The Pastor's Spiritual Development, Part 2

Introduction: The Essential Elements of Effective Pastoral Preaching and the Man Himself

0:02 Now, in our time together last week, brethren, we began to consider the vast and vital subject that comes under Unit 1, namely, the essential elements of effective pastoral preaching. Last week, I trust you remember that after exegeting the title of Unit 1, we then began to focus our attention on the first major division of this unit, namely, the essential elements of effective pastoral preaching as they relate to the man himself. In taking up this division of our subject, I sought to articulate and to biblically support one basic principle, namely, that as a general rule, effective pastoral preaching will be realized in direct proportion to the health and vigor of the whole Redeemer. We then began to amplify that principle as it pertains, first of all, to the man as a man before God spiritually. In subsequent lectures, we'll see how it relates to the man as a man before God intellectually, physically, and emotionally.

1:23 Now, as we began to develop this theme, I asserted that you and I must maintain, a real, expanding, varied, and original acquaintance with God and His ways. And this is just another way of saying that we must maintain reality and vitality in our spiritual lives, or in the language of Scripture, 2 Corinthians 4.14, we must experience the renewing of the inward man day by day. Now, we closed our session last week with an opening up of that basic premise.

2:08 Now, today, we address ourselves to the very practical question, by what means are we to experience this real, this expanding, this varied, original acquaintance with God and His ways? By what means are we to attain salvation? Such a renewing and development of the inward man day by day. Now, my answer to that question will be reduced to three major divisions.

Three Introductory Principles for Spiritual Means

2:41 However, before taking up these means by which we may experience this acquaintance with God, I want to say three things by way of introduction. First of all, these three things are all integrated, and interdependent. Though we shall be looking at three distinct means by which the inner man is to be renewed, by which we may experience this real, expanding, varied, original acquaintance with God, etc., we must understand that they are all integrated and interdependent. Each will be treated separately, each is a recognizable spiritual activity differing from the others, but they are like integrated circuitry. If one of the circuits blows, the whole system goes dead. Now, an understanding of this fact and its practical implications is nothing less than crucial in seeking to maintain healthy internal piety.

4:01 Or, to state it differently, in the management of the inner man, in the management of the inner man, in the management of the inner man, in the management of the inner man, in the management of the inner man, in the management of the life of the inner man, we must never view any one of these things as independent of its counterparts. All right? The second thing I want to say by way of introduction is that as surely as they are all integrated and interdependent, they are all basic and fundamental. They are all basic and fundamental.

4:31 Some time ago, I read, some perceptive statements in an article dealing with the personal devotional life of a Christian, and one of the statements which was particularly telling was this. The Christian walk is won or lost in the battle of the basics. The believer, and here I would change the word to the preacher, the believer or the preacher succeeds or falls in the trenches, in the trenches of the fundamentals. He succeeds or falls in the trenches of the fundamentals.

5:14 Now, the Apostle Peter understood that principle well. And this is why he writes in 2 Peter 1, verses 12 and 13, 2 Peter 1, verses 12 and 13, the following. Wherefore, I shall be always ready to put you in remembrance of these things, though you, know them, and are established in the truth which is with you. And I think it right, as long as I'm in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance.

5:50 He said, I'm not telling you anything new. Nor am I telling you something old that you've forgotten. He said, I'm telling you something you know, you're remembering it, you're established in it, but it is so vital that I'm stirring you up by way of remembrance. There were fundamental perspectives Peter was convinced that were crucial to the standing or falling of believers.

6:19 And the things we're going to deal with today, brethren, are basic and fundamental to the health of the inner life of the servant of God as basic as breathing and eating and sleeping and bodily elimination are to physical life and existence. Then the third thing I want to say by way of introduction, and this is important, they are all ultimately related to the source of our spiritual life in Jesus Christ. They are all ultimately related to the source of our spiritual life in Jesus Christ. In Colossians 3, 4, you have that pregnant phrase, when Christ, who is, our life shall appear. Christ is himself our life. Galatians 2, 20, I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And though that concept has been abused by the higher life movement, it is nonetheless a biblical concept.

