The Gospel He Preached

Introduction to Trinity Baptist Church and Ministry

0:04 First question people most often ask is, where is Essex Fells? And the best way to describe it is to say that it's my privilege to live and minister in an area that is just about 20 miles due west and a little bit south of the George Washington Bridge, which is upper Manhattan, in that area way up in northern New Jersey, in that section of the country that is generally described as the northern New Jersey, New York metropolitan area, where, as I've often told people, no one lives if he has a choice unless, A, he's crazy, or B, he's called of God. And it's because of the latter, I trust, that I am there and have been there now for a number of years, in fact, 17 plus years, and 13 years ago it was my joy and privilege with 37 charter members to constitute the Trinity Baptist Church. It's a church which has so much in common with your own. Because we are committed to a confession of faith which is the second child of the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Westminster Confession of Faith gave birth to its first child, which was the Savoy Confession, in which those who held the broad doctrinal perspectives of the Westminster Confession wanted to declare their oneness with the people of God who held to that confession, but they differed in the area of church government.

1:29 Well, a little bit later, those who differed in the area of church government and... And the matter of how much water on whom drew up the 1689 or London Confession of Faith.

1:41 And that was the second child, and that's the confessional basis of our assembly. Well, from that time, some 13 years ago, God has been pleased to bless the work with a steady and solid growth. And though many have been with us for four or five years, and then God has moved them on to other places as career opportunities have opened before them, our membership now stands around 300, with about 350 in attendance regularly on the Lord's Day. And in addition to all of the regular ministries of a local church, local evangelism, in missions, in hospitals, and in other channels that are open to us, God has been pleased to entrust to us as a church the oversight of three missionary families, two of whom we fully support and are also, in a sense, their mission board, in this... That we, as our elders, give them counsel and direction.

2:37 And we've seen the joy of a church planted in the area of East London in England, a church planted in Sweden with a literature ministry that literally extends to all of Sweden. And then we have a major part in the support of a missionary in the suburbs of Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa. And we've also had the joy of seeing a church planted in that place. And then in addition to those...

3:02 In addition to those ministries, God has been pleased to entrust to us a tape ministry, which has two full-time employees and one part-time employee. And each year, about 35,000 to 40,000 cassettes go out to over 60 countries and all of the states and all of the provinces of Canada. And that just is something that has developed on its own. We've never promoted it.

3:27 It's nothing we ever had ambitions to have. But God, in His providence, was pleased to give this door of ministry. And then three years ago, God led us to establish a three-year program of ministerial training. And so the Trinity Ministerial Academy operates every Tuesday through Friday in the basement of our church.

3:47 And I'm privileged to be one of the instructors in that academy. Our church is made up primarily of young couples. Anyone my age is almost like a patriarch. The average age is probably late 20s, possibly early 30s couples just beginning to have their first child.

4:02 And we have a number of young couples who are in the early 30s. And we have a number of young couples who are in the early 30s. In fact, it's a joke around our place that our young couples have babies like old-time Catholics when it was a sin not to have as large a family as you could possibly have. And we rejoice in the wholesome biblical attitude which our couples have to the privilege of parenthood and the establishment of Christian homes.

4:22 Well, I hope that gives you at least a little bird's-eye view of what our church is. And as God would bring us to your remembrance, we would covet your prayers that God would help us to be faithful to you. We would be faithful to the trust which He has given to us as a local church, a trust which I am grateful to say I do not carry on my shoulders alone, but my fellow elders meet with me every Saturday night from 7 till 10 or 10.30, every single Saturday to share the burdens of the work of the ministry there.

4:53 And then, as some of you know, God has entrusted to me this other ministry, particularly ministering to pastors and the servants of Christ in ministry. In many parts of the world, a ministry again which I had never sought, and I would give it up tomorrow if I could, because it's not a glamorous thing. It just means additional burdens, but God has thrust that ministry upon me. And this summer, I try to limit my overseas ministry to one per year.

5:20 Sometimes I break that rule of thumb under the pressure of other responsibilities in these places, but I'll be ministering in South Africa in the month of July, along with the Reverend Ian Murray, whom some of you may know, and some of you may not know, but I'll be ministering in South Africa in the month of July, have had the privilege of meeting, and would covet your prayers for God's blessing upon that ministry as well. Thank you so much for the privilege of sharing with you something of what God is doing for the fulfillment of His own promises to His Son through the efforts of His servants there in Essex Fells. And thank you, brethren, for the opportunity to share these things.

Paul's Overwhelming Passion: Preaching the Gospel

6:08 May I encourage you to follow with me as I read again this evening the portion of the Word of God which was read in your hearing room and then proceed in our study of this rich portion of the Word of God. Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20, and beginning with verse 17.

