Preaching in Relationship to God

The Mystery Shrouding God's Truth and the Act of Preaching

0:02 Now, you men are constantly reminded in this place that all of God's truth is ultimately shrouded in mystery, and in thinking upon this subject, and I had vivid reminder of it even this past week,

0:18 that the person who's uncomfortable amidst the white light of mystery that surrounds all of God's truth is really doomed to dwell in the dark mists and the shadowy, murky depths of error. We had a woman come to this church some years ago, never manifested a teachable spirit, would sit there and literally shake her head no while you were preaching, had a Bible marked up from Genesis to Revelation, but her whole perspective was me and God and the Holy Ghost and nothing more. I wasn't surprised at all to get some material from her yesterday in which she mocks the doctrine of the Trinity using the terminology of even the JWs

1:03 and calls our God the three-headed monster and denies the reality of indwelling sin in the believer. She's become a blatant heretic, and I'm not surprised at all because she refused in her arrogant, rationalistic approach to scriptures to feel comfortable with mystery. How can sin's dominion be broken and yet sin still be active in a true believer? And once you start throwing off...

1:32 the mystery of that, then you'll start throwing out every other mystery. And it convinced me afresh in preparing for this lecture that as we come to the whole subject of the act of preaching, we're going to be facing one area of mystery after another. And this then puts the subject of preaching, if we approach it biblically, into the same category of all the other nuts and bolts of our faith, the constitution of our Savior as the theanthropic principle, the person, a great mystery. How do the two natures dwell in the one person, yet distinct and separate?

2:10 A mystery. The representative headship of Adam and yet our personal guilt and responsibility. A mystery. The reality of our total inability and yet our full, real, genuine moral responsibility.

2:23 Another mystery. And every point along the way, our faith is shrouded in mystery and so it is with the act of preaching. On the one hand, the act of preaching is a very intensely human activity. Your mind is thinking when you preach.

2:39 Your mouth is speaking as you speak. Your hands and your eyes and all of your faculties are engaged. And so when we look at preaching, there are observable phenomena, capable of analysis, capable of reduction to certain principles. And when there is effective preaching, there are certain things that indeed can be analyzed.

Preliminary Considerations and a Broad Overview of Preaching

3:00 But, on the other hand, the Spirit of God is active, presently, powerfully, mystically, yet in some ways that can be explained and others that absolutely defy explanation, defy analysis, defy reduction to any fixed principles. Well, last week or two weeks ago in our opening lecture, as we approached this mysterious subject of the act of preaching, I gave you what I called were preliminary considerations, and under that heading, we looked at the foundational axiom pertaining to the act of preaching, and that was this, that the great end which all the elements of preaching must serve

3:43 is the glory of God and the good of men in their salvation and edification. And then we looked together at what I call the formative perspectives regarding the act of preaching. And I gave a polemic for starting there, and then the importance of this division, and then the major principles, and then the most operative in the act of preaching. Now, what I'm going to do in the time that I have this morning is this.

4:09 We're going to take up the whole subject of this semester's lecture under what I'm calling a broad overview of this subject, a broad overview of our subject, the act of preaching, and then having given you that broad overview, then we'll come back and take up the first subdivision of the whole subject, of the act of preaching. Now, first of all, under the broad overview, a polemic for doing this, a word about my reason for doing this. I want you to be able at the outset to relate all of the individual parts to the whole, and in so doing,

4:52 I hope this will encourage you to hold off certain areas of inquiry which will be dealt with down the line. And if you know what's coming down the line, though the inquiry may be provoked in something said, this morning, you'll know that three or four weeks from now, God willing, that subject will be addressed, and therefore you'll be able to put it to one side and table the inquiry in your own spirit. And that's my main purpose for giving this broad overview of the subject, that you see the whole before we start to take up any one of the parts. Now, as I've sought through the years to analyze the act of preaching, it appears to me, and I've had no fundamental change in my perspective in the past three years,

5:35 on this, that there are five fundamental factors that comprise the whole essence of the act of preaching. We might call them the components of the act of preaching. Now, when I speak of the components of the act of preaching, I'm speaking particularly of pastoral preaching. Some of these factors would be absent in street preaching.

5:59 Other factors would be present. Some of the factors would be absent in radio preaching. But I'm speaking of preaching in the context of the gathered congregation of God's people in the regular course of your week-by-week ministry. And in analyzing the components of the act of preaching in that setting, or the five fundamental factors that comprise the essence of the act of preaching, I perceive them as being, number one, the preacher and his present relationship to God.

Component 1: The Preacher and His Present Relationship to God

6:33 And I'll be able to put overview on the blackboard. And the first factor in the act of pastoral preaching is the preacher and his present relationship to God. Now, this subject is what I hope to open up in the latter part of the lecture this morning. Suffice it to say that this dimension, this component is of supreme importance.

