‘Because they lead my people astray, saying, “Peace”, when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash’ (Ezek. 13:10).

In Ezekiel 13 God is exposing false teachers who lead people astray with wrong teaching that gives men and women a false sense of security. They do a whitewash job, because they always bypass the question of God’s holiness and man’s sin.

God uses a picture of people building a wall-probably the city’s wall to protect against an enemy. They build flimsy walls, that is, walls easy to erect, cheaply and quickly, but useless. The builders know this, but they cover up the deficiencies of their work with whitewash.

This makes it look attractive, but it is still useless and God says it will fall.
Today people are encouraged to build flimsy walls of their own self-righteousness. Easy religion and sentimental doctrine are popular. There must always be a feeling of well-being and so sin and hell are never mentioned. People think of the church as some sort of emotional aspirin to make them feel good. It is all whitewash. It is a refusal to face the reality of the situation that the way people are building their lives is flimsy and unacceptable to almighty God.

How do we whitewash our lives? By trusting our own goodness and efforts; by comparing ourselves with others and concluding that we are better than they are, therefore we are O.K.

All this is the age-old doctrine of salvation by works, which the New Testament vigorously denounces. But if you accept it, then it is inevitable that you will reject the true gospel call for repentance. How many whitewashed souls there are! They look nice and respectable, and probably are, but their sinful hearts remain unchanged.

Jesus likened them to white tombs – outside white and sparkling, but inside full of dead men’s bones. What is God’s answer to whitewash? When I was a boy, I lived the first ten years of my life in a decaying old terraced house. We had two rooms upstairs and two down, but could only use one up and one down because the other two were too damp. The back yard was about three metres square, with high walls all around. The walls, like the house, were crumbling and decaying. To keep the back looking tidy, the walls had to be whitewashed every year. When it was done it looked lovely, but we knew it only covered up the decaying walls.

That went on for years; then the local council condemned the house and moved us into a new house. After that, there was no need for whitewash. Is that not like many lives? They are spiritually decaying and crumbling. God says, ‘I condemn that life. In my eyes it is foul and polluted with sin, and no amount of moral or religious whitewash will change it.’ That is terrible, but the message of the gospel is that the God who condemns is also willing to move us out and provide a new life for us in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is a God who does not do whitewash, but blood-wash. He deals with our sin, laying it upon Jesus and allowing the Saviour to bear not only our sin and guilt, but also the punishment due to it. He died on the cross in our place to purchase for us a full and free salvation.

The Bible tells us that the blood of Jesus Christ alone can cleanse us from sin.

Luke 16:19-31

Extract from Peter Jeffery’s book You Cant Fool God

This parable of Jesus is the only place in the Bible where we are shown a glimpse of the thoughts and emotions of a soul in hell. It is sometimes asked, ‘What does a man have to do to go to hell? What terrible sin would have to be committed before a soul is damned for all eternity?’ The simple answer of the Bible is that a person does not have to do anything to go to hell. We are born in sin and under the judgement of God and if we continue through life like that, then death will most surely usher us into hell.
In the matter of sin, both the rich man and Lazarus had the same start in life. Economically and socially their start in life could not have been more different, but spiritually and in terms of their relationship to God, their start was exactly the same. All men and women, whether rich or poor, clever or dull, black or white, are born with a sinful nature. It doesn’t matter what a person’s background is or what nation he or she comes from, every single one of us is born in a state of rebellion against God and under his This was not the reason, however, why the rich man was in hell. Lazarus had the same spiritual start but he was in heaven. The rich man’s problem was that he was content to live without God. He never sought God, or wanted to know God. There are millions like this today. Their appetites and view of life never rise above the material and temporal.

Religious blindness

A Christian who had just come out of hospital was lamenting that the only thing the men in his ward talked about and lived for was to get out of hospital in order to go to the pub. Literally men were dying in that ward but the chief concern of most of them was that they were missing their pub.
Even worse than that is the fact that the average church attender is no different. Many are content with an outward form of religion and no real experience of God. It is not unusual to hear religious people declare that the ‘God’ they believe in would never send anyone to hell. They say that their ‘God’ is not the angry God of the Old Testament, but the loving, forgiving God whom Jesus talked about. He is the Father of all mankind and we are all his children; therefore there is no such place as hell, and everyone, irrespective of their beliefs and actions, will go to heaven.
Such a concept of a harmless, affable ‘God’ would be a great comfort to any unrepentant sinner, but unfortunately for them this ‘God’ is not real. He is not the God of the Bible. He is not the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is merely the creation of the mind of man and is far removed from the true God whom Jesus revealed to us. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus himself shows us the reality of hell and the condition of a soul in that awful place.

Torment

This is a parable, so we have to be careful not to interpret everything literally. The purpose of a parable is usually to teach us a few basic truths. Christ would not have us interpret every detail here literally, but there are certain clear pictures that emerge from this parable. First of all, note the words Jesus uses. He says the soul in hell was in torment, in agony and in fire. This tells us that hell is not some cosy place where men can enjoy their sin unhindered. It is amazing how many people think this, but there is no freedom to sin without impunity in hell.
Sin there is forever being justly punished. God deals with man’s sin and the devil’s sin there. The devil is not the lord of hell; God is. The devil is cast there in the same way that the rich man and all unrepentant sinners are cast there. Hell is not the domain of Satan. It is the place where Satan is judged. There his sin, and all sin, faces the wrath of God in all its fierceness.
Therefore, words like ‘torment’ and ‘agony’ are inevitable in order to describe hell, but is it just, is it right, that this should be the case? Sin deserves hell, and sinners deserve hell because in their lifetime they have gone on rejecting the love and grace and mercy of God. The word ‘fire’ is in fact an inadequate picture to describe the torments and horrors of hell. None of the words the Bible uses could adequately describe the torment of this place where men face the wrath of God.
In the parable we are told of something which added to the agony endured by the rich man in hell. From hell he saw Lazarus in heaven. He saw something that he had never seen before. He was experiencing something now in hell that he had never experienced in life – he could see into heaven. His torment was, therefore, not merely physical but emotional and spiritual. He was given a glimpse of what might have been, what could have been for him.
Will that be your experience? Will you look from hell into heaven and lament over all the gospel sermons you heard and rejected? Will you regret so glibly dismissing the truth of the love of God which alone could have got you into heaven? Will you remember a time when perhaps God spoke to your heart and conscience and showed you your sin, but you refused to listen?

No hope in hell

Why should Jesus tell us such a terrible story? It must be in order to warn us of the reality of that which so many easily dismiss. Obviously Jesus took no pleasure in picturing this soul in hell, but he was showing us that there is no hope in hell. The words of the rich man are full of anguish: ‘Have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
But nothing can be done for a soul in hell. Not even God, not even the blood of Christ, can do anything, because hell is final. There is no second chance. There is no gospel preaching in hell, no opportunities to join in worship, no prayers offered by others on your behalf. There are no hymns, no sacraments; there is no hope in hell only torment and anguish. There is no bridge from hell to heaven. There is a great chasm that has been fixed and no one can cross (Luke 16:26).

Hope in Christ

There is no bridge from hell to heaven, but there is a bridge from sin to God. The chasm that separates a sinner from God is enormous, but the grace and mercy and love of God in Christ have spanned it. For centuries men have tried to build bridges of religion and morality from their depraved condition into the presence of the holy God. They all fall short, but God himself has built a bridge, not from hell to heaven but from sin to God. Christ himself is that bridge because he dealt with our sin, took its condemnation and guilt and faced the wrath of God instead of us. Salvation is when a sinner is lifted by the grace of God out of his sin and placed in a new and living relationship with God for all eternity. It is the Lord Jesus Christ alone who can do this. There is hope in Christ, but thee is no hope after death.

Interview with Peter Jeffery by Peyton Jones

Peyton – I’m sitting here with Peter Jeffery, Peter’s been a Pastor of three congregations, he’s had a world wide preaching ministry. I first heard him in the United States and he’s been somewhat of a mentor to me and others, and I just want to thank Peter for this opportunity to sit down and pick his brain and pass on things.

Peyton – Lloyd Jones called preaching a romance and he entitled a chapter of his book The Romance of Preaching. Can you briefly summarise your romance with the pulpit over the course of your preaching.

Peter – Well yes I think it’s a very apt title. The thing about preaching is that you never know what’s going to happen when you start. I think the Doctor said once that, Doctor Lloyd Jones, you never got a clue what’s going to happen when you get up to the pulpit steps into the pulpit. Either it can go flat or God can take over and you are away.

The romance of preaching I suppose started for me just about a week after I was converted. I was converted 55 years last Saturday May 21 1955. The week after on the Friday night I gave my testimony in open air meeting in Penydre in Neath. That was the first time I had ever spoken publicly and soon after that I was asked to give a testimony in a Sunday service in the
Church and I immediately said yes because I was bubbling with enthusiasm at that time but immediately I said yes I regretted it. I thought oh blow me. Nerves kicked in. I thought speaking in the open air was one thing, speaking in a Church was another thing and I was petrified as to what to say.
And then I discovered Luke 12 v 12 where Jesus said to the Apostles “Fear not what you shall say for the Holy Spirit shall give you the words in the same hour”. Now I know now that I was taking that verse completely out of context. But at that time it was a great encouragement to me and the Holy Spirit did give me the words and I think many in the Church thought He gave me too many words perhaps because the testimony went on a bit longer than they expected.

