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[00:00:00] This evening we're going to speak about the ministry of God's word. We're not going to talk about so much the spiritual character of the ministry of God's word. We're going to talk about the practical side of ministering. And the first thing I would like to underline this evening are some of the principles behind find a true ministry of God's word. If you turn to two Corinthians, chapter four, and verse one, two Corinthians, chapter four, verse one. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint. Not so evidently, ministry exists in the atmosphere of much opposition and much antagonism. We obtain mercy, and therefore we do not faint.
[00:01:05] If you turn back to Luke chapter one and verse two, we have these words, luke, chapter one, verse two, even as they delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.
[00:01:24] Ministers of the word. Ministers of the word. Then if we turn to Ephesians chapter six and verse 19 and 20, we have a further, I think, insight into something of what a true ministry entails. And on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in change, that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. Two things there there is. First, utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth. So evidently there are times when you've got the word in you, but you can't utter it.
[00:02:17] And the apostle asks for prayer that he may be enabled to utter the word of God. Utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. And then boldness he emphasizes again that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
[00:02:45] Therefore it's not evidently just a question of the gift, of the gap that can run away with us. This is something to do with a real ministry of Christ, and it can only really be fulfilled as God gives utterance, and that requires evidently the fellowship of the church and of other believers. And then if you look in one, Peter, chapter four, and verse eleven, if any man speaketh, speaking as it were oracles of God, if any man speaketh, speaking as it were oracles of God.
[00:03:35] And then in two Timothy, chapter four.
[00:03:42] To Timothy, chapter four, verse two.
[00:03:48] Preach the word.
[00:03:51] Preach the word. Verse five. But be thou sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. Preach the word, fulfill thy ministry. Now, what are some of the principles that lie behind a true ministry of God's word doesn't matter how great a ministry it is or how small a ministry it is. These principles are the same.
[00:04:27] The first is simply that it must all be of God.
[00:04:33] And if you turn to ephesians chapter four, you find this whole matter in principle, in chapter four, verse eight. Wherefore he Seth, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Verse eleven, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting the saints, and so on. Now the point here is simply this, that no training course, no Bible college, no theological seminary, no association with the greatest of apostles can produce ministry in itself. Ministry of God's word. The ministry of God's word can only be produced by the operation of the spirit of God.
[00:05:34] Therefore, you cannot produce it by training. You can only train what is already there.
[00:05:41] You got it?
[00:05:43] I think this is a quite important point. Some people think that if they can get into some kind of training course or go to some Bible college, there, they're going to get a ministry of the word. And this is why half these things are so dead.
[00:05:58] You cannot train something that is not there. You can only train something that is already there, already living already, as it were, in existence. And I think that this is a very important point to make this evening. Sometimes we think that if we get close enough to those who've got a ministry, it'll rub off on us, and it doesn't. It is the Holy Spirit who has to produce a ministry in us. And don't be discouraged. The fact is, there may already be a gift deep down within you which has never yet come out into the open.
[00:06:39] And often we need the impetus of the Holy Spirit, the coming upon us, of the Holy Spirit to, as it were, give the impetus to that ministry which is in us. I say a lot about that, but we can't. Then that's a principle. That's the point. It's the cause and effect. Once there is something in you created by God, it is the Holy Spirit who starts to do all the work of training. It's a gift of Christ to the church through the Holy Spirit. Now, the second thing comes out of it, the second principle. It is history and experience.
[00:07:23] Behind all true ministry of the word, there must be history and experience. You can't just mug it up in a book. You can't just get hold of vines, dictionary of the New Testament, or some commentary, swat up a few things and then turn them on like a tape recorder at a given moment in this is what some people try to do. They sort of come with a little prepared word that's been swatted up carefully from various sources. But the principle that must be behind all ministry is history and experience. You must have your own history with God, with Christ. You must have your own experience of Christ. Now we find this again. I'm only giving you one scripture at a time for these in two corinthians, chapter one, from verse three to six, here is the principle. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our infliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in affliction through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound unto us, even so our comfort also aboundeth through Christ. For whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort which worketh in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. So in other words, the apostle is saying, here we are in great trouble, and this is all producing history, a history with God. And it's producing it. It's an experience of the Lord. And out of this history and experience comes our ministry. Now, we've all had the experience of someone trotting out some scriptures even to try and comfort us. And somehow or other you feel like screaming.
[00:09:23] The fact is, the little nuggets that have dropped from their lips have not helped you at all. They just make you want to run a mile.
[00:09:34] We've known someone else draw near to us and give us quite the same scripture, and and somehow or other it's just meant something to us. What is the difference? One, someone's passing on a scripture without any experience. The other, it's come out of the way they've had with the Lord. It's come out of a way with the Lord. Now, I think we must understand that the ministry of the word is really supremely a ministering of Christ to others. We're not ministering doctrines, we're not ministering truths. We're ministering Christ to others. Now, that can never be theoretical.
[00:10:18] You can minister doctrines theoretically, idealistically, academically, but you can't minister Christ to minister Christ to people.
[00:10:31] It's got to be living. It's got to come out of a relationship with him. It's got to come out of experience of him.
