39a) Preaching in Relationship to God

The Preacher's Relationship to God: An Appointed Ambassador

0:02 All right, brethren, let's pick up where we left off in the previous hour as we are seeking to address this first component in the act of preaching, namely the preacher's present relationship to his God. And having sought to address several pivotal texts, I've been exhorting you to cultivate the awareness of preaching as in the sight of God, to cultivate the awareness of preaching as one on his way to the judgment of God, and now, thirdly, cultivate the awareness of preaching as an appointed ambassador, herald, and gift of God to his people.

0:47 Cultivate the awareness of being an appointed ambassador, herald, and gift of the ascended Christ is the language that appears in your prayer. Now, let's go back again and set the stage. The agony of selection, preparation, seeking to hammer out structure and form is behind you. You ascend the pulpit of some degree of cultivated awareness that you're going to speak as in the presence of God, that what you do will meet you at the judgment of God.

1:22 But now, the question obtrudes itself with almost crippling power, and it will. On what basis do I dare address my fellow mortals and tell them that the issues at stake in embracing this message carry with them all the overtones of the authority of God? On what basis dare I address my fellow mortals with that perspective? On what basis dare I address fellow sinners, some of whom are far more sinful, sanctified than I, some as, I'm sorry, fellow saints,

2:06 far more sanctified than I, far more knowledgeable than I? On what basis dare I address fellow sinners, many of whom are not as bad as I was before I came into a state of grace, nowhere near as defiled, foul-mouthed, filthy-minded, as blatantly defiant of God's law? Well, that's a very searching question, and anyone who reflects at all on what he's doing will find that question obtruding itself, and it can obtrude with almost crippling power. Well, the only answer that will satisfy your soul in the act of preaching

2:47 lies in the biblical concepts covered in the language of the exhortation. We must cultivate the awareness that we are preaching as an appointed ambassador, and we must cultivate the awareness that we are preaching as an appointed ambassador, the herald and gift of the ascended Christ. Let's look at several texts that have led to that language. The first is 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12.

Biblical Basis for Divine Appointment: Paul's Example

3:15 And notice how this has overtones of Paul's consciousness of what he once was. I thank him that enabled me, even Christ Jesus our Lord, for that he, counted me faithful, appointing me to his service, though I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, howbeit I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.

4:00 Here the apostle says in spite of the painful remembrance and I wonder what he felt emotionally and psychologically when he had to pen the words blasphemer persecutor and injurious I can't imagine him doing that dispassionately I believe he carried a wound in his spirit to his dying day with respect to what he once was. The remembrance of little babes crying when he forcibly took away mothers and fathers.

4:31 For it says he took men and women and committed them to prison when he would think of the saintly face of Stephen and that he stood there in his proud pharisaic delusion consenting to the death of that holy man with an angel's face how in the world dare this man stand and say I have a message and I come in the name of the God of heaven telling you believe my message and you'll live rejected and you'll die. Where did he get the gospel?

5:02 All to do that well obviously our text says I thank him that enabled me even Christ Jesus our Lord for that he counted me faithful or trustworthy appointing me to his service and though with the apostolic office and in conjunction with that office the conversion of the apostle as well though it came in an extraordinary way and we do not take him as a paradigm.

5:32 In terms of direct revelation being the door into which he entered into the ministry nonetheless the principle is the same it was his consciousness that he was not a self appointed man that gave him the boldness to proclaim his message he had a cultivated awareness that he preached as an appointed servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Necessity of Being Sent: Hearing Christ's Voice

6:01 And when we come to these next two passages they are often quoted in various context here in this place but we do well to go back to them again and again Romans chapter 10 verses 14 and 15 in that closely knit line of reasoning and argumentation the apostle asked the question how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed.