6:53 Speaking of Paul the Apostle, the Word of God says, And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to him the elders of the church. When they were come to him, he said to them, Ye yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia, after what manner I was with you all the time, serving the Lord with all lowliness, and with tears, and with trials which befell me by the plots of the Jews, how I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Spirit testifieth unto me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom,

8:19 shall see my face no more. Wherefore I testify unto you this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I shrank not from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God. As we came to the study of this passage this morning, I noted with you that, in a very real sense, we could describe the Apostle Paul as a man who was possessed with this overwhelming passion. He was an obsessed man in that sense, and his great obsession, which caused him to regard even the preservation of his life as a very little matter, was this obsession in conjunction with preaching the gospel of the grace of God. Verse 24, I hold not my life of any account as dear, to myself, so that I may accomplish my course and the ministry I receive from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. It was this consuming passion to fulfill the will of God with respect to preaching the gospel of God which constantly motivated this dear man of God. And so, because of this obsession and the manner to which it worked out,

Paul's Position and Manner as a Gospel Preacher

9:47 in his life, Paul becomes to us a great model of a gospel preacher. And under that theme, Paul, a model of a gospel preacher, we studied two lines of thought that are in the passage in our study this morning. We saw, first of all, his self-conscious position from which he preached the gospel. He could say, you know that from the first day I was among you, I was among you, serving the Lord.

10:19 And that word, serving, means literally discharging the function of a slave. I was among you as the bond-slave of Christ. And we'll never understand Paul as a model of a gospel preacher unless we understand his self-conscious identity as the love-slave of Jesus Christ. He calls himself precisely that in, Romans 1 and verse 1, Paul, a bond-slave of Jesus Christ.

10:53 And then we noted, secondly, the manner in which he preached the gospel. And it's all right there in the passage. You should be able to preach the sermon to anyone else when we're done, because it's right there in the text. He said, you know the manner I was with you, verse 19, serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind.

11:13 His ministry was characterized by genuine, humility. There was no strut. There was no cockiness. There was no swaggering confidence.

11:24 There was the recognition that he was but a creature and a sinful creature, even the chief of sinners, who stood by grace and grace alone. But he was also characterized not only by humility, but by compassion and pathos. He says, you know that I serve the Lord with tears. And more than once, these very men had seen the tears flash from the cheeks of this great man of God, because these were issues not of professional concern.

11:55 He didn't talk about God and Christ and heaven and hell, because those were the verbal tools of his trade. But he spoke about them as the great realities of his heart. And when he saw men indifferent to his Savior, it broke his heart. When he saw men unconcerned about the hell to which they were going, it broke his heart.

12:17 When he saw men opposing the gospel, it broke his heart. And the manner of his preaching was marked not only by humility, but by compassion and pathos. And then it was marked thirdly by faithfulness in the face of opposition. Notice the language.

12:34 And with the trials which befell me by the plots of the Jews. These unbelieving Jews continually plagued him wherever he went, but he continued to be faithful in the face of that opposition. And then the manner of his ministry was marked by thoroughness. Thoroughness with regard to the content of his message.

12:57 He said in verse 20, I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable. He calls it down in verse 27, the whole counsel of God. Whatever God revealed, he was prepared to preach. And remember, this was not as a teacher in the seminary, but as an evangelist, as an apostle at Ephesus.

13:20 And he was concerned to proclaim the whole truth of God to men. But then he was thorough in his exposure. He taught and preached from house to house as well as publicly. And then we concluded our study by noting that the manner was always characterized by intelligent solemnity.

13:42 He uses two words, testifying both to Jews and to the Gentiles. And to Greeks. Verse 20, I shrank not from declaring and I taught you. And those words, declaring, testifying, and taught, speak of a manner of preaching that was characterized by both solemnity and by the intelligent communication of truth.

14:09 He wasn't there to whip up their emotions. He wasn't there to play a tune upon their emotions and to try to elicit a response based upon the heat of present emotional pressure as so many evangelists do in our day. He wasn't up there ranting and raving. No.

14:28 He was solemnly declaring in a manner that was clear and intelligible to his hearers the great truth of God. Well, that's in about seven minutes what it took us about 50 minutes to work out this morning. Now let us move on in our study of the passage as we further consider Paul, a model of a gospel preacher and trace out a third line of thought that is in the text. Having looked at the position from which he preached the gospel, a bondslave of Christ, the manner in which he preached the gospel, these five characteristics, now thirdly, the kinds of people to whom he preached his gospel.

The Universal Audience: Jews and Greeks

15:11 Notice verse 21. Testifying both to Jews and to the people of Israel. And to Greeks. Repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

15:24 So the kinds of people to whom he preached is summarized in these two words, Jews and Greeks. Now you will find that little formula, Jews and Greeks, in several places in the writings of Paul. He says in Romans chapter 1, I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God to everyone that believeth to the people of Israel.

15:48 Jew first and also to the Greeks. You will find in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, he speaks of the preaching of the cross that is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. Now what does that little combination of words mean? Well it simply means this, that if Paul were trying to describe all men in all circumstances of all races and all races, and all races, and all races, and all races, and all races, and all races, and all races, and all religions, and all backgrounds, he couldn't do it a better way than just to put those two words together.

