grahamline

Continuance in Justification by C. John Miller, 11 April 1979

By grahamline April 24, 2024 April 24, 2024

I wish to affirm that faith alone is the exclusive means for the believer’s continuance in justification. In the divine act of initial justification, faith alone obtains God’s once-and-for-all pardon and free acceptance. The same is true for justification as an ongoing manifestation in the life of the believer. My sins that are daily confessed are pardoned through faith without any addition of works.

There is a clear biblical rationale for this continued preeminence of faith in receiving forgiveness throughout your life. There is an inseparable connection between Christ alone and faith alone. Faith alone is just my way of taking nothing from myself and all from Christ. The ground or procuring cause of forgiveness is always and only the priestly sacrifice of Christ, and faith is always and only the sole means or instrumental cause for claiming His blood and righteousness for our acquittal before the throne of the Highest.

Your own conscience as a Christian readily confirms this conclusion. When you daily confess your sins, do you remind God of your course of covenantal obedience as a cause of acquittal? I think not. You claim in all humility the blood of Christ as your sole hope. In the presence of the Most High you deny that your good works could give you an interest in His favor. You acknowledge that apart from the justifying work of Christ your best efforts are filled with evil. In doing this, you act by faith alone — which is simply to say you look away from yourself to Christ alone.

Compelling Scriptural support for this attitude is found in Philippians 3. Paul is here speaking as a Christian man, not as someone coming to Christ for the first time. His choice of language is intriguing, almost paradoxical. You might almost sum up verses 4 through 11 as Paul portrays himself as laboring intensively not to rest in his own labors. According to him, everything that he had by way of gain from his law-keeping has gone overboard, tossed over by the Apostle’s own hands (v. 7). That is the past. But Paul did not see his struggle with Judaism and the way of law-keeping as a mere phase of his past. Instead, he sees the works-righteousness of Judaism as, in the words of G. C. Berkouwer, “a symptom of the threat to grace inherent in man’s sinful self-importance.”[1] As such, then, the struggle against law-works goes on in Paul’s ongoing life as a man of God. In vs. 8 the battle against works is in the present. Paul says: “Yes, what is more, I certainly do count all things to be sheer loss because of the all-surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffer the loss of all these things, and I am still counting them refuse, in order that I may gain Christ” (William Hendriksen’s translation). Knowing the deceitful way of man’s arrogant heart, Paul makes it the first order of business in the present (and the future too) not to run after anything but “the righteousness from God which depends on faith” (v. 9 RSV). In this matter of justification paradoxically he labors not to have “a righteousness of my own” (v. 9). The idea is that Paul does not trust himself. He gives all his attention to making sure that he may not be drawn away by “man’s sinful self-importance” to build a record of achievement sufficient to earn a stake in his justification.

The matter can be made even clearer by looking at Paul’s citation of the examples of Abraham and David in Romans 4:1-8. It seems certain that both men were believers and already justified by grace at this time. The citation of Genesis 15:6 in vs. 3 indicates that Abraham had been a believer for some years, and the quotation from Ps. 32 of David’s experience is unquestionably the statement of faith of a man already a believer and therefore already a justified person.

Now considering that Paul is speaking to believers, note the direction of Paul’s reasoning. He argues that Abraham was acquitted through faith altogether apart from works done by him. Verse 2 introduces the subject: “For if Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not toward God” (ARV). Verse 5 then draws the conclusion: “and to the one who does not work but trusts in Him who justifies the ungodly, His faith is credited to Him for righteousness.” The opposition between faith and works here is obvious. This faith-works dichotomy is found in the life of the believer whenever justification (pardon of sins and acceptance with God) is in view.

The same line of thought is applied by Paul to David with equal vigor. He writes: “So also David pronounces a blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness without works” (vs. 6). This “without works” is the same as saying nothing from man but all from God. Or to state the issue more precisely, Paul is teaching that even the noblest believing men — Abraham and David — cannot rely upon their good works for their justification. Whenever the specific concern is the acquittal of sinners against the charge of sin, the only condition is that of faith.

My purpose, then, is to affirm that always in justification understood as remission of sins we must see works and faith as in opposition. I am persuaded that this is the Reformed way. Among the continental Reformed, of the seventeenth century, Ludovicus Crocius (1636) states flatly: “So not only are those works excluded from the act of justification, which are emitted before faith and conversion, but also those which proceed from faith (my italics).[2] Gulielmus Bucanus (1609) is so zealous to exclude all works from justification that he concludes: “As regards justification faith is purely a passive thing, bringing nothing of ours to conciliate God, but receiving from Christ what we lack (my italics).[3]

Francisco’s Burmannus (1699) sums it all up this: “Indeed faith is so opposed to works in this matter that it even excludes itself if it is considered as a work. Although regarded by itself it is a work, in justification it is not regarded after this manner but purely as an instrumental work” (my italics).[4]

In the British tradition, Anthony Burgess, prominent member of the Westminster Assembly, states: “That distinction of faith justifying … which is lively and working, but not AS lively and working; is not trifling …” He adds: “Neither is this justification by faith alone, excluding the conditionality of works to be applied to our justification at first only, but as continued; so that from first to last, we are justified all along by faith …” (my italics). He concludes: “… The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, not faith to works” (Rom 1:17).[5]

Speaking for the Independents, John Owen also writes:

“Some say that, on our part, the continuation of this state of our justification depends on the condition of good works; that is, that they are of the same consideration and use with faith itself herein. In our justification, itself there is, they will grant, somewhat peculiar unto faith; but as to the continuation of our justification, faith and works have the same influence unto it; yea, some seem to ascribe it distinctly unto works in an especial manner, with this only proviso, that they be done in faith. For my part I cannot understand that the continuance of our justification hath any other dependencies than hath our justification itself. As faith alone is required unto the one, so faith alone is required unto the other, although its operations and effects in the discharge of its duty and office in justification and the confutation of it, are diverse …”[6]

But James Buchanan, successor to Thomas Chalmers in the chair of divinity at New College in Edinburgh, is even stronger in maintaining that in the relationship to justification works and faith are opposed. He is of the view that the pride even of believing man is sufficient to turn the fruits of the Spirit into law works. He reasons that “the same works” can be described from two standpoints. From the standpoint of the “fruits of sanctification,” they are “an odor of a sweet smell, holy, acceptable to God,” but from the standpoint of the ground of our justification, or as forming any part of our TITLE to that inheritance, they are to be utterly rejected, and treated as ‘dung’ and ‘filthy rags’ with reference to that end.”[7]

Perhaps better than anyone else Calvin puts it all together. Speaking in the Institutes of the opposition between faith and works, he says that it is necessary to reject the position of even “the sounder Schoolmen.” They grant that “the beginning of justification” consists in the sinner’s being “freely delivered from condemnation.” On this point “there is no controversy between us.” Where we differ is that these “sounder Schoolmen” teach that “the regenerate man … being once reconciled to God by means of Christ … is afterwards deemed righteous by his good works and is accepted in consideration of them.”[8]

By contrast, Calvin says that throughout our lives “We must hold fast” our trust in Christ, not in our works. To prove his point, he turns to Romans 4 and its citation of Abraham and David. He reasons along lines that I have already expressed in this work. Concerning Abraham, Calvin writes:

“Abraham had long served God with a pure heart and performed that obedience of the Law which a mortal man is able to perform: yet his righteousness still consisted in faith. Hence, we infer, according to the reasoning of Paul, that it was not of works. In like manner, when the prophet says, ‘The just shall live by his faith’ (Hab. ii. 4), he is not speaking of the wicked and profane, whom the Lord justifies by converting them to the faith: his discourse is directed to believers, and life is promised to them by faith.”[9]

In the same context, Calvin also says of the citation of Psalm 32:1-2 by Paul in Romans 4:7-8:

“It is certain that David is not speaking of the ungodly, but of believers such as himself was, because he was giving utterance to the feelings of his own mind. Therefore, we must have this blessedness not only once, but must hold it fast during our whole lives (my italics). Moreover, the message of free reconciliation with God is not promulgated for one or two days but is declared to be perpetual in the church (2 Cor. v. 18). Hence believers have not even to the end of life any other righteousness than that which is there described. Christ ever remains a Mediator to reconcile the Father to us, and there is a perpetual efficacy in his death — vix., ablution, satisfaction, expiation; in short, perfect obedience, by which all our iniquities are covered. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul says not that the beginning of salvation is of grace, but ‘by grace’ are ye saved,’ ‘not of works, lest any man should boast’” (Eph. 2:8-9).[10]

After spending several more pages explaining why the better Schoolmen are mistaken, Calvin drives the final nail. In the continuance of justification, these theologians talk about the “partial righteousness” of the believer and the gift of “accepting grace” which makes up for its incompleteness. As far as Calvin is concerned this is stuff and nonsense. They forget that the law of God always demands absolute righteousness of the believer as well as the unbeliever, “the only righteousness acknowledged in heaven being the perfect righteousness of the law.”[11] For this reason even the best works of the believer have no place as a cause or condition of our justification. At this point Calvin’s writing exhibits unusual energy and intensity of conviction. He wishes to allow no loophole for works. He seizes the language most familiar to the Schoolmen — that of Aristotle’s four causes. Concerning the efficient cause, we can find nothing of works here. This can only be “the mercy and free love of the heavenly Father toward us.” The material cause cannot be works but Christ and His righteousness. The final cause “is the demonstration of the divine righteousness and the praise of His goodness.” No works here. And the instrumental cause? That can never be works “but faith.” The nail has gone home. Now nothing is loose. Faith guarantees that it is of grace in the Christian life. It is clear why Calvin in the Institutes puts justification by faith in the section dealing with the Christian life. He wants “the saints” to know that for grace to be all in all for them “the blessing of justification is possessed by faith alone.”[12]

My purpose, then, is to affirm that always in justification understood as remission of sins we must keep faith and works in opposition. The sole condition for continuing in justification from sins is faith alone. For the Reformed, Calvin says the matter is not negotiable. It is the biblical way, issuing from the vision of the majesty of God. When we lift our eyes to the King on high, our good works always dissolve into nothingness. In awe, we cry: “Enter not into judgment with thy servant” (Psalm 143:2). Concerning the comprehensive salvation of the believer, we insist upon the necessity of good works with all vigor. But in this specific matter of forgiveness and acceptance with God in relationship to Christ’s priestly office, we must hold unwaveringly to faith alone. This must be as true of the believer from the moment he first trusts in Christ to the moment of his death. He is ever in danger of converting the fruits of the Spirit into legal works presented to the Father as a good record warranting acceptance.

Among Christian leaders this temptation is the most common one. Because their position and religious activity, they often stand well in the eyes of men. Then gradually they feel “justified” before public opinion by their performance and attainments. From this human self-evaluation it is but a small step to self-elevation before God. When this happens, the conscience begins to be troubled, and confession of sin becomes oppressive and half-hearted (Lam 1:14). The wheels of life go heavy in the sand, with the result that a great deal of churning about produces very little (Psalm 39:11), work and worship become increasingly mechanical, and the spirit is left restless and unsatisfied even in the midst of intense Christian activity (Heb. 9:14). Day and night the hand of God is heavy upon the believer, and he may experience physical sickness in this state (Psalm 32:3,4).

Once at a pastor’s conference, I met a young man who described himself along these lines. He explained that when he first entered the ministry God put an unusual blessing upon his life and work. Under his guidance, every part of the church life proved to be fruitful. This brought him great joy. But after two years something went wrong, first with himself, then with the congregation. He was mystified. Where did the power of the Spirit go? Why did He [God] withdraw a large measure of the blessing?

The young pastor suggested an answer: pride. To this insight, I added a question: “Do you suppose that somehow you began to offer your good works and accomplishments to God as a basis for your justification?” I explained the matter much as it is set forth in this chapter. To my astonishment, he looked as though he had been cut to the heart by a dagger. In a moment he burst into tears.

After leaving him alone for a couple of hours, I returned to my even greater astonishment and found him with joy unlike anything I had ever seen before in a minister. He had been through deep waters but had landed on the rock of Psalm 32 and Romans 3-4. “Of course,” he explained, in effect, “I was already a Christian. But through my self-righteousness and pride I was leaning heavily on my own record for my relationship with God.” He concluded that this was partly unconscious. He had no idea that he had for all practical purposes abandoned justification by faith alone and mixed in work as part of his hope of acceptance with God.

But does this suggest that there is more than one justification? Are we to conclude that Abraham, David, and our young pastor were justified twice? Not at all. I find no evidence in Scripture for repeated justifications. But the Bible does teach that real pardon does continue to take place after the first and final imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the sinner through the conditionality of faith alone. The initial act of definitive or absolute justification brought into being an unalterable relationship. Further remission of sins is the effect and consequence of that first imputation. Subsequent forgiveness is, then, through faith alone as an application of that initial act of justification. It is not a second and different act of justification.

