Let the Lion Out

the following message by aleister begg is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truthforlife.org to second timothy and to chapter four paul writes i charge you in the presence of god and of christ jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths as for you always be sober minded endure suffering do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry for i'm already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come i have fought the good fight i have finished the race i have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing amen just a brief prayer as we turn to this passage an old anglican prayer father what we know not teach us what we have not give us what we are not make us for your son's sake we pray amen on the second of june 1953 i can't say that i remember it although i was uh one year old in the context of the coronation of elizabeth ii her majesty the queen she was presented with a bible the presentation was handled both by the archbishop of canterbury and also by a representative of the national church of scotland and these are the words that accompanied the presentation of the bible our gracious queen to keep your majesty ever mindful of the law and gospel of god as the rule for the whole life and government of christian princes we present you with this book the most valuable thing this world affords here is wisdom this is the royal law these are the lively oracles of god some two thousand years earlier not in an abbey but on a mountainside jesus the king declared for truly i say to you until heaven and earth pass away not a jot not a tittle will pass from the law until all is accomplished spurgeon in his day affirming the veracity and vital nature of the bible challenged the idea that the bible needed somehow or another the support of the intellects of those who were teaching it and so he wrote concerning this as follows a great many learned men are defending the gospel no doubt it is a very proper and right thing to do yet i always notice that when there are most books of that kind it is because the gospel itself is not being preached suppose a number of persons were to take it into their heads that they had to defend a lion there he is in his cage and here come all the soldiers of the army to fight for him well i should suggest to them if they would not object and feel that it was humbling to them that they should kindly stand back and open the door and let the lion out i believe that would be the best way of defending him for he would take care of himself and the best apology for the gospel is to let the gospel out never mind about defending deuteronomy or the whole of the pentateuch preached jesus christ and him crucified let the lion out and see who will dare approach him the lion of the tribe of judah will soon drive away all his adversaries what an amazing word and from somebody who died is such a young man and preached so effectively for such a long time he was if you like in the lineage of apostolic authority and so he had paid very careful attention to the words that we have just read just now in the opening verses of this chapter uh the apostle is reminding timothy that he's about to as it were hang up his cleats he has reached the end of his journey like some of us he has more behind him than he has in front of him and there is nothing quite like the prospect of death to clarify the issues of the living of life and so it is he says the time has come for my analysis uh in the way that you would uh weigh anchor and head for a final harbor and destination or the way in which you would unyoke oxen and take them down to the bottom of the field or the way in which you might uh find yourself simply saying here we are at the end of the journey and that's exactly what he's doing and so he recognizes that the scriptures the god's word is absolutely vital if timothy is to continue things into the next generation and at the end of chapter 3 which we didn't read in the classic verse on the inspiration of scripture so-called at least verse 16 and 17 in those verses he's not informing timothy of something that he didn't know he's reminding timothy of something that he must never forget namely that the scriptures all the new testament are divinely inspired that they're completely reliable that they are totally sufficient and that they are the key to the competence and the usefulness of the one who is the servant of that word namely timothy himself and so he is being made aware of the fact that just as people had turned away from paul back in verse 1 verse 15 of chapter 1 remember you are aware that all who are in asia turned away from me and then he mentions one or two others he says to says to timothy they turned away from me and you can be sure that they will turn away from you as well so much so that from a human perspective from a human perspective there was no guarantee that the fledgling church would make it into the next generation was it going to be possible for the post-apostolic church once the apostles all die and go to continue to effectively reach the world for jesus christ and that is why he says it is absolutely imperative that timothy should continue in the things that he has learned knowing those from whom he has learned them and how from infancy he has known the holy scriptures which are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in jesus christ what a wonderful privilege that is entrusted to timothy and to all the timothies that come along behind timothy he is ministering in a time of amazing confusion on two particular fronts morally people do not know how they ought to behave or if they do know they do not want to and doctrinally they do not know what to believe and in that confusion what is timothy to do well the directive is absolutely clear and we can follow align through this passage noticing first of all the charge