The Gospel Our Trust #4 — Ernest C. Reisinger

The Gospel Our Trust: Introduction and Dependence on God's Word

Thank you, Pastor. Well, I got back to the office today to try to make a little money to buy meat and potatoes. Found everything still there. If you have your book, and I trust you do, I was impressed the first morning I was here of the number of Bibles I saw as people go out.

I'm glad that you're true to your name, and I trust that that will continue to be so. You know, when a fellow goes to play golf, he takes his golf club, and when he goes fishing, he takes his fishing rod.

I think when he goes to church, he ought to take his Bible. But I won't scold you if you don't have it. I didn't come to scold you. I didn't come to chide you. I came, I trust, under God to help you. But now I need to qualify that a little.

That's my purpose, and that's my prayer to help you. But like my dentist, I went to school with him. We've known each other a long time. And I say, Jim, are you going to hurt me? He says, yes. But he says, I'm not going to harm you.

He said, I'm going to hurt you, but I'm not going to harm you. I may hurt you, but I don't mean to harm you. And I think the pastor's going to preach after I leave on Sunday morning, I think his text is Isaiah 40, verse 1.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. He didn't tell me he was, but I just kind of think he might be a good idea, because what I'm preaching is not all that's in the Bible. It's in the Bible, I believe, or I wouldn't be saying it.

But it's not all that's in the Bible. There is a message of comfort. That's not my purpose to comfort you this week, but it's my purpose to help you under God, and I trust it by his Spirit. And if he doesn't do it, we've missed the mark.

And if he doesn't speak to you, we've missed the mark. If all you heard was this old carpenter sawing away, well, you've missed it. But if you heard the voice from heaven, in the book, by the Spirit, it's been well for us to be here.

Let's pray. Lord, we've asked ourselves a serious question tonight in that song. Burn that question into our hearts till we're unsatisfied with an unsatisfactory answer. Lord, we're here tonight, and probably most of these dear people here tonight, because somebody was faithful to their trust and diligent about their task.

We pray that thou would use these few nights that we've been together to cause us, each one, and me, to be more diligent about our task. May we hear thee, Lord Jesus, say afresh tonight, go ye, go ye.

We ask it in thy name. Amen. A word of review, and I'll try to stay on the track a little bit more tonight. I must confess, last night I got off the track on my favorite subject, and that's the Lordship of Christ.

That's my favorite subject. Somebody said not too long ago, less than two weeks ago, he said, Ernie, I believe that's your hobby. Well, I don't want to be a hobby. I don't want to have a Bible hobby. There's too many Bible teachers and even schools that have a little hobby, and they want to ring this special little doctrinal bell, even though it's a true one.

But they can get a hobby on some particular strain of truth and just beat on that for the exclusion of others. I hope I don't have a hobby. You know, there's only one difference between a hobby and a horse.

You can get off of a horse. But if I do have a hobby, and it's a Bible hobby and a Bible subject, I believe I'd just as soon be the Lordship of Christ as any other, if I do. I'd like to review a little bit, and I'll try to stay a little closer to where we want to go tonight.

And I'd like to take a little time to review tonight. I believe in review. I don't want to be boring, but I do believe in review. Will you look at our text that we've had for these nights? And tonight I think I'd like to read just a few verses down a bit farther, but we'll still come back to our text.

The Gospel as the Christian's Trust

Paul said, verse 3 of 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2,. "...for our exhortation was not of deceit.". God help us not to be deceitful, especially in holy things such as exhortation. "...nor of uncleanness, nor in guile.

But as we are allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words.". Won't get you anywhere, anyhow.

"...as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness. God is witness. Nor of men sought we glory.". God help us. "...neither of you, nor yet of others. When we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ, but we were gentle among you.".

May the Lord help us to do this, too. "...even as a nurse cherished her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but our own souls, because you were dear unto us.

For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail. For laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preach unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses. And God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.".

May the Lord help us as to have this testimony, to be holy, to be just, to be unblameable, and behave ourselves among people of the world and among them that believe. "...as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father does his children.".

