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Sinclair Ferguson | TMS Chapel | How Do You Do What You Do To Me? - Romans 12:1-2 | The Master's Seminary | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Sinclair Ferguson | TMS Chapel | How Do You Do What You Do To Me? - Romans 12:1-2
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Summary
Core Theme
This content explores the Apostle Paul's ministry, particularly his letter to the Romans, not just as a theological text but as a model for effective communication and preaching. It emphasizes understanding the "grammar" and "atmosphere" of Paul's gospel to better convey its truth and impact.
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Well, it's a privilege to be here again
and a pleasure and I want to invite you
to turn to very familiar verses in
Romans chap 12 verses 1 and two.
Um, I was hopeful that the order of
service, so I wasn't I wasn't reared on
sermon titles and was afflicted with
them only when I came to the United
States of America where apparently they
were important. And I was kind of hoping
that the very clever sermon title would
be published in the worship bulletin,
but the top people obviously thought it
wasn't suitable for publication.
Um so let me tell you that the text is
Romans 12:es
1 and 2 and the sermon title
um which you are too young to know where
it came from is how do you do what you
do to me I wish I knew
and I'll explain that in a minute. So
Romans 12:1 and2 I appeal to you
therefore brothers by the mercies of God
to present your bodies as a living
sacrifice holy and acceptable to God
which is your spiritual worship. Do not
be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that by testing you may discern what is
the will of God, what is good and acceptable
acceptable and
and perfect.
perfect.
I want to do something uh unusual. Um in
my own experience and perhaps even in
your experience, something unique apart
from the fact that every preacher who
preaches does something unique. I want
to do something different with Romans 12
1 and 2. And as I was reflecting on
that, some words uh from my teenage
years came back to me. I am a child of
the 60s. That is the 1960s,
not the 1660s, the 1960s.
And I remember a pop song from the 1960s
that began with these words. How do you
do what you do to me? I wish I knew. If
I knew how you do it to me, I would do
it to you.
And these words came into my mind
because what I want to try to do with
these verses is a little different from
what we customarily or I customarily and
I'm sure you customarily would do with them.
them.
And perhaps I can begin to explore that
by saying something that if I said it in
the congregation to which I belong,
there might be some outrage.
The Apostle Paul did not write the
letter to the Romans.
The Apostle Paul did not write the
letter to the Romans. Well, most of you
are sitting there smirking. You've had a
course in the Pauline letters. And you
know, he was the author of it, but he
didn't actually write it. The person who
wrote it, according to the closing
verses in chapter 16, was an otherwise
unknown man called Terteus,
perhaps even probably a slave.
And the interesting thing about the way
in which Terteus writes Romans 16:22,
I Terteus wrote this letter, greet you
in the Lord, is that Terteus is embedded
in a small group of names, all of whom
are sending greetings to the Christians
in Rome.
And I don't think it's possible to
demonstrate this by good and necessary
consequence, which as you all know, the
Westminster Confession of Faith insists
you should be able to do if something is
going to be a dogma of the church. But
it looks to me as though Terteus is
probably almost certainly not the only
man in the room. And indeed, there may
have been as many as nine people in the
room because you'll see that Terteus's
words are bookended by Timothy, Lucius,
Jason, Sip, Gas, uh, Eraus, and Quartis,
who was maybe Terteus's brother.
And I think this enliven for us the
notion that what Paul gives to us, you
remember he uses the phrase chapter 2
and chapter 16. I think this enliven for
us the notion that Romans is Paul's gospel.
gospel.
So he uses this striking expression, my
gospel almost as bookends of Romans. And
I I rather suspect again I think it's
not possible to prove beyond uh a per
adventure that when he says to the
Romans he really wanted to come to them
to impart some spiritual gift to them
that is in measure
probably in large measure what he is
doing in the letter to the Romans.
And I think if you if you envision Paul
therefore not as the lonely apostle
sitting in a darkened room uh with
candles writing the letter to the Romans
but the Apostle Paul whether whether
Terteus had shorthand and Paul was able
to speak relatively quickly or whether
Terteus had to do it in longhand and
Paul had to speak relatively slowly. In
many ways, I think it's clear even in
the rhetoric of Romans that Paul's not
writing it himself, but he is actually
preaching it.
So, Romans is the way Paul preaches the
gospel. And in it, he obviously expounds
how he understands the faith once for
all delivered to the saints and also
defends his understanding of the gospel
against some of the rumors that he was
an antonyomian for example had been
spreading in the early church.
