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  HOW TO COMMUNICATE DIVINE TRUTH, TAPES 1 & 2
  by Ralph Sutera
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Summary: The sermon emphasizes the importance of balancing objective
truth with subjective reality in communicating divine truth, and
provides practical examples and applications for achieving this balance.

Topics: "Effective Evangelism", "Gods Grace"
Scripture References: Romans 5:20, 1 Corinthians 2:1, Titus 2:11, Hebrews 12:13

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DESCRIPTION
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Ralph Sutera delivers a sermon on effectively communicating divine
truth, emphasizing the importance of balancing objective truth with
subjective reality. He highlights the need to demonstrate the truth
openly through testimonies and personal experiences. Sutera discusses
the curse of our age, where knowledge is mistaken for having faith, and
the significance of surrendering our will to God to experience His
grace. He stresses the importance of acknowledging God's presence and
being aware of His grace in our lives.

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CONTENT
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Given in Crusade at Portland, Oregon, May, 1991

A new pastor at his first service had a pitcher of water & a glass at
the pulpit, & as he preached he drank until all the water was gone.
After the service one of the older women was asked, "How do you like the
new pastor?" She said, "Fine. He's the first windmill that I ever saw
run by water."

A pastor says, it's not much of a sermon if it doesn't step on
somebody's toes. ("You're stepping on my toes!")

HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE DIVINE TRUTH? (pg. 3, NEW notes in pastor's
booklet)

1. OBJECTIVELY - "Thus saith the Lord."

2. SUBJECTIVELY - How does this truth relate to me?

3. TO BE RECEIVED COLLECTIVELY

How can I express this truth to relate to the congregation?

4. TO BE DEMONSTRATED OPENLY (or verbally)

Some churches have had the objective truth & the subjective reality but
have not had the demonstration openly, & failed. This is by the
testimonies, the sharing & is a tremendous way of communicating truth.

OBJECTIVE--SUBJECTIVE: (pg. 6)

1. PROOF OF CHRIST'S MESSIAHSHIP WAS BOTH HIS WORD AND HIS WORKS (John
8). THE TREASURES OF GOD ARE NOT HID IN HIS WORD, BUT IN CHRIST HIMSELF.

God wraps His truth in the cellophane of human personality. God always
moves incarnately, He always takes on flesh, takes on form; that's the
way He moves in our lives. The treasures are in Christ Himself. But what
about the Word? The Bible is not the divinely revealed revelation of
God. It is the divinely revealed RECORD of the revelation of God. The
revelation of God is the Person of His Son, & the Bible is the divinely
revealed RECORD of the revelation of God. It is always different when it
is reflected through a person.

2. THE GOSPEL:

OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE

I Corinthians 15:3-4 7 6 I Peter 1:25

I Corinthians 2:2 7 6 I Corinthians 2:4-5

3. ROMANS 8:1-16 SONSHIP (OBJECTIVE)

8:18-31 SYMPATHY (SUBJECTIVE)

4. ROMANS 6:17 - OBEDIENCE IS SUBJECTIVELY RESPONDING TO OBJECTIVE
TRUTH.

"Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
you."

5. JOHN 7:17 - SUBJECTIVE RESPONSE DETERMINES UNDERSTANDING OBJECTIVE
TRUTH.

"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it
be of God, or whether I speak of myself." (See also Jn. 3:19; 8:31-32; I
Cor. 2:14; I Jn. 3:20-21)

(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)

This all needs to be a reminder to all: that it is so easy to get hung
up on people's understanding the truth rather than their willingness to
obey the truth. Someone may say to you, "If you can tell me where Cain
got his wife then I'll listen to what you say about Christ." The answer:
If I answer all your questions satisfactorily, would you come to Christ?
One man said, "You answered all of my questions satisfactorily but I
still don't want to believe." It is not a problem of the mind,
primarily, but rather a problem of the heart, the will. God says if I
can capture a man's will, watch how I'll straighten out the quirks in
his mind. Some people before coming to Christ have all kinds of way-out
questions, but once that will is surrendered to God it's amazing how all
those questions dissipate. And that is a reminder in how to deal with
people who use that kind of questioning to make you think they are
interested, when the whole time it is just a decoy to get you off.

