General Introduction to the Gospels, Part 2

Prayer for Illumination and Review of Previous Introduction

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, June 19, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us once again ask the blessing and help of God the Holy Spirit as we seek to understand the written word of God. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for the glorious truth of which we have just sung, that Christ himself, by the Spirit, draws near in the chambers of his own word.

0:48 And it is the longing of our hearts that as we now turn to that word, as we would rivet our minds upon its truth, that him, he who is the truth, even our Lord Jesus, would himself come to us. We do confess that our hearts are like a barren winter countryside unless the Lord Jesus, who is the Son of Righteousness, shines upon those needy hearts. O God, may the light of his own glorious person and work shine upon us in the ministry of his own glory. And to your name be praise, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

1:50 Now most of you are aware of the fact that it is my purpose for the next many weeks of Lord's Day mornings to attempt to expound that portion of the word of God called the gospel according to the gospel. And to mark. And because this spirit-inspired literature of the gospel records is a unique form of inspired literature, and because I have never attempted in my previous ministry amongst you to preach right through any one of the gospels, I judged it necessary to set before you some general introductory perspectives on the gospels as a whole, before we turn to our study of the gospel of Mark in particular. Therefore, last Lord's Day morning, I set before you several of these introductory perspectives pertaining to gospel literature in general, that is, perspectives on Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. My organizing principle was certain questions which I raised, and then attempted to answer. We covered three of them.

3:13 First of all, we addressed ourselves to the question, how did this portion of the word of God actually come to us? When we pick up Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and ask the question, how did these accounts of the life and teaching of our Lord Jesus come to the people of God? And in answering that question, the bottom line, as we studied, the scriptures together is this, that the written records came after the oral proclamation by eyewitnesses of the doings and the sayings of the Lord Jesus. The early church was founded not by the distribution of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as extended gospel tracts, but the apostolic church was founded by the verbal proclamation of those who could say, we cannot but speak the things we have seen and we have heard. And that will have increasing significance in our study of the gospel of Mark. Then we raised the second question, namely, what is the precise nature of the gospel records? What are they?

4:33 What do they purport to be? And I sought to answer the question negatively. They are not. They are not four attempts at a balanced, proportionate, biographical sketch of the life and sayings of Jesus Christ.

4:50 Nor are they a court transcript giving us exact quotations of the very words of Jesus Christ or of His deeds viewed from only one perspective. Positively stated, I said that these are spirit-inspired records which can be likened to four picture galleries of the King in which each of the gospel writers is an inspired painter who is drawing a series of pictures, painting a series of pictures with reference to the person and work and sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we walk through the four galleries, at the end of that trip we come to the conviction it is one glorious person who is set before us but under the differing highlights and shading and perspectives of the four gospel writers. And then the gospels are also four selectively collected and purposely collated records of select sayings and events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. John said that he was deliberately selected.

6:16 He said, I've not told you all that Christ did. That would take a world full of books. I have been selective in setting before you specific events and sayings in the life of Christ. And then finally we addressed ourselves to the question, why were the gospel records originally written?

6:37 And the answer, why? From the scriptures was threefold. They were written for confirmation, Luke 1, 1 to 4, for instruction, instruction regarding the events in the life of Christ when the living eyewitnesses were to pass off the scene. We would have this inspired and abiding record of what Christ was like, what he did, what he said.

7:04 And then instruction also in his teaching with respect to his rule over his people. The church was to be governed by whatsoever he commanded. And therefore the church needed an embodiment of his commands. And furthermore instruction as to the pattern of holiness.

7:25 He that saith he abides in him ought to walk even as he walked. How can I pattern my life by the power of the Spirit after the Savior whose life record is not left for me to behold? And so the second great purpose was instruction. And thirdly, the purpose was persuasion.

The Gospels as New Testament Documents

7:45 These things I have written, John says, in order that ye might believe. Persuasion. Now then we come this morning to take up only one further question by way of general introduction to gospel literature. And the question is this, what is the relationship of the gospels to the remainder of the New Testament?