But from that time on within about six months I was preaching, I was only 18 and the joy of preaching was there then. I didn’t know much about preaching, I didn’t know enough really to be preaching. But God was there and God was beginning to teach me.

Peyton – remember hearing stories about the time that God moved very powerfully in Rugby. When I went and visited there years ago one of the Elders told me they can remember you running into the pulpit on a Sunday morning. Can you talk about that.

Peter – Well I can’t remember that – I probably did – I don’t know – but there were some Sundays in Rugby which were quite phenomenal. There were times in Rugby we knew something of the power of the Spirit, there is no question about that. And there was some Sundays when I was preaching and I was as if I was in the congregation listening to myself preaching. I can’t explain it but I was just sitting down listening and I was still preaching. It was an amazing sort of experience. And God spoke in amazing ways in Rugby and there were some Sundays which were quite, quite unusual and God blessed and God spoke and God is always speaks through his word you see.

I remember one Sunday morning in Rugby a lady phoned me early about 8.00 am on a Sunday morning saying she had three very serious problems she needed to talk over with me. I said well see me after the service this morning and we’ll arrange a meeting. I preached and after the service she came to the door and she said there is no need for me to see you now Pastor, my three problems were answered in your sermon. Now I still don’t know what the problems were but God did, and God answered her problems through the preaching and that’s what preaching is. It isn’t just some man spouting off, its God speaking and God spoke to that woman that day and God answered her problems quite to my ignorance.

Peyton – Would you say that many people that are preaching today have lost a sense of what preachers may be 100-200 years ago, had a sense of that preaching was meant to be prophetic.

Peter – Well I think many preachers have lost a lot of things today in preaching. I’m reaching into my 70’s now and sometimes I look back and I think preaching isn’t like it used to be. I think, stop now careful boy, don’t be committing the cardinal sin of an old man comparing things now and then.

But its true I think I hear some preachers today and they give nice homilies and they give reasonable words I suppose in a sense, but there is no bite in the preaching and there is no prophetic element in a sense that God is speaking through this word, that God is coming to us . I come to the point where I think that ,where is this sense of God. I think when you come from a Church on a Sunday service the question you want to know is, have I met with God. Have I met with God, was God there, did God touch my heart ,did God speak to my soul. I think this is missing somehow. We seem to be not quite happy clappy, but silly sometimes and the whole service is too jovial sometimes and there’s no sense or little sense of God. The awesomeness of God, the wonder of God, the holiness of God, the majesty of God. When that comes, wow, things happen then.

Peyton – When did you first began to notice your preaching change. In other words you felt that power come down. Well I remember a time for me where preaching began to change and ironically its probably why I’m sitting here. It was in Pacific Hills California at a Church that you were speaking at. It was a Sunday night and this sense of God came upon us on a Southern Californian congregation in a way that I had never seen before, though I had gone to this Church for years and listened to the preacher there. You finished preaching and the congregation didn’t move for almost two minutes, which for Southern Californian’s is very, very rare. But when you preached it was almost as if the Holy Spirit had dropped a bomb there and everybody was a bit shell shocked. Do you remember that night?

Peter – I don’t. And I tell you something, when I went to Rugby my preaching changed. I had been nine years preaching in Cwmbran and I was, I suppose, a good preacher – I don’t know – but nothing unusual. There were 30,40, 50 like me in South Wales. But I went to Rugby and something happened. Something happened. I remember a missionary came to visit us in Rugby, a friend of mine, and we’d had lots of converts, a lot of young boys converted off the drug scene, off the streets and she was speaking at the prayer meeting and I could see her afterwards down the front talking to a crowd of these boys. Not boys, men in their mid twenties. And she walked up to me and said Peter can I ask you a question, have you been baptised in the Holy Spirit. Me, thinking of tongues and that’s first up, oh no I said, I haven’t had that. But looking back I think I had. I never spoke in tongues and we never knew healings or anything like that, but something happened to the preaching that is only explicable in terms of God coming there. God came on the preaching. Now I didn’t know that again until I went to America. And I felt in America I was beginning to know something again of the power . I was in Rugby 14 years, and we had this mostly through the 70’s into the early 80’s, but then preaching in America, preaching at Pacific Hills, is that the Church you were talking about, in Los Angeles, we knew great services in that Church, absolutely phenomenal services. God was amazing in the power that came on the preaching.

You see any good preacher can preach a good sermon. And more often than not will preach a good sermon if he is a good preacher. But it takes the Spirit of God to come on him for it to be a mighty sermon. To make a word that rivets and captures and dominates and controls and rivets people and we knew that in Rugby. Praise God for that. And I’ve known something about that in America both on the East coast and the West coast. Knew it in the Churches in Long Island in New York and certainly in Pacific Hills and Churches there. God was good.

Peyton – I can remember sitting there that night. I had been in ministry for maybe one or two years and had preached since not long after I got converted. But I remember having the impression there that night, that whatever I had been doing before wasn’t preaching and everything for me began to change. I would say that’s the first step and that’s probably why we’re here doing this interview right now, its because we can do so much on our own but we need that extra bit and I think thats something that you’ve had an experience with. What would you say is the most important or most valuable thing for a man to remember while he’s in that pulpit.

Peter – He’s in the pulpit for the benefit of the congregation, God yes, for the praise and glory and honour of God. That goes without saying. But he’s there for the benefit of the congregation. He’s not there to demonstrate his own abilities, or show how good he is as an orator. He’s there so that these people might be edified, they might be drawn closer to God. The sermon you see confronts people with God, or it should. Confront the people with God, the living God. And he should always remember in the pulpit he’s there for their sake. They’re not there just to listen to him. He’s there for their sake. And If he remembers that, I have found over the years and particularly again in Rugby – I had a rapport with the congregation. I could speak to them as if I was speaking to you now just across the room here, and they would respond to that.

Now you don’t get that all the time and you don’t get that with some congregations certainly, but certainly I did then. And you really feel you want to help these people, you want to draw them closer to God. You want to show them God. You see you prepare a sermon and sometimes, well its OK, but then you get into the pulpit and it takes off. It just takes off. There is no question about that. And sometimes you prepare a sermon and you know your heart is warmed. You’ve been the same I’m sure Peyton. You’ve been preparing a sermon and the tears have run down your face as your writing the sermon. And you just rejoice and you just pray that you have that same blessing in the pulpit on Sunday morning and that’s what we want. We want a sense of God. We want a sense of God. The preaching does not have to be contemporary or traditional, its to please God. And if it pleases God it will please the people.

Peyton – I’ve asked you this question before and I know it’s a very difficult question, probably one that you don’t have the entire answer for otherwise you’d probably be very rich marketing it, but if we knew the answer to this question we could probably answer everything else. What would be the best advice that you could give a young man in securing the anointing of the Spirit on his preaching. Obviously that’s not for once in his life time, but it’s a daily thing and a weekly thing. Its every time he steps in the pulpit I suppose. What’s been the thing that’s been most helpful to you to help secure the anointing of the Spirit.

Peter – Well I don’t know, there are so many things. I always had a fear of God. In the sense that I would fear to offend God by what I’m saying in the pulpit. By not just the content of the word, but my manner in the pulpit. God has got to be in the front, Gods got to be honoured, Gods got to be top. And we are only little boys trying to be for His glory. I think cultivate this fear of God. But God is real. God is real to you in the study and if he’s real to you in the study, when your alone with him, who is it said that, “ what a man is on his knees alone with God that’s what you are“, was it McCheyne said that, that’s true you see, when your on your knees alone with God that’s what you are. And you will be no more than that. You can parade in the pulpit, you can be an actor in the pulpit, and that’s no good to anybody, but you need to be alone with God, you need the power of God, so that when you come into the pulpit, God is there.
Preachers I believe are born not made. You either got the gift of preaching or you haven’t got the gift. If you’ve got the gift it can be developed, and it must be developed. Many things can go and be irrelevant, but nothing substitutes for this sense of God. That’s true in any part of the Christian life you see, whether your in the pulpit or out of the pulpit, but perhaps its something we’re lacking today.

Peyton – There was an old preacher that was asked how long did it take you to prepare that sermon, that’s the most amazing sermon I have ever heard. It might have been McCheyne again, but he said all my life. Can you talk about the preachers consistent prayer life and walk with God as preparation for service.

Peter – Well I always felt my prayer life wasn’t anything like what it ought to be and it wasn’t as consistent as it ought to be. But my days in the ministry I would spend from about 8.30 – 9.00 am until 12.00 every morning in the study, that was every morning in the study, just me and the Bible and alone with God. Afternoons I would be out visiting and evenings would be meetings. That was my pattern.

