Ephesians 4:7-16
Undervaluing the Ministry of the Word
Pastor Martin opens up the corporate implications of Christ's prophetic office, focusing on the first of two great dangers: undervaluing the ministry of the Word. Building on Ephesians 4 he argues that the pastor-teachers Christ gives to His church are nothing less than the appointed instruments through whom Christ Himself, as great Prophet, continues to speak to His people. To despise or trivialize the preaching of those whom He sends is to reject Christ Himself, while to recognize them as His gifts is to encounter the living Christ in the proclamation of His Word.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 10 sections · 56 min
- Christ Our Life and the Majesty of His Offices 0:03
- Ephesians 4: Christ Gives Pastor-Teachers as Gifts 4:17
- What Undervaluing the Ministry Looks Like 12:29
- John 12: To Reject His Sent Ones Is to Reject Him 16:59
- John 10 and Romans 10: Hearing the Voice of the Shepherd Through Preachers 21:18
- Recognizing Christ Present in the Ministry of the Word 27:38
- Illustration of the King and the Manual 34:17
- Christ Truly Present and Speaking in the Sermon 40:25
- Warning Against Trivialized Worship and Gospel Entertainment 46:43
- Closing Appeal and Prayer 52:39
Key Quotes
“There is not a gift that Christ in love can conceive and then form and deposit in His church, but what the human heart will abuse that gift to the dishonor of its giver.”
“If you either undervalue the gift of a standing ministry, or if you idolize the gift, you are openly, blatantly, and wickedly cutting at the very heart of Christ's rights as a prophet.”
“It is Christ coming to you in the only way He'll come to you before He brings you to Him in the day of judgment.”
“The note of authority has always marked the periods of the church's greatest blessedness. Why? Because Christ, its prophet, is being heard.”
“When Christ has a controversy with the church, you know how he shows his controversy? He withdraws the presence and power of his Spirit.”
Applications
Pastors & those called to ministry
- Do not encourage any young man into the ministry unless Christ is evidently forming him into one of His gifts — beginning with an unshakeable conviction that this book is the word of God.
All listeners
- Come to the ministry of the word with the assured confidence and conscious recognition that Christ as your prophet is present and active — this will fight off undervaluing more than anything.
- Unconverted hearer, when the preacher warns you of wrath and offers the Savior in Christ's name, know you are being addressed by Christ Himself — not by a mere mortal.
- Stop treating the sermon as dealings with a book or with a man — see beyond both to present heart-intercourse with your prophet, Christ.
- Keep music, drama, and singing groups in their place as fellowship activities — do not let them replace the heralding of the word in public worship where Christ exercises His prophetic ministry.
- Come to tonight's service saying, 'We are coming to hear our Lord' — not to hear a preacher, even a beloved one.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 95 paragraphs, roughly 56 minutes.
Christ Our Life and the Majesty of His Offices
Jesus Christ is nothing less than the very life of his people. The Apostle Paul is so bold as to use the phrase found in Colossians 3, 4, when Christ, who is our life. And since God has constituted Christ, the very life of his people,
Nothing affords the true people of God more spiritual pleasure than to feed upon Him who is their life as they see Him revealed in the Holy Scriptures. And it is just this delightful spiritual exercise which has occupied our minds and hearts each Lord's Day for the most part for a number of months as we have been feeding upon Christ Christ
both in what the Scriptures reveal concerning the mystery of His person, who He is, and the majesty of His offices, that is, how and in what capacities He accomplishes His saving work in the hearts of His people. We are presently concerned with the second of those offices, His office as a prophet, having spent
a good bit of time in the contemplation of Him as our priest, what we might call the predominant office of Christ, we have from the Word of God seen that Christ is indeed constituted a prophet as the Anointed One, Messiah, the Christ, which is what those terms mean, the Anointed One. He has been anointed not only as priest to offer an acceptable sacrifice and to intercede for His people, but as a prophet to instruct them in the mind and will of God. We've seen from the Scriptures the manner in which he exercises his prophetic office. We have considered his unique fitness to function as a prophet, and now we are drawing to the close of this meditation on his prophetic office by considering what this says to us in a practical way, both individually and corporately.
