“Feeding the Sheep or Amusing the Goats”

Transcript

GRM 531
5/25/1997
Feeding the Sheep or Amusing the Goats
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

We have been studying the book of Colossians together on Sunday mornings and we are going to take a break from that study today for a couple of reasons. If we did another week, we would move into a new section and I couldn’t work it out satisfactorily that we didn’t end in the middle of a sentence. Secondly the material I want to cover with you I was working out for the introduction for the sermon that we were going to do today. And my introduction grew. I couldn’t figure out how to work it in anyway. So I said well I will just preach the introduction as a sermon. What I really have on my mind and heart as we move through this material is simply to draw our attention to some of what is taking place that reflects upon what Paul is talking about in the book of Colossians, a reminder to us of where our focal point is in our ministry as a church.

Paul in Colossians chapter 2 is dealing with those who really are attacking and undermining the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. And as we had noted in our study there, the attacks on the sufficiency of Jesus Christ are also attacks on the sufficiency of the word of God because Jesus Christ in His sufficiency is revealed through the written word of God. And the written word of God is an unfolding of the person and work of Jesus Christ and His sufficiency for us in every area. So we ought to be clear on these two sides of the same issue. When someone is attacking the sufficiency of the word of God, they are really attacking the sufficiency of God in His work and will for us. This is not new but sometimes it is subtle enough the we are not as alert as we should be. That is Paul’s concern as he writes to the Colossians. Do you realize that Jesus Christ is the one in whom all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form? And we are made full in Him. But the danger is that they would be led astray by philosophy, the love of wisdom and empty tradition.


We always are pressured as the church to help God out. His truth is never as popular as we would like it to be. His truth does not find the response in human hearts that we would like to see. So there is a pressure for us to make adjustments to increase its popularity. Let me read you an article that some are familiar with, just the beginning of the article. “An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord so gross in its impudence that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years, it has developed at an abnormal rate even for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a more clever thing than hinting to the church that part of her mission is to provide entertainment to her people with a view to winning them.” You note the ultimate end is good, winning people. To do that we need to entertain them. “From speaking out as the Puritans did, the church has gradually toned down its testimony, then winked and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her boarders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses. My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the scriptures as a function of the church.” That sounds like something that could have been written in the last few weeks. But it was written over 100 years ago by Charles Hayden Spurgeon in an article entitled “Feeding the Sheep or Amusing the Goats.” And it is pertinent to the day. And it shows you that the strategies of the Devil do not change.

We sort of roll through cycles. Well we will hit times where it seems there is an openness to the word of God among people. And that is an evidence of God’s grace working in special ways. Then it seems like there is a progressive closeness to truth and if we are going to be effective, we are going to have to make some alterations because people will not respond to truth, will not come to hear truth. And we want to win them so let’s adjust some of the methods with a good end in view.

A couple of articles I want to share with you. And I do this to illustrate in our day what Paul is concerned about for the Colossians and the Holy Spirit through the letter that Paul wrote to the Colossians is addressing to us as the church today. I was looking through some theological journals and I took out two reviews, one from 1992, one from 1996, both by the same man. He is a professor of preaching at a leading Evangelical seminary, a seminary that used to be more Evangelical than it is today. But even today it would be noted as an Evangelical seminary. The first article appeared in 1992 in a theological journal. And it is a review of an interview with a leading Bible teacher. This Bible teacher was saying that he was concerned basically that the church was not carrying out its responsibility and preachers were not carrying out their responsibility in teaching the word of God. And this teacher said that his effectiveness in the pulpit was tied to “faithfully proclaiming the truth of scripture without misinterpretation.” “Faithfully proclaiming the truth of scripture without misinterpretation” was his responsibility as a preacher. However this homiletics professor disagrees. “What this Bible teacher describes is the process of preparing Bible lectures rather than Bible sermons. True sermons draw on extra-Biblical support material, not primarily Biblical illustrations. True sermons go beyond the exegetical, theological to the truly homiletical.” I mean you just don’t want to present the text of scripture. You just don’t want to present the theology of scripture. You have to go beyond that to the homiletical which is the style of preaching.


