Warrant for Pursuing

The Challenge of a Christ-Permeated Ministry

0:04 The following sermon was delivered on Wednesday morning, October 19, 2005, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey, during the annual Pastors' Conference. The preacher is Pastor Albert N. Martin, and this is the first sermon in a series entitled Pursuing a Ministry Permeated with Christ. Now, if I were to reduce to an irreducible minimum the burden of these two sessions assigned to me this morning, I would choose to use an abbreviated portion of Ephesians 3 and verse 8 and extract from that text these words, Preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Or the words of Colossians 1, 28a, Whom we proclaim. However, you already know from the material handed out to you when you registered that my subject matter is couched in a much more lengthy way with the words, The challenge of pursuing a ministry of the Word permeated with the fragrance of the person and work of Christ. Now, what I mean by these words is simply this, that in all of us, we are not alone.

1:32 We are not alone. We are not alone. In our preaching and teaching of the Word of God, we should consciously attempt to make sure that whatever the passage, whatever the subject, whatever the focus of exposition may be, whatever the range of legitimate application may be, that something of the Lord Jesus, in the perfection of His work, the glory of His, His person, or the nature of His manifold ministry to His people, would be implicitly and explicitly present in that preaching. And in order to give us a greater feel for what I mean by that explanation, I want you to imagine with me that someone appears in your assembly who is a truly regenerate person, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, united to Christ in a bond of living, true, saving faith. But they know nothing about you. They know nothing about your ministry. By some means or another, they've just been plunked down in your midst.

2:47 And so they come among you as a perfect stranger, know nothing of you, nothing of your past ministry, of your reputation, etc. And they sit under your ministry for four successive Lord's Days. You're preaching both morning, and evening. It may be that you are presently giving an exposition, verse by verse, of the Sermon on the Mount, or Ephesians chapter 1, or perhaps you're bringing a topical series, excuse me, on the fear of God, or on the Christian family, or perchance you're expounding the Ten Commandments, or, being more courageous, you may be giving expositions of the book of the Revelation, or you may be doing some biographical, you're preaching on the life of Abraham, the life of Joseph, the life of Elijah or Elisha, or it may be that you are expounding one of the Psalms of David. And at the end of those four weeks, we take our visiting stranger aside, and we ask him or her, would you please tell us what are the four or five dominant characteristics of the ministry, under which you have sat for the past four weeks, with respect to both the content and the manner of the preaching to which you've been exposed

4:14 for the past four Lord's Day? What, my dear sister, what, my dear brother, would you say were the dominant characteristics? The things that came through, no matter what the exposition, no matter what the application, these are the things that are the dominant characteristics of this ministry to which you have just been freshly exposed. Well, I think all of us would desire that if the person were speaking honestly and accurately, that they would say something like this.

Desired Characteristics of a Christ-Centered Ministry

4:47 Well, first of all, it is obvious that that man really believes that what is in the Bible is absolute truth. To use the language of Nancy Peercy, it's true truth. It's not just his truth or somebody else's truth. It is absolute truth from God.

5:11 Surely you would want someone to gain the impression that when you stood up and opened this book and began to expound it, no matter what the focus of the exposition or application may have been, that you spoke as a man who truly, deeply believed that what is in the Bible is truth. Secondly, I hope you would like to believe that the person would say it's obvious that that man works hard to make simple, plain, and obvious what is in the Bible so that as they sat there and they saw you expounding the word, they didn't sit there and say, Oh, that's amazing. How in the world, idiot? But they sit there and say, Well, you dummy, that's right there. Why didn't you see it before? There wasn't this confused maze of meandering down a hundred different trails.

6:11 You said where you were going. You took them by the hand along that track. And when you got to where you said you hoped to take them, they were conscious. They were taken there.

6:21 That man works hard to make simple and plain and clear what is in the Bible. Thirdly, I would hope that you think they could say honestly that that man is sincere. He speaks as one who believes what he preaches and teaches out of his Bible. He not only believes that objective truth is in the Bible, but he obviously is dominated with that truth.

