May we read first of all, John, in
the second epistle of Paul to Timothy, chapter
3.
Second Timothy, chapter 3, reading from verse 13
and into the fourth chapter.
Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou
hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing
of whom thou hast learned them.
And that from a child thou hast known
the holy scriptures, which are able to make
thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is
in Christ Jesus.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man
of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto
all good works.
I charge thee therefore, before God and the
Lord Christ, who shall judge the quick and
the dead at his appearing and his kingdom,
preach the word.
Be instant, in season, out of season.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longs suffering and
doctrine.
For the time will come when they will
not endure sound doctrine, but after their own
lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having
itching ears, and they shall turn away their
ears from the truth, and shall be turned
unto fables.
But watch thou in all things, endure affliction,
do the work of an evangelist, make full
proof of thy ministry.
For I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at
hand.
I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me of that day.
And not to me only, but unto all
them also that love his appearing.
Well now brethren, we turn this evening from
the first to the second of these apostolic
injunctions at which we looked last evening, where
the Apostle calls upon Timothy, take heed to
thyself and to the doctrine.
Last night we were looking together at the
first injunction, our calling to be examples to
the flock as men of God, take heed
to thyself.
And this evening we turn to the other
injunction, take heed to the doctrine, to the
teaching, where our concern this evening will be
with the essential nature of the minister's work.
I was at a conference of Christian doctors
some months ago, where while I was sitting
in one of the medical sessions, a very
distinguished physician in London turned to me when
the meeting had ended.
And the only words that he spoke to
me during the whole of the conference were
these, and I hadn't forgotten them.
He said, do you know, the impression I
have of the majority of clergymen, and I
don't think he was speaking about one denomination
in particular, is that they have only the
most nebulous idea of exactly what their work
is.
Something happened to disturb our conversation and I
didn't get the opportunity of speaking to him
during the remainder of the weekend, but I
have a feeling that there is just enough
edge and just enough reality in what he
was saying to make this kind of comment
a spur to us, to give ourselves this
evening to the task of trying to understand
from the Word of God exactly what is
the nature of our ministry.
What is the task to which we are
called?
And I want right away to seek to
focus it in the Apostle Paul's words that
we have just been reading.
In 1 Timothy 4 verses 1 & 2,
I charge thee therefore before God and the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you will notice the
charge is given in the context of the
judgment at the last day.
I charge thee therefore before God and the
Lord Jesus Christ, preach the Word, and I
want to suggest to you that from the
context what the Apostle is referring to by
the Word is the message of the Holy
Scriptures.
In chapter 3 verse 15, he has been
speaking of Timothy's knowledge of the Scriptures even
from his childhood, and he then goes on
to speak about the profitability of the Holy
Scriptures, to make men wise unto salvation, and
to complete the work of making us men
of God through teaching, reproof, correction, and instruction
in righteousness.
And the reason for its profitability and the
background against which Paul brings this injunction to
Timothy to preach the Word of the essence
of the charge which he receives from God
as the nature of his ministry, the reason
for its profitability is its divine authorship.
All Scripture is God breathed and is profitable.
May I then say at once that my
own conviction is that the truest description of
our ministry is found by describing it in
all its features as a ministry of the
Word, and the priority of such a ministry
is the preaching of the Word which we
are called to minister.
Now there is no doubt in my own
mind that this concentration upon the preaching of
the Word as being of the very essence
of our calling is the dominical and apostolic
example which we have in the New Testament.
May I substantiate that by referring you to
the Gospels and Acts in this connection.
Although it is true of course that in
one sense our Lord's example is unique, in
another sense it is important for us to
remind ourselves that all true ministry derives from
His ministry.
He is the Apostle and High Priest of
our profession, and the record is clear that
Jesus came preaching the gospel of God, Mark
1 14, and calling for repentance and faith.
And as you move through the Gospels you
find that this is the great emphasis of
His ministry.
In Luke's Gospel we have the record that
in the early days of the ministry of
our Lord He went into the synagogue at
Nazareth and applied to Himself the words of
the prophet Isaiah, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me because He has anointed me
to preach good tidings to the poor.
From then on the great priority of Jesus'
ministry is unquestionably preaching and teaching.
He went about all Galilee teaching in their
synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.
Everyone is searching for you, they tell Him
after the healing at Capernaum, and Jesus replies,
let us go on to the next town
that I may preach there also, for that
is why I came forth.