that he gives to timothy the first word is charge because it's the second word in the text as you will see i charge you now two things about this chart first of all it is solemn it is solemn there's nothing casual or inconsequential about this and this of course is vitally important uh the best of men uh rice matthew henry have need to be odd a w e d have need to be awed by the discharge of their duty remember it perhaps some of you do because there's a very educated group here i believe they've told me that not the pastor but the rest of you apparently is strong but if if you're if you remember in the in the gravediggers scene in in in hamlet where they come on the gravediggers and the gravediggers are having a carry on and they're laughing and joking and doing all these different things and the one says that i can't remember who it is liars or something like that he says what what what's going on with these fellows they're digging graves here and they're and they're laughing and they're joking and the reply of his companion is i think it is that custom hath made of it in them a property of easiness in other words the routine has dulled them to the reality of the task to which they have been entrusted therefore it doesn't matter if you have been 36 weeks 36 months or 36 years in the teaching of the bible matthew henry is right it is needful that those who take up the bible should be awed by the discharge of that ministry paul is and timothy must be notice why i say it is solemn i charge you in the presence of god in other words he says timothy you and i need to know that our ministry is exercised with god the father and god the son as witnesses when jesus comes in power he will judge the living and the dead paul lived his life in the light of christ's appearing and so must timothy because remember the pastor the leader in the church is keeping watch over the souls of his under his care and he does so as one who will give an account to whom not to the chairman of the deacon's board but we care about that but not on julie not in a way that keeps me awake at night no every word spoken every pastoral care exercised every foolish word that came out of my unruly heart i will give an account for lend out many of you become teachers rights james for those who teach will be charged with greater strictness there is an amazing reality that accompanies the privilege we understand that and so he's driving it home knox you remember john knox it was said of knox that he lived with such a fear of god that he never feared the face of any man in other words this solemn charge is on account of the fact that timothy is to live in the now in light of the then paul has exercised his ministry existentially in the now in light of the appearing of jesus he says there's going to be there's going to be a test at the end of this there's an exam at the end there's an appointment that we're going to keep if you read church history i think you will find that those who have made the greatest impact in the now are those who have lived with a distinct expectation of the then take for example murray mcshane who died at 29 but he gave us the hymn which reads when this passing world is done and when has sunk young glaring son when i stand with christ on high looking or life's history then lord shall i fully know not till then how much i owe the charge is solemn but secondly you will notice that the charge is also simple simple in this respect that it is straight forward it's not difficult to grasp all that paul has already written it both in the first and in his second letter concerning the pattern of sound words or the good deposit or the word of truth or the sacred writings all of that under underpins this exhortation and what he's making clear to timothy is it is word ministry and it is to be exercised in the awareness that the word of god accomplishes the work of god by the spirit of god in the people of god and without that conviction i have no way of knowing why a man would ever be in a pulpit unless we actually believe because we're essentially farmers we sow the seed we can plant it we can water it but we can't make it grow unless the word of god is germinated by the power of the spirit of god then it is an exercise in futility because see effective preaching is not related to personality it's not related to histrionics certainly not on the part of the preacher effective preaching is directly related to a sense of the consciousness of god you see when when there is preaching that is owned of god people actually listen do you know something children listen they don't get everything but they do get something i know that both by observation and i know it by personal experience because if you were to go back um 50 years in my life 55 years in my life an event like this that had taken place in glasgow scotland would probably involve me in so far as my sorry little person was dragged there by my mother and father what sensible 12-year-old scottish boy on a friday evening wants to be involved in something like this not many that i know certainly not me but would i be here tonight without having been the 12 year old boy when all thy mercies oh my god my rising soul surveys transported with the view i'm lost in wonder love and praise unnumbered comforts to my soul your tender care bestowed before my infant heart conceived from whom these comforts flowed i say just a word in passing to the parents and the grandparents if you're not going to bring them under the sound of the teaching of the bible before the age of 12 when are you planning on doing it and how much catch-up do you want to do after you've given away the greater part of their early lives it is an immense challenge you because he says timothy you you you are the beneficiary irrespective of your dad you're the beneficiary of a guy a godly granny and a godly mom it's a fantastic thing it's