Preaching in The Spirit (1985 Banner Conf.)

Introduction: The Biblical Concept of Preaching in the Spirit

0:00 Those of you who were with us for the ministry of the Word of God last evening will remember that the 66th chapter of Isaiah, the opening verses, were brought to our attention. And in that passage, we were told that one of the marks of true and vital religion is that those who possess it tremble at the Word of God, and that God has promised to look with favor and with blessing to those who take that posture of trembling before His holy Word. Let us then seek His face, that by the Spirit we may know in this place tonight what it is to tremble with holy awe before the God of the Word and before that Word that He will bring to us out of the Scriptures. Let us then seek His face together.

1:05 Our Father, we have celebrated in song the great truth that the Church of Jesus Christ is one through all the ages, and we thank You for those who through the ages have trembled before Your law, who have known what it is to tremble in fear and dread of Your wrath, and then, having heard the good news of Your mercy in the Lord Jesus, have trembled with hope and joy in the knowledge of sins forgiven in the Lord Jesus and in the perfection of His work. And we this night, by Your grace, would take that posture of trembling before Your holy Word. May the Spirit who gave this Word so attend it with power that we may find our hearts bowed in the posture of reverence, of faith. May the Spirit who has given us this Last Day our salvation and our salvation, have mercy upon us now and ever, and may we live to ouririm and live in our hearts of prayer

2:25 and in our hearts of prayer, as we spend our last days together in the presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now as the participants in this conference are well aware, the theme of this year's Conference is the Office and Work of the Holy Spirit. have already received some very penetrating and helpful insights with reference to the work and office of the Holy Spirit, insights both exegetical, historical, and, in the truest sense of the word, theological.

2:58 Now, tonight, in keeping with that conference theme, I have been asked to address you on the subject of preaching in the Spirit.

3:11 Preaching in the Spirit. And I think it would be very interesting if we had the time to hook up a portable mic and go through this congregation and ask what thoughts come to the minds of those of you sitting here. What thoughts come to the minds of those of you sitting here tonight when you hear the title, Preaching in the Spirit?

3:37 And I'm sure for some the thoughts would move in the direction of matters that would bring us into the orbit of what is considered by many to be something very mystical, something very subjective. For others, like the poor deluded man that I met at a conference many years ago, preaching in the Spirit to him. For others, like the poor deluded man that I met at a conference many years ago, had something to do with certain external, physical actions on the part of the preacher. He happened to notice that when a certain preacher preached, that he moved his feet and he came in great seriousness and whispered in his ear, Ah, brother, I know you were preaching in the Holy Ghost tonight. And when the preacher asked him how he knew that, he said, I watched your feet. And he was dead in earnest. And he was dead in earnest.

4:31 And he was dead in earnest. And him, you see, a man who preached with a shuffling of the feet, was preaching in the Spirit. And for others, preaching in the Spirit is nothing short of a fanatical notion. And for others, on the other end of the spectrum, preaching in the Spirit is to be considered nothing more or less than some general fidelity to the text of Holy Scripture laid out in some measure of discernment.

5:01 laid out in some measure of discernment. I wonder which, if any of those perspectives, have come to your mind at the announced subject, preaching in the Spirit. Well, as we approach the subject, by way of introduction, Well, as we approach the subject, by way of introduction, establish, first of all, that the notion of preaching in the Spirit is not a fanatical or mystical idea, nor is it an idea that has come from the charismatic or Pentecostal wing of Christendom, nor is it a notion that allows us the luxury of assuming that the mere exposition of the words of Scripture automatically means that there is preaching in the Spirit. And the way in which I propose to do this is simply to direct your attention to one or two passages in which the dominant emphasis of the announcement of the coming of the Spirit

6:18 point in the direction of preaching in the Spirit as one of the indispensable, indispensable accompaniments of the coming of the Spirit as the crowning blessing of the new covenant. And then we shall look at three texts in which that very terminology or parallel terminology is used, preaching in the Spirit. So by way of introduction, all I'm attempting to do is to establish the fact that preaching in the Spirit is indeed a biblical concept. First of all, then, to see this dominant emphasis with respect to the promise of the Spirit in general. In the 24th chapter of Luke's Gospel, Luke chapter 24, our Lord in his post-resurrection ministry to the disciples instructs them concerning the message they are to preach, the source of that message, and then he says something about the power in which that message will be proclaimed. And I take up the reading in Luke 24 and verse 44.

7:40 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their mind that they might be fulfilled. And he said unto them, And he said unto them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name unto all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

8:24 And behold, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city until you be clothed with power from on high. In this passage, our Lord gives a summary of the content of the message they are to preach as they go out to all the nations. It is a message which has its tap roots in the Old Testament revelation. It is a message which has found its focal point.

8:59 It is a message which has found its focus in those unique redemptive activities of Jesus Christ accomplished for his people in space and time. And after giving them a summary of their message and telling them that it is these things to which they are to bear witness, he then makes a prohibition. He tells them that they are not yet to engage in the preaching of that message until the promise is fulfilled. Until the promise of the Father is fulfilled, a promise which will result in their being clothed with power from on high.

9:40 So that in this passage, our Lord is very explicit in making plain to his disciples that the preaching which they are to do is not only to have a proper content, it is to be clothed with a unique, a unique dynamic.