And our study in the Word of God this morning focuses upon the second of the corporate implications or demands of the prophetic office of Christ. Having seen what it means as an individual to embrace Him as my prophet, what I must resist in the way of ignorance, indifference, unbelief, and fanaticism that would rival His prophetic office, We are now concerned with what His prophetic office demands of us as a body of professed disciples. That is, what it means for us as a church to acknowledge Christ as our only and our supreme prophet. Last week we considered the first implication that which touched upon the whole issue of authority. To whom...
Shall the church subject its mind, its heart, and its will with regard to faith and practice? Well, the answer that comes from a proper understanding of the prophetic office of Christ is that the church should have its conscience bound to no other authority but that of Jesus Christ, its great prophet. And therefore, the church must resist anything
Anything that would undermine the free exercise of the authority of Christ in its midst. Now we come, as I mentioned this morning, to consider the second broad and major implication of the prophetic office of Christ as it relates to the corporate life of God's people. And it's what I am calling the issue of the ministry of the Word.
Ephesians 4: Christ Gives Pastor-Teachers as Gifts
It follows and flows out very naturally from a consideration of the matter of authority that we should now consider the implications of the prophetic office of Christ with respect to the ministry of the Word of God. It has been assumed in many statements that I have made in this series that Christ, who is still the prophet of His church, exercises that prophetic office through the exposition and application of the Word of God. Now, I've assumed that point, but I haven't proved it. Now, this morning I want to demonstrate the biblical basis for that assumption. Jesus Christ is not visibly, physically present in this congregation. But He is present. And He is present not only in the glory of His person, but in the majesty of His offices.
He is here as our priest to take our worship and through his own mediation to make it acceptable to the Father. That's why we pray and praise in Jesus' worthy name. But he is also here as our prophet, not physically present, but present as our prophet to exercise his prophetic rights over us, and he does this by the exposition and application of the Word of God. The basis for that assertion is given to us in Ephesians chapter 4, and it is that passage to which I direct your attention at the beginning of our study this morning. Ephesians chapter 4, beginning with verse 7. Having described the elementary strands of essential unity which exist in the Church of Christ,
The apostle then goes on to describe the elements of diversity within that unity. And he traces that diversity back to the activity of Christ. Verse 7. But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, and now he's going to buttress that assertion by a quotation from the Old Testament,
When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now this he ascended. What is it but that he also descended into the lower part of the earth? He that descended is the same that ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. Having made that parenthetical statement, he now comes back to the thread of thought. And he gave some, the ascended Christ, the giver of those diversity of gifts,
He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the one who has given the gifts has prescribed the end for which they are given. For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministering unto the building up of the body of Christ is till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may be no longer children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men in craftiness after the wiles of error, but speaking truth in love,
may grow up into him in all things who is the head, even Christ. Now, of course, it's not my purpose to give a detailed exposition of the passage, but certain leading thoughts are very clear on the surface of this portion of the Word of God. Whenever we see in the church the gift of a pastor-teacher, one who has been qualified by Christ, with the necessary gifts and graces for the task, one who has been directed by Christ to exercise that gift within a specific congregation, we are to look upon the presence of that as nothing less than a donation from the hand of the living Christ. Now he who has formed the gift,
He who has wisely distributed and directed the sphere of that gift's operation has also delineated the purpose for which the gift was given. And that purpose is nothing less than to strengthen the loving, knowledgeable, faith-filled attachment of believers to their Lord. You notice that emphasis.
These gifts are given to the end that the saints might be perfected unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ. Well, what does that involve? Well, it involves the unity of the faith, knowledge of the Son of God, the passing away of instability in its place, growing up into Christ in all things, being supplied by the very life of God that is in Christ. You see this strong Christological center that the great end for which the gift was conceived, prepared, and deposited is the building up of the people of God in loving, knowledgeable, faithful attachment to Jesus Christ. Now then,
As with all the gifts of God, only the Spirit can keep people from abusing such gifts. The human heart is so shot through with sin by nature, and the hearts of the people of God still so plagued by remaining corruption, that apart from the direct and powerful ministry of the Spirit, there is no gift of Christ, that will not be abused to His dishonor and to our detriment. Not a one. There is not a gift that Christ in love can conceive and then form and deposit in His church, but what the human heart will abuse that gift to the dishonor of its giver and to the crippling of the receiver.
