Preaching as a Means of Grace (1)

The Burden of the Message and Prayer for Reception

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, July 11, 1993, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. We sang together some very practical and needful petitions.

0:25 We sang, Give thou the hearing ear, fix thou the wandering thought. The Apostle said, We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. And wherever the gospel is preached, you can be sure that Satan is nearby in the imagery of the Lord Jesus, like birds of the air who follow the man who sows seed in an open field. The devil is not far from any such gathering as this.

1:07 And without in any way making fanatical claims to anything bordering on the unique identity and mission of a prophet, the prophets often spoke of their message as their burden. And I come to you this morning with something that is nothing short of a burden that is inwardly crushing, pressing, burning within my own breast.

1:43 And one of the reasons that burden is there is that I believe if God, by the Holy Spirit, will enable us to resist the wandering thought, the dull mind, engage the enemy in the name of Christ, determine that we shall hear and receive what is to be preached this morning, that the kingdom of darkness will cease, suffer for generations to come.

2:18 If you're visiting among us and say, well, is that preacher often given to such grandiose expectations? The answer is no.

2:28 But anything less would be dishonest to the frame and state of my own heart before the living God this morning. And so I beg you, children, teenagers, young men and women, fathers, mothers, whatever it would be that would distract you,

2:51 whether it's the dinner that's waiting at home, whether it's the flutter of a fresh crush,

3:00 romantic interest,

3:02 whether it's the wrong time of the month, whatever it be, will you cry to God with me, that God will give us fixed minds and responsive hearts, and that the word of God will fasten itself upon us with divine talents this morning, and so embed itself in our hearts, that we will know its impact for years to come. Let us pray. Our Father, we do acknowledge that we are a pathetic mass of spiritual dullness and instability, if left to ourselves.

3:48 I confess, Lord, if left to myself, I am a pathetic creature, unable to in any way do justice, to the weighty truths of your word in preaching. And we, your people, are a pathetic mass of spiritual dullness and weakness, distraction. And, O Lord, in our weakness, we cry to you that you will come and grant us strength. Give us fixation of mind, illumination of heart, determination of will.

4:28 O Lord, give us all that we need, that we may receive the word of God with readiness of mind, that we may search the scriptures to see if these things be so, and that these truths may be laid up in our hearts and become a part of our deepest convictions. O Lord, speak, we pray. We cry in our felt sense of need, and in our jealousy for the honor of Christ in this place. Speak, Lord, for your servants here.

5:08 Through Christ Jesus, our Lord, we pray. Amen.

Jeremiah's Prophecy and the Means of Grace Framework

5:20 In Acts chapter 3, we have the Spirit-inspired synopsis of a sermon preached by the Apostle Peter shortly after the day of Pentecost. And in that sermon, in Acts chapter 3, in verse 24, Peter declared that all of the prophets from Samuel and them that followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days. Here the inspired Apostle tells us

6:04 in this inspired synopsis of his sermon, that all of the prophets have spoken of gospel days. They have spoken of the days connected with the outpouring of the Spirit of the exalted Messiah upon the new covenant community. And among the many and varied prophecies concerning these days of the new covenant, one of the most important, the most clear and gracious, is that promise given through Jeremiah

6:44 and found in Jeremiah 3 and verse 15. In Jeremiah 3 and verse 15, as God speaks of the days of restoration in terms that can only have their truest fulfillment in gospel days, God says, Jeremiah 3 and verse 15, Jeremiah 3 and verse 15, and I will give you shepherds according to my heart who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. In the days of the new covenant, when God sends his only begotten son

7:29 as the final and great prophet, priest, and king of his people, it is in those very days, it is in those very days, when the good and the great shepherd has come, has laid down his life for his sheep, has risen from the dead and sent forth the Spirit upon that redeemed community, in those days, God says, I will give you shepherds according to my heart who shall feed you with knowledge and with understanding.

8:09 Now, why have I directed your attention to Jeremiah 3.15 through the statement of Peter in Acts 3.24? Well, the answer is very simple.

8:24 In our present study of the Scriptures, we're considering the fact that, as part of our declared commitments as a church, we are determined to maintain a balanced doctrine concerning, we are determined to maintain a balanced doctrine concerning, we are determined to maintain a balanced doctrine concerning, the Christian life. And in expounding what that means, we've been examining the axiom that there are no effective substitutes for the God-appointed means of grace in living the Christian life. I have defined a means of grace as those activities, disciplines, and relationships

9:07 ordained by God, to nurture the spiritual life imparted by God in our conversion. And having considered the private or individual means of grace, we are presently concentrating our attention on the public or the corporate means of grace. In opening up the Biblical teaching on the public means of grace, we've established a basic principle, namely, that the majority of the public means of grace are deposited by God in the life and ministry of a well-ordered Biblical church.