But you want to cultivate this sense of God and that’s got to be worked at, it doesn’t come easy. I wish I knew more of God – oh goodness. I’ve just been reading McCheyne again – what’s that prayer McCheyne prayed – “Lord make me as holy as its possible for a sinful man to be“. That’s a thought isn’t it. As holy as its as possible for a sinful man to be. But its crucial isn‘t it, absolutely crucial. And McCheyne, he was ordained at 22 and dead at 29, but what he accomplished in that 7 years was phenomenal. Because I am sure God answered that prayer. As God answered Solomon’s prayer for wisdom he answered that prayer for holiness for McCheyne. And many other things as well. But that’s what made him the man he was. What we are, to any degree, will be governed by that.

Peyton – I‘m amazed that your talking about holiness because that was my next question, was to discuss personal holiness in connection with the preaching ministry and the influence that it has on the effectiveness of your preaching. Any further thoughts that you have on that?

Peter – Holiness is to be set apart for God, to worship God, to want to please God. Its to cultivate the life that’s honouring to God. And as far as the preacher is concerned that comes first. I’m trying to think of the verse in Ezra 7 v 10, Ezra read the scriptures , he sought to know them and then he sought to live them. Then only then did he preach them. Those were the three things. He read the scriptures, he lived the scriptures, he preached the scriptures. We have got to know our Bible, but we have to live the Bible to. That’s what holiness is, its living the Bible. And when your living it, then the preaching comes out of that. Preaching should be an overflow, not a scraping of the bottom of the barrel. But an overflow of meeting with God. Now because of my health I have been unable to preach for the last couple of years and I miss that, but even if you can’t preach, you can still know God.

Peyton – You said you aim for their heart, you preach for their heart. How would you tell somebody this is how you preach to their heart.

Peter – Well Spurgeon said a man will never be saved until he’s moved in his heart. Until his emotions are stirred. Now its easy to preach correctly for a mans mind, but how do you preach to stir his emotions. Well its not by filling him with some silly stories about sick children and things like that and sentimental stories. That’s the work of an actor, it not the work of a preacher. Its by just preaching the scriptures, opening the scriptures, let God speak through the scriptures. I’m a great believer in expository preaching, I believe in expository preaching. You let the scriptures speak. I’ve always been a man of the text you know. My first words in the pulpit are always, my text this morning is. And I give a text out and I stick with the text and I try as far as possible to expound that text. That will touch people’s hearts if there’s real power on it. That will touch their hearts.

Peyton – So its really just allowing the word of God to speak and would you say there is great stock in before having the heart moved of someone else, as a preacher your own heart has to be moved.

Peter – Well your not going to move anyone else’s heart until your own heart is moved. This is why that time alone with God in preparation is so, so important. I believe in the sovereignty of God in all things, but God gives a responsibility to the preacher to be alone with him and to work at it. I’m quoting Lloyd Jones again – he said to us at one time, “you men think my sermons come down from heaven on a silver plate on a Saturday night brought by an angel for me to preach, they don’t, I’ve got to work, I’ve got to work”. And he did work and we’ve got to work. You’ve got to study. Now study – I mean – I’ve never been one to be able to get stuck in to the puritans for instance – I found them a bit heavy going – but there are some people who help you and some people who move you. Tozer always moved me and people like that who move your own heart, and if your own heart is moved you have got a chance of reaching the hearts of the congregation.

Peyton – did you have a method in your preparation. Did you, some preachers say that they read the text x amount of times or memorise it, others say that they go for a walk around the block and meditate on it. Did you have a method, or you would consult this work first or you would meditate first or your would meditate after. Was there any way that you found was the most effective way to crack open what the word of God was saying for your (? Word) and application. What was your way that you used.

Peter – Well when I started off first, I had two sermons in about say about a week and I had six mornings. And I’d split it up into first morning reading around the text, thinking around the text, pondering around the text. Second morning writing the sermon out. Third morning, start again on the next sermon, then third and fourth and fifth and six on the other one. But I would read around the text, think about the text and then get on with it.

Now as I was preaching through a series of sermons, I might have five or six books on the go, on Galatians or Romans or something like that and I would spend the first day reading around these things and thinking around these things. I know some preachers who don’t start doing sermon preparation until the Saturday. Now that would give me ulcers I think. I like to be finished by Saturday, so that I am ready in that sense anyway. I like to start preparing a sermon on Monday or even on Sunday night your thinking about it. And you live with the sermon for a week and then when you preach, out it comes. But the people in the congregation have got to see that you’ve come from the presence of God, that your not just there spouting it out, but you’ve come from the presence of God. And when God is there – I go back to Rugby again – I was honestly amazed where the people were coming from. People were travelling in 20-30 miles on Sunday mornings to the services and I thought what are they coming for. Then they’d bring somebody else the next week. But if they feel you’ve got something from God, or a man from God, then that happens.

There is a phrase in Haggai again, the people had respect for Haggai as the Lord had sent him. They saw Haggai as sent by God. And if the congregation can see you as sent by God, then they’ll listen to you and they will benefit from your ministry. And they’ll pray for you and that makes a vast difference, when the congregation is praying for you.

Peyton – you mentioned Tozer and you’ve mentioned McCheyne and Lloyd Jones, I just want to ask, what did you learn from the ministry of Lloyd Jones in particular.
Peter – Lloyd Jones was staggering really. When I started College in 1960, we had no biblical theology taught us and most of my theology came from Lloyd George, he was just starting publishing books then. Two volumes on the sermon on the mount came out when I was in College. Other things like that and I used to devour these books as they came out.

But he gave you a sense of God, when you listened to him preach, he gave you a sense of God. You felt you were in the presence of God. Someone said he took about two or three journeys up and down the runway before he took off, but when he took off, wow he was soaring. And that was the case. I think what I learned again was, he was an exceptional man, he had a brain, he could recall things, oh goodness me. He could recall things in detail and he read so widely and devouring these things. But when he came to the pulpit, children could understand what he was saying. Remember the famous story, letters he had when he was ill he said, the one he prized most was from a 12 year old girl. She was saying Doctor when are you able to come back because I can’t understand them, but I can understand you. That’s a tremendous compliment. Tremendous compliment.

I think we could understand him. Nehemiah talked about it again. Nehemiah, they gave the sense of the passage, they read the scriptures and they gave the sense of the passage to the people and that’s of prime importance.

Peyton – That was one of the things I noticed about your preaching when I first started listening to you. There was a simplicity, it wasn’t complex, you weren’t trying to wow people, like although you had taken truths that could be made complex and made them simple, yet they were on fire. There was a fire in it, there was a passion in it, that was probably more powerful than someone trying to make it complex.

Peter – I haven’t got the brain to make things complex. I am not complex, I preach it as I see it. I see it simply really I suppose. I don’t like complex sermons and people shouldn’t have to take a dictionary to Church should they. The scriptures should speak clearly and the language should be such that they can understand what is being said. The illustrations should be relevant to where they are now, not where the Victorians were a 100 years ago.

Peyton – how does a man know that’s he called to preach. That he’s not being presumptuous or its not his own ambition?

Peter – Well all I can do is go on experience of this I suppose . I was preaching at 18 as I said. I think it was ridiculous I didn’t know enough at 18 to preach. I didn’t know enough scripture to preach. But I was preaching and people in the Church saw young Peter had the gift of the gab and they stuck me in the pulpit and I suppose the training was invaluable.

But I think as I look back to that, I’d have been quite happy to just go on lay preaching Sunday by Sunday, until God called me into the ministry. But I knew I was called to preach because I could preach. Now its different with a school teacher whose lecturing on geography, maths or history, teaching/ lecturing is not preaching. And I had this ability to do that I suppose, God given, had to be – has to be – and I thank God for that. And when young boys come to me today, we had many in Rugby, I lost count of the number of people who wanted to preach, I would never poo poo them. I would say right, go away now and write a sermon and bring it back and we’d go through it and I’d say OK now when your ready preach this at a Thursday night week night service and sometimes it would be disastrous but other times it would be tremendous. But you’ve got to give people a chance you see and in the end if a man is called to preach, he’s got to let the Church test that call, but whether he can preach, weather they feel he’s strong enough to God or not. But if a man can preach you recognise it soon when he preaches. There is a lot to be developed, there’s a lot to be worked at, but if he’s got the gift of preaching you can recognise that I think and you work at that, and I worked at it for a long time and I still do in a sense I suppose.

Peyton – when I first got here I was asked to speak at a luncheon. It was evangelistic, it started up during your ministry. I was told to speak for 10 minutes. Now as a Californian preacher that was at least an hour shorter than what I was used to. 10 Minutes. I was told at that time, Peter was the master of the 10 minute sermon, emphasising this that it doesn’t have to be long to be powerful, doesn’t have to be over an hour to be used by God. I remember asking you at that time, Peter how did you do it and I remember your reply, I‘ll never forget, it was in this room, you said just stop man, just stop, stop in 10 minutes.