16:24 Testifying to Jews and to Greeks. Now who was the Jew in Paul's day? Well the Jew was that person who had all the privileges of the revealed religion of the Old Testament. The Jew was that person described in Romans chapter 3 and then again in Romans chapter 9 who was part of that nation to whom the Lord said, to whom the oracles of God were given, with whom God made special covenants, that is special arrangements of privilege.

16:56 It was this nation to whom God gave the prophets. It was this nation that had the temple and the priesthood and the sacrificial system and all of the wonderful privileges of the revealed religion of heaven. And so for the most part because of the discipline of God's dealings with that nation, in Paul, the Jews were found scattered throughout the Roman Empire often gathered together in synagogues in these various places free from the idolatry that characterized the Gentile or the Greek nations. They had the scriptures that were read every Sabbath in their synagogues.

17:38 They had the instruction of the word of God and because of it, outwardly many of them were far above the hordes of the Gentiles or the Greeks. In their religion and in their moral standards. Now the Greeks were simply the pagan of that day. Some of them were very cultured.

17:56 Some of them very educated. From them came some of the great philosophers. Some of them had sunk to the depths of Romans chapter 1 where Paul describes the then existing Roman world in language that makes the most realistic person blush just to read it. Where every form of degeneracy and every form of degeneracy and every form of wickedness is described in the most graphic way.

18:22 And the Greek, you see, was part of the hordes of the Gentiles who did not have a revealed religion. They did not have the scriptures. In the language of Ephesians 2 verse 12 they were cut off from the commonwealth of Israel. They were without hope and without God.

18:39 And yet, and this should amaze us if we can feel something of this, Paul says in this passage as a model of a gospel preacher that he had one universal message for the Jew and for the Greek. Now think of it. What would you think of a doctor in this town who had but one remedy for every patient that came to him?

19:06 I think we'd say quack, quack. We'd say any doctor who has one remedy for every patient that comes to him is a quack.

19:19 He's not a bona fide physician unless everyone who comes to him has the same disease or unless he has discovered a miracle drug that can cure any kind of disease.

19:37 Now what was Paul? Was he a spiritual quack? When he said, I have one remedy for the Jew and for the Greek. Or was it that he had been given a remedy that was adequate for the Jew and for all the needs of all men no matter what their condition may have been.

The Universal Condition: Why One Message for All

19:59 Now it's this precise point that I want to press for a few minutes tonight. Why did Paul have but one universal message? For the simple reason that when you get down to the things that really matter, all of us are in precisely the same condition. Now think of all the differences on the surface between a Jew and a Greek.

20:21 All right? Here is the thing. Here is the Jew who can tell you about his history going all the way back to Abraham. He can tell you how God sent Abraham out with a word of promise and how out of that nation that was sent down into Egypt and how out of that man and his family God formed a nation and brought them to himself at Sinai.

20:43 How God gave them Moses and gave them his law. He could talk about the miracles. The Jew could speak of tremendous privileges in the sovereign purpose. The Jew could talk about many things in terms of his knowledge that there is but one true God, that he is holy, he is not to be worshipped with our own notions.

21:05 The Jew could quote the Ten Commandments, all of these privileges. Now there is the Gentile. He has never had any such treatment from God. He has been left for centuries in the darkness of paganism with nothing but the light of creation pointing him to the fact that there is one true and living God.

21:25 But beyond that no special revelation coming to him. And this created in a very real sense two totally different cultures, two totally different perspectives on life in all of its dimensions. And yet Paul says take the Jew and take the Greek with all of the differences religiously, culturally, morally and everything else. But when you get down to the things that really matter they are exactly one.

21:51 And what was true then is true today. There are many differences reflected in the group of people gathered here tonight. Age differences. We've got some young people probably anywhere from age five, four, five right up to some not so young and everything in between.

22:13 We've got people who were nursed as it were at the breast of Christian truth. From the time you were born you were given the knowledge of the word of God taken to Sunday school the word of God was read in your family. There was loving strict discipline that kept your outward life from so many of the sins that have crippled others. Some of you who in that sense are modern Jews born under the privilege of the light of the word of God kept from so many sins because of the influence of a godly home.

22:45 We have some modern Greeks. Some of you who came from a totally pagan background where the only thing you knew about the name of Jesus is that that was the word of God. The word your father used when he was angry or drunk. And all you knew about church was that you heard people say that's where a bunch of hypocrites go.

23:03 Or that's where a bunch of people go who can't make it and hack it on their own and they need a crutch and that's where they go to get trussed up to make it for another week. You would be the modern Greek. But what in the world do you have in common? One of you been kept from immorality and the drug culture and the hedonism and the blatant godliness that marks our generation.

23:25 And yet others of you who perhaps are the living example of that kind of a lifestyle but in reality in the things that matter there's no essential difference between the two. Why? Because every single one of us is the creature of the living God. Acts 17 God has made of one all nations for to dwell upon the face of the earth the apostle says.