And what interests me, if I can press
that um atmosphere on us, is that we
know one of the people present in the
room was also a preacher. It's possible
that some of these other brothers uh
were preachers in the congregation, but
we know certainly that Timothy was a preacher.
preacher.
And so I want to extend this
imaginative scene
to reflect on a preacher listening to
the Apostle Paul preaching his gospel.
And of course, first of all, doing what
we all do when we listen to preaching.
The first thing we do is we we listen to
the exugesus, the exposition of the
significance of the text.
And then probably most of us uh we we
also take account of something in
addition to the actual exposition of the
text and we're thinking well how would I
expound the text?
We certainly are encouraged to do that
as part of our seminary education,
aren't we?
Hermeneutics and then homalytics.
But I want to focus on another perspective.
perspective.
Um I have not taught homalytics
um and could not teach homalytics.
Um, but sometimes students ask,
can you give me some advice?
And sometimes I say, well, try this for
starters. Whenever you listen, have two
heads. Head number one is the head
that's attached to your mind, to your
spirit, to your soul, to your individual
Christian life, to your life within the
fellowship of God's people and in
society. Head number two is asking the
question, since this exposition of
scripture is so helpful to me,
what is the preacher doing in the way he
handles scripture, in the way he
expounds it and applies it that makes
his ministry so helpful to me?
And yes, Lord, I don't want to become a
clone of him, but help me grasp the
principles that are embedded in the way
in which he is handling the text in a
fashion that is helpful to us all and to
build into my own ministry of the word
of God those spiritual principles that
will enable my ministry, God willing,
also to be helpful to the people of God.
And I want to think about Romans 12:1
and2 in that way. That is to say, not
for us to be concerned in the first
instance about
the meaning of the words,
nor in the second instance is this an
exposition in the normal sense,
but to sit as it were with Timothy the
preacher as though he were also
listening with this head on his
shoulders asking the question, "What are
the deep and now intuitive substructures
substructures
in the style of Paul's ministry
that make this section of his
proclamation of his gospel
so powerful
for my Christian life and clearly among
the verses that the people of God have
been encouraged to memorize in the past
Romans 12 1 and 2 have stuck out. I want
to try and explore this in in two
different ways or under two headings.
The first of them will divide into four subheadings.
subheadings.
So I'll give you advanced warning.
Lest you're alarmed by the passage of
time, there are no subheadings in the
second point which is also important,
but I won't spend as much time on it.
And what I want to try and explore in
this kind of side view
uh this this other head on my shoulders
listening to Romans 12:1 and2 and we
could do it with many passages and come
up with the same results.
Although incidentally I shouldn't say
that I prepared this sermon and then
tried to find a text that fitted it.
This really did arise out of reflection
on Romans 12:1 and2. And I want to think
first of all,
and this is not the whole story, but
first of all about the theological
structure of gospel grammar
that's expressed here. And then
secondly, I want us to think in addition
to the structure of theological grammar
about the affectionate atmosphere,
the theological grammar of Paul's gospel
and the affectionate atmosphere
of Paul's gospel appeal.
So let's reflect on the first of these
two considerations.
Uh, and I want to focus exclusively on
Paul's use of verbs because I think here
they're very important.
And it's important for us to understand,
isn't it, that the gospel is a foreign language.
language.
We do not by nature speak the language
of the gospel. And when we are preaching
the gospel to those who are not
believers, we understand very well that
they do not by nature understand the
gospel. Nor do they understand the
grammar of the gospel
because it is a foreign language to them
and they are deaf to it.
But Christians too often assume that
because they have been regenerated,
they therefore inevitably
are able to use the language of the
grammar of the gospel perfectly.
And it's possible for us too as
preachers to fall into that error.
I think we understand intuitively
the difference be between being able to
speak easily,
which I find most American students can
because in our world now, at least by my
observation, a lot of American education
has encouraged students to have opinions
and to be able to voice them.
But I think we all understand or
certainly if we don't we really need to
understand that being able to speak
easily is not the same thing as being
able to speak well.
So you could have a radial motor mouth
and having listened for half an hour
have very little idea that there has
been any substance in what has been said.
said.
And people who teach homalytics among
Presbyterians, I know it would never
happen here, have told me that they
encounter many students who assume that
because they can speak easily,
they're thereby qualified
to speak the gospel, although they
cannot actually speak well.
