2 Timothy 2:15
02a) Pastor's Spiritual Development, Part 1
Pastor Martin begins a series on the spiritual development of the man of God, emphasizing that effectiveness in ministry is directly proportional to the health of the minister's redeemed humanity. He expounds 2 Timothy 2:15, 2 Corinthians 2:17, and 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, arguing that a minister's primary responsibility is the conscious nurture of his inner spiritual life before God. Martin introduces the concept of maintaining a 'real, expanding, varied, and original acquaintance with God and His ways,' drawing heavily on the insights of James Stalker and Thomas Murphy to underscore the necessity of deep, personal, and ever-growing experience with God for effective ministry.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 11 sections · 69 min
- Opening Prayer: A Throne of Grace 0:03
- Recap: The Foundational Axiom of Pastoral Ministry 2:50
- Introduction to the Minister's Self-Relationship: Three Key Texts 5:00
- The Axiom: Maintaining a Real and Original Acquaintance with God 17:06
- Striving to Maintain: The Athletic Imagery of Spiritual Growth 21:21
- Defining 'Acquaintance with God and His Ways' 26:36
- The Nature of a 'Real Acquaintance' with God 31:01
- The Necessity of an 'Expanding Acquaintance' with God 38:34
- The Value of a 'Varied Acquaintance' with God 47:33
- The Uniqueness of an 'Original Acquaintance' with God 55:05
- Confirmation from Thomas Murphy: Eminent Piety Above All Else 63:19
Key Quotes
“The foundational axiom is that as a general rule, effectiveness in pastoral ministry, will be realized in direct proportion to the health and vigor of the redeemed humanity of the man of God.”
“the fundamental, fundamental responsibility of the man of God is the conscious nurture of the totality of his redeemed humanity.”
“But at the end of the day it's a relatively little thing to me what men think because it is before my God I stand. It is to God that I shall give an account and it is the ultimate praise and vindication of my God is more to me than anything else.”
“It is only the man who has a large and original life with God who can go on speaking about the things of God with fresh interest.”
“And this is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God. God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. The very essence of eternal life, experiential, heart, knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, his sent one.”
“God knows we need Elijahs who can, for whom my life is the presence of this God, in which I nurture a real acquaintance with him and with his ways.”
“Truth must come to the minister as the satisfaction of his own needs and the answer to his own perplexities. And he must be able to use the language of religion not as the nearest equivalent he can find for that which he believes others to be passing through but as the exact equivalent of that which he has passed through.”
“It is beyond all question that this eminent piety is before everything else in preparation for the duties of the sacred office. It is before talents or learning or study or favorable circumstances or skill in working or power in sermonizing.”
Applications
All listeners
- Call upon God to help address crucial issues of the man of God and his life, asking for these things to be written upon fleshy tables of human hearts.
- Start with the life of the man of God in relation to God himself, because ultimately, it is before God that we stand and to God that we give an account.
- Strive to maintain a real, expanding, varied, and original acquaintance with God and his ways.
- If you expect spiritual growth and maintenance of acquaintance with God to come any other way than concentrated striving, you are either guilty of willful self-deception or a frightening position.
- Do not have a heart as cold as stone to Christ, even if you can memorize and quote passages of experimental divinity with great passion.
- Nurture a real acquaintance with God and his ways in your life, becoming an 'Elijah' for whom life is the presence of God.
- Maintain the discipline of reading through the Psalms in your devotional life consecutively, noting how dimensions of acquaintance with God become real in specific circumstances.
- Do not neglect the rules for prayer, but above all, study God's Word diligently for your own edification so it becomes more than necessary food and sweeter than honey.
- Do not seek an acquaintance with God that no one else has ever known or experienced before, as such desires are the stuff of fanatics, heretics, or those drunk with pride.
- Let your original walk with God keep you from the temptation of seeking to parrot what others have said and keep you open to God's unique dealings with you as an individual.
- Young ministers must settle in their own hearts a commitment to vital piety and strive more earnestly to be filled with the Spirit in view of their holy office.
- Recognize that the training for gospel ministry requires more attention to personal piety than any other part, as it is the foundation for all service.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 140 paragraphs, roughly 69 minutes.
Opening Prayer: A Throne of Grace
Father, we do delight once more to bow in your presence to avail ourselves of this purchased privilege of drawing near to the throne of grace. We do thank you once again that that throne that to us, for many of us, was nothing but a throne of terror for years. Every thought of you upon that throne struck fear to our hearts because we knew we were not right with you. And it would have been just for you to cut us off in our sins and summon us into your presence to give an account of the deeds done in the body
and then to cast us into everlasting darkness. How we thank you that without any erosion of all of your burning holiness, inflexible justice and equity, you have in mercy the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. So entrived a way of redemption that that very throne, with all of its foundations of righteousness and justice, unmoved is now to us a throne of grace. How we praise you for the gift of your dear Son, for his present mediation and intercession and advocacy on our behalf.