an immense privilege powerful preaching is what god intends that's why in the book of deuteronomy the word that is given to moses is gather the people to me that i may let them hear my words so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on earth and that they may teach their children so the lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire listen you heard the sound of words but saw no form they gather together to hear god's voice you see what are we really doing when we teach the bible sunday by sunday i speak to those of us who share this privilege we're not simply trying to educate people about the content of the bible we are doing that we're not actually simply trying to explain to them what a passage means with a couple of practical pointers that they can discuss when they're having their lunch or later on in the day or in the week that is part of it but in the preaching of the bible what we are looking to have happen is a life shaping encounter with god himself through his word you see that's why the bible says today if you hear god's voice do not harden your hearts now you can all hear my voice but you may not hear god's voice it is god's voice that is to be heard ultimately you see jesus is the preacher ultimately actually jesus is the worship leader he is the one who stands in the midst of the congregation and leads the people in praise in this in the 60s we used to sing he is here he is here he is moving among us he is here he is here as we gather in his name and he's here and he's here and he wants to work a wonder when's the last time we sang that some of us haven't saw it in 20 years some of us have never even thought about it solemn charge simple charge and you say yeah that's enough on the first point let's charge ahead yes i i could i couldn't agree i couldn't agree more what god what god spoke to the apostles was then bequeathed to us in their writings so that we have the word of god as peter puts it that men were were led by god as they were moved along by the holy spirit we have the words of god and it is here we find ourselves at the beginning of the 21st century and the concerns of the previous century sort of die on our ears and once again we find ourselves sorely in need of this charge and here's the question for you for us are we convinced that the regular expository teaching of the bible is the driving force that shapes authentic church life are we convinced that the scriptures are the tiller which guides the vessel through the water so that we look beyond them and may i say just in passing that it is possible for us to do as we've been doing throughout today and that is to make much of the fact that we are a word-centered committed people and so on which of course we are but here we need to recognize something that is of vital importance and that is that it is possible for us either as congregations or as individuals to be fully committed to the fact that the word of god is living and it is authoritative too without being ourselves arrested by it or summoned into his presence or bowing in reverence before the one to whom it points because the plan of god from all of eternity is to conform us to the image of his son well if the charge is as i've suggested what are we to make then of the next point you say well if you tell us what the next point is uh we'll be glad to follow along with you well the challenge that is represented in it the challenge is represented in it in verse 2 you will notice that he is to preach this word whether he feels like it or whether he doesn't feel like it when people are hostile or whether they're receptive whether they're tuned in or turned off when the prospect if you like of sunday is delightful and when it's dreadful when the crowds are growing or when the cows crowds are dwindling that's all wrapped up in that straightforward charge hence the notion of the word of god doing its work sometimes reproving rebuking exhorting not always comfortable but always profitable and in the process of that you will notice that this is to be done with complete patience and teaching sometimes i wish the adjectives were different from what they are couldn't have just said with a little bit of patience rather than complete patience you know one of the benefits of living a little longer than you had lived before today is that you're able to look back over things and realize how gracious people have been to us in pastoral ministry who have tolerated us all right let's just put it very personal who have tolerated me because when i look back on things i realize how as a younger man impatience is so much a part of my existence and patience about everything we've got to get moving we've got to finish this project we've got to get that done and so instead of standing in front of people and leading them i find myself looking back that i was standing behind the people and trying to drive them forward and as a young man we're believing the notion that we can accomplish far more in a year than we can and we're not aware of just how much we can accomplish in five years if we would only be a little more patient a young minister is prone to try to attain by one jump the height which others have reached by a long series of single steps in the labor of a quarter of a century you know you look at the guy and you all i think i can do that i'll be able to do that a lot faster than him or maybe you will but maybe you won't anyway to the challenge for the time is coming verse 3 when people will not endure sound teaching he's already made him aware of the fact that some people will swear from the truth and so he has now got to exercise his ministry faced with people who are turning away from truth and who are turning into myth hence the time is coming back in chapter 3 if your bible is open you can see that he has begun there to say you need to understand it in the last days