So further pardon is not a repeated justification. The Scriptures know nothing of the shakiness and doubts that go with the schemes of multiple justifications. At the same time, subsequent pardon is not reduced to a charge by the initial declaration of forgiveness by God. It is all too easy for us to think that justification via imputation is a cold, dead legal issue, settled forever is some remote heavenly courtroom. This caricature is just close enough to the truth to be dangerously misleading. In fact, justification is a final legal pronouncement settled in heaven. But what has happened in much so-called Christian thinking is the acceptance of the devil’s own distortion. “Once-for-all” is bent so as to mean “far-off”, “inert”, and “inapplicable”. Carried a step further, this partly unconscious trend expresses itself in the mental attitude that it is somehow doctrinally unsound to confess sins too heartily and feelingly — or daringly to believe that they have been completely removed by the blood of Christ. At bottom, the idea is: why ask for something you already have as a justified Christian?

Finally, this caricature of justification by faith alone ends up either turning the confession of sins into a meaningless routine or causing confession to God through Christ to cease altogether. After all, the man thinks: Am I not already forgiven? Are not my sins already under the blood?

But such careless presumption is not the way faith. Faith knows that further pardon is no charade. It is actual. When we confess our sins in Jesus’ name by faith alone, we must know that they are truly forgiven for His dear sake alone. The conscience as the courtroom of the soul is really set at rest altogether apart from any other conditionality than faith in Christ. Through such trust the accuser of the brethren is really cast down. What we are now enjoying as believers is the application of that justification to our present struggle against our sins. In this intense warfare it is of the greatest encouragement to know that the blood of a righteous high priest is forever mine and that in the midst of many sins I can daily claim it as my sure hope before the heavenly Father.

Some brothers will be sincerely troubled by this teaching, in many instances because they are distressed by lack of reverence today for God and His laws. They especially are concerned by what they see as downplaying the cost of discipleship in much contemporary evangelism. As a consequence, they want the necessity of obedience to be kept up front in our message. Faith alone, therefore, sounds like easy-believism and salvation without discipleship. Though I share this concern, I am equally concerned that this motivation not lead us to confuse different kinds of necessities. For example, there is a necessity involved in the forgiveness of others, in daily repentance, and in new obedience in general. But this is a different kind of necessity, a different kind of conditionality, from that which we have been speaking. It is a necessity of obedience to Christ’s prophetic and kingly offices, the necessity of evidence establishing the reality of my faith in Him. But the necessity or conditionality in relationship to justification and the continuance in it is of a unique kind. Faith can do something that no other Christian grace can do. It is able to embrace Christ and His forgiving mercy. Humble faith can do that. When the justified person is guilty of sin, when his conscience presses hard upon him bringing him to the edge of despair, then faith can effectively plead Christ’s priestly sacrifice. It brings a fresh cleaning of guilt before God and a renewed experience of His justifying grace. This is both a sweet comfort and a powerful jolt to our pride.

If the church of God and the individual believer are to walk in freedom, then we must keep this distinction clear. Otherwise, we are in danger of blurring the nature of the gospel itself. We do not want to forget that we must exercise repentance and new obedience. But this above all must be remembered: when it comes to the remission of sins, God requires only one thing — faith alone embracing Christ alone.

[1] Faith and Justification (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1954), p. 78.

[2] Cited in Heinrich Heppe’s Reformed Dogmatics: Set Out and Illustrated from the Sources (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978), p. 554.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Anthony Burgess, Original Sin (1659), from unnumbered pages in the postscript. So also John Ball, Treatise of the Covenant of Grace (1645), p. 20, Ball says that faith and works are inseparably joined in the person being redeemed but that in “the matter of justification and salvation in the covenant” they are opposed. I am indebted to Mr. David Lachman for both of these quotations.

[6] John Owen, Justification by Faith, (Grand Rapids: Sovereign Grace Pub. Co., reprint), Ch. V.

[7] James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification: An Outline of Its History in the Church and of Its Exposition from Scripture (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House: reprint 1955), pp. 363–64.

[8] Institutes of the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Company, 1958), BK III, Ch. XIV, Sec. 11.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid., Bk. III, Ch. XIV, Secs. 11–13.

[12] Ibid, Bk. III, Ch. XIV, Sec. 17.

By the Pool of Bethesda (John 5) with Alfred Edersheim

By grahamline April 7, 2024 April 7, 2024

CHAPTER XII: AT THE ‘UNKNOWN’ FEAST IN JERUSALEM, AND BY THE POOL OF BETHESDA The shorter days of early autumn had come,2212 and the country stood in all its luxurious wealth of beauty and fruitfulness, as Jesus passed from Galilee to what, in the absence of any certain evidence, we must …

“Who Is Really on Trial?” Jack Miller

By grahamline March 27, 2024 March 27, 2024

[00:00:04] As we go to hear the Word of God read, we find it again in Mark chapter 14. Last week John preached on the Lord’s Supper, and now we come to Jesus’s trial before the Sanhedrin.

[00:00:22] In verse 53, Jesus had been telling the disciples to watch and pray. And that had come right after he had said to, the passage that we have been memorizing. I’m sure by now we all have it down perfectly. And, so we don’t need to read it again this morning.

[00:00:47] Mark chapter 14, verse 53. “They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, elders, and teachers of the law came together. Peter followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree. Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him. ‘We heard him say, I will destroy this man-made temple, and in three days we’ll build another not made my man.’ Yet even then their testimony did not agree. Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, ‘Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?’ But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?’ ‘I am,’ said Jesus, ‘and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One, and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ The high priest tore his clothes. ‘Why do we need any more witnesses?’ He asked. ‘You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’ They all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him. They blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, ‘Prophesy!’ And the guards took him and beat him.”

[00:02:34] As we turn to this passage of Scripture, we’re going to be looking at the appearance and the reality of power in this world. When we come here to verse 61, we see “Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.” And that describes everything that’s been happening from verse 53 on. “Jesus is silent and gave no answer.” And then in verse 63, when the priest, the high priest, attacks Jesus almost violently, and then when they condemn him, they physically attack him.

[00:03:16] Here is the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court and Senate of the people of God of that day. And they spit at him. They blindfolded him. They struck him with their fists and said, prophesy. And the guards took him and beat him. He’s silent. He seems to be the powerless one, because he has so little to say. And I think many people today view Jesus as the one who really doesn’t have much to say. He is the one whose hands are bound and whose hands have no strength in them.

[00:03:50] When John describes this in chapter 18 of his gospel, he says, “They bound Jesus and took him away.” And that’s what I’m going to have Greg now do for me. And, Greg is very good at such things as this, and I may never get out again. So you may have the interesting picture of the preacher never escaping from his, illustration. A little more, Greg, you’re not enthusiastic enough here, I think. You don’t want me to escape too easily, do you? Thank you. Greg.

[00:04:31] That’s the way these people saw Jesus. And I think that’s the way they see him today. If you think about it, how do you hear during the week the name of Jesus most often. How do you hear the name of Jesus most often? Swearing. You’re really cool if you can say the name of Jesus, and people do it all the time. Isn’t that so?

[00:05:01] You hear it on the school ground. You hear it in the office. You hear it in the factory. You hear it at the service station. It’s everywhere. And Jesus doesn’t do that much about it. He seems to be … Jesus remains silent.

[00:05:22] Recently in England, Bishop Jenkins was installed and everyone was kind of shocked, at least those who are believers, because he doesn’t believe, as I recall, in the resurrection of Jesus, the bodily resurrection. He doesn’t believe he’s the Son of God. He certainly wouldn’t see him as the Mighty One or as the, one on the throne coming in the clouds of glory.

[00:05:46] Now, it’s true that the Lord wanted to get the attention of the people in England. So I gathered it was on a clear day, out of the blue. Literally, a lightning bolt struck the Cathedral of York, where he was bishop. Now, sometimes the Lord does get the attention, but he reserves most of that for bishops. The rest of us have the feeling somewhere he’s not around, and we see a culture where the name of Jesus just doesn’t carry any weight.

[00:06:19] I remember here a few years ago that, The Exorcist was playing next door at the Keswick Theater. And, it was just at the beginning of New Life Church. So we quickly made up some tracks, and we just had sort of got the New Life booklet in a rough form. And we came over there and, the people were coming out of the theater, and they were kind of dazed. And we never had so much ease in handing out tracts. In fact, a couple of people were offended when we ran out of them. I mean, when the movie was over, and the thing that were hitting people was that the devil was so powerful. Because if you read the end of the book, The Exorcist, it says there … One of the leading characters is asked, well do you do you believe in God now that you’ve seen what all its happened? And the answer was, “No, not really. He doesn’t have the power.” And here’s, I think exact words used: “The devil is out there selling all the time, but God is silent.”

[00:07:26] And I think that’s what a lot of people feel. That Christ is not very powerful. He’s kind of the silent one. The one you can afford to ignore, that you can kind of come perhaps once a week to church and tip your hat to him, but the rest of the week he really is not a visible power presence. I think this is the central issue of our time.

[00:07:58] Now when we look at the text a little more closely, we find that Peter is deeply involved in this, these goings on. If you look there at verse 54, when Jesus is brought in bound, Peter follows him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high Priest. Peter is not altogether without natural courage. He’s very weak in the spiritual courage department at this time. But he does come in.

[00:08:29] And then when he comes in, he sits down with the guards and warmed himself at the fire. Now, if you go back to the text we have been memorizing, you will find that the last two verses there in chapter 13, verses 36 and 37, say, “If he comes suddenly …” Now, who can finish it? “Do not let him find you …” What?

[00:08:54] Okay, now turn over to chapter 14. And we look down here at verse 37 and we read: “Then he returned to his disciples and found them” … wide awake? Sleeping! Almost an immediate disobedience to what Jesus has said. And when we see Peter’s powerlessness in this situation, this is going to be the key. “Could you not keep” … No … “Watch and pray,” verse 38. “Watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”.

[00:09:36] Now you see Peter there in verse 54. He comes in, he sits down next to the fire, and probably while he’s sitting in the fire, he was shivering a bit. Great shock over what had happened. You know, if you’ve been frightened, you actually get kind of cold all over. At least some of us do. Real chickens like me, we just get real cold.

[00:09:58] Well, Peter, seemed to be getting real cold. He got close to the fire, and what he didn’t realize is the closer he got to the fire, guess what? There’s more light by the fire. And people could see who he was. And when they begin to see who he was. Well, in verse 66 through 72, we have Peter’s disowning Jesus. He had not watched. He had not prayed, and really his were the hands that were bound, not Jesus. And so what do we find in verse 71? “He began to call down curses on himself? And he swore to them, ‘I don’t know this man you’re talking about.'”.

[00:10:41] Now when we think about spiritual powerlessness, and the depths of sinning, if you and I were to say, “What could be the worst sin?” What would be the sin you’d least likely, you’d want to be caught at least likely. Well, most people would say adultery. Right? You’re finished as a pastor. I got news for you. If you’re planning to be a pastor, you commit adultery. And, you’re very likely out. Isn’t that true? I think that usually happens. Not always. There have been some exceptions, but generally just figure it’s over. And the church really will stand up on this particular sin. And it’s a heinous. Its a terrible one.

[00:11:31] But I’m not sure it’s the worst one. And I’m just going to throw it out for you to think about. I think Peter’s powerlessness here, his silence … See, Jesus was silent because he was obeying the will of God. Peter was silent because he was disobeying the will of God. And his were the hands were tied and not really Jesus. Jesus’s hands have the whole wide world. He is upholding every part of it by his power.

[00:12:11] Well, when you see that, just for a moment, see how God speaks in this whole matter of the final trial. You see, the trial we’ve been looking at here is … They said we’ve put you on trial Jesus, you have blasphemed. We’re going to condemn you to death. And they were enraged at what he said. But he says, “I’m going to put you on trial.” And he’d said that in verse 62, “You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One, the Ancient of Days, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” And so I’m going to bring you to the real Supreme Court, to the real Senate of the universe. I am going to be the judge. I’m going to be your jury, and I’m going to pass judgment on all. Well, that’s a bit of a shocker.

[00:13:06] And then when we turn to what this Jesus says in revelation about what he sees as sins of evil. It’s very interesting what he puts at the head of the list. A revelation is organized by the way. It has lists. Lists of those who belong to Christ, lists for those who don’t belong to Christ. It’s inviting you to put your name in whichever list you fit. And so in Revelation 21, in verse 6, here Jesus is speaking: “He said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” The world history is over. It’s done. Creation, it was finished. The cross it was finished. And now history is finished.

[00:13:51] Okay. What’s over? Well, to him who is thirsty, I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes. He who’s a fighter. Notice that language? He who is a fighter, he will inherit all this. And I will be his God. And he will be my son.

[00:14:10] Now look at the list. But the ungodly … No … But the adulterers … No … He doesn’t start off with that. What does he start off with? Someone tell me. Cowardly. Wow. The unbelieving. And then he goes on to the vile, the murderers, the sexual immoral, those who practice magic arts, the adulterers and all liars.

[00:14:40] And you see, Peter had caught the beginning of the list and the end of the list, because he became a liar. When he stood there and says, “I don’t know, Jesus. I’ll swear to it. I’ll be cursed if that is not true. The guy was a liar.

[00:14:56] And so what we see here, and I think this ought to, on one hand, frighten us because we see how powerful and deceptive sin can be. On the other hand, it ought to encourage us—if God took a man who was in his heart of hearts a coward, and made him into the kind of brave man that we see at Pentecost, boy, what he might do for you. Amen. Come on, all you chickens, let’s hear a little more enthusiasm. Okay. Amen. All right. Very good.

