Restoration of Biblical Preaching

Introduction: Our Vision for a Restoration of Biblical Preaching

0:03 The following message was delivered on Monday evening, October 19th, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Some of you here will no doubt remember that at our pastor's conference in October of 1988, I brought the first of what has developed into a series of sermons under the general title of Our Vision for These Days, that series being preached and incremented a time a year apart.

0:46 And the announced subject for tonight is the restoration of biblical preaching. And it comes as the fourth in that series of sermons, Our Vision for These Days. And each time I have introduced each of those sermons, I have made a two-pronged disclaimer. By using the terminology Our Vision for These Days, we claim no extraordinary commission with respect to these concerns.

1:28 And secondly, we claim no exclusive concern with reference to this, rather, as we seek to view the current religious scene in the light of the written Word of God and our duty as determined by the same Word of God, our vision for these days is essentially our understanding of the crucial concerns which must be addressed if the church is to know under the blessing of God, any true measure of spiritual health and vigor.

2:12 In the first of those messages we dealt with our concern, our vision to see a recovery of the biblical gospel. In the second, our vision to see a renewal of biblical holiness. In the third, which was two years ago, our vision to see a revision or restoration, belief in God, of good and evil. vision to see a return to biblical churchmanship. And now tonight, as I've already indicated

2:43 in this fourth dimension of our vision for these days, we address this vast and weighty subject of our vision for a restoration of biblical preaching. Now all that I have to say tonight from the Word of God is based upon a wholehearted agreement with the sentiments expressed by John A. Broadus in the opening chapter of his classic work on the preparation and delivery of sermons, in which he writes as follows,

3:26 The great appointed means of spreading the good tidings of salvation through Christ, is preaching, words spoken, whether to the individual or to the assembly. And this, nothing can supersede. Printing has become a mighty agency for good as well as for evil, and Christians should employ it with the utmost diligence and in every possible way for the spread of truth. But printing cannot be used to spread the good tidings of salvation through Christ, nor to spread the good tidings of salvation through Christ, nor to spread the good tidings of salvation through Christ, nor to spread the good tidings of salvation through Christ, Never take the place of the living spoken word.

4:09 When a man who is apt in teaching, whose soul is on fire with the truth, which he knows has saved him and hopes will save others, when such a man speaks to his fellow men face to face, eye to eye, and electric sympathies flash to and fro between him and his hearers till they lift each other up higher and higher into the intensest thought and the most impassioned emotion, higher and yet higher till they are born as on chariots of fire above the world,

4:52 there is a power to move men, to influence character, life, and the world. There is a power to move men, to influence character, life, and the world. There is a power to move men, to influence character, life, and the world. No restoration of scripture truth and reanimation of genuine piety

5:36 without new power in preaching, both as cause as effect. There has been no great religious movement, no restoration of scripture truth and reanimation of genuine piety without new power in preaching, both as cause and effect. Believing that the vast majority of those of you gathered in this place tonight

6:14 are already convinced of the primacy of preaching and the saving purposes of God, I have chosen to take no time to establish that fundamental tenet of the things most surely believed among us, but a certain principle of the gospel, assuming that we are agreed in that conviction, I pass on directly to the subject of our vision for a restoration of biblical preaching. And if we are to pray for such a restoration, if we are to labor for such a restoration,

Characteristics of God-Owned Preaching: Substance

6:57 and if we are to recognize the answer to our prayers and measure our progressions, and if we are to progress in sanctified endeavor for the restoration of biblical preaching, we must begin with giving at least the main concerns which identify such preaching. And so I want to begin tonight by addressing, first of all, the characteristics of God-owned, Spirit-anointed preaching. The characteristics of God-owned, Spirit-anointed preaching. The characteristics of God-owned, Spirit-anointed preaching.

7:41 Now while freely acknowledging the vast diversity of native ability, the measure of divine gift, and the diversity of preaching styles, I would still be bold to assert that there are some common denominators to all God-owned preaching styles. God-owned, Spirit-anointed preaching, which can be identified and articulated. I emphasize that in the expression of these common denominators, there will indeed be a reflection of a diversity of native ability,

8:27 a diversity of the measure of divine gift, and a diversity of preaching styles. And yet within that blessed diversity in all of those areas, there will be this core of common denominators with reference to God-owned, Spirit-anointed preaching. And as we pray for and labor to the end that there would be a restoration of biblical preaching, what we are doing is praying and laboring, to see preaching that will bear these following marks.

9:10 First of all, something with reference to the substance of that preaching. Secondly, to the form of that preaching. And thirdly, to the ethos of the delivery of that preaching. First of all, with reference to its substance.

9:29 In its substance, God-owned, Spirit-anointed preaching will almost invariably be marked by these four characteristics. First of all, it will be pervasive. Mr. Bavard read to us from 2 Timothy chapter 4, the final charge of the great apostle to his spiritual son and his mentor and the one to whom he was passing on the message of the Spirit.

