The Enunciation of God's Changeless Standard #3

Opening Prayer and Sermon Context

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, January 28, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. It is a wonderful thing to have the manifold encouragements of the Word of God, that God never wearies of His people coming to Him repeatedly in prayer, so long as their coming is an expression of genuine need and of confidence in Him. Again, God is sick and tired of ritualistic worship. He complains against it through the prophets.

0:39 Our Lord Jesus condemns it, but nowhere does God ever discourage the people of God in their felt need from coming to Him again and again and again. So we come to Him again, as we've already sought Him several times. Let us again pray for the help of the Spirit of God as we come to the Word. Our Father, we are.

1:03 We are emboldened to come again. We trust with no thought that is heathenish, thinking that we shall be heard because of our much speaking, as though our words would somehow be a battering ram to knock down doors of unconcern in your heart and a lack of desire to bless us. But we come because, at least in some little measure, we have come to know, experience, that without the aid of your Spirit we are utterly unable either to speak your word as we ought, to understand and to receive it as we ought. And so, in our corporate, felt sense of need, we call upon you. Come to us, O God, with every needed dimension of grace and power by the Spirit's ministry, illuminating, convicting, persuading, O Lord, come and meet us in the ministry of the Word, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Now those of you who were here this morning, which takes in most of you, there are some that I see who were not here this morning, but you who were will know that I acknowledged at the end of the exposition

2:30 that I ran out of time to make what, to me, were some very vital applications, that I ran out of time to make what, to me, were some very vital applications, of the truth that we considered. And so tonight what I propose to do is to preach the applications which I was unable to preach because of the constraints of time. And if some of you are wondering, well, Pastor, after preaching for 40 plus years, surely you ought to know when you prepare a sermon how long it's going to take to preach it. No, I don't.

3:02 And the longer I preach, the less I am confident that I know, because I see things up here that you don't see. I became aware just a few minutes before the service that God had put in our midst, not a few, people that as far as I know had no acquaintance with the gospel. So things that in my notes would have taken just a minute to say, I'm talking to raw pagans and I may never have a chance to face them again. And I will answer to God for whether or not my hands are clean of their blood.

3:32 Do you wonder why I simplified things and, quote, dumbed them down very simply at times? I had in my crosshairs some raw, live sinners that God had brought to this service. And then as one seeks to open up the truth, often the heart of the preacher has expanded this much in his study. And in the living presence of God in preaching, it expands far beyond what it did.

3:57 And with that expansion comes a fluency of utterance that cannot be precast in one's notes. So one of these days, in a less formal setting, I may want to talk to you and say secrets that only preachers know and let you in on some of the trade secrets. But that, at least in brief, is I hope not a self-justification but an explanation as to why these things occur. So with a very brief review, and I mean brief, we're going to plunge in to the matters of the application of what we considered this morning.

Review of the Church's Commitments and the Gospel's Role

4:33 Now in our study of living together in the Father's house, opening up biblical truths contained and codified in our church constitution, we have come to that part in the opening up of this theme in which we're considering how the purpose of the church, which is to glorify God, will be continually pursued only as the people of God have certain commitments. And those commitments are identified in our constitution and thankfully they reflect biblical perspectives. They are the commitment, first of all, to enunciate God's changeless standard of right and wrong. It is a commitment to the proclamation of God's changeless method of making sinners right with himself. And it is a commitment to the preservation of the body of revealed apostolic truth. Last Lord's Day evening, I opened up the first of that trilogy seeking to identify what is God's changeless standard of right and wrong, namely his moral law, and the necessity for enunciating that standard or the biblical use of the law. Then this morning, we took up the second strand, why there must be a commitment to the proclamation

5:58 of the glorious gospel of his grace, that gospel which alone is the method by which God makes sinners right with himself. And we followed the track laid by the Bible's answer to three simple questions. Where does the Bible assert that the gospel alone resolves man's greatest dilemma, i.e., the dilemma of how God can be just and holy and righteous and do anything other than righteously damn sinful men? Then the second question, from the scriptures, what is the essence of the content of this gospel? And I simply reminded you with but little fleshing out of what we considered some weeks ago, the gospel is a declaration of what God has done in Christ to resolve this dilemma, and a royal, gracious summons from the throne of Christ to repent and to believe the gospel. And then we began to follow the track of question number three, what does all of this say to us?

7:09 And when I began to make the application to the unconverted and realized that I had perhaps more unconverted people, most likely present, than were there in my mind and heart when I was preparing, and who most likely were much more ignorant than the regular unconverted hearers who sit in this place, I exhausted the time and myself seeking to plead with sinners to repent and to believe the gospel. So now we come to letter B under question three. What's all this say to us? Letter A in my notes was to the unsaved.