23:53 Everyone whatever distinctions there may be in background in culture ethnic and racial and all the rest every single human being that breathes upon the face of the earth is the creature of God. Secondly every single human being fell in Adam. Acts I'm sorry Romans chapter 5 says wherefore as through one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for all sin. When did all sin?

24:30 All sin in Adam. And you see the stupidity of any kind of racial or ethnic pride? My friend when Adam sinned you sinned and fell in him along with the pygmy in the bush and that naked person in the Baleen Valley in what used to be called New Guinea and is now called West Ereon who has nothing but a gourd for his clothes.

24:59 You stand right with him in all of your refined southern finery as a sinner who fell in Adam. You stand right with him. I stand with him with all of my Yankee depravity. I stand with him.

25:19 You stand with him. We're all in it together. The creatures of God all of us fell in Adam and no group is more fallen than another as in Adam all die says the scripture. The scripture goes on to say we are all equally depraved.

25:41 Romans 3 verses 10 and following Paul says we have proved from the scriptures concerning Jew and Gentile there is none righteous no not one there is none that understandeth none that seeks after God they are all turned aside they are together become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one we are all equally dead in our trespasses and sins look at Ephesians chapter 2 Paul is describing first of all the Gentiles and he says in Ephesians 2 you you Gentiles did he make alive when you Gentiles were dead through your trespasses and sins wherein you once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now works among the sons of disobedience now notice among whom we you see the change you were this you were this you were that but now he says among whom we all once lived in the lust of our flesh doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest think of it here's a man who describes himself in Philippians chapter 3

27:10 as a Hebrew of the Hebrews a strict Pharisee touching his outward life you could go through the law of God and you couldn't find a place at which you could point the finger at Paul and say aha there you are you're breaking God's law he said touching the external standard of the law I was blameless and yet you see where he puts himself in this passage he puts himself with all these raw heathen pagans and says he was a slave of sin and of lust and a child of wrath on his way to hell like everyone else that's where he learned his theology when God showed him that there is no difference between Jew and Greek in the things that really matter all the creatures of God all fallen in Adam all equally depraved all equally dead and condemned and I wonder as you sit here tonight has that ever come home with power to your own heart I am amazed at the stupid inconsequential things that people use as a platform on which to put themselves out of the reach of the gospel oh yes if I had been one of those wicked women if I had been one of those vile women who gave my body to any man who propositioned me or if I had been a hooker in New Orleans in Bourbon Street

28:39 oh yes then I might have to use the terms vile and full of sin I am but God was good to me you see you give God the credit even for your pride God was good to me I was brought up in a Christian home and I was kept from those bad things and oh yes I know I need Jesus to have a little more than I could have myself but I don't need him as a vile filthy hooker needs him I don't need him as some foul mouth cursing fiendish woman might need him I don't need him as an alcoholic might need him or a lecture or an open liar and blasphemer and so what do you do of the very privileges that surrounded you and kept you from being scarred by certain sins you construct a platform to put yourself outside of the reach of God Paul says I have one remedy for all men I testify to Jew and to grief without discrimination one message why because in the things that matter they are essentially one oh my friend does that come home to your heart not that you despise the privileges I thank God again and again for parents who knew how to say a sanctified no who set up standards and rules and regulations and made me keep them and when

30:08 Pop said do this or else it was no idle threat I'll clue you it was no idle threat you be in it such and such an hour or else and I was in because I knew what happened if I tested him I thank God for all those things that kept me from so many sins that it scarred so many of my friends but listen listen when I stand before God what's the ground on which I stand I must say with the apostle Paul by nature I was a child of wrath that is exposed and liable to the wrath of God for sin is essentially a matter of the heart and of one's relationship to the living God oh my friend listen from this passage learn from this great model of a gospel preacher not only the manner of his preaching but those to whom he brought his gospel Jew and Greek all kinds of people who had the same need were brought to the same gospel well then move on with me to consider in the next place then what are the essential elements of the gospel Paul is a great model of a gospel preacher not only because of his identity as a bond slave of Christ his attitudes that we've noticed his understanding that everyone needed the same message

Essential Elements of the Gospel: Repentance Toward God

31:37 but he's a wonderful example of a gospel and he's a wonderful preacher because here he gives us the essential elements of his gospel what are they look at verse 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks two things repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ now notice Paul is summarizing three years of ministry and he says every year everything I preached can come under this two-fold summary of repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ and I like to think of repentance and faith like the two plates on a hinge now you know what a hinge is it holds the door to the door frame so when you open it it doesn't fall out well you have the one plate that is attached to the door frame the other plate that is attached to the door and a pin that holds them together and when you have you can see one right from here ok when you have the two plates held together by the pin you have a hinge on which a door can turn now that's the way you need to view repentance and faith repentance and faith are the two plates