10:07 Not the baton of apostleship, for that could not be conferred by any but the Lord Himself. But passing on the responsibility of the care of the church at Ephesus, His full admonition to Him, summoning to Timothy's mind the great realities of the appearing of the Lord Jesus and the day of judgment. His charge to Timothy is, Preach! The message.

10:47 Are to be preoccupied of a message that is pervasive.

10:56 Remind you of those familiar texts, such as Hebrews 4 and verse 12. That it is the word which is living and sharper than any two-edged sword.

11:14 The dividing asunder of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the very thoughts and the intents of the heart. Jeremiah who cries out in the name of Jehovah in Jeremiah 23, 29 is not my word like unto a hammer that breaketh chapter 8 and verse 20 to the law and to the testimony. Speak not according to this word. There is no dawning.

11:57 In chapter 55 and verse 11 so shall my word be forth out of my mouth. Shall not return unto me void. But it shall oxen that great to which reference was made this morning identifies the seed of all kingdom workers the sower, the worker and again Lord Jesus who says though heaven and earth pass away

12:40 my word shall never pass away identify them in the truth applying text for whenever a man says it in the name of the Lord it let it pass ago the word that the Lord does not interminable and perverse it is not to be perverse as a tender letter that does not simply refer to a that is not true or to be it is not to be seen in the spirit which shall lead the spirit to let loose itself as it does in the spirit release diligent and determined in the spirit to be eternal worthy to be powerfully present antiquating not the notions

13:25 of the pre- mind and vision of biblical pre- spirit anointed pre- as it's per- characteristic it will be pervasive

14:02 is that of a verse position of a book of scripture, opening it up and applying it, taking a subject and bringing the creation in the life of the community, in the life of the nation, whatever

14:31 the particular simonic form may be, pervasive is never simply the springboard to something else. The Bible is never simply the framework within which other things fill up the substance.

14:57 It will be pervasively doctrinal, pervasively, but unashamedly doctrinal. That is, it will be preaching that does not shrink from articulating the time-proven formulations of the raw materials

15:34 of the Bible. And in the crucible of controversy, and in fighting against spells of error, propagators of heresy, the church has...

15:48 ...concerning the nature and the being of God. And the church has confessed from her

16:04 earliest days that the God of this book worshiped the one true living God and unity in Trinity.

16:42 And without embarrassment, unashamedly doctrinal. People will not have to listen to us for six months to see whether or not we stand in the great historic street. That is, we see a biblical orthodoxy as unashamed trinitarian worshipers of the one true and living God. Recognize that that God is creator, that that God is lawgiver, and that that God

17:18 is just to the doctrine of man. He will be unashamedly doctrinal in our statements about man. Man uniquely created in the image of God. And that God, unashamedly, doctrinal 그리스노, and it will be unashamedly doctrinal in all our statements about man. Man uniquely created

17:31 unashamedly doctrinal in our statements about man. Man uniquely created in the image of God. God man fallen of our first ashamedly make it known that is unpopular as it may be we do the whole on Adam in which all the faculties of the mind and soul and body are tainted and twisted

18:09 and perverted by sin so that though we may not use the term total depravity no one could sit under our ministry for very long without understanding that we believe that this bible teaches that man in his present state he has a dignity high above the most cultured of all of the domestic animals is nonetheless in terms of his spiritual statuses and sins

18:44 none seeks that will be unashamedly doctrinal with reference not only to the great individual but also to the great individual and to the great individual and to the great individual and to the great individual and to the great individual and to the great individual issues of the being of God and the nature of man as created and fallen and depraved but with respect to Jesus Christ the utter uniqueness of his person as much a man as though he were not God as much God as though he were not man and that in this theanthropic person the God and the man are not co-mingled to become some third there is the

19:27 distinct and eternal distinction of the two natures in the one person and before the mystery we bow and in the formulas that to take the witness of scripture concerning the uniqueness of the person of our savior will be unashamedly doctrinal with reference to the uniqueness of his work we will not find ourselves embarrassed in the presence of the words propitiation reconciliation

20:07 redemption ourselves embarrassed before the terms the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all concept of an imputed righteousness our gospel is unashamed gospel of Romans 1 17 wherein is revealed a righteousness of God be an unashamed to our preaching with reference to the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of the Lord Jesus

20:48 Jesus and so it will be true with reference to the personal agency of the holy spirit in the quickening of the dead sinner taking out the heart of stone and giving a heart of flesh putting god's meaning upon the prostituted turf which means in our day nothing more than somehow a half nod to Jesus into men's hog pens and call themselves born-again우린 우리가 일반정식ミー wość입니다께서 이거가 Uz 치면은 Younger dirty manifested in стор원 weit turf in order for them to regain their fruitless softening their when they live in the face of God.

21:30 The unashamed of the vigor of conversion and a holy life and the second coming and heaven and hell.

21:47 God to express time through doctrinal formulas in fresh and gripping constructions, fresh and vivid illustrations and relevant and poignant applications, preaching which is owned of God. Never by novelty. Surely as it is pervasively, it is unashamedly. And thirdly, as to substance, it is always marked by this characteristic.