Exhortation 1: Acquire a Biblically Informed Grasp of the Gospel

7:48 Letter B, what does all this say to us as the people of God? And I have four words of exhortation. And before some of you who took notes when I just announced ahead tell me that I've changed the wording, I'll tell you, yes, I have. As I reflected on the wording, I felt things could be stated more accurately and precisely, and I hope with greater stickability, and so I bring you these four words of exhortation which are the application of what we considered in the exposition of Scripture this morning.

8:22 In the light of the fact that we as a church, are committed to the proclamation of that gospel, which alone resolves the great dilemma of man in his sin and God in his holiness, what does all of this say to us as the people of God? Well, let me set before you these four lines of exhortation. Number one, this is to you personally as a member of Trinity Church, determined to acquire for yourself, a biblically informed grasp on the essential elements of the gospel. Determined to acquire for yourself a biblically informed grasp upon the essential elements of the gospel. In other words, if you as part of this church have a genuine commitment to the proclamation of the gospel, of the grace of God, then surely you will want to have for yourself, stored up in your mind and heart and ready upon your lips, a biblically informed grasp on the essential elements of that gospel. Writing to ordinary believers in the epistle to the Hebrews,

9:48 we learn that God does expect ordinary church members to mature to the place where they can be the teachers of others. Now this does not negate Christ's special work in gifting men whom he gives as pastors and teachers, Ephesians 4.11, but note the language of Hebrews 5, verse 11 and following. With respect to this man Melchizedek, the writer says, of whom we have many things to say and hard of interpretation, seeing you are become dull of hearing.

10:23 For when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you have need again that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God. What's the assumption in this text? The assumption in this text is that with the passing of time, believers ought to acquire a grasp upon the truth that will enable them to convey that truth to others. And he says, when by reason of time you ought to be something, you are not.

11:01 And he blames them for their lack of ability to teach others. Now that's the principle. Sitting under any ministry that is biblical, any ministry that is committed to the proclamation of the gospel, sitting under a consecutive expository ministry, a ministry that takes up the great themes of the Bible, the gospel will percolate through the entirety of that ministry. And sitting under that ministry, there ought not only to be the absorption of the major elements of the gospel, but there ought to be a motivation to determine, to acquire for oneself a biblically informed grasp on the essential elements of the gospel. Likewise, in 1 Peter 3 and verse 15, Peter, writing to ordinary believers, says, sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord, being ready always to give answer to every man that asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear. We're to be in a state of readiness. Christ sanctified as Lord in our hearts, living out our lives under the Lordship of Christ in the power of the Spirit,

12:28 ready not only as to disposition to give answer to everyone who asks, but as to having a grasp upon the essential elements of the gospel. Someone says, why is it that nothing seems to get you down? You can rejoice when the world is coming down, coming down around you. You seem to have a substructure of joy and peace that I know nothing about.

12:55 Where did you get it? And you say, well, that's the fruit of the gospel. And then the $64 question comes, what is the gospel? What do you say then?

13:06 What do you say? Can you say, give me five minutes, give me ten minutes, and I will give you the essential elements of the gospel. Then in your mind you think, what is the backdrop of the gospel, men or sinners? And you've got three texts of scripture to quote, word perfect, tell them where it is.

13:27 Then you say, it's a statement of those wonderful indicatives, and you've got three texts, four texts, five texts, chapter and verse, no Bible in hand, no New Testament, no notes. You have a grasp upon the essential elements of the gospel. And then you can articulate those magisterial imperatives. And you've got a text or two on repentance, and a text or two on faith, and you can quote them.

13:58 When Peter wrote these words, when the writer to the Hebrews wrote the words, none of the new covenant communities had Bibles. And if they are obligated with the passing of time to be able to teach, that means the stuff is in their heart and in their heads and ready upon their lips without a book, without a tract, no Trinity book service, no banner of truth, no focused publications. Dear people of God, this is our great responsibility. And it won't come unless you determine to acquire for yourselves a biblically informed grasp on the essential elements of the gospel. The tools available to you are manifold. Take the heads of a sermon that defines the essential elements. Memorize them.

14:56 Memorize the verses. Absorb them. Make them part of your very spiritual bloodstream. Take a booklet like Ultimate Questions.

15:06 Read it over and over again. Master the structure of the elements of the gospel as set forth so clearly and simply and logically and cogently by Mr. Blanchard. Take a book like Will Metzger's To Tell the Truth.

15:23 Take the section where he gives a comprehensive but basic treatment of the elements of the gospel and say, it is time I didn't have to just pass out a book in every situation or say, come along with me to church. That's wonderful. But the time has come when many of us ought to be further along than that. And it won't just happen.

