Report on Trip to United Kingdom

Introduction and Biblical Framework for Reporting

0:04 This adult Sunday school class was held on April 18, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 If we have any commitment to our word, we said that this past Wednesday night after our business meeting that I would be giving a report on the recent ministry in England, and alas, the business went on beyond the anticipated time, and so we said, well, we'll put it off till a week, Wednesday, and so many of you anticipated this coming Wednesday that you'd be receiving this report, but on Friday, Mr. Garlington informed us he would not be able to take the class today, and so it was our judgment that this afforded a very natural opportunity to give the promised report. So we are not going back on our word or hopelessly confused about the difference between Sunday and Wednesday. Those are some of the factors which lie behind this. Now, to set this report, within a biblical framework, I would direct your attention to the 14th chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. And I say this particularly for those who are relatively new amongst us, and for you young people, we do not have, I trust, in this congregation what would be called a naive biblicism, that is, the idea that unless you can find chapter and verse for everything you do, you ought not to do it. There are many things we do.

1:32 By the generalization, there are many general rules and principles of the word of God, though we have no explicit chapter and verse. But wherever we can identify a biblical principle or precept as setting the framework for our actions, it is well for us to underscore those precepts and principles so that in our life together as a congregation, we can experience a self-conscious joy in the knowledge that we are doing the will of God as revealed in the Bible. In the word of God. And here in the 14th chapter of Acts, we have the record of the return of the Apostle Paul and his companions from a missionary ministry.

2:15 They had been sent out by the church at Antioch, and the record of that is given to us in the opening verses of Acts 13. And now we read in verse 25 of Acts 14. And when they had spoken the word of God in Perga and went down to Italia, and from thence they sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. And when they were come and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all things that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith unto the Gentiles.

2:58 Now you will notice three things about this report, which Paul and Barnabas, gave to the church at Antioch. And the first is that it was church oriented. And when they had gathered the church together, they did not go around from house to house and give an informal report of their endeavors, but it was the church that had sent them forth to accomplish this work. As the passage says, they returned to Antioch from whence they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had done.

3:33 The work which they had fulfilled. And since it was the church in its corporate life and under its God-appointed leadership that had thrust these men forth, or the Lord through the church had thrust them forth, they came back to give a church-oriented report. And this is what we're doing this morning in a stated meeting of the church, giving this report of a ministry which is not my ministry, independent of the life, and conviction of the church and its oversight here at Trinity, but one which I undertook only because I could do so with the consent and the encouragement and support of this congregation. But then the second thing we notice about this report is that it was a God-centered report. Not only church-oriented, but notice it was God-centered. And when they were come and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed, cursed all things that God had done with them. And so Luke the historian places the emphasis upon the God-centeredness of the report which these brethren brought back to them.

4:48 And certainly it is my desire to give a God-centered report as I report of the activities covering the dates of March 23 through April 6 and the various places which I was privileged to attend. I was privileged to visit and in which I was privileged to minister. But then you will notice in the third place that it was a report which was biographical in its nature. Look at the text again.

5:15 They reported all things that God had done with them. So it was not the activity of God in abstraction or in detachment from real people and real circumstances. It was a God-centered report, but it was nonetheless biographical in nature, the things God had done with them. And so, though I'm very reluctant to talk about myself this morning, I'm willing to do so because there is a biblical precedent.

5:47 And that precedent is found right in this passage. And so I will be talking about things that I believe God was pleased to do with me and through me and with and through others who labored with me in these various ministries. Now then, within the spirit and framework of these principles, I want to seek to lay before you a report of the various ministries bounded by the dates of March 23rd and April the 6th. And the first thing I want to do is to give a general background relative to this trip to the United Kingdom.

Background of the UK Trip and the Banner of Truth Ministry

6:24 And now for the sake of you young people, so that you don't appear ignorant, but appear at least relatively cultured, when you refer to the British Isles, you can do so in terms of the United Kingdom. And you can speak of Britishers. When you speak of people being English or from England, don't assume that that includes all of the British Isles, or you insult others who are part of the British Isles or part of the United Kingdom. And you have, of course, England here and Wales to the west and Scotland to the south.

7:00 And you have, of course, England here and Wales to the west. And Scotland to the south. And then, of course, Ireland further west and north, both northern and southern Ireland. Now, something of a word of background about this trip.

7:13 Back in the middle 1950s, which for some of you is ancient history. Some of you had no history then. You were just something anticipated at that time, some of you young people. God was pleased through various means to bring about a resurrection of great biblical truths that had been lying in the rubble of either ignorance or of downright opposition and indifference in the church for many years.

