Truth Magazine

Did you hear about the Baptist preacher, recently, who decided to cut his religious services down to 22 minutes and issued it as a challenge to see if people would be bold enough to “receive their religion in small doses”? He wanted to do for his preaching what McDonald’s has done for food — make it fast! What this preacher proposes is nothing new, and he certainly is right up there with some of our brethren in his fascination for brevity.

The length of a sermon is purely a subjective matter. There is no right and wrong as to the time involved. The personal preferences of people get involved and every- body has his opinion about it. As far as opinions go, one is about as good as another.

It isn’t as though I haven’t given some thought to learning the art of the fifteen-minute sermon. I have given serious consideration to the ingredients of such, and here are my conclusions:

• Leave out a lot of Scripture. Keep to a minimum the quoting, reading, and preaching of the Word.
• Dispense with heartfelt appeals for lost souls.
• Don’t study.
• Eliminate applications from Bible passages that might fit our time and situations in life. It might take a few minutes.
• Quit calling them sermons and call them “nice little talks,” or better yet, “sermonettes.”
• Forget boldness in the pulpit — you might be prompted to linger.
• Never condemn sin! There is too much of that to have to deal with. For the sake of brevity you may just have to ignore it.
• Minimize any concern for the disobedient and wayward persons in your audience. You might spend too many tears privately and too many words publicly in trying to reach them. And besides, people will be too busy studying their watches to hear what is said anyway.
• Leave out any treatment of issues troubling the church.
• You might be perceived as being “negative,” and you might get bogged down in warning people.

• Just have something to say instead of something you have to say. Try to squelch any feelings of earnestness about your task. Just get the job done quickly!

This is what I would have to recommend to my preaching brethren if they are to learn the art of the fifteen-minute sermon.

However, it appears that many of them caught on years ago, when you consider some of the ingredients above.

All in all, it appears that more is left out of the sermon than is put in.

By Connie W. Adams

Preaching in the Dark

Twice within recent weeks I have had to preach in the dark when lightning struck transformers just before service time (Galena, Indiana) or just after the sermon began (Marshall’s Branch near Virgie, Kentucky). At Galena, there were windows in the building and we had a sort of twilight. We sang from memory. There was not enough light to read and so an outline would have been useless, neither could I see the Bible to read it. At Marshall’s Branch the lights flickered during the singing. When I arose to preach, I told the audience to just stay put if the lights went out and I would preach with or without lights. I soon had my chance. Just after beginning, off went the lights (stayed off for many hours over a wide area). Did you ever try to preach a sermon from a cloth chart in the dark? As I continued, one of the brethren brought in a huge flashlight. David Thacker sat on the front row and held the light on the chart. It was like having a spot light. The audience remained calm, even the children, and several said they would long remember the service. I am thankful for teachers many years ago who insisted on a great amount of memory work in the Scriptures.

A couple of thoughts to pass on: (1) You can’t tell who goes to sleep; (2) I have been convinced for a long time that many preachers preach in the dark all the time for they are ignorant of the word of God.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Ps. 119:105).

Attitudes in Controversy

In January 1968, 26 brethren met in Arlington, Texas to discuss is- sues related to institutionalism and the sponsoring church. Thirteen men from each side of the controversy participated and a book was published giving the speeches presented. That book has been a useful tool in studying basic differences which had been widening for nearly two decades before this discussion took place. James W. Adams made the following comments in his Introductory Statement:

Furthermore, we made the agreement that there would be no personal reflections of any kind upon anyone, that everyone would be treated with absolute fairness, and that we would recognize one another as brethren. Of course, we recognize that you think we are wrong, — and we believe you are wrong. We would not be here if this were not so. Yet, we recognize each other as brethren. Each one of us comes into this meeting with the understanding that all of us are sincere in that for which we are contending. Hence, we shall not only recognize one another as brethren, but as sincere brethren, each person honestly contending for what he believes to be the truth.

