Deliverance From the Fear of Men

Introduction: The Necessity of Deliverance from the Fear of Men

0:03 As we begin this morning, let me simply remind you of the central thrust of the material we are concerned to address at this point in our lectures. As we've taken up the subject of the essential elements of effective pastoral preaching, I've structured those elements in terms of how they relate to the man of God himself as being the foundation of all effective preaching, and then how they relate to the sermon in its structure and form and substance, and then to the act of preaching. And thus far, we've considered these ingredients as they relate to the man himself as a man before God spiritually, intellectually, physically, and emotionally.

0:49 And now we're considering the second major division of this first aspect of our concern, namely those elements as they touch the man, before and among his people. And we considered last week the necessity of the servant of God having an increasing measure of an unfeigned love for his people or for his hearers. And now this morning, we're going to consider the necessity of the servant of God experiencing an increasing measure of deliverance from the fear of men. That if we are to be effective, effective pastor-preachers,

1:32 we must not only have an increasing measure of unfeigned love for our people, but we must experience an increasing measure of deliverance from the fear of our people. Or to state it positively, we must grow in the grace of holy boldness.

Introductory Observations: Humanity's Social Nature and Fallen Man's Antipathy to Truth

1:54 And though I've stated it in the more lengthy terms, they are one in the same. To experience an increasing measure of deliverance from the fear of men is indeed to grow in the grace of holy boldness. Now, in opening up the subject, I wish to begin by making some introductory observations. The introductory observations begin with the simple recognition that God has constituted us social beings.

2:28 This is no accident in the so-called evolutionary process, but it is by divine design. And, of course, the fundamental text that sets this forth in terms of how special revelation comes to us is Genesis 2 and verse 18. With reference to the man that God himself had designed and made, God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help meet or answering to him.

3:02 And so this social need that finds its concrete expression here in God's formation of the woman is the same need that makes man a social being who looks out toward his fellow human beings for that sense of fulfillment, acceptance, the longing to love and to be loved, to be received, appreciated, and esteemed. And those longings are not manifestations of the old man in Adam fallen or of the new man renewed in Christ. They are simply indications that we are human. H-U-M-A-N

3:47 It is essentially human to have felt social needs.

3:55 Now, the problem is that we are called upon to minister in a disordered and fallen world in which men who are unregenerate have no right to live. They have a positive disinclination to truth. Romans 1.18 They hold down the truth in unrighteousness.

4:14 Romans 8.7 The carnal mind is enmity against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. John 3.19 This is the condemnation that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

4:33 Now, fallen man, because of his antipathy to truth, when he comes into contact with that truth through a fellow human being, most often manifests his antipathy to truth by attacking the instrument through which the truth comes to him. You find this clearly expressed in both testaments. In John chapter 15, he who was truth incarnate, to whom the Spirit was not given by measure, from whose lips men heard words of grace and truth and marveled, saying, Never man spake as he spake. So there was nothing wrong in the manner of his delivery,

5:18 nothing in the person that would make the truth unattractive, and yet, our Lord says in John 15.18 and following, these very clear words. If the world hates you, your person, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If the world hates you, your person, if I were of the world, the world would love its own.

5:38 But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his Lord. If they persecuted me, and they did, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also, which they didn't.

6:00 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. You see how our Lord brings these strands of perspective together?

6:24 He says, you're going out into a world that will hate you because it hated me. And it will hate you for the same reason it hated me. I spoke words of truth, and that truth exposed their sin, and as lovers of sin and of darkness, they directed their hatred to my person, and they will do the same to you. You find it stated so succinctly in Amos 5 and verse 10 in the Old Testament, and this is just a specimen passage.

6:52 There are abundant illustrations of this in the actual history of the prophets. But in Amos 5 and verse 10, they hate him, his person, that reproves in the gate, and they abhor him, his person, that speaks uprightly. You see, the prophet is hated not for something in his person, but for something in terms of an activity in which he is engaging, namely being a mouthpiece of the truth of God. And the human heart has been the same in all epochs of God's revelatory activity.

7:33 There's a sense, in which men have enough innate recognition of the majesty, the might, the awesomeness of God, that they are a bit reserved about directing their enmity explicitly and openly and patently toward the God who is the author of truth, but they feel more comfortable when they direct it to the instrument through which the truth of God comes to them. There were few in Israel who were prepared to say when Amos came and said, Thus saith Jehovah, and replied, Prove them for their sins. There were few in Israel who were prepared to stand up and say, Amos, to hell with your Jehovah.

8:13 But they're prepared to say, To hell with you.

8:17 You see? And human nature is no different.

8:21 No different now than it was then. So, as a servant of Christ, given these natural, God-given social instincts in which we naturally, unless something has snapped in us, and it's one of the marks, often, of a demented person, unless something has snapped in us, we long to be loved, to be accepted, to be esteemed, to be appreciated. And that is not carnal in itself. But now we're called upon to bear truth that cuts across the grain of unregenerate nature and precipitates anger and hostility to our persons.

9:00 And, in terms of our shepherding work of the flock of God, we're called upon to preach and teach truths that often cut across the grain of the flock of God. The sin of men's remaining corruption, the prejudices that are still in them as part of the noetic mental effects of remaining sin, some darling lust that they are unwilling to relinquish, and therefore, even with respect to the people of God. Remaining sin, in principle, is no different from reigning sin. In the extent of its influence, there is difference, but not in its essence.

The Indispensability of Holy Boldness for Effective Preaching

9:38 So, in every believer, in you and in me, there is yet a remaining element of that hostility to the truth that exposes us for what we are, that pinches the raw nerves of the sins that we want to spare, that cries for their death when we are saying, spare them, and seeking to give them life. Now, all of that comes around full circle, brethren, to meet us as we contemplate the essential elements of effectuality and effective pastoral preaching. If, by the grace of God, we are not experiencing an increasing liberation from the fear of men,

10:23 or to state it differently, if we are not growing in holy boldness, do you see how we will not be able to be effective as preachers of the word of God? And because you are a servant of Christ, God does not negate those natural human desires to be able to be effective. To be loved and accepted. And there is no amount of growth in grace that will destroy your humanity.

10:49 Grace does not war with what is human in you, only what is characteristic of old man.

10:59 So all of your days, unless you become inhuman, you will have to wrestle with this matter of the fear of men. Because naturally, you want to be loved, appreciated, accepted, and have everybody say nice things, and yet you are the bearer of a message which, by its very nature, I don't care how sweet you are, I don't care how balanced you are, I don't care how gracious you are, you are never going to be as sweet and gracious and balanced in your character as was our Lord. And he said, if they hated me, they are going to hate you. And while you must always be prepared to receive any degree of legitimate criticism about your manner and bearing

11:43 as a messenger of the truth and become more Christ-like, settle it here and now. There is no way you can be so sweet, so tactful, so loving, as to neutralize being hated as a servant of Christ if you are true to the word. No way. If so, then you have violated what Jesus said.