10:02 He had clarified their minds as to the content of the message, but they are not yet ready to preach it. They must now be clothed with power. And then and only then are they ready to proclaim the message. We have a similar emphasis in the first chapter of Acts and verse 8.

10:27 As our Lord Jesus is about to return to the rock, the right hand of the Father, Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, he says to his own, but you shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Here our Lord is saying that their bearing witness is, to him, is dependent upon the receiving of power in the reception of the outpoured Spirit. Our Lord envisions no witness bearing of the message of his grace and salvation to the ends of the earth that is not witness bearing in the Holy Spirit. So we see then, from these two passages, that a dominant emphasis within the promise of the Spirit and the actual fulfillment of that promise is this intimate relationship between preaching and the Holy Spirit.

11:48 One might say that one of the major results of the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was the initiation of the reality of preaching in the Spirit as the norm of new covenant witness bearing and testimony. Preaching in the Spirit was to be the norm of new covenant witness bearing. Now if this is a valid deduction from these passages considered, then is it not an inescapable conclusion to assert that any new covenant community, where preaching in the Spirit is not the norm, is a community living beneath its privileges and its blood-bought inheritance? Preaching in the Spirit, then, is not to be an occasionally confronted reality in the church. It is to be the norm of the ministry in the new covenant community. But in establishing the fact that preaching of the Spirit is indeed a biblical concept, I rest the case not only on this dominant emphasis

13:15 of the promise of the Spirit in general, as it relates to preaching, but several pivotal texts in particular. One of them was read in your hearing earlier in our time together. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

Preaching in the Spirit: Manifested in Content (Part 1 - Biblical and Doctrinal)

13:37 Paul, reflecting back upon his missionary and evangelistic endeavors at Corinth, writes, And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. The apostle clearly indicates that Christ crucified was his comprehensive theme. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. In being true to the testimony of God, that is, the testimony of which God is the author, Christ was the central and fundamental and comprehensive theme of his preaching.

14:50 That alone would suit the framework of Luke 24, as we've already seen. Christ crucified was the comprehensive theme. Felt human weakness was the personal condition, out of which he preached. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

15:14 And I don't believe there's anything in the situation in Corinth as recorded in Acts 18 or in any other parallel passage to think that Paul is referring here to some kind of peculiar condition rooted in some physical infirmity. I believe he's speaking of that condition in which he always preached. It was not the weakness and fear and trembling of a man who was afraid of his own skin. This is the man who said, I count not my life as dear unto myself if I may but finish my course to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

15:54 But rather, it was this recognition, no matter how clearly his cognitive faculties had grasped, the content of the message, unless the Spirit were to attend that message with power, he knew there would be no penetration into the prejudice and the pagan mindset of the Corinthians. He knew before he came that to say in the face of Greek wisdom that the sum of all wisdom is bound up in a crucified carpenter out of Palestine was sheer nonsense. He knew that to say to Jews with their messianic expectation of the superhero Messiah who would come riding on his white charger and put the forces of Rome beneath his feet to say that the power of God is manifested in the weakness of the immolated Christ upon a Roman gibbet was a stumbling block. And conscious that no amount of human persuasion, that no amount of human earnestness, no amount of the combination of any human faculties could validate that message and make it the power of God unto salvation except the ministry of the Spirit.

17:17 He preached in a condition of felt human weakness. He did not carry in his pocket the prerogatives of the forth putting or the putting forth of the mighty power, the mighty power of God the Holy Ghost in conjunction with his preaching. To Paul preaching in the Spirit was an experimental reality. He describes it in this very passage.

17:48 Likewise in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. In writing to the Thessalonians Paul can say in verse 4, knowing brethren beloved of God your election and how did he discover their election? How that our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance or much conviction even as you know what manner of men we showed ourselves among you for your sakes. Paul in this passage indicates that his conviction with respect to the election of the Thessalonians was grounded in the fact that the gospel came to them not in word only. Now if Paul were preaching that gospel it would be an orthodox gospel of course. This is the man who says though we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which has been preached let him be accursed of God. Not very popular words in an age of ecumania.

19:06 But the word of God nonetheless. And the problem with the Galatian heretics was not that they were negating any of the basic indicatives of the gospel. It was their punctuation that constituted their heresy. Where Paul was putting periods they were putting commas and adding something else.

19:27 And he says upon such let the anathema of God come. So this man whenever he preached the gospel it was orthodox gospel preaching. But he says our gospel in all of its pure orthodoxy came not to you in word only but it came in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance or conviction. Now whatever else may be said from this text this much is clear.

20:01 God's elect are manifested in space and time only when they come under preaching in the Spirit. Do you see it? Knowing brethren beloved of God your election how that our gospel came to you in the Spirit. And it was the Spirit attending the gospel bringing them into vital union with Christ.

20:32 That became the revelation and manifestation of God's secret elective design and purpose. And then there is a third text that indicates that preaching in the Spirit is indeed a biblical concept. First Peter chapter 1 verses 12 and 13. First Peter chapter 1 verses 12 and 13.

21:00 Writing to these suffering saints Peter speaks of the salvation that they have received that has filled them with joy unspeakable and full of glory. A salvation prophesied by the Old Testament prophets who prophesied beyond the level of their own comprehension of the very things they prophesied. Verses 10 and 11. Now verse 12.