22:28 It is intensely, intensely pastoral. I have, in using the term pastoral, two dimensions of thought in mind. Thinking of the shepherd who seeks lost sheep and of the shepherd who cares and guards and feeds. Saying that God owns spirit-anointed preaching is intensely pastoral.

23:07 Teaching that reflects the Bible's own self-revealed purpose more beautifully summarized than in 2 Timothy 3, 14-17 where Paul says to Timothy that from a breath of us, from a nursing bathing which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which are able to make thee wise which is in Christ Jesus. There's the first scripture. For Jesus might fulfill his own word of John 10, 16. Other sheep I have which are not of this old,

23:51 them also I must praise shall hear. My voice shall be, how shall they hear

24:27 without, with him, and through him so that Paul can say to the Ephesians who is it from Christ in chapter 2 he came and preached peace who were afar off

24:56 when did he preach it? When his servants came and proclaimed without any intention or hope or goal or conscious desire to see men saved but preach

25:31 with intensely pastoral element with reference to the gathering in the lost sheep the caring for the found sheep for your love for me by being committed not to sin not to a professional detached ministry that merely traffics in truth that floats by the mental

26:15 brings it down to where they can masticate it and swallow it and regurgitate and chew it and assimilate it is intensely whose ministries are owned of God are singling a word

26:51 into 2 Timothy 3, 14 to make us wise to salvation and so that we may be secondly according to verses 16 and 17 also profitable for teaching reproof, correction, training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete then where a man is handling the word according to its own profession

27:26 to the substance of God owned spirit anointed preacher will not only be pervasively biblical unashamedly doctrinal intensely tidedly evangelical or if you want the more formal word I didn't like it but I'm logical decidedly evangelical or Christological use the word evangelical

28:09 in the sense that our Lord Jesus is the heart and soul only to those that are without the fold but he is also the life of those does he bid sinners to come to him and drink with the promise whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall be never thirst not only does he bid men to come and eat initially of him as the bread of life but there in John 6 he says he who eats present tense my flesh and drinks my blood present tense lives by me in other words

28:52 we are not only given life initially in a crucified Savior but that life is sustained as it is lived by the Son of God the Son of God who abides in me holds all things by the word of his power that's true but that isn't what Paul said he says the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith the Son of God contemplated uniquely

29:37 he could say to the Colossians when Christ who is our life and as our life I say it reverently though every attribute of Christ and every office of Christ and every function and ministry of Christ is part of the way in which he is our life the main conduit of his life to us is the contemplation of the virtue of his death and the power of his resurrection the efficacy of his advocacy and intercession at the right hand of the Father and the burning anticipation that the hour is coming

30:20 when he will break through the clouds and take us home to heaven. when he will take us home to be with himself you see the Holy Ghost delights to own with power that preaching that confluences with his most delightful ministry he is the spirit who brooded upon the waters and if you've never read John Owen volume three that most comprehensive treatment on the ministry of the spirit I urge you to read it but of all of his works from the initial brooding upon the waters of the Holy Spirit I urge you to read it but of all of his works from the initial brooding upon the waters of the Holy Spirit upon the original creation to his work in consummating the new creation at the end of the age

31:03 his most delightful work even within the more limited scope of the conversion and sanctification of sinners is not to convict them of their sin it is to testify of the Lord Jesus. He shall not bear witness of himself he shall bear witness of me the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus me in this place take my stand against that view of preaching that says every sermon to be a Christian sermon must have some facet of the person or work of Christ

31:48 as its ultimate destination I repudiate that view of preaching it will not stand the test of scripture it will not stand the test of the kind of preaching that I preach. it will not stand the test of scripture it will not stand the test of the kind of preaching that I preach. of preaching the spirit of God is owned in the history of the church nonetheless I say That preaching which God has most powerfully owned and to his spirit has most delightfully attended with his own presence is that which is decidedly evangelical so that we can, by the grace of God, say with the apostle another tej is that was referred to in the Gospels. the Gospel 야

32:30 heard to even today in the reading Colossians chapter 1, where Paul's vision is the maturation of the saints, yet in seeking to bring them to maturation, how does he do it? Verse 28, whom we preach, Colossians 1.28, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ, whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. Christ was preached not merely to see men

33:13 brought into the narrow gate and set upon the narrow way, but all along the way. Christ is preached by admonition, by exhortation. He is preached in the full spectrum of divinely revealed wisdom, that men may be brought mature in Christ. But Christ, dear people who are not in the ministry, whose hearts yearn that God would glorify his Son in our day, and you with me and these men are convinced that

33:51 preaching has a unique place in the plan and purpose of God, beginning to end from either an allusion or a quotation.

34:19 Or reference, or half-roots, out of its regular tense sleep. People don't go out week after week saved and lost, saying that it is decidedly evangelical.

35:01 How can a person leave without realizing that whatever my duty is, it cannot be fulfilled apart from heart dealings with the Son of God?

Characteristics of God-Owned Preaching: Form

35:24 The kind of preaching we long to see to the ends of the earth. But what about if it has that substance? Should we be indifferent? To its form?