6:51 It is obvious that it's part and parcel of who he is. He is utterly sincere. And then I would hope, my brethren, I would hope they could say with equal sincerity, and with equal conviction. And with no hesitation, that man obviously believes that Jesus Christ in his unique person and particularly in his sacrifice upon the cross is indispensable to the entire fabric of the Bible.

7:30 That man obviously believes that Jesus Christ, in the uniqueness of his person, and we might say more generically in his saving work, but more specifically in his sacrifice upon the cross, is indispensable to the fabric of what the Bible, that if you were to take out of those sermons that I heard, the allusions, the references, those things that touched upon some aspect, of the person and work of Christ, the sermon would be utterly incomplete. Now, this is what I mean by saying that our ministry in preaching Christ, in preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ, ought to be as marked by this fourth characteristic as it is by the previous three. And my desire in these two lectures slash sermons is to challenge you consciously and continuously to pursue just such a ministry so that any fair, unprejudiced listener who were asked could answer and say,

8:59 at least in substance, though not, of course, those precise words, those four things about your ministry. And about mine. And hopefully if they hung around long enough and got to know us, it would be evident, number five, that that man embodies in his life, in his demeanor, in the way he relates to me and to others, he embodies the truth that he preaches. But this is a rather new stranger, doesn't have enough time to get to know us, but certainly if the thing were extended over a period of time, that fits.

9:38 That characteristic ought to be one that each of us jealously desire. So in these lectures, I want to seek under God and with the help of the Holy Spirit to challenge you consciously and continuously to pursue just such a ministry. If it can be said of you that you already are pursuing such a ministry, in the language of the Apostle Paul, then these lectures, these lectures are an exhortation to abound yet more and more.

Biblical Warrant: Christ as the Rationale for Revelation

10:17 Now in taking up the subject, I propose to do so under, yes, three headings. Number one, the biblical warrant for pursuing a ministry permeated with the fragrance of the person and work of Christ. Secondly, some confirming voices from the past urging us to pursue such a ministry. And then thirdly, the identification of, and some correctives to, hindrances to the pursuit of such a ministry.

10:52 I'm hoping to get through heads one and two in the first hour, but this is the first time I've given this material. It's been just prepared in the last week, and I'm not quite sure how far the horse will ride. And if I only get heading number one, then we'll squeeze heading number two into it. two into the second hour. First of all then, the biblical warrant for the pursuit of a ministry of the word which is permeated with the fragrance of the person and work of Christ. I urge you to seek to track with me as I set before you four lines of biblical evidence that it is indeed the will of God that each one of us called to the ministry of the word within the framework of the new covenant exercised just such a ministry. Number one, because the person and work of Christ are the very rationale for an inscripturated revelation being given to us as a fallen race.

12:00 Why ought our ministries to be permeated with the fragrance of the person and work of Christ? I answer, because the person and work of Christ are the very rationale for an inscripturated revelation being given to us as a fallen race. Why ought our ministries to be permeated with the fragrance of the person and work of Christ are the very rationale for an inscripturated revelation being given to us as a fallen race. And I'm indebted to my brother Ted Donnelly as he came over early before the conference and we were head knocking over these matters and he sowed a thought in my mind that has blossomed and I believe it is true.

12:33 And let me try to open up what I mean by that heading. Why do we have a spirit inspired book? Why do we have a book which tells us how we got here? Beginning with its doctrine of creation, in the beginning God created.

12:51 Why do we have a book that tells us who and what we are in our essential identity as image of God? Why do we have a book that tells us how we fell in our first father Adam? How do we have a book that tells us that man's sinfulness became so aggravated that God blots out the entire world? How do we have a book that tells us that man's sinfulness became so aggravated that God blots out the entire human race, save eight individuals, and begins again with another family?

13:19 Why do we have a book that tells us about God reaching down into the midst of idolatrous Ur of the Chaldees and laying hold in the sovereign grace and power of a man named Abraham? Through that man eventually establishing a family, that family becoming a nation, and through that nation, why do we have all of this? Why do we have all of this? Well, obviously the answer is that according to scripture, God had a plan with its taproots embedded in eternity.