12:02 The servant is not above his master. You would have risen to a point above and beyond your master.

12:09 And when you get there, that's not a good place to be. Because you've gone beyond the perfect example that God has set for you. All right? So that introductory collection of thoughts to sort of set the field for our study.

Scriptural Demonstration: Paul, Elihu, and Christ as Examples of Boldness

12:23 Now, in the second place, let me set before you a scriptural demonstration of this principle or axiom that you and I must experience an increasing measure of deliverance from the fear of men. And as I seek to demonstrate this from the scriptures, I want to do it first of all in the great apostle, the apostle Paul, and then in the example of an oft-overlooked Old Testament character. We've been looking at him recently in our Old Testament reading. We've come to the section in the book of Job where he is introduced to us, namely Elihu.

12:59 And then in the example of our Lord, the other examples will be readily known from your reading of the scriptures. First of all, then, in the great apostle. And there are two texts in which he speaks explicitly with reference to the relationship between the neutering of the fear of men and being true to his stewardship as an apostle and a minister of the gospel. The first one is in Galatians chapter 1.

13:34 You remember that in all the Pauline epistles, this is the only one addressed to the churches in which there is not any form of commendation on the threshold. Obviously, Paul's pen was already about to melt in his head. When he picked it up to write this epistle, his own soul was so fired with holy zeal for the maintenance of the purity of the gospel that after his general introduction, he tells them in verse 6 that he's utterly amazed, he's astounded, he marvels that they are so quickly removing from him that called them in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel. He says, but it's not another gospel,

14:19 it is a perversion. And then he pronounces that holy, horrible curse upon any who would pervert the gospel, verses 8 and 9, and then he says in verse 10, for, am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men if I were still pleasing men?

14:44 A veiled reference to the fact that at one time that's what he lived for, to be a man pleaser. If I were still pleasing men, now notice the strength of his statement, I should not be a bond slave of Christ.

15:01 Now here, the thing is set in such tremendous contrast that we can't escape the pressure of the text. He asks the two rhetorical questions, am I seeking the favor of men? In my ministry, do I have an eye to eliciting men's acceptance, men's praise, or am I seeking to elicit the praise and the favor of God? Second question, am I striving to please men?

15:32 Is my great goal in the ministry to have men going away feeling good?

15:39 He said, if I were still pleasing men, I should not be the bond slave of Christ. Now the great principle of this text from the apostle's example is that a man pleasing spirit is a negation of your servitude to Christ. You cannot at one and the same time be serving two masters. Jesus said that in Matthew 6, 24.

16:03 And if your master is the praise of men, then at that point and to the extent that it is, you are not Christ's bond slave. The two are mutually exclusive.

16:15 When your heart is consciously bound up with pleasing your master, then you are prepared to deliver his message with all of its flesh withering impact and with all of it's hatred eliciting content. But the moment you begin to regulate the message by the look in people's eyes, either their frowns or their smiles, you've ceased at that point to be Christ's bond slave. Determined to maintain the integrity of the message in the presence of the master who gave it to you. So this text is tremendously powerful and straightforward in setting out this principle.

17:00 Then, another key text is 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.

17:06 In this chapter, one of the richest in all of the Pauline corpus with reference to the perspectives of a godly pastoral mindset and a godly pastoral perspective, the apostle says by way of remembrance to the Thessalonians that they know about the circumstances of his coming to them that he'd been beat up, there at Philippi and yet rather than be discouraged he said that very persecution caused us to wax bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God in much conflict for our exhortation is not of error nor of uncleanness nor in guile but even as we have been

17:50 approved of God to be entrusted with the gospel so we speak not as pleasing men but the verb understood as pleasing God who proves who tries who tests our hearts now the apostle could say conscious that the ministry of the gospel was a stewardship a stewardship predicated upon the approbation of God as we were in have been approved of God to be entrusted we were made trustees of the gospel so we speak that is we speak as those who are conscious that we have no right

18:34 to make the gospel to alter the gospel to tailor cut the gospel it already comes it's God's gospel and he gives it to me as an approved steward and the steward is responsible to keep in trust that which has been given to him not to alter it not to reshape it not to refashion it and he says in that consciousness so we actually speak not as pleasing men now if in our speaking there are certain men that are pleased fine but he said in speaking our aim is not to please men but it is to secure the good pleasure of this God

19:18 who tries our hearts who knows every secret winding of every desire and motive every glance at someone whose wrath you may fear and causes you to hold back that sentence that you know would not nail them to their pew he proves your heart and he knows whether you're being a good steward of the message given or whether you're being a spiritual coward and a poor steward of the living God now here the apostle says my stewardship is only discharged when I have this single eye concerned to show myself one who pleases the God who tries who proves our hearts now the first thing

20:03 the flip side of that of course if we state it differently is Paul's tremendous concern that he would ever speak with boldness and that's why I use that subtitle to the axiom today that we must not only think in terms of experience an increasing measure of deliverance from the fear of men but we may think of it in terms of growing in the grace of holy boldness and notice how the apostle longs for this when he writes to the Ephesians in chapter 6 and he says after urging them to take the whole armor of God that clad with that armor they are in verse 18 with all prayer and supplication

20:47 to pray at all seasons in the spirit watch there unto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and on my behalf now this is an amazing thing and what does he want them to pray that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth to make known with boldness that word boldness is a difficult word to translate if any of you have ever done a word study on it you know how difficult it is with all free pouring forth with unfettered gush might be a good way to paraphrase it opening my mouth to make known with boldness with no holding back

21:32 the mystery of the gospel the revealed mystery the unfolded mystery of God's grace to sinners in the Lord Jesus for which I am an ambassador in change that in it I may speak boldly now notice as I ought he was conscious that bold preaching was his duty but that apart from the help of God given an answer to prayer he couldn't fulfill that duty so he was so he writes to his spiritual children and says pray for me the very ones who came into spiritual life because when at Ephesus

22:16 he waxed bold to preach and the very term I believe is used there in Acts 19 but he didn't regard it as a commodity that he carried around in his hip pockets but as one of those spiritual dynamics that had to be continually given and was given in answer to prayer and so the apostle writes to his own spiritual children and he entreats them to pray for him that utterance may be given unto him that he may fulfill his God-given duty in preaching which is to preach with boldness so Paul was conscious that in his humanity there were those elements that would have hindered

23:01 this unfettered free open proclamation and therefore he needed as do we the grace of the spirit in answer to prayer well then the second great scriptural demonstration is the example of Elihu and the reason I stick him in here and I pass over some of the other rich sections in both some in the books of Moses and also in the historical sections in Kings and Chronicles some of these prophets who come along now and then there are some choice sections but I turn your attention to Elihu's because it's one of the passages that I trust you will come back to again and again

23:45 as you seek to pray in these perspectives in Job chapter 32 Job chapter 32 Elihu has listened to Job's older friends speak and he's convinced that they have not really answered Job and it's evident that he does not adequately answer though he's a bridge from their non sympathetic misapplication of truth they are a bridge to God taking up his own cause and speaking directly to Job but this is what he says on the threshold of opening his mouth verse 17