6:31 How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard they must hear the voice of the one who is the object of faith how shall they call on him whom how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard and how shall they hear hear what hear his voice how shall they hear the Lord who is the object of faith how shall they call upon him how shall they hear his voice how shall they hear the Lord who is the object of faith how shall they call upon him how shall they hear his voice how shall they hear the Lord who is the object of faith how shall they call upon him how shall they hear his voice how shall they hear the Lord who is the object of faith how shall they call upon him how shall they call upon him how shall they hear his voice how shall they hear the Lord who is the object of faith how shall they call upon him how shall they call upon him how shall they hear his voice how shall they hear the Lord who is the object of faith how shall they call upon him whom they have not heard and how shall they hear hear what hear his voice how shall they voice how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent

7:12 not except they send themselves but except they be sent even as it is written how beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things and here is this amazing truth that the lord jesus who said in john 10 16 other sheep i have which are not of this fold them also i must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold one shepherd they shall hear my voice thinking beyond the immediate context of his ministry it's the other sheep it's the masses of the gentiles it's the vast hordes of the goyim who would be brought in to the one shepherd he

7:56 said they shall hear my voice and they shall hear my voice and they shall hear my voice and they shall hear my voice and how do they hear his voice they hear his voice when the preaching comes from one who is sent how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent and whatever is involved in that sent nest this much is clear that the sent one becomes the very mouthpiece of the christ who becomes the object of faith christ comes speaking his truth as paul says to the ephesians he christ came and preached peace to you that are near and to them that are afar off he regarded his

8:34 ministry at ephesus as the voice of jesus christ to call out his own hence the apostle uses the language in second corinthians 5 we then are on ambassadors verse 20 i think verse 19 is is in your notes it should be verse 20 we are ambassadors therefore on behalf of christ as though god were entreating by us an amazing statement we beseech you on behalf of christ in the room instead of christ be reconciled to god

9:18 we are ambassadors it is the voice of the sovereign that speaks through the appointed ambassador the ambassador's voice is the voice of his king and the apostles says we are conscious that when we speak the word of christ we are speaking on behalf of christ as though god himself were entreating by us and again i commend you philip hughes's comments on this passage in which he underscores so convincingly the the staggering reality of this representative element in the work of the ministry and surely it's not going beyond the words of our lord who said in john 13 that the word of god is the word of god and the word of god is the word of

10:00 and verse 20 these words again that are amazing because they extend beyond the apostolate verily verily i say unto you he that receives whomsoever i send receives me and he that receives me receives him that sent me whosoever christ sends receives christ himself why because he is sent by christ in the room and in the room and in the room and in the room and in the room and in the room instead of christ to speak the word of christ and i say if we are in this act of preaching

Preachers as Christ's Gift to the Church

10:40 to have the proper present sense of our relationship to god it must not only be characterized by the awareness that we speak as in his presence we speak as those on our way to his judgment but we speak as those in spite of all of our deficiencies in all of the awareness of our present areas of inadequacy and sin and lack of conformity to christ and a host of other negative things we nonetheless speak as his appointed ambassadors heralds and a gift of

11:18 christ and here i make reference of course to ephesians chapter 4 where in the ongoing nurturing work of christ in conjunction with his church we are told that he gave some apostles some prophets some evangelists and some pastors and teachers he gives them not in a extraordinary manner but he gives them in the ordinary way but he nonetheless gives them and this is why i've placed in the heading that we must cultivate this awareness of being not god's gift to the church but a gift of christ to the church

12:03 few things will set all my alarm bells ringing more loudly and more clamorously than for some young man to come to me with a starry look in his eyes and say pastor martin i'm humbled by the thought that i just have a sense that god is preparing me for a great work in his kingdom all of my alarm bells go off what a frightening thing i said man little do you know what you're saying no when god called men rarely do you find them jumping front and center saying oh lord it's about time you saw things as i did when he's going to call moses he said lord you got the wrong

12:45 guy i've got a problem i'm slow of speech when he comes to isaiah he's flat on his face saying i'm an unclean man jeremiah i'm just a kid lord what you calling me for no anyone who's truly called of god is first of all humbled in the awareness of all of his own deficiencies and inadequacies but in spite of all of that if indeed we are brought into the ministry in a biblical and orderly way we must cultivate the awareness that when we speak the word of god we speak in relationship to this god as his appointed

13:28 ambassador we speak in his name as though god were beseeching by the instrumentality of our voice and our ministry we speak as one whom christ has given to his church we have not forced ourselves into this position we have not politic our way into this position we have not bought our way into that position we stand there apart from all of the means in the ordinary providence of god that are used to bring us there our appointment is nonetheless valid and real than the appointment of the apostle by direct revelation the method by which we discover that

