88a) Spiritual Experience #1

Prayer for Divine Guidance and Humility

0:03 Our Father, we thank you for your goodness and mercy in meeting with us in the previous season of waiting before you. We thank you for drawing out our hearts to seek your blessing, and we know that when you do this, you do not mock us. And we now come again conscious that we need the aid of your Holy Spirit to think aright concerning this most vital of questions. We pray that your Spirit would direct us, that we may cut a straight course in the word of truth, that we may be guarded from errors on the left hand and on the right.

0:44 O Lord, we pray that none would be discouraged beyond warrant, that none would be intimidated. O Lord, we pray that none would be discouraged beyond warrant, but that we may be given grace to do what your word commands us to do when it says, I say to every man among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly. Gracious God, give us grace to do that which you've commanded each one of us to do, and we would seek to obey you under your eye, and in dependence upon you. And in dependence upon your grace.

Recap: Elements of a Biblical Call to Pastoral Office

1:22 Meet with us, then, we plead, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, today's lecture, brethren, finds us continuing to wrestle with that most crucial and delicate question, namely, what constitutes a biblical call to the pastoral office? Having sought to set the framework for our discussion of this question by considering our foundational principles, we then proceeded to analyze the major categories of erroneous thinking on the subject, and also to identify seven specific false reasons for concluding that one is called to the pastoral office. We then began to consider the four elements which comprise a biblical call to the pastoral office. The first element we identified is what I described as an enlightened, and sanctified desire for the work of the pastoral office. And a careful exegesis of 1 Timothy 3.1 as our major text

2:35 and 1 Peter 5.3 as our supportive text was the focus of our establishing that first element of a biblical call, the enlightened and sanctified desire for the work of the pastoral office. The second is what I've designated as a proven fitness for the work of the pastoral office. And it is under this second category that we focused our attention last week on the most elementary category of fitness, namely, the manifested graces indicative of genuine, matured, balanced, and proven Christian character.

3:20 And we started this. Because that is obviously the dominant emphasis of the two watershed passages on the requirements for an elder, namely, 1 Peter 3.1-7 and Titus 1.5-9.

Introduction to Enlarged, Balanced, and Tested Christian Experience

3:36 Now today we proceed to focus our attention upon the second commodity which is involved in a proven fitness for the work of the pastoral office. And on page 10 of your notes, we'll see it listed as number two. Number one under fitness was the manifested graces indicative of genuine, matured, balanced, and proven Christian character. Number two, what I've chosen at this juncture to describe in this way, the clear indications of an enlarged, balanced, and tested Christian experience.

4:21 And then, number three, of course, will bring us into the realm of gifts. But we're dealing now with this matter of an enlarged, balanced, and tested Christian experience. Now in the subsequent unit in your pastoral theology lectures, we will take up the issue of the ongoing development and maturation of the inner life of the man of God, as well as his physical and mental conditioning, in the ministry. But what we are dealing with today is an aspect of a prerequisite to the assumption of the office and functions of an overseer.

Defining 'Christian Experience' and 'Clear Indications'

5:05 And as we did last week, I must begin with giving you a definition or explanation of the key words in this statement. The meaning of the term Christian experience. The focus of all the descriptive words, is the term Christian experience. And by the use of this term, I am not referring to an experience, but rather I'm seeking to capture the idea of a man's personal experiential acquaintance with those things which form the very essence of the life of God in the soul of man.

5:48 One is to occupy an office, which has, as one of its major tasks, that of ministering to the real spiritual needs of the sheep of God's flock, then surely that man must be able to do so as one who has more than a theoretical acquaintance with the spiritual realities as set forth in the scriptures and manifested in the lives of the people of God. So when I use the term Christian experience, that is what I'm referring to. Experiential acquaintance with the realities of a man's walk with God. Now, I've used the term clear indications. We're talking about a prerequisite for entering the pastoral office, and I'm asserting that there must be clear indications of something. Now, what do I mean by that?