This is the point at which this reviewer takes issue with this Bible teacher. Whereas this Bible teacher says that His goal is “to keep them ever in the text.” “A sermon seeks to communicate the truth expressed in the text through the specific needs, longings and desires of the congregation.” So you see what he is saying there. Scripture is not sufficient. If all you have done is explain to people the scripture, that is not a fulfilling of your responsibility. You have to take the truth that is in scripture but then shape it according to “the specific needs, longings and desires of the congregations.” “Why does this Bible teacher hold on to the old paradigm of preaching as lecture when the new paradigm of preaching as sermon promises a more immediately relevant hearing.” You see you must be more immediately relevant. Why do you continue lecturing on the Bible. That is not relevant anymore. Which is really saying what? The Bible itself is not relevant. I have to embellish it with homiletics so it will become relevant. “This Bible teacher’s method of lecture though not wrong is not immediately relevant for the majority of listeners today who do not begin with a strong appetite for God’s truth presented only to the point of theological principles.” Well since when has the world had a strong appetite for truth? “Audiences today accepts theological principles gleaned from the scriptures presented in relevant, applicative sermons.” Well in its own subtle way I think this man is promoting a form of the Colossian heresy that Jesus Christ and the text of Scripture is not sufficient. It is not only not sufficient, it is not relevant and doesn’t communicate to people. Now that this would be said is not amazing. That it would be said in a theological journal representing an Evangelical seminary by a man who teaches men who are studying how to preach the word to me is tremendously significant.

Four years later in the same theological journal he reviewed another man’s writing. The Crisis in Expository Teaching Today is what is being dealt with. This man’s concern, this man is a professor at a seminary, older man, says what we need is a return to preaching the text of scripture. This homiletics professor reviews it and says, “while this article articulates a number of problems that plague Christian preaching today, this reviewer doubts that the crisis in expository preaching will be alleviated by the text centered, text focused lecture about the Bible model of communication” that he defends. “The goal of preaching to stimulate life change should be distinguished from the goal of indoctrinating the church.”

Well, quite frankly my goal in preaching is not to change your life. My goal is to indoctrinate you with the truth of God. And if you will submit to that truth through the gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit, your life will be changed. But quite frankly, I know he is right in what he says. There are more immediate and relevant ways to get you to change than preaching the word of God to you. That is why stories and drama have become the in thing in the church. Stories and drama impact you emotionally, not intellectually. And there is always a more immediate response when you are impacted emotionally because for truth to impact you intellectually takes time for that truth to be explained, for that truth to be assimilated and understood and applied. I could get a much more immediate response from you by telling you a story effectively. And the impact of that story would impact you emotionally. We know what it is like. You can have a man stand up and tell a sad story and most of the audience is immediately moved to tears. That is not necessarily the Spirit of God convicting. That is the impact of the story. I can watch a sad movie and see a wife and mother die of cancer at the end of the movie and be in tears. That was sad. That moved me emotionally. But that is not an evidence of the work of the Spirit of God moving me. Drama becomes popular in the church. Why? You are telling a story to the congregation that impacts you emotionally. The homiletics professor is right. If the goal of your preaching is to stimulate life change, short term, quickly, there are more effective ways to do it that just teaching the text of scripture, more effective in the short term. But for God to effect the change in the life, that takes the truth of God carried to the heart and mind of the person so that they will be renewed in their mind and thus transformed in their life and in their living.


“A lecture about the Bible works well in the seminary or even in the church’s educational program where information is the goal. You need text centered but audience focused sermons.” Well, I have to tell you information is the goal that I have for you. I want to communicate to you as much of the truth of God as I can in the time that I have and it is never enough. That is the goal, trusting that God will take that truth, carry it to your mind and thus to your heart and change you. Do I want your emotions to be changed? Sure. But I want your emotions to be changed as a result of your mind being transformed. Just like your children. You can get them to make an initial response emotionally. And we have to use that. We do. There is a place for that. But what I really want to build into my children, what? Principles and the foundation for living their life, not on the emotion of the moment but understanding and grasping the principles and truths they need to have. So it is for our development as believers.

