Ministry of the Word of God, Part 3

Introduction: The Necessity of Perseverance and the Means of Grace

0:01 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, June 27, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:12 There are certain truths in the Word of God that are presented to us in what we could well describe as the dawn or the dusk light, but there are other truths that come to us in the brilliant light of an unclouded midday sun, and the truth that we have been examining for some Lord's Day mornings now is one of those midday sun truths, namely the truth that God's true people, all true believers, will be found persevering or continuing in faith and holiness and obedience. On to the end of their days. Having examined some thirty texts in the New Testament which teach the necessity of the perseverance of the people of God in faith, holiness, and obedience, we are now examining some portions of the Scripture in which the means by which the people of God persevere are described. I have tried to suggest...

1:30 or I have suggested that these means can be divided basically into two categories the private or individual means of perseverance, and the corporate or social means of perseverance, that is, those means connected with the life and ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ as it finds expression according to the norms of the New Testament. Ezekiel 32.5-7. Chapter 11.

1:59 corporate means of grace we have seen is the preaching of the word of God by your God-appointed overseers. Whether that preaching comes to you corporately as it is coming this morning, or whether it comes to you privately as one or more of your elders comes in his office as a shepherd appointed by Christ to watch for your soul, to bring the word of God to bear upon your conscience. We saw from Ephesians 4, Acts 20, and Hebrews 13 that this institution of those who minister the word of God to us in their office is nothing less than an appointment of Jesus Christ, and he has ordained the word of God to us. He has ordained this means to secure the perseverance of his people in the path of holiness, faith, and obedience. Now in the light of this tremendously vital means, I have sought to bring several strands of exhortation to your consciences. I've exhorted you to learn greatly to prize this God-ordained means of your perseverance. Secondly, I have warned you to be

Exhortations Regarding the Ministry of the Word

3:22 aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God.

3:23 I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to influence or notion which undermines your appreciation for this means of your perseverance. Whenever you are in any way tempted to think less of this means than you ought to, we can say in the language of Galatians 5.8, this persuasion does not come from him who calls you. And then last Lord's Day, I attempted to bring a third strand of exhortation to you. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to be aware of any person who is not worthy of the word of God. I have warned you to

Hindrance 1 & 2: Impenitence and Unteachableness

4:23 habit of dealing ruthlessly with anything which neutralizes our maximum profit from this means of perseverance. I dealt with two of those things last Lord's Day. The first, patterns of impenitence in the life, James 1 and 2 Peter chapter 2. And then secondly, the presence of an unteachable, reproof-rejecting attitude in the heart. We saw from our study of the scriptures that they are given to reprove, to correct, and to instruct us that true preaching, according to 2 Timothy 4, 2, is preaching the word, reproving, rebuking, exhorting, with all longsuffering and teaching. And therefore, if we have an unteachable, reproof-rejecting spirit, we will receive very little profit from this means of our perseverance. And then we looked at seven texts from the book of Proverbs, which underline the necessity of the cultivation of a spirit that welcomes reproof. And to those texts, I simply add two more as we

5:42 conclude our review. Proverbs 15.10 and 15.32.

5:50 You see how apropos this is to the subject that we're dealing with. The way is the way of perseverance, the way of holiness, the way of obedience, the way of faith. And for the person who begins to forsake that way, there is grievous, correction. And as that correction comes to put him back into the way, the man who refuses that correction that comes in the form of reproof, God says such a person will die. And then in verse 32,

6:39 he that refuses correction despises his own soul. What is the purpose of reproof and correction? It is the well-being of the soul, to keep the soul in a state of spiritual health. Therefore, he who refuses correction despises his own soul.

