Given in Crusade at Portland, Oregon, May, 1991
A new pastor at his first service had a pitcher of water & a glass at the pulpit, & as he preached he drank until all the water was gone. After the service one of the older women was asked, "How do you like the new pastor?" She said, "Fine. He's the first windmill that I ever saw run by water."
A pastor says, it's not much of a sermon if it doesn't step on somebody's toes. ("You're stepping on my toes!")
HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE DIVINE TRUTH? (pg. 3, NEW notes in pastor's booklet)
1. OBJECTIVELY - "Thus saith the Lord."
2. SUBJECTIVELY - How does this truth relate to me?
3. TO BE RECEIVED COLLECTIVELY
How can I express this truth to relate to the congregation?
4. TO BE DEMONSTRATED OPENLY (or verbally)
Some churches have had the objective truth & the subjective reality but have not had the demonstration openly, & failed. This is by the testimonies, the sharing & is a tremendous way of communicating truth.
OBJECTIVE--SUBJECTIVE: (pg. 6)
1. PROOF OF CHRIST'S MESSIAHSHIP WAS BOTH HIS WORD AND HIS WORKS (John 8). THE TREASURES OF GOD ARE NOT HID IN HIS WORD, BUT IN CHRIST HIMSELF.
God wraps His truth in the cellophane of human personality. God always moves incarnately, He always takes on flesh, takes on form; that's the way He moves in our lives. The treasures are in Christ Himself. But what about the Word? The Bible is not the divinely revealed revelation of God. It is the divinely revealed RECORD of the revelation of God. The revelation of God is the Person of His Son, & the Bible is the divinely revealed RECORD of the revelation of God. It is always different when it is reflected through a person.
2. THE GOSPEL:
OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE
I Corinthians 15:3-4 7 6 I Peter 1:25
I Corinthians 2:2 7 6 I Corinthians 2:4-5
3. ROMANS 8:1-16 SONSHIP (OBJECTIVE)
8:18-31 SYMPATHY (SUBJECTIVE)
4. ROMANS 6:17 - OBEDIENCE IS SUBJECTIVELY RESPONDING TO OBJECTIVE TRUTH.
"Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you."
5. JOHN 7:17 - SUBJECTIVE RESPONSE DETERMINES UNDERSTANDING OBJECTIVE TRUTH.
"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." (See also Jn. 3:19; 8:31-32; I Cor. 2:14; I Jn. 3:20-21)
(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)
This all needs to be a reminder to all: that it is so easy to get hung up on people's understanding the truth rather than their willingness to obey the truth. Someone may say to you, "If you can tell me where Cain got his wife then I'll listen to what you say about Christ." The answer: If I answer all your questions satisfactorily, would you come to Christ? One man said, "You answered all of my questions satisfactorily but I still don't want to believe." It is not a problem of the mind, primarily, but rather a problem of the heart, the will. God says if I can capture a man's will, watch how I'll straighten out the quirks in his mind. Some people before coming to Christ have all kinds of way-out questions, but once that will is surrendered to God it's amazing how all those questions dissipate. And that is a reminder in how to deal with people who use that kind of questioning to make you think they are interested, when the whole time it is just a decoy to get you off.
Whenever I find a man who says there is so much in the Bible about which I don't understand, my general reply is: "Look, sir, it's not what I don't understand in the Bible that bothers me; it's what I DO understand that bothers me." And I'm glad there is a lot in the Bible I don't understand, because if I could understand it all then it would prove that somebody with no more brains than I wrote it. And the fact that none of us can understand all the intricacies of the Word of God is one of the sure reminders that it is a Divine Book. And God's ways are much higher than our ways and His thoughts are deeper than our thoughts, & there is no finite mind that can completely understand an infinite God. That is one of the reasons why I love it, because I can't understand it all. The Divine nature of the Book makes it very real.