[00:10:39] It comes out of inward experience and history. Now, the apostle Paul again has this same thought in Galatians one, verse 15 and 16, when he says, when it was the good pleasure of God who separated me even from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his son in me, out of this came his ministry, this revelation of the Son of God within the apostle. Out of this revelation of the son of God within him came true ministry. Spiritual character must lie behind the ministry of the word. You remember how in more than one occasion when we have a prophet, the Lord comes to this one and shows him a scroll and says, eat it?
[00:11:27] And we have the same thought with a slightly different consequence. In one, he eats it and he said, it was like Honey to my mouth. The other says, it was like honey to begin with and became bitter in my stomach. That's Ezekiel and John. And again we've got the same thought. What is it? What does it represent? What does it symbolise? It represents the fact that you can't just pass on the word of God as if you have nothing to do with it. That's where we have to be careful of the hymn that we've sung. Channels only. It would be very easy if we could be channels only. But in actual fact, in the ministry of God's word, we have to be more than channels.
[00:12:13] The word's got to get into us and there has to be a history and an experience.
[00:12:19] Brother Nee once said something which I think is very true of ministry. He said, either you minister something which is not your experience, and from then on, God makes sure that it becomes your experience. Therefore, be very careful what you say, or the other side is that you minister out of your experience.
[00:12:42] But either way, in the end, if we're walking with God, what we say comes true. Brother Nee himself ended that time of conference in Denmark in 1938 with that wonderful message which is recorded in the last chapter of normal christian life, in which he said, God dares to put his greatest ambassadors in chains.
[00:13:08] And of course, for 20 years, till he went to the Lord, he experienced exactly what he'd said in freedom in 1938.
[00:13:21] Well, now, history and experience is a vital principle in this whole matter of ministry. And then another principle is example. All these, of course, are linked. They all sort of come out of each other.
[00:13:34] One Timothy, chapter four, verse twelve. One Timothy, chapter four, verse twelve.
[00:13:43] Let no man despise thy youth. Good word.
[00:13:47] Let no man despise thy youth. You all heard of Mr. Sparks when he was a young man and first was being considered in those days as a minister in a certain place. And there was a much humming and hoing about whether he should be a minister. And so the deacons decided in the end, in this baptist place, that he was too young. Too young. But one old deacon won the day by saying, well, he's getting over that every day.
[00:14:18] Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an ensemble to them that believe in word, in manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity.
[00:14:35] And you have the same thought again in Titus two and verse seven, in all things, showing thyself an example of good works.
[00:14:46] So example is better than precept.
[00:14:52] And whilst we all fail in this matter, we have got to be examples, at least as far as we are able before God, of what we ourselves preach. If we preach utterness toward God, we ourselves must be supremely utter in our devotion toward God. If we demand of others that they should be 100% for God, we ourselves must be, above everything else, 100% for God. If we give some weighty word on prayer, let us always see that we are conspicuous by our presence in times of prayer, not only by our presence, but in our contribution.
[00:15:42] If we speak of faith, then we must exercise faith and be an example of faith to all the believers, and so on and so forth.
[00:15:53] Example is so important in the old days and indeed today in Israel. The one great thing about jewish armies was that the captains and all the high ups always were in the front.
[00:16:15] And of course, in modern israeli battles. That's why so many of the officers have lost their lives. Because not like as in gentile things, the officers stay in the background, drink a cup of tea or two, talk about things, and the men fight it all out in the front.
[00:16:31] The officers are in the front and are leading their men into battle. Now, whether this is right or wrong militarily, it is certainly absolutely vital. In the matter of the ministry of God's word, we should be enthalled, leading people into the things of God, into all that Christ has for us in the work of the recovery of the church and the building up of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us be an example in the way we do things in every part, the jobs that we had to do, whether it's small or great things. A third principle, or fourth principle, rather, is responsibility. One Timothy, chapter three and verse 15. Again, this comes out as this matter of example.
[00:17:34] But if I carry long that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth I think we need to be delivered from ministry consciousness due to the tremendous emphasis in Protestantism upon the word of God as the central thing rather than worship.
[00:18:01] Catholicism and of course some of the older forms, such as the anglican church, some of the other, their emphasis is more on worship as the central theme of church life. Protestantism put at the center the word of God. That's why you have the pulpit always in the center, in presbyterian churches and baptist churches and generally speaking and so on. You've got the pulpit in the center. It's a symbol that the word of God is central and nothing else. Not the altar, it's the word of God. Now due to this, we have all become a ministry conscious.
[00:18:41] Everything depends on the ministry, and the ministry is everything. And indeed the minister is the thing. Most places simply exist as a platform for the minister.
[00:18:55] They are there to support him, to be a backdrop for his ministry, to sort. He does everything. Everyone sits there and listens and spectates, as it were.
[00:19:07] That is the whole thing. Now we need to be delivered from this kind of ministry conscious. I knew many a group in earlier days which were entirely wrecked on this question of infighting over who got the big ministry or who had ministry of the word. Oh, my word, how people fought over things like this. We need to be delivered from this whole ministry consciousness. It gets into you so much that the way a person shakes your hand, you can tell that they're a minister. Indeed.
[00:19:40] Well, indeed. And you can tell what denomination they are? Yes, you can.
[00:19:46] There's anglican handshake, a pentecostal handshake, and there's most certainly a baptist one.
[00:19:52] You can feel it. It's not just funny. There's also a whole manner, a manner of standing, a manner of speaking which goes with this whole ministry. It's the anointed one of the Lord. Touch not the Lord's anointed.