6:51 Well, we cannot read, what is in the hearts of men. Whenever we enter this area of the biblical requirements for a duly recognized servant of Christ, we're reminded of the truth that Samuel was reminded of in 1 Samuel 16 and verse 7, that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart. However, since the church, through its appropriate channels, must make a judgment regarding a man's fitness for the office, and since God has not given to us the ability to read men's hearts, then there must be some clear indications of those things related to the realm of Christian experience. Now, what those clear indications are, and how others are able to perceive them, will differ in the case of each man under consideration for the pastoral office. In some cases, it will be more readily seen in various facets of a man's preaching. We have seen men in the academy who, in their first endeavor in ministering to their fellow students, showed an unusual level of perception of the inner workings of Christian experience,

8:17 and it came out in their preaching. Others, it's been manifested more in their praying. Others, in their interaction with their fellow students, or with people in the congregation. And therefore, I'm not prepared to go beyond Scripture and say that the indications must be manifested to a certain level in this, that, or the other area, but I am prepared to assert that there must be some clear indications of this commodity that I'm calling in large, balanced, and tested Christian experience.

Defining 'Enlarged Christian Experience'

8:56 Now then, the meaning of the three descriptive words. Enlarged, balanced, and tested. And if you could have seen me sitting at my desk straining my brain to try to encapsulate in a few English words what I believe is the teaching of Scripture, you'll take pity on me if I stick closely to my notes as I say this is all fresh ink. Now, what do I mean by enlarged Christian experience?

9:23 Well, I'm using this word to describe that measure of Christian experience which is beyond that of a babe in Christ or of the ordinary believer in the assembly of God's people. I'm trying to capture what John had in mind when he wrote in his first epistle the following words, familiar, I'm sure, to all of us. In 1 John, Chapter 2, and verse 12, I write unto you, my little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written unto you, little children, because you know the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.

10:26 I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one. Now, these various categories, are they referring to chronological categories or spiritual categories? Well, I believe sound exegesis and the analogy of Scripture would lead us to believe they are referring to spiritual categories. And in his excellent, recently reprinted commentary on 1 John, candlish comments on page 129, as such, as little children, John first addresses them all and appeals to them collectively.

11:10 But then, secondly, he separates them into two classes, fathers and young men, old and spiritually exercised, Christians on the one hand, and on the other hand, those who are fresh and in the vigorous prime of recent but yet manly Christian experience. All are little children, but some are fathers, ripe for glory. Others are young men, strong for work. Such, as I apprehend, is the real primary meaning of this threefold appeal of John.

11:52 And I'd like to go on and quote further his exposition. It's most compelling, I find in my judgment most convincing, but if that passage does not carry your conscience that speaking of enlarged Christian experience is seeking to capture the categories to which John refers, then I trust the Hebrews 5 passage does indeed carry your conscience. What was the problem which the writer to the Hebrews was addressing here in chapter 5 of his epistle? He says, verse 12, For when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you ought to have come to sufficient spiritual maturation to be taking others who are not as far along in understanding and experience as you are, and to be empowered and to be imparting knowledge, experiential knowledge, as well as conceptual knowledge to them. For when by reason of time you ought to be teachers, you have need that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of solid food. When you ought to be cutting up your own beefsteak, someone is sticking a bottle in your mouth,

13:19 for everyone that partakes of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for full-grown men, now notice how they described, not even those who by reason of unusually brilliant intellect have absorbed great gobs of theological concepts. That is not what he says. Solid food is for full-grown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

13:55 That is, they have an enlarged Christian experience based upon vital dealings with God's truth at the experiential level. It is the result, this enlarged Christian experience to which I make reference, that is the result of an enlarged Christian experience based upon vital dealings with God's truth. I make reference of following the pattern of our blessed Lord, who is described in that touching picture of the servant of Jehovah in Isaiah 50 in this way, Isaiah 50 and verse 4, The Lord has given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary. He wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear, as they that are taught. The Lord has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backwards. You see, this was understanding of the will of God that led to competence to speak the word of God to others.

15:18 You see the connection of those three things? And brethren, it's that that I'm trying to capture in the word enlarged Christian experience. It does involve conceptual knowledge of things that differ, yes, but it is more than conceptual knowledge. It is heightened moral consciousness and sensitivity, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

15:50 A man may not need this, to preach well on many portions and many themes of scripture, but we're talking about the pastoral office. We're talking about a shepherd of sheep. Never forget, don't ever limit what I say to simply preaching. If you do, you've taken the thing out of its whole universe of reference.

