“Confirming Voices” (bibliography); Hinderances

Introduction to Confirming Voices and Bibliography

0:03 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 second sermon in a series entitled Pursuing a Ministry Permeated with Christ. Well, as I said beginning in the previous hour, I didn't know whether I would get to heading number two, and obviously I did not.

0:37 But having sought to lay before you what, in my judgment, are some of the most compelling reasons for consciously seeking and cultivating, pursuing a ministry permeated with the fragrance of the person and work of Christ, what I think I'll do, I sought a little counsel from several brethren, rather than give this extra biblical confirmation from the past, something that I think is important to me, rather than give this extra biblical confirmation from the past, something that I had in my notes to underscore would be inappropriate in an ordinary sermon, but since I identified this in the introduction as a sermon-slash-lecture would be appropriate,

1:20 what I'm going to do is to just give little teasing snippets of the larger portions I had hoped to read. I have sought to read and re-read and re-re-read them, to try to read them in a way that some of these men might have predicted, to try to reach them so it would not have been an exercise in dullness to you, but let me at least tell you the five men that I had hoped to quote from and give you a little snippet and then give you what was going to be a brief working bibliography of things that I have found helpful in pointing me in this direction

1:59 of seeking more and more to preach Christ in all of my preaching. I was...

Confirming Voice 1: J.W. Alexander on the Matter of Preaching

2:07 planning to begin with a quote from J.W. Alexander and his priceless little book, Thoughts on Preaching. And in the section entitled The Matter of Preaching, Alexander states his conviction that our preaching should be such as, first of all, to set forth God as the great overshadowing object in all our preaching, and secondly, it ought to be such as sets forth a biblical anthropology, man as created, obligated to God, and fallen in Adam.

2:43 And then point number three as to the matter of our preaching, he went on to say it must be God preeminently set forth as God in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing to them their trespasses. And then let me give you just one little abbreviated section of this. It's page...

3:07 page 208. All else converges toward Christ or radiates from him. It tends to lead us to him or flows from our union in him. All unfoldings of God in his perfections and glories, all exhibitions of the character, condition, and duties of man, all inculcations of doctrine and practice, if true and scriptural, lead the soul directly to the Lord Jesus Christ for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

3:48 Every doctrine, every duty, all legitimate matter of preaching of whatever sort culminates in Christ, in whom all things shall be gathered into one, and who fills all in all. All duty leads to him to discharge the debt incurred by its non-performance, to obtain strength for its future fulfillment, while the wisdom, power, and love displayed in Christ evoke the highest love and adoration, and incite while they enable us to render grateful and devoted obedience. And that's just a sample of the section I'd hoped to quote.

Confirming Voice 2: Thomas Murphy on Christ as Sum and Substance

4:30 And then the second voice from the fast was that of Thomas Murphy in his reproach. Printed volume of Pastoral Theology. I was delighted when it was reprinted here several years ago. After establishing that as to what we preach, it must be the Word of God, nothing but the Word, his third point is, and here's the heading, Christ is to be the sum and substance of all preaching.

5:01 And then beginning on page 167, all the way through for a number of times, this is the burden of his exhortation. We have already shown that the Scriptures and nothing but the truths of Scripture should furnish the matter that is brought into the pulpit. We now go further and say that the one great theme which the preacher must ever bring out from the Word of God and present in the diversified forms it receives from all scriptural truth is Christ and Him. Being crucified, as Vinay has most aptly expressed it, in every sermon we must either start from Christ

5:44 or come to Him. This will result necessarily from the deep study and preaching of the Bible, for Christ is the burden of all Scripture. Hence he laid the obligation upon his followers, search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. And then he goes on page after page to just open up that concern that those who were sitting under his lectures, would read his lectures, would feel this burden of preaching Christ.

6:23 But then this lovely caution. Whatever text or theme then is taken by the preacher, it ought to look to Christ. He should be the great burden of every sermon. His name need not necessarily be mentioned as that which is to be the subject, but the tone, the spirit, the life, the deep undercurrent and steady aim of every discourse should pertain to the person and work and infinite blessings of Christ.