[00:20:10] And there's this whole mystique of the minister. You mustn't associate with the ordinary people, with the congregation. You must be called Mr. So and so at all times by everybody, even your wife, when referring to you in public.
[00:20:26] It's this whole mystique of the ministry.
[00:20:30] Just like royalty, keep people at a distance, otherwise they will not have the respect for you. That is due to your anointing, your anointed office.
[00:20:41] Well, I think we need to be delivered from all that kind of consciousness. Ministry is not for self fulfillment and it's not for exhibitionism. It's not simply to express ourselves. It should come out of taking inward responsibility for the things and work of God.
[00:21:02] And really real ministry always comes out of a heart burden for the Lord and for his work and for the realization of his purpose. Out of that deep concern for God should come ministry. And I think that it's not only inward responsibility, but it should be outward responsibility. Sometimes in very humdrum things.
[00:21:32] Gideon was taken from threshing wheat, a very humdrum job, to become the leader of God's people. David was taken from looking after sheep to become the king of the people of God. Moses was taken after 40 years looking after sheep in the backside of the desert. Peter and John and Andrew and James were taken from fishing. All these humdrun jobs, they were mending nets, some of them, when the Lord took hold of them. I think you see that we need to take responsibility in the job that we have to do. And some people seem to think that if they could have a great platform ministry, then they would take responsibility. But this is not true. If you can't take responsibility in the job you've got in your office and do it properly, getting there punctually and putting in a good day's work, you certainly would not be able to minister God's word.
[00:22:36] It's a spirit, and it's the same here in the question of stewarding, cleaning, all these humdrum responsibilities. If a person can't do that and do it well, and really as unto the Lord, then we can be pretty sure that they wouldn't be much good when it came to the ministry of God's word.
[00:22:58] It's as simple as that. A person's pompousness or their pride or their unteachability all comes out when it comes to the small, simple little things.
[00:23:11] Everyone thinks they're going to undergo a tremendous change if they were suddenly called into the ministry.
[00:23:20] It's absolutely untrue. And after all, responsibility, by the way, is only an adult attitude to duties. Think about that. Responsibility is only an adult attitude to responsibilities. It's like an adult who has to go round the garden and collect up the children's toys. It's the children who throw them down and leave them.
[00:23:39] Often an adult either has to get them to do it or go and do them themselves. It's an adult attitude of responsibilities. An adult knows that it's got to be done. There's no good quibbling about it's got to be done, someone's got to do the humdrum things. It's only an adult attitude of responsibilities.
[00:23:58] Faith is the fifth principle in the ministry of God's word. To Timothy. Now this is quite interesting, really. To Timothy, chapter one, verse five, and verse six. Having been reminded of the unfeigned faith that is in thee. Verse six. For which cause I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee through the laying on of my hand.
[00:24:33] Unfeigned faith in thee. He links it with the stirring up of the gift that's inside of you. Now, Brother Shaw was saying to me last night about romans twelve, about the word, about prophecy. Romans twelve, verse six. I think it is whether prophecy. Let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith. According to the proportion of our faith.
[00:25:03] Faith is a principle in the ministry of God's word. We shall never exercise our ministry if we wait until we are perfect.
[00:25:16] There are many folks who wait for some tremendous experience which they feel will make them perfect. But no experience makes you perfect.
[00:25:27] It may give you the initial impetus to go forward on an altogether new line and level, but it will not make you perfect. And faith is a principle that lies behind true ministry of God's word. Faith must be the springboard for all ministry. We must fulfill our ministry by faith. And I often feel this is one of the problems when we dither. And when many don't exercise their gift or go forward in any way, they're dithering all the time, waiting for something. And you see, we make a great mistake, because often what we're waiting for is a feeling.
[00:26:17] And the basis of all ministry must be faith. All that is not of faith is sin.
[00:26:27] All that is not of faith is sin. So may I just say that in this matter of faith, the Lord himself allows the devil to have such a time with his servants in order to make sure that their ministry is founded on the principle of faith. That's why those who are ministers of the word go through such deep experiences at time to make absolutely certain that the principle upon which that faith is founded, that ministry is founded is faith.
[00:27:06] Well, there's more I could say about that, too. For instance, stir up the gift that is in thee. Neglect not the gift that is in thee. I think it is only faith. Why did Timothy neglect? Why did he neglect?
[00:27:22] Surely it must have been principally through unbelief. He was a timid fellow, probably given to a lot of dithering.
[00:27:31] When he'd got the apostle Paul around to give him a kick. Now and again he felt okay, but when the abusal ball wasn't there, he tended to let things slide and slowly sink back, because probably he took too much note of his feelings of circumstances, of people, of conditions, rather than faith. Another principle is originality. Originality. Now, if you look at Haggi chapter one, haggi chapter one, verse 13, we read in our authorized version and revised version, these words then spake hagai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto his people. This has been corrected in the modern versions quite, I think, quite incorrectly. I have looked up the Hebrew in this, and it's exactly what it says. The messenger of the Lord in the message of the Lord. Exactly that. Now, whatever does that mean? The messenger of the Lord in the message of the Lord. Surely it speaks of originality. Be yourself. Admit your measure. You see, many people feel that if they're going to minister God's word, they must be sort of up there. It's nonsense. It's absolute nonsense. Sometimes we have such a spiritual inferiority complex that we ape a brother that we feel is a successful minister of the world. We imitate, we copy, you see? And then comes tragedy.