Why, Paul? "...that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you.". He did the calling. Oh, Augustine said, "...by thy shouting thou didst cause my deaf ears to hear.". He said, "...by thy shining and flashing thou didst cause my blinded eyes to see.

He called you, who called you unto his kingdom and glory.". A little review. Our trust, we found in verse 4, is the gospel, the Christian's trust. And we pointed out that we are not meant, God never called us to give sleeping sinners the gospel.

He never called us to run up to sleeping sinners and tell them John 3 .16. We pointed out that how God called us to preach the first message of the cross first. And the first message of the cross is the law.

We pointed out that it was as though God sheathed the sword of divine justice in the bosom of the Son of God, the first message of the cross. The bad news before the good news. Remember this. We saw that God not only showed mercy and love on the cross, but we see the wrath of God and the law of God not mitigated, not saying, well, we'll take the law away.

No, he didn't mitigate his law. The law was fulfilled in Christ, our trust, the gospel. Secondly, we pointed out our task was to, so to speak, you see it in that text, even so we speak by life and by lips, the good news.

We pointed out three things about our task. We said we want to be sure about our motive, our motive for carrying the gospel to people. We pointed out two things about our motive. Our first motive should be God's clear-cut command.

If you can read that text tonight as a Christian and say that you love the Lord Jesus, and read that text, go into all the world and preach the gospel and have no desire, you may not go about it so diligently, but if you can read it without a desire to make the gospel known, I wonder about the ground of your assurance.

I wonder about you. Oh, I didn't say I'm not, when I talk about make it known, I'm not talking to run up somebody and grab them by the shirt collar and ask them if they're saved. I'm not talking about that.

We've had enough of that to drive people away. I'm talking about Holy Ghost guidance and wisdom and prudence in witnessing the gospel. Our right motive is God's command. May I just stop there a bit tonight and maybe I won't get off the track now, I'll come back.

Motives for Carrying the Gospel

But we turn to John 17 in this connection. I think I want to emphasize this a bit tonight as we go by again, because this is all I'm trying to do this week, is just make these couple points. And if the Holy Spirit makes these couple points with you, oh brother, we've made it.

Would you look at John 17 verse 4? Because you see obedience to God, and that's what I'm saying about this first motive ought to be obedience to God's command, is also the glory of God. We're called to glorify God on the earth.

How am I as a carpenter meant to glorify God? Well how did Jesus glorify him? I have glorified on the earth. How did he do it? I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Can you, can you get it any clearer than going into all the world and preach the gospel?

Can that be any clearer? Do we have to turn to the commentaries? Do we have to call in a specialist in Greek exegesis? Eh? No. If we would obey that clear command, we would glorify God. Notice how Jesus went on to say he glorified the Father.

Verse 6, I have manifest thy name. That's what we want to do, manifest his name. Notice verse 9, I pray for them. He did it that way too. Notice verse 14, I have given them thy word. And I want to call your attention to verse 18 in connection with this thought, and that is a right motive for carrying the gospel.

And he's praying now, as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I sent them. And I'm here tonight because somebody from now, from, from where I stand this second, back through a line to the Son of God, somebody obeyed that.

And I'm here tonight because a chain of people heard that voice and obeyed it. First motive, obedience to the revealed, unequivocal word of God. That's clear. Nobody ever argues with me about this, what's meant by this.

The second motive, of course, we pointed out was man's need. Our Lord had compassion, and if we would be like Christ, we would have compassion. And then we spent a great deal of time, not only on our motive to fill our, fulfill our task, and make sure that we have a right motive and have them in order, but we pointed out that we ought to have the right message.

And especially we pointed out one great truth, and that was that our message is not only trust Jesus, that's half of our message. And if you keep harping that message, you only got a half a message. The other message is turn.