Now you say, where in the world do we get from there to the prophetic office of Christ and the ministry of the Word? Well, hang in there and you're going to see how. In the history of the church, there have been two major abuses of the gift of Christ, the gift of pastor-teachers, those gifts that are given to open up the truth as the truth is in Jesus, that men may be more knowledgeable of Him, and being more knowledgeable, more deeply attached to Him in faith and love, and become more conformed to His blessed image. Two great abuses of the gift of Christ in a standing ministry in the church. And those abuses are, on the one hand, what I am calling the undervaluing of the gift, or on the other end of the spectrum, the idolizing of the gift.
And both of these abuses cut at the very heart of Christ's rights and activities as the prophet of his people. Now let me put it in his plain language as I know how. If you as a congregation either undervalue the gift of a standing ministry, or if you idolize the gift of a standing ministry, you are...
What Undervaluing the Ministry Looks Like
openly, blatantly, and wickedly cutting at the very heart of Christ's rights as a prophet in this congregation. Now, I don't know how to state it more bluntly than that. Now, let's consider those two abuses and the portions of the Word of God that address themselves to them. First of all, then, the undervaluing of the ministry of the Word.
the undervaluing of the ministry of the Word. Since Christ, as our prophet, ministers to us individually, as we saw several Lord's days ago, since He ministers to us personally, whenever we pick up the Scriptures and read them as the Word of Christ, Christ, as prophet, speaks to us individually in the quiet of our own closet of prayer, In the silence or in the loneliness of a walk through the woods meditating upon the Word, in the car listening to the taped edition of the New Testament that we may have, Christ is ever present with us individually as our prophet to teach us through the Word of God. Well, that being so, when a fellow believer stands, as in this place this morning, to read and then to expound the Word of God, what are we looking upon and what are we listening to?
Is it just another brother, a sinner in Adam by nature, a redeemed sinner in Christ by grace, a fellow traveler on the way to the celestial city beset with all kinds of things? indwelling sin and problems and weaknesses and declensions and departures from God, who needs the fountain open for sin and uncleanness every day as much as the average or ordinary believer. What are we listening to when one stands to open up the Word of God? Let me make it even more pertinent. As I stand here this morning, who am I in relationship to you? Is Christ your prophet? You say, yes. Yes.
Is he my prophet? Yes. Do we have equal access to him as our prophet and priest? Yes. Does he have equal access to us through his word? Yes. Well, precisely what are we to do when someone who is Christ's gift to the church, the gift being recognized as the people of God see in Christ, man the gifts and graces given by Christ, qualifying him to open up the Scriptures and to apply them, what are we looking upon? How are we to relate to that gift? Are we simply to regard him as one who may have a little bit more of the gift of the gab, who may have a little bit more mental furniture to sort of organize things and sort them out and put them in outlines, and who therefore shares his individual insights with us as individuals,
My friend, if that's your concept of the ministry, you're guilty of undervaluing the ministry of the Word and therefore cutting at the heart of the prophetic ministry of Christ. No. When a fellow believer, a fellow sinner, a fellow sinner saved by grace, an imperfectly sanctified sinner saved by grace, who with you must daily ask for cleansing and pardon of his sins, when such a sinner...
has become by the mighty work of God the Spirit that which Christ has formed into a gift, a pastor-teacher whom He then gives to His church. When such a one stands to open up the Scriptures and apply them, we are not in the presence of a mere fellow sinner saved by grace, a fellow sinner imperfectly sanctified. We have now entered the orbit of the peculiar
exercise of Christ's prophetic office in the midst of His people. We are to look upon such a one in the exercise of His ministry as the appointed instrument of Christ to bring to you the very Word of Christ in the authority of Christ and in the power of the Spirit of Christ so that Christ is really, actively and presently
John 12: To Reject His Sent Ones Is to Reject Him
being the prophet of his people. That's pretty strong stuff, Pastor. Yes, it is. But that's what the Bible forces upon us. Chapter and verse? All right. Turn, please, to the Gospel of John. John chapter 12, and the verse that you've seen before in this series, because it's a critical passage today,
a very strategic passage in the whole matter of understanding Christ's office as a prophet. In John chapter 12, we read these very sobering words. Verse 47, If any man hear my sayings and keep them not, I judge him not, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my sayings...
Hath one that judges him the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I spake not from myself, but the Father that sent me hath given me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. Now focus your eyes upon this part of verse 48. He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my sayings. Here our Lord explains what it means...