9:52 Since the church is constituted the pillar and ground of the truth, and the people of God are sanctified in the truth, John 17, 17, it is to be expected that the majority of the public means of grace it is to be expected that the majority of the public means of grace it is to be expected that the majority of the public means of grace are deposited by God in the life and ministry of a well-ordered Biblical church. We then sought to identify the prominent public means of grace by a careful consideration of Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. Here, Luke, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

10:36 summarizes the church's mission, the church at Jerusalem, in its state of spiritual vigor and health, sustained and increased by the public means of grace. In these words, of those that were added to the church on the day of Pentecost, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching, in fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers. And after this, after this overview of these four major public means of grace, namely continuance in the ministry of the Word of God,

11:19 continuance in involvement with the people of God, continuance in the appointed remembrance of the Son of God, and continuance in earnest pleading for the blessing of God, we are now going back to amplify each of those major means of public, or public means of grace. In two messages, I sought to lay before you the fact that continuance in the ministry of the Word of God involves, first of all, the public comprehensive reading of the Scriptures.

12:03 And I set before you the biblical basis for the comprehensive, public reading of the Scriptures in the gathered assembly of God's people. Secondly, the manifold benefits of the comprehensive reading of the Scriptures. And thirdly, some crucial concerns growing out of this teaching. Now today, we move on to take up some of the central issues in the Scriptures with respect to the public preaching and teaching of the Word of God in the gathered assembly of the people of God.

12:43 Having concentrated on the public reading of the Scriptures, we now turn our attention to the preaching and teaching of the Word of God in the gathered assembly of the people of God. And it is precisely at this point that I hope you see the pointed relevance of the text in Jeremiah 3.15 with which I began this introduction and review to our study this morning. No little blessing of God under the new covenant is that the God of the covenant Himself promises to be graciously active

13:27 in providing His covenant people with true spiritual shepherds whose activity will be to feed the people of God with knowledge and with understanding. They are not to feed them with the charisma of their own personalities, with the chaff of men's notions about religious things. They are not to feed them with the junk food of anecdotes and jokes. They are not to feed them with the sugar-coated poison of psychology and philosophy, but they are to feed them

14:11 with knowledge and with understanding. And it is that knowledge and understanding that has its origin in God and is deposited in the Scriptures and becomes ours when we come into contact with these Scriptures under the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit. So today, as we continue to amplify what it means to continue steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching, what it means to have a persevering adherence to the Word of God, I want you to consider with me

The Changeless Commission Demands Centrality of Preaching

14:55 the central place of the public preaching and teaching of the Word of God in the gathered assembly. And in my preparation, I was able to reduce the biblical evidence to three categories, but as I came to my final preparation, I was convinced it would be unrealistic to think I could address those three categories adequately, and so my purpose is to address the first this morning and in our next time together, the second and the third line of biblical evidence, that it is according to the will of God

15:38 that in the public gathering of the people of God, that the preaching and teaching of the Word of God always is a central activity. And I begin with witness number one. The preaching and teaching of the Word of God must be central in the life of the gathered church, because the changeless commission of the sovereign Lord of the church demands it. You say, Pastor Martin, I take notes.

16:16 Couldn't you come up with a simpler heading? No, I could not. I've labored long to come up with one that's been reduced to those words, so I'll give it to you again. The preaching and teaching, make your own little shorthand, put P and T of the W-O-G, the preaching and teaching of the Word of God must, and put that in letters, it'll take up a whole page of your notes, use any kind of shorthand for the words, preaching and teaching of the Word of God,

16:56 but must, must be central in the life of the gathered church, because the changeless commission of the sovereign Lord, the Lord of the church, not suggests it, infers it, but demands it. And the pivotal words are must and demand. The preaching and teaching of the Word of God must be central in the life of the gathered church,

17:41 because the changeless commission of the sovereign Lord of the church demands it. And some of you have already guessed what our pivotal text will be, therefore turn with me please to Matthew chapter 28. I read verses 16 through 20. Matthew 28 verse 16.

18:13 But the eleven disciples went into Galilee unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came to them and spoke unto them, saying, All authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, or a rendering that gives more of the sense of the original, going therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father,

18:57 and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Now it is this changeless commission of the sovereign Lord of the church, which I am asserting, demands that the preaching and teaching of the word of God must be central in the life of the gathered church.

Analysis of the Great Commission: To Whom, By Whom, For How Long

19:38 Note first of all in this passage to whom the words are spoken. Verse 16 makes it very clear that these words were spoken in their original setting to the eleven disciples, that is those disciples, whom our Lord Jesus had given the unique position as apostles. But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed, and when they saw him, and Jesus came to them and spoke unto them, to whom are these words spoken?

20:20 They are spoken in their original setting to the eleven disciples, to the apostles, to those upon whom the initial expansion of the church as a glorious privilege and solemn responsibility was laid by the Lord Jesus himself. Then we ask by whom were they spoken? Well they were obviously spoken by one identified as Jesus in verse 16, where Jesus had appointed them, and when they saw him they worshipped him, but some doubted,

21:01 and Jesus came to them and spoke saying. But it is the posture from which he speaks that is significant. And if it is clear that the disciples, that is the eleven apostles, were the ones to whom the words were spoken, it is equally clear in answer to the question, by whom were they spoken, that it was our Lord Jesus Christ, having died and risen from the dead, conscious that in his position as the messianic king, as the sovereign Lord now raised from the dead,

21:46 that plenitude of authority had been deposited in his hands. All authority has been given unto me, in every realm of reality that is in heaven and upon earth. So it is our Lord Jesus speaking in the present consciousness that there is no court of authority equal to him or superseding him. That whatever he has to say, he says as the one whose word is final.

22:26 He speaks as possessing all authority in heaven and upon earth. The third question we ask of our text, not only to whom were the words spoken, by whom were they spoken, but for how long are they to be in force? And Jesus answers the question when he says in verse 20, And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end or the consummation of the age. Whatever Jesus said to the eleven,

23:10 he clearly envisioned that that task would be extended all the way to the consummation of the age. And that terminology in Matthew's hand or in Matthew's pen, means nothing less than the winding down of this present age and the ushering in of the age to come at the second coming of the Lord Jesus in power and in great glory. So our Lord envisions his words in force, operative among his people,

23:51 long after the original recipients of these words have died. Those spoken to the eleven in their original setting, he envisions them as being operative amongst his people until the consummation of the age. Fourth question, what is the essence of what is said? Well, as the apostles set in motion and established the age long task of the church, our Lord assumed, Our Lord assumed, Our Lord assumed, Our Lord assumed, that they will aggressively go out to accomplish it.

Analysis of the Great Commission: The Essence of the Command

24:34 In the original, you do not have an imperative in verse 19. You have a participle that assumes that this activity will follow as a matter of course. Going therefore, and then all of the focus is upon the verb that is in the imperative form, make disciples of all the nations. What our Lord says is that they have a central task, a main burden laid upon them.

25:10 By an aggressive invasion of Satan's domain in all of the nations, they are to make disciples. And they understood that making disciples was done, not by enticing people with money, not by threatening people with arms, but by preaching the gospel. For in a classic text such as Acts 14.21, Luke summarizes the manner in which disciples are made.

25:45 Acts 14 and verse 21, when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples. Disciples. Disciples were made by the preaching of the gospel. And as the Spirit of God blessed that preaching to the conviction, illumination, and in that context regenerated men and brought them to repentance and faith, and they manifested that repentance and faith by open confession of Christ, they became part of these congregations throughout the then existing world.

26:25 So the central burden of the task is to make disciples of all of the nations. Then as subsequent and attendant activities highlighted by the two participles that follow, they were, after making these disciples, to do two things with them. First, baptizing them into the name of the triune God. Those who were made disciples by preaching were, as we saw in Acts chapter 2, having received the word in the heart,

27:07 they were to manifest that saving reception in the way of God's changeless appointment, missiologists notwithstanding who are looking for a different mode of confessing Christ in hostile Muslims. Second, the priesthood. The priesthood. The priesthood.

27:28 Since baptism is so threatening, and I say a curse on any missiologist who rivals the words of my Lord who has all authority in heaven and on earth,

27:42 his authority by the institution of baptism, mandating it, guarding it, preserving it to the end of the age, to be the pride of any man who is wise, than our Lord. And there are people recognized as mission experts in evangelical circles who are openly discussing substituting baptism for some other way of confessing Christ. So if you wonder why my soul is agitated when my blessed Lord is challenged by dust that

28:26 is cursed by sin, the spirit is stirred to its death. As long as Christ has all authority and he says make disciples and baptize them, there is no other badge of identifying disciples.

28:49 But he says having baptized them, thereby identifying those who have granted a faith response to the word and are gathered into communities. Of confessed disciples, now notice, what is the next and only other mentioned attendant

29:12 activity? Look at it. Them. Teaching them. Them to observe all things ever I commanded

29:35 you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. The first great attendant to the making of disciples is to baptize them, thereby identifying the people of God in a given community who constitute the church of the living God in that community. And then that community is to be brought subject as a dominant attendant activity to a constant, constant, constant, constant, constant, constant, constant, constant,

30:13 teaching ministry. And notice carefully, he says nothing about entertaining them, nothing about psychologizing them, nothing about stroking them to help their self-esteem, nothing about keeping them together by ministering to their felt needs, nothing about concocting a user-friendly way to keep them attached to the church of the living God. Once they said in the gospel, the Holy Spirit has shown Christ to be the pearl of great

30:55 price. He has shown me to be a sinner liable to the wrath of God who ought to be fodder for hell. And in the gospel is revealed Christ in the glory of his person and in the sufficiency of his work. And by the spirit I've been enabled to be a sinner liable to the wrath of God.

31:14 I've been enabled to embrace him as mine. I have given to him supreme allegiance above father, mother, brother, sister, yea, and my own life also. I've counted the cost. I am his, live or die, sink or swim, irrevocably, eternally. His for me to live is Christ and

31:37 to die is gain. Loving him, I want to know how to please him. And I can't know how to please him by myself. I want to know how to please him by myself. I want to know how to

31:44 please him by following the whims of my own fancy and the feelings of my own heart. I need to be instructed. The assumption is that true disciples are in that posture where they long to be taught. And taught what? Taught all things. Not just the pleasant things.

32:07 Not just the comforts and the consolations and the provisions. Yes, they desire to be taught those things. But teaching them, notice, to observe, literally, to keep all things whatsoever I commanded you. So here, the central attendant activity after baptism is teaching. The scope of that

32:39 activity is all things whatever Christ has revealed. The end of that activity is not to fill their heads with Bible. It's to fill their lives with loving obedience to the word of Christ. The Greek word, terao, is used in a number of different ways. In some contexts, it means to keep in the sense of guarding as a prisoner

33:12 is guarded by the authority. Or to keep as one does. To keep as one does. To keep as one would treasure and not lose a jewel. But with respect to the matter of law and commandment,

33:29 the Greek word always means to observe. That is, in the sense of make conscience of obeying. So this commission of the exalted Lord that is in force, inviolable force, since he has all authority in heaven and upon earth, in force until the end of the age, envisions the task of his church as being, in its essence, making disciples through the

34:07 proclamation of the gospel, and then taking those who are made disciples, baptizing them, and then teaching them to observe. Whatsoever Christ has commanded. Now that's the plain, obvious teaching of the text. Now, I want to ask a very simple question. Did the sovereign, omniscient Lord of the church

Christ's Omniscience and the Non-Negotiable Standard of Teaching

34:41 know all the various states of all of the nations into which the apostles would originally go and make disciples? Did he know that there would be those like the Cretans, who came out of a society soaked in patterns of gluttony, of gossip, of laziness, and dishonesty? Did he know that? Yes, he knew it. And yet he said, you go

35:12 into Crete and make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to observe whatever I have commanded you, with no accommodation to the peculiar societal manifestations of sin and weakness. and abnormalities and dysfunctional problems. Did he know what Paul would find at Corinth, where a boy at puberty is not only introduced to the gods at the temple in terms of learning his religious heritage, but has his first sexual experience with a temple prostitute

35:54 as part of his worship? Did the Lord know that the gospel was going to go there? And are such people going to go there? And are such people going to go there? And are such

36:01 people expected to have such a standard of morality that they're not even to look to lust on a woman? Did the Lord know that the gospel was going to go to a place like Corinth? Yes, he did. And he made no accommodation to the moral vision. He said, when you go

36:25 to Corinth, you make disciples, you baptize them, and you teach them to observe all that I have commanded you, with no accommodation to the moral vision. And he said, when you go to Corinth, you make disciples, you baptize them, and you teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And he said, when you go to Corinth, you make disciples, you baptize them, and you teach them to observe all that I have commanded you, with no accommodation to the moral vision. And he said, when you go to Corinth, you make disciples, you baptize them, and you teach them to observe all that I have commanded you, with no accommodation to the moral vision. At Corinth, people went toόdin what ch ovÍa was like to avoidận

37:09 nuts, mankindReally he just chose to be ch oye, pardon me, but it seems a little offensive, but he decided to follow an вариант in his own way. At the ancient time of God's orders, his dear father Jesus Christ was captured into the navel of the cross. And he said you, before God, were not 너무 Go into Crete and teach those slow-bellied, lazy liars how to be honest and diligent. And if they're slow to do it, rebuke them sharply.

37:28 He doesn't say stroke them.

37:31 Delve into the umbilical cords of their dysfunctional past. Nonsense. Teach them to observe whatever. Now, say you carry my conscience, bastard.

37:52 The Lord in his omniscience saw. There was Crete. There was Corinth.

38:01 There was Ephesus with his worship of Diana. Are you going to tell me he didn't see 20th century America?

38:10 With a bunch of people like many of you brought up with your eyeballs glued on a boob tube. Your mind being drugged. Your receptors being hooked. On visual imagery.

38:30 Did he know a generation would be reared that was not taught to think logically and follow an argument which is essential in all true teaching? Did he know that this would be a visually addicted generation? A generation brought up on let's play and have fun? A generation that would spend hours glued in front of its Nintendo?

38:58 A generation that would play video games, hours, watching the television with its mind numbing, soul defiling influence? Did he know it? Yes, he did. And yet he said when disciples are made in 20th century America with its obsession with the boob tube and all of the moral degeneracy and mental laziness and intellectual apathy, when they get sick?

39:29 When they get saved? You teach them. Teach them. Ah, but they don't have a heart for teaching.

39:39 Then let them go to hell in their ignorance. Oh, but they're fixed on visual images. We can't just teach. We've got to entertain.

39:47 We've got to have mind. We've got to have drama. My friends, don't insult the wisdom of my Lord Jesus Christ. He says among all the nations, till the consummation of the age, you make disciples.

40:03 You baptize them and then you teach them. And furthermore, you not only teach them, you teach them to observe. That is, your teaching and your preaching are not only to be the central means by which you nurture them, they are always to be impinging on the conscience and on the will and on the life and on the practice. Teaching them.

40:34 Not to assent to all that I've revealed. He didn't say that. The text says, teaching them to observe. To keep whatsoever I have commanded.

40:50 Oh, you mean, you're not only going to expect them to gather, and without a lot of kowtowing to mental laziness, giving little strung together anecdotes, Oh, you mean, you're not only going to expect them to gather, and without a lot of kowtowing to mental laziness, giving little strung together anecdotes, sprinkled occasionally with a phrase from the Bible, but you're going to talk about context and lead them through grammatical structure and the meaning of words? You're going to demand all of that? And then, and then, expect them to come knowing that after you've done all that, you're going to tell them this makes demands upon them? In the kitchen?

41:30 In the bedroom? In the shop? In the relations to the neighbor? In the school?

41:38 What they do and don't do on dates? What they will and will not watch on their TV? How they're going to dress? You mean, you expect people in an anti-authoritarian, free-wheeling, do-your-own-thing age to sit under that kind of ministry?

41:55 Yes, I do! Because my Lord commands it! You say, phooey on that then. Alright?

42:10 You want to go play church? You want to be entertained? The places are legion. The doors swing freely.

42:18 Go! At the expense of your soul. Go! At the expense of your never-dying soul.

42:29 Go! At the expense of the souls of your children. Go! At the expense of the honor of Christ.

42:36 Go! At the expense of the word of Christ. But please, please, don't go on calling yourself a Christian. As I think of what the Lord Jesus must feel this morning, when in many a place in this metropolitan area that claims to be His church, bought by His blood, subject to His word, baptized disciples in name are gathered, and what is happening?

Warning Against Entertainment-Driven Ministry

43:06 Are they being taught as the central, dominant activity of their gathering? No. They're being entertained. All kinds of musical entertainment.

43:19 Oh yeah, it's got something of Jesus and the cross and heaven, and sure, it's got to do that. But their conscience would scream that it wasn't Christian. Then someone called to preach, you will stand up, and in a laid-back way, say, it's so good to see all you lovely people. I love you.

43:38 The Lord loves you. And I don't want to weary you, but for the next fifteen minutes, will you listen? Oh, come on, won't you listen? Come on, I'll tell you a little story.

43:50 Help you listen. You say, Pastor, you're caricaturing. I am not. I have been in meetings where that nonsense went on before I was called upon to preach, and I have had to say publicly, I do not mean to be disrespectful or ungrateful, but I believe the Spirit of God has been so dishonored by the foolishness that has gone on in this building in the name of Christ, that I cannot preach with a good conscience until there's corporate confession of the sin, blasphemy, before I preach.

44:27 And I have led the congregation in a prayer of confession. Yes, I have. My Lord Jesus Christ is worthy to have His name and honor vindicated, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded. Lo, I am with you, even to the end of the age.

Application to Long-Time Adherents of Faithful Preaching

45:01 What does it mean to continue steadfastly in the ministry of the Word of God? I hope, as I sought to convince you from the Scriptures, that it means continuance in the comprehensive public reading of the Word of God, that this first line of argument, that the changeless, timeless commission of the Sovereign Lord of the Church demands, demands the centrality of preaching and teaching in the gathered assembly of the people of God.

45:43 I hope to demonstrate in the second and third lines of argument that the universal example of the apostles demands it, and then the universal emphasis of the apostolic writings and epistles demand it. But I leave you with this one line of argument, and now I want to come, to some very close and personal applications. The first is this. It comes to you, dear people of God, some of whom I have known blessed fellowship, with whom I have known blessed fellowship in the things of God for over three decades.

46:22 I want to say that what I've said other places, and just like it's often easier for a husband to speak in genuine, warm tones about his wife to others and about his children to others, rather than to their faces, I bless God that over these years there have been a core of you who were drawn back in the summer of 1962 to a little place on a hill in North Caldwell, because you heard the young man had come there who was, with all of his ignorance and all of his inexperience,

47:05 was trying to preach what was in his book. And the services were quickly rid of solos and duets and quartets and sermonettes, and you began to ingest with delight 50-minute sermons. That's what I started, 50-minute sermons. And you'd leave your vacations midway through them to drive back from the Jersey Shore, because at last you felt God had fulfilled his promise to give you a shepherd, who would feed you with knowledge and understanding.

47:42 And I want you to know that I feel myself to be a man blessed beyond anything I ever deserved to have had some of you who have manifested for over 31 years adherence to the public preaching and teaching of the Word of God. And your careful attention to that Word has been the thing that has driven me many times to the late hours Saturday night and with a few hours sleep early Sunday morning, has driven me to come into this pulpit

48:23 and pour body and mind and soul and spirit into preaching. It's because I know with all your heart you would not feel your Lord had been true to his promise to feed you with knowledge and understanding unless, by the grace of God, I've delivered the goods in the pulpit. And I thank God for you. And I bless God for you.

Application to Those Resisting Demanding Ministry

48:51 And you have enriched me and challenged me and kept me on course because I know that you would be the first to raise your voice of dissent if I ever budged from the things I've preached to you this morning. And I want to speak to another segment of you God's people. You've not been attending upon this ministry for three decades. You've had diverse backgrounds and exposures and through various means you've tasted of ministries that are evangelical

49:34 and maybe even, quote, reformed. But they don't make the demands upon your mind that a ministry does that is committed to teach you all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. A ministry that takes you into passages that are difficult to understand, difficult for the preacher to break them down. And when he's done all he can, it's still difficult and it's work for preacher and people.

50:05 And you're not sure you really want to face that for the rest of your days. And there's another area you're not quite so sure. You've sat under ministries that are good and reformed and biblical, but they don't nail you to the pew Sunday by Sunday in the area of your conscience. They don't consciously and constantly press you to have hard dealings with God, with your sin, with your pride, with your money, with your time, with your TV, with your sex life, with your personal life, with your interpersonal relations.

50:44 It's that relentless nailing you to the pew with the Word of God. You don't like it. You don't like that. And I can go to places where I can be informed without being transformed, where I can have my head charged with Bible, but my conscience not challenged with the truth.

51:16 You hear me now? Because I know there's some of you in that category. I shouldn't say I know. I have reason to believe.

51:25 I know it's pontificating. We were told in the previous hour, don't pontificate. Thank you, Bart, for reminding me. I won't pontificate.

51:33 But I have reason to believe there's some of you in that category. And I beg you. I beg you. If you say you love Christ, you get down before the Word of Christ and ask that very Christ to purge out of your heart the itch for a ministry that only plays with the Bible.

51:57 It doesn't really teach it with a view to pressing you to observe it. It skims over the surface and it never impinges on your conscience. My friend, listen. The first thing a man gives up when he's apostatizing is a good conscience.

52:18 According to Paul's word to Timothy, casting off faith and a good conscience, they have made shipwreck concerning the faith. I plead with you to do the only thing you can do to get out of that danger zone, and that's to start obeying those areas where you're bucking the light you already have. That's what's causing you in the depths of your heart to wonder, can't I go somewhere where it'll be Bible and it'll be expository and it'll be reformed and it won't make the demands upon my mind

53:02 and upon my conscience and upon my life? My friend, it's because you've got some controversies with God. You know what the areas are! Deal with them in the name of God, I beg you!

53:19 Deal with them! The time will come when you'll sit in a place where you'll be entertained and you'll be psychologized and psychoanalyzed and all sprinkled with a little bit of Bible and go out feeling good, I'm okay, you're okay, we're all okay, plunk your money in the plate and end up going to hell, deceived, that because you played church and Christianity you had the real thing. Jesus assumes that real disciples want to be taught His will. They don't have to be persuaded.

The Desire of True Disciples for Teaching and Obedience

53:56 They've gazed upon Him in the way we gazed upon Him in Luke 23 this morning. They say love's so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life! When they gather with God's people their attitude is, Oh Lord, teach me! Teach me all things!

54:22 Teach me of Yourself, of Your ways, of Your will, of Your law, of Your promises, of Your grace! Lord, teach me! Teach me! And then Lord Jesus, give me grace to observe.

54:37 Because you see, a ministry on a given day that's all promise and simply expounding love, the provisions of God's grace, that makes awesome demands upon you. To see the love of Christ in new dimensions is to feel its chains more tightly around my life, constraining me to a life of holiness. And there's another group in the congregation I want to address. I believe there's some of you that sitting here this morning your heart is burned within you and you've said, Oh God,

Application to the Younger Generation: Guarding the Pulpit

55:21 Oh God, Oh God, I am convinced that the Savior who died for me has all authority in heaven and upon earth, that His commission is unchanging, that our supreme and central task is to make disciples by preaching, and the attendant tasks are to baptize them and to teach them. And Lord, I believe that commission obtains to the consummation of the age. For you, whether young or old, teenagers, young men and women in your twenties and thirties, I plead with you, I beg of you, pray that God the Holy Ghost will so write what we've considered this morning upon your heart,

56:06 that being written upon the heart, He will give you the discernment to notice the first slight deviation from the outworking of this in the life of this church and as a member that you will make your voice to be heard, that Christ's rule must be the rule of Trinity Baptist Church and as long as it is, the major means of maturation of disciples will be the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God. It'll come in very innocently!

56:48 Oh, but doesn't the Lord have a sense of humor? Yes, He must. He made you. He made me.

56:57 I have no question that God has a sense of humor. I've told people He made monkeys that nobody sees but God. That swinging the trees of the jungles of Brazil, God must have a sense of humor. But I tell you, my friends, His sanctuary is no place for clowns.

57:15 And you know I'm no killjoy. I walked in the nursery this morning and I almost got knocked off the chair. I got here a little early with seven or eight little toddlers. All coming up, running, throwing their arms around me and kissing me and hugging me.

57:34 Why? I'm their best friend. Next to their moms and dads. For many of them, I'm their best friend.

57:41 I laugh with them. I act their age. In the nursery! But not in this sacred place!

57:51 I can't make you get serious about hell and heaven and the cross and the blood of Christ while you're sitting there splitting your sides with laughter. Nobody ever got tickled into conviction of sin. Or into deep repentance. Or into true and living faith in the Son of God.

58:11 The day anybody uses this pulpit, cleverly work at your funny bone, drive him out. In the name of God! Drive him out! Boycott the place.

58:30 Let him tell his jokes to empty pews. If the elders don't have sense enough to deal with him and they've all been sucked in, boycott them as well. And let the fool tell his jokes to them. You say, Pastor, do you think you've got any...

58:47 No, I don't believe there's a man on the eldership right now who would tolerate it. But my friends, within 15 years of the death of Charles Spurgeon, the Metropolitan Tabernacle tolerated things that would have caused Spurgeon to turn over in his grave 50 times. And I ain't no Spurgeon. The Apostle Paul, while yet alive, spoke to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 and said, I know that after my departure grievous wolves shall enter in, not sparing the flock and from among your own selves will perverse men rise up

59:31 to draw away disciples after them. Now if the Apostle Paul didn't think that his ministry could immunize automatically the next generation, who in the world would I be to presume that I can? That's why I said, if God the Holy Ghost will write some of this upon our hearts, it may mean the difference between this pulpit being occupied by an evangelical clown or an anointed preacher and teacher of the word of God. If you're willing to tolerate a clown, mark my word,

60:15 the clown sooner or later will be here. You're willing to tolerate someone that plays with the Bible rather than expounds the Bible, brings your conscience and understanding into direct contact with the Bible. If you get mentally lazy and you like that, you'll have it. Mark my word, you'll have it and you'll live with the person.

60:40 God have mercy on your children and your grandchildren. If God gives me the privilege of lying on a deathbed, one sin I won't have to confess is, oh God, why didn't I warn them? You're being warned today. I've spoken to the people of God and very quickly I want to speak to you young people who may or may not be Christians.

Warning Against Charismatic, Self-Promoting Preachers

61:12 You're not even sure, but I want to speak to you. You see, the way people worm their way into a place of influence is to convince you they're your friend. That's why they tell you jokes. They're convincing you they're nice guys.

61:30 In other words, they're more concerned what you think about them than whether you go to heaven or hell when you die. When I go to Christian schools to preach, I always say, I have the same line, opening introductions always the same, now I know you kids expect me because I'm a preacher and you're a bunch of kids that I'm going to tell you jokes to prove I'm a nice guy. Well, I'm going to tell you something. I'm not going to tell you any jokes because I don't care whether you think I'm a nice guy or not.

61:57 That's irrelevant. I'm here as a servant of God with the word of God and you're on your way to the judgment of God and most of you are lost and I want to preach. So with the blessing of God, you might get saved. The guy who saunters into the pulpit with all the charisma, Johnny Carson and every other late night talk show host who can stand up so exposed as they have to in that opening monologue and win you all over.

62:32 He's no friend to your soul. He's using you to promote himself. And Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, 5, we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your bond slaves for Jesus' sake. I beg you kids, you young people, don't get sucked in.

62:53 And so when that guy, nice old man, he tells the best stories and he tells the best jokes and he, you know, he talks our language and he dresses like he's making a fool of himself. You might think you'd like me to loosen up and act like a teenager, but the day I did, I'd lose your conscience. You'd say a 60-year-old man named Beast is not supposed to be acting like a teenager. He ain't fooling us.

63:21 He's phony. And you'd know I was a phony. Right? When you know I was a phony, you'd know I was as phony as a $3 bank.

63:32 So I beg you kids, come back to this passage. Come back to it. It's not complicated. This is not a complicated one.

63:43 Jesus said to the end of the age, here's what you're to do. Make disciples. Ask yourself, does that preacher, whatever he's preaching, however he's preaching, do I get the sense that he wants me to become a follower of Jesus with all my heart? To trust in Jesus alone for salvation?

64:03 Does he lovingly and faithfully warn me there's a hell to be shunned and a heaven to be gained and a cross to be taken up? That's the man who's your true friend, kids. Never forget it. And if he makes you uncomfortable when you're lying to mom and dad, and sneaking off to drink beer with the kids, and suck your joints with the kids, and mess around and start fooling around, and take sexual liberties with the guys and the gals, and you begin to feel uncomfortable when you come to church because you've got a sneaking suspicion he's going to go after your sins.

64:43 Oh, if you have any love for your soul, be thankful for a man like that that makes you uncomfortable in your sins, points you to Christ, and reminds you of a heaven and hell. Because before long you're going to be an old man and an old woman if you live out your full life, and it'll be gone and then you have an eternity, eternity, eternity, ever and ever and ever with joy looking upon the face of Christ in the company of the people of Christ, doing the will of Christ from morning till night with no night and no rest, tireless, joyless service of the Lamb of God forever.

65:26 Even so, come Lord Jesus, or you'll be in hell with the smoke of your torment ascending up forever and ever, crying, wailing, gnashing your teeth with pain, and age will roll upon age and age upon age, and eon upon eon, and the grinding of your teeth will go on, and the wailing will go on, small comfort you'll get from the clown's jokes then, small comfort you'll get from the cutesy little way he dipped around the Bible and made you feel good,

66:09 small comfort you'll have in hell forever. Dear kids, I beg you, hear this old man who's pouring out his heart this morning, who's wringing out his gut for your soul's sake, and you know I'm not playing games. I'm dead serious. Whatever you may be thinking right now, the day of judgment comes if you sink into hell.

Application to Self-Deceived Professing Christians

66:50 You won't point your finger at me and say he made me laugh and made me think he was a good guy and didn't warn me of hell. You won't point your finger at me. You've been told faithfully. And I say to those of you, and with this I must close in my application and several others that I'll have to let go till the next time, God willing.

67:22 To you who think you're Christians and you really don't love the law of Christ, you really don't want to know his will and to do it in every area of your life, look, you're kidding yourself to think you're a Christian because Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. If it loveth me not, keepeth not my words. If you truly believe in Christ, the fruit of true faith is love. Faith works by love.

67:54 And if any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be accursed, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 22. And if you're a true Christian, you want to know the will of Christ, that you might in the strength of Christ show your love to Christ by doing the will of Christ. And if that's not true of you, I don't care how old you are, six, sixteen, or sixty, you're deceiving yourself that you're a Christian. And the Scripture tells us the carnal mind is enmity against God and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.

68:31 The language of every unconverted heart is the language of Luke 19, 14. We will not have this man to reign over us. Sure, he can take me to heaven when I die. If he wants to, that's fine.

68:43 You mean I've got to nod my head to what he did on the cross so he'll take me to heaven when I die? Fine. Good. I've done it. It's settled.

68:50 Now bug off, Christ, and I'll do my thing. My friend, if that's your attitude, you're as lost as the devil. And you better give up all notions that you're a Christian. You're no more a Christian than this microphone is the Washington Monument.

69:04 Stop deceiving yourself. Let no man deceive you. We say we know him and keep not his commandments. We lie and we do not the truth.

69:15 Hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Read Jesus' story about building on the sand or on the rock, and what's the difference? He that hears these sayings and keeps them is he who builds upon the rock.

69:40 He who hears and does them not builds upon the sand. A true Christian is one who hears and does the words of Christ. The deceived, professing Christian is the one who hears and does them not. And the winds and the waves of judgment are going to come and all your profession will be blown away.

Final Exhortation to Uphold Christ's Commission

69:59 It will go out into the sea of God's eternal judgment. People, God has instituted as a public means of grace the reading, the teaching and preaching of his blessed word. And the commission of the Lord Jesus demands that the preaching and the teaching be central in the assembly of the gathered, the gathered people of God as the means of his own choosing that they might become mature in himself. Until Christ comes back

70:43 and rewrites Matthew 28, 16 to 20, let no man deceive you. May God help us. May God help those of you who will carry the mantle of leadership when some of us are gone if Jesus delays his coming. The first time somebody suggests well maybe we need to take another look at what?

71:13 Make disciples, baptize, and teach them. It will look the same if the Lord doesn't come for a thousand years. If it ever looks different it's because something's happened to your spiritual glasses and your spiritual eyeballs. Remember that, future leaders.

71:34 Remember that. Whoever tries to get in these walls, remember. The priest has said all authority is made by God. Make disciples, baptize them, teach them.

71:51 In so doing, blessed be God, I said I am with you. What? If you turn to playing games and having clowns? No.

72:03 I'm with you insofar as you do what I tell you to do. Make disciples, baptize them, teach them. I'm with you. In an age when people don't want teaching, people don't want preaching, so what?

72:21 He is with us. Blessed be His name. And He will have a people who love His ordinances and He'll have faithful men because He says, I will give them shepherds after my heart who will feed them with knowledge, understanding. Let us pray.

Closing Prayer for Mercy, Preservation, and Conviction

72:47 Our Father, what can we say when we have sought the field we've so miserably failed to set forth issues so crucial to the souls of men and women and boys and girls? O God in mercy, take the efforts of human weakness and add to it that blessing that comes only from Yourself, that it may be evident the exceeding greatness

73:31 of the power is not of ourselves but of You. We pray that the things considered this morning will draw the line. If there are those among us who in their hearts have said, enough of this for me, give them the moral honesty to clear out of this place. Lord, if they will not and they are determined to remain, to undermine the good of the souls of others, change them or judge them.

73:58 Lord Jesus, look upon Your church. Preserve the work of Your own hands, we pray. Have mercy, have mercy upon the younger generation. Our hearts bleed as we see them being manipulated by clowns and seduced by clever talking people that have a pseudo-Christian message but the root of the matter is not in them.

74:29 God preserve this rising generation. Raise up discerning leaders with keen eyes to see the first approach of a wolf and the first emergence of a perverse man who would draw away disciples after himself. And oh God, for the honor of Your Son, work in those who are self-deceived, who name Your name but do not love Your precepts. Convict them.

75:00 Oh God, give them no rest till they flee to Christ. Have mercy, hear and answer our prayers. For Jesus' sake we pray. Amen.