Preaching in the Fear of God

The Spiritual Context of Preaching: God's Eye and Throne

0:01 Now, if you will, please turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4.

0:11 I mentioned at the outset of our study that if there were to be seen any relationship between the three studies, it would be this. A man cannot preach as he ought unless he is sent of God, unless he is called of God and is confident to some degree that that call is a valid biblical call. So, assured of his call, what perspectives should be the molding influences during the entirety of his ministry? Well, I believe we have the answer to that question in the passage before us this morning.

0:49 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 1. I charge thee in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead by his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Be urgent in season, out of season.

1:11 Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine, but having itching ears will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts and will turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside unto fables. But be thou sober in all things. Suffer hardship.

1:38 Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill thy ministry. Now, just a word about the general context of this charge. You will remember that in the third chapter, the apostle has told Timothy that a departure from the faith will inevitably occur.

1:57 Know this, that in the last days grievous times will come. And in the light of that declension from sound truth which will occur on every hand, the apostle says, The apostle's exhortation to Timothy is found in verse 14. But, in spite of all this condition, in spite of all this declension, evil men and impostors waxing worse and worse, abide thou in the things which thou hast learned. Don't allow the tendency of declension and departure to enter into your own disposition with reference to the truth of God.

2:36 Abide in that truth. When all around you are jettisoning that truth, abide in it, walk by it, live under the discipline of it. However, the focus in chapter 4 is a bit different. He has said the time is coming when men will not endure sound doctrine.

2:54 But, Timothy, as long as you are abiding in the sound doctrine, and there are yet ears that will listen to the sound doctrine, then preach sound doctrine. Abide in the truth of the word. Abide in the truth of the word. In the midst of declension, but while there are yet ears to listen, preach that word.

3:13 Preach it with urgency. Preach it in the realization that it is indeed the word of the living God. But now, what is to be the spiritual context, the spiritual atmosphere within which Timothy is to preach the word? Well, Paul sets it before us in the charge that he gives.

3:33 I charge thee in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead by his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word. Now, some question the translation of the word, martyromai, as charge. But there is sufficient authority, no lesser than Arndt and Gingrich in their lexicon, that it means to charge, to warn, or to adjure.

4:01 And Paul is charging Timothy, giving him a solemn adjuration. And he says, Timothy, as I give this charge, I give it as one who stands in the presence of God. I charge thee, in the sight of or in the presence of God, and I also charge thee as one who is conscious that he is on his way to the judgment of God. Hence, he includes, in the charge, not only God and in his sight, but the Lord Jesus who shall judge the living and the dead by his appearing and his kingdom.

4:38 And as Paul gives that, he is repeatedly asking, the charge in that spiritual context, in the midst of those spiritual elements, he summons Timothy into the presence of those very same elements and says, in essence, as I charge you beneath the eye of God, and as I charge you beneath the shadow of the throne of God, so, Timothy, I call upon you to receive the charge as beneath his eye, and under the shadow of his throne, and discharge the responsibility of preaching the word with this consciousness ever bearing down upon your soul, you're under the eye of your God, the shadow of the throne

5:20 of judgment is cast across your path. Hence the title of our study today, Preaching Beneath the Eye of God and Under the Shadow of the Throne of God. Timothy, as you preach the word, preach as one conscious that you are supremely scrutinized by your God, and you are supremely accountable to your God. Now, just a word about the phrase Christ Jesus.

No Contradiction: Grace and Accountability

5:54 Your accountability, Timothy, is not to God in the sense of the unconverted. He opened his letter by pronouncing those words of blessing, grace, and peace be unto you from God the Father. Christ Jesus, our Lord. And there is no contradiction between a man standing under the canopy of the grace of God in Christ, and at the same time feeling a deep, sobering sense of his accountability to Christ as his judge. And the whole doctrine of the fear of God is bound

6:31 up in the perspective of this passage. And I say again, there is no contradiction between a man sensing the wonder of the grace of which we heard so clearly and eloquently yesterday morning from Mr. MacLeod. No contradiction between that glorious consciousness that I'm under the canopy of grace, and that awesome sense that I am also under the shadow of that throne before which I shall stand and give an account of the deeds done in the body.

7:06 Now, as Mr. Greer mentioned, this was the last chapter that the Apostle Paul wrote. Of course, he didn't write it as a chapter. These are his last words. As he thinks of the cause of God's truth in that generation and in

7:22 unborn generations, as he sees God's providential dealings in giving to Timothy a strategic place of responsibility with reference to the life and well-being of all the churches in which he labors,

7:37 a man about to die doesn't fool around with mere palaver. He's not just talking for the sake of filling up space. And as he thinks of Timothy's task, he longs that Timothy receives something of a perspective that will keep him in line and make him useful in the hands of Christ. And that perspective, the Apostle indicates, is this consciousness of the eye of God and the shadow of the throne of God. Now, why did he give these