15:48 There must be this determination to acquire for oneself a biblically informed grasp on the essential elements of the gospel. Without this, you will be tentative in your efforts to communicate the gospel. We say that if the purpose of the church to glorify the God of the scriptures is to be maintained, one of the ways is by our commitment, not only to enunciate God's changeless standard of right and wrong, the proper use of the law, but the proclamation of the glorious gospel of His grace. You will always be tentative if you do not have a grasp upon those essential elements. You will be fearful that you'll get into uncharted waters. And though our confidence is never in ourselves, there is, according to Peter's language, a consciousness that I stand ready to give answer to everyone who asks a reason of the hope that is in me. Without this, you will be tentative in communicating the gospel.

16:58 Furthermore, you will not be discerning as to whether what you hear is indeed the biblical gospel. Hear me, younger generation. No individual church, no denomination, no fellowship of churches, went from the throbbing, living, pulsating power of a climate of vigorous biblical gospel preaching and living into the dead, empty, hollow, shallow, God-disgusting nonsense of liberalism overnight. It started when the outer bulwarks of the gospel began to erode through neglect and through lack of discernment in the pew. You hold the key to the perpetuation of truth in this place. That some smooth-talking, lovely, nice guy gets in this pulpit, gets into leadership, and has his subtle, smooth, fair ways as Paul speaks by this kind of speech, beguiling, by fair and persuasive speech, beguiles the simple. You need to have a discernment that is rooted in your personal grasp on the elements of the gospel so that when something comes into your mind

18:27 there's a grid, a biblical grid. And something that's not biblical gets stuck in that grid and you say, no, something's wrong. And you're not going to be silent about it. You're not going to be nasty.

18:40 You're going to approach it in a gracious, biblically ordered way, but you will not sit there and allow yourselves, like the frog in the pot, to be boiled to death. You know the thing about the frog in the pot. Apparently if you put a frog in a pot of water, cold water, and just gradually raise the heat, you biologists can tell me whether this is a fairy story, I'm told this is true, that he so adapts, if you raise the heat slowly, he'll eventually allow himself to be boiled to death. Don't be the frog in the pot.

19:15 Error seldom comes in like a blow torch on a piece of ice. It comes just gradually. Turn the burner up. A little more, a little more, a little more.

19:27 Tolerance is lowered until someone who lives long enough or reads what a church once was say, how in the name of all rationality could a place that was once such a bastion of truth be a sinkhole of the stinking, foul, rotten stuff of liberalism? Mr. Burkett knows what I'm thinking about. You walk the campus of Princeton University and say Warfield, Jonathan Edwards, Davies, the Hodges, men who sanctified thinking and expression of the Christian faith feeds us to this day. How can they hire, as they did in the last couple of years, one of the most radical sociologists in all the world? Advocating euthanasia and a lot of other horrific things. How can they do it?

20:30 The two were content to listen but too lazy to discipline themselves to acquire a grasp upon the essential elements of the truth. And I won't be here forever to state these things. Dear rising generations, hear me. Don't let it float away.

20:55 Turn around your head. Discipline yourselves until it becomes the stuff and fiber of your very soul. Exhortation number two. Say, Pastor, you're getting excited.

Exhortation 2: Remain Tethered to the Truth of the Gospel

21:10 Yes, I am, folks. This is life and death stuff. If we're to continue to glorify the God of the Scriptures as a congregation, our commitment to the proclamation of the gospel will only be continued if we not only determine to acquire for ourselves a biblically informed grasp on the essential content of the gospel. But here's exhortation number two.

21:38 Determine to remain tethered to the truth of the gospel. Determine to remain tethered to the truth of the gospel. Now at first, this may sound like a repetition veiled with different words, but it isn't and I hope to explain it. Pastor Smith said to be tethered is to be tamed.

22:01 That's right. The dictionary definition of a tether is a rope or chain fastened to an animal so as to keep it within certain bounds. And when an animal is tethered, he is chained not to hinder mobility, but to restrict it within a certain boundary. I remember one time being in a farm home when I was in the traveling ministry and I marveled at their closely cropped beautiful lawn.

22:31 You know how they kept their lawn beautiful? They tethered a goat to a post and they would lengthen or shorten the length of that tether and eventually he just kept that grass clipped down at the level at which goats like to chew grass. He was tethered. He could only go as far as the chain or the rope allowed him.

22:48 Well, in a very real sense, when you get converted, God tethers you to the gospel where once the gospel was here and you were here and your life roamed all over the way to the gospel and you were here and your life roamed all over the wastelands of personal self-centered interest and the indulgence of your passions and your lusts. When God in grace comes to get you, among other things, he tethers you to the gospel. I want you to look at Romans 6. A different concept is used and I thought of jettisoning the concept of tether for this one but I said no, I'd rather bring this under the shadow of tethering.