WHAT IS GOD'S WORD? (pg 8)
1. THE WRITTEN WORD - Objective truth (Propositional)
The BIBLE
2. THE LIVING WORD - Subjective reality (Incarnate)
JESUS CHRIST - God incarnate in the flesh, Jn. 1:1-2,14
3. THE EXPERIENCED WORD (Personal)
The power of the written & living word comes in experienced word. The written word is propositional, the living word is personal. You know what it is like to read a book that was very boring, & then all at once you've met the author on an airplane; & you go back & read the book all over again & all at once the words have changed. Same thing spiritually.
You can look at the Father, Son & Holy Spirit the same way: Someone says, the Father provides the written word; the Son provides the living word, & the Spirit provides the experienced word. The basis of what we are saying this morning determines how we communicate truth.
OBJECTIVE TRUTH & SUBJECTIVE REALITY: (pg. 9)
OBJECTIVE TRUTH: WHEN THE WORD OF GOD PRIMARILY ENLIGHTENS THE INTELLECT.
SUBJECTIVE REALITY: WHEN THE SPIRIT OF GOD QUICKENS THE SPIRIT OF MAN TO RESPOND IN THE WILL TO THE TRUTH THAT HAS ENLIGHTENED THE INTELLECT.
It is never subjective truth; always objective truth. Some may say, truth is how I see it, how God speaks to me about it, I've had a revelation, so it's all inside the person as to what truth is about.
(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)
A "REVIVAL" MINISTRY SEEKS TO CORRELATE THE OBJECTIVE & SUBJECTIVE: (p.10)
OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE
1. WORD WORSHIP
2. TRUTH SPIRIT
3. HEAD HEART
4. DOCTRINE DYNAMICS
5. KNOWLEDGE LOVE
6. EXPLANATION EXPERIENCE
7. THEOLOGY KNEEOLOGY
8. CROSS OF CHRIST CROSS OF SELF
9. RELATIONSHIP REALITY
10. "CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST" "MORTIFY THE DEEDS...FLESH"
11. ACKNOWLEDGE GOD'S PRESENCE AWARE OF GOD'S PRESENCE
Rom. 1-11, Positional Rom. 12-14, Practical
We are such victims of extreme & God has a hard time teaching us balance. I say to a man, "What kind of a church do you attend? And he says, "Well, I attend a church where we preach the word, the truth gets through loud & clear; I changed my notions about religion, I've learned so much. We have a church that doctrine is just right, my knowledge is so increased, & the way our pastor explains it, & the theology--I just love our church." I said, "What's going on in your church?" "Wellllll, things are kind of dead, stiff, kind of dry." And yet they've got all that. And I ask another one where he goes to church & why does he go there? He said, "Oh, you should see the way we worship! What a spirit is there! My heart is so warmed I get tingles, I feel so vibrantly alive when I'm there. And you should see the way we love each other, we hug each, we experience so much, & you should hear the way we pray." And I asked, "What does that church stand for? What does it believe?" "Aaaa, I never thought too much about that. I just feel good, I love it how warm & friendly, exciting it is." Now we've got the other extreme. The tragedy is that we are such victims of extreme. Without making a controversial issue over what I am discussing, I have the idea that God has allowed some of the movements that have come along in the last 15-20 years regarding worship, prayer & praise, & God has allowed them to take place to help some of the rest of us find balance. It always takes an extreme voice to get another extreme position back towards the center.
Maybe I can better describe it by a letter that was sent to our fellowship by a Pastor in North Dakota. He said, "I don't know how our church ended up on your mailing list, but I'm glad it did. Perhaps your paper has come to us before, but somehow this time it caught my eye & I read it through. The subject of revival has fascinated me for years, & there is a hunger in me to be exposed. I have noticed that fundamentalists & evangelical churches tend to be stale when in comes to prayer, zeal, fervor & expectancy. Holiness churches seem to have the zeal, but their lives, in my opinion, are often legalistic, shallow & unstable. Pentecostal's also have the zeal, but emotionalism overtakes the intellect at times. Perhaps I'm looking for the impossible when thinking to balance the intellect with the emotions. Nevertheless it appears from reading your material that perhaps you have somewhat of an emphasis from which I can benefit." Now, this is what one man wrote, it is not my opinion. I'm not saying he is completely right, & I know there are exceptions to all of that. But the observation is very real--to find the balance between both "poles" in the truest sense of the word.