7:03 The measure of a man's true usefulness in preaching will generally be in direct proportion to how much of the truly religious element precedes his entrance into the pulpit, is carried with him into the pulpit, and is sustained and intensified in the act of preaching. Generally speaking, a man's usefulness in pastoral preaching will be in direct proportion to the religious element, that is, the consciousness of God that he has, has preceding his entrance to the pulpit,

7:46 that which he carries with him into the pulpit, and that which he experiences in the very act of preaching. So that's the first component, and perhaps one of the most vital. The second is the preacher and his present relationship to himself. I was pointing in upon himself.

Component 2: The Preacher and His Present Relationship to Himself

8:13 1 Corinthians 14.32 tells us that the Spirit, of the Prophets, that is, the human spirit of the one who speaks the Word of God, is subject to the Prophets, so that in speaking the Word of God, even in the elevated state of prophetic utterance, there is no biblical warrant for a concept of ecstasy, of mindless being carried away. The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets. Furthermore, Galatians 5.23 says,

8:47 that the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Now if preaching is an activity of the whole man, and the preacher is full of the Spirit, then the preacher most full of the Spirit will be most in control of himself, for the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. The more a man is full of the Spirit, the more he'll manifest love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, and likewise, the more he will manifest self-control. And under this heading, we're going to address such matters as our physical appearance and bearing in the pulpit.

9:29 I can control whether I stand with contracted lungs, stooped shoulders, my face down in my notes, and mumble. I can control whether or not I throw my shoulders back, take a good, long, full, and supported diaphragmatic bunch of air, and look you in the eye, and keep the bell of my mouth out toward the people. I can control that, and I must control that. And the fruit of the Spirit is self-control.

9:57 So our physical appearance and bearing, the use of the voice, I can control its volume. I can get very soft. I can get very loud. Consciously, deliberately controlling the use of the voice.

10:10 The function and regulation of the emotions.

10:14 We are not passive before our emotions. And I want to demonstrate from the word, God, that thesis. The principles pertaining to physical action in preaching. If I naturally just run my hand like a windmill, I can stop that if I want to.

10:31 Stop that. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. We're going to address the whole matter of the preacher, not only in relationship to God, but the preacher in relationship to himself. Then the third category we're going to address is the preacher and his present relationship with God.

Component 3: The Preacher and His Present Relationship to His Hearers

10:53 To his hearers. The preacher and his present relationship to his hearers. Under this broad heading, we'll attempt to analyze the elements of that electric current of communion of thought and feeling which are present in the act of preaching. That AC current.

11:15 It's never DC. It's always alternating current. Something is going out from the preacher and something is coming back to the preacher from his people. I'm going to have the temerity to attempt to analyze some of that reality.

11:30 Any view of preaching which assumes or dares to assert that the act of preaching will not be materially different if undertaken before a TV camera in a studio or with a living congregation in a well-aired, well-lit building or a dead congregation in a stuffy, poorly lit edifice, such a view of preaching is pathetically out of touch with reality.

11:53 So a vital element in the act of preaching will be this whole matter of the preacher and his present relationship to his people. That's where we'll take up such factors as eye contact, careful observation, sensitivity to these dynamics of interaction, our various reactions to the felt and observed dynamics between ourselves and our people. What do we do if we see an angry face? What do we do when we see someone going to sleep on us? What do we do if everyone seems to be hanging on our words and we begin to think that maybe we're Whitfield back from the dead?

12:32 You've got to learn how to handle those things, and you'll probably have the full spectrum. If you don't handle them right, you're in big bad shape. Big bad shape. Then the fourth component of the act of preaching that we're going to address is the preacher.

Component 4: The Preacher and His Present Relationship to His Paper

12:48 And his present relationship to his paper. The preacher and his present relationship to his paper. Most of us will find it necessary to have some quantity of written material with us when we enter the pulpit. We will come to the conviction that the maximum edification of our people demands some measure of paper in our pulpit.

13:13 Now, if you can attain maximum edification without paper, blessings on you. Once in a while a genius comes by who can. But most of us will find it necessary to have some measure of paper in the pulpit. Well, if our rationale for having the paper in the pulpit is their edification, how can we be sure that it does not impede the very thing for which we said we've carried it into the pulpit?

13:37 And some men carry paper into the pulpit ostensibly that they might better edify, and then their relationship to the paper undermines the very end for which they brought the paper in the pulpit, namely the edification of their paper. Their paper. They let their paper become a barrier to their people. They let their paper become a wall around them that makes them impervious to that alternating current that flows between the preacher and his people.

14:04 So we've got to learn the principles that must regulate our relationship to paper. Now, you won't find that in most of the books on homiletics. They may say something about composing or not composing, but it's a vital issue. And then the fifth component is the preacher in his relationship.

Component 5: The Preacher and His Relationship to the Physical Context

14:23 To the physical context of his preaching. He is not preaching as a disembodied spirit, nor is he preaching to disembodied spirits. He is preaching as a human being to fellow human beings. Therefore, his own visibility, the placement of the pulpit, if he's a shorty and the pulpit was made for a guy six foot eight, he may be lost and intimidated by the wood in front of him.