We believe that all of us are big enough men and that we have enough respect for the Lord to engage in a discussion of this kind in this spirit and attitude. With reference to the results, we have qualified hopes. Some people ask us, “What do you hope to come from this?” I answer, “I do not know actually.” They ask, “How much good do you think will be accomplished?” I answer, “I do not know.” But, neither do I know the answer to this question when I stand up to preach. I honestly do not know how much good will come from this meeting, but it is certainly never wrong for brethren who profess to serve a common Lord in a common cause to sit down and discuss their differences with one another in the spirit and attitude which we have suggested for this meeting. We hope this will be a pleas- ant time for all of us and it will be a discussion such as will glorify God and benefit His cause in the world (The Arlington Meeting 13).

We commend this spirit as worthy of emulation when- ever brethren find themselves drifting apart.

The Power of the Almighty

Man in all his vaunted wisdom and power cannot stop the fury of a hurricane or a tornado. He can devise warning systems and reasonably guess the path these may take. He cannot stop the rain, nor make it come. He cannot prevent the lightning. When man has to tangle with the forces of the natural world, you would think this would generate an awe and reverence for the Almighty. When God answered Job “out of the whirlwind” he included these challenging questions:

Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that an abundance of water may cover you? Can you send out lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, “Here we are”? (Job 38:34-35).

I never hear it thunder, nor see the lightning flash but what I am made to realize how frail I am. Such a consideration should produce within us a profound respect for the God of the Universe and should completely amaze us when we think of his grace and mercy offered through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do Them a Favor

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To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Eph. 3:10-11).

This wonderful Scripture expresses a thought that staggers the mind’s ability to comprehend and appreciate. This Scripture states that the angels in heaven learn the manifold wisdom of God through seeing what God has accomplished in the church.

Paul previously expressed his deep feeling of indebtedness to divine grace that God had given to him and the other apostles and prophets the blessed privilege of revealing his previously concealed mystery, namely that the Gentiles could be fellow-heirs of the promises of Christ through the gospel. He was blessed with the grace of preaching to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, bringing to light to all men that mystery which God had kept secret since the world began. But now at the end of the ages, God revealed his mystery.

The “principalities and powers in heavenly places” are the various orders of angels in heaven. The angels see what God accomplished in the church and see through the church the manifold wisdom of God. The point is not that the church preaches the manifold wisdom of God when it preaches the gospel, although this is a true statement; rather, the church manifests the wisdom of God in the same manner as a beautiful painting manifests the skills of a painter, a bridge displays the skills of an architect, and a beautiful song displays the skills of its lyrist and musicians. When the angels see what God has accomplished in the church, they see the manifold wisdom of God that was concealed throughout the ages during which his divine plan was coming to fruition. Henry Alford quoted Stier as saying that to the angels, the church is “the fact of the great spiritual body, constituted in Christ, which they contemplate, and which is to them the theatron tes doxas tou Theou” (theater of the glory of God, mw) (The Greek Testament: Ephesians III:106). H.A.W. Meyer said, “To the angels, in accordance with their ministering interest in the work of redemption (Matt. xviii.10; Luke xv.7, 10; 1 Cor. xi.10; Heb. i.14; 1 Pet. i.12), the church of the redeemed is therefore, as it were, the mirror, by means of which the wisdom of God exhibits itself to them” (Meyer’s Commentary on the New Testament: Ephesians 416).

That the angels witness what occurs on earth is confirmed in other Scriptures (1 Pet. 1:12; 1 Cor. 4:9; Heb. 12:22). This passage says that their own knowledge of God’s divine wisdom is enhanced by what they see in the church.

1. They saw how God saves men. How could God save sinful men without losing his divine justice? The angels witnessed a truly remarkable scene when they saw God the Son leave heaven and take upon himself a physical body in the incarnation. They witnessed his sinless life, despite the most assiduous assaults of Satan (Heb. 4:15). At the end of his life, this sinless man was crucified on the cross of Calvary, shedding his blood in atonement for sin. The just debt of sin was paid by the blood of God the Son. W.A. Criswell observed, “At the same time He pays the penalty for our sin thus upholding the righteous judgments of God and yet showing mercy, dying in love for our fallen souls. How the angels, looking upon that, must have been astonished! What we lost in Eden in the sin of the first Adam, we have gained and more besides in the second Adam, Christ. . . . Satan is stung by his own venom. Goliath is slain by his own sword. Death is destroyed by its own captive. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. As by one man, Adam, sin came into this world, and death by sin, so by one man, the God-man Christ Jesus, is sin destroyed, and life and immortality brought to life” (Ephesians: An Exposition 120).