Here is a cartoon of Noah's ark & all of the animals up on one side, the ark tilted way over & about to sink, & here are the 2 great big elephants drinking water out of this side of the ark. And the two elephants are tipping the boat over, & all the rest are saying: "Hey, would one of you please use the other side!" That's what we are talking about--that concern for genuine balance is a difficulty that we have.
(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)
THE BALANCE BETWEEN "SPIRIT" AND "TRUTH": (pg. 11)
TRUTH IS MARVELOUS, BUT SPIRIT AND TRUTH IS WORSHIP.
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." -- John 4:24
(In Samaria--that was the emotional crowd;
In Jerusalem--the doctrinal crowd, the legalists, Judaistic law, the scholars.
One was despising the other because of imbalance: The Jews looked at the Samaritans as a bunch of emotionally disturbed people; & the Samaritans looked at the Jews in Jerusalem as the legalists, strict to the law--imbalanced both ways. That's why the disciples were so shocked when Christ was talking to a Samaritan woman; they were thinking in terms of Jerusalem, & here Christ is talking to a Samaritan woman. But what is of interest in this whole thing is that Christ put the emphasis on spirit first before truth. (Jn. 7:17 - God capturing a man's will, his spirit in tune with God, & then he is going to know the doctrine.) So true worship begins with the spirit being right, & then the truth finding its rightful place. And that's the tragedy of legalists even in relation to handling the truth. And the tall, & strong & straight & right people get up in arms when somebody begins to raise a hand in public, shouts an Amen--they're about to have an usher take somebody out of a church for fear that emotionalism might take over. What a tragedy.
ARTICLE: "Is There an Amen in the House?"
(See page 13, points 8-11 of notebook continued):
Resurrection of Christ is objective;
The renewed life is subjective.
The cross of Christ is objective (died once for all);
The surrendered life at the cross is subjective--my response to the work of the cross.
My relationship with God is objective;
The reality of that relationship is subjective.
"I am crucified with Christ" is objective (it happened 2000 years ago);
"Therefore mortify the deeds of the flesh" is subjective--that's how I am to live now as a dead man.
I can acknowledge God's presence as being objective;
But an awareness of God's presence is subjective.
Romans 1-11 - positional;
Romans 12-14 - practical (yet all of Romans is practical)
WHAT IS "REVIVAL" PREACHING? (pg. 12)
1. WHEN THE SUBJECTIVE REALITY OF ALL OBJECTIVE TRUTH IS BROUGHT INTO SHARP FOCUS.
2. WHEN "POSITIONAL" TRUTHS BECOME PRACTICAL AND FUNCTIONAL. EXPOSITION MUST HAVE APPLICATION.
3. WHEN THE GOAL OF PREACHING IS NOT MERELY TO GIVE MORE INFORMATION (OBJECTIVE TRUTH), BUT IS GIVEN TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE AND DIRECTION IN OUR LIVES (SUBJECTIVE REALITY).
Therefore the: OBJECTIVE TRUTH is the unchanging verities of God's Word.
SUBJECTIVE REALITY is how the truth relates to my life-style.
(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)
What I believe is the curse of our age as to this: the idea that if we know something, we have it.
Bonhoeffer made this statement: Only he who believes obeys, and only he who obeys believes.