And if you factor into that that what we
are seeking to preach to our people is a
foreign language
that we have not yet mastered
in which the grammar continues to
challenge us
then understanding the the deep grammar
of the gospel is is actually turns out
to be a really important thing.
um you must know people maybe you are
one of those people whose native
language is not English and
and
because of the way in which you learned
English you've actually never spoken
English properly right
right
um and I notice as a native English
speaker when I meet people from
different cultures that there are there
even those who speak it quite well,
uh, still have these lingering little
indications. They they didn't quite get it.
it.
So, one of the things I've noticed in in
in my uh little uh uh reformed world is
how many English-speaking people with a
Dutch background use the word already
when they should use the word now.
And I remember I remember a class um of
students from the dominantly students
from the far east, a graduate class in
which they were reading a book by uh
Hajj and when all the other when all the
American students had left, I I went
over to them and I said, "Brothers, his
name is Hodgej, not Hudgy."
So there's something in built into a
language structure where a certain sound
if it's followed by a n sound the e will
not be silent it will be pronounced and
hudgy hodgej hodgej thank you I think I
did it graciously and I foolishly
thought I'd done it successfully in the
next week the next person making a
presentation Charles Hudgy he say
so deeply inbuilt
And as preachers who speak the gospel,
this is the reason why understanding the
grammar of the gospel, how it works,
will actually emerge. It will emerge in
the way we preach.
And I want to point out four
characteristics of Paul's use of the
verb here that I think are is really
quite striking. The first and the one
with which I think we're probably most
familiar is that what Paul does here is
understand that verbs have moods. Right?
Excuse the lesson in grammar. I am not a
great linguist but this is a lesson in
grammar. There are indicative moods and
imperative moods. Right? And if there is
one thing that I'm sure is is uh of the
essence of our understanding of how the
gospel works, it is that the imperatives
of the gospel do not stand on their own feet.
feet.
They are all rooted in the indicatives
of the gospel.
That is to say, the exhortations to live
for Christ
are not qualifications for the grace of
Christ, but they are rooted in the
proclamation of that grace in the
gospel. And this, of course, is the
significance here in Romans 12 of Paul's therefore
therefore
and especially of his appeal to the
mercies of God. He he refers to God's
mercy several times at the end of
chapter 11, but I think most
commentators believe that he is looking
back probably to the whole exposition of
what God has done in Christ for sinners
and what God is doing in history with
Jew and Gentile and saying in the view
of the magnificence of these mercies, I
therefore appeal to you to give
yourselves unreservedly to the Lord.
And if you were to break that down statistically,
if you were to break it down statistically,
statistically,
this I think is verse number 316
in Romans
and there have been no more than six imperatives.
imperatives.
That is to say, one imperative every 50
verses. Now we don't preach the gospel
on the basis of statistics but that's an
overwhelming thought isn't it?
It contrasts so much with the way in
which the gospel is preached in our own time.
time.
And it really it really underguards for
us. I think
that so much preaching today indicates
we are much better at talking about man
than we are about God. and much better
talking about the pragmatic benefits of
the gospel than we are in expounding the
gospel. And this is this is an
extraordinary phenomenon.
I still bear the psychological scars of
speaking at a large student conference
on the subject of knowing Christ. It was
given to me and after giving two more or
less hourlong addresses I was taken into
a semi- darkened room by the leaders and
numbers of other spectators
as it were in the coliseum
and I was I was taken apart.
Now I I was I was a full professor of
systematic theology.
So although I I hope I've never had a
higher opinion of myself than I ought to
have, I did know something.
And I was told, "You have spoken to us
now for two solid hours, and you are yet
to tell us anything that we are supposed
to do."
And I I said I always take the line of
least resistance. I said two things. I
said, 'But you asked me to speak on
knowing Christ, and that's all I've been
doing. I've been trying to show you
Christ. And the other thing I said is,
if you wait to address number four, I
will tell you more things to do than you
will want to hear.
And you know, in Romans 12, I think
And you see the way Paul goes about it
is such a glorious safeguard, isn't it?
Because this
tsunami of imperatives, one after
another after another after another
after another, are sustainable
because the sheer glory and power of the
gospel that he has been expounding in
Romans 1 to 11
is able to support and sustain every
single one of them so that they do not
feel that they will cry. crush us to
death because in a sense what he has
given to us in the gospel indicates to
us that these are just the natural
logical as he points out spiritual
outworkings of all that he has given to
us in his exposition of who Jesus Christ
is and what Jesus Christ has done for us.
us.
Now I'm not suggesting that for for
every one imperative there should be 50
indicatives. It's not a not a matter of
statistics but but it is a matter of the
grammar of the gospel
biblical our preaching will be.