23:25 In Romans 6, the apostle is teaching that the assumption or the logic of the gospel is the devil that says since salvation is all of grace and where sin abounds grace does much more abound therefore let's sin more that we may magnify grace more and he's proving in this chapter that that is the devil's logic that there's something in the very nature of salvation that precludes that horrible conclusion. So then, verse 15 of chapter 6, what then? Shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? God forbid.

23:58 Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves to obedience his servants you are whom you obey whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness but thanks be to God that whereas you were the slaves of sin you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching where unto you were delivered. It's a beautiful description. Conversion is likened here to the mighty power of God delivering a hitherto sin practicing sin bound child of Adam delivering him to the form of the gospel. God casts us into the mold of the gospel.

24:40 The gospel proclaims the grand indicatives. Christ died for sinners. Christ has been raised. Christ is exalted.

24:49 Christ stands ready to give us his righteousness and by his power to break sin's dominion to make us his willing bond slaves to live to live in the power of his spirit unto righteousness and he says Paul says that when we are saved we give thanks to God that he casts us into the mold of the gospel so that what the gospel promises and what the gospel effects in sinners is true of us. We become gospel molded people. Now change the industry from gospel molded people to the gospel molded people. Now if we are to remain a people committed to the proclamation of the gospel of grace we must individually determine to remain a people committed to the proclamation of the gospel of grace. We must individually determine to remain a people determined to remain tethered to the gospel. Now I want you to look at three passages of scripture that are very appropriate with respect to this exhortation. Galatians chapter 1.

26:16 What happened to the Galatians? Paul and others preached to them. They became tethered to the gospel. Along came the Judaizers whom we described the Pauline punctuation.

26:32 In answer to the question of all questions how do sinful men become right with a holy and just God? Paul's answer was in Christ alone by faith alone period. And they came along and scrubbed out the alone in Christ by faith comma the gospel. And notice how Paul describes it in chapter 1 in verse 6.

27:05 I marvel that you are so quickly removing now notice from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel. I marvel you are so quickly removing from him unto a different gospel. What's Paul's assumption? His assumption is that in embracing the gospel we are tethered to Christ and to the God who calls us through the gospel.

27:45 And if we give up the gospel become untethered from the gospel we become untethered from Christ and from God. The gospel declares me. Christ in the gospel is the only way to God. And in embracing the gospel and the Christ of the gospel we enter into communion and union and fellowship with God.

28:18 But if we relinquish the gospel we relinquish God himself and Christ who is the focal point of the gospel. Now you ask Pastor would you ever truly ultimately be severed? No. I do believe the Bible teaches the doctrine of the preservation of the saints.

28:43 But I believe with equal conviction the necessity of the perseverance of the saints. It is not only true that God shall preserve us. It is equally true that we shall be untethered to God and to Christ. Therefore two other passages 1 Corinthians 15 an aspect I didn't emphasize this morning I want to emphasize tonight.

29:18 You remember the setting there were those in the Corinthian context whether they had actually infiltrated the church apparently some had perverse men or men from within speaking perverse things or wolves from without one thing is clear the church was threatened on the doctrine of the bodily resurrection that's clear and Paul is going to address that issue and he says 1 Corinthians 15 verse 1 I make known to you brethren the gospel which I shall fulfill the name of God to you who are saved by the gospel and who are saved by the gospel and by which gospel also you are saved if by the grace of God brought into the initial experience of salvation by the gospel you will know the consummate glorious consummation of that gospel

30:43 only if you remain tethered to the gospel if if and if you get untethered from the gospel it shows your initial faith was a puff of air it was vanity it was nothing it was not the faith that is unto salvation so that our persevering in being tethered to the gospel over time and through intellectual and personal doubts and struggles and the pressure of a skeptical unbelieving world remaining tethered to Christ in the gospel is the evidence that we were truly and initially tethered to him and to the gospel in our conversion perseverance is the revelation of God's preserving grace his preserving grace only comes to light in our perseverance and in his preservation and our perseverance is the validation of our professed conversion you better get those things straight dear people get them straight there is no preserving work of God that doesn't come to light in your perseverance and it's your perseverance he that endures to the end the same shall be saved God doesn't endure for us any more than he believes for us or he pens for us he doesn't persevere for us

32:08 we persevere if we notice if you hold fast that's conscious deliberate tenacity you hold fast another passage Colossians one Colossians chapter 1 verse 21 speaking of the grave reconciling work of Christ Christ, who is the firstborn, who has been given the place of supreme, all-encompassing preeminence, he writes, verse 21, in you being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind and your evil works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, with an end to what? To present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him. He has reconciled you to present you. Christ did not die to half-save his people. This passage says, the work of his cross is to the end that he might present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him.