The Importance of a Biblical Call and Warning Against Unsent Ambition

14:11 appointment and by which the church recognizes that appointment is entirely different but the appointment by god is nonetheless real and validated now let me say by way of application under this heading brethren do you see why we are so insistent in this place that you seek to have a truly biblical and orderly call to the office of an elder laboring in the word and in doctrine how are you going to be able to cultivate an awareness of preaching as an appointed ambassador herald and gift of god to his church if you do not have solid grounds to believe that is precisely what you are true boldness

14:55 and authority and directness are rooted in the consciousness of derived authority derived authority i do not have an authority inherent in myself but i have an authority conferred on me by god and i have an authority conferred on me by god and i have an authority conferred by the appointment of god and one of the great indictments of the false prophets in the day of jeremiah is to be found precisely at this point in jeremiah 23 verses 21 and 32 listen to the complaint that god issues through his prophet jeremiah jeremiah chapter 23 that

15:36 chapter along with matthew 23 that is one of the great indictments on false shepherds 23 and verse 21 i sent not these prophets yet they ran i spoke not unto them yet they prophesied and of course the effect of their ministry is outlined in verse 22 if they had stood in my council then they had caused my people to hear my words and it turned them from their evil ways and from the evil of their doings again in verse 32

16:13 yet i sent them not nor commanded them do they profit this people at all says the lord here are prophets who ran unsent and a similar indictment is made in chapter 14 and verse 14 and brethren let me state in plain language unmortified ambition and carnal haste may appear innocent enough when pushing a man prematurely or without warrant into the office but if the man has any sense of what

16:52 he's about he will see the cursed nature of this ambition and haste when he stands to speak and has no biblical grounds to believe that god stands above him saying speak my son i've appointed you to this task and whatever else you must have if you're going to be a prophet you must have a voice you must have a voice if you're going to speak with any true measure of authority and directness and with the confidence that the spirit of god will attend you in your labors you must have as much confidence as it's possible to have in the way of the ordinary means that god has

17:32 appointed i am not standing here because i decided it would be a good thing for me to stand here some years ago i read a book called the gospel of the gospel of the gospel of the gospel of the gospel of the gospel a letter that a minister sends out to fellow ministers in which he declared under the heading my greatest ministerial burden and you know what it was he said dealing with men who are determined to be preachers dash regardless dealing with men who are determined to be preachers regardless and

18:13 then he went on to say what the regard this was the absence of the composite expression of the graces regardless of the presence of the presence of the presence of the presence of the presence of required in first timothy three the absence of evident gifts and aptitude to teach those things that are absolutely essential and yet and i can validate that when people have this subjective individualistic conviction god has set me apart to this and the only one that's ready to stand by it is the individual it's a frightening thing and brethren i would far rather as i tell people with regard to their marriage far better than to stand by it and to stand by it and to stand by it and to be happily married five years into the marriage and look back and say i believe we could have taken

18:57 this step six months sooner than to spend a whole lifetime repenting that you didn't wait another six months and you would have discovered that the thing ought to have been called off in the first place well far better to be 10 years into a god-blessed ministry and say i do believe i could have run a bit sooner far better to do that than at the end of 10 years of blasting and mildew wherever you go with no seal of fire and no seal of fire and no seal of fire and no seal of fire of god upon your life and your labors to come to the conviction that you sent yourself if ever we need caution brethren let's have holy caution that we do not run unsent for if we do we're

Preaching as God's Uniquely Chosen Instrument

19:39 cutting the nerve of what is involved in effective pastoral namely the consciousness and the confidence that in the presence of god i speak as an appointed ambassador herald and gift of god to his church and then forth i urge you with respect to this matter of preaching in relationship to god himself cultivate the awareness that preaching is a uniquely chosen and unchangeably relevant instrument of god cultivate the awareness that preaching is

20:21 a uniquely chosen and unchangeably relevant instrument of god and i've put it under this heading because it has to do as we were reminded in the previous hour that it's god's wisdom that has ordained that through the foolishness of the kerygma the thing preached it is the thing preached the message it is the thing preached the method and both the message and the method are of divine appointment and i must cultivate a growing awareness that preaching is indeed preaching and not preaching it is the thing preached as I've described it here an unchangeably relevant instrument of God

21:06 and in its unchangeable relevance it is a uniquely chosen instrument of God and the text you know I've already quoted one of them 1 Corinthians 1.18 here the apostle in addressing the problem of divisions there at Corinth their worldly wisdom their pride for the word or message of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us who are saved it is the power of God verse 21 for seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God it was God's good pleasure