Prize a Clear Conscience: Paul's Example

8:09 two things as the element within which the charge was given? I would suggest to you this morning, and I hope to demonstrate from the scriptures, that the answer to that question is this. These two things were so formative in the life of the Apostle Paul as a minister that having known something of their powerful influence upon his own life, he longs that Timothy shall know the same in his life. And so what we're going to do this morning is to trace out statements in the Acts and in the Apostles, in the Epistles, in which the Apostle Paul again and again indicates that it was his preaching beneath the eye of God

8:53 and under the shadow of the throne of God which made him the man that he was. And we'll trace out our study along three lines. First of all, this perspective will spur the minister to prize a clear conscience as his greatest possession in the work of the minister. And so, what we're going to If I labor as under God's eye, if I labor as consciously beneath the shadow of his throne, it will cause me to prize a clear conscience as my greatest possession in the work of the ministry.

9:35 Turn, please, to the 24th chapter of the book of the Acts. Acts chapter 24. The Apostle Paul standing before Felix, giving his defense and his testimony, and we begin our reading at verse 14. But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers, believing all things that are written in the law and which are written in the prophets.

10:09 Having hope toward God, I believe in you. And I believe in God, which these also themselves look for, that there shall be a resurrection both of the just and unjust. Herein, or on this account, the account of this hope of resurrection, and in the mind of the apostle, resurrection and judgment were synonymous events. You did not have one without the other. When you had one, you had the other. On this account, the account of this hope, this certain confident expectation of resurrection,

10:43 I exercise myself. I place myself under strict and rigorous spiritual discipline to have a conscience void of offense towards God and men always.

10:58 And you see what he's saying? He's saying that in the light of the certainty of that hour when I shall stand before my God, I count no possession greater in life and ministry than a conscience void of offense. Heavenward and void of offense, manward.

11:23 Now just a word about the function of conscience is necessary for you to understand the thrust of this text.

11:30 Conscience is God's present reminder of those two great realities. That his eye is upon us and that we shall stand before him to give account of our deeds. That is conscience when it is properly functioning. When conscience is functioning as an element of our constitution, which has come within the orbit of the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit and the instruction of the word, conscience becomes the eyelash of God rubbing across the sensitive folds of the human heart, reminding me his eye is upon me.

12:09 So that in my thoughts and in my secret deeds and in my unspoken longings, if they deviate from the standard of the word and the gracious influences, of the spirit, there is that sense, God's eye is upon me. He is displeased. And so conscience is the eyelash of God brushing the sensitive folds of the heart. And secondly, it is God's personal preview of the day of judgment.

12:36 It's the inner whispering of God concerning my accountability to God, which will be climaxed at the resurrection and the judgment of the great day. Hence the apostle says, Herein do I exercise myself as a servant of Christ and a minister of Christ, to have a conscience that is void of offense. Godward, manward, I preach as beneath his eye and under the shadow of his throne. Now the man whose conscience is defiled, wounded, unhealthy because of compromise, because of sin, he cannot preach with true boldness and with searching application.

13:21 When a man attempts to preach with boldness and searching application, over the thunderings of his own defiled conscience, he's running the risk of becoming an apostate.

13:36 Paul says concerning two who defected from the faith, they cast aside faith and a good conscience and made shipwreck concerning the faith.

13:47 When a man defects from Christian truth, the error never starts in his head. It starts in his conscience.

Conscience in Ministry: Renouncing Shame and Awaiting Divine Judgment

13:55 Now notice how this, this perspective comes out again and again in other places as the apostle writes. For instance, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 1 and 2.

14:08 When we preach as beneath his eye and beneath the shadow of his throne, we will prize an undefiled conscience. Listen to the apostle's statement here. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 1 and 2. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not.

14:28 We faint not. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame. It's a poor translation in the authorized. We've renounced the hidden things that are an occasion of shame.

14:40 Not only shame before men, but shame before God. We've renounced the hidden things of shame. Not the overt things that bring shame. We've renounced the hidden things.

14:51 Well, if they're hidden, before whom does the shame occur? It occurs in the presence of God. We've renounced the hidden things of shame. Not walking.

15:00 Nor walking in craftiness. Nor handling the word of God deceitfully. But by the manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience. Where?

15:10 In the sight of God. There's the perspective.

15:15 We renounce this. We do not manipulate the word. We do not adopt the methods of salesmanship and huckster off Jesus and go through all of this manipulation. No, no, no.

15:27 We renounce that. We're set upon this course. And we renounce that. And what's the overarching spiritual context?

15:34 The eye of God.

15:37 When you're conscious as living and ministering under the eye of God, you and I, too, will renounce not just the overt things that would bring us into shame, but the hidden things which cause shame. And so the perspective of preaching under the eye of God is explicitly laid out in this text. Turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 4, where we see, the shadow of the throne of God cast across the apostles' ministry.

16:09 Some of his converts got a little wiser than their spiritual father. And they began to be his judge. How's Paul going to deal with the problem? Well, listen to it.