13:55 A plan to create, a plan to permit the fall, a plan to save a vast multitude out of that fallen race by means of one who is identified in this book as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And so it should not surprise us to find texts that tell us that everything that is encompassed within that whole corpus of creation and God's redemptive activity through the ages has its purpose in Christ himself. Colossians 1 verses 16 through 18. Colossians 1 verses 16 to 18. For in him were all things created in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things have been created through him and unto him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist or hold together and adhere, all things created unto.

15:17 In the beginning God, unto him, and everything else is unto him. And so surely if the entire revelation is in our hands because there was a divine purpose of an unto him in all things, and a purpose that in all things he should have the preeminence. Or in the language of Ephesians 1 in verse 10. That unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, the things upon the earth, in him I say, etc. Then surely, surely, when we pick up this Bible and begin to expound it at any point and with reference to any concern, should it not have something at least of the fragrance of him who is its very...

16:21 It's very rationale for being in our hands. And having the book to expound. Surely we've done something tragically wrong if we are handling this book in any of its parts and nothing of the fragrance of him who is the very rationale for the book being before us is not smelled by our hearers. Surely if his person and work in conjunction with God's eternal plan and purpose of redemption.

16:53 Are the rationale for an inscripturated revelation, then when handling any one of its parts, there ought to be some savor and fragrance of his person and its work. Since we have a Bible because God is committed to give to his son a redeemed bride destined to dwell with him in the new heavens and the new earth, the fragrance of the bridegroom. Ought to be at least detected in all of our preaching. And then I set before you a second strand of the biblical warrant for the pursuit of a ministry of the word permeated with the fragrance of the person and work of Christ. And it is this. Because the person and work of Christ are the central subject of the scriptures. Because the person and work of Christ are the...

Biblical Warrant: Christ as the Central Subject of Scripture (Luke 24)

17:54 The central subject of the scriptures. And some of you have already anticipated that I'm going to say, let us turn to Luke chapter 24.

18:05 You remember the setting? These two dejected disciples on the road to Emmaus. They've been in Jerusalem when all of the events clustering around the trial and death of our Lord Jesus occurred. And a stranger draws near, begins to walk with them, begins to talk.

18:25 And begins to inquire of them as to why they are sad. And we pick up the reading at verse 21. When asked why, what's the reason for what they're talking about, etc. We had hoped that it was he who should redeem Israel.

18:46 Beside all of this, it's now the third day since these things came to pass. Moreover, certain women of our company amazed us having been early at the tomb. And when they found not his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. And certain of them that were with us went to the tomb and found it.

19:07 Even so, as the woman had said, but him they did not see. And he said unto them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets had spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things? And to enter into his glory?

19:28 And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

19:42 Here our Lord, first of all, reproves these two for their lack of faith in all that the scriptures had said. Especially scriptures that had plainly spoken of the very events. That they said had persuaded them that he's probably not all we had hoped he would be. He said, no, you are foolish and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets had spoken.

20:11 Was it not necessary if he were to be the true Messiah and fulfill the prophetic utterances to suffer and enter his glory? And having questioned them and now having reproved them, he begins to instruct them. And the range of his instruction is clear. And beginning from Moses and all the prophets, he takes the full range of what we call our Old Testament scriptures.

20:42 All of the scriptures. Now not each and every text, every incident, every command, every promise, every narrative, every genealogy. And show how in every single word of the Old Testament he is explicit. That's nonsense.

21:00 Excuse me for being so blunt, but it is. But the range of his instruction was the entire corpus of the Old Testament. And from every single section of the Old Testament and from many specific incidents of both prophecy, of history, of poetry, of devotion. He focuses upon this.

21:27 This grand subject himself. And beginning from Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. They were in the scriptures, but these two did not see them. And the great hindrance was unbelief.

21:49 Since he is the central subject of those scriptures, he did not have to engage. He did not have to engage in fanciful, imaginative, and bizarre interpretive principles to demonstrate that he was there. No, he is there. Their unbelief has blinded them from seeing where he is and where he was in those scriptures.