[00:15:39] Leave your cowardliness, and your unbelief, and you’re lying behind. This is the reality. And so we see then, this wonderful picture back, in Mark chapter 14, of Jesus standing before us, saying, “I am” said Jesus, “and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”.

[00:16:06] Now here’s a problem. It’s all right to be here. You, Jack, is enthusiastic about Jesus, and, you’re momentarily enthusiastic, too. And we’re both momentarily enthusiastic. But then Monday rolls around and Tuesday rolls around, and you gotta be out there with all those people who are not enthusiastic about Jesus. What are you going to do, then?

[00:16:31] In fact, you may find in the church … Now, obviously at New Life Church, everyone is 100% sanctified, right? Well, there may be just a few slip in that door who are not, starting with the pastors. So you got to live with the rest of these sinners, and it doesn’t look very much like a power meeting, right?

[00:16:59] How does just Jesus bring power to us? Lots of different ways. The Lord’s Supper is one of them. In this, you see, there’s a number of things that are so sweet and beautiful. First, it speaks of sorrow for sin, that my sin did that to Jesus. And there’s always power in a real sorrow. And if you’ve never had the power of a really godly sorrow, get excited.

[00:17:30] I’m going to preach three sermons in September on godly sorrow and it’s power. It has tremendous power. Why? Why did Peter become such a man of flame and self forgetting, and so concerned for the glory of God at Pentecost? Well, the Holy Spirit came, yes. But what had the Holy Spirit done to him? He had convicted Peter of sin, and Peter knew how deep was his sin. And when he saw it, that’s half the battle for getting rid of it, because it’ll break you. And when it breaks you, God just sweeps it away. In fact, the breaking only came because his Spirit convicted you.

[00:18:15] The Lord’s Supper speaks of courage. And there’s a kind of a tie in between contrition, sorrow for sin and courage. You know, we can pretend that we’re brave, but most of us are not. I can remember when I was growing up, I was one of the most foolhardy teenagers you ever saw. You wouldn’t have wanted to known me for anything. You wouldn’t even have wanted me in church. I mean, when we went swimming, I was the guy who dived from the highest point on the rock. And I was a terrible diver. You know? Crazy. I was ready for anything.

[00:18:55] But when somebody witnessed to me about Jesus, and I got a Bible, a little testament, I decided, well, I’d read it, you know? I was a tough atheist, and I took that Bible, a little Bible. I put it in my inner pocket, and I got in the bus going to school, and I noticed … I started reading it, got interested in it. But every time somebody got on the bus that I knew, I popped that little testament right back in my pocket. And for the first time, I knew I was a coward.

[00:19:27] And you see, we need somebody to give us courage. We are not going to have revival in America until American children and young people stop being so influenced and fearful of what their peers think. We must have revival in children. We must have it among young people, and we’ve got to fight back against this tremendous cultural shift in which, in the 40s, when children … They took these polls about children, they found that the great majority of them said the biggest influence on their life was family. Today, if you took that same poll, the biggest influence is peers. And what does that mean simply? That children are being afraid of those around them. They’re not getting out there strong enough, courageous enough to take a stand for Jesus.

[00:20:31] So we need to be sorry for our sins, and that’s what it’s about, and then courage, and then confidence that Jesus is really alive.

[00:20:39] And that brings us really to the third thing … This third thing really brings us to his rule. How does it express itself? Well, we get help in the Lord’s Supper. We are reminded of his saving, separating power in baptism. But then we also need the key. And that’s what Peter had missed. Peter wasn’t even listening to what Jesus said about his sovereign rule, about his coming again, about he was putting them all on trial, that this crucifixion was going to be the great hinge of history, and everything would be changed. All science and all history, everything was now directly subservient to Jesus Christ.

[00:21:19] Well, when this happened, Peter was missing it all. And the reason he was missing it is this. Let’s go back to what we in chapter 13, what we’ve been memorizing. Verse 36, “If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping,” right? What I say to you, I say to everyone … You did better in the memorization. “Watch!” One more: “Watch!” That’s getting a little closer.

[00:22:00] Then go over to the other passage. Chapter 14, where we find them sleeping, doing just the opposite of what Jesus said. And Jesus said in there in verse 37, “Simon, are you asleep? Couldn’t you not keep watch for one hour?” “Watch and” what? “Watch and pray.” Now you know what watching is all about.

[00:22:23] You probably thought that watching as we—you know, we get all kinds of screwy ideas in our heads— meant that every day you woke up and you’d look up to see if Christ was there. Well, that’s okay, because one day that’s going to happen, and, thats going to be all over it—the last page in the last chapter of the book of history, as we know it, is going to be finished. The book is going to be closed.

[00:22:44] And now everything will be brought out into the open. Son of Man will be on the throne. He will be the Father’s executive in judging us. The Father judges all but he uses the Son, as the giver of the Holy Spirit and also as the Supreme Judge.

[00:23:02] Well, now, when that happens, how did you get there? And how did that help you? Well, you had to be praying. And so praying isn’t just simply, we pray for healing for people here on this Lord’s Day. It isn’t simply that we pray for healing on Thursday morning when we meet here at 6:30 through 9:30. It isn’t simply that we pray for daily bread, and we pray for forgiveness and all sorts of things. Really valuable.

[00:23:33] It’s rather we’re watching for the One who has control of the world, and we’re asking him to do things because he has commanded that prayer be the way his will be accomplished in the world.

[00:23:51] Watch and pray not simply to save my soul, which I must do. You see, the book of Revelation says, justification by faith is for sinners, but it’s for sinners who are on the run. It’s for sinners who are fighters. You don’t need justification. If you just wanted to have your sins casually blotted out. They’re not that bad anyway. But if you know you’re in danger of hell and the powers of Satan are behind you, and your own sins are pursuing you, and the world is dragging you down, you’ve got to be a fighter. To him that overcomes. To those who know how to fight justification means something. It doesn’t mean much if you’re just a drifter. Anyone able to say amen to that? All right.

[00:24:37] There is no reason, then, for lying down on the job and dying and saying, “Oh I’m justified.” Oh, brother. That’s worthless. Terrible talk, terrible thinking. No justification assurance grows as you put up your dukes and as you fight back. Right. To him who overcomes opposition, the powers of Satan, the powers of darkness, and your own sin, the power of the world, your peers.

[00:25:09] And you do it by praying. And you pray and you pray and you pray.. Now we talk at New Life that we want to learn to think church, to see church, how it can be built up, how the body can be edified. And that’s great. But you don’t really think church until you learn to pray and pray and pray and pray.

[00:25:29] And so Peter’s weakness was—that’s why his hands were bound. Jesus hands were physically bound, but Peter’s inside hands were bound. Are you bound up inside? And is the spirit using this passage to say, I don’t know how to watch and pray? I really don’t know a thing about it, or I know very little. I know something, but I know enough to know how little I know. Do you see?

[00:26:01] When I told you about The Exorcist, the Lord has a way of weaving things together. And when New Life Church was first formed by the grace of God entirely, and in spite of those of us who led, I’m sure. That we had a student here named David George, who is now a PCA pastor. And, he was helping me. And when, you know, Ron Lutz, I guess maybe had been around, but just barely. And, John Julien wasn’t here yet. John Yenchko was in the ninth grade. You know, you know, some of you were, too. I’m just trying to triumph the virtues of being old. I’m teasing.

[00:26:50] But anyway, Dave George, already I was beginning to feel the hand of age. I couldn’t keep up with this. And, Dave came to me and he said, “Look, there’s this woman who has attempted suicide, and we have a woman who wants you to come and work with her. And so I said, what has she done? What’s going on? He said, well, it’s rather odd. She slashed her arms 200 times, and, she’s in the hospital. She’s … Her whole system is destabilised.”

[00:27:19] And so at this point, I said, “Well, here’s what I usually do with people who attempt suicide. It’s not very difficult.” And so I told him what to do. He went ahead and did it, and he sars, “Well, it helped,” but, it didn’t change her basicly. And he says,” I think you should go.”.

[00:27:35] Well, it began with one of those marvelously miserable evenings that occasionally visit us in Philadelphia. When the rain comes down and it gets cold and Dave George had for the vehicle a, one of these little beetle bugs. You know, VW, it was real close. And the woman came along and he came along and we were all breathing in there. I think that was the problem.

[00:27:59] Anyway, the windows all fogged up and he was rubbing it off, and he’d had a heater on and it was about 210 in there. And I never thought those things ever heated up. I thought they had can wind around. But no, this time it really was hot in there, and you just sort of had the feeling you’re ready to fall asleep. And I thought, man, we’re ready for spiritual warfare.

[00:28:18] But then it dawned on me no. At that time, God was working. As the church had grown, after it got to be 75 or 80 people, we had almost 60 people in prayer meeting. And these people were praying for the ministry. And so I said to Dave, and I don’t remember the woman’s name: “Why don’t we stop?” So we did and rolled the windows down, and started breathing again.

[00:28:46] And I said, “I think we just need to pray.” And God just laid on my heart a cry. And I cried from my heart. I didn’t know how to help this woman. That we didn’t know how. And we went into that house together. And when … I just simply … God just gave me a message out of some Bible study I’d done. I said, “Human problem is because” … “The basic human problem is three veils over the human heart: the veil of Satan’s influence, the veil of unbelief, and the veil of God’s holiness.” And I said, “Christ takes them all away.” And I just told her about Jesus. I said, “he’s so strong.” I just talked about Jesus. I just talked about Jesus.

[00:29:31] And pretty soon these people begin to sort of change right in front of my eyes. The more I talked about Jesus the more they changed. And finally, after we had gone through the veils, how Jesus takes each one away. And we went through the New Life booklet … In the middle of the New Life booklet, the husband, who doesn’t seem to have the problem, he breaks in and he says, “What do I do to get Jesus?”.

[00:30:00] And I said, “Well, you got to wait a minute. This is … this is … We worked on this book and this is the way it works.” So about that time, we had him down in the depths of sin and we got to the cross. And about that time, the woman just cries out. “I want Jesus!”.

[00:30:24] And I said, “Well, this is improper. We Presbyterians have to do it a regular way. But anyway. All right, you can be saved now if you want.”.

[00:30:33] So they were prayed and they were saved. And you should have seen. Now I know God doesn’t always deal instantaneously like that, but he sent them such a deep conviction of sin. He sent them such a sorrow for what she had done, that she was broken. And when she came out of that believing, man alive, she said to the woman with us, “I’m coming to church.”.

[00:30:55] Two years later, over in that Kensington area, Phil Gross was calling from door to door, and he met a couple there and he said, “Are you Christians? Do you go to church?” And they laughed and they said, “You better believe it. We go to church and we are Christians.” They said, “There’s a there’s a fellow over there in Jenkintown that was over here, and he told us about Jesus, and we have been alive ever since.”.

[00:31:19] Now that’s prayer. It wasn’t because we were doing anything special. It was because there were 60 people coming and praying at prayer meeting. Now, I know numbers aren’t everything, but if we’ve got this many people, we shouldn’t have so many people coming Thursday morning at 6:30 that you can hardly get in the room. There ought to be so many men there alone that you couldn’t get in the room. Right? That we couldn’t even let the women in. How’s that for masculine spiritual chauvinism?

[00:32:00] Well, you know the reason I tease that way. Don’t take me literally, please. Everybody’d hate me if I did. But what I mean is this. That if men learn to pray—before I said we’ve got to have revival with children, young people—but we’ve also got to have men who learn to pray.

[00:32:20] I’m going to tell you why, and this may really convince you that I’m chauvinist, but I’m not. Men! God has given you a certain calling of leadership. And when God in the past has revived the Presbyterian Church, it almost always began with men. And what we have done, we have put prayer over as kind of what the women do. No, I’m not against women praying. Please forgive me, ladies. But if we get men praying and men repenting, oh, what that’s going to do for homes, because they’re often the last to do it.

[00:33:07] Now, ladies, I want to extend an invitation to you to. There’s room for you also. We’ll move in here. Won’t we Bill. If so many men come, there’s no room for the women and children, 6:30. We’ll even serve you coffee. For those of you who can’t wake up.

[00:33:29] But seriously, isn’t that where it is? Perhaps not this prayer meeting. You have another one that God’s calling you to. But your home, wherever it may be, God is really richly endowing the church with gifts so that we might have our eyes open to see that Jesus is on the throne. He’s coming, and he’s coming as we pray.

[00:33:56] Now, I’d like to just nail this down to you a little bit more in relationship to the gospel of Mark. If you don’t like this thought, blame it on the late Ned Stonehouse. He was a great scholar at Westminster Seminary, and I got this idea from him. But turn back with me about this coming of Jesus. You know, Jesus is talking here now about the angels, being within the clouds of glory.

[00:34:21] Well, back here in chapter eight, in verse 38, he repeats the same idea: “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” And then he speaks again. And he said to them, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”.

[00:34:51] Now Doctor Stonehouse took the view that there is this great final coming, but the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of Jesus, comes frequently.

[00:35:05] And what the watching and the praying is about isn’t only that we want healing, and that we want strength, and we want cleansing and all the rest, but we want God to be glorified. We’re really praying, “Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come and come now. Overturn every order. Bring men to repentance.”.