and we're always in the last days admittedly there will be the last days to the last days but the last days are ushered in if you like with the appearing of jesus and with his reappearing they will end the time is coming he says the time is always coming because this is a recurring phenomenon isn't it when you read this you say goodness gracious ephesus seems to be a lot like cleveland ohio and cleveland may be very similar here to honolulu for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching now we quoted earlier from deuteronomy 4 regarding moses and remember the word of god to moses was about the fact that they didn't see anything but they simply heard the word go back to deuteronomy 4 and start to read there and read on into deuteronomy and what do we discover that within a relatively short time the people who had listened to god's voice in that way had forsaken the audible for the visual they said now we don't want to listen to any more boring sermons from moses there's a lot of other exciting things that are going on around us here why do we why do we only have a situation where we have this uh man who speaks to us as it were why can't we have something a lot more dramatic than that and you hear this again and again i don't want to have to invite my friends to another quotes boring sermon why can't we jazz it up i don't want to stand on anybody's toes well actually i don't mind standing on toes but the fact of the matter is that the the great appeal amongst many of the younger men is to wow people uh with their ability uh to uh incorporate the the technical geniuses of of the media world in our day and not least of all in sermons so uh just at a moment like this you uh put up a little piece from chariots of fire you see and then and then all of a sudden as evangelists are playing and they're going and you go back 30 years and you remember that and you now you're completely distracted from whatever he was on about but this is fantastic now we've got a movie and here we are i jenny he made me for himself but he also made me fast and when i run i feel his pleasure and then he says room and the video goes away and people go oh no don't do that don't do that keep the video that was good you got the same thing with people they teach they teach hermeneutics in in southern baptist seminaries and they tell the people you have to begin with this great illustration so you start off you know it was just last tuesday i was flying from chicago to saint to salt lake city we were at 35 000 feet people are like wow this is good and then they go on and on and on whatever happens in the soil sources and then and then it says now let's look at verse 3. the bill no i don't want to look at verse 3. i love that stuff give me about give me more of this stuff you see now that's exactly what had happened in deuteronomy they foreseek the verbal or the audible for the visual they exchanged essentially the truth of god for a lie as martin luther said if a man will not have god he must have his idols if we're not going to go over the way god has prepared to reveal himself then we need to face facts and so he says timothy you're going to have to be in prepared for the times when people will not endure sound teaching he's already exhorted him to follow the pattern of sound words in his first letter he's warned him that some who teach a different doctrine that does not agree with the sound words of our lord jesus christ as first timothy 6 3 will be prevalent among them instead of availing themselves of the teaching that will make them godly and make them healthy and make them useful they will go he says in search of the intriguing the fascinating the speculative and the spicy that's what he's saying and so in keeping with us already been disclosed for us today and so helpfully we realize what a tremendous temptation it would be for timothy to say well if this is where the general trend is going why would i not just simply go with the flaw if they're more interested in novelty than in orthodoxy then why don't i just tune back the orthodoxy and give them a little more of the novelty if they want to seek out teachers to tell them what they want to hear maybe i should just tell them what they want to hear and they'll keep coming well you see what paul was doing here and exhorting timothy in this way not only does it pump forward to where we are tonight but it also reaches back even into the time of the prophets because remember when god speaks to isaiah in his day you can follow this up for homework incidentally around chapter 30 of isaiah god's people are rejecting the word of god's servant not because it isn't clear but because it's too clear they're not saying we can't understand you isaiah they're saying we don't want to listen to you because we can understand you they didn't want them to stop preaching they just wanted him to preach in a manner that would make them feel uncomfortable that would allow them to accommodate their passions and so god's word to his servant is this quotes they are a rebellious people lying children children unwilling to hear the instruction of the lord who say to the seers do not see and to the prophets do not prophesy to us what is right speak to us smooth things prophesy illusions leave the way turn aside from the path let us hear no more of the holy one of israel tell me lies tell me lies tell me sweet little lies that's what they're saying lie to me about the nature of sexuality lie to me about the nature of marriage as being heterosexual monogamous lifelong lie to me about the issues of sexual purity make it possible for me to engage in a form of spirituality that is completely unhinged from the clarity of the instruction of the bible and then we will all be happy and we will bring many more with us jeremiah at the same time an appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule at their