7:45 And those truths which are commonly designated as the doctrines of grace, that is the truths found in scripture which point to the great truth that salvation is all of God and all of grace. God began to bring those truths out from underneath the rubble in which they had lain for many, many years. And one of the instruments that God used was the banner of truth, trust, a literature ministry which began in the late 1950s backed by the money of a man whom God had wonderfully saved and with whom God had used some very strong measures to bring him to grace and salvation who wanted to do something with his wealth beyond merely money. And that was by making for himself a comfortable living and leaving a legacy to his children. And in conjunction with the Reverend Ian Murray and other men such as Errol Hulse, the banner of truth, trust began in the mid-1950s. And they began with a little magazine and by reprinting some of the old works that had been written by men who loved the truths which underscored the grace of God and placed a strong biblical emphasis upon practices of biblical godliness.

9:03 Well, as those books began to filter down into the level of churches throughout the United Kingdom in particular and also over here in the States, some of the men in the UK, and that's the way we constantly refer to the United Kingdom, that's the verbal shorthand, UK, they desired to come together to have some kind of a conference where they could thrash out the implications of truths that were new to them and which they began to see would radically influence the totality of their ministerial and pastoral experience. It was one thing for them to come to some understanding from the scriptures aided by these books that God was the author of salvation and that he was the author from eternity to eternity, but now how does that great biblical truth work out in preaching? How does it work out in general pastoral life? How does it work out in worship? If the great end of the gathering of God's people is not to make them feel good, or not to make them happy or laugh, but to glorify God, how does that affect the structure of worship?

10:15 Well, you see, these were the questions that began to be very burning questions to these men, and so they felt the need of gathering together and so in 1963 they had the first Banner of Truth Ministers Conference and the purpose of that conference was to have men who had perhaps been on the way a little bit longer, men such as Professor Murray who had loved and believed and taught these truths for years and W.J. Greer, a man now who's close to 80 years of age from Northern Ireland, to have these older, more mature men give counsel and guidance and ministry to these younger men. And so the first Banner of Truth conference was held in 1963 and I forgot the exact number of men who gathered on that occasion, I believe it was somewhere around 40 or 50 men. Well, in 1964 they met again and there was a swelling of the ranks in 1965, but then a tragic thing happened in 1965. Two of the leading men who had been very influential in the restoration of these truths in the United Kingdom locked horns at the 1965 conference over the whole doctrine of the church and Christian unity. On what basis could we unite with other believers?

11:37 Could we unite with people who believed that salvation was partly of God and partly of man just so long as they loved Christ? Or could we only meaningfully unite with those who were one in their commitment to the great truths of the centrality of the grace of God? Well, the whole conference polarized around the position of these two men. So in 1965 they had no conference.

12:03 Such a bad taste was left in the mouths of those who gathered that there was no conference in the year 1966. Well, this is where I come into the picture. In the providence of God, God had been dealing with me and had been bringing me by a very strange path to an understanding of these great truths of reformation theology, and I had begun to preach them and begun to have some understanding of them. And in the kind providence of God, I had preached at a student retreat at Westminster Seminary, or of the Westminster Seminary family, and someone took the tapes from that ministry, which was a ministry based on 1 Timothy 4.16, and somehow Pastor Ernie Reisinger got hold of those tapes and one or two other people and they sent them to the Reverend Ian Murray. And when he heard them, he said, now this is precisely the emphasis we've desperately need to get us back on track with regard to the original purpose of the conference. And so in 1967 then, no conference in 66, I was invited to go and minister at what is now called the Leicester Conference. And the reason it's called the Leicester Conference, this big yellow area is London in the southeast part of England, and about a hundred miles north, circled here in the orange, is the city of Leicester

13:31 and there at Leicester, there are excellent college facilities, university facilities, and it was these facilities that began to be used early in the conference during the spring break in conjunction with the Easter vacation. And so it is called the Leicester Conference, spelled L-E-I-C-E-S-T-E-R because of the place at which the conference is convened. Well again, in the good providence of God from that time, fifteen years ago I began to return over to the United Kingdom about once a year for the first five years and then every other year. Well as a result of the contacts established with ministers who came to this conference and who continue to come from all over the British Isles, way up some of them occasionally from the highlands and even some of the offshore islands, some men from Europe, we had eight or ten men from the Netherlands this year, men about, I think, twenty or thirty from Ireland were present this year and from all parts of England and Scotland as well. These men began to put forth requests, would I consider coming into their areas in conjunction with the next Leicester ministry for evangelistic ministry. It was their concern that so often the accusation is made that those of us who love the truths of grace have no evangelistic passion. Or people say if you believe in those funny doctrines

14:59 of election and the definiteness of the atonement, how can you preach to sinners? And they felt that rather than to give a theological defense, the best thing would be to have meetings in which the great truths of grace were preached evangelistically. And so usually in conjunction with my trip to the UK every other year, I would extend the visit to a two week visit to get the lower airfare and also to minister in various parts. And this map was originally marked in conjunction with one itinerary of just one visit. After the Leicester conference, I visited all of these various places preaching evangelistically. And through the years God has been pleased to use those contacts to give encouragement to men, to touch the lives of people and to establish contacts that have been sustained by means of correspondence through the years. Well, I was to attend the conference last year, but as most of you know, because of just general weariness, it was the judgment of the elders, a judgment in which I wholeheartedly concurred that I ought to have a year off from all outside ministries. And so I did not go to the Leicester conference this past year, but was scheduled to go this year.