To refuse to embrace his sayings. It means, in essence, we reject him. Why? Because he says them how? He explains in verse 49. He says them as God's prophet. You see, you cannot have dealings with him apart from his offices. So he says, to reject my sayings is to reject me, because I am the sent of God who speaks the words of God. Now, my question is this.
Is this sin possible only if you happen to live in the days when our Lord was here on the earth? He says, he that rejecteth me and receiveth not my sayings. Well, did you have to be alive when he actually spoke to be guilty of that sin? Well, the answer is obvious. Of course not. Well, how then can I hear his words so as to embrace the more reject them and in so embracing them or rejecting them, embrace or reject Him? Well, He answers that for us in the very next chapter. In chapter 13 and in verse 20, Verily, verily, I say unto you, here is one of those statements of Christ that He Himself takes a highlighter. He takes a red pencil and underlines them. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth
Whomsoever I send receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me. Wherefore, when he ascended on high, he gave gifts unto men, and he gave gifts unto pastors and teachers, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me. And the comments of Lenski, the Lutheran commentator, are right on target when he says the statement of this text is entirely general. It includes every person sent by Jesus and every person receiving one thus sent.
It thus extends to all future ages and includes every true witness of Jesus and preacher of the gospel and His reception as such by every true believer. You see, He doesn't say, whoever receives whoever I send, it is like receiving me. No. No.
John 10 and Romans 10: Hearing the Voice of the Shepherd Through Preachers
He says, I am received or rejected in the reception or rejection of those whom I send. Now then, perhaps several other texts in John will take on new richness. Turn back to John 10, where Jesus says, The only way for anyone ever to be saved is to hear His voice.
Does that mean that there is no salvation once they saw Him ascend in clouds and the angels attending Him? John 10 and verse 16. Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and they shall become one flock, one shepherd.
How are they going to hear His voice? He's gone back to heaven. Ah, but He is not silent as the great prophet of His church. He speaks. And He does not speak by audible voices, but He speaks by those whom He gives to His church as His messengers. But it is Christ Himself that speaks by them and with them.
Though they claim no special direct inspiration as did the prophets. Though they do not claim some super spiritual out... No, no! But we must not bleed these words of their obvious force. No one is saved unless he hears the voice of Christ. That's what he says. It's only when they hear my voice that they become part of the one flock under the rule of...
Of the one shepherd. Verse 27, the same emphasis is given. My sheep continually hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Well, how do the sheep of Christ scattered through the ends of the earth hear His voice? Well, you say they hear His voice when they read the Scriptures. Christ speaks. Yes, He does. But there is another dimension and context in which they hear His voice. He that receiveth whomsoever I send
Receiveth me. They hear his voice. When in the church they recognize the gifts of Christ. Formed and deposited by Christ. To exercise the gift given. To what end? Not that they may gather a following to themselves. But that they may point them to the great prophet. Who alone is worthy of their faith. Their homage. And of their obedience.
Turn to Romans 10 for another example of this very principle. In Romans chapter 10, we have that wonderful gospel promise in verse 13. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, then the question is, can you call upon an unknown Lord? So Paul picks it up.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? You see, calling is, as it were, the first cry of faith being born in the heart. If I believe I am a sinner and Christ is the only Savior, I will call upon Him, Son of David, have mercy on me. I cannot call in a Christ that I am not sure exists or concerning whom I have heard nothing. How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
Then he presses the question back another step. How shall they believe in him, now notice, whom they have not heard? If you have a translation that says, how shall they believe in him of whom or from whom, that's not proper. The proper rendering of the original language is as we have it in the ASV. How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard?
The object of faith is the very voice that speaks to them. Well, how in the world does Christ speak to them? Next phrase. How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? You see what happens? The sent ones, those who are recognized as possessing gifts and graces from the head of the church...
those thus recognized and sent by the Lord through His church, they become the very ones through whom the voice of Christ is heard. And when sinners hear the gospel preached by fellow redeemed sinners, they are not hearing the voice of a fellow mortal, though they are, they aren't. They are hearing the voice of the great shepherd who says, Other sheep I have, them also I must bring. They shall hear my voice.