Whenever I find a man who says there is so much in the Bible about which
I don't understand, my general reply is: "Look, sir, it's not what I
don't understand in the Bible that bothers me; it's what I DO understand
that bothers me." And I'm glad there is a lot in the Bible I don't
understand, because if I could understand it all then it would prove
that somebody with no more brains than I wrote it. And the fact that
none of us can understand all the intricacies of the Word of God is one
of the sure reminders that it is a Divine Book. And God's ways are much
higher than our ways and His thoughts are deeper than our thoughts, &
there is no finite mind that can completely understand an infinite God.
That is one of the reasons why I love it, because I can't understand it
all. The Divine nature of the Book makes it very real.

WHAT IS GOD'S WORD? (pg 8)

1. THE WRITTEN WORD - Objective truth (Propositional)

The BIBLE

2. THE LIVING WORD - Subjective reality (Incarnate)

JESUS CHRIST - God incarnate in the flesh, Jn. 1:1-2,14

3. THE EXPERIENCED WORD (Personal)

<The power of the Written and Living Word applied to the believers

<Once you know the "LIVING WORD" (CHRIST) you will begin to know the
"WRITTEN WORD" (BIBLE) better!

The power of the written & living word comes in experienced word. The
written word is propositional, the living word is personal. You know
what it is like to read a book that was very boring, & then all at once
you've met the author on an airplane; & you go back & read the book all
over again & all at once the words have changed. Same thing spiritually.

You can look at the Father, Son & Holy Spirit the same way: Someone
says, the Father provides the written word; the Son provides the living
word, & the Spirit provides the experienced word. The basis of what we
are saying this morning determines how we communicate truth.

OBJECTIVE TRUTH & SUBJECTIVE REALITY: (pg. 9)

OBJECTIVE TRUTH: WHEN THE WORD OF GOD PRIMARILY ENLIGHTENS THE
INTELLECT.

SUBJECTIVE REALITY: WHEN THE SPIRIT OF GOD QUICKENS THE SPIRIT OF MAN TO
RESPOND IN THE WILL TO THE TRUTH THAT HAS ENLIGHTENED THE INTELLECT.

It is never subjective truth; always objective truth. Some may say,
truth is how I see it, how God speaks to me about it, I've had a
revelation, so it's all inside the person as to what truth is about.

(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)

A "REVIVAL" MINISTRY SEEKS TO CORRELATE THE OBJECTIVE & SUBJECTIVE:
(p.10)

OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE

1. WORD WORSHIP

2. TRUTH SPIRIT

3. HEAD HEART

4. DOCTRINE DYNAMICS

5. KNOWLEDGE LOVE

6. EXPLANATION EXPERIENCE

7. THEOLOGY KNEEOLOGY

8. CROSS OF CHRIST CROSS OF SELF

9. RELATIONSHIP REALITY

10. "CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST" "MORTIFY THE DEEDS...FLESH"

11. ACKNOWLEDGE GOD'S PRESENCE AWARE OF GOD'S PRESENCE

Rom. 1-11, Positional Rom. 12-14, Practical

We are such victims of extreme & God has a hard time teaching us
balance. I say to a man, "What kind of a church do you attend? And he
says, "Well, I attend a church where we preach the word, the truth gets
through loud & clear; I changed my notions about religion, I've learned
so much. We have a church that doctrine is just right, my knowledge is
so increased, & the way our pastor explains it, & the theology--I just
love our church." I said, "What's going on in your church?" "Wellllll,
things are kind of dead, stiff, kind of dry." And yet they've got all
that. And I ask another one where he goes to church & why does he go
there? He said, "Oh, you should see the way we worship! What a spirit is
there! My heart is so warmed I get tingles, I feel so vibrantly alive
when I'm there. And you should see the way we love each other, we hug
each, we experience so much, & you should hear the way we pray." And I
asked, "What does that church stand for? What does it believe?" "Aaaa, I
never thought too much about that. I just feel good, I love it how warm
& friendly, exciting it is." Now we've got the other extreme. The
tragedy is that we are such victims of extreme. Without making a
controversial issue over what I am discussing, I have the idea that God
has allowed some of the movements that have come along in the last 15-20
years regarding worship, prayer & praise, & God has allowed them to take
place to help some of the rest of us find balance. It always takes an
extreme voice to get another extreme position back towards the center.