21:50 through the foolishness of the preaching the thing preached the thing preached to save them that believe and the text that we've already looked at Romans 10.14 how shall they hear without a preacher how shall they preach except they be sent here you see preaching is not one instrument among many it is a unique instrument among others a unique instrument among others I'm not prepared to say biblically it is the only instrument for scripture records and human experience validation that God can use the simple reading of the word of God

22:32 God can use the printed page but his uniquely chosen instrument is the living instrument speaking to living fellow mortals in the name and in the authority of God reflecting the very disposition of God in that preaching it is his uniquely chosen instrument to call in his own and to build up his people in their most holy faith and with respect to this to the sanctification of God's people John 17 in verse 17 that should be not 17.7 but 17.7 sanctify them in the truth thy word is truth in Ephesians 4.15 speaking truth in love

23:16 may grow up into him in all things and in the speaking of that truth there is not only the ministry of the body to itself but there are pastor teachers who are Christ's gift and there are pastors who have a dominant place in the speaking forth of God's truth therefore as I stand in the presence of the living God I ought to stand with a growing cultivated awareness that I do so as an appointed ambassador herald gift of God yes engaged in what exercise in what means of grace in that uniquely chosen and unchangeably right relevant instrument

Practical Results: Holy Enthusiasm and Expectancy

24:01 called preaching now if indeed God helps me to cultivate these various strands of what I'm calling in the catch-all terminology our relationship to God in the act of preaching what practical effect will it have upon my ministry and here we come to large letter B the practical results of such cultivation will be holy enthusiasm and experience expectancy freshness and an avoidance of all that is dull and lifeless and passionless there will be a sense of holy enthusiasm and expectancy

24:44 turn to Mark chapter 4 Mark chapter 4 here in verses 26 to 29 so is the kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed upon the earth and should sleep and rise night and day and the seed should spring up and grow he knows not how the earth bears fruit of herself first the blade then the ear then the full grain in the ear but when the fruit is ripe straightway he puts forth the sickle because the harvest is come

25:28 so is the kingdom of God it has analogous realities with regard to a man that throws his seed out in the earth he does nothing to cultivate it it operates by a process that he cannot explain but what happens there is a direct relationship between the activity of his sowing the seed and later on another activity that comes when he puts forth the sickle the seed then the sickle and what happens in between this man though sleeping and rising night and day the seed goes on working out its inherent principles under the providence of God and it bears

26:12 fruit of herself first the blade then the ear then the full grain in the ear now whatever multi-layered emphases may be found in this particular parable surely this much is clear that when the farmer casts his seed he does so with an element of enthusiasm and expectancy because he knows his next major endeavor under the blessing of God will be not the seed bag but the sickle and though he can't explain all the processes and sub-processes that go on between the sowing and the sickle he sows in the expectancy that following the sowing there will eventually be the putting forth of the sickle

26:56 and surely this has overtones of the Lord's promise from Isaiah chapter 55 a promise that every servant of God ought to make his own and plead repeatedly before God for as the rain verse 10 comes down in the snow from heaven and does not return there but waters the earth and makes it bring forth in bud gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth it shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper

27:41 in the thing whereto I sent it brethren as men of faith we need to lay hold of that promise and believing as we stand to minister the word of God that we speak in the presence of God on our way to the judgment of God we speak as those who are convinced that we come in his name appointed by him and we are engaging in that uniquely chosen instrument to accomplish his purpose there ought to be within our breast in spite of all the other things that would rise up and discourage us and cause us to run from that sacred task

28:26 there ought to be an element of holy enthusiasm and expectancy I am not on a fool's errand I am not on a fool's errand and how vividly I was reminded of this just last night we had the joy at eight o'clock in our elders meeting of having a an interview with one of our young ladies who's just turned I believe twenty and what a thrilling thing to have her give an account of her conversion undramatic no voices no flutter of angels wings no being broken down and humbled for three weeks while she could neither eat nor sleep nor drink but as we asked her to give an account of God's dealings with her

29:11 she told how she would sit and take notes because her parents would require her to give the gist of the sermon but how she did it grudgingly how she did it reluctantly with no appetite and no heart but as the truth of God was filtering in through all of this God brought her three to four years ago to a place where she saw her need no longer could hide behind a de facto hyperism that said well I've asked God to save me and nothing's happened so I just gotta wait till I'm zapped and the Lord used certain ministries to stir her up to seek the Lord and she became confident that God had heard her cry when what was before a drudgery and a dutiful discipline now began to be a delight