21:27 To whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto you did they minister these things which now have been announced unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you in the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven. This great salvation which in the midst of your suffering causes you to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. A salvation which was prophesied in the Old Testament. But has now been brought to you in the word of preaching he says is a salvation that became yours when the gospel came as a gospel preached in the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven. So to Peter as well as to Paul preaching in the Spirit is not a fanatical concept. It is not some exceptional experience. It was the norm of gospel proclamation.

22:42 Now I trust that this quick survey of some of these pivotal texts regarding the relationship of the Spirit in general to the subject of preaching and these three texts in particular will forever settle in your mind that preaching in the Spirit is not a fanatical notion. It is not an ethereal mystical notion. It is a notion embedded in the very Biblical concept of proclamation in the light of the full blessing of the outpoured Spirit subsequent to the ascension of the Lord Jesus. So much is this true that when Paul is describing the ministry of the New Covenant he describes it as a ministry of the Spirit. Second Corinthians 3 verses 4 to 6 embedded in that rich section dealing with the New Covenant in contrast with the Old. Paul can write, In such confidence have we through Christ a God-word, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God who also made us sufficient

24:08 as ministers of a New Covenant not of the letter but of the Spirit for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. Now in that rather lengthy introduction having established that preaching in the Spirit is a Biblical concept as time permits I want to collate the remainder of the Biblical materials that I propose to cover under three basic headings. First of all, preaching in the Spirit as manifested in the content of preaching. Secondly, preaching in the Spirit as manifested in the manner of preaching.

24:53 And then if time permits preaching in the Spirit as manifested in the results of preaching. So we have the spirit as a subject treated with reference to the content of preaching the manner of preaching and the result of preaching. First of all then preaching in the Spirit as manifested in the content of preaching. As we consider this division of our subject we may begin with the fundamental axiom that since the Spirit of life and power is the Spirit of truth the Holy Spirit works powerfully by and with the truth which he has deposited in the Holy Scriptures. Next to the terminology of the paraclete in the upper room discourse the Holy Spirit is given this designation next in order of usage. He is the Spirit of truth. John 14, 17, 15, 26 and John 16, 13.

26:10 Our Lord is leading his disciples into some of the richest areas of gospel expectation in those chapters telling them what they can expect when the Spirit comes. And he is careful in describing all of the various dimensions of the Spirit's ministry to bring home in chapter 14, 15, and 16. That is periodically throughout the discourse he says the Comforter even the Spirit of truth. Then he says some more and then he says who is the Spirit of truth?

26:50 And it's interesting if we go back to all of the texts that we've already examined the coming of the Spirit in conjunction with preaching is the coming of the Spirit in conjunction with preaching that is a proclamation of Scripture. Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and he was telling them how they could preach the Gospel from the Old Testament Scriptures and how they could in the language of the book of Acts go into the synagogue opening and alleging that Jesus was indeed the Christ and proving out of the Scriptures that he perfectly thought that he perfectly fit all of the prophetic announcements about him. Furthermore, Paul says that he came in the power of the Spirit declaring what? The testimony of God. And he says our Gospel.

27:48 And what was that Gospel? It was the Gospel of divine revelation. The Gospel with its tap roots in the Old Testament Scriptures and the Gospel which in its fullest expression came by way of the peculiar revelation given to the apostolic band. What do we learn from this?

28:09 Well, we learn from this that the Holy Spirit will never be powerfully present in preaching where there is an ignoring, despising, contradicting or careless handling of the revelation of his mind in this blessed book. Mark it down as a fundamental inflexible axiom that the Holy Spirit will never do in any situation of preaching anything to undermine what he did over a period of 1500 years in giving to us the materialization of his mind in the very words of Holy Scripture. Now is it not strange that in this day in large denominations and some of you present are part of some of those denominations where large question marks are being raised over the inspiration, the infallibility, the regulative authority of Scripture, there is an openness to so-called new dimensions of experience in the Holy Spirit

29:35 and in classic reformed denominations which held the great confessions for centuries on the infallibility of the Word and no new revelations with the emergence of highfalutin language by which the authority of Scripture is being undermined. On the one hand there is an emergence of the claim to new life in the Spirit and tongues and prophecies and all other kind of nonsense. Mark it down where there is a lowering of the historic Protestant confessional acknowledgement of the nature of Scripture whatever Spirit is supposedly at work it is not the Holy Spirit. Preaching in the Spirit with reference to its content will be preaching that sticks to this blessed book. Now let me break that down into several particulars. If it is such preaching it will have these four basic characteristics as to its content.

30:52 Number one, it will be substantially Biblical and by that I mean that the preaching in its overall substance will be Bible preaching. Careful handling of the text will mark the raw materials of all sermonic exercises. A believing grasp of the truth will mark the mind and spirit of the preacher as he seeks to lay out the Word of God. And believing that the truth of God is one he will make the Bible its own best example interpreter and its own clearest illustrator. In such preaching the clear mandates of the following texts will be implemented. 2 Timothy 4.4 Preach the Word.

31:57 2 Timothy 2.15 Do your utmost to show yourself approved unto God a workman who needs not to be ashamed cutting a straight course in the Word of truth. There will be a strict adherence to our Lord's commission to teach them all things whatsoever I have commanded you. At this point I want to read to you what to me is one of the choicest statements on this subject that I have ever found in any book on preaching.

