God Appointed Means of Grace

Introducing the Pastoral Burden: The Second Generation

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, February 10th, 2002, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, last Lord's Day, we completed 34 messages on the vital subject that I entitled, The Return of Christ in New Testament Belief and Experience. And it is my hope and prayer that the setting aside of this concentrated study of this central truth of Scripture does not mark a setting aside of the truth itself, but that more and more we as the Lord's people in this place will be a people who love, long for, and eagerly await the return of our Lord Jesus Christ and diligently await the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. And diligently await the return of our Lord Jesus Christ and diligently await the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. And diligently, in the language of the old authorized version, occupy until he comes. And before we begin another extended series of expositions, there are several pressing pastoral burdens that I want to address in a much briefer fashion.

1:18 And at the top of the list of these pastoral concerns is that which I will begin to address today. And it is this. The privilege. Privileges and blessings along with the liabilities and dangers of the second generation.

1:37 The privileges and blessings along with the liabilities and dangers of the second generation. Now before explaining what I mean by this rather unusual title, let me sketch in a little history of this particular congregation. Now for you who are visiting, and I do see a number of faces I've not seen before, let me assure you this is not our normal pattern to begin the ministry of the word with a little personal history of the church. But this is vital if you're to appreciate why I feel this intense pastoral burden to address this subject at this time.

2:20 Those who formed the initial membership of this newly constituted congregation in 1967, 1967. Ancient history. For some of you back in those days, for the most part that first generation of Trinity church members were first generation reformed Christians. By that I mean that few of us came from Christian homes.

2:47 Some of us did, but few of us most had been converted in adulthood. And to my knowledge, none of us prior to the time, surrounding our constituting as a church were consciously biblically informed reformed Christians. That is we had little knowledge of or appreciation for those articulations of biblical Christianity embodied in the historic creeds and confessions that came out of the Protestant Reformation. And so in a very real sense, we were first generation reformed Christians. And then those who became part of the church in the 70s and 80s were again for the most part converted out of non-Christian or very weak Christian backgrounds. And as they came into the life of the church here and sought out marriage partners, were married, began to establish their homes. They did so under the instruction of the word of God concerning God's standard of marital life, God's standard for godly family life,

4:12 and gave themselves to seeking to reflect in their domestic experience and in their church experience a commitment to the light they were receiving from the word of God. Now, at this point, in our life together, some 37 years after constituting as a church or 30, sorry, 35 years, we're witnessing something entirely new in our 35 years of life together as Trinity Church. And what we are witnessing that is entirely new is this. The majority of those who are now applying for baptism and church membership, are young men, and women, not children, but young men and women, who are the sons and the daughters of those who were either part of the original constituting of the church, or in most cases, those who came to us in the 70s and 80s. Having been married and given themselves to godly family life, God's blessing has rested upon that domestic endeavor coupled with, in many cases, an educational framework that has been Bible-based and God-centered, and church life that has sought to honor Christ.

5:37 And that threefold influence has conspired under God's blessing to produce a crop of young men and women who are applying for baptism and church membership. Just last Lord's Day, we received three in that category. We have another three in the process of applying for membership. And this summer there will be a bumper crop of at least probably another six or eight in that category.

6:03 And behind them, about three or four years, is another larger group of young men and women who give evidence that Christ has become to them the pearl of great price. That as they stand on the threshold of their adult lives, coming into young womanhood, young manhood, they do so with their hearts set toward God. Their hearts set toward Zion with their wills in apparent submission to Christ and confessing that Christ is indeed their only hope of life and salvation. Now it is this group that I am designating as the second generation.

6:45 That is those who are the products of the parents and the ministry of this church through the years of the seventies and the eighties. And now, this generation who unlike many of their parents cannot say, I did not have a Christian home. I did not have a consistently Christian home. I did not have vigorous biblical church life.

7:10 No, this second generation has had with its mother's milk, the privileges of godly nurture in the home, godly instruction in their general education, and the godly climate of church life. And experience. And while I and everyone in leadership and many among you in the rank and file of God's people are thrilled and thank God again and again for what we are witnessing, I as a pastor have felt a peculiar burden to say, Lord, are there any inherent dangers that we need to be aware of? Things that, if some of us live, another 10 or 15 years, we would wish we had seen and addressed in a pastoral way. Things that if some of us are gone in 10 to 15 years, someone else will wish that we had seen and addressed. And so it is that background in that little bit of history that has brought pressure upon my own spirit. I've shared that burden with my fellow elders, and they concur that, this is the time.