Because God didn't send, Jesus Christ did not come primarily to keep people out of hell. Not primarily to keep people out of hell. That's a byproduct of the gospel. He did come to save us from that. But if you look in Matthew, in your Bible, in Matthew chapter 1, verse 21, you will find out in this text that you see on Christmas cards, when Joseph was found that Mary was with child, and a bit concerned to take her to be his wife, the angel appeared to Joseph, and that angel told him something that I trust you'll know tonight as you think of our message.

She shall bring forth a son, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And the consequences, of course. But notice the order. If you look in Titus, chapter 2, verse 14, you'll find the same truth.

I think I'll read somebody, and I have been accused of this before, preaching law and not grace, because I preached obedience. If you look at verse 11, you'll see this. For the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.

What's this grace teach us? It teaches us the denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, that we should live soberly and righteously and godly in 1963, right now. And if grace didn't teach you that, you're living in disgrace.

Don't you go around hollering about the grace of God. If grace didn't teach you that, you don't know anything about the grace of God. That's what I read grace teaches me. But my point was in verse 14.

Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us, not from hell, he does do that, but from all iniquity. Our message is not only trust, but turn. I think a great little verse that illustrates repentance, I read it to you out of the Westminster, but there's a great verse I think found in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 9, that I think is one of the best verses I feel that I've found to illustrate and portray at least three aspects of repentance.

And I do believe there's three aspects of true Bible repentance. You'll find in that text that they turn to God, that's one. They turn from idols, and may I remind you dear heart tonight that an idol is anything which we give that which is alone due to God.

And the sad part about it, within our churches, usually our idols are legitimate, nice kind of things. For instance, I say an idol is that which takes the supreme place in my affections, that's my idol.

I don't care what it is, it might be my son. And God gave me my son, he gave you your children, but he didn't give them to you to be idols. A man's wife, as much as it's ordained of God, can be his idol.

And I say we who sit in the pew need to be careful about legitimate idols. The text says they turn to God from idols, and I say to you tonight, an idol can be a good thing in itself. Let me tell you what it is.

It's that which takes the supreme place in your affections, it's that which has the molding influence on your life, it's that which is the dominating power in your life, that's your idol. I don't know what it is, I hope you don't have any.

But it can be your car, it can be your job, it can be some legitimate thing, or it can be something that's obviously evil. But the place that we have to watch, we Christians, is not in that which is obviously evil, but in that which, the evil in that which appears to be good.

So we said the message is both trust and turn, and we emphasize that great length, because of this common idea in our generation, that you just trust Jesus and live like you please, and do as you please, and then we got to, then we have to try to introduce a second work.

And most people, not all I don't say, but most people are trying to find in a second work what God meant for them to have in a real work of salvation. That's right. Right method. We talked about right methods last night.

We have to have a right motive for carrying out our task. We've got to have a right message, we've got to be straight in the message, and we have to be straight on God-honoring methods. And we pointed out that we cannot huckster Jesus off as a celestial bellboy that comes flipping into you every time you have a little need.

That's not the one that's in the Bible. The one that's in the Bible is Lord of all. He's Lord. We pointed out about crying out for mercy, so much for review. Now tonight we want to talk about another little aspect found in that text, our trial, as we seek to do our task.

The Trial of Honest Ministry

Now I've looked at this, and I've read some commentaries on this verse, and I believe that what this is talking about, our trial, is that God tries our hearts. He knows our motives, he knows whether we're straight, and down underneath, God tries our hearts.

I think that's the true exegesis, but I want to apply it two ways. I think it has another aspect, and I believe as I read this context, in this, this thing, Paul talking about his exhortation not being of deceit nor of uncleanness, and then he went on down farther to talk about his exhortation again.

I believe that it's talking about honesty with God's truth. And my dear brethren, tonight I never heard anyone else say this, nor did I read it. And I'm very careful about any thoughts I got of my own.

They're usually wrong. I never had original thought in my life, hardly. But I never heard anyone say this, but I have found this to be true, and that's this, that I find it more hard to be honest with people spiritually than I do to be honest in business.

I find it most difficult to be honest with people about spiritual things. And if I find it this way, we need to pray for our pastor and our preachers and men who do speaking and deal with the souls of men, because it's hard to be honest with people about God.