7:32 Christ liveth in me, not so as to negate my living for the next phrase is, and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith, faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I live that life, yet, yet, not I, but Christ liveth in me. For the truth of John 6, 53 to 58, here under the graphic imagery of eating and drinking, disciplines and exercises essential to the sustenance of physical, natural life, Jesus says, verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat, present tense, the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. He who eats, present tense, my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.

8:41 As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so he that eats me, and there is our Lord's own interpretation of his words, he who feeds upon me as the source of his life, he also shall live because of me, that is, because of the life that I am and the life that I impart. This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died, he that eats this bread shall live forever. And of course the imagery in John 15 of branch and vine, without me you can do nothing, there is an organic life relationship between the vine and all of its appendages. So though we will be considering means, brethren, those means have significance only insofar as they become, if I may use the terminology, the conduits by which Christ himself, who is our life, is imparted to them. In other words, these means are not our Christ and we must never make a Christ out of them. They are, as I have suggested, the conduits by which the very life and grace of Christ are poured into us.

10:04 They come to the soul and are kept flourishing within the soul. So those three things, by way of introductory perspective, as we come to those means appointed by God to impart to us this real, this expanding, varied, original acquaintance with God and his ways, never think of them as separate from each other. They are integrated, interdependent. We must constantly recognize that they are basic and fundamental.

Means 1: The Devotional Assimilation of the Word of God

10:39 To admit them is to be in a place of tremendous danger and vulnerability and they are all ultimately related to the source of spiritual life in Christ himself. All right then, with those introductory perspectives behind us, what then are those means ordained of God to attain such a walk with God? Well, the first is this, the maintenance of the discipline, the maintenance of the discipline of the devotional assimilation of the Word of God. How are we to have this real, this expanding, this varied, original acquaintance with God and his ways? I answer, by maintaining or the maintenance of the discipline of the devotional assimilation of the Word of God. Now, it is not my intention to prove by careful exegesis that in the plan and purpose of God there is a profoundly vital relationship between spiritual health and the assimilation of the Word of God. The oft-repeated texts which demonstrate this are very clear.

12:04 Let me give them to you. Psalm 119, verses 9 to 11. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Thy word have I laid up in my heart.

12:20 There is the assimilation of the Word that I might not sin against thee. Joshua 1.8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.

12:34 For then, for then, thou shalt have good success. The blessed man is described in Psalm 1 in the negatives of the opening words and then in that positive description. His delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. He and he alone shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth fruit in his season, his leaf not withering, whatever he does prospering.

13:03 All of that is predicated upon that activity of meditation in the law of God day and night. That sinking of the tap roots of the spiritual life down into the river of life itself, which under the imagery of Psalm 1 is the Word of God. And then of course in the New Testament, John 17.17, sanctify them in the truth.

13:30 Thy word is truth. 1 Peter 2.2 As newborn babes long for the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby, and you are described as the strong ones in 1 John 2.14b, but those who have the Word of God abiding in them.

13:54 Addressing himself to this very principle, Murphy in his excellent work on pastoral theology writes as follows, speaking of the piety increased by the devotional reading of the Scriptures. He says this is a very important duty for every Christian. The Word is the great instrument by which the Spirit increases holiness in the hearts of believers. It is by faith in that Word that men are ordained to be sanctified.

14:31 Christ teaches the necessity of this truth when in his great intercessory prayer he made sure of its efficacy by the petition, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. The Spirit will honor his own truth and will make it effectual. It is by Christ, the bread of life, that the soul is to be nourished.

14:56 Our third introductory principle. And Christ is to be found chiefly in the Scriptures. From the Scriptures come light and heat and strength and impulse. All of which are important elements of true godliness in the soul.

15:13 Not only to the young man but to all who ask a similar question wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way comes the inspired answer by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Oh how the devout study and personal application of the Scriptures enrich the soul. A simple passage devoutly known and meditated upon makes the heart better. Then the growth in piety which is produced in this way is not ephemeral or spurious in any sense.

15:49 It is healthy and will be permanent in its results. All the books on personal piety that were ever written are not to be compared in wisdom, in authority or in efficacy with the Bible itself. Now there is a special need for the devotional study of the Bible by the pastor. His piety should be of the most elevated type.