24:29 I also will answer on my part I will show my opinion for I am full of words the spirit within me constrains me behold my breast is as wine which hath no vent like new wine skins it is ready to burst do you get the imagery there a man has had his wine pressed out and put it into the fresh skin of one of his animals and tied off the corners and then as the days pass and the wine begins to ferment the gases go out he hasn't opened up the vent hole and now it's stretched to the point where if you feel like you touch it the whole thing would just burst open he said that's what my heart is like

25:14 it's like a wine skin has no vent it's ready to burst it's right at the point where it looks if you touch it it'll just split open and the wine will spill so he says I will speak that I may find relief he said if for no other reason than to give relief to the pressure upon my spirit I've got to speak I will open my lips and answer now what is the context in which you will do it let me not I pray you respect any man's person neither will I give flattering titles unto any man for I know not to give flattering titles else would my maker soon take me away now you see here's Elihu

25:59 a young man who's in the presence of this esteemed patriarch and if ever someone would be tempted to hold back and to give flattering titles this young man would any young man who didn't feel that temptation there's something wrong with him generally speaking he says wisdom is with age but not invariably so he said this is an irregular situation but in spite of the irregularity believing that I have a word from God I will not come with flattering titles I'll not respect any man's person in the sense that I'll hold back on my message and he says I do so with an eye to my maker's dealings with me I say Elihu is a wonderful example whatever

26:44 may be right or wrong in what he said the matrix out of which he spoke does indeed form a marvelous example to us of someone who is determined to speak liberated from the fear of man well then of course there is in the third place the example of our blessed Lord himself and the most powerful statement of our Lord's freedom from the fear of man comes in an unusual context it comes in a context of people who have no appreciation for his person who are trying to trap him in his words and when you can get truth out of the mouth of such horrible

27:29 circumstances it must be truth that has just so carried the consciences of even the most hardened that they dare not deny it and that's what makes this testimony so powerful in Mark chapter 12 and verse 13 we read that they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians that they might catch him in talk these are the people who have dogged his steps see no glory in his person have no heart to receive his truth all they want to do is trap him in his talk so they can either hand him over to the Romans or hand him over to the Jewish authorities and have him done away with and when they were come they say to him teacher we know that you are true and care

28:13 not for anyone for you do not regard the person of men but of a truth teach you the way of God now think of this kind of acknowledgement coming from people who had no affection for him no love for him no sympathy but here though they speak it with terrible motives they acknowledge that in our Lord was one who was true in his person who did not fear men and here's the key phrase of a truth taught the way of God in the context you see their acknowledgement that his teaching in truth

28:58 the way of God was in direct proportion to his freedom from accommodating that truth to men Lenski has an excellent couple of paragraphs commenting on this text this delegation comes with an astounding acknowledgement of the teaching and character of Jesus almost as if they themselves were about to become his most ardent disciples with honeyed words of flattery they seek to throw Jesus off his guard their masters have coached them well for they have put into their disciples mouth an acknowledgement of Jesus which every Jew should have made in sincerity in their lying

29:43 fashion they ate the truth quite perfectly Jesus was indeed absolutely truthful the following clauses state how this is meant and carest for no one idiomatic it is no care for you means that Jesus is swayed by no man's personal interests he does not modify the truth in the least to further the opinions or plans of any man in fact they say you do not look on man's countenance like the partial judge to see who the person is before him and pronouncing a different sentence for a friend and for a

30:25 It is all the same to Jesus who faces him. His verdicts are invariably the same. All this is made specific by adding the positive after the negative. On the contrary, you have an Allah after the negatives. You teach the way of God on the basis of truth. This final phrase is emphatic. The way of God is the way he marked out for every Israelite to follow. Jesus taught that way on the basis of truth.

30:54 You have epi aletheos that is on the ground of reality. He taught what was true about the way of God over against what is not true. He taught the solid facts, nothing else. And of course he did so in a context in which he was free to do so because he was not courting the favor of any man. He was not standing in fear of the face of any man.

31:25 You have discerned the right church and and the ró su holy church and the life of the people of God. You have discerned the truth of what hath by words. I have finished the work that you gave me to do. So hear from these scriptures and there are many others and I would urge you in your consecutive reading of the Old and the New

Why Deliverance from the Fear of Men is Vital for Preaching

32:09 Testaments to look for those examples of men who in the discharging of the stewardship of a public ministry were concerned that the fear of men in no way ever impinge upon the integrity of the message. If you then would be an effective preacher as a pastor you must by the grace of God have an increasing measure of liberation from the fear of men. Well having given you some introductory perspectives given a brief scriptural demonstration of this principle now thirdly I want

32:48 to give an explanation as to why precisely why this is so vital an issue in preaching. Why is it so vital? Why is it so vital? Why is it so vital? Why is it so vital? Why is it so vital?

32:56 Why is it so vital? Why is it so vital? Why is it so vital? Why is it so vital? Why is it so vital?

32:56 Why is it so vital? Why is it so vital? Why is it so vital an issue? Well you see as you get to know your people more and more you will have an ever increasing catalogue of the issues that are sensitive issues to your people. You will know more and more the

33:15 raw nerves which if touched will cause them to cry ouch. To change the imagery you will get to know more and more of some of the dark corners of their lives which when the light shines into it they say, out with the light, away with the light. So if you're a true pastor and as a true pastor you're getting to know your people more and more, the possibilities of your cutting back on the truth are always increasing. You see, you come in as a total stranger. Some of you

33:54 experience this now in your occasional preaching in various places. You don't know from nothing about the people that are there. And you just take arrows at a venture and shoot them and lo and behold, someone comes up to you and says, you don't know what you said this morning. You say, I guess I don't. What did I say? Well, if you knew, you never would

34:12 have said it. I've had that happen many a time. And then people describe a situation where for sure they're going to be absolutely convinced that the preacher told you a tale and made the arrows, feathered them, put their name on it and stuck it in your bow and said, go shoot it for me.