[00:35:24] And so this very meeting. Now, if the spirit is working here, is a coming of the Kingdom? There isn’t any glory to any human being for any work of God here today. If God speaks to you—and convicts you of sin, or fills you with faith, or gives you new resolves after holiness, a desire to obey him, a new fervor—well, it is because God was working, not because any human being was involved.

[00:35:55] It’s not your glory. It’s not my glory. It’s not the worship leaders glory. It’s not anyone’s glory, but the King of glory, Jesus Christ. And so he’s coming in the history. And the thing he does is give us hard things and hard things to wake us up until we learn to watch and pray.

[00:36:17] And the watching and praying itself is a movement of the kingdom. It is a meeting together of God in His people when there is faith bringing them together.

[00:36:30] Are you with me on that? Therefore the human side of the kingdom—the expression of it—is praying and praying and praying and praying and praying together. Praying with large groups, praying with small groups, praying everywhere. That’s what it’s all about.

[00:36:53] And when you come to the Lord’s Supper, the heart of praying, you see, begins here. It’s C-O-M-M-U-N-I-O-N, with fellowship with God. Praying is just expressing the communion that he has given you. It’s putting into words, claiming the promisees, resting on the gospel, experiencing the sweetness of grace. All of this love you see, is for you and me.

[00:37:23] And you know, I think that even heals the body. Some of you who here have physical weaknesses. Don’t be surprised … You don’t go away healed, and you didn’t even ask for healing. Do you believe it. Watch and pray. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, King.

[00:37:45] Let us pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your Name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.

“The Word of God in the Life of the Church” by Jack Miller

By grahamline March 17, 2024 March 18, 2024

Evangelism involves the presentation of the gospel to sinners with the aim of their becoming Christ’s disciples. Evangelism also includes the ministry of Christ’s Spirit in convicting men of the dreadful reality of their sin against God and the wonderful sufficiency of Christ as Lord and Savior. Seen from the point of view of the church, evangelism is not only the life and witness of Christian individuals, but also the shared testimony of the spiritual life of the Christian community. It is the body of believers together pulling on the gospel net more than it is the single fisherman angling with a pole.

But these observations can easily become truisms, mere words which mean very little if the spiritual state of particular congregations is so low that the Holy Spirit has been quenched and his blessing withdrawn in a substantial measure from pastor and people. When this happens, what we are tends to cancel out what we say. Our talk about the gospel becomes mostly that—talk. And eventually because nothing issues from our talking we quit talking, convinced that we have “no gift” for evangelism.

In such a context, pastors often lapse into retirement long before rheumatism and feeble limbs have qualified them for a rest home. They give up. They have seen little happen and they now expect little to happen. Similarly, members of the congregation learn to expect little from God in general and very little from preaching in particular. To justify the meager harvest of souls, orthodox believers will then say:

“After all, these are the last days, the time of apostasy. And it is God alone who gives the increase. All that our pastor and the church can do is sow the seed. We are not so much interested in great numbers as in good quality members. You may expect the Arminians to appeal to men because they water down the message, but we preach the whole counsel of God and that just doesn’t appeal to people today.”

Against this background, please carefully consider three fundamental propositions, a question, and an answer.

Proposition One: Scripture has inherent power because of its nature as the Word of God.

Its words are the very voice of the living God, the written words of Him who is the living, personal Word. Its premises and prophecies therefore are always realized. Just as it is natural for rain to descend from the clouds, so it is according to the nature of the Word of God to accomplish God’s purposes. Isaiah puts it like this: “For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it (lsa 55:10–11).

When the words of a prophet are powerless—without fulfillment—he is a false prophet (Deut 18:22). But the words and statutes commanded by the prophets of the Lord must inevitably overtake the disobedient (Zech 1:6). For the judgments of the Word of God are like a “two-edged sword” which penetrates the depths of the human heart (Heb 4:12).

As a preached Word, it is the power of God to salvation (Rom 1:16; 1 Cor 1:18; 2:4–5; Eph 1:13). It is spirit and life (John 6:63), a seed from God which brings forth spiritual fruit (Matt 13:8, 23), an instrument of God generating new life (James 1:18; 1 Pet 1: 23), a mirror presenting Christ (2 Cor. 3:18), a light of a new creation (2 Cor 4:4–6), a foundation for faith (Rom 10:17), and a means for fully equipping the man of God (2 Tim. 3:16–17).

It is unthinkable that any word of man can stand before its supreme power, a judgment which is given powerful dramatic statement in the book of Acts. Here the Holy Spirit affirms that the preached Word increases, multiplies, and prevails over every word of man. The inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests of the temple, the man with political authority (Herod), the Gentiles, and the magicians—they are all captured by the Word of the Lord.

First, Luke would have his readers learn what happens in the very shadow of the temple. Here “the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). Next, Herod is told by the people that his is “the voice of a god, and not of man” (Acts 12:22). Foolishly, Herod believes this absurd flattery. He sins by accepting the blasphemous notion that his words are divine. [Herod] withholds from God and His Word the glory that is their due (Acts 12:23). Therefore, the angel of the Lord smites Herod and [Herod] fades away like the flower of the field (Acts 12:23).

By dramatic contrast, Luke announces that while Herod dies “the word of God grew and multiplied” (Acts 13:48a). To describe the effects of the Word of Christ in men’s lives, Luke uses language that has now become familiar to us, the language of fruit bearing and growth. He states: “And the word of the Lord spread throughout all the region” (Acts 13:49).

Finally, this all-conquering Word of God overturns the practices of the occult world in Ephesus. God’s speech has triumphed over Jerusalem, over rulers, over the Gentile masses, and now takes control of this great center of magic and witchcraft. Luke says: “And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily” (Acts 19:19–20).

This gospel as a preached Word thus reaches into every tribe and nation. It has come to the brethren at Colossae, “constantly bearing fruit and increasing” in its effects among them, “just as in the whole world” (Col 1:6). And even when its message is rejected, there are powerful consequences which follow. It is a savor of life unto life of those who believe but also a savor of death unto death of those who close their hearts to its message of salvation through a crucified Lord (2 Cor 2:14–16; 1 Pet 2:8). Pierre Ch. Marcel sums it up this way: Thus do Scripture and experience teach us that this word of God does not always accomplish the same work. It is always effective in some way. It is never devoid of power. When it does not lift up, it casts down; when it is not an occasion for restoration, it is an occasion for falling; when it is not a fragrance of life, it is a fragrance of death.¹(¹The Relevance of Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1963), p.32.)

Proposition Two: The Holy Spirit powerfully applies the Word in preaching.

The Word of God is itself “the sword of the Spirit” (Eph 6:17). Accordingly, the Word and the Spirit go together; both are the very breath of God. Thus, Paul says that his gospel does not come in word only “but also in power and in the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess 1:5). It is for this reason that Paul could tell the Thessalonians that it is really “the word of God which is at work in you believers” (1 Thess 2:13). The Spirit was applying it powerfully to their hearts.

This interrelationship between Word and Spirit can be seen by looking at almost any of the passages previously cited. For instance, in 2 Cor. 3:18, Paul explains that the gospel message is a liberating mirror. When we look into it and behold Christ, we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. And then he notes the source of power. This comes, he concludes, “even as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

In 1 Cor 1:17–18 Paul emphasized that he preached only the Word of the cross. He was an exclusive cross-preacher. But how did this accomplish its powerful results? Only through the “demonstration of the Spirit and power” (1 Cor. 2:4). Similarly, when the seven proto-deacons were ordained, Luke says: “And the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). But this mighty working did not occur without the blessing of the Spirit. For in the same context, Luke says of Stephen: “But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke” (Acts 6:10).

This intimate connection between the Word and Spirit was realized with the greatest fullness at Pentecost and afterward. The Spirit is given to the Church at Pentecost, and as a direct result the Word of God written and the Word of God ministered through the apostles come to men with great authority and supernatural effects. Knowing that the source of power lies with the risen Lord and His Spirit, the newly born church shortly thereafter prays that the Almighty Lord will look upon the threats of the Jewish leaders and “grant to thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29). What follows in answer to this prayer? Observe how Luke stresses the awesome partnership between God’s Word and God’s Spirit: “The place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God with all boldness” (Acts 4:31).

But it is of first importance to see that this ministry of the Spirit is Trinitarian, that is, Christocentric. Now think for a moment. In the preaching of the Word of God, we are asking men to believe that a man who appeared to be a crucified Jewish criminal is the Son of God and the Lord of the universe. This is a scandal to the world, which can only be overcome by a special intervention from above. Therefore the exalted Christ who has first received the gift of the Spirit from the Father has shed abroad the Holy Spirit in order to convict the world of the sin of unbelief in the face of God’s mercy manifested in the Son of Man, of God’s righteousness in sending Him into the world and to the cross, and of the judgement and condemnation of Satan in His triumphant death (John. 16:7–11).

To draw upon the line of thought expressed in Leon Morris’ Commentary on the Gospel of John, one may say that the world saw Jesus’ death on the cross as a defeat. Hence God must vindicate His own name over against this supposed scandal. What the Father does to vindicate His Son’s name is to send the Spirit to act as a prosecuting attorney. In commenting on John 16:8, Morris thus says:

We have seen that the word translated “Comforter” is a word with legal implications … Normally it denotes a person whose activities are in favor of the defendant. Here, however, the meaning is that the Spirit will act as prosecutor and bring about the world’s conviction.

Seen in the light of Acts 2, this work of the Spirit can be described concretely as follows: The Spirit of God drives home the Word of God preached in the private courtroom of man’s heart, accusing, softening, and turning. Then when the sinner discovers what his sin did to the Lord Jesus at the cross, that this same Lord is now at the Father’s right hand, and that God has used that same cross to blot out sins, he is moved by the Spirit to trust in the Savior as his only hope. Thereupon guided by the Word of God the repentant man publicly takes Jesus’ name upon himself in baptism.

In this process the salvation of the lost sinner is prominent. But there is much more involved here. For the Spirit’s overriding concern is to bring sinners to baptism and public confession of Jesus Christ through inwardly applying the Word of God to them. In a sense then baptism represents the vindication of the cross. Hence through the preaching of the cross applied by the Spirit men are driven to confess that Jesus is Lord, that His cross is the power of God to salvation and the glorious manifestation of the love of a holy God, and that they now renounce the world and take upon themselves the name of Jesus in the ordinance of baptism.

In all of this, the Son of Man proves Himself to be absolute master. He is pleased to use the words of His servants as He anoints their hearts and lips, but the work is entirely His. As Calvin put it, Christ did not “become an idle spectator of the work of his ministers,” but now He “appoints and commissions … ministers and pastors to govern His church under such a condition, however, that He alone retains the complete power in His own possession and that the others attribute to themselves nothing but the ministry” (Commentary on John 20:21).

Proposition Three: Normal preaching is bold preaching in keeping with the character of Scripture as the Word of God and with the life-giving power of the HOLY Spirit.

When the disciples preached after Pentecost, the authorities marveled because they were unlearned men and yet spoke with boldness (Acts 4:13). As already noted, they prayed that this boldness would be granted afresh after their encounter with the authorities (Acts 4:29). They quickly saw their prayer answered (Acts 4:31).

What is to be learned from this passage in Acts? It is that boldness in preaching and confession of Christ is a gift of the Spirit. Thus “boldness” (parrhesia) is practically a synonym for the liberty of the Spirit in the presence of a hostile world.² (²See Heinrich Schlier, TDNT, V, 882–83.) The newly converted Paul preaches boldly in Damascus and Jerusalem (Acts 9:27–28) and at Thessalonica (1 Thess 2:2). Because the Spirit has come and vindicated Jesus in the glorious resurrection and ascension, things are open all along the line. They are open with God in heaven through Jesus’ intercession and they are open with men through the preaching of the cross. Hence a policy of non-concealment must rule both praying and preaching. Accordingly, boldness in proclamation of the Word of God is now normal. Paul knows this, and for this reason he exhorts the “Ephesians” to pray for him that he will make known the gospel with all boldness as he “ought to speak” (Eph 6:18–20).

Such preaching is to be clear (Col. 4:2–3), confrontational (Acts 2:37; 3:19; 7:51–54; 9:29; 17:30–31), and humble (James 3:1–5). However, this kind of ministry is not exhortation without content. Indeed, it presupposes a consuming passion to declare to the nations the fullness of the Word of God. But it is Biblical content with a cutting edge. As Luther has said in his Table Talk: “A preacher must be both soldier and shepherd. He must nourish, defend, and teach; he must have teeth in his mouth, and be able to bite and fight.”

Accordingly New Testament boldness implies much more that pulpiteering in the grand manner. Essentially it means getting the Word of God near men and their consciences, applicatory preaching, if you will. For preaching is not proclamation plus application or exposition plus application. Instead, the proclamation and exposition are themselves to be application. Stated in terms of the sermon, you can say that the whole message is an application of Scripture to the needs of men, not something reserved for the conclusion. It is preaching with a purpose; the purpose is to change men into the image of Christ.

Reflect a moment and you will see that the very words for preaching used in Scripture indicate that proclamation is always directed toward men, with the intention of changing him through the Word and Spirit. Thus, preaching is heralding the kingdom and its power. It includes announcing, evangelizing, explaining, persuading, and teaching so that men will receive the good news of Christ’s salvation and obey the gospel. It also includes reproving, disciplining, warning, and feeding the people of God.