8:27 Now is the time to address this subject, the privileges and blessings, along with the liabilities and dangers of the second generation. So I hope now my rather unusual title makes sense to you. You could explain it to someone else. I don't know how to explain it more simply.

Framework for the Series: Personal and Ecclesiastical Experience

8:48 Now, I plan to arrange the materials in the course of what, at this juncture, I estimate will be six messages altogether, under these two large categories. The privileges and dangers of the second generation, with reference to personal religious experience. The particular privileges and dangers of the second generation, with reference to personal religious experience, and then the second large category, the privileges and dangers of the second generation, with reference to ecclesiastical experience, that is, with reference to church experience. Now, while the two categories overlap and interpenetrate one another, I believe that the categories are comprised of real distinctions, and that addressing the subject under these two headings will be helpful to us all. Now, in our first study this morning, and again this evening, we're going to take up the first subdivision of that first large category, namely the blessings and privileges of the second generation with respect to personal religious experience. The Zoom lens this morning and again this evening is going to be on the unique privileges and blessings

10:16 of being part of the second generation in terms that I have defined, the second generation and their relationship to the first generation. And in taking up this first division of the subject this morning, the blessings and privileges of the second generation as it relates to personal religious experience, I'm going to be using the second person personal pronoun, you. Now, in English, the singular and the plural are the same. But I want each and every one of you to use the same pronoun.

10:53 I want each of you who comprise either the left or right margins of the second generation, that is, from the youngest to the oldest, who have had the privilege of the nurture of a Christian home, the privilege of the nurture of a Christian general education framework, whether in Christian school or home schooling, whether in any mixture of the two, I want you to believe that I'm addressing you as the second person singular. That I want you to take what I have to say with intense personal application because there is deeply personal intention as I speak. And only when the second person singular would make no sense, assume it is second person plural. I want to speak to you, to you, to you and to you and to you who are part of the second generation. The second generation. And I walked through the multipurpose room and spoke to a number of the young people between Sunday school and church.

Listening with Three Ears: A Call to Attentive Engagement

12:01 And I said, I'm not going to tell you what I mean. I'll explain it when I begin to preach. But I want you to listen with three ears this morning. Did you know God has given you three ears with which to listen?

12:15 Yeah, three ears. These that enable us to hear in stereo and our eyes, which are our third ear. Now let me explain what I mean. In Luke chapter four, when our Lord preaches His first hometown sermon, the scriptures tell us that after reading the scriptures, the eyes of all that were in the synagogue were fastened upon Him.

12:51 Luke chapter four and verse twenty. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened upon Him. And later we read, and they bore witness and wondered at the words of grace that proceeded out of His mouth. They wondered at His words because they listened with three ears.

13:14 Now follow me closely. When your eyes are fastened on the speaker, the eye directs where the mind goes. A wandering eye brings in its train a wandering mind. That's just a human phenomenon.

13:35 And therefore I don't want any of you in the second generation looking here, looking there, being fascinated with Pastor Bunn. I deliberately look very seldom directly at him because I get fascinated. I like to see what's coming out of my mouth come out of his fingers and his hands and his whole physiology. But I'm dead in earnest when I say I want you to listen with three ears.

14:02 These two. And this third ear that is your eyes. And I want your eyes here because I have something vital to say to your heart. And what I want to say to you kids, young men and women of the second generation, saved or unsaved, professing Christian or not, church member or not, serious or careless, whatever your category is, I want to speak to you about the peculiar privileges and blessings that you have with respect to your own personal religious experience.

The Sovereign Blessing: Surrounded by God-Ordained Means of Grace

14:46 And those blessings fall under these two categories. We take up one this morning and God willing the second tonight. You have been sovereignly and graciously surrounded by the God-ordained means of saving grace. You.

15:05 You. Each one of you. You. You.

15:09 You. Each one of you have been surrounded with the God-appointed means of saving grace. It is the greatest blessing and privilege short of saving grace itself that a sovereign God could give you in this life. Far beyond any position in a wealthy or notorious and famous family.

15:41 Far beyond wealth and possessions and influence and all the rest. Of all the things that God could sovereignly and graciously give you through no choice of your own is the blessing and the privilege of surrounding you with the God-appointed means of saving grace. Now let me think through this issue with you. The Bible is abundantly clear in its teaching that fallen, guilty, polluted sons and daughters of Adam that's what you are.

