Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Feb/74

Contributor - Henry Van Essen

Title - 'Tell Me The Old, Old Story'

Topic - Witnessing

The Problems And Dangers We Run Into When Telling It

When I am telling the Gospel to others and to myself, whether preaching, teaching, or witnessing, I am telling it as I hold it to be. I am trying to tell it like it is.

However, where did I first hear this Story? For I am not one of the original Apostles, that is to say, I am not an eye- and ear-witness of the life and death and resurrection of Christ; nor did I, as Paul, receive the revelation directly from the Lord (Galatians 1 :1517). For me Romans 10 : 14 describes the manner in which I came to know the Story, "How are they' to believe in Him, of who they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?" In other words, other people told me, taught me, as well as they knew how, what they were convinced was the content of the Gospel.

Sinners told me

Yet all these people - and I could not begin to count them parents, church members, Sunday School teachers, speakers, ministers, fellow-students, professors, writers of articles and of books, all these people were and are and always will be human; they were and are and always will be creatures, hurt and partly crippled by sin. Even Paul confesses, "For our knowledge is imperfect, and our prophecy" is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pas away ... Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as have been fully understood (I Corinthians 13 :9, 10, 12.)

This means that our understanding of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is and always will be limited and imperfect as long as the present age lasts.

Bible reading only?

One may think that the safest way then is to tell the "old, old Story" just as the Bible tells it to us, to simply read Scripture out loud and leave it at that. At least one could not be accused of putting wrong, or better, false (as over against the Truth) ideas in other people's heads. But even that does not work. For when somebody has told me something, I must ask the question, "What have I just heard? What did he tell me?" And in order to make sure that his message sinks in, affects me, I have to tell myself again (and again) what I have heard. For instance, he told me that I am a sinner before God. Now I must try to know for myself what it means to be a sinner before God, and how this affects me, my life, my actions, my thoughts. If I am really serious about finding out what it means to be a sinner before God, I will search for an explanation or an exposition, either from Scripture or from a Christian. But in both cases it is I who does the hearing, it is I who will have to ask myself again "What did I hear? Did I hear all that was said? Did I properly understand what was meant to be told to me?"

Revelation in human words

Once again, Who-- told me? 'People! People wrote the Scriptures, using human words. These people had to use human language, fallen human language, to give expression to God's glorious revelation of Himself, of His love and grace and judgement.

You know for sure?

Now how can we ever be sure that we hear the Gospel message as we ought to hear it, and that we speak the Gospel message as it ought to be spoken? From our human point of view we must say, "We can never be sure". "Now we see in a mirror dimly", "Now I know in part". That ought to make us all very humble about our own wisdom and knowledge; and at the same time very willing to listen to other Christians, especially to those whose thoughts differ from ours. For who knows whether the part the other one "knows" is partly the part that is missing in my imperfect knowledge? Before we say, "Since he has different beliefs than I, therefore either he is right or I," we should take enough time to listen to the other and try to grasp what he is trying to say; and to find out why he is saying something that is different or new to us.

God the Holy Spirit

But where in this all is the place of the Holy Spirit? Is all this talk about hearing and speaking by imperfect people not unnecessary, If we would but follow the leading of the Holy Spirit? Have I not excluded the work of the Holy Spirit?

Not at all! When I consider how much can go wrong while telling and hearing "the old, old Story", then I cannot but praise God the Holy Spirit for all His glorious work:

The Scriptures consist of human words with human meanings; yet the writers under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote in such a way, employed human ideas and human terms in such a manner 'that by the Holy Scriptures God's message to this world lost in sin keeps being proclaimed through the whole world in an absolutely unique way through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Preaching, teaching, witnessing -consists of human words, is made up of human language, which is produced by fallible people, who still see in a mirror dimly, who still know in part. Yet people have been responding to this preaching, teaching, witnessing, by the thousands since Pentecost, and they still are (as happens in Africa and Indonesia). That is solely the work of the Holy Spirit, who graciously takes these unbalanced, crippled, and imperfect words as His instrument to bring about faith. And again, that is solely the work 'of the Holy Spirit, who graciously manages to have these unbalanced, crippled and imperfect words heard amidst all the clamor and noise which bombards a person. And not only that: but in spite of all this imperfect, sinful, fragmented speaking and hearing the Holy Spirit brings about saving faith! Even as I am writing these words, I have to stop and think now I may, as clearly as possible express, press out my thoughts and convictions in printed words. But it will all be in vain if that is as far as they get!

To put it in a few words: apart from the work of God the Holy Spirit all preaching, teaching, witnessing, Bible reading, would be useless. He graciously :and marvelously uses human writers, human ideas, human words, to reveal the message of guilt, grace and gratitude which the Triune God has for fallen creation.

Don't turn it around!

However, we may never turn this around - the statement just above is irreversible! We may never say: because God the Holy Spirit uses my preaching, teaching, witnessing, therefore this is what God the Holy Spirit says! How do I know how much He drops, how much He passes by of all my words? How do I know how the Holy Spirit uses my preaching, teaching, witnessing? Again, how do I know how the Holy Spirit makes a person hear what I say? It happens to preachers from time to time that a listener will say, "That sermon was meant for me". Some will be thankful, others angry, because surely the minister was out to get him. But the preacher often is nothing but amazed: he never thought -of that person, he only sought to listen to Scripture, and to tell the people what he himself had heard while listening to it.

Give thanks

All what we can do, and must do, is thank the Lord God for the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in using people like us. For it is the Lord God "Who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of our works, but in virtue of His own purpose and the grace which He gave us in Christ, Jesus ages ago (II Timothy 1 :9).

Blasphemy

If, however, I would in any way consider my opinions as the undebatable Truth of God, then my preaching would be much like the T.V. programs coming to us via satellite: my opinion would originate on earth, be sent up to heaven and bounced back as a message from heaven, which all will have to accept. Such an attitude would simply reveal a terrible lack of understanding of the effects of sin as they affect our hearing and speaking and our knowledge of the old, old Story. Such an attitude would come dangerously close to the blasphemy in Acts 12 :22, when the people, after hearing a speech by King Herod, cried, "The voice of a god and not of man!"

Scripture

But what about Scripture? Are the Holy Scriptures not the Word of God? Yes, they are the Word of God, when they are read to me and to you. But when I hear the Word of God, I begin immediately to tell myself what I have heard, and that is not at -all necessarily the Word of God! 'this is precisely the reason why we must listen again and again! The Lord Jesus said, "Blessed is he that hears the Word of God and keeps it (does it)" (Luke 11 :28, comp. 8 :21). He did not say, Blessed is he that hears the Word of God and keeps (does) whatever he thinks, whatever he has understood the Word of God to be! (Compare John 5 :39 RSV).

God gives the growth

The problems and dangers we run into when telling "the old, old, Story" are many. But read I Corinthians 3 :5-15. There remains but this to do, to distrust ourselves (Jeremiah 17 :9), to throw ourselves again and again upon the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour; and to do in obedience what He calls us to do, to preach, teach, witness, as well as we know, how; yet realizing that apart from God the Holy Spirit, it will all be in 'vain, for only God gives the growth. It is His work. Soli Deo Gloria.

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