35:38 Answer no. Because there is a genius, there is a rational explanation for the uniqueness of preaching in the purposes of God. And one day I hope the thoughts on this mature enough that I'll dare to preach upon them. But form does indeed have something to do with the preaching owned of God and anointed by the Spirit of God. And I want to say three things

36:09 about its form. And say them quite briefly. As to its form, it will be deliberately simple. It will be deliberately simple.

36:23 Now I did not say simplistic. But I said simple, as opposed to intricate and complex. So that one has to have a trained theological mind or a trained mind in academia, in the in order to sort out that substance that is biblical, theological, pastoral, and evangelical. 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 9 is a text, my brethren, if anyone in your congregation does calligraphy, have them do a nice big sign in calligraphy and set it over your desk.

37:04 And when you think the sermon is ready to be preached, ask yourself, does it meet this standard? 1 Corinthians 14, 9, And so also ye, unless ye utter by the tongue, it is easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye will be speaking with the incomprehensible. And with the complex.

37:44 And the complex. And the convoluted. Because in form we have not deliberately labeled to be simple. Who is the embodiment of all wisdom?

37:57 The very infinite mind of God is His.

38:03 Of Him it is said the common people heard Him.

38:14 It's the loftiest of the high eternal truths. And roots them into travailing mothers and into chirping birds. And into opening flowers. And into crooked stewards.

38:30 Need I go on? The kingdom of heaven is like. The kingdom of heaven is like. Blind guides.

38:40 He used the grotesque. He didn't care if it got the message across. He said you're like silly people. That when you open up the leg of the fresh skin of the goat into which your new wine has been poured.

38:54 Knowing some gnats. Dropped in and died. While it was being trampled out in the hollowed out stone. Where you pressed your wine.

39:04 You put your piece of muslin over your cup. You're sure to do that. And strain out the gnats. And while all your gnats are strained out.

39:12 And you remove your muslin. You turn to say greetings to someone passing by. And your camel gets loose from the tent post. And he puts his rump inside the glass.

39:24 And you don't even see him. And you swallow down. And you're wine with the camel. That's what Jesus said.

39:30 Ye strain at a gnat. And you swallow a camel. You see that's grotesque illustration. Jesus used it.

39:40 He said you're like people scrubbing and buffing the outside of the cup and the platter. And there it sits. Glistening in its nose up over the rim. And look in.

39:58 Of a thousand. Run eating in words. Easy to be understood. To simile.

40:23 Illustration. Analogy. Metaphor.

40:40 In form. That preaching which the Holy Ghost most warm is deliberately.

40:53 In which all pride of appearing learned has been nailed to a cross.

41:02 All desire has been nailed on top of it.

41:11 That people go out and say oh I've heard things about that preacher. He was a good preacher. But so sick. You can't have a higher compliment from an unhumbled.

41:23 Sinner than that.

41:27 But then it must be unmistakably intelligible. Unmistakably intelligible. In other words in form it must be presented in such a way. That not only will most people get it if they try hard enough.

41:44 But that no one will miss it. Unless they're out of their tree. Or deliberately perverse. Now that's all the difference in the world.

41:56 Unmistakably intelligible. With reference. To structure. Illustrative material.

42:03 Imagery. All of these factors so to speak. Not that the vast majority will most likely get it if they try hard enough. But that none can miss our meaning.

42:20 Unless they lack their rational faculties or are willfully perverse in their hearts. The kind of preaching that the Holy Ghost owns. Deliberately simple. Unmistakably.

42:38 Intelligible. And thirdly in its form unashamedly personal. Not saying good and true and biblical and right things about God and heaven and hell and sin and Christ. And repentance and faith and holiness.

42:56 Not saying these things in the hearing of men.

43:04 But saying these things to the heart.

43:11 Not dumping a load of truth out. But before them. Endeavoring with every legitimate faculty of form and structure and personal address. Bring it into the deepest chambers of their heart.

43:36 Not afraid to say you. And you. And you. And you.

43:42 And be done with this innocuous pulpit weed.

43:51 Peter said by wicked hands. Took him. Crucified. Shrew him.

43:58 No wonder they were cut down saying. Who is this innocuous weed? Somebody somewhere at some time apparently killed the Messiah. Let's try to find out the critters and deal with them.

44:13 He said no. This Jesus. This Jesus. Approved of God among you with every messianic credential required in your Bibles.

44:24 You. By wicked hands.

44:29 You hung him on a tree.

44:37 Personal. But not only in conviction. But in consolation. Oh.

44:44 Oh what a difference when a preacher says you my preacher brother. Struggling with trying to be consistent in your devotions. Struggling with trying to juggle your responsibilities as a husband. As a grandfather.

45:01 As a counselor. As a confidant of other preachers. You preacher. Struggling with maintaining your regular.

45:08 When he says you and gets. He's inside me now. There's just God in me and the preacher. I'm having dealings with God.

45:16 But these old bleak allusions there may be some among us who in the work of the ministry occasionally have problems with their inner life. I say well that's an interesting statement floats right by me. There isn't a hook. There isn't a bar.

45:33 There isn't an arrow in it. Brethren. The Holy Ghost has come to do intensely internal personal work in the hearts of men.