8:10 When you pick up your Bibles and open to the New Testament, you turn first of all to Matthew, to Mark, to Luke, and to John. Then as many of you children even know, for you've memorized the 27 books of the New Testament, you go on to Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, all the way through to the book of the Revelation. Now the question we're asking this morning is this, what is the precise relationship between that section bounded by Matthew and John to the rest of the New Testament? Now implied in my question is that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are part of the New Testament documents. Now there are schools of interpretation in our day that deny that. They virtually place the gospels, most of them would exclude the gospel of John, but particularly Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they place the gospels for all intents and purposes as old covenant literature, so that the sayings of Christ are not to be regarded as Christian norms. Now I'm assuming in my question, when I ask, what is the relationship of the gospels to the rest of the New Covenant?

9:35 Well, I'm assuming that the relationship of the gospels to the rest of the New Covenant documents that they are New Covenant or New Testament documents. How do we know that? Go back to last week. When did these documents come to the church?

9:50 Before Pentecost or after? Before Christ had died and risen from the dead and sent the Spirit? No. They came between twenty-five and approximately fifty years after the ascension of Christ, the descent of the Spirit and the establishment of the Apostolic Church throughout the Roman Empire.

10:16 So that the documents originally came to a people this side of the cross, this side of Pentecost, this side of the full-blown Apostolic insight to the significance of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. And furthermore, we know that they are written in the New Testament documents from the simple statement of Mark 1.1. Mark says he is writing the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

10:52 And what Mark is writing is good news. It's gospel. It's not dressed-up law. It's not Moses in a new garb.

11:02 The gospel of Mark and all of the other gospel records contain gospel. It contains gospel. The gospel truth, that is, the truth of the glorious person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now to the question, what is the relationship then of the gospels to the remainder of the New Testament?

The Gospels Expand Apostolic Preaching (Relationship to Acts)

11:25 Well, let me suggest an answer that contains three simple statements. The third one will not be so easy to grasp the moment I say it, but I hope to explain it. First of all, the gospels expand and delineate the apostolic preaching and teaching summarized in the book of Acts. What's the relationship of the gospels, particularly Matthew, Mark and Luke, to the book of Acts?

11:56 The book of Acts follows the gospels, so if we're asking what's the relationship of the gospels to the rest of the New Testament, we start with that portion of the New Testament next in line. And I answer by saying the gospels expand and delineate the apostolic preaching and teaching, which is only summarized in the preaching and teaching recorded in the book of Acts. Turn, please, to Acts chapter 10 for an example of this. Acts chapter 10.

12:32 Acts 10 records Peter's ministry in the household of Cornelius. The opening of the door of faith and of the church to the Gentile community. And in Acts, Luke records for us Peter's sermon, beginning in Acts 10 and verse 34. And Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.

13:09 But in every nation he that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him. The word which he sent unto the children of Israel, preaching good tidings of peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. That saying you yourselves know, which was published throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached, even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. Who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.

13:44 For God was with him, and we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom also they slew, hanging him on a tree, him God raised up on the third day. And I could read through to the end of the record of the sermon, verse 43. And you know what I did this morning in the early hours? I read this.

14:08 I took my little stopwatch, and I timed how long it would take me to read this entire summation of Peter's sermon with due pauses, with due emphasis, and you know how long it took me? One minute and twenty-seven seconds. Now do you think Luke intends us to believe that Peter came into the house of Cornelius, stood up, began to preach, and in one minute and twenty-seven seconds, his son was born? No.

14:39 Do you think the sermon was over? Of course not. What we have is a summary, a skeletal outline of the sermon of Peter. For instance, someone who was here last week and was listening and retaining what they heard might walk out of the building, someone drive into the parking lot, stop the individual and say, where are you going?

15:03 You say, well, I'm not going, I'm leaving church and going home. Well, what happened in there this morning? Well, we met for worship. Well, what was it like?

15:11 And you begin to describe it. Then the person says, well, what was preached? And if you were to say, Pastor Martin preached the first of several introductory messages on gospel literature in which he raised and answered three basic questions. How did the gospel come to us?

15:28 How did the gospels come to us? What is their origin? The second question that he raised and then answered for us, what is the precise nature of gospel literature? And why were they written?