29:54 and the Bible that was read at the insistence of her mom and dad as a discipline of a reluctant young lady now became her meat and drink and then to ask her well what are you presently doing in your devotions well I have that Bible that takes you through the Bible in a year well where did you read this morning I read here in my Old Testament and then I had my proverb and here in the Bible and then I read here in the Bible and then I read here in the Psalms and this is where I am in the New Testament and then when we asked and what are you doing to nurture your communion with God well I seek to spend 45 minutes in prayer before I go off into the day brethren what a thrilling thing to pillow your head at night and say Lord there was the seed how did it work through all of these various influences but there is what we have

30:39 reason to believe is the blossoming forth of a planting of the Lord that he might be glorified brethren this is what we're in this is the task to which God has appointed us and if indeed we speak in this cultivated awareness of our relationship to God in these areas then surely something of the disposition of enthusiasm and expectancy and freshness will mark our labors there will be a calculated avoidance of all that is dull of all that is lifeless and of all that is passionless he will call his sheep through me he will perfect his own through my labors

Divine Power in Human Weakness: The Contagion of Faith

31:24 and I've listed 2nd Corinthians 4 7 to 15 as a passage that I would encourage you to meditate upon you say Pastor there's a lot of passages from 2nd Corinthians yes because that's where I've been rooting around in the past week and a half or so in my own devotional life and as part of my devotions I'm even reading Hugh's commentary and my soul's getting blessed and here you have one of the many many passages where the apostle indicates something of these particular perspectives 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 7 but we have this treasure this treasure of the gospel ministry in which creative power is put forth to reveal the glory of God in the face of Christ

32:09 we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not of God from ourselves and then this overarching theme of 2nd Corinthians of strength in the midst of weakness we are pressed on every side yet not straightened or constricted perplexed yet not unto despair pursued yet not forsaken smitten down yet not destroyed always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body for we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake and we are not that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh so then death works in us

32:53 but life in you but having the same spirit of faith according to that which is written I believed and therefore did I speak we also believe and therefore also we speak knowing that the that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also with Jesus and shall present us with you you see the apostle said there was a direct relationship between his own present actings of faith in these great realities and his speaking according to that which is written I believed and therefore did I speak we also believe and therefore also we speak

33:37 and his speaking reflected that inner disposition of faith and confidence that in human weakness divine strength would be displayed as Paul is conscious that there is a particular providence constantly handing him and his companions over with as it were the death sentence over them you'd say those guys have had it that's the end of the road for them and yet out of one dead end after another what does God do? he's birthing churches all over the Roman Empire and these men go about as walking corpses in terms of the whole ethos in which they carry out their ministry pressured perplexed pursued smitten down always

34:21 as men as it were on their way to execution yet out of these condemned men life is coming life is coming and the excellency of the power is not of themselves but is of the living God brethren if God enables us to capture something of the wonder and the glory the paradoxes of the Christian ministry then surely as men who cultivate this awareness of preaching in the presence of our God lifelessness dullness a lack of expectancy these things should not characterize our ministries our people come many of them dragged beaten and bleeding and halting out of the world the last thing they need

35:06 is a man who comes into the pulpit with no expectancy with no living present faith in the realities of which he speaks and in the in which he traffics there is a contagion of the expectancy of faith there is a contagion of the freshness of a man who is living and ministering as in the presence of the living God well I trust that the Lord will bring us all back again and again to these watershed issues which in the act of preaching are foundational to any true usefulness and having said that I want to underscore that even when we get to the most practical matters of the heading of the preacher in relationship to his environment

35:51 remember it is God who has ordered these elements that go into that so that while some of these things may appear very mundane and very crass in their earthiness remember that the backdrop of all of these things is this fundamental issue that we address this morning that if we are to preach as we ought we must preach as men whose present relationship to God is characterized by the things that we've sought to open up and underscore in our studies together well I've completed what I'd hoped to say to you and we've got a couple of minutes before one I know again some of you men are under strict time constraints and you should

36:35 feel free to leave others who have questions matters that you want to open up for discussion will be glad to stay on and entertain those questions yes Mike