It is brothers. It is actually so much
easier, I think, to flatten our
congregation against the back wall
than it is to lift them up to Jesus Christ.
Christ.
And if you think about it, if you think
about the if you think about the
influence of the media and preaching on
the media to which our present
era is exposed and what what preachers
are known for.
It's not all of them who are known for
their ability to expound the great
indicatives of the gospel, is it?
So th I think this is the bit that we
probably are most familiar with that
that Paul's verbs have moods indicative
and imperative. Paul's verbs also
characteristically have polarities
or at least what I think the grammarians
call polarities. That is to say they
appear in both negative and positive
forms. And you see that here.
Do not be conformed to this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, the negative and the positive.
Now, of course, the commentators discuss
all kinds of interesting nuances
uh in the language that Paul is using
here. It does seem to me that this
pattern that he uses constantly is
rooted in his understanding that if we
are united to Christ, we're united to
Christ in his death and resurrection.
What he'd been expounding in Romans 6
and the outworking of that in our lives
is this no and yes,
but always both together.
And I think that's the important point.
Um, think of Romans 13:14 Augustine's
conversion text. Put on the Lord Jesus
Christ and make no provision for the
flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. The
the order is reversed,
but the duality is still present.
Always the mortification of sin, as
Calvin puts it, and the vivification of life.
life.
And it seems to me that that these these
two elements, these polarities
land in different personalities and in
different preachers in different ways
and learning the balance of them, the
bothness of them. No use in sweeping the
house clean of the devil
if it's left empty and he's going to
come back with a bundle of his companions.
companions.
Um, I I I um I was I was brought up in
my teenage years and as a young student
when one of the great books you must
read was John Owen on the Mortification
of Sin.
And feast your eyes jealously on the
fact that I bought my first set of John
And one of the things I noticed, I think
even then, was you could be so
captivated by the need to mortify your
sin that you equated the mortification
of sin with sanctification
and lost sight of the other aspect here.
that not only is there to be the refusal
of conformity to the world, but there is
to be the transformation into the
likeness of Christ that Paul had set up
in 8:29 when he had helped us to
understand that the goal here, the real
nature of sanctification is that we're
becoming more and more like Jesus. And
that's his balance here. That's that's
his use of the polarities. And it's all
over him. I mean, I really meant it when
I said you could almost select texts at
random here. And you find these same principles.
principles.
He expounds at even greater length,
isn't he? In Colossians chapter 3, the
great indicatives.
You've been united to Christ in his
death and his burial and his
resurrection, his ascension, his
heavenly session. You're not coming back
unless you'll be with him.
When he returns, he will return with you.
you.
Therefore, put to death, but don't
forget to put on.
And most of us I think just because by
nature we we do not perfectly speak the
language of the gospel need to keep
coming back not not only to these
fundamental structures of the the moods
of the indicative and the imperative
but to the outworking of our fellowship
with Christ in these polarities.
Alexander White, who was a curious egg,
good and bad in parts, had this
marvelous saying. He said, you know,
it's possible for some preachers to be
And so there is a sharpness
in them
that indicates
there's been more mortification here
than there has been transformation.
Well, let me hurry on to the third aspect.
aspect.
Verbs have moods, verbs have polarities,
and verbs of tenses. And it's here too,
isn't it? Um, and this I think is really
very beautiful in Paul when he tells us
that the fruit of this do not be
conformed be be transformed by the
renewal of your mind that by testing
a experientially
you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The the consecration is the now.
But Paul does not bring us this summons
to consecration without pointing us to
where it leads, what its fruit will be.
And its fruit will be this radical transformation
transformation
in the way in which we understand the
will of God and embrace the will of God
and find it good and acceptable and
perfect. What could be more different
from what we were by nature?
When we assumed that the will of God was destructive
destructive
of our lives and pleasures,
it was impossible to think that his will
for us could be perfect because it
clearly would not align with our will
for ourselves which was in our own
estimation perfect.
And so he's saying, "Yes, there is there
is the now." It's it's analogous to
Jesus saying, "Yes, I'm calling you to
come and die. Take up the cross.
Leave all."
But no one has ever come to me and left all
all
and found themselves
at a loss. I I've been thinking a lot
recently about the fact that when I um
was near the kingdom, one of the things
that was obviously on my mind as a young
teenager, not knowing any other young
men in my class in school who professed
faith in Jesus Christ, how many friends
am I going to lose?