Specifics of the Trip: Wife's Surprise Arrival

16:17 Well, that gives you a little bit of the background. And we must continually sketch that in, and I hope it doesn't become tedious for those of you who are old timers who perhaps could have given most of this history yourself. But it's vital if we as a church are to have an intelligent commitment to our ministries that we do this continual catch-up work for those who are new amongst us so they feel the pulse of what we are doing as a church family. Well, so much then for the general background to this trip. Now the second division of the material I want to cover this morning is the specifics of the trip itself. A running account of the various events pertaining to the trip, and then I hope to have enough time left to bring into sharp focus some of the major principles that I think have been underscored during this trip, and hopefully even have five minutes or so left for some questions. All right, now the specifics of the trip. And the first thing I want to address myself to is the fact that I had the unusual privilege this time of having my wife with me.

17:19 Well, how did that happen? The last year, as many of you know, it was our 25th anniversary, and several in the congregation got together of their own accord and gave us a special cash gift to do something special in conjunction with our 25th anniversary. Well, we couldn't find anything special to do, any special place to go, and there were circumstances of which many of you are aware that made it very untimely to consider breaking off from the normal responsibilities of church and family life last year. So we just put that in the savings account and said we'll look for an opportunity to do something special sometime. Well, as this trip drew near, the thought occurred to me that because Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Blaise, wife of our former co-pastor, Pastor Blaise, had a very close relationship that it might be a wonderful present to Mrs. Blaise to have my wife accompany me, but to do so as a surprise. And as most

18:21 of you know, I called Pastor Blaise and he concurred and we did our best to keep the thing a secret. Now, a number of you have asked, were we able to keep it a secret? Well, the answer is yes and no. I would say about 98% yes.

18:37 Now, no leakage came from Mr. Spence in his visit a couple of weeks before we went. No leakage came from any correspondence, but you see it's a lesson of what happens when there's a good marriage. When there's a good marriage, a husband and wife are very much locked into each other's patterns of thought and behavior.

18:57 They can anticipate what they're going to do, their reactions Well, Mrs. Blaise noticed that as the Leicester conference drew near, Pastor Blaise was doing several things not quite as he did them in the past. As a responsible husband, he always made special plans for the week or the Monday to Friday, the Thursday that he would be away at Leicester to have different women in the church come over to the house to check up on Mrs. Blaise, make sure everything was going right, to plan special activities, with certain women in the church, so that in his absence there would be certain activities characteristic of quote, the Leicester week. Well, whenever she brought up making plans for these activities, unlike him, he just sort of pushed it aside and said, well, we'll just talk about that later. So she began to have some questions knowing, listen carefully now young people, especially knowing that as a responsible husband it was not like him to shunt off his concerns as a husband. She said something's fishy. So she began to get suspicious that maybe, just maybe, I might be coming with something more than my suitcases.

20:16 So in the good providence of God we had a lovely flight across on Tuesday the 23rd and when we got to the airport, my wife and I had it all worked out that not knowing whether Mrs. Blaise would be there occasionally, she has been there with Pastor Blaise to meet me and I know the structure of the whole situation at the Heathrow airport well, having been through there so many times. When you come through customs and all the rest, you come through a gate here and you walk down and then you come through doors here and then this part is chained off where visitors can wait and then you come out an open area here. So this is a solid wall. So we had it arranged that I would push my cart with just my luggage around this corner until I saw whether Pastor Blaise was alone or whether he was with Mrs. Blaise and my wife would wait right here. So I pushed my cart with my luggage, got this far and I saw Pastor Blaise here and I waved to him and he waved to me and I looked to make sure that Mrs. Blaise was not with him and I turned around and went back and gave my wife the high sign that she could come. So

21:26 the three of us then made our way from Heathrow airport which is over on the west side of London across London over to the east side and this dot here is the Layton area where the Blaises live. Well again knowing that Mrs. Blaise might have a little bit of suspicion by now, we figured we had to cover our tracks so we agreed that my wife would bend over in front of the back seat of the car and that Pastor Blaise would park not quite right in front of his house but just up a little bit and it's a good thing we did because no sooner did we drive up and Pastor Blaise opened his door and slammed it when Mrs. Blaise did something she's never done in all of the times I've visited there, she came bounding out the front door and so she did and came running out through the gate and up the 25 feet or so towards the car and I saw her, gave her a big embrace and just said it's good to see you and then we just stood there and chatted for a few seconds and then I just said with her standing right there to a lady all suspicions, well Ash we better get the luggage out so I opened up the car so she could see right through and I caught her out of the corner of my eye looking and then looking so disappointed but I played stupid rather easy for me to