16:24 That's what I am. Second person singular. That's what you are. That's what I am.

16:30 First person singular. That's what I am. Fallen. Guilty.

16:36 Polluted. Son of Adam. You are the very same. And the Bible is clear abundantly clear that such fallen, guilty, polluted sons and daughters of Adam have neither inclination nor ability to save themselves from their fallenness their guiltiness or their pollution.

17:01 They have neither inclination nor power to save themselves. The Bible says when we were dead in our trespasses and in our sins the Bible says the carnal mind is enmity against God it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be. No inclination no power. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them.

17:30 No inclination no power no ability. The Scripture everywhere affirms that it is God himself and God alone who saves. Jonah's cry from the belly of the whale captures it in beautiful succinctness. Salvation is of the Lord.

17:52 Jonah 2 and verse 10 or the simple language of the angel to Joseph when he announces that Mary has conceived by the Holy Spirit Matthew 1.21 You shall call his name Jesus for he it is that shall save his people from their sins. He alone does the saving he does all of the saving he saves from sins all of sin's guilt and its power its consequences its pollution. Or in the well-known words of Ephesians 2.8-10 For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works that no man should glory. So the Bible is clear that we who are the guilty the fallen the polluted the hell deserving sons and daughters of Adam can be saved only by God God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit as Ashiel Blaise used to say it takes the whole trinity to save one sinner. And I can still hear him saying it. However the same Bible teaches with equal clarity that the God who alone saves sinners sovereignly

19:11 and efficaciously is the God who uses means in order to bring sinners into the possession of this salvation. Without these God appointed means there is ordinarily in the language of the old confession no salvation. Without these means there is ordinarily no salvation. That being so what greater blessing could there be in this life short of salvation itself than for God sovereignly and graciously to bring us not merely into an occasional contact with one or two of these means by which he saves but to sojourn around us with all of them from our birth. And that is precisely the privilege and the blessing that God has given to you who are the second generation. He has sovereignly and graciously surrounded you with the God appointed means of saving grace. Those means

20:38 have been as much a part of your life as the air you breathe the water you drink and the food you eat. Those means have been nothing short of your spiritual echosphere and biosphere. And that is an unspeakable privilege. But you say Pastor what precisely are you referring to when you say the God appointed means of saving grace?

Means of Grace #1: The Knowledge of Holy Scriptures

21:08 Well I am thinking of four such means clearly set before us in the scriptures. Number one the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. The knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. And here I ask you to turn with me to 2 Timothy and chapter 3.

21:30 Many of you of the second generation cannot remember a time when the Bible the language of the Bible the Bible the pages of the Bible the words of the Bible were not impinging upon your consciousness. You cannot remember such a time. You have had from your very birth a spiritual climate of contact with the scriptures. Now in what way is this a means of saving grace?

22:00 Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3. Paul has told Timothy his spiritual son and fellow laborer that his ministry is going to be have to be carried out against growing opposition. Verse 12 of chapter 3 all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived.

22:25 But but abide in the things which you have learned and been assured of. Knowing of whom you have learned them we'll come back to that. And you know that from a breathos the Greek word that points out a nursing babe an infant in arms and that from a nursing child you have known the holy scriptures the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Amen.

23:08 Timothy Timothy abide in the things you've learned not only remembering the character of those who taught you but the substance that they taught you and what they taught you was the sacred writings the holy scriptures which alone are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Timothy you were brought into this world in a context in which as far back as you can remember the sacred writings the holy scriptures which are God's means of bringing men and women boys and girls to salvation in Christ Timothy that was the stuff that was continually set before you. Your categories of reality your categories of self reflection who am I who am I where did I come from where am I going is there a God can I know that God how can I know Him all of the great ultimate questions asked many times by little children vexatious to the most profound philosophers Timothy from Abade you've known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation and you kids of the second generation

24:37 your great privilege your great and wonderful privilege is that you have been surrounded by this saving means of grace from your very infancy the knowledge of the holy scriptures in your home around the table in family worship in your general education in a home schooling framework where all of your all of the disciplines of your general education have been brought through the grid of holy scripture or in a Christian school a cooperative endeavor where every teacher is committed to the supreme wisdom of God in the scriptures and every discipline in the natural sciences in the verbal arts and in mathematics and in history everything is brought through the grid of holy scripture to the law of the word of God in every service to the earth in every person in every religious in every church and world and world on the earth on every physical the center of the world of the world and religion in every aspect of the world in the entire

Means of Grace #2: The Example of Authentic Christian Experience

26:06 world It has not been the consistent framework of your home, but you've had it elsewhere. The example of those who manifest authentic Christian experience. Here in this passage, remember, Paul says to Timothy, Abide in the things you have learned and been assured of, and his first reason is knowing of whom you learned them. Now, Timothy, remembering the ones who instructed you is reason to cling to their instruction.