Another well known Evangelical. He wrote a book of homiletics and he is warning against perceptual teachers, teachers who teach by precept, in other words who teach the text. He is advocating telling stories. He says “the total oral exegesis sermon is culpable on these accounts.” So if I am simply standing up teaching you the text of scripture, oral exegesis. The exegesis of scripture is the explaining and expositing - expositing of the text of scripture to you by my preaching. It has several faults. Number one: “It is guilty of notebook academics. Such preachers are fascinated by who the antichrist is or where the ten lost tribes might have gone once they left Assyria. They can get excited over the letter of the text and spend weeks on Gog and Magog or the great horror of the apocalypse,” Revelation 17. God did put it in there didn’t He. I think it takes some arrogance to say God put it in there but it is not worth your consideration. Why would you want to know what that means? Why would want to understand that?

A second fault of oral exegesis. The first is notebook exegesis. You are studying down in your notebook trying to figure this out, understand it. Second fault of oral exegesis is they have a notebook theology. “I had a friend who audio-visualized everything. He was always preaching on subjects such as, The Lord our Great High-Priest Before the Throne. On the same Sunday I was trying to deny that Big Bird was a humanist.” Now would you not be embarrassed to write that? I have a fellow preacher. He is an oral exegete. He was preaching Sunday on the Lord our great High-Priest before the throne. I was preaching on Big Bird wasn’t a humanist. I am embarrassed for him. That’s appalling.

“A third and worse fault of oral exegesis is their notebook arrogance. A little learning is a dangerous thing. Preachers can exalt academic truths to such a degree that they soon find themselves exalted as authorities on scripture.” Oh, terrible that you would think I am an authority on Scripture. What am I to be? “Stories are too relational to promote such academic demagoguery.” Well, let me tell you, the next time you go to your medical doctor, you say, I have got a pain in my chest and a lump there. I’m concerned. And he says, let me tell you a story. I wouldn’t want you to think I know anything about medicine. Do you find that comforting? Why would I want you to come to this church that my goal is to let you know I don’t really know anything about the Bible and theology but let me tell you a story. . . Goldus and Uncle Remas. I don’t know everything about the Bible and about theology but I better know something. My medical doctor I don’t expect to know everything about medicine but he better know a lot more than I do. This is from a man who pastored an Evangelical church and he now left that Evangelical church to teach homiletics at an Evangelical seminary. In other words he is training men who are going out into the pulpits and this is his thinking.


He does say in the next chapter, “Every city can tolerate one church that is precept centered, that has an oral exegete kind of ministry.” Note this too, “We rarely take notes during stories. Notes are the inky tracks of precept preaching. Pencils and pads have a way of keeping hands so busy that minds do not notice they are sleeping. In churches where note taking is essential to self esteem, the entire congregation might need to ask without my pencil and pad could I stand to watch one hour with him?” That was cute. He is good with words and I tell you he is well read. He doesn’t take his illustrations from the Bible. He takes them from everyplace. In fact half of them don’t make any sense to me because I’ve never read the books that he is illustrating from. I have never been to the movies that he is using as an illustration. He tells how he gets his sermon material. He will be sitting in a movie and he writes what comes to his mind from the movie on the back of his popcorn box. And he keeps a file of these things and that helps. Doesn’t help me because I don’t make it to those movies. Now again that would be help but be helped by someone who has pastored an Evangelical church who now teaches preachers how to preach in an Evangelical seminary. Should we not be embarrassed as the Church of Jesus Christ that something even passes for that.

What I want to do with the rest of our time is just highlight for you what God says in His Word is to be the focus of His people and their faithfulness to Him. Because these are all examples. I would classify them under the Colossian heresy. They are not dealing with the same details as the Colossian heresy but it is the same root problem, the sufficiency of Jesus Christ as revealed in the all-sufficient revelation of the Word of God. I have to improve upon it when what my job is to simply give it forth, turn it loose and let it do its work through the gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Start back in the Old Testament. Exodus chapter 19. We are going to read a lot of Scripture and let the Scripture speak for itself. Exodus 19. Here you have the beginning of the Mosaic law which is God’s word for guiding and shaping and controlling the life of His people, Israel up until the time of the coming of their Messiah. Look at Exodus chapter 19 verse 5. “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the people for all the earth is Mine and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” And you note this covenant is entered into by an agreement if you obey My voice and keep my covenant. Verse 8, “All the people answered and said, just as the Lord has spoken, so we will do.” It is part and parcel of the relationship of God and His people. God speaks; His people obey. That principle carries through the scripture for God’s people. It is a characteristic of those that He has called out from Himself. They hear what God says and they do it. Look over in chapter 24 of Exodus, Exodus 24 verse 3. “Them Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances.” What did Moses do? “He recounted to all the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances and all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do”” Verse 7, “Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”” We will be obedient.