Confirming Voice 3: Gardiner Spring on Power in the Pulpit

6:56 And then the third witness that I was going to bring forward, the third voice was again Gardiner Spring. And in his masterful words, in his masterful work, Power in the Pulpit, which thankfully again has been reprinted, Gardiner Spring powerfully exhorts us with respect to this whole matter of preaching Christ. The pulpit is powerless where the cross of Christ is not magnified. Christ must be the theme, the scope, the life, the soul of the pulpit.

7:32 What savors not, and I like the church, the choice of this word, what savors not of the cross of Christ belongs not to the work of the Christian minister. And then further in another discourse of his, though Christ crucified is to be the one great burden of every, is to be the one great burden of every sermon, it does not necessarily follow that there must be a tiresome repetition. It may be that some preachers are often driven by the fear of this to seek other subjects. But this supremely important subject has an infinite variety of aspects.

8:14 In Jesus dwells all the fullness of wisdom, all the fullness of grace, all the fullness of the Godhead, an ocean boundless and fathomless. And then he goes on to amplify how it is that in preaching duty, and history, et cetera, Christ can indeed be the one, the flavor of whose presence and savor of whose presence is evident in our preaching. Again, listening now to the witness of another quote from Gardner Spring, and remember now I'm doing this redacting on my feet. Every truth in the Bible brings us at last to the cross, and the cross carries us back

8:59 to every truth in the Bible. So the sum and substance, the sum and substance of all truth is most impressively proved, illustrated, and enforced by Christ and Him crucified. A right conception of what is included in the cross ensures a right conception of every doctrine contained in the Bible. This is the hinge on which the whole system turns, and the great truth by which alone any and all truths may be understood.

Confirming Voice 4: C.H. Spurgeon on Preaching Christ Always

9:32 And then my final, my fifth voice from the past was going to be that incomparable Christ-soaked, Christ-obsessed prince of preachers, Mr. Spurgeon himself. And I quote now from Spurgeon's lectures to my students, sermons dash their matter. Of all I wish to say, this is my sum.

9:59 My brethren, preach Christ always. Always and evermore. He is the whole gospel. His person, offices, and work must be our one great all-comprehending theme.

10:12 The world needs still to be told of its Savior and of the way to reach Him. Justification by faith should be far more than it is the daily testimony of Protestant pulpits. And if with this master truth there should be more generally associated the other great doctrines of grace, the better for our churches and our age. If with the zeal of Methodists we can preach the doctrine of the Puritans, a great future is before us.

10:41 The fire of Wesley and the fuel of Whitefield will cause a burning which shall yet set the forest of error on fire and warm the very soul of this cold earth. We are not called to proclaim philosophy and metaphysics, but the simple gospel. Man's fall, his need of the new God, his birth, forgiveness through an atonement, and salvation as the result of faith. These are our battle-axe and weapons of war.

11:10 We have enough to do to learn and teach these great truths and accursed be the learning which shall divert us from our mission or that willful ignorance that shall cripple us in its pursuit. More and more I am jealous lest any views upon prophecy, church government, politics, or even systematic theology should withdraw one of us from glorying in the cross of Christ." And then he goes on to say some very strong things if we allow that to happen. And then of course it was Spurgeon who had that wonderful example of someone who said that he wasn't sure

11:55 that Christ indeed would be the beginning or end of any passage and speaks of how in every little hamlet in England there was a road that led to London. And likewise there is for every text a road that eventually will lead us to Christ. Well, that's just a little snippet of some of those things. Let me mention several things by way of bibliography of materials that may be helpful to you.

Working Bibliography for Preaching Christ

12:21 Volume 3 of Brooks, pages 207 to 223. He has a wonderful section on what it is to preach Christ. Volume 3 of Brooks, pages 107 to 223. Flavel, Volume 1, in The Fountain of Life.

12:39 A very good section. You can see the page numbers in the index. And then Taylor's work of the ministry, pages 79 to 104. And I was tempted to read a section out of that again.

12:54 Very, very, in the right sense of the word, unctuous, powerful, penetrating. William Taylor, The Work of the Ministry, pages 79 to 104. And then this lovely little treatise by an Anglican of another generation preaching Christ, the heart of gospel ministry. This is the outgrowth of a message slash lecture given to some of his brethren in the Episcopalian ministry.

