Preaching as a Means of Grace (3)

Introduction: The Centrality of Preaching and Listening

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, August 1st, 1993, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. May I urge you to follow with me in your Bibles as I read from the last paragraph of the first letter of Paul to the church at Colossae, the book of Colossians, chapter 1. The paragraph that we shall consider toward the conclusion of the message this morning, beginning with verse 24. Colossians 1 and verse 24.

0:46 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, or his body's. For your sake, which is the church, whereof I was made a minister according to the stewardship of God which was given me to you word, to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which hath been hid for ages and generations, but now hath it been manifested to his saints, to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery. Amen. Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we proclaim, honishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.

1:53 Whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in me. Now let us again pause and ask the blessing of God upon preacher and hearer alike. And just as the preacher, having prayed for God's help, does not lean back on the pulpit and hope something edifying will come out, but throws all of his faculties into the labor of preaching, you must do the same in listening. You mock your prayers if you lean back.

2:35 Passively waiting to be blessed, as surely as I would mock my prayers for blessing, did I not do as Paul said, labor, agonizing, those are the words, throwing the whole of his humanity into his preaching.

2:57 I'm prepared to do so by the help of God. Are you prepared to throw the whole of your humanity into listening? If not, then don't bow your head. Don't say amen when I pray, for you will mock your God and your prayers by your careless passivity in listening.

3:20 May God help us so to pray and so to preach and so to listen, that God will be honored and answer our prayer. Let us pray. Our Father, we would not play at prayer. We come before you, the God before whom all things are.

3:45 We are naked and laid open, and you know the disposition of our hearts. We thank you that we have reason to believe that there are many hearts bowed in this place this morning that are indeed determined to give themselves with the full engagement of mind and heart and will and affections to the hearing of your word. Help those who have come with. That disposition, that as they give themselves with holy ardor to the hearing of the word, they may be blessed by you.

4:27 For those who have come in a passive, indifferent frame of mind, O Lord, challenge them by these few words of exhortation, and help them even now to gird up the loins of their minds and to give themselves with holy endeavor to hear, and to write your holy word. Help your servant that he may know the enablement of heaven upon the exposition and application of the word. And, O Lord, as I would seek to give myself with holy striving, with holy agony of mind and heart to deliver the burden of your word, will you not work in me mightily that the word may come not in word only, but in me? Will you not work in me mightily that the word may come not in word only, but in me? Will you not work in me mightily that the word may come not in word only, but in me? In power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.

5:21 Come then, O God, upon preacher and people alike, and take us up in your most holy and powerful presence. We plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Now, I want to ask you a personal question, and it is this.

The Conviction Behind Centrality of Preaching

5:47 Have you ever wondered, or have you ever been asked, why it is that, so much of our time in our three stated meetings every Lord's Day is taken up with the teaching and the preaching of the word of God? Why do we not give up some of that time allotted to the reading, preaching, and teaching of the scriptures by competent and proven men, and give more time to testimonies, to singing, to musical packages? Or, as in so many evangelical churches, give our Sunday nights over to Christian movies, Christian plays, and Christian drama? Why is it that we allocate so much of the time in all three stated services on the Lord's Day to the plain old reading, preaching, and teaching of the word of God? Well, the answer to these and similar questions lies, first of all, in a conviction we have with respect to the nature and the ordering of the worship of God on the one hand, and on the other hand, a conviction we have with respect to the Christian life.

7:14 And it is with reference to this latter conviction, namely concerning the Christian life, that we are convinced that there are, there are no effective substitutes for the God-appointed means of grace in living the Christian life and in growing up into the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ. Now, as we've been setting forth the major biblical precepts, principles, and perspectives which have shaped our life as a church during our first 25-plus years of existence, we've arrived at a point where our attention is being directed to the affirmation that we in this place are determined to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective and expectation concerning conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the church. And in expanding upon our determination with reference to this matter of the Bible, the biblical doctrine of the Christian life, our present focus is upon this previously mentioned assertion that in living the Christian life,

8:36 there are no effective substitutes for the God-appointed means of grace. Having identified the private means of grace ordained by God for our growth in grace, we're now addressing the issue of grace, we're now addressing the issue of grace, we're now addressing the issue of grace, we're now addressing the issue of the corporate or the public means of grace also ordained of God for our individual and corporate maturation in Christ. And having expounded Acts 2.42, we are using that text as a basic outline of the major corporate means of grace that were instituted by Christ, the head of the church, through the instrumentality of the apostles, those uniquely equipped foundation builders of the New Testament church. And we have seen from that text that primary among the public means of grace was their continual adherence in the apostles or to the apostles' teaching. And we have extracted from that the principle that the primary, the first means of grace highlighted was that of the reading, preaching, and teaching of the word of God which must be central

10:04 in the services and life of the gathered church. We spent two messages establishing from the scriptures the fact that the reading, the comprehensive reading of the scriptures ought to be central in the core of the church. And that is the key to the corporate life and worship of the people of God. Today is our third message addressing the centrality of the teaching and preaching of the word of God in our corporate life.