The early Martin Luther when he first started to break away from Rome was known for his personal faith. That was his strong point, his subjective reality was in sharp focus. The later Martin Luther was no longer a personal faith but a credible faith; the subjective reality was lost, & he seemed to move back towards the intellectual understanding in the mind, a credible faith & understanding in the mind as to what it is all about. And historians tell us that that was the reason why the Anabaptists pulled away from Martin Luther. He got too much of the objective & lost the sight of the subjective in his own thinking. I was saying this one day & a Mennonite pastor who was in the group turned & said, "That's why Menno Simons made the statement: `No man can truly know Christ except he follow Him in life.' It was a counteracting of Martin Luther's credible faith without the subjective reality being in sharp focus."
I was talking like this & a pastor said to me: "When he counsels with people & they say, I don't know whether I should come to you or whether I should go to a psychiatrist, I turn to them & say something like this: A psychiatrist can give you knowledge & insight; to the psychiatrist knowledge is the solution. But I will give you the knowledge, but that is not the solution. I will give you an introduction to the solution who is the Holy Spirit of God functioning in your life to reveal Christ." He went on to say that the church has taken on the idea of the world that if we can just get people to understand the doctrine, they've got the solution. Whitfield & Wesley--the secret was not in their doctrine but in their devotion.
Henry Krause: Truth divorced from experience will always dwell in the realm of doubt.
As I began to take a closer look at this in our ministry I began to find just as much problem with assurance of salvation among churches that are Calvinistic in theology as we have those who are Armenian in theology. A Calvinist can have truth but if it has been divorced from real experience it ends up in the realm of doubt. The same way for the one who has all the experience without the truth. The importance is that we understand them & see the importance of balance between the two, & cause our people to enter in at that level.
SCRIPTURAL EXAMPLES: (pg. 13)
Jn. 4:24, TRUTH is objective - SPIRIT is subjective.
Jn. 10:10, LIFE is objective - MORE ABUNDANTLY is subjective--quality of life.
I Tim. 1:5, FAITH is objective - LOVE, GOOD CONSCIENCE is subjective.
Phil. 4:7, MINDS is objective - HEARTS is subjective
(The words, mind & heart are often used interchangeable in Scripture.
But here there are 2 different words used.)
II Tim. 1:13, FAITH is objective - LOVE is subjective
Ps. 103:3, FORGIVETH, objective - HEALETH is subjective
Ps. 85:10, TRUTH is objective - MERCY is subjective
RIGHTEOUSNESS, obj. - PEACE is subjective
I like to say it this way: Mercy & truth had a conference--they met together;
Righteousness & peace had a love affair--they kissed each other.
But notice the linking of words like that together--a reminder of how much the Scripture puts the objective truth & the subjective reality together, showing that we must find that balance.
In the Lynnwood crusade the thing that got to the pastor as he shared in his testimony was, when the psychiatrist from the Tacoma area came to the meetings, & he thought he would just talk to her a bit...
(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)
...& she said, "All I can say is that when I read in the book of John 1:14, I see where it says, "grace & truth" come together. You have the truth, but now God is trying to minister His grace to you." And in that context of Scripture, the Word became flesh--taking on human form.
II Cor. 8:9, GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST is objective truth of the grace of God. It is the objective statement of a fact--that God emptied heaven of the dearest One that He had in order that we might be brought back to Himself & be made rich.
II Cor. 9:8, ABLE TO MAKE ALL GRACE ABOUND TOWARD YOU, subjective. It normally relates in the area of finances but the principle is very real. Now the grace of God is becoming functional. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you...that you abound to every good work.
Howard Hendricks: "It's easy to be Biblical, & it may be easy to be relevant, but I think we all agree in the ministry that it's sometimes as difficult to be both Biblical & relevant at the same time." (We want to combine that so as to relate to God's people.)
It's interesting when Dr. Hendricks was ministering in Ontario Bible College in Canada a few years ago, they reported on some of the things that he said. He said: "It is a crime to bore people to tears with the Word of God. I need to know the history out of which the Biblical passage came, but I also need to know the contemporary history into which the passage is to be reborn. Congregations are afflicted with boredom. If the sermon is simply an unimaginative, though accurate, rehashing of the Scriptural passage it then can end up as a lesson in ancient history. The remedy is a twin focus on an explanation of the Biblical passage & a sympathetic understanding of applicable real-life situations in which members of the congregation find themselves in during the week." The importance of being Biblical and relevant at the same time!