32:33 It's found in Gardiner Spring's book Power in the Pulpit or The Power of the Pulpit. And this is what he says on this very issue. The God of heaven is the God of truth. Truth is infinitely dear and precious to his holy mind.

32:52 He is its great asserter and guardian. Nor will he be respected loved and obeyed till the earth is filled with his and the earth filled with his glory until it is flooded with his truth. The scriptures instruct us that truth is the great instrumentality by which his purpose by which his purposes of mercy are accomplished. Truth is the wisely selected means by which he operates.

33:19 A means well adapted to the end. Nay, the necessary and indispensable means because truth alone presents the only objects of all that variety of right thoughts and holy affections and emotions which constitute true religion. The pulpit has no other instrumentality. It has accomplished its calling when it has fully, clearly and with a right spirit exhibited the claims of truth.

33:56 In another place he gives this striking definition and description of true religion. There is no better definition of spiritual and practical Christianity than that it is the counterpart of truth in the heart and in the life of the believer. It is the fruit of God's spirit operating by his truth and producing in the once alienated heart that delightful reconciliation to its nature and claims which constitutes the life of God in the soul of man. And that's exactly how Paul described the conversion of the Romans in Romans 6, 17.

34:40 He says, But God be thanked that whereas you were the slaves of sin you were cast into the mold of that truth unto which you were delivered. And he views their conversion as their being cast into the mold of apostolic truth and doctrine. And once this becomes a burning conviction to us who sit in the pews that the salvation of our souls depends upon hearing God's word of truth fairly, honestly, carefully opened up and applied then loyalties that may go back for generations will mean nothing if the price of loyalty to church or to denomination is stripping my soul of the life-giving power of this blessed book. And my dear preacher friends, whatever it costs, and it does cost, to produce week after week sermons that are honest with the text of Scripture, that seek to follow the track of God's mind in Scripture and the painful, arduous labor at times of seeking to collate and organize and somehow put it out in such a way that the person sitting before you can grasp it

36:08 if you're convinced that the Holy Spirit has no other instrumentality for the conversion and sanctification of men then you will be prepared for that arduous labor that your sermons will be marked as those that are substantially biblical because preaching in the Spirit is Bible preaching. But then also it will be unashamedly doctrinal. It will be unashamedly doctrinal. A careful and honest handling of the Spirit-inspired pages of the Bible will bring us again and again to those grand mountain peaks of God's truth. Those doctrines which constitute the backbone of revealed religion. Preaching in the Spirit then will be preaching in which there is no embarrassment before the grand and divine glorious realities of these doctrines. When we see in Scripture that great and profound mystery of the being of God the great one in three and the three in one we will not be embarrassed to proclaim it.

37:25 When we see in Scripture that that God is enthroned and says that He does according to His will among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of men and that He throws out the challenge who is there that can stay my hand? We will unembarrassed with unembarrassed zeal and joy proclaim His unfettered sovereignty. The truth of the incarnate God that great mystery of the One who is as much God as though He were never man and as much man as though He were never God. We will proclaim it in all the figure of its mind-boggling mystery.

38:06 Because it's a revealed truth. The truth of the vicarious curse bearing as being the very essence of the work of Christ upon the cross. We will not seek to satisfy conscience-smitten people with just some vague declaration that somehow or another in a way that we're not quite sure about what Jesus did on the cross in some way or another relates to your problem of a guilty conscience. That will never satisfy anyone who's felt the arrows of the Almighty in his breast.

38:41 It's only when you point them to a cross and are unashamed to use the vigorous language of 2 Corinthians 5 God made Him who knew no sin to be. Sin for us! The language of Galatians 3. He has redeemed us from the curse of the law.

39:00 Being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. Our preaching will be unashamedly doctrinal. The fact and the implications of His bodily resurrection.

39:16 The glorious reality of the gift of the Spirit. The nature of imputed righteousness that brings us into the justified state. And beyond that the wonder of adoption and the hope of the bodily resurrection. And the horrible end of the impenitent and the unbelieving.

39:34 In the lake of fire. Surely if our preaching is substantially biblical it of necessity will be unashamedly doctrinal. For everywhere we turn in the pages of this Bible those doctrines come before us as the grand mountain peaks of God's revealed mind. And the Spirit delights to attend with power vigorous doctrinal preaching.

39:58 The notion that doctrinal preaching empties churches is sheer nonsense. Doctrinal preaching delivered as dry as dust. Academic notions, yes. But how can a man who himself has been smitten in conscience and found refuge in a clear spirit wrought grasp upon the fact that he vicariously bore the curse for me.

40:27 How can he speak of vicarious substitutionary curse bearing in a lifeless, dull, dry, pedantic manner. In God's name. How can he? He's looked into the pit and he smelled as it were the sulfur and the brimstone.

40:53 Knows that that's where he belongs. Knows that sovereign grace has arrested him. How can he be embarrassed to open up the text that speak of grace. That lays hold of hell deserving sinners and makes them the very heirs of heaven.

Preaching in the Spirit: Manifested in Content (Part 2 - Evangelical and Practical)

41:15 Preaching that is Bible preaching. Substantially biblical. Vigorously doctrinal. But it will also be pervasively evangelical.

41:26 Pervasively evangelical. And what do I mean by that? Simply this. That we'll take 1 Corinthians 2 too seriously.