15:41 Well, such an answer would be accurate. You might give it in about 22 seconds. Now, it took me an hour to do that. But you are giving a distillation of what I preach.

15:51 Now, that is precisely what we have, more or less, in the account of Luke. The major difference is, Luke wrote under the direct inspiration of the Spirit, so he gave us infallible summaries. Yours would have no claim to infallibility. Now then, how do we know what was in between the lines?

16:13 Notice what Peter said. We are witnesses, verse 39, of all things that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. What were the all things concerning which Peter and the other apostles gave witness? Well, turn to Luke chapter 1, and you'll see part of the answer.

16:36 Luke chapter 1. Luke, in beginning his gospel, writing to this man, Theophilus says, For as much as many have taken in hand to draw up a narrative, a written account, concerning those matters which have been fully established among us, as they were delivered unto us, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having traced, the course of all things accurately from the first, to write unto you with system or order, with method, most excellent Theophilus, that you might know the certainty concerning the things wherein you have already been instructed, so that everything that Luke writes is not novel to this man Theophilus. He's already heard all of the major outlines and many of the details of the work of Jesus Christ. Well, where did he hear that? From eyewitnesses in the preaching.

17:48 Now, when we turn to the book of Acts, we do not find this amplified, detailed account of the sayings of Christ, of the details of the mighty healings and miracles of Christ, these personal glimpses of Christ. So what do the gospels give us? What do we, have when we turn to the gospels? What is their relationship to the next section of the word of God?

18:17 They are an expansion and a delineation of the apostolic preaching and teaching which is merely summarized in the book of Acts. So when we read in Acts 2.42 that the early church continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching, what was that teaching? Well, whatever it was, it was certainly this.

18:46 In substance, it was the very thing we find in Matthew, Mark and Luke in particular and certainly some of the strands that are set before us in the book of John. Well, you say, Pastor Martin, that's all very well and good, but doesn't that belong in the academy? What in the world does that have to do with me? Well, just this.

19:08 Have you ever wondered, have you ever wondered what it would have been like to sit at the feet of Peter preaching about the doings, the sayings, the dying of Christ as an eyewitness? Have you ever thought what would it be like to sit at the feet of one of those who was with him when he actually raised someone from the dead? What would it be like to stand with someone or to sit at the feet of someone who stood with the Lord Jesus when with burning eye he looked into the mirror and said, the face of the Pharisees and called them whitewashed sepulchers? What would it be like to hear someone who was an eyewitness describe Jesus' relationship to little children?

19:52 What would it be like to have an eyewitness describe what it was like to see the incarnate God roughly and rudely taken by crude hands and impaled upon a Roman gibbet and hung up to hang and die the death of a common criminal? Have you ever wondered what would it be like to sit at the feet of an eyewitness who saw these things, who heard the actual gracious words proceeding from his mouth? Is that privilege reserved only for the church founded under the verbal apostolic testimony?

20:32 No, my dear friends, that privilege is yours and it is mine. For in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we have the apostolic teaching forever embodied in the inspired record that we now call the Gospels. That's the relationship of the Gospels to the book of Acts. It gives us the privilege of entering into the very fellowship of the apostolic church.

21:04 And isn't that exactly what John said in his first epistle? The things we have seen, the things, the things we have heard and our hands have handled concerning the word of life, these things we declare unto you that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Oh, dear Christian, listen. If you understand aright what the Gospels are in relationship to the rest of the New Testament, and in particular now the book of Acts, you will not, envy those who sat at the feet of Peter and heard his eyewitness testimony at the feet of Matthew or at the feet of John. For once they had spoken that word, the apostle moved on. You can now have an apostle in your bedroom, in your living room, at your kitchen table, continually telling you the things concerning the doings and the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, the dying, of your blessed Savior. And so in the Gospels we have this expansion and delineation of apostolic preaching and teaching which is merely summarized in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

The Gospels Form the Factual Foundation of the Epistles

22:30 But then the second part of my answer to the question what's the relationship of the Gospels to the rest of the New Testament is this. The Gospels form the factual historical foundation of the teaching of the epistles. That is the letters of the New Testament. After Acts comes Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians.