16:20 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 3. But with me it's a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Yea, I judge not mine own self. That is, I do not pass final sentence.

16:32 That's the prerogative of another. For I know nothing against myself. My conscience is void of offense. Yet am I not hereby justified.

16:40 But he that makes final pronouncement, he that judgeth me, is the Lord. Wherefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall each man have his praise from God. See what he's saying?

17:00 He's saying, I can afford the luxury of being blessedly indifferent to your judgment. Because I'm on my way to the judgment of another who knows the secrets of the heart. You judge by appearance. And you've come to despise the little hook-nosed Jew who came not with the embellishments of Greek rhetoric.

17:22 Who came not with the philosophical structures of the Greek intellectuals. You have come to despise him and cast him off as a thing of naught. He says, that's a very little thing with me. But the big thing with me is what he'll say.

17:36 What he'll say in that day. You see? This is not detached theoretical concepts. This was a burning existential reality.

17:48 He carried in his heart the consciousness that I'm on the way to the judgment of my Lord. And again, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 12.

18:01 And I'm turning to a number of passages. Again, not to fill time, but to show that this is a pervasive perspective. And that's why...

18:11 He says, I charge thee, Timothy, in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 12. For our glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have behaved ourselves in the world and more abundantly to you were to...

18:38 Oh, what a blessed thing. To stand, and preach, be it to a little group of children, to prisoners in a place of legal confinement, or the people of God on the Lord's day morning, and say, I have the testimony of a good conscience in the presence of my God. I say the apostle pries this as his greatest possession in the work of the ministry. Now, let us descend to application.

Application 1: Preaching Only God's Truth

19:08 Or as a friend of mine says, as matters arising, subject.

19:14 When this perspective becomes a burning reality to us, its effect upon our ministries will be profound, both positively and negatively. And I think we can emphasize the positive with greater precision if I bring out four lines of application in a negative cast. First of all, if I'm preaching as beneath God's eye, present reality, as under the shadow of his throne, present consciousness, I will not say anything in his name, but what I'm absolutely convinced is the truth of his word.

19:54 Consciousness that I'm handling the word of God under the very eye of the God who gave it. On my way to the judgment of that God for the stewardship of handling it, I say it will keep me from saying anything in his name. But what I am absolutely confident is the truth. Of his own word.

20:24 Now that has great practical implications, my brethren. Notice how the Apostle Paul puts it to Timothy in that familiar text, 2 Timothy 2.15. And I want to underscore one facet of it that I believe we often overlook.

20:37 Study, or better translated, do thine utmost to show thyself approved unto who? Do thine utmost to show thyself approved unto not your session, not your people, but approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Ashamed before whom?

21:03 Before the God who has commissioned you. Before the God who has said, preach the word, but be sure what you preach is not just your own thoughts and your own notions overlaid with biblical terminology and with a semblance of textual similarity to the word of God. And utmost, apply all of your faculties to show yourself approved unto God. A workman that needeth not be ashamed.

21:31 And what is the condition of that? Cutting a straight and accurate course in the word of truth.

21:43 That's why all your sermons will start with your spade work in the original if you have had enough Greek to know your way around in it. And if you don't have the Greek or the Hebrew, you'll have sense enough to surround yourself with men who are competent in the languages, who can help you to penetrate to the mind of God in the text. It may mean you'll have to do what I'm presently doing. When I go back, six tapes worked out by the Hebrew Instructor at Reformed Seminary down in Jackson, Mississippi, is going to tutor me in Hebrew by a tape and a syllabus that he's worked out for me.

22:21 Because I'm always uncertain. Yes, I have Caelan Dalish or Dalish. I have the other good Hebraists, but I don't feel certain until I've seen the code language with my own eyes. Because when I stand and say, this is what God says.

22:36 I was in awe that God did he say it?

22:41 Many a time, hours of work have gone down the drain because when I examined the text, I saw, uh-uh. That was a notion I attached to a poor translation. It wasn't a concept that God had embodied in his own word.

22:59 It means that we'll not play cute with sermonizing.

23:04 Something about the English mind that has a peculiar, and in some cases, a grotesque gift of alliteration. And cute little homiletical ditties are completely, posed around the clever arrangement of three P's or three C's that have nothing to do with penetrating the mind of God in the text. And I believe, brethren, if we're trafficking in that kind of abominable practice is because we've long since forgotten. I'm under his eye.

23:37 The shadow of his throne is cast across my pulpit. Listen to the apostle again in 2 Corinthians 2, 17. For we are not as the many corrupting the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, what? In the sight of God, speak we in Christ.

23:58 It takes you, Paul, from corrupting the word, from manipulating the word, or making merchandise of the word. Paul, what is it that keeps you cutting a straight course? He says, I'll tell you what keeps me, the sight of God.

24:14 Timothy, I charge you, in the sight of God, preach the word. Preach the word. Preach the word.