14:51 And I believe some men are crippled in their preaching. And psychologically, because there's too big a pulpit, intimidating them. And there are others that look awkward in the rest because the pulpit was made for a little shorty. And here's some guy, Mike's size, standing up there drooping over it, looking like a vulture.

15:08 Very practical concern. So visibility, the placement of the pulpit, the lighting, fresh air, the state of the weather, distractions. Very, very vital part of preaching is the physical context in which we preach. So God willing, before the end of the sermon.

15:24 And this semester, if the Lord is pleased to spare us and let us see the end of that semester together, we will cover those five areas that, as far as I can analyze the act of preaching, give us the five distinct categories under which any major concern about the act of preaching can be ranged. All right? Well, let's take up the first then, and that is the preacher and his present relationship to God. And that will occupy our time for the rest of the morning.

Exhortation 1: Cultivate Awareness of Preaching in the Sight of God

15:54 The preacher and his present relationship to God. Now, perhaps no text of scripture is of greater importance to the preacher than Psalm 16 and verse 8 when it comes to the act of preaching. Here in this psalm, familiar words, a messianic psalm, Psalm 16 and verse 8.

16:27 Perhaps we should back up to verse 7. I will bless the Lord who has counseled me. Indeed, my mind. My mind instructs me in the night.

16:47 I have set the Lord always or continually before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. I have set the Lord before me. Now, you know the sense in which this type of wording is being used.

17:07 In one sense, the psalmist could say, as he did in Psalm 139, Thou hast beset me behind and before. I'm surrounded. I'm surrounded by my God. Day and night.

17:19 If I make my ascent up into heaven, he is there. If I make my bed in hell, he is there. If I jump on the first rays of the sun as they break over the horizon, the imagery of the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me. Now, there's the truth of God's omniscience.

17:37 But now, this is talking about a mindset of the child of God who is living in the fear of God and who is seeking to cultivate the consciousness. The consciousness of the presence of God. And he says, I have set the Lord always before me. Now, in every facet of our preparation, we should be able to say that I've set the Lord before me.

18:00 I'm seeking his help in the exegesis, his help in the organization, his help and guidance in the applications that I ought to make. But now, as we're entering into the pulpit, the moment of truth has come. And we are someone else. This has led the people of God into worship.

18:20 And we are now making our way to stand before God's people to deliver his word above all else. We must do what David said he did. I have set the Lord always before me. And as I have looked out upon my people, as my mind has been exercised with my papers that I'm carrying with me into the pulpit, as I think of many things, there is one thing that should take precedence over all others.

18:46 And that is, I am setting the Lord himself before me. I am entering into an exercise in which, of all the eyes that look upon me, there's one set of eyes that matters most, and that's God's. Of all the opinions formed about what I'm about to do, ultimately only one opinion matters, and that is God's. Of the smiles or frowns that my preaching will elicit, ultimately only one countenance and one sentence, one smile or one frown matters, and that is the smile or the frown on the countenance of my God.

19:23 I have set the Lord always before me. And brethren, as that concept and that reality should attend us in our preparation, it must not only be carried with us into the pulpit, it must be augmented and intensified in the very act of preaching, if our preaching is to be worthy of that, that description, biblical preaching. Now, in the opening up of this aspect of our subject, I want to trace out four lines of thought, and I shall do so by couching the material in the hortatory form.

20:01 As Paul said to Timothy, I charge thee in the sight of God, and then he charged or exhorted him. I want to give you four exhortations growing out of this fundamental concept of this component of the act of preaching, preaching in relationship to the preacher's own present consciousness of God. Number one, cultivate the awareness of preaching as in the sight of God. Cultivate the awareness of preaching as in the sight of God.

20:41 You've gone through the agony of decision concerning your material, what to preach, the labor of exegesis, form and structure, the hour has come. You stand now to speak the word of God, Now, as this moment of truth comes, the time when the sermon as preaching will either be born or stillborn,

21:01 what thoughts ought to predominate in your mind? As the subject or the text is opened, as you become aware of some of that electric current that begins to flow between you and your people, as your own spirit feels the heat of the friction of your own thoughts one upon another, above all else, what thoughts should dominate in the act of preaching? Well, may I suggest, brethren, it should be this, that we are speaking as in the very sight of the God of heaven and earth. And there are two key texts in which the Apostle Paul indicates that this was a very burning

21:43 and constant reality to him in his preaching. The first is in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, and the other, in chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, beginning with verse 14. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in his triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.

22:10 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are saved and among those who are perishing, to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma of life to life, and who is adequate for these things? For we are not like the many, peddling, making merchandise, hawking the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ, in the sight of God. Now, you see, he obviously is addressing the whole subject of the gospel ministry, the effect and the efficiency of gospel ministry. Then he makes,

22:54 a very clear negation at the first part of verse 17. We are not like the many. Apparently in his day, there had already arisen many who use the word of God as a hawker of cheap goods, tries to sell his imitation Rolex watch on the streets of New York. That's the word that's used.