I told you yesterday about a man who said, I am a Bible principles man; and the Lord said, no, that's your problem; this time you're going to be an evangelist. This man that we dearly love, tremendous preacher, once in while comes to our crusades, & when he does we give him the opportunity to speak. One crusade he came & spoke for about an hour and a quarter, & the subject was, "How Far Have You Gone?" and he wanted to show from the lives of Elijah & Elisha the 4 different altars of the O.T. & apply them to one area of our Christian experience. The next morning he came to me & said, "Ralph, you know my weakness is in the subjective. I have a difficult time preaching in the subjective--what about last night's sermon?" (His stature just rises in my mind when a man of his caliber, 41 years in one church--you know he must have said something right, tremendous man, written a book on the Gospel of Saint John, & asks this.) Let me tell you what he did. First of all before I began to tell him how I felt about last night's sermon, I reminded him of how much I enjoyed it, & the good that I got out of it. So whenever you are saying something to anybody, make sure you start out right--letting him know how you were blessed. Don't make up a story; if you were bored to tears don't tell him you were blessed. But I let him know how I was blessed.
He took the 4 points from the 4 Old Testament altars, 4 plots of O.T. stories, & then he used other Bible stories to illustrate those stories. And because he is such a Bible principles man he got every detail in about what happened there. And as he used Bible stories to illustrate the points, you can imagine what happened to the congregation that night. The weaknesses: too many O.T. plots for the people to follow; he missed the real points taking so much time in the plots; the application of each point was missed in the process; the emphasis should have been on the application & not on the plot; if the emphasis would have been on the application then the applications themselves could have been expanded & enlarged.
(NOTE: The beginning of SIDE 2 of this cassette tape is on page 6, indicated above by the bold words, All I can say is...)
(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)
Let me give you an example of what he did:
1. THE ALTAR AT GILGAL - the place of decision to cut off from sin. How far have you gone in your Christian life? Gilgal, the place of decision to cut off from sin? (And then told the story about Gilgal.
2. THE ALTAR AT BETHEL - the place of knowing the will of God (& he told the story of what happened at Bethel).
Point 3...(I don't remember... 4. ... But there was so much that I lost sight of what the rest of that was all about. And if that happened to me, I wonder what happened to the rest of them. There wasn't much of a response to that message that night because it was so completely overloaded, without a sharp focus as to what the point was. Now since then I can add--
3. THE ALTAR AT MIZPAH
4. THE ALTAR AT RAMAH
What could he have done? Could have brought people to a response at each point (cut off from sin--& deal with that). He could have elaborated on the point of sin & how to deal with it. He could have given some illustrations of how he had to deal with it in his own life or in the lives of others close to him. He could have dealt with God's attitude toward sin, those things that keep us from being honest about our sins.
The place of knowing the will of God--can you say that you are walking in the will of God right now? What is the will of God? There are about 4 or 5 things in Scripture that say, this is the will of God concerning you--specific statements; how do we know the will of God? hindrances to knowing the will of God; the joy & the reward for living in the will of God. But you say, if he had done all that he would have had a 3 hour sermon. He should have taken just one or two points, & done it in 2 messages. If our hearts & minds are not thinking in terms of the subjective reality to the objective truth, then we're merely content to just give out the truth; because here is the Bible story & here is the truth, then people do not have a handle by which to enter in at a deep level. So the bottom line is: if a preacher were tuned in to the subjective, we would not be content to merely dwell on the plot & just hit the points, but rather we would enlarge the points & their applications with anticipation of some kind of response. That's the key. I'm convinced that many pastors would see a lot more happen in their ministry if this would begin to sharpen--the twin focus--how does this application apply to this congregation?