Application 2: Integrity in Ecclesiastical Functions

24:24 Second implication,

24:26 I will not, I will not practice anything in my ecclesiastical functions or relationships, but what I am convinced is the will of God. For my ministry is more than preaching. It involves relationships to others. At a structural level, if we're in a Presbyterian setup, Anglican setup, some looser setup, in the Baptist, independent, congregational framework, I am administering the sacraments, I'm administering the sacraments, I'm administering discipline, and if I, as a minister, am laboring as under the eye of God,

25:10 and under the shadow of the throne of God, I will not practice anything in my ecclesiastical relationships or in my official functions as a minister, but what I'm convinced is the will of God. Do you see what that means when we descend to particulars? Why do some of you immerse, confess disciples, upon profession of their faith, and not sprinkle infants? Is it because you've inherited a Baptist position and you've never really examined it for fear you might become a paedobaptist and run the risk of losing friends and losing your church?

25:54 If you can take a man, a woman, and immerse them in the name of the Triune God without the conviction that this is indeed the will of God, as he's given me understanding, if you have doubts that have entered, and you're reading in some of the very age, some of the very able and thoughtful and perceptive literature on the subject of baptism that defends and expounds the paedobaptist position, if you've had cracks in your conscience, doubts, reservations, and you've smothered them, you haven't been willing to examine them, listen, my Baptist friend! Don't expect to preach with power if you're playing with your conscience in the sacraments. The reverse is true.

26:39 I say to you who sprinkle infants in the name of the Triune God, why do you do it? Is it because you have honestly, before God, searched that issue through the scriptures and have wrestled it through to know, can I, in the name of Christ, the head of the church who's made me an office-bearer in true conscience, perform this sacramental act in the confidence that it is the revealed will of God? Or are you simply doing that because it's part of your inherited tradition? Do you fear ever to really study the issue?

27:21 Or fear of the consequences if you come up on the other side? I've met young men who've said, well, I've got serious reservations about the Baptist position or the pedo-Baptist position, but if I move from the one to the other under the pressure of my conscience enlightened by my present understanding of the word, it'll mean no church, no stipend, no this, no that! I say to them, you're hiring! You're not fit to preach!

27:47 Those 450 men walked out of that assembly. What was the issue? Liberalism? Modernism?

27:56 Giving up of the high doctrine of... No!

27:59 The issue was what would be called in our inner pouring was not minor to them when the kingship of Christ was intruded upon by the civil authority. They left home, church, whatever stipend was coming to do what? To throw themselves upon the goodness and mercy of the God into whose face they could look with a good conscience. And my friend, I'd rather have my home burned and every friend taken from me and stand in the midst of the charred ruins of the home and look up and say, Oh God, thou knowest my conscience is void of offense.

28:38 I've furnished mants and a thousand voices to praise me and have the eyelash rushing across the folds of my heart knowing that I've compromised. Thirdly, if I preach and labor and minister as under the eye of God and under the shadow of the throne of God...

29:06 Wait, before I go on to that, I want to back up. Take with my notes the thing I told you this morning. This applies to forms of worship. What we allow in our churches in the name of Christ as part of valid worship, what we encourage at every level, youth meetings, etc.,

29:28 as part of evangelism. Brethren, are we examining these things in the light of the Word? For Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3 to Christian workers, The day shall try every man's work of what sort it is. Let a man take heed how he builds the shadow of the throne of God is over every single trowel full of mortar that I lay in the building of God's house, over every brick that I place.

Application 3: Courage in Discipline and Rebuke

29:52 You work out those implications. Now, the third application. I will not back down from the difficult tasks of disciplining and rebuking in the work of the ministry. Look at Hebrews 13, 17.

30:07 This perspective brought by the writer of Hebrews, who I am increasingly convinced, was this same apostle. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them. Why? For they watch in behalf of your souls as they that shall give account.

30:29 You see what he's saying? He's saying the context of their watching is the shadow of the throne of God. They watch not as doing enough pastoral duties to satisfy Satan, or board, or elders and deacons. No, no.

30:53 They watch as those who go before the throne of God and give account of the stewardship of the souls of men. Brethren, I find it relatively easy to be bold and fearless preaching to 200 men or 2,000 or 20. But, oh, how my flesh cringes when I must go to that individual and sit down with him or her in his home, her home, call them into the study and look them straight in the eyes so that as they look to the right, they know I can't be talking to someone there. To the left, up, down, they know I'm talking to them.

31:37 Sister, I believe there is a deflection from the standard of the word of God. And as your pastor, I must admonish you. I must rebuke you. I must exhort you.

31:48 Then if the exhortation is not heeded, then there must be the further step of discipline leading to the withdrawal of social fellowship, 2 Thessalonians 3, or that awesome, ultimate severance of Matthew 18. Brethren, God is across us in pastoral dealings. We're going to give an account. Little good will it do as we face that day to know that we had been perfectly diplomatic, exquisitely and saccharine in our willingness to bend and to smile and be sweet at the expense of being true

32:33 to the souls of men. You see how practical this perspective is. I charge thee, Timothy, preach the word as under his eye, under the shadow of his throne. And a fourth implication, and this by no means is exhaustive.