Hindrance 3: A Perverted Notion of the Word's Efficacy

6:59 But he that hearkens to reproof gets understanding. And so if you and I would profit from this means of perseverance, we must deal ruthlessly all along the way with any disposition of unteachableness and reproof-rejectingness. And constantly cry to God when we come under the sound of the word, Lord, reprove me, rebuke me, correct me, that I may be kept in the way that leads unto life. Now there is a third thing that must be dealt with ruthlessly. If we are to receive maximum profit from this means of our perseverance, we must not only deal ruthlessly with what we are seeing and described as patterns of impenitence in the life, an unteachable reproof-rejecting spirit in the heart, but thirdly, we must deal ruthlessly with a perverted notion of how this means becomes effectual unto our perseverance. We must learn to deal ruthlessly with a perverted

8:18 notion of how this means becomes effectual. To our perseverance. Now let me explain what I mean, and then we're going to look at three pivotal texts, one from the Old and two from the New Testament. Sin has so clouded our judgment and infected our desires that left to ourselves, we can't even use or write the means ordained for our perseverance. Now that's a humbling thing, but it's a fact. Sin has so clouded our judgment, our intellect, perverted our desires that left to ourselves, we cannot use or write the means ordained for our perseverance. And so with respect to the ministry of the word, mistaken notions as to how the word operates to secure our perseverance can be a stumbling block to our profiting from the word unto our perseverance. And God's people in ages past and to the present hour have often failed to receive maximum profit

Case Study 1: Israel's Perverted Notion (Ezekiel 33)

9:33 from this means because of a perverted notion of how this means was made effectual. Turn to the Old Testament with me for an example of this perverted notion as exemplified in the people of Israel. The Book of Ezekiel in chapter 33. Ezekiel chapter 33. Now those of you familiar with the content of the prophecy of Ezekiel will know that Ezekiel with the people of God has gone into captivity. He is in the country of Babylon, and many of the exiles are with him. Now there is a remnant left back in the land, and in the 33rd chapter, of Ezekiel, Ezekiel addresses some of those who are left back in the land of Israel in verse 24 of Ezekiel 33, son of man, they that inhabit waste places in the land of Israel

10:43 speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land, but we are many, the land is given us for an inheritance, and then he goes on to address these who are yet in the land of Israel who are guilty of the terrible sin of presumption, they assume that because they are Abraham's physical seed, and the land was promised to Abraham and to his seed, they have an automatic right to claim that land as their own, and so the prophet undercuts this crass presumption. In that paragraph, but then beginning in verse 30, his remarks are directed not to the remnant that is left in the land, but to those who are with him in Babylon, who are with him by the river Kebar, and now he speaks to them, or God speaks to them through the prophet, and as for thee, son of man, the children of the people talk of thee by the walls and in the doors. And they speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that comes forth from Jehovah.

12:04 And they come unto thee as the people come, and they sit before thee as my people. And they hear thy words, but do them not, for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain. And lo! He come unto them as a lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument, for they hear your words, but they do them not.

12:34 Now the setting of these words should be clear to us. Of those who are there in Babylon with the prophet Ezekiel, there is a group of them at least who come, and their language is described in verse 30. Verse 30 is the language of apparent enthusiasm and desire to hear God speak. Notice their language as it is described in verse 30.

13:03 They talk of the prophet by the walls, in the doors of the houses, and they speak one to another, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word of the Lord that comes from Jehovah. If you had been a visitor in one of the areas where some of these people live, you would hear them talking one with another, saying, Isn't it a wonderful thing to be able to go and hear the prophet of God, that Jehovah has not left us without a mouthpiece here in the land of our exile? Let's all go together and go up and hear the word of God. The language of these people was the language of apparent enthusiasm and desire to hear God speak. But now their actions, as described in verse 31a, seem to buttress their language. And they come unto you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words. They voluntarily gather to hear the word of God, they respectfully sit under the word of God.

14:21 And they attentively listen to the word of God. All three things are said of them. The prophet did not have to go to them. They were not running from him and from the message of God.

14:33 They came to him. And when they came, they didn't come and then sit and talk about the weather and talk about family. They sat, he says, as his true people. And furthermore, they gave him an attentive hearing.