When He sends His disciples out on their
first missionary tour it's significant that in Luke
chapter 9 verse 2 it is preaching that
Jesus puts first in their ministry.
And the last great commission as He sends
them out into the world to evangelize is
concerned with preaching the gospel to all nations.
When you move into the book of Acts,
the evidence of the book of Acts is
that the apostles fulfilled the Lord's command.
Anything in the way of this priority in
their ministry must be immediately seen to, and
whenever something was going to buy with this
clamant concern which they had, then arrangements had
to be made in order that priorities might
have their rightful place.
And they determined together that we will devote
ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the
Word.
Anything in the way of administration in the
church that interferes with or detracts from the
priority of preaching must be dealt with and
resolved.
And this is precisely what they did from
the day of Pentecost onwards.
The early church is a preaching church.
Every day, Acts 5 42, in the temple
and at home, they did not cease teaching
and preaching Jesus Christ.
The persecution in Acts 8, for instance, has
the simple result that they went about preaching
the Word.
Now the example of the Apostle Paul requires
fiercely any comment.
He gives it to us as his own
divine commission from the Lord Christ sent me,
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
And there, of course, Paul is not disparaging
the place of baptism, but rather magnifying the
priority of preaching.
And Paul then goes on to point out
that it is the preaching of the message
and not anything else that God is pleased
to use as the means of salvation.
It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching
to save them who believe.
And so the whole of Paul's Christian life
is the life of a missionary preacher.
So that we need to remind ourselves, brethren,
I suggest to you this evening that the
book of Acts bears witness not only to
the awakening and reviving power of the Holy
Spirit, it also bears witness to the regenerating
power of the Word preached with the anointing
of the same Spirit.
And I want to suggest to you this
evening that we need in these days to
recover something of this apostolic priority and of
this apostolic confidence in the preaching of the
Word.
We need to thrust it into the forefront
of our ministry as the great purpose for
which we are called of God.
And I would suggest to you that there
is something far wrong in all the muddled
thinking about the ministry that makes it possible
for men to say without shame and concern
and distress, well, I am no preacher.
Or to say, further confusing the issue, so
-and-so, of course, is a great pastor,
but he's a dreadful preacher.
Let me read you the words of John
Owen.
The first and principal duty of a pastor
is to feed the flock by diligent preaching
of the Word.
It is a promise relating to the New
Testament that God would give unto his church
pastors according to his own heart who should
feed them with knowledge and understanding.
This is by preaching and teaching the Word
and not otherwise.
And this feeding is the essence of the
office of the pastor.
This is the concern, brethren, that we need
to have.
And I suggest to you that if a
man tries to divorce between these two elements
in our office and these two descriptions of
our calling, he fails to do justice to
the great commission of our Lord and to
the command that we all of us bear
in our souls as ministers preach the Word.
We need to grasp its vital importance in
the economy of God.
Preaching, says Professor Mounce of the United States,
preaching is the medium through which God contemporizes
his historic self-disclosure in Christ.
It is through the preaching of the written
Word that God confronts men with himself.
When he was preaching at the licensing of
young men who were receiving their charge as
ministers of the gospel for the first time,
Reverend Williams still in Aberdeen spoke these words
to them.
You are called to be preachers of the
Word of God.
And I hope that amidst all the multifarious
and increasing calls that you will find clamoring
for your attention as modern Christian ministers, you
will occasionally close your ears long enough for
your minds to be clarified, your motives purified,
and this leading thought to emerge that you
are ministers and preachers of the Word of
God before you are anything else.
This is why, brethren, I believe that one
of the issues that in many spheres we
need to settle today when a man's call
to the ministry is being tested, is this
whole issue of whether he has the gift
of a preacher, because it is of the
essence of his task to preach the Word.
And I believe, and it may be something
that amongst ourselves we would want to talk
about, but I believe that one of the
marks of a call into the ministry is
the presence of a gift given by God
for the preaching of the Word.
Well now, if preaching is of the essence
of our task, what is the true nature
of that activity which we describe as a
ministry of the Word?
I came across in some of my random
readings some time ago this definition of preaching
by Bernard Manning.
You'll excuse me having quoted him on the
same page as John Owen, but here is
his definition of preaching.
Preaching is a manifestation of the incarnate Word
from the written Word through the spoken Word.