I wanted to ask you, your sermons typically, almost right to the minute, go to 30 minutes and I would imagine that at some stage you had kind of hit almost like a cadence or rhythm. How would you advise a preacher whose trying to develop his preparation, so that he’s not losing people after 30 minutes. Obviously there are times where you can hold people longer, but if we’re honest, a lot of us could trim some fat. How did you get into the stride that you have, because I confess, when I listen to your sermons, I feel often there is not a wasted word. How did you develop in that way.

Peter – Well I got to a point one time, where I thought I was preaching too long. Now in those days my notes would be four sides of a sort of post card – A3 paper – so how do I get that shorter – I worked it out. I cut my sermon notes down from four pages to three pages, that was a simple thing. So instead of preparing to fill four pages I prepared to fill three pages and that worked to a great degree. Because you can be too long, I don’t think you can be too short. I know this is controversial, especially in some circles, but I think preachers preach too long you see. 10 Minutes in certain circumstances, in some 5 minutes, is long enough really and if you go to an old peoples home at the end of a day, and your preaching in a warm stuffy lounge and these old dears are nodding off and snoring away, then 10 minutes is very, very long and you don’t want any more than that.

But I usually work to preach between 30-40 minutes, mostly 30 ish and I would govern it by the notes. I was tied to my notes. I could preach the same sermon 20 times, but I would still have to have my notes on the 20th time, I probably wouldn’t look at them, but I would have to have them there for comfort I suppose.

Peyton – you mentioned preparation and in any job, including ours, the tools are very important, the tools of the trade, the things we use. Obviously you’ve mentioned already our walk with God as an indispensable tool, prayer, the prayer of the congregation, the Ministers personal prayer, his holiness, but on a very practical level, if we were to open up the preachers kit bag, obliviously we’d pull the Bible out, that would be one of the most essential power tools. What have been other essential tools, that over the years , that you thought, man if I’d found this sooner – this particular book or this particular way of doing things, it would have helped me immensely, I wish I’d found this sooner.
Are there any tools that you can pull out of the kit bag and recommend to other people. Books maybe – sermons, preachers.

Peter – There are books which personally I would use, every Lloyd Jones book that came out I got, and it was rich to read for yourself and to preach. I often said when I was preaching, if I was preaching from Romans, that’s all I was doing was regurgitating Lloyd Jones. What stuff to pull out isn’t it. There are other books that lend themselves like that you see, Wiersby you mentioned. I find his books want to be something, be this, be that, very good stuff for preaching and helping you to prepare a sermon. I use them a lot. I don’t know those are the main ones, Lloyd Jones mostly I suppose and then there were other things Moyea was good, I like Motea and Packer and they were books that fed my own soul, and if they fed my own soul then they would feed the congregations soul. But books are the tools of the trade. I would buy books galore, I must have had a couple of thousand at one time. I have given just about all my best books away now.

Peyton – You mentioned Tozer earlier and you said that he was more like a country preacher. He has been called the last of the Christian mystics and I think he was a guy that was, as controversial as that term is, may be people didn’t understand it and they used it for him, but Tozer was a guy where he seemed as if everything that he preached, as if he had been up on the mountain with God. What did you personally gain from Tozer’s ministry. These were all different guys, and what I’m getting at is by asking these questions, is they were such different men and such different preachers, that surely they chiselled off bits of you or helped you develop in some ways. What did Tozer give to you.

Peter – Well Tozer helped me I think to speak to the congregation. He had a conversation with them in many ways. I never saw Tozer as a powerful preacher. I never heard to many Tozer sermons mind you. The quality wasn’t all that good in some of them and the recordings, but he could put his finger on the point in your life which needed pressing. Look after this boy, look after this, and he could put his finger on the pulse of the Church. He was doing that way before you had this thought about contemporary and traditional. He was traditional in many ways. Tozer wouldn’t be contemporary I think in terms of music or things like that. But he could put his finger on these preachers who went around in big cars and big hotels and things like that. He was a man who wanted to bring people to God and again, again I keep coming back to that, that’s what he wanted to do didn‘t he. And he knew what was right and what was wrong you see. He would talk about people really being convicted of sin. He had no time for these glib decisions you know people put their hands up and five minutes later they were back in the pub or whatever it was. He wanted people converted. Changed, transformed by the Holy Spirit. He saw that.

Peyton – that raises an interesting point, you mentioned about people raising their hands and he didn’t want that, and you also mentioned about you wanted to reach peoples hearts. You were a gifted evangelist, many people came to faith through your ministry what would you say is the best advice you could give someone who, as Spurgeon called them, wants to be a soul winner.

Obviously every preacher is called to do the work of an evangelist but what would you say as far as avoiding maybe doing alter calls. I know these are all just methods, different things, but I know you personally didn’t really do the alter calls. But did you find at a certain point in your preaching that there was something that was helpful, that maybe you weren’t giving folks the opportunity to believe, or they didn’t know what to do. Was there a certain point at which you thought I need to tell them what to do. Tell them how to come to Christ.

Peter – Well the preaching should do that you see, the sermon should do that. But I know what your talking about. I used to go into the vestry after the evening service — after a gospel service, I always preached to saints in the morning and sinners in the night. It was a teaching ministry in the morning and an evangelistic ministry every Sunday night. And after the evening service I would go in the vestry and invite people to come and see me. And people did. I would tell people not to come just say hello or talk about yesterdays football match or anything. But people who were anxious about their souls. That happened. And they came, or they would come to the house to see me. I found I led very few people to the Lord. In that sense you know. They were converted with the preaching.

We had one lady in Rugby, and she came to me to be baptised and her husband and her had come to the Church for some months and I assumed she was a Christian. Her Husband certainly was a Christian. And I said its a long time your getting baptised. Oh no she said I’ve only been converted three weeks. I said three weeks. Well I didn’t know. But she had been converted three weeks ago you see, and I didn’t give her four things God wants you to know, or lead her to the Lord, but God saved her and she’s been going on with the Lord 20 – 30 years later. And I would prefer that. There were times when I did sit down with people and pray with people, we talked things through and we sought God together. And I‘ve had people in this room for weeks on end breaking their hearts and wanting to be saved. But in the end they need to get alone with God. And when their alone with God, well you never know what’s happened. But I still believe the Holy Spirit is the best Counsellor. And He will bring them along.

Peyton – When your in the pulpit, did you find that your illustrations came to you or did you spend a lot of time preparing them or was it a combination of both.

Peter – no they were all prepared. I may have an odd illustration in the pulpit as I was preaching perhaps, but my illustrations came out of life really they were my illustrations in the sense they were fresh, part of my experience of life and of God. Sometimes I’d wake up at 3.00 o clock in the morning with this illustration in my mind you know.

Peyton – I know your book Windows on Truth is exactly like that. I remember the illustration about the passport, not being able to travel because you didn’t have the passport and used that as an illustration for Christ.

I notice that you did that a lot and I found that really refreshing, that a reformed evangelical was using every day things like you said. It wasn’t stuck back in say, just stealing the illustrations of the Puritans, the Puritans dug for their own gold.

Peter – Everybody’s got to do it in their own way. Your whole life is full of illustrations. When I missed the plane from Los Angeles home because I got the time of the plane taking off wrong, you know, and we got to the airport three hours after the plane had gone. That was one of the best sermon illustrations I’ve ever had. Take care of the details. You’ve got a journey coming up and you take care of the details. Check the details. It was a simple thing. Illustrations are important I think, they’re windows of truth, like the title of that book, Windows of Truth. Their meant to point people to the full truth of the gospel.

Peyton – What about application. I think the hardest thing for most young pastors to grab hold of is the fact that this truth needs to be applied. Obviously the spirit will do His work in people’s hearts, as well and personalise much of the truths that your preaching. Your sermons are also very practical and I would imagine that takes work, and is probably something you had to work hard at.

Peter – I think that’s the way I am. I think you’ve got to preach the sermon and apply it all the way through. Like the appeal for instance. The appeal starts the moment you give your text out. Its not something tagged on at the end of the sermon . You give your text our and your calling people to come to Christ and you show them how to come. Why and what will happen if they don’t come, its all part of it isn‘t it. So to is the application in terms of holiness and things like that. On obedience and fellowship and things like that. You got to think these things through. Your back to preparation you see. I used to tell my people in Rugby particularly, don’t phone me between 9 and 12 any morning. I am in the study between 9 and 12 and I don’t want phone calls. Unless it is absolutely urgent you know.

Peyton – its interesting because if I look at your sermons there is somewhat of a pattern. I don’t know if you prepared in this way, you had a structure or an outline for your sermon. Without over analysing, because it probably is just the way you present truth, there would be truth, illustration and application and that seems to come in your preaching in waves. |You don’t seem to leave people point by point without understanding it through a window on the truth and then applying it, driving it home. Was that intentional or was it just the way you developed.

Peter – I don’t know to be honest.

Peyton – “I didn’t know I was like that.”