Do you think that was particularly the most interesting thing going on in the world today? It was the most important thing, Moses standing up reading the law. Try it when you go home. Stand up and read it. Tell your family, “Before dinner we are going to do something.” I am going to read you the covenant. Maybe this isn’t what they wanted to hear right now. Maybe it wasn’t particularly relevant. Maybe one of them was having marriage trouble. The most relevant thing going on in the world at this time is God has spoken. Listen and respond.

We will skip a number of passages. You can take Exodus 39 and 40 (We have done this on other occasions.) and just go through there at your leisure and underline every time it says “just as the Lord commands,” ”just as the Lord commands,” “just as the Lord commands,” “just as the Lord commands.” Exodus 39 and 40. You can do the same thing in Leviticus chapters 8 and 9. Just underline, “just as the Lord commands,” “just as the Lord commands,” “just as the Lord commands.” God’s plan for His people is simple. Just as I tell you. That was His plan for Israel. Turn over to the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 2. ?You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor shall you take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” God evidently was convinced that His word was sufficient, was adequate, was relevant. Don’t add to it; don’t take away from it. Just give it forth and obey it. Chapter 5 verse 1. “Moses summoned all Israel to him and said, “Hear O Israel the statutes and ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing that you may learn them and observe them carefully.”” Why did Moses have to tell them again? Why did he have to read it to them? You have to learn them and you have to learn them so you can obey them carefully. The pattern is simple isn’t it? It is God’s will for His people in the Old and New Testament alike. We don’t live under the law but the principle of God’s word and it’s impact on our lives is to continue. We simply have more provision made for us as God’s people with the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Down in verse 29 of chapter 5. “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep My commandments.” You note that connection. We said the sufficiency of Christ is inseparably joined to the sufficiency of His word. The honoring and fearing and reverencing of God is inseparably joined to keeping all of His commandments. So for Israel, oh I want to fear the Lord and reverence and honor Him. Obey Him. Keep His word. Verse 32, “So you shall learn to do just as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn to the right or to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you.” I mean is the responsibility simple? Did Moses have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how he was going to make this relevant to a disinterested people whose desires were somewhere else? No. You roll into chapter 6 with which we are so familiar. “This is the commandment, the statutes and judgements which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you that you might do them.”


This idea that there is an aridness and a dryness about teaching the word of God. It doesn’t impact life, is a fallacy. It’s a direct attack on the scripture. We learn the word, we are taught the word that we might do the word. So it is an artificial and false distinction. It is not true teaching the word if it is done not in the context of a willing and desirous heart to obey it. And quite frankly if you don’t have a heart to obey the word, there is nothing I can do for you. So you don’t have a heart to obey the word so you don’t want to hear the word so I have to come up with something that fits your desires? Just where does God fit into this picture? God bless my cleverness because they weren’t interested in what You had to say. But they really like my story about the movie. I think I got to them. My job is not to get to you. My job is to give forth the truth of God so that He can get to you. When I lose that perspective I become confused and we slide over to what Paul warns about in Colossians 2:8 of being susceptible to philosophy and the love of wisdom which Paul warned about in writing to the Corinthians in II Corinthians, ah 1Corinthians 2 that I only preached Christ crucified lest you should rest in the wisdom of men and not in the power of God.” Paul knew he could get response. He knew he could bring about change. His fear was he would get a response and produce a change that wasn’t based upon the power of God but had been manipulated upon the wisdom of men. So in Deuteronomy six the Lord has commanded me to teach you so you might do His word.