Maybe I can better describe it by a letter that was sent to our
fellowship by a Pastor in North Dakota. He said, "I don't know how our
church ended up on your mailing list, but I'm glad it did. Perhaps your
paper has come to us before, but somehow this time it caught my eye & I
read it through. The subject of revival has fascinated me for years, &
there is a hunger in me to be exposed. I have noticed that
fundamentalists & evangelical churches tend to be stale when in comes to
prayer, zeal, fervor & expectancy. Holiness churches seem to have the
zeal, but their lives, in my opinion, are often legalistic, shallow &
unstable. Pentecostal's also have the zeal, but emotionalism overtakes
the intellect at times. Perhaps I'm looking for the impossible when
thinking to balance the intellect with the emotions. Nevertheless it
appears from reading your material that perhaps you have somewhat of an
emphasis from which I can benefit." Now, this is what one man wrote, it
is not my opinion. I'm not saying he is completely right, & I know there
are exceptions to all of that. But the observation is very real--to find
the balance between both "poles" in the truest sense of the word.

Here is a cartoon of Noah's ark & all of the animals up on one side, the
ark tilted way over & about to sink, & here are the 2 great big
elephants drinking water out of this side of the ark. And the two
elephants are tipping the boat over, & all the rest are saying: "Hey,
would one of you please use the other side!" That's what we are talking
about--that concern for genuine balance is a difficulty that we have.

(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)

THE BALANCE BETWEEN "SPIRIT" AND "TRUTH": (pg. 11)

<TRUTH WITHOUT THE SPIRIT YOU DRY UP.

<SPIRIT WITHOUT THE TRUTH YOU BLOW UP.

<SPIRIT AND TRUTH YOU GROW UP.

TRUTH IS MARVELOUS, BUT SPIRIT AND TRUTH IS WORSHIP.

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth." -- John 4:24

(In Samaria--that was the emotional crowd;

In Jerusalem--the doctrinal crowd, the legalists, Judaistic law, the
scholars.

One was despising the other because of imbalance: The Jews looked at the
Samaritans as a bunch of emotionally disturbed people; & the Samaritans
looked at the Jews in Jerusalem as the legalists, strict to the law--
imbalanced both ways. That's why the disciples were so shocked when
Christ was talking to a Samaritan woman; they were thinking in terms of
Jerusalem, & here Christ is talking to a Samaritan woman. But what is of
interest in this whole thing is that Christ put the emphasis on spirit
first before truth. (Jn. 7:17 - God capturing a man's will, his spirit
in tune with God, & then he is going to know the doctrine.) So true
worship begins with the spirit being right, & then the truth finding its
rightful place. And that's the tragedy of legalists even in relation to
handling the truth. And the tall, & strong & straight & right people get
up in arms when somebody begins to raise a hand in public, shouts an
Amen--they're about to have an usher take somebody out of a church for
fear that emotionalism might take over. What a tragedy.

ARTICLE: "Is There an Amen in the House?"

(See page 13, points 8-11 of notebook continued):

Resurrection of Christ is objective;

The renewed life is subjective.

The cross of Christ is objective (died once for all);

The surrendered life at the cross is subjective--my response to the work
of the cross.

My relationship with God is objective;

The reality of that relationship is subjective.

"I am crucified with Christ" is objective (it happened 2000 years ago);

"Therefore mortify the deeds of the flesh" is subjective--that's how I
am to live now as a dead man.

I can acknowledge God's presence as being objective;

But an awareness of God's presence is subjective.