Now, whatever be the deficiencies of that as
a definition of preaching, it focuses two facts
which seem to me to be vitally important,
and the first is this, that the preacher's
theme is Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son who
took our nature that he might bear our
sin.
And secondly, the preacher's authoritative textbook is Holy
Scripture.
You get the same thing combined in Luther
and the Psalms, in the volume of the
book it is written of me.
And Luther asks, what book and what person?
And answers, there is only one book, the
Bible.
There is only one person, Christ.
So as I see it, the true nature
of preaching is pictured for us in the
ministry of Jesus on the road to Emmaus
in Luke 24, 27.
Where you remember we read, he interpreted to
them in all the scripture the thing concerning
himself.
Now I suggest to you that we have
here a picture of the task of the
man who is called to preach the Word.
He interpreted to them in all the scripture
the things concerning himself.
I would therefore suggest to you that all
true preaching ought to be the preaching of
Christ.
We have no other theme.
But there is no other way to preach
Christ, and there is a dichotomy often inserted
here which does not in fact exist.
We have no other way to preach Christ
than through the scripture.
We know of no Christ but the Christ
of the scripture.
And therefore, I would suggest to you that
all our preaching should be the exposition of
the Word of God in its context.
And my own conviction is that there is
no true preaching outside of that definition.
The exposition of the Word of God in
its context.
It seems to me that the apostolic example
bears witness to this.
This is what you find Stephen doing.
He is taking these people to whom he
is preaching through that mighty sweep of the
Word of God.
This is what you find Paul doing.
This is what you find Peter doing.
In his sermon, he is taking them through
the Word of God.
Paul's habit as his manner was, we read
in places like Thessalonica and Corinth and Ephesus,
his manner was this.
He went into the synagogue and reasoned with
them out of the scripture.
Opening and alleging, this is the kind of
vocabulary that is used.
And the vocabulary opening and alleging is vocabulary
which speaks in the first place of laying
a table and of unraveling a tangled skein
of wool so that it may be plainly
set forth what the apostle is doing.
In other words, is opening up the Word
of God to them.
And this is of the very essence of
his ministry.
Now it is of this supremely that the
apostle is speaking, I believe, in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, where he is writing against a
background in which it is very easy to
be discouraged.
We noticed last night in another connection how
the background of 2nd Corinthians is the background
of a ministry that is under great pressure,
with the possibilities of discouragement and losing heart,
so that you find the apostle saying twice
over in these chapters 3 and 4 of
2 Corinthians, we do not lose heart for
this cause, we faint not, we do not
lose heart.
Now I believe that it's of significance that
you find at the beginning of 2 Corinthians
4, this assertion, we do not lose heart,
linked with a man's attitude to the Word
of God.
I believe that one of the greatest temptations
to the minister of the gospel, in days
of discouragement and spiritual darkness and apathy and
barrenness, is that he should be tempted to
leave off this high calling of the anorosis
of the truth.
Now this is what Paul is speaking about
here.
Seeing we have this ministry as we have
received mercy, we do not lose heart, but
have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not
walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of
God deceitfully, or tampering with the Word of
God, but by manifestation of the truth, the
anorosis of the truth, we commend ourselves to
every man's conscience.
Now this is the ground of the apostles
preaching of the gospel.
You see he is going on to describe
the gospel.
They say, we preach not ourselves, he says.
The pulpit is not a place for self
-advertisement or self-display.
We were reminding ourselves of this last night.
This is the ultimate blasphemy in the ministry.
But this preaching of the gospel which the
apostle speaks of, this mighty act of God
which he can only parallel in the creation
of the world at the beginning, you get
something of the sense of the majesty of
this gospel which the apostle preaches.
The same God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our
hearts to give us the light of the
knowledge of his glory in the face of
Jesus Christ.
Brethren I tell you it's something when a
man can only find a parallel in creation
to what has happened in his own soul.
And this is the majesty of the gospel
of God as he preaches it.
But how does he preach it?
It's by the anorosis of the truth.
By the open declaration of the truth.
We are not tampering with the word of
God.
We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty
and our concern is to open up the
truth.
Now I think that is a very good
definition of preaching.
Our task is the opening or exposing the
manifestation of the truth.
Now the charge of tampering with the word
of God is one from which we would
all of course instinctively recoil.