34:30 You know, you can be very bold shooting arrows at a venture with nobody's name on it that you can see. It's written in hidden ink in the divine providence of God. But when it comes into their hearts, they see their name on it. I mean, that's no problem. But as you

34:43 get to know your people, you see, the growing awareness means there are all the more issues that you know are sensitive issues. If you are not growing in this matter of deliverance from the fear of men, in direct proportion to your growth of the knowledge of your people, your people will be your bondage to fear of your people. So that after 15 years, you can exercise yourself in the pulpit for 40 minutes and say nothing that has one hook, one barb, one arrow in it, and just be the lovely, lovely preacher that everyone thinks is so sweet. And they'll give you a good retirement package and they'll all write eulogies on the

35:27 day of your retirement. But you'll have standing over you this text, woe unto you, let it be when all men speak well of you. I remember, because I've heard the words probably a dozen or more times now, the late Dr. Tozer saying at a large convention of evangelicals who were desperately longing at that time in the early 60s to be considered acceptable and respectable and all the rest. The whole so-called new evangelical movement was just really flourishing

36:01 then in which evangelicals wanted to say to liberals and all the rest, we're so-called new evangelicals. We're so-called new evangelicals. We're so-called evangelicals. We're so-called new evangelicals. We're so-called new evangelicals. We're so-called

36:05 scholars too. And it was a carnal thing, trying to find acceptance on the world's standards of acceptance. And he went on to say in this particular conference that you can't get along with everybody. He said, if you do, he said, you do so at the price of the integrity of your conscience. He said, I've got to know who you love and who you hate and what you

36:26 think about God and the devil. And then he said, reverend, he said, these soft-handed reverends with the saintly flush on their cheek, trying to get along with everybody, quit it, reverend, quit it. It won't do you any good. And seeking to please everybody, you'll end up pleasing nobody. And worst of all, you'll end up incurring the frown of

36:45 God. They said, people tell me, Tozer, you're too negative, too negative. You've got to go positive. He said, well, being positive would be like trying to inhale all the time without exhaling. You've got to inhale oxygen and exhale the poison. So the man that just

37:01 inhales, he said, they've got a name for him. He's a dead man. And then he went on to say, so it is in our ministries. There's got to be this polarity.

37:11 We must not only affirm, we must deny. We must not only build up, but we must also tear down, overthrow, and root out, as well as build and plant in the language of God's commission to Jeremiah. So, as you get to know your people, if you don't grow with increasing measures of this grace, you will be forfeited. How will you know if your words of comfort are not mere sentimental thawnings aimed at securing the approval of your people? If you do not know in your heart of hearts, you are

37:51 liberated by the grace of God from the fear of men. How can you really comfort? And that's one of your great tasks. Comfort, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. You're to have

38:01 a ministry of comfort. But how can you know that your comfort is not a pious guise for your people? How will you know if your gentleness, and you need to be gentle? First Thessalonians 2, we were gentle among you as a nurse cherishing her own children. How will you know if your

38:24 gentleness is not a sickening weakness? Unless you know that the ones with whom you're being gentle are people whom you do not fear, as you bring the message of God to them. How can you know anything of bold denunciation? Denunciations that are calculated to deal with the sins of your people, not outside enemies whose destruction they will cheer. Oh, a lot of men are bold in their denunciations.

38:55 Horrible Russian Marxist materialism. Away with it. And everyone says, give it to them, preacher. But you turn to them and touch their materialism. Polite, respectable, middle-class

39:07 evangelical materialism. And start getting specific. Then you're not their hero. You're their enemy. Well, how are you going to know when

39:17 you're making bold denunciations whether you're calculating those denunciations conveniently to strike everybody outside the sphere of those actually listening to you? And these things can operate subtly. I'm not saying you'd consciously do it, you see. But the horrible, foul juices, as it were, of a man-pleasing spirit pulsing through your heart in the exercise of preaching.

39:43 Will affect in so many ways the integrity of the message. The scripture tells us, Proverbs 29, 25, the fear of man brings a snare. And it'll snare your tongue. Your mind will be bound in preparation. Because as you begin to mull over the text and you see where it's

40:04 going, you say, uh-oh, if I follow that line out, it's going to land me straight in brother so-and-so's lap Sunday morning. Sitting on his lap, looking up into his eyeballs, and condemning his sin. Can't go down that road. So you quench the spirit, who's the spirit of truth, who through that text intends to sanctify that person in the congregation through the truth. And you have quenched the spirit by your man-fearing spirit. You drew back.

40:37 The fear of man brings a snare in preparation. Fear of man brings a snare in delivery. In the midst of your preaching, there come those times when your own soul is fearless. And you're feeling the impress of truth. And in the dynamics of preaching, there are those

40:52 conscious pressures of the spirit of God upon your own mind and spirit. And applications of the truth are coming to you that you never thought of, that you hadn't put into your notes. And then as one of them leaps into your mind, no sooner does it leap into your mind than you know, uh-oh, so-and-so for sure is going to think I'm talking to them. And suddenly, your liberty and facility of utterance is impeded. Why?

41:19 The fear of man has brought a snare to your tongue. You've not spoken with all boldness as you ought, as you ought. Do you see why this is so vital an issue? I commend to you the section in Bridges, that wonderful section on the preaching of the gospel and the various characteristics of true preaching. He has a brief section on boldness, the spirit of

41:50 scriptural preaching. Let me whet your appetite. Page 297 to the top of 299. What can be more degrading to our divine commission than that we should fear the face of men?

42:05 What unmindfulness does it argue of our master's presence and authority and of our high responsibilities as set forth for the defense of the gospel? And here's a classic statement. The independence that disregards alike the praise and the censure of men is independent. Indispensable for the integrity of the Christian ministry. The independence that disregards

42:33 the praise and the censure of men is not desirable. Bridges said it is indispensable for the integrity of the Christian ministry. If you can be bought by people's smiles and shut up by their frowns, you are not Christ-free man. You will not have a ministry.

42:59 You will not have a ministry marked by integrity. Settle it. Bridges is right. There must be an independence from men's praise and from their censure. You can't be bought by their

43:11 smiles any more than you could be bought by their dollars. And you can't be shut up by their frowns. You can't be intimidated by their frowns. You can't be made captive to their smiles. May God give you such a holy independence. Alas, he had to go on to say,

43:32 many probably know and even feel much more truth than they have the courage to preach. What a tragedy. The deficiency of this spirit of boldness lowers us in the estimation of our people as time-servers whose moral and religious integrity are alike suspected. Many who love smooth things, who love the smooth things we should prophesy, would despise us in their hearts for this accommodation to their sinful indulgences.

44:03 A Christian boldness awes the haters of our message and secures the confidence of the true flock of Christ and the approbation of our conscience in the sight of God. And that's true as well. You have an example in Acts 4.13. When they beheld the boldness of Peter

44:20 and John, they were amazed at it. And they said, surely they have been with Christ. It doesn't say they embraced the message, but they were awed by the boldness. Christian boldness awes the haters of our message.

44:33 Secures the confidence of the true flock of God and the approbation of our conscience in the sight of God. So then, brethren, why is it so vital? Well, I've drawn out a few lines to help you see how vital it is. And now in the fourth place, I want to give you some suggestions as to how to grow in this grace of boldness or to grow in liberation from the fear of men.

Cultivating Holy Boldness: A Good Conscience Before God and Man

45:04 Now, obviously, a large measure of this is to be open on the threshold of any true work of grace in the human heart. Because in the open confession of Christ, there is a declaration that we are no longer deliberately, volitionally enslaved to men's faces. That's why he says, to be ashamed of him is to forfeit one's soul. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this sinful and adulterous generation of him will I be ashamed when I come in the glory of my Father.