45:44 He gets them into the kingdom one by one. He sanctifies them in a most personal. Personal intimate discipline that is tailor-made to everyone it is all the preaching that reflects the form of his dealing is most likely to be owned by his power. Then I must hasten on the preaching that is owned of God the preaching which we long to see restored to our land in abundance is not only marked by these characteristics with regard to substance.

Characteristics of God-Owned Preaching: Mode of Delivery

46:22 With regard to form. But then also with the mode of delivery. With the mode of delivery. And here I want to root.

46:36 What I have to say in this pivotal text in Acts chapter 14. Because in our day there is a great suspicion of anything that seems to be first cousin twice removed for that which would be called rhetoric. Mastering. The science of effective delivery of the Holy Ghost has forever underscored the significance of this dimension of spirit old preaching in Acts chapter 14 verse 1.

47:13 It came to pass in Iconium that they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews. And so. Toast hostess.

47:32 So and the emptiest falls upon the manner of their utterance that a great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks believed. Send it to be a semi-Pelagian or an outright Pelagian in which every man is regarded as his own Adam and by moral suasion he can in his moral and ethical neutrality. Choose. To be.

48:09 Simply because the manner of speaking has been so compelling from a rhetorical standpoint of course not. This is Luke the theologian who has already said in the previous chapter these words. Look at chapter 13. And verse 48 and as the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the word of God.

48:39 And as many. As we're ordained to eternal life. Believe. Who believed.

48:49 Those that were ordained to eternal life. How many. Just as many. Not one less not one more.

48:57 Oh how this verse. Most and seen this. In those who flatly reject the doctrine of God's free sovereign unconditionally electing decree. I've laughed.

49:12 As I've read the commentators. Who will not bow their necks to this clearly revealed doctrine. Luke the theologian is Luke the historian. And as a little stroke of theological history he says against the backdrop of the recalcitrance of these Jews.

49:33 These Gentiles believe not because add some more inherent capacity to faith. Because God has set his love upon them before the foundation of the world. And he's the Luke who later on says in chapter 16 as Paul is preaching by a riverside to a woman's prayer meeting. Concerning Lydia whose heart the Lord opened.

50:02 Now language cannot be more clear than that. Why did she respond in faith in gracious compliance with the words of the apostle. Because the Lord opened her heart. To say so and so opened his heart to the Lord.

50:20 Luke says. The Lord opened her heart to himself. But you see Luke being the accurate theologian he was was not a hyper Calvinist. And he both believed and unashamedly recorded the fact that the God who has ordained the ends has ordained the means thereto.

50:42 And though God to show us all that he's God. Will sometimes take a man's preaching. That is the very quintessence. Of abominable rhetorical production and save sinners to show that he's God and he uses his word.

51:03 That is not his ordinary method as surely as God can take a dumb ass and open its mouth to stay the madness of the prophet is no warrant for us to start the first donkey Bible school of Montville. And then turn the donkeys loose to go after. Some young. Moon and every other cult leader and say maybe God will use our donkeys to turn away the madness of these false prophets.

51:35 What God may do in his sovereignty is his business but what God ordinarily does in the ways revealed in scripture it is our business to know and to take seriously. And this text says. This is upon the manner of their speaking. The actual mode.

52:12 I don't know how Luke could find words to describe. It and brethren as we pray for a restoration of biblical preaching we are not only praying for preaching that is marked by those four characteristics as to its substance and those three as to its form but as to its mode of delivery. I mentioned again four things quickly number one and at the head of the list as I understand the emphasis of the New Testament at present. It is.

52:47 It is unashamedly bold in its mode of delivery it is unashamedly bold open please to acts chapter four acts chapter four and we'll make a quick trip through four or five passages in acts then I'll simply quote several references from the epistles but you remember the incident Peter and John have been preaching and as they preach.

53:21 I'm backing up to verse perhaps let's pick it up the verse ten be it known until you act for ten and to all the people of Israel that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom he crucified whom called raised from the dead even in him this man's stand here before you. Oh. He is the stone which was said it not of you the builders. which was made head of the corner, and in none other is there salvation, for there is neither is there any other name under heaven that is given among men whereby we must be saved.

54:05 Now when they beheld the boldness, it doesn't say when they beheld the brashness, they perceived that they were uncultured and took knowledge that no one ever taught them manners. It says when they beheld the boldness and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. In other words, they had not gone to the formal schools that would enable the average man to stand and say anything with certainty.

54:45 You see, the unlearned and the untaught in their schools might have been the ones that were uncultured. They might have been the ones that were uncultured. You have the right to say, Sirs, may I suggest that perhaps it could be that in the act of crucifying Jesus, you may have crucified the Christ. And because there is an empty tomb and there are some rumors, one of the possibilities is it may be that He was perhaps raised from the dead.