Romans 1-11 - positional;

Romans 12-14 - practical (yet all of Romans is practical)

WHAT IS "REVIVAL" PREACHING? (pg. 12)

1. WHEN THE SUBJECTIVE REALITY OF ALL OBJECTIVE TRUTH IS BROUGHT INTO
SHARP FOCUS.

2. WHEN "POSITIONAL" TRUTHS BECOME PRACTICAL AND FUNCTIONAL. EXPOSITION
MUST HAVE APPLICATION.

3. WHEN THE GOAL OF PREACHING IS NOT MERELY TO GIVE MORE INFORMATION
(OBJECTIVE TRUTH), BUT IS GIVEN TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE AND DIRECTION IN
OUR LIVES (SUBJECTIVE REALITY).

Therefore the: OBJECTIVE TRUTH is the unchanging verities of God's Word.

SUBJECTIVE REALITY is how the truth relates to my life-style.

(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)

What I believe is the curse of our age as to this: the idea that if we
know something, we have it.

Bonhoeffer made this statement: Only he who believes obeys, and only he
who obeys believes.

The early Martin Luther when he first started to break away from Rome
was known for his personal faith. That was his strong point, his
subjective reality was in sharp focus. The later Martin Luther was no
longer a personal faith but a credible faith; the subjective reality was
lost, & he seemed to move back towards the intellectual understanding in
the mind, a credible faith & understanding in the mind as to what it is
all about. And historians tell us that that was the reason why the
Anabaptists pulled away from Martin Luther. He got too much of the
objective & lost the sight of the subjective in his own thinking. I was
saying this one day & a Mennonite pastor who was in the group turned &
said, "That's why Menno Simons made the statement: `No man can truly
know Christ except he follow Him in life.' It was a counteracting of
Martin Luther's credible faith without the subjective reality being in
sharp focus."

I was talking like this & a pastor said to me: "When he counsels with
people & they say, I don't know whether I should come to you or whether
I should go to a psychiatrist, I turn to them & say something like this:
A psychiatrist can give you knowledge & insight; to the psychiatrist
knowledge is the solution. But I will give you the knowledge, but that
is not the solution. I will give you an introduction to the solution who
is the Holy Spirit of God functioning in your life to reveal Christ." He
went on to say that the church has taken on the idea of the world that
if we can just get people to understand the doctrine, they've got the
solution. Whitfield & Wesley--the secret was not in their doctrine but
in their devotion.

Henry Krause: Truth divorced from experience will always dwell in the
realm of doubt.

As I began to take a closer look at this in our ministry I began to find
just as much problem with assurance of salvation among churches that are
Calvinistic in theology as we have those who are Armenian in theology. A
Calvinist can have truth but if it has been divorced from real
experience it ends up in the realm of doubt. The same way for the one
who has all the experience without the truth. The importance is that we
understand them & see the importance of balance between the two, & cause
our people to enter in at that level.

SCRIPTURAL EXAMPLES: (pg. 13)

Jn. 4:24, TRUTH is objective - SPIRIT is subjective.

Jn. 10:10, LIFE is objective - MORE ABUNDANTLY is subjective--quality of
life.

I Tim. 1:5, FAITH is objective - LOVE, GOOD CONSCIENCE is subjective.

Phil. 4:7, MINDS is objective - HEARTS is subjective

(The words, mind & heart are often used interchangeable in Scripture.

But here there are 2 different words used.)

II Tim. 1:13, FAITH is objective - LOVE is subjective

Ps. 103:3, FORGIVETH, objective - HEALETH is subjective

Ps. 85:10, TRUTH is objective - MERCY is subjective

RIGHTEOUSNESS, obj. - PEACE is subjective

I like to say it this way: Mercy & truth had a conference--they met
together;

Righteousness & peace had a love affair--they kissed each other.

But notice the linking of words like that together--a reminder of how
much the Scripture puts the objective truth & the subjective reality
together, showing that we must find that balance.

In the Lynnwood crusade the thing that got to the pastor as he shared in
his testimony was, when the psychiatrist from the Tacoma area came to
the meetings, & he thought he would just talk to her a bit...