16:15 His own spiritual wants as well as those of the people to whom he ministers demand that his piety should also be progressive. Ever rising and expanding. See the language again? Long before I read Murphy it was in my lecture.

16:31 Ever expanding as his work becomes more solid and nothing will meet these requirements but a piety that is truly scriptural. No type of piety but that which is wrought out from the word of God will do for him whose example is largely to give form and character to the religion of hundreds. Then the more thoroughly the minister studies the Bible for his own edification the better will he understand how to bring it home to others. And no spirituality but that which the Holy Ghost teaches in his word will rightly equip or steady pastors in their great work for God for souls and for eternity. Then he goes on in opening up that principle to conclude with this paragraph to every pastor then would we say study the Bible with constant and close self-application. Make its chapters and verses familiar not merely by the effort to gain an intellectual understanding of them but by the blessed comfort you have found from them in your own souls. Adopt some rule of systematic devotional reading

18:01 and let it not be intermitted for any trivial consideration. Let your study of the word be profound so as to get down to its very marrow and sweetness. Let your meditations be constant so that all the day long you may have some scripture before the mind. Let it be with you as his biographer says of McShane that he fed on the word not in order to prepare himself for his people but for personal edification.

18:28 To do so was a fundamental task that he had to do in order to get to that spiritual discipline. It was a fundamental rule with him not an occasional impulse not a sporadic whim it was a fundamental rule of spiritual discipline. And dear brethren if you are to have in any true sense over any period of time a real expanding varied and original acquaintance with the word it will come in no other way but by the maintenance of the discipline of the devotional assimilation of the word. Now it is not my desire even to suggest that your more technical and official ministerial dealings with the word should not be devotional in tone it is my desire to assert that your most arduous ministerial contact with the word will become some of your most precious moments of devotional communion with Christ.

19:56 But while not in any way saying that your technical desire to assert in the most plain language that if you are to experience the kind of growing piety of which I have been speaking you must have regular dealings with the word which have as their primary conscious focus not the feeding of others but the nurture of your own soul. In other words you are not dealing with the word in which you are preparing to speak to others about him or on his behalf but you are dealing with the word in a manner in which your concern is that God speak to you about your relationship to him. Now several things need to be said about this devotional assimilation of the word and I have three things that I want to say about it. First of all it ought to be structured and consistent. It ought to be structured

Characteristics of Devotional Assimilation of the Word

21:25 and consistent. There must be time allocated for this exercise. Time that is not only allocated but also profitably spent on a regular or consistent basis. As one's physical health from the human side is determined primarily by ordinary diet rest and exercise as opposed to extraordinary diet rest or exercise so with the health of the soul and the mind that is the heart and mind of the human being. The whole that is a process that is a process and it is a process of the human body to

22:43 Any fundamental and lasting difference, though it may be appropriate on occasions to spend a day or two or three in prayer and fasting, but if you mean to enlarge your religion, do it by enlarging your ordinary devotions, that is, your regular, disciplined, structured, consistent times of exposure to the Word of God and to the secret place. It must be structured and consistent. This is why we are such borderline fanatics about you then getting a handle on the use of your time while you are students. And if you develop sloppy habits now, they'll dog your steps all of your days.

23:28 And I plead with you, I entreat you, I admonish you, I urge you, every word that I can use, here and now, you must get locked in to the condition. I have a conviction that if I begin to have a shriveled soul for lack of structure and consistent exposure to the Word in a devotional manner, I'm cutting my own throat in terms of any ministerial usefulness. But not only must it be structured and consistent, it must be systematic and comprehensive. It must be systematic and comprehensive.

24:08 We desperately need the whole of the Bible to make a difference. It must make us whole men. That's the teaching of 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17.

24:18 I shall never forget the first time I seriously studied those two verses in connection with each other and realized that what I'd been led to believe they were teaching for years was not in reality what they were teaching.

24:35 Paul has told Timothy in verse 14 that he's to abide in the things he's learned. And the things he's learned are the sacred scriptures. The scriptures, verse 15, which in terms of their function are first of all able to make a man wise to salvation. And they had that function in Timothy.