Review of Previous Arguments for Preaching's Centrality

10:36 And what I've tried to do thus far is very simple. I have first of all tried to demonstrate that the teaching and preaching of the word of God must be central in the church because of the fact that the changeless commission of the sovereign Lord of the church, which demands it. And we looked at Matthew 28, 16 to 20. Then last Lord's Day, we began to take up the second line of evidence that the preaching and teaching of the word of God must be central in the corporate life of the church, and we began to consider it under this heading. The preaching and teaching of the word of God must be central in the life of the gathered church because the consistent pattern of apostolic example and practice demands it. We opened up three texts which highlight the significance of apostolic example and practice in general, 1 Corinthians 4, 15 to 17, Philippians 4, 9, and Acts 20, 35a. And then we began to consider the importance of the teaching of the word of God the substance of the apostolic example and practice in particular. What did they do as they

11:59 established the churches with their unique authority from Christ to be foundation builders in the church of Christ? And we had time to consider only three passages, Acts 2, 42, Acts 6, 1 to 4, and Acts 11, 19 through 26. And the common denominator of those three passages was the apostolic practice to place the preaching and teaching of the word of God central in the activity of the gathered church. And I want to keep emphasizing what we're doing. We are not seeking to prove the centrality of preaching in evangelism, but we are considering preaching and teaching as central in the life of the gathered church. And we are not seeking to prove the centrality of preaching in evangelism, but we are considering preaching and teaching as central in the life of the gathered church. And we are considering preaching and teaching as central in the life of the gathered church. For the edification and the building up of the people of God.

Apostolic Example: The Church at Antioch (Acts 13)

12:56 So much for that attempt to squeeze into seven minutes or six minutes, hours and hours of exposition. We're going to complete the evidence under that second head. Having looked at the significance of the apostolic example, now the substance of the apostolic example, we move from Acts 2, Acts 6, Acts 11 to Acts 13. Acts 11 to Acts 13.

13:20 God helping us, we're going to look at five passages this morning which will complete the witness of the apostolic example and practice concerning the centrality of teaching and preaching in the life of the gathered church. Turn please to Acts chapter 13. In Acts 13 and verse 1, our attention is directed back to the church at Antioch. We concluded last week with the passage which described both the establishment and the early development of the church at Antioch.

14:01 And we saw that the church was established through preaching. It was developed and made stable through the teaching ministry of both Paul and of Barnabas. Verse 26 of Acts 11,

14:20 It was gathered together with or in the church and taught much people, and that the Christians were called, that the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. Now as we come to Acts 13, we confront Antioch again. Now there were at Antioch. And at this point in the book of Acts, it's vital for us to recognize that there is going to be a change.

14:50 There is going to be a change. There is going to be a change. There is going to unfold before us a whole new dimension of the work of God fulfilling the mandate of the Lord Jesus recorded in Acts 1-8, that when the Spirit came upon the people of God, they would be witnesses unto Him both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And God has already laid hold of His servant, Saul of Tarsus, whom He has made.

15:20 Paul the Apostle, He has been molding and fashioning him to be the uniquely equipped and designated instrument for this new thrust of the gospel into the ends of the earth. And the center of emphasis will shift from Jerusalem now to Antioch as that base of new gospel endeavor. And as Luke is recording, And as Luke is recording, what the Spirit of God did in both preparing the church at Antioch to be that base, and then calling out the two men who would be uniquely ordained of God for this initial gospel thrust, notice where the emphasis falls. The last time we heard anything significant about the life of the church at Antioch The last time we heard anything significant about the life of the church at Antioch You were all gathered together and that Paul and Barnibus were teaching them, You were all gathered together and that Paul and Barnibus were teaching them, whatever else they were doing, the prominent activity was instructing the people of God. And though a further reference is made in Acts 11, 27-30,

16:41 It does not have direct reference to how the church was being nurtured, But now when we come to chapter 13, but now when we come to chapter 13, given by the Spirit of God through the pen of Luke. Now, there were at Antioch in the church that was. You'll notice the word there is in italics in the old 1901. It's an unusual construction.

17:07 There were in the church at Antioch, or in the church that was, in the church that existed, prophets and teachers. And then five of them are named. Barnabas and Simeon, that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manan, the foster brother of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. And as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them.

17:45 Then when they had fasted, and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

17:54 Now, does it strike you as rather strange that in describing the church that is going to be this base of an entirely new dimension of the forward movement of the gospel, there is nothing spectacular set before us. We are not told anything about this church, experiencing a fresh outpouring of the Spirit, and miracles happening, and people being raised from the dead, and speaking in tongues, and walking over the ceilings, and nothing of the sort. As it were, the curtain is pulled back, and there we see a church that God is going to use as the launching pad to take the gospel out into the Roman Empire. And what was the picture we get of that church? It is a church richly furnished with a plethora of New Testament prophets and teachers who are praying and waiting upon God. What a letdown!

19:04 What a letdown! Or is it a letdown? Is God saying to us by this description the way the head of the church who sovereignly administers the affairs of his church, prepares a church for unusual responsibility and privilege in gospel endeavor, is to send the roots of that church down deeply into Christ by means of what? Prophets and teachers.

19:43 In this context, a New Testament prophet was one who was given supernatural insights into the very kinds of things we now have in the epistles. They were given supernatural revelatory data with respect to the significance of the work of Christ, the privileges that are now accruing to the New Covenant community. They were given revelatory data with respect to the duties of New Covenant believers. The church is said to be built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

20:24 Christ, the risen head of the church, Ephesians 4, gives unto his church apostles, prophets, evangelists. And the emphasis there is upon New Testament prophets so that their primary function was not to be predicting the future, but according to 1 Corinthians 14, it was to offer instruction and consolation. And exhortation to the New Covenant community with New Covenant data that was not yet embodied in the scriptures. And now that all the data we need is embodied in the scriptures, there are no more New Testament prophets.

21:07 But here at Antioch, God furnished that church with New Testament prophets and teachers. Men who had been given special gifts, who had honed these gifts by prayer and pains and practice, who could take existing revealed data in the Old Testament scriptures and from the mouth of New Testament prophets and could impart it to others in a way that was clear and understandable and graspable. They could do with our brothers so powerfully did for us in the previous hour, in which a section of the book of 1 John, which is New Testament prophecy embodied in the scriptures and lay it open before us until our minds are enlightened and our judgment is convinced and we feel the impact of the word of God without any claim to special revelation from God. Now how was God preparing that church? And notice it says, there were at Antioch, kata, not just using the simple dative case, or the simple preposition en, but using a stronger preposition. There were attached to the church

22:35 prophets and teachers, men who knew what it was to give themselves to the instruction of the people of God. And in terms of any special preparation for this unique and special significance that this church was to have, there is but one aspect upon which the Holy Ghost floods His light, and it is the aspect of the centrality of the teaching and preaching of the authoritative word of God in that congregation. Nothing about the fact that there were miracles and tongues and all kinds of relational groups and study groups and seminars on missions and on the, none of that! By and by teaching the word of the living God, God molds a church that has a vision of the great purposes of God to gather in the Gentiles. God molds a church into a level of selfless love that it is now ready to give up its two choice public ministers, one of them an apostle, the other a seasoned, proven servant of God, Barnabas, so that when the Holy Spirit makes it plain

24:01 that those are the two to be extracted and sent forth, there's no sign of any grumbling. God, you took our best men! You took the only one who was an apostle! And you took the most seasoned one!

24:14 That's not fair, God! No, every indication is that being sent away, the implication is that the church, joyfully sure with a broken heart in terms of the bonds of love that would now be stretched over oceans and into prisons and into peril, but they sent them away! How does a church get established in Christ? How does a church get to the level of corporate mortification, of selfishness, and a carnal grasping upon its choice ministers?

24:55 How does a church get to the place where it's ready to be the base of the selfless involvement of the spread of the gospel among the heathen? How does it get there? I say again, by the ordinary means of the teaching and preaching of the Word of God, blessed by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's how God, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, brought Antioch to that place, and that's how He brings any church, any place, of God-intended usefulness in any age, in any environment, in any culture, until the Lord Jesus returns.

Apostolic Example: Strengthening Disciples (Acts 14)

25:40 So the apostolic pattern is clear, that in this church, with an apostle present, that which receives the central attention is the teaching and the preaching of the Word of God. Now, witness number five, Acts 14. We're just carrying on from last week's message. Acts 2, Acts 6, Acts 11, Acts 13, now Acts 14, a passage to which we make frequent reference on a number of occasions.

26:17 But what I want to highlight is this. These verses, beginning in verse 21 through 23, record the activities of Paul and Barnabas toward the close of their first missionary journey. They went out and went to given cities under the guidance of the Spirit, preached the gospel, made disciples, called them into fellowships. Now, returning to their home church, they go in reverse order and visit the places where they had previously preached.

26:46 And even though in some of those places they found their lives in danger and they were physically attacked, they nonetheless were constrained to go back into those very dangerous situations, and what did they go back to do? They figured, well, by now, they've learned the ABCs. They trusted Christ. They know the ABCs.

27:08 Christ died for sins. Christ was buried. Christ was raised. Now we're going to go back and give them the main course.

27:14 We've given them the appetizer. Now we're going to go back and teach them how to get to baptism and speak in tongues. Now we're going to go back and we're going to tell them, look, to get into the kingdom, Christ was enough. But now if you're really going to advance, we've got to be eclectic and we've got to pull a little bit of Greek wisdom here and a little bit of Gnostic insight here and we've got to...

27:34 No, no. No, no. No such nonsense, folks. What did they do when they went back?

27:38 Well, let's see what the Holy Ghost has recorded. Verse 21. When they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. The word confirming literally means strengthening the soul of the disciples.

28:01 And how did they do this? That's the generic statement, strengthening the souls of the disciples. Well, at least two ways they did this are recorded. Exhorting them to continue in the faith.

28:17 And the word teaching or instructing assume that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed for them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they had believed. Now again, isn't there something kind of very ordinary and plain Jane about their activity? They went back not to say, now you're saved and in the kingdom, but if you'll only get to baptism, if you'll only speak in tongues, if we can only now teach you how to perform miracles, if we can...

28:59 No, there was no such nonsense in the apostolic pattern of strengthening the churches. And all who say they come in the name of Christ and following the apostles and contradict this are to be labeled as false teachers. They went back and strengthened the souls of the disciples and at least two of the ways that they did it in person was by exhorting them to continue in the faith. They were encouraging, admonishing, setting forth motives to a life of persevering faith.

29:44 And implicit in that is the fact that they would articulate the privileges of the faith. They would articulate the duties and demands of the Christian faith. And they're exhorting them to continue in it. What is that?

29:59 That ordinary preaching and teaching. And furthermore, they instructed them in the realism of what would happen if they continue in the faith. And if they do continue in the faith, even to the end, and persevere by the grace of God, it will be through many tribulations. They imparted to them by teaching a realistic view of what lay before them between where they were and where they were going.

30:32 But then knowing they had to leave, they did something else. They not only strengthened the disciples, the souls, the inner being of the disciples, at least in these two ways, but notice what they did anticipating their absence. And when they had appointed for them miracle workers in every church, signs and wonder workers in every church. And when they had appointed them, they appointed for them psychologists in every church and family counselors in every church.

31:07 And when they had appointed youth workers and young couples pastors. Brethren, I don't mean to be sarcastic, but I hope you're getting the message. This nonsense does not come from the Bible. Knowing they would not be there personally to strengthen their souls by exhortation and by teaching, to be with them in their tribulations and bring the consolations and promises of the gospel to bear upon them.

31:44 They concentrated all of their attention upon guiding the church into the recognition of divinely equipped, divinely designed spiritual guides who would do two things. Who would govern them and who would teach them. For as we read 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 with respect to the requirements for elders, next to the major emphasis and may God ever help us to keep it there, upon graces, graces, graces, graces, the emphasis on graces towers over the emphasis on gifts in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. It towers over gifts. When men begin to think their almighty gifts are an excuse for the absence of graces, they've stood those passages on their head. The day graces do not precede, accompany and surround a man in any office, he's in that office contrary to the will of God. But among the gifts, only two are required.

33:01 It doesn't say they have to be super organizers, have to have a charismatic, contagious, lovely personality that gets along with everything, from puppy dogs to German shepherds to three-year-old kids to 90-year-old people that are senile. But it says two gifts must be present. A proven ability to rule, 1 Timothy 3. If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?

33:29 And a proven competence to teach, apt to teach, 1 Timothy 3. Titus 1, able to exhort and to convict. That standard no doubt was hammered out in their own experience in guiding the churches so that when it came time to designate that task to others, Paul did not come up with some entirely new standard, he simply codified in writing what had been the operative standard in his own missionary experience. And so what are they doing?

34:07 They are providing for that church not prophets, who can say, thus saith the Lord, not miracle workers, who can say, come see, I'm going to raise someone from the dead, but they appointed elders, ordinary overseers, whose lives embodied the power of the gospel at a level of Christian grace, a cut above the ordinary, blameless men, men who would be able to carry on the work of governing the house of God, and instructing the people of God. And out of their midst no doubt there would emerge those who are described in 1 Timothy 5.17 whose level of giftedness would be such that it was right that they should be set apart from the ordinary means of employment and labor in the word and in doctrine. And there the emphasis falls exclusively upon the function of teaching and preaching. It doesn't even mention rule. Now that doesn't mean they don't rule, but you see the emphasis of the Holy Ghost?

35:13 Are you beginning to feel it? How many ways must God tell us churches become stable in the face of much tribulation, in the face of the necessity of persevering in the way of holiness and obedience? How? Not by being tickled, not by being fascinated with human philosophy and man-centered psychology, not by relational interaction.

35:42 That is not the fundamental way of God establishing his people. It is by the teaching and the preaching of the word of God in the gathered assembly of the people of God by confident, proven, duly recognized servants of the living God. And that's how the apostle Paul and his companion Barnabas left the churches that they had established.

Apostolic Example: Paul's Farewell to Ephesus (Acts 20)

36:12 It's beautiful in its simplicity, isn't it? Then we bring another witness, Acts chapter 20. Remember now what we're trying to see is that not only does the changeless command of the risen Lord demand the centrality of teaching and preaching in the life of the church, but the example, the consistent example and pattern of apostolic practice likewise demands it. Acts chapter 20.

36:43 Paul has gathered the elders at Ephesus to himself, and now he's reviewing some three and a half years of ministry among them. And after addressing the matters of his motives and his bearing, he then focuses upon what he did. And while there is overlapping, and I freely acknowledge that, some of these references would have to do more primarily with his evangelistic endeavors, there are others which, according to the use of the language, clearly point to what he did to these elders as part of the gathered church. But in both activities, and we'll not concern ourselves to separate all the strands, notice the dominance, and I use the word deliberately, the dominance of public preaching and teaching. Verse 20. I shrank not from declaring unto you, speaking to those elders, anything that was profitable, and teaching you, declaring and teaching you publicly, and from house to house testifying both to Jews and to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Declaring, teaching, testifying.

38:05 Verse 25. Now behold, I know that you all, among whom I went about preaching, the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. You, among whom I went, preaching the kingdom of God, you, elders, part of that church, in the midst of which I proclaimed the kingdom of God. Verse 26.

38:31 I testify to you this day I'm pure from the blood of all men, for I shrank not from declaring unto you, unto you elders, as part of the church at Ephesus, the whole counsel of God. He said, my hands are clean. Why? Not because I became a guru to everyone with a hang-up.

38:57 Not because I became an eclectic who absorbed the insights of the Gnostics and the insights of the Pharisees. No, no, no. I'm free from the blood of all men. Why?

39:13 I declare the full spectrum of God's counsel to you. I declare the full spectrum of revealed truth unto you. My hands are clean. Ah, but Paul, you didn't stroke us where we wanted to be stroked.

39:30 You said, I'm sorry, but I've got clean hands. But Paul, you didn't flatter us by making us feel that our case was so special that we needed some special insights that come in addition to the Word of God. Well, I'm sorry I disappointed you, but my hands are clean. Oh, but Paul, you didn't know that I'm one that just can't get on with the teaching and preaching of the Word.

39:56 I need a little cell group where there can be intimate, relational, gut-level catharsis of God. He said, I'm sorry I didn't meet your expectation, but my hands are clean. My hands are clean! My hands are clean!

40:12 Because I declared, I declared the whole counsel of God. And if a man's duty as a preacher is to do more than that, to have clean hands, Paul didn't know about it. Paul did not know! He said, I'm pure from the blood of all men.

40:38 There may be hundreds at Ephesus who sit disappointed that I didn't give them what they wanted. God told me they need it. No man is worthy to stand in any pulpit till he's come to that place where he says, I don't care if I disappoint the expectation of any man so long as I have the approbation of my God in the last day and I'm pure in their blood. That was Paul.

41:13 He said, well, that'll make harsh men. Does it? Read on. Verse 31.

41:18 Wherefore, watch ye, remembering that by the space of three years I cease not to admonish everyone, speaking now again of the people of God night and day with tears. It doesn't make harsh men. It keeps men so in touch with the true life and death eternal realities that he can never be a harsh man. You see, it's man-made schemes and gimmicks for growth in grace individually and corporately that by degrees remove us from the great issues of God, and heaven, and hell, and Christ, and the cross. And what things are more calculated to keep the heart of a preacher tender than to live near to an immolated, forsaken, battered, bleeding, son of God, crying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? What more calculated to keep the heart of a preacher tender than to realize that surrounding the cross the great divider of mankind on the one hand are all the glories of the paradise into which he received the dying but believing thief, and all the horrors of the hell

42:45 that come to Christ rejecting sin-loving, impenitent men and women who refuse to turn from their sin and believe on the Lord Jesus. How can one have, as it were, one eye fixed upon the inexplicable glory of heaven and the unfathomable depths of the woes of hell and be a harsh man? He can't be. And so when Paul says with indifference to what men thought and what men wanted that his hands were clean because he declared the whole counsel of God he admonished day and night with tears. How was that church at Ephesus? Ephesus made the strong influential church that it was made by a ministry that focused on the teaching and the preaching of the word of God. Oh yes, unusual miracles Acts 19 were done in his evangelistic endeavors.

43:53 Paul had a real handkerchief blessed ministry. It says that they could just take cloths from him and people really got healed. But he didn't charge a nickel for them. He didn't say, you know, send me ten dollars with your picture on it and I'll pray over it and send you.

44:08 None of that nonsense. But you see, those things were as I said last week means God used to get a hook in people's ears. But it was the word of God that broke their hearts and once that word found entrance and Christ took up his rightful place in those hearts Christ nourished those believers not by miracles but by the solid meat of the declaration of the whole counsel of God. By a servant of God who admonished them day and night with tears.

44:38 Now when he's about to leave them what is he going to give them up to that will keep them? Look at verse 32. And now I commend you to God and what's the next thing mentioned? And to the word of his grace.

44:57 He said, I believe God and his word are enough. I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up. And to give you the inheritance among all them that are sanctified. God and his word are enough folks.

45:17 I tell you in first century Roman paganism remember Ephesus it wasn't a community suffused with common grace. It was a community steeped in the worship of the goddess Diana. I won't tell you in public mixed company what that worship involved. You remember their deep involvement in the occult?

45:45 After their conversion they had a bonfire. Thousands and thousands of dollars of the books and the accoutrements of involvement in the occult were burned. Here were people out of a society more pagan than ours. And Paul made them think.

46:03 I commend you to God and to his word which are not partially able if supplemented by but which are able to build you up and give you the inheritance. Dear folks some of us are determined with every fiber of our being to live to labor and to die in that conviction. And I pray God there's a generation being raised up who can say that. Because some of you may die if not literally socially religiously in terms of family relationships if you're prepared to live out your days in that conviction that in Christ's church

Apostolic Example: The Close of Acts (Acts 28)

47:30 and the teaching of the word of God until Jesus comes again. And then the last passage in Acts and perhaps one reason I didn't get through all of this maybe my current couldn't have taken it all last week. Turn to the last chapter of Acts. Remember what we're trying to do now just bring in the consistent witness of apostolic patterns example and practice in building up churches.

48:10 How does the book of Acts close? A lot of people are so disappointed it just seems to be like a story where the author died two thirds of the way through and he left no notes from which someone could posthumously finish the story. We find Paul under house arrest at Rome verse 30 Acts 28 and he abode two whole years in his own hired dwelling and received all that went in unto him. Well that's lovely Paul had hired dwelling he's under loose house arrest with a lot of freedom and he was very courteous and very hospitable but once he received them what did he do to them?

48:53 Look at the next two verbs preaching! Wait a minute you don't have guests come in your house and start preaching to them? Paul said Paul said oh you don't it's what I do preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ behind closed doors sneaking in a word here or there for Jesus no with all boldness with unfettered pouring forth of the truth none forbidding him God restrained men's natural hatred to Christ and to the truth that no one stepped in and said enough of this rabble rousing but the note on which the book of Acts closes though it is not a church setting we can prove that it is we could say that this was the church in microcosm as believers were subdued by the gospel and Paul was carrying on a teaching ministry but I won't even press it that far the point I want to press is this one of the reasons I'm convinced the book of Acts closes this way is for the same reason that brilliant composers close the fourth movement of a mighty moving concerto the way they do and some of you can think of certain ones and I won't name them

50:22 because you'll get so distracted you won't listen to the rest of the sermon at least if you're susceptible to music as I am I can hear right now the strains of the particular composition I'm thinking about and everything is building in that last movement to that final crescendo where all of the percussionists the timpani are whomping away and the drums and the cornets are blaring and the trumpets blaring and the trombones with their unique raspy sounds and the stringed instruments are about to pop all their strings in this mighty triple forte and then it stops with the conductor's wave of his hand and in that silence the sound rings in your ears and you walk out and you carry with you perhaps for a lifetime that memorable moment when the entire orchestra with all of the various instruments were blended into one massive mighty crescendo and it embeds itself upon the memory well I think that's what God the Holy Ghost was doing with the book of Acts how did the triumphs of the gospel under the new covenant begin on the day of Pentecost when Pentecost the Holy Ghost comes he comes in such unusual manifestations of the presence of God that multitudes are gathered that no sooner are they gathered but Luke tells us

51:50 that Peter standing up in the midst opened his mouth and he began to preach and that first day God as the fruit of spirit blessed preaching reaped three thousand and gathered them in and now Luke has taken us through the progress of the gospel at Jerusalem Judea Samaria and now all the way to Rome and through this mighty composition of the triumphs of grace we come to the last bars in this symphony of the works of God the ears of the word and ringing in your ear preaching God knows we'd be very thick very slow to learn very quick to move from such perspectives I say the consistent pattern of apostolic practice mandates demand the centrality of preaching and teaching

53:16 not only in evangelism which has not been my purpose to establish but in the building up of the people of God in their most holy faith and then I simply cannot take the time to expound the Colossians passage because I do want to bring my applications this morning I would just underscore for you as you meditate upon that passage that Paul is writing with reference to his ministry to the church verse 24 and the great focus of that ministry is the proclamation of a great mystery that was hidden for generations but now manifested peculiarly to the Gentiles the mystery of Christ in the midst of his people Christ dwelling in the hearts of the individual believer Christ is the great theme of his preaching the medium of his conveying Christ he says we proclaim him admonishing and teaching verse 28 proclaim admonish we teach katangelo nutheteo didasko they were the verbal conveyance of the knowledge of God's truth to what end that we may present every man perfect in Christ he said preaching teaching admonishing

Implication 1: Maintain the Centrality of Preaching

54:43 are enough to present every man perfect in Christ and he said in these things I strive and I labor and God is so pleased that I've stuck to his means that he adds to and confluences with my labors his own almighty working and power that's the gist of what I hope to say but now I must bring having looked and trust convinced your judgment that apostolic practice and example in general is significant and binding and having considered the substance of apostolic practice and example in conclusion this morning I want to bring before you some sobering implications of the apostolic example and practice with reference to this issue of the centrality of preaching and teaching in the assembled church number one if we would maintain our identity as a church built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets we must never allow anything at any time for any reason to rival or replace the centrality of teaching and preaching the word of God in our stated meetings of the Lord's day if we would maintain our identity as a church built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets Ephesians 2 20

56:11 we must never never allow anything at any time for any reason to rival or replace the centrality of the teaching and preaching of the word of God in our stated meetings of the Lord's day in our stated meetings of the Lord's day I am not saying that the occasional missionary report in the adult class a missionary by office a missionary biography the testimony of an elder is irregular and out of place and sin no I am not saying if national calamity came and we gave ourselves to a day of prayer and fasting on a given Lord's day that that would be sin I am not saying that what I am saying is this as the overall pattern of our stated meetings if we allow anything at any time for any reason to rival the centrality of preaching and teaching we give up the right to say we are a church built on the foundation of the apostles we have given the apostolic pattern an example and are no longer building our life upon that foundation did you ever ask yourself why this building was designed the way it is they never thought of it some of us did we thought long and hard

57:38 and prayed long and hard did you ever ask yourself why that compression ring that holds the weight of the main beams is not in the center of the building the building is 100 by 100 this type of building usually has a compression ring dead center 50 feet right in the middle of that aisle how come it is up this way so that sitting there the beams lead upward and behind and draw the eyes even in the peripheral vision above the pulpit and the communion table do you think that is an accident that was by design we sat with the architect and said preaching is central in this and we want the beams to point to a place where the central activity takes place you know why this pulpit has five equal planes it is really an octagon with three of the ox taken off three of the planes cut off you know why that didn't just happen there is a preacher that is crazy enough to think that maybe theology ought to affect the structure of a pulpit you who are sitting there you get the same impact of that pulpit that the front row dead and center people have that is why this pulpit has five equal planes it is really an octagon where three of the ox get to the center and the center people get why because we are visual preachers we want you to sense when the preacher looks at you and he stands behind that pulpit everything represented by that preacher and maybe we ought to have a swiveling thing that would turn the bible

59:07 toward you that way to really be consistent I guess but seriously that you would sense this is for you and for you and for you you know why this platform is so narrow because people have to do major reconstructing of the pulpit they never have enough room for a choir loft I am serious that didn't just happen this is a very small platform for a church this size you know why there is no baptistry up on the back wall and we have to remove the pulpit and remove a pew for baptisms we want to make it evident Christ sent us not to baptize but to preach we didn't want the baptistry to be the focus of visual attention but this pulpit why because it represents the supremacy of the world and it represents the power of the church the mercy of the word of God you say pastor you are serious yes I am serious I have never been more serious so that if preaching ever gets rivaled or replaced here it is going to have to be people with enough money to do some reconstruction work to tear down the present arrangement and it will serve them right and we just might have some device under here that if it gets torn down it will blow the whole place up no really please somebody take me seriously I am not a terrorist but dear people I am letting in

60:35 behind the scenes now this building in its very structure represents what under God built it and what has filled people and it has been the teaching and preaching of the word was nothing young men and women hear me children the day what is going on here and has already gone on in the previous hour in that pure teaching of the word what is going on in this hour I trust in the preaching of the word the day that gets rivaled or replaced this place will cease to house a congregation that has any claim to be built on the foundation of the apostles it is fast on its way to becoming a synagogue of Satan people have asked why don't you have a steeple for two reasons the local codes forbid it 34 feet when the codes say we should only be 34 feet high we didn't want to push our luck but secondly why spend money for a steeple pointing Godward if people can't come in here and get pointed Godward by the preaching

Implication 2: Cry for Competent, Spirit-Anointed Preachers

62:04 of the word in the presence of God why have a mock instrument on the top of a building and I tell you if people come in here and meet God they don't miss the fact they are in even against steeples no I didn't say that I'm explaining to you why we here did not make the decision to spend the thousands of dollars and ask for variances and get approval from all the neighbors to break the codes we didn't feel it was worth it folks it's what goes on inside here that points us Godward and heavenward and it's done by the teaching and preaching of the word second application quickly the centrality of preaching and teaching we must cry to God for and be content with nothing less hear me dear people we must cry to God for and be content with nothing less than competent spirit anointed preachers and teachers in this pulpit do we want to maintain the centrality of the teaching and preaching of the word then we must cry to God for and be content with nothing less than competent spirit anointed preachers and teachers of the word of God in this pulpit John Owen has wisely observed

63:34 that the first step away from the truth of God is when the ordinances of God are carried on in their form but without their power long before people despise the ordinance in its presence and existence they will despise it if it is present without power and therefore you and I must cry to God for and be content with nothing less than competent spirit anointed preachers and teachers in this pulpit pity the people when there is a commitment to the centrality of preaching that they have incompetent or ungodly or unanointed men before them week by week I think they should join themselves together and call themselves the local union of Cain who cried my punishment is more than I can bear pity the people where there is a formal adherence to the centrality and primacy of preaching and teaching who must sit under men who dance around the scriptures whose lives do not validate their ministry and whose words never have the ring of Holy Ghost authority and power in them men who are not only apt to teach

65:02 and exhort and convince but who themselves are growing in grace before the eyes of those to whom they preach Paul said to Timothy give thyself wholly to these things that your progress may be manifested unto all skepticism about the benefits of preaching and teaching can be created no quicker way than when the official teachers are not being demonstrably themselves conformed to Christ as they teach and preach people say it's his gig it's his thing he does it well but it obviously does nothing to him why should it do anything to me that's why Robert Murray McShane said a holy man is an awesome instrument in the hands of God and an unholy is an awesome tool in the hands of God I beg you and if I come in your cross hairs make me a faceless man pray for and tolerate nothing less than holy spirit filled competent teachers and preachers in this pulpit and finally if we would maintain the centrality of preaching and teaching

Implication 3: Believers Must Profit from Preaching

66:26 it must be evident that you the professed people of God are profiting from this God ordained means of grace if we would maintain the centrality of the preaching and teaching of the word of God it must be evident that you the professed people of God are profiting from this God ordained means of grace in my preparation my mind went back to that whole incident several times repeated in the Old Testament the people of God who are being fed with the bread of God out of heaven called manna they grew rested and said we're tired of this and the onions and the cucumbers of Egypt and they said we want flesh to eat and I thought to myself well suppose the manna had been leaving them malnourished and many were breaking out with the scurvy and didn't have enough vitamin C and others breaking out in other plagues because the manna lacked certain nutrients you could say if the manna was not meeting their basic needs to give them health and strength and nourishment and sufficient roughage and bulk to keep all of the bodily parts functioning rightly you could understand them complaining but that manna was the most nutritious

67:54 item ever seen on the face of this earth except from the tree of life from which if men ate they would live forever and they complained they complained that complaint was irrational but you see had the manna not been meeting their needs and had they all become monuments of the ineptitude of God in what he served up to them may I say reverently when you as God's people have the scurvy of continually unmortified patterns in your family life husbands who will not love their wives though sermons have been preached ad nauseam you just will not set yourself to love your wife as Christ loved the church because you don't want and wives who will not reverence and submit to their husbands sermons that you could preach the doctrine at a woman's seminar because you just don't want to and children that will not submit to their parents and all the canons of family life that are taught and preached and lived out before you you want to create skepticism for the word of God in that way people say where do you go to church oh I go to trinity oh you mean that place doesn't have any choir doesn't have any youth ministry doesn't have this doesn't have that but all the spiritual scurvy you've got

69:22 but all the vermin crawling over you must not do much you want people to despise the centrality of the preaching and teaching of the word then just go on being a living monument that it quote does nothing for you you see how it comes back on you God's people you have got to be the validation that to present amazing Christ admonishing and teaching Christ are enough but it won't happen automatically Hebrews 4 2 says the word preach did not profit them not being mixed with faith James 1 22 says don't be hearers only deceiving your own self preach must be clean vessels we must pray we must labor in the study we must come prepared to spend that's something external to me when I plunk out my five dollar bill at the toll booth I'm spending to use the New Jersey turnpike but Paul says we're willing not only to spend but be spent that's something I do to myself the price I pay is me Paul says I'm willing to spend

70:44 but to be clean that dear people we can't receive the word in faith for you and we can't obey it for you you must receive it in faith you must obey it Jesus said take heed how you hear Luke 8 18 Luke 9 44 let these words sink down into your ears don't let them just glance the outer best of you sitting there as a critic to evaluate the preacher no sit as a humble disciple looking beyond the preacher and his efforts to price the great prophet of his church who ministers to his people through his word I close with these words of John Owen there is not anything in the whole course of our obedience wherein the continual exercise of faith and spiritual wisdom with diligence and watchfulness is more indispensably required than it is unto the due use and improvement of gospel privileges and ordinances there is no other part of our duty wherein our giving glory to God and the eternal concern of our own souls do more eminently depend and he is a spiritually thriving Christian who knows

72:13 how to improve gospel and the spiritual institutions and worship and does so accordingly for they are the only ordinary outward means whereby the Lord Christ communicates his grace to us and whereby we immediately return love praise thanks and obedience unto him in which spiritual interaction the actings of our spiritual life principally do consist and whereon by consequence we are our growth doth principally depend it is therefore certain that our growth or decay and holiness our steadfastness in or apostasy from our professed faith are greatly influenced by the use or abuse of these privileges put in plain old 20th century Americanese if you ain't profiting from God's instituted means to grow in grace you're on the road to apostasy that's frightening that's frightening but it's true and if you are profiting you know what it is to search your heart before you ever come into this place on the Lord's day putting aside as James says all overflowing of wickedness that you might receive with meekness the engrafted word you know what it is to come in

73:41 prayerful dependence like the psalmist open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law you know what it is to pray I will run in the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken me in thy law those prayers are often upon your lips before and while you sit under the word you know how to block out those horrible intruders that pound on the door of your mind in the midst of preaching and tell them go away in the name of Christ and how to wrestle for fixation of mind upon the truth and openness of heart to feel its arrows and to feel its pressure to be uplifted when it's appropriate to be driven to your knees when appropriate you've learned the holy art Owen says of how to profit from these gospel ordinances dear people if you do not you will then be the occasion of skepticism in your children in the generation to follow and it won't be long but you will be or someone is willing to pay the price to redesign the platform and I'll tell you one thing the pulpit won't be here and this book its teaching and preaching won't be the central means of grace in your public life may God help us to lay these

75:11 things to heart let us pray our father we thank you for the clear pattern of the apostolic labors that there is no jangling no confusion in their witness but that in every circumstance viewed from every angle as you've allowed us to witness their labors we see them endeavoring to establish the churches by teaching and preaching of the word of God oh Lord as we've contemplated that witness and the sobering implications to us as a congregation should our Lord Jesus delay his coming and you spare this nation a general judgment that sweeps it off the face of the earth grant that in decades to come in this place your word will have its divinely appointed place oh God be merciful to the rising generation be merciful to the children who sit and hear these things may seeds be sown that may not germinate again for the for decades but oh Lord at the appropriate time may they germinate we would be bold to plead that even until the coming of our Lord Jesus

76:39 should history not unfold to such an extent that this building would have to be leveled through age may it never witness a time when the preaching and teaching of your word is not central when it is not marked by the endowment of the spirit when you your people are not marked by spiritual listening and eager attention to your word gracious God we plead for the glory of your son and for the good of souls yet unborn that you will hear our cry and answer us for Jesus' sake Amen