23:17 There's a word for the legitimate merchandiser, but the word used here is for a hawker of goods. Kapelouo is the verb. And Paul says, we are not hawking, we are not making cheap merchandise of the word of God as the many are.

23:37 And he says to buttress that in a positive way, but as from sincerity, that is with transparent honesty, as of God, and you have parallel prepositional phrases there if you're looking at in your Greek text, as commanded by him, commissioned by him, with transparent honesty, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. In the sight of God. Not God as an abstract theism based upon natural revelation, but God as fully revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ the Messiah.

24:21 God revealed in Christ in which the majestic claims of his glory, of his justice are seen more clearly than they were ever seen prior to the manifestation of that justice in the vicarious bloodletting of the Son of God. God in all of his power, the power seen in Joseph's open tomb, which again and again becomes the apex of the expression of the power of God in the New Testament. It is power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. Paul knows that.

24:56 Paul is saying it is in the sight of this God whose attributes have come to their fullest display, justice, power, love, mercy, in the person and work of Christ, we speak as in the sight. And that word, in the sight of, in some context, has the very clear connotation as opposite to, over against. That is, I'm sitting across the table with someone, I'm speaking as, in the sight of, in the presence of, as opposite to this person. And Paul says, so we speak as of God, with transparent honesty,

25:39 in the sight of God. Speaking out of the awareness of these concurrent realities, that God's eye is upon me, all that I say, and the reason for which I say it, and the manner in which I say it, is fully known unto Him. And when he speaks, he says, I speak as in the consciousness that I am in the very sight and under the eye of God. Now you have an exact construction of that little phrase.

26:18 Same thing used in chapter 12 and verse 19.

26:23 All this time you have been thinking we are defending ourselves to you. Paul had to engage in what was very distasteful to him, namely self-justification. Man had attacked the validity of his apostleship, his claims to have a God-given ministry, and he's had to vindicate himself. And you know he says in that section, I speak as a fool, and you can tell, everything in him felt uncomfortable having to vindicate himself.

26:48 And he says, all this time you've been thinking, or do you think that we are defending ourselves to you? Actually, it is in the sight of God that we have been speaking. Speaking in Christ. And you look at it in your Greek text and you'll see that the phrase is exactly word for word parallel.

27:08 We are speaking as in the sight of God. And here the context is a vindication of the purity of his motive and of his actions. And what lay beneath that was not only a desire for their edification, we're speaking for your building up, your edification, the latter part of verse 19. And in seeking their edification, he says, we speak as in the sight of God.

27:39 Now brethren, in the act of preaching, it is only when this consciousness precedes and intermittently breaks up to the level of present awareness and undergirds us in our preaching that we can hope to even begin to approach the biblical standard of what preaching ought to be. You see, the man who's speaking as face-to-face, opposite to the face of God, will not knowingly indulge in what is artificial, dishonest, flippant, coarse,

28:24 that which is calculated to impress people of how clever he is, how funny he is. And certainly he would do nothing knowingly to bring praise to himself. You see, the great antidote to all of the curses that have accompanied pulpit ministries over the years, and especially effective ministries by men who have learned something of what it is to communicate the Word of God effectively, and then their ministries begin to be tinged with flippancy and cockiness and coarseness and dishonesty and artificiality. What's happened is, somehow if they ever did know, they have forgotten that above all else, they speak,

29:06 as in the sight. And so if we are to preach effectively, there must be that cultivated consciousness in the act of preaching, that we are preaching as in His sight. I may have read portions of these words from Cowper in another setting, but they bear repetition in this context. And this is Cowper.

29:36 In man or woman, but far most in man, and most of all in man that ministers, and serves the altar, in my soul I loathe all affectation. Tis my perfect scorn, object of my implacable disgust. What, will a man play tricks? Will he indulge a silly, fond conceit of his fair form and just proportion, fashionable, mean, and pretty face in presence of his God?

30:11 You see what Cowper captured? He said, Will a man dabble in these things in the presence of his God? Well, if he's dabbling with them in his preaching, then he cannot be speaking as in the sight of God. For if anything will cure a man of dishonesty, artificiality, flippancy, coarseness, calculated attempts to tickle people's fancy or draw attention to himself, it's the awareness, I the creature, I the sinner, I the hell-deserving wretch, I speak, wonder of wonders, the word of God in the presence of my God.

Exhortation 2: Cultivate Awareness of Preaching on the Way to God's Judgment

30:50 Many of the sins of the act of preaching would be prevented by this cultivated awareness. Exhortation 2 under this heading, Cultivate the awareness of preaching as one on your way to the judgment of God. And you see the progression. Cultivate the awareness of preaching in the sight of God, yes.

31:15 But secondly, cultivate the awareness of preaching as one on your way to the judgment of God. We go back. The stage is set. Preparation is done.