24:58 But then he goes on to say, Timothy, all scripture is inspired of God and is also profitable. The scripture which was profitable to make you wise to salvation is profitable for another end. Profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, instruction. In order that, a clause of purpose, in order that the man of God, that particular title given to Timothy in his first epistle, that thou, O man of God, that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

25:38 Now, only in chapter 4 does he turn to his ministerial use of the scriptures. I charge you in the sight of God. Preach the word, reprove, rebuke, exhort, etc. Verses 16 and 17 have as their focus in context not Timothy's official ministerial use of the word, but his own personal assimilation of that word to equip and fashion him into a complete, thoroughly furnished man of God.

26:09 And once the scriptures become predominantly the instrument, of fulfilling the obligations of chapter 4 of 2 Timothy, rather than the privileges and obligations of chapter 3, we're in heat-big trouble. Heat-big trouble. And we need the whole of the Bible to make us whole men. Man shall not live by bread alone, Matthew 4, 4, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, quoted out of Deuteronomy.

26:45 And then how often must the Lord say to him, His servants, in the language of Matthew 22, 29, You do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. And the problem with the religious leaders of our Lord's day, among many other things, is that they were very selective in their contact with scripture. And therefore they had spun out a whole theology of messianic expectation of what constituted the essence of true religion that was the product, of this unspiritual, selective collation of scripture.

27:27 Therefore, brethren, we must have a clearly established plan by which we will cover the full range of revealed truth over a given period of time. Now, I am not saying that you must take McShane's daily Bible reading calendar, which is available from the Banner of Truth, and use it conscientiously, or you'll flunk out of the Bible. No, I am not saying you must take any one of the various things that are available. What I am saying is you must have a plan in which there is a structured, consistent time to be alone with the Word of God in which you will systematically and comprehensively over a year, two, or three years cover the full range of divine revelation. Now, some of us find it helpful to have time, constant and concentrated exposure to the Psalms and Proverbs along with our regular Old and New Testament reading. Others find other frameworks of systematic, comprehensive exposure to the Word helpful. But whatever plan you have, have a plan.

28:45 And don't kid yourself. I find it helpful to put little tick marks at the end of the chapters and put the date. And I can't write a book about it. But I can say that one of my beautiful books has been written on the Lord's Word.

29:22 And it is not just my personal notes. It is the information and the situations. The words, the words that I read. not only structured and consistent, systematic and comprehensive, prayerful and meditative.

29:33 By prayerful I mean we ought consciously to bow over our Bibles, whether we actually read our Bibles on our knees or at our desk,

29:45 and cry out with the psalmist in Psalm 119.18, Open thou mine eyes, undress my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. You find that cry again and again. Between his exultation and praise for the light received and his cries for more light, you have almost the sum and substance of the 119th Psalm.

30:17 We need to know what it is to come to the Word with the prayer, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thought. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

30:36 Now that's what I mean by a prayerful exposure to the Word. And what do I mean by meditative? I mean that we are not threading words through our eyes waiting to be zapped. That's how some people come to the Word prayerful.

30:51 Lord, speak! And then they thread words through their eyes until suddenly something zaps them. Whereas in meditation, we don't wait for a zapping. We reflect on what we've read, and we seek by actively bringing our thinking, our motives, our lifestyle, the patterns of our behavior to the scrutiny of what we've read.

31:20 Jeremiah used the imagery of eating. Jeremiah 20.23, Thy words were found, and I did eat them. He didn't say, Thy words were found, I opened my mouth, and I waited for you to drop something down and force feed me.

31:34 No, he said, I ate them. There was a spiritual activity.

31:39 Scott's remarks in Bridges Christian Ministry on page 53 are very perceptive at this point. I have found it advantageous sometimes to read the Scriptures with such exactness as to weigh every expression and the connection as if I were about to preach on every verse, and then to apply the result to my own case, character, experience, and conduct as if it had been directly addressed to me. In short, to make the passages into a kind of sermon as if about to preach to others, and then turn the whole application on myself as far as it was suited to my case. The other time, I've read a passage more generally, and then selected two or three of the most important observations from it, and endeavored, there's the key word, endeavored to employ my mind in meditation on them, and consider how they bore on the state of my heart, or on my past life, or on those things which I heard or observed in the world or the church, and to compare them with the variety, the sentiments, experiences, conducts, or prominent characters with which we become gradually more and more acquainted. He's giving us a description

33:06 of what it means to read the Word of God in a meditative way. We are constantly asking the questions, what does this portion show me of my God? Having seen some fresh dimension of His character, and I'm going to stop and reflect upon that. It's either going to elicit praise, or self-examination, or awe and wonder and humiliation, or penitence.