33:04 brought together by the pin of the mighty work of the Holy Spirit on which the door of salvation turns and if any sinner has ever walked through the door of salvation it's had one hinge with two plates repentance and faith wrought in his heart by the Holy Spirit there's no way to get through the door of salvation but according to this passage in a way of repentance and of faith now let's unpack them for the next few moments alright first of all as we look at repentance toward God consider two things with me the activity itself repentance and then the primary object of that activity repentance toward God you see we're letting the Bible suggest the outline we're not artificially manipulating it when someone has opened up the scriptures you ought to go away saying well that's plain that's simple any old fool can see that and if you go away feeling that tonight say he didn't tell me anything unusual it's all right there in the Bible that's the most wonderful compliment you can pay to me as a preacher alright the activity itself he describes as repentance now the word repentance in itself means a change of mind but in its use in the Bible it means something more than just oh I changed my mind I thought I might go down shopping tomorrow morning ten o'clock changed my mind went at two o'clock no no

34:32 it's not a change of mind in the sense that you change your thinking or your choice about some inconsequential little thing I thought I might wear a red ribbon tomorrow but I changed my mind I wear a blue one see no repentance though a change of mind according to the scriptures is a change of mind that touches every area of life listen carefully now at the point that really matters you see it really doesn't matter whether you go shopping at ten or two tomorrow whether you wear a red or a blue bow in your hair but whether you will acknowledge the living God who made you as your God that makes a difference for time and eternity whether you will acknowledge his holy law his holy law as the law by which he has bound you to perfect personal and perpetual obedience that makes all the difference in the world whether you come to acknowledge that you've broken that holy law and you stand under the wrath of a God who could take your life and send you into hell in the next thirty seconds that makes all the difference in the world whether you change your mind about what your role in life is to run the show yourself or to be under the gracious government of the God who made you rendering loving willing obedience to him and his law that makes all the difference in the world whether you start taking seriously what he says about his son that he is God that he's the only savior of sinners and that you must

36:00 receive his son and give yourself to him you have a change of mind about those things and that's a radical change of mind and that's exactly what repentance means it is a change of mind that affects the totality of our lives in the things that really count now having spoken a word about the activity notice the object of that activity and this is so critical look at your Bibles verse 21 testifying to Jews and Greeks notice now repentance toward God and in the original language this is brought out by the structure of the way Paul wrote it if we gave a literal translation it would read like this testifying to Jews and Greeks thee unto or into or with reference to God repentance in other words the words with reference to God or repentance to God but to God is put forward in the sentence for emphasis now what does that tell us it tells us then that repentance has to do primarily not with horizontal issues but with vertical issues repentance doesn't have to do with the fact that mom and dad caught you doing something you weren't supposed to do and when you got caught you felt sorry and cried a bunch

37:29 of crocodile tears and all the rest no no no no repentance has primarily to do with the fact that you stand before the eye of the living God for you see in repentance this is what has happened we have come to discover by the law and the gospel that almighty God is indeed our creator and as a creator who is perfect in righteousness and love and holiness and justice who has given a law that is spiritual and just and holy and good I owe to that God the unreserved allegiance of my heart I owe him my heart's total affection for him to command me to love him with all my heart mind, soul and strength is not tyranny it is not unreasonable it's the only right thing he's the God who gave me life he's the God who sustains my life he's the God who simply requires that I reflect his image the very purpose for which I was made and in repentance we come to that discovery that we have not acknowledged him as our creator we have not served him as our law giver we have not honored him as our great benefactor we have not taken seriously that he is our judge and in repentance we see that

38:58 and we begin to take seriously everything that the Bible says about this God it's a change of mind with reference to God we see that our creator does have a right to us our creator does have a right to the love to the obedience to the love to the homage to the devotion of our hearts and in particular we come to this discovery because this repentance is always a repentance in the context of the gospel we see that the God who could crush us in judgment the God who could send us to hell as he did the sinning angels would be perfectly just in sending us to hell and never giving us a chance of forgiveness and we see that the God who could send us to hell as he did the angels that sinned were sent to hell with no chance of repentance and of forgiveness God could have done the same with us and when we see that this great this holy this God so loved the world as to give his only begotten son that this God who sent his son offers pardon in his son this God who sent his son to die for sinners commands us to repent and to believe the gospel why you see that change of mind about God

40:26 touches every single issue that really counts and where there is any entering through the door of salvation there will always be repentance towards God the vertical realization of sin the vertical acknowledgement of sin will predominate and predominate the sinner knows he's having dealings with God remember David in Psalm 51 how did he pray when he was repenting of his sins of adultery his sins of murder his sins of lying his sins of deceit he was guilty of all those sins yet listen to his language Psalm 51 verse 4 against thee and thee only have I sinned and done that which is evil in thy sight that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest now wait a minute wait a minute hold on a sec David do you mean what you're saying against God and God only you have sinned and done that which is evil in his sight wait a minute David when you looked out from that rooftop in the middle of the night and lusted after Bathsheba and made her your little bunny

41:55 for the night who says the playboy philosophy is new it's as old as the human heart David looking upon Bathsheba lusted after her and made her his plaything for the night David didn't you sin against that noble woman didn't you sin against her virtue how dare you pray against thee and thee only have I sinned didn't you sin against that noble husband of hers when you brought him back from the battlefield tried to get him to go home and spend a night or two with his wife so when it became known she was pregnant everyone would think it was his child and the noble man that he was would not so much as enjoy the comforts and the privileges of his marriage bed but slept outside on the doorsteps because his heart was with his soldiers on the field David haven't you sinned against that noble man Uriah in trying to scheme to get him to cover up your sin and when you couldn't then you planned to have him put it to front of the battle so he'd be killed so Bathsheba would then be free to marry you didn't you sin against that noble man and David for a whole year you've been living the life of a hypocrite great King David man after God's own heart and for almost a whole year you've been living the life of a hypocrite haven't you sinned against the nation and yet David says what against thee and thee only have I sinned now why did he say that I'll tell you why listen carefully no matter

43:23 how great your sins or my sins may be to any fellow creature and David's sins were great adultery and murder among them two of the greatest sins we can commit against our fellow creatures no sin against any creature can begin to compare with the horror of sin against God the creator and so David says Lord I acknowledge against you and you only have I sinned that you may be justified when you speak and clear when you judge what did he mean he meant this God you have said that the worst thing a man can do is to break your law and to sin against you and now I come and say Lord against you and you only have I sinned you're right you're clear accurate you're just in what you've said I own it to be true listen to me kids a lie is a terrible thing because it's a breach it's a breaking of the ninth commandment it's a terrible thing to lie to your mom and dad break their trust break their confidence it's a terrible thing to lie in school and that's what you do if you cheat and you look over and take someone's answer your hand in the paper you're saying this is my work that's a lie it's your work plus Sally's or Henry's or Pete's but listen when you lie mom and dad you cheat in school

44:52 you're not sinning against mom and dad you're not sinning just against the teacher you know you're sinning against the God that made you the God who made you says thou shalt not bear false witness the God who made you says thou shalt not steal and when you disobey mom and dad when they tell you to do something that's reasonable and right and you go off mumbling listen listen we laugh but listen you know what you're doing when you disobey mom and dad it's as though you're looking up to heaven and clenching your fist and saying God don't you tell me what to do you know you've got no right to tell me obey my mom and dad you've got no right to tell me honor my father and my mother well you say but Pastor Martin I never said that no but that's exactly what you do in your heart when you disobey mom and dad and that's why a five year old child under conviction of sin will feel the same spirit of a fifty year old David under conviction of sin there is no difference qualitatively there is a difference quantitatively see but no difference qualitatively

46:03 you remember the prodigal son you see the same thing don't you he came to the place where he said I've had it around here I can't stand my pop's rules I can't stand the restraints of this house I've had it give what's coming to me dad I'm getting out of here that's a little bit of modern paraphrase but he got out of there and it says he wasted his substance with riotous living blew his money on booze and harlots and drugs if he were living in our day now the scripture says this listen carefully listen carefully when he came to himself he said I will arise and go to my father and say father I have sinned against heaven how did heaven get into all of this there's no record in the beginning that he said anything about heaven he just said dad I want out I want what's coming to me I want to live my own lifestyle I want to do my own thing the first thing he says when he comes to himself is I will go back to heaven and say to my father I've sinned against heaven what did he mean he meant exactly what David meant he realized in his repentance that when he disobeyed his father when he dishonored his mother and left that home when he went and gave himself to harlots

47:29 when he wasted his life in riotous living he was not just breaking the rules of society and the standards and the mores of contemporary society sociological structures it was God who said thou shalt not commit adultery God who made him a sexual being and gave him the capacity for the sexual act has a right to say how that capacity is exercised and when men say I don't care what God says I've got an itch I've got a desire I've sinned against heaven dear friends that's repentance toward God you see it a change of mind that has this concern of our emotions that has this relationship to the living God now has that ever become a reality to you I'm not asking if you shed buckets of tears there's not a verse in the Bible that says you've got to shed one tear let alone buckets I'm not asking you if you've gone through days and nights for weeks of deep agony like John Bunyan did no no all I'm asking you is this do you know anything about repentance that has primary reference to God I fear I'm speaking to people whose religion can all be seen summed up in terms of horizontal concerns you've got just enough religion to make your mom and your daddy happy

48:58 to make you fit in your own particular cultural and social circle you've got just enough religion to salve your conscience that you're no pagan but my friend have you ever had any dealings this way this way has it ever been brought home to your heart with power that your sins have been against God and against God he said eventually and primarily the God who made you the God who holds your breath in his own sovereign hand that every unclean thought has been rebellion against God every covetous thought has been rebellion against God every day you've profaned the Sabbath that has been sin against God every foul oath you've ever taken upon your lips has been sin against God that's why Paul says in Romans 8 7 the carnal mind is enmity against God it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be that's the great problem the relationship to God and if you ever walk through the door of salvation my friend one of the plates on the hinge of that door will be repentance toward God but now I must hurry to a close by looking at the second half of the essence of Paul's message as a model of a gospel preacher look at it and notice the language carefully repentance towards God

Essential Elements of the Gospel: Faith Toward the Lord Jesus Christ

50:26 and faith towards our Lord Jesus or our Lord Jesus Christ notice the activity faith what is faith? faith is basically trust to believe is to rely upon to commit oneself to to trust in it is the heart of God the heart's trust and confidence in another now that's basically and simply what faith means now it's illustrated many ways in the Bible there are many analogies that is things that it is like but when you boil it all down faith is the heart's commitment to and trust in another now what is the primary object of faith? look at the passage as surely as God as creator and lawgiver and judge is the primary object in repentance notice now the primary object in faith is the Lord Jesus Christ now notice the object is a person not a religion not a set of facts but a person Paul says he preached faith toward our and the whole gospel in a sense

51:53 is found in a nutshell in those three words words that comprise the official name of our blessed Savior he preached faith in this person who is the Lord now you know what the word Lord meant wherever you spoke it throughout the Roman Empire it meant one thing boss Caesar was Lord and when Paul spoke in the Roman world that Jesus is Lord he was supreme Lord and when he used that word amongst Jews it meant even more to them he was Jehovah God Jehovah himself in the flesh so if we're ever to find deliverance from sin it will not come from a human Jesus the Jesus of the modernist it will come only from the Jesus of the Bible who is the Lord upon the throne who is God thank God it is the Lord Jesus that name that was given to him when he was conceived in Mary's womb and that word means in itself Jehovah is our salvation salvation thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins and in the name Jesus is bound up the truth of his humanity his perfect life his death upon the cross his resurrection but he's not only the Lord Jesus he's the Lord Jesus Christ

53:20 and the word Christ is the Greek word for the Old Testament Messiah he's the anointed long promised prophet priest and king who has come to teach us the will of God who has come to die to take away sin is our great priest who is our great king to rule to govern and to defend us and you see in that name is the very heart of the gospel and if you are ever to pass through the door of salvation my friend you must exercise faith in or towards or into literally the Lord you must not simply trust to some vague religious notion that I'll never forget one time I was up in Virginia a number of years ago picked up a young hitchhiker preacher friend to myself and we got talking to him about the gospel and he said oh I'm a Christian he said oh you are yes well what makes you think you're a Christian well he said because I trust Christ we said good now tell us what do you know about Christ you know what his answer was he said well I I kind of believe he's for good and we thought we weren't hearing straight so we protested around a little bit, said, no, what do you mean? He's for good. He said, well, you know, like he's for good. The whole content of his faith was some vague notion that Jesus was some kind of a person

54:47 that lived somewhere, somehow, that had something to do in somewhere or another with good. My friend, that's not saving faith. Saving faith has to do with the knowledge of that person who is the object of faith. It always involves some basic knowledge of who Christ is. He is God, the only savior of sinners. He died upon the cross. Do you get irritated when preachers keep emphasizing these things? Friend, you must not get irritated or weary because it's in the knowledge of those facts. But faith is more than knowledge. Faith is assent to that knowledge. Faith involves not only knowing that he is the Lord, he is Jesus. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is

55:33 the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Savior of sinners who died in the place of sinners, who was bruised for our iniquities, who was raised from the dead, who is the prophet, priest, and king of his people. There must be assent to that knowledge. And oh, how humbling that is. That means you can't have a do-your-own-thing religion.

55:52 That means that you have got to credit all that God says about his son and say it's true. That's why the gospel was foolishness to the Greeks. You see, the Greeks would gather around all their philosophers, stroke their white beards and say, let's ponder the great issues of life. What is the great good in life? And so they would debate it. And then they'd write their large books. And then there would be various schools of philosophers. And they would discuss the great issues. What is the great good in life? What is the great end of life? Who is God? Can we know him? Along comes a little hook-nosed Jew. And he says, every one of the questions that you philosophers wrestle with, and you never agree upon, and can never answer with finality, every last question is answered in Jesus Christ. In him is hidden all treasures, or are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Oh, they didn't like that. You see, that humbled them. That meant they had to become

56:55 like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. Isn't that exactly what Jesus said? Except you be converted and become as what? Little children.

57:05 Faith involved. Faith involves not only knowledge, but assent to that knowledge. But it involves more. It involves actually committing yourself to that knowledge. And that means committing yourself to the Lord Jesus. John 1.12, as many as received him. Not the doctrine that he died, not the doctrine that he rose, but you must receive him. Believing the doctrine that he died and rose again, you must receive him. You can't receive him without the doctrine about him. But you can receive the doctrine without him.