But I wonder if you would agree with
me that there is a certain kind of
textual preaching which does precisely this.
What I mean is this that there is
a certain kind of textual preaching which uses
the text as a launching pad to go
off into an orbit that is purely of
the preacher's making and is quite unrelated to
the basic meaning and purpose and context of
the text.
Or there is another kind of textual preaching
which has a text which tends not to
be the basis from which the man works
but rather as a prop to support a
topic upon which he has decided and which
he has worked upon and all worked out
carefully and then he finds a text.
I mean I was amazed recently when I
was speaking to a man, I'm relieved to
say it wasn't in Scotland, who came to
me and said and he was a good,
solid, reformed, Calvinistic brother.
He came to me and said I've got
my theme all worked out for Sunday.
We were at a conference together.
Well I said to him that's very good
where are you preaching from?
He said I haven't got the text yet.
You know.
Now brethren I think it's an important thing.
This is why I'm not very happy about
topical preaching.
May I have the temerity to say that
I'm not very happy about some of the
things that Shedd says in his book Homiletical
and Pastoral Theology on topical preaching and tends
to suggest that expository and didactic preaching is
something that is not really in place in
the pulpit.
It is possible, I believe, for us to
get into the danger of misusing scripture in
our preaching akin to the misuse that a
drunk man makes of a lamppost for support
rather than for illumination.
You know.
Now this is something which I think we
we cannot escape from the possible charge that
may be laid at some of our doors.
That we need to give attention to the
fact that our preaching has to be exposition
of the scripture and not imposition upon the
scripture.
It's possible you see for us to be
saying many true things truly and yet for
us not to be expounding the word of
God.
And the reason that this is so vital
is that the sword of the spirit is
the word of God and nothing else.
And we dare not seek to thrust into
the spirit's hand some other weapon.
It is the word of God.
Now beloved I would have thought that if
we are men who are utterly convinced that
the word of God is the holy scripture
that we would have been preaching the word
of God and seeking to open this up
to us.
And it's in this sense that I think
all our preaching is to be judged.
I confess to you again that I'm not
very happy about the student who came to
me from Glasgow not very long ago about
another thing altogether.
We were talking about the church he went
to and I said to him where are
you worshipping?
He said I stopped going to so and
so.
I said why?
He said because he's not preaching Calvinism.
I said to him well you know I
think the vital thing is not that but
is he faithfully expounding the word of God?
Brethren I reckon that Calvin's Calvinism was the
exposition of the scripture.
Isn't that the legacy that he has mainly
left us?
And that's my Calvinism.
I didn't become a Calvinist by primarily studying
systematic theology.
I became a Calvinist through studying the scripture.
And if somebody discovered for me tomorrow that
the word of God didn't fit in with
the Calvinistic system I tell you I would
be no Calvinist any day longer.
We are men who sit and live and
minister under the word.
I don't like people talking about gathering around
the word.
We don't gather around the word.
We gather under the word.
And if the authority of the word of
God means anything it means this that in
our ministry it is to this that we
are submitted.
Now may I apply all this in one
or two actually five specific ways.
First I believe that it is in this
way that your people receive a balanced diet
of the truth.
I believe that there is no other ministry
except an expository ministry which will save a
man from unleashing the current theological or spiritual
bee in his bonnet upon his congregation and
degenerating in the name of biblical preaching almost
to preaching his own experience.
Now brethren I would be the last to
suggest to you that our experience is divorced
from our preaching.
I was trying to suggest this to you
last night that we preach as men of
experience and it is out of the fullness
of the heart that the mouth speaks of
Christ.
I believe there is a tremendous danger that
our preaching should not be rooted and grounded
in the consecutive exposition of the word of
God and we fail to give our people
a balanced diet of the truth.
I shall have more to say about that
in some detail presently if there is time
but I think it's a very important thing.
There are occasions you see when we are
ourselves in a special situation spiritually, practically, circumstantially
and you know how easy it is for
that to be the determining influence in what
you're preaching if you're hunting around every week
for a text.
Incidentally may I tell you that I don't
think I could stand the sheer strain and
tension in the ministry if I wasn't preaching
consecutively and in an expository fashion through a
book or through a series of some kind.
The extraordinary energy men spend in hunting around
week after week for a text and almost
climbing the wall sometimes by Saturday night.