[00:29:08] Be yourself. Be absolutely original. No one can be original who has not been delivered from themselves. It's quite as simply simple as that. The only original people are people who've, who've come to terms with themselves and can accept themselves as God accepts them. That's the amazing thing. God accepts you for what you are. You know, your temperament, your constitution, the type of personality you have is how God accepts you. And you've got to come to that, and you must be yourself and admit your measure. That's why we have some tremendous ministries in the word, and yet we can tell who it is. You can almost tell the apostle Paul, yet it's the word of God. Yet you can tell it's the apostle Paul. You can tell James anywhere.
[00:29:58] And yet it's the word of God that's coming through. Peter is sometimes perhaps a little harder to tell, but Peter is Peter.
[00:30:05] John. Well, now, John is a classic example.
[00:30:09] If I were to start giving you a few sentences of the apostle John, I think most of you would say, yes, that's John, the apostle Paul. If you know your Bible, you'd say, the apostle Paul doesn't speak like that. But just wait. Isn't this the word of God?
[00:30:25] It's not just even the ministry of the word as we know it. This is the canon of scripture, and yet the man's personality is there. It is the messenger of the Lord in the Lord's message. Isn't it simple?
[00:30:42] And as far as you can say, if you're a Matthew, be a Matthew. And if you're a luke, be a Luke. And if you're a Paul, be a Paul. And if you're a James, be a James. And if you're John, a john and a Peter, a Peter. Be yourself.
[00:30:53] Be yourself.
[00:30:55] God wants to use you.
[00:30:58] Your background, your temperament, your type of person, all is under God's sovereign hand. He knew all about you when you were in your mother's womb.
[00:31:07] And if he'd wanted something different, he could have said a word and he would have got something different long before you were saved. All the things that have formed your personality and character and type of person, your temperament, all were under the sovereign hand of God. And that's why two or three times in the word you get this matter of being separated from your mother's womb. It goes right back to ancestry, even the things, the constituents of your temperament and being. Now, God knows all about that, so don't try to be artificial. Don't try to change your temperament in favor of someone else that you feel might be greatly used of God. Be yourself. I remember day, years ago, when we used to suffer a whole lot of Mr. Sparks's, lots and lots of Mr. Sparks's, because all these dear folks, they saw this temperament, they thought this was spirituality. It was, of course, Mr. Sparks. In Mr. Sparks, it was marvellous. He was unique.
[00:32:16] But when we met it in this, and this and this and this and this and this, oh, dear.
[00:32:22] It became an imposition, it became a limitation, and in the end, a paralysis of real ministry. Do not, therefore, try to be someone else. Imitate others only in the quality of their life. Now you've got this, I think, in Hebrews 13, verse seven, where I think it puts it rather beautifully, Hebrews 13, verse seven. Remember them that had the rule over you, that spake unto you the word of God, considering the issue of their life, the issue of their life, imitate their faith.
[00:33:03] Now, that is different. You're not imitating their diction, their style, their personality, or even their message. You are imitating their faith. And that's another thing. Now, to be influenced by somebody else is another matter. Don't be afraid of being influenced. As part of the development and training of real ministry is to be influenced. If we enter apostle Paul here, it would be a tragedy if every one of us was not influenced by him.
[00:33:33] To be influenced is one thing, to copy is another.
[00:33:38] Copying means death. Influence means life.
[00:33:43] Well, sort out the difference. I'll leave it to you.
[00:33:47] The 7th principle is receptiveness.
[00:33:50] Receptiveness.
[00:33:53] Two Timothy 314. Two Timothy 314.
[00:34:00] Here it is but abide down the things which thou hast learned. And hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Here Timothy was receiving something. He was receptive. Be careful of being the big teacher.
[00:34:18] Be supremely teachable.
[00:34:22] Be prepared to learn from all, even from difficult people. And if you have got a ministry, God will see to it that there are plenty of difficult people around you. And at hand accept criticism willingly.
[00:34:37] I remember some years ago being told by Mr. Sparks of a letter from Brother Ni. Which he said to me, I believe is the key to Brother Ni's greatness. And it was just a letter in which Brother Ni had been very severely criticized by a certain quarter in China. And he said, but I took it to the Lord. Because he had shown me that every criticism that ever came my way. I should go to him and say, now, is there something I can learn from this? In this way, he said, I found you. Take the sting out of the tail. And that's very true. If you can turn criticism like that, even malicious criticism, into something that is to your good. It not only does something in your attitude to the people who criticize, but it will help very much. You yourself.
[00:35:28] Now, we haven't got all this amount of time. But I remember, of course, dear Spurgeon, who had what he called his treasure in the church. In that vast number of people, he always referred to his treasure. No one quite knew who his treasure was until many years afterwards. It came out that there was a particular lady in the congregation. Who used to note down every grammatical mistake and mispronunciation. That spurgeon indulged in. In the message. And would note it all down and faithfully get it to him by midday Monday morning.
[00:36:06] She never went herself. She always sent a messenger, so no one knew exactly who it was.