It's difficult. And I believe it tries our heart, I believe it tries our heart to deal honestly with men and women about God's truth. Let me give you an example of what I mean. I'm an officer in a church.

We have a discipline problem come up. The first thing you know, I hear one of my fellow deacons, and I'm guilty too, so don't don't get the idea that they're any different than I am, saying, well if we, and we have one right now, we got a very serious problem right now.

We got a girl that's pregnant and not married. Now do we blink as a church and forget about the purity of the church? I've sat on that meeting and been on my knees with these men about this thing, but the devil says to you, well the whole family will leave the church if you do anything.

And we've discussed this just in the last two weeks, and I've thought of this text in relation to my own, because I'm probably one of the last ones that want to face it. I don't want to appear like a hero or somebody that's brave.

I have this problem of being honest with people about God's truth. I see the truth in the Bible about the purity of the church. It's hard. Well, we're going to call her in with her family. We're not going to blink and go on.

I know when it happened once before. I sat there, listened. I saw somebody excommunicated from the church publicly, not rudely, because two things come out of that. We got to think of the other girls in our church, and our motive is to, one, to warn others, and this is the only motive I think for Christian discipline in the Christian church, to warn others and to win the wonder.

But you can't win them by blinking. I'll just give you some examples. I was talking to somebody this week, and his little boy plays football. Every father loves his son. He loves to see him play football.

I'd rather see these boys play football and crochet and a thousand other little things. I like boys that are boys. So I see this little boy. He says, my son came to me. He said, Dad, he said the game, we got rained out.

He said, and the coach and all, they're going to play on Sunday afternoon. You know what a father's heart wants to say. I do if you don't. I know what a father's heart wants to say. Well, we'll let it go this time.

But there's a voice from heaven that says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It tries our heart, but you got to be true to God. That tries your heart. But that'll give a testimony to him that'll live till he dies.

He'll remember that day. But it tries your heart to be truthful with God's truth. Oh, God help us to say a thing because it's right and forget about the consequences. God help us to do things because it's right or not do them because they're wrong and let the chips fall where they will.

It tries our heart. Now I want to come more to the point tonight, what our whole theme is about. It tries our heart in witnessing to people about Jesus Christ, to be honest with them about their soul.

I remember very vividly one morning, not too many months ago. Oh, maybe it's about a year now. I've been witnessing and talking to my bonding company, man, the fellow that represents the company. Oh, maybe for seven years I've given him books, sent him Bibles, read the Bible to him.

I've talked with him for hours about his soul. We have meetings in the morning. I do find these salesmen, we'll listen to you if you're buying. We pay our bonding company insurance company about a hundred thousand dollars a year.

And sometimes I take advantage of that captive audience because these salesmen, they'll really listen to you. Now, I don't know what's going to happen about them listening, but they will listen. And I've taken advantage of that, I hope in the right way.

But I remember this morning we were having breakfast together and I don't talk to him about his soul every time we're together. Maybe I might skip two times, but I have a space. And I remember when I, did we talk about the Lord last time?

I said, no. Well, okay. So I was in the hotel, we eat breakfast in the hotel. And I don't know if he had a bad night or what, but I started to talk to him and I said, Ken, and we got into it. And he looked at me sober and with a strong stare in his eye.

And this is his words, quote verbatim. He said, Ernie, why in the hell are you bothered about my soul? Well, what do you say? My heart was tried. You know what I did? I reached in my pocket. I took out my little Testament.

I said, Ken, I said, how could I believe what's in here and call myself your friend and say that I love my fellow men and believe what's in this book and allow you to race on to hell? I said, can I say with my lips and tell God that I love you and can be silent and have my lips sealed about your destiny?

Eh? Oh, I didn't tell him that loud. I told him nice. My mother got on me last night for being a little vociferous. She didn't get on me, but she said I was a little loud, not very Presbyterian like, but I looked at him across that hotel table and that's what I told him.

Let me tell you a little more about that story. A few months later, we were having breakfast and he said, Ernie, I wish you'd been with me. He said, I thought about you. He said, I almost called you on the phone to come to my house.

