We Shall Maintain a God-Centered Climate

Introduction: The Manifesto and God-Centeredness

0:05 This morning's service was held on April 7, 1991, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us again ask God's help as we come to the ministry of the Word of God, pleading that the Spirit will come and attend the preaching of the Word, and that we will, in the language of the text we contemplated last Lord's Day, be prepared to buy the truth, to have something more than second-hand dealings with the truth of God this morning, and having bought the truth, be determined to sell it not. Let us pray.

0:49 Our Father, we have confessed with the psalmist in the singing of this portion of the 73rd Psalm, Whom have we in heaven but Thee? And there is none that we desire upon the earth besides Thee. And our Father, we who are Your children, acknowledge that when we are true to what You have made us by grace, that is indeed the disposition of our hearts. But we confess with shame that so quickly our fickle hearts turn back to those polluted fountains from which we once continually drank and sought satisfaction only to find bitterness, and gall, and a nagging, and a condemning conscience. And You have mercifully brought us to the fountain of life and to that living water. And yet, O God, we confess with shame that we still turn back. Have mercy upon us, cleanse us, we pray, from every sin of thought and desire, and so fix our hearts.

2:05 And, O Lord, we ask that You please upon Yourself that Your Word may not be hindered by a mind and a heart cluttered with the cares of this life and the lusts of other things entering in that would choke the Word and make it unfruitful. O Lord, make our hearts fit receptacles of Your truth. We plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

2:40 We come this morning to the... fourth message in the series which I have entitled A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church.

2:51 And for those of you to whom the word manifesto is not part of your working vocabulary, a manifesto is basically a public declaration of the motives and intentions of a group. A declaration regarded as having some public importance. Since God has raised up this congregation and graciously and sovereignly given it some measure of high profile in at least limited circles, and since we are quickly approaching our 25th anniversary of our life together, I have judged that the time has come to lay bare our foundations and clearly but succinctly, to make this public declaration of our motives, our goals, our intentions, that is, to give a manifesto of the life and ministry of Trinity Church. And thus far we've considered two tenets in that manifesto. First, that we are determined that Jesus Christ shall have His rightful place in the life and ministry of this congregation. His rightful place as the exclusive foundation for other foundation

4:19 can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ, as the sole source of our spiritual life when Christ who is our life shall appear, and to have His rightful place as the unrivaled Lord and Sovereign over this congregation, for as the church is subject to Christ, He is the head and the Savior of the body. And then secondly, we have considered that we are determined that all of our doctrine and practice shall be molded by the Holy Scriptures. I am not saying that every doctrine and practice is perfectly molded. I am saying that every doctrine and practice is perfectly molded. I am saying that as a body of people, we have the grace of God that all of our doctrine and practice shall be molded by the Holy Scripture.

5:30 And we considered the basis of this determination, the practical manifestations of this determination, and the cost of maintaining this determination. Now today we come to the third trumpet blast of our manifesto, and it is this. We are determined to maintain a God-centered climate in the totality of our church life. We are determined to maintain a God-centered climate in the totality of our church life.

Explanation: What is a God-Centered Climate? (Creation, Fall, Redemption)

6:12 Now in opening up the meaning and significance of this third note in the manifesto, we shall range our thoughts under three heads. First, an explanation. what a God-centered climate is. Secondly, a demonstration of how this God-centered climate is manifested among us. And thirdly, an exhortation regarding the maintenance of this God-centered climate. So an explanation, a demonstration, and an exhortation. First of all, an explanation of what a God-centered climate is. And as I attempt to explain what I mean by that terminology, it is as with so many other crucial biblical factors and perspectives, it is helpful to address this issue in the crucible of the great issues of creation, fall, and redemption.

7:18 The framework of God's revealing himself to us is the framework of creation, fall, and redemption. And if we are to understand what the maintenance of a God-centered climate is in the total life and ministry of a church, we must first of all grapple with the question, what does it mean to be God-centered in terms of creation, fall, and redemption? Now, I need not remind you that the opening words of scripture do not direct us to man. They do not direct us to any other being but the being of God himself. In the beginning and everything and unfold the activity of this great God whose existence is assumed. It is not proven to us. He is simply in us as the God who existed.

8:26 He is the God who inspired this present world order as we perceive it and live in it. He is the God prior to it, above it, over it. He is the eternal, the changeless, the great, I am, and this God. And at all points, creation is distinct, described, conscious, deliberate activity of this great, glorious, personal, almighty being, and to matter that somehow justifies it.