26:41 Now, the foundation and source of that instruction was the Scriptures, but Timothy, remember the ones who taught you. Why? We'll go back to chapter 1 and we find the answer. 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 3, I thank God whom I served for my forefathers in a pure conscience.

27:03 How unceasing is my remembrance. I thank the presence of you in my supplications night and day, longing to see you, remembering your tears, that I may be filled with joy, having been reminded of the unfeigned faith, that is, the authentic faith. It's the word hypocritical with the alpha privated in front of it. It is non-hypocritical faith.

27:28 Now, notice, Unfeigned faith that is in you, which dwelt first in you, in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded in you also. Timothy was a third generation Christian.

27:47 He was of the third generation. And Paul says, I give thanks to God when I think of you, Timothy, because I see in you authentic faith. I see in you, Timothy, authentic Christian experience, which grows from the tap, from the taproot of a God-imparted faith that has united you to Jesus Christ. And, Timothy, that's what you had in your mama and in your grandma.

28:18 Unfeigned faith. Timothy, you can never shake the fact that your mama and your grandma was real. And when the devil proposes highfalutin' philosophical arguments against the Christian faith, Timothy, remember mama and remember grandma and explain them any other way than they are authentic, real, shown-up, true Christians. Timothy, abide in the things you've learned, remembering of whom you learned them.

28:56 Timothy, you've seen the real thing. And I want to say to you of the second generation, you have seen the real thing. Many of you, bless God, have seen the real thing. Many of you have seen the real thing in your mama and in your daddy.

29:17 There's no explanation for that man who lives in your home, who provides for you, who leads you at family worship, who treats your mother with dignity and seeks to nurture her as Christ does the church, who is patient with your bullheadedness and stubbornness, who is willing to take the time to invest his life in you, who even now busts his hump that you might have an educational framework rooted in the scriptures, who gives himself to being a father who nurtures you. You see in your dad reality. You see in your mom reality. I didn't say perfection, but reality. When mom and dad have a spat, you've heard them come to you kids and say, look, you heard mom and dad having sharp words. We've asked God to forgive us. We've asked each other to forgive us.

30:15 Will you forgive us? Your mother and your father have been willing to own their sin in your presence when you stubbornly, pridefully justified your own. And those times when you've tried to push them to the limit by pushing the walls. You knew the walls were reasonable.

30:34 You knew the requirements were not unreasonable, but in your stinking, stubborn rebellion and pride, you pushed and pushed. And they showed such patience when they should have taken you and thrown you out in the street in a snowbank. And you've seen in them the love that bears all things, believes all things, that hopes all things. And if you haven't seen it in your mother and your father, you've seen it, some of you, in your grandparents.

31:01 You know they're real. You know when they speak of Christ, they're not just talking shop. You've seen it in men and women in this church who are real. And you know they're real.

31:20 And as much as you try in moments when the devil is assailing your faith to dismiss it all, you say, if only I could get rid of this one and that one and the other one in my memory, I could begin to believe it's all a bunch of bunk. But as long as they are stamped on the chambers of my memory, I know it's real. I've seen the authentic thing. What a blessing.

31:50 I thank God for that blessing. Growing up as a second generation, I knew if nobody else in the world was real, my mother was for real. I could have faced the most articulate, skeptic, agnostic, atheist, materialist, and looked him straight in the eye and say, I can't handle one of your arguments, but when you can explain my mother, then I'll listen to you. Otherwise, get out of here.

32:25 Some of you have been given that unspeakable privilege. And I resist the temptation to go after the conscience of you parents and ask, are you giving your kids that? That'll come at the end. But some of you have had it.

32:38 And you've had it in this place. Your Sunday school teachers give up their leisure hours on a Saturday to go over those lessons and come and deny themselves the privilege of sitting here and being taught in order to give themselves to you. You know they're real. And as you've gotten to know them, you know people in this place, you know they're real.