[00:36:13] She also told him where he was wrong in other ways. If she felt he'd been pompous, if he felt she. She felt that he had been sort of rather pleased with himself and so on. She mentioned that. And if she felt that the message was completely cockeyed, she more or less said it was. Now, this brought Spurgeon to the place, believe it or believe it not, brought the great spurgeon to the place where he really felt he couldn't go on ministering. He nearly had a breakdown, according to his own word. Until God said to him one day in prayer, she is your treasure.
[00:36:49] And when Spurgeon received this word from the Lord, he said, but she can't be my treasure, lord. Maybe she's yours. But she's certainly not my treasure. And the Lord said to Spurgeon, yes, she is your treasure. Because, you see, without her, we would never get anything of treasure in you.
[00:37:11] She is your thorn in the flesh. She's producing the pearl. And, of course, on that, Spurgeon rested. And finally, actually looked forward to his Monday letter until the day she died. And then it came out. Who it was, what treasure there might be in her, we don't know. But certainly there was treasure in spurgeon as a result of it. So be receptive. Be receptive. This is one of the keys to real ministry, is to learn, to learn and to learn and to learn from everything and everybody.
[00:37:49] Two more principles just quickly touch on. Abandonment. Abandonment. Two Corinthians, chapter four and verse five.
[00:38:04] For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your servants, for Christ's sake. And I think of romans twelve, verses one to three. Teach you, therefore, brethren, to present your bodies, a living sacrifice unto God. We must serve the Lord and serve his people with an absolute wholeheartedness. True ministry. Ministry so often comes out of the extra mile.
[00:38:32] I think that particularly deep ministry comes out of waste.
[00:38:43] It comes out of the alabaster cruise that has been wasted on the Lord. That's where really deep ministry comes from. Doesn't come from books.
[00:38:52] It comes out of the extra mile. It's abandonment. No, there can be no professionalism in our ministry. God preserve us from such a thing. And the key to all this is obviously to have lost one's life for his sake and the gospel.
[00:39:11] Once we are prepared to fall into the ground and die. Such abandonment brings in its wake true ministry.
[00:39:19] And lastly, boldness. Boldness. Now, this is perhaps a word that folks don't always think that, you know, you've got to be prepared to be bold. And people often think that those who are bold had no nerves. Rubbish.
[00:39:32] Absolute rubbish.
[00:39:34] Some of the most timid people are made bold simply by the Holy Spirit.
[00:39:40] So don't hide in that one. Galatians one, verse ten. For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ. Now, that is the key to boldness. It's not that I'm going to be somebody and march out and say it strongly, not that it is who am I pleasing, the Lord or men? And if it's the Lord, come what may, I've got to be absolutely faithful to the Lord. And, of course, we have it again in one Thessalonians, chapter two, verse four, which says, but even as we've been approved of God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who proveth our hearts. An adamant refusal to compromise in any way, but to fearlessly speak God's word. God will not give further light till we are ready to obey, whatever the cost. And that means boldness.
[00:40:46] It's a principle in the word of God. People who are timid will always, in the end, unless God deals with it, will always compromise.
[00:40:57] Boldness, therefore, is a principle in the ministry of God's word. Now, how is a message from God born?
[00:41:08] Now note the phraseology. I believe messages are born. They're not mugged up. They are born, and they must be born of God. A message from God is born of God.
[00:41:20] Now, a message from God cannot be born unless we are walking with God. That's all the light of what we've said. We're growing with Christ. It's obvious, because it's a living thing. There must be that living relationship with the Lord. We must also be open to God, giving ourselves to our ministry. At him that ministereth give himself. We've got to give ourselves to our ministry.
[00:41:45] We must stir up and not neglect the gift which is in us. No message will ever be born in you unless you stir up continually the gift which God has given you. And so don't get away in that kind of calvinist line, which is not true Calvinism anyway, where the Lord hasn't given me a word. Rubbish.
[00:42:08] If you give yourself to your ministry, there's always the possibility of birth, of the birth of a message.
[00:42:17] Now, on the other hand, I think we ought to say this too. We can get into tension and strain in such a way that a message cannot be borne in our hearts easily. Now, this is just the opposite. We can get into such a strain over ministry, trying to get the Lord's word, as it were, that we effectively stop a message being born.
[00:42:44] I know it sounds very irreverent, but that's why sometimes a message is born in one's heart at the most remarkable times, when you're having a bath or when you're gardening, weeding, or when you're just walking somewhere or doing something, when you're completely relaxed, suddenly something flashes into your heart. Now, it is our brother watchmani again, who helps us very greatly in this book, ministry of God's word. I know that some people find this. It is, in fact, in my estimation, one of the most valuable books on ministry that's ever been written. And particularly what brother Nee says about turning to your spirit.
[00:43:29] Turning to your spirit. It's vital, absolutely vital. Now, tension and strain is always in the soul, not in the spirit. And when we start to get all tense and strained about getting a word from the Lord, the soul comes into it and cuts us off from the possibility of the word being born in us. But when we turn to our spirit, away from our soul, as it were, say no, turn away from all that rest in the Lord. It's strange that so often it's just at that point that we know a release. Now we need to learn to rest in him. Now, the birth of a message. It can come at any time, anywhere.
[00:44:11] It can be whilst you're praying alone or together. It can be during normal routine jobs. It can be in the middle of the night when you suddenly wake up or just before you go to sleep. It can be through reading a book.
[00:44:26] It can be listening to somebody else.