14:48 So we've heard their words, words of enthusiasm. Words of desire to hear God's word. Their actions, voluntarily gathering, respectfully sitting, attentively listening. But now look at their response as described in 31b.

15:06 Though they do all of this, but they do them not. For with their mouth they show forth much love, but their heart goes after their gain. The response of the people is this. That they do not obey the word of God.

15:28 Now they praise the man of God and the ministry of the word of God, but their hearts are wedded to their sins. Do you see it? See it in the passage? Having heard, what do they do?

15:45 With their mouth they show much love. Oh, Ezekiel, thank you for the word of God. But more quickly. What more could a prophet ask?

15:56 But God says their hearts are still committed to their sins. And what was their fundamental problem? Verse 32 describes it. Lo, you have become unto them as a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument, for they hear your words, but do them not.

16:22 What had happened? They had drifted into a perverted notion of how the word of God was to be effectual to their spiritual prophet. They had mistaken the purpose for which the word of God was given and the manner in which it becomes effectual to the realization of that purpose. According to verse 32 they regarded the proclamation of the word of God as beautiful as ever and more as spiritual.

16:54 So, they were wrong. music to be listened to. It's the picture of a minstrel who plays his instrument well and who sings beautifully in accompaniment to his own music. And he says, you've become just like a court minstrel. And they gladly come and they gladly sit and they attentively listen, but they are regarding the word of God as music to entertain rather than as divine mandate to transform.

Analogy: Music vs. Meal – The Word as Nourishment

17:34 That's the fundamental problem. How all of us knows the difference between listening to music for entertainment and sitting down to eat a hearty meal for nourishment. Occasionally on a Monday morning, not as frequently as I would like, I find one of the most relaxing things I can do is to have my wife on the way home from taking the kids. The girls to school will often pick up two newspapers on a Monday morning.

18:01 It's the only time I get newspapers. It's on Monday morning, and I love to sit down with my newspaper, put my headphone on, and put on some of my favorite music, and read the newspaper, particularly the sports page,

18:15 and Sports Monday in the New York Times, and listen to music. Now, when I'm listening to that music, I am not sitting there listening with an intent that that music will stir me up to moral activity. I'm not listening with a view that that music will point out my sins and zero in on my conscience. No, I'm listening for one reason, to have a good aesthetic experience that will help my mind and my spirit to relax and recover from the labors of the preceding week.

18:53 But now, if I've been out in the garden the latter part of the Monday and working hard, and I come in at 5.30 for supper, and the food is set before me, I have a totally different relationship to that food. I'm not sitting there looking at it to be entertained by the arrangement on the plate. I'm not sitting there to feel good by the smell of it.

19:17 I want to bite it, chew it, masticate it thoroughly, swallow it, and have it be assimilated into my body to give me nourishment. And there's a tremendous world of difference between the way in which I listen to music and eat a meal as a hungry man. Well, you see, the word of God was given to be meat and drink to the soul, to be eaten, to be digested, to become part and parcel of the regulation of the totality of life. It was not given to be beautiful sounding music to be eaten.

19:54 It was given to make us feel good, to give us lofty, aesthetic, religious experiences. And the problem with God's ancient people and the problem with us so often is that we are not receiving maximum profit from this means ordained for our perseverance because we have a mistaken, a perverted notion of how the word of God actually becomes effective unto our perseverance. It does not become effective simply if we are at the right place, at the right time, with the right posture, listening to that word. Nor does it become effectual simply because we receive a measure of true enjoyment in listening to it. Unless that word enters the theater of the conscience, lays hold of the affections and the will, and is worked out, out in the shoe-leather of life, it has not accomplished its intended end.

21:03 And our expressed appreciation may be as enthusiastic as the children of Israel. We may, when we're on the phone with one another, talk about the ministries of the Lord's day. Wasn't that a great sermon Pastor Nichols preached? Wasn't that a helpful word Pastor Martin preached?