22:56 play that game and so we hauled the luggage in got it in and again because Mrs. Blaise did not want to appear ungrateful or unthankful that I had safely arrived, I could sense that she was struggling with something, she wasn't her normal bubbly self so we sat down in the living room and began to chat and we had already arranged that we let about 10 minutes go by before my wife would come to the door so I could see Mrs. Blaise struggling with her sense of disappointment, thinking in her own mind well I thought that Marilyn was going to be with Pastor, but it's obvious she isn't and she was struggling with this and then after about 10 minutes knock on the door and she jumped out of her seat she looked at Pastor Blaise and looked at me and says you two have something up your sleeve and then my wife will verify this, she literally ran out the door, my wife answered, when she answered the door my wife said I'm sorry I'm an American tourist, is this Buckingham House and Mrs. Blaise then literally with joy picked my wife up braced her and so it was a surprise but it wasn't and many of you have asked and I've said

Ministry at Gurney Road Baptist Church and Pastor Blaise's Counsel

24:23 hold off until I give the report and I would amplify well those are the details and needless to say it was a blessed reunion and then on Wednesday we just spent a relaxed day with the family enjoying the renewal of fellowship with Pastor and Mrs. Blaise and then we had our first formal meeting on Thursday evening and in that area of East London they have a ministers fellowship involving seven or eight churches and because we were to meet at Gurney Road Baptist Church they did not advertise in the general Christian public because they knew there wouldn't be enough room for the people who would probably come but they kept the invitation basically amongst those seven or eight churches well the people worked hard they cleaned out what our English friends call a gallery we call a balcony and it was the junk collector in that church for years well they worked very hard to get it all cleaned out and there were all but about 15 seats as best I could discern in the gallery that were not filled but the rest of the church was filled and I spoke to Pastor Kurt and I said how long has it been since the church has been filled like this he said I don't know probably at least 50 years and it was a tremendous encouragement to preach that night a sermon that I prepared for that occasion God gave me no liberty to preach anything that I preached here before and I

25:51 prepared a sermon on the Lord's words in Luke 6 46 why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say and one of the reasons I was constrained to preach on that text was due to the response of Pastor Blaise's letter to my question prior to my coming is there any emphasis that you feel is particularly needed among the churches at this time in his answer was this as for counsel regarding your visit to us we do not yet state the subject matter the general situation in the British Isles is one of confusion indecision frustration and lack of positive biblical directives you are well schooled in the British diplomacy vagueness and lack of application in preaching disobedience to the authority of God lack of whole hearted submission to the same the fear of man the preachers trap all these and many other factors contribute to our God dishonoring ineffectiveness in preaching another contributing factor is the present body ministry idea which is nothing more than the grave cloths and the relics of charismatic man centered preaching the in thing is so called Calvinistic Pentecostals so you can see our confused

27:19 state when so and so and so and so came to speak to us they spoke well but too polished little or no earnestness light was good but there was no fire it was not heated light well taking my clue not only from what he said but from a tape letter from Pastor Hulse down in the Cookfield area where I was to visit later I felt constrained to preach on that text why do you call me Lord and do not the things which I say of course the emphasis was upon the fact that any credibility to our professed attachment to Christ as Lord is found in meticulous obedience to all that he has revealed why do you call me Lord and do not the things new to plural the specifics of what I say to you and then I sought to press home that issue with regard to the relevant issues the things which I say to you with respect to church order church life biblical standards for church officers and church discipline the cessation of the charismata and the biblical basis of assurance these things and by the grace of God I believe some help was given in preaching particularly the last

Leicester Youth Conference Ministry

28:47 half hour of the ministry and I was encouraged later on by one of the brethren whose part of this fellowship and very close to Pastor Blaise who said that the people who came along with him some of them were profoundly moved by the ministry of the word of God well then on Friday it was on to the Leicester youth conference so Friday a little after lunch Pastor Blaise and little Glyn Glyn his constant shadow took me to Victoria station and I took a train from London up to Leicester and from Friday night through Sunday night there was a youth conference for young people ages 16 to 25 and again they came from many parts of England I do believe there were several down from Scotland I don't believe any were over from Ireland and Pastor Dr. Sinclair Ferguson was the other speaker and it was a great delight to share in ministry with that dear man of God again and so I was privileged to preach evangelistically that's what I was asked to do to these young people and I believe God again gave much help in preaching to see young people that age pulling out of me an hour and 15 minutes of expository evangelistic preaching was a great encouragement to me and not a twitch not a bit of distraction nobody looking out the window or making eyes at his sweetheart