And there shall be one fold, one shepherd. Now, do you see what a terrible thing it is to undervalue the ministry of the Word of God? Do you see what a terrible thing it is to undervalue the ministry of the Word? I'm not talking about undervaluing the ranting and ravings of self-appointed prophets who spin out nothing but the stuff of their own imaginations.
But I'm talking about true servants of Christ who assiduously, who prayerfully and carefully, having subjected themselves to the disciplines necessary to acquire the tools of accurate exegesis, who subject themselves to the constant discipline of laying out what God has said in His Word. This is what I mean when I talk about the sent ones, the servants of Christ.
Recognizing Christ Present in the Ministry of the Word
Dear people of God, I know a few things more calculated to overcome and to prevent this wickedness of undervaluing the ministry of the Word, thereby casting aspersions upon and undercutting the exercise of the prophetic ministry of Christ. I know a few things more calculated to fight against this than the assured confidence and conscious recognition
that Christ as our prophet is present and active in the ministry of the Word of God. I know of nothing that will prevent it more than this assured confidence and conscious recognition that Christ as our prophet is present and active in the ministry of the Word.
if this would come home to the heart of some of you unconverted men and women, boys and girls, when this preacher, when Pastor Fisher, when Mr. Garlington, when anyone who stands in this pulpit and no one stands here whom we do not have reason to believe is a sent one of Christ. This pulpit is jealously guarded, not in terms of style of gift, breadth of gift, but validity of claim to the scent of Christ. And when such a one stands here and looks you in the eye, unconverted man, woman, boy or girl, and in the name of Christ, on the basis of the Word of Christ, tells you your frightening position, that as an unconverted man you are under condemnation. As an unconverted man or woman, the wrath of God hangs over your head.
As impenitent and unbelieving, you're moving fast to the place of outer darkness and weeping and wailing. And when such people in the name and by the word of Christ tell you that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that His Son became the object of the Father's wrath and anger, and there was upon that cross that frightening forsakenness, the abandonment into the abyss,
But the curse against human sin, and when on that basis this sent one or any other sent one pleads with you and commands you to repent and believe, what are you listening to? My friend, you are not listening to a fellow mortal alone. You're not listening to someone who's got a job to do. It is Christ coming to you in the only way He'll come to you.
before He brings you to Him in the day of judgment. There is no other way that Christ will come to you. It's not this preacher coming to you. They shall hear my voice. When those appeals to repent, to believe, to flee to Christ, to embrace Him,
when they are regarded either with indifference or with open hostility. My friend, listen, Jesus said, He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words. That's what you're doing, rejecting Him, not me. I don't get an increase of salary if you repent and believe the gospel. I don't go home and find my gospel rifle and cut a niche in it and say, We've got another one.
It's in His name, my friend, that you're exhorted to repent and to believe. And if the Word of Christ, coming through the servants and sent ones of Christ, will not prevail upon you to repent and believe, Jesus said it's that very Word that will consign you to hell in the last day. The child of God Dear fellow believers, this has wonderful as well as comforting implications for us. You see, one of our great struggles as believers is that being still in the flesh, we're so much in contact with the world that we see and touch and feel and hear, that it's so difficult to believe that the unseen world is not only as real but more real. Isn't that our great tension?
Paul expresses it in 2 Corinthians 4, 18. We look not on the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen. The things that are seen are temporal. Things that are not seen are eternal. Now, when you come to a service like this, what do you see? Well, when the ministry of the Word begins, you see a pulpit. You see a preacher. You see an object that you call your Bible. With most of us, it's a black leather-covered book. Other of us have more exotic colors. But that's something that can be seen and touched.
And here's one of our problems. When we come to the ministry of the Word, so often we drift into this unscriptural method of thinking that we are now dealing with the words of a book called the Bible. Oh yes, we call it the Word of God. But it is an entity out here in itself. Or we're listening to the preacher trying to follow his line of argument, figure out what he means by that word and this word. We're trying to get hold of what the preacher is saying. And you know what happens?
We never rise above our dealings with what is seen in the ministry of the Word. Our Bibles, the words therein, the preacher who's trying to open them up, and we miss this glorious reality that when those words are being opened up, they're not the words of a Bible called the Word of God, some detached entity out there hung on a skyhook.