Thank you that in him you have given us the status of full-grown, full-born sons, and you welcome us into your presence. Thank you for the spirit of adoption enabling us to cry out to you. Abba, Father, Father, we call upon you that you will help us as today we again address these crucial issues of the man of God and his life. May these things in the tenor of the new covenant promises be written upon fleshy tables of human hearts this day.
May your spirit inscribe upon our hearts these crucial issues that we may never forget them, that they may be normative to us all the days of our lives. Bless us and meet with us, and as we were reminded in the previous hour, keep at bay the influence of that enemy of our souls. May he not, like birds of the air, follow the sower and seek to snatch away seed before it can be enforced. May he not, like birds of the air, follow the sower and seek to snatch away seed before it can be enforced.
May he not, like birds of the air, follow the sower and seek to snatch away seed before it can be enforced. May he not, like birds of the air, follow the sower and seek to snatch away seed before it can be enforced. May he not, like birds of the air, follow the sower and seek to snatch away seed before it can be enforced. May he not, like birds of the air, follow the sower and seek to snatch away seed before it can be enforced.
May he not, like birds of the air, follow the sower and seek to snatch away seed before it can be enforced. May he not, like birds of the air, follow the sower and seek to snatch away seed before it can be enforced. May he not, like birds of the air, follow the sower and seek to snatch away seed before it can be enforced. May He not be able to pluck up that seed of the Word.
Recap: The Foundational Axiom of Pastoral Ministry
Lord, come by Your mighty power and record the triumphs of Your beloved Son in this room today. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, brethren, as you are now aware from your abstract entire course in pastoral theology and also from your notes of last week's lecture, of our concern in this unit of our study, the life of the man of God, the general introduction given to you last week,
we had time only to consider, first of all, what I called the foundational or central axiom, and then secondly, an explanation of that axiom. The foundational axiom is that as a general rule, effectiveness in pastoral ministry, will be realized in direct proportion to the health and vigor of the redeemed humanity of the man of God. And then in giving an explanation of and a scriptural support for this axiom,
I sought to focus upon the pivotal words within that axiom, concluding then, as you see, number five in your notes, that in the light of these things it is clear that the fundamental, fundamental responsibility of the man of God is the conscious nurture of the totality of his redeemed humanity. And the key texts that underscore that principle, of course, are Acts 20, 28 and 1 Timothy 4, 16. And then I concluded with that very perceptive searching quote from Spurgeon's lectures to his students on the minister's self-watch.
Introduction to the Minister's Self-Relationship: Three Key Texts
We will begin to address the first of the three major categories of concern with respect to the life of the man of God, namely the life of the man of God in relationship with his self —the life of the man of God in relationship with his self. And by way of introduction, I want to direct your attention to three texts of Scripture. As I seek to introduce this aspect of our study, there are the following,
several texts of scripture that highlight this emphasis of the man of God. The first is 2 Timothy 2, 15. 2 Timothy chapter 2. Each of us, I am sure, spiritual son and his alter ego is ministering in
the church at Ephesus. Give diligence utmost to present yourself approved unto God. Workman that needs not to be ashamed, handling the right. And in the first part of this text, we have an aorist. It carries in its arms the ideas of giving diligence, of making conscious, concentrated
endeavor in a given or focused course of action. 4 and verse 9. Give diligence, an imperative of spoudazo, conscious, deliberate, focused. Attention and endeavor to come shortly unto me. In other words, Timothy, don't come to me if it
seems to be a convenient thing and all the doors open of themselves. But if you've got to bang on some doors, if you've got to bust some door jams, anything short of God's providence cannot be altered. You give diligence, marshal all your faculties to come shortly unto me. 2 Peter 1.10, with reference to making our calling and election sure. Now certainly in such an issue
as to whether or not we are in a state of grace and we are called upon to settle that issue, the matter of diligence very clearly stands out in its inherent significance. And likewise in 2 Peter 3 and verse 14, in the light of God's providence, we are called upon to make our calling and election sure. In the light of the consummation of all things at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, Peter commands his readers, wherefore, beloved, seeing you look for these things, that is, the consummation of all
things at the return of Christ, give diligence that you may be found in sight. Concerning what is Timothy to give diligence? Well, in the opening part of this text, he is told to give diligence. That is, to make conscious, concentrated, intent himself, and approved, central duty. Now he makes
a specific application of it in the text, with reference to his one who handles the word of God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, that is, has no just cause for shame before God or men, because he is cutting a straight course in the word of truth. It is not that specific of the principle that is used in the text. It is not that specific of the principle that is used in the text. It is not that specific of the principle to which I direct your attention, but the concept of giving diligence to present oneself approved unto God. You are called to a public ministry. You are
surrounded by the people of God. Your labors are carried out in conjunction with the church of God, but above all else, Timothy, keep your spiritual eye fixed on this great task. Present yourself approved unto what you are unto God. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry.