9:08 God has got there and in some way or another decided to begin to move itself in the direction of formation and order and structure in the universe. No, we are introduced to this living, glorious, infinitely powerful, eternal, self-existent being, passage, Elohim, God, the beginning, God. And at the end of all but one of the days of creation, we are introduced to this living, glorious, infinitely powerful, eternal, self-existent being, God, the beginning, God. And at the end of all but one of the days of creation, we are introduced to this living, glorious, infinitely powerful, eternal, self-existent being, God, the beginning, God.

9:42 And at the end of all but one of the days of creation, God's pleasure with what he made is explicitly declared that it was good. He beheld work and he was pleased. And in all but one of the creative days, this terminology is repeated, and then it is placed as a capstone over the whole at the end of chapter one in Genesis, God's everything he had made, and behold, it was very good. And at the end of chapter one in Genesis, God's everything he had made, and behold, it was very good.

10:15 And why was it good? It was good because it accurately reflected dimensions of his own glorious being. The scripture tells us that even in a cursed world, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. Paul tells us in Romans 1 that from the creation that God has made, God gives continual witness to his godness and to his power. And so when God made this world, he made it to reflect something of his glory as God.

10:56 And then as we read the expanded account of the creation of man, the creature made in God's likeness, we read, we read of that creature as one made to know intelligently the will of God, to volitionally choose to fulfill the purpose of God, to live in delightful, conscious, precious communion with God. And if I may say it without being here, was the very nature of God's centeredness was as natural to Adam as breathing. As surely as God made Adam's eye to receive. He made his and his whole humanity to be at home in fellowship and in communion with God. And so in original creation, God's centeredness was the very texture and fabric of all that God had made. He beheld it and he pronounced it good because it reflected dimensions of his own glorious being.

12:12 And when he made the man. The woman, he looked upon the work of his hands and said, this too is good. There is a creature that reflects my image in an utterly unique way. And there is a creature with whom I can hold intelligent communion conversation to whom I can communicate my will verbally and who will choose to do my bidding consciously and deliberately.

12:40 I say God's centeredness. God's centeredness was woven into the very fabric of the original creation. God did not make a world in all things therein in order to detach that world from himself. He made it to reflect his glory.

13:00 And he made man in particular to have God as his delightful portion. But now something tragic happened in the fall. In the fall. This God centeredness.

13:13 It was radically ruptured. As we read the account of the fall in Genesis chapter three. We read of Satan's voice through the serpent seeking to interpret reality and to give alternative directives to man. God had interpreted reality and in a God centered work with the reality which God himself made.

13:42 Now Satan comes in through the serpent and its subtlety. He seeks to give. A different interpretation to reality and to give alternate directives to man and the woman listens to the serpent and the man listens to the woman and you remember when God comes to condemn Adam he says because thou has hearken to the voice of thy wife there was a radical role reversal God's rule is overthrown and man is plunged into a state of sin and ruin in the earth is cursed for man's sake. And it's interesting.

14:17 That the first visible sign of this radical rupture of the God centered world that the Lord had made in the original creation is that man now has an aversion to God. He runs from God. When he hears the voice of the Lord God coming into the garden in the cool of the day man rather than running to greet his God runs to hide among the trees of the garden. He doesn't want a world in which God is central.

14:46 He feels uncomfortable in his sin and in his guilt. He feels uncomfortable in the presence of God. There's a radical rupture of this God centeredness that was the stamp upon all of the original sinless creation and from that point onward all of us are born with that disposition that has another center other than God. All we like sheep have gone astray.

15:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15:16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . … . . . . . . WEAVEN IN THE UNIVERSE OF OUR OWN EGOS. AND ALL FACULTIES AND APPETITES ARE NOW on this cursed un-blessed ego that sits on the throne. We've turned each one to His own way. And one of the saddest words in all of scripture, Romans 3, and verses 9 and following as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

15:53 Let's read the Bible. Romans 3. None that seeketh after God. None that has become so totally centered in himself.

16:08 He's made his own trinity to worship. The trinity of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Trinity by nature, and at the shrine of that triune God we worship. All the world, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

16:33 And in this state, man is not God-centered. He is self-centered. He is lust-centered. He is, according to the Bible, devil-centered.

16:47 For Ephesians 2 says, You hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein ye walked. He says, And you walked according to the course of this age, according to the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience. There is devilish control over men. You are of your father the devil, and the lust or the desires of your father it is your will to do.

17:16 In the fall, that original God-centeredness was radically ruptured and overturned, and man turned inward upon himself. And his God-given capacities and appetites have been distorted and perverted, and out of them he has made his own trinity, before which he bows and worships, and to which he gives his allegiance. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. But blessed be God, in redemptive grace, God-centeredness is radically restored.

17:52 You see, in the original creation, God-centeredness was, was pervasively present. In the fall, God-centeredness was radically ruptured. But in redemptive grace, God-centeredness is radically restored. You see, the very substance of redemptive grace is the announcement that God has come forward to do something for man who's ruined himself.