22:55 They are the letters sent by apostles or those who were under the apostolic approval and influence to the infant churches. Now what's the relationship of the Gospels to those letters we call the epistles? Well my answer is this. The Gospels form the factual historical foundation of the teaching of the epistles.

23:23 Now in the providence of God the documents are not and listen carefully now the documents did not come before people received the information from eyewitnesses concerning the Gospels. Jesus Christ his doings his dying his saying remember going back to last week the eyewitnesses preached the things they had seen and heard. People came to faith and to repentance. When the New Testament letters began to come to them and they did come before the Gospels.

24:03 The book of James if the New Testament was arranged chronologically the first book would be James next would probably be 1st and 2nd Thessalonians and then probably 1st and 2nd Corinthians and possibly Romans. Then you would have the first of the Gospels. But in the providence of God the arrangement is perfectly suited for the abiding need of the church. For when the Gospel originally went out first what came first the epistles or the details concerning the life and death and sayings of Jesus.

24:40 Well you see it was the testimony of eyewitnesses who bore testimony to all things that Jesus did and said. And when they had come to faith and were gathered into communities of believers and began to live out their lives then an epistle would come to help them to guide them to rebuke them to encourage them to instruct them so that the epistles originally came to people whose minds were steeped in the basic facts recorded in the Gospels. So the relationship of the Gospels to the epistles is this they form the factual historical foundation for the teaching of the epistles. Now one of the most amazing things about Christian truth is this all of its doctrines move towards practice and all of its practice is conditioned by and rooted in its doctrines. That's one of the unique things about the Christian faith. All of its doctrines have great practical implications. For instance Paul in his greatest doctrinal epistle the epistle to the Romans opens up doctrine for eleven chapters.

26:01 When he moves to practical concerns he says I beseech you by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice. All of this doctrine is a living sacrifice. All of this doctrine makes practical demands upon you. The doctrine always leads to practice.

26:21 Also practice is always conditioned by and rooted in doctrine. For instance right in the midst of the practical instruction about giving in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 Paul breaks out with these words You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor that you through his poverty might be rich. What is he doing? In the midst of practical instruction he is showing them that their practice in giving is to be conditioned by the doctrine of the incarnation.

26:58 That profound and lofty doctrine of the enfleshment of God is to condition what a Christian does when he reaches in his purse to give to the work of God. And you find that all the way through scripture. Husbands love your wives and then he conditions it with the profound doctrine of the substitutionary atonement of Christ. Ephesians 5.25 Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Now follow closely. Just as surely as all doctrine tends toward practice all practice is to be conditioned by and rooted in doctrine both doctrine and practice rest down upon facts. The facts pertaining to the actual life history of the Son of God.

28:05 And take away that foundation in fact you take away all that is distinctively Christian in doctrine and in practice. If there is no once upon a time there is no Christianity.

28:25 That's the teaching of the word of God. So the gospel records form the factual historical foundation for the teaching of the epistles. Now that again has great practical implications. Would you and would I feel the weight of the doctrine that is always leading to practice?

28:52 Would we in our practice reflect a self-consciousness a clear consciousness that our practice is conditioned by the great realities of Christian doctrine? Then we must steep our souls in the gospels. For instance when Paul says you know the grace of our Lord Jesus that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that has very little meaning unless you have some acquaintance with Matthew 1 Luke 1 and 2 and John's gospel chapter 1. You know the grace of the Lord Jesus that though he was rich how rich was he? We turn to John 1 1 in the beginning was the word and the grace and the word was with God and the word was God. I begin to think of all that that means. The eternal everlasting word with God the object of the adoring wonder of all the intelligent creatures of heaven.

30:12 When I read the word became flesh and I open up the gospel records in Matthew and in Luke and I see that he came to a stinking cow stall and there a young virgin unattended by any team of doctors or midwives brings forth her firstborn and wraps him in swaddling clothes. I say it isn't right. Why should the Lord of glory be subject to such poverty? Well you see when I begin to read that statement in the epistles you know the grace of the Lord Jesus though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor. Oh the meaning it takes on when I know the facts given to me not in the epistles primarily but in the gospels.