2. They saw what God can do with sin defiled men. Every one of us was marred by sin (Rom. 3:23) and worthy of eternal damnation (Rom. 6:23). If one asked any member of the church, he would confess that his sinful conduct made him unworthy of eternal life or unfit to be used in God’s service. H.C.G. Moule commented on what the angels see in us: “They see in us indeed all our weakness, and all our sin. But they see a nature which, wrecked by itself, was yet made in the image of their God and ours. And they see this God at work upon that wreck to produce results not only wonderful in themselves but doubly wonderful because of the conditions” (Ephesian Studies 118). Think of what change was wrought in sinful men. Angels saw fornicators, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards and revilers changed into saints (1 Cor. 6:9-11). They saw the “chiefest of sinners” turned into an apostle (1 Tim. 1:13-16).

3. They saw Jew and Gentile reconciled to God in one body. Paul had declared that God “might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby” (Eph. 2:16). S.D.F. Salmond observed, “The Church, therefore, that is, as is evidently meant here, the whole body of believers in the unity in which Jew and Gentile are now made one, is the means by which the Divine wisdom is to be made known and Paul’s commission in that respect made good” (The Expositor’s Greek Testament: Ephesians 309). The wall of alienation that had separated Jew and Gentile was broken down so that God could redeem all men in one church.

4. They saw the manifold wisdom of God in other facets of the church. S.T. Bloomfield observes that God’s manifold wisdom  being made known through the church includes “the founding, propagating, and governing of the Church” (The Greek Testament II:271).

The founding of the church is an event worthy of a complete study. The Old Testament prophets foretold when the church would be established (Dan. 2:44, in the days of the fourth world kingdom [the Roman]), where it would be established (Isa. 2:1-4, Jerusalem), and by whom it would be established (the Messiah). When the gospel of Mark opens, it announces that the “time is fulfilled and the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mark 1:16-17). Jesus announced that the kingdom is the church (Matt. 16:18-19) and that it would be established within the lifetime of those who heard him speak (Mark 9:1). The kingdom would come with power, which power would come when the Holy Spirit fell on the apostles (Mark 9:1; Acts 1:8). All of these things occurred on the day of Pentecost following the resurrection of Christ. The Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and they spoke with new tongues (“as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance”). A sound like the rushing of a mighty wind drew together a massive crowd (Acts 2:1-4). Peter preached that these events were the fulfillment of divine prophecy (Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:16-21) and proceeded to tell the audience how they could be saved by “calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 2:21). Three thousand responded to the gospel that day and were added to the church (Acts 2:47). The angels in heaven, like mortal men on earth, must have been amazed at the manifold wisdom of God when the church was established.

The propagating of the faith was also a display of the manifold wisdom of God. Jesus chose twelve men to take the gospel into all of the world. These men were without the formal training that rabbis generally received (Acts 4:13). Yet, Christ sent them into all the world to preach the gospel, working with them through signs and wonders (Mark 16:15-20). The number of the disciples began with 3000 on Pentecost, grew to 5000 in a short time (Acts 4:4), and was soon so large it was only described as “multitudes” (Acts 5:14). A persecution broke out against the disciples at the death of Stephen that drove out of Jerusalem all of the disciples except the apostles (Acts 8:4). In the providence of God, this persecution contributed to the spread of the gospel throughout the world, for they “went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). The angels in heaven, like mortal men on earth, must have been amazed at the manifold wisdom of God when they saw how the gospel was spread to all nations of the world within one short lifetime.