33:17 But don't stop. Verse 23, what's the first word? If. If.

33:25 So be that you continue in the faith. And here you have two very vigorous Greek words. Grounded and steadfast.

33:38 It's poor English, but I think it gives the sense of the original.

33:42 Foundationalized and firmly settled.

33:47 If, he says, you will be presented, how? You will be presented holy and without blemish if you continue in the faith, foundationalized and firmly settled and not moved away. Shifted. Shifted.

34:04 From the hope of the gospel which you heard, i.e., if you remain tethered to the gospel. You see that in your Bibles.

34:17 You say, oh, I can't wait to be presented holy and without blemish. Bless God. That's your hope. Know that that hope will be realized if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if you continue in the faith.

34:35 Foundationalized and firmly settled, positive, negative, not shifted, moved away from the hope of the gospel.

34:49 Now, I have a particular burden in the application of this strand of the application. A number of you young men and women within the next five years are going to be exposed to all kinds of very brilliant, learned. Persuasive men and women in your higher educational experience. Some of them, for some of you, will be professing Christians.

35:22 Some of them will be pseudo-Christians. Some of them will be blatant pagans. Some of them will be real Christians who have sought to bring their academic discipline through the grid of Scripture and are prepared to say, let God be true and every man a liar. And as just as you are, they are prepared to listen and let God be true in all of their treatment.

35:40 One of the most important things for me, I think, is that every man and every woman in the world who is the Christian, they have to be spiritual. and will be intellectually honest with you and say, in this particular aspect of my field of expertise, I do not know how this jives with the Scripture. I don't know how. But one thing I know, that given enough time and enough real knowledge, eventually, God's truth in the Scriptures will be vindicated.

36:09 Thank God some of you will be exposed to people like that. But some of you have no clue the pressure you're going to feel to get untethered from the Gospel. You're going to face concepts, perspectives of how to think and what to think that will seek to shift you away from the doctrinal content of the Gospel. There will be those who will insidiously sow seeds.

36:38 They will not come into class and say, as I know one young woman experienced in the last two years, anybody here? Foolish enough to believe that God created. There's no one here foolish enough to believe in special fiat creation by the Word of God. Anyone here believe that?

36:54 And you'll be bullied into a sense of being dunce with a capital D-U-N-C-E and with a cap on your head ten feet tall.

37:06 That won't be the real area of temptation. It will be with that person who seems to exude such a Christ-like demeanor. As Dr. Bob Martin said, and I'll never forget, he said, I never met a liberal who wasn't a sweet guy.

37:22 Never met a liberal who wasn't a sweet guy. And he will seem to be so Christ-like. And he doesn't come on and attack your faith frontally. He burrows underneath.

37:34 Little subterranean, a question here, a question there. And when you begin to sense that's what's going on, may God help you to remember if you remain steadfast and unmoved, if I get untethered from the gospel because of apparent intellectual contradictions, I will get untethered from Christ and from God. And if I'm untethered from Christ and God, there's nothing but an empty black chasm of despair now and hell to come. God help you, dear young people.

38:14 Remember the issues, even when you don't have the answers to the subtle erosions. Remember the issues, even when you don't have the answers to the subtle erosions. Remember the issues, even when you don't have the answers to the subtle erosions. The attack may come with the content of the gospel.

38:29 The idea of a God of justice who will damn his creatures. The idea of substitutionary atonement that one death that occurred 2,000 years ago is sufficient for the release from the demands of justice for a multitude whom no man can number. Skepticism about bodily resurrection, anything that does not fit. Skepticism about bodily resurrection, anything that does not fit.

38:51 Skepticism about bodily resurrection, anything that does not fit. called laws of nature. And I must digress and say, in listening to the late A.W. Tozer recently, I loved his definition of what we call the laws of nature. He said they're nothing but God's predictable paths through his created order. But because they're his paths, at any time, he can radically shift them. That's called miracle. And we believe in the God of order and the God of miracle. You see, the attack may not come with the doctrinal content of the gospel. It may come with the ethical demands of the gospel. And that's where it's even more dangerous.

39:28 Because in you and in me, there is a negative polarity in the direction of sin. And anything that presents a plausible case to squeeze out from the flesh withering ethical demands of the gospel has an ally in our breast. And you better recognize that. You better recognize it.

39:51 You see, the gospel, has strict ethical demands. Christ died to what end? Titus 2 and verse 14. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself of the people, peculiar people, zealous of good works. He died that we might live righteously, soberly, and justly in this present evil world. And dear young people, attacks will come at the ethical demands. You'll be tempted to get untouched. You'll be tethered, just a notch or two. You want to be cut loose and become a total libertine, and blow your brain every Friday night on ecstasy, and Saturday night on booze, and sober up on Sunday.