Did not Jesus say where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst? Did he say that? Did he mean that? That just poetic stuff? No, he's here. The only thing he doesn't have here is his physical body. Everything else is here. They say, come on. Yes, he's here. Well, who is he? He's our great prophet, our great priest.
Illustration of the King and the Manual
And our great King, well how is He here as our priest? We come and when I confessed sin and confessed it using the plural pronoun, Lord, we come, we acknowledge. Your heart ran out, I trust, with mine. And you acknowledge Christ to be the priest present, to take our sins and cleanse them, to take our worship and present it acceptably to the Father. Oh, if we believe Christ is present as our prophet, What a radical transformation it makes in this whole matter of the ministry of the Word. We see beyond the book in our hands. We see beyond the instrument that stands before us, the sent one, the gift of Christ. And as really as though He were here physically, and we could do like Mary, and sit at His feet and look upon the very body which had the mouth from which the words came,
We will say with new conviction as we sang in the words of that hymn before the preaching, Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word, we are gathered all before Thee.
though we do not become oblivious in some kind of mystic transport, that there's a particular preacher with a particular style and a particular personality and a particular way of approaching preaching. No, no, no. God doesn't expect us to be inhuman and to negate all of that, but we see beyond that and through that until our hearts run out every time the Word is preached and we have spiritual heart intercourse with Christ our Prophet
And then we are what? We are built up in Him. Rooted and grounded in Him. I feel frustrated trying to convey it. Let me make a stab with an illustration. Imagine a kingdom ruled by a loving, gracious, wise, and just king. A king so full of love and grace...
So burning in his passion for justice that he desires that all his subjects throughout his kingdom know his loving designs, his purposes, and his will for them. But he can't be present in every little hamlet in every little town. So you know what he does? He calls some men out of every hamlet in every town, brings them in for a time of special preparation.
in which he's going to teach them what he means by his laws and his will and the unfolding of his designs and purposes for all the subjects of his kingdom. Then he gives them a special commission to go back among their fellow countrymen and to do what? Not to spin out the stuff of their own ideas as to how the kingdom should be run, what the king is like, what the king desires, how his love will be manifested, how his provisions will be evident. No, no. They have one commission.
to take this manual in which the king has outlined all of the issues into which he introduced them by person, in a personal way, and then for the rest of their days to gather the people once a week and to unfold a portion of the king's mind and heart and will for his people. Now then, when such a messenger calls the people together, what does he do? Well, the first thing he makes plain is that he's not there.
by his own choice. Nor is he there in his own name or authority, that he's there in the name, as it were, in the spirit of the King. And if you were a wise, a perceptive subject, every time that fellow citizen would stand to open up that manual and unfold the love and the grace and the designs and purposes and provisions of the King, you would see beyond that fellow citizen who maybe grew up next door to you. He's your buddy. You wrestled with him. You played ball with him. You fought with him. But when he stands to open up that manual, you say, what do I see? I see the heart of my king is in this hamlet. That's why he took this man, brought him into his own presence. That's why he went to the pains of inscribing his mind and his thought in the book. It's because the king's heart
Though his body cannot be here in this hamlet, his heart is here. His heart is to me. And now my king, my king is going to speak to me. And as that fellow citizen would open up the mind and will and designs of the king, every loyal subject would have delightful communion with that king with one thing missing, his body. You get the picture? Now,
Carry it over into the kingdom of God with one great big plus. The king is only a mortal, only a man. He is not omniscient. Want a big word? He is not ubiquitous. He cannot fill all his kingdom with his person. But thank God, my prophet, my priest, fills heaven and earth.
He can say to His people, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the earth. Granted, His body is at a specific place. It has boundaries of space somewhere in the universe of God. But the Spirit of our great Redeemer, not the Spirit in the sense as the effusion of what He is in the rest, but His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is present.
Christ Truly Present and Speaking in the Sermon
Oh, dear people, I can't make this real, and I feel the frustration of even trying this morning. But may God, the Holy Spirit, open the eyes of your understanding. Jesus Christ is really here. As He was upon the shores of Galilee. We just don't have His body. That's all. I am with you. I will come.
Make my abode with you. And he says that's better than what you had when you had me in the days of my flesh. He says, I told you I was going away and you're sad. He said, if you only knew what that's going to result in, you'd be clicking your heels for joy. Because where you had my presence externally and temporally, you will have it internally and eternally. Now, can that revolutionize how you think about the ministry of the Word?