You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry.
You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry.
You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry.
You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry. You are called to a public ministry.
to that you may be and do emphasis is found in second to 17 specifically dimension of Paul's perspective as he and his companions preach principle is nonetheless woven into the very fabric of the text we are not as the many corrupting or making merchandise of the word of
God but as of sincerity no man will be coming to expression in the more limited sphere of his preach not have it as the baseline of his life you will not be able to say that in my preaching I preach as of sincerity as of God in the sight of God unless that is the way you live
preaching becomes the occasion for gross hypocrisy and then four one to five is perhaps the most pivotal text than just preaching servants of God as the stewards of the mysteries of God in the totality of their ministry and the apostle says in verse one let a man so account of us as ministers of Christ and stewards house managers of the mysteries of God here moreover it is required
in stewards that a man be found faithful trustworthy sphere of management has been entrusted to him by the owner of the house his great task faithful in the discharge of terms of that entrustment or stewardship therefore he says but with me very small thing he doesn't say it's nothing at all that would be to be inhuman but with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment I judge in the sense of passing final examination and sentence
I judge not mine own self God has not made me the ultimate examiner and arbitrator of who and what I am in relationship to my stewardship for I know nothing against myself I'm not living with a bloodied conscious I'm not living as a conscience yet I am not living in duplicity yet I am here by just Damn predicates and Dott's not come for myself but he judges examines me and will declare the fruit of that examination is the Lord. For judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness
and make manifest the counsels of the hearts, then an amazing statement, and then have his praise from God. Now obviously he is not saying that in the day of judgment he will do nothing but vindicate men. That would violate the analogy of scripture. It will be a day of frightening and surprising unveiling for some.
Not in secret, but that it shall be made known. But a horrible thing it will be in the final day for men who have preached to others and through whom others have been brought to repentance and faith to be unmasked.
God was not at work in their own union with Christ and likeness to Christ and holiness of life. But here the apostles speaking of true stewards who discharge their stewardship as faithful stewards. The apostles, says that day will be a glorious day. Each man, each man who's had a stewardship and like me has sought to discharge it before the eye of God shall have his praise.
See the baseline of this is look. I'm not inhuman. I'm not utterly insensitive to men's frowns, to men's smiles. I'm not utterly different and inured from any of the emotional and psychological pressures that come from what men think of me.
But at the end of the day it's a relatively little thing to me what men think because it is before my God I stand. It is to God that I shall give an account and it is the ultimate praise and vindication of my God is more to me than anything else. And so brethren, we must start here. The life of the man of God in relation to God himself because at the end of the day, at the end really of all, nothing before the time of the day, until the Lord come, bring to light,
make manifest the counsels of the hearts and what a blessed thing when God brings the hidden things to light, unveils the counsels to have material for praise.
That's the amazing thing about this.
The God who sees the secret strugglings that no one else sees. The God who sees the secret yearnings and the secret prayers. The God who sees the secret prayers. The secret passionate desires to improve in grace and in usefulness.
The things that men know nothing about and would be utterly incapable of judging.
Things to light then from God. And it is that perspective that lies behind my approach to this matter of our consideration of the life of the man of God in the pastoral office and my determination to start with this most foundational dimension of the three that we will address. The man of God in relationship to God, in relationship to his people.
The Axiom: Maintaining a Real and Original Acquaintance with God
I have forgotten now my own outline what the third dimension will be, but the man of God will consider him intellectually, physically, and emotionally. Now that brings us 23 in our notes.
Large letter A will be spiritually, large letter B will be intellectually, and large letter C, will be physically and emotionally.
But under this heading of spirit,
colon, so we don't complicate the outline too much, and have stated an axiom, you must strive to maintain a real and original acquaintance with God self-originated. A couple of words, but I first came across it a number of years ago when reading the reprint of stock Yale lectures on the preacher and his mother. I was in the newsroom of the New York Times when on page 54,
Stalker writes as follows, causes of ministerial failure. He's talking about the nurture of the inner life of the man of God. And of all ministerial qualifications, the simplest is the most. Either we have never had a spiritual experience deep and thorough enough to lay bare to us the man of the soul, and if we have repeated it so often, it has become stale to ourselves.
Or we have made reading a suburb of thinking. Or we've allowed the number and the pressures of the duties of our office to curtail our prayers and shut us out of our studies and fall into it without present or maintaining the carcass of what was once the living body of felt reality. Now he says, we'll say it the way we said it then,
but the surfer work like this is only to be acquired in secret. And here's where I first came across the terminology. It is only the man who has a large and original life with God who can go on speaking about the things of God with fresh interest. A thousand things happen to interfere in meditative life.