(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)

...& she said, "All I can say is that when I read in the book of John
1:14, I see where it says, "grace & truth" come together. You have the
truth, but now God is trying to minister His grace to you." And in that
context of Scripture, the Word became flesh--taking on human form.

II Cor. 8:9, GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST is objective truth of the
grace of God. It is the objective statement of a fact--that God emptied
heaven of the dearest One that He had in order that we might be brought
back to Himself & be made rich.

II Cor. 9:8, ABLE TO MAKE ALL GRACE ABOUND TOWARD YOU, subjective. It
normally relates in the area of finances but the principle is very real.
Now the grace of God is becoming functional. And God is able to make all
grace abound toward you...that you abound to every good work.

Howard Hendricks: "It's easy to be Biblical, & it may be easy to be
relevant, but I think we all agree in the ministry that it's sometimes
as difficult to be both Biblical & relevant at the same time." (We want
to combine that so as to relate to God's people.)

It's interesting when Dr. Hendricks was ministering in Ontario Bible
College in Canada a few years ago, they reported on some of the things
that he said. He said: "It is a crime to bore people to tears with the
Word of God. I need to know the history out of which the Biblical
passage came, but I also need to know the contemporary history into
which the passage is to be reborn. Congregations are afflicted with
boredom. If the sermon is simply an unimaginative, though accurate,
rehashing of the Scriptural passage it then can end up as a lesson in
ancient history. The remedy is a twin focus on an explanation of the
Biblical passage & a sympathetic understanding of applicable real-life
situations in which members of the congregation find themselves in
during the week." The importance of being Biblical and relevant at the
same time!

I told you yesterday about a man who said, I am a Bible principles man;
and the Lord said, no, that's your problem; this time you're going to be
an evangelist. This man that we dearly love, tremendous preacher, once
in while comes to our crusades, & when he does we give him the
opportunity to speak. One crusade he came & spoke for about an hour and
a quarter, & the subject was, "How Far Have You Gone?" and he wanted to
show from the lives of Elijah & Elisha the 4 different altars of the
O.T. & apply them to one area of our Christian experience. The next
morning he came to me & said, "Ralph, you know my weakness is in the
subjective. I have a difficult time preaching in the subjective--what
about last night's sermon?" (His stature just rises in my mind when a
man of his caliber, 41 years in one church--you know he must have said
something right, tremendous man, written a book on the Gospel of Saint
John, & asks this.) Let me tell you what he did. First of all before I
began to tell him how I felt about last night's sermon, I reminded him
of how much I enjoyed it, & the good that I got out of it. So whenever
you are saying something to anybody, make sure you start out right--
letting him know how you were blessed. Don't make up a story; if you
were bored to tears don't tell him you were blessed. But I let him know
how I was blessed.

He took the 4 points from the 4 Old Testament altars, 4 plots of O.T.
stories, & then he used other Bible stories to illustrate those stories.
And because he is such a Bible principles man he got every detail in
about what happened there. And as he used Bible stories to illustrate
the points, you can imagine what happened to the congregation that
night. The weaknesses: too many O.T. plots for the people to follow; he
missed the real points taking so much time in the plots; the application
of each point was missed in the process; the emphasis should have been
on the application & not on the plot; if the emphasis would have been on
the application then the applications themselves could have been
expanded & enlarged.

(NOTE: The beginning of SIDE 2 of this cassette tape is on page 6,
indicated above by the bold words, All I can say is...)

(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)

Let me give you an example of what he did:

1. THE ALTAR AT GILGAL - the place of decision to cut off from sin. How
far have you gone in your Christian life? Gilgal, the place of decision
to cut off from sin? (And then told the story about Gilgal.