13:19 And that's available in our bookstore. I've already mentioned the section, chapter 8 in Pastor Donnelly's book, Peter, Eyewitness of His Glory. And then the Christian Pastor's Manual. Our brother Pastor McDiarmid made reference to this yesterday, edited by John Brown.

13:38 It has a lovely sermon by John Jennings, I think it's John Jennings, on this very subject, on preaching Christ. So I commend those things to you as you have opportunity to take them in hand and to read them. But my brethren have encouraged me not to stint on heading numbers, number three, having sought to persuade you from the Scriptures of the necessity, the biblical warrant, for pursuing a ministry fragrant with the person and work of Christ. A few of these extra-biblical voices from the past urging us to pursue such a ministry.

Hindrances of the Head and Their Correctives

14:18 Now thirdly, the identification of and some suggested correctives to some of the hindrances to the pursuit of such a ministry. And here I want to address these matters under two simple headings. Hindrances of the head and their correctives, and then hindrances of the heart and their correctives. What are some of the hindrances of the head?

14:47 And by that I simply mean hindrances that grow out of either erroneous thinking or vacuous thinking concerning this matter. Well, let me suggest three of them. Number one, a deficient persuasion concerning the necessity of pursuing such a ministry. With some of us it may be that we have a deficient persuasion concerning the necessity of pursuing such a ministry.

15:17 Well, I hope my effort in the previous hour has filled up some of the deficiency and has hopefully won your conscience that you with me are under solemn obligation constantly to pursue such a ministry. And if you're not fully persuaded, I hope consulting some of these voices from the past will indeed persuade you. And one of the reasons I've stuck with some of the witnesses from the past is that these men were not at all caught up in the present controversy of exemplary preaching, of redemptive historical preaching. They were not caught up in any of that controversy, so they can't be pegged

16:01 as being in one camp or another. And they were men, secondly, who were not known primarily for the tones that they produced on paper. They were preachers who cut it in their own generation. And it's one of the irritants that I have when men who have not cut it as preachers want to tell me how to do my craft.

16:29 I want a man that under God is doing it, doing it well, and done it over a lengthy period of time to sit me down and say, Son, I've got some things to point out to you that I think you need to know. Now, I am not discounting that God can give insights to the scholar, but it seems to me it's only in the work of the ministry that non-practitioners become the dominant authority for practitioners. What other field is this tolerated? I ask you, what other field is it tolerated?

17:02 And so, brethren, that's another reason why I give you echoes from the past. These men, without exception, were known to be preachers. The only one I can't speak for is McElvain, except he was asked to address his brethren, so I figure he must have been a man a cut above his peers. But with all of the other men, they were men who were known to be preachers.

17:27 Gardner Spring, for sixty years, held congregations in rapt attention under his preaching ministry. And Alexander, you read the statements concerning his preaching ministry, these other men, Spurgeon, and so, brethren, I think we ought to listen to men whose ministries were mightily owned of God and who speak to us concerning the necessity of this kind of ministry. So, if there is, if there is persuasion, I hope that the previous hour and the witness of these men from the past will indeed persuade you that this is indeed your solemn duty

18:11 and your great privilege. And then I'd like to set one other fact, a deeper persuasion, and it is this. If the most delightful ministry of the Holy Spirit is to magnify our Lord Jesus, and it is, I like to think of the Holy Spirit and I hope it is not irreverent to do so, as that person in the, in the, on, behind the stage who is charged with the manipulation and control of the lights on center stage. And he has a script of the play.