45:40 But the holy angels. So there is a fundamental liberation from the fear of men in every true work of grace in the human heart. Those texts and similar ones make that abundantly clear. Furthermore, according to Jeremiah 32, 39, and 40, one of the great factors of the dynamics of grace in the new covenant is that God writes his law upon our hearts and puts his fear into our hearts. That is, pleasing God.

46:13 There comes a holy obsession to those who come within the orbit of the blessings of the new covenant. I will put my fear into their hearts so that they will not depart from my ways. But assuming that that grace has been implanted by the regenerating work of the Spirit, yet that grace must grow and that grace must be cultivated. And I would like to suggest that there are two categories in which we can and ought to cultivate it. First of all, in our walk before God as Christian men, and then

46:52 secondly, in our posture before God as preachers of the word. Now, would you cultivate this grace? Then you must cultivate it in these two areas. In your walk before God as a Christian man, and then in your posture before God as a preacher of the word. And in this matter

47:13 of your walk before God as a Christian man, I give you the following. These two practical ways in which you can nurture and cultivate and seek to strengthen this liberation from the fear of men. Number one, the maintenance of a good conscience before God and man. I am personally convinced, and I hope to demonstrate it from Scripture, that this is the main cap root of holy boldness. Would you have boldness? Would you have the

47:44 fear of man mortified? Then maintain a good conscience. Maintain a good conscience before God and man as a Christian man. Look at these passages in Acts, where the two things are brought into the most intimate conjunction. Acts chapter

48:00 23 and verse 1. Paul is standing in an obviously hostile context. The Sanhedrin, the very crowd that declared Jesus of Nazareth to be worthy of nothing but death by execution. How does Paul approach this august body?

48:24 Paul, looking steadfastly on the council. Just the look in his eye must have condemned them. Don't you know who we are? Where does Sanhedrin, highest ruling body in Israel?

48:40 Paul stands up and puts every one of them on trial in his conscience before God by looking at them. You birds don't scare me. He looks at them. You can just imagine how they must have felt, the creeping awareness that we haven't intimidated this character.

48:57 And notice what his first words are. Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day. I'm not standing here. Why? Because I fear God, and in his presence my

49:13 conscience affirms that there is no just ground of a controversy between me and God. No wonder he can look steadfastly on them. He who stands in the presence of God knowing that God has no just controversy with him is a bold man. is the creature, purely little worm of the dust, when before the living God I stand with a good conscience. And in a similar context, Acts 24.16, the key text we have on the whole

49:45 New Testament doctrine of conscience, at the practical level, what is he doing? He's standing again in a potentially hostile situation, and yet he can speak boldly, and when you read these things, you say, it's evident that every situation where Paul was on trial, it's the people he speaks to that are on trial. He ends up preaching to them. They tremble.

50:08 They get irritated and say, much learning it made thee mad. They're the ones who blow their cool, not Paul. And he can say, verse 14, but this I confess unto you, Acts 24.14, that after the way which they call a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers, believing all things which are according to the law, and which are written in the prophets, and which are written in the prophets, and which are written in the prophets, and which are having hope toward God, which these also themselves look for, that there shall be a resurrection, both of the just and the unjust. Herein do I exercise myself to have a conscience

50:43 void of offense toward God and men always. And then he goes on to speak of the implications of the charges. He says, verse 20, or else let these men say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council, except that I was a man of the law, and I was a man of man. I was a man of the law, and I was a man of the law, and I was a man of the law.

51:00 For this one voice, et cetera. Paul stood there knowing that he had a conscience that was blameless before God and before men, that he had not acted illegally, he had not acted with duplicity, and in walking with a blameless conscience before God, he could stand in any context, and he was marked by the grace of holy boldness. Perhaps these are New Testament examples of Proverbs 28.1. Great text.

51:31 Proverbs 28.1 Wicked flees when no man pursues, but the righteous is bold as a lion. Well, why does the wicked flee when no man pursues? He runs from shadows because he's got a pursuer in the theater of his own heart.

51:47 It's an evil conscience. He jumps at shadows when there's no substance. Why? Because he's got a haunting realization that God has a controversy with him.

51:57 The wicked flees when no man pursues, but he said the righteous is bold as a lion. You can be pursuing him, and he just plops down, turns around, sticks his paws out, looks at you, and goes,

52:09 He's not afraid of you. You come near him with one paw, he'll take your head off.

52:17 I've seen a lion in the wild, as I'm sure our brother has, in some of the game reserves there in South Africa. I went over to the Kruger Reserve, and it's an awesome thing. It's one thing to see them in pictures. It's another thing to see a real live leopard sitting up in a tree 40, 50 feet.

52:37 It's a frightening thing. But God says the righteous, not the temperamentally and constitutionally bold and outgoing and gregarious. No, no. The righteous, the man who knows his greatest controversy with God is resolved through the merits of Jesus.

52:56 And he stands in the way of practical righteousness in the integrity of a good conscience. He is bold as a lion. He fears no man.

53:08 Because... He stands in the court of God, acquitted, and in the presence of God at peace.

53:15 Now that's the price of cultivating this boldness. You see, you begin to cheat in the areas where no one knows but you and God, in terms of the indulgence of some secret lust, in the indulgence of some unmortified carnal ambition, or anything in the full spectrum of the sin that is possible in the light of remaining sin, the subtlety of the devil, and the pressure of the world, and to the extent that you bloody your conscience, you are shutting your mouth in terms of unfettered boldness. Unless, and here's the only exception, you want to put yourself on the high road to apostasy.

53:56 When a man can declaim against sin as boldly, when his conscience is bloodied as when his conscience is void of offense, he's put himself on the high road to apostasy. See? It's one thing to ride over the prickings of your own conscience when you've sinned, when you've cherished a lust and not dealt with it, but when you can ride over your own words, thundered out against that sin in your official capacity, you're on the high road to apostasy.

54:30 May God ever keep you from putting one foot on that road, and the only assurance you have that you'll never go on it. And this is where I've said to my wife on more than one occasion, maybe whatever God purposed to do through me in the ministry, the longer I live, the more I'm convinced that I'm going to be a good man. I'm convinced of this. There's probably no other way I would have gotten to heaven.

54:46 The return of every Lord's Day is a call to make sure there are no unsettled issues with God or man.

54:58 And many a time it's been the realization, if I dare to go into the pulpit Sunday with that issue not resolved, that could be the first step to apostasy.

55:11 Brethren, it's serious business. And the reason there's so little boldness in preaching in our day is because there's such shoddy living in the church. In the lives of those who stand behind pulpits.

55:25 That's the price you'll pay. It means you'll have to confess sins that other people don't even regard as sins. You'll have to go eat crow until you'll feel that your throat is aligned with crow feathers to keep a good conscience. Because every time you yield to the first pressures of conscience, it becomes more sensitive.

55:47 So the level of its sensitivity increases just as the level of hardness increases each time you go into the pulpit. Each time you defy those first prickings of conscience under the pressure of God's law and God's spirit. Just as a hard heart comes in perceptibly and by degrees, so does a soft heart. Look at David.