21:21 Wasn't that a good word that Pastor Young brought? It is not enough! To speak one to another and say, it was a good word, let us go again and hear another word. The issue, dear people, is this.

21:36 It is thrown into your shoe-leather and into your fingertips,

21:44 ragging every dimension of thought and of life.

Case Study 2: Hearers vs. Doers (James 1)

21:54 These poor Israelites had a mistaken, a perverted notion of what the word of God through the prophet of God was to be to them. Do you have a similar notion? As I was trying to put into the concrete reality of my own thinking what might be helpful for all of us, I could not help but think of the contrast between a man going out to work and a couple going in to Lincoln Center to a recital. Now if you were to go down into New York or over into New York, some evening when there's going to be a recital at Alice's, some evening when there's going to be a recital at Alice's, Tully Hall or at the Metropolitan Opera, Tully Hall or at the Metropolitan Opera, you'd see people dressed in their best finery going in. Because they're going to sit and to listen to something that will be aesthetically pleasing. They're not going to do anything strenuous so they don't go with work clothes. But I want you to imagine a man going out in the morning who's got his work clothes on, He's got his hoe to cut wood on.

23:06 hoe to cut weeds. He's got an axe to chop down trees. He's got on his heavy boots to trample underfoot things that will get in his path. He's got on gloves in order to protect his hands from things that could cut him. That should be the picture of the person who comes under the ministry of the word of God. We come with our work clothes on, ready to take the hoe of holy resolution and whack away at the weeds that are growing up in our hearts as the word of God shines the spotlight on those weeds. We sit with an axe in our hand, ready to cut off right hands where necessary when the word of God points out the areas of unmortified lust and passion that need to be dealt with. And we sit here shod with boots that are prepared to trample underfoot our own inordinate desires in the world and the flesh.

24:04 And we sit with gloves that are ready to battle with the powers of darkness. That's the way we should come clothed for the ministry of the word of God. Not in formal attire and in beautiful evening dresses. I'm not talking about external dress now. Some of you don't. I'm talking figuratively. Talking figuratively. I'm not saying come to church in your blue jeans and a polo shirt. No. The very fact that we dress in a special way is a reminder we're here for special business. I

24:34 mean, if God looks in the heart, your external doesn't matter. Why have God's people always instinctively felt, even in the most pagan tribes when they get converted, that they ought to do something special when they come into the house of God? That special may be just adding one more strip of very scanty clothes, but there's an instinctive sense. Why? Because there's something special about meeting with God. So I'm not putting on an appeal for casual dress. Generally speaking, casual dress in the presence of God bespeaks casual dealings with God. If you're offended at that, it's probably because the rule applies in your case. But I'm talking about the inward dress. Not external, but inward. I'm talking about the dress of the soul. And can you say when you come to the ministry of the word that you come consciously dressed to do business, to have dealings with God as his word comes? Or do you come like the person dressed in his

25:36 formal best to sit in the presence of God? Or do you sit back in a relaxed mood and to listen and to be aesthetically titillated? That perverted notion can hinder our profiting from this means of perseverance. Now turn over to the New Testament, if you will. Perhaps some of you have already anticipated the passage James chapter 1. James chapter 1. And I shall read verses 22 to 24. We looked last week at verse 24.

26:15 James chapter 1 verses 19 to 21 in conjunction with patterns of impenitence that hinder our profiting from the ministry of the word. But now notice a different issue brought into focus in verse 22. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror.

26:45 For he beholds himself, and goes away, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was. But he that looks into the perfect law of liberty, and so continues, being not a hearer that forgets, but a doer that works, this man shall be blessed in his doing. Now remember the basic setting of this passage. It is by the word of truth that we are brought forth unto spiritual life, verse 18. As we saw last week, it is by that word that we continue to grow unto full salvation, verses 19 to 21. But now the exhortation is this. It is a call to be doers and not hearers only. Now a man cannot be a doer if he doesn't hear.