So verse 2, “So that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God and to keep His statutes and His commandments.” This is to go on down the line. I am to do this for my kids, for my grandkids. You know what is going to be left for our kids, stories to pass on. Well look at what has happened to the major denominational churches. You know what the moto of the liberal church was in the 40's, life not doctrine, life not doctrine. What they were concerned about was making Scripture relevant. And doctrine is not where people are. People are where life is. So we have to address the issues of life not just give them doctrine and you can see where they have ended up, with no doctrine and no life either. And basically what these articles that I have read to you are saying is we need to focus on life, not doctrine. It is the same fallacy. Yet Deuteronomy six says what the children, the grandchildren . . . What God is concerned about is what ? That they keep His word. Verse 3, “Oh, Israel you should listen and be careful to do it that it may be well with you.” Verse 6, “and these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart and you teach them to your sons. You talk about them when you are in your house, when you go about your business.” They will characterize you in all your activity. You are immersed in it. It is life for you. But it is all tied to what God has said.

Stop in Joshua. It is just after Deuteronomy. Joshua becomes the successor of Moses. That is a good time for a change. It is a change of leadership. But there is to be no change in style or focus. Verse 7, God’s instructions to Joshua, Joshua 1:7, “Only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, My servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or the left so you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall never depart from your mouth. But you shall meditate upon it day and night.” What do I want you to do when you leave here? I want you to go away with your mind filled with the scripture so you can dwell upon it, think about it, “so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.”

Again, this idea oh, when we just teach the Word of God we’re not interested in life, we are not doing anything to really help people or bring about a change is the Devil’s attack on the sufficiency of the Word of God and the God of this word. Because when you have really taken in the truth of God, your life will be changed and you will live differently. Turn over to Psalm 19. Psalm 19 is about the revelation of God, general revelation and specific revelation. The revelation of God in nature, the revelation of God in His word. The first six verses deal with the revelation of God in nature. We want to pick up with the revelation of God in His word, verse 7. “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the souls, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart.” I’m really troubled by a man that says he doesn’t want any precepts preaching. When it is precepts of the Lord that are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandments, commandment of the Lord is pure and enlightening the mind. The fear of the Lord is clean, you see the fear of the Lord is brought right into the line with the law of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commandments of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, the reverence of God. My right relationship to Him is inseparably joined to my right relationship to His word. That is why this idea that we are going to bring people to a closer relationship with God by going around the Word is really an attack on the sufficiency of our God as well as an attack on the sufficiency of His Word. Verse 10, “They are more desirably than gold, yes than much fine gold. Sweeter than the honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover by then your servant is warned and in keeping them there is great reward.” Verse 14, “Let the word of my mouth, the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” How does that happen? By dwelling upon His Word and His truths. These not the goals to restore the soul, verse 7, “to make wise the simple, to rejoice the heart, to enlighten the eyes.”? I mean, I would abandon the Word of God to accomplish my goals in your life? That’s what the Word of God does in the lives of those who will receive it. And there is nothing of duration, of eternal importance that can be done in the lives of those who will not receive the Word of God. That’s why the title of Spurgeon’s article, “Feeding the sheep or amusing the goats” is so much to the point. The church has become concerned about entertaining and keeping the goats more than feeding the sheep. God’s concern is to call out His sheep and nurture and nourish them. Turn over to Psalm 119. Someday for our Sunday morning sermon before I die, maybe, for the morning message we are going to read Psalm 119. All 176 verses, just read them. Psalm is an acrostic, Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Pe, you see each of these sections with that title. Over verse 1, Aleph, over verse 9, Beth. Those are letters of the Hebrew alphabet. And each of the verses in the following section begin with that letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This would have helped the Israelites remember this, commit it to their minds and dwell on it. And the whole Psalm is about the Word of God and the importance of the Word of God. Look at verse 4, “You have ordained Your precepts, that we should keep them diligently.” How are we going to keep His precepts if we are not taught them? The precept preaching is not what we want to give people today, we want to give them stories. Verse 9, “How can a young man keep His way pure, by keeping it according to My [stories].” Wrong. We need more purity, we want young people’s lives to be changed to purity. I have got a story for you, no, I have got a word for you from God. Verse 11, Thy word have I treasured in my heart that I may not sin against You.” Verse 24, “Your testimonies are my delight, my counselors.” We have people running all over the country for counselors today, David said Your word, Your testimonies, they are my counselors. What do I have to offer people when they come to me for counseling, God’s word. Verse 38, “Establish Your word to Thy servant as that which produces reverence for You.” We want to create reverence in the heart of God’s people for their God. It is God’s word that does that. You see what we are doing with our adjustments, we are moving people away from a focus on God, and a reverence for Him. What? If we have replaced God our goal is no longer to communicate truth concerning Him, my desire now is to cater to your desires, to your needs. We have a man centered focus rather than a God centered focus. And yet we imply that we are still being faithful? Verse 15, “This is my comfort in my affliction. Your word has revived me.” Verse 63, “I am a companion of all those who fear You, of those who keep Your precepts,” and on it goes, on it goes. Verse 89, “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” I would get caught up in the transitory ideas of the Homiletical styles, where in the Bible does it tell you that we should go beyond the exegesis of scripture. Teaching the theology of scripture to Homiletics so that with some sacred divinely ordained. It’s a man developed, man centered idea. Verse 92, “If Your law had not been my delight then I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget Your precepts for by them You have revived me.” “Your word,” verse 105, “is a lamp unto my feet.” Verse 118, “You have rejected all those who wander from Your statutes. Their deceitfulness is useless.” Remember that. Verse 130, “The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.” That is what we want to do. Those who are closed to the word of God and uninterested and unwilling to hear it, I can do nothing for you. I cannot do what God will not do. All I can do is give forth His word and trust in His grace He will open blinded eyes and close minds to see and understand and believe. As God’s people I may come and I’m not interested in the study of His word, and I find it boring and laborious. My desire is “Oh, God, soften my heart that I should be bored with You, that I should be disinterested in You. And God forbid that the preacher would adjust what He has to say to cater to my dulled condition. The unfolding of Your words gives light, it gives understanding to the simple.” Verse 160, “The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your everlasting, of your, of your righteous ordinances is everlasting.” “The sum of Your word is truth.” This is true truth. I have to go to “Star Wars” so that I can communicate to You. I have to go to the great story writers so that we can talk. I have truth.