In a word, bold preaching is normative preaching according to the New Testament, and this normative preaching has as its normal effect the production of spiritual fruit among believers as well as the conversion of the lost. It ought to result in many baptisms into Christ.

A Question: But why is it that contemporary preaching often does not seem to have these transforming effects?

The question can be put in an even more comprehensive form: If the Word of God has inherent power, if the Spirit powerfully applies it, and if the preaching of the Word is to be with a heaven-sent anointing, how do we explain the parched character of the life of so many of our churches? This dryness is to be expected in Christ-denying and Word-denying churches, but how do we explain the slow growth in so many orthodox and conservation denominations?

The answer to these questions has many sides. But a foundational lack is to be found in our failure to define the nature of the church with sufficient Biblical precision. This conclusion certainly covers the situation in broadly evangelical denominations and congregations, but here the concern is with the failure among teachers in the Reformed tradition to understand what the church is all about. This observation may come as a shock just because it is within the Reformed tradition that so much time and energy has been devoted to defining and defending the church. But take up Louis Berkof’s Systematic Theology and peruse the section on the marks of the church. What does the reader discover? First, he is impressed by the substantial disagreement among Reformed scholars as to the exact nature and number of the marks of a true church. Secondly, he will note that the Reformed tradition has tended to define the marks of the church abstractly—almost apart from the life of the church.

This second point now must be taken up as the crucial issue before the Reformed churches today. Read Berkhof’s summary of the various Reformed exegetes and creeds and the impression is left that the three standard marks of the church (pure preaching of the Word, proper administration of the sacraments, and the faithful exercise of church discipline) are hardly related to the organic abundance that Christ has planted in His people. But read the New Testament and you discover that fullness of life is a distinguishing feature of the church. From the ascended Christ a heavenly life streams into the church, so that in all her embattled suffering the victory is hers (Col 3; Rom 8). In the Scriptures you discover a pervasive emphasis on the mighty working of God’s grace among His people at Pentecost and thereafter.

The reader may be inclined to say, however, that this conclusion rests too heavily upon the book of Acts. Is it not true, so the argument sometimes runs, that what takes place in Acts is to be seen as unique to that age? Obviously, there are developments in the book of Acts which are not repeated in later church history. Pentecost, for instance, is a once-for-all event. But Pentecost also has the utmost importance for the life of the church today. Why? Because as a once-and-for-all event Pentecost includes the church today. The baptism of the Spirit which took place at Pentecost now embraces everyone who truly believes in the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, it is of the first importance to see that as a definitive accomplishment Pentecost is not finished in the way that artifacts in a museum are finished. That is, the book of Acts is not to be approached as a divine museum containing materials largely of historical interest, but which have no bearing on the present. One certainly may not read God’s work at Pentecost in that deadening way. No, at Pentecost the resurrection life of Jesus Christ was imparted to the church by the Father as permanent and ongoing.

But if the reader has doubts against reading the book of Acts this way, let him study the epistles of Paul. Take the book of Romans for a beginning. Here you meet in the opening chapter a description of the gospel as the power of God to salvation for all who believe (Rom 1:16). In chapter 10, the apostle sets forth how this gospel power changes fundamental relationships and transforms lives. Then in chapter 15, he begins to talk about the pleromas (fullness) of God bringing into being the church and filling it with power and life and knowledge (Rom 15:13–19). What he says, in effect, is this: I have fully preached Christ in every place, and every place where I have preached Christ are men “filled with all joy and peace.” They are able to abound in hope through believing (v. 13), just as the church in Rome is made up of men filled with goodness and knowledge (v. 14).

Is this language of abundant life in the church confined to Romans? Not at all. In Ephesians and Colossians, for instance, Paul rises to new heights of eloquence in describing the church as “His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph 1 :23). Or approach the matter from yet another angle. Only consider how the church is described in the New Testament. The rich range of metaphors include fruitful branches united to Christ the true vine (John 15). In the Old Testament (Psa 80; Isa 5; Ezek 15), Israel proved to be a fruitless vine because the root was rotten. But a new vine has come, Jesus, the true Israel. To those who abide in Him the promise is sure. Because He is divine life, so they in turn must have life. That is why the promises in verses 7 and 8 can be so sweeping. For only a Living Vine could say: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so become my disciples.”

Again, reflect on the metaphor of the living temple used in Scripture. As Edmund Clowney has phrased it, Christ himself is “the final temple.”³ (³“The Final Temple,” Westminster Theological Journal 35 (1973), 156-189.) Yet God has been pleased to constitute believers [as] stones in this “spiritual house,” with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. Now note the emphasis of 1 Pet 2:5. Here believers are called “living stones.” It could not be otherwise, since they are in vital union with Christ, the Prince of life. Clowney sums it up thusly:

“When we view the glory of the spiritual temple of the New Covenant, it would seem that no further heightening is possible. The true Son of David and true Son of God has come. All that the temple means is fulfilled in Him and in His people. The Gentiles are brought in and the temple of living stones grows in glory and holiness^“4 (⁴Ibid, pp 186–187).

“The temple of living stones grows in glory and holiness”—that almost says it all. But not quite. Read the verses which follow, and you learn that the radiant life which is in the church cannot be concealed:

First, in v. 9a, the church is defined as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.” On a practical level, then, the theology of church order for the average Reformed Christian is tied in with the acquisition, maintenance, and use of physical property called a “church.”
The pastor is instinctively viewed as the only real worker among God’s people. No one would be happy with his being called “father,” but he nonetheless often is given and accepts a priestly role. As a religious professional he is paid to pray for the people, to study the Bible for them, to visit the sick, to discipline the erring, and to evangelize the lost. Besides all this, he is chief administrator for the church. He is the key figure in maintaining “church order.”
The elders as a whole are regularly understood to be policy-makers and decision-makers on “important matters.” But rarely do they get involved in teaching the Scriptures to men so as to disciple them in obedience to Christ or in visiting the sick or in evangelizing the lost.
The deacons, if they even exist in the congregation, may do the work of trustees in caring for the building or taking up the offering. Occasionally, they may visit the sick or minister to the poor. But they have no consistent plan or program for finding needs in their own congregation, much less in the community.
In this setting, the members of the Reformed congregation are often characterized by passivity. They know better, but they witness infrequently, and sometimes not at all. Perhaps it would be overstating things to say they come to worship in order to watch the pastor or mechanically to follow his leading. But nonetheless their participation in worship may become habitually routine and distant, the sure path to complacency and zero growth. Why? The answer is that “good order” seems to require that the worship service follow exactly the same outline week after week. The gods of cultural order also insist that the service be no longer than one hour in length, with the sermon limited to twenty-five or thirty minutes at the most.

This situation may appear to be harmless. But remember: No one can be neutral before God’s Word. Religious man in the presence of God’s Word either believes and lives or disbelieves and dies. The refusal to apply the Word of God to ourselves concretely is, in reality, a dangerous rejection of its authority over our lives.

In such a context, all things may seem to be calm and safe. For a time, the congregations may not be troubled either by blasphemous heresies or by gross immorality. But then it gradually becomes apparent that a withering dryness has crept into many lives. The preaching may be excellent in many respects, but it does not come like healing water to thirsty ground. Practical atheism begins to dominate once godly homes. Hearts fill up with anxieties. Increasingly men and women live for material comforts. They begin to forget how to pray and hardly know what is meant by the cry: “Abba, Father.” And if they continue to read the Bible, they do so with anesthetized minds.

In some congregations the winter of cold orthodoxism soon covers all the spiritual landscape; in other churches the spiritual body is progressively lulled into the deadly sleep of Laodicean lukewarmness. In Hebrews this hardening is called “the deceitfulness of sin” which, in turn, is closely related to “an evil, unbelieving heart.” In Romans Paul calls this a proud “conceit.” In Acts Paul and Barnabas described this evil trend in its full realization as man’s thrusting the Word of God from himself.

This last passage is worth a second look because it is the context for the previously cited triumph of the Word of God over the Gentiles. The Gentiles glorified the Word of the Lord and experienced its transforming power throughout “the whole region.” But we learn a sad, frightening fact: Men also may thrust the Word of God from themselves without realizing what they are doing. Sin, in a word, always moves men toward apostasy of heart unless checked by the mercy of God. In this instance God’s Word was rejected by Jews who had all the tradition and religious order of the elders. The very possession of this heritage makes it so difficult for them to see that they were far from God and the grace which is conferred upon men through faith in the Lord Jesus.

Thus, a false Judaism prevailed, a Judaism which proved to be both legalistic and Unitarian. It abandoned the Immanuel-principle of the history of redemption, with the emphasis on the nearness of the Triune God in the person of the Son. In such a theological setting, God’s written Word cannot be near the heart, nor can God come into the world in the personal Word. Jesus Christ may be honored by our lips, but He is no longer gripping our souls with the knowledge that He came to seek and save the lost.

But what we must see is that this repudiation of the Word of the Triune God has happened repeatedly in Reformed churches as well as other denominations. Reformed movements in Poland, France, England, Switzerland, and New England have seen deism and Unitarianism sweep the churches. For instance, a book like Joseph Haroutunian’s Piety Versus Moralism: The Passing of the New England Theology, provides a case study of the decline of the New England congregational churches into a Unitarian “moral respectability” as a substitute for eternal life in Christ.

Now what is this heresy but the outward expression of hearts that refuse to submit to the Word of God and to the grace of God manifested in a crucified Savior. It is, moreover, a process difficult to detect if the viewer separates the three marks of the church from the vital growth generated through the preaching of the Word. In a word, we may unconsciously come to accept the uniform order of the cemetery as a substitute for the ordered life of Christ’s own body.

An Answer: Let us humbly study the Scriptures with renewed zeal in order to bring ourselves and our congregations into a radical, new obedience to the Word of God. From a renewed obedience of faith effective evangelism will inevitably grow and bear fruit.

One major purpose of our study has been to show that the Word of God is a hammer, a fire, a sword, and food. It changes people. It saves the lost and builds up believers. It does not change men in the abstract, apart from application. A hammer suspended in the air never broke a rock, a fire must burn something, a sword must cut, and food must be eaten.

Therefore, this means that first of all we ourselves must open our lives to the Word of God. It’s tremendous truth must continue to drive us to our knees before the majesty of Christ. Otherwise, we may end up like Eli, the priest, who was satisfied with a half-way obedience in disciplining his sons and thus came under the wrath of a holy God who always calls His servants to a total obedience (1 Sam. 2–4). In setting forth what he calls “elenctics” (“the conviction and unmasking of sin, and the call to responsibility”), J.H. Bavinck speaks vigorously and perceptively to this issue in the quotation which follows:

Elenctics receives the greatest support from its repeated awareness that the sharpest weapons must in the first place be turned against ourselves. We have frequently pointed out that the various tendencies embodied in the history of religion repeatedly occurred and still occur. To make it more concrete: the four tendencies we have just discussed are to be found within ourselves each day. It is not easy to have real fellowship with God. We can much more easily bury Him under a concept, shove Him away to an endless distance, dissolve Him in all sorts of secular realities, and make Him into a nice fairy tale of boundless beauty. Anyone who knows himself to any extent knows the finesse with which a man can escape from God and wrestle free from His grasp. To be really able to convict anyone else of sin, a person must know himself, and the hidden corners of his heart very well. There is no more humbling work in the world than to engage in elenctics. For at each moment the person knows that the weapons which he turns against another have wounded himself. The Holy Spirit first convicts us, and then through us he convicts the world.⁵ (⁵An Introduction to the Science of Missions (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1960), pp. 271–72.)

Let us now apply this principle to our method of selecting and training those who minister the Word of God. What God wants is men who are mature enough to turn “the sharpest weapon” against themselves, men who have let God’s Word search out “the hidden corners” of their own hearts. But what we have often done is emphasize qualifications for pastoral calling that are primarily intellectual and educational—and minimizing the Scriptural insistence that the gospel be a disciplinary force in the preacher’s life (1 Cor 9:2–27). But do the Scriptures say anything about educational requirements of a scholastic sort? Indeed, the Scriptures put the spotlight on the man’s proved ability to hold “fast the faithful word in accordance with the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it” (Tit 1:9). But God’s Word does not tell us what particular form the training should take to qualify the man to perform this ministry.

But our theological tradition and denominational forms of government place much more emphasis on academic training. They would require that preachers of the gospel have university and seminary training and that anyone seeking ordination without this kind of background has substantial burden of proof resting on his shoulders. My purpose is not to conclude there is no value in classroom instruction, but to raise a question: Using the standards advocated by Charles Hodge, Robert Dabney, and Abraham Kuyper, could we accept into the pastoral office Peter and John, who are clearly described by Luke as “unschooled, common men” (Acts 4:13 NIV)? They were men who lacked the schooling supplied by rabbinical education.

We could say in reply, “It might seem that our standards for receiving pastors differ from the standards of the Word of God. But you must remember that Peter and John were apostles uniquely qualified by the gifts and calling of the Spirit to fulfill their office. Therefore, you cannot apply to pastors what must be confined to apostles.”