55:08 And has it ever entered into your minds to consider at least as a possibility that that passage which speaks of the stone which the builders rejected is made head of the corner, just might possibly be fulfilled in this Jesus who just might possibly be the Christ, who just might possibly have been raised from the dead. I would not want to impose my views upon them when they behold this unaffirmation of what they knew of God's mighty acts in Jesus Christ

55:51 and their life and death implications. There is salvation in none other. Go on rejecting the one you've already rejected and crucified and you're lost and that forever.

56:07 That's boldness. Well, they thought we'll shut them up. We'll get at that boldness and make them a little timid. So they threaten them.

56:17 They tell them stop this business. So they go back and do what? Gather the people together and say our political rights are being infringed upon. Let's appeal to Rome.

56:28 Let's draft a statement and get our signatures and we'll be the organized regent constructionist of the first century and we'll impose God's law upon this Christ denying Christ, hating Sanhedrin. No. They go back to their company and pray.

56:50 What many of our reconstructionist friends would call they took the pietistic route. Socialism drove them to their knees. Bless God it did. And so they said, now Lord, we're not telling you anything you don't know about.

57:06 And they just rehearse it all before the Lord. I love the way they do that. Can't get sidetracked in the prayer. Got to stick with what I'm trying to do.

57:15 And what happens? God's so pleased with their prayer that He says I just can't give an answer in the ordinary way. I want to show I'm so pleased with this kind of prayer. Verse 31.

57:27 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were gathered together and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And what was the fruit of that fresh indument, infilling, empowering, of the Spirit? They spake the Word of God with boldness. When they beheld the boldness, they spake with boldness.

57:57 The measure of boldness was now upon them. I don't know how much more bold you can get than what we read. But it says they spake with boldness. A word that means unfettered, uninhibited, pouring forth what they knew.

58:16 They spake as men who knew it.

58:22 Unashamedly bold. Verse 14 and verse 3. In that same chapter where the emphasis falls upon the manner of their speaking to which we previously referred,

58:36 what was the long-term description of their preaching? Long time therefore they tarried there. And here's Luke's summary of what they did. Speaking boldly in the Lord who bore witness unto the Word of His grace.

58:57 As they preached, the Word of His grace. They did so boldly. They were not intimidated by philosophers. They were not intimidated by reprobate Jews.

59:13 They were not intimidated by anything but the thought that they might not be true to their trust of proclaiming the Word of God. And that's what Paul says. He wants the Christians to pray for him above all else in Ephesians 6. The end of that chapter.

59:31 Chapter with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto for all the saints and for me that boldness may be given unto me that I may speak as I ought to speak. Colossians 4, 1 and 2. The same emphasis of all the things he could ask them to pray for. He says pray that I'll speak with boldness.

59:57 You see, it has nothing to do with personality. It has nothing to do. It has nothing to do with temperament. Now the manner in which your boldness expresses itself will be tinged by your temperament.

60:11 It will be colored by your personality. But it is not a matter that in its essence has anything to do with native temperament and personality. It is a spiritual endowment that God may be with my mouth that I may open it and speak as I ought. Bold in it.

60:39 Bold in it. Bold in it. Bold in it. Bold in it.

60:41 Bold in it. Bold in it. Bold in it. Bold in it.

60:42 Bold in it. Bold in it. Bold in it. Bold in it.

60:46 Bold in it. Bold in it. Bold in it. Bold in it.

60:46 Perhaps the most pathetic expression of that in the truest sense of the word pathetic is 2 Corinthians chapter 5 where here the apostle moves so naturally from the pastor into the evangelist even when writing to a Christian church. This passage troubled me for years. I said he addresses the people as a company of the redeemed. He's assuming gospel motives and the presence of the Spirit.

61:21 And right in the middle of that epistle he starts preaching the gospel like they're all unsaved. It bothered me for years. I still don't fully understand it but one thing is clear. The apostle's heart was so set upon seeing men right with God that in a sense under the influence of the Holy Ghost who delights to testify to Christ and peculiarly to Christ crucified it's as though he gets carried out even to the Lord.

61:49 He calls himself for a paragraph or two in this marvelous section on the ministry and he says in verse 20 we are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ and brethren here's the language as though God were entreating by us we beseech you on behalf of Christ be ye reconciled to God. We are ambassadors on the behalf of Christ

62:26 as though God were entreating by us were entreating by our instrumentality we beseech you on the behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.

62:52 We draw alongside and we call Deo my we ask, we entreat we beg we despise we rob we devour we we honor weend we gather we are

63:35 we pray we love we confide we praise we worship we supplicate we Yamura

63:52 Thus can with any amount of vocal faculties, born out of lengthy meditation and reflection until the whole soul is steeped in the pathos of a plea, God does not say, I've got no pleasure in the death of the wicked, turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die? It is in the direction of I have no pleasure. Will ye die?

64:30 Looking at those bent over with the oppressive weight of the burdensome legalistic system of the Pharisees, finding no escape from the galling, pressing conviction of an enlightened conscience, intensified by the galling bondage of all of the Pharisaic trappings, he sees them in their true state, bent over with such a weight, does he say, Come unto me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and give ye rest.

65:08 Every time I try to quote the words, they stick in my throat.