Turn over to the New Testament, just a couple passages. Go to Hebrews 4:12, and you go to Hebrews 4:12. Remember I Timothy 3:15, “The Church is the pillar and support of the [stories].” No, the truth! If this is the pillar and support of the truth, what should you expect when you come here? The cities best storyteller? The pillar and support of the truth. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 to 16 says what? That God has gifted men to give forth His word, to equip the saints, to do the work of ministering so the body can be built to maturity in Christ. You don’t have to be high I.Q. to know what you do to frustrate so to speak the work of God. The teaching of the word of God equips the saints to do the work of ministering to build the body up. So if the word of God is not taught the saints won’t be equipped. If the saints aren’t equipped they won’t function to build the body. It is no wonder that are churches are filled with drama and stories and entertainment. Precious little of the serious consideration of the word of God and the less we grapple seriously with the word of God the less able we are to grapple with it. One of the problems with kids going to college today is they haven’t learned the basics in school, high school, so they go to college and they can’t read yet, they don’t know the basics of grammar, how can they grapple with college level work? So it is with God’s people, if we never grapple seriously with the text of scripture, how am I going to grow in my ability to grapple with it and see how applicable it is in every area of life.


Hebrews 4:12, “The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” How can I improve on that? Tell me a story that has that power. I mean this is all an attack on scripture. This idea, oh, giving lectures, explaining the Bible text, doesn’t really impact people today, that is an attack on the word of God which is alive and powerful. It penetrates where nothing else can. How does this slide by in the church of Jesus Christ today? How does it slide by in theological journals of Evangelical schools. We’ve looked at our last study, Paul didn’t tolerate fools gladly and neither should we. This is a serious matter isn’t it? God says His word is living and active and pierces into the innermost recesses of a life and somebody wants me to believe that it is not relevant, that that’s is not the way to impact people today. And somehow this blatant attack on the sufficiency of Christ and His truth gets by as being wisdom. So under the guise of loving wisdom, philosophy. The sufficiency of Christ and His truth is undermined in His church.

Is it any wonder Paul is concerned for the Colossians? We have a completed Scripture today with a full revelation and the church still falls for the gullibleness of the love of wisdom. Romans 1:16 Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” and for those who won’t believe I can’t help you. The truth that I present hardens you in your unbelief. But we are trying. Today we’ve found out if you mellow the truth, if you just use the Scripture to illustrate your stories people will gladly hear you. And we can have crowds. And isn’t that what God wants, crowds? I mean Jesus didn’t say did He it is wonderful when all men speak well of you? I thought He said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you. Somehow we have lost our Biblical perspective.