But it is still of great interest that the Lord chose a company of apostolic leaders who, with the exception of Paul, were not trained in the schools of the rabbis. Similarly, it is of great interest that in the description of the elder-bishop in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 3 nothing is said about formal educational requirements for this office. And nothing is said anywhere in Scripture about academic standards as prerequisites for ordination.

What the Scriptures do say is:

Elder-bishops must know the Word of God thoroughly as a matter of earnest conviction (Tit 1:9; 2 Tim 3:15–17). Like Ezekiel, servants of the Word must “eat” God’s message and then bring to men what has become part of their innermost being (Ezek 2:8–3:4). How a man receives the Scriptures, i.e., the way in which they enter into his life and claim him, will largely determine his communication of them to others.

They also must know it in such a way that they can use it in teaching sound doctrine and refuting heretics (Tit 1:9). Above all, they must know and love the system of doctrine that lifts up salvation by sovereign grace.

And they must manifest a personal and family life brought to Christian maturity through the transforming power of the Word of God (1 Tim. 3:1–7; Tit 1: 5–8). From Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3 we learn that God is majoring in mature men, men with commendable home relations who have had time to bring up believing children and have earned a public reputation for godliness, hospitality, wisdom, and personal discipline.

Still even these standards were probably not intended to represent the ceiling of maturity but to provide minimum safeguards against “weak and ignorant men” abusing the church of God. On the positive side, the New Testament depicts office-bearers as men filled with the Holy Spirit. All believers are commanded to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), but office-bearers must be filled with the Spirit (2 Tim 1:6–7; 1 Tim 4:11–16; Acts 6:3–5).

In Acts 6, for instance, the proto-deacons, whose first task was to wait on tables, were chosen on the basis of visible evidence of the Spirit’s prominence in their lives. The apostles directed the church: “But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom …” (Acts 6:3). In the verses which follow, Stephen in particular is characterized as “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5) and “full of grace and power” (Acts 6:8).

Now if these are the spiritual qualifications for men who are to wait on tables how much more important it is for the men who minister God’s Word to be filled with the Spirit—and with the wisdom, faith, grace, and power which He alone imparts?

What it comes down to is that we have established an order, a method, for men to “enter the ministry” which minimizes the order set forth in Scripture. As a consequence, some men gifted for the ministry of the Word of God have been kept from Reformed pulpits, while others who have been able to meet the formal academic requirements have been ordained to the gospel ministry with sad results.

For an example of the problem this can create, the present writer knows a “ruling elder” who is one of the ablest preachers and Bible teachers in his own denomination. He has an excellent knowledge of the Westminster Confession of Faith. Nevertheless, a prominent leader in the denomination said to this man that the effective exposition and defense of the Scriptures makes necessary a long formal training. He also wondered whether it was wise, considering the elder’s age, size of family, and years of study ahead, for him to seek the pastoral office.

How surpassingly strange! But the leader was right. Under the present system, maturity, a believing household [with] five children, and a life spent in earning a fine public reputation in business really counted against the man’s becoming a pastor. The very qualities that the Scripture commends as necessary for the pastor are inadvertently converted into barriers to his ever becoming a fully recognized gospel preacher.

But suppose the standards set for pastors by the present systems of government in Reformed churches were modified by clearly defined biblical norms. In such a situation the Spirit-filled businessman mentioned above would be carefully examined as to faith, life, and knowledge. Then he would be put in possession of the office to which God has called him. His remarkable gifts for Bible teaching, personal counseling with families, and his fervent devotion to the system of doctrine taught in the Westminster standards would enrich any church that he would serve.

In our own Philadelphia area, black pastors who in many instances are manifesting a considerable interest in the Reformed faith would be virtually compelled to serve in non-Reformed churches because they lack the formal educational requirements of our present system.

Thus, with pastors no longer drawn almost exclusively from among university men, the academic tone of so much of our preaching would likely be changed for the better. For example, the devout simplicity and vigorous faith of the black pastors could, through close association, help quicken the lives of us academically trained but sometimes rather joyless white ministers. In turn, the scholarly gifts of Reformed white pastors would enrich the lives of the black brothers, many of whom are passionately committed to acquiring a thorough knowledge of Scripture and systematic theology. It would then become apparent that training for pastors is a lifelong process which engages the whole man within the context of the missionary life and fellowship of the church of the Lord. Such training would not discard biblical content or minimize the need to know sound teaching. Instead, its aim is to combine clear intellectual knowledge with a heart hot for Christ and His glory.

The point is that with the man God has chosen and anointed to preach God’s Word, the transforming power of grace will be there. Evangelism will not be something forced upon the churches but the natural overflow of blessings which ensue when pastors speak with a holy authority (1 Pet 4:10–11).

But here we face another serious problem. Sometimes local congregations have less spiritual life than theological seminaries and Bible colleges. Consider for a moment how the life and order are expressed in typical congregations. What we find here is that life is firmly structured along the lines of the established “program.” If the congregation is somewhat enfeebled, the program will be fixed and yet rather minimal in its demands. Perhaps there will be two Sabbath services, Sunday school, prayer meeting, and women’s missionary society. If, however, the church is newly planted or led by a vigorous pastor, the program may include a proliferating series of children’s meetings, youth groups, recreational gatherings, adult training seminars, and a committee for plant expansion.

The value of some of these activities may be beyond dispute. But this is not the central issue. The central issue is: Has the program of the church been planned under the guidance of the Word of God? Or did it just grow? Did it originate as a matter of long-established habit? And, does it function as a channel for the salvation of non-Christians and the growth of God’s people?

But if God’s people desire to experience the fruitfulness which comes when they submit everything to His Word, they must be prepared to follow His order no matter what the cost. For His order alone can and does foster the life of the church.

However, what do we mean by God’s order? To answer this is first of all to see what God puts first in the life of the church. Take up the book of Acts again and even a cursory reading will disclose that God puts first the obedience of faith (Rom 1:5, 16:26). The fundamental principle is that God gives the Holy Spirit “to those who obey Him” (Acts 5:32). However, Acts also makes clear that prayer is at the center of this obedience. Earlier Jesus had commanded His disciples to ask for the gift of the Spirit (Luke 11:9–13). In obedience to this command and to His directive to wait for the Spirit’s descent (Luke 24:49), the disciples came together for prayer (Acts 1:13–14). Perhaps they recalled that the Lord had received the Spirit while praying (Luke 3:21–22). But, however that may be, they “were continually devoting themselves to prayer” before Pentecost (Acts 1:14). The thought here is that they gathered together in one place and spent a great deal of time in prayer as a group of disciples. What defined them are the words: “These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer” (NASB).

After Pentecost, prayer together continues to be the dominant feature of the life of the newly born church. The church prays daily (Acts 2:42), before preaching with power (Acts 4:24–31), before ordaining Stephen and the other proto-deacons (Acts 6:6), at the time of Peter’s release (Acts 12:12), and upon the occasion of sending out Paul and Barnabas as missionaries (Acts 13:3).

If one examines the context of the passages cited above, he will note that prayer is followed either by a powerful ministry of the Word of God or by some distinctive work of God. What becomes indisputably clear is that the Word of God comes with power when believing prayer precedes and accompanies it. The conclusion is inescapable. Do men want preaching to manifest God’s own transforming power? They can never get this by mutual criticism or self-flagellation. For effective preaching of a Biblical kind depends entirely on God’s blessing, and God’s blessing is secured by God’s people praying together.

What Reformed leaders must emphasize anew is that prayer in private and prayer as a body is not a matter of subjective preference. By teaching and example, the pastor must show the people of God that prayer is a calling upon the Father’s name in sure faith, based upon God’s covenant promises, and that believing prayer is itself a manifestation of kingdom presence and power (Luke 1:10, 13, 54; 3:31; 6:12–19; 9:18, 29-36; Matt 18:18–20; Mark 9:14–29). Before I became a pastor, a retired Christian Reformed pastor urged me, “Pray constantly, and whenever you gather with two or three believers, before you leave pray with them for God’s reviving work to take place.”

Here then is the answer to our need for biblical church renewal. The ministry of the Word falters among us because we neglect God’s way. Preaching is not magic, nor is the Bible a magical book which automatically confers a blessing upon those who read it or hear it read. Therefore, what must be done is to correct ourselves and keep prayer and the ministry of the Word of God together after the example of the apostles (Acts 6:4).

Therefore, pastors must study the Scriptures prayerfully, organize sermons prayerfully, and preach them prayerfully. This also means that the pastors must plead with the congregation to intercede most earnestly on behalf of their preparation and proclamation of the Word of God. To do otherwise is to mislead ourselves and the people of God as to the source of blessing and to foster an unconscious trust in the powers and gifts of leaders.

In terms of church order, we must establish our priorities in such a way that the life of the church is planned so that sufficient time is devoted to private and public prayer. Pastors and sessions must take much time to pray together; the program of the church must be planned to make sure that every believer is in at least one weekly prayer meeting; and prayer meetings must be structured so that there is time for prayer. Small groups in the church should expect to spend almost one-half their time in prayer. Small groups become centers of missionary life and grow a fervent heart for the harvest when the participants are taught how to pray according to 2 Thess 3:1: “Finally, brothers, keep praying for us that the message of the Lord may keep running rapidly and being glorified, even as it was with you” (my translation).

“May the Word of the Lord keep running rapidly in your life and ministry and bring glory to our exalted Father! In Jesus’ glorious name. Amen.”

C. John Miller. “The Word of God in the Life of the Church” (Unpublished). The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO (1976).

Garbage Truck Evangelism

By grahamline March 13, 2024 March 13, 2024

On June 6 [1980] NLC [New Life Church] sent, among others, Alan Smith, Steve DeMoss, and Harvie Conn to join the NLC team already in Uganda.[1] Sempangi has credited Harvie Conn for the idea of “Garbage Truck Evangelism.”[2] Steve DeMoss recalled that Jack came up with the idea.[3] Actually, Phil Gross was originally responsible for using a garbage truck for evangelism. A week later, Jack and Gross met with Kampala’s city engineer to organize the creative approach that so beautifully harmonized evangelism with ministries of mercy.[4]

When the first NLC team had left Uganda four months earlier, Jack had left Gross behind until the second NLC team arrived in May 1980.[5] During that time, Gross became more familiar with the city. In early June, a team made up of New Lifers and Ugandan Christians were preaching in Nakasero Market. No one was listening; they could not possibly listen with the market so full of stinking garbage piling up since before Amin was deposed.[6] Rose Marie recalled how Garbage Truck Evangelism originated:

It’s just hard to imagine how awful the country was. It was just potholes in the streets, bombed buildings, nothing in the stores. The only place to get food was in the open markets. There was one little store that imported cheeses and stuff, but they were so pricey we didn’t even look at it. The women cooked plantain. That wasn’t our favorite meal. But [rat infested] garbage was piling up all over the city…. It was stinking to high heaven. But they had only two garbage trucks, and nobody wanted to go pick up garbage, nobody. So, Phil Gross, one of the young men that was with us, commandeered two trucks. And then I think we put up a big sign on the truck. And he invited all of the [Anglican] bishops to come and help, and they did come. You know they still had their collars. Then Harvie Conn came. They shoveled garbage all day long. [When] Jack came back, he stunk to high heaven.[7]

The sign on the truck read “Jesus is the answer.”[8] The team members rotated climbing atop the garbage truck to share testimonies and preach, while other team members shoveled garbage to clean up the market.

The Ugandan people watched in amazement as white men shoveled garbage all day long. They had seen only a few white men in Uganda over the past decade, but they had never seen a white man shoveling garbage.[9] One reporter accused Jack of having an undisclosed political agenda for what the missionary team was doing.[10]

Gross had gotten away with commandeering the two garbage trucks once, but to continue using the trucks, the team would need official permission. A week later, Jack and Gross visited the city engineer’s office to ask permission to use garbage trucks and volunteer to work alongside city employees to help clean up the markets.[11] The city engineer, a Mr. Achal, had studied at Oxford and spoke excellent English. He greeted the two Americans warmly. The city engineer explained that in 1970, Kampala had over fifty garbage lorries to serve a much smaller population. In 1980, Kampala’s population had increased to over a million people, and now the city had only one working garbage truck and a second one that was undependable.[12]

Gross had stumbled onto a real problem. Jack explained, “When any public service has broken down, [it is] also likely that demoralized workers have given up and/or are using the remaining lorry for their own profit. Happens in hospitals with drugs. Employees sell them in order to eke out a living or profiteer.”[13] Jack explained to the city engineer what they had done with the garbage trucks the prior week. He asked for permission to use the trucks to clean up the markets and suggested the city official allow city employees to cooperate with them as a way of encouraging the city’s workers.[14]

Additionally, Jack asked Achal for advice about communicating effectively with Ugandans. He explained, “It was not easy to get people to understand why we are out there. A reporter … thought we must be supporters of [former President] Lulu. Others thought we were trying to clean up the market because Europeans don’t like all the flies from the garbage fouling the markets where we shopped.”[15] Jack wanted to understand “how to help [Ugandan] people understand our motives.”[16] The city engineer replied,

Here in Uganda we can only understand two motivations: force and money. Amin taught us this for eight years. We learned to do things out of fear of punishment or for money. It’s a deeply-seated way of life now, and we find it hard to understand that anyone would volunteer to do something for another reason. We didn’t [use] to think that way.[17]

As the team shoveled garbage in the Nakasero and Owino markets, Jack, Harvie Conn, and others climbed onto the garbage truck. Like Joshua, the dung-covered high priest (Zech 3:1–5), the white American leaders, stinking to high-heaven, preached the gospel of God’s omnipotent grace to the people of Kampala.[18]

[1] Ibid., June–July 1980. Harvie Conn, Professor of Missions at WTS, attended NLC.