41:36 That we will determine to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him as crucified. Revelation 19.10 tells us that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now this does not mean that preaching Christ must be an exercise in which some aspect of the person and work of Christ is the explicit dominant subject of every sermon.

42:07 If that is so then Paul didn't preach Christ. But what it does mean that in traversing the whole field of biblical revelation since all of God's truth ultimately leads to Christ and flows out of Christ the overarching flavor of our ministry will be pervasively evangelical. And when we teach Christian duty we will show that that duty derives not only from God's general claims over us as creator and lawgiver but the peculiar claims He has over us in virtue of redemption. Isn't that what Paul does when he's dealing with the problem of sexual purity in 1 Corinthians 6? He plants the cross right in the middle of the problem of the immorality at Corinth. When he's giving practical instruction about marriage, detailed instruction about fixed roles in marriage none of this egalitarian marriage nonsense fixed roles in marriage husbands exercising a nurturing cherishing, loving, sacrificial headship over their wives wives rendering a loving, trustful submission, servanthood

43:35 to their husbands. The apostle brings the threads of the cross all the way through it. When teaching duty there is a place for Christ in Him crucified. When teaching privilege all of our blessings are stored up in Him.

43:55 And as Gardener Spring has said whatever savors not of the cross of Christ has no place in a Christian pulpit. The Spirit is come to testify of Christ to take of the things of Christ and reveal them. And may I say it reverently to my preacher friends the Holy Spirit as it were is in the wings of wherever you preach holding His biggest spotlights and whenever Jesus is most present He loves to shine those lights upon Him and to reveal to needy men the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Preaching that is biblical then will not only be doctrinal and evangelical but my fourth point is under this heading it will be intensely practical and ethical. The Holy Spirit has not come by the word to make great theoreticians on biblical themes. He has come to effect a moral and ethical renovation. God has purposed that we should be made into the moral likeness of His Son.

45:12 And to that end He has given us His Spirit and His Word. And the Word is that instrument used by the Spirit in order to produce that image in us. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, yes, but for reproof, correction, for instruction in righteousness. Preaching in the Spirit then will be preaching in which the purpose for which Scripture was given is patent and unmistakable.

45:44 Scripture was given not only to give us teaching but to reprove, to correct, and to give us child training in the way of righteousness. Well, if that's the purpose for which the Scriptures were given, preaching then is preaching in which that purpose is patent. How can it be biblical preaching if it's non-applicatory? It's not reproof.

46:09 Applicatory. Correction. Instruction in righteousness. And the Holy Spirit is most likely to attend with power a ministry that does justice to this dimension of His own revelation.

46:26 You see, the Paul who could say, I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The Paul who could say, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross. He gave some very practical instruction to two young preachers about what they were to preach. And I love the pastoral epistles for many reasons, not the least of which.

46:49 They knock in the head this notion that unless your sermon mumbles the name of Jesus forty times and has justification by faith and the cross in it fifty times, it's not evangelical, God-honoring preaching. That's nonsense. Listen to what Paul says in Titus. He's telling Titus what he's to preach.

47:07 Chapter 2, verse 1. Speak the things that befit sound doctrine. And what are they? Here is detailed ethical and moral instruction.

47:16 The aged men be temperate, grave, sober-minded, sound in the faith. The aged women likewise. Then he goes on to talk about the young mothers. And then he talks about the younger men.

47:27 He gives detailed instruction and says, Titus, these are the things you are to teach. Now granted, as the paragraph comes to a close, he shows why such patterns of life are necessary. And he demonstrates that only such a lifestyle in all of these dimensions is consistent with the purpose for which Christ died. The grace of God has appeared, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age.

48:00 And this is in keeping with the purpose of the death of Christ who died to redeem us from all iniquity and purify to Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. But here is the point. Telling people that the purpose of grace is to make us holy and that Jesus died to make us holy is not enough. There must be detailed, specific, ethical, moral instruction as to what constitutes holiness in the concrete.

48:30 That is the teaching of this passage and many others. There are those in our day who say, just tell people to love Christ. And if you just hold up Christ enough, they'll so love Him enough, they'll know what to do. That is not the teaching of Holy Scripture, brethren.

48:47 And if you would have a ministry anointed of the Spirit, then it must be a ministry that does full justice to the intensely practical and ethical portions of the Word of God. But as you preach them, as a minister of the New Covenant, knowing yourself, that without being drawn to such patterns under the constraint of the love of Christ, and without being encouraged to hope that you can conform to such patterns by the strength of Christ, that your own ethical and moral conformity to Christ comes to a grinding halt. You will not teach ethical and moral teaching in a way that is detached from Gospel motives and realities. And in that sense, your most intensely practical ethical teaching will be pervasively evangelical. Now what is preaching in the Spirit as to its content? I submit that preaching in the Spirit is preaching that fills the mandate.

Preaching in the Spirit: Manifested in Manner (Part 1 - Earnest and Lucid)

50:06 Preach the Word. Now I must hasten to touch more briefly on the second head. Preaching in the Spirit is manifested in the manner of our preaching. Now please listen carefully to the opening statement that I make.

50:25 While giving all the latitude due to diversity of gift, personality, style of delivery, and a vast array of legitimate variables, I believe we are still able to assert that preaching in the Spirit will have certain common denominators with reference to the manner of that preaching. And I suggest to you that as to its manner, preaching in the Spirit will first of all be earnest and impassioned preaching. It will be earnest and impassioned preaching. One has described earnestness as that quality present when someone has something of weight and importance to say and is determined to be heard in the saying of it. That's earnestness.