Defining 'Balanced Christian Experience'

16:11 We're talking about the pastoral office, the central task of which is shepherding sheep. And I am saying that one of the elements essential to a biblical call to that office is clear indications of an enlarged Christian experience. Now what do I mean by balanced Christian experience? I'm using this term in the same way as I used it with reference to Christian character.

16:37 I'm referring to the fact that a man's experience is not overloaded and top-heavy in one direction so as to distort his representation of the truth, or to skew his ability to understand the struggles of the people of God to whom he seeks to minister, whether privately or publicly. For example, there was a man in the South who has since gone to glory, who was in the ministry for a number of years preaching, quote, the gospel until the Lord saved him. Well, that man became so imbalanced, feeling that most everyone else that professed to be saved was probably unconverted, preachers included, like he was for years, that he preached the doctrine that unless you went through a Bunyan-like experience of intense and prolonged spiritual trauma under a deep plow work of the law, conversion was suspect. And his very views became known in some circles as the cruel doctrine of, and then his name with an ism came at the end of it. It was imbalanced. No one questions God's dealings with him, but he made God's dealings with him the rule for others.

17:58 He did not have a balanced Christian experience. It lacked the symmetry that reflects the word of God to bring it into touch with Scripture. A balanced Christian experience is one in which the man who would be a shepherd to others lives comfortably in Romans 5, 1-5. Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

18:28 He's conscious that God's controversy with him is over because there has been a declaration from the court of heaven upon the perfect accomplishment of redemptive work in Jesus Christ. I stand just as if I'd never sinned. And I know God's controversy with me has been righteously resolved. And on that basis, I'm also conscious that through the same Lord Jesus Christ who has secured my justified status, I have access by faith into this grace wherein I stand, and I rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

19:11 I know that the work which His grace has begun He will carry on to perfection and complete at the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I rejoice in that with a certain confidence of its accomplishment. But not only so, I'm able to rejoice in my tribulations because I've come to know that tribulation is sent by God and overruled in His providence to develop Christian character. It works steadfastness and steadfastness-approvedness and approvedness-hope.

19:43 And hope puts not to shame because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given unto us. A balanced Christian character is one in which a man feels comfortable in Romans 5, 1 to 5, and says, when I read that, there is an echo in my own heart at least to some dimension, to some degree, I know what Paul is talking about experientially. However, who knows that? Who would be marked by joy, confidence, the gleam of heaven in his eye?

20:21 He's also not comfortable, but he's also at home when he comes over a couple of chapters into Romans 7, and he reads in verse 18, For in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing, for to will is present with me. But to do that which is good is not. For the good which I would I do not, but the evil that I would not, that I practice. But if I would not that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

20:54 I find then the law. This is not someone saying, I will now give a pronouncement of the objected doctrine of remaining sin in believers. Paul's not doing that. He's saying, I find in me the law.

21:07 This is experiential theology. I find then the law, that to me who would do good, evil is present. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see, not there is, believers remaining sin, he could have said that, but he didn't. He said, I see.

21:28 I see. Where do you see it, Paul? I see in me. I see a different law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

21:43 Oh, how wretched is the person who cognitively acknowledges he has remaining sin. No, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

22:03 Now by balanced Christian experience I mean a man who's at home in Romans 5, 1 to 5 and at home in the latter part of Romans 7. And I don't want any man being my shepherd who's always mourning with the groans and the groans of Romans 7 and portrays a picture of the Christian life that if I happen to be shouting happy I'm looked upon as someone who doesn't have a knowledge of his wretchedness. Suspect if I get shouting happy. I want to shout if it's the right place and the right time.

22:41 And I'm shouting about the right things. But when God's given me some fresh experimental felt awareness of my indwelling sin I want to be as honest as Paul was and not be looked upon as unspiritual. Or someone who's got a bunch of skeletons in the closet that I'm not willing to deal with and that's why I haven't entered into victory and haven't stepped into the abundant life. And that's why I say brethren if we're to be true shepherds to God's sheep there must be some measure of developed Christian experience that has the basic contours of balance.

23:19 So it must be enlarged Christian experience. It must have gone at least a notch or two beyond babes and the ordinary rank and file of God's people. It must be balanced. I can say perfectly balanced.