own discretion and my people love to have it so so there you have it 600 years before jesus jesus comes and uh they they do a very good job if they could throw him off over the over the hillside after he had uh made the dramatic statement remember when he'd return to the synagogue in nazareth today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing and then when they heard the word as it really came to them they say we don't like this word why don't we take him and throw him off the side of a cliff and so the same for the prophet and the same for jesus and the same in the day of timothy now scotland my native land was known as the scots were known as the people of the book the people of the book glasgow's motto my birthplace as i was born and grew up was let glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word and by the praising of his name today the mortal has been shortened to let glasgow flourish scotland is the drug suicide capital of western europe you see glasgow nor any city can't flourish just by being told to flourish the foundation is in the word of god the word of truth well you're being very patient the charge is clear in verses one and two the challenge i suggest to you in verses three and four is great and so says paul that provides timothy with an opportunity to display if you like his commitment you know i i wanted a third c and i couldn't think of a good one and so usually when you try for three when you try alliteration there's always one that doesn't really work and um this doesn't work particularly well but anyway it's okay i didn't need to mention it to you figure that out for yourselves but um no so uh the the the the charge is is a solemn charge it's a simple charge and so much as it is understandable the challenge that he faces is in light of the environment in which he ministers and the commitment to which he is called is straightforward here and in verse 5 paul adds four more imperatives to the five imperatives that you have all picked up already in verse two i'm sure and he provides timothy with a tall order with what i might say so at the risk of being politically incorrect he provides him with a man-sized challenge he gives him a realistic statement about what christian ministry is all about confronted by opposition aware of the danger of isolation it would be all too easy for him to throw in the towel to lie down on the grass but come on now timothy this is no time for self-pity rather it's an opportunity for you to stay steady to face whatever suffering may come to go unsteadily preaching the gospel to complete the task and so he says so let me give it to you just in a four-fold directive you say oh no this is going to start about another whole sermon with four points no no no i've lived through enough of those i won't do that to you but i do want you to notice the four points as for you always be sober minded or in the niv you may be using it keep your head in all situations some have already become intoxicated by the heavy wine of their of the nonsense that is being proclaimed they've wandered away they've drifted off this would not be a good time for timothy to use pastoral cruise control or if you like automatic pilots one of my friends said to me i realize you use a lot of aviation illustrations is that because you're afraid to fly no it's not because i'm afraid to fly but thank you for checking i but here is another illustration the 737 plane that has been grounded forever and who knows when it will make his reappearance has pointed up one of the most significant factors in aviation and that is that many of the pilots choose not to fly the plane once it's off the end of the runway they do not fly the plane up through the first four or five thousand feet and many of them do not fly the plane back from ten thousand feet down consequently they have become adept at using automatic pilot but when everything hits the fan they are so unskilled in their training that they put themselves and everybody at risk and so there is a great push if i read the press correctly to take many of these pilots back to basic training and say this is how you fly this plane up until this point and this is how you bring it down it's essential it makes sense i mean you don't want you don't want the the getting on the plane and and saying you know um who's the pilot they say mr mr jenkins oh yeah yeah i think i've seen him before is he any good no but he's a very nice man i don't care if he's nice i don't care if he's spiteful i care if he can fly so timothy you're the pastor are you any good no but i'm a very nice man listen one of the reasons that people don't like preaching is because there's so much rotten preaching because either guys are ungifted or they're unprepared or they're not taking seriously the challenges before them and or that their people are not praying for them persistently before they preach as they preach and when they've preached for again to quote spurgeon he reminded his people i may preach the exact same sermons to far greater effect if you will only pray for me if you will only make it possible for me to do what i've been called to do timothy you can't fall asleep you mustn't fall asleep it's crucial that you stay awake they stay alert you stay vigilant and you make sure that you are not susceptible to the speculative notions nor are you unsettled by the numbers of people who've decided to be drawn away you are not to be intermittently alert you are to be always alert it's my final aviation story because i feel like i i owe the honesty of it but sometimes i i when i fly very long distances in the middle of the night when i'm going let's say to northern india out of newark and all of a sudden it's pitch dark everywhere and everybody's closed everything down and and i'm like where the world are we well we're in the air i got that part yeah i know but oh man i look out