22:17 And so our Lord opens up the scriptures. He does not import something into the scriptures. Other than. In his own authoritative voice, who originally spoke in the scriptures, the Spirit of Christ which was in them testified of the sufferings and the glory to come.

22:40 Peter tells us it was the very Spirit of Christ who authored the Old Testament scriptures through the various instruments whom God used. And so without any fanciful, bizarre, wildly imaginative interpretation. And so without any fanciful, bizarre, wildly imaginative interpretation. And so without any fanciful, bizarre, wildly imaginative interpretation.

22:57 But in those interpretive principles, our Lord demonstrates he's there if only you have eyes of faith to see him.

23:09 William Henderson states, it's a lovely challenging thought, that running through the Old Testament, there are four lines that all converge on Bethlehem and Calvary. I always use the alternate term Golgotha. Calvary is too smooth. It's Golgotha.

Biblical Warrant: Christ as the Central Subject of Scripture (John 5 & Acts)

23:27 It's Golgotha. With all. the gore and all the ugliness the hard g it's calvary in terms of it being a display of the love of god and the mercy and tenderness of god but that's just a little thing with me four lines and he has a exposition of what he means by that on page 93 and 94 in his very helpful book survey of the bible i commend it to you but christ himself demonstrates that his person and his work are indeed the central subject of the bible and this same truth he highlights later on in this chapter in verses 45 to 47 you're familiar with the verses i'm sure but then there is a second pivotal text and it's found in john 5 and verse 39 demonstrating that christ himself is indeed the central subject of the scriptures john 5 and verse 39 in one of these situations where our lord is in tense interaction with the unbelieving jews this is what he says in john 5

24:42 and verse 39 verse 38 we can back up and you do not have his word abiding in you for whom he sent him you do not believe you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal light and these are they which bear witness of me and you will come unto me that you may have life here are lonely rebukes their blind unbelief he says you spend your hours searching the scriptures you pride yourself in your knowledge of the scriptures and the fact that you have eternal life you have eternal life you have eternal life you have eternal life that your life is given to mastering the content of the scriptures and yet the very thing to which the scriptures bear witness i'm in front of you i'm before you but you do not see me for who i am these are they which bear witness of me donald carson accurately writes and i quote these words the words of john 539 are a comprehensive hermeneutical key by predictive prophethood and by the power of the gospel and by the power of the gospel and by the power of the by type by revelatory event and by anticipatory statute what we call the old testament is

26:09 understood to point to christ his ministry his teaching his death and his resurrection that's found on page 263 of carson's commentary on john in the pillar series profound beautiful distillation these words are a comprehensive hermeneutical key by predictive prophecy by type by revelatory event and by anticipatory statute what we call the old testament is understood to point to christ his ministry his teaching his death and his resurrection and then you find text such as these in the book of acts which is the same truth that christ himself in his person in his unique and saving work is the central theme of the scriptures acts 3 18 19 24 acts chapter 3 peter preaching but the things which god foreshadowed by the mouth of all the prophets that his christ should suffer he thus fulfilled repent therefore

27:28 And turn again, verse 24, Yea, and all the prophets, from Samuel, and all them that followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days, yes, they did so by predictive prophecy, but they did so in more subtle ways. In the most scathing rebukes of the prophets, when one of them is telling apostate Israel, give him over to Machiavelli and feast, I'll take the dust feast and spread it upon your faces. What in the world does that have to do with Christ? Well, it points forward to a day when God will, through Christ, in the outworking of a new covenant, have a people. Upon whose faces he will not spread dung, but upon whose faces he will put the very glow of his likeness, as he regenerates them, and as he puts his spirit within them, and as they, beholding God's glory in the face of Christ, are more and more transformed into his likeness and into his image. And when we read those sickening portions, chapter after chapter, of the utter apostasy of the nation of Israel,

28:51 it is meant to create within all of our hearts a yearning for the day when God has a people who will bring him delight and bring him pleasure. And surely in preaching those things, Christ is there, not as explicitly as in a specific predictive prophecy, such as Isaiah 9, 6, and Isaiah 52, 13, through chapter 53, and a host of other passages, but he is there. And all is meant to testify in one way or another of him.