18:48 And where the central character takes central stage, his instructions are to narrow the focus of his spotlight and, and to push up the rheostat and increase the brightness of the light that shines upon the central figure. And the Holy Spirit's greatest delight is to narrow the focus of the beams of his influence and to intense their brightness when Christ is center stage in our ministry. And our ministries ought to aim to create a climate under God in which the Holy Spirit

19:32 can perform that most delightful of all ministries with great intensity as we seek to set forth our Lord Jesus Christ. But then there is a second problem in the head that may keep some of us from this kind of ministry and it is what I am calling a deficient skill in exercising such a ministry. Like any other skill it takes time and pains to cultivate and to perfect that skill. And I was delighted when in rereading that essay in the John Brown manual, Christian Pastors manual

20:16 and the chapter on preaching Christ that this man understood this principle and he wrote as follows, but to arrive at any tolerable perfection in preaching Christ is a work of time the result of a careful perusal of the scriptures and studying the hearts of men. It requires mortifying the pride of carnal reason, a great concern for souls and a humble dependence on the Spirit of God with the lively exercise of devotion in our closets. But it is particularly those opening words, to arrive at any tolerable perfection in preaching Christ

21:01 is a work of time. And so, brethren, if you find that you are deficient in this area and one of the reasons is, how do I do it? I answer, work at it, labor at it, and in so doing learn from the proven craftsmen. We have a wonderful legacy of the sermons of men who were known to be preachers who preached Christ, fragrant sermons, McShane, Spurgeon, Flavel, Brooks, John Owen, with all his ponderous latinized sentences.

21:41 Christ is there, you remember, in mortification where again and again he repeats himself and Owen doesn't do that often in terms of what we might call, alright, I got the message the first time, but he is so concerned to make plain that the only cross on which we can ultimately know our lust being crucified is the cross on which Jesus died. Any crosses of our own making will not do. And I would commend to you current preachers who manifest this and among them that I'm aware of and that I listen to whenever I get an opportunity. If I hear that my dear friend and esteemed brother Dr. Sinclair Ferguson

22:25 has preached somewhere and there's a CD or a tape available, I'm almost ready to give up a finger to get hold of it. That dear man of God in my judgment exemplifies this to an unusual degree and I always get jealous to preach Christ like he preaches Christ when I listen to him. So listen to those, read the sermons of those who by God's grace attain some measure of skill in this matter of preaching Christ. A second practical suggestion to overcome as a corrective, critique the sermon before you preach it and actually ask yourself from introduction to conclusion

23:08 where will the fragrance of Jesus be smelled in this sermon by anyone whose olfactory nerves spiritually are not seared? Is there something of the fragrance of Christ? Where is it? If not, where should it be?

23:26 Even my brothers, and don't be ashamed of being known, when we and I go to our graves we're not going to be remembered for a lot of things. And probably one of the few things we'll be remembered for are those things that have been woven into our ministries as a pattern. And if you're dealing, for example, with the subject, you're dealing with some of the cardinal sins of our age and you're seeking to encourage your people to be gracious or to be kind or to be truthful. And if there is not in the particular passages you're dealing with something that can very naturally lend just a gall to say, now my brothers and sisters, we've been talking today about the sin of laziness.

24:09 And if it has not been natural to you to point to Him who so fully kept the law that everything involved in that other part of the fourth commandment He fully kept every day of His life. Six days shalt thou labor. We see in our Lord Jesus the epitome of industriousness. My Father works hitherto and I must work.

24:34 I must work the works of Him. If we don't go to Christ that way, simply at the end of the exposition to say now, my brothers and sisters, where in the world are we going to get the strength to overcome our laziness woven into the fabric of our reigning sin if we are not Christians, our remaining sin if we are, is a disposition to be a sluggard. Where are you going to find grace? And just tell them it's in Jesus.

25:02 Now as some people say, well that's an artificial tacking on of Christ fully on them. It's not a no. That the grace and strength to perform that duty is in Christ. Without me you can do nothing, i.e.,

25:16 you can't do all things through Him who strengthens me. And you shame them by the example of Christ. There are all kinds of things that you can do through Him who strengthens me. There are all kinds of ways, but begin to cultivate if you don't do this, this mental discipline of critiquing, critiquing yourself before you preach them and say, where is Jesus?

25:39 Where is the road that goes to London? If it ain't there, construct it. Hindrance of the head. Deficient persuasion concerning the necessity of pursuing such a ministry.