65:20 What must it have been for Christ to say to those bent over in burden, lashed in conscience, doubly lashed with Pharisaic pressures, those wicked leaders who bound burdens that they themselves would not lift a finger to assist, Come unto me, all ye who are under heavy laden.

65:47 And I will take my yoke, take my yoke upon you, learn of me, for unlike the Pharisees, who strut in all of their religious pompousness, and strut their burdens,

66:12 find rest in your souls, we beseech you in the stead of Christ, and in God's name. How can we have a view of preaching that says, it's just the word, give out the word, God uses the word? No!

66:36 To believe in conjunction between those whom God has used to call in many of His elect, and to build up His people in their most holy faith, in vigorous, Christ-loving piety, and the passion and the earnestness with which they preach. In our right minds we'd think we had one hundredth of the gift of a witch healed, one hundredth of the tenderness of a mid-chain, one hundredth of the breadth of heart and mind of a Spurgeon.

67:21 Brethren, we can still have our humanity consumed in proportion to what we are, with the same degree of earnestness with which they were consumed. In a work that I trust will see the light of a reprint, one of my dear brothers here at this conference sent it to me, James, Angel James, minister, book, an earnest ministry, the want of the times. Let me just read several paragraphs on this matter of earnestness, the secret of animation, the nature of earnestness lies, we have said,

68:03 in an intense feeling of the subject of discourse. In a mind deeply impressed and a heart warmed with the theme discussed. All men are in earnest. When they feel, all men are in earnest when they feel.

68:30 Hence the anecdote of the pleader who on being applied to by a client to undertake her cause, upon perceiving the coldness of her manner in stating her case, the lawyer told the applicant he did not credit her story. Stunned by this reflection upon her honesty and this disbelief of her grievance, she rose into strong emotion and affirmed with expressive vehemence the truth of her story. Now, said the lawyer, I believe you.

69:01 James goes on to say, sympathy is the speaker's most powerful auxiliary. There's nothing so contagious as strong emotion and grace and the dynamics of God's sovereign regenerating work and His sovereign, mysterious work of sanctification. Do not bypass those things which God in nature, has implanted in us as image bearers of Himself.

69:32 But the Holy Ghost seizes them, takes hold of them, and brethren, if we're willing to pay the price,

69:43 will make it the conduit of bringing the word of God to men, not in icy, cold, calculating accuracy, but in unashamedly bold and in intensely earnest pathos and entreaty. But then there must also...

70:05 So be as to the mode of its delivery that which would be described as genuinely affectionate here in the light of time, brethren. I can only give you the text. 1 Thessalonians 2, 7. We were gentle among you as a nurse with her own children.

70:23 2 Corinthians 6, 11. One again, most pathetic passages. Oh, Corinthians, our heart is open to you. You are not compressed in our hearts.

70:34 We're compressed in you. We're not yours, but though our love is unrequited, our heart is wide toward it. Unashamed, he says in chapter 12, verses 14 and 15, I seek not yours, but you. Though the more I love you, the less I be loved.

70:59 In the mode of our delivery, men must sense and know, not because we have wept for them alone or only in secret, but because their throbs through us in the act of preaching, the sense, the perception of genuine.

71:22 And then the fourth characteristic in the mode of delivery, most frequent, there are a few exceptions, but until you can prove that you have the thundering voice of a chalmers and the impressive presence of a few other exceptions, don't consider yourself the exception to this fourth point. The mode of delivery that the Spirit of God, His most frequently owned with power, is marked by being naturally animated.

71:54 Not only unashamedly bold, intensely earnest, genuinely affectionate, but naturally animated. You don't know what is natural animation to you until you get loosed from carnal self-consciousness. Until the truth so gets hold of you in preaching and genuine compassion so grasps, grips you in preaching that for a few minutes you forget yourself. I've seen it take the most dodgy, stilted, unanimated people and turn them into lions in the pulpit.

72:35 You see, some of the things God did for me, and I give very few anecdotes, some of you have listened to me for years on tapes, and you know that I rarely give a personal anecdote, but I want to give this one. Because like so many other things, my spiritual birthright has been such a blessing in many areas. And one of the areas was this. Shortly after I was converted, one of the first fruits of my ministry was a young man that to this day is in the ministry out in Western Canada.

73:04 And this guy by nature, temperament, he was shorter. I remember when he came out for the football team, and he reminded me of this after he was converted. And I was so ashamed because I don't remember it. I apparently almost buried him one time.

73:20 They stuck him at halfback and I was playing linebacker and he came through. And I leveled him and said something nasty to him. I'm glad I don't remember. The Lord's blotted it out of my mind.

73:31 And he had this great prejudice to me after I got converted. And he watched me like a hawk. And he saw I was a different man. And he listened and he was converted.

73:39 One of the first fruits, if not the first fruits, of my ministry. And this guy was so shy, always went around with his hands in his pocket, his head down, kind of mumbled into his...

73:51 If he had a beard, he would have mumbled into his beard. But when some wise old men put us out in the street corner to channel some of our zeal, and we began to preach on the street corner, I saw this quiet, timid, reserved, shy guy to whom God had revealed Christ in a saving way. Take his little New Testament, four by six, onion skin New Testament. That's what we used to carry out in the street so we could rip without throwing our Bibles away.