51:33 When a man has something weighty to say and is determined to be heard in saying it. Passion is defined as any or all of the emotions such as hate and grief, love, fear, joy, etc. Now if the preaching is substantially biblical, then it is preaching which is bringing the preacher into the most concentrated and direct contact with the most weighty issues of life. If a man is preaching from his Bible, then God, the infant, eternal, exalted, majestic, ineffably glorious God is ever before him in the most concentrated way. God's law, inflexible, just, and holy, and right, and good. The claims of that God is expressed in that law over his creatures. He knows from his Bible when he's preaching, he's preaching into the faces and eyeballs of those who having once been saved, and conceived, and brought into this world, will never go off into non-existence.

52:55 He has eternal, never dying souls before him. And in this Bible he knows, and by faith he sees the hour when they'll all be summoned to stand before this great God. And sheep and goats in no middle class will be separated. And heaven and hell will hold all of his hearers as surely as the pews and seats now hold them.

53:21 And if he's preaching this Bible, he is in the most intense concentrated contact with the great truths of the pouring out of God's heart in love through a Redeemer, and the gift of the Spirit, and the wonderful blessings of forgiveness and justification and adoption. And he knows something when he's in the historical sections of the horrible, the horrible tale of tragedy that comes in the heels of the disregard of God's law and the life of unbelief, and the glories and the wonders that follow upon a life of faith and obedience. Now my friend, let me ask you something. Can a man believe this book and traffic in such things in the presence of immortal beings and not be in earnest? I leave your conscience to judge. Can he stand and drone his homily and then do his Sunday thing to get his check? I say giving all due allowance for the manner in which earnestness will express itself in terms of personality and gift and a host of other variables.

54:48 Earnestness is not a commodity tied to volume or animation or the absence of it. It is a quality that oozes from the pores of a man's soul and spatters itself upon the souls of those in whose presence he speaks. And if the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth and he's not given us in this book fables but truth, then the spirit of truth who's embodied his own mind in the word of truth, impressing that truth upon the spirit and mind of a preacher cannot help but produce in him earnestness. This is why Paul could say we were willing to impart unto you not the gospel of God only but our very souls because you were become dear unto us. When I think of those words and Paul says we beseech you in the very stead of Christ be reconciled to God. When our blessed Lord says, come unto me. How did he say it?

56:08 Come unto me. Take it or leave it. How did he say come? I've often meditated long trying to think of what it must have sounded like when the Son of God looked out upon men bent over with all the burdens laid upon them by scribes and Pharisees and the burdens of an accusing conscience and the burdens of life and hopelessness.

56:38 And despair. All to have heard him say but once come, come unto me. All heathen labor and their heavy laden. What a majestic winsomeness must have pulsed through the voice of the Son of God.

56:58 And now Paul says we beseech you in the very stead of Christ my ministering brethren we stand in his stead would your people know anything of the passion and the warmth and the yearning of the heart of Jesus in the manner of your preaching and in the manner of my preaching. It was none other than the late beloved and highly esteemed Professor Murray who said and I quote him preaching without passion is not preaching. End quote. In my view the professor said preaching without passion is not preaching. Spirit of truth impregnating the heart of a man with that truth whatever else it will do to him it will make him earnest.

58:08 But as to its manner preaching in the spirit will not only be earnest preaching it will be plain and lucid preaching. It will be plain and lucid preaching. We know that the most important truths of scripture can only be spiritually discerned by a direct personal ministry of God the Holy Spirit called in the Bible illumination. We read about it in 1 Corinthians 2.

58:35 I hope we believe that. The simplest truths of the Bible cannot be discerned spiritually apart from a direct personal ministry of the Holy Spirit his ministry of illumination. Except a man be born anew he cannot see he cannot perceive. He cannot penetrate the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

59:00 However while we preach praying and pleading and trusting God to do that work of illumination which only he can do we must not expect him to add to that a ministry of interpretation by which he must somehow make intelligible to our people a set of words which don't communicate at their level or with such jumbled ideas that the Holy Spirit has to perform a miracle of collation and reconstruction of all of our sentences. This is why Paul said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 14 9 in the very chapter dealing with the subject of spiritual gifts he says unless you utter by the tongue speech easy to be understood how shall it be known what is spoken? you will be speaking into the air and a sermon marked by vocabulary and imagery and analogy that does not relate to the people to whom we are preaching and methods of expression and sentence construction that doesn't clearly communicate brethren we may as well be speaking into the air. Where the Holy Spirit is present the preaching will be marked by lucidity it is said of our Lord the one in whom all the treasures of wisdom

60:29 and knowledge are hidden it is said of him that the common people heard him gladly. He didn't talk in philosophical terms he didn't say the kingdom is like and then launch into the terminology of the experts he talked about mustard seed he talked about a net bringing in fish of all kind and he talked about women in the throes of labor and he talked about birds and he talked about lilies and he talked about little kids playing games in the marketplace and as our Lord did so did the prophets and our Lord was seeking to be plain and lucid oh yes I know that the parables had a judgmental element I'm fully aware of that they veiled as well as revealed I'm fully aware of that but our Lord was a plain and a lucid preacher and if we have something of his spirit resting upon us we will study plainness we'll forego elegance we'll forego any desire to gain a reputation for being polished preachers what is polished if there's no pungency if our sermons have no grip and no stickability maybe smooth as oil I'd rather have them all covered with burrs