[00:44:31] Many a time, a message has come to me through listening to someone else. Nothing to do with what they've been saying one way. And yet, if something has sparked off something, and it's as if it's begotten, a message in me. And this is, I think, what it means when it says, if a revelation is made to another, let the first keep silent. It's the same principle, you see. Begets. Begets revelation to one, begets something else, someone prophesying. And something happens to somebody else, they get a flash of light in their spirit, not in their soul, in their spirit, see? Comes in their spirit instantly. And in that moment, something is born. Now, this may seem terribly mundane. Always jot down immediately what comes you. I have learnt over years. I've got messages that God has given me which I've jotted down on envelopes, on train tickets, on even an air ticket, anything. I quickly take it out. Why? This is a way. Again, brother nee will help you very greatly in this matter. Because what comes into your spirit can be lost to your soul.
[00:45:42] In other words, your mind. Suddenly there's a flash of light that goes through and it's still in your spirit, but it's not comes through into your mind so that you cannot retain it. It's gone.
[00:45:55] And I find it all of inestimable value when God gives an insight just to put it down. God doesn't always use it. I found this again and again and again and again. I wish I could give you all things I could from my own experience in this matter. Always jot down just the thought when it comes to you. Now, that's only the thought. That's the beginning of a message. That's the birth of a message, not the development. It's only the birth. It's the beginning. Something's come from God to you in your spirit, begotten of God.
[00:46:30] Now, the development of the message.
[00:46:33] You will find that if it is of God, it will grow and become clearer.
[00:46:41] This is the way to distinguish whether it is born of God or not.
[00:46:45] You may have a little thought, and after a while you look at it and you think, well, I don't know what that's all about, really, and it's no more. But other times you think, well, that's wonderful. And suddenly, suddenly, suddenly, suddenly, suddenly. Oh, I could tell you such funny things sometimes. I've been shaving. Suddenly I thought, oh, I've got to stop straight away. And I go and put it all down. The whole lot comes to me in one go. Just like that. Well, I mean. And sometimes with the Bible studies, the bigger Bible studies, I found the same thing being held up. Held up? Held up for a day, sat till 10:00 at night, not a thing would come. And then suddenly, at the most unexpected moment, it's as if the whole lot floods into you.
[00:47:29] Now, the development of a message has got to be as much of God as the birth of it.
[00:47:36] A real message is a living thing.
[00:47:40] It germinates and grows. It's not something static and dead. There's a great difference between this and the laborious working up of a word we're swatting away as getting a sermon thing. Now, let me say this straight away. Serious study, exhaustive and extensive, is vitally necessary. But I have found that exhaustive study never produces sermons in itself.
[00:48:16] It again and again it's as you are exhaustively studying something. That flash of light comes on something and something else, sometimes altogether different subject. Out of it has come something. So don't get the other extreme, which is very unfortunate in many circles today, that we don't need to study. That's all the flesh, that's all profession. No study to show thyself a workman approved of God, who needeth not to be ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of truth, study is vitally necessary. And the depth of your ministry will also be related to the amount of study you put in there. Again, it's not only history and experience, but study does have something to do with it. But if you think that through study alone you're going to get a ministry, then you're mistaken.
[00:49:10] I don't think serious, extensive study should be equated with the birth or even the development of a message from God.
[00:49:19] There is also need to be wary of a device of the enemy to submerge the essential message which he's given you under false additions. This is a very clever ruse of the enemy. First, something comes to you, it starts to develop, and then your mind gets to work on it and you say, and before you know where you are, there's the message. With a whole lot of victorian frilly additions to it. It's lost its line, it's lost its purity. And when the word is given, this is what you find. There's a kind of death about it. There's something which is of God, but there's a lot else which isn't. And the thing's been buried under the hole. It's a roost of the enemy. Be careful of it. Now, what can we say about the giving of the message? It was born of God. It was developed by God. Now, it must be uttered in dependence upon God. That's why the apostle says in Ephesians 619 20, he asked them to pray for him. That utterance may be given in opening his mouth to speak the mystery of Christ or of the gospel.
[00:50:34] My own experience is this, that if there is living ministry, it's not only born of God and developed to God, but you cannot just stand up and give it. Now, this is where people make their other big mistake. They just think that if it's born of God and developed to God, well, of course, that's all that's man required, just stand up. So when they stand up, they go haywire.
[00:50:56] And it's obvious that they are laboring under real difficulty simply because the message came in simple dependence upon God. Was developed in simple dependence upon God. But the preaching of it is not independence upon God.
[00:51:14] Here is the danger for those of us who've got a natural gift of the gab, once we've got a natural eloquence or a natural gift of the gab, once it's born, once it's developed, we think we can do the rest.
[00:51:29] And that's why there is a spoilation, as it were, of the message. It's somehow deadened in its impact. Here's another important point to remember.
[00:51:44] It began independence upon God, continued in the same way, and it must be given in the same way. So faith is needed throughout. Now, this is why so often the one who has a message is storm tossed, for instance. I always find that when I've really got a message from God. Then everything starts to happen.
[00:52:07] You enter into storms. Inexplicable things happen, things go wrong at the last moment, all kinds of things. You have a sense of inability that suddenly comes upon you. You're absolutely clear about the word. But then suddenly a terrible sense of inability comes upon you. And then you begin to wonder, well, should I give this word? Maybe it's not of God at all. Then you're filled with doubts. All around you swim doubts. You think, well, maybe this isn't really of God. Maybe it's not, you see? And why doesn't the Lord come in and protect us?
