Role and Theme

The Difference Between a Lecture and a Sermon

0:04 Ask yourself, what is the difference between a lecture and a sermon?

0:14 Well, if you haven't, let me inform you that there's a profound difference between the two. And perhaps the most essential element of that difference can be stated this way. A man who's to give a lecture does his preparation, takes the notes of his insight, and putting them into his briefcase, goes to his lecture hall, and regardless of the state of his own mind or the state of those before him, he delivers his lecture and goes his way, files his notes in his place where he keeps his lecture notes, from whence they can be taken out on any occasion, and the lecture repeated. However, preaching is essentially different at this point.

1:00 A man may prepare a sermon, may feel that he understands the text, it may grip him in the hours of his preparation, but when he comes to preach it, it goes dead on him. And he can't preach. He could give a lecture on the passage that he thought was going to be the substance of his preaching, but he can't preach it unless there's that other element there, that grip, that something. And I had prepared what I now see is still a lecture on Joshua chapter 7, on the sin of Achan, fully intending to preach that to you this morning.

1:36 But it's gone dead on me. I couldn't preach it. I could give a lecture, but you haven't come for a lecture. And God hasn't called me to give lectures to his people when they gather to worship.

1:46 Whatever place lectures may have, it's certainly not in the public worship of the people of God. And so I'm going to direct your attention to a passage that has some grip in it, a passage we've studied previously in this place, but one which has come home with freshness to my own heart, and so I make no apologies for attempting to preach on the passage again this morning. The passage is found in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 1 through 5.

Why Understand the Marks of a Faithful Ministry?

2:22 And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. Notice the difference. He wasn't lecturing about the testimony of God. He was proclaiming the testimony of God.

2:40 For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him, whom as crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. There is perhaps no portion of the word of God which more, more comprehensively and yet more succinctly sets forth all of the essential ingredients of a faithful ministry

3:24 than does the passage before us. The great burden of the apostle, of course, as a steward of the gospel, was to be found as a faithful man. Listen to his words in chapter 4, verse 1. Let a man so account of us as of ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God, hear moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.

3:53 Then he goes on to say, it makes no difference to me what your judgment of me is. He said, ultimately it makes no difference what my own judgment of myself is. But one thing is of paramount importance, the assessment of my judge in the great day, verses 4 and 5 of chapter 4. Because Paul was mindful of the words of our Lord, who said, He said that when he reckons with those to whom he's given a stewardship, the thing that they long to hear above all else are these words, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

4:29 Good referring to the character of the man, faithful to the quality of his service. And so the great burden of every true preacher is that he may also hear those words, Well done, thou good, thou faithful servant. And so as we come to this passage, we're going to approach it as a setting forth of the essential ingredients or the marks of a faithful minister and a faithful ministry. Now some of you may ask, Pastor Martin, have you had a lapse of memory?

5:06 You're not preaching to a group of preachers. Why should we as common workers in the kingdom of Christ, ordinary members in the church, in the church of Christ, why should we be concerned to have clear and definite views as to the marks of a faithful minister? Well, let me give you a number of reasons as to why you should. In other words, why all of us here this morning should have a clear understanding of what is taught in this passage.

5:34 The first reason is this. You as a congregation alone have the right to call your elders to rule over you and to instruct you in the truth of God. One of the most precious truths of Scripture, a truth for which some have lost their very lives, is that the gathered people of God alone have the right to select those who shall preach to them. The great issue that led to the death of many of the covenanters in Scotland was precisely this issue.

6:08 They said the king rights of Christ were being intruded upon by those who would impose miniscule, and they said it is the right and prerogative of the churches to call their ministers. But you see, as a church, you have no warrant to act in terms of your own standards of the ones that you should call to minister to you. God has authorized you as a church only to call such as are faithful ministers. In other words, every single church should have a clear, definite view of what constitutes a faithful ministry so that they may know those men who they should call to minister to them.

6:54 Secondly, you and I as the people of God are called upon to support the work of the gospel, to support the work of the ministry, the extension of the kingdom of Christ at home and abroad. But God nowhere calls upon us to support unfaithful ministries and unfaithful ministers. How then should we judge those whom we should support as a church? We should judge them in terms of the principles of the text before us this morning.

7:23 We should understand what constitutes a faithful minister and a faithful ministry not only to call such to minister to us and to rule over us, but to commission such and send them forth to preach the gospel in other places. A third reason is this. God nowhere calls upon a man to attend to anything other than a faithful ministry. I've heard many people tell me God has led them to attend to liberal churches, to attend churches where the word is not preached so that they could have a ministry and when they were all done giving me all their reasons I've simply said graciously but firmly show me one verse in the Bible that says you are duty bound to subject your mind to error.