31:26 The hour of truth, the moment of truth has come. The hour to deliver the word of God is before you. Now what? Well, as you have prepared with your people in your heart independence upon God, now as you enter the pulpit, there ought to rise again to the level of consciousness, and intermittently come before you the awareness, that what I do in this next hour is going to meet me in the last day.

32:01 What I am doing in this next hour, in an unusual and heightened sense, has cast over it the shadow of the last day. And it's interesting that in the thinking and experience of the great apostle, this also was a very powerful factor in his preaching. The principle is, he states in most general terms in Acts chapter 24 and then we'll look at a more specific expression of it in 1 Corinthians 4 but in Acts chapter 24 the apostle says in verse 15 having a hope in God which these men cherish themselves that there shall certainly be a resurrection

32:46 of both the righteous and the wicked Acts 24 15 in view of this I also do my best to maintain a blameless conscience before God and before men it is in the light of the certainty of the resurrection the apostle says I exercise myself to have a conscience void of offense that's the principle in general that he lived the totality of his life in the light of the coming judgment but now when it comes to the matter of his preaching in 1 Corinthians 4 he applies it in a very specific way 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 1 let a man regard of us

33:30 in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God moreover it's required of stewards that a man be found faithful or trustworthy but to me it is a very small thing that I should be judged or examined by you or by any human court I do not even examine myself that is I do not pass final sentence upon myself I'm conscious of nothing against myself yet am I not by this acquitted or by this I am not hereby justified but the one who examines or judges me is the Lord therefore do not pass judgment before the time

34:14 until the Lord comes who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and disclose the motives or secrets of men's hearts and then shall each man have his praise from God so you see what the apostle is saying I have a stewardship in the work of the ministry and in the administration of this stewardship I know I must be faithful but he said my faithfulness or lack of it is to be judged ultimately not by my hearers not by myself but by God that's the issue that's the flow of the text coming to its apex in verse 5 and it's in this whole area of the act of preaching that the consciousness

34:58 that I am on my way to the judgment of God for the stewardship of this ministry it is there that this awareness ought to press in upon us continually and at times even in the midst of our preaching it will make the difference between faithfulness to God and men's souls or a subtle form of self-preservation at the expense of faithfulness to God, His word and to the souls of men and no one will know it but you and God the thing that you knew you should have said and the text gave you every occasion to say but it was your fear of men's faces

35:42 and your forgetfulness of God's coming day that caused your mouth to be closed and no one will fault you for what you said but God will fault you for what you didn't say and you'll not be able to leave the pulpit with a good conscience your conscience will be bloodied because you know as the text in Proverbs tells us the fear of man brings a snare and your tongue was snared and you committed grievous sins of omission in your preaching because you had not cultivated sufficiently the awareness that you were preaching as one on his way to the judgment of God

36:26 now because this so influenced the apostles thinking about his own ministry when he comes to give his final charge to Timothy notice how he brings this right into the central point of focus it's like that circle spot on your camera when you have a through the lens adjustment of your focus and when that center spot is right on the object and lined up you know you're in focus well this is what he does with this perspective here is his final charge to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 4 verse 1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus

37:10 who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word I charge you in the presence of God and in the light of the coming of the judgment of God preach the word Timothy this charge comes to you with all of the solemn overtones of the coming day of judgment never forget it bring that day near and discharge yourself from the responsibility of preaching in the light of that day and so in the act of preaching brethren we must seek to cultivate this dimension of our present relationship to God

37:52 not only the awareness that we speak as in his presence but that we speak secondly as those who are on our way to the judgment and as we do there will be no crippling fear of men there will be no mere time serving they'll be urgency in our ministry there will be singleness of purpose and all of those perspectives are found in such passages in second Corinthians five nine and ten we are ambitious to be well pleasing unto him why for we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ but then thirdly

Exhortation 3: Cultivate Awareness of Preaching as an Appointed Ambassador

38:34 we must cultivate the awareness of preaching as an appointed man Appointed ambassador, cultivate the awareness of preaching as an appointed ambassador, comma, herald, comma, and gift of the ascended Christ.

38:58 Cultivate the awareness of preaching as an appointed ambassador, comma, herald, comma, and gift of the ascended Christ.

39:10 All right, we go back and set the stage. The preparation is done. The congregation is gathered before you. There is that natural element of anxiety.

39:20 What will happen in the act of preaching? You're walking in the direction of the pulpit. Hopefully, with some sense, I've set the Lord before me. What I do in this next hour will meet me in the final day.

39:34 Now then, I must, in the third place, cultivate this awareness that I preach as an appointed ambassador, herald, and gift of the ascended Christ. Because the question...

39:47 The question will indeed press in upon you sooner or later with crippling power. On what basis dare I address my fellow mortals, many of whom are wiser than I? On what basis dare I address fellow sinners, many of whom are more holy than I?

40:08 I should say redeemed saints, redeemed sinners. On what basis dare I tell people, receive my message and live, refuse it and die? Well, you see, the answer lies in the following. The answer lies in the biblical concepts couched in my exhortation.