[00:52:41] The Lord is ensuring that just as the message was born of God and developed by God, it shall be uttered in faith.
[00:52:50] All that is not of faith is sin.
[00:52:53] And so when you come to give. And I found that by the grace of God, my own little experience, that the messages that I've uttered which have been the most used of God have all been those I've had to stand up in absolute faith. No one's known about it in one sense. They just think, well, there's great self confidence and great ease and great facility, but inwardly it's been an agony and one has had to stand up in all. I was going to say abject faith, but you know what I mean. Just nothing else but faith. And speak.
[00:53:35] Even the fainting fits the servant of the Lord has. There are such thing as fainting fits. Suddenly your energies switched off and you feel like collapsing.
[00:53:46] Sometimes mists come, spiritual mists that blot out everything.
[00:53:51] All this is part of spiritual atmospherics. In the ministry of God's work, the utterance has to be given through faith in God.
[00:54:02] Now, how do we discern the Lord's time for giving a message?
[00:54:07] It can be circumstances. In other words, for instance, the way may be open. No one else has a word. You're the only one who's got a word. And therefore it's clear that it is right that you should go ahead. Sometimes it's an inner sense of completion or compulsion.
[00:54:23] And there's an inner sense that something has been completed in this word that God has given you. Or perhaps it's an innocence of divine compulsion, a fire in your bones. You can't hold it in anymore. You feel you've got to go forward. Above all, I believe a message is ready to be given when you can condense the essential burden into one sentence.
[00:54:55] Anyone who cannot condense into one sentence, the message they're going to give should not give it.
[00:55:04] Now, that's most important.
[00:55:07] Let me repeat it again. I believe, above everything else, the way we can discern when a message is ready is when we can condense the essential burden into one sentence.
[00:55:17] And if you can't do that, you ought to wait a little longer.
[00:55:23] If you are not absolutely clear, don't expect anyone else to be clear. And that's why you can get words and words and words. And at the end of it, people say, well, it was awfully good. What was it about? I don't know, but you get this again, again people say, well, it was very good. It was very good. Well, what was it about?
[00:55:42] Well, I don't know. Well, it went to its weight. It was about. The reading was so and so. But what was it about?
[00:55:52] I think it's very important that now the technical background and construction of a message, whether it's right or wrong to use notes. Now, these are all very technical points.
[00:56:05] Is it right or not to use a note? I think it's very much a matter of what helps a particular person most.
[00:56:16] There are those who say that all spiritual ministries should not have anything to do with notes. This is nonsense, absolute nonsense, and we can prove it from the word of God. There are those prophecies which were written immediately and were never actually preached to people.
[00:56:34] On the other hand, there are those which were uttered and there was no note. It was taken down afterwards. Now, what is the answer to it? In some matters, notes are essential. For example, a really extensive or exhaustive study of God's word or Bible study requires notes. I defy anyone to give a real Bible study of a teaching kind without notes.
[00:57:07] What they're doing, if they're doing it without notes is. It's a prophetic ministry. Prophetical, prophetical ministry doesn't require notes often, but teaching ministry, when it's really exhaustive and extensive, must have notes. That's quite clear. Then people will say, well, what should the extent of one's notes be?
[00:57:28] Should they be very full or partial or sparse?
[00:57:35] Is it right to read a message verbatim?
[00:57:40] I must say this. When I first, the very first message I ever gave was a disaster.
[00:57:47] The people to whom I gave it screamed with laughter, literally screamed with love. Of course, I was only 17, 1617, and I never uttered again another word for two years. When I got, of course, to Egypt one. The missionaries there at Ismalia immediately said, now you will give a word, won't you? See, they heard I was going to go with the Cim and going to be a missionary and all the rest of it, she said, you will. No, no, I said, I certainly won't. Oh, but said, Mrs. Hamill, you must. Now, she was a wise woman. And I said, do I know? I thought, I'll get you. Not unless I read it. I said. So then she said, oh, yes, you can read it. She said, now, do you know, my own ministry would never have begun if it hadn't been for that wise comment from that sister, because I was terrified. I used to shake. Now, as a result of my experience, so greatly, my mind went blank. I couldn't do a thing. So what I did was, I've still got the notes downstairs. The first message I ever gave, which was on grace growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, I wrote out in full every word, kept it in my Bible and read it. They didn't know.
[00:59:05] Oh, she knew. Of course. Mrs. Hamill knew I was reading. And every message I ever gave in Egypt, I read in just under two years in which I was there. Every message I ever gave, including all the ones where people got saved. And the rest of it, I read every word of it. No, most people didn't know. Mrs. Botham, leader of the mission to mediterranean garrisons, knew. And she once came to me, she said, oh, it could be a deliverance when you get rid of those notes.
[00:59:34] But she knew, but others didn't. Do you know that when Jonathan Edwards was used of God in the great revival in New England, he read every word he said of that great message.
[00:59:53] Sinners in the hands of an angry God with a candle. And he was short sighted, so he read every word like that. People hung onto the pews thinking that they were slipping into go. When we had a training session, I said this. I said, some people always insist on having notepaper about this size.
[01:00:15] About a month or two later, one of our swedish brothers gave a message, and to my amazement, this is what happened. He opened his Bible up there on the platform, and something like this happened. He opened his Bible and then he went.