Peter – I just, you know, people seem to find my preaching understandable. They could relate to it and that staggered me to I suppose. The same with the books you see. I mean several people have told me I’m the only writer they know who writes the same way as he preaches. It’s the only way I know. It seems to be the obvious way. You apply the truth to the lives of people where they are, whether their in the steel works, in a school , in an office, in a shop, you apply the truth so that it comes home to them. And then they got to think it through themselves then, and take it up with God.

Peyton – I think that’s one of the big pitfalls as a preacher is because we are swimming in these truths and reading these books, we often don’t realise that the people that are listening to us, their not, and they can’t handle that. It is much, much harder to write like you write, where your writing with the crystal clarity and the simplicity for the housewife to understand and grow in a knowledge of Christ. For her life to actually change, unless we understand, we don’t change and I would say that in your preaching there’s that real clarity, there is a focus, there is a clarity.

Peter – Do you know why that is – God didn’t give me too many brains you see and I churn it out as I see it you know. And I see it simply and I churn it out like that. I couldn’t write a profound book to save my life.

Peyton -What advice would you give to a young guy just starting out, what kind of indispensable counsel would you give to anyone starting.

Peter – Don’t bother, I would hate to be starting today. I think its much harder. I was ordained in 1963 and its much harder today for young men. My Grandson is being ordained now in a couple of months and it will be much harder for him than it was for me. Although he’s had better preparation for the ministry than I ever had. So that’s good. And he’s gifted, that’s good. But there is no respect for the pulpit today as there was 50 years ago. But for the young man, just get right with God. Get right with God. I think the ambition any young man should have is to be useable. No matter, he might be an ordinary preacher or a great preacher, but he needs to be a useable preacher, so that God can take him up and use him.

You know you got Dafydd |Morgan in the 1859 revival in Wales. An ordinary little preacher, Presbyterian minister, went to bed like a lamb and woke up like a lion. And the spirit came on him. For a couple of years in the revival in 1859, mightily used. You’ve got to be useable. If we are not useable, we can be the best preachers in the world, and all that happens is that any gifts get in the way of the spirit. Get in the way of God coming and speaking through us.

Peyton – What would you say is the thing that makes a man the most useable. Is there any one quality.

Peter – I think your back to that prayer of McCheyne you see – “make me as holy as its possible for a sinful man to be“. That’s what makes us useable. You see how holy is holy and there’s no limit to it. Make me to walk with God, that doesn’t mean prefect. There is no such thing as perfection in that sense. It means I am willing to be used by God, I’m willing to be taken up by God. To be a fool for Christ’s sake, says Paul, isn’t it. I am willing for all these things.

 

Peyton – and as he said – “not that I‘ve attained brethren or am perfected“. Its amazing because we do walk around with this idea that men that are used powerfully of God are perfect. And I love that scripture where Peter, at the temple gate called Beautiful, says, “men of Israel, why do you look at us as though we, by our own power or Godliness, made this man walk. I think sometimes, would you say its an encouragement for people to see God using us so powerfully, and yet at the same time seeing how human we are.

Peter – Yes, well Peter went on in that same passage in Acts to say, “such as I have I give to you”, and that’s the way we’ve got to do it. I have to give what I’ve got and you have to give what you‘ve got.

All I’ve got depends on my relationship with God. And my capacity to take in what God wants. Gods got infinite resources to pour into my life and the more I take in the more I can give out. Peter gave what he could and that fellow got up and walked. I think in the end it all comes back to this business of your own personal walk with God.

Peyton – really quickly, because you’ve helped me loads, in fact our relationship really started after I heard you preach back in the States where I needed advice from a Pastor and couldn’t talk to anyone in my circle, so I remember first off being surprised that you wrote me back because that would never have happened in California. A Pastor wouldn’t take the time of day to write a Minister he didn’t know.

The first thing that shocked me was you actually responding me. But talking about when we step out of the pulpit. Now we’re in the congregation, your obviously a veteran, you’ve pastured three Churches, in some cases you’ve gone into Churches that are legendary for difficulty, and you’ve held it well.

What would be your advice in dealing, or with your thoughts in general, about opposition in the Ministry and the best way to deal with those.

Peter – Well you start off by accepting the fact that your always going to get opposition, always. My Grandson was voted on to be Assistant Pastor recently and he didn’t get 100% vote. And I said to him, listen boy I said , if they were calling the Apostle Paul, he wouldn’t get 100% vote. Any Church – nobody is satisfied with everything. And some of the criticism is just negative. It comes from people who are small people and they can’t think biblically. And you’ve got to try and take it as it comes. Other of the criticism comes from people who really know what their talking about and you can learn from them. I’ve often said some criticism I would take off some, I wouldn’t take off others. But difficulties are part and parcel of the work. Paul had enough difficulties didn’t he. Christ certainly had difficulties, but Paul dealing with the Church had enough difficulties. Look at the difficulties he had with the Corinthian Church. And we are going to have difficulties and its no point in thinking everything is going to be great.

I remember I used to go to Ministers fellowship when I was in my first Church and some of the men would start talking about the problems they were having, and I used to think to myself, well I don’t have any of those problems. I didn’t have any of these problems. And I thought what’s wrong with me, I’m not having any problems. And there out of the blue I had an enormous problem which meant I had to leave the Church because of it. It all comes sooner or later and when it comes your back again with God. Back again, relying on the Lord and the Lord opening the doors for some other pasture. Don’t worry about problems – Paul had them in the Churches in Corinth. We do not lose heart he said.

Peyton – Well Peter, thank you very much for this time, appreciate it. Its been some years in the thinking, although its only taken us an hour and a half to nail it down. But want to thank you for the privilege of being able to do this, and for you taking the time and kicking this down, that’s been something you’ve done over the years with not just myself, but other young men, investing in others, passing on the baton like Paul to Timothy and others, and so on behalf of them and myself I want to thank you.

Peter – Thank you

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The apostle Peter, preaching on the day of Pentecost, explained the cross in terms of both the wickedness of man and the infinite love of God. He accused his hearers very clearly of putting the Son of God to death. Their sin was enormous and they were responsible for it, but over­riding this was the plan of God: “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked man, put him to death by nailing Him to the Cross” (Acts 2:23).

The death of Jesus, both with regard to its  manner and its purpose, was set and determined by God Himself. It wasn’t a last minute adjustment to a plan that was going wrong. It always was the plan as the many references and allusions to the cross in the Old Testament make very clear. To the Christian, this is a thrilling truth be­cause it puts our salvation at the heart of God’s will and purpose for this world. When Jesus died it was an act of substitution and propitiation – he died instead of me, and in his death he paid the price for my sin.
In the communion service (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) we are told the body of Jesus was broken for you, and his blood shed for you. These two little words ‘for you’ are of enor­mous importance in understanding the atonement. They tell us that if you are a Christian, Jesus died ‘in your place’, he became your sub­stitute. In some wonderful way the Lord Jesus had you in mind, specifically when he died. He is your Passover Lamb, your Scapegoat, and the innocent victim who dies in the place of the guilty.

The propitiation means that on the cross, bearing our sin and guilt, Jesus faced the wrath of God instead of us, and fully paid on our behalf the debt we owed to the broken law of God. At Calvary, the wrath of God the Father being poured out on his Son Jesus means that a holy God can be propitious – or favourably inclined – towards us, even though we are guilty sinners. God dealt with the problem of sin in the only way that could satisfy his holy justice and enable him to save his people even though we deserved only judgement.

This is the amazing plan of God and it is so personal. Jesus died for me, in my place. There is nothing theoretical about this. It is very real and is the heart and substance of the Christian gospel.

WHY DID GOD DO IT?

There are two reasons why God planned our salvation as He did. The first is that He wanted to, and He wanted to because He loved us. The other reason is that God did it because He had to if we were to be saved. Without a Savior, all sinners will perish eternally. Both reasons are found in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life:” In other words, it’s God’s love that makes the cross possible, and it’s God’s holiness that makes it necessary.

That God is love is a precious truth that is accepted by practically everyone, but the meaning we give to love is not always biblical. Modern man confuses love with sen­timentality, and sees God’s love as a sort of general be­nevolence which has no other purpose but our happi­ness. It then follows that God will not punish sin. Con­sequently, every notion of hell is dismissed as incompat­ible with the idea of a “God of love:” Such thinking is seriously flawed because, although it’s true that God is love, this is not the only thing that’s true about God. He is also holy. The love of God as seen on the cross saves sinners, but what are they saved from? The Bible has only one answer to that: sinners are saved from perishing, from the consequence of their sin, from the wrath and judge­ment of God upon that sin. Why in John 3:16 are people perishing? Because God is holy and will not, and cannot, tolerate sin. In 1 John 4:9-10, we see both the love and holiness of God linked together: “This is how God showed His love among us; He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins:” Why was it nec­essary for Jesus to be an atoning sacrifice or propitiation for our sins? Because God in His holiness had declared that the wages of sin was death. He will not wink at hu­man sin or pretend it’s nothing. It has to be dealt with in accordance to His own law.