27:43 There can be no right doing that does not begin in the heart of the heart of the heart. There can be no right doing that does not begin in the heart of the heart. There can be no right doing that does not begin in the heart of the heart. There can be no right you are doing, but it is impossible. But even that is the perspective that we seek to find, a trust of the heart. Verses 23 and 24 gives us the Mariae. So it is impossible to be a doer if you are not a hearer. Wow. Jesus and the Jesus weak on the cross,или distribution ye even in the eyes of the heart. It is impossible to be a doer if you have not a faith. You can be a doer if you have not a doubt to understand, a good and a good one, but be a hearer be a doer and he has no right. By being a hearer does not ensure that you will be a doer. That is important because you must obey God only. While it is impossible to be a doer without hearing, it is pur McNalson the one who protocols. And it is a doing for the and that listener must to be a hearer without doing and it is that very concern that prompts jane to write because notice what he says in verse 22 the person who is a hearer and not a doer puts himself in the path of self-delusion to be a hearer to come in the language of ezekiel 33 and say what is the word of the lord to be at the right place at the right time giving attention to the word and yet not to do

28:34 is to put oneself in the path of self-delusion why why well he goes on to use an illustration that helps us to answer that question he said such a person self-deluded is like a man who beholds his face in a mirror and forgets what he's on he goes and forgets whereas the doer is like a man who looks and continues to look and regulates life in the light of what he sees now let me give an illustration of the illustration a mother calls out to her son and says to him son wash up time to come for supper so he goes in to the little washroom that they have just inside the door as he comes in from his place of play and he looks in the mirror and lo and behold he sees mud on his right cheek a smashed mosquito in the middle of his forehead some peanut butter and jelly over on the side of his mouth left from lunch and he says yuck i'm a mess but then he gets washing his hands and while he's washing his hands he completely forgets what he saw when he looked in the mirror and his hands are really clean i mean all the way up halfway up to his

29:56 elbows that's pretty good for him he really gets them clean and so he comes bouncing out to sit at the door looks at him and says i thought i told you to wash he says well mom i did wash look at my hands they're clean look look very clean he says yeah but your face he said oh my my face i completely forgot about my face well didn't you look in the mirror and you were yeah i looked in the mirror but i forgot now that's what james is saying whereas if he'd continue to look he would have said wait a minute there's there's mud over there he'd have taken his washcloth and kept looking until the very mirror that reflected the mud reflected a clean cheek and what he said oh that's a little squashed mosquito up there i got to get him off and he would have looked until every last trace of mosquito corpse was gone from his head and then he would have continued to look until every bit of that noon's peanut butter and jelly sandwich was gone from the side of his mouth but because he looked and went away and forgot he was no better than before he looked and james says that's what happens when people hear but do not perform they delude themselves because they got a passing accurate glimpse of what they were they think they're

31:24 automatically better for having seen what they were while they've not done what they know they ought to do in the light of what they saw about themselves that's a tragic thing and you see that can only happen where there is truth and there is truth and there is truth and there is truth and so biblical preaching it doesn't need set for the truth in its objective revelation ثن ditch to bring that truth on to the conscience by reproved correction and exhortation ception and so in a sense where there is biblical preaching the mirrors held up large they buy large day and god's this is seem to squash mist soon on your forehead means that i have ordained chanting fleeing to the blood of cleansing going again to the cross and taking your posture as a helpless needy sinner look to god for cleansing and for purging from your sins and look to christ for fresh grace to get on with the task of being a holy man a holy woman woman have dealings with god in the light of what you've seen of yourself in relationship to christ and his grace and his