40:27 Ambassador, herald, and gift of the ascended Christ. That is, I must come to that pulpit if I'm coming as a pastor before his people,

40:43 convinced in my own conscience before God in the light of his word, that I do not come to that pulpit as some self-appointed, self-appointed, self-impelled babbler.

41:02 I have not forced myself upon his people, but I speak as an ambassador of the King of Heaven, a herald of the court of Heaven, and as a gift of the ascended Christ to his church.

41:18 Now again, the apostle is the great example, though for the apostolic office the manner of coming to that conviction was different, but the principle is nonetheless the same. The apostle was not uncertain as to his identity in the ministry. He could say, as we read in 1 Timothy 1 and verse 12, 1 Timothy 1 and verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into service, or putting me into the ministry.

41:57 He was conscious that his being found in the ministry, the ministry was not ultimately the result of any human activity. It was ultimately to be traced back to Jesus Christ his Lord. And though our calling to the function of an ambassador and a herald and a gift of Christ to his church will come in the ordinary framework of the internal call and the external call of the church and the objective evaluation of our lives by the criteria, by the criteria of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 and other ancillary factors, at the end of the day, brethren,

42:38 we must have as certain the conviction as we can profess to have without any claims to direct revelation that we are speaking as avoided ambassadors, heralds, and gifts of Christ to his church. Without that, we cannot speak with authority. We cannot go on speaking in us has gone dead all our circuits seem to have been blown we are feeling no friction of spiritual warmth from the very thoughts we're trying to convey to others there's no consciousness of that ordinary flow of electric current between us and our people there's very little felt

43:22 consciousness of the presence of god and you say what in the world am i doing behind this pulpit and if you can't say i'm an ambassador on a mission i'm a herald with a message and i'm a gift of the ascended christ i tell you you'll be filled with confusion and you'll just run out of the place many a time the only thing that's kept me glued to that pulpit to give what i had prayerfully prepared was that consciousness i'm not here on my own errand i'm not here because i had a notion it'd be a nice thing to do i'm a man under orders and i've got to do you

44:00 what i must do to be faithful to my trust and my stewardship now do you see why we are so insistent that men have a truly biblical and orderly call to the ministry brethren without it you're in big bad shape the first time confusion steals over you the first time what you've said from the word of god is questioned not in terms of the accuracy of your exposition or the responsible way you've handled the word but you have struck deeply into someone's conscience and opposition is coming to the word of god if you cannot stand your ground in the consciousness of who you are with all due humility willing to have your exegesis question i'm not talking about that

44:44 willing dadcer interpretation question i'm not talking about that but i'm talking about that instance where there's no question as to what the word of god said the question is who are you to accept it to me you've got to be able to say i know www that incident to the young man at that christian college who in the world do you think you are to talk to us that way and expect us to listen. And you better be able to say, I know who I am. Not a matter of I think who I am. I know who I am.

45:14 I'm a hell-deserving sinner. But saved by grace and called by God, his appointed ambassador to carry his message. A herald to proclaim his message and the gift of Christ to his church. And that's not arrogance, brethren.

45:29 Without that, there will not be that boldness, that authority, that directness rooted in the consciousness of derived authority. Derived authority. I have none in myself, but all authority has been given unto him in heaven and upon earth. Turn to the book of Jeremiah for a moment.

45:49 Jeremiah chapter 23.

45:52 Jeremiah came upon hard days in his ministry as all the prophets did.

45:59 Someone has said they kill the living prophets in their own generation and they build tombs to the dead prophets in the subsequent generation. And the reason is that the dead prophet tells us what we should do, but the living prophet tells us what we are.

46:17 The living prophet tells us what we are. Shows us where we are right now in the light of what we ought to be and what we should do. Well, in Jeremiah 23, we read in verses 21 and 32 these words.

46:34 I did not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not send these prophets, and I did not speak unto them, but they prophesied. You see, every time Jeremiah opened his mouth and said, look, you sons of the covenant, you violated the terms of the covenant. God's going to fulfill the curses of the covenant.

46:50 You're going into captivity. And every time Jeremiah began to upset people with that negative message, there were a dozen false prophets to come along and stroke them and say, you're God's covenant people. You've got the land. You've got the blessings.

47:01 You've got the promises. Jeremiah was just born on the wrong side of the birthing table. He's just negative from his mother's womb. He's melancholic.

47:08 He's dejected. He's always got a negative message. Don't listen to him. And Jeremiah was plagued by the undermining of his ministry by these false prophets.

47:18 And God says of them, I did not send them, but they were willing to run. I didn't speak to them, but they were willing to prophesy. If they had stood in my counsel, they would have announced my words to this people, and they would have turned their back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds. God says, had there been a united voice among the prophets, echoing what Jeremiah, my son, my servant is saying, then that combined pressure would have wrought repentance.

47:42 But every time Jeremiah's words begin to sting, these people come and take out the arrows and the stingers and comfort them and tell them, all is well. Verse 32. Behold, I'm against those who've prophesied false dreams and related them and led my people astray by their falsehood and reckless boasting. Yet I did not send or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit.