23:36 It won't be till we get to heaven. The most mature saint on this earth has some things out of balance. But it must be fundamentally balanced as opposed to imbalanced and skewed and distorted. But it must be tested Christian experience.

Defining 'Tested Christian Experience'

23:51 And here I take my clue for this use of this word right out of 1 Timothy 3.6 You remember we touched on this briefly but not in this light last week in 1 Timothy 3 and I've never seen this in this light before. Apparently the apostle assumes that a man could have all of the requisite graces mentioned in verses 2 to 5. And yet the one thing that would disqualify him those graces had not yet been the product of tested Christian experience.

24:36 So he says not a new plant not a recent convert not a neophyte lest he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Now if it were impossible for a relatively new convert to manifest those graces why would he have to put this warning here? You see? It's neutralized.

25:00 If it isn't possible that a man can seem to have symmetry of those graces but they are in a Christian character or couched in Christian experience that has not yet been tested Paul said he's disqualified. Now it's in the area of then testing that a man shows whether or not he is in the language of the parable of the sower in the soils a stony ground hearer or a thorny ground hearer it's when the son of tribulation and affliction and persecution and opposition bear down upon the plant that is there upon rocky soil then and only then does it wither and show its true nature. We look at the plant we can't see the subsoil we can't see the root system but the burning sun reveals what is out of our sight. It has no root it has no depth of earth. This is the language of scripture.

26:04 Likewise it's the pressure of the cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches the lust of other things entering in that show whether or not these graces that seem to be emerging in a man are emerging in a heart from which the weeds have been cleared or a heart in which the weeds were never, never cleared. And it takes some time for the weeds to grow up with the so-called graces and eventually they begin to choke them and they wither. Now again what will be the testing? It differs in every single man.

26:39 How long will the testing go on? It differs in every single man and I do not want to go one millimeter beyond scripture but surely brethren it must be tested Christian experience. If that were not so why did Paul say to Timothy lay hands hastily upon no man? Even a man that seems to impress you with great gifts of utterance and with an apparent symmetry of Christian character do not be hasty to lay hands upon any man.

27:16 If you err err on the side of letting the plant be tested with a little more July and August sun and with a little more to see if the field were really cleared of the weeds of pride and personal ambition and a host of other grace choking weeds that seem to flourish among ministerial aspirants. So brethren when I use the terminology that there should be clear indications of an enlarged balanced tested experience this is what I mean by the use of that terminology. Now then that leads us to consider as you see in your notes letter B an identification of the major aspects of such Christian experience. And here again I wrestled to express these things as I sought to bring my judgment to the light of scripture and bring scripture to my judgment and then bring all of that to the quality control of those who have oil on their forehead who've written about this in the past. There may be some cosmetic changes the Lord spares me to give this another four years from now but at this juncture

Primary Aspect: Proven Love for and Devoted Attachment to Christ

28:44 I do believe that this is the substance of what is involved in this requirement. And the first is what I've called a proven love for and devoted attachment to the person of Christ. It is this element of enlarged balanced Christian experience that is of primary necessity in one who would aspire to the office and labor of proven love for and devoted attachment to the person of Christ. Now the first text found in your notes is Mark 1 16 to 20 and it is in this passage that we have as it were the paradigm of the Lord's preparation of men who are going to be marked out and commissioned by him for particular spiritual leadership in his church. And while I recognize he is here calling men who will eventually become apostles and we do not claim a call to an extraordinary office because with that call comes the validation with extraordinary endowments for extraordinary signs and wonders Paul could say the signs of an apostle were manifest in me but the principle I believe

30:11 is embedded in this passage. And passing along by the Sea of Galilee Mark 1 16 he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea for they were fishers and Jesus said unto them come after me and I will make you to become fishers of men and straightway they left their nets and obeyed his call to service no and followed him. You see where the emphasis falls the call was into attachment to Christ and out of the matrix of that attachment he would make them to become fishers of men and so the Holy Ghost lays the emphasis upon their response to that call to attachment to his person straightway they left their nets and followed him and going on a little further he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother who also were in the boat mending the nets and straightway he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after him. And I say in that passage we have the paradigm of Christ's preparation of his servants he calls them into a dimension of intimate love