30:16 but every single eye riveted on my eyes as I sought to open up the word of God to these young people and two specific encouragements that I'll mention were these one was a two hour question time we had on a Sunday afternoon to see the seriousness of those young people coming to grips with such practical things as the biblical directives for boy girl relationships specifically in terms of what is right and wrong in the physical aspect and I got very explicit with these young people and to see natural bashful shy English girls who could hardly lift their eyes to say hello to me during the whole conference I sort of had to duck down under and catch their eyes enough to even get a hello to see them come up to me voluntarily and thank me and say pastor my father and mother never talked to me like you talk to me today my pastor never talks to me that way I'm so thankful that I feel now I have some guidelines from the word of God so that I may please God in this area of my life it was a tremendous encouragement to me and then on the Saturday night or Sunday night I think it was Sunday night the last night I was all ready for bed and it's almost 11 o'clock there was a knock on my door and the girl came under great distress of souls so I had to counsel with her in my bath room and it was evident that she was not coming just for male

Leicester Ministers' Conference and Pastoral Encouragement

31:44 attention but she was coming because God had dealt with her and she sat there and said I came to this conference not in believing there was a God now I believe there is a God but she said everyone who tells me they believe in God tells me they're happy and since I've come to believe there's a God I feel sad and I've got this heaviness on my spirit what do I do with it and so I proceeded to show her from the scriptures where in that heaviness what was the root of that heaviness that if she's come to believe in God she's come to accept the fact that she's a sinner against that God and I sought to deal with her at the point her to the scriptures and I've since received a letter from her and heard an encouraging report that God seems to be having dealings with her she's from the fellowship there where Pastor Blaise and Pastor Kurt labor in the word so I know that she will have faithful pastoral care so the young people's conference was indeed a real encouragement on the Friday through Sunday night well then on Monday the ministers came in to the same facilities the young people moved out after breakfast and the staff went through changed the beds and the rest at the dormitory of the of the college facilities there in Leicester and then the Leicester conference the ministers conference began officially at 5 o'clock on the Monday and they were gathered together between the resident guests and the non-resident those who drove in about 300 ministers

33:12 I think it was the largest gathering that they have ever had for a Leicester conference now again it's difficult to assess the benefit of such a conference there are two morning sessions on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday afternoon discussion sessions two of which I was privileged to lead and then an evening preaching session and perhaps the best thing I can do is to quote what Pastor Justly said our dear friend David Justly from Yazoo City Mississippi made his first trip abroad and was able to be present at the Leicester conference and I called him after I returned and I said now David you were in the dormitory with the men most of the time I was shut up in my room either preparing or counseling with men sometimes till literally 12 30 at night and what kind of feel did you get what do you feel about the conference as a whole he said well I can speak first of all for myself personally he said of all the ministers conferences I've ever attended never was my own heart so ministered to as it was at this conference and then he said secondly as I moved amongst the men it became very evident to me that they received the ministry well and that the word of God was doing its work in both encouraging and in humbling the men well perhaps I can read just a brief letter from one of the men that I sought to counsel who has some tremendously tacky pastoral problems he writes saying I

34:40 thank you for the time you took out of what was obviously a very busy schedule to listen to something of the problems we are facing here in Sidka I am not one who is easily given to tears but I confess that on returning to my room after this morning's sermon I wept I am still not sure that I know how to handle my feelings towards some of those who stand against the ministry but I pray that God will give me every necessary grace when the time comes for me to speak before we met you in London we'd already heard you on tape quite a number of occasions so much so that you had already won a place in our hearts second only to the Lord and one or two relatives and dear friends at a time when we were low and in need of God's help we prayed earnestly to God and partly as a result of this we're given some of your tapes to listen to the encouragement and strength we drew from this God alone knows would to God I had grown up under such a ministry would to God I had grown up under such a ministry may God richly bless you and pour out of his spirit upon your ministry keeping you faithful to him into his word for the blessing of many more like myself well I have reason to believe that this man's testimony could be

Fellowship and Ministry in Cookfield, Haywards Heath, and Crawley

36:08 multiplied a number of men indicated again though they had never met me personally how much they had been helped and encouraged by the tape ministry particularly as it's carried on in our extension of that ministry out of London by Chris Frovine who is an official extension of Trinity pulpit in that area of the world so it was gratifying to sense the Lord's presence in preaching particularly as I ministered on the subject of Timothy and Epaphroditus models of ministerial excellence and rework that material that was preached in general here for a specific application to ministers well the conference was over on Thursday and my time's going to be gone if I don't hurry up so we drove back Pastor Blaise and I drove back in his car to London Thursday night now before we left someone shook my hand and when they shook my hand they pressed some money into it and they said now what I want you to do with this money is when you're in England I want you and Mrs. Martin to take Pastor and Mrs. Blaise out to eat at a nice place well when we suggested that before the Leicester conference we met with something less than full of sold enthusiasm and again we know the Blaise is well enough to read their reactions and my wife particularly picked this up with regard to Mrs. Blaise and said well if you're not so anxious about going out somewhere how would it be if we take this money