Application 4: Humility and Reconciliation

32:47 I'm only being suggestive, hoping that this will set the wheels of meditation and reflection moving. If I preach in this context prizing a clear conscience, I will not be reluctant to humble myself before men. For you see, the eye of God takes in not just my relationship to him, but my relationship to others. Here's a man who said, the only thing that matters is my relationship to God, so I'm going to pray.

33:13 And the Lord says, hey, how about your relationship to your brother? When ye stand praying, forgive. For if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive yours. See what the Lord is saying?

33:24 If you come to bring your gift, you come to worship me, you come to praise me, and there rememberest. You see, in the conscious awareness of God's presence, in spiritual disciplines of prayer and worship, we're more sensitive to the eyelash of God. And he says, if you feel that eyelash and you remember your brother has ought against you, God says, leave your gift. I want nothing this way.

33:48 So you're right that way. First be reconciled to thy brother, then thou, and offer thy gift. Now, are we exempt from that as preachers? No, no, my brethren, we of all people should exemplify.

34:00 When's the last time you humbled yourself before your session and said, look, I was all wet on that issue we debated so hotly a month ago at a session meeting? I was wrong. Oh, but that'll lower the dignity of the ministry. Hallelujah.

34:15 If that's the thing you must do to keep your dignity. We preach from the pulpit, since perfection is an abominable doctrine, and then we live year in and year out as though we had attained to it. No one ever hears us confessing our sins, acknowledging our faults. Oh, my brethren, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

34:39 Oh, my brethren, when you know that you've wronged a brother, you've been curt, flippant, unthoughtful, ungracious, how can you preach as beneath God's eye when you know that someone has legitimate grounds to have ought against you? How can you? You can't. So what do you do?

34:56 You learn to cauterize the conscience. And a cauterized conscience is not the soil of a piercing, penetrating, spirit-owned ministry. It's a conscience void of offense to God. And to man.

Liberation from the Fear of Man

35:09 Well, I hurry now to touch the second thing that this perspective will do. It will not only cause us to prize a clear conscience as our greatest possession in the ministry, but secondly, it will greatly assist the minister in becoming liberated from the fear of man. Timothy, I charge thee in God's sight, beneath the shadow of the throne of your gracious Lord, who is redeemed in the name of God. And to whom you are accountable.

35:44 Timothy, preach the word as beneath that eye and under the shadow of that throne. For Timothy, you are a timid man by temperament. And if you are to be liberated from the fear of man, Timothy, you desperately need this perspective. The scripture says, The fear of man bringeth a snare.

36:02 And oh, how many tongues of preachers are snared from reproving, rebuking, exhorting, from preaching the whole counsel of God because of the fear of man. Listen to the words of Gurnall. A minister without boldness is like a smooth file, a knife without an edge, a sentinel afraid to shoot his gun. If men will be bold to sin, ministers must be bold to reprove.

36:38 Oh, how Paul prized boldness. What's the thing he asked the people to pray for? He says, that utterance be given that I may speak what? Boldly as I ought to speak.

36:56 He said, pray that I may have it. Pray that God may grant it to me. Ephesians 6, 19, 2 Corinthians 3, 12, Colossians 3, 29, boldness. Now, you see, the word makes clear that opposition and hatred are part and parcel of a true ministry.

37:19 They receive my words, they'll receive yours. In the world you shall have tribulation. Blessed are ye when men shall revile, not if, when they shall revile. All who live godly in Christ Jesus and certainly all who will preach truly in the name of Christ shall suffer persecution.

37:38 And Paul knew this more than perhaps any other of the apostles. But notice how this did not turn him from boldness. 1 Thessalonians 2, 1 to 5 is a classic statement of how this perspective of the eye of God and the shadow of the throne of God will liberate a man from fear of men's faces even in the face of tremendous opposition. 1 Thessalonians 2, beginning with verse 1, For yourselves know our entering in unto you that it hath not been found vain, but having suffered before and been shamefully treated and suffered

38:23 and been shamefully treated. You go back to Acts 16 and read about it. Thrown in a prison, beaten, abused. So as you heard about this, just some little thing that happened in the course of our obedience to Christ, we waxed bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God in much conflict.

38:48 For our exhortation is not of error nor of uncleanness nor in guile, but that we speak not as pleasing men, but God who proveth is a present tense verb. Not God who shall prove, but God who presently examines proves our hearts. Why did we wax bold? Because we were conscious of the eye of God upon us.

39:14 He gave us a trust. He did not say that that trust was to be altered because there was opposition, yet fear or please men, Paul says in Galatians 1.10, I should not be the servant of Christ. You're a servant of Christ in reality in direct proportion to the measure of your liberation from the fear of men.