56:09 At one point in his life, all he did was cut off a little square inch from Saul's garment. That's all. A little act of disrespect when he could have killed this man and justified it on the basis of this man's seeking to murder him. He could have justified it as self-defense.

56:28 He cut off one little... And it says his heart smote him.

56:33 Later on, he can lay with another woman's wife, calculate the death of her husband, wipe his mouth and go away and say, I haven't done anything wrong. How did he get there? By degrees. By degrees.

56:48 Oh, that God may make us the Davids of the cave and not the David on the rooftop. When the slightest aberration known maybe only to us in God in terms of our self-defense, in terms of a fleeting attitude of resentment, of envy, of lust is immediately brought to the cross of Christ for cleansing and purging. And if it's broken out into a word, an attitude, a disposition that has defiled another, we're prepared to make it right with our fellow men, whoever that may be, wife, children, fellow elders, church members, unconverted neighbor. We are determined to have a good conscience before God and men.

57:27 And brethren, the essential to your soul's salvation, it's essential to any boldness in preaching.

57:39 You want to see the relationship now of this directly to preaching? Look at another few texts. 2 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 4, 1 and then 2 Corinthians 4. Remember the two fours of Corinthians with reference to this.

57:54 Paul says in the context of acknowledging that the ministry is a stewardship, that a steward is to be found faithful. Verse 2 of 1 Corinthians 4, But with me, it's a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Yea, I judge not my own self, for I know nothing against myself. He said at the point that I write this letter, my conscience does not condemn me.

58:20 That's the same Paul who wrote Romans 7, who maybe that very morning groaned before God, aware of indwelling sin. And yet he said in terms of any issue that ought to be dealt with and can be dealt with, I know nothing against myself. Yet am I not here by justified? He that judges me is the Lord, wherefore judge nothing until the Lord come, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, make manifest the counsels of the heart, and then shall each man have his praise from God.

58:49 As a steward who's attempting to be faithful, he said in the discharging of that stewardship, I know nothing against myself. Then 2 Corinthians 4, Seeing therefore we've received this ministry as we obtain mercy, we faint not, we have renounced the hidden things of shame. Probably the meaning is the hidden things that are the occasion of shame. Hidden things that cause shame.

59:17 Shame of the soul in presence of God. He said we've renounced those things, not walking in craftiness. There's no ministerial duplicity, preaching one thing, living another, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, carefully avoiding those issues, that will offend and possibly precipitate opposition and frowns, carefully giving big gobs of that which will precipitate smile. No, we don't handle the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation, the full open display of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

59:59 He says as God is present in preaching, he said we commend ourselves as living embodiments of what we preach, and we say to men, this is the truth of God and your conscience offends it, and our lives, amen, that testimony of your conscience, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

60:23 So brethren,

60:25 if you would have boldness, then cultivate a walk before God as a Christian man in every department of life where your posture is that of a servant before his master, seeking to regulate thought and motive and perspective on every facet of life by the word of God, and when there's any deviation that comes into the theater of consciousness, go immediately to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness, and go to anyone and everyone you must to make the thing right, no matter how shameful and painful that course may be.

61:06 You say, I'm not sure.

61:09 I want that as my life's work. If you don't want that, you're not a Christian. I said, this is in your walk before God as a Christian.

61:19 That is what God demands, simply to name the name of Christ with any credibility.

Cultivating Holy Boldness: Good Models and a Preacher's Posture Before God

61:28 But then, the second thing in this matter of our walk before God, we must not only maintain a good conscience before God and men, I'll just touch on this briefly, there is the necessity of keeping good models before you. Keep good models before you. Be ye followers of me, Paul says, even as I am of Christ.

61:50 As you read the scriptures, pray that God will make you sensitive to the scriptural models of this grace of deliverance from the fear of men. Read good biographies.

62:04 Listen to living preachers in person or embodied on ferrous oxide who manifest this grace. When I say read biographies, this is the kind of stuff you'll come across when you do. If you were reading the biography, if there is one, this is in, in Gardner Spring's book, not a biography, but I imagine this is included in a biography, if there is one, of the man who is described here. Speaking of this matter of boldness in preaching, some of you have heard this in the past.

62:43 Samuel Davies has set forth as an example of this, and this is what Gardner Spring writes. That distinguished American preacher, Samuel Davies, then president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, went on a visit to England in behalf of the college, was invited to preach before King George III. His youthful queen was sitting at his side, and so enchanted were they by the preacher's eloquence that the king expressed his admiration in no measured terms, and so audibly and rudely as to draw the attention of the audience and to interrupt the service. The preacher made a sudden, solemn pause in his discourse, looked round upon the audience and fixing his piercing eye upon the noisy monitor,

63:29 and the monarch said, When the lion roars, the beasts of the forest tremble. When Jehovah speaks, let the kings of the earth keep silence before him. We talk about the air being electric.

63:48 I believe he was in his thirties at that time. And he looks at the king and says, When the beast of the forest, when the lion roars, the beasts of the forest are still. When Jehovah speaks, let the kings of the earth be silent before him. Now, was he brash?

64:05 No. No, he was in the presence of God. He stood there with a good conscience. Like Paul, he could look steadfastly upon the great ones of the earth.

64:16 He was God's messenger. Spring says, He feared not man who is a worm. It is not God's ministers who tremble amid such scenes. Well, you see, an incident like that becomes a model.

64:31 Now, we're never going to preach before kings, but you're going to preach before Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so, who, in their way, will seek to distract, to immunize themselves from the message, and you will need the grace of holy boldness. But then, let me just touch on this, then we'll take a break.

64:51 We must not only cultivate this in our walk before God as Christian men. I've given you the two practical ways, the maintenance of a good conscience, keeping good models before you. But in your posture before God as a preacher, this must be cultivated, and it's a holy art that must be learned. And having learned it, you never stick it in your pocket and walk away with it.

65:14 You must continually refresh yourself in these principles. And this is what I suggest to you, and this is not something I'm just setting forth in three dimensions for the sake of having three strands in this cord, but these are the things that through the years I have found to be of most help in seeking to cultivate this grace. When you are actually preaching, before you go, go into the pulpit, and periodically at times while you are there, say to yourself, it is the will of the God of the universe that has put me in this position. It is the will of the God of the universe

65:56 that has put me in this position.

66:02 I'm not here by the pressure of men, by the decision of my own mind, and certainly not by my own personal ambition.

66:13 And when you read the Pauline, you notice how again and again he starts out by saying, Paul, a bondslave of Christ, Paul, an apostle, not of men, nor of the will of man, but of God. Paul called to be an apostle. You find it in Romans 1.1, Romans 1.5,

66:31 1 Corinthians 1.1, 2 Corinthians 1.1. Why is he doing that?

66:34 That's not just something that became socially acceptable. He was conscious when he sat down to pen that epistle. It was the God of the universe who laid hold of it. He gave him and made him an apostle.