Preaching in the Spirit: Manifested in Manner (Part 2 - Controlled and Powerful)

61:56 so they stick and the Holy Ghost is present in very sermons that fasten themselves upon the minds of men but then in the third place as to its manner preaching in the spirit will be controlled preaching and in the light of some of the emphases that were given to us today I think this note needs to be sounded it will be controlled preaching and what do I mean by that well when Paul introduces the whole subject of spirit and spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 he says you Corinthians in your pagan days you had religious experiences in which you were led away you were carried away unto your dumb idols howsoever you might be led and in the religious experience of paganism the concept of rising higher and higher in religious sensitivity until one is caught up and becomes one with the spirit of the God or whatever else is being worshipped until his faculties are in neutral and he's passive that is the mark of the heights of ecstasy in pagan religion he said now you remember that in your pagan days but now in the realm of the work of the spirit in the Christian faith that is never, never, never the way the spirit operates

63:23 and maybe I may say by way of an aside and I don't say as one who's only read books I've had hands laid on me I've been coached I've laid on the floor half the night trying to get to baptism and all the rest I've had people coach me now let yourself go Al just let your mind go into neutral that's right now just start saying Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus just let yourself go you're never going to speak in tongues so you let yourself go you see you're fighting you've got to get your mind out of the way my friends listen to me run from that like you'd run from hell itself demonic powers operate in the realm of the passivity of your mind and will the Holy Ghost doesn't operate that way so Paul as he develops the whole theology of spiritual gifts it's as though he anticipates one of these characters at Corinth in his cheekiness saying to Paul but oh Paul you've given all these rules at chapter 14 you say they've got to be one at a time and at the most Paul if you only knew the tremendous afflatus of the Holy Ghost that was on me I couldn't help it the Holy Ghost came with such power I just had to speak Paul says is that so listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians 14 after he gives those directions one, two, let this happen and this happen now he says and the spirit of the prophets verse 32

64:51 are subject to the prophets for God is not a God of confusion but of peace even when God was giving a more heightened dimension of the ministry of the spirit in public utterance prophecy a revelatory gift as we saw today even in that more heightened intensified ministry of the spirit the prophet was in control you see that the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets now if that's true in the more direct influence of the spirit in prophecy how much more true in the lesser degree of the spirit's assistance in preaching that involves exposition opening up explanation application of the scriptures so that when the spirit comes upon a man giving the most vivid inward sight of spiritual reality the most enlarged capacities of yearning and longing for the souls of men the most intense and intense and fervent running out of his heart in conscious communion with Christ the most concentrated burden to warn and to admonish

66:17 there will never be a suspension of his rational faculties if he's preaching in the spirit preaching in the spirit is controlled preaching for the last of the nine fold fruit of the spirit is what self control and it's a mystery that the more I'm in control the more I have reason to believe the spirit is in control the fruit of the spirit is self control so for some of you who are more volatile in temperament more naturally expressive you need to remember that there's a fine line where you may mistake an abandonment of your spirit or the work of the Holy Spirit remember that preaching of the spirit as to its manner will not only be earnest and passionate it will not only be lucid it will be controlled and finally and I touch upon it only briefly for our time is gone it will be powerful preaching it will be powerful preaching remember the intimate connection between the spirit and power in the text we looked at earlier you shall receive power the Holy Spirit coming upon you

67:44 you shall be witnesses unto me my speech and preaching were not in words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power our gospel came not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit now again giving due allowance for all the values variables of temperament and lung capacity and physical animation and other legitimate diversities in the style of preaching let me at least suggest that powerful preaching involves these three things preaching in the spirit marked as preaching in power a sense of God is brought upon a congregation and I don't know what else to call it but that a sense of God is brought upon a congregation you remember how Paul described it in 1 Corinthians 14 with reference to prophecy if all prophesy the heart of the man who's an unbeliever is laid bare and he falling upon his face will cry out God is of a truth among you isn't it interesting Paul says when the unbeliever discovers that God is in the midst he doesn't jump up and click his heels and say oh glory God's here isn't that wonderful he's such a lovely being

69:10 I'll snuggle up to him that's the climate many churches try to create Paul says if the unbeliever comes in and the God of the Bible draws near in the public utterance of prophecy the effect will be to bring that sense of God that utterly levels and prostrates the unbeliever he falling upon his face will cry God is of a truth among you and preaching in the spirit always brings that sense of God upon a congregation at times it is God in his awesome majesty at times God in the wonder and the meltingness of his love God in the terror of his law God in the glory of his gospel but a sense of God comes when a man is preaching in the spirit furthermore there is a vivid awareness of the unseen world of spiritual reality I've been fascinated for years with that text in Hebrews 6 they have tasted the powers of the world to come and I'm personally convinced it has something to do with this not prepared to say much more than that but when a man is preaching in the spirit