33:35 But I am not going to allow my God to be paraded before me in the Scripture without drawing from my heart a conscious religious response. As I read, what does the passage teach me? Not only about my God, but about His ways with His people, about my heart, my duty, my relationships, so that I'm coming to the Word, determined that I will actively, deliberately, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, have that Word effectually working in me. Now that's what I mean by stating that if you're to have a real, varied, original, expanding acquaintance with God, you must experience this devotional assimilation of the Word of God. And that word assimilation, of course, is the key. Not content until the Word becomes a part of you. Before I leave this heading, let me say by way of application, mark it well, my younger brethren, this is the battle of the basics.

34:52 This is the battle of the basics. This is the battle of the basics. The trenches of the fundamentals. And I'd be willing to play prophet this morning and say if God spares you all other things being equal, the most telling thing about you right now, ten years from now, twenty years, thirty years from now, will be how well you did in this battle of the basics.

Means 2: The Habit and Spirit of Secret Prayer

35:17 This will be the most telling thing. Whether or not you have maintained the discipline of this kind of devotional assimilation of the Word of God. But then secondly, if we're to have this kind of growing acquaintance with God and His ways, producing rich, original, varied, expanding spiritual life, we will only attain it by maintaining, by maintaining the habit and the spirit of secret prayer. By maintaining the habit and the spirit of secret prayer. Now let me again explain what I mean. I am not here primarily concerned with pastoral intercessory prayer, that praying which has as its primary concern the needs and the well-being of the flock. That way the subject is dealt with under a separate heading, the pastor as an intercessor.

36:31 But I'm speaking of the secret prayer as it pertains to our own needs, our own sins, our own struggles, our own adoring worship, our own full-hearted thankfulness to God, our own exercises of faith and penitence and aspiration. Now the two key words are obviously habit and spirit of secret prayer. Now by the habit, what do I mean? I mean that you are, like with your devotional assimilation of the word, committed to blocking out time as part of the management of your daily schedule to engage in this kind of prayer. Luke 18.1 is the key text. Men ought, ought always to pray and not to faint.

37:33 Psalm 5 is a great passage along with many portions in the Psalms indicative of the commitment of the will to secret prayer. This text became very precious to me very early in my Christian experience and has been a lifetime companion. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation.

37:56 Hearken to the voice of my cry, my King and my God. For unto you do I pray, O Lord, in the morning you shall hear my voice. In the morning will I order my prayer unto you and will keep watch. Here's the commitment of will to a course of morning secret prayer.

38:23 Psalm 55, 16 and 17 is another specimen passage in this area. Psalm 55, verses 16 and 17. As for me, I will call upon God and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noonday will I complain and moan and he will hear my voice.

38:48 Here was the commitment of his will to stated seasons of prayer. And then of course our Lord is the great example of this. Mark 1.35 He rose up a great while before day after a ministry that carried on into the evening hours and he went out to a secret place to pray.

39:10 And then in his great instruction on prayer in Matthew 6, 5 and 6 he assumes the habit of prayer when ye pray. Not if, but when you pray. And then he says, when you pray enter into your closet, shut the door. All of these things indicative of someone who has the habit of prayer.

39:35 He who only prays on impulse will not long have any impulse to pray. He who only prays on impulse will not long have any impulse to pray. Now there's some bad teaching floating around on this even by some good men. And I heard just two days ago in the minister's meeting in New York of someone who was being examined by Presbytery about his personal prayer life and he had read, a very able preacher and a great man of God who in treating the whole concept of secret prayer so abominated form and ritual as to give the impression that we only pray when we feel moved to pray.

40:19 Well if you only pray when you feel moved the times you feel moved will be fewer and fewer. There must be the habit of secret prayer. Time allocated, time allocated in the serious solemn presence of God in the ordering of your schedule, time jealously guarded. People say, well I can't find time to pray.