Means of Grace #3: Clear, Earnest Preaching of God's Word

33:03 What a marvelous, wonderful, sovereignly and graciously given blessing and privilege which God intends to be a means of grace, not only the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, but the example of those who manifest authentic Christian experience. Thirdly, the clear, earnest preaching of the Word of God by God-equipped and God-sent men of God. This is a God-ordained means of grace. The clear, earnest preaching of the Word of God by God-equipped, God-sent men of God. Now there are many passages that teach that this is a God-ordained means of grace, that God is attached to preaching by God-equipped, God-sent men, this unique function in conveying Christ to men. Romans chapter 10. Some of you have already thought of the passage.

34:11 Verse 13. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?

34:25 And how shall they hear without a tract? No. How shall they hear without a booklet? No.

34:32 How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring good tidings of good things. Here the apostle makes it abundantly clear that if men are to call upon the name of the Lord, God's ordinary means of bringing the knowledge of the Lord upon whom they call is that they hear the Lord Himself speaking through a sent one.

35:02 One recognized by the church as being endowed by God with the gifts and graces of a man of God and commissioned to bring the word of God. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 18. But after that in the wisdom of men the world by its wisdom of God the world by its wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of the kerygma which is the thing preached. And it's proper in sketching the significance of that word kerygma to say by the foolishness of the thing preached it points to the content of the message but it's also the thing preached pointing to the method by which the message is conveyed. And Paul says God is ordained by what the world regards foolishness of the thing preached. The gospel that in Christ all the wisdom of God is to be found in Christ crucified the power of God is manifested. The world says you mean in this carpenter out of Nazareth who was impaled upon an instrument of Roman execution whom you claim came out of the grave three days later all of the wisdom of all of the sages and all of the ages is brought to naught that in this Christ all true wisdom resides.

36:29 Yes, Christ crucified is the wisdom of God Christ crucified is the power of God and it is in the proclamation of that message that the Lord Jesus gathers sinners to himself. So what is the essence of the great privilege that you second generation people have? It is that God has sovereignly and graciously surrounded you with his own ordained means of saving grace. Not only the knowledge of the holy scriptures the example of those who manifest authentic Christian experience but the clear earnest preaching of the word of God by God equipped God sent men. Do you realize that many of you of the second generation if you were brought up in many evangelical churches in our day you would be getting a diet of pop psychology week after week after week? You would not be asked to open your Bible to grapple with texts of scripture everything would be the most current relational issue ten ways to put more pep into your sex life ten ways to put more money in the bank and be successful all of the nonsense that is spewed out

37:56 of pulpits in the name of preaching you've not been subjected to that kind of nonsense you've not had people stand in this pulpit droning on with philosophical terms and floating stuff over your head you've not had talking heads in this pulpit that had the attitude well I'm paid to produce a sermon whether you listen to it or not is your problem No, with all my spirit with all my sins and with all of the sins of the other men who stand in this pulpit you have been blessed with God equipped God sent men who have preached clearly and earnestly to you the word of God the situation in the days of Amos the prophet there is a famine in the land a famine of the hearing of the word of God there is precious little real preaching in our day and you've been privileged to have it all of your days you can't remember the first time you were brought up from the nursery and made to sit on the rear rows with mom and dad and learn to sit and listen you can't remember

Means of Grace #4: Fervent, Persistent Prayers of God's People

39:23 the word of God has been your native atmosphere preached earnestly passionately illustrated applied some of us spending and being spent that we might try to make the word of God alive to you that's the great means of saving grace faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of God how shall they call on him whom they have not heard how shall they hear except they preach and how shall they preach except they be sent but then there is a fourth God ordained means of saving grace and it's been part of your great privilege and blessing and it's this the fervent persistent prayers of your parents and the people of God in this place the fervent persistent prayers of your parents and of the people of God in this place now I don't know why the sovereign God who saves efficaciously through Christ by the spirit has chosen to weave into his saving grace the saving work the poor whimpering cries of saved sinners I don't understand it but the law of God's kingdom is ask and it shall be given you even the Lord Jesus