The atoning sacrifice, or propitiation, Jesus made on the cross satisfies the law of God and thus satisfies his holiness. The word “propitiation” means that, on the cross, bearing our sin and guilt, Jesus faced the wrath of God instead of us, and fully paid on our behalf the debt we owed to the broken law of God. At Calvary, Christ made it possible for a holy God to be propitious-or favorably inclined-towards us, even though we sinners had broken His holy law. At Calvary, Christ suffering was sufficient to cover the sins of all his chosen people throughout all of history. God dealt with the problem of sin in the only way that could satisfy His holy justice and enable Him to move in and break the power of Satan in sinners’ lives. The fact is that it’s the holiness of God that dictates the events on Calvary. In his love, God decided to save sinners from the conse­quence of their sin, but it’s God’s holiness that dictates exactly how this is done. A way of salvation had to be found that in no way contradicts the character of God. This means that sin must be punished and not just glossed over.

One of the most significant factors of my ministry since 1984 has been my poor health. This has governed to a degree what I have been able to do and not able to do. Up to this point, I had never been in hospital and had rarely been ill. I had only lost two weeks’ preaching through illness and that was when I had a bad dose of ‘flu’. But in 1984, everything changed. I had two operations and the following year I had my first heart attack. From then on I have been in hospital at some point nearly every year-in fact, in all I have been in ten hospitals. I was feeling very pleased with myself when 2007 came to an end and, for the first time in many years I went a whole calendar year without having to be hospitalized. Then I came down to earth with a bump when in January 2008 I was back in again.

All this has obviously had an effect upon my ministry, the main one
being in 1995 when my cardiologist told me that I had to retire from full time work after I had my second heart attack. This came three years after I had had a quadruple heart bypass operation and the news came as rather a shock. I did not want to retire and felt I had a few sermons left in me yet. In fact, all that retirement meant was that I did not do any more pastoral visitation; the preaching and writing went on much as before.

The problem was that the condition of my heart and the medication I
had to take every day was slowing me down considerably. But I am running ahead of the story a little. An angiogram in September 1991 showed that I had a serious heart condition and that I needed surgery. Heart problems in Wales are common and the waiting list for surgery is huge. The surgeon told me I was ninety-fifth on his list and that he was doing two operations a week. So I decided to preach right up to the time I was to go into hospital. That only lasted a couple of weeks because I was taken ill in the pulpit at Sandfields and finished up in intensive care. So I had no alternative but to sit it out until the following January when I had the bypass surgery.

During those months, I was only able to attend church on Sunday
mornings.  I was relieved when at last I had the operation in January. A heart bypass operation is no small thing and, when I came round from the anaesthetic, there were so many tubes sticking out of me and I was so sore that I wondered why I had bothered! But within a couple of days I was much better and out of hospital in a week. I was amazed at how good I felt and I was preaching again within three months. As far as I was concerned, all my stays in hospital and all my operations were for one reason-to get me back into the pulpit.

In January 1995, I had a second heart attack and I realized that my heart condition was not going to go away. The third attack came in August 2005 and confirmed the problem. The cardiologist told me then that I could not have another bypass because I would not survive it. Apparently I only have one good artery working.

My condition at present is that I get so tired and breathless that everything is an effort to do. I have not preached for nearly a year and don’t get to church very often. But I started preaching when I was eighteen years old and am now seventy, so there is little to complain about!

Poor health is obviously not pleasant to live with, but it is no excuse for idleness. I think we have to work within the limits God puts upon us and those limits can be very flexible. After my first heart attack, family and friends made the point to me that I was doing too much and needed to cut back. Such talk is good for the ego but one has to be wary of it. During one Sunday in hospital, I decided to read Ecclesiastes and was reminded again of verse 10 of chapter 9: ‘Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.’ Your might may not be as much as it used to be, but still you work for God with nothing held back. One old preacher put it like this: ‘It is better to burn out for God than to rust out.’

Taken from the book Chains of grace, published by Day One.

Justification is the sovereign work of God in which he declares the guilty sinner to be righteous and the rightful demands of the law to be satisfied.

Justification is the opposite of condemnation. We are con­demned by God because of our sin (John 3:18-20) and if we were to appear before his throne of judgement he would have to find us guilty and sentence us to an eternity in hell. That would be a correct and legal verdict. In justification God the judge pronounces us acquitted of the charge. He does not say we are innocent because we are not, but we are acquitted. We are not condemned but declared to be acceptable to the holy God. Bearing in mind our guilt and that we deserve hell, this has to be the supreme demon­stration of God’s love and grace.

How can God do this? If we are guilty, how can he pronounce us to be pardoned? Does he bend the law? Does he turn a blind eye to our sin? Does he forget all the declarations of judgement he has made upon sin? He does none of these things. He cannot ignore sin and still be a holy God. If God is to justify us he must do it in a way that makes sure he remains just and holy. We are told how God does this in Romans 3:21-26. That passage finishes with the words that God is ‘just and the one who justifies the man who has faith in Christ’.

RIGHTEOUSNESS

Justification does not only take away condemnation but gives to us a righteousness, and this righteousness is the basis on which God now deals with us. This right­eousness, says Romans 3:21, is ‘apart from law’; that means that it is nothing to do with how we have kept the law of God. It is a righteousness from God — something that God gives us. In fact, it is Christ’s righteousness. God credits us with the righteousness of his sinless Son. This is a staggering truth and it is the heart of the Christian gospel.
Our own righteousness is like filthy rags in God’s sight (Isaiah 64:6). If we are to be acceptable to God we need something better than that. In Philippians 3:9 Paul delights that now that he is a Christian he has found ‘the right­eousness that comes from God and is by faith’. Isaiah ex­presses the same joy as Paul when he says, ‘I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness’ (Isaiah 61:10).

HOW JUSTIFICATION WORKS

Romans 3 gives us the answer as to how justification works.

• It comes to us through faith (v.22)
• It is a product of God’s grace (v.24)
• It is a result of all that Christ has done for us

– He has redeemed us (v.24)
– He was our propitiation (sacrifice for sin) (v.25)
In giving his Son to die in our place God demonstrated his justice. Our sins are not overlooked. They are dealt with exactly as God always said they should be dealt with. They are punished, but because they were laid on Jesus and he has taken responsibility for them, he takes our punishment instead of us. God is able to justify guilty sinners on the grounds of what Jesus has done,. He is acting in a perfectly lawful way because our sins have been dealt with according to divine law.
Our sins are credited to Jesus and God treats Jesus as he should treat us — he is forsaken and dies in our place. Jesus’ righteousness is credited to us and God treats us as he has always treated Jesus — we become his children and he owns us as his redeemed people.

Faith basically means to believe and trust God.  This is why according to Romans 10:17 faith comes by hearing the word of God.  Without the message of the gospel we could not have faith.  This is because of what faith is.  Faith is not a step in the dark.  It is hearing what God has to say, believing it, and then acting upon it.

Take, for instance, a man who is not a Christian.  He hears God in his word say that he personally is a sinner.  No one else may be saying this, in fact, people may be telling him what a great fellow he is.  But he believes God.  He is convicted by the Holy Spirit of his sin and guilt, and he begins to look for an answer.  The same Holy Spirit who convicts shows him that the answer is to believe in Jesus.  God requires from him repentance and faith.  So he comes to God as God has prescribed.  He is saved, and it is all by faith through grace. It is faith without works because he has contributed nothing to his salvation.

He is now a Christian and he still lives and acts by faith.  He believes God as to how he is to live only now it is faith plus works.  Faith produces in his life actions that please God.  This is very evident in Hebrews 11.  A series of godly men and women are brought before us and we are to admire their actions, but the explanation for these actions that so honour and please God, is that they were done by faith.
If you read Hebrews 11:24-29 you will see that everything Moses did to please God was by faith.  It was a response of belief and trust in what God was saying to him.

By faith Moses chose God and it was no passing fad, no temporary emotion soon to fade away.  We are told in v.27 an amazing thing – ‘he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.’  God calls upon us to live by faith, but also in his grace, at times, he reveals something of his great love for us by demonstrating it in such a way that we do not need faith to see it.  Moses did not need faith to see the burning bush, nor the manna each morning.  All these he saw.  They were visible, tangible evidences of the love of the invisible God.

It is still the same.  On many occasions God’s goodness is visible.  His mercies and blessings are beyond measure and often defy description.  But they are real, thrilling and humbling, and this strengthens faith in God.  But above all these there are experiences of God that are most precious.  There are times when Jesus draws near and touches our lives in special ways.  There are times in prayer when heaven is open and prayers are answered in amazing ways.  Things happen which are inexplicable apart from God.  We are seeing the invisible.  We are experiencing touches of heaven here and now.  And if we want to see more of this then we need to live by faith.  We miss out on so much of what God wants to give us because of worldliness.  Living by faith may be costly but it is also very rewarding.