40:36 You don't want that! But those right angles of the ethical demands of the gospel that say your body's not your own, auto-eroticism of any kind is sin. Using your body for a playground with another in any relationship other than marriage is sin. And your flesh will cringe. But remember, get untethered from the gospel, and you get untethered from Christ and from God.

41:07 And the pressure may come in terms of the content of the gospel, or the ethical demands of the gospel. My exhortation is determined by the grace of God to remain tethered to the gospel. Now I come to my third exhortation. See why I knew I couldn't finish this this morning.

Exhortation 3: Constantly Strive to Live a Life Molded by the Gospel

41:29 And it is this. Constantly strive to live a life molded and shaped by the gospel. Constantly strive to live a life molded and shaped by the gospel. And with those words, I'm simply trying to express what the apostle captures in several texts.

41:54 Look at Philippians chapter 1. Writing to these people that in many ways were teachers' pet. If anyone of you is a teacher, you're a teacher. If anyone ever wanted to accuse Paul of teacher's pet with any people, it would be the Philippians.

42:07 He says things about him by way of terms of endearment that at times almost appear a little gooey and saccharine. But we know they were sincere, so they are precious. And they take us into the inner chambers of his deep affection for them and they for him. He said something that no doubt embarrassed the other churches when the letter circulated.

42:26 He said, you only had fellowship with me in the beginning of the gospel. When I went out on the new gospel foray. You were the only ones that joined me in practical ways. So this was a very precious church and he has very noble desires for them.

42:41 And now note what he says in verse 27. Only chapter 1 verse 27. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. In that strange language, I thought the gospel was for unworthy people.

43:01 For unworthy sinners. I thought grace was God's kindness to those who deserve just the opposite. Where do you bring into this close conjunction gospel and worthiness? Well, read on.

43:18 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. That whether I come to see you or be absent. I may hear of your state. That you stand fast in one spirit.

43:30 With one soul striving for the faith of the gospel. In nothing affrighted by the adversaries. Which is for them an evident token of perdition. But of your salvation and that from God.

43:45 What is he saying? Is he saying you have got to climb up on the ladder of self-improvement until you're worthy to embrace the gospel? No, that's not gospel. The gospel says God justifies the ungodly.

43:57 Unworthy sinners. Who come to the end of themselves. Cast themselves upon a worthy savior. And embrace the salvation offered in him.

44:08 What Paul is saying is now that you've embraced that gospel. You must strive that your life is molded and shaped by the gospel. What are some of the blessings that the gospel promises? One of them is that when you embrace Christ in the gospel.

44:24 You're not only reconciled to God. And the roof over your head is blown off. But the walls that separate you from your fellow man. With jealousy and bitterness and envy.

44:35 And one upmanship. Those walls are knocked down. And you all are made to drink of one spirit. Let your life be worthy of such a gospel that claims.

44:45 That it not only reconciles man to God. But man to man. Therefore stand fast in one spirit. One soul striving for the faith of the gospel.

44:56 How are you going to adapt? How are you going to advance this gospel with its doctrinal content. That says in Christ. The roof goes off.

45:05 And the walls go flat. If you're still living with walls between one another. While all the while saying. Oh we've got gospel blessing.

45:12 Roof is off. Roof is off. Yeah but what about the walls? If the roof is off the walls go flat.

45:19 Let your life. Let your pattern of life reflect. Worthiness of the gospel. Now think back through.

45:26 If you want a good discipline. For your meditation in the coming week. I'm challenging myself with this. So I'm only teasing you with a few thoughts.

45:34 Think of all the blessings promised in the gospel. And then ask yourself. Is my life. In all of its dimensions.

45:43 Being molded and shaped. By those truths of the gospel. For example. In the gospel is promised.

45:50 The full. Complete. Irreversible. Pardon.

45:54 Of all of our sins. Does my life reflect. A man or woman who really believes. That for me.

46:01 The day of judgment has already come in his past. And the sentence has gone forth. No condemnation. Well I don't care what your temperament is.

46:10 What your national background. You may not have a gram. Of Hispanic or Latin blood of any kind. Or Italian blood.

46:19 Or black blood in your veins. But you're going to know something of joy. In the Holy Spirit. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking.

46:28 But righteousness. Peace. And what? Joy in the Holy Spirit.

46:33 Strive that your life. In all of its dimensions. Be molded by the gospel. That in the workplace.

46:41 In your home. With your relationships. People sense. This person has a spring of joy.

46:48 That is flowing in his soul. And registering on his face. No matter what he goes through. What has he got that I don't have?