25:57 A deficient skill in exercising such a ministry. Thirdly, ain't there a naive assumption that our listeners will make the connections that lead to or flow out from the person and work of Christ? A naive assumption that our listeners will make the connections that lead to or flow out from the person and work of Christ? Now, for example, when we're engaged in consecutive exposition, and I can remember, this is when I determined to begin to do this far more repeatedly.

26:40 When the New Covenant community gathered and sat in a given place on a given Lord's Day and someone said, we have a letter from our beloved Apostle Paul and one of the elders assigned someone who had a particular gift of reading or themselves had it, and the letter was read. When you have, as you do in so many of the Pauline epistles, the grand indicatives of grace, the statements of what we have and what we are in Christ, then followed by the reasonable gospel imperatives, what we are to be and to do because of who we are and what we have, people would be making those connections between indicative and imperative because they're hearing

27:25 the whole thing all at once. But when we're taking several verses at a time and we come through for example, I can remember it was when I was preaching through first Peter that I was determined to begin to do this. I kept saying to our people there is no imperative in this first chapter till we get to verse 13 that begins with the therefore. It is dense with gospel indicatives.

27:50 All that we are and all that we have. Well, it was wonderful to preach all the indicatives but when I came to verse 13 and then you go on verse after verse with very little of the indicative but the imperatives it was necessary for me to keep making that connection for our people not assuming that they're going to make it. Not assuming that someone who's just begun to come into the assembly when you were preaching say from verse 2 18 and onward you must not assume that they're going to on their own make the connection so that you may have to have a little more comprehensive review. And so

28:35 the persnickety homiletical perfectionist and rhetorical critic will say well if you're going to have unity of discourse there ought not to be any overflow and to prevent fooey on them. I've got a company of God's people that under God I want them with all my heart to think biblically and they must never think of the gospel imperatives from gospel indicatives. Don't assume they're going to make the connections. So you must make those connections for them continually and repeatedly.

29:12 Now again it takes it takes time it takes effort to do it in a way that is not so sane and predictable that people could in a sense just tune you out while you're doing it that's where the labor comes in. I want you to work so as I can get it through with freshness and don't assume they're going to make the connections. Furthermore when you've laid upon them a sobering duty that has brought conviction don't assume that they're automatically going to go to Christ. The devil is at their elbow to drive them into despair

29:57 that keeps them awake. They're wounded and laid bare. Mine has been laid bare in the preaching. Let us go to our great high priest.

30:07 If any man sin we have an advocate. At the point of mind assume they're going to make the connections. To go to Christ for strength to go to Christ for forgiveness or to see how that duty is connected with their union with Christ their profession of Christ is a naive assumption that our listeners will make them or flow out of Christ. And I think that's an error of the head that needs to be corrected at the very practical pastoral level as we preach to our people week after week.

30:47 I can remember again when this first began to really grip me so it began to shape my ministry and I was asked in some setting I did not start in Ephesians 5 with husbands and wives without giving a swift overview of all of the indicatives of Ephesians 1-3 because when Paul said husbands and wives he assumed that they had all the experience that he describes in chapter 1 of that great Trinitarian salvation that they had experienced personally the dynamism of saving grace as described in Ephesians 2 1-10 that they were comfortable with the idea

31:32 that this was not atomistic and individualistic but was part of God constituting the new humanity 2-12 on into chapter 3 and as Paul could assume all of this was to some degree filtering in to husbands and wives sitting in the assembly we have got to see to it that it filters into them before we come to husbands love your wives don't naively assume that our listeners will make the connections that lead to or flow out from the person of Christ so I lay before you brethren for your consideration these hindrances of the head and a few practical correctives now we come secondly

Hindrance 1 of the Heart: Waning Love for Christ

32:17 hindrance of the heart and their correctives plural hindrances of the heart and their correctives and here again I suggest three first of all a waning love for the person of Christ the most tender but most fruitful plant in the whole garden of the graces planted in the human heart by the grace of God and the power of the spirit is love to Christ I like to think of it as a plant very tender which is a plant which is a plant

33:01 which is with a unique root system its roots reach out like tentacles and wrap themselves around the root of every other grace planted in the garden of the human soul by God's sovereign saving power and to the extent that the root system and the plant of love to Christ is healthy it influences all of our other graces in that garden of God that is your soul and mine but if that plant of love to Christ