[01:00:33] Then he got into a great big mess with his notes.
[01:00:36] Now, the point is this. You see, half the trouble in preaching is self consciousness, and anything that makes you awkward or self conscious will undoubtedly stop you from preaching the message God has given you.
[01:00:50] So if you're going to have big notes, big note paper is going to be awkward. And in the end, you go, and anyway, everyone and the believers are strange. Most believers feel that if you've got all that amount of notes, it can't be too much of God.
[01:01:05] It is a strange thing. It's an idea amongst the people of God that you know that any man who stands up on his hind legs and just speaks, that must be God. But if you've got notes like that, it just can't be of God. Even if you've had a revelation from heaven itself, it's gone. Now. The thing to do is not to have that and never to have flimsy paper.
[01:01:28] Some people, even small notes, they get such flimsy paper that when they put it there, it keeps on falling down like this. Don't do that. Have some kind of stiff paper, not bigger than that. I personally think that's too big, but that's the size of paper. Never have anything bigger than that. Now, why? Because sometimes you may go to a place and to your holler, there's nowhere to put your bible or anything else on. You've just got to stand there. Now, if you are going to speak from notes, not always, of course, if you don't have to, it's so okay. But if you're going to have to speak from notes, you need something small that you can just keep inside your bub and refer to now and again, the size of note paper and also the question of one's handwriting. Do write clearly. There is nothing more terrible when suddenly someone goes sort of like this to see what they have said.
[01:02:27] How far is it right to condense or alter a message, pruning or expanding it? Well, I think this all ought to have been done earlier, to be perfectly honest, before ever you really bring a message. Now, the technical layout of a message is quite simple. Take this as your notepap.
[01:02:56] I think up here you should put either in a word or a sentence. What is the essential burden that you're going to give? And then here, your reading, and then here, your introduction. I'll just leave it like that. And then whatever headings you have.
[01:03:19] And then your conclusion.
[01:03:23] All right.
[01:03:26] Now, generally speaking, I would say that you only need. When something is burning within you, you only need to put headings and possibly just one or two things under. You. Don't need anything more when it's burning within you. You may not even need any of it. But I found from my own experience that if an electric light bulb explodes or someone faints or a bird flies in or a great spider walks across the floor and about at least 20 to 30 of the sisters sort of dither and twitter for some time, you are in danger of completely forgetting what you were saying. And the whole point, I think, of notes is simply and only that should an emergency like that happen, you can refer again. Now this happens. I've had many experiences like that which I will not go into this evening, including one quarter of the ceiling falling in upon us.
[01:04:37] One quarter of the ceiling falling in upon us. Another occasion when I was preaching fervently, a moth flew round and round and to the amazement of everybody went in.
[01:04:52] And the only thing I could do was swallow it. And I swallowed it and continued tweeting.
[01:04:58] Another time I noticed everyone's eyes up on the wall. I thought, are they seeing a vision or something? Why is everyone looking up there? And when I looked, there was an enormous spider. Now, I personally am not too taken with spiders, but God gave me great power and grace and I went over with my handkerchief and swept it off the wall and that was the end of that.
[01:05:24] But you see, when you do that kind of thing it is quite possible for you to lose your equilibrium. Like the time a brother here, his nose dripping, tried to get his handkerchief out and couldn't and finally did it. And his teeth went over and under the table and chattered under the table for a little while.
[01:05:47] If such a thing should happen to you whilst you're preaching, you can be quite sure that you will forget what you are saying.
[01:05:57] And in that connection it is sometimes good to have very simple notes so on. Now, sometimes you might need to put something fuller, as I say, sometimes very sparse, but there is just a very simple outline.
[01:06:16] How far should we use alliteration in the headings? Now this is the old evangelical way. You begin. Every one of your headings begins with B or P.
[01:06:30] The prize and the power.
[01:06:32] The prize and the power. That's right. That's a good one. Or you get, pardon? Power and perfect peace. That comes from a hymn. But you know, this kind of thing, see, it's all alliteration. Everything begins with the same letter. Now the idea behind this was in the days when people couldn't read and write. And it did help people very much to retain in their memory what the message was. And I can remember certain messages preached years ago, not by myself but by others with this kind of heading which are still with me today.
[01:07:08] On the other hand, there is something very formal and artificial and sometimes fanciful about this kind of alliteration. An our aim must be to impart something of Christ. All right, I think good headings are essential. I should forget about the alliteration unless it comes to you quite naturally.
[01:07:31] Good headings are essential for the speaker, if for no one else. Why? Because often when you've just got some thought in your heart, you can waffle. But when you've got headings, you are yourself clear as to what God has been saying to you, even if you never refer to the headings and no one's conscious of your headings. Now, often when you preach, no one knows your headings, only you know them. But you are clear as to what God has been saying to you because you have got those headings. Now what about illustrations? Well, one thing about illustrations, they should illustrate sometimes they are absolutely essential. Do be careful of the kind of illustration which is a marvelous story but which illustrates nothing. And do be careful of jokes.
[01:08:26] I know, of course, there are some who have been greatly used of God who couldn't do anything else but joke. I remember Lindsay Gleg the first time he ever spoke years ago, and two or three who are here today got saved at that time.
[01:08:45] This message given by Lance Lambert is concluded in the following tape with the same title, life in the local church, number three b.