29:28 And certainly if this is true of what we call the Old Testament Scriptures, how much more of the New. The Gospels that show us in John his pre-incarnate existence, which tell us of his virginal conception, his birth, his ministry, his life, his teaching, his death, his resurrection. The book of Acts is, according to Acts 1.1, the ongoing ministry of Christ from the right hand of the Father.

29:56 Luke writes, Theophilus, the former treatise I wrote, telling you the things Jesus began to do. Now I'm going to tell you the things he has continued to do. And the epistles, his salvation in its marvelous explication, in its application to the new covenant community, in every dimension of its life, its failures, its sins, its errors. But Christ is there.

30:23 He is there, stuck into the midst of the most knotty concerns, as we shall see in a subsequent heading. And then, of course, the book of the Revelation, with all of its strangeness. One thing is clear, again and again, the Lord Jesus is revealing through his angel to John to send to the seven churches that he is the triumphant Lamb who will overcome all of his and his people's enemies. Yes, Christ.

Confirming Voice: Gardner Spring on Christ's Pervasive Presence in Scripture

30:53 In himself, in his glorious person, in his unique and sufficient saving work, is the central theme of the Old and the New Testament scriptures. And at this point, I want to read a marvelous paragraph or two from Gardner Springs' book, The Glory of Christ. If you can find that at all, get it. Read a few pages a day in conjunction with your devotions, and it will warm.

31:23 And inflame your heart toward your Savior. Listen to Gardner Springs. Under the subject, or under the title of this chapter, the principal subject of Revelation. Not the book of the Revelation, but of inscripturated Revelation.

31:40 He writes, This, then, is the thought we place at the head of our observations on the glory of Christ. God is no more omnipresent than the presence of Christ. Christ fills the sacred volume. Isn't that beautiful?

31:58 If you have any appreciation for words and the reality they convey, that's got to at least raise up one little goose bump on your very reserved Anglo-American flesh. God is not more omnipresent than the presence of Christ fills the sacred volume. He himself is its author. Prophets were sent by him.

32:22 Apostles were his amanuenses. His light shines on every page. It envelops us wherever we take the Bible into our hands. We live in this illumined atmosphere.

32:35 It is not as though Christ were in heaven and we are on earth, or as though we were looking at the sun at a distance, or as though we were on the side of the globe on which the sun does not shine. The mind is not less distant from the body than Christ from the...

32:54 He says right there, inextricably tied up with all of its bodily functions and the mystery of mind and body and all of these things. Christ is not less distant from the body than Christ from the Bible. He is the mind, the very soul of the book itself. He enriches it. He adorns it.

33:22 He has great and glorious designs to accomplish by us. And not only are they there, here, unfolded, but they comprise all the designs of the divine mind in relation to the restoration of fallen man. It is the instrument of good only as it speaks of him. He spoke in the prophets, uttered the law, and now speaks in the gospel.

33:45 He is the cause, and these ample and varied revelations are the effect. There are some striking instances of his glory on which we propose to dwell in the following pages, but his glory shines throughout these divine communications, even though its rays sometimes fall obliquely. Isn't that beautiful? Sometimes the rays fall obliquely, sometimes more directly.

34:12 You can't miss feeling the warmth of them on the page that you're reading and expounding, sometimes more obliquely. His light fills the scriptures with truth. His grace...

34:24 and mercy give birth to all the hopes and all his promises form the clue to all the prospects it reveals. His fullness makes it so full of God. Men may not see that the Bible is so full of Christ, yet he's there. They may not believe that it is so full of Christ, yet he is there.

34:46 They may deny that it is full of Christ, yet he is there. All their efforts to exclude him are of no avail. It was to reveal Christ that this revelation was given. It is impossible to get at a distance from Christ so long as we have any true intimacy with the scriptures.

35:07 If we go up to heaven, he's there. Or if we make our bed in hell, he is there. I cannot find that Christ is ever lost sight of in the Bible. The man who would understand the gospel and preach it intelligibly must carry Christ along.

35:24 With him into the pulpit. He must habitually carry Christ in his mind and heart. Christ must be near him, or his preaching will have very little meaning. That system of theological opinions which has the most of Christ is the true system.