You're coming to deal with Christ. With your great prophet. You wonder why we don't talk about preaching under the word sharing? I'll tell you, this is why. Christ doesn't come to share with people. You got a little thing you want to share with me? No, I got a little thing I want to share with you. You share with me, I share with you. What a frightening thing when the church has sharers.
How does Christ exercise His prophetic rights? He says, I am truth. And all His ambassadors better speak with the same authority. Some will speak with more volume than others. That's not the issue. Some will speak with their hands and their feet and their toes as well as their mouth. That's not the issue. The issue is this. When the Word of God is opened by a gift of Christ to the church,
It is not a fellow mortal sharing his ideas. It is Christ imposing in grace his will on his church. And that's why the note of authority has always marked the periods of the church's greatest blessedness. Why? Because Christ, its prophet, is being heard.
And a quote from another servant of God by way of application, speaking of the Ephesians 4 passage, he says, We could not exalt more highly the ministry of the Word than by attributing to it this effect. What effect? That it's the means of building up the people of God into deeper knowledge and faith and love with Christ or to Christ.
Or what higher work can there be to build up the church that it may reach its perfection? They, therefore, are insane who, neglecting this means, hope to be perfect in Christ, as in the case with fanatics who pretend to secret revelations of the Spirit, and the proud who content themselves with the private reading of the Scripture and imagine they do not need the ministry of the church. If Christ has appointed the ministry for the edification of His body, it is vain to expect that end to be accomplished in any other way. Now, I know that place is an awesome responsibility upon those of us who claim to be sent of Christ. And God knows some of us feel it. We do not feel it as we ought, but we feel it. In fact, we feel it
with something I know not what else to call but a haunting dread. If I am Christ's gift to His church, then I am that gift in reality only so far as I declare His mind and His will. And that means I must spare no pains to ascertain His mind and will in Scripture. I must spare no pains in the disciplines necessary to make that which I've discovered of His will and mind in the Word clear and pointed and forceful to the minds of the hearers. I must spare no pains to be done with everything that could be called trifling, everything that would in any way serve to detract from the glory of the great prophet of the church.
My friends, do you undervalue the ministry of the Word? Or do you regard it to be what it is in reality? A present, real, bona fide, any other term you want to use, exercise of the living prophet of the church, Christ Himself. Now I had hoped to get to the second great error, but we'll just leave that for another time.
the idolizing of the ministry of the Word. And I know there is such a sin, and I want to open it up. What it is, we'll see it in Scripture. I want to give warnings. But my friends, let's pause with this one issue. If this is the one issue that Christ would bring to bear upon our consciences this morning, let us then grapple with that issue. Do I recognize Christ as the living prophet of the church, speaking through the stated ministry of the church? Do I?
What about you, unconverted man or woman? Has it ever dawned upon you that all of your refusals of the entreaties of this pulpit are refusals of Christ? Some of you say, oh, I'd love to be saved if only the Lord would speak my name. My friend, whosoever shall call, he need not speak your name. Oh, you say it would help if he did. Well, if he said...
Warning Against Trivialized Worship and Gospel Entertainment
Sue, Harry, Pete, John, I call you. How would you know he wasn't talking about some other Pete, Sue, Harry, or John? If he said my last name too, well, I'm sure there's somebody else with the same last name. He's made it more certain when he says him that comes. Are you a him or a her? Yes. Will you come and you have the word that you'll be welcome? I will in no wise cast out. Oh, dear friend, your prophet will not lie.
And dear people of God, if we have some spiritual sensitivity to this, it will not only affect the way we come to the preaching of the Word, and we'll open up more of that in another heading, it will not only help us to realize that we're having present dealings with Christ, but do you see what it will do in giving us a biblical view of preaching? What young men amongst us will we encourage to go into the ministry? Not any old Tom, Dick, and Harry that's got the gift of gab can go through our academy or some other seminary and acquire a few facts of church history and biblical languages and exegesis and all the rest. No, sir. We'll encourage no one unless we have reason to believe that the head of the church is forming him into one of his gifts. And one of the first indications will be that he has given by Christ an unshakable gift
that this book is the Word of God. And if a man doesn't have that, drive him out of the ministry in the name of Christ. For his doubts will undermine the authority of the blessed Son of God. One of the indications will be that a man is done with playing, done with laziness, done with inordinate TV watching, done with even innocent past
What a task he has to penetrate the mind of the great prophet in his words. He gives himself to laboring in the word and in doctrine. You'll recognize a true ministry when you see those things begin to be manifested in the heart and life of a man. And then you'll see that the head of the church is giving him some facility of utterance. Christ becomes...