ARTICLE: "How to Preach so as to Convert Nobody" by Charles Finney.
THE SEVEN LAWS OF THE LEARNER, by Dr. Bruce Wilkinson. There are videos on it.
TEACHING TO CHANGE LIVES, book by Dr. Howard Hendricks. This is incorporated in the above series. "Develop a passion for communicating God's Word to adults or children, in the church, in the home, in Bible study groups, or in school." This can be ordered.
CREATIVE BIBLE TEACHING, by Larry Richards. (Will help you to take the Biblical stories & find the practical applications for your classes. Don't teach about the story of Jonah (& the "whale") without the practical application to children in the S.S. class. This book is designed to give input as to how to find the practical application to spiritual truths.)
THE GRACE OF GOD
If I were to take the subject of the grace of God & try to probe into it & study to understand it, for objective, subjective, etc., I would probably start or call it a series: The God of the Second Chance, or, The Gospel of Grace. I would probably start with:
1. THE NECESSITY OF GRACE, Rom. 5:12-17 to show that it is an established fact caused by man's response in the Garden of Eden. What was man's response? If it's an established fact that we need
(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)
grace because of man's response, it is 3-fold:
a. Total disobedience - Gen. 3, he contradicted God
b. Total dishonesty - he covered his sin
c. Total distraction - condemned others, & each other.
God asked Adam what he did, & he blamed his wife, Eve blamed the serpent...& the serpent didn't have anyone to blame.
These were the results of the response--RESULTING IN:
TOTAL DISGRACE--caused shame. Adam, why did you have to cover yourself, why did you have to start sewing clothes?
TOTAL DISUNITY--cast out of the Garden, totally disunited from God, & all God had planned for them for fellowship, now cast out.
TOTAL DISASTER--it closed the Garden to the whole human race, & resulted in:
TOTAL DISABILITY--conveyed the plague of sin onto the whole human race.
2. THE PROVISION OF GOD'S GRACE - If it's necessary because of man's response, then there must be a provision, 2 Cor 8:9 & 9:8 (objective-subjective); Titus 2:11-14.
Of the 166 refs. in the Bible, 38 are in the O.T. First one is found in Gen. 6:8, & the last words of the Bible in Revelation--the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are talking about the sufficiency of God's grace. Jn. 1:16--fullness of the grace of God.
2 Cor. 9:8--"God is able to make all grace abound toward you.."
TAILOR-MADE GRACE, or, grace made to order. It makes a difference if you go to a tailor shop or to Sears Roebuck to buy a suit off the rack. And there is a salesman who is going to do his best to talk you into buying a suit that doesn't fit you because he's got to make the sale. No one has a perfect body, & suits are made for perfect bodies. But in a tailor shop it is altogether different. I call it "tailor-made grace" because there are people in every congregation who know that they have a problem that God has not faced before. Now if you think you have a problem that God has never faced before, why don't you go to the "Tailor?" He will make whatever grace you need. What I like about the tailor is, he put that tape measure around your body, knows your exact size, right kind of material to use, he does the work (not me), no case too hard for him to fit--& he tells you to "just leave it up to me & I'll make you look like a million dollars."
-Have you ever talked your wife into buying a skirt or blouse that she was not so sure she could fit into it properly, & you ended up wasting money because it didn't fit right & she didn't wear it? But a tailor is going to fit a garment right, no matter how out of proportion you are.
-When the job gets done, who gets the credit for it? The tailor, not me.
-He starts right where you are, not after you have been on a diet.
-You don't have to wait several weeks--God provides immediately.
-The cost--minimal to you but expensive to the tailor--analogy: God Almighty allowed His Son to go to the cross; minimal to us, not that we work for it but there is a price that we have to pay to allow the grace of God to function, we have to deal with those things that keep the grace of God from functioning in our lives.
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HOW TO COMMUNICATE DIVINE TRUTH, Tapes 1 & 2
By Ralph Sutera