[2] Sempangi, From the Dust, 12–13. Sempangi was deeply involved in government and was not present when the events occurred. DeMoss recalled that it was Jack who first called Sempangi to set up an appointment with Kampala’s city engineer.

[3] DeMoss, in a recorded interview with the author, 29 September 2015.

[4] C. John Miller, “Garbage Truck Evangelism in Uganda,” The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO, Box 1 (Green Book) unpublished (24 May–June 21 1980). On the troubled history between the priority of mercy or evangelism, see also John R. W. Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2008), Kindle edition, 40–50.

[5] “New Life Church Newsletters,” June–July 1980. According to DeMoss, as of September 2015, Gross was no longer walking with the Lord and had entered a rehab facility in Pennsylvania.

[6] Miller, “Garbage Truck Evangelism in Uganda.” Dead bodies were found at times under the piles of garbage.

[7] Miller, in a recorded interview with the author, 4–6 September 2015.

[8] Miller, “Garbage Truck Evangelism in Uganda.”

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid. The two working trucks were the ones commandeered by Phil Gross.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid. Jack was delighted when the city employees brought garbage containers, so people could throw any new garbage into containers rather than continuing to dump it on the ground.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ibid.

Beauty: A Letter from Jack Miller to World Harvest Mission Leadership Team just after the Collapse of the New Era Foundation

By grahamline March 9, 2024 March 11, 2024

In my research of Jack Miller’s life and ministry, I’ve encountered too many redemption stories to fully recount in one dissertation, or a single book.

Among these remarkable stories is the account of World Harvest Mission’s (WHM) devastating loss of over $1,000,000 in the tragic New Era philanthropic fraud scandal—an event that sent shockwaves through numerous Christian institutions across the United States.

During the early 90s, WHM was experiencing rapid growth but also faced financial strain due to rapidly expanding global missions and renewal work in the United States, which led WHM to place funds with New Era.

As Jack was recovering from a severe stroke, his son Paul delivered the gut-wrenching news about the New Era Foundation’s fraud and collapse.

Jack’s declining health also prevented Jack from attending the crucial WHM leadership retreat in Bavaria, scheduled just weeks after the financial crisis had unfolded.

Below you will find a letter—better yet, a series of communications—penned by Jack titled ‘Beauty’ that span from March 30, 1995, to June 21, 1995, in the aftermath of the New Era Foundation’s collapse.

What Satan intended for evil, God meant for good. Ironically, God would use this terrible loss to actually save WHM and fund their continued growth in a remarkable way in the short term. The Lord used this adversity to humble Jack and fellow WHM leaders, compelling them to explain to donors what had happened and to plead for support to avoid closing WHM.

But the story doesn’t end there. Through the generosity of so many people, WHM not only received enough support to survive. When the bankruptcy court managed to recover up to 90% of the funds lost to the fraudulent foundation, these reclaimed resources sustained and fueled WHM’s growth through the death of their beloved founder the following year and during subsequent challenging periods over the next decade. Amazing!

As I prepare to return to the United States, I’ve realized I’m further behind in my own financial support than I initially thought—approximately $3,200 per month once I factor in both personal expenses, as well as church rent and utilities in Italy.

In total, we need to raise $8,000 per month, along with one-time expenses totaling $7,000.

Fortunately, New Life Vicenza has been blessed with many generous donors over the years that has provided a reserve balance, which affords us some financial stability as we continue our work in Italy while seeking additional funding.

While I was feeling deeply humbled and helpless, I “fell upon” these communications from Jack Miller, which have been a blessing to me at just the right time.

I also believe Jack’s letter about faith when it comes to money and financial support will also hold wisdom that could benefit many of you as well.

May you find encouragement and inspiration in Jack’s words as I did.

Enjoy! Mike Graham, TE New Life Vicenza; Director, The Jack Miller Project

May 30, 1995

Warm greetings, brothers and sisters, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Recently I watched the video of the missionary retreat made by Robert Carr. I really missed being there, but I do count it an honor to serve our missionaries by praying for them with the confidence wrought by the Holy Spirit.

It was greatly encouraging to see your faces and hear your voices. To get “a feel for what God was doing.” My joy was great as I heard your testimonies, greetings, and expressions of repentance. I also wept with Dick Kaufmann as he spoke about the abounding sufficiency of Christ and told the story of Bill Broadhurst, the handicapped runner. Bill ran a 10-kilometer race with such pain that he fell behind the other runners, was tempted to despair, but finally staggered across the finish line—and was embraced as a winner by Bill Rogers, the man who had already won the race. At the end of the race Rogers took his own victory medal and put it around the exhausted man’s neck. I wept with Dick.

Isn’t this story a window into the grace of Jesus? He has already won the race for us, and as we labor in pain to complete the marathon we are so tempted to let the pain cause us to quit, but finally we get to the finish line. There the Winner (Jesus) embraces us and puts the victor’s medal around our necks.

Is this a parable of our own experience at World Harvest? In the past? And also now?

Thanks too, Robert, for taking pictures of the world outside the meeting place. Bavaria was beautiful, and the mountains were majestic. But the beauty of the new heaven and the new earth also catches my eye, a glory destination for struggling athletes. I believe the Lord will keep me here for a good time yet, but my soul grows in eagerness to reach the heavenly land, that heavenly Bavaria where the King is all glorious. But I do long desperately for a heavily populated kingdom. Oh how my heart longs to be there with crowds of those that together we have worked to bring to Christ! To see and talk with Kenyans, Ugandans, Irish, Dutch, English, Russians, Spanish, Germans, and Americans. And with hosts of former Hindus, Muslims, and Sikks.

Let’s also not forget our children as co-workers with us in this grand enterprise. I think that the best beauty was in all the children. Thanks, Robert, for the gift of your videotaping and taking special care to follow the little ones around, getting good action shots. Over the past year the Lord has put on my heart a prayer burden for our young ones, including our teenagers.

So it was a delight to see them. In them we have small present missionaries training for a grand missionary future. Let’s welcome them the way we welcome Christ! Too, let me ask both parents and singles to encourage our younger ones to pray diligently at this time of crisis claiming Scripture promises. Please, let’s begin with John 14:13–14. Then let the faith of our children inspire us. Actually, we all know that we will learn more about prayer and its power by letting our children teach us!

How shall we understand our present crisis? Clyde Godwin says that we must see it as “a declaration of war.”

God blessed us wonderfully at the retreat in Germany. We are thrilled by evidences of God bringing solid revival to us. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! But the devil is not asleep. Soon after the retreat Satan used the collapse of the New Era Foundation to hit us hard. He has declared war against us and a large number of other evangelical groups. His intention is clear. He wishes to destroy our faith, undermine our oneness, divert us from the missionary cause of the gospel, and shame us before the world. He is very, very evil.

But that is only part of the picture. What we really need to see is that missions itself is war! The Great Commission is a declaration of war, leading to a massive jubilation celebration (Daniel 7:1–14; Matthew 28:16–20; Revelation Ch. 5, 11:15–19, Ch. 12:19–21). A greater Conqueror than Alexander is here. One little word from him and the enemies blow away in the wind like chaff. Think of it. The preaching of his word causes Satan to “fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18).

Still, we have questions. Where is the Conqueror on the white horse leading us? Did he get caught by surprise by our present crisis? And what are we to do on our part of the battlefield?

Here are three things Clyde expressed to me this morning:

1) Let’s get rid of the fear that the mission may fail or that we may fail.

Then we shall move into the conquering faith described in Mark 9:23 and John 14:13–14.

2) Let’s dethrone all idols.

Among the idols we may find the worship of WHM, our own ministries, gifts, material resources and comforts. Let’s put no trust in any human being—or our own leaders—to do for us what God alone can do. He must work in hearts and lives or all our work is vain. But his work will triumph.

3) Let’s go to war by faith.

Let’s abandon civilian status, sign up for the duration. Our struggle with finances is war. This is one big battle. We shall be working and struggling as never before. However, the biggest battle is still to get the word of the gospel rooted more deeply into our lives and to gain the King’s passion for the lost. Then let’s go out and win the lost with all the wisdom, love, humility, and passion the Spirit supplies.

Clyde says that our mission till now is like the beautiful crepe myrtle tree in his backyard. Recently it had beautiful growth right near the top, but because the roots of the tree were not strong enough to sustain the tree it began to lean dangerously and had to be held in place with a rope. It’s cure was simple. After the spring flowering he pruned the tree back severely. He cut about 3 feet from the top, and trimmed back its diameter. Since then the pruned tree has quickly rooted itself strongly in the ground, the top-heavy leaning is gone. Now firmly in place this myrtle is putting off an abundance of wonderful new growth.

Clyde’s conclusion: God’s severe pruning is enabling us now to get our roots down into Christ-dependence, the gospel, and real God-glorifying praying. We are moving away from mere words or slogans to the Word of life and finding new grace. The pruning, though, hurts. The pain of the cutting is felt by all of us, and we have the temptation to become fearful orphans. But the Lord rescues us from fear and self-interest and gives us his capacity to draw closer to each other. No question we carry many flaws. We are not yet across the finish line. But we are working together with increasing effectiveness in a situation which is almost completely new to us. Truly a gift of the age to come!

I also want to explain why Rose Marie and I are still going overseas in the light of the severe financial crisis in the mission. On our part we are willing to stay home and raise funds on a crisis basis. The executive committee, however, has decided that we should go overseas according to plan.

An important factor in this decision is the state of my health. At least for the present the doctors have told me that I cannot go to Africa because my heart cannot handle altitudes above 5500 feet. This is very disappointing to me. I was greatly anticipating a trip there in 1995. It also means that I cannot speak at our Sonship weekend for Missionary Internship at Colorado Springs. The cardiologist, though, says he will take another close look at my heart in the fall. He hopes that one of the drugs he is giving me will strengthen it.

Another one of my doctors recently said that I have made “a wonderful recovery from the stroke.” But he also said clearly that once you have had a stroke the risk of getting a second is considerable. Then as early as last November our family doctor said that my schedule in the U.S. was overloaded and my busy lifestyle had given me hypertension. This doctor had never given me a health warning like this before. I accepted his correction. I know I arrived last December in Spain deeply exhausted after all the meetings from September through November.

Then after the stroke the doctor of clinical psychology at the hospital talked to me at length at least twice. She works with stroke patients. Her blunt words, “Given your schedule, you are headed for a second stroke, and a much more severe one unless you slow down your life to a reasonable pace.”

Since ordinarily there is less pressure on me overseas, and because we have extensively thinned out the overseas schedule, I will actually have a good deal of time overseas to work on the mission’s financial stability. What I do well, people tell me, is write letters and make phone calls, and I have been doing that since our crisis began. I do not believe that this will put undue pressure on me, and it is natural for me to communicate about the mission’s financial need from the front lines.

June 2, 1995

What does it all mean? What is our gracious Father saying at this time of financial crisis? How about this? “My sons and daughters, this too is part of my plan, and the plan is good.” And: “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, and the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (Ps. 33). What God is calling us to is a fresh discovery: the joy of trusting in his absolute sovereignty and the goodness of his government.

Many of us have deep struggles here. What has happened has been bad in the sense that a human being has wronged us. It has damaged many Christians and their ministries. Sometimes I think this upsetting dream will just disappear. And I am so sorry for what has happened. It has caused you pain and may continue to cause you pain. I wish with all my heart that you did not have to go through this and that the friends of the mission did not have to endure this pain with us. Together we feel humiliated by what has happened.

But we will find that our good heavenly Father will use this for his glory if we take time together to seek his wisdom—to understand his sovereign purpose here.

When Paul called me on Monday afternoon (May 17), he asked, “Dad, are you sitting down? I have hard news.”

A terrible thought flashed through my mind: a plane carrying some of our missionaries has crashed. Perhaps some of the home staff has been killed returning from Europe. I had been praying against accidents for our gathering in Germany. Had the Lord not heard my prayer? It was one awful moment.

Then Paul said, “It looks like New Era is collapsing. Maybe there’s something fraudulent?”

I was so relieved to hear that all our missionaries and home staff were safe that at first the meaning of his announcement hardly penetrated. Everyone was alive, no one was even injured, and no one had dishonored Christ. Money was lost. But our mission was still in business and so was all our team. Praise God!

God then gave me a gift of sheer grace. I was able to say with confidence, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

June 11, 1995

The Lord also takes away for a purpose. Paul McKaughn, director of EFMA, the accrediting organization to which we are accountable as a mission, wrote in this month’s letter to us:

“We were all sitting around a very nice board room table, wholly respectable-looking in ‘business attire.’ With suitable gravity we used words like accountability, responsibility, truthfulness and integrity, but the topic was really about money and keeping track of it. At first it was almost assumed that elaborate, formal control systems with their measures would do the job of insuring moral behavior. Within weeks, in our own country, the nation where formal financial controls are the most complex imaginable, our world has been rocked by the biggest financial scandal in philanthropic history.”