33:46 begins to wither and its root system no longer can share its nourishment with the roots of all the other plants then the whole garden begins to be overgrown with weeds and the soul is in a tragic state and though it is so significant and useful a plant in relationship to the whole garden it's a very tender exotic plant just a blast of the hot wind of an unconfessed sin

34:31 can make it begin to wither just the starvation of its nourishment by in vital spirit suffused devotional exercises it begins to lose its strength and it's obvious from the way the Lord deals with that whole issue in Revelation chapter 2 that it is that most tender and most significant plant in all the garden of graces the Lord can commend the church and the other plants in the garden but he says I have this against you

35:15 you have left your first love and says if that's not corrected it won't be long before there's a condition that will cause me to remove your candlestick and it's interesting that when the Lord deals with the matter he says remember repent and do there you have left your first love let yourself come to grips with the reality that is and having come to grips with it repent the internal disposition and do there you

36:00 have full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience what's the connection between that and a ministry in the preaching of the gospel with the Savior and flavor of Christ the connection is obvious the scripture says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks find a man who's in the fury and blessed

36:44 disruption of first may be Katrina, or Rita, or Who's in the World series, or nuclear physics. He'll find something in what you're talking about that precipitates from him some speech about his Mary, or about his Jennifer, or about other unnamed women. Some of you have a knowing look in your eyes.

37:14 Why? Until you want to say to him, look, man, shut up. But he's not sitting there contriving saying, no, I've got to find a way to talk about Mary. I've got to find a way to talk about Mary. His heart's so full of Mary, his mouth diffuses Mary. Oh, my brothers, if our

37:42 hearts are full of him in the secret place, in the cultivation of his presence, in the ordinary, mundane effusions of life, the outworkings of life, the outworkings of life, then surely, surely there will be places, even in our preaching, where we don't calculate. He may not have been there in our notes, but he's so much in our hearts, that in the act of preaching as the Holy Spirit enlarges our hearts, and the truth, as it were, is intensified in its grip upon our own souls, Christ comes out of our preaching. Our people desperately need, indepthly.

38:25 Not just the man who labors at careful exegesis, who labors at clear structure, who labors at a chaste use of illustrations to help make the truth more plain. They need us full of the passion of our first love to Christ. And without that, anything else will be mechanical, and we may have sermons which, if transcribed and critiqued, by the Holy Spirit, will be mechanical. And we may have sermons which, if transcribed and critiqued, by others, they would say it was full of Christ. But to speak of Christ without that

39:06 non-imitable glow, it doesn't cut it with our people.

39:13 I mean, a man has got to be the consummate actor who can imitate that dimension in preaching that is so contagious. When a man is aglow with Christ, and you love Christ, and you want to love Christ more, there is a spiritual contagion in that very experience of sympathy, of mind and heart, in the act of preaching. Well, if we have reason to believe there's been a waning love for the person of Christ, what do we do? We do, first of all, the hardest thing, and that's own it. And one of the most shameful things to own is that we do not love

39:52 as we once did, so lovable a being as Jesus. I find that's the cruncher. There's something about having to say, how shameful, that I should have a waning love for the person of Christ, for one so lovable. It's irrational. It's spiritual madness. And then set about

40:13 to do something about it. And nothing kindles love for Christ unless, of course, we've got a controversy with God. That's different. If you're mucking around with garbage on your internet, then you can fast and pray for six weeks for restored love to Christ. If you

40:29 don't stop that nonsense, you're going to get nowhere. That's a given. But assuming, and I trust it's not foolish assumption, that that is a matter that's so clear, I don't need to insult you by addressing it. What do we do? Nothing kindles love for Christ like gazing upon Him. Take a book like Octavius

40:50 Winslow's on declension and revival of religion in the soul. Someone suggested Alexander's practical sermons, Love for an Unseen Christ. I believe I read it some time ago. Take those books that are rich with Christ, the glory of Christ.