37:36 and you girls spend it and prepare a lovely gourmet meal for the homecoming preachers on the Thursday night well they took up on that idea and so apparently all day Thursday my wife and Mrs. Blaise worked at preparing a meal that was probably finer than anything we could have had in any restaurant in anywhere around London or in London itself and we had a typical sort of European meal from the time we had our appetizer till the time we concluded it was a good three hours we ate slowly and talked and laughed and fellowshiped together and then we urged them to take the remainder of the money to apply toward an electric mixer Mrs. Blaise does not have an electric mixer and we felt that would be in keeping with the spirit of the one who had so kindly given that money to us but it was an evening that we will long cherish one in which our bonds of love and fellowship were strengthened and deepened well that takes us through Thursday and now Friday rolled around and we had to make our way from London down to Cookfield and the part that's circled here is Cookfield and Haywards Heath which are right near one another and then the little circle above it is Crawley about ten miles north and west where there is a church that was started by the folk here in Cookfield and Pastor Hulse you must associate with Cookfield and Pastor Kingsley Coomer

39:04 with Haywards Heath right next door and then Pastor Austin Walker up in Crawley well we were privileged to spend the Friday evening with Austin Walker and we reflected back over the years of God's faithfulness to him, to his wife and to their family and had a blessed evening of sharing mutual concerns and interest and then on the Saturday we had a house meeting in the afternoon to meet some of the people of the church in Crawley and then Saturday evening back in Haywards Heath an evangelistic rally sponsored by churches in that area and again there was a full church they had to bring in extra chairs from the social room and I was conscious of the Lord's health and the preaching of the gospel taking some of those texts that I've preached so often but which always are fresh when the spirit of God draws near Isaiah 53 6 which contains the heart of the whole of the gospel of the grace of God well then on the Saturday evening I mentioned that we had the evening ministry in Haywards Heath and on Sunday I preached morning and evening in that area in the morning with Pastor Hulse and his people and in the evening with Pastor Kingsley Coomer and his people and I did something I've never done before I preached the same sermon morning and evening and I did so because the need is so parallel in both churches

40:32 both of these men came to the brink of such discouragement or came to such discouragement that they came to the brink of packing it in and going elsewhere and their discouragement for the most part was rooted in large defections to the charismatic movement people who have left their love and commitment to the truths that are so precious to us and to a view of the Christian life in which godliness is central and obedience is central and the word of God is central to a whole perspective of the Christian life in which other things are central and this has shattered these men Pastor Hulse has lost no fewer than seven or eight key people to that movement and Kingsley Coomer lost some as well and so I felt constrained to preach from Acts 11 23 and open up that whole passage of Barnabas's ministry to the church at Antioch and in pressing home some of the great principles I did not spare this whole issue men who had been at down at Jerusalem and saw the mighty miracles done by the hand of apostles when Barnabas comes up to Antioch what did he do the text says he preached the Lord Jesus he didn't preach about the miracles and all these marvelous things going on he preached the Lord Jesus and when he exhorted them he didn't

42:01 tell them to get the baptism of the spirit he exhorted them to cleave to the Lord and then it says much people was added to the Lord and disciples were first called Christ ones so you see the whole emphasis falls upon Christ not upon the Holy Spirit for it's the ministry of the spirit to point to Christ and I made the point that of Barnabas it is said he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and the mark of a man full of the Holy Ghost is that he points people to Christ he doesn't point people to the Holy Ghost he doesn't point people to miracles he points people to Christ to feed upon Christ to rest upon Christ and I have reason to believe that God used that word to encourage the brethren in fact I called Pastor Hulse the week after I came back on the Lord's day and knowing he would have completed his morning ministry and that they have a united street meeting because it's more of a village situation and they have like a downtown market so Pastor Coomer and Pastor Hulse and his people have a street meeting after the morning worship every Lord's day and I called Pastor Hulse and I said how did things go and he said well our hearts have been greatly encouraged we had a good street meeting a lovely sense of the Lord's presence and he said God has used your visit to refocus our vision and to give us fresh courage to press on and not to look to

Whitfield Fraternal and Providential Return Journey

43:29 other fields so I have reason to believe that God gave me a ministry of a Barnabas to encourage and strengthen our brethren and to deepen their resolve to press on in the work of the gospel well then the only remaining ministry was the following day on the Monday some 40 ministers from this whole general area came together for a one day ministers conference it's called the Whitfield Fraternal and I ministered to the men on two separate one hour sessions with a break for lunch and then opportunity for questions and answers and some of the men had been at Lester and two of them mentioned distinctly to Pastor Hulse that though they appreciated the Lester ministry they felt this one day conference did more good for their souls than the whole week at Lester now I don't know whether that says something negative about Lester or something very positive about the Whitfield Fraternal but suffice it to say that that encouragement led us to believe that God owned the ministry to the profit of these men well then we made our way back to London Monday night to spend the last night with the Blazes and then we were to fly out on an 11 o'clock flight on Tuesday and I'll give you just a few details to show the providence of God in action many times we don't see what God is doing in his providence we were scheduled to fly back on an 11 o'clock flight and because Pastor Blaze always drives across