Well I tell you it seems to me
something that is is not the best use
of your time to say the least.
The second way in which I would want
to apply this is this, that this expository
ministry for which I enter a plea tonight
is a ministry of the whole word of
God and not just snippets of it.
Those of us who believe in the plenary
inspiration of the scriptures need to put our
doctrine into practice here.
You see such a ministry will range through
the old and new testaments in all their
glorious unity and in all their rich diversity
and we will be concerned to preach the
whole counsel of God to men by expounding
the whole word of God.
I remember having Reverend Graham Miller of New
Zealand in our mans for a week some
years ago before he came to take the
bible readings at the Catholic Convention.
I remember hearing him talking to a few
others who were ministers who had gathered in
the sitting room of our mans to sit
at his feet and listen to some of
the riches of his own experience in a
ministry that God has quite singularly owned in
Papatura near Auckland in New Zealand.
I remember him telling us how he discovered
God calling him to this expository ministry in
the early years of his ministry in connection
with a new found faith in the word
of God and what his new conviction about
the authority and inerrancy of scripture did for
him was to make him an expositor and
I think that's what it ought to do
for all of us.
And he said to us you know brethren
he said I think that after a few
years in the ministry you ought to be
able to point to your shelves and to
the work that you've done and the hard
study you've put into your preparation and you'll
say now that's my work on Romans, that's
my work on Ephesians, that's my work on
this, that's my work on Isaiah and this
is the kind of evidence that you have
been studying to show yourself approved unto God,
a workman who does not need to be
ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth that
you've been teaching the world and I say
again it's the whole world.
May I read to you some words again
from William Still.
Some men have never got down yet to
mastering even one book of the Bible without
you to expounding it thoroughly and consecutively that
at the end people may know in short
compass what that portion of the word of
God is to offer for man's upbuilding in
the faith and unto his telling witness in
the world.
They must give what they call the gospel
at every service or meeting and so the
mighty gospel of the grace of God in
Jesus Christ which sweeps from Genesis to Revelation
in its devastating and edifying power is reduced
to a mere pill which men swallow once
or twice a week according to whether they
are half or quarter saved and go away
thinking they have been spiritually fed.
Yes they really think that they have been
fed and so a few grains of truth
is equated with the mighty word of God
that longs to ransack our hearts and minds
and fill us with its great use and
its tremendous hopes and possibilities.
The word of God is present in all
its parts but it is only when these
parts are brought together in an intelligent conspectus
and we see the Bible as one and
whole with one whole message of grace for
our everyday lives that rightly divided its saved
sinners and sanctified saints progressively unto purity honesty
grace humility and charity.
Some people think that the criterion of the
gospel is a certain clear formulation of the
gospel facts set out in some kind of
order but the true gospel has been declared
whenever the word of God has been opened
up and let loose among people.
I believe that this is true brethren and
I think that we need to demonstrate in
our ministry what we profess in our doctrine
that we believe in the inspiration of the
whole word of God.
Now leading on from that may I emphasize
again and I'll be wanting to make another
quotation from William Still from whom so many
of us in Scotland have learned so much
and I make no apology for returning to
it.
The third thing that I want to say
by way of application of this is that
the whole word of God has converting power.
You know it's in this sense that I
wonder if we are really right in this
hard division that we make as evangelicals between
evangelistic or gospel occasions as we call them
and teaching occasions.
I wonder if this is really a biblical
thing to do.
Let me read you some words from the
same article.