40:51 who by his obedience to the Father has earned the place of messianic headship and kingship Psalm 2 says the Father says to the Son ask of me and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance the nations for your inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for your possession even the Son of God must ask to come into his redemptive possession I don't understand it but it's clear in scripture that the prayers of the people of God are involved as a means of grace and think of it you of the second generation you were prayed for by your parents while you were still in your mummy's tummy prayed for from your parents from your birth prayed for some of you daily to this day you have been taken into the affections and prayerful concerns of the people of God in this place do you know as we're going to see with all of these there are people who live and die and never once have a Christian pray for them look at your privilege your name is heard in heaven day after day after day after day month after month year after year

Application to the Second Generation: Recognize Your Privilege and Obligation

42:18 your name is heard in heaven oh God save Johnny oh God save Mary oh God save Pete oh God save Harry oh God save Joel save Beth save Melissa and I won't name the other grandchildren lest I embarrass them day after day in the throne of heaven those names are brought to God now that's a privilege sovereignly and graciously given to you of the second generation God has sovereignly and graciously given to you this exposure to his saving means of grace they are sovereignly and they are graciously given now I want to come to make very clear pointed application to each one of you of the second generation and then a word to the parents I want to speak to you kids young people young men and women who fit the category of the second generation has it gripped you has it really gripped you in your gut

43:46 how blessed you are with respect to God graciously and sovereignly surrounding you with these saving means of grace means of grace has it ever dawned on you that millions upon millions in the history of the past generations of the world have been conceived born lived and died and did not have any one of these four things for one hour in their entire lifetime now you stop and think get your stupid video game out of your head and who's going to win this game and that game get real kids and stop and think with me for a minute millions upon millions in past generations who never saw one verse of holy scripture people who'd look in their crude mirrors and ask who is that looking back at me I know I am different from the cow in my barnyard from the bird whose wings split the air I know I am something more than a beast but where did I come from

45:15 who am I and looking up into the starry vault according to Romans 1 they know of the almighty divinity of God and they know that this stuff just didn't spill out of the womb of nothing that someone birthed it all but who am I holy bible book divine precious treasure thou art mine mine to tell me whence I came mine to teach me what I am they haven't seen one verse of the bible they've not met for one hour one person united to Christ indwelt by the spirit whose redeemed humanity exuded the reality and power of the salvation of God in Christ oh yes they met people whose passions and whose propensities for evil in this or that direction were restrained by common grace they met people who had characteristics that were cultivated by God's common grace but they never once met one person for an hour united to Christ indwelt and filled with the spirit and radiating Christ like character not for one hour

46:42 they never heard five minutes of earnest plain bible based passionate preaching never once for one minute one hour they never had anyone bring their name into the court of heaven millions kids millions upon millions in the history of the past world or the past history of the world now right now today here you sit in this place in a place where the scriptures have been central to our worship we began with the reading of Psalm 23 with singing it back to God we read Acts 21 and sought to frame our thinking about the gospel and how it triumphs in the midst of opposition and difficulty from the scriptures we have prayed that God would be with us in this life in this life that God would cause his gospel to triumph you sit next to mums and dads and people in this church who are authentic they are real in their relationship to Christ you're sitting here listening to someone who's filling his guts out preaching he's not a talking head not up here doing his thing

48:10 sparing himself pouring himself into you in the preaching of the word there are millions who haven't had any one of those four things in your generation for one minute many of your names were heard in the throne room of heaven this morning some of your names were on my lips in the place where I pray has it gotten hold of you kids what a privilege what a privilege what a blessing God's given you did you have some pre-conception existence and remember walking up the stairs and remember walking up to the throne of God and saying God looking down on that earth I see there are whole segments of humanity where there is no Bible there are no real Christians where there is no preaching where there is no prayer oh God I don't want there God put me down there where being put there I'll be exposed to the Bible from my very dawn of consciousness put me down there where there will be a mom and dad who know you and manifest authentic Christian faith in life

49:36 God put me down there where I'll hear preaching that makes the Bible come home to my conscience with life and power and vigor and Lord put me there where people will pray me out of hell did you make any such decision I didn't you didn't God has sovereignly and graciously surrounded you with these means of grace now why has he done it the answer to that must always be rooted in God's revealed will not his secret will and his revealed will is he's done it because he means to show grace to you he's done it graciously he says I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that he turn and live turn ye turn ye why will you die he has done this because he's not what the devil has persuaded some of you he is you say this God is a celestial killjoy the Bible's always confronting me and hedging me up I wish I could throw this stuff off for a week and just do what I want to do God loves you too much to let you so damn yourself that's the devil's lie that God's put these means because he's got it in for you he's the celestial killjoy