35:41 That which has the least is the most erroneous. That which has none is heresy, infidelity, and atheism. And then he goes on to really...

35:55 ...invade against the evils of liberalism and Romanism with great passion.

Application: Seeking Christ in Every Portion of Scripture

36:00 So I say, brethren, we ought to earnestly strive to have a ministry that has the fragrance of Christ in it. Not only because the very fact we have an inscripturated revelation is because of God's purposes in Christ with their taproots in eternity, but because the scriptures themselves tell us that the Lord...

36:25 Lord Jesus Christ is the central subject of this blessed book. Once persuaded that He is the central subject of the Scriptures, then surely we will ask of any and all portions we are expounding or applying, where is my Savior in this portion? What shuts me up to Him in handling precepts and commands? What displays Him to me in type and in shadow? What points to His work once for all on behalf of sinners as our great prophet, priest, and king? What displays His grace in historical narrative? And did we not have a profound example of that here Sunday night? Most of us had to admit, I don't know how I could preach Christ from Genesis 30.

37:22 But we heard it done in a way that was not artificial, in a way that did not cause us to do backflips and say, oh boy, Pastor Donnelly can really get something out of the Bible. But we sat there and said, oh God, forgive my dullness that I didn't see amazing grace in this chapter before. So brethren, I am not pleading. I'm sure many of you are aware of the debate of redemptive historical preaching, etc. I don't want you to be thinking, oh, Pastor Mark, has gone whole high, gone over to the other camp. No, no, no, no, no. But what I'm saying is, what I'm saying is, that if He is the central subject, then no matter what the subject, no matter what the portion, no matter what the theme, whether the emphasis is meant to be consolatory or whether it's meant to be hortatory, we must ask this question. What in this duty, what in this exposure of sin is meant to drive me to Christ?

38:24 Make Him more precious. What is there in this demanding duty that is meant to cause me to cry out, oh Lord, I'm not sufficient for that. I can't love my wife as you love the church. It's like the Lord says, yeah, I know you can't. So I told you to do it. So you'll be shut up to me, for without me you can do nothing. And that that's got to become a kind of spiritual slash mental gymnastics that we perform at our desks in the level of our preparation. Where is Christ in all of this? But I must hasten on. We should pursue a ministry permeated with the fragrance of Christ, not only because the person and work of Christ are the rationale for the existence of an inscripturated revelation. Person and work of Christ are the central subject of Scripture. But thirdly, He is the central subject of apostolic evangelistic preaching. He is the central subject of apostolic evangelism.

Biblical Warrant: Christ as the Central Subject of Apostolic Evangelistic Preaching

39:25 What did the apostles consider to be the gospel, the good news of God's saving mercy? Well, consider such passages as these. And brethren, I'm going to quote them and sometimes just cite a text in the interest of time. Certainly, we think immediately of Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, coming to Corinth, knowing the tremendous pressure that would be upon him to conform to the intellectual and religious climate at Corinth.

40:01 He writes in verse 1, And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined, before I ever came over your city limits, there was a settled, deep resolution of soul. And it was this. I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him as crucified.

40:31 I was committed to the fact that the person of Jesus Christ and His work, particularly His work as a substitutionary sin-bearing Savior, would be utterly, absolutely central to my message. So that when he writes in chapter 15, against the backdrop of people questioning, even the fact and the possibility of bodily resurrection, he said, Oh, my brethren, you know the gospel we preach to you. Christ died for our sins. He was buried.

41:09 He was raised. He was seen. This was the sum and the substance of my message. He can say in his second letter, For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

41:26 Amen. Open up that prototypical, apostolic, evangelistic sermon in Acts chapter 2. And Peter, once he clears away the silly notion that speaking in tongues is because these people are a bunch of drunks at nine o'clock in the morning. And he says, No, that's not the answer.

41:46 This is that. Well, once he has cleared away the objection as to what's going on, he then opens his mouth and he begins to preach Jesus to them. He begins to preach Christ. Acts 8 in verse 35.