It is not because our arguments for religion are not strong enough that we fail to convince. But because the argument is lacking, which never fails to tell. And that is vital religion itself. People everywhere can appreciate and nothing can supply the lack of it.
May not know why their minister with all his gifts does not make a religious impression upon them. But it is because is not himself. I have taken terminology in great measure from Stalker, planting it in my mind, and with a little alteration and expansion, I am working now with this axiom that with respect to the life of the man of God in relationship to God spiritually, he must strive to maintain a real, expanding, varied,
Striving to Maintain: The Athletic Imagery of Spiritual Growth
and original acquaintance with God and his ways. Now, large letter one, the following headings, exegetes, and blasphemies. We must strive to maintain. Now by using this language, I am attempting to do two things.
I am indicating that we are considering a standard, an ideal, a goal. Strive to maintain something. There is a goal, the standard to which we are pressing. The attainment and the maintenance of that standard does not come automatically, automatically, automatically, easily it does not come automatically or easily rather there is an element of the kind of imagery found in first corinthians 9 24 to 27 which i trust is familiar to all of you who've been under
the regular ministry in recent days the apostle speaking of himself as well as his readers at corinth says do you not know that they that run in a race all run all of the runners in a race is the prize even so run that you may attain well there will be many who will attain the spirit of every individual child of god must be that of the man determined to seize the prize of the one
who breaks the tape for every man who strives agonizes in the games exercise you is his self-control in all things now they do it to receive a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible now the personal application to himself as a christian man and as a minister i therefore so run not as uncertainly i do not run without my eye fixed on the goal i fight not as pummeling the air shadow boxing or missing my opponent but i bruise my body and my mind and my mind and my mind and my mind and my mind and my mind and my body and my mind and my mind and my mind and my mind and my mind and my mind and my mind and my
body i strike a blow under the eye bring it into servitude i enslave it lest after that i have i myself documus and brethrens and this is not coming from someone who's just entered the race or just done the first few laps i've been in the race now by god's grace for 42 years as a man and as a preacher and i've given up any notion that i'm ever going to outlive
in fact i have a growing conviction the concentration of all my faculties to complete the race is going to have to be greater than in any other point of the race one year old man talking to you there's the standard is before us maintaining by the grace of god a landing buried an original acquaintance with god and his ways and it will never be approximated without the concentrated striving of the athlete determined to see the
use the prize and if you expected any other way then you are either guilty of a often a never never land of willfully frightening position because the apostle paul didn't find the secret that took him out of the orbit of that kind of athletic like agony and concentration and if he didn't find the secret unsuspicious of anyone else who's found it and i look back on those days in circles where they taught the so-called deeper life and the words that were almost like curse words were striving and agonizing when in reality
body mark of vital vibrant in a man of god maintaining the bigger so i've used the words tracking into it the concept of a standard is there and any measure of attainment to and maintenance of that standard will come in the way of spiritual striving and by this point terminology acquaintance with god and his ways he'll turn to joel who find a good exhortation coming from the lips of the man
Defining 'Acquaintance with God and His Ways'
well i don't know was necessarily a good man he certainly wasn't a good friend in the time of need but that's one of the marvelous things about the book of job you find lots of said by men so when they set them they had some theology they were just applying it to the wrong person wrong time but that's one of the mysteries of the book of job is like reading the book of ecclesiastes to find a lot of good things in true things said uh... but you have to be very careful making sure that we don't leave ourselves vulnerable to people then taking what comes before and and after operating it and
give that word of caution then here we have element has the team a night uh... getting an answer to tijolo and in the midst of this marvelous exhortation that he's true a quaint novel first twenty one the quain Hmsch provaise is a king's prison babbitt have noถ thyself with him, and be at peace. Thereby, acquaint now thyself with him. I'm exhorting you,
acquaint yourself with God. It is found in this text, and I've listed Psalm 139.3. It is used with reference to God's acquaintance. Acquainted with all my path, and lying down, and are acquainted
with all my ways. Acquaintance with my ways. What are fleeting, inaccurate? No, no. They are deep,
they are accurate, they are abiding, they are extensive. Acquaint now thyself with him. Acquaint thyself, and therefore by the word, dictionary definition means, have knowledge gotten by personal experience or study of a person or a person. Subject. Knowledge gotten by personal experience or study of a person or a subject. And I'm speaking
then of acquaintance with God. Knowledge of God gotten by personal experience. Study persons of another person, in which there is engagement of person with person. His ways, I'm using, it in the standard way that we find the term used in the scriptures. Thy way was in the sea. Thy