Come back to the Old Testament to the book of Ezekiel. And while you come to Ezekiel chapter 2 let me remind you of I Peter chapter 1 verse 2. “Like newborn babes long for the pure [unadulterated] milk of the Word of God that you might grow with respect to your salvation.” Now “the gospel of God is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” The word of God is the milk that nourishes a new believer. We have everything. So Paul’s message to Timothy is correct. “All Scripture is God breathed and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, complete, and equipped for every good work.” So the God breathed Scripture are all that is necessary to make me everything God wants me to do and equip me to do everything God wants me to do. What else is there? What else is needed?


Ezekiel chapter 2. In chapter 1 Ezekiel had this awesome vision of God in His glory. But it is in an awful time. God in His glory is coming. And the glory of God is about to depart from Israel in these opening chapters of Ezekiel. God speaks to Ezekiel as chapter 2 opens up. “Son of man stand on your feet.” When Ezekiel is in the presence of the glory of God, he fell on his face like a dead man, like John in the book of Revelation as chapter 1 of Ezekiel ends here. And God says, “Son of man stand on your feet that I might speak with you. As He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet and I heard him speaking as he said to me, Son of Man I am sending you to the Sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me.” Sort of lost their way from Exodus 19 didn’t we. Here is My word. You obey it. The people, ?Oh, we will obey it.” Ezekiel now. A thousand years have passed. Ezekiel I want you to go speak to Israel. They are a rebellious people. They rebel against Me. “Their fathers have transgressed against Me to this day. I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children.” And you will say to them, “I’ve got a story for you.” “Thus says the Lord God.” So much for Ezekiel’s creativity. Here is what you tell them Ezekiel. “Thus says the Lord God.” Well that was a different time. They wanted to hear that. Verse 5, “As for them whether they listen or not for they are a rebellious people, they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

You see when I lose focus of what my responsibility is to tell you what God has said, I enter into a maze of confusion. If the goal of my life is that I have to change your life, I have placed myself in God’s role. God has told me to proclaim His truth to you so He can change your life. But when I decide His truth is not changing your life so I have to do something else, then I prevent his work for taking place in your life. “Son of man, neither fear them nor fear their words. Thou thistles and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions.” I like the way he says that in a picturesque way, “for they are a rebellious house. But you shall speak My word to them whether they listen or not.” You know I have the easiest job. I have to tell you what God says whether you listen or not. I don’t get up Monday morning and try to take a poll. What did they think. Sometimes I sit there on Monday and I think Gil, did you accurately and correctly teach that passage? Did you do it justice as best as you could as a frail human being? I see short comings there but woe be if I have to look back and say, “My goal wasn’t to explain that passage to them. My goal was to capture their interests and cause them to see they needed to change.” I could have done that with the 12 step Alcoholic Anonymous approach. And many in the church have found out that works. So why wait upon God to use His word. Thank you; we don’t need You. We found something that works with believer and unbeliever alike. Twelve steps to . . . Seven steps to . . . Never beats having to hammer away with the word of God and trusting God to use it in your thick skull.

Drop down to chapter 3. Ezekiel is given the word of God. He has to eat it. He takes it in the chews the scroll. Verse 3, “Son of man . . .” Chapter 3 verse 3, “Feed your stomach, fill your body with this scroll which I have given you. I ate and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.” Reminds you of the psalmist doesn’t it? Your word was sweet like honey to me. That is my first role. First I have to take in the word of God to nurture and nourish my soul. It has to become part and parcel of my being, like food does to my physical body. “Then he said to me, “Son of man go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them.””