46:57 He's got the gospel. And the blessing. And the blessing of forgiveness. Does the gospel say.

47:04 That in Christ. We have a sure hope of heaven. Not a wishful desire. As we use the word hope.

47:12 I hope to see you tomorrow. But a confident expectation of a promised blessing. Well brethren. What in the world are we doing?

47:21 Going around looking like all of our joys have been sapped. And our expectations withered. When we lose a job. When we get the dread medical report.

47:32 That the C word is going to be part of our life. When we watch. A loved one. Go down to his or her grave.

47:44 What does a gospel molded life look like? It looks like someone. That has the glint of heaven. Through the briny tears that they shed in their sorrow.

47:57 For we sorrow not. As those who have no hope. We gospelize our sorrow. We gospelize our disappointments.

48:09 Have I teased you enough to begin to think like this? That's what Paul is talking about. Let your life. Your manner of life.

48:18 Be worthy of the gospel. Strive to have your life shaped and molded. By the gospel. And then my fourth and final exhortation is this.

Exhortation 4: Be a Church Zealous for Gospel Proclamation

48:33 The first three have been very personal. I want you to think I've been alone with each one of you. Toned down. Less animated.

48:40 I don't want to scare you out of your liver. Sitting in your living room. Talking to you the way I do in the pulpit. But now this is in the treaty to the whole congregation.

48:50 Fourthly and finally. Let us together commit ourselves. Afresh. To be a church.

48:56 Zealous. For the proclamation. Of the gospel. Let us together commit ourselves.

49:04 Afresh. To be a church. Zealous. For the proclamation.

49:10 Of the gospel. And how will that zeal. Show itself. First of all.

49:14 In the focus of our prayers. And I thank God that this has marked this assembly for a number of years. When I first came here in 1962. Up to North Caldwell.

49:27 We still call him Pastor Dixon. We'll bear witness to this. The prayer meeting. Was like a litany.

49:35 Of the walking wounded. The whole prayer meeting was taken up. Not just with praying with unusual physical concerns of the people of God. Which we continue to do.

49:47 But someone would have a second cousin. Twice removed. Who had a 97 year old aunt. Who had a bunion.

49:53 Now that's a little bit of hyperbole. But you get the idea. And between aunt so and so. Second cousin.

50:01 Twice removed. And her bunion. And someone else with arthritis in the right elbow. One would have wondered.

50:09 Does God have any more concern for anything beyond. Somebody's bunion. And arthritis. And we sought to instruct the people.

50:16 That when Jesus said. Pray after this pattern. Our father. Who art in the heavens.

50:20 Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done in earth. As it is in heaven.

50:24 And we sought to instruct the people. On kingdom oriented. Kingdom focused prayers. And it was a liberating.

50:28 Wonderful experience. But dear people. In the language of Paul. I exhort you to abound.

50:32 Yet more. And more. Be not weary. In waiting.

50:36 But in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen.

50:40 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

50:44 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

50:49 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

50:53 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

50:57 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

51:01 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

51:05 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

51:09 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

51:14 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

51:18 get weary and quit, or they'll cave in and capitulate. And eventually you'll get what you want. You will. What do you want? Do you want to see the kingdom of darkness shaken with blows struck against it by kingdom-focused prayers? Then let's commit ourselves afresh to be a church zealous for the proclamation of the gospel, prayers focused on the success of the gospel, all of our natural contacts viewed as gospel opportunities. I've had the opportunity to share little bits and pieces, but in the midst of all of the medical involvement in our family in the last three years, one of the most thrilling things has been we've had more concentrated contacts for gospel opportunities than in the previous twenty years. And it's been the silver lining through it all to be able to say, Lord, I don't know

52:15 why this shoulder doesn't close over, but if you want to see the kingdom of darkness you've got gospel purposes for Dr. So-and-so, Lord, let it weep for another six months. Great concern is not healing my shoulder. It's gathering in his elect. And he can't gather them without somebody there to talk about Christ and manifest the reality of his salvation. So when the doctor is being apologetic, wondering why you aren't mad at him, that he can't fix you, and you look at him and smile and say, Doc, I never expected you to fix me. You're not God. God will fix me when he's good and ready. Until then, neither what you do nor I do is going to make this thing close up. By the way, it's all closed up nice, and I'm back to working out with the weights, and the physical therapist said, go at it, full tilt. So that's why I'm a two-handed preacher today. Now, dear people, we've got to think in these terms. If we are committed to the proclamation of the gospel, why did