footsteps are not the ways of God, are the ways of men, his people, dealings with the unconverted. When I speak of acquaintance with God and his ways, I'm speaking in the broadest sense of God's patterns dealing with men in the real world. And I'm speaking in the broadest sense of God's world in which they live. His dealings in grace and in mercy, his dealings with the child of God
in chastisement and desertions, his dealings with the unconverted in showing kindness and goodness intended to lead them to repentance, in sending upon them his judgments to humble them and even to cut them off. So when I speak of this matter of striving to maintain, a real, expanding, varied, and original acquaintance with God and his ways, I'm concerned to use those words to focus on the concept of this personal experience or study of
The Nature of a 'Real Acquaintance' with God
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and of the patterns of his dealings with men. Then what do I mean by using the word a real acquaintance with God? Well, by real, I mean an acquaintance that captures the principles of 1 John 1, 1-3 and John 17, 3. Now here again, apostles who were the living companions of the incarnate God in the days of his humiliation, can say these words in a one-to-one equivalent. That which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld with our hands. And I'm sorry, which we beheld in our hands handled concerning the word of life, and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you. Interaction with the eternal word. Now in that sense,
all who are alive in the days of our Lord's humiliation. can say that. However, there is a principle that is deeper and broader than the unique, immediate emphasis of these verses. When we tie it in with John 17, 3. When our Lord
acknowledges in his opening prayer to his Father, you have given authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him, and this is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God. God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. The very essence of eternal life, experiential, heart, knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, his sent one. And this interaction, which John says he and his fellow apostles had with the word of life, there was this, was real acquaintance with
him. We saw, we beheld, our hands handled, out of the matrix, out of the matrix, out of the matrix of what we saw and heard and talked about. This was no feigned relationship and acquaintance with the incarnate God. This was no formal or professional relationship.
It was a real acquaintance with the incarnate God. Now that is what I mean by real acquaintance with God and his ways. That which is not feigned, formal, professional or personal, is a relationship with God. It is a relationship between the Christ, Jesus Christ, and God. There is a language of
experience. Praise God. Praise God. experimental divinity that can be learned just as efficiently as any other language without any experience. You could memorize passages of Rutherford and quote them with great passion
and have a heart as cold as stone to Christ. So when I say real, brethren, I didn't know what other word to use. And then since one picture is worth 50 or 100 more of the words that I'm using trying to explain it, the passage that came to my mind was that great man of God with all of his humanity laid bare for us, the prophet Elijah. In 17 in verse 1, I listed it as the text, and this
is why. The suddenness with which Elijah is passed upon us between him and John the Baptist at many points, and this is one of them. Out of nowhere there comes a man sent from God whose name was John, and all of a sudden in the wilderness. It's funny food and dresses in an oddball way, begins to institute the new Israel and cries out in people to repentance, telling them bloodlines are not enough. Well, in a similar way,
we know about Elijah. Elijah, the tissue of the sojourners of Gilead, said unto Ahab, there he is, thrust upon us. We have all kinds of questions about his background, and God sweeps them all aside, plants this towering figure, and notice his opening words, said unto Ahab,
according to my word. Now brethren, as the Lord was sound theology, there the man shows himself to be orthodox in his theology. There is but one true and living God, and he is Jehovah, and he is the God of Israel, the God who set his love upon his people, and that God is the ever-living God, always has been, is, and ever shall be.
That's sound theology. Our Jehovah, when he says, is lived in conscious communion with this God. My acquaintance with him is not an accumulation of what I've been told about Jehovah, God of Israel. It is an intimate, present acquaintance.
He is the Lord God, and he lives. Let all the world go back into nihilism and nothing. He's still the Lord God who lives. That's sound theology. But brethren, more than sound theology, God knows we need Elijahs who can, for whom my life is the presence of this God,
in which I nurture a real acquaintance with him and with his ways. Then you'll notice, fourthly, I've underlined the word, an expanding acquaintance with God and his ways. Now why in the world did Stalker use that word first? I think Stalker used expanding, and I've used it. Well, as glorious and memorable, or as undramatic and almost imperceptible,
The Necessity of an 'Expanding Acquaintance' with God
our original saving acquaintance with God and his ways may have been. Notice I'm saying both are perfectly legitimate. Some of you have had a glorious and memorable, dramatic introduction in savings to God and to his ways. Some of us, rather undramatic, almost imperceptible.
Our original acquaintance with God and his ways was like rising of the sun when dawn began to push away.
And we may not even be able to tell when we were converted. But regardless of how God brought us into our initial saving acquaintance with his self and his ways, there must be growth in our acquaintance with God and his ways in all directions. And I didn't know how else to express that but by the word expanding.
Not just... Not just that the receptacle becomes more and more filled with a richer and denser measure of acquaintance with God and his ways, but the receptacle itself expands to take in more of God and of his ways.