41:09 I hope we can get Spring's book reprinted, The Glories of the Redeemer. Those things that are written specifically to help magnify our blessed Lord Jesus before our eyes and seeing Him and spending time contemplating Him and praying that the Holy Spirit will rekindle and intensify whatever we have known of previous love for Him, that we would no longer have a waning but a growing. A blossoming love for the person of Christ. But then there's a second hindrance of the heart, and that is a weakened faith in the

Hindrance 2 of the Heart: Weakened Faith in the Cross's Power

41:49 efficacy and power of the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. A weakened faith in the efficacy and power of the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. I alluded to this a little bit in the previous hour. Romans 1.16.

42:10 1 Corinthians 1.18. And it's particularly interesting that in the 1 Corinthians 1.18 passage, Paul says the preaching of the cross is to those of us who are being saved the power of God. It's not just looking backward to its instrumentality in bringing us into

42:31 union with Christ, but the preaching of the cross becomes the primary means of the nourishment of the soul. The soul that is in Christ. And that's why Paul lays Christ in his cross over all of our duties and all of our provisions and privileges until he can say, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now

43:03 live in the flesh, He doesn't live it through me. I'm not a passive funnel. I live it, but I live it in union with Christ. I live it in union with Christ. I live it in union with

43:10 Him. And by the Holy Spirit, He dwells in me. I now live by faith in the Son of God. And I think of Him particularly, Paul says, as the one who loved me and gave Himself for me.

43:26 When the Lord Jesus was speaking in the Bread of Life discourse, He said these profound words that have tremendous implications for our ministry to our people. John 6.

43:43 And verse 53, Jesus said unto them, Truly, truly, I say to you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves. He that eats, present tense, He who is continually eating my flesh and drinking my blood has eternal life, and I will raise Him up at the last day, for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood, my blood is drink indeed. He who continually eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in Him.

44:25 Bring that over into John 15. The man abides not in me. He is cast forth as a branch. Men gather them, cast them into the fire. Here Jesus says, involved in this abiding in Him

44:40 is the constant eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood. What's that? What does that mean? It means that Christ crucified is the life, the ongoing life of the souls of His people. If that's so, then my preaching must be holding out that bread

44:59 and that drink continually. Not just when we come to the Lord's table, but it must be the sum, the substance, it must be something of the diet that they receive from you and from me daily. Day after day, Lord's day by Lord's day, it is in this way that they abide in Him, and we abide in Him. They must know that in this ongoing struggle with their indwelling sin, it is the truth of Romans chapter 6 that lies at the foundation of their ability to deal effectively with their remaining sin. They must know that it is in union with Christ

45:43 crucified that sin's dominion has been broken. Here, I want to give a word of personal testimony. I don't often do that, but I'm going to do it. Back some months ago, it had been probably four or five months after my wife's homegoing.

46:04 I faced what was best I can remember, was a period of some of the most intense temptation I have ever known in my fifty-two, three years as a believer. And I found myself struggling. I felt so much sometimes that I wanted to tell people I was a believer. And I found myself so much times that I felt that I wanted to tell people that I was a believer. And I found myself

46:22 so assailed in my own soul and mind that my only salvation was morning after morning after morning after morning for a number of weeks to sit down in my prayer and reading chair with my Bible open and read and pray in Romans 6, 1 to 14. That's what I had to do. Whatever else I did in my devotional exercises, that became the very foundation of my spiritual sanity. And saying, Lord Jesus, you've said that I was united with you in your death, in your burial, in your

47:06 resurrection. Sin's dominion has been broken. Lord Jesus, be pleased to break of this temptation. Do in the very depths of my soul the chemistry of my inner being, what I'm powerless to do. And I stand to testify today, feeding on Christ's flesh and Christ's

47:31 blood. God was gracious. The season eventually passed. But we've got to, and our people have to.

47:42 Colossians chapter 3, the whole emphasis of understanding and laying hold of the reality of what we are in union with a crucified and risen Savior, is our salvation. The salvation of our people. And do we really believe that? And with respect to the unconverted among us, do we really believe that planting the cross before them, lifting up our Savior in his dying agony, and in the significance of the darkened heavens and the cry of dereliction and the cry of triumph, that that is God's mighty weapon to reach out and lay hold of them and make that his instrument of power

48:25 to their salvation. To break the chains of a mesmerizing world of a powerful devil. Do we really believe that? Or do we have a weakened faith in the efficacy and power of the preaching of Christ and him crucified? That could be.