53:14 God put you next to that doctor? And why did God put you next to that person in the place of work? You see, there's ten other people I wish I'd been put next to. They're a lot nicer. Yeah, but they don't need to do that. They don't need to do that. They don't need to be triggered to gospel more than this one does. Start thinking, in all of these things, of gospel opportunities, and then, as you prayerfully consider the choice of your leaders, deacons or elders, you better have some real conviction that you've seen real evidence that they are gospel men, that your deacons do not think of terms just of us and ours, nobody else, but they're open-hearted, large-hearted men that Lord will grant, and God will grant, and that's the way God will transform your long to express Christ's concern for his people around the world, Christ's concern for his

54:04 suffering ones, for his needy ones. Elders that are unashamed to be thought simple and some may even call them simplistic. We came this morning and all we got was a gospel message. You've got to have leaders ready to live with that kind of condescending sneer rather than go to the judgment and have people point the finger and say you stood before me week after week and you talked in such highfalutin religious gobbledygook. I never knew the great indicatives. I never heard clearly those marvelous, magisterial imperatives. Nobody ever preached to me as though I were lost and sought to win me. Dear people, you'll get what you want. You'll get what you want. And if the Lord tarries

54:59 and God is with you, I'll be with you. pleased to keep our nation from imploding, not exploding, but imploding from the weight of its own sin and apostasy. Mark my word, if gospel preaching rings from this pulpit and gospel priorities throb through the prayer meetings in that room, and gospel priorities regulate all your contacts, it'll be because you, the people of God, by the grace of God, are determined to have it so. It can't be let Henry do it. It's got to be there. We are committed. Isn't that what our Constitution says? Not we believe in commitment too. That's a statement of what you believe. It says we are committed. Are you committed? Are you

55:47 committed? Committed with all of your being and independence upon the Holy Spirit. I close tonight where I began this morning. If you can remember way back to the start of the morning in about 1145, I stood up and I asked you a question. I said, what truth is there that you're prepared to die for? That is, if the only way to preserve that truth was to immerse it in the blood that courses through your veins, what truth are you ready to die for? We saw in Acts 20.24, Paul said, I'm ready to die for the gospel of the grace of God. Now the question that haunts me is this. How

56:33 do we know that he wasn't just blowing off spiritual steam, trying to impress the Ephesian elders? Let's set a high standard. Let's put the bar up good and high for it. As for me, I count not my life dear to myself, that I might finish my course to testify the gospel of the grace of God. I'm ready to die for the gospel. How do you know that wasn't holy blow, pious drift? For two simple reasons. The man who said he's ready to die for the gospel was first of all. Living by the gospel and pouring out his life for the gospel. You want to know if you'd be ready to die for the gospel? Here's how you can tell. Am I living by it? Am I living for its advancement? Only those who live by it and live for it are ready to die for it. Are you one of them? Are you one of them?

Closing Challenge and Prayer

57:36 May God help us all to say, by the grace of God, I am. Let's pray. Amen. We are so thankful that we have your word as a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway.

57:56 And as we have today been privileged to walk around the great nerve centers of your revealed truth concerning our salvation, how we thank you that there is a gospel suitable to every man, every woman, every boy, every girl, in every age, in every culture, in every circumstance, economically, socially, physically, and how we pray that that gospel may ring with increasing volume throughout the earth in our own generation. And, O Lord, in this little part of your great field of gospel endeavor, this place in which you put us, how we beg of you that we may receive a fresh outpouring of your Holy Spirit, bringing us to a new appreciation of that gospel, bringing us by your grace that we will determine to have a grasp upon its essential contents, that we shall be tethered to it until we breathe our last, that by your grace we will be molded and shaped by its truth and utterly committed to its propagation as long as you give us life and breath. Lord, we've asked you to give us life and breath. Lord, we've asked you to give us life and breath. Lord, we've asked much of you, but we don't believe we've asked anything contrary to your will.

59:19 And then would we be bold again to pray for those who sit here, strangers to the power of this gospel. O Lord, would you not arrest them this night, reach forth your hand of grace and power, and cast them into the mold of the gospel, incline them to abandon their sins and to lay hold of Christ in all their hearts. Lord, we thank you for all the glory of his person and the perfection of his work. Thank you for this day in your courts.

59:51 Lord, we thank you for being with us. Thank you for your mercy in preserving the truth of the gospel in this place over these past decades. But we look to you, you alone, who can preserve your people and preserve your truth. O Lord, continue your work.

60:09 We ask especially for the younger generation to whom we have addressed some of these points and to those who have been appointed entreaties. O God, from their ranks, raise up men and women molded by the gospel, intransigent in their commitment to the truth and the demands of the gospel. May there be some among them who outstrip us all in zeal and love and usefulness in the advancement of your kingdom. O our God, come upon us.

60:41 Have gracious dealings with us, we pray. Hear us. Dismiss us with your blessing. We ask in Jesus' worthy name.

60:51 Amen.