44:57 London to pick me up he says I get the VIP treatment he gives to no one else everyone else has to take the underground I said well look why should I get that treatment it means driving all the way across London you go in with us to help with the luggage we'll take the underground into Heathrow and then I'll know how to do it so the next time I come I can just come ordinary treatment and save you the time well he agreed to do that but there were some delays that we hadn't anticipated in getting to the Layton station and the trip out to the airport took longer than usual to make a long story short we literally ran from gate to gate and finally got to the place where our plane was boarding and they had just closed that flight and there was another woman and her daughter and Mrs. Martin and myself I mean literally ringing red I was with sweat because if you've ever been to Heathrow you can literally run and walk three quarters of a mile from the main area of the terminal to where the actual gate of the plane is boarding well the first reaction was disappointment but then I said to my wife honey we've got to believe what we say we believe that all things work together for good and let's embrace this as from God so we made our way all the way back down to the central terminal and I happened to hear someone announce the first boarding announcement for a TWA flight that was to leave at 12 o'clock so I went to the TWA desk and said is there any space left they said yes we have a few

46:25 seats but because you have a super apex fare we can't transfer the ticket unless you get it validated by British Airways so I went to British Airways and the woman said well technically we could say you must take our next flight which goes out at I think 3 o'clock in the afternoon but that's an awful long time to wait I'll validate it so she validated our tickets and we then were on the TWA flight leaving at 12 now we were out over the Atlantic and the pilot said our estimated arrival time is such and such we have favorable winds and our time will be shorter and we'll be touching down in New York or possibly Washington because there's a snowstorm in New York

47:11 well again to make a long story short because I do want to emphasize a couple of practical things we were literally the last overseas flight to land before they closed the airport on that stormy Tuesday afternoon and we landed on an instrument landing with zero visibility we could hardly see the wingtips and when I went over to British Airways baggage claim thing to tell them that they were going to have to sort out the matter of our baggage that it was somewhere in London or Washington or who knows where they said well where did you come from I said I came from London they said how'd you get here I said I came in on TWA's flight 703 he said how in the world did you land that thing I said I don't know but it landed and I'm here because that flight that we were originally scheduled to take because they didn't have the sophisticated landing equipment that TWA 747 has that had already been diverted to Washington and we would have ended up in Washington Tuesday night not getting back here till sometime on Wednesday so what appeared to be a disappointment to us was the Lord's wonderful engineering of things so that we could get home on the Tuesday and of course it was a delight to see Phil who made his way through that with his four wheel drive pick up with the snow plow and to get home safely mid afternoon well that's a running account of the events now very

Reflections: Shortness of Life and Full-Orbed Obedience

48:38 quickly what are some of the observations some of the things that I believe God was saying to me during these days to my wife and perhaps there's a word in here for you as well well the first thing that struck me as I reflected on this recent visit was the shortness of life and how swiftly time passes it was 15 years ago this spring that I made my first trip to the UK and as I stood in that very lounge where we used to have our public meetings at College Hall in Nighting Road in Leicester and we had to graduate from there to using a local church now for the public meetings because the lounge can only hold about 150 people as I stood there behind that very desk with the little portable lectern and remembered that the first time I stood there Professor Murray sat to my left and old Mr. Greer to my right and to Harry Tadley and other seasoned saints of God in the congregation who have since now gone to glory dear Mr. Greer about to go to glory I was struck again with how swiftly time passes I could not believe that 15 years had passed from the first time I stood behind that little makeshift lectern and the verses that our days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle they pass as a

50:07 sigh they came home with tremendous power to me and the realization that before long if the Lord tarries somebody will stand there and remember the time when Pastor Martin stood and ministered but now he's passed off the scene too dear young people when life seems to be so long as it stretches out ahead of you remember the word of God boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth and oh my fellow adults some of whom are still playing games life is brief therefore it ought to be lived in earnest our days are passing swifter than a weaver's shuttle then the second thing that I was struck with as I reflected upon these days in this recent ministry there's come to my heart a renewed conviction of the necessity of a full orbed obedience to the word of God the necessity of a full orbed obedience to the word of God the confusion that exists in the minds of so many of these dear men in their churches most of it goes back to this fundamental principle people just don't take this book seriously that's it they point to it and say it is the word of God but where that word impinges