39:38 Now let me say by way of application several things. When standing before men and you know that something in the text is going to offend this one or that one, what's going to keep you being true to the exposition of the word? It's when you remember that it's not the eye of that malcontent in the congregation that matters. As you approach that delicate area that you know is going to pinch some sensitive raw nerves in the congregation, it's at that point that you consciously in the midst of your preaching remember, oh God, your eye is upon me.

40:18 You're watching how I handle that text. You're seeing if I gloss over the offensive element. Of its vigor and its vital application. Lord, I must be true to you.

40:33 I say from experience in some little measure, brethren, I know of nothing that in some measure helps me to be true to the text of the word even when I know I may deeply offend and the realization his eye is upon me. Oh, that we might pray before entering our pulpits. Yea, when entering the closet the vision is done. Lord God, make my heart sensitive to your eye.

41:05 Lord God, help me to see the throne of judgment casting its shadow across my desk. Oh Lord, take those perspectives and write them upon the tables of my heart. Secondly, when you're tempted to court man's favorable judgment and play to the gallery, what then? Plead that the realization Corinthians 4, 5 will become your portion.

41:36 It is a little thing that I'm judged of man's judgment. Paul, by the grace of God, was indifferent both to the praise and censures of men. What are the smiles of the creature if you know the Creator's frowning? What is the glowing look of admiration in the eyes of your heroes?

41:58 It's turned away in disapproval. Thank God for the blessed inner release that comes when you know before God that you've not feared the faces of men. And all kinds of hellish opposition can rage about you. But you pillow your head at night and say, Thank you, Lord.

42:24 And your conscience is at rest. Look at Paul and Silas at midnight. What are they doing? Having a meeting that some of us would have been a little suspicious of.

42:36 We thought maybe they'd been at a Neo-Pentecostal meeting a few hours before. At midnight! So ebullient and full of joy and of the Holy Ghost! They even were a little bit socially insensitive.

42:47 They woke up the other prisoners.

42:53 They weren't whispering their psalms. They were singing the hymns and psalms of praise and praying to God at midnight. Why? Oh, the Roman government was frowning and all those unconverted people and those wicked people who hated the message were frowning, all of them gnashing their teeth.

43:11 But they saw God's eye and it was an eye of approval. And as the shadow of His throne was cast over that dank dungeon, they said, Lord, if we were summoned before it tonight, we could meet you with joy. Brethren, that's the heart of the ministry. You're God's free man when that's your portion.

43:32 Listen to this tremendous quote found in Bridges, the Christian ministry, which needs desperately a present reprint, I think. Are we all out of them? We're out of them here, but you're not out of them back up in Edmonton. I don't remember whatever direction that is.

43:52 We're not sure. All right. Well, if you find out you are, I hope they will suffer the word of exhortation because we do encourage men everywhere to get this book and make it a lifetime companion. I've worn out my first copy and this is the new, fresh second one that I'm going through.

44:10 What said Knox, John Welsh, a fervent Scottish minister, son-in-law to the celebrated John Knox? What that I should regard, regard or fear the face of any man when I remember and assure myself, you see the principle, conscious spiritual discipline, when I remember and assure myself that I'm standing before that sacred and glorious majesty whose word in his very sight I am preaching to his servants and his creatures. Believe me, when this thought enters my mind, I could not pay any regard, regard to the face of man, even if I wished ever so much to do so.

44:55 See what he's saying? Thought fills my mind. It's impossible for the fear of man to grip me. And that's why the devil seeks to erode every means of grace that keeps that perspective living within our breasts.

45:11 It's when you kneel consistently to pray day after day that the awareness of God's eye is kept fresh. But it's when you neglect the closet, and prayer gets pushed into the secondary place, that the reality that I'm accountable to him, I'm under his eye, his shadow, the shadow of his throne is cast across my ministry. These become detached religious concepts, not burning inward realities. And that's what the devil's out for when he cripples your disciplines of prayer, because he knows in so doing he's cut the nerve of your power, the power that flows out,

45:53 of God-given boldness and fearlessness.

Aiming at Comprehensive and Urgent Preaching

45:58 And then, in the last place, this perspective, which causes us to prize a clear conscience as our greatest possession, this perspective that will liberate us from the fear of man, is the spiritual perspective that will make us as ministers aim at being comprehensive and urgent in our preaching. Now, this may be a subtle way to reduce a four-point sermon to three. I don't know. I'm not satisfied with the structure of it, and yet I didn't feel right making a separate point.

46:32 So, such as it is, point three with two sub-points. Preaching beneath God's eye, preaching as under the shadow of his throne, will make us aim at being comprehensive. Point A. Point B.

46:47 It will cause us to be urgent. Turn to Acts 20, where we see this element of comprehensiveness being produced, by the perspective of the shadow of God's throne on the life of the Apostle Paul. Acts chapter 20, verse 26, that well-known text. Wherefore, I testify unto you this day that I am pure from the blood of all men.