In some Christian fellowships if they saw a
stranger coming in after they'd got over the
shock they would creep to the rostrum and
whisper to the preacher the gospel the gospel
there's a stranger here to which the preacher
might well retort wherever in the bible he
was preaching from what do you think I'm
preaching from old moore's almanac no from some
part of the word of God the answer
would come but not the gospel and what
part of the bible is not the gospel
you'd really like to know and the answer
is there is no part of the bible
that is not the gospel at least it
is my experience in nearly 20 years in
one place I continue to quote ranging through
the bible book after book that I have
found no part of the book that God
has not used for the salvation and upbuilding
of souls unto fruitful service and then this
illustration I was giving what one zealous Christian
woman called a lecture on the jews one
sunday evening exactly expounding romans 9 to 11
as you might guess and she was annoyed
because she had an unconverted laugh with her
and he had brought her that I might
convert her so she sat and humed and
was apparently too angry to pray which was
a pity for the girl was being converted
and anger wasn't helping very much what happened
was that the spirit was there in answer
to believing prayer and the word for all
the complexity of the story of the jew
being unfolded was the word of God and
God did what one sees him do with
domestic regularity his own work by his own
word through his spirit using the costly prayers
of his children it is quite simple it
is not easy it involves many deaths but
it is simple and I think this is
something to which many of us could bear
witness when I went to the congregation that
I am now in there was one converted
man in that congregation and he was 86
there was a young man who came to
me one sunday evening when we have our
small group in our morning service we have
the larger more comprehensive gathering of people but
in the evening which is an innovation there
never was such a thing as an evening
service in the valley where I live that
those who are living there now can remember
we have a smaller group of committed people
and I was expounding at that time particularly
obviously with them in view and somebody came
to me some weeks afterwards a man he
said you know I came into the evening
service he said I scarcely dare tell you
the reason he had for coming in he
wanted to get out of the way of
his wife he said I came into the
evening service he said as I was sitting
there he said I didn't intend to listen
he said but you know what you've been
talking about this being converted he said I
didn't intend it but I think I must
have been converted or something and the word
of God you see has saving power brethren
oh that we might believe it and act
on it in our ministry let me go
on to the fourth thing that I want
to say and it is necessary to say
it in order to give balance to what
I have just been saying that is this
that the expository nature of true preaching does
not of course suggest that we are expounding
the scripture into a vacuum there is a
certain doctrinaire attitude to and interest in expository
preaching which seems to me to be utterly
unrelated to the people to whom it is
addressed you know what I mean it would
be very fitting to another congregation which doesn't
happen to be there at the time but
it is unrelated to the congregation to whom
it is addressed and it's possible for a
man to have the kind of doctrinaire interest
it's the only word I can find to
express what I mean in expository preaching which
tends to develop what I was speaking about
last night this rather metallic touch this clinical
atmosphere thrusting it out of you take it
or leave it whether they will hear or
whether they will forbear is the text that's
often used to support this but you see
the new testament metaphor of the steward which
is so helpful in our understanding of this
helps us here for the steward is called
not only to be faithful but to be
wise our lord's in luke 12 42 who
then is that faithful and wise steward whom
his master will set over his household to
give them their portion of food at the
proper time do you see that the essence
of being a true steward means not only
that you are faithful in giving to the
household what the master has given to you
but that you are wise in knowing the
proper kind the proper quantity even of food
that they're able to take it means that
the good steward is neither unfaithful nor is
he clumsy and inept and our preaching therefore
I suggest you brethren must be rooted in
reality and speak to real people in real
situations whose need and capacity vary for example
my wife receives each week the tipped
services that come from hollyrood abbey church in
edinburgh where one of my dearest friends james
phillip is minister by reason of our local
situation it's impossible for my wife to get
out to our evening service and she leads
the young children's work in the morning which
means she is unable to get a ministry
in the morning and so she receives these
tips which are a tremendous blessing of course
to her and to me and sometimes I
come in on a sunday evening as the
last part of the sermon is finishing on
the tape and we often talk together about
what the word has been whatever james phillip
has been expounding and quite often we say
to one another you know our people are
not at the stage yet where they could
take that and to extract that ministry out
of a situation which largely is dealing with
people who come because they are hungry for
the word of god as mature christians and
put it into a situation like my own
which is really a pioneer one would be
utterly irrelevant in one very real sense you
see the faithful steward is not only faithful
he is wise in his dealing with the
people to whom god has sent him now
obviously this neither alters the message nor does
it alter the fact that all our preaching
is to be expository it is the application
of the principle that varies from situation to
situation and even from occasion to occasion within
the one congregation I have a very different
congregation in the morning from the one I
have in the evening we have something like
200 to 250 people in the morning the