18:19 God so loved the world that he, his only begotten son, and among all things, that God purposes in the work of his Son, and it's like a many-faceted diamond. I'm prepared to say that central to all of them, and without this, all of the other blessings conferred in redemptive grace would be conferred at the expense of God's own desire for man. Central to everything Christ died to effect is that which Peter highlights, and here, I'll not quote from memory, but ask you to turn and look at the text with me so that you'll get the impact through eye-gate as well as ear-gate. 1 Peter 3 and verse 18.

19:13 Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, might to God, that we might, all the claims of God against us satisfied, and that in the court of Heaven, we might be righteously forgiven, yes. But that forgiveness is not an end in itself. He suffered the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. The universe of your life, the universe of your thinking, the universe of your desires, the universe of your energies and appetites and capacities, and the things you possess, in the totality of what we are and possess, might once again be, God-centered creatures. And this is why in the call of the gospel, what are we summoned to? According to Acts 20 and 21, Paul says, I testify to Jews and Greeks,

20:40 repentance towards faith toward our Jesus Christ. What is repentance toward God? It's an utter radical change about God, where God was not sought, not considered an object worthy of being sought, where his rights, and his government, and his glory were matters of indifference. We're to have a radical, deep, pervasive change of mind.

21:07 We're to repent with respect to God, burning from the self-centered Trinity worship, to taking the true God as our God. This is why the apostle can describe the conversion of the Thessalonians in these terms. You turned unto God from your idols. You became a God-centered people, in your conversion.

21:34 And we are also to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to rest ourselves upon the offered Savior, in whose virtue alone we have acceptance with God, fellowship with God, may be founded upon God's righteous dealing with our sin, and having credited to us the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or we could look at Colossians 1, 2, and 3, and say, and we could look at Colossians 1, 2, and 3, and say, John 19 to 22 will not take the time to do it, but there we see even the cosmic dimensions of the purpose of Christ in His death to reconcile all things to Himself, that once again there might be a God-centered universe. And in the consummate glory of the age to come, what will be the characteristic of that age? At the end of or in the middle of 1 Corinthians 15, and I have no desire to give a detailed exposition of this passage that in some aspects is vexing to the expositor and the interpreter, but this much is clear. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, verse 25 of 1 Corinthians 15, For He must reign, that is Christ, till He hath put all His enemies under His feet.

23:00 The last enemy that shall be abolished is death, for He is the Lord. For He must reign, that is Christ, He put all things in subjection under His feet, but when He saith all things are put in subjection, it's evident that He is accepted who did subject all things unto Him. And when all things have been subjected unto Him, that is when our Lord Jesus has accomplished all of His mediatorial tasks, then shall the Son Himself be subjected to Him that did subject all things unto Him. And whatever that means, and I'm not, I'm not going to go into the difficulties of expounding that.

23:38 Look at the end in view, that God may be all in all. The restoration of a God-centered universe.

23:48 The whole end of the mediatorial is to restore us to something even more blessed than Eden. It will be paradise with no possibility of becoming paradise lost. And as we've been reading through these last chapters in the book of the Revelation, surely amidst all of the imagery, one thing is clear. Whatever the new heavens and the new earth will bring to the people of God, this much is clear.

24:20 They will be a God-centered new heaven and new earth. Revelation 21, verse 1, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride. And before he allows John to see that heavenly Jerusalem, the bride, the wife of the Lamb, a voice speaks and it says, Behold, the vernacle of God is with men.

24:53 He shall dwell with them. They shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. Whatever follows, don't allow the imagery of all issues to undermine this central issue, the new heavens and the new earth, will be a pervasively God-centered existence. And you find it emphasized again later on in that chapter, verse 22, I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are the temple thereof.

25:30 We will dwell in God as one ubiquitous temple. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it, for the glory of God did lighten it. And the lamp thereof is the lamp, in other words, whatever will illuminate all reality in the new heavens and the new earth, it is God.

25:52 You talk about a God-centered existence,

25:57 and then that refreshing water of life, from where does it, from whence does it come? 22.1 That water of life proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Verse 3, There shall be no curse any more, and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein, and his servants shall serve him.

26:18 And they shall see his face.

26:23 It will be a God-centered universe restored. That's God's commitment. He's not just concerned to take the creature that turned his back upon him and brought himself under legal liability and the just penalty of death and had his own spirit and mind and soul by sin and somehow reverse all oaths of sin that there should be no curse any more. It should be ushered in in the consummation, that glorious God-centeredness that was the mark of Eden, of paradise in its pristine glory, and it will be the mark of paradise regained with no possibility of any reversal. So in this brief overview of creation, fall of redemption, I hope now you have a little feel for what I mean by the words God-centeredness. It is that condition, when God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is given his rightful place in the understanding, the affections, the allegiance, and devotion of his creatures.