31:15 Again Peter says you're to be like the Lord Jesus who when he was reviled did not revile again but committed his cause to him the judges righteously. Well that means very little reading it in isolation from what Peter knew. Peter had beheld the Lord Jesus when his accusers hurled all kinds of false accusations into his face and even a heathen leader marveled that he kept his peace. Who when he was reviled did not revile again.

31:50 You see Peter wrote that as an eyewitness. And when I turn to the gospel of Mark and to the accounts in Matthew and Luke and John I become as it were with Peter an eyewitness of how our Lord was taunted and buffeted and abused verbally and physically and yet as a lamb before his shearers is done so he opened not his mouth. You see my obedience to that command my submission to that directive will be far more full blown and intelligent if I have that practical directive of the epistles fleshed out with the facts of the gospels. Who when he was reviled reviled not again. And I could go through passage after passage after passage demonstrating that this is the precise relationship God intends between the gospels and the epistles. They form the factual basis of all of the instruction of the epistles. In his classic work on the progress of doctrine Bernard whom I mentioned last week says these very perceptive words and I want to read them to you.

33:13 The Christian doctrine is a doctrine concerning facts which have occurred and a person who has been manifested within the sphere of human observation. The foundation of all that is to be known of the word of life are laid in that which was seen with the eyes and heard with the ears and handled with the hands of men. 1 John 1 1 through 3 Then it is necessary for every learner that before all inferences or applications the facts themselves as mere phenomena should be rendered in the clearest light. Hence our elementary lessons are narratives of the simplest form a plain report of words and deeds easy and inartificial in the extreme in which the most stupendous events elicit no articulate expression of feeling without appearance of plan or system with scarcely a comment or reflection and a and in which a word of explanation almost startles us such as the character of the three first of those writings which form the ground and contain the material of all subsequent Christian doctrine. There is the great point

The Gospels Fuse Propositional Truth and Personal Attachment to Christ

34:41 that these accounts set before us the facts which become the foundation both of the more lofty doctrine of the epistles and the detailed ethical and practical instruction of the epistles but then finally what is the relationship of the gospels to the rest of the new testament the third strand of my answer is this now don't choke on this I'll break it down but I've got to put the meat on the table in the shape it's in then we'll cut it up if I send it to you cut up you'll wonder if it's meat or sawdust so the only way I know to be sure it's meat is to give it to you in this form then we'll break it down the gospels provide the necessary materials for the fusion between the acceptance of propositional truth and personal attachment to Christ the gospels provide the necessary materials for the fusion the bringing together of propositional truth and personal attachment to Christ now I know that's a mouthful but follow with me as I explain according to the scriptures saving religion always involves at its most irreducible minimum

36:09 two things number one the hearing and whole hearted reception of propositional truth no one can become a Christian who does not hear and hold wholeheartedly receive certain propositional truths turn to first Corinthians chapter 15 here we have the testimony of the apostle Paul under the guidance of the Holy Spirit first Corinthians 15 I make known unto you brethren the gospel which I preached unto you now notice which also you received the gospel of the Holy Spirit wherein also you stand by which also you are saved if you hold fast the word which I preached unto you except you believed in vain now what is Paul saying he is saying I'm going to go back over the gospel that I proclaimed to you the gospel you received the gospel in which you stand the gospel by which you are saved if that reception leads to a retention you are saved by that truth the hearing and the wholehearted

37:39 reception and retention of propositional truth is necessary to salvation do you see that and then he lays out the truth in propositions look at them I delivered unto you first of all that which I received that Christ died for őr sins that's a propositional truth Christ a certain individual died that's an event in his life there's an interpretation of that event for our sins furthermore it was according to the scriptures secondly and he was buried propositional truth the same one who died was placed in a tomb he was buried in all that burial means there was real death real burial propositional truth furthermore he was raised on the third day propositional truth the same Christ that went into the tomb came out of the tomb on the third day it wasn't an idea that went into the tomb the resurrection is not an idea it was a literary that hung a flesh and bones body a real flesh and bones body came out in a