the window i can't see anything and i know that we're gonna fly over like afghani airspace and all that kind of stuff and so then i'm thinking well and then i say what if the pilots are both asleep what if what if they died with the automatic pilot thing they said get a hold of yourself maybe one of them could die but they're not both going to die for this well the odds are not good yeah and i'm trying to get myself calmed down having just said that i'm not frightened about flying no i'm not frightened about flying but i'm frightened about being in a steel tube going at 600 miles an hour in the pitch dark no i don't know where i am so you know what i do i actually ring the bell and then i wake up one of the girls or the men whatever the people the stewards and they come up and i say where are we and they look at me like what i'd say yeah i was just you know i the flight map thing is is now very specific i just wondered where we are see well i don't know where we are i said you don't think you could just ask the pilot could you [Music] so she goes away and she comes back she says yeah the pilot says we're just in over sessions i said oh good that's great all i want to know is the guy's still alive that's all i want to know i don't care where we are stay alert timothy you're flying the plane stay awake for goodness sake it's going to be the first time that they flew right over the california coast over the jolly what do you call it the islands there and and they had to do a big u-turn and come back everybody's going that's funny i never we never ever landed in this direction that's because they were asleep up there and they woke up over catalina okay so this is not you're not allowed to know these things but this is the fact and timothy timothy is got a problem right keep your head secondly and someone says well why don't you keep your head i will starting starting tomorrow endure suffering endure suffering not a news not a new note paul is sounding out a refrain chapter one sharing suffering for the gospel by the power of god you need to know this which is why i suffer as i do my gospel chapter 2 for which i am suffering in paul's case it was certainly physical as it is for many of our brothers and sisters today for timothy or for us suffering may be more mental and emotional although physical may yet for many of us still be on the horizon as people chase around in search for a more politically acceptable gospel there will inevitably be a cost involved in guarding the good deposit to declare publicly and in private the assessment that the bible gives of man men and women as sinful guilty responsible and lost to proclaim that will come at significant cost i beg your pardon i never promised you a rose garden along with the sunshine there's going to be a little rain sometimes i i i routinely on sunday nights i go home i tell my wife tomorrow i am getting a proper job she says what's wrong i said i can't do this anymore she used to say oh honey now she just says oh be quiet and go to bed and then as i'm putting on my pajamas she says you know you're entirely unemployable your best chance is home depot the tragedy with that is she's absolutely right but you know i don't preach and say let's go out and have fun maybe some do for me it is not a matter of elation nor is it a matter of sort of undue self-pity and so on but there is a heavy burden that attaches to this sunday by sunday week by week month by month year by year unless of course custom hath made of it in me a matter of easiness thirdly do the work of an evangelist well i don't think paul's suggesting that he changes his role i.e he's not going to be a pastor a teacher he's got a new job he's going to be an evangelist now i think all he's saying is go on steadily preaching the gospel go on steadily preaching the gospel the quote that i mangled today in the q a time i found and it is from a quest for godliness and it does come from j.i packer and this is what he says if one preaches the bible biblically one cannot help preaching the gospel all the time and every sermon will be as bolton said at least by implication evangelistic you know the great challenge we have is to let people know the immensity of the love of god in their in their brokenness and in their quest and longing for some way to make sense of the narrative of their lives and it's not a good idea for us to deviate from course by using our pulpit to chase down the heretics he's using the pulpit to explain that this person's wrong and that person's wrong and i want you to know that they're wrong too and frankly most of them are wrong except me after a little while you know you're going to have to give up on that how many friends have deviated from course by embracing a ministry which started off declaring if you like the love of god for sinners and and and became a mechanism for denunciation or for condemning the darkness can you believe this do you know what's going on yeah we all live in the world or embracing political agitation and agendas and so on making america great again or in canada's case you don't have to because they're already great at least that's what the canadians told me now timothy and all the timothies after him dare not neglect the ongoing work of declaring that the son of god came to die for our sins that he offers to clothe us in his righteousness to prevent present us focus before the presence of god in eternity the only safe haven for men and women is in the mercy of god as revealed in jesus in whom every part of our salvation is complete so keep your head in silver mindedness and your suffering do the work of an evangelist and fulfill your ministry in other words just keep going finish the job carry to the full the commission that god has given you that that really is it isn't it that we would be able to keep to keep to the end you know simeon in in cambridge who was the