27:38 That is to be God-centered. That was the reality in Eden. God was given his rightful place in the understanding, the affections, the allegiance, and devotion of Adam and Eve. What happened with sin?

27:51 This was radically disrupted. God was robbed of his rightful place. God was robbed of his rightful place in the understanding, the affections, the allegiance, and devotion of sinful man. And in redemption through the work of Christ and the gift of the Spirit, the triune God admitted himself that there should be a great multitude whom no man can number, ultimately enjoying a world renovated by the purifying fires of a returning Lord.

28:23 And when the new heavens and the new earth are ushered in, there will be this glorified multitude giving God his rightful place in their understanding, affections, allegiance, and devotion. Now that's what I mean by God-centeredness. Now, having given an explanation of what I mean by the terminology in this broad overview of creation, fall, and redemption, now to that which I trust, God helping me, I will be able to convince your judgment is true. At least in commitment and principle among us, a demonstration of how this determination is manifested among us.

Demonstration: Manifestations of God-Centeredness in Trinity Baptist Church

29:06 What tangible expressions are there that we are determined to maintain a God-centered climate in the totality of the life of this church? Well, let me give you this morning four concrete manifestations. Number one, it is manifested in the formal confession of our faith. We as a church are a confessional church.

29:34 Before you ever came into membership, you were asked to read thoughtfully and were queried as to whether you fundamentally accepted as the confession of your faith the London Confession of Faith of 1689. Now, what is the uniqueness of that confession? In many things, it is like any evangelical Christian confession. It is doctrine of Scripture.

30:01 It is doctrine of the person of Christ. It is doctrine of last things. Many other points, but one of its unique points in which it differs from other confessions of faith in the history of the church down to the present hour with respect to its doctrine of salvation, it is distinctively Calvinistic. And by that term, we do not mean that it is doctrine learned from the writings of Christ.

30:29 John Calvin. That has simply become a convenient handle by which to describe an understanding of the scriptures in which the doctrine of salvation is seen to be subsumed under one simple biblical affirmation. Jonah 10, salvation is of the Lord. Speaking to something else is of the Lord as someone else. Salvation is of the Lord. Stinctive to Calvinism when we use that term to express our understanding of the biblical teaching is that the salvation which is of the Lord is also unto of the Lord. In a marvelous little booklet, it was originally an essay made into a booklet by B.B. Warfield,

31:44 Calvinist theologian. Calvinism today, Warfield makes these very, very perceptive comments. He says that in common with Lutheranism, Calvinism has always affirmed the doctrine of justification by faith. And in many other areas, those who are called Calvinists stand with other great branches of the Christian church.

32:09 But then he says this, here is the nexus. This is the real heart. This is the real central nerve of the issue. Calvinism withdraws the eye from the soul and its destiny and fixes it on God and His glory. It has zeal, no doubt, for salvation, but its highest zeal is for the honor of God. And it is this that quickens its emotions and vitalizes its efforts. It begins and centers and it ends with the vision of God and His glory, and it sets itself before all things to render a Word of God in its glory. And this is the key to salvation. Calvinism withdraws the eye from the soul and its to God his rights in every sphere of life activity. And then he mentions some of the particulars of how that works out in our understanding of salvation, that God does not save by whim. God does not save by ratifying man's choice, but God saves by purpose, eternal purpose, distinguishing love set upon a specific number of sinners, for whom Christ becomes surety and substitute and lives and dies uniquely on behalf of those specific sinners chosen in eternity by the living God. And that when the Spirit comes in conjunction with the preaching of the Word,

33:34 he effects that marvelous change of heart that enables a sinner to repent and to believe, not in terms of anything resident in the sinner, but consistent with what the Son died to do and what the Father promised. Purposed in sending the Son to die. Clearly, he says, then, when we consider these matters, they all have a common root and stock. And he says it is this, clearly at the root of the stock which bears these branches must lie a most profound sense of God and an equally profound sense of the relation in which the creature stands to God, whether conceived merely as a creature or more specifically as a sinner. It is the vision of God and his majesty in a word, which lies at the foundation of the entirety of Calvinistic thinking. It is the vision of God in his majesty. In other words, as we open the scriptures and we seek to ascertain why there would be a people, part of Adam's fallen race, who would be rescued from that state and made possible by God.

34:49 It is the vision of God in the heart of the renovated heavens and earth, in which there will be this all-encompassing God-centeredness again. Warfield rightly says, the scriptures lead us to see that those who are made the objects of God's distinguishing, redemptive work are made such through nothing in them, but for reasons known only to God, of his mere good pleasure, of his own sovereign will. It is the vision of God which lends purpose to ends that he has predetermined, and therefore he says this vision of God and his majesty exercising free sovereign de rLife prerogatives in the salvation of sinners. Lies at the foundation of Calvinistic thinking. The Calvinist is the man who has seen God and having seen God in his glorious, filled, on the one hand, with a sense of his own unworthiness, just standing God's twelve expeditions. To create salvation or salvation is no explanation but an act of self- democrats sight as a creature, much more as a sinner, yet on the other hand with adoring wonder that nevertheless this God is a God who receives sinners. He who believes in God without reserve

36:03 and is determined that God shall be God to him in all his thinking, feeling, willing, in the entire compass of his life's activities, intellectual, moral, spiritual, throughout all his individual, social, and religious relations is by the force of that strictest of all logic which presides over the outworking of principles into thought in life by very necessity a Calvinist. You see what he is saying is that the end of all God's works is his glory and when we have by grace been made the objects of his free saving love it is in the language of Ephesians. Ephesians 1 to the praise of the glory of his grace. It is not to the praise of the glory of the human instrument, to the praise of our own good sense. It is to the praise of the glory of his grace. And we have adopted a confession of faith which in its doctrine of salvation gives all of the credit and all of the glory for our salvation from eternity to eternity to the free, sovereign, loving, powerful activity of an enthroned God. And

37:25 I say that the first demonstration of our determination to maintain a God-centered climate in our life as a church is to be found in the formal confession of our faith which seeks to capture the biblical teaching that God himself. Faith is the ultimate cause of all his works and the ultimate end. The text that has been printed on our church letterhead from the first letterhead we had, Romans 11, 36, for of him, through him and unto him are all things to whom be the glory forever and ever. And that's why we sing hymns consistent with that confession. Tis not that I did choose thee for Lord, that could not be. This heart had still refused thee had thou not chosen me. I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew t'was he who sought me, seeking him. T'was not so much that

38:30 I on thee laid hold as thou, O Lord, on me. You see, that's a tangible expression of the truth embodied in our confession of faith that is not a war of words, what men call the legomachy. Eat. Eat.

38:48 Eat. eat. war with the being of his majestic sovereignty and that sovereignty says it were by the gentle hue of his grace and say i'm a christian because you determined i should be one you set your love upon me you sent your son to die you sent your spirit to open my blinded stop my deafened ears take out my heart of stone united me to your son you've put me in the way you've caught me on the way and blessed be your name you will keep me until at last i look upon you and cast all of the crowns at your feet lost in wonder love and praise the second demonstration of how this determination is manifested among us not only in the formal confession of our faith but it's manifested in our stated seasons of worship specifically the climate we seek to create in preparing for worship anyone who's been here any length of time knows that we seek to create a climate in preparation

40:13 for worship what is that climate one of quiet reverent expectation why because we believe that worship is a serious solemn as well as a joyful thing for the scriptures tell us in philippians 6 3 3 we are the circumcision who worship god in the spirit who glory is jesus and put no confidence in the flesh we know that the father is on a quest according to john 4 24 the father seeks such to worship him in spirit and in truth why do we not have an atmosphere in which there's a lot of chit chat and laid-back singing of light choruses that don't make any demands upon us we seek to create a mind i've been in churches where people are prepared for worship by chit chat with one another and by others singing choruses why don't do that it's because of our commitment to a god-centeredness in our life together that we seek to have a climate in which the thought of meeting god is conceived of as a solemn and joyful privilege it's manifested in our lives and it's manifested in our

41:33 in the climate we seek to maintain in all the facets of our worship the scripture says in psalm 2 rejoice with trembling psalm 100 says come before his presence with singing enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise there's the element of enthusiastic joy yet the scripture says in hebrews 12 28 and 29 he says in the light of all of our privileges he says let us have grace whereby we may serve him acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our god is a consuming fire why are there no planned jokes in our sermons and forced humor a laid-back glibness a lean over the pulpit jocularity why is it because all of us were given dure temperaments in our mother's wounds some of us urges to humor that some of you will never know anything about we could become clowns in a moment if we didn't have convictions against it no the climate created in the worship a climate of solemn joy and of joyful solemnity

42:52 is a conviction that the god whom we worship if indeed we believe he is present will be insulted with anything less than that if there is no joy then we are disobeying him we are showing unbelief with respect to all that he's given us in christ and all of our privileges in christ if there is no solemnity we show an ignorance of the great god to whom we've come who's not become less great because he's revealed his grace in christ but he's become more awesome in the preaching of the word why is there no attempt made to entertain you because the scripture says in hebrews 4 12 and 13 the word of god is quick and active sharper than a two-edged sword piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intent of the heart and neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do let me ask you can you believe that the word of god is coming in any sense as a sharp sword laying bare the deepest recesses of the soul in the presence of an old knowing god

44:12 and deliberately create a climate of jocularity and lightness in a sense every sermon has overtones of the day of judgment when all will be shown to the preaching of the word all things are naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do folks this isn't a matter of temperament this isn't a matter of something inherited it's a matter of conviction conviction that god is going to give us a new turn giveth in our life all the worship the climate we seek to create in preparation for worship the climate we seek to maintain in all the facets of our worship but then this god centeredness is demonstrated not only in the formal confession of faith in our stated seasons of worship but it's manifested in our stated seasons of corporate prayer what shapes our corporate seasons of prayer the perspectives of what Jesus taught us. When ye pray, say, Our Father in the heavens, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, no, hallowed be thy name.

45:38 Oh, God, it's important that men know you and acknowledge you to be the great God that you are. Hallowed be your name. Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

45:58 Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation. Is God indifferent to our need for bread, our need for forgiveness, our need to be overcomers? No, but He says, Our heart is the doing of His name, the coming of His kingdom, and the doing of His will.

46:25 When I first came to this area almost 30 years ago to a little group of people who formed the nucleus four and a half years later of Trinity Church, you would not believe what their prayer meetings were like. It was like rehearsing a daily description of the ailments of geriatrics in an old folks' home.

46:47 It was grievous. People standing up for half an hour, pray for my second cousin, twice removed, who's 103 years old and got an ingrown toenail,

47:00 and pray for my uncle, and dear people, it was grievous, but that's all they knew. Now, where did they learn that?

47:12 That's all they were taught.

47:16 There were people in leadership who had no vision of the God-centeredness of the life of the church. And the vision was so narrow.

47:28 And while we do give a place in almost every one of our prayer meetings for family concerns, because the Bible says our treatment of His little ones will be regarded as our treatment of Him, yes, we are concerned to pray for those with unusual needs, and those with unusual sicknesses and illnesses, and those who face surgery. And we try to give up-to-date reports. Mr. Bischoff calls whoever leaves the prayer meeting every Wednesday.

47:52 We're not indifferent. But we refuse to let these issues become dominant. Why? Our God-centeredness would be cut at its juggler vein.

48:04 For the things that fill our vision when we pray are the things that will mold our lives when we go out to serve. And the God-centeredness, the God-centeredness is manifested in our stated seasons of prayer. And then it's manifested in the service and witness of the church. The Scripture says we've been called out of darkness into marvelous light, 1 Peter 2.9.

48:28 To what purpose? That we should show forth the orates, the virtues of Him who called us out of darkness into marvelous light. In our witness, our great concern is to declare the great virtues of our God, His Holy Spirit, His holiness, His anger against sin, His love in sending His Son, and even in the practical concerns of the offering. I've had visitors comment.

48:54 They say, I can't believe it. There's no begging for money in that church. All the preachers do is say, we'll worship the Lord. And it's blown some people away.

49:03 Why? Because we believe that the giving of our offerings is a God-centered activity. Philippians 4.18, Paul describes the gifts of the Philippians as, a sacrifice well-easing unto God.

49:19 And when Paul is writing about the joint collection of the churches for the poor saints in Judea, he says the great end that he has in view through all of this. In chapter 9 and verse 13 of 2 Corinthians, seeing that through the proving of you by this ministration, they glorify your obedience to your confession of the gospel. This will be God. There was a God-centeredness even in diaconal concerns.

49:56 And that must always be the focus manifested in the service and witness of the church. And while we often miserably fail, fall short of even the standard as we imperfectly perceive it, God knows we're determined to maintain a God-centered climate in the totality of our church life at any cost. That's our commitment. I've described what I mean by it.

Exhortation: Warnings for Maintaining God-Centeredness

50:28 I've sought to give a demonstration that that's not just empty talk. Now I want to close with an exhortation and admonition with respect to the maintenance and the increase of God-centered church life.

50:44 And the Bible says, and therefore I'm not at all reluctant to give warnings, moreover by them is thy servant warned. In the keeping of them there is great reward. Psalm 19, I believe, verse 11. I want to give four simple warnings.

50:58 Number one, beware of flirting with any doctrinal perspectives which erode the pervasive God-centeredness of our present confession of faith.

51:11 Beware of flirting with any doctrinal perspectives which erode the pervasive God-centeredness of our present confession of faith.

51:26 When Paul finishes his treatise, his only formal treatise, on the great issues of man's sin and God's redemption in Christ and the privileges that that redemption brings and how God has administered it in history, first of all primarily to the Jews and now to the Gentiles, he comes to the conclusion of that great section of Romans. And what does he say? Oh, the death. Oh, the death of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.

52:03 Searchable are His ways. Fathomable. How past tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord?

52:23 My friend, any theology that doesn't bring you to that wondrous doxology is not of God.

52:31 When you're finished looking at any so-called salvation, any steep reports to teach what the Bible if it doesn't bring you sanctified into the spirit in which Paul wrote, you've missed it somewhere. It ought to leave. It ought to leave you baffled before the wisdom of God. Overcome with the wonder that of Him, through Him and unto Him are all things to whom be glory forever and ever.

53:12 And see if your view of salvation cannot be comfortable with Ephesians 1, 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ according as He chose. He knows us in Him in whom through His blood the forgiveness of sins in whom we are sealed with the spirit of promise. If you cannot see, blessed be God who chooses, redeems, seals and transforms.

53:48 You've got a theology other than that of the Bible. And beware of flirting with any doctrinal perspectives which erode the pervasive God-centeredness of our present confession of faith. Our worship is the logical extension of our theology.

54:07 Don't ever forget it.

54:11 And if the theology is tempered with, it won't be long before it will be reflected in the worship.

Warning Against Man-Centered Leadership

54:17 Second admonition. Beware of any man or men who would at any time seek to make themselves the center of attention in this assembly. Beware of any man including the one in front of you who would at any time seek to make themselves the center of attention in this assembly. God uses men and we're to honor and appreciate those whom God gives to us.

54:48 But we're never to forget these three texts. And here I want you to look at them. I don't want to quote them. I've only done the rest, dear people, in the interest of time because I lectured to the men last week on Master the Time-Saving Devices and I know they're all listening this morning to see if I practiced what I preached.

55:05 So up till now, I think I've passed muster, have I? Okay, they're nodding yes and I don't want to blow it in the last few minutes but I want you to see these texts. I want you to see them with your own eyes. Turn to Ephesians 3, 20 and 21.

55:19 The very text etched in our commemorative stone in the front of this building and etched there by purpose, deliberately.

55:32 In very few things am I given by my fellow elders and I don't say this negatively, I say it joyfully. In very few things am I given carte blanche to make my own decisions on matters that affect the whole church. I am left at liberty to choose my own ties and the shape of my toothbrush and a few other incidentals but I'm thankful to God for being accountable. But the brethren gave me carte blanche.

55:57 They said, you can choose the text in any way you want to have it made up. That's a privilege we think we want to give to you. Well, that text on that commemorative stone is this. Unto him, verse 21, be the glory, in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations forever and ever.

56:16 Amen. Unto him be glory in the church. The church is to be the theater of displaying God's glory. Not the cleverness of men, not the personalities of men, but the glory of our infinitely glorious God.

56:37 However, the church sometimes has men that don't want it that way. And we read in 3 John 9 of a certain man. He didn't like God having all the preeminence. He wanted to share it.

56:53 And the apostle John had to write in 3 John 9, I wrote somewhat unto the church, but diatrophies who loveth to have the preeminence among them receiveth us not. And what lay behind all of these wickedness was an ambition to rob God of his glory. He was going to intrude into that sacred realm where God alone belongs, his own horrible, frail, sinful humanity. Beware of any man who would at any time seek to make himself the center of attention in this assembly.

57:34 God says in 1 Corinthians 3, 21, in the plainest terms possible, terms that cannot be misunderstood, and here's the third, first Corinthians 3, 21, in the context of dealing with divisions, divisions occasioned by a party spirit regarding different men who are in the church at Corinth, wherefore let no one glory in man. Let no one glory in man. Appreciate God's servants. Express your love.

58:07 Indicate your heart's commitment to the things for which they labor, but do not honor, that would rob God of his glory. For God says, Jehovah is my name. I will not give my glory to another, neither my praise unto graven images. I'm amazed at what some of God's people will stomach from men who obviously parade across the pulpit just to promote themselves.

58:40 Men who use the pulpit and their gifts and their influence as a platform to promote themselves. I wonder that God's people don't get up and walk out.

58:52 Beware. Beware. A diadem under the nose of an apostle could come under your nose. Thirdly, beware of any innovations in worship which in any way detract from a pervasive God-centeredness.

Warning Against Innovations in Worship

59:11 Beware of any innovations in worship which in any way detract from a pervasive God-centeredness. Paul had to deal with that problem at Corinth. They were allowed in their worship that when the unbeliever would come in, he'd say, this is a mad hunch when he comes among you. 1 Corinthians 14, 26.

59:39 The unbeliever or the uninstructed coming among you, the thoughts of his heart are laid bare. He, upon his face, will say, God is of a truth among you.

59:52 You beware of any innovations in worship which in any way detract from a pervasive God-centeredness. The church, as to what the music of the house of God, the house of the concert hall, is to be the living temple with the living priesthood bringing glorious praise to God.

60:37 Pray that God will continue to please him, to use our brother who assists us in our praise and enables us to render God's praise without attracting attention to himself. I've been in places where the musician I wanted to go up and grab him by the shoulder and say, get in the church basement.

61:03 Jumping up and down all around the piano,

61:07 jacking attention to himself, blaring an organ so loud I couldn't even hear my own voice singing the words of praise to God and I got a pretty good boomer.

61:19 I felt like saying, shut that organist you're over there stealing the show.

61:35 I get angry. Why? Because I know what I'm there for and he won't let me do it.

61:42 And I get angry. Come in overnight, dear folks. There'll be some people innocently saying, well, I really believe that God's given me this gift. And if God gave the gift, surely it's to be exercised.

61:57 Yeah, find a concert hall where you can get some people and exercise it. Warble to you mockingbirds and the canaries in Essex and Union County's jealous.

62:13 Bring an adulation of your marvelous vocal chords but don't do it in the house of God.

62:21 This is the place of You beware of any innovations in worship which in any way detract from a pervasive God-centeredness. And then my final exhortation is this. Beware of any trends in ministry or service which make men and their felt needs and desires the focus.

Warning Against Man-Centered Ministry Trends

62:54 Beware in ministry and service which make men and their focus.

63:07 Let me explain what I mean. Two of our brethren and I just reviewed this with one of our deacons before the service to make sure I had my facts straight saw a television documentary where there's a church of some 15,000. They went around and did like a market analysis. What would you like in the church?

63:24 Well, we'd like to have an exercise room so they got a weight room and we'd pump iron and do aerobics and bounce around and get in shape. And then they not only have that, they have a fancy, very, very fancy comfortable auditorium. Nicer than they said anything in New York City. They have a had a slam dunk contest.

63:44 They had, oh, they went on and on and on and on.

63:50 What a tragedy, dear people. So, 10,000, 15,000 people go for what? To have their own felt needs met while they go to hell feeling good.

64:04 We don't determine our ministry by consensus.

64:09 Almighty God's already given the consensus in this book.

64:24 Which regulates what we do.

64:28 And if you don't like that, then you go someplace where they let you fill out a form once a year and you can determine it. That's fine. But so help us God. There are people here ready to spill their blood that the agenda in ministry and service here will not be determined by men and their felt needs and their desires.

64:48 God sets our agenda.

Conclusion: Call to Embrace God as Center

64:51 Well, friends, that's plank number three in the manifesto. We're determined. We're determined to maintain a God-centered climate in the life and the life and ministry of this church. My unconverted friend, do you see now?

65:05 Maybe you've got a little understanding on why you're in such a mess. You see, it's not just you've got a few habits you can't break. And once in a while you feel bad when you do some bad things. You see, your problem is you've got a totally wrong center to the whole of your life.

65:20 And as long as you do, you're going to be miserable in life, more miserable in eternity. Because every creature who will not assent to having God as the center of his being will be banished forever. Forever into the lake of fire. And my unconverted friend, that's why Christ came, that you might have a new center.

65:41 And that center is God revealed in Jesus. He gave himself for us, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. And he died for all that they who live should no longer henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. And dear children of God, it's very, very, very true that to the extent that we live, close to the nerve centers of our faith, the issues that God underscored when he brought us through the gate, his own majesty as creator and lawgiver, our own wretchedness as sinners by nature, our utter dependantness upon Jesus Christ and his salvation, gratitude to God for such a savior, a heart committed to walk before him in the power of the Holy Spirit. It's as we keep close to those nerve centers that a God-centered perspective will continue to live among us.

66:40 But when we move from those things, we will by degrees move from God-centeredness in our life together. May God preserve till the coming of Christ a place here where whatever else is true, God's the only big shot. God's the only great attraction. God is the one who fills the longing heart with himself when we meet in his sacred presence.

67:14 Let us pray together.

67:21 Our Father,

67:23 we grieve that for so many years so many of us lived with a totally wrong center to our lives. You made us for yourself and our hearts were restless when they did not rest in you, but we foolishly hewed out cisterns, broken cisterns that could hold no water. While all the while we forsook you the fountain of living waters. But we thank you that you've opened many of our blinded eyes and turned us to yourself.

67:53 And we thank you for the little measure to which we have come to understand and experience what it is to have a God-centered life and a God-centered church. Lord, preserve what you've wrought. Increase and multiply what you've wrought in areas where unknown to us we've allowed our own ideas and our own wills to intrude. Make it known to us that we might, by your grace, make whatever changes are necessary that you will be the center of everything that pertains to this congregation.

68:32 Hear our cry. Bless your truth now and for months and years, for decades to come to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We ask in his name.

68:45 Amen.