Hindrance 3 of the Heart: Withering Vigor in Abiding in Christ

48:45 And that to me is not an error of the head, but that is a problem of the heart. And then thirdly and finally, sometimes it could be a withering vigor in our consciously abiding in Christ. A withering vigor in our own consciously abiding in Christ. And this may be why there are some significant hindrances to our preaching of Christ. And here again I go back to John 15. I commend you

49:25 brethren, what again I have found to be a very helpful practice along with John 15 and 2 Timothy 4, 1 to 8. The passages I most frequently read before going forth to preach and remind myself, Lord Jesus, you are the true vine. I'm but a branch incorporated into you. And unless your life flows into me and through me, I can do nothing. Oh yes, if he sustains my physical life and my mental sanity,

50:00 I may be able to stand up and have a way with words and ợ something, but Lord, I can really do nothing, nothing of any spiritual profit. Lord, help me to believe that. Help me to go to my service in that awareness existentially and really in the depths of my spiritual gut so that I can truly say as I preach Christ, when Christ who is our life shall appear, he is my life as I seek to preach the life-giving word. Where is the vigor of our

50:40 consciously abiding in Christ? Not only prior to an entrance upon our preaching, but in the midst of our preaching, when we sense that something of the disposition of our own hearts is less than that full, free, present enjoyment. We're holding out food to others, but for the life of us, we can't taste any sweetness in it ourselves. That's the worst misery in the world to me, is to hold out food to others, and I can't

51:17 taste it myself. With the mouth of the soul, some of you think I'm a wild-eyed mystic. Think what you will, my brother. Once you've known what it is to preach a felt Christ, you can never be satisfied.

51:33 With anything less. And sometimes God curses our subtle forms of self-confidence. We've done our work. We've hammered out the sermon. We may have even analyzed the places where Christ is prominent

51:48 and where the rays of light are not oblique. They are directly upon him. And we say, surely the Holy Spirit standing in the wings is going to sharpen the focus, turn up the rheostat, increase the brightness. Surely there. But our confidence,

52:04 it is here, not in him. And he curses our self-confidence so that our attempts to preach Christ are flat and colorless and flavorless. And brothers, I know that not simply because I read it somewhere. It's a horrible reality. Well, if these, and any combination of them,

Conclusion: Call to Go to Christ

52:30 touch your own heart, my loving exhortation is you know where to go. Go to the fountain open for sin and unclean. As all of us went there yesterday morning, when our hearts and our shoddy prayer lives were laid bare so lovingly and tenderly by God's servant. That's where we go, brethren. That's where we live.

52:53 We live by feeding on his flesh and drinking of his blood. We never get beyond that. That's where we live. May God grant that we'll go there. Not go deeper in here. Not go anywhere else. But go to

53:07 him. And leave this conference by the grace of God determined that indeed we shall be better preachers of Christ. Those who by the grace of God have their own relationship to him sustained, fueled and fed by warm, intimate communion. Kept clear by not tolerating unconfessed sin, dark, murky areas of our hearts that we don't allow the light of his word to enter. And with a mind that is fully persuaded

53:39 that it is not a sin, but it is a sin. And with a mind that is fully persuaded that it is not a sin. And with a mind that is fully persuaded that it is not a sin. And with a mind that is fully persuaded that it is not a sin. And with a mind that is fully persuaded that it is not a sin. And

53:40 is our duty to preach Christ. That God by the Holy Spirit will help us as we seek to learn more and more the spiritual art of how to preach our blessed Savior. Let's pray together. Our Father, once again, we thank you for the privilege of being together in your presence. Thank you for

54:09 bringing us together in this conference and for the wonderful way you have drawn near to us. Giving to us who deserve nothing so much from your open hand. We pray that you will seal your word to our hearts. You will further bless us in the hours of this day. And we plead our Father

54:34 that all that you have purposed for us in Christ would be realized as with open hearts, looking to you. We experience your grace. Hear our prayers and accept our thanks We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.