The governing of the church was also a display of the manifold wisdom of God. Each local church was organized independently of all others (Acts 14:23; 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:1-3). Local churches were overseen by a plurality of elders (Phil. 1:1) whose qualifications were revealed by the Holy Spirit (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Tit. 1:5-9). Special servants of the church, known as deacons, were appointed to do special works (Acts 6:1-7; Phil. 1:1) and their qualifications were also revealed by God (1 Tim. 3:8-13). The simplicity of the divine government of the church prevented wholesale apostasy. The apostasy of one local church does not destroy other local churches by necessity, as would be the case if there were inter-congregational government. The angels in heaven, like mortal men on earth, must have been amazed at the manifold wisdom of God in how he governed the local churches.

I suggest that the manifold wisdom of God is also seen in others aspects of the church, including its worship, its moral purity, its universality, its consummation, etc. Like a diamond that is turned in the light so that each facet can glisten, the various things about the church reflect the multi-faceted wisdom of God. If the angels praise divine wisdom and glorify him when they see the church, how much more such mortal man!

Conclusion

How sad is the circumstance that some gospel preachers have reached the conclusion that preaching the church is somehow “preaching ourselves” and emphasizing the identifying marks of the divinely revealed church is preaching “sectarianism” and somehow denigrating to Christ! Paul said that when the angels behold what God has done through the church they see the manifold wisdom of God, but some among us say that preaching what God has done in the church somehow detracts from the glory of God. How can one explain this significant difference of opinion about the church?

When men outgrow preaching about the divinely revealed church, they have moved away from preaching the whole counsel of God simply because the church is a part of the divine purpose in Christ Jesus (Eph. 3:11). May we ever appreciate the importance of the church which was planned in the mind of God as a part of his eternal purpose, built by the Lord Jesus Christ, established on Pentecost, and will be delivered up to the Father at the Lord Jesus’ second coming (1 Cor. 15:24). It is a glorious church, having been sanctified and cleansed by the washing of water by the word so that it might be without a spot or wrinkle, but that it might be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:26-27). Who can refrain from telling others about what God has done in and for his church, which is “the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:23).

The apostle Paul put the gospel of Christ in a nutshell when he wrote, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand. By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:4). Paul affirmed to the Romans that their confession must include the fact, “. . . that God hath raised him from the dead” (Rom. 10:9).

The Power Of God To Save

The gospel of Christ is the power of God to save sinners. Paul wrote, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation . . .” (Rom. 1:16). This gospel contains facts to be believed, commands to obey, and promises to enjoy. Jesus said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). Believing that Jesus is the Son of God and believing the gospel are the facts to be believed, repenting of past sins (Acts 2:38) and being baptized are commands to be obeyed. Salvation from past sins and eternal salvation, if faithful (Rev. 2:10), are the promises to be enjoyed. No wonder Paul could tell the Corinthians, “I declare unto you the gospel, by which also ye are saved” (1 Cor. 15:12).

The Ascension Of Christ

The great thing about Christ, his life, his death, and his resurrection is his ascension back to his Father. In fact, the coming of Christ into the world would have meant nothing more than any other man coming into the world, had he not died on the cross. Yet, the death of Christ on the cross would have meant no more than the death of any other, had God not raised him from the dead; the resurrection would not been as it now is, had Jesus not ascended to heaven to occupy his throne. It takes it all!

1. It was at his ascension that Christ was given a great position. A careful reading of Ephesians 1:19-23 will teach us that when Christ ascended, he was set at his own right hand in the heavenly places, given a name above all names, and made the head of the church.

2. At his ascension, Christ was made High Priest. You know that Christ could not have been priest if he were on the earth (Heb. 8:4; 7:14). At his ascension, he became and is now High Priest (Heb. 4:15). Thus, Christ is our mediator (1 Tim. 2:5).

3.Christ was made king of his kingdom at his ascension. Daniel said that Christ would be given “a kingdom,” when he “. . . came to the Ancient of days” (Dan. 7:13-14). Christ went to God as he ascended in a cloud (Acts 1:9-10). At this time Christ was given a kingdom over which he was to reign as “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 17:14).

4. All things were made full at his ascension. In writing the Ephesians, Paul penned, “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things” (Eph. 4:10). We can now be “complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power” (Col. 2:10). As a result, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9).