And now I think about not just the
number of them but the quality of them
and it's overwhelming.
So there's something Jesus about Paul
saying there is the present consecration
but there is also the future
benediction. And it's not just in the
but it's in the present Christian experience
experience
in the sheer delight in the ups and
downs of life of actually being a
believer and it is a most beautiful
thing. And then the fourth subpoint that
these verbs that have moods and
polarities and tenses also have voices
active and passive.
And it appears here in a what I think is
a very striking way. Um there there
there are these imperatives
but they're paradoxical imperatives
because what we are to do
well in a sense we don't do the doing.
So what do you need to do to be
conformed to this age?
Um well you don't need to do anything.
This age will conform you to itself.
But then on the other hand, what what do
you need to do
in order to be changed?
Well, you need to be done to in order to
be changed. That's the paradox, isn't
it? We are to be.
So, there's the imperatival force of
this, the obligation of this. We're to
be, but we're to be transformed.
That is to say, there is there is the
reality beyond us that comes to us and
transforms us. That the transformation
does not take place as it were from the
inside out, but from the outside in
by the engagement of our minds.
And clearly what is in view in Paul's
own mind is his understanding
that it's it's it's the message of the gospel
gospel
penetrating our minds,
touching our affections,
melting our will that brings about the progressive
progressive
conformity to the likeness of the Lord
Jesus about which he has spoken back
there in chapter 8 and verse 29.
And how does that happen?
Well, that happens, he tells us in 2
Corinthians 3, as we as we gaze on Christ
and
it's it's like married people. I when
when I when I was a semary professor and
would beg, borrow or steal other
people's pulpits, sometimes they would
they would have me stay with couples in
the church. And I never confessed it to
anyone. But I would always at the
beginning of the weekend, I would always
try and work out why why did these two
people get married to each other in the
first place.
But the thing I noticed usually was how
like each other they had become.
even even in facial expression, they
would respond to the same thing in the
same way.
And and I noticed this because we live
in a place where plenty of people walk
dogs. I can usually tell the dog walker
who is single
because there striking similarity
between the single dog walker and the dog.
dog.
And I suppose if you go muji muji muji muji
muji
um and obviously I speak humorously but
but it is real isn't it? You become like
those you live with.
And this is this is a matter of gazing into
into
the glass of scripture
in which the face of the Lord Jesus is
revealed to us
and we do become like him.
He does it. This comes through the spirit.
spirit.
And this is this is what we look for as
we begin to speak the gospel according
to the grammar of the gospel in our
preaching of the gospel.
And this is because I certainly I am
utterly convinced of this that the New
Testament's teaching is that when the
preaching of the gospel is preached in
the grace of the Holy Spirit, it's
Christ himself who does the preaching.
And this is the explanation why when you
look out in the congregation and say,
"Lord, why am I preaching on this when
Mrs. Smith is in such need?" Mrs. Smith
may shake your hand warmly and say,
"That was just what I needed." And you
know, she's not just being polite. What
has happened? She has heard the voice of Jesus
Jesus
and he is enough. He is sufficient
wherever he goes in his word, with his
word. However, as John Owen used to say,
the spirit moves among the people and
presents each of us with a parcel that
he unwraps and says, "This is for you."
When there is this exaltation of the
Lord Jesus and he himself preaches his
word to us and we see him in his word,
then we are made
like him.
And I think that's what Paul is speaking
about in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 when he
says, "So glad you received the word,
not as the word of men, but as it really
is, the word of God, which itself is at
work in you to conform you to his image."
image."
Well, I said the second point would be
shorter because it has no subpoints.
But by this time you've forgotten what
it was. It was this that what we have
here is not only the nature and
structure of Paul's gospel grammar
but an indication of the affectionate atmosphere
atmosphere
of Paul's gospel appeal. I think it was
John Foster Dulles
um whose son became a famous Roman
Catholic theologian although his father
I think was a Presbyterian who said in
the days of Norman Vincent Peele I find
the Apostle Paul appealing and Norman
Vincent Peele appalling
which was very wise counsel but the
Apostle Paul really is appealing here
but it's the it's the atmosphere of the
appeal that I think is really striking.
It's I appeal to you therefore,
notice the throwback to the indicatives, brothers,
brothers,
by the mercies of God. I don't know if
this happens in the United States, but
in in in earlier in my lifetime, you'd
always bump into these slightly quaint
brothers in Christ who every paragraph
they spoke to, it' be brother, how are
you today, brother? What's happening in
your church, brother? Isn't the Lord
wonderful, brother? That was brother,
brother, brother, brother. And I think
unwittingly they thought that they were
being kind of apostolic.