51:05 he wants to cramp your style he wants to hinder you from having life with a capital L that's the lie he told Eve she swallowed it Adam swallowed it and you're swallowing it and I get mad when people swallow the devil's lies about my God I don't get mad at you I get mad at the devil I get frustrated with you saying what will it take to open your eyes God surrounded you with these things even today that four fold gracious pressure that spiritual atmosphere is pressing it upon you saying come to Jesus go to the God who has purposes of grace and of mercies get out of the way of self destruction get out of the way of the fool that's what you're called in the book of Proverbs oh dear second generation boys and girls young men and women have you been gripped with the wonder of God's graciousness in surrounding you with those wonderful means of saving grace if so then I challenge you because some of you I believe are filled with a sense of the wonder of it I've seen you with tears

52:33 with my arm around you and you telling me oh pastor why God should give me all the light and privilege I'll never know then I challenge you in the language of 2 Kings 7 you remember there was a famine in the land and God said in one day it's going to break the back of the famine and there would be an abundance of food and God kills the whole Syrian army and there's some lepers who come upon the spoils and they said we do not well to keep this to ourselves we do not well and they are passionate to let others know that there's an abundance to meet the needs of God's people if you really appreciate what God's given you you do not well to be silent and some of you ought to be thinking seriously oh God you have graciously and sovereignly surrounded me with this fourfold saving influence from my mother's womb oh God what obligation do I have to those who've not had a one of these influences what obligation do I have to have my light shaped and molded and poured into some significant endeavors that others will get the Bible will see real Christians

Application to Parents: Be Faithful Conduits of Grace

54:00 will hear real preaching and will come within the orbit of earnest and fervent prayers God help you young people today to think beyond a good school a good job financial security a nice house a bunch of little kids God help you to get your face out and open to a world of need could it be that all this privilege has been to mold the stuff of people who are willing to take challenges and accept responsibilities that those who've not had that privilege would be foolish to undertake then I want to say a word very briefly to you parents assumed in all that I've said up till now is that you who are the first generation are providing these blessings and privileges that you are the conduits of these saving means of grace and I would just ask you the question are you surrounding your children with the scriptures in Deuteronomy 6 6 and following are you talking of them when you sit down when you rise up when you go in the way are you sitting with your children

55:29 when they watch a TV program bringing it through a biblical filter or are you letting the world stamp its own mold upon their mind are you sitting and critically analyzing the video you checked out of Blockbuster or are you just throwing yourself on the giggles and the laughs with your kids bringing those scriptures to bear upon the subtle and sometimes not so subtle attack upon a biblical view of man and of life and of sex and of the family are you talking of this blessed book when you rise up when you sit down when you watch the TV the kind of music they listen to if they just like it and there's no raw sex in it then fine are you sitting down with them and going through why do you like it what does it feed in you what does it stir in you is that biblical is that scriptural I ask you parents in the name of God are you bringing to bear upon your kids a scripture saturated view of all of life that's your task that's my task that's the way I was raised and I know that as I look to Jesus I will feel it that's how I felt I felt the love

56:58 I was spiritually I felt the love the art I felt the whole world me I felt the love I felt I just felt I'm living it Help me form a grid, and nothing gets through without going through that grid to think biblically. Are you parents doing it? I ask you, are you doing it? Are you too lazy, unmortified in your own appetite for the world's entertainment, that you haven't thought it through? Why do I like that video? Why do I like that music? Why do I watch that program?

57:51 I ask you, are you manifesting authentic Christian experience?

58:02 Do your kids see you sensitive to sin, quick to own your sin, quick to ask forgiveness for your sins?

58:12 Can your kids say, Dad, I remember times when you woke me up from my sleep because you decided to go to bed and you remembered that you felt you had been overly harsh in a matter of discipline. And you woke me up to ask my forgiveness, Dad. I remember. Are your kids going to be able to say that?

58:35 Are you showing what it is to be tenderhearted, quick to forgive? Are you authentic, parents? I'm asking you. The quickest way to produce some of the worst hypocrites in the world is that people sit under a searching biblical ministry who aren't authentic as though they love it.

58:56 And their kids grow up saying, if that's all it does for them, it's all a bunch of bunk.

59:04 Do you dare to go home and ask your kids today, kids, whatever else you know Mom and Dad to be, do you know us to be real? Now you can write this off as just another Pastor Martin tirade, but God knows, folk, I believe with all my heart this is one of the most profound dangers of the second generation. If they've heard Bible from morning, noon, and night, but haven't seen authenticity, God have mercy on them. Amen.