48:08 Chapter 14 and verse 14 of Jeremiah.

48:15 Then the Lord said to me, the prophets are prophesying falsehood in my name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them. The evidence as we read in the previous text was they do not profit this people. Brethren, I'm convinced that the root of many an unprofitable pulpit ministry is the fact that men are not the appointed ambassadors, heralds, and gifts, of Christ to his church.

48:43 Christ does not give men to his church who do not edify by their preaching. He just does not do it. John Owen, in his masterful way in treating the whole subject of the eldership and the call to the ministry, says it's a very simple thing. If Christ has instituted the ministry for the edification of his people, Ephesians 4, then anyone who's a gift of Christ, it will be known because he's an instrument through whom the Lord edifies his people.

49:11 He furnishes him with the necessary gifts and graces. And if those things are absent, then he cannot be a gift of Christ who does not contribute to the end for which that gift is given. Just that simple. Well, if we measure all the men filling pulpits by that, then we have to wonder how many are running unsent,

49:32 uncalled, uncommissioned. Unmortified ambition and carnal haste may appear innocent enough when pushing a man prematurely into the ministry, without warrant. But if the man has any sense of what he's about, he'll see the cursed nature of that ambition and haste when he stands to speak and has no biblical grounds to believe that God stands above him saying, Speak, my son. Speak in my name.

50:02 I've appointed you to this task. Brethren, I'd rather wait for 30 years to clear up the question of my call and speak for five years with the confidence that I was speaking as an appointed ambassador, a herald, and a gift of Christ. And I'll do far more good to men than if I run unsent.

Exhortation 4: Cultivate Awareness of Preaching as God's Unique Instrument

50:25 Well, let's try to pick up then, brethren, at this fourth subdivision of this major heading of the first component in the act of preaching is this matter of the preacher's present relationship to God. And I've brought three exhortations to you based on that component. And now the fourth is this, to cultivate the awareness, that preaching is a uniquely chosen and unchangeably relevant instrument of God. Cultivate the awareness that preaching is a uniquely chosen

51:10 and unchangeably relevant instrument of God.

51:18 You see, the previous exhortation focused on our position as appointed by God as opposed to, self-appointment. But this exhortation points not so much to our position, herald, ambassador, gift of Christ, but to the function of preaching itself in the divine will and purpose.

51:46 And in this great work of dismantling the kingdom of error and darkness and establishing the kingdom of truth and light, we are told that our weapons are not carnal or fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling of the sword. And among those weapons in the arsenal of God, what place is assigned to preaching? Is it simply one among many with a relative plethora of equals or even some superiors?

52:27 Well, according to the scriptures, the exalted Lord goes forth conquering and to conquer. How? With the sword, that proceeds from his mouth. He goes forth conquering and to conquer by means of preaching.

52:46 And therefore, in the act of preaching, not only prior to and in our general thinking, but in the very act of preaching, we must remind ourselves that it is a uniquely chosen and an unchangeably relevant instrument of God. And some of the pivotal texts, you know them, but they bear repetition. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 18, coupled with Romans 10 and verse 14. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 18.

53:24 For the word or the message of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but unto us who are being saved, it is the power of God, the word, the logos, the message of the cross. It is God's instrument of power to salvation. But is it the message conveyed by any form? No.

53:51 For we read in verse 21, for since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of the kerubma.

54:05 Through the foolishness of the kerubma. Of the thing preached to save those who believe. So it's the word of the cross, but not the word of the cross conveyed by any medium of our choosing, but the word of the cross, the word of the cross preached.

54:29 And God has in the use of that very word bound together both the message and the form of its communication. And we have the similar emphasis of Romans 10, in verse 14, how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

54:58 Without a preacher. Not a mime, not a singer, not an actor, and certainly not a clown, but a preacher. But a preacher. They cannot call upon a Lord whose voice they have not heard.

55:14 And they don't hear his voice unless a preacher comes across their path. How shall they hear without a preacher? And when they hear, then the word of our Lord in John 10, in verse 16, is wonderfully fulfilled. And this is what gives glory to the work of preaching.

55:35 John 10, in verse 16, And I have other sheep which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear. Hear my voice,

55:48 and they shall become one flock with one shepherd. When I stand to preach the consciousness that preaching is the uniquely chosen and timelessly, unchangeably relevant instrument of God, who knows, but what's sitting there before me this morning are sheep who are going to hear the great shepherd's voice as I preach. That the great shepherd chooses, to use as his vocal apparatus, this sinner's,

56:21 as his mouth, my mouth, by which to get his sheep for whom he laid down his precious, his life and spilt his precious blood. And in his purpose to build them up into likeness to himself, to build them up more and more into the stature of the fullness of Christ that is the new humanity. They may reflect his likeness and be his instrument of grace in the world. What is he going to use?