39:07 tomb he says if you receive that you'll be saved refuse to receive it give it up Christianity without that he goes on to say if Christ is not raised you're yet in your sins you're damned you're hopeless you might as well end it all now Christianity involves the hearing the whole hearted reception and retention of propositional truth but involves more than that here's the second part of the irreducible minimum of saving religion follow closely now it involves the entering into and remaining in personal attachment to Jesus Christ the Lord it involves the entering into and remaining in personal attachment to Jesus Christ the Lord John 1 12 but as many as received not the propositions about his death and resurrection that isn't what the Bible says look at your Bible

40:35 John 1 12 says as many as received him to them gave he the right to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name Colossians 2 6 as you have therefore received not the propositions about him as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him his own invitation he did not say come to the propositions about me he said come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest he said him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father but by me and faith is always faith in the person of the redeemer God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son not that whosoever believes in the death of Christ it doesn't say that it says that whosoever believes into him attachment to him shall not perish but have everlasting life sirs what shall I do to be saved believe the propositions about the cross no believe into the Lord Jesus Christ and thou

42:04 shalt be saved and so there must be this entering into personal attachment to Christ and a remaining in that attachment John 15 abide in me if a man does not abide in me he's cast forth as a branch men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned not a once for all attachment to Christ if the attachment is real initially it will be an abiding attachment now if I understand anything of my Bible my friends that's the indisputable and irreducible minimum of saving religion do you see that in the scriptures now what's that all have to do with the gospels well simply this the gospels provide the necessary materials for the fusion of the acceptance of propositional truth and personal attachment to Jesus Christ you see we are not called to be attached to a person who is unknown undefined and who comes to us in a mere cloud of mysticism cross Jesus whoever he is put your faith in him for whatever reason you may desire

43:32 whatever he is I'm not asked to enter into personal attachment to an unknown Christ any more than God asked me to marry an unknown woman marriage is serious business I'm not going to pledge to love to cherish to nourish some unknown commodity I'm not going I want to know if I see a woman whom I regard worthy of that kind of sacrifice and self giving love and God does not call upon us to enter into personal attachment to an unknown Christ so what has he done he's given us the gospels the four portraits the king he says would you be married to my son consider him this is my beloved son look at him look at him in all the humiliation of his incarnation look at him in all the perfection of his development from infancy to boyhood and into manhood look at him identifying himself with sinners in the watery grave of Jordan as he is baptized look at him the mighty son of God speaking peace to troubled seas casting out demons taking as it were the hordes of hell and by the sheer omnipotence of his own person chaining the devil

45:01 and destroying his goods listen to him speaking with such power and grace that they wonder at the words that proceed from his lips listen to him as he invites the neediest of sinners to himself behold him as he receives publicans and harlots behold him as he calls rough fishermen to be his followers see him calling Matthew the publican my father says behold my son when I call you to personal attachment I do not call you to some undefined mystic Christ it is the Christ who comes in all the propositional truth that is rooted in the facts of the gospel history the other side of the coin is this I do not call you to receive mere propositional truth without the engagement of your person with his person in the gospel you are called not simply to believe that a certain man whoever he may be died for sinners was buried and rose again and if you accept the propositions you are fixed that is heresy and it is sending multitudes of evangelical Christians to hell and I use the term in quotation marks

46:30 they believe the propositional truth but there is no engagement of their person to his person you can't engage your Lord without giving up the government of your life you can't engage the Lord of glory and still be your own Lord you can't engage a bloody crucified immolated incarnate God without the humiliation of penitence and repentance and self-loathing in the presence of Golgotha and the horrors of the cross and you see what the Gospels do they provide the materials for the fusion of those two things the fusion of propositional truth and personal attachment the materials are provided in the Gospels what a privilege to have such records in our hands and to have that knowing the call of almighty God to embrace his son we may turn to the galleries of the king to see who he is may I say by way of application in closing Christianity which feeds exclusively on the epistles will have a tendency I didn't say