59:39 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

59:39 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

59:39 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

59:39 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

59:40 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

59:40 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

59:40 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

59:41 Amen. Amen. Are you fervently and persistently praying for their salvation? Or are you presuming?

59:49 Well, I teach them right. We have family worship. They sit under a good ministry. We send them to Christian school.

59:56 We homeschool them. Everything's going to turn out all right. I got news for you.

60:02 They're the devil's captives until Christ released them. He doesn't release his captives easily, particularly in this generation where he has so many ways to enchain them. Through the eyes and through the ears. Are you praying fervently for them?

60:21 And then, of course, the responsibility to perpetuate in this place clear, earnest preaching of the word of God that rests on my old shoulders, on Pastor Carlson. Should you confirm Michael J.'s call to the pastoral office, it'll rest primarily on the three of us for the foreseeable future.

60:43 God have mercy on you, Mike. God have mercy on you. God have mercy on you. God have mercy on you.

60:47 God have mercy on me, Pastor Martin. If this pulpit is ever marked by anything other than clear, solid, passionate, earnest of the word of God, I'm committed. God giving me strength and sanity, though some might question whether the latter is still there.

61:12 I'm committed to that kind of ministry till I breathe my last. I have no intention of retiring. And these two men share the heartbeat. They share the heartbeat of my soul in these issues.

61:30 But you of the second generation, listen to me.

61:33 If you don't learn to love that kind of preaching, you're either going to split, or you're going to wear down the climate in the church to where you'll get people that tickle your ears instead of pierce your hearts. We'll come to more of that on the dangers and liabilities ecclesiastically in the subsequent message. But the challenge is before us as a congregation, as moms and dads, if I'm to press this on the conscience of the second generation, then I must press upon our consciences, our solemn responsibility, and our wonderful privilege that in a day when people are cynical about everything, these of the second generation will know when the devil assaults them, and he's already assaulted some of them in their first semester in secular universities and colleges, that they'll have ballast in their hulls, saying, well, I can't answer this skeptic's objection, and I don't know how to handle this. But one thing I know, the God of my mom and dad is the true and the living God, and what's true in them has no explanation but what the Bible says. And there I stake my life. I'm willing for God to sort out some of my questions along the way.

Sobering Conclusion: Heaven or Hell

62:56 God help us that we will bequeath to them such a legacy. I close now by this very sobering statement to you of the second generation. This great blessing and privilege God's given to you, sovereignly, graciously surrounding you with his own ordained means of saving grace, the knowledge of the scriptures, exposure to authentic Christians, biblical earnest preaching, fervent, passionate prayer, those blessings will either take you to the highest heaven for which you will praise God in eternity,

63:48 or they'll sink you to the lowest hell in which you'll have an eternity to curse God that he sovereignly placed you in such a surrounding.

64:03 I tell you, that's a sobering thought. God has sovereignly put you in that surrounding. You. You can't argue that.

64:12 You can't change that at this juncture.

64:17 But that will either lift you to the highest heaven with eternal praise that he did, or it will sink you to the lowest hell, cursing God that he did, because it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah, who had no Bible, no authentic Christians. They had a backslidden, weak Christian.

64:44 No earnest, passionate preaching. No record of fervent, frequent prayer. More tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, men acting like worse than animals.

64:58 They'll get off easier in the day of judgment than for you of the second generation. If those blessings do not lift you to heaven in Christ, they'll sink you to the lowest hell. Let's pray.

65:20 Our Father, here we have addressed very sobering matters this morning, and yet we have addressed wonderful truths. To think of your great mercy in the Lord Jesus. To think of your great kindness in giving us the scriptures. Of giving us those in whom it is evident your grace has effectually worked.

65:48 And drawing them out of self-centeredness so that they expend time and energy to pray for us. O Lord, those of us who have had these sovereignly, graciously dispensed blessings that have proved effectual to our salvation, how we bless you and praise you. And we ask that you will cause the second generation in this place to be sobered today, to get beyond the trivial, the trite, the fleeting, the passing, and, O Lord, O God, from the youngest to the oldest, may this day be marked in their lives as a day when their awesome and wonderful privileges began to be translated into deep and lasting experience.

66:41 Seal then your word to all of our hearts and continue to be gracious to us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.