40:43 Don't ever expect a block of time to float by your eyeballs with the red letters all over it. Here I am, please use me to pray. No such block of time has ever floated by my eyeballs nor will it ever float by yours. But we must be concerned brethren if we're to have this kind of vigorous, inner walk with God not only to maintain the habit of secret prayer but the spirit of secret prayer.

The Spirit of Secret Prayer and Its Commodities

41:14 And what do I mean by the spirit of secret prayer? I mean secret prayer in which our human spirits are under the influence and present energizing grace of the Holy Spirit. David could say with my whole heart have I sought you. And how many times much of our prayer time is just spent trying to pray ourselves into a frame where we can pray.

41:43 And I don't understand all that the little phrase praying with all prayer and supplication in the spirit means. Ephesians 6.18 I don't. It's a phrase that I've asked God to teach me what it means experimentally and intellectually that I might teach others.

42:04 And I frankly confess I am not sure that I could preach on the subject prayer in the spirit. I have preached and often quoted the text prayer for the spirit. He gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask. But surely brethren whatever praying with all prayer and supplication in the spirit involves it must involve the Holy Spirit engaging the human spirit so that our prayers are not an exercise either in formalism or mere self deception.

42:37 He who thinks he has prayed simply because time has been spent in secret and words have been uttered has forgotten the terrible possibility that he may indeed be engaged in an act of mere formalism and self deception. For a pretense they make many prayers. Now it is in this exercise of the habit and spirit of secret prayer that many vital commodities of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit and advanced because you see whatever we may know of communion with Christ in the ordinary activities of any given day when you draw near to pray and there is a concentrated attention paid to who God is what you are, your sins

44:06 the need of a mediator the reality of Christ at the right hand of the Father the reality of His securing the gift of the Spirit for all needed graces you see in the very activity of prayer everything is calculated to press forward the great realities of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ for you as a sinner approaching to God you see that, isn't that your experience so personal communion with Christ is renewed and advanced a second great commodity or result of secret prayer maintained in its habit and in its spirit is that perspective on all reality is kept in focus perspective on all reality is kept in focus the two great texts of course the Old Testament text Psalm 73 hear the man of God living in the real world everything got out of focus the prosperity of the wicked the trials of the righteous and nothing made sense until until I went into the sanctuary of God then I understood their latter end and then he ends up in praise whom have I in heaven but thee there is none that I desire upon earth beside thee he said I was as a beast before you how did he get that way

45:35 just by living in this world as it is and as it appears but in the sanctuary perspective on reality was brought back into focus in the great New Testament text 2 Corinthians 4.18 our light affliction which is but for a moment works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not on the things which are seen but on the things which are not seen for the things that are seen are temporal but the things that are not seen are eternal and when do you know that best in the secret place when detached at least in some measure that's the significance of when you pray into your closet and shut the door a beautiful concrete expression of get that world behind you that that great real eternal world may stand out in bold relief before you a third thing that happens in the practice of secret prayer is that our own sins are seen in their true light our own sins are seen in their true light the key text that indicates this though there are many that could be brought to pair is found in Psalm 90 you have set our iniquities before you our secret sins

47:02 in the light of your countenance Psalm 90 and verse 8 our secret sins in the light of your countenance we can think we're doing pretty good brethren until by the spirit we draw near and experience as Isaiah did we see the Lord not in vision but by biblical meditation high and lifted up and we contemplate what it is for sinless creatures to veil face and feet and cry one to another holy, holy, holy and in that contemplation of the burning light of his holiness our sins our secret sins come into their true light they're not magnified in the secret place we simply begin to see them in their true light it's in the secret place fourthly that our own pardon and acceptance is sealed afresh to our hearts our own pardon and acceptance is sealed afresh to our hearts a key Old Testament text Psalm 130 a key Old Testament text Psalm 130 a key Old Testament text Psalm 130 a key Old Testament text Psalm 130 psalmist asked the great question that every man must ask who has the 100th part of the knowledge

48:29 of what he is in the presence of God verse three if thou, Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord, who could stand? God, if you should mark the iniquities the perverseness of just this past day the sins of my mind the sins of my heart my dullness my coldness, my indisposition to love you, my sluggishness to serve you, my irritable spirit to my wife, to my sheep, to my children, my lack of compassion for the lost. Lord, if you should mark iniquities, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

49:15 And in the contemplation of the way of forgiveness, the wonderful promise of 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Remember in the first year Greek class, we had to memorize in Greek 1 John 1.9, and often, for some reason, the Greek sounds more emphatic on my ear to this day, that he'll cleanse us, apoposis abetias, from all unrighteousness.

