his eternal purpose of electing grace. Paul is pointing out. That's right. reference, the truth that the purposes of election are hidden in the heart of God. They

6:19 are known only to God. And those secret purposes of election only become visible in the effectual call of the gospel. We find those two things joined together beautifully in Acts 13.48.

6:35 That text in which we read, and as many as were ordained to eternal life, the secret purpose of God in election, that purpose which was actively present when the gospel was proclaimed, as recorded in Acts 13. But the way that the secret purpose of God in election became manifested was through the effectual call of the gospel, bringing men and women to faith and repentance. As many as were ordained to eternal life, the secret purpose of election, believe the visible manifestation of the effectual call of God. Just as the invisible purpose of election becomes visible in the effectual call, the only proof of the effectual call of God is the manifestation of the power of God. Notice, brethren, beloved, your worship of God for our gospel came unto you, not in word only, but in the power of the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. And from verse 6 to the end of the chapter, we have all of those indications of the manifestation of the power of God. At an all-encompassing time, let's Princes andгляzes, in this moment, as a couple of

7:59 of god power is ability to do ability to perform and we find all of these words following ye became followers of us you received the word joy of the holy ghost samples to all that believe the word sounded out faith to god for his son from heaven these were all the manifest visible fruits of the operation of divine power so will you follow those three lines of thought with me god purposes of election are secret but they become manifest in the effectual call of the gospel that work of god's grace subduing that disposition in men which would make them forever run from light and the claims of the gospel until they destroyed themselves in hell that mighty operation that subdues that bent of the heart and the first of the last days of the gospel actings of that transformation in regeneration being repentance and faith yet repentance and faith are still but the hidden operations of the heart how can i know that this effectual call has been my portion because the repentance and faith will always be manifested in the fruits

9:21 of faith and repentance and so the only proof that i have been effectually called is that there is evidence that the gospel has come in power with i media the true ability to perform and to transform and to move me in the direction of God, of his will, of his word, and of his precepts.

The Disturbing Possibility: Gospel in Word Only

9:45 There is another allusion in this text that should be a very disturbing one, and it forms the basis of the question that I want to ask, which will be the focal point of our entire meditation tonight. From what Paul says in verse 5, it seems that there's a terrible possibility that the gospel could come to us in word only. When Paul said, our gospel came unto you not in word only, the clear inference is that it's possible to be exposed to the word of the gospel and to even embrace the word of the gospel, but to be an utter stranger to the power. Now, any gospel Paul preached would be the true gospel, for remember his words in the book of Galatians, though we are an angel from heaven, preach unto you any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be anathema, accursed of God. And it's as though someone said, now, Paul, you were just a little bit too heated. You spoke in the impetuosity of your zeal.

10:58 Now, you really didn't mean that, do you? He says, again, I say unto you, let him be accursed. So jealous was Paul for the proper content of the gospel that he declared by inspiration of the Spirit that any who would tamper with its content, putting pluses or minuses. That was the whole problem at Galatia.

11:18 They weren't striking out anything. They just put some plus signs. And he says, put any minus signs or plus signs and tamper with that message which is divine in origin and the curse of God is upon your head. So the gospel Paul preached would be an orthodoxy.

11:34 It would be an orthodox gospel. It would be straight theologically. But he says it's not enough that you be merely exposed even to the pure gospel. The gospel which is that declaration of God's intention to save sinners by his Son, Jesus Christ, is a glorious message.

11:58 I would venture to say that probably all or maybe five or ten in this building, all but five or ten, have not only been saved, but have been saved. They have not only been saved, but they have been saved. They have not only been saved, but they have been saved. They have been exposed once or twice, but dozens and even hundreds or thousands of times to that gospel.

12:17 The gospel has come to you. Many of you from the time you were this high, as you grew up into consciousness and began to think and reflect and learn, you never remember a time when you did not believe that George Washington was the first president of the United States. You can never remember a time when you did not believe that, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the Savior of sinners. Some of us have been brought up with the facts of the gospel, the word of the gospel, a constant and continuous part of our consciousness.

12:54 Others of you perhaps came into that awareness later on in life, but I venture to say that almost all, if not every one of us here tonight, are very familiar with the word of the gospel. That announcement of God's, is designed to save sinners by a Savior, Jesus Christ. But my question to you tonight is this, and I want to press it upon the conscience of every one of my hearers, my dear ministering brethren, students, visitors, and I trust you take it to heart. My question to you tonight is this,

13:35 has the gospel come to you in word only,

13:43 or has it come in power?

13:46 Now just isolate yourself, from everybody else tonight, because that's the way you'll be when you stand before God.

13:54 You were born alone, you'll die alone, and you'll stand before God alone.

14:06 And I trust that the Spirit of God will enable you tonight, to shut yourself in with that question, with the book of God and the God of the book, and face that question just as honestly and thoroughly and individually now, as you must face it in that day when you stand before, as the gospel, you know that gospel, it's come to you often. Has that gospel come to you in word only, or has it come to you in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance? If Paul were to live with you for six months, if he were to be your companion in the home, if he were to be your companion at work, if he were to be your companion, out in the marketplace, better yet, if he were to be a silent, unnoticed onlooker, in your place of business, in your living room, when you sit down to fill out your income tax, when you drive your car along the highway, and better yet, if he were able somehow to read your thoughts, in your free moments,

15:33 when the mind is not engaged by the demands of work, and the responsibilities of life, and is left free to go where its natural bent will take it, after living with you, or with me, in the home, in the shop, in that social situation, in the classroom, in the place of prayer, if you have one, would he have to say of you, knowing, brethren, beloved of God, your election, for it's obvious that the gospel has come to you, in something more than word, but I have seen things that have no explanation, but that there's been, and is right now, an operation of divine power. In other words, is there anything about you, in thought, action, better yet, in reaction, for my true self is revealed far more in my reactions, my actions may be studied with the stake-owned carefulness of the actor, but my reactions are perhaps a greater revelation of what I really am. Would he be forced to say there's something about that man, that woman, that fellow, that girl, that student? There's no explanation,

16:59 but that the gospel has come. That's the question I press upon your conscience, a more important question you cannot consider. You say, Mr. Martin, how can I tell?

The Key Indication: Turning to God from Idols

17:20 By what rules? What rules shall I gauge my life in order to answer that question? Well, we could go through this entire first chapter of 1 Thessalonians and take all of those things which were to Paul an indication that the gospel had come in power. We could start with verse 3 and take those three things, the work of faith, the labor of love, the patience of hope.

17:47 We could drop down to verse 6 and speak of their following the apostolic pattern and the pattern of our Lord. We could speak of their glad reception of the word, the exemplary conduct as we find it in verse 7, their aggressive zeal for evangelism as found in verse 8, their living faith in God later on in verse 8. We could take all of these things and spend a few minutes on each, but I believe the key that will unlock all of these, the one thing that lies at the bottom of all the others, that which forms the broad base upon which all the others were built, that which is the hidden spring out of which all of these streams flow, is found in verse 9. Will you look at it with me, please? What was it that became to Paul the great indication that the gospel had come in power? He says in verse 9, for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God.

19:09 What is the one great thing that the power of the gospel effected in these lives which became the spring of all others? Here it is. Ye turned to who comes not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance it will always do this thing. It will make the one to whom it comes in power a centered man or woman.

19:46 To gratify actual sinful appetite and desire, the specific expression of it here being the worship of idols, whatever it is in its expression of depravity, when the gospel comes in power it will always effect that change which brings men to entirely new perspective. Ye turned. You see we have emphasized the gift element of the gospel at the expense of the shift element of the gospel. Now it is true that the gospel announces a wonderful gift for by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Grace is free not only in the sense that we do not buy it but that it is uncaused.

20:54 Old Scottish Presbyterians spoke often of free grace. They did not mean what many in our day mean. Simply that you don't earn your way to heaven. They meant that grace was free.

21:04 The only cause of it was in the heart of God. It was distinguishing particular grace that flowed about upon the heads of God's elect for no other reason than that God chose it to be so. Not only does the gospel announce free grace and the gift of God, it also says there will be a radical shift in the one to whom the gift comes. And this is that shift.

21:31 Ye turned. The gospel comes in power. There is not only an operation of divine forgiveness but an invasion of divine power. In the new covenant, a very wonderful way in Hebrews 8 and in Hebrews 10 we have it laid out that in the new covenant the two great provisions are the objective provision of a new record through the blood of the covenant.

22:04 And the subjective experience of a renewed heart in nature by the spirit of the covenant and the blood of the covenant are subdued by the spirit. Wherever there is the gift and free-off giftness there is the mighty invasion of divine power. So how am I to know if the gospel is come to me not in word only but in power? The scripture commands me to examine myself, to prove myself if I be in the faith.

The Danger of Superficial Acquaintance with the Gospel

22:42 The scripture commands me to make my calling and election sure. When I turn to passages such as those in Matthew 7 I experience inner trembling. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, prophesy in thy name. They don't call him Lord.

23:17 Context to say prescribed place of exaltation belonging only to deity. They don't believe in the supernatural. They don't believe in demons. No liberal would ever say, didn't we cast out demons?

23:36 The only demon they know is some kind of psychological inner itch. There's no direct invasion of supernatural demonic powers. These are people who believe in the supernatural. Have we not cast out demons in thy name?

23:54 Profess unto them. Now that going to be a little sprinkling? No, he said many. And you tie that in with verse 14 of the same chapter.

24:06 Broad is the road that leads to destruction and many there be which go in there that many of the many on the road to destruction are those described in verse 21 who have a very thorough acquaintance with the word of the gospel. So thorough was their acquaintance with it that they could proclaim it to others. And apparently so eminent in their gifts that they were brought to places of leadership in the Christian ministry. Oh, my dear preacher friends, if you can read a text like that and not spend some moments in honest searching of heart before God, I fear God may have already given you up to a delusive spirit of presumption. This is an important issue, isn't it? Has the gospel come to me in power? If my sins are cleansed by the blood, then my heart must be no stranger to the operations of his spirit.

God's Purpose in Creation and Redemption: God-Centeredness

25:03 But you say you haven't told us how we may know yet. Verse 9, he turned to God. When that gospel comes in power, it will produce the God-centered life. Now why is this so?

25:18 Will you think with me for a few minutes? As we try to bring into focus, backing off from details to the broad overview, what is the whole purpose of creation? When we understand that, we'll understand why verse 9 was to Paul the great indication that the gospel had come in power. They turned to God.

25:38 They became God-centered men and women. Why was this an indication to Paul that the gospel had come in power? For Paul saw, as none of us perhaps will ever see, this side of glory. The purpose for which God made man.

25:53 You know the first question of the Shorter Catechism. What is man's chief end? His main goal? What did God make him for?

26:02 Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And when God placed Adam and Eve in that garden, surrounding them with a thousand delights, God so made Adam that none of the things that he made could ever satisfy the deep longing of his heart. God made Adam for himself. And as Adam was surrounded with all the things God gave him, those things were on the outside and only God dwelt in that inner shrine of the heart.

26:34 And the person of God was the object of Adam's delight. There's a clear indication of that after the fall as God comes walking in the garden in the cool of the day. There seems to be some indication that this was a common occurrence, that there was some perhaps visible manifestation of the living God who came at a certain time for special communion with Adam and his greatest delight was to walk and commune with his God. God's person was the object of Adam's delight.

27:02 No thing could take the place of his person. God's will was the focus of Adam's occupation. When God said, dress the garden and keep it, no indication that Adam went and had a march for shorter working hours. No indication he tried to form a little union.

27:18 No, when God said, dress the garden and keep it, Adam gladly responded to do the will of his God. But it isn't long before we see the terrible effects of the fall of man. And what happened in that fall? Everything became reversed.

27:33 And this is the tragedy of the fall. The greatest tragedy of the fall is not to be found in what happened to man, considered only in terms of himself. The greatest tragedy of the fall is found in terms of what happened to man and his relationship with God. From a creature made to delight in God, to do the will of God, we come to that terrible, sad picture of humanity in Paul's summary description of humanity in Romans 3, verses 10 to 20.

28:05 And he says in verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understand it. There is none that seeketh after God. I think those are a few of the saddest words in the Bible.

28:22 Think tonight. Two and a half billion? Is that the population? The present moment?

28:33 And exclude those who have been the objects of God's special, distinguishing mercy and grace, and of all those other teeming millions of people God inscribes over all of them as the great common denominator of their sinfulness. There is none that seeketh after God. You mean the creature made to delight in God, to do the will of God, utterly turned from the very purpose for which He was made. None that seeketh after God, the God who made the creature for Himself, finds no delight in the God who made Him.

29:09 Jeremiah states it in a way that is graphic. He said, My people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. no water. That's the picture of all humanity. And when you dig down beneath all the grosser or less or more refined evidences of man's sinfulness and get down to the core, here it is. He's a creature who's turned from the very purpose for which he was made, to delight in his God and to do the will of God. Now, what is God's purpose in redemption? I think it should be obvious, isn't it? May I say it reverently? God has pledged himself and

30:02 put into operation his eternal purposes and the mighty power of his spirit and all the terrible sufferings and agonies and humiliation of his son. What's all this for? To get back to himself the people who delight to fulfill the purpose for which they were made. To delight in that God and to do his holy will. And when you turn to the book of the Revelation and look at the picture of the redeemed in heaven, what do you find? Listen. And it says his servant shall look upon his face. Delight in their God. And it says they followed the lamb whithersoever he goeth. They performed his will. It's one of the last pictures of the redeemed that we receive in Revelation chapter 22. And so when we turn to 1 Peter 3.18 and read the purpose for which Christ died, it's clear. He suffered

31:09 for us, the just for the unjust. Why? That he might bring us to him. He suffered for us to bring us to God. Why did he suffer? To bring us, the total man, to God. To that God-centered life. To that God-centered perspective in all of life. How does he do it? A whole scheme of redemption enters in here. But in its application he does it by the mighty working of the power of his spirit who awakens us to our estrangement from God. Who brings us to that sense and consciousness of God. By the same spirit he opens our eyes to see that in Christ there is mercy, there is hope. By that self-same spirit he subdues our rebel hearts so that our eyes are open to behold the beauty of God in the face of Christ. Our affections are wooed to love the person of

32:11 Christ. Who's a Christian? What's a Christian? A Christian is who Bureauhomme dejout strongly of Christ. Who famous the first Christian? A messiah. Aotshintows of us. Jesus Christ taught us in Eugene in 1133-38 that a person who suffering a design of fire, a person of is a man who's seen glory in Christ that has ravished his heart. That's a Christian. Listen, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, for the God of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving. Blinded them to what?

32:33 Not to the propositions of the gospel. Given reasonable intelligence, you can learn all the propositions of the gospel and parrot them and even speak them to others and see them become the power of God unto salvation in others. No, no, Paul says this is what the devil has done. Listen, the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not less the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God should dawn upon them.

33:02 They hear Christ died, yes. Christ was buried, yes. Christ rose, but they see no glory in this. They can hear of his death and walk up and down in front of that cross.

33:13 I'm speaking figuratively now with an attitude, ho-hum, he died. A Christian is one who's been arrested in that ho-hum walk back and forth in front of the cross and he's seen in that cross a glory. He's seen in that tomb a glory. He's seen in that throne and the one who sits upon it a glory that has ravished his heart and brought him captive to Christ so that he is now the willing bondservant of Jesus Christ and the aim and bent and drift though imperfectly is to know and please and serve this Christ.

33:59 That's how God brings men to the God-centered life by revealing the glory of Christ as we read in verse 6. But God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, Paul says, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so the eye is open to perceive the beauty of Christ and the heart is wooed and the affections are strong to love Him. How can I tell if this is true of me?

Evidence 1: Delight in Private Bible Reading

34:33 How can I tell if I, by the grace of God, have turned to God? How can I tell if I am not still in that category of not seeking Him? How can I know that I have turned to God? How can I know that my eye has been opened to behold the beauty of Christ and my heart wooed to love Him and to serve Him?

35:00 As the eye is open to behold the beauty of Christ, the eye naturally rests upon an object of beauty and as the heart gravitates to the object of its love,

35:09 so the person who has turned to God moves in the direction of the God who is now the object of His desire and His delight. Now if this is true, it will work out very practically. I want to move now from general theory to some specifics and I want you to gauge your life by these principles of the Word of God. If you have turned to God because the Gospel has come to you not in word only but in power, this will be one of the clearest indications.

35:41 You will have a delight in the private reading and meditation of the Word of God.

35:51 God and His Word are inseparable. Listen to David as he prays in Psalm 119, With my whole heart have I sought Thee, O let me not wander from Thy commands.

36:06 To seek God apart from the Bible is a baseless kind of a mysticism.

36:15 To merely be occupied with the Bible without God is a barren dead orthodoxy. But to seek God with an open book is the essence of saving religion.

36:29 With my whole heart have I sought Thee, O let me not wander from Thy commandments. And why does the man who has turned to God, who has a basic humble mind, hunger for and delight in God, why does he instinctively turn to His Word? Well, for the simple reason that God's mind is revealed in that Word. And when I love someone, I delight to know the thoughts of their heart towards me.

37:00 You prove this every time you tear open a letter from your beloved when you're away from home.

37:07 Not only is it that God's mind is revealed in this book and loving Him we love His thoughts, but God's person is displayed and we read that in the Scriptures the glory of the Lord is set before us. The Scriptures are the mirror of Christ and they reflect Him to us. And loving Him, we delight to see His person. God's will is unfolded and we can say with David, I delight to do Thy will, O my God, yea, Thy law is within my heart.

37:42 There are only two kinds of people basically, and they're described in Scripture, in Psalm 1. There's the blessed man. He walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, stands not in the way of sinners, and doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night. Then it describes the fruit of that man.

38:03 He should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth fruit in his season. His leaf shall not wither, whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. But the wicked are not so.

38:19 Any man, any woman, who does not come under that first description, not perfectly, but basically, God describes him as a wicked man. The blessed man is the one who does not walk with all his thinking and his motivation and his desires and ambitions and conduct framed by this world society that is under the control of the devil. But his thoughts, his motives, his desires are basically framed in discipline, shaped by the word of God. So he describes the God-blessed man who meditates in the law day and night, and he says, but the wicked are not so.

38:59 If you do not have a basic hunger for and delight in the word of God, you have no reason to believe you're anything other than a wicked person. Oh, but you say, Mr. Merkin, I'm not a wicked person. Isn't it wicked to be indifferent to the revelation of the mind of the God who made you?

39:24 To know his mind, to think his thoughts after him? Isn't it the essence of wickedness to be indifferent to what Almighty God thinks about life and the home and death and eternity and work and all the facets of life? God has displayed his character and the beauty of his Son in this book. Isn't it wickedness to ignore it?

39:55 If you and I turn our backs when a great dignitary passes before us in the room, it's the essence of terrible insult. To turn our backs again and again upon this book that displays the glories of our God is an insult to him and it's wickedness. It's wickedness. The wicked are not so.

40:19 The righteous man delights in the law. The wicked are not so. Why? Because he does not seek God and because he doesn't seek God, he lives indifferent to the book of God.

40:29 But the righteous is not this way. The gospels come in power. They turn to God and God is inseparable from his word. And so there is this basic hunger and delight in the word.

40:40 At times that hunger may be stifled through indwelling sin. At times that hunger may be weakened because of physical maladies, because of circumstances. Granted, all this is true. But if there is no basic genuine hunger for this book, proven by the discipline of taking time to search its pages, dear one, you have reason to question, seriously question, whether the gospels ever come to you in power.

41:10 May I take the place spoken of in Timothy where Paul says to Timothy, Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father. May I entreat some of you who are my fathers in the faith and some of you who are my brothers by age and experience. May I exhort you. I shall never forget the revelation that came to my heart several years ago when in studying 2 Timothy chapter 3 I saw something that I had never seen before.

41:44 This may be old hat to you, but if it is, we do well to be reminded of it afresh. Notice what Paul says to Timothy in this well-known passage on the inspiration of the scriptures. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 15. Or back up to verse 14.

42:06 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou, here's the key, thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Timothy, the scriptures have had a first, this primary function in your life. They have been the instrument leading you to an experience of God's grace. Now he goes on to say, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, for instruction in righteousness.

42:49 That the congregation may be perfect? No, that the what? That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Timothy, the scriptures are not only to be the means by which you have come into the possession of saving grace, but they are to be to you, the continual means to perfect that work of grace and to lead you into maturity.

43:16 Timothy, the scriptures are for your sake, for the man of God, to reprove you, to correct you, to instruct you in righteousness, to teach you doctrine. Then he says in chapter two, or chapter four in verse two, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort. Timothy, do not you ever seek to use this word as an instrument of exhortation and reproof to others until or unless, first of all, it's been the instrument of reproof and exhortation to your own heart. Brethren, I'm convinced the reason why there is little penetration in our ministry is that we are seeking to use truth to tear into the hearts of others that has not ripped its wings before God. And if we would know that, you're something that we've been talking about these days that marked the men of the Puritan era. Penetration that made men feel that they had a little judgment day when they heard them preached. You don't get that by studying the pattern and form of their sermons.

44:32 You've got to go to the wells of that ministry, lost in seasons, before God, the pleading with God. You've got to go to the wells of that ministry, leading with God, that He'll reprove, convict. He will instruct you in righteousness. The only truth that will be powerful in your hands as you minister to others is that which has pierced its way into your own heart.

45:13 I said the other day that the ministry of the Puritans was not anecdotal, but I do believe there is benefit from illustration and anecdote. When in the providence of God I was thrust out into an itinerant ministry shortly after finishing school, I shall never forget the terrible shock that came to me when I went to church after church, evangelical churches, and when I would meet together with the pastor of the church to pray for the meetings and pray for his people. And we'd get talking about things after the third or fourth day when we got that facade of respectability and spiritual pride down and began to be real men with each other. One of the most shocking things to me was to find pastor after pastor who had disciplined habits of devotional reading of the word of God. This book had become his instrument for his professional ministry. In five years, I met less than a dozen men, evangelical men, five years, going from church to church a week or two at a time, less than a dozen men who had any regular disciplined devotional habits. Is it no wonder that our people somehow since the beginning of the world have become more and more devout in words and playing

46:42 verbal ping pong and shooting words across at them and they learn how to handle them and shoot them across to us. Oh, beloved, I exhort you and plead with you in God's name. Let's take seriously this exhortation that the book be first of all the instrument of our own personal sanctification leading us to ravishing sights of our God. Let us not expect people in the pew to shout evil.

47:11 And if we don't weep at the revelation of our sins, don't expect people to weep at the revelation of their sins. Is there this hunger for and delight in the word of God? This is an indication that we've turned to God. And may I briefly mention two other things in closing.

Evidence 2: Delight in Secret Prayer

47:37 There will be delight in secret prayer. Oh yes, by degrees, again, when we would pray, we find the real me, the renewed me wants to pray but there's this indisposition to any spiritual exercise and there's the conflict. Granted, all of this is true. When you dig down to the bottom and get to the substrata you find that in a true child of God where the gospels come in power there's a basic delight in the secret place of prayer.

48:10 Why? For the simple reason that the spirit of adoption of the Son, as Paul says in Galatians 4, he hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts crying what? Ah, the Father. It's the natural rising up of the spirit within to move us in the direction of the Father.

48:30 It's here in the climate of secret prayer that there are those clearer beams of God's countenance settling upon our spirits. It's here in the secret place where we are our true selves of God. Do you know anything of delight in secret prayer? It's a mark of a wicked man if you don't call upon God.

48:57 Did you know that? For I read in Psalm 14, 4 the wicked who call not upon God. The psalmist says one of the characteristics of a wicked man is he calls not upon God. Well, what's so wicked about prayerlessness?

49:16 Well, pray. You're saying, I don't need God. I can get out on my own speed. Well, one of the great elements of prayer is the spreading out of our helplessness before God in the conscious recognition of that helplessness.

49:31 Isn't that what prayer is? It's wicked not to pray. A day without secret prayer is declaring to God. A little bit of his creaturehood goes into the closet and says, Oh, God, when you say that, that's true.

50:01 Give me grace this day. You see, a Christian is a man who's been awakened not only to the fact he's done some bad things but that he's got a terrible, terrible cesspool of corruption within. No, not a cesspool, an artesian well of corruption continuing to pressure up and wanting to spew out all forms of iniquity. A Christian is conscious of that and because he's conscious of it he goes to his closet and prays, but deliver me from evil.

50:31 He watches and he prays. He recognizes that his heart is a veritable tinderbox of iniquity and every temptation is like a spark about to drop upon that tinderbox and move up into a raging flame of lust or passion. So the Christian goes to his God and says, Oh, God, dampen the tinderbox. Oh, God, make wet those dry leaves within my breast.

50:57 If you live day after day without secret prayer in which you spread out your helplessness and dependence upon God, listen, dear, when I doubt you've ever had a discovery of the corruption of your heart. Jonathan Edwards in one of the most searching sermons I have ever read calls hypocrites deficient in the duty of secret prayer said these words, and I quote, When a hypocrite hath had his false conversion, his needs are in his sense of things already supplied. His desires are already answered, and so he finds no further business at the throne of grace. He never was sensible that he had any other need but the need of being safe from hell. And now that he thinks he's converted, that need is supplied. Why should he go on to resort to the throne of grace with earnest requests? He's out of danger, he thinks.

51:58 All that he was afraid of is removed. He has enough, he thinks, to carry him to heaven. Why should he desire more? For the conviction of sin and the fear of hell, he cried for mercy.

52:12 But since by his own opinion he's converted, he has no further business about which to go to God. And although he may keep up the duty for a little while for fear of spoiling his assurance, yet finding it dull business, he will by degrees drop the practice altogether. The work of the hypocrite is done when he is supposedly converted, and therefore he stands in no need of further help. Is that a description of you?

52:40 Oh, yes. You prayed secretly when the sense of condemnation hung over your head. You cried to God for mercy when legal terror shook you. And then you got peace and said, well, all is well.

53:00 And by degrees you forsook the practice altogether, and now days and weeks and months have passed. No resorting to the throne of grace. My friend, take seriously the word of God tonight. A man who's a prayerless man is a wicked man.

53:20 To quote Jonathan Edwards again, he who lives without prayer lives without God. And he who lives without God is not a Christian. And the last indication that the gospel has come to us in power and made us God-centered men and women is this. Not only will there be a delight in secret prayer, but follow closely, there will be some measure of engagement in private humbling before God and in confession of sin.

Evidence 3: Private Humbling and Confession of Sin

53:56 Ye turn to God! But who is that God? He is the God of eternal light spoken of in that tremendous hymn, Eternal Light, Eternal Light, how pure that soul must be which placed within thy burning light shrinks not, but with calm delight can live and look on thee. The spirits that surround thy throne may bear this burning bliss.

54:25 Surely that is theirs alone, for they have never, never known a fallen world like this. But how shall I, whose native sphere is dark, whose mind is dim before the ineffable appear and on my naked spirit bear the uncreated being? That's the God to whom we turn as God concocted out of the stuff of our own preconceived notions. A God who is sort of the daunting overindulgent grandfather who loves to have the spoiled little grandchild nestle up to him and smile and show his teeth and give him a quarter.

55:05 No, no, dear ones, the God of the prophets, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who thundered upon Mount Sinai, the God who blackened the heavens in shame, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, holy and majestic in his love, in his power. When a poor fallen son of Adam turns to that God through Jesus Christ, even though he is justified and accepted in the beloved, there is not a complete rooting out of all the remains of sin. The dominion of sin is changed as we heard so clearly in the morning papers. But the remains of sin are not completely torn from him and yet he longs to fellowship with that holy God. But he is a God of light and so as he draws near to that God he is made conscious continually of his sin and so he will be no stranger to private humblings and confession of sin for now that God is his greatest delight, the clouding of the face of God is his greatest grief. The greatest grief to a Christian is the clouding of the face of God. You read psalm after psalm and the psalmist wasn't complaining because his wife was kind of churlish.

56:28 He wasn't complaining because business was slow. He wasn't even complaining primarily that he had some physical malady. But what was the complaint of the psalmist again and again and the different psalmist? What was it?

56:44 Will thou hide thy faiths forever? Be not silent unto me, O that go down to the pit, O thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth. The psalmist that caused him to write many a psalm was the terrible pain of the clouding face of God. Often enough it's sin that clouds his face and so because the greatest chastisement the child of God knows is the clouding face of God he's restless and disturbed until the sin has been confessed and there's the sweet kiss that he says with David, O that the bones you've broken may now rejoice. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Dear ministering brethren, the most powerful polemic and apologetic for the efficacy of grace is to stand in the pulpit Sunday by Sunday with the kiss of forgiveness still fresh upon your own cheek. You're conscious.

58:11 You're an accepted sinner and a prophet. Free grace and its proclamation will have a ring of authority and reality that otherwise it will never have. Do you know anything of engaging in private confession of sin? Do you?

58:34 My Bible says in Matthew 5 that the blessed man is one who what? Who mourns. Blessed are they who mourn. Not who mourned, past tense, but who mourn.

58:47 One of the marks of the true Christian is the Holy Mourning. See, most of us, if we were caught in some gross act of sin that shamed us before the Christian community, perhaps through a thousand motives we might be forced to confession. The real proof that you hate sin because it's sin is what you do with the sins which you can tolerate and not lose face before the Christian community and the civic community and all the rest. What do you do with those things that only you and God know about?

59:31 If you deal with or fail to deal with, only you and God will know it as far as the specific issue. Others may know that there's a new freshness in your walk with God, but they wouldn't know. What you do with those things is a proof of your basic attitude to sin. If you're an elder and you get involved in a morals charge, there are an awful lot of things that could lead you to open confession of that.

59:57 You don't want to be humbled by being excommunicated from the church. There could be a thousand and one motives in your life. Do you go with the same holy dealings that come in the sin that had been known to the public? You don't hate the sin of adultery unless you confess the thought as much as you would the act. It's true of jealousy. John says, who so hates his brother is a murderer. Oh, dear ones, if we're strangers to private humblings and confession of sin, I fear we're strangers to the power of the gospel.

61:02 For when men receive the gospel and realize that they are partakers of its benefits, they always indicate it by being content with God's gifts and being indifferent to his person. Whereas the true child of God to whom the gospel has come in power and he's turned to God, the cry of his heart is, O God, strip me of all of your gifts, but do not strip me of yourself. For how tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds, sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me.

61:41 The midsummer sun shines, but dim the fields, strive in vain to look gay. When I am happy in him, December's as pleasant as May. The Christian says, give me a dungeon and shackles and stripes as long as the sunshine of God's countenance breaks into my soul. The Christian says, where is the salvation and all the gifts of God?

62:13 The blinds are pulled over that window where the light of his face breaks. O dear one, are you a stranger to the power of the gospel? Do you know anything of heart, experimental acquaintance with God? For this is life eternal, to know thee the only true and living God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

Call to Deeper Hunger for God

62:35 And if by God's grace we can answer an amen and say yes by the grace of God, is that basic hunger to seek His face in the world. There is that basic longing to do His will and to pray and to turn from my sin. Let us cry tonight that the power of the gospel may be extended in our hearts as our hunger for our God deepens and becomes the deep well out of which all the other graces flow. We should go back to our churches as ministers of the gospel and into our places of responsibility and witness and task as men who know their God and are therefore strong to do exploits. Let us pray.