32:43 salvation but if we do not actually have dealings with god in the light of what we've seen james says being hearers and not doers we become self-deceived and self-deluded for true blessedness comes according to verse 25 only you in the path of doing he who looks into the perfect law the law of liberty and so continues being not a hearer that forgets but a doer that works this man shall be blessed in his doing so often we say oh i was blessed under the ministry of the word what we mean is we experience some religious feelings and those feelings are legitimate in themselves i am not denying them i am not denying them i am not denying them i am not denying them i am not denying them either the legitimacy or the rightness of religious feelings god deliver us from an unfelt religious experience but the point i'm making is that the word is not given primarily to make us feel good it is given to make us good and to make us good in the concreteness of our own detailed

34:06 individual experience experience czyli To make us good in terms of those irregularities of husband-wife relationships that are a violation of Ephesians 5. To make us good in terms of those irregularities of the parent-child, child-parent relationship delineated in Ephesians 6. To make us good in terms of our relationship to our employers and employees according to Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3. To make us good in terms of what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears and say with our tongues and touch with our hands.

34:45 Not to give us some lovely feeling because the good and the noble has been set before us in the mirror of the Word.

34:54 To conform us to that standard by the grace and by the power of God. Oh, my dear brothers and sisters, do you have a perverted notion as to how this means of perseverance becomes a good thing? Do you have a promise that becomes effective to your actual perseverance? Do you know what it is while the Word is preached to have dealings with God?

35:17 When the promises are held forth even while they're being preached to be seeking with all spiritual figure to wed that promise to your own soul by faith. And when the rebukes come, do you know what it is to melt under the preaching of the Word and be anxious in a situation where the Word is not being preached to you? Do you have a sense that the sermon would be over so that as soon as you're able you can find a secret place and have dealings with God and pray through the issues that God has brought to your awareness under preaching? Do you know what that is?

35:54 Or are you content to say, I have come, I have heard, I have felt something good, therefore my work is done? No, your work is not done. The promise is set forth. It must be pleaded.

36:09 The sins exposed must be confessed and repudiated. The duties articulated must be performed. We must learn to say with David, and how I love these verses in Psalm 119, among the many that are so helpful in this regard, perhaps few are more helpful than Psalm 119, verses 59 and 60. I thought on my ways.

36:42 And turned my feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste and delayed not to observe thy commandments. Now David knew the sweetness of the Word. He could say as he does in this psalm, as he does in the 19th psalm, they were sweeter to his taste than honey.

37:04 He counted them of greater treasure than the finest of gold and silver. He knew what it was to have emotional delight in the Word of God. And I trust we do. But it went beyond that.

37:17 It touched the ethical and the volitional. He said, I thought on my ways. And where I saw any discrepancy between my ways and the ways of God, I didn't walk away from the mirror and forget. But I stayed before the mirror until the mud was off my cheek and the mosquito off my forehead and the peanut butter and jelly off my mouth.

37:40 I made haste and delayed not. I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments. Oh, dear fellow Christians, do you know anything of this? Do you know it as a pattern of your life?

37:54 Thank God there are some of you in whom I see clear evidence that you do know what it is to have this means effectual as the overall pattern of your life. But oh, would to God that there were more of you in whom it was evident that what you hear in preaching, publicly or privately from your overseers, is but the catalyst for your own dealings with God and not a substitute for the same.

Case Study 3: Spiritual Immaturity (Hebrews 5)

38:25 But then there is one final passage to which I want to direct your attention, and that's in the book of Hebrews.

38:32 Remember what we're doing now, simply considering this exhortation to deal ruthlessly with anything that hinders maximum profit from this means of our perseverance, perseverance. Preaching of the word, and we're looking at this third major hindrance, a mistaken, a perverted notion as to how this means becomes effectual. Hebrews chapter 5. The writer to the Hebrews has been discoursing on the priesthood of Christ, and he's going to demonstrate that it is a priesthood not after the order of the Aaronic priesthood, but after the order of Melchizedek, this strange figure who appears out of nowhere in the Old Testament. And having mentioned Christ as a priest after the order of Melchizedek in verse 10 of Hebrews 5, he then goes on to say, of whom, that is, of Melchizedek and of Christ as the fulfillment of that standard and pattern of which Melchizedek was a type of whom we have many things to say, and hard of interpretation, seeing you are become dull of hearing. For when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you the rudiments