49:52 Why is there so little preaching? There is no preaching on forgiveness and pardon that has a ring of reality about it. It's because preachers aren't having their own pardon sealed afresh to their heart in the secret place.

50:08 How can you have it sealed afresh to your heart in the secret place on Sunday morning and speak of it in a cold and lifeless way two hours later? How can you? Can you? How can you be the mouthpiece of God's people in prayer and have your breath in the air?

50:26 Are your prayers concerning Christ in his mediation merely formal and lifeless rather than the prayers of a man who's hanging right now upon the mercy of God in Jesus? There have been times when I've heard people praying and mouthing the language of looking to Christ when I wanted to rise up and say, Brother, shut up! You haven't been there in your heart in ages. And the sterile, musty prayers coming from your mouth, bear witness to.

50:58 You haven't been there in ages. God have mercy on us, brethren. If our people are cursed with prayers that have the structure of orthodoxy with regard to the mediation and intercession of Jesus, but don't throb with the reality of a sinner who's just been there and who even now goes there, clinging only to God's appointed mediator. Amen.

Grace for Our Work Obtained in Secret Prayer

51:29 In the fifth place, it's in the secret place that grace for our work is obtained.

51:36 It's in the secret place that grace for our work is obtained.

51:43 Hebrews 4.16 Let us therefore come boldly where? To the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. And what is the grace that we need for our work?

52:02 The grace of wisdom. Oh, how we need wisdom. Wisdom every time we turn around. We need wisdom.

52:10 Wisdom to know how to deal with that distress sheet. Wisdom to know what course of sermons to embark upon. Wisdom to know how to handle the text. Wisdom to deal with a congregational problem.

52:23 Wisdom to work with our fellow leaders. Wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. Where do you get it? James 1.

52:30 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask. Let him ask of God who gives and appraises.

52:37 I believe many a bungling parson is God's monument to the truth that you have not because you ask not. Why should God give you wisdom when you don't prize it enough to ask it of Him in the secret place? Why should He give it to you? You go around thinking it was your own.

52:58 Blessings given in any other way but answers to prayer are the blessings which we most naturally and frequently attribute to some other source other than God. That's why God makes us ask for them. So at least if we're in a realm of spiritual sanity we'll have sense enough to give the praise where it belongs. And how we need courage.

53:21 Courage. Courage? Yeah, courage.

53:25 You don't think you need it? Three weeks into the ministry you'll say, Pastor Martin, you were right putting that up at the top of the list with wisdom. Courage. Moral fortitude.

53:36 To declare the whole counsel of God. Courage. To press on when there seems to be no encouragement from your labors. And where is courage granted?

53:49 Boldness. Perseverance. Strength and weakness. Isaiah 40, 29-31.

53:58 Tremendous encouragement. Again, the text that became a companion very, very early in my Christian experience and it's never failed me through the years. Have you not heard? Have you not known?

54:13 Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint, neither is weary. There's no searching of His understanding.

54:24 He gives power to the faint. He doesn't need to give power to the guy that's entering the last lap and his heart beats only 42 and he's breathing easy. But the poor guy whose legs are like lead and he's panting like an old workhorse ready for the glue. He doesn't need to give power to the guy that's entering the last lap.

54:40 He doesn't need to give power to the guy that's entering the last lap. And he ain't gonna make it. That's just the one the Lord delights to come to. He gives power to the faint.

54:46 And to him that has no might, he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary. Not just us old duffers. Even the youth shall faint and be weary.

54:58 And the young men shall utterly fall. But may that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. What's more majestic than an eagle?