THE COST OF FAITH

The life of faith involves two basic things.  First of all, there is a giving up, and then there is a taking on.  We can see both of these in the Hebrews 11 account of the life of Moses.

He refused to be known any longer as an Egyptian.  In other words he disassociated himself from the enemies of God.  This was not easy because Pharaoh’s daughter had been good to him.  She had saved his life and had been like a mother to him.  So this was done at great cost in terms of personal relationships.  Also in terms of material possessions the cost was enormous.  Moses literally gave up living like a king.

What did he get in return for this?  He chose to be mistreated by the world as God’s people always had been.  But as far as Moses was concerned there was only one thing that now mattered.  He was one of God’s people.  He belonged to God.  God loved him, chose him, owned him, wanted him, and now with great joy and peace Moses stood up and identified himself with the people of God.

The lesson for us in the life of Moses is clear.  You cannot be one of God’s people and still belong to the world.  It has to be one or the other.  Many Christians want it both ways, but it won’t work.  If you claim to be a Christian then stand up and be counted.  This means forsaking worldliness, sin and self.  Faith always costs.

No doubt many in Egypt said that Moses was a fool to give up all he had for faith in God.  The opinion is still alive today.  We are told not to take God too seriously.  It is all right to be religious but do not take it too far.  The result of this pressure is that many Christians have one foot in the church and one foot in the world.  They do not go on with God and spiritually they stagnate.

It is foolish, because the pleasures of sin are only for a short time (Hebrews 11:25).  Moses had his eye on greater treasures than Egypt could offer.  It could offer him wealth and power and pleasure and after death they would even build him a pyramid.  But what after that?  Pyramid or pauper’s grave, when you are dead the end result is the same.

Grace is the amazing message that God has done all that is necessary in and through the Lord Jesus Christ to save sinners.  The grace of God is the most thrilling concept that can occupy the mind of a Christian, and when it occupies the mind it will soon flood the heart with praise to God that such a thing exists. Without grace there is no hope for any of us. The only alternative to grace is salvation by our own efforts. This is a non-starter because God will not accept it. The New Testament makes that abundantly clears
If salvation is to be effective it has to be acceptable to God. This is why grace is the key word in the gospel, because it delights in the Lord Jesus Christ as the sacrifice which God himself has provided. If we do not understand the New Testament meaning of the word grace, we will never understand the gospel, because grace is the key to understanding the substance and heart of its message, which is salvation through Christ alone.

A few years ago I received an invitation to preach in California.  As the time drew near for my departure I grew somewhat concerned because I had not received a ticket from the churches who had invited me to preach.  But they were soon on the ‘phone telling me not to worry because I did not need a ticket.  This did not relieve my concern, rather it deepened it.  Of course I needed a ticket.  Everyone knows you cannot fly without a ticket.  What on earth were those folk in California on about?

They then started to explain to me something called electronic ticketing.  Apparently all I had to do was to present myself at the airlines desk at Heathrow Airport, tell them who I was, show them my passport and they would then give me a ticket.

I had never heard of this before and I was rather dubious.  I wanted the comfort of a ticket in my hand before I left home.  They again had to reassure me that it would be all right.  ‘Its all been taken care of at this end,’ they said.

Of course, all my fears were unfounded.  It had all been taken care of at the other end, the folk inviting me knew it, and the airline knew it, even if I was a bit uncertain.

The grace of God is something like that – it has all been taken care of at the other end.
One day I will set out on the most important journey any one can take – from this life to the next.  I will have to stand before God and he will say, ‘ who are you?’
I will answer by giving him my name.
‘O, yes,’ God will reply, ‘you are the one my Son died for and paid the debt for your sins; you are the one Jesus loved and saved.  Come on into heaven, you are welcome because of what Jesus has done for you.’

Salvation is all taken care of by Jesus the Saviour.  This is a great comfort to a sinner like myself who is always full of doubts and uncertainties.
Has Jesus taken care of your salvation?

When God planned the salvation of sinners he did it in such a way as to take into account our doubts and fears.  Electronic ticketing was new to me, and this was why I was uncertain, but it did mean that I could never lose my ticket.  All I had to do was to turn up and it was waiting for me.  Salvation by grace means that we can never lose our salvation.  Because it has all been taken care of at the other end, and because Jesus has done it all there is no possibility of us ever losing it.

What is grace?

Grace is needed because of both the character of man and the character of God. Though man was created in the image of God, able to know and enjoy him, when man sinned he was separated from God, and sin has since dominated all his actions. He is now alien to God his Maker and, because of his sinful character, he can do nothing about it. God’s character on the other hand is such that he cannot condone or overlook sin. His holiness, truth and justice demand that man must be dealt with as he is, and that sin must be punished.
These two factors, taken on their own, would condemn all men to an eternity in hell. But God’s character is also such that, though he hates sin, he loves the guilty sinner who deserves his judgement. Divine love therefore plans salvation, and divine grace provides salvation. Grace is the free, unmerited, undeserved favour of God to sinners.

How grace works

In Ephesians 2:4-5 we find three great gospel words — love, mercy and grace . Out of God’s love and mercy flows grace. Grace is not some abstract idea; it is God working. Grace is God loving the unlovely, pardoning the guilty and saving the lost. Grace is the unique work of God. We do not deserve grace because our sin is our own fault. What we deserve is hell, but in Christ we receive grace and every blessing and benefit that flows from it. Salvation by grace is an eternal salvation. It depends upon the merit of Christ, not our merit; therefore it never fails or loses its power.

Have you ever had a brush with death. By that I mean, have you ever faced a situation that caused you to look into the face of death and forced you to consider all its implications? It can be a frightening experience but also a very profitable one.

I had such an experience in 1984. I was in hospital recovering from a gall bladder operation. A few days after the op I was having a bath when I found that I could not get out of the bath because I was too weak.  I managed to pull the emergency cord and it took three nurses to get me out of the bath and back into bed. At that moment the surgeon who had done the operation came into the room. He took one look at me and began pumping me full of antibiotics. Apparently I had septicaemia ( blood poisoning). The surgeon did not leave me until everything had settled down.

The following day I asked him what happened in septicaemia. He told me that the danger is that the patient goes into a coma and the medical team are pulling him back from the brink of death. He said,‘ You nearly went into a coma”. Death had shook its wings at me but this time it was only a warning.

The warning shook me and I remembered some words I had read…‘ When it comes your turn to die, be sure that all you have to do is die”. In other words ,be ready. Making a will or planning the funeral is not being ready. If the Bible is right when it said that the wages of sin is death, then the only way to be ready is to get our sin dealt with. And the only one who can deal with sin is Jesus.

Lying in the hospital bed , I thanked God that I was a Christian. Jesus was my saviour and he had dealt with my sin on the cross. For me, as for all Christians, death had had lost its sting and the grave its victory. The joy and peace this gave me was indescribable . I thanked God for the doctor and nurses but more than that , I praised him for my saviour.

Has death fluttered its wings at you and have you seriously considered all its consequences?  Can you say, even if I walk through the valley of death of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil? That is only possible if the Lord is your shepherd.

The following rear we were in Aberystwyth on holiday when I had pains in the chest.  A friend of mine, Brian, took me to the local hospital for a check up. They did some tests and said that I had had a heart attack and I had to stay in hospital.  Brain went off to find Lorna my wife to give her the news. They came to the hospital to see me but had to wait awhile before this was possible. While they sat in the waiting room bells began to ring and staff were rushing around. Obviously an emergency was taking place. Eventually news filtered through to the waiting room that someone who had come in that morning with a heart attack had just died. Lorna looked at Brian and he looked at her, but neither of them spoke. They both thought it was me who had died. It was not, but it could have been.

Death had brushed past again and given me another warning. I realised that one day there would be no warning and death would mean business. It would call and I would have to go with it, but I would not go alone. In Psalm 23 David says, ‘ Even though I through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me’.  The Christian can say the same thing. Jesus , who promised never to leave me or forsake me will be with me even in death.

After a few days in hospital recovering I started to read a book that I had been reading for a while. It was Eifion Evans book on Daniel Rowlands. I had got as far as page 301 and I turned the page to 302 and read there a hymn by William Williams, Pantycelyn that I had never seen before. I dont think that words, other that scripture, had ever made such an impression on me.

Williams speaking of Jesus wrote.

To see thy face, beloved, makes my poor soul rejoice,
O’er all I’ve ever tasted, or ever  made my choice;22
When they all disappear, why should I grieve or pine
While to my gaze there opens the sight that Christ is mine?

He’s greater than his blessings, he’s greater than his grace,
Far greater than his actions, whatever you may trace;
I’ll plead for faith, gifts, cleansing; for these I’ll yearn quite sore,
But on him only, always, I’ll look and lean far more.

What is a heart attack or even death itself compared to a Christ like this. Thank God that Christianity is not a man made religion but a living, personal experience of the Lord Jesus Christ. My heart had another attack, this time of praise and thanks to God for such a saviour.