And hence I've listed what to me are several pivotal texts. 2 Corinthians 3.18, when he would go into the presence of God and there was revelatory interaction, between God and Moses, then, of course, he put the veil on when he came down amongst the people in the place where Moses went by special privilege for time. Not in the immediate presence of Jehovah that would have been reflected in the face of Christ.
All with unveiled beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord in that context is the Lord Jesus. Are continually being transformed into the same image from one state to another.
Even as from the Lord, and surely this underscored the reality that in our ongoing conformity to Christ that takes place within the orbit of beholding his glory reflected for us as we behold it, we are being transformed into that same image and surely if the image of Christ is conformity to his moral likeness and all of the moral qualities,
from his love, his compassion, his mercy, his hatred to sin, his tenderness, then the concept of expansion alone, he is the one to whom the spirit is not given by the grace of the Godhead dwells in him. Well, how can we be conformed more and more to his image, never becoming deity, but ever growing, even in eternity? The idea of a static heaven is not attractive to me at all. What fascinates me is eternal growth.
In the creature, never, never, never exceed conformity to an inner standard. It's inexhaustible and can unfold and never be threatened with it. But that's a little aside. But it begins here and now.
And that's what I'm trying to capture by expanding acquaintance with God and his ways. And then 2 Peter 3.18, familiar to all of you, given in the setting where Peter's warned about the presence and the insidious influence of false teachers and their teaching, urging the people of God to steadfastness. He gives as the great prophylactic carried away with the error of the wicked and falling from our own stead.
Grow in grace of our growing and knowledge of our Lord and without the concept of acquaintance with God and his ways. And here again, as in so many things, the great Apostle Paul is a marvelous paradigm. In Acts 26, when the Lord commissioned him, notice how he was given a very clear indication that there was more to come.
God determined the measure of his self-disclosure, the time of his conversion, but clearly indicated more was to come. Acts 26.16, Stand upon your feet, for to this end have I appeared unto you, to appoint you a minister and a witness, both of the things wherein you are. When you have seen me, and of the things wherein I will.
And limited as an Apostle, and Jesus appeared as of one born out of due time, but the principle, brethren, is the same for us within the ordinary framework of the ordinary dynamics of growth in grace. We are to be constantly bearing witness, not only to the present dimension of our acquaintance, with God in his way, but the ongoing acquaintance, and the fruit of that acquaintance,
the things wherein the Lord continued unto us. And this did not come automatically, because, as he said, this was an eternalized spiritual passion. And he was not content with the fact that it was unlawful for him to utter, in this passage in which he bears, as it were, the depths of the inner workings of his own soul, having said that he counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, verse 8, for whom, he says, I suffered the loss of all things,
and counted but refuse that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, a righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him. Know him. This is the present. Yes, that I may know him.
Well, Paul, do you or do you not know him? Yes, I do know him. Paul, do you know him? Well, do you or don't you?
Well, I do and I don't. No contradiction. Yes, I know him. And from the moment of his self-disclosure to me, I've no longer been Saul, the proud, self-righteous Pharisee.
I've taken all my brownie points, and all that I thought were my assets, and I've heaped them up, and said, Rubbish! Scubala! Worthy of the dunghill! In the end, that I might have a righteousness that passes the scrutiny of the eye of God himself.
But having settled that issue of the ground of my acceptance with him, I'm not coasting. I have a passion that I may have a real and an expanding acquaintance with this God revealed in Christ. So he says that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death. So brethren, by expanding, that's what I'm trying to capture.
The Value of a 'Varied Acquaintance' with God
By varied acquaintance with God in his ways. By varied acquaintance in his ways. Well, the scriptures, especially in the Psalms, the inspired manual of the inner life of the child of God, clearly indicate that a real acquaintance with God, amidst the real world of men and things, with the real issues of sin and grace, is a varied experience.
Become more solid, into the crucible of certain experiences, that have long been locked, are suddenly opened, and we understand why the old traditional masters said that experience is the great excellence. There were not men who despised Greek and Hebrew, and a good set of hermeneutical principles,
but what they meant was that there are certain passages that having used all of your tools and all of the helps available to open up that passage, you may indeed give what technically is an accurate exposition of the passage, but only when in the crucible of experience God has brought your heart to vibrate with the psalmist will you really know that passage. As I like to tell people, and make them anxious for the time when they become grandparents, when I read in Psalm 128, the blessings on the righteous, they shall see their children's children. I used to say, big deal, see them? It said they shall see them all converted, or they shall see them all rejoicing,
but it says they shall just see their children's children. It's a big deal. You look upon your first grandchild, and as you see them developed, and you're involved in that development, even your understanding of it, understanding, as you interact with it, I use that as a great example of how experience exegetes the passage in terms of its blessedness. Now you could look at it and say, one of the blessedness of being a righteous man if you're going to see your children's children, take my word, take God's word for it, it's a blessing.