He said, I learned three things about my son in five minutes. His boy's a college student, second year. I don't know. I never know whether this, whether, whether people hear you, whether it does any good, neither do you.

And don't you witness for that reason either. But he, this is what he said to me. He said, I learned three things about my son in five minutes. He said, my wife and I were at a dance at the country club.

He said about one o 'clock in the morning, we got called. I got called the hospital. He said, I went in and there my son was all covered with blood and bandage, smoking a cigarette and drunk. And he said he was cursing, cursing.

He said, I learned that he cursed. He smoked cigarettes and he was drunk. He says, Wilma and I have been doing some talking. He said, Christie, our little daughter in high school said to me or said to his mother, mother, what do you believe?

And she started to go over what the church is meant to believe. Christie says, mother, I'm not asking you what the church believes. I'm asking you, what do you believe mother? And he said, Ernie, my wife and I didn't know what to tell our children.

He said, would you come over some Sunday morning and have breakfast with us in a very informal way? He said, kind of like those talks we have in the morning and talk to us as a family about God, tries our heart to be truthful with men.

I want to say another word about this. I believe this will get you in a little trouble. I believe if you're honest with people about their soul and about their spiritual condition, no matter how gracious you try to do it, I believe that there'll be a time and again when you'll find yourself causing the division you'll find yourself being disliked, maybe possibly.

I believe in the beatitudes when our Lord says, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely. I believe there's a measure in which we know this today, even today by being honest with God's truth.

I believe when it says in 2nd Timothy 3 .12, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. I know there's a lot of persecution complex. I hope you don't get that. That's worse.

But I believe there's a two place where first of all, when you're persecuted, the first thing you ought to do is survey your heart and life to see whether you're getting persecuted for the miserable way you're going about things, or whether you're getting persecuted, as Jesus said, for righteousness sake.

Entirely different. Deal honestly with souls of men. Now let me go a step farther tonight. Let me tell you an area where I think we must be extremely honest with people as we would carry out our task, witnessing the gospel.

Honest Invitations to Follow Christ

And that is in the invitation. As we invite men to Christ, we've got to be extremely honest. And how can I look young people in the eye and tell them that they can go to heaven on flowery beds of ease, when I know in my heart it's a lie, it's a rough road, it's a strange path, it's a narrow gate.

One of the things about Jesus Christ is this. He was honest with people on this score. And he didn't trap them in a great big funnel like and then start narrowing it down as he got them in and say, now you've got to do this.

He made it narrow at the outset. He was honest with men at the beginning. That's why he said it's a straight path, narrow gate. He wasn't lying to anybody. I believe, well, if we do any different, we deal deceitfully as Paul's talking about in verse 3.

We deal deceitfully. Listen, we want to look at a couple invitations of our Lord tonight. I just want to turn you to one or two. I've looked at this and given it thought. What I'm saying to you, I say not thoughtlessly.

Turn to Luke chapter 9. I want to show you one of our Lord's invitations. Verse 23 to 26. And he said unto them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

I would remind you tonight, dear heart, that that invitation is at the outset. And I would remind you that this is what he said unto them all. And don't come to me afterwards and tell me that you become a Christian and then you become a disciple.

I'll have nothing to do with it. That's just as bad as this blasphemous idea that you can trust Jesus as your Savior so you don't go to hell. And then at some convenient time to you, take him as your Lord.

And that's from the pit. I will remind you in Acts chapter 11, verse 26, it says this. And the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. They were called Christians because they were disciples.

That's why they were called Christians. And our Lord put that thing that my flesh hates and your flesh hates, and we cringe against any kind of discipline. And I say our Lord put it on the front door.

And I believe if we were more honest at the front door, we would have less trouble at the back door. I'm glad somebody told me, one of your elders told me, in this church you have more people come out than you do members.

Healthy sign, healthy sign. Hope it stays that way. Be honest at the front door. Jesus was. I remember I was with Sandy Cove. I was the chairman of a meeting there for the Eastern Regional of the CBMC one year.