But when you read through Paul, he's
very sparing in this kind of address.
And whenever it whenever it appeals, it
seems to be in in him a kind of high
moment of emotion,
an expression of profound affection,
a sense that these people are his
family. And what's extraordinary in Rome
is the number of the family in Rome he
seems to know.
And and so th this is this is not Paul
the hammer. This is Paul the brother.
This is Paul the father.
And I think what we need to learn from
this is that the grammar is one thing
but the atmosphere in which the grammar
is spoken in our preaching needs to
match the reality of the grammar.
So that maybe Aristotle was right after all
all um
um
when he said good communication involves
logos and ethos and pthos.
It involves clarity of truth. It
involves a manifest character in the
communicator that is married to the
truth that he is seeking to communicate.
And it is communicated
with the affection, the emotion
that is consistent with the truth that
is being communicated.
And that at least is true of
good preaching, isn't it?
The kind of preaching that feeds us,
gets gets into us, that touches our
affection because it comes to us whether
it be sore to us or sweet to us. It
comes to us through the affection of
whoever is preaching to us his affection
for us.
So that he gives the whole of the truth
to us in the atmosphere that that truth
has created in his own life.
That atmosphere that was characteristic
of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so here, as the footnotes in the ESV
remind you to the point of irritation,
brothers means brothers and sisters, the
family of Jesus Christ. And
And
this is apostolic, isn't it? I yearn for
you all with the affection of Jesus
Christ. The aim of our charge, says Paul
in 1 Timothy 1,
is love.
And then he says to the Thessalonians,
"When I left you, such was my affection
for you that I felt as though I had been
torn away from you."
I've had an unusual experience this week
of I had two weddednesday this week.
I I flew from Sydney on weddednesday and
I arrived in LA on weddednesday.
I'm still trying to work out if this is
an 8 day week and how it is I don't look
any older although I've had two
weddednesdays. But I I left behind me uh
just an almost not totally unique but
rather special experience. Our second
son lives in Melbourne and I was doing
something in Melbourne. I was able to
see our son and his wife and their three
children uh on three days out of four
and I have not done that for years
and it was such a joy and when when he
dropped me off at the hotel on on the
last night I I held my I I sing you got
to hold yourself together till you get
back to your room.
And when I back out back to my room, I I
felt as though I was just going to go to
pieces with two emotions.
The emotion of the sheer joy of being
with them and seeing God's grace in
their lives and on the other hand, the
pain of being torn away from them. And
it caused me to think of Paul's
experience with Thessalonians
and the affection
that fatherly, motherly, nursing,
motherly affection that he says he felt
for them.
And I think what we are learning here is
that along with the grammar of the
gospel goes the affection
of the gospel.
And our time's gone.
But these principles
by God's grace will never ever go from
us. And when they are built into our ministry,
ministry,
our people will not analyze what's
happening the way I've tried to analyze
what's happening here,
but they will experience it and they'll
know it's different
and it will bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ. So
So
as we sit with Timothy and think about
these things,
may God work into us more and more this apostolic
apostolic tradition,
tradition,
this spirit of the Lord Jesus, that we
may be true preachers of his gospel and
pastors of his flock. Let's pray together.
together.
Lord, we thank you for being with us
today. We thank you for your word.
We we we live in a season when uh we
feel almost as though the hose pipe of
truth is turned upon us each day at
seminary and we can scarcely take it in.
And we know as we seek to take it in
that your word is so vast, so glorious,
your son so gracious that there will be
moments in our lives when we say Lord I
can hardly take in anymore. Help me
expand my thinking, my feeling, my loving,
loving,
my willing, that I may embrace you
unreservedly and grow in grace. But as
we think about these things especially,
we pray that wherever our ministry is,
wherever the personality you've given to
us and the different gifts
and and our own varied imbalances which
we confess to you today
that you would give us something of this Pauline
Pauline
ministry in our own ministries
and enable us to serve our dear Lord.
Lord Jesus and the people to whom we
will be bonded with an affection that
makes us want to live and die with them
because they are your children, your family,
family,
your special ones. So be with us we pray
the rest of this day. Again, we pray for
those who make it possible for us to be
here. Those who support the seminary in
prayer and materially and in our own
families and friends who make sacrifices
to free us to be able to study and
prepare. We pray you'd help us to
minister in the same way to them. And we
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