pastor there um at emmanuel for 54 years they said to him charles you're an older man now you have exercise ministry for all these years you don't have to keep going you'd have to keep getting up at this time in the morning you don't have to keep doing all the sermons you don't have to keep preaching like this why don't you just back it off and he said shall i not run with all my might now that i see the finishing line in view i can't run some of you run but you know that especially in long distance running the kick is important when when do you go you got to go and here as i move around from place to place i hear the people telling me last uh 10 days ago i was in london because of ligonier ministries and rc sprole and we had a a video of rc sprole his life passed in about four minutes on the video and in many ways his life did pass in about four minutes and what's the word on the street what are we going to do now all the old boys are going spro is gone and i can't mention any names now but you know who they are they're the ancient of days right they're not finished but they're close and so people say i don't know what's going to happen it's a it's a peculiar thing isn't it it's like when you become a grandparent you start saying things like your grandfather used to do like i don't know what's going to happen to my grandchildren in this world my grandfather said that i'm doing fine thank you j.c rile says fear not for the church of christ when ministers die and saints are taken away christ can ever maintain his own cause he will raise up better servants and brighter stars he will raise up better servants and brighter stars and those better servants and those brighter stars will be those who follow in the pattern of sound words that paul has now given to timothy who do exactly as timothy has been urged to do for it is the pattern of apostolic ministry it is the true apostolic succession not by means of the laying of hands through bishop pricks and so on but through the passing on of the gospel one final quote to you from a man by the name of hugh martin uh his book maybe through there a new biography of him or actually a new a new group of his sermons i think published by banner of truth but martin was one of the men who in the disruption of the middle of the 19th century um left uh the established church of scotland to to establish uh the free church of scotland and on a momentous occasion in the assembly of the national church when the issue was called 431 ministers stood up and walked out at peril of their own livelihood their own families and their own place of ministry they walked out into nowhere for the sake of the gospel hugh martin says alas that so many who ought to be teachers deal as falsely and irreverently with the oracles of god as a cat playing with her kittens or a kitten with a cork i am sorely afraid that there is to be a great decline in our church a great lack of holy courage in contending for the inferible truth of the entire scriptures and truly men that can tolerate the substitution of the natural for the supernatural or of human reason for divine revelation those men are not only no longer worthy their sustaination but are no longer worth their salt may god raise up men taught from above and valiant for every jordan tittle of divine truth for it shall stand should heaven and earth pass away and if you meet any after i am gone who do courageously stand for all revealed truth give them my compliments and tell them to be strong and of good courage for now even at this present time their heads shall be lifted up above their foes let them yield not to the current sentimental christianity that would convert men's faith in a living glorious inexhaustible infallible word into empty-headed empty-hearted speculations no better than chinese puzzles or acted charades god will avenge such trifling the scripture cannot be broken it is the testimony of him who is himself the eternal word the question is do we really believe it and are we going to be prepared to affirm it in a collapsing culture in the face of a confused church lest we would become added to the list of compromised and cowardly pastors it's not unlikely that some of you will be imprisoned in this country for your convictions about the authority of scripture not in terms of the question of do you believe that the bible is an inerrant word nobody gives a rat's tale about that conversation no the stuff that's in the press today about the removal of the tax-free status of local congregations who refuse to affirm the present perspective on gender and homosexuality it is a slow train coming but the train will arrive in the platform surely this is no time for automatic pilot but to keep your head into your hardship do the work of an evangelist and fulfill all the duties of your ministry i'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet you can do without what you wish father thank you that the bible is fixed the bible is true that all men are like grass and the glory of man like the flower of the field the grass withers and the flower falls but the word of the lord endures forever and this is the word says peter which by the gospel was preached to you lord jesus help us to follow in your footsteps help us lord to take the torch that flaming fell from the hands of those who gave their lives proclaiming that jesus died and rose ours is the same commission the same glad message ours and fired by that same ambition to you we yield our powers in jesus name amen this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living to learn more about truth for life with aleister begg visit us online at truthforlife.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 144,242

Keywords: Evangelism, God’s Word, Pastors, Pastoral Ministry, Preaching

Id: COnxryLHp6I

Length: 57min 10sec (3430 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 01 2020