Jesus is God. God reveals himself in Scripture as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is called the Trinity. There are not three separate Gods, but one God. This is a great mystery: none the less it is a fact.
Jesus was not just a good man, a healer, a teacher, a prophet. He was all of those things. But he is the eternal Son of God. He is divine. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ (John 1:1). The whole of the first chapter of John makes it clear that Jesus is ‘the Word’.    ‘The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us’ (verse 14).
The New Testament leaves us in no doubt as to who Jesus is. ‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created’ (Colossians 1:15, 16). ‘For God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in him’ (Colossians 1:19). ‘For in Christ all the fulness of the Deity lives in bodily form’ (Colossians 2:9). ‘The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being’ (Hebrews 1:3).
In the Old Testament the prophet Isaiah was given a remarkable revelation of the glory and holiness of God. He sees and hears the angelic host crying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory’ (Isaiah 6:3). The prophet himself says, ‘My eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty’ (verse 5). In the New Testament the apostle John refers to this incident and says, ‘Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him’ (John 12:41).
Jesus is the holy God the angels spoke of. Jesus is the King, the Lord Almighty, whom Isaiah saw. Jesus is God.

THE REALITY OF DEATH

What is death? Is it merely the cessation of life in this mortal body after which there is no more? Most people believe it is because it is convenient for them to do so, but the Bible teaches that death is not the end. Death is a judgment. Man was created to live not die. So why does death exist? Why will we all die? When we die a doctor will write on our death certificate the cause of death. He may write heart failure, can- cer or whatever it is, but that will not be the cause of death. That is simply the means by which death has come. The doc- tor is giving a physical reason only for death, but God in his Word declares that the reason is not physical but theological. Death is the wages of sin. We die because we are all sinners.
Loraine Boettner in his book Immortality, tells us that the Bible speaks of death in three ways. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. This is the condition all men and women are in because of their sin. Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. This is what is gener- ally known as death and is also part of the penalty for sin. Eternal death is spiritual death made permanent.
Everyone accepts the reality of physical death but spiritual and therefore eternal death are not so readily accepted. There are several reasons for this. One is that physical death is tangible and can be seen, whereas spiritual and eternal death do not for most people have this reality. This is be- cause God is not taken seriously in their thinking and inter- pretation of life. Once the fact of God is rejected then all that matters is the here and now. Present happiness, prosperity and materialism becomes a reasonable philosophy and death is only a cessation of life with nothing after it. Therefore there is nothing to fear in death and in certain circumstances it may even be welcomed. But most people do fear death. When David says that in the experience of death he will fear no evil, he says so because this is unusual and most folk are terrified of death. Atheists, agnostics, rejecters of God, fear death. But why is this if death is only the end of physical life? Is it that such people’s beliefs are not strong enough to cope with the reality of death? Why is it that when people who never attend church die, their relatives want a vicar to stand over their coffin and bury them ‘in sure and certain hope of resurrection unto life eternal’? Is it perhaps that spiritual and eternal death are not myths after all?

The fact is that death ushers sinners into the presence of the holy God. We all have to stand before the judgment seat of God and give an account for our sin. Heaven and hell await us and without a Saviour we have no hope, therefore sinners ought to fear death. They have every reason to fear it.

The reality of death means the reality of Hell and the only answer to that is what Jesus did for us on the cross. Salvation was planned in heaven but it could not be accomplished in  heaven. Atonement for sin must be made to God by man’s representative. But there was no man qualified to do this, for all men are sinners. The eternal God became man, ‘so that by his death’ (Hebrews 2:14) he might accomplish salvation for his people. God became man so that as the man Jesus he could die for his people and purchase their salvation. Paul puts it like this in Romans 5: 17: ‘For if, by the trespass of the one man [Adam], death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.’

If we were to ask, ‘What is God like?’, the answer the Bible would give is that he is like Jesus –    holy, righteous, good, full of compassion and mercy)He loves sinners and stretches out his arms in love and grace to them, calling upon them to come to him(The sinner’s only hope of salvation rests on this great truth of who Jesus is, because God can only be known through the Lord Jesus Christ»

THINK ABOUT THIS

 

‘You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool; you can spit at him and kill him for a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to’ (C. S. Lewis).

God saves sinners. These three words summaries perfectly the whole of the Christian gospel. Of course there are other aspects of the gospel such as God’s desire to help the poor and hungry and his efforts to motivate charitable works to meet this need, but the supreme essence of Christianity is the God saves sinners.

God hates sin and it grieves his holiness. There is no excuse for sin because it originated not in a time of desperate need and trouble, but in the perfection and plenty of the Garden of Eden ( Genesis 3). Sin is not some human social defect but a rebellion against the rule and authority of God. It is lawlessness. There is no excuse for it but still God loves sinners and longs to save them from the consequence of their sin, which is hell and an eternity without God.

Sin is not an expression of some activity of man’s body, but a determination in his mind to go his own way. This is why Jesus said, for example, in the sermon on the mount that a man has committed adultery in his mind when he lusts after a woman. Where the mind goes the body wii eventually inevitably follow.

Sin dangles before men and women many attractive pleasures but these are only temporary. Eventually the price will have to be paid and the wages of sin is death. From this awful state men and women need to be saved, but how can it be done? Man is totally incapable of saving himself so if God does not save him he has no hope.

How does God save?

First of all God decides to save. Among Christians, the subject of election and predestination is undoubtedly one of the most controversial. Some believers love and cherish it as most thrilling and humbling; others will
not tolerate it at any price, regarding it as totally abhorrent.
Many object that election is unfair and it removes human responsibility. In Romans 9 Paul states clearly the doctrine and then in verse 14 asks: ‘What then shall we say?’ — or in
other words, what is our reaction to this? He then poses and
answers two questions.
1. ‘Is God unjust?’ (v. 14) — It is not fair, say some. His answer
to this is twofold.
• This is what Scripture teaches, illustrated by Exodus 33:19.
• Far from being unfair, election is an act of divine mercy.
God does not punish anyone unjustly. He did not make
Pharaoh a sinner any more than he made us sinners. We
are all sinners by nature, and therefore all deserve God’s
wrath. But God in his mercy saves some, and in his justice
condemns others. So he who is saved cannot claim that he
is better than others, and he who is condemned must acknowledge
that he receives only what he deserves.

‘Then why does God still blame us?’ (v. 19) — that is, man
cannot be held responsible, for who can resist God’s will?
Paul answers that such an objection springs from ignorance
of the true relationship between God and man (v. 20). God is
our Creator, so we dare not demand that he should answer to
our reasoning. Who are we to dismiss something so clear simply
because it is not acceptable to our little minds? Election is
one of the most thrilling and humbling truths in the Bible.

Secondly God provides a saviour. But who can do it? In the Bible records the loves of its great heroes are shown with all their strengths but also with all their weaknesses and failures. One of the reasons for this is to show that great men like David and Moses coiuld not keep themselves from sin let alone save others. So who will the saviour be? It has to be someone sinless so that sin and judgement has no claims on him, and it has to be a man because by man came sin so by man must come the remedy to sin. The problem was that no man was sinless so in the person of Jesus , God became man and as the sinless Jesus he himself became the saviour.

Jesus had to become a man in order to deal legally and justly with our sin.  It was man who had broken God’s law and sinned, therefore it had to be man who would pay the penalty for that sin.  But there was no man qualified to do this, so God became man in the person of Jesus Christ and did for us what was crucial for our salvation.

Salvation was planned in heaven, but it could not be accomplished it heaven.  The punishment of sin must be given to man and the sacrifice that would obtain salvation must be made by man.  But all men and women are sinners so there is no one good enough to do this.  The only solution was for God to become man’ so that by his death’  (Hebrews 2:14) he could purchase salvation for his people.  God became man so that as the man Jesus he could die for his people and obtain for them an eternal salvation.
This is why God became man.

God saves

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16).
Here we have a perfect statement of God’s glorious remedy for sin.
God hates sin, but in his divine love he has prepared a remedy which
deals justly with the punishment that sin deserves, and yet at the same time provides pardon for the sinner.

God has said that the penalty for sin is death-spiritual and physical
death. Nothing can change that, because it is the judgment of the holy God. As such it is perfect and correct. God will not pretend that a man has not sinned. Justice must be done. The demands of God’s law and the penalties for breaking that law must be satisfied.

In love and mercy God declares that he will accept a substitute to die in the sinner’s place. But God’s law demands the substitute must be free from the guilt of sin, and therefore not deserving of death himself.
There was no man who met these requirements. So God became mana holy, perfect, sinless man, whose name was Jesus. Read very carefully the following words from Romans 3:25,26: ‘God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies the man who has faith in Jesus.’

Now turn to Ephesians 2 and read that chapter carefully. Here is God’s remedy for your sin. It is all of grace. ‘Grace’ means that you did nothing to deserve such a remedy, and that you contributed nothing toward it.
This should encourage you in seeking God. It is not that you seek God, but that God seeks you. The Lord God Almighty has himself provided a remedy for your sin so that you may know and love him. This remedy is to be found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, in seeking God, it is vital that you know who Jesus is.