41:59 We find the same thing with Philip, with the Ethiopian eunuch, opening up that passage in Isaiah. He preached Christ unto him. Acts 13. Acts 17, 1 to 3.

42:12 Paul's pattern going into the synagogue and there reasoning out of the scriptures. I commend to you. Chapter 8 in our brother, Pastor Donnelly's book, Peter, eyewitness of his majesty. He has a wonderful distillation.

42:27 This apostolic emphasis on preaching Christ when preaching evangelistically and then he flowers it out and opens it up with respect to Peter's ministry. It's chapter 8, Christ-centered preaching. In our evangelistic preaching, we too must seek to bring men to feel their accountability to God. Yes.

42:49 We must seek to bring them to feel the reality of their sinfulness. Yes. But remember, Paul says that that which in a peculiar way is God's instrument of power to salvation is the good news. And the good news pertains to the person and to the work of Christ.

43:11 So the same apostle can say in 1 Corinthians, who wrote to the Romans, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, narrows it down even more. In 1.18, for the word of the cross, is to them that are perishing foolishness, but unto us who are being saved, it is the power of God. What is the gospel without the word of the cross being central to that proclamation of the gospel?

43:43 And you find that throughout the Pauline Corpus, 2 Corinthians, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were beseeching you through us, entreating you through us. We beseech you, in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God. On what basis? For him who knew no sin was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

44:10 And brethren, we've got to come back to the place where we really believe that though there is a legitimate place for the use of the law, a legitimate place for establishing people in fundamental theistic perspectives, Acts 17 and Paul's reasoning, the Areopagus, I'm fully aware of that. Do we really believe that when we plant the cross before people, it is uniquely the fullest display not only of all of God's attributes, but of man's sinfulness?

44:48 There is a more striking display of the intimidating holiness, inflexible justice, and consuming wrath of God that God, God, and was ever displayed on thunder-stricken, lightning-struck Sinai. Wisdom in God's creative work, yes, but Paul says we preach Christ in whom there is the embodiment of wisdom of God. By his activity, are you in Christ Jesus who is made unto us wisdom from God,

45:25 intricate wisdom in the creative work, but oh, how it pales before the wisdom, that ever conceived that the second person of the Godhead would take to himself in Mary's womb by the operation of the Spirit a true human soul, a true human body, whose mind can think for anything but the shortest time. The deity is joined to a psychot,

46:01 and a psychot, and an umbilical cord, wisdom,

46:14 shredded flesh, contused face, blood,

46:28 forsaken by making by his God. That is the hope of a vast multitude whom no man can number out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and nation. Christ crucified the wisdom of God in that utter is the greatest display of God's power. And brethren, we need to have confidence that sticking the cross in the midst of the muck of this increasingly apostate God-rejection, Christ-hating generation, that's the instrument of divine power.

Biblical Warrant: Christ as the Ever-Present Subject of Apostolic Didactic and Corrective Instruction

47:15 It was with the apostles. But then, he is also the central subject of apostolic evangelistic preaching. Yes, we've established that. But then he is the ever-present subject of the apostolic didactic and corrective instruction to the New Covenant community.

47:37 And I hope I'll be permitted to go to ten minutes till I want to complete this point and then I will have laid before you my four lines of reasoning to support my exhortation that we consciously, continually seek to have a ministry in the Word fragrant with the person and work of our blessed Lord. He is the ever-present subject of the apostolic didactic and corrective instruction to the New Covenant community. When they are giving concentrated, doctrinally didactic portions, Christ is constantly present as the soul and center of that instruction. When the apostle is going to set forth the glorious truth of the election, Ephesians 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, in Christ, according as He chose us, bear choice, no, in Him, and all the way through that which holds everything together in that marvelous Trinitarian expression of praise to God for His salvation is in Christ, in Christ, in Christ,

49:02 so that that community at Ephesus cannot think of any of its objective, glorious blessings of saving mercy apart from sin, Christ at the center, union with Christ as the nexus that brings it all.

49:19 And when there are concentrated practical or ethically didactic portions, Christ is equally present as the soul and substance of that instruction, so much so that it's done giving instructions to husbands and wives. He says, oh, what am I talking about? Husbands or wives or Christ in the church? Oh, yes, I speak concerning...