And I asked my wife to let me go alone so I could rent a room by myself. I wanted to spend time alone. I had a lot of things to do. So I got a room by myself, not for selfish purposes. I wanted to be alone with God and I had lots of things to do.

So I had this room for myself. When I got to the registration desk, they said, Ernie, we see you have a room. You're the only one in your room. They said, we have a young lawyer. We'd like to put him in with you.

And this is what they told me. They said, he trusted Jesus as a savior at one of our meetings, but you know, he still has a lot of trouble. And we believe you could do him some good over the weekend if he just get in your room and you could talk to him at night.

I didn't say, well, I planned it otherwise. I thought, well, if the Lord is in this, I'll say yes. And I took that as a being of God. So I said, all right. They put this young lawyer with me. I think he was about 35, maybe, no more.

He had already tried about 20 murder cases and was well on the way to a good reputation as a criminal lawyer. He talked to me the first night, a fine chap. We had lots in common. As far as our experience is concerned, we were both in the Navy and we talked and talked.

He wanted to talk about religion too. But about one o 'clock in the morning, I felt like saying to him, Dave, I think you better go back and raise your other hand because you sure didn't get anything when you raised it the first time.

And let me tell you, we've got a lot of people in our churches that need to raise their other hand. About seven or eight months later, we talked, became fast friends, but I couldn't give him any idea of assurance that he knew God and he'd never met the Son of God.

I'd have been lying to him. I wouldn't have been truthful with him. Even though it tried my heart, I couldn't lie to him. I had no reason to believe that he was saved. Now notice, I did not say he wasn't saved.

I can't go there. I had no reason to believe that he was saved, nor did he have any reason to believe that he was saved, nor did the world have any reason to believe that he was saved. That's an entirely different statement.

When you're saying somebody's not saved, you better not go around saying that. That doesn't come under the head of your business. Months later, I got a phone call on a Friday. He says, Ernie, this is... and he gave me his name.

He said, you remember? Oh, very vividly. He said, I'd like to come to your town tonight. Will you rent me a room in a hotel? Engage a room for me? I want to talk to you. You're going to be home? Yes. He says, I'll be there in time for dinner.

He says, you make me reservations in the hotel. He came. We had our dinner and I took a Christian lawyer with me to talk to him, D .D.'s brother. So we went down. My friend ordered a drink. He had a couple drinks, had dinner.

We talked, talked about holy things. We went to his room. He says, I either want to... he says, I'm miserable. He says, I was better off before I ever heard anything about religion. And he said, I want to go back to my city and I want to dismiss this as nothing or I want something that's real.

He said, I'm not sure there's anything to be had that's real. But he told me that he felt that I was honest with him in that room. And he said, that's why I thought of you. We went to his room. We talked.

Now, listen, dear heart, there was no use in me giving this fellow John 3 .16. He knew it forwards and backwards. There was no use in me telling him some scripture verse about salvation. He knew the verses.

I felt strongly convinced that he had responded to a wrong kind of an invitation. I felt, and I was right, it turned out later, that he responded to a kind of an invitation to somebody that would keep him out of hell, but leave him live like he pleased.

I didn't know what to do. I don't think I ever did this before. I'm not sure I ever did it since. But God brought to my mind this text that I read to you tonight, which I thought was one of the invitations of Jesus.

And I took that Gideon Bible in that hotel room and put it in his hand. And I turned to Luke chapter 9, verse 23. And I said, Dave, I want you to read this to me. And I made him read on. And I had him read verse 23, verse 24.

Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. We stopped there a while, and I'd remembered a good commentary on that verse. I got reading a missionary book once.

That sounds like double talk. But I remember that when that verse opened up to me in a real way, I was reading a missionary book, and I read this statement in the book. It said this about this verse. The missionary said, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to receive what he cannot lose.

That's a good statement. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to receive what he cannot lose. And I said, Dave, someday you'll lose your five kids. Someday you'll lose your wife. Someday you'll lose your practice.