70:36 and dealing with the great realities of scripture God, heaven, heaven hell, Christ, the cross unseen spiritual realities there comes a vivid awareness of that unseen world and men though they may not taste so as to drink yet taste of the powers of the world to come was it not that that caused Felix to tremble as Paul reasoned of righteousness and of judgment and self-control he trembled the powers of the world the world to come drew near and then the third element of the preaching that is marked by power is that a pressing awareness of the divine authority of the word is brought to men when a man is preaching in the spirit preaching that is powerful preaching there comes a pressing awareness of the divine authority in the word it was true of our Lord he spoke not as the scribes and Pharisees but as one having authority and Paul says to the Thessalonians in chapter 2 God be thanked that when you received the word of God from us you received it not as the word of men but as the what word of God our gospel came in power you received it as the word of God that was the power that attestation of the spirit

Results of Preaching in the Spirit and Application to Congregants

72:04 to his own word the results of preaching in the spirit you can read 2 Corinthians 2 it was the passage I had intended to open up savor of life unto life and death unto death Stephen full of the spirit preaches and they gnash on him with their teeth and they stone him while his face glows like that of an angel Peter preaches in the spirit on the day of Pentecost and three thousand are cut to the heart but here's the common denominator there was no neutrality when Stephen preached in the spirit they gnashed with their teeth unbelief was brought out from its hiding place but I did want to bring a word of application and therefore I'll skip that third heading and my word of application is first of all to you dear friends who are here with us from churches in the area what does all of this say to you well I hope you see what it says to you do you not see my dear friends and I have reason to believe the reason you're here on a non-scheduled church activity night is because there must be some hunger for the word of God do you not see the thing for which you ought to be crying to God

73:29 that he would send his spirit upon his servants in this city in this area upon this nation that God would raise up men who preach in the spirit and do whatever he must do to make such men God calls most of his servants from the ranks of the non-descript you see your calling brethren not many mighty not many noble not many wise Fox called them God's five ranked army of descending human weakness five ranked army of descending human weakness the nobodies the weak the non-descript and he says with them he'll conquer the world because he resists the proud and gives grace to the humble will you not cry to God to send his spirit upon your pastor will you not plead with God that he will be a man clothed with the spirit oh dear people cry to God that he will have dealings with men and clear out whatever rubbish of misconceptions of their task and their identity whatever spirit of unbelief with regard to scripture is crept into their hearts that believing in every fiber of their being that this book is the book of God

Application to Pastors: Grieve Not, Quench Not, Be Filled

74:57 they'll give themselves to proclaiming it in all of its clarity in the power of the spirit and my dear brethren at this conference may I plead with you this night to remember to remember those simple three injunctions regarding the ministry of the spirit you've heard them again and again you've heard them earlier today grieve not the holy spirit quench not the spirit be being filled with the spirit I know that God sovereignly at times gives a powerful unction in preaching to an unholy man if God can take an ass and make him a vehicle of direct revelation God can do anything in taking men and making them instruments of powerful preaching some will say not a few did we not prophesy in thy name but generally speaking in the pastoral ministry where life and ministry are constantly under scrutiny generally speaking here's the rule of thumb you will know no more of the unction of the spirit in your preaching than you know of his sanctifying influence in your life and unless your passion to be a holy man keeps pace with your longing to be an anointed man

76:26 you have reason to question your motives the next time you're tempted to spend that hour in front of the television that you know you ought to be spending in doing that word study so that you can give a really responsible exegesis and exposition of that passage next Lord's day think of the connection am I prepared to forfeit the endowment of God's spirit in power for the sake of that hour before the TV do I want to rob my people of a ministry in the spirit at such a paltry price generally speaking there is a direct relationship between the two and don't quench the spirit and in the context that has to do with prophesying or the exercise of a spirit given gift in the assembly and could it be that some of you quench the spirit when in your very preaching because in the act of preaching God gives you an enlargement of yearning for your people you are so bound to your notes and bound to propriety that you quench the spirit who in the very act of preaching does surprising things and when you have felt something of a baptism of yearning

77:53 and it was time to just drop your last point and pour your soul out in impassioned entreaty you are afraid to do it don't quench the spirit pray for a measure of holy abandonment in preaching always under control yes but not quenching the spirit oh may God grant that with his gracious work of renewed commitment to the truths that have been mighty in the hands of God for the overturning of the bastions of hell in generations past may God grant that with that return to doctrinal integrity may come copious and fresh measures of the spirit of God upon us that we may know experimentally what it is to preach in the spirit and if someone were to come to your church and say could you explain to me what is it to preach in the spirit you say no for the life of me I couldn't do it for a million bucks but I tell you one thing come on Sunday and listen to my pastor and you'll find out what it is oh may God grant that you give your people that breath may God grant it for his glory and for the good of his church let us pray

Closing Prayer

79:13 our Father God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ God of the prophets God of Elijah and Elisha God of the apostles God of your servants in bygone days who preached and saw multitudes bygone days multitudes broken down before your word look upon us in our weakness look upon us in our feeble efforts and oh God if you delight to take the weak things to confound the mighty we offer ourselves up afresh to you take us and use us for your glory may your Holy Spirit attend the word and bring his own blessed fruit from it according to your own eternal purpose for those who sit here tonight strangers to the power of truth may the very thoughts conveyed tonight haunt them as they leave this place until they know that they have an interest in your son and are under the canopy of his grace

80:40 and within the orbit of his forgiving mercy hear our prayer and may the blessings of your grace and power rest upon us through Christ our Lord Amen