And it comes to the... That's fine.
You won't really understand that. Delay his coming, know that experience, or should he delay his coming, that you may know that blessed...
Psalm 23 is a classic example of this, and I think that's why I've listed it. See Psalm 23 as a specimen example The Lord is the shepherd of his people. That's good theology. He's my shepherd.
That's experimental theology. ...lack no good thing.
That's a man of faith. ...shall not lack any good thing.
I shall not lack any good thing. He makes me. And then notice the spectrum. All the way from the still waters where the shepherd is guiding the sheep to drink.
I understand that sheep will not drink where there are troubled waters, but only where there are quiet pools. So the shepherd guides them to the quiet pool. And he leads them into green. But then you see all the way down to the dark valley shadow of death.
You see. The varied with God and His way. And that to me has been one of the great blessings of the discipline of having it as a pattern of life for decades now. To be reading through the Psalms in my own devotional life four or five mornings a week consecutively.
It's constantly precious the fact that there are dimensions of acquaintance with God and His ways that are yet out there for me to enter into. Often I write in the margin. This is made real in such and such a set of circumstances and put to date. I raise it as an Ebenezer and come back around the next time six or nine months later when I'm sweeping through the Psalms again.
And I'm often able to write under it. Still precious. So that I have the record in my devotional Bible whether or not there is this varied along with this expanding acquaintance with God and His ways. Listen to Stalker again.
Very perceptive. These comments. Page 53 of the preacher and his models. A ministry of growing power must be one of growing experience.
A ministry of growing power must be one of growing experience. The soul must be in touch with God and enjoy golden hours. He uses the word revelation. In our day, you have to be more careful.
What he meant was hours of friendliness. Truth must come to the minister as the satisfaction of his own needs and the answer to his own perplexities. And he must be able to use the language of religion not as the nearest equivalent he can find for that which he believes others to be passing through but as the exact equivalent of that which he has passed through. There are many rules for prayer.
Do not neglect them. I hope you don't. In pastoral theology, I give you guidelines for public prayer. And he says, I do the same.
And I do it unashamedly. But there is one rule worth all order and it is this. And then the congregation will feel as you open your lips to lead their devotions that you are entering an accustomed and speaking well-known friend. And accustomed contents of the Bible can be made available for the edification of others.
But this is the best rule. Study God's Word diligently for your own edification and then it has become more to you than your necessary food and sweeter than honey or the honeycomb. It will be impossible for you to speak of it to others without a glow passing into your words. It will betray the delight which it has inspired.
The Uniqueness of an 'Original Acquaintance' with God
That man understood things that she didn't understand. And fewer yet have been able to articulate as powerfully as. But then very quickly, what do I mean by an original acquaintance with God and His way? The Word of God, brethren, is full of the concepts and realities of community.
And in a day of crass individualism in some areas, in crippling biblical unity and solidarity in others, you and I must recognize that there is in the Scripture to be found anywhere on the face of the earth. It is said in Matthew 10.30, the very head, for some of us who have a little more scalp showing
with each passing year, that He knows the very head of your head or number. You say that's a figure of speech. Yes, but the figure of speech is meant to convey something. And what it's conveying is His knowledge of you is not generic.
He just doesn't look down and see heads. Brown head, black head, that is, His acquaintance with you is specific, individual. Psalm 139 celebrates this reality when the Psalmist says that all of my days were marked out and appointed. When as yet there was none of them.
God was making a blueprint for my life that has absolutely no copy. God didn't get tired and say, well, I'll make a few copies here and spread them out over a few millennia. Nobody will ever know it. No, no.
No, no. Everything in its individualism. He calls His sheep by name. What's more personal, individual than your name?
He knows His sheep, calls them by name. So when I speak of an original acquaintance with God, I'm using the word not to suggest that you and I are to seek that which no one else has ever known or experienced before. Desires and claims are the stuff of fanatics and drunk with the heady wine of their own self-importance. Anybody that claims to have an acquaintance with God that no one else has ever known or experienced before.
A fanatic, a heretic, or a man drunk with pride. You know what the Scripture says, pride falls to the condemnation of the devil. This man that I spoke to Sunday, Mr. Camping was accurate as far as he went, but now I'm coming along to patch up in his calculations and I've got it all figured out.
It's March 1995. He has a look of humility. He's so drunk with pride he doesn't even know what reality. No one else, sanctified scholars and godly men in the face of the earth couldn't give him this special insight.
Camping's calculations and save face for Dr. Mr. Camping and then I'm overwhelmed. A face of humility under the guise, I mean of pride under the guise of humility.
Well, I'll tell you who you are that you should even think you have such a revelation. You're a proud man. Humility from all such nonsense. So when I say original brethren, I'm not talking about seeking some experience and knowledge of God.