Reflections: Dangers of Charismatic Movement and Biblical Realism

51:34 on the specifics of life they're not prepared to regulate life by this book and I trust that my recent visit has renewed in my own heart a determination at any cost personally in this church in this academy in every facet of the ministry of Trinity Church we're going to be obedient to this book and if it means we have a house cleaning and we start with 40 people again so be it now I don't believe we're going to have a house cleaning that will result in only 40 people but if we're not prepared to obey the word of God and leave the consequences with God there's something lacking in our obedience and I appeal to you my brothers and sisters and to you dear young people sitting in with us this morning to remember that our Lord has promised that the path of obedience alone is the path of blessing he that hath my commandments and keepeth them I will manifest myself to him the third thing that has come home to me is an intensified conviction regarding the dangerous destructive influence of the charismatic movement I have seen its destruction with my own eyes I have seen the confusion that is

53:03 left in its wake now I am not saying that everything in the charismatic movement is evil don't anyone go out and say Pastor Martin said all charismatics are going to hell I didn't say that that would be unbiblical and irresponsible but I am saying that the movement as a movement with its distinctive emphasis is destructive of solid biblical church life and I've seen that with my own eyes and it's renewed in me a determination that by the grace of God our own people will be so well grounded in the truth that none of you will ever be led astray into this movement as a result of carelessness on our part but then in the fourth place there has come home a deepening conviction regarding the crippling influence of anything short of biblical realism the crippling influence of anything short of biblical realism and what do I mean by that the kind of realism that says the best of churches may pass through the worst of times and some of our dear brethren I believe have been disillusioned because they've had an idealistic view of church life and felt if only their churches embraced the doctrines of grace then the real problems would be basically resolved no they aren't resolved and we need to live in the climate of the

Reflections: Blessedness of True Friendship and Gratitude for Trinity Baptist Church

54:30 realism of the New Testament with all of the problems that churches founded by and nurtured by apostles had and if they had them we should not think that we will be exempt from them and then I came away in the fifth place with a renewed conviction of the tremendous blessedness of true friendship what is a true friend and I've reflected on that and my wife and I have together and my wife very poetically described it something like this a true friend is someone that you can in the providence of God be cut off from them for months or for years but in the first moment of seeing them it's as though that time never existed you pick up exactly where you left off the last time you were together that's a true friend you don't have to build up anything you don't have to prove anything what you seize is what you get and what a blessing it is to have true friends what a blessing but there's a price to be paid for true friendship and that price is the price of honesty of self-giving of willingness to humble yourself where necessary and I trust again conscious of the presence of you young people labor at cultivating true friends life will have its own measure of trauma and agony and pain and it's a wonderful thing to have

56:00 friends to share those concerns with us and then finally I came away at reflecting on the recent ministry with renewed thankfulness to God for everything that he's given us here in our own assembly I came back and have since reflected and there has been renewed thankfulness to God to think that that crisis of discipline that you faced was handled so thoroughly and biblically and as I indicated in another occasion that I did not lose a moment sleep wondering if the thing would be dealt with properly it's a wonderful thing to come back and to know and to hear the way the word of God was ministered and how many hearts have been touched and blessed and convicted and that you've had dealings with God I've come back with renewed gratitude to God for what he has given us in this place not only in terms of stable leadership so that your well being as a church is not dependent solely upon me that I could die tomorrow and you would still be well cared for as a people of God and that's no little comfort to me as one who's invested his life in your well being but also in this whole area of the privilege of being able to be a man amongst you and not have to veil the clay of my humanity from you God's people that I can tell you of my struggles

57:27 of my spiritual agonies and that I can afford the luxury of being honest as a Christian and still have your esteem and love as my sheep and I see the problems that many of these men have men who came to me some of them until after midnight pouring out their deepest spiritual traumas much of it much of it is traced back to the fact that their congregation does not constitute a body of friends their congregations are the threat and that's a tragic reality and so I'm grateful to God for your friendship and for your love and such a delight to see your faces when we return and to have so many of you say the same to me pastor it's just good to see your face again well that's a lovely and blessed relationship and I want you to know that I have renewed thankfulness to God for all that he has given us in this place well those are some of the concluding observations I've taken all the time plus five minutes more sorry we don't have time for questions but I hope that's made the trip lived to you a little bit and has encouraged you to give thanks to God and to pray with greater intelligence for the work of God in the kingdom as it exists there in the United Kingdom well let's look to God and give him thanks for these

58:53 things our father we do rejoice and thank you for all that you have given to us in each other but above all all that you have given to us in your word and in your beloved son we thank you for the privilege of entering into these matters that we have shared together in prayer we pray that as a result of our reflections this morning there may be a more intelligent and fervent commitment to prayer for the work of your servants in the United Kingdom Lord bless we pray each one of the men whose names has been mentioned today use them mightily and may some of the lessons we have sought to underscore be written upon our hearts by the grace and by the power of the spirit these mercies we ask with thankfulness and with praise in Jesus name Amen