56:50 He's going to use the teaching and the preaching of the word of God as a uniquely chosen and unchangeably relevant instrument.

57:01 And then you can tie in, of course, the text, John 17, 17, sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. But how is that process go on according to Ephesians 4, 15, speaking the truth in love, growing up into him in all things. You see, preaching is not just relevant for the first century and in the Reformation and in the evangelical awakening, but in the 20th century media crazed, media dulled generation.

57:33 God is not going to come back and rewrite his word and say, well, I'm sorry. The exigencies of all of the circumstances of technological advancement and the degeneration of common grace, all the rest, preaching is no longer an instrument that I'm going to use God will have to come back and rewrite his word and say there's something else I've uniquely chosen and something that is uniquely relevant to the 20th century. But he's not going to do that. And his word makes plain that preaching is the uniquely chosen, unchangeably relevant instrument of God for the calling out of his elect and the building up of his own in their most holy faith.

Conclusion: The Pulpit as a Throne and the Importance of Piety

58:13 So as I stand in the presence of God, what are the things that ought to intermittently break the law? What are the things that ought to break up even to the level of consciousness and in terms of the varying dynamics of preaching ought to be brought, as it were, to the level of my own existential awareness in preaching? Well, as I cultivate that sense that I'm preaching in the face of God, in the presence of God, on my way to the judgment of God, as one appointed by God, involved in the use of that instrument uniquely designated by God to accomplish his saving purposes that Christ might have the reward of his sufferings, then you see, in a sense,

58:58 my pulpit's turned into my throne. And I wouldn't exchange the pulpit for any place of influence upon the face of the earth. I may be ministering to ten people, but it has more significance than if I were sitting in the court of the kings of the earth. And that's what will keep you going, ministering to ten people.

59:17 And the man who won't minister to ten as though he's ministering to a thousand is not fit to minister. He's not fit to a thousand.

59:25 He's not fit. Because, you see, he's being influenced by factors other than the God-centered factors. You see? And, brethren, over the years, I know a few things that if I have any measure, any measure amidst all my failures, any measure of fidelity to my task, I know a few things, if any, that have been more influential than what I've given you this morning.

59:48 And to have those things continually brought to my awareness, come back to them again and again, and that's why, as I've indicated in another setting, I love Gardner Springs' Power in the Pulpit, and read and re-read some of those chapters on a Sunday morning to come back to these basic perspectives that God is committed to dismantle the kingdom of darkness by His truth, and He's appointed preaching, and He is the God before whom I stand, and in the last day to whom I will give an account. It's these basic things, nothing profound, but it's these things that form the nuts and bolts of a ministry that is owned of God. How can a man preach in a dull, lifeless, passionless way

60:33 if he's really convinced he has a message from the God of Heaven, and that God is appointed to use the proclamation of that message in a unique way to save sinners and build up the saints? How can he approach that in a cavalier, offhanded way? How can he be flippant? How can he be light?

60:52 How can he be jocular and a clown in a pulpit with the shadow of the day of judgment over his people and over his own pulpit and over his own soul? It's impossible. Somewhere along the line, the man who's turned his pulpit into a display case for his humor is forgotten with his preaching in the presence of God, on his way to the judgment of God, as an appointed ambassador of God, using that unique instrument of God for the conversion of sinners. He must have forgotten it if he ever knew it, if he ever knew it.

61:24 And when you look at what I would call some of the chronic and major glaring deficiencies of pulpit ministry, I think almost all of them, if they are overarching patterns, can somehow or another be reduced to a failure to come to grips with this first category of what we're calling the act of preaching, namely the preacher in his relationship to God himself, his present relationship to God, his conscious relationship to God. And so we see why we emphasize, again and again, the vital relationship there is between effective preaching and the basic piety of the closet.

62:06 Because it's here that these basic perspectives are kept living in the heart and soul of the preacher. And if things begin to get distant and dull and unreal here, they cannot help but be reflected here. And you won't be able to quite put your finger on it. And discerning listeners will say, well, there's no, slacking off in careful exegesis.

62:31 The sermons are just as well organized and there's flow and they're illustrated. But something's lacking. They can't quite put their finger on it. But if you have fresh dealings with God here, the very next Lord's Day, they say, well, I don't know what it was, but whatever it was, it's not there now.

62:49 Whatever was missing is back and even in greater measure.

62:54 And brethren, to minister to the same people year in, year out, as God is pleased to give you a people to love and to try to take safely to heaven. What a horrible thing when you allow the sameness of the past to dull your own awareness of the awesomeness of the task and thereby rob the people of any real burning God consciousness in your preaching because you've lost it in your own soul. And if it isn't maintained in your own soul, it won't be maintained in your ministry. And if it's not maintained in the flavor of your ministry, it's rare that it will be found in the rank and file of your people.

63:31 And that's an awesome reality. But it's true. It's true. Your people will take on the complexion and texture of your own present relationship to God.

63:42 For good or for ill, may God have mercy on us. May God have mercy on me. But an awesome responsibility is ours.