39:59 of the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of solid food. For every one that partakes of milk is without experience in the word of righteousness, for he is a fruitless man, and he is a fruitless man, He is a fruitless man, babe, but solid food is for full-grown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. Now, do you see the point that the writer is making? He said, I have truths that I want to tell you, but you can't receive them. You are dull of hearing.

40:41 Your spiritual perception is limited. It would be like giving a beefsteak to a three-month-old child. He has no capacity to chew it, to assimilate it. He must have milk instead of solid meat.

40:58 Now, the question is this. How does one come out of that state of spiritual infancy into full-grown manhood where a steak can be appreciated, delighted in, assimilated? To one's profit. Now, notice carefully. It has nothing to do with chronological age.

41:18 Furthermore, it has nothing to do with one's age in a state of grace. Some people have been in a state of grace for years who are still relative babes. Some have been in a state of grace only a short time, and relatively speaking, they are full-grown men. And how did they become such?

41:43 It has nothing to do primarily with IQ, nor does it have to do primarily with the measure of truth to which someone is exposed. Look at the passage. The difference is between those who have their senses exercised to discern good and evil, and those who are without experience in the word of righteousness. You see the point that he's making?

42:14 Here are two people converted at the same time. A year later, one of them is prepared to receive this teaching on Melchizedek. The other one is not. What's the difference? They've both sat under the same ministry. They have both had this same means of their growth and perseverance set before them. They have spiritually sat at the same table. And yet one of them is still a gurgling, bubble-making, drooling little baby, whose whole life is a struggle. And yet one of them is still a world centers in himself as it does with babies. And the other sits there as a full-grown man in the bloom and flower of his manhood. What's made the difference? Here's the difference. The one from

43:03 the time he was converted, every time the ethical and moral demands of the word of God impinged upon him, he exercised himself spiritually to do something about it.

43:17 Every time the word of God came to bear upon his conscience, he didn't say, tomorrow, some other time, the standard's too high, I'm too weak. He went down on his knees and said, oh God, this is your word. This is what you demand of me. I don't have it in myself to be that.

43:38 I don't have it in myself to do it. But your grace is sufficient. Here are the means you have given. And Lord, I will not rest until I become what you've said I should be.

43:53 His senses are exercised to discern good and evil. He keeps a keen ethical and moral edge upon his conscience. He doesn't dull his conscience by saying evil is good and evil is neutral and evil is liberty. He looks at evil and calls it what God calls it and he turns from it into the way of righteousness.

44:17 Into the way of holiness. And in the many little areas in which ethical and moral decisions are made, he is constantly exercising his senses to discern good and evil and walking with a sensitive and clear conscience in the presence of his God.

44:40 I tell you, dear people, that's one of the tragedies of a lengthy pastorate. Most of the results, as far as I'm concerned, are blessed. But one of the tragedies of a lengthy pastorate is you live long enough to see people remain pygmies.

44:59 While before your eyes, people sitting at the same table become strong, vigorous, full-grown men and women in Christ. And you see again and again that the difference is not basically one of gray matter, IQ. It's this difference. Some seem by the grace of God to take hold of the ethical and moral demands of truth.

45:30 And they are prepared in the language of the text our brother Jeff preached a few weeks ago. They are prepared to buy the truth at any cost and sell it not. Personal name, reputation, ambition, career, nothing's going to stand in the way. There is one great priority.

45:49 They are determined to be as holy. As God can make a redeemed sinner this side of heaven. They're determined. They are determined.