31:40 and devoted attachment to his person and out of that relationship he makes them into fishers of men and Mark 3.14 I believe validates this in this very cryptic statement we start with verse 13 and he goes up into the mountain and calls to him whom he himself would and they went unto him and he appointed twelve now notice that they might be with him and that he might send them forth to preach and there you have that paradigm validated again he called whom he would to what end that they might be with him and that from this attachment to Christ they would go forth to preach in his name under his authority with his person in work as the great theme of their ministry again in our Lord's dealings with Peter who was to have a special place of usefulness in the apostolate and in the work of the kingdom of Christ in general this principle is clearly manifested in the John 21 account of Christ's recommissioning of Peter whatever title we want to give

33:08 to that touching incident we read here in John 21 we'll just summarize beginning with verse 11 you remember they bring in this great draft of fish and the Lord Jesus has a breakfast all prepared for them invites them to eat and now we read in verse 15 so when they had broken their fast Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son of John do you love me more than these and he said unto him yea Lord you know that I love you and he said unto him feed my lamb Bosco give food to my lambs and he said to him again a second time Simon son of John do you love me and as the marginal reading you have a use of both phileo and agape or agapao here in the passage is there a fondness is there that added dimension of love whatever the distinction may be it's not as hard fast as some have tried to present it and we could demonstrate that exegetically from other passages but there is a subtle shift or a subtle nuance in the one word that is not in the other but he says do you love me and he says yea Lord you know that I love you he said unto him tend shepherd

34:37 my sheep poimaino perform the manifold functions of a shepherd to my sheep not only feed provide pasturage for my lambs but fulfill the manifold functions of a shepherd to my sheep he said unto him the third time Simon son of John do you love me Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time do you love me and he said unto him Lord you know all things you know that I love you and Jesus said unto him Bosco feed my sheep now what's the thrust of the whole passage well whatever it's teaching it surely is impressing upon the heart of Peter whatever his official functions in ministry were to be they were to be the outgrowth of his professed attachment to the person of Christ in love surely that's on the surface of the passage and whatever there is of the threefold repetition in order to negate the threefold denial and many things could be said it's not my purpose to give an exhaustive exposition of the passage but simply to use it to illustrate this principle that if we are convinced that there must be clear indications of an enlarged balanced and tested Christian experience as a prerequisite

36:05 to a man being set apart for the work of the pastoral office then supreme among those elements of Christian experience is a proven love for and devoted attachment to the person of Christ Peter learned that lesson there by the seashore when his Lord said the task of feeding my lambs shepherding my sheep and feeding my sheep is always to be viewed in conjunction with your love and devotion to my person and then the Apostle Paul's use of that designation in Romans 1.1 in Philippians 1.1 how does he want the Romans whom he has never seen to think of him anticipating in the will of God at long last that he'll be able to come in person to the church at Rome when they first set eyes upon him how does he want them to perceive him all that they've heard about him all that they have had reported to them concerning his great usefulness in the kingdom of Christ he said here's how I want you to think of me supremely in this relationship Paul a doulos a bond slave of Jesus Christ called an Apostle

37:33 separated unto the Gospel given this grace for Apostleship unto obedience of faith among all the nations for his name's sake but he said above and beyond my Apostleship and the goals of that Apostleship which encompass the nations my basic posture is bond slave of Christ and remember the man who understood what we relish when we read Galatians chapter 4 that in one sense we are not slaves we are not even sons under age we are full sons with all the privileges of the Father's heart and the Father's house and I say it reverently the Father's lap accessible to us remember this is the man who understood those truths but he said there's another sense in which I never want to blur my identity bond slave of Christ I've been purchased with his own precious blood and I delight to take my posture as one who has no plans of my own no will of my own in that sense no projected ambitions of my own I live at the feet of my Master who bought me that's my identity and out of that identity comes the labor the office the functions of an apostle etc. furthermore