47:25 For I shrank not from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God. Now, I think there's a lot of people out there there is no doubt that the phrase pure from the blood of all men is a direct reference to that charge given not to believers in general. Many a conscience of a poor, humble saint has been rubbed raw by some preacher taking the Ezekiel 3 passage and just rubbing it back and forth, saying you're guilty of blood unless you witness to every single person you see in every single circumstance, and they make them psychological wrecks. But that charge was given to Ezekiel as an official watchword, a watchman to the nation of Israel.

48:07 And you remember the charge. When I say to the wicked, Thou shalt die, and you do not warn him, he shall die in his sin, for his blood will I require at thy hand. If I say he shall die, and you do warn him, and he does not repent, he shall die in his sins. Thou hast delivered thy food.

48:26 Now, it's in that mentality that Paul says, I'm pure from the blood of all men. It is a judgment context. As he anticipates standing before God to give account of the stewardship of his three years at Ephesus, he says, God will not charge me with the blood of any of you. Now, what brought him to that confidence?

48:48 Well, he tells us, because I shrank not from declaring the whole counsel of God. In other words, Paul realized that the whole spectrum of revealed truth was necessary for man as man and as man. Sinful man. He did not sit as judge over the word, saying man as creature and sinner needs only this part and that part and this part and the other.

49:16 He bowed to the wisdom of God and said, O God, creator and redeemer of men, you know what is necessary for man as creature, as sinner. Therefore, I shall proclaim the whole counsel of your truth. In that counsel, the offensive things as well as the glorious things, the unpalatable as well as the delicious. But I am accountable before God to declare the whole counsel of his truth.

49:49 Now, you see the application to this, don't you? When preaching through a book of the Bible, you come on matters which seem unimportant to you.

49:59 And so you're tempted to skip over them.

50:02 My friend, God didn't think they were unimportant or he wouldn't have revealed them. Now, I may have to say to my people, frankly, I don't quite see yet.

50:12 The importance of this, but God has revealed it and I am to proclaim what he's revealed. Preach the word. All of the word that is entrusted to you. All that focuses in and flows out of that incarnate word, the Lord Jesus.

50:31 And as Luther said, to neglect any one portion of the word of God is to detract from some facet of the glory of Christ. The full glory of the incarnate word is displayed in the full proclamation, of the written word.

50:47 Now, how are we going to be kept from that? His eyes upon me. Oh, God, I must seek to be comprehensive, declare the whole counsel, or in some measure, blood will be required at my hand. I must remember that God says all scripture is not only breathed by him, but is profitable.

51:07 Therefore, Paul could say in Acts 20, 21, I kept back nothing that was profitable. That's just a synonymous way of saying I preach the whole counsel of God. If all scripture is profitable, and I do not aim at preaching all scripture, then I'm keeping back that which is profitable to men for their salvation and their sanctification. And brethren, I've preached long enough in one place, 11 years now, under the rigorous discipline of consecutive preaching through great themes and most of the time through large sections of the word to know that there's nothing more withering to the flesh than the word of God.

51:46 I've preached long enough in one place, eleven years now, under the rigorous discipline of consecutive preaching through great themes and most of the time, through large sections of the word, this discipline, nothing more humbling to the mind. I don't know that I've still recovered yet from the sense of wanting to run off and hide as I came in the consecutive preaching through Ephesians 1 to those massive verses beginning with verse 18 and following. The eyes of the understanding enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, the exceeding greatness of his power which he wrought in the Christ when he raised him from the dead, sat him at his own right hand far above all principality and power and might and dominion in every name that is named. And then that mind-blowing concept which even the translators felt was

52:28 too much and they sort of glossed over it and gave him as head to the church. Christ is God's gift to the church. And then as though that's not enough, the church is his body, the fullness of him. I want to run.

52:45 I said, well, who can preach on things like that? Lord, if you even begin to catch the glimpse of the edges of the glory, you put your hand upon your mouth, you get on your face, you worship, you don't stand and preach. To preach on a theme, there's a sense in which you feel you must have it in hand. Who can hold that in his hands? Creation, the spiritual

53:09 agony. And yet there it is. You're called upon to preach the word and so you go down before God and confess your helplessness, your blindness, the narrowness of your mind and your heart. You're humbled and you cry, oh God, that I might before your eye preach and declare what you've revealed in this passage. Be pleased, for Christ's sake, to open it. Comprehensiveness.

53:37 Lord, I'm on my way to that time when you're going to hold me accountable for the full deposit of your truth. Did I knowingly, willfully, cunningly avoid any facet of it? What an awful thing to give account of in that day. You see then this perspective? Timothy preached

Urgency in Persuading Men

53:54 the word. As under his eye, under the shadow of his throne. And then finally, it will make us not only aim at comprehensiveness, but point B, urgency. Second Corinthians, chapter 5.