66:47 And in the consciousness of who he was by divine choice, so he wrote, so he spoke. And though we've not had a direct call from heaven, if our call to the ministry is scripturally valid, and this is what you must get hold of, it is just as valid as was the call of the apostle to the apostleship. The God of the universe has put me here. Now, if you can't be confident of that on scriptural grounds, don't be there.

67:26 And wait as long as you need to wait until when you stand there you can say with certainty, I am not here by my own appointment.

67:38 You see why it's so vital to clear up the question of a scriptural call, though it may be very painful and very long in coming. Because when you're in that situation, it's only as you're able to say the will of the God of the universe has been offered to you. To put me here, that you'll have the stuff out of which boldness grows. But then secondly, the eye of God is upon me while I am here.

68:06 The eye of God is upon me in the performance, in the discharging of my task. And notice again how this comes through so clearly in several of the apostle Paul's writings. In 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 13, having there, Therefore such a hope we use great boldness of speech. I'm sorry, 2.13.

68:32 I was reading 3.13.

68:38 No, it's not that. It's 17. I'll change that in my notes. I'll change it later.

68:44 Okay. We are not as the many corrupting the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God. You see, there's the consciousness of divine call in the sight of God. Speak we in Christ.

69:00 So he adds to the concept of God that of in the sight of God. The God of the universe who has called me and appointed me to the task has his eye upon me in the performance of the task. Now you stand up to preach and there in the beginning it may be just 10, 15 sets of eyes. But there is one eye that matters.

69:31 And then if it's 150 sets of eyes, there's only one eye that matters. And if God's so blessed that...

69:37 But there are 3,000 sets of eyes. There is only one eye that really matters.

69:44 So the size of the congregation won't cause you to alter your message.

69:51 It's the eye of God that counts. The God who called me is the God who beholds me in the task. Does he see me as a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth, willing to preach those parts that may be offensive to unregenerate temperament and perspective as well? Has run the possibility of stirring up the opposition of remaining sin in my hearers?

70:16 Then so be it. I am in the sight of God. And I must know when I'm done that the God who has appointed me and who scrutinizes me can say, well done, good and faithful servant. So it's not surprising then that when Paul charges Timothy, he brings that perspective front and center in his charge.

70:40 2 Timothy chapter 5, verse 4 and verse 1. I charge you in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus who shall judge the living and the dead. Preach the word. Timothy, this charge comes to you in the context of the livingness of God whose eye is upon you.

71:03 And then the text we already considered, 1 Thessalonians 2, 4, where he says that as we were approved of God, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tries our hearts. His eye searches the reins and the hearts of men. And then the third strand of this perspective that you need to cultivate in the pulpit as a preacher, not only the consciousness that the will of the God of the universe has put me in this task, the eye of God is upon me as I perform the task, but the living God will judge me for my faithfulness to the task. The living God will judge me.

71:42 For my faithfulness to the task.

71:46 2 Corinthians 5, 9, and 10.

71:51 Wherefore, he says, we are ambitious. Ministerial ambition. That horrible curse. Well, it's not a curse when it's this kind of ambition.

72:02 We are ambitious, he says. To do what? We make it our aim. We are ambitious, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing to him.

72:14 For, see the connective? For, we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ. It was this consciousness that I will be judged by him that was the spring that fed into the heart of the apostle, giving him this ministerial ambition to be well-pleasing to God. And you see that, of course, in the whole concept of the watchman in Ezekiel 3.

72:45 Please don't ever lay that on your people. More false guilt. It has been laid on God's people by taking the watchman passages out of Ezekiel and applying them one-to-one to God's people. Telling them that they don't witness to everybody their blood will be on their hands.

73:00 No, the watchman passage speaks to the servants of God appointed to a special task of being the mouthpiece of God to the covenant community of God's people. And in that context, though, he does say, if you are not true to the message I give you, I'll require it. Of your hand. Well, try to think of these things while you're preparing, while you're sitting on the platform.

73:27 I find it most helpful during the offering to gather my thoughts together and look out upon the people at times and just say, these are people for whom I shall give an account to God. Whatever that means. I don't understand all it means, but I know it's revealed in Scripture. Lord, help me.

73:45 Help me. Out of true love to them, not to fear them. Help me out of true love to them to fear only you. And to remember that I shall give an account someday for what happens in the next hour.

73:57 It'll meet me. Come around full circle in the last day.

Refuting Objections: Hardness, Insensitivity, and Alienation

74:03 Well, we've been going for more than an hour, brethren. Let's take a break. And then we'll come back. It'll only take me about ten minutes to touch the fifth part of the lecture this morning.

74:14 Some common objections to this perspective and their refutation. And I want to take up two or three common objections to the perspective of God. And I want to take up two or three common objections to the perspective of God. And I want to take up two or three common objections to the perspective of God.

74:23 And I want to take up the perspectives I've laid out this morning and seek to answer them because sooner or later you're going to meet them if not from your own heart from some of your own hearers. But let's take a break. It's 12.30.

74:35 Let's take ten minutes to come back. Now, as I indicated at the close of our previous session, brethren, what I want to do now in the fifth division of our lecture today is just to take up several common objections to this perspective and then attempt to refute them from the Scriptures. The first and most obvious common objection is this. Won't this perspective make preachers hard,

75:06 caustic, and insensitive?

75:10 Won't this make preachers hard, caustic, and insensitive?

75:18 And my answer is twofold. Number one,

75:24 this is not true in the example cited.

75:29 And then secondly, it is impossible in the economy of grace. Number one, it is not so in the examples cited. Our Lord, who's going to question that He was full of compassion, that He was what He said He was, meek and gentle? I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.

75:53 He saw the multitudes moved with compassion. And yet it was our Lord, according to the testimony of His most bitter enemies, who taught the way of God in truth and did not recognize the persons of men. It was not true of the apostle. It's very interesting that in the very context of 1 Thessalonians 2.4,

76:16 where he says, I speak not as one who pleases men, but God who tries our hearts. He goes on to say in verse 7, We were gentle among you as a nurse cherishing her own children. Then he goes on in language that's almost saccharine. And he says, And we were affectionately desirous of you, willing to impart unto you not the gospel of God only, but our very souls, because you were become very dear to us.

76:44 There within the compass of a few sentences, we speak not as pleasing men, but God. We were gentle. As a nurse, we were willing to impart our very souls to you. Likewise, the same apostle who enjoins this upon Timothy, who confesses it was his own perspective, is the apostle who's saying in Galatians, Galatians 1.10,

77:08 If we should please men, we should not be the servants of Christ. He says in chapter 4, My little children, of whom I travail again in birth till Christ be formed in you. Hard, caustic, he says, I'm like a travailing mother, willingly going into the throes and the trauma of another childbirth experience. I travail again in birth till Christ be formed in you.

77:36 This is the apostle who can say to the Ephesian elders, You know the manner of my life. You know the day and night with tears. I serve the Lord among you. Acts 20.20 and verse 31.