Experiential Acquaintance with Christ as the Soul of Ministry

39:01 it's clear that it was this man's experiential acquaintance with Christ that was the life and the soul of his ministry for Christ look at the text that I've listed in a line because they illustrate this principle that it was his experiential acquaintance with Christ that constituted the life and the soul of his ministry for Christ this was made plain to him at his very conversion and commission on the road to Damascus for when the risen Christ speaks to him what does he say? we read in Acts 26 and verses 14 to 17 and when they were all fallen to the ground I heard a voice saying unto me in the Hebrew language Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me? it is hard for you to kick against the goad and I said remember Paul being at least tri or quadrilingual if somebody speaks to Salvador in Spanish or to Paco in Spanish they immediately reflexively respond in Spanish alright? so when the Saul of Tarsus hears in the Hebrew language a voice out of heaven speaking to him in Hebrew saying Saul, Saul why do you persecute me? why do you persecute me?

40:24 how would he have responded in the Hebrew? who art thou Adonai? he wouldn't have said Yahweh the sacred name he would have said who art thou Adonai? and Adonai says I am Jesus you talk about a shattering revelation I am Jesus whom you are persecuting but arise stand upon your feet now notice for to this end have I unto you to appoint you a minister and a witness both of the things wherein you have seen me and of the things wherein I will appear unto you do you see the emphasis upon this attachment to the person of Christ and the ongoing revelatory dynamics of Christ to Paul he could have said of the truths that I will reveal to you but he doesn't say that he said of the things wherein will unto you so he has marked out at the outset as a man whose ministry would constantly be taking its contours from this revelation of Christ to his heart and therefore it shouldn't surprise us when we come to Galatians chapter one to see him describing his conversion in those very terms Galatians one and verse fifteen

41:52 but when it was the good pleasure of God when an adverb of time Paul says I give you I got saved right on God's in schedule but when it was the good pleasure of God who separated me even from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his son in that I among the Gentiles you see this intense laser like emphasis upon attachment to Christ that leads to the proclamation of Christ it is the Christ revealed in him that becomes the Christ proclaimed by him the emphasis is there you find it in second Corinthians four or five we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your bond slaves for Christ's sake and then he lays bare the great passion of his heart in passages such as Philippians three and verse ten what is the pressing driving ambition of the apostle the apostle tells us that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings becoming conformed unto his death if by any means I may attain

43:21 unto the resurrection from the dead that I may know him now look here's a man to whom Christ has given direct revelatory data but he said this has not satisfied me I've seen more than any other living man I want to know him there was the great passion of the man who said earlier in this epistle for to me to live is Christ so brethren I say that this proven love for and devoted attachment to the person of Christ is indeed a requisite in all those who would be set apart for service in the name of Christ we see it as the paradigm of our Lord's leader we see it evident in the apostle Paul and then to move to another category if any group of men must make it evident that they have kept their first love it is those who are seeking to embody and commend the glory of Christ to others you know it's pretty losing and contradictory business to try to be engaged in a work in which we're seeking to persuade men that Christ should be willing to sell all to obtain him when we are not speaking out of the matrix of the maintenance of the fervor of our first love to him and I went back

Maintaining First Love and Proclaiming Christ

44:51 and didn't have the time to investigate it but it pricked me and and tweaked me mentally again to go back and try to really come to some satisfactory answer as to why the addresses are made to the messenger and they're not made in the second person plural I say unto thee thou hast left thy first love spoken to the messenger now I know every message concludes with he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches I know that but linguistically even in terms of number spoken to the messenger of the church at Ephesus I have somewhat against thee it's one of the benefits of the old Elizabethan English thee second person singular and you can make the distinction in English translation but it's there and surely brethren if any man should manifest that by the grace of God in spite of the dampening influence of the world the dampening influence of his own remaining sin and the dampening influence of a subtle devil that there's been at least some measure of the maintenance of one's first love disciplined by much more zeal that is chastened by knowledge I'm not talking about maintaining our first love

46:19 in its wacky expressions for some of us had some very very wacky far out expressions of our first love with all of that trimmed off the fire will burn the fire to the person of Christ and that nothing that we've learned about him and we must learn about him in the institution of the theanthropic person the two distinct natures joined in the one person forever that what we learn about his work and his offices prophet priest and king his covenant engagements with the father and with his people and we must learn those things rather than dampening of our love and in place of some of the sticks and twigs that burned and cracked in our early days they glow and they emit a heat that could never have been there with the sparks and with the crackling of the twigs of our meager knowledge but what a tragedy that the sparks and the twigs that come from them and the crackling of the fire of first love in many is replaced with cold stones all carved out of orthodox theology but they're not