2. THE ALTAR AT BETHEL - the place of knowing the will of God (& he told
the story of what happened at Bethel).

Point 3...(I don't remember... 4. ... But there was so much that I lost
sight of what the rest of that was all about. And if that happened to
me, I wonder what happened to the rest of them. There wasn't much of a
response to that message that night because it was so completely
overloaded, without a sharp focus as to what the point was. Now since
then I can add--

3. THE ALTAR AT MIZPAH

4. THE ALTAR AT RAMAH

What could he have done? Could have brought people to a response at each
point (cut off from sin--& deal with that). He could have elaborated on
the point of sin & how to deal with it. He could have given some
illustrations of how he had to deal with it in his own life or in the
lives of others close to him. He could have dealt with God's attitude
toward sin, those things that keep us from being honest about our sins.

The place of knowing the will of God--can you say that you are walking
in the will of God right now? What is the will of God? There are about 4
or 5 things in Scripture that say, this is the will of God concerning
you--specific statements; how do we know the will of God? hindrances to
knowing the will of God; the joy & the reward for living in the will of
God. But you say, if he had done all that he would have had a 3 hour
sermon. He should have taken just one or two points, & done it in 2
messages. If our hearts & minds are not thinking in terms of the
subjective reality to the objective truth, then we're merely content to
just give out the truth; because here is the Bible story & here is the
truth, then people do not have a handle by which to enter in at a deep
level. So the bottom line is: if a preacher were tuned in to the
subjective, we would not be content to merely dwell on the plot & just
hit the points, but rather we would enlarge the points & their
applications with anticipation of some kind of response. That's the key.
I'm convinced that many pastors would see a lot more happen in their
ministry if this would begin to sharpen--the twin focus--how does this
application apply to this congregation?

ARTICLE: "How to Preach so as to Convert Nobody" by Charles Finney.

THE SEVEN LAWS OF THE LEARNER, by Dr. Bruce Wilkinson. There are videos
on it.

TEACHING TO CHANGE LIVES, book by Dr. Howard Hendricks. This is
incorporated in the above series. "Develop a passion for communicating
God's Word to adults or children, in the church, in the home, in Bible
study groups, or in school." This can be ordered.

CREATIVE BIBLE TEACHING, by Larry Richards. (Will help you to take the
Biblical stories & find the practical applications for your classes.
Don't teach about the story of Jonah (& the "whale") without the
practical application to children in the S.S. class. This book is
designed to give input as to how to find the practical application to
spiritual truths.)

THE GRACE OF GOD

If I were to take the subject of the grace of God & try to probe into it
& study to understand it, for objective, subjective, etc., I would
probably start or call it a series: The God of the Second Chance, or,
The Gospel of Grace. I would probably start with:

1. THE NECESSITY OF GRACE, Rom. 5:12-17 to show that it is an
established fact caused by man's response in the Garden of Eden. What
was man's response? If it's an established fact that we need

(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1, continued)

grace because of man's response, it is 3-fold:

a. Total disobedience - Gen. 3, he contradicted God

b. Total dishonesty - he covered his sin

c. Total distraction - condemned others, & each other.

God asked Adam what he did, & he blamed his wife, Eve blamed the
serpent...& the serpent didn't have anyone to blame.

These were the results of the response--RESULTING IN:

TOTAL DISGRACE--caused shame. Adam, why did you have to cover yourself,
why did you have to start sewing clothes?

TOTAL DISUNITY--cast out of the Garden, totally disunited from God, &
all God had planned for them for fellowship, now cast out.

TOTAL DISASTER--it closed the Garden to the whole human race, & resulted
in:

TOTAL DISABILITY--conveyed the plague of sin onto the whole human race.

2. THE PROVISION OF GOD'S GRACE - If it's necessary because of man's
response, then there must be a provision, 2 Cor 8:9 & 9:8 (objective-
subjective); Titus 2:11-14.

Of the 166 refs. in the Bible, 38 are in the O.T. First one is found in
Gen. 6:8, & the last words of the Bible in Revelation--the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We are talking about the sufficiency of God's grace.
Jn. 1:16--fullness of the grace of God.