vast majority of whom are spiritually in a
very primitive condition but my evening congregation is
a very different situation and my wednesday evening
bible study consists of about two dozen people
who come because they have a great hunger
for the word of god and many of
them are growing in grace and maturing in
the things of christ and they want to
know something of the strong meat of the
word now this is the difference even within
one situation and herein lies the importance of
knowing your people lastly that leads me to
the thing which seems to me to be
not unimportant even for ourselves this evening that
is that our task in opening the truth
is to make it plain and clear to
people you remember the words of the apostle
in 2 timothy 215 the task of the
true workman in relation to the word of
god is rightly dividing the word of truth
and the word for rightly dividing is a
word which means cutting straight cutting a straight
path you see among some of our theologians
in scotland in these days in the sphere
in which i was trained anyway there is
what has been called by some of the
students the cult of bamboozlement so that some
men have been heard coming away from listening
to someone and saying you know he must
be brilliant i couldn't understand a word he
was saying now you know brethren normally the
reason people are not very clear about what
we are trying to explain to them is
that we're not really very clear ourselves and
it's not too much knowledge or too much
study that produces bamboozlement it's too little study
to show thyself approved unto god a workman
who has no need to be ashamed rightly
cutting a straight course through the word of
god so that your heroes will not find
themselves in a maze but in a clear
straight road and the way to this may
i emphasize again is through study being a
workman and whatever else it takes this kind
of ministry will take study and it will
be necessary for you to refuse many things
and to mortify many interests and desires in
order to take yourself into your study and
get to grips with the word of god
using every means that is available but giving
yourself to it if god has given you
the ability to understand the original languages getting
into it there as some of us were
saying earlier today but if he hasn't using
all the aids that are there for grappling
with the word of god becoming a workman
brethren is your study that kind of wasn't
it jowat who said if your study is
allowed your pulpit will be a disgrace is
your study a workplace where you're ready to
indulge as well as in seeking for inspiration
in experiencing perspiration too getting down to it
with the labor of a student you never
stop being a student in the ministry and
with all our reading and with all our
studying in many different spheres whatever the books
we are able to read brethren be sure
that you don't allow any other book to
rob you of the time you really need
to get down to the word of god
and i don't care how valuable the other
book is and there is nobody here this
evening who would not press who would press
any harder let me say than i would
for the reading of good books but let
us be sure that it's in the context
of giving ourselves primarily to being students of
the word but we may not finish without
returning to what we insisted upon last night
and that is that the vital thing in
the ministry of the word however faithfully we
seek to open it up to our people
whether it be chapter by chapter verse by
verse or whether we have ordered our preaching
to go through a certain serious expounding passages
that open up doctrines to us whatever it
be the vital thing in all our preaching
is that it should have upon it the
unction of the holy spirit of god and
that leads us right into what we were
talking about last night doesn't it that it
is possible for two men you see to
come to the word of god and with
great skill and sometimes with great freshness and
great insight to open up the truth and
yet for there to be a cold dampness
about it all exciting and moving the intellect
but never becoming the rapier thrust of the
sword of the spirit to pierce the soul
to the dividing asunder it's possible for another
man to be doing exactly the same thing
perhaps without as much mental equipment but with
a soul that is on fire for god
and as he opens up the word of
god somehow or other you are aware that
the unction of the holy spirit is there
and the word is thrust out at you
like flames of fire and that's why Spurgeon
says with all you're getting brethren get unction
upon your ministry and pray that god the
holy spirit himself will come down and that
it will be he as well as you
and he's through you who will take the
sword of the spirit and wield it amongst
your people for the glory of his name
and for their eternal good may that be
our ministry and our experience for his glory
almighty god we are humbled before thee this
evening as we come to worship and praise
thee for thy calling of us out of
darkness into thy most marvelous light we
are awed in thy presence at the majesty
of thy grace and at the wonder of
thy truth and we bow to in the
presence of this mystery that thou hast called
us to be stewards of these mysteries and
we bless and adore thee oh lord for
this glorious privilege as thou hast commissioned us
to be preachers of the word we humbly
beseech thee that thou wilt thoroughly furnish us
in our own lives that we too may
know the holy scripture which is able to
make us wise unto salvation that we may
not only know it but that we may
be in thy hand killed in wielding it
and grant oh lord that we may hide
behind thy word and thy holy spirit that
we may be servants of the word and
of the lord and above all we beseech
thee that thou will let the anointing of
thy spirit rest upon us whenever and wherever
we arise to open thy truth and grant
that the very flaming fires of holy spirit
conviction may be seen in our ministry of
the word not for our own sake oh
lord deliver us from every subtle interest in
self-glory and grant that we may have
a true desire to be servants of thy
word hear our prayer and set thy seal
upon whatever thou hast said to us this
evening for the glory of thy name for
the sake of thy church and through jesus
christ our only king