He’s talking about New Era. “The biggest financial scandal in philanthropic history.”

The finger of God had certainly touched us and our visible resources. Perhaps he wanted to show us that we cannot trust in “formal financial controls” to protect the money entrusted to us by the Lord. Healing questions entered my mind. Is it possible that we have been making a god of money and the elaborate financial systems for protecting it? I do not mean to suggest that we were greedy or that other Christian agencies were. But our wise friend at EFMA was probing, seeking to get us to look twice at what may be another idol.

Are we unconsciously trusting in technologies and human systems for protecting us and our lives? I was thinking of intricate systems for protecting our money, but also of communication technologies, medical and health structures, plans, and techniques for getting our work done. And especially in our own abilities and wisdom to get the job done? These are all good and useful things—but have we given them an importance they do not deserve?

Do these systems for ordering our lives and work somehow become substitutes for faith in the living God? For loving one another? And loving the man said to have defrauded us?

My own idolatry was partly exposed at that moment. Matters came to a head almost exactly three days later. On Wednesday I was slipping into discouragement and self-pity. I think I was also angry, sensing that we had been robbed by a very clever deception. I felt humiliated. The protective technologies had failed, and so had I. Then as Rose Marie and I headed for the door to take our late afternoon walk, she said, “You are getting depressed.”

She was right. But I receive her discerning counsel with enthusiasm. After all, self-pity provides a certain feeling of satisfaction when you are hurting.

Then she paused at the dining room table and pulled out the prayer card from Angelo’s daily prayer box.

The card read, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name I will do it” John 14:13–14.

She handed me the card with a smile and I read it without a smile. However, on the walk that followed I repented of my unbelief and claimed the promise on the prayer card. That evening, I went to our church’s “Food Cupboard,” a free dinner for needy people followed by the gift of groceries for the week. I ate with them and enjoyed spending time with them. I was sitting at the table of grace together with others who had small resources.

I then preached to them before they picked up their groceries for the week. I believe God’s holy anointing was upon me, and those who came in to listen were convicted of the reality of Christ’s powerful salvation and their need of it because they are sinners like me. Physically my body still felt a bit stiff, but the truth was flowing with power in my own life. The preaching was the Holy Spirit’s overflow. The man nearest me said, “I needed to hear that.” Well, my brother, so did I!

I knew, then, that a giant Jesus was on the move.

On Thursday after the early morning mission’s prayer meeting in our home, a friend who is a stockbroker talked with me about what had happened with New Era.

He said, “I am concerned that you and the key leaders at World Harvest don’t start beating up on yourselves over the loss of money. Remember: you didn’t rob anyone. You were robbed. And if someone who has an outstanding reputation sets out to deceive you, you shouldn’t be surprised if they succeed. I have had it happen to me, and it hurts. But don’t sit around second-guessing what you should have done differently.”

That helped clear the air. I was not going to beat up on myself. Then I moved into faith in the promise of John 14:13–14 and Mark 9:23. I liked those mind-boggling words of Jesus: “All things are possible to him who believes.” I then went to the Sending Center and had a wonderful time praying individually with several of our home staff. I came away greatly encouraged by our shared faith in the promise of our generous God of grace. The faith of the home team was a wonderful inspiration to my soul. I really needed their faith.

It now seemed to me that somehow our beloved Father had taken away financial resources with a high purpose: to get our feet securely planted on the holy ground of the promises of grace. To overthrow all idols. Rely on nothing human, nothing strong, nothing brilliant. Give up our need to be controlling. Just living in the land of grace. Grace flowing to us through praying—praying, hungering, grabbing not for security but for the glory of Christ. In prayer crying out to our heavenly Father. Giving him no rest till his glory is revealed as we rely exclusively on his world-mastering promises.

June 12, 18, 1995

Let’s continue this thought. Do we detect a pattern in what the Father is saying? While the mission gathered in Germany for the retreat, a few of us gathered at the home base for prayer. Dan Macha directed our thoughts to the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14–29. He called our attention to the attitude of the man who buried his one talent in the ground because he believed that his master was stingy and would punish him if he did not guard it. Dan also said, “I always assumed that the man was at least partly right, that the master was on the stingy side. But then I understood a talent was worth something like 10,000 dollars. Then it became clear to me that the man believed a lie about his master. The master had given a generous sum to him, and he expected him to put it to work in the same spirit. But the man was actually judging the master by his own selfishness and small-mindedness.”

Dan concluded, “Our Father is generous, and we must act upon that knowledge with courage.”

Dan, thanks for the gift of your wisdom. It was so helpful to me. Keep preaching it, Dan! Jesus, help us all to live out of this wisdom!

We have all been greatly strengthened through Paul Leary’s volunteering to come home from Uganda for three months beginning in July. He will seek to raise funds for our campaign to recover from our crisis. Paul, thanks for this gift to God and us. Do remember our Father is generous. Act on that knowledge, full of faith.

Hunter Dockery and Josiah will come home in mid-August for six weeks to do the same. Thanks much, Hunter and Josiah, remember: Your God is generous. Preach it, brothers, live it.

Bob Heppe sent an E-mail message home: “Now that we have nothing, let’s risk everything!” As part of this giving of ourselves, members of the home team have given up their present work, in part or wholly, to “risk everything.” Chris French has taken up work in our accounting department, something new to him in order to free up Jerry Kimbro. Paul Miller is heading the crisis recovery effort, with Jerry Kimbro’s valuable help. Bill Parr will be contacting churches for this work. Dave McCarty has stayed in development to help the campaign, and Charley McCoy has delayed his work in communications and kept on supervising missionaries raising support.

Drew Angus, Jeff Salasin, and Stu Batstone are working hard to raise additional support for their accounts to relieve the general budget. We feel for them—and we must earnestly pray for them—because it is much harder to raise support for home team missionaries than it is for overseas missionaries. Pray that they will have all their needs met “according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). On our prayer walks Rose Marie and I have been praying for these brothers with their hard struggle.

As part of our campaign to recover, the staff has pledged to give $70,000 over an eighteen month period. It is a partnering with our generous God by giving freely as a sacrifice of praise.

But let’s train our ears to hear the music of praise and joy. These gifts “are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God,” the eternal Father who sacrificed a Son (Philippians 4:18). What a privilege that we the sons and daughters of God can bring joy and delight to his Fatherly heart! Hear the deep music of the cross and sing.

June 21, 1995

Were the whole realm of nature mine That were an offering far too small. Love so amazing so divine demands my soul, my life, my all.

We have learned that Betty Herron will receive immediate chemotherapy for the treatment of her cancer. We are all beseeching the Father for a complete healing and the speedy return of Dan and Betty to the field. This has been a season of shocks for all of us, but we are confident that nothing in heaven and earth can shake our confidence in the personal presence of Christ working in behalf of Dan and Betty. Go for it, Betty and Dan! We stand with you!

The war is on.

Jesus attended our seminar held at East London Tabernacle Baptist Church last week. We believe that there is very good reason to think that the Conqueror is continuing the work he began at the seminar. One fruit appeared immediately. Team leaders slipped over from Holland and Ireland. How great it was to see Hunter, Josiah, and Norm. Soon after Hunter’s return to Dublin, he and Julie had the joy of seeing a woman receive Christ. She had a background of involvement in a cult-like church group. She appears to have had a wonderful release from legal bondage through the gospel. Hunter and I have been thrilled. We believe that this was “a token of good from heaven,” the first conversion among many to follow.

This was my first seminar since my stroke. I came to it with fear and trembling. I remembered the further warning of the clinical psychologist: “You have a choice, dying by the end of the year through high pressure working or having another ten years of work ahead of you by working at a normal pace.” Gulp!

My fragility was further underscored in my mind by the way I arrived at Heathrow. I asked BA for an electric cart, after explaining that I had a stroke three months before. But they did not send an electric cart, but a wheelchair. So I entered London by means of God’s power vehicle—pushed through immigration and customs in a wheelchair by a young woman. Still, there was power in my weakness. She wanted to know about the big box of literature with our luggage. Rose Marie and she were friends by the time we said goodby. She took a New Life booklet and promised to read it as we headed out the final door. She also said we should ask for her anytime we came through Heathrow.

It was humbling and yet glorious. I began the seminar with the story of the wheel chair and noted that the two other leaders (Bob Heppe and Steve Childers) also had health problems. Bob suffers from leg problems from an old accident, and Steve Childers has had his own major health warnings. But in spite of our weakness, the Lord worked. Steve poured out his life in warm hearted teaching and in personal follow up with pastors and WHM missionaries attending. He made an excellent contribution.

Afterwards our host pastor said things like: this conference “is very important for this country” and “I am very excited about the implications of the conference for my church and hopefully beyond.”

We began the final day of the conference with a feedback time. One brother was very negative about our approach and teaching. It was really discouraging. I could feel the despair knocking at the door of my heart. I had been taking measures to see that I had sufficient rest and kept a tight rein on my use of time to see that I had plenty of rest. But now I was persuaded that in my last talk I had to risk dying, either then and there or soon after. You see, my stroke came one day after an intense weekend seminar and speaking on Sunday.

Here is what I believe God was saying to me and to the mission. It’s all said wonderfully well in Jennifer Myhre’s April prayer letter.

She writes of Caleb, her new baby, living with her and her husband Scott in disease-ridden western Uganda, “In the final accounting, there is no risk to obedience—not even death will separate Caleb from the love of God. He promises that our apparent loss is truly eternal gain.”

So in answer to many prayers, I surrendered my last talk to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Because of his working I threw away all concern for my life. I was able to preach as a dying man to dying men. It seemed to me that I was a spectacle—and almost a spectator—to what God wanted to say to me and through me.

The message was clear. Forget about here and now and concern yourself about”eternal gain.” Therefore I found myself standing before the judgment throne of God and calling myself and everyone there to prepare for that final accounting by throwing away their lives now for Jesus, to forget about human opinion and “stoop down and drink and live” (Bonar’s hymn).

I could feel death in my body. I had no assurance that I would be alive after this message. But my freedom was great. It was the Holy Spirit’s hour, and my safety did not matter. What only mattered was the glory of the Father.

Afterwards the man who had thrown the cold water came and apologized to Steve and me with a spirit of brokenness. It was genuine, a work of God and his pure grace. Glory to his glorious name! He did it. It was his hour, and he alone did the working. Thank him for hearing your prayers and ours. Thank him with great joy!

Jennifer writes, “Jesus is the object of our faith, not health or success or happiness or even life itself. He endured greater suffering than I could ever know, for the joy of saving me.” I would include our mission, our plans, and financial resources in Jennifer’s list. None of it must be the object of our faith.

Paul McKaughn spells it out. He says,

“Observers note that we tend to either measure those things which we think are very important or on the other hand by our measurements we can make things important which may not be. The French theologian and philosopher Jacques Ellul has written about the mythical and sacred attachments we Westerners give to money and how it becomes our major power in a pantheon of deities. It is the measure in our society which eclipses all others … This is the reason we have created intricate financial systems which become almost the sacred rites to add significance to this god, money. With elaborate systems we try to measure and protect it and ourselves from its misuse.”

His point is that our ministry is not first of all utilitarian, to get work done or to use people as instruments of even good purposes. Isn’t he right? How easy it is to see people as objects of our plans, the means for getting work done. I think we have always struggled vigorously against this at World Harvest, but at this crisis perhaps God is saying to all of us to take an closer look at our motivations as we labor to recover from our crisis.

The cure? According to McKaughn, we ought to do what we can to protect our money and to plan well, but then recognize that our main task is not to build systems of protection for our work and its resources, but to build relationships of trust, love, and caring. Our main work, then, in this time of crisis is not to use people, be angry at anyone, or to be successful, but in our suffering and trial to count it all joy. To love one another with Christ’s incredible passion—and to spread that out to our fellow Christian and to the lost!

I would add to McKaughn’s rich insight one further word: we must love others intensely under the umbrella of the Father’s absolute sovereignty.

Let’s love others even though they may never help us with our goals and their realization.

So ours is a love campaign—not first of all a financial campaign!

The roots of this love always go back to the eternal love of the Father expressed in the cross. Let’s fill our minds with this message until we overflow with grace and graciousness.

Then we can say with Maria Allewelt, a member of our International Renewal Team, “We did not lose a million dollars. God spent it on us, so that we could know him better and love one another better.”

As we risk our lives for Jesus, as we give generously ourselves, as we love one another, as we love others beyond our immediate circle, grace will abound, and all our material needs will be met “according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

What do we see? Circumstances? Human beings who disappoint? A huge task? Humiliation? Death? Fear on the throne, ruling our lives and history?

No, look again, dear child of God. Fear is not on the throne!

“I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne …” With praise to the Lamb,

Jack Miller

P.S. Let’s go for it! As we seek to raise financial means for the work, let’s do the work with a heart hot for Christ! The conversion in Dublin is just the first fruit. We want thousands to get saved. Witness boldly in the name of the Lamb. Let’s expect great things from God and attempt grat things for God.

Author: grahamline

Continuance in Justification by C. John Miller, 11 April 1979

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