No one else has ever known or experienced, but rather I'm using the word to express the fact that as surely as there's only one you with one blueprint that God has made for you and one me, then our dealings with God and His with us will not be a reproduction or a copy of someone else's experience in all of its nuances and details. The difference between an original painting and a copy. And in that sense my walk with God is in the paint never been found on the face of the earth before. Commonality.
I am unique in the light of God's creative work begun in my mother's womb. All of His providential dealings so that while there'll be a vibration and a sympathy and an empathy as I read devotional literature and as I speak to my brethren and as I interact with the people of God the dimensions of God's deep constantly affirm and underscore that it is an original walk. It'll keep us you see from the temptation of seeking to parrot what others have said and will keep us open
not to exotic experiences that will prove we're some kind of special invaded by pride and carnal ambition which God has made us and deals with us that is as unique individuals. It addresses this matter on page 109. The preacher and his models the man who is to be God's messenger must himself draw near to God and abide in His secret as they did. The word must detach itself from the book and become the living element
of experience before it can profit even the reader himself and much more in this case of course before it can profit others. It is the truth which has become a personal conviction the individuality burning in a man's heart so that he cannot be silent which is his message. The number of such truths which a man has appropriated from the Bible and verified in his own experience is the measure. There's all the difference in the world between the man who thus speaks what he knows from an inner impulse and the man whose sermon is simply a literary exercise on a scripture theme
and who speaks only because Sunday has come around and the bell has rung he must do his duty eloquently stated. And that's what I mean by an original walk and acquaintance with God. And then let me conclude this hour before we take a break and then we'll continue to move on to the vital observations relative to these means and the ordinary context and that material I will be able God willing to cover in the allotted time. I do want to give you a rather extensive quote from a book that I wish I had come upon God brought into my hands on his time schedule
Confirmation from Thomas Murphy: Eminent Piety Above All Else
but if I were making the time schedule I would have brought it sooner. A man by the name of Murphy a book called Pastoral Theology Thomas Murphy and some I'm sure will think that I had Murphy as my mentor in structuring many parts of my Pastoral Theology course but I had already been through it three or four times before I ever became aware of Murphy and it was a wonderful confirmation that in dealing with Pastoral Theology much of the structure was already laid out by this man of God from another generation. This is what he says on page 38 He is to be a leader in the spiritual host of God. Must he not go before others in spiritual attainment?
To draw men up to a more elevated standard of piety and devotedness is the appointment he holds from the great head of the church. He must himself. It is beyond all question that this eminent piety is before everything else in preparation for the duties of the sacred office. It is before talents or learning or study or favorable circumstances or skill in working or power in sermonizing.
It is a need and to every other part of the work. Without this elevated spirituality nothing else much account in producing a permanent and satisfactory ministry. All else will be like a record without a foundation. An idea which is to give character to all the superstructure.
From the very beginning this could be deeply impressed upon the hearts of young ministers oh that they would take away well the testimony of the most devoted and successful of those who have served God in his gospel. A man with this high tone of piety is sure to be a good pastor. Without it sin is not to be expected. Then he goes on to say that the first thing that a young minister must settle in his own heart is this commitment to what I'm calling original acquaintance with God in his ways.
He would subsume it all under the term vital piety. He says how much more anxiety there generally is about other branches of preparation for the ministry. But this should be before them all. Before them all strive to be filled with the spirit but in view of his holy office he would strive for this more earnestly.
The one thought that should ever be before him is this profession that I hold. It is something more sacred, more heavenly, more Christ-like than the common callings of men and therefore I must be a more holy man. There is no part, no part of the training for the gospel ministry which requires so much attention as that which the personal piety of those who are called
which the work must begin. In which he must equip himself for the service that may require great hardness. It is the mountain which may tarry in the presence of God and thence come down. It is his upper room and he just draws in many analogies and then at the end says in the light of this we may well cry out who is sufficient.
Dear brethren, as we think of the man of God in the pastoral office you and I must maintain a real expanding varied with God and what I mean by those words I sought to exegete I sought to bring to that exegesis relevant passages with the confirming voice of the past and God willing in the next we'll take up some vital observations concerning the means for attaining and maintaining
this acquaintance with God and his ways and then the third heading that came fresh out of my own dealings with God this morning and I felt so stupidly and inept that I've never included it before the ordinary context within which we will cultivate this acquaintance with God and his ways. Let's take a break for seven minutes and start prompting
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage is foundational for the sermon's emphasis on the minister's diligence in presenting himself approved to God, highlighting the internal spiritual work.
This passage is pivotal, establishing the minister's role as a faithful steward accountable primarily to God, not men, and underscoring the importance of God's ultimate judgment and praise.
This verse provides the core exhortation to 'acquaint now thyself with him,' serving as the textual basis for defining and exploring the nature of a personal acquaintance with God.
Texts Expounded
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