74:22 And I saw God turn that timid guy into a lion. And it wasn't forced. It wasn't artificial. The truth gripped him.

74:31 And when it gripped him, it liberated his hands, his feet, his eyes, humanity. And the moment he was done preaching, hands back in his pocket. And so when I went for two years to finish my formal education to a Bible college that had a view of preaching that said, God never alters your personality in preaching. So if you're a hands in the pocket, mumbling your beard kind of guy, then that's what people will be stuck with for the rest of their days.

75:05 I said, I don't buy it. Because I cannot deny what I've seen and heard. The problem with some of you men is you can get plenty animated when it's your favorite football team playing. And it's the last two minutes.

75:27 And they're going for a touchdown. And with 12 seconds left, a guy hits a flanker in the back of the end zone. And for a few seconds, you forget who you are and what happens. Room.

75:41 You become a . Boom, boom, boom. You whacked your guy. What happens?

75:50 In the moment of passionate preoccupation with the football game, you became naturally animated. And some of you will never become effective preachers till you ask the Holy Ghost to liberate you in the area that you need to get liberated to become naturally animated. Now, I am not saying your natural animation will be like this man's or that man's or set any standard. But don't cut yourself short when in other areas, your animation is natural.

76:28 No one grabbed you and sat you down and said, oh, that's histrionic. You put that all on. You practiced that for four hours in the bedroom last night. Shame on you.

76:40 into my living room. Acting. Shame on you. You see, you've got to get liberated from this stupid notion.

76:54 In our day, that anyone who is animated and energetic and preaching is a fake is somehow histrionic. Wretched accusation. And the Holy Ghost will bear witness to your liberated humanity and bring the word of God with through you in a manner of grippingness and power that you've never known before. For the Holy Ghost does not batter nature but liberates it.

77:29 He batters grace. And with the fire of his presence consumes, batters sin. I'm sorry. And with the fire of his grace consumes sin and evil.

77:40 But he liberates humanity. It's a wonderful thing to be a free man. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Free to be all God made me to be as a distinct image bearer of God when he knit me together in my mother's womb.

Conclusion: Sources and Prayer for Restoration

77:59 Well, brethren, you're listening too well. And I've got to stop. May I? May I just give you the heads of point two?

78:08 We just looked at the characteristics. The characteristics of God-owned spirit anointed preaching. Now what are the sources of this? There are the factors of sovereign endowment, the factors of human acquisition, and the factors of spiritual and rhetorical acquisition by the use of means.

78:31 Maybe that'll be our sermon next year. I've kept you long enough. May God help us. May we cry to God that as some of us have heard some of you men even here preach and we felt like Simeon.

78:51 I sat in this place a few weeks ago. It's been a long time since I wept through Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night preaching. Not all the way through, but intermittently. I felt like old Simeon saying, Lord, let thy servant depart in peace, mine eyes have seen thy salvation.

79:12 I felt like I heard the voice of Dimitris Agap legislating and glass drawing into his eyes. And I thought it was Barthas that said, Et tu Barthas? There are three people. IINTENSE 1 Institute whoever they are.

79:43 For these ones are my good friends. I mustроve 4 pmarirts now didn't open up my Edmundson. And at some point, you know what they look to in the women of the kanlands instead of a preacher. What is it that is more good?

79:48 They ask me to take some advice, say, Oh, notice. points anywhere except voices. I had the goal here. of preachers we've sought to describe from the Word of God.

79:58 May the Lord grant them for His glory, for the gathering in of His elect, and for the blessing.

80:15 Our Father, what thanks can we give to You this night for Your Holy Word? That Word which is indeed a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. That Word which teaches us what this mysterious thing called preaching is. And we confess our ignorance of so much of what Your Word teaches. But, O Lord, the little

80:44 bit You've taught us has made us hungry and thirsty that You would work in us every grace and every gift and enable us to cultivate and stir up through legitimate means every fact that we may with Your servant Timothy stir into flame the gift, the gift that is in us. We pray, Lord, that by Your Holy Spirit, You will make us first of all the men that we ought to be before Your eye and then mold us into the preachers that this generation so desperately needs. Thank You for Your

81:28 presence with us. Thank You for one another. Thank You for the way You've ministered to our hearts through our brethren. Thank You for this fellowship of love, of open faith, of honest communion, for this fellowship of goodwill, desire to be helpers of each other's faith.

81:48 O God, we are a blessing. We thank You. We praise You. We ask that You would take each man safely to his home. Bless us all

82:00 with a good night of rest. Thank You for the things You've given us today. Thank You for the labors of Your servant Pastor Seton, all of the practical help received. Thank you for helping us in our discussion period.

82:16 Oh Lord, we acknowledge that if a bunch of sinners like us could have such a day unmarred by any outburst of carnal, suspicious expressions of our Father, this is all of your grace. And we come with praise and thanksgiving. We pray that the benediction of your presence will rest upon us as we leave this place through Jesus Christ our Lord.