55:09 eagle in flight. God says, I'll make you that. From one who's just about ready to eat the dust, I'll make you an eagle in flight. They shall mount up within wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. Run a marathon, have a glass of water, and turn around and run another one. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. When in your sense of weakness, the lack of wisdom, courage, boldness, and all the other graces, you throw yourself down before God. It's there at the throne of grace, brethren, that we receive what we need. I urge you to read periodically those pivotal sections in Bridges Christian Ministry dealing with the minister and his secret prayer. I think particularly of page 60 and page 147 to 150. And then let me

Resources and the Battle for Secret Prayer

56:11 mention several books that I find helpful to read periodically to stir me up to this privilege and duty. D. M. McIntyre's little classic, The Hidden Life of Prayer. D. M. McIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer. Then volume two of Brooks, The Pretty Key to Heaven. And that pretty key, of course, is prayer. It's Brooks' exposition of our Lord's teaching on prayer in Matthew 6. Austin Feltzman. This little booklet produced by the banner, The Still Hour. These are some that I have found helpful. You'll find others, but when all is said and done, you'll learn to pray by praying. And

57:03 without the habit and the spirit of prayer, there will be no real development of your inner life. It's Bridges who quotes Luther that there were three things by which God made a minister. Three things by which God makes ministers. And alas, we'll all have to be humbled because he doesn't mention the academy in them. But Luther said, prayer, meditation, and temptation make a minister. Prayer, meditation, and temptation make a minister. Brethren, there's no other way. And I think one of the reasons we've got all kinds of people, speaking in money, hand over fist, with all kinds of seminars on all the how-to stuff of the ministry, is one of God's monumental curses and the fact that we have a generation of preachers who are strangers to the secret place. Strangers to the secret place. It's amazing what God can

58:18 do with a man of relatively limited gifts, who's a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and who becomes such and remains such because he's a man of secret prayer. No other way is open to you, brethren. And as I said last week in speaking to a group of missionaries and Christian workers, I found in the first few months of my experience as a Christian and as one attempting to preach, that this is where the battle lines were drawn. Now, you remember when you were eighteen and you had a hollow leg? Six meals a day wasn't enough. I kept mine till I was about twenty-one. I can remember coming home from school at age 18, and saying, Mom, I'm not going to eat. I'm going to fast. And I've got to preach

59:10 tonight. And I don't want to preach until I pray. And I remember saying to myself, if I can't discipline my appetite for food to pray, I really don't want God's blessing on my life. And I'm not bragging. I'm just telling you how God drew the battle lines. And then a few years later as a student, with all of the times, a 19 or 20 hour load, and a student pastor, and responsibilities with fellow students, this was the battle ground. Right at this point. Right at this point. Would I maintain the discipline and the habit of secret prayer? And then in a traveling ministry where I had no responsibilities but to pray and preach, believe it or not, the battle lines were drawn there. And for the past 24 years in the pastorate, that's where the battle lines have been drawn in any given week I can measure. My success? My success or failure on this front as being the most strategic indication of where I am before God. So I've given up thinking that the battle ground is ever going to be shifted.

60:20 After all these years, I ain't looking for no new battle ground. I'm just praying for grace to be a good battle until I go to glory. God forbid, God forbid, the day should ever come when it could be justly said that man's lost his option. But if it is, brethren, it'll be because I lost the battle here. And God help us. Many a man is wreckaged by the roadside because he lost the battle here. And it didn't come because he got up some Monday morning and said, I'm going to give up secret prayer. I'm going to give up prayerful, reflective assimilation of the word because I want a barren ministry in here. And now today, I make a declaration. It didn't happen that

61:18 way. It was the very fruits and demands of his vigorous inner life funneled through an anointed ministry which began to claw at his time and his energies and his priorities until the very blessing of God became his curse. Let those demands draw him away from his closet. He let those demands rob him from time with God. And I think I know something about what that battle is. To keep pushing back the time earlier. To have time when there's no phone calls. And when the study phone is shut off. To have them call on the home phone and in tears and

62:04 in desperation. Until I say at times to my wife, is there any place on earth where I can be alone with God and not have somebody's problems? I fear it, brethren. I fear it.

62:18 It's happened to better men than I. And it'll happen to you.

62:25 You're determined by the grace of God to wage a lifetime warfare in the strength of God.

62:34 Well, this would be a good place to break. And I've got a third head to give you on what we must do if we're going to maintain this vigor of the inner life.