8:09 Show me one verse in the Bible that says a believing man is to submit, to submit himself to an unbelieving ministry. The challenge is still out.

8:21 No one has come forth with an answer. For the Bible everywhere condemns false teaching and warns against exposing one's ears to false teachers. And so for that third reason in terms of the kind of ministry we ought to attend to we must know what constitutes a faithful God-owned ministry. And then of course I speak in a more limited sense to the young men amongst us who aspire to the work of the ministry and just as an athlete early in the development of his skills and in the beginning of his career will set up in his mind his idols, his standards hoping that somehow by the acquisition of similar skills

9:06 he may attain to similar proficiency in his field of athletics so every young man aspiring to the work of the ministry should have his biblical ideas his ideals clearly etched in his mind he should have before him the kind of man and the kind of ministry that he aspires to by the grace of God. And so I speak to you young men who aspire to the ministry and then in the fifth place I preach to my own heart. As many of you know I go away tomorrow with my family for two weeks of vacation or of holiday for our British friends and I've had to fight to keep them that already. People know where I'm going to be and calls have started to come in.

9:47 Can you please counsel me with this and counsel me with that. Any of you enamored with the so-called glamour of the ministry come and I'll have a chat with you and strip away the glamour the responsibility of ministering to the needs of people. And one of the things that I need during this time of vacation is a resharpening of my own focus of what is it all about with our growing church family and with the increasing responsibilities of counseling and new avenues of outreach and the possibility of broader ministry in the fall. All of these things it's so easy for me to lose my perspective on what constitutes a faithful ministry and if for no other reason

10:30 I need to preach to my own heart this morning to be reminded of these things. So then I hope you're all convinced that not one of you feels excluded from the thrust of the passage. Here is why we must have a clear understanding of the importance of the ministry. The ingredients, the marks, the elements of a faithful ministry.

The Context: God's Design to Level Human Pride and Exalt His Glory

10:51 Now just a word about the context. The apostle has been stating that the whole end of God's design in the sending of the gospel and in the application of the gospel is to level human pride and to heap glory upon himself. That conclusion is drawn from the latter part of chapter 1 in which he says, verse 26, Behold your calling, brethren, not many wise, not many noble. Why?

11:20 The latter part of verse 29 or verse 29, that no flesh should glory before God. In the sending of the gospel and in the application of the gospel God has with infinite wisdom and with almighty power committed himself to a course of action that deliberately undercuts all human pride and exalts himself and exalts his own glory. Paul repeats that emphasis again in verse 31 that according as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. It's accurate to say that the whole goal of God's redemptive work

12:04 is the abasement of human pride and the exaltation and manifestation of his own glory. Of him, through him and unto him are all things to whom be glory forever and ever. Now that simple little statement and the profound truth it conveys has never gripped you. You haven't understood the Bible biblically.

12:28 The whole design and end of the gospel both in its gospel provisions and in its application is to humble human pride and to exalt and display the glory of our God. Now if that's true of God's overall design in the sending of the Savior in the way the Savior procured salvation for his people in the way salvation is applied to his people now can you see how the Christian ministry the means by which the end of God is realized must also fit that framework. If our view of the gospel is the leveling of human pride

13:11 and the exaltation of God's glory then our view of the ministry must fit that precisely. The ministry God ordains will be a ministry in which human pride and human wisdom is leveled and divine glory and majesty is displayed before the eyes of men. A humbling gospel is only consistently preached by a humbled ministry. A God-exalting gospel is only rightly preached by a God-exalted and God-exalting ministry.

The Conscious Role of a Faithful Minister: Not Orator or Philosopher, but Witness

13:47 So then, so much for the drift of Paul's thought. Now we come this morning in the time that remains and then, God willing, we'll finish the exposition tonight to consider from this passage those indispensable marks of a faithful ministry. First of all, then we have his statement and I, brethren, when I came unto you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom proclaiming to you the testimony of God. And in this text we have what I am calling the conscious or the definitive role of a faithful minister.

14:28 What is the role of a faithful minister? And Paul states it, first of all, negatively and then positively. And he has two negatives. I, brethren, when I came to you came not, one, with excellency of speech, or two, or of wisdom.

14:51 And in these two phrases Paul is telling us that when he came to Corinth he did not view himself on the one hand as an orator nor on the other hand as a philosopher. He says, I did not come as an orator with reference to the manner of my preaching nor did I come as a philosopher as to the matter or the substance of my preaching. Rather, he says, I came positively as a witness. I came as one declaring the testimony of God.

15:29 Now let's break those things down in some greater detail. First of all, the role then of a faithful minister is not that of an orator. These Corinthians were fascinated by the skills of their orators. They prided themselves in producing a class of oratory perhaps unparalleled in the Roman Empire.

15:54 And the mark of the orator is that he's always preoccupied with his skills and his abilities to manipulate people with words. The political orator was the man who could take a mob, take a great assembly of people and move them into the predetermined course of action that he or his superior people would be able to do. The orators had designed as being in their interest. So with words, the orator is concerned to manipulate people.

16:27 He uses words on people's ears as does the musician. He likes to play skillful tunes to create moods and attitudes and images. And therefore he studies all of the arts and the tricks of crowd manipulation. And in a very real sense, the orator feels, the crowds exist for him.

16:50 The crowd exists to bounce back, as it were, with praise and with adulation the input of his words. The orator is fascinated by the sonorous tones of his own voice. He's titillated by the melody of his own words as it comes back on his ears. And Paul says, when I came to Corinth, I did not come in the role of an orator.

17:18 I had a definitive view of the ministry which absolutely precluded the tricks of an orator. And nothing makes me more sick than to hear the term, pulpiteer. Should make us all want to vomit. Pulpiteer is an orator who happens to be using as the substance of his oratory, Bible language.

17:43 No, no, the work of the ministry is not the work of pagan oratory. Nor does the apostle say, nor he says, was it the role of a philosopher? And that's bound up in the little phrase, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. That is, I did not come in the power of what you Corinthians would call wisdom.

18:09 A Corinthian would arrive at what he called wisdom by the exercise of his own mind. He would look to his philosophers, the philosophers, that man with the very wide, and vague incom плохé, A wise look upon his face who sits in solitude and scratches and strokes his straggly white beard and assumes that with his own mind he can look out upon life, he can reflect upon life, line up all the facts, organize the facts, synthesize the facts, and then come up with some insights as to what makes life tick.

18:47 But no matter who the philosopher was, no matter what his particular conclusions were, he was always the man who looked within the stuff of his own mind to gain accurate observations. He was always drawing from the stuff of his own mind to make what he thought were accurate conclusions. Therefore, as the orator is bound up with the sound of his own words, the philosopher is bound up with, the notions and opinions that are spun out of his own skull.

19:25 Now Paul says, I did not come as a philosopher. I did not come to Corinth to share my religious insights. I did not come to Corinth to give you my religious opinions, Paul says. I absolutely disowned the role of a philosopher.

19:43 But positively, he says, I came to you in the role of a witness. Notice how he states, Proclaiming to you the testimony of God. I came as a herald to declare a message not my own. And when the town crier would go out into the town to make some news known to the town's folk, he was not concerned with impressing people with his diction.

20:15 He was not concerned with impressing people with his sentence structure. He was not concerned with, impressing people with any of the arts of the orator. Nor was he concerned with imposing upon people his own opinions. He had one concern.

20:31 To convey the message simply and bluntly so that all who heard could understand. And Paul said, I take the position of a herald, of a declarer, of a proclaimer, not of my own testimony, but of the testimony of God. That is the testimony. The testimony of which God is the author, and it's simply a synonym for the gospel.

20:57 Paul so uses it in 2 Timothy 1.8 when he says to Timothy, Be not ashamed of me, the prisoner of the Lord, nor of the testimony of God. It is the gospel. That message which is revealed.

21:12 That message which is deposited. That message which when we bring and people say, that's an amazing thing. Where did you get such ideas? We gladly say they were not.

21:21 They were never spun out of the stuff of my own mind. But they have come revealed from heaven by the Lord and his holy apostles and prophets. Therefore, we are warranted in concluding that a faithful minister is not concerned about being thought clever. He's not concerned about being thought of as brilliant.

21:47 He's not concerned about being recognized as an original thinker. He's not concerned about being recognized as a believer. He's concerned with one thing. Oh, that I may be a faithful and an accurate witness to the testimony of my God.

22:01 That's his burning concern. May I faithfully, accurately, simply be a witness of the testimony of which God is an author. Because of this, the great concern of a true and a faithful minister is to penetrate the mind of God in Holy Scripture. He's a man of one book.

22:25 He's a man who aspires to be mighty in the Scriptures. He's a man who seeks to be disciplined by the Word in his own experience. In his professional activity, in his standing before men, he's not concerned about being clever. He's concerned about opening up the Scriptures, leading the people of God to understand the text of Scripture.

22:47 He doesn't accommodate to their laziness. He doesn't throw in a bunch of stories to keep. He doesn't have their interest. He preaches the Word.

22:54 He expounds the Word. He seeks to apply the Word. He seeks to proclaim the whole counsel of God. He's indifferent to the praises of men.

23:05 He's indifferent to the curses of men. He's a man who is a witness.

23:11 Self-consciously committed to bearing testimony to God's mind. Now, suppose the man has been endowed with some measure of gifts of utterance. Is he to despise whatever gifts God has given to him? Suppose God has given him a mind that is able to come up with penetrating insights.

23:33 Is he to pass over those insights and continue to speak as though he were still in the kindergarten of knowledge? Of course not! But ah, listen. When the Apostle Paul came saying, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom.

23:48 I did not come conscious of seeking to be an orator or philosopher, but only to declare, God's testimony as you find in his epistles when God loosed his tongue and caused him to soar into flights of sanctified oratory. The difference between that oratory and pagan oratory is this. The one leaves you at the feet of the orator filled with amazement at his abilities, and the others leaves you at the feet of Jesus amazed at the glory and the grandeur of the Son of God. There's the difference.

24:23 And so if a man, conscious that he's a man, whose only concern is to be a witness, the Holy Ghost takes hold of him and takes hold of his tongue and gives him a flow of utterance and a choice of words that causes us to stand back amazed as the truth is poured through. Hear of true Holy Ghost oratory. It leads men to the feet of Jesus. And the insights given to the man who is not philosopher, but simply wants to be a witness, they will never lead you to admire his wisdom, but they will lead you to admire the wisdom of God.

25:01 Oh, my friends, don't be deceived by people who are smooth talkers. I don't know how many years God will give me to labor amongst you, how many years he'll give Pastor Blaze to labor amongst you. And I trust that should the time ever come when you as a congregation must prayerfully seek someone else to be your teaching elders, should God remove me in his providence or by death, if God should allow my tongue to cease its ability to speak. Oh, my dear people I plead with you.

25:35 Don't be impressed by a man who can manipulate words so that it sounds like Sam playing on the piano or one of these other fellows. You ask yourself do I sense in him the constraint, not of an orator, not of a philosopher, but that he stands as a witness? Do I sense he's being honest with the scripture? Do I?

25:58 laboring to bring me into the meaning of the mind of God in the word of God. Don't be impressed with his physical appearance. Don't be impressed with his social graces. Ask yourself this. Does he

The Comprehensive Theme of a Faithful Minister: Jesus Christ and Him Crucified

26:11 carry himself like a witness? Now, let us move in the second place. And this is probably as far as we'll get this morning. What is the comprehensive theme of a faithful minister? Paul gives it to us

26:26 in verse 2. Conscious of his role, that of witness, he tells us what his great theme is. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. You'll notice that I've called this the comprehensive theme of a faithful minister. For years, you know

26:54 what I thought Paul was saying here? I thought he was saying something like this. Because of his role, that of witness, he tells us what his great theme is. For I determined not to know because of the peculiar problems at Corinth, namely the deification of human intellect, the deification of oratory, I made an exception. In other places, I had other themes, but when I came

27:12 to you people at Corinth, I said I'm going to be one note Charlie. I'm going to tear out all the other strings from my banjo, and I'm just going to stick my finger at one point on the stem, and I'm going to be a one note Charlie. There are other notes to be played, other strings, but I'm going to be a one note Charlie. That's not what Paul's saying.

27:30 He is not saying that the whole truth is like Maine to California, but when I come to Corinth, I'm only going to stay in Chicago, Christ and him crucified. No, no. What he's saying is this. The sum and substance of the whole range of divine revelation is bound up in the person and work of Jesus Christ our Lord. And from that theme, I will not move, for if I move from that,

28:01 I've moved out of the role of a witness. I've moved out of the boundaries of script. And so his declaration is not of a limited theme, not of a constricted theme due to peculiar problems at Corinth, but it gives Paul a marvelous opportunity to declare the comprehensive theme which he proclaimed everywhere, but which in a peculiar way was brought into focus in the city. Of Corinth. What he's saying is that all roads of divine truth lead to Christ. All the beams of

28:43 divine light focus upon him. All the rays of divine warmth and energy flow out from him. Jesus Christ and him as crucified is my comprehensive theme. Now, having given that brief statement of Paul's meaning, let's break it down into more detail. Look at the text.

29:03 I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. You have, first of all, this emphasis that the comprehensive theme focused upon a proclamation of the person of Jesus Christ. He did not say, I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus, nor did he say, I determine not to know anything among you, but the Son of God. And Paul was careful in his choice of words. When he writes under the

29:39 inspiration of the Holy Ghost, God sovereignly guides him in the very selection of terms to use in describing his Savior. And the use of these two words is not accidental, nor is it a surface thing. It contains tremendous and profound theological significance. When I came to Corinth, I came with this comprehensive theme that focused in the first place upon this unique person, Jesus of Nazareth, who as God incarnate was the promised Messiah, the Christ of God.

30:18 So then in those two words, we have a distillation, a summary of the whole glory of the person of Christ, which was the constant theme of the Apostle Paul. We look to his other letters and see precisely how he preaches Jesus Christ. And he preaches him as the pre-incarnate Word who humbled himself to become obedient unto men and becomes obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He preaches him as the one who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich. He delighted to

31:01 say to this people at Corinth that the Savior I preach is God himself. Jesus is God's Emmanuel. Jesus, Jehovah, our salvation. He delighted to preach him as the creator and sustainer of the universe. Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1. He gloried in the reality of his incarnation. He constantly

31:24 emphasized the sentness of him as the Christ. He was no Johnny-come-lately Savior. He was the anointed, promised prophet, priest, and king, the Savior of Israel. He delighted to extol him in his exaltation as Lord. He delighted to focus upon his compassionate and prevailing

31:45 intercession as a high priest. The Apostle Paul found that he never ran out of sermon material as long as he had this inexhaustible focal point of his preaching, the person, and the glory of Jesus the Christ. Woe be unto the preacher who feels that a sermon on the incarnation at Christmas and a sermon on the resurrection at Easter and a few sermons here and there about Christ will somehow do. No, no, Paul says, my comprehensive theme, that which was

32:24 woven into the fabric of every discourse, was some aspect of a revelation of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And how my own heart was encouraged in this recent series on so mundane a subject of baptism to see how the glory of Christ, the very doctrine of baptism, whether you turn to duty, whether you turn to ordinances, whether you turn to dogma, whatever it be, Jesus Christ in the glory of his person is the lodestone of all truth. But notice what else he says. I did not preach just

33:03 the person of Jesus Christ and all the inherent glory and majesty in that person, but he said I preached him as crucified and this glorious person as crucified, making reference, of course, to that central saving act of Jesus Christ, his death upon the cross as a sacrifice for sinners. And so in the preaching of Paul, as in all his epistles, the death of Christ as a blood of Jesus Christ, the body's sacrifice as a substitute for sinners, propitiation, divine wrath poured out upon him, his sacrifice as an atonement.

33:44 This is not something brought in extraneously. It is the central note of the apostles preaching. He describes it so vividly in the book of Galatians. Look there for a moment, please. Chapter 3 and verse 1. The Galatians are being moved away from the biblical gospel to another gospel.

34:05 How does Paul describe the biblical gospel that he preached? Chapter 3, verse 1. O foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth crucified?

34:25 That's a synonym for the gospel. A setting forth of Jesus Christ crucified. That's Paul's definition. That's Paul's definition.

34:36 That's Paul's definition. Of his gospel. Not Christ, the unique God-man, is our example, though he is that, and though Paul refers to him as that. Not Christ, the unique God-man, as teacher, though Paul refers to him as that, and he is that.

34:52 Not Jesus Christ, the perfect God-man, as the leader and sovereign of his people, though he is that. But Jesus Christ and him as crucified. And to Paul's thinking, speaking of Christ crucified was not primarily a symbol of divine love. It was a symbol of the only way divine justice could save rebel sinners, consistent.

35:21 Divine love could save rebel sinners consistent with divine justice. And so he views the cross as the symbol of that mighty work in which God made him who knew no sin to be sin-free. And so he views the cross as the symbol of divine justice to save rebel sinners consistent with divine justice. And so he views the cross as the symbol of divine justice to save rebel sinners consistent with divine justice.

35:39 And so he views the cross as the symbol of divine justice to save rebel sinners consistent with divine justice. Let me say in summary then that the comprehensive theme of every faithful minister must of necessity follow the pattern of the apostle Paul. It must be Jesus Christ and him as crucified. That's the principle.

Applying the Comprehensive Theme: Law, Faith, Duty, and Doctrine

35:59 Now let me apply it. Someone says, but ah, Pastor Martin, you've told us from the scriptures that there must be preaching of the law. Man will not appreciate Christ unless they know the law. know they're lost. True. Doesn't the Bible say by the law cometh the knowledge of sin? Yes, it does.

36:15 Doesn't Paul say I've not known sin except the law said? Yes, he did say that. Doesn't the Bible say the law was our tutor unto Christ? Yes, it does say that. But there is a way of preaching

36:28 the law that is preaching Moses, and there's a way of preaching the law that's preaching Christ. Let me illustrate. In this gospel age or in this age when the gospel has come to its fullest expression through the actual performance of Christ's work upon the cross and his resurrection and ascension, and we have the full interpretation of it in the apostolic writings, we are to preach the law, but we're to preach it within the framework of 1 Corinthians chapter 2. We are to hammer out the ten words of Moses upon the consciences of men. Why?

37:05 That we might point them to that one who perfectly kept that law, who on behalf of sinners never did covet, never did lust, never did steal, never did disobey or dishonor his parents, never profaned the Sabbath. We are to preach the law that men may see their own imperfections in order that seeing their own, they may admire the perfection of him who, though made in the likeness of sinful flesh, fully kept that law. We are to preach the law that men may see their own imperfections in order that seeing their own, they may admire the perfection of him who, though made in the likeness of sinful flesh, fully kept that law. We are to preach that law in its terrors and in its judgments, that men knowing that his lawbreakers the mouth of hell yawns for them, only that we might then set before them Calvary and show them that the mouth of hell yawned for the

37:50 Son of God, when our sins were heaped upon him, and the mouth of hell not only yawned, but it closed upon him until he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And God forsook him, because he who knew no sin was being made sin for us. The judgment of the broken law broke upon his holy head. We are to preach the law as we proclaim Christ crucified, never the law divorced from this great theme. Then in the

38:21 lives of God's people, is the law valid standard for their obedience? Of course it is, but never the law detached from Christ crucified. We are to remind them that it's because they are graciously saved by the death and life of another that they now have a motive to obey God. That Christ crucified is the motive for their obedience, Christ crucified is the provision for the deficiencies in their obedience. We are not to tell people, you have nothing to do with the all in the hand

38:54 of Moses, alone in coming to Christ, and then give that law back to them as it were in the hands of Moses after they've come. It's enough! you hands of Christ before and after. For the great theme is Jesus Christ and him as crucified.

39:14 What about the proclamation of faith? Are we to preach to men that they must repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes, but that repentance which is gospel repentance is never divorced from the preaching of Christ crucified. We're not to hold up the standard of the law and tell men you've broken it, you're condemned, you're doomed, now turn or burn. We're to say you've broken the law, you are condemned, you are doomed. God has

39:42 sent his Son who kept that law. God has sent his Son who died in the room of lawbreakers and beholding what that broken law cost the Son of God. Look upon Christ and see the ugliness of your sins, those sins that the law has exposed, those sins that God says you must forsake. Forsake them, behold them, turn in horror from them in the full display of a bloody cross. For the scripture says they shall look upon him whom they pierced and

40:15 they shall mourn for him. In the words of John Newton, a bleeding Savior I have viewed and now I hate my sin. We're to direct them to faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Point them to one who's on a throne, a throne of God. We're to direct them to faith toward

40:32 the throne of mediatorial power. But how did he come to that throne? By way of that cross. And we are to direct them as the object of their faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. But

40:46 someone says, aren't we to preach Christian duty? Ah, yes we are. We're to preach the detailed directives for duty. And may I say, particularly for some of you who are in academic circles where this is questioned, they call it moralistic preaching. To give God the power

41:02 of directives for family living. To teach people in detail how to be husbands and wives. That's moralistic. No, it isn't. It's biblical. Paul did it. The apostles did it and the psalmist

41:13 did it. But what makes it Christian is this. In preaching duty, we preach duty suffused with Christ and him crucified. One of these days what I want to do is just take you through the book of 1 Corinthians and show how in dealing with problems all the way from incest to division, we can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We

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41:38 it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do

41:39 it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do

41:40 it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do

41:41 that Paul lays upon the Christians but what Christ and him crucified is not central. When he wants to break the back of the lechery at Corinth, how does he do it? He says, don't you know you've been bought with a price? He brings the cross right into the center of the perspective.

41:57 When he wants to deal with the problem of division, what does he do? He says, was Paul crucified for you? Is Christ divided? You see, there's not a duty laid upon the conscience of a believer in which Jesus Christ and him crucified is not to be central.

42:14 What about when we proclaim doctrine? Oh, in the real sense, every doctrine is but another facet of the glory of Christ crucified. You take the doctrines of grace, as we call them. What are they without this comprehensive theme at the center?

42:30 What is election if viewed as bare decree of God focused upon some unworthy sinners to deliver them from a state of sin unto a state of salvation and glory I say that leaves me cold. It's not biblical. My Bible says in Ephesians 1 that he hath chosen us in him. In that one who is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

42:59 God's first dealings with me were in terms of Christ and him crucified. And the doctrine of election preached that way as a warm and a throbbing and a humbling truth apart from it. It is a cold, a barren and a cutting truth. Take the doctrine of particular redemption.

43:20 What is it when simply spelled out Christ died only for such and such? Oh no, no, no. That's not the way the Bible presents it. Here's how the Bible presents it.

43:29 Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. I lay down my life for the sheep. Oh, these young men going around banging people on the head. With a five-pronged club and saying they're heirs of Whitfield and Calvin and Spurgeon.

43:48 They know nothing of what they say. You read Spurgeon. You read Whitfield. You read Calvin.

43:55 And this perspective just throbs through their writings and their expositions. Christ and him crucified was central. Not election. Not particular redemption.

44:05 Detached from the Redeemer. Detached from the one in whom they were chosen. You take the doctrine of so-called irresistible grace. I like efficacious grace better.

44:16 I did resist it a long time. But when it became efficacious, my resistance went.

44:23 And the Bible does speak of people resisting the Holy Ghost. So don't take up terms that get you in trouble with the Bible. Invent terms the Bible doesn't use to state Bible truth if necessary. Efficacious grace.

44:36 And in our day with such shoddy concern for the English language, most people say, well, what do you mean by efficacious? And then I can tell them what I mean and explain the doctrine. But what is it? But an omnipotent Savior doing what he said he would do.

44:50 Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. And there shall be one fold and one shepherd. That's efficacious grace. It's the seeking Savior prevailing over every difficulty and barrier in the way of finding one of those sheep that he's determined to save.

45:10 Jesus Christ and him crucified, central. What about? What about the perseverance of the saints? It's not an abstract doctrine of security as though some impersonal force will keep me?

45:22 Oh no. It's my great high priest who bears me upon his breastplate and has my name written upon his pierced hands who has said, I will keep them and I will lose none, but I will raise them at the last day. So you see just this brief survey through what we call the doctrines of grace and we see that the comprehensive theme is Jesus Christ and him as crucified. And you know what the basic difference is between seeing these truths and their relationship to him and being detached from him?

The Difference Between Living Truth and Wax Imitations

45:55 It's the difference between a living, throbbing, sentient, warm, pulsing human being and one of those beautiful wax figures in a wax museum. If you go to London almost any time of the year you find a big queue, a big line. Madam, to show wax museum. There are several here in the States as well.

46:22 And if you've ever seen those things they really give you the creeps. I remember the first time I saw the one that had a picture of, was a figure of Churchill. And he was sitting there at a desk and his hand was in that familiar position and the cigar, I just almost expected to hear a everything about it looks like every picture I've ever seen of Churchill. But now there's one thing it lacks.

46:47 Life. Every feature, every characteristic, the tonal shade, they even put in the hairs one by one to try to get them as accurate as possible. Now suppose I'd been away in England, in Scotland, ministering, and away for a couple of weeks and I was looking forward to coming home, seeing my wife and my children. Suppose while I was gone someone had come to the house and had taken on Mrs. Martin

47:10 to be a model for one of these wax figures. And they said, we're going to make a wax figure of you. This embarrasses my wife silly but I need the illustration dear so you forgive me. And while I was gone, all the artists went to work and they came up with one of these wax imitations of my wife.

47:27 Had every hair right in place, every feature, the color, any little marks upon the face, any peculiar, so that if you were to take a very fine measuring instrument, measure the width of her nose, it'd be accurate to within a thousandth of an inch. Measure the length of the ear, everything about her, just like her. And I come home and that's standing in the doorway. There's one thing it lacks.

47:51 One thing it lacks. I wouldn't stand there and say, dear, it's so nice to see you. No, no. It would be mockery to stand that there in the place of a warm, living human being.

48:06 My friend, when you take any doctrine of the word of God, you may be accurate to a millionth of an inch in the statement of it. Be it election, be it irresistible grace, be it any doctrine of the word. But when Christ and him crucified is not there, giving it life and warmth and blood, it's a wax imitation. And don't be surprised if people don't want to embrace it.

48:36 And God have mercy on us if the day ever comes when we have erected in this pulpit mere wax imitations of Christian truth. Christ and him crucified is the comprehensive theme. And Paul said, I was determined to know nothing else. Before I bring a final word of application, let me give you a choice quote.

John Flavel's Commendation of Christ-Centered Preaching

49:01 From John Flavel. Speaking on this text, Flavel says in his inferences, which are his applications, Inference 4. This may inform us by what rule to judge both ministers and doctrine. Certainly that is the highest commendation of a minister to be an able minister of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the Spirit.

49:25 He is the best artist that can most lively and powerfully display Jesus Christ before the people, evidently setting him forth as crucified among them. And that is the best sermon that is most full of Christ, not of art and language. I know that a holy dialect well becometh Christ ministers, that they should not be rude and careless in language or method. But surely the excellency of a sermon lies not in that, but in the plainest discoveries and liveliest applications of Jesus Christ.

50:07 Isn't that beautifully stated? Now that's sanctified eloquence, you see. The best sermon is that which makes the plainest discoveries and liveliest applications of Jesus Christ. My closing word to you who are unconverted is this.

Application to the Unconverted: Turn to Christ

50:25 You ask me, Mr. Martin, what's this church all about? I've heard that something's going on here and that people are interested in hearing about it. It's just hard to get a see.

50:35 What's your message? What are you out after? Oh, my friend, this is our message, that Jesus Christ is come from Heaven's glory. He's died upon a Roman cross.

50:45 He's born in Himself the wrath of God against the sins of all who will come to Him. He is full of compassion. He's full of mercy. He is full of welcome.

Application to Believers: Grow Deeper into the Cross

50:56 Turn from your sin and cast yourself upon the Savior and you will be welcomed. Do you, child of God, never think that you grow away from the cross, but you grow deeper and deeper into the cross? Paul says, not as a fledgling, but as a mature man, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. If my faith is weak, don't look at faith and try to make it strong.

51:27 When you touch it, you make it weaker. Yet, look to Him who is the object of our faith, and looking upon Him, there is everything in Him calculated to strengthen our faith.

51:39 You sit here this morning, resolved to follow, but that resolution is weak, and you're conscious of the weakness of it. Don't look at your resolution. Gaze upon Christ crucified. Think of the infinite measure of the Father's love as revealed in Him.

51:55 And who cannot help but have His resolve to follow Him deepen? When gazing upon such a sight of mercy and of grace, some of you having problems in the mortification of sin, and you're looking at that sin that does not seem to die, and the more you look at it, the less it dies. My friend, you gaze upon Christ. It is the inward sight upon Christ dying for sin that has the most powerful effect upon the killing of sin in us.

52:25 It's gazing upon Him that shows us the heinousness. It's the heinousness of our sin that gives us hope to believe that He who would die for my sins is able to conquer my lust in me by the grace and power of His Spirit. This, I say, according to the Apostle Paul, is the conscious, definitive role of a faithful minister. He doesn't try to whip you into frenzy.

52:53 He doesn't try to get you feeling good. He doesn't try to get you to do something. His primary concern? His primary concern is to be an instrument of displaying the glory of Christ, and then, in the sight of that glory, to obey Him more diligently in the light of His Word, to serve Him more faithfully, to proclaim the message of His grace with greater zeal.

Summary and Future Outline

53:17 Two points this morning. The role of a faithful minister, not an orator, not a philosopher, but a witness. The comprehensive theme of a faithful minister. Jesus Christ.

53:30 And Him crucified. God willing, we'll consider the other three things that are there in the remaining three verses. The inward disposition of a faithful minister, verse 3. The manner of a faithful minister, verse 4.

53:44 And then the conscious goal of a faithful minister in verse 5. May God be pleased to do for us the very thing we've been preaching this morning. Even give us a new sight of the glory of His own dear Son. Let us pray.

Prayer for Faithful Ministry

54:05 Father, we do thank You. We thank You for this record of the Apostles' ministry. A pattern for all of us. And, oh, we pray that You will bless this assembly with a faithful ministry.

54:19 Oh, God, that You will, for years to come, secure for it a faithful ministry. And we pray that across our land and throughout the world, Your Spirit would continue to work in the making of faithful ministers. Oh, God, we long that the day may soon come when there may be many burning and shining lights. Men who have turned their backs upon human wisdom and human oratory.

54:50 Men who are content not to be clever, not to be wise, but simply to be faithful proclaimers. And, oh, give them such a vision of the glory and power of Christ that He shall again be the great theme of the preaching of Your servants. Hear us, oh, Lord, in this our prayer. And to this end, bless the preached word this day through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

55:17 Amen.