a precious prophet to many, to whom he does not give the gift of utterance. And a man will not be Christ's mouthpiece unless he is given some gift of utterance, that men and women will recognize the voice of the great prophet in the voice of his humble servant. Do you see how this has implications in terms of the ministry? You say, well, Pastor Mark, why don't we have singing groups in? There are some good ones, some nice, my friends, to have an evening of entertainment and have singing groups in may be perfectly legitimate. But Christ the prophet has ordained to edify His church by the speaking of the truth in love. By those whom He has sent, and there's not a word in Ephesians 4 that He sent guitar twangers and singers to edify the church.
He ascended on high. He gave apostles, speakers of truth, prophets, speakers of truth, evangelists, speakers of truth, pastors and teachers, speakers and administrators of truth. Not dancers, actors, singers, clowns, funny guys. I said, Pastor Martin, there you go, getting vehement again. Yes, dear friends, I'm vehement. I'm vehement.
Because it is an affront upon the prophetic ministry of Christ. Are you saying there's no place for music? Of course not. I'm delighted to hear that groups gather in homes with their guitars and pianos and sing together for the hours. I'm delighted in that. Wonderful. It's a wonderful means of edification if it's kept within the bounds of Scripture. But we're talking about how Christ exercised His prophetic ministry in the church.
That's the one thing I'm talking about this morning. Nothing else. And what must Christ feel when in place of men full of the Spirit, filled with the Word, disciplined in exegesis and in preaching and application in place of such men filling the pulpits and proclaiming the Word? Public worship is filled up with little ditties
And with foot-tapping songs. And with gospel drama. What must the great prophet of the church feel? I believe he would say, as he says to some of the churches in the book of the Revelation, I have somewhat against them. And the moment anything like that intrudes in this place, he will have somewhat against us. And when Christ has a controversy with the church, you know how he shows his controversy? He withdraws the presence and power of his people.
And then when he does that, friends, let's pack up and go home. We've had it. Well, there are many other implications. Time will not permit to draw them out. I trust God will bear down upon our hearts as a church with the tremendous implications of acknowledging Christ to be our supreme, our only, and thank God, our ever-present prophet.
Closing Appeal and Prayer
Oh, that it will make a difference when we come to the ministry of the Word tonight. We're coming to hear our Lord. Oh, that exalt to preach. No, there's few things that will humble a man of God more and put holy dread in him than to preach to people like that. Because the onus is upon him not to handle the Word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth to herald the message of God.
Let us pray. Oh, our Father, we thank You for the livingness of our Lord Jesus Christ. We praise You that He is no prophet in name only. We thank You that He is not a prophet whose ministry is bound by the past.
We worship and adore and magnify Him as our prophet in this very hour, speaking to us through His own infallible Word and impressing that Word upon us by His Spirit. Oh, may this church, as long as it exists upon the face of the earth, be one where Christ is known and loved and honored, not only as the only priest,
but as the only and the supreme prophet. O God, deliver us as a people from the sin of undervaluing the stated ministry of the Word. Give us to see the glory of this provision. We thank You for Your loving foresight. O blessed Lord, we thank You that You've deposited Your mind and will in a book.
And we thank you that you lay your hand upon men and set them apart and take them into the secrets of your mind and heart. And then you lay your hand upon them to go and to proclaim to fellow mortals what you have revealed. Oh, blessed Lord, we thank you. May we as a congregation know something new of what it is to gather to you when we gather in our public stated faith.
places, and times of worship. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and gather up all of the unexpressed yearnings of our hearts and be glorified both in the building up and in the conversion of men and women, boys and girls in this place today. And for this we shall be eternally grateful. Hear our prayer. Be glorified in the answer to it. Amen.
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
The risen Christ gives pastor-teachers as gifts to His church for the building up of the body
Reception or rejection of Christ's words is reception or rejection of Christ Himself
Christ is heard through the preacher He sends; faith comes by hearing
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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