Balanced Christian Living: Avoiding Extremes

48:00 will inevitably listen carefully will have a tendency to produce a brand of Christianity that is doctrinaire heady and impersonal and I have seen churches that are constantly and almost exclusively feeding on the epistles so that the element of the person of Christ is not a throbbing part of their religious experience their Christianity tends to be very cerebral doctrinaire heady and impersonal on the other hand a Christianity which feeds only on the gospels will have a tendency to become sentimental mystical and doctrinally truncated when you have a congregation who feed in proper balance upon the lofty truths of the epistles who submit to the practical directives of the epistles in a context in which their minds and hearts are continually suffused with the impress of the galleries of the king there you have the most pure form of biblical Christianity where people are willing by God's grace to die

49:27 for propositions because those propositions are attached to this glorious person who has won their hearts they are willing to die for truth why? because truth is not an abstraction it's a person's you see it but their willingness to die is not the willingness of the fanatical Muslim who is willing to die for his faith it is the willingness born of an intelligent understanding of the propositions because this person died for my sins if I must die for his truth all those who take my life can do is chase me up to heaven how in the world have you heard a man like that now that language is not original with me I saw it in a tombstone in Edinburgh where some of the covenanters who were martyred there's a poem there and the phrase that stuck in my mind the first time I saw it it spoke of the prelates rage the rage of the religious leaders that chased them up to heaven chased them up to heaven and we'll never have a brand of true martyrs until we have I'm sorry a breed of true martyrs until we have those whose attachment to Jesus Christ

50:56 throbs with the intelligent comprehension of propositional truth fused welded inseparably joined to this attachment to his glorious person who gave us the most lofty propositional truths from the human side the apostle Paul and yet when you ask him for an explanation of his life he says for to me to live is Christ that's it you expect you're going to write rings and you say Paul have watched your amazing life and all of your prodigious labors now will you over the next half hour try to condense for me into half an hour your philosophy of life he says it'll take me seven seconds for to me to live is Christ end of interview now is that some kind of a mystical woozy undefined no Christ who Jesus Christ of Nazareth who was true man true natures in the one person forever Christ who lived Christ who performed miracles Christ who died Christ who rose for my justification for me to live is Christ

52:25 oppositional truth fused to personal attachment and those who are the prayer of my heart that in our study of the gospel of Mark God will do a new thing in this preacher's heart in terms of giving new dimensions by the spirit of that blessed fusion that God will do it for us as a congregation what will drive us out into this community with a passion to evangelize what will make us willing for the long haul sacrifice in our giving in our time in our praying and energies to make a mark on this generation only two things propositional truth worth dying for and a savior that we love enough to die for his sake if necessary and if God the Holy Ghost will shine on the gospel of Mark in the weeks and months to come perhaps there will be new measures of that in our experience if you are here as a person who has never seen anything beautiful in my savior my friend I pity your blinded state if you have been able to walk through the galleries of the king with your hands in your pocket and only occasionally glance and say let's get on to more

53:53 important things I pity your blinded state my friend go back to the galleries go back to those gospel records and cry to God to give you eyes to see what's really there the very glory of God shining in the face of Jesus walk up and down those galleries until the Holy Ghost makes him so precious and beautiful that you fall at his feet and say Lord Jesus I'm yours that's what it means to be a Christian and if you don't know anything about that my dear friend go to the galleries of the king cry to God to show you the loveliness of Jesus because if you don't the first time you see him for what he really is you'll see him in his terror you'll see him on his throne and then you'll know he's exactly what he claimed to be in the gospel records the judge of the world but then it's too late oh seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near God willing next week we'll take up our fifth and final question with what attitude and disposition should we come to the gospel records and then the Lord willing when we're done that we'll take up our study in the gospel of Mark itself let's pray

Closing Prayer

55:22 our father how we thank you for these galleries of our blessed king for these inspired portraits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for this factual history that is the underpinning of all of our hopes for life for death and for the world to come how we thank you for our dear and blessed and glorious Savior we thank you that the Holy Spirit has enabled us to see him in the record given in your own holy word to hear his own voice not upon the outer ear but upon the ears of our hearts calling us to himself oh holy spirit do that work today and lovingly and powerfully draw son into attachment to your dear son write your word upon our hearts receive our thanks for your presence with us may the blessings of your grace rest upon us as we leave this place may your day continue to be glorious as we seek to honor you in it through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen