Ministry of the Word of God, Part 2

Introduction: The Necessity and Means of Perseverance

0:01 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, June 20th, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Let us again unite our hearts in prayer and ask God to make his word to us. All that we've confessed in this hymn, we have found it to be in the past. Let us seek his face together.

0:26 Our Father, we thank you that the truths we have confessed in the singing of this hymn are indeed truths which many of us have verified in our own experience. Yet we come again conscious that your word will not be to us a light that guides, a warning beacon that flashes. It will not be to us a warning beacon that flashes. It will not be to us a warning beacon that flashes.

0:57 It will not be to us a source of rebuke and comfort and instruction unless by the Holy Spirit you attend that word with power and cause our hearts to be open to its instruction. And therefore we come and ask you to do what we cannot do of ourselves, what even the reading and preaching of your word cannot do unless the Spirit attends that ministry. Come then, O Lord. Come then, O Holy Spirit, and accomplish your own purposes through this proclamation of your own truth.

1:36 We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The scriptures of the Old and the New Testament literally abound with the tragic record of many who set out on the Christian race professing themselves desirous of attaining to eternal life at the end of life. The end of that race, but who tragically failed to complete the course.

2:12 The Bible speaks of those who believe for a while, but then fall away. The Bible describes some who concerning the faith made shipwreck. And the Bible graphically describes certain ones who having escaped the pollution that is in the world through lusts. Go back to the world as a dog goes back to licking up his own vomit.

2:44 Now, dear people, the Bible records these realities. And in the light of these facts, it is vital for us to think biblically and to think clearly regarding what the scripture teaches concerning both the certainty and the necessity of all who enter the race, continuing in the race, even to the end. And when we seek to think biblically and clearly about that subject, we are right at the heart of the biblical teaching concerning that which is commonly called the perseverance of the saints or the necessity of the people of God continuing in faith and holiness and obedience to the end of their days. For six Lord's Day mornings.

3:36 I sought to open up in your hearing a total of some 30 texts from Matthew to Revelation that each one pointed to the truth that it is necessary to continue in faith, holiness, and obedience if we would attain to eternal life. The same Bible which teaches believe or be damned also teaches perseverance. Hear or be damned. We are not dealing with the question, how does one enter upon the Christian race?

4:15 That's another question entirely. But we're dealing with the question that having entered, is it necessary to continue if one would ultimately arrive in the presence of God in the celestial city? And those 30 texts with unanimous consent answered our question, yes. We must.

4:37 We must endure to the end if we would be saved. And now we are presently considering not the necessity of our perseverance, but this major category that I've called the means of our perseverance. We examine the precise function of these means. And the Bible is clear that they are not our saviors.

4:59 Christ alone is the savior of his people. Neither are they automatically effective in securing our perseverance. But they are divinely instituted spiritual activities which under the blessing of God secure our continuance in faith, holiness, and obedience to the end. The God who has said we must persevere, the God who has said we shall persevere, has instituted means by which we will be enabled to persevere, thereby fulfilling the certainty of our perseverance.

5:35 The God who has said we must persevere, the God who has said we shall persevere, has instituted means by which we will be enabled to persevere, has instituted means by which we will be enabled to persevere, has instituted means by which we will be enabled to persevere. And then last Lord's Day we began to consider the specific identity of these means. And I suggested that a convenient category in which to hold them in our minds is to think of them in terms of those means which are connected in a special way with the life and ministry of the church. They are the social or corporate means, and those means which are more connected with the individual, secret, personal practice of the believer.

The Ministry of the Word as a Corporate Means of Perseverance

6:18 And supreme among those that fall in that first category of the social or corporate means is what I described last Lord's Day as the ministry of the word by your God-given overseers. And we looked at several key texts in the New Testament which clearly teach that God has appointed some men in his church for specific ministry and oversight of the church in order to secure the perseverance of the people of God. Ephesians 4, 8-14, Acts 20, 28, and Hebrews 3, 7 and 17. I'm sorry, 13, 7 and 13.

7:04 And then the second thing we considered together was that these men thus appointed by the Lord are responsible to exercise their ministry both publicly and privately in order to secure the perseverance of God's people. And then we looked at several key texts which set forth this truth. And then time ran out as I was making an application of those biblical truths. I exhorted you in the light of this teaching to learn greatly to prize this God-ordained means of your perseverance.

7:44 It is Christ on whom you profess to trust who has given these men to be your shepherds. And as we considered last Lord's Day, they are committed to taking you to heaven with them. And only a man who is spiritually demented would resist. And only a man who is spiritually demented would resent the intrusions into his life of the loving instructions and exhortations of someone whose only motive is to take him to heaven with him.

8:15 It is the height of folly to resent the public and private ministry of the word of those whose only concern is to take us to heaven with them. I was interested in re-reading Pilgrim's Progress this past week. I'm going through it for...

8:34 I don't know how many times now. Not a hundred, as Spurgeon said he did. But in going through Pilgrim's Progress again, I was struck with how Bunyan saw this principle. You remember when Christian comes into the House of Interpreter?

8:49 Do you recall what the first incident was in the House of Interpreter? It's this incident. I'm going to read it to you. Then said Interpreter, come in.

9:01 I will show you that which is profitable to you. So he...

9:05 He commanded his man to light the candle and bid Christian follow him. So he had him into a private room and bid his man open a door, the which he had done, the first thing he sees in the House of Interpreter. Christian saw the picture of a very grave or serious person hang up against the wall. And this was the fashion of it.

9:28 It had eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books in his hand. The law...

9:35 The law of truth was written upon his lips, and the world was behind his back. It stood as if it pleaded with men, and a crown of gold did hang over its head. Then said Christian, what means this? Interpreter, the man whose picture this is, is one of a thousand.

9:53 He can beget children, travail in birth with children, and nurse them himself when they are born. And whereas you see him with eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books...

10:05 In his hand and the law of truth writ on his lips, it is to show you that his work is to know and to unfold dark things to sinners. Even as you saw him stand as if he pleaded with men, and whereas you see the world as cast behind him and that a crown hangs over his head, that is to show thee that slighting and despising things that are present for the love that he has to his master's service, he is sure in the world that comes next, to have glory for his reward. Now said the interpreter, I have showed you this picture first, because the man whose picture this is, is the only man whom the Lord of the place where you are going has authorized to be your guide in all difficult places you may meet with in the way. Wherefore take good heed to what I have showed you, and bear well in mind what you have seen, lest in your journey you meet with some that pretend to lead you right, but their way goes down to death. What did interpreter show him? The picture of a gospel shepherd of souls.

11:24 He showed him a picture of evangelist, one who all along the way would, out of the context of God-honoring motives, bring good news to the world. He showed him a picture of evangelist, one who all along the way would, out of the context of God-honoring motives, bring good news to the world. Come on, that's all represented in the word of God to bear upon the conscience of Christian. Into what to see him safely to his journey's end.

11:45 And Bunyan had the first thing an Interpreter's house the very point. I'm making Bunyan was thinking biblically that pivotal to Christians perseverance was the recognition to the significant place of a God appointed Shepard in the things of Christ. How about that? So learn to prize greatly this God-ordained means.

Exhortation 1: Prize the God-Ordained Ministry of the Word

12:11 Secondly, I exhorted you, beware of any person, influence, or notion which undermines your appreciation for this means of perseverance. Beware of any person who would disaffect you to your God-appointed overseers. Beware of any influence from without or from within the church that would in any way undermine your appreciation for this means of perseverance and beware of any notion, even spiritually sounding notions, that say you are lifted above the necessity of having formal shepherds. All have the Holy Spirit. All have the Bible.

12:55 Who needs shepherds? Who needs elders?

13:00 No man honors the grace of Christ who despises the gift of Christ. And Jesus Christ, who is the life of His church, the body, has given pastors and teachers to perfect His church. So there is no perfection in a context of supposed intimacy with Christ that despises the instituted order that Christ Himself has given in His church. And then finally, and this is the word that I want to amplify this morning, we ran out of time last Lord's Day, and I just gave you the heading and said I would deal with it this morning.

Exhortation 2: Deal Ruthlessly with Impenitence to Profit from the Word

13:40 In the light of this teaching with respect to the means of our perseverance, you and I must not only learn greatly to prize this God-given means, not only beware of any person, influence, or notion which undermines our appreciation for this means, and I say our because I'm included. I have four pastors to whom I'm answerable and thank God to whom I'm answerable. I am gladly subjected in Christ. And they watch for my soul.

14:11 So when I say our, I'm not using that editorially. It's true. I am a man under authority. And I thank God for it.

14:20 I don't want to be freelance. I'm thankful there are four men who know if they see declension in me, they will answer to God if they don't admonish me.

14:33 I thank God for them. And then the third line of exhortation, is deal ruthlessly. Deal ruthlessly with anything which neutralizes maximum profit from this means of perseverance. Deal ruthlessly with anything which neutralizes maximum profit from this means of perseverance.

15:00 The Bible teaches it is tragically possible to have the Word preached to us publicly and privately, by God-appointed overseers, and yet not profit from that ministry. The words of Hebrews 4.2 ought to haunt us. The Word preached, or the Word of hearing, did not profit them.

15:24 The Word of hearing did not profit them. There was nothing wrong with the Word of hearing, or the Word preached, as it is rendered in the authorized version. But the problem was with the state of their own hearts, which neutralized the influence of that means that God had given for their perseverance. It is possible to have the Word preached publicly and privately in a manner that is clear, that is interesting, that is searching, that is compassionate, that is earnest and convincing to the conscience, and still not to profit from it.

16:08 Now, what are some of the major factors which neutralize the profit of the Word, and thereby neutralize this primary means of our perseverance deposited in the corporate life of the people of God? And this is not an exhaustive list, but as I have reflected upon this question, I believe there are three major factors which may well be neutralizing the influence, the maximum influence of this means in some, if not all, of our hearts. And the first is this. It is what I am calling a pattern of impenitence in the life.

16:51 A pattern of impenitence in the life. Turn, please, to the book of James, the epistle from which we read in our consecutive reading, and notice the emphasis of James on this very point. He has written in verse 18 of chapter 1 that the Word of Truth is the divine instrument with respect to our spiritual begetting, or our new birth. Of His own will, He brought us forth by the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. The Word of Truth is the instrumental means by which we are brought forth unto the possession of salvation and spiritual life. But not only is the Word of Truth the divine instrument of our initiation into spiritual life, it is the instrument for the development, for the continuance, yes, for the perseverance of the people of God, in that life. And so James goes on to say in verse 19, You know this, my beloved brethren,

18:14 but let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God. Wherefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls. You see, it was the Word of Truth by which we were brought forth, we were brought into the family of God, and it is by means of the continuous application of that Word that we are carried forward to salvation in its completion. Here salvation has reference not to the initiation into the saved state, but to the consummation of the work of salvation. And now James is very careful to make known to his readers that they cannot profit from that Word unto the ongoing salvation of the soul if they are exposed to it in any old frame of mind or heart. He says in verse 21, Wherefore, putting away, and that word for putting away is the standard word one would use if he were to describe what he does at night when he gets ready for bed.

19:41 He takes off his clothes and puts them aside before putting on his pajamas. Well, the word, the verb here means to take off and lay aside as you would a garment. So it's speaking of a conscious activity in the realm of the moral, the spiritual, and the ethical that has a parallel in the physical activity of taking off one's clothes and laying them aside. Wherefore, putting away all what?

20:10 All filthiness. Now this word for filthiness is a word that's difficult to describe. It probably in this context refers to all moral uncleanness of whatever sort. Putting aside, taking off and laying aside all moral uncleanness and all excess of foul greediness would probably be the best translation.

20:39 All excess of foul greediness, then James says, receive with meekness the absence of self-will to God and the absence of ill-will to our fellow men, that's meekness, receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. Now the question is this, is James telling us that the word carries on its saving activity irrespective of the state of our hearts into which we attempt to receive it? Or is this promise conditioned upon compliance with the exhortation, taking off, laying aside? Receive with meekness the implanted word. Do you see the point James is making? If we do not lay aside those patterns of moral uncleanness, if we do not put aside the excesses of foul greediness, if we do not get down off our high horse of ill-will toward our fellow men and the arrogance of self-will to God, if there are any tolerated patterns of impenitence, we will not profit from the word.

The Parallel Teaching in 1 Peter on Laying Aside Wickedness

22:04 You see James' point? We must receive the word in a disposition of present repentance with respect to any pattern that is a deviation from the norms of Holy Scripture. We have in a parallel passage in 1 Peter 2 an underscoring of this same principle. 1 Peter, let's back up to chapter 1, for you'll see the parallelism as we pick up the thread of thought.

22:42 Verse 22 of chapter 1, seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently, having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides. James said of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. Peter says, having been begotten again through the word of God which lives and abides forever, for all flesh is as grass, and the glory thereof is the flower of the grass. The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever. And this is the word of the good tidings which was preached unto you. So here the word is said to be the means God has used for their divine begetting. But that word is to have another function in them.

23:41 Chapter 2, verse 1. Putting away therefore all wickedness and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as new-born babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that you may grow thereby unto salvation. Wait a minute, I thought they were already saved. They were born of that incorruptible seed of the word.

24:11 Yes, Peter's using the word salvation in the same sense that James is using it. Not salvation in its initial enjoyment. Not salvation entering in through the narrow gate in conversion. Not salvation in terms of initial repentance and faith.

24:29 But salvation in terms of the consummation. The salvation that is manifested at the end of the road. When, having persevered in faith, in holiness and obedience, we are found to be the true people of God at the return of the Lord Jesus. Now Peter gives the same emphasis as James.

24:50 If we are as new-born babes to long for this spiritual milk, which in the context is nothing other than that same word which was instrumental in our salvation, we cannot take in that spiritual milk regardless of the state of our gastrointestinal system, spiritually speaking. If our spiritual bellies are sour with these various things, wickedness and guile and hypocrisy and envies and evil speakings, the best presentation of the milk of the word will do us no good. And it's the same verb used by Peter, laying aside, taking off and putting to one side how much wickedness. All wickedness. Tolerate no pattern of impenitence in your life.

25:52 Wickedness outwardly. Wickedness inwardly. Wickedness of life. Wickedness of thought.

25:58 Wickedness of speech. Wickedness of attitude. And all guile. All guile.

26:05 The grosser forms of guile that may bring you under the frown of your elders. Not just the grosser forms of guile that would bring you under suspicion from your fellow believers. All guile. And hypocrisies.

26:19 All play-acting. Would God that we would take this to heart. All play-acting. That means that when you sit as a worshipper in this place and look up as one who apparently longs to hear the word, that's not play-acting.

26:35 That's real. When you open your Bibles as one who really wants to know what God says with a view to doing it, that's not play-acting. That's real. Put aside every last vestige of play-acting.

26:52 Don't spare any. Don't spare any. Putting away therefore all wickedness. All guile.

26:59 All hypocrisies. And all envies. And all evil speakings. Now he said you got your stomach in shape.

27:08 You can receive and digest and assimilate and profit from the word of God. You see what Peter is aiming at? The same thing that James was driving at. That if we come to this glorious, wonderful means of grace, the preaching and teaching of the word of God publicly and privately by your God-appointed overseers, if you come to that means of your perseverance with a pattern of importance, with repentance in your life, you will not profit.

Distinguishing Tolerated Sin from Besetting Sin

27:44 You will not profit from the word of God. Now follow closely. Am I saying that if you come to the ministry of the word and have not overcome every besetting sin, have not cultivated every positive grace of Christ-likeness, you can't profit from the word? Well of course not.

28:04 That's what the word is for. To help us overcome our besetting sins. To help us cultivate the grace of Christ-likeness. What I'm saying is this.

28:14 When you come to the ministry of the word, there must be no toleration of a pattern of impenitence. You may come to the ministry of the word humbled and crushed and broken because an hour before you fell before your besetting sin of impatience, or fifteen minutes before you fell before your besetting sin of envy, someone drove in with a new car and you're still nursing along that old pile of nuts and bolts and rusted fenders. You had to come in and sit and in the moments of meditation say, Oh God, forgive me. I felt that pull of envy and jealousy.

28:58 Lord, cleanse me in the blood of your Son. That's what we're talking about. Not coming to the word perfectly conquering all your besetting sins. Perfectly or in great measure advanced in all graces.

29:12 We're talking about the toleration of sin. You see the difference? We're talking about Proverbs 28, 13. He that covers his transgression shall not prosper.

29:24 He shall not prosper under the very thing God is bringing to help him on his way to the celestial city. He will find himself utterly unprofited under the ministry of the word unless he is prepared to do his job as James says. Putting aside all forms of wickedness and all forms of greed and avarice and all pompousness that would keep a man from coming with meekness to receive the word. In the language of Peter we must put away all wickedness and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings.

30:08 Now let me press this home to your conscience. Do you really believe that this is necessary if you're to profit from the preaching and teaching of the word? Do you? If you do, then you will be as concerned about the preparation of your heart for this means of your perseverance as we who must teach and preach are not only concerned for the preparation of our hearts but for the preparation of our minds and the substance of what we are to bring to you.

30:41 And the most well-prepared substance from the well-prepared mind and heart of a man of God will be neutralized unless you prepare your heart! Pastors can't do it for you. Only you can do it. You can't come and take my jacket off me.

31:05 I must take it off and lay it aside. Your pastors can't strip off from you guile and play-acting and hypocrisy and evil speaking. The patterns of impenitence that perhaps are known only to you and to God. They eat like a cancer at your soul.

31:28 Could it be that this is the reason why and I say this with pain, but I must say it. I have witnessed with these eyes over 20 years of ministering to one congregation. Some people have come into the Christian faith and have become men and women, and princes and mothers in Israel before my very eyes, while others remain shrunk into the same public means of perseverance. Why?

The Presence of an Unteachable, Reproof-Rejecting Attitude

32:12 Has God got some favorites? Well, whatever inscrutable mysteries there may be locked up in the sovereignty of God, we are to walk by the rule of Scripture and these two passages make it abundantly clear. That this means of our perseverance will greatly be neutralized as to its effect in our lives if we do not consistently and continually deal with patterns of impenitence in our lives and come to this means with the proper heart disposition described by James and by Peter. Then there is a second, major factor, which greatly neutralizes the effect of this means of our perseverance. And here I plead with you again to gird up the loins of your mind and listen carefully. It's what I'm calling the presence of an unteachable reproof-rejecting that's one word, a reproof-rejecting attitude in the heart. The presence of an unteachable reproof-rejecting attitude in the heart.

33:30 Now when we turn to the Scriptures for a definition or description of how the Scriptures effect our perseverance, how they operate to keep us in the way and to encourage us on the way, it's interesting to see the very major emphasis that falls upon the reproving character of Holy Scripture. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy and chapter 3. Having spoken of the function of Holy Scripture with respect to bringing people to salvation, the knowledge of sins forgiven through faith in Christ, in verse 14, the Apostle Paul goes on to write in verse 16, all Scripture, 2 Timothy 16, is inspired of God and is also profitable for teaching, that is, for the setting forth of the truths concerning God, His salvation, His Son, His will, His ways, profitable for teaching, now notice, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, literally for child training which is in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete,

35:00 furnished completely unto every good work. Scripture's profit is to be seen in that it comes to us as teaching. It comes to us setting forth the revelation of the mind and will of God for men. And I love the old Shorter Catechism question and answer.

35:18 What do the Scriptures principally teach? The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man. That's what the Scriptures principally teach. They are profitable to tell us who God is, what He is like, how we can know Him, to tell us what God requires of us.

35:40 And when the Scriptures are properly expounded, they will always be coming to us as divine teaching. That's why anything worthy of the name of biblical preaching will always be didactic. It will make you think. It will lead you from one proposition to another and show the interrelatedness.

36:03 There is no such thing as biblical preaching that is not teaching. It has to be by its very nature, for Scripture is profitable for teaching. But now notice it doesn't stop there. And there are many people who think that once they've seen the teaching, now they have fed upon the Word of God.

36:23 No. It is profitable not only for teaching but for reproof. In the light of what we've discovered about God and the duty He requires of us, out of that body of teaching there come arrows to fasten themselves upon our moral consciousness to point out our wrongs, our wrong thinking, our wrong feelings, our wrong actions, our wrong patterns of behavior. Scripture is to be reproof in us.

36:55 And then pointing out our wrongs, it is to correct us. It's to make an in-flight adjustment. The winds have carried us off course. And we need to trim all of the things on the airplane that put us back onto course.

37:10 So they not only point out the wrong, but they correct us, point out the direction we need to go. And then as a father trains his children in forcing behavior by reproof and by encouragement, rewards and punishments, the Scriptures in that way train us in the life of righteousness. Now that's how the Scriptures are intended of God to function in our lives. It shouldn't surprise us, therefore, when Paul turns from that general statement of the way in which Scripture ministers, when he turns to Timothy, a preacher, what does he tell him to do?

37:49 Well, look at verse 2. Charges him in the sight of God to preach the Word. That's his great task. To herald the message.

38:01 And how's he to do it? Now some people say, I like laid-back preachers. I don't like preachers that get excited and all worked up. That's all theatrics and all.

38:09 Is that right? How do you know? You be careful what you call theatrics. It could be that it's a fulfillment of the next direction.

38:21 Look at it. Be urgent. Be urgent! Make it evident that you believe these things and that you determine that others will believe them.

38:31 Be urgent! In season. In season. Out of season.

38:36 And now as he is preaching the Word in a context of spiritual urgency, what are the channels by which the Word is going to come to people? Look. Reprove. Rebuke.

38:50 Exhort. And what is to be the disposition with all longsuffering and with teaching? You see here the teaching comes at the end. But you have those thoughts all woven together again.

39:06 Timothy, I understand you've been charged to be a preacher. That's right. Well, Timothy, we've all gotten together and said we believe the days call for positive preaching. Timothy, we want you to preach the Word.

39:19 We don't want the mere froth of human philosophy. We don't want the spun sugar candy of human opinions. We want the Word, Timothy. Timothy says, fine.

39:31 That fits my commission. I was charged in the sight of God to preach the Word. But now, Timothy, we've come to the consensus that in a day in which people are confused and battered down and insecure, we must not have anything that is preponderantly negative. Or in fact, Timothy, if there's anything negative, let it just be once in a while suggested in an oblique way.

39:55 We would like you, in a very positive, gracious way, never to reprove, never to convict, never to exhort. Just give forward. Just give forth the Word and trust the Holy Spirit to do His own reproving. Timothy would turn to us and a frown would come across his brow and he'd say, my friend, I cannot submit to those terms of preaching.

40:19 For the same Holy Spirit who spoke to me through the pen of the great Apostle saying, preach the Word, told me I was to do so with urgency and I was to do so in a manner in which reproof, rebuke, and exhortation were an integral and constant part of my preaching. With preaching, I'll reprove you, convict you, exhort you, and I trust it will always be with long suffering, with genuine, earnest desire for your well-being, with patience as you struggle with your sins, and always based not upon the haranguings of men but upon a proper exposition of the Word of the living God. Dear people, do you see how predominant is the concept of reproof with respect to the preaching of the Word? Now if that's true, if that's true and it is, you see how this means can be neutralized if you have an unteachable reproof-rejecting spirit in your heart? If you've got the attitude, God can reprove me, but no fellow mortal,

41:46 who's any fellow creature? To tell me I'm wrong. Oh, I'll go to my closet and pray and ask the Lord to show me my sins. And then if in my devotions God shows me, I'll do something about it.

Proverbs on the Way of Life and Heeding Reproof

42:03 My friend, listen, God has instituted the ministry to be a primary means to reprove you, rebuke and exhort you to the end that you might, having been placed upon the way, continue on it and arrive safe home at last. That's why when we turn to the book of Proverbs, there are some very, very searching things said with regard to those who have a reproof-rejecting attitude. Follow now as I just read with very little comment six or seven key passages in the book of Proverbs. We start with Proverbs 6 in verse 23.

42:44 Proverbs 6 in verse 23. The commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. You see, the way of life, the narrow way that leads unto life is described in this passage as a way that is marked by reproofs of instruction, reproofs that are attended with and grow out of instruction, teaching, reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Chapter 10 in verse 17.

43:27 He is in the way of life that heeds correction, but he that forsakes reproof errs. Are you in the way of life? Are you in that narrow way that leads unto life, that grows out of the initial impartation of life by the divine begetting? God says you're in that way only so far as you are one who heeds correction.

43:58 Not merely listens to it, but heeds it. The corrections sink into your heart and regulate your life. Chapter 12 in verse 1. What a strong statement.

44:13 Whoso loves correction not merely tolerates it with a stiff upper lip. Well, God says I've got to take it so I better take my medicine. Here's a man who loves it. He comes to the word of God.

44:28 Lord's died by Lord's day saying, Lord, bless me, blister me, blast me, anything, Lord, but don't be silent. Speak to me, Lord. If there's anything in my life that causes you grief, it's something that opened up your wounds upon the cross. It's something that added to the intensity of your cry of horror.

44:55 My God, my God, Lord, with anything that caused your agony, speak to me, reprove me, rebuke me, exhort me, but Lord, don't be silent. Whoso loves correction loves knowledge. You see, if you don't love correction, you don't love knowledge biblically. You love information maybe, but you don't love knowledge.

45:26 Biblical knowledge is unto holiness, unto righteousness. Do you love correction? Not merely tolerate it, but love it. He that loves correction loves knowledge, but he that hates reproof is brutish.

45:44 God says you're like a beast. If you hate to be reproved, my friend, God calls you an animal. I don't like this course preaching. I didn't write this.

45:54 The Holy Ghost did. God says you're a brute. Why? Because the poor brute is enticed into the pen where he's to be slain, thinking he's getting a special meal.

46:10 And he goes as happily to slaughter as he's turned out to pasture. And the person who hates reproof is on his way to slaughter. And he goes there as though he's being turned out to pasture. That's strong language, isn't it?

46:27 But that's the language of the Holy Ghost. Chapter 13 and verse 18. Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuses correction, but he that regards reproof shall be honored. And oh, my dear people, some of you are living monuments of this verse.

46:52 Poverty, spiritual poverty is the portion of some of you. Why? Not because you've not had this means of grace for your perseverance, for your growth, for your development. No, your poverty and the shame that grows out of it are the monument of your spirit of refusal to receive correction.

47:15 Whereas he that regards reproof shall be honored. I can testify almost without exception that every man who has been recognized for public office in this church, whether in the diaconate or the eldership, has on more than one occasion both received and given reproof from me. Both received and given reproof to me. Received from me and given to me reproof.

47:45 The men who have a grip upon your consciences to the point where you've been prepared to recognize them for public office are the men who've come to that honor in the way of heeding reproof. And they maintain a grip on your conscience only so long as they continue to receive reproof. Because they're not perfect. They have sins that need to be pointed out.

48:15 They have blind spots that need to be exposed. And the day they cease to be exposed and welcome the exposure of their fellow Christians and fellow office bearers, and the day they cease to be prepared to make those adjustments, it won't be long before those areas begin to be manifest to all. And the shame of having to step down or be forced out of their office will be the promotion of their unwillingness to receive correction. My friends, this is serious business.

Proverbs on Wisdom and the Obedient Ear

48:47 We're not exempt from it. And thank God we're not, or our souls would be imperiled. Go on to Proverbs 15 in verse 31. Let the Word of God speak to us again.

49:04 The ear that hearkens to the reproof of life shall abide among the wise. It doesn't say the ear that listens to the most astute doctors of philosophy. It says the ear that hearkens to the reproof of life shall abide among the wise. The ear that hearkens not merely takes in on its outer chambers, but the ear that becomes the inlet to the soul and receives reproof and works it out in its implications, that person becomes truly wise.

49:43 Chapter 17 in verse 10. A rebuke enters deeper into one that has understanding than a hundred stripes into a fool. Here's a man that has true spirit and spiritual understanding. He says if I'm to persevere to the end, I must persevere in holiness, obedience, and faith.

50:04 Therefore anything which impedes my progress in faith, holiness, and obedience is my enemy. And he has that understanding that causes him to cry to God, Lord, reprove me, rebuke me, point out my sins. And such a person, when the reproofs of God come, especially through the ministry of the Word, welcomes them. And God says of such a person that hearkening to reproofs of life, he abides among the wise, those who are being made wise unto salvation that is in Christ Jesus.

50:39 And then 25 in verse 12. 25 in verse 12. As an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. As an earring of gold, here's someone that has a classic ear, and on that classic ear is a beautiful earring.

51:09 There is a fitness between the ornament and that on which it hangs. So he says, is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. When a man wisely reproves with the wisdom of God and with long suffering and teaching, and he does so upon an ear that is obedient, one who is set in the way of life, determined not to preserve his reputation or his own self-image, he's determined with one thing, I shall endure to the end by the grace of God. I must endure.

51:43 Therefore, this means that God is given, will not be despised. He has an obedient ear ready to receive the reproofs and admonitions, and when they come, there is a fitness that corresponds to the fitness between a beautiful ear and a beautiful ornament. So why is it so important that our hearts and minds are driven by God? Well, there are many other passages that could be brought forward.

Biblical Examples of Receiving Reproof

52:09 These, I trust, will suffice to show why I use this terminology. This ministry, this means of grace, this instrument of perseverance can greatly be neutralized if there is the presence of an unteachable reproof-rejecting attitude in the heart. O dear people, may I urge you to pray the David who when Nathan came and reproved him did not argue and say who are you to talk to the king and who are you to be so direct and who are you and where did you get your information David didn't try to hang up Nathan on technicalities when Nathan said you're the man David said I have sinned and he was kept on the way of perseverance and think of old Eli a young lad comes in who's had dealings with God and he says tell me everything the young lad had to tell him of the judgments of God to fall upon him he didn't say who are you little pipsqueak you're still wet behind the ears who are you to talk to me old Eli no no he held his peace before the word of God of God because it was coming through one upon whom the hand of God obviously had

53:34 come and to whom the Word of God had been revealed we need the spirit of Peter Paul rebuked him and publicly think of it great apostle Peter chief among the Apostles to the Jews he said when he was come to Antioch I was stood him to the face and then Peter writes a letter some years later and says our beloved brother Paul he didn't resent it and stand on his dignity why he had learned the lesson that reproofs of instruction are the things that God uses to keep us in the way of life so when your God appointed Shepherd stand before you publicly and prayerfully to expound and apply the word cry out to God for a teachable reprobable receptive spirit do you think it is pleasant for me to point out your sins do you you think it's pleasant for any of my fellow overseers to point out the sins of God's people do you think there's some inward delight but we're convinced that every sin has in it the

54:57 seeds of apostasy are you convinced of it every sin has in it the seeds of apostasy and if nourished by impenitence and neglect and carelessness and resentment the full flower may come that's why we go after your sins with holy demons because we want to see your kept in the way we want to see you brought safely to the celestial city if you cry to God for anything cry to God God for a teachable, reproof, receptive attitude rather than to come to the ministry of the word with an unteachable, reproof, rejecting attitude in your heart. Well, the time is gone. I'd hope to deal with a third issue. A perverted understanding of how this means becomes effective to our perseverance. And I'll just have to wait, folks. I'm not concerned just to get

Concluding Exhortation: Deal with Impenitence and Embrace Reproof Today

56:11 through an outline. I have to violate almost all of my instincts, many times of rhetorical neatness in order to try to be faithful to your souls. But frankly, what is rhetorical neatness when we're dealing with issues of life and death? I ask you as you sit here this morning, have you come to the ministry of the word this day with a heart that can receive that pure milk, with the meekness that can receive the engrafted, or are there patterns of impenitence that make your profiting from the word morally and spiritually impossible? If so, dear friend, deal with those patterns and deal with them today, not manana, not tomorrow, sometime out there, but today. God has brought you here today. God has come home to your conscience today. Don't trifle with grace. Don't presume upon grace.

57:18 Today, if you're here, don't presume upon grace. Today, if you're here, don't presume upon grace. Here is voice. Harden not your heart. And if God has unmasked in you an unteachable, reproof-rejecting attitude in the heart, then deal with it. Cry to God. Go over these passages in Proverbs and plead with him that he will make you a person who not merely tolerates but loves correction. What a delight it is in a pastoral relationship over the years to know those sheep in the flock of correction. You don't need to fool around. You don't need to mess around. You don't need to pray for three weeks about how you're going to lay out your case and tack. You just come up, put your hand on the shoulder, say, brother, sister, I've observed thus and thus. And knowing you in terms of your pattern of wanting to please God, I know you don't want that thing to be there. And you open up the scriptures. You lay it on them. They thank you. They go home and they thank God. And

58:14 they deal with it. And they grow by leaps and bounds. Some of you, I wouldn't dare approach you like that. I'd be ducked. I'd be ducked. I'd be ducked. I'd be ducked. I'd be ducked. I'd be ducked.

58:23 I'd be ducked. I'd be ducked. I'd be ducked. I'd be ducked. I'd be ducked. I'd be ducked. I'd be wondering what was going to come back. Why? Because your character evidences sinful pride,

58:33 sinful sensitivity, and a host of other things. Oh, that God will make us a congregation of recruit lovers. Because God says, as we are, we're in the way of life. Oh, may we be kept in that way. This is how the Lord Jesus nourishes and cherishes his church and cares for his sheep and brings them all safely home at last to be with him. If you're here this morning as one who's not one of his sheep, you've never entered the way. You no doubt have a reproof rejecting heart because you have a sin loving heart. And my friend, though the great bulk of the teaching has not been directed to you, surely there is a word in all of this for you. You need

59:21 to heed the reproof of God's word that indicts you as a sinner, that tells you God is a controversy with you, but that announces to you in Jesus Christ for all who will flee to him that controversy is resolved, that God so loved that he gave. And in the Lord Jesus, he dealt with human sin that we might have a just peace with God, the basis of approaching him in the confidence that he delights to show mercy to sinners. Let us pray together. Our Father, as we have in your presence sought to understand your word, we confess that it does indeed expose us again and again and again, that it brings home to our consciences that little moral arbiter within who either excuses or accuses us. It brings home to us again your claims, and we pray that we may not be stiff-necked and proud and stubborn, but oh that we may realize that your reproofs

60:42 are for our good, that your warnings are for our benefit. O Lord, have mercy upon us. Deal with those things that neutralize our profiting from these means instituted for our perseverance. We pray that we will learn as a spiritual disciple, that we will be able to learn to believe in Jesus discipline what it is to keep very short accounts with you to tolerate no patterns of impenitence to tolerate no headstrong reproof rejecting spirit oh lord help us left to ourselves these things will never be but by your grace we believe they can be realized and therefore we come to you for that grace hear our cry seal the word to our hearts we plead these mercies through our lord jesus christ amen