77:52 And then, in that marvelous passage, when he says, Who is not weak and I do not burn? He gives the marks of his ministry in 2 Corinthians 7.2-4 and the marks of genuine compassion, gentleness, and tenderness are there. He says, Great is my boldness of speech toward you.

78:18 Great is my glorying on your behalf. I'm filled with comfort. I overflow with joy. Even when we came to Macedonia, our flesh had no relief.

78:27 We were afflicted on every side. Without were fightings. Within were fears. Nevertheless, he that comforts the lowly, even God, comforted us by the coming of Titus.

78:36 And then he says, When he told us your mourning, your zeal, he goes on, to say that, Though I made you sorry, he said, I found no delight in this. You see, he had to make them sorry. Integrity to the message demanded it. But he didn't do it harshly.

78:50 He didn't do it insensitively. He said, I now rejoice that you were made sorry. But that you were made sorry, not that you were made sorry, but you were made sorry after repentance, for you were made sorry after a godly sort. So, the apostle indicates that it hurt him to have to wound them.

79:10 But integrity demanded the wounding. And now that the wounding had affected repentance, he rejoiced with them. So, when people say, to be a preacher who is utterly indifferent to men's smiles and frowns will make you hard, caustic, and insensitive, these examples cited show that that objection is invalid. And then secondly, it is impossible in the economy of grace.

79:37 You see, if absence of the fear of men is wrought, by the Holy Spirit, then the same Spirit who produces that will produce love, gentleness, and meekness. As I've often reminded you, the ministry of the Spirit is like integrated circuitry.

79:59 And so, if this is not a matter of temperament, it's not a carnal boldness or brashness, but it is a fear of God that overrides the fear of men, then it's the fruit of the work of the Spirit in us. And in the economy, the dynamics of the Spirit will also produce the other characteristics that are the opposite of being hard, caustic, and insensitive. So the objection. Won't this make preachers who are hard, caustic, and insensitive?

80:32 It's not so in the examples cited. It's impossible in the economy of grace. And just as a little aside, people who say that generally don't know the difference between fidelity to the truth of God and what God says. And so, in the economy of grace, we have to be careful and what they call hard, caustic, and insensitive.

80:49 The words of Jesus that I've been meditating upon on the surface seem very hard and insensitive.

80:58 It were better that the millstone turned by a donkey be hanged around his neck and he be drowned in the sea. And he uses a present about hanging the millstone in a perfect for being drowned in the sea so that we would get the picture. There he is. See him.

81:15 And I tried to imagine the bloated body and the sharks tearing off the flesh. He said, better to come to that.

81:22 Well, that doesn't sound very gentle. No, it doesn't. But it's the kindest thing he could say to get the message across. And when he said to be cast into the fire where their worm dies not and the fire is never quenched, that wasn't pleasant imagery.

81:39 Taken right out of that last chapter of Isaiah and vivid to the mind of every Jew from his rabbinical teaching and from the apocryphal books, they understood that imagery. It's the imagery of carcasses being eaten by maggots and being consumed by fire. The most loving thing Jesus could do was to say, avoid that end, which in its imagery is this horrible. And the imagery doesn't meet the reality.

82:06 So if you've got to go hacking and hewing and plucking and casting off eyes and hands and feet, stop short of nothing to get into and stay into the way of holiness.

82:20 Now, anyone who has no sense of the value of the soul would call that harsh and caustic. Well, then let's bear that reproach with our Savior. So long as we know by the grace of God that that which impels us to be faithful in the declaration of unpleasant truth is fidelity to our Lord and true love to those to whom we minister. Then the second great objection is, won't preaching of this kind alienate the people?

82:47 Well, I answer yes. Some it will.

82:54 And if your preaching doesn't alienate some people, it isn't biblical preaching.

83:00 We are a saver of life unto life, of death unto death. The preaching of the cross is to them who are perishing foolishness. And in looking up the uses of skondilon and skondilizomai in preparation for Sunday, I was struck again where the cross is called the great trapstick, the great scandal. And Paul says, I refuse to do this lest the scandal, the offense of the cross, should be neutral.

83:29 The cross is offensive.

83:33 It tells people they are nothing, have nothing, can do nothing to be accepted with God. And all that they are in all of their culture, refinement, moralism, religiosity is a stench in the nostrils of God. Isaiah said, it's like a pile of menstrual cloths.

83:52 Well, that's offensive. So be it. That's reality. And if you do not fear men's faces, you will tell them that which is offensive.

84:02 It'll be offensive Sunday morning. To say to some people who are fooling around with holiness that they don't really believe what this passage says. They are not willing to pluck out eyes and cut off hands and cut off feet. Whatever the imagery means, it means it's better to go through life greatly hampered in any area than to indulge something that will make my life now more full if the price I pay is out of the way of holiness and into the way of destruction and hell.

84:33 If the passage says anything, it says that. That will alienate some people.

84:41 That's God's truth. It will alienate.

84:46 And if so, then we must bear the reproach of Christ. And we must be willing, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, 15, the more we love, the less we are loved. We must go right on loving. This text has been a great help to me, particularly in recent years.

85:02 And I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. That's love. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less? But be it so, I did not myself burden you.

85:16 He said, my outgoing compassion is not going to be affected by whether or not it gets any return in appreciation from you. I've got a stewardship to discharge in the fear of God and out of love to your souls. And if alienation is the price I pay, then it will be alienation in your heart in the presence of truth. And it won't be alienation because of any ethical abnormality in my life.

85:43 So, brethren, you're going to alienate some people. Jesus did. This is a hard saying. The Lord didn't say, well, I'm sorry, I'll tone it down a little bit.

85:51 After this, they went back and walked with him no more. It was alienation. It grieved our Lord. But it's one of the occupational hazards of being true to the word of God.

86:07 Those who are enemies to the truth may be alienated. Those whose remaining sin is rising up in opposition to the truth, for a time, may be alienated. Proverbs 28, 23, He that rebukes a man shall afterward find more favor than he that flatters him. But you see, the people of God will love you the more.

86:29 And that's one of the beauties, again, of a lengthy pastor, to have people that thank you just as much for all the wounds you've laid upon them in the fear of God as for all the balm you've poured in impelled by the love of Christ. And thank God that faithful are the wounds of a friend. And when you become their best friend next to their Lord because you wound the most when they need it, and yet the same hand that wounds them with the word is ready to pour in the oil of comfort and healing. But if you want to find some way so to handle the word of God so positively, so tactfully, so nicely that no one's offended, then what you're doing is really you're now handling

87:13 the word of God deceitfully. So the objections wither before the realities, of fact, and before the very revealed framework within which God says we must minister. So if you're to be effective preachers, brethren, whatever you may bring to the task in terms of native and cultivated gift, mark it down that one of the essential elements as far as your relationship to your people is not only an increasing measure of unfeigned love to them, but an increasing measure of liberation from fear of your people. Well, that's what I wanted to say.