49:41 You chuckle at it. He cannot talk about husbands loving wives without seeing Christ infinite, overflowing, patient, tender, nourishing love for His church. He cannot give directions to wives to be submissive to their husbands without thinking of the church's joyful, principled submission to the husband who has won her by his sacrificial, selfless love.

50:12 He can't deal with the naughty problem of immorality, at current, without saying, you're bought with a price. Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which you have of God? You're not your own. You're bought with a price.

50:28 Therefore, glorify God in your body. He gives specific directions to all the age categories of people. It tells Titus, this is what you tell the old men, Titus 2, tell the older women, young men, up, up, up, up, up, and he then launches into that, that marvelous statement of Titus 2, 11 to 14. Why all this instruction?

50:53 Because of what Christ has done. It has its roots embedded in the work of Christ. It's not empty moralism. Live a different life from your pagans around you.

51:05 Live this life because this is the very end for which Christ died. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a people for his own. A people for his own possession. Zealous of good works.

51:21 When Peter's talking to poor slaves with abusive masters, he takes them right to Christ. He says, look, look, look, just be patient with them. Don't strike back. Why?

51:33 Hereunto were you called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps. When he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed his cause to him who judges righteously. He fills that practical, ethical directive with Christ.

51:56 And then the concentrated corrective portions are also filled with Christ. I slipped over into that in the 1 Corinthians 6 quotation. But he does that all the way through when he's dealing with abuses of Christian liberty. He says, are you going to do this for a little taste on your lips for a few moments?

52:14 Are you going to destroy the brother? For whom Christ died? And he plants the cross smack in the middle of this selfish abuse of Christian liberty. And all the way through the correct portions of their writings.

52:32 Christ is central. He's the life. He's the soul. Take him out.

Conclusion: Proclaiming the Unsearchable Riches of Christ

52:36 And it is but mere moralism. So in the light of these things, is it no wonder that Paul summarizes the entire scope of his ministry in the book of Acts? In the words from which I quoted when I stood before you. And I want us to just look at these two texts as I close this hour.

52:57 Ephesians 3.8 Ephesians 3.8 Unto me who am less than the least of all saints was this grace given to preach and then we can take that phrase as it were put it in brackets or parenthesis unto the Gentiles to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. This is my calling to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.

53:37 And in Colossians, very interestingly, chapter 1,

53:42 he says in verse 27, to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you or among you the hope of glory. Now notice, whom we proclaim, not just evangelistically, admonishing every man, teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect or mature in Christ. How do we bring our people to maturity in Christ? By proclaiming Him.

54:14 Proclaiming Him. Proclaiming Him. So my dear brothers, I lay before you these four categories of evidence which to me are four compelling reasons to proclaim Him. Graciously to pursue a ministry of the Word permeated with the fragrance of the person and the work of Christ.

54:38 Let's pray. Our Father,

54:47 we thank You that in free, sovereign love You have come to a race of rebel sinners whom You could have blotted out in the person of our first parents and we would never have had any existence. You could have blotted out at any point in human history yet because You purposed before the foundation of the world to have a people to give to Your Son as His bride.

55:20 You, in Your mysterious wisdom, planned all that has unfolded in human history and we thank You for a book that tells us of that plan. We thank You for a book that constantly points us to the One in whom all the hope of the nations resides. We thank You for the record of His coming. Thank You for the explication of what He did and how it applies to us, how it enables us to draw near to You in the confidence that our sins are pardoned, that we have been given a positive status of righteousness in Your sight because of Jesus.

56:05 We've been adopted as Your children. You've made us Your sons. You have assured us that we are not only what we now know of the beginnings of Your work in us will be consummated gloriously when we are made holy body and soul into the image of Your beloved Son. O God, help us, help us, we pray, that our own hearts and minds will be so suffused and enamored with our Lord Jesus that more and more we will be keen to see Him where He is in the Word and to preach Him to our people.

56:41 Hear our prayer, continue to bless our fellowship in this time of this interlude and bring us back together again with Your blessing upon us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.