46:00 And nothing is going to take the precedence over that passion to be holy, to be useful, to be like Christ, to serve Him in this generation. The kingdom of God, the glory of God, the honor of Christ, the advancement of the cause of Christ. These are the all-absorbing issues. Yes, in the midst of having to put in $45,000, 50, 60 hours at the office, in the school, at the shop, in the humdrum and the mundane of the household with the diapers and the dishes and dust under the settee and all the rest.

46:36 But in the midst of all of the ordinariness, this one thing they do. They press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of them. And if they've got to humble themselves before their husbands a hundred times a day, or before their wives, before their children, before their family, it doesn't matter. They don't care.

47:00 If they've got to say, I'm sorry for things that make people scratch their head and say, you're ridiculous, even being upset, they don't care. And if they've got to say no to things that others can indulge in without any qualms of conscience, they don't care. They are prepared at any price short of sin to have a conscience void. They are prepared at any price short of offense to God and man and to be like Jesus Christ.

47:30 Are you one of them?

47:33 Are you?

47:37 If you're to profit from this means of your perseverance, there must be some of this element or the most precious truths will be as undigested and unprofitable to you as a beautiful one and a half inch New York strip steak set in front of a three month old baby.

48:01 Wasted. And I wonder how much earnest, fervent, biblical, close, applicatory preaching is wasted in this place because it's thrown on the plate of little babies who ought to be men. As this passage says, the time you ought to be men. They're still little babies.

Conclusion: Ruthless Dealing and Prayer

48:30 May God have mercy upon us and help us that as a people we shall be, we shall be determined to deal ruthlessly with anything which neutralizes maximum profit from this means ordained of God for our perseverance. Deal ruthlessly with any patterns of impenitence that so fill your spiritual stomach with foul matter that you cannot digest the word that we may cry to God that we'll never become. Reproof rejecting people. But that we will welcome reproofs.

49:13 That we will acknowledge in the language of Proverbs that to be reproved and to receive reproof is to be kept in the way of life and the way of understanding. And then if these perverted notions as to how this means become effectual ever begin to take root in us, let us turn from them as from death itself and ever come. Let us come back again and again to the place where we recognize that the preaching of the word through whatever vessel God uses, but those whom he has set over us to minister that word in public or in private, that there will be no automatic profit from that word. It is not enough that we hear it, hear it respectfully, hear it with appreciation, and even follow it with praise. It is not enough. It is not enough. Until that word has regulated thought and motive and life and conduct.

50:14 But you say, Pastor, week after week to do that that's a full-time job. That's right. Being a Christian is nothing less than that, but you're not left to do it on your own. Christ is indeed the strength, the life, the power of his people.

50:33 His blood continues to be available to us as our sins are exposed. His grace is available to us that we might in that grace become those who more and more evidence that we are indeed pressing on that path of faith and holiness and obedience even unto the end. Let us pray. Our Father, we would confess in your presence with a sense of shame that we have often imbibed erroneous notions as to how your word would be effectual to our perseverance.

51:32 Forgive the many times when we have been hearers only, when we have dishonored you by sitting attentively before the word but not carefully working out in practical obedience the demands of that word. Forgive our spiritual indolence. Forgive, we pray, the downright stubbornness that at times rises up in our hearts. Lord, cleanse us from all of the sins connected with hearing the word of God.

52:09 And teach us as a people how to hear to our prophet. How to hear with a view to doing. How to hear with a view to becoming. Amen.

52:22 That which your word says we ought to be. We pray for those who sit amongst us whose hearts have no desire to obey your word. In whom the carnal mind reigns supreme. That mind that is enmity against you and is not subject to your law.

52:41 We pray that you would have dealings with such that you would put forth that power that you alone can put forth. Put forth to change a stubborn, rebellious, sin-loving heart into a heart that loves your ways and loves your person. Father, we pray that you will seal the word to the prophet of everyone who has sat under that word this morning. Hear us as we make our plea in the name of your son and to the end that he would be glorified as your word takes root in our hearts.

53:21 Amen.