47:45 glowing lumps of coal in the breast of the one possessed God help us brethren God help you in this place that the classrooms where you learn more of Christ and his person and his work will cause you to say did not our hearts burn within us while he spoke with us in the way and while he opened unto us these should be the place not only of the bursting head but of the burning heart and it must to some degree be there since the heart and soul of the new covenant minister I'm taking up another line of thought to prove my thesis I may not get beyond this today as I say it's the first time around this way brethren so you're the guinea pigs since the heart and soul of the new covenant minister is the proclamation of Christ how can this be done without an experiential love for and a devoted attachment to the person of Christ how can it be done with any convincingness when ministering to the unconverted 1 Corinthians 2 2 is our great watershed perspective I determine to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him as crucified yes we may preach the law to make them see and feel their need of Christ and to interpret to them and to expound to them what Christ did when he died upon the cross but the great end is that we might proclaim

49:14 Christ and him crucified and even to God's people Colossians 1 28 Paul speaks of what he endures for the sake of the church and the church and he says whom we proclaim warning every man and teaching every man that we may present every man perfect or mature in Christ brethren I want to quote to you from James Stewart I don't endorse all that Mr. Stewart professes to believe but he's written some very excellent things in his little book on preaching in his book Heralds of God listen to James Stewart in his little book on preaching page 49 addressing this issue do we think Christ purchased the church with his blood that it should be only a depository of doctrine only a social conscience only a glorified discussion group nothing about a church no culture or enlightenment no assiduous attention to the details of organization no elaborate machinery of good works can avail anything or compensate one atom for the radical defect if it is not a place where men and women can come quite sure that their hungry hearts will find the living bread have you that gift to offer in the last resort everything depends

50:43 on the inner certainty of your own soul 200 years ago Whitfield preached a sermon in Glasgow on the duty of a gospel minister he said quote you will not will never preach with power feelingly while you deal in a false commerce with truths unfelt it will be but poor dry sapless stuff your people will go away out of the church as cold as they came in for my own part Whitfield cried I would not preach an unknown Christ for ten thousand worlds such offer God's strange fire and their sermons will but increase their own damnation end quote Isaac Walton has described John Donne in the pulpit of St. Paul's quote preaching the word so as showed his own heart was possessed with those very thoughts and joys that he labored to distill into others you catch that brethren his own heart was possessed with the thoughts and joys to distill into others to distill into others to distill into others to distill into others to distill into others to distill into others to distill into others does not that lay bare our deepest need we want something better than second hand religion and borrowed theology and stolid unkindled churches which are merely

52:12 efficient and competent machines dealing with reality at a distance and sending earnest seekers away with an aching disappointed sense that something vital is lacking we want that thrilling sense of immediacy that directness of time that spiritual drive and momentum which only personal heart interaction with Christ can impart to us Alexander White describing his Saturday walks and talks with another man of his generation declared whatever we started off with in our conversations we soon made our way across country somehow to Jesus of Nazareth to his death his resurrection his indwelling end quote and Stuart goes on to remark and unless our sermons make for the same goal and arrive at the same mark they are simply beating the air it was a favorite dictum of the preachers of a bygone day that just as from every village in Britain there was a road which linking on to other roads would bring you to London at last so from every text in the Bible even the remotest and least likely there was a road to Christ possibly there were occasions when strange turns of exegesis and dubious allegorizings were pressed into service for the making of that road but the instinct

53:41 was entirely sound which declared that no preaching which failed to exalt Christ was worthy to be called Christian preaching this is our great master theme in the forthright expression of John Donne all knowledge that begins not and ends not with his glory is but a giddy a vacant a vertiginous which means a whirling circle an elaborate and exquisite ignorance powerful words and brethren how can Christ be the honest theme of our preaching if there is not in us upon entering the ministry and then we'll deal in another unit God willing and how to sustain it within the ministry of this element of enlarged enlarged balanced tested Christian experience a proven love for and devoted attachment to the person of Christ well I think we'll conclude there take our break and then we'll see how far I get with the others