57:37 You see, I might go home and someone might meet me at the door, and there have a large volume of all the lovely things that are true about my wife. She is this, she is this, she is this, she is not this, and not this, and not that, she has done this and done that. Every word might be true, but I might still be standing outside the door. And when I go home, I clue you, I'm not going to stand outside the door reading a book about all the lovely things my wife is. I'm going through the door and take her in my arms and embrace her. See the difference? You can have everything about Jesus, all told to you in the Bible, and say, oh yes, I believe all that, that's true, he's son of God, son of man, lived, died, rose, all the rest, but my friend, have you embraced him? From the heart, with all your heart and soul, have you said, Lord Jesus, I take you to be mine, and I give myself to be yours, as many as received him. That's faith into the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the heart of the gospel. Well, as we

Necessity, Inseparability, and Centrality of Repentance and Faith

58:40 close tonight, what can we see from these simple words that I've tried to unpack and open up and illustrate? Well, we should see the absolute necessity of repentance and faith. Paul said he preached to Jews and Greeks wherever he went, that men must repent, men must believe. And my friend, the Bible is clear, he that believeth not shall be damned, except he repent, he shall perish. Whatever you do or do not know in life, if you go through life and end it, you will be saved. And my friend, a stranger to that hinge of repentance and faith, it would be better for you that you had never been born. And my friend, it's not pleasant for me to say that. As I sat here tonight, as our brother Cato was leading the service, my prayer was, oh, God, help me to feel afresh.

59:31 Help me to sense afresh in my own heart. We're not just trafficking in words and notions. These are realities, my friend. You're going to die.

59:41 die. I'm going to die. And if we enter death, strangers to that hinge of repentance and faith, it were better that we'd never been born, for we'll sink into hell. And I don't know what hell will be like. The words in the Bible are enough to scare me. Weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, outer darkness. See the necessity of repentance and faith. See the inseparability of repentance and faith. Paul said he testified to Jews and Greeks, repentance toward God, faith toward the Lord Jesus. If you profess to believe in the Lord Jesus but have never repented, you've deceived yourself. You cannot trust Christ without turning from your sins unto God. And if you profess to repent, do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're just a moralist who's cleaned up your life a little bit on the outside. There is no true faith without repentance, no true repentance without faith. Two sides of the one coin. They are the two plates of the one hinge.

60:55 And then finally, will you notice the centrality of repentance and faith in the gospel? Paul says, you elders know I was with you for three years. I preached many things, but you know what the central thing was? Not social justice. Not economic equity.

61:15 Not educational advancement. He said, my central message was this. Repentance towards God. Faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And God have mercy on any preacher in any church where that ceases to be the central message. Well, Paul's a model of a gospel preacher, isn't he? You say, but I'm not a preacher. What's that have to say to me?

Call to Preach and Respond to the Gospel

61:41 Oh, yes, you are a preacher. If you're a mom or a dad, you're a preacher to your children. You're a minister and a preacher to your neighbors and your friends, you students, to your fellow students at that high school and junior high school and the kids in the neighborhood, the gals at the office, the men at the shop and in the office. Then as we pray for those who are preachers in the formal sense, now you see, I trust with greater clarity what you need to pray for us, that God will help us to be men after the pattern of this great apostle. And then for those of you who need desperately this message, we urge you to take seriously the questions I've pressed on your conscience. Do you know anything of this repentance and this faith? You can go out of here tonight and say, well, I never heard the likes of that. Somebody getting all upset and being so dogmatic and overbearing and all the rest. My friend, listen, listen, listen. You can

62:36 throw that kind of a blanket of rationalization over all I've said, but you know what's going to happen? If God doesn't give you up to hardness of heart and to a delusion, you know what's going to happen? You're going to be a prophet. You're going to be a preacher. You're going to be a pastor. You're going to be a preacher. You're going to be a preacher. You're going to be a pastor. You're going to be a preacher. You're going to be a pastor. You're going to be a pastor.

62:47 going to find in spite of all your clever talk, the things you've heard are going to be like a worm eating away inside your conscience and your heart. Why? Because they are the truth of God and God attests to his own truth. You're not dealing with this preacher. I haven't stood up here tonight and given you my opinions. We've just opened up this book. It's the word of God. My friend, don't fight that word. The God has brought that word to you and it's disturbed some of you tonight. My friends, he only disturbs you that he might bring you to the sweet and glorious provisions of the gospel. Don't fight. Don't resist. Don't quench those stirrings within your heart. But seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord for he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abound.

63:46 Pardon. Let us pray. Our heavenly father, we pray that we will never cease to be utterly and continually amazed that you would ever condescend to send a savior to the likes of us. We confess the wretchedness of our pride, our creaturely arrogance that for many years caused so many of us to go on in.

64:29 Blindness and indifference to your claims over us. But how we praise you that many of us have been rescued from that course of self-destruction. You have brought us to repentance and faith through the preaching of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And we pray for those who are strangers to repentance and faith. Have dealings with them even this night and bring them to yourself. And as this gospel will be preached during the coming week as you spare us and bring us together night by night, Lord, make that gospel to be powerful in the hearts of those who hear that many will walk through that gate of salvation, turning on that hinge of repentance and faith. Oh, God, hear our prayer and receive our thanks for the privilege of meeting together around the word of God. Hear us in this, our corporate prayer. And hear us in these, our prayers

65:38 that we offer with our praises in the name and for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.