54:07 Urgency. Of course, it's in the second Timothy 4 passage. Preach the word. Be urgent in season, out of season. But I think the second Corinthians 5 passage is more definitive. Certainly it's

54:25 more extensive in its treatment of this. Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 9. Verse 9, having mentioned the hope of the resurrection and his longing for that day when he shall be clothed with immortality, he says in verse 9, wherefore also we make it our aim. Wherefore we are ambitious is weak. We make it our aim. This is the thing we aim at. We consciously

54:49 press towards, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him. Why? For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the thing he desires. That is the thing we aim at. That is the thing we aim at. That is the

55:01 thing we aim at. That is the thing we aim at. That is the thing we aim at. That is the thing done in the body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. We aim to

55:06 please him. We want the smile of our God. And say it reverently, the twinkle of his approving eye. We make it our aim to please him. Why? We're on our way to stand before

55:21 him. And if we don't have his approval, what is the approval of men? And then in verse 11 he says, knowing therefore the fear of the Lord. That's what the fear of God is.

55:30 One of the best descriptions of what the fear of God is. It's living in that consciousness that I'm accountable to that gracious, but awesome being who has made me and redeemed me and before whom I'll stand to give account of my stewardship. Knowing then the fear of God as an experimental reality, what do we do? We persuade men. Persuasion.

55:57 That is not merely dumping gloves of truth in their lap and saying if you like it, take it. If you don't, too bad. Persuasion. Persuasion of men. We seek to convince them of the realities of sin and of grace. We seek

56:17 to press upon them with urgency the great magnitude of the issues in which we traffic. We're not just professional word machines grinding out of rapport and exegesis. We persuade men, not with the tricks, the crafty cunning gimmick of professional salesmen. We treat people like they were Pavlov's dogs, conditioning a response of a bowed head and

56:55 the mumbling of a little prayer. This is abominable in the sight of God in butchering to the souls of men. But brethren, in our reaction against that which is under God's indictment, where is the impassivity? As was said of McShane, as if he was a die to have you convinced.

57:28 When's the last time anyone heard you preach? Heard me preach. And when I was and said that man preached, have me converted. I press it upon your conscience, brother. When's the last time anyone could have walked from a service in which

57:45 you preached and said those words? Can we preach of the judgment when we'll stand before our God and it seems as though the perspective broadens and he sees his hearers standing before God. And that perspective's in the charge, too. Remember, he said, I charge thee before the Lord Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead.

58:16 All men, saint and sinner, by his appearing and his kingdom. There seems to be this shift from his accountability to theirs. And again, if I may just share what little God has at least begun to teach me in this area, I know a few things that cause me to be more urgent in preaching than consciously to bring near that awesome day. I mention this in the little booklet on what's wrong with preaching. I want to repeat it.

58:49 Often I seek when I sit in the chair to the left of the pulpit When the offering is being received prior to the hymn before the opening of the scriptures To look out amongst my people and envision what it will be When they all stand before him in that day And I say, oh God, every one of them Shall in that day go off into exquisite blissfulness in the presence of God Or descend into indescribable misery in the pit of hell And what I say today may mean the difference

59:31 I'm not putting too much on the human element, no God is ordained by the foolishness of the thing preached to save God's eternal purpose is frustrated if I'm not urgent, no I stand as impeccable in my commitment to reform doctrine as any man here But it's a denial of biblical truth And the historic perspective To say that if you're reformed You simply give out the word without any pleading, without any urgency, without any entreating

60:11 Young reformed men who think that the mark of your reformed orthodoxy Is your detached, impassioned proclamations And then in places where people are offended Oh, it's too dramatic, too mixed, too loud Oh, my friend, when the realities of eternity grip the heart, you don't handle them They handle you And when they take you to your people You'll be willing, as Paul says If you think me a fool, fine, I'm a fool for your sake

60:52 And I say it's this perspective that will grant to us Under God's blessing and by the Spirit The element of urgency Urgency If I believe that there's such a thing as deception How can I be content with what I call buckshot preaching? If perhaps there be someone amongst us who's not saved And then some little innocuous general direction That's not the way a deceived person is blasted out of his deception There must be contentment There must be close, searching application How can we bring consolation to the people of God By just general applications of the Word? This is why I urge upon you Don't leave Flavel on your shelf

61:36 To impress your fellow preachers when they come that you're orthodox When they look over the library They look at you with that knowing look You know you're one of us and we're one of you Brethren, you have a stewardship of Flavel on your shelf He's a teacher of God as a gift to you This is why we must read Sibbes This is why we must read Owen I abominate this caricature that only a man with 175 IQ can read Owen It's not true There's some places he's obtuse and the sentences are a little long But the main problem with not grasping Owen Is not intellectual or grammatical or stylistic It is spiritual

62:18 Because he's dealing with the deep inner workings of the heart In its relationship to God and to truth And all how they teach us How they teach us How they teach us How they teach us To preach with urgency and with comprehensive Well, my brethren, these are the things that God has laid upon my heart By his word to share with you And I trust that the spirit himself will so burn them into our hearts That we will hear the charge coming to us as it came to Timothy Under the eye of God Under the shadow of the throne of God Preach the word

63:01 Preach the word