You know what I am giving to you I find myself going back and I have been doing some analyzing of other ministries in the last weeks. And I find myself constantly going back to the word of God saying Lord I have to know. I don’t want to spend my life in ministry on a side track. I don’t want to because of a closed mind and a hard heart be closed to what You would want to do. I have had enough people tell me. Gil, your ministry could really be effective if . . . Well I don’t want to finally get to the bema seat and find out yeah, if Gil, it would have been. So I find myself going back to the word. God, what do you say? What do you say? What is the role of Your servant? And it seems it is clear. “Go to the house of Israel, speak My words to them.” Verse, the end of verse 6, “I have sent you to them that would not listen to you, who should listen to you yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you since they are not willing to listen to Me.” God sends him already and says it is not relevant to them in their view. They are not open to it. They don’t want to hear it. They don’t want to hear it. We act like this is some new end of the 20th century phenomenon. This has always been true of God’s truth in the context of rebellious sinners. Verse 10, “moreover He said to me, “Son of man take into your heart all My words which I shall speak to you and listen closely.”” That’s my role. I am not trying to learn to be a storyteller. I don’t want to bore you with the word of God but quite frankly at times I can’t make it any more interesting than it is. That is what God said. “You go to the exiles and say to the sons of your people. You speak to them and tell them whether they listen or not.”

We have seen some passages from the Old Testament, some passages from the New Testament. Any reason we ought to get off track in the church? I hear about churches that are packing them in by the thousands. I do too. Going back 20 years ago, I analyzed them and visited with their staff and wrote papers on them and studied under professors who were teaching what was going on. I was invited to become part of it. The problem was when I turned from the methodology and came to Scripture, I said no, I can’t do that. I have to agree it gets a great crowd. It packs them in. It is popular. I just have one root problem. It is not biblical.

And I was graced with God with one outstanding feature, not my personality. Thank you. I have been reminded. But I do have something that Ezekiel had, verse 9, “Like emery harder than flint I have made your forehead.” I am thick headed. I am hard headed. What’s he say? You are going to butt heads with them Ezekiel. But don’t worry. You won’t get a headache. I have given you a hard head. And you are going to smack your head against their head. And they are not going to listen to you. But that is the way it is. Now I don’t have a ministry like Ezekiel. God has blessed me to be privileged to minister the word in the context of a body of believers who are responsive to the word, who encourage me in my ministry. I appreciate that. I of all preachers have no excuse for getting off the path. I have a church who prays for me to preach, who often encourages me to preach the word. I am blessed. You are a blessing. And I praise God for the ministry that He has given me here with you. I praise God for you.

My prayer is that we would not lose our focus. I don’t want to miss any of God’s blessings. And I don’t want to close the door on any of God’s blessings but I don’t want to turn from the scripture and create something that would be a blessing in the human realm but is not God’s blessing. I would not want five services packed full with people whose faith was placed in the wisdom of man rather than the power of God. Now if God would be pleased to bless His word and we would quadruple, wonderful. If there are things we could do to be more effective in the ministry of the word without compromise, I trust God will give us willing hearts. If God would be pleased to shrink this ministry to a fraction of what it is for His honor in the ministry of His word, I trust we will be pleased to be instruments to that end as well. For some we a savor of life to life, for other a savor of death to death and who is sufficient or adequate for these things? Our sufficiency and adequacy comes from the Lord who makes us adequate in all things in our ministry. May that characterize us until He comes when our ministry is complete. Let’s pray together.


Thank You Lord for Your faithfulness. Thank You that You are a God who has been pleased to make Yourself known. You have given a revelation through Your Son and You have given a revelation in it’s fullness through Your Word. Lord, by Your grace we have been privileged to enter into an understanding of that truth, to believe it, to grow in it, to be established as a church who is a pillar and support of that. Thank You for the faithfulness of Your people. Thank You for the blessing and encouragement that is mine every week to explain your truth, to responsive people, Lord, to appreciate that my ministry is different than Ezekiel’s, that the people that I minister to are different that Ezekiel’s people. Lord, not to take this blessing for granted. Lord, may we as a church rejoice in the blessing that is ours to serve together with like-minded people. Lord, may we not be proud and arrogant, to recognize it is Your grace that has brought us to this place. It is Your grace that has given us understanding, Your grace that has opened our darkened minds and hearts. It is Your grace that has made us all that we are. And we give Your the glory and all the praise. And that is why we desire to be faithful with the ministry You have entrusted to us that you might receive all the praise and all the honor and all the glory, because we have this treasure in earthen vessels. And it is fitting that all that is accomplished be a reflection of the manifestation of divine power at work in the divine truth in earthen vessels. We give You the praise in Christ’s name, amen.

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