2 Cor. 9:8--"God is able to make all grace abound toward you.."

TAILOR-MADE GRACE, or, grace made to order. It makes a difference if you
go to a tailor shop or to Sears Roebuck to buy a suit off the rack. And
there is a salesman who is going to do his best to talk you into buying
a suit that doesn't fit you because he's got to make the sale. No one
has a perfect body, & suits are made for perfect bodies. But in a tailor
shop it is altogether different. I call it "tailor-made grace" because
there are people in every congregation who know that they have a problem
that God has not faced before. Now if you think you have a problem that
God has never faced before, why don't you go to the "Tailor?" He will
make whatever grace you need. What I like about the tailor is, he put
that tape measure around your body, knows your exact size, right kind of
material to use, he does the work (not me), no case too hard for him to
fit--& he tells you to "just leave it up to me & I'll make you look like
a million dollars."

-Have you ever talked your wife into buying a skirt or blouse that she
was not so sure she could fit into it properly, & you ended up wasting
money because it didn't fit right & she didn't wear it? But a tailor is
going to fit a garment right, no matter how out of proportion you are.

-When the job gets done, who gets the credit for it? The tailor, not me.

-He starts right where you are, not after you have been on a diet.

-You don't have to wait several weeks--God provides immediately.

-The cost--minimal to you but expensive to the tailor--analogy: God
Almighty allowed His Son to go to the cross; minimal to us, not that we
work for it but there is a price that we have to pay to allow the grace
of God to function, we have to deal with those things that keep the
grace of God from functioning in our lives.

-The tailor won't start until you put your order in--The implication is,
as long as you think that you can straighten out your own life & you
don't need the Heavenly Tailor to do it, then just keep on making a mess
of it. It is not until you put your order in & say, God, I'm sick &
tired of trying to do it in my own strength; I'm ready for the grace of
God to function in my life. Put your order in; if God has not made it
before He will make it special for you.

-Others will say when they see you suited-up: Who's your tailor? Tell me
about him so I can make contact with him. When people walk in the
fullness of God's grace, there's an excitement, a release about them, an
overflow that spills over into the world.

G-R-A-C-E: God's Riches At Christ's Expense! God emptied heaven of His
Son so that we who are paupers can become rich. That is the objective
truth of the grace of God.

(How To Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 1 continued, & starts Tape 2)

Subjective reality is in 2 Cor. 9:8--the sufficiency of God's grace. God
is able--He has the ability; He is capable of meeting your needs.
Sufficiency is provided to make all grace abound.

-It is personal toward you.

-It is permanent. The grace of God is always there.

-It is present, practical - abound to every good work--my daily life.

In 2 Cor. 8:9, it is saving grace; in 9:8, it is enabling grace.

GRACE==Go Right Ahead--Christ Enables. Most of our people have not seen
the grace of God as a part of our daily life. The subjective reality! Go
right ahead & live your Christian life, because all the enabling you
need is there for you!

SUFFICIENCY IS PERSONAL, PERMANENT, PRACTICAL, POSSIBLE, PROVIDED!

The grace of God PROVIDED, I Peter 4:10 - the manifold grace of God--the
"many-folds" of the grace of God. The manifold on a car is a key item in
a motor. What are the "many-folds" of the grace of God?--

a. Saving grace h. Standing grace

b. Satisfying grace i. Speaking grace (sharing)

c. Separating grace j. Singing grace

d. Strengthening grace k. Straightening grace

e. Stabilizing grace (I Peter 5:10) l. Sharing grace

f. Serving grace (I Peter 4:10-11) m. Suffering grace

g. Sorrowing grace (2 Cor. 1) n. ________________ (others)

So, what do you need? Put your order in for whatever grace you need. and
if we don't think we need His grace, we then live as paupers.

There are many other graces: justifying, abounding, reigning, electing,
giving, traveling.

Sometimes in a crusade when Lou is dealing with preaching on subjects of
bitterness, anger...then it is time to deal with the grace of God. Need
balance.

Warning: In the list I just gave you, no matter how much sufficiency...
(tape ran out)

HOW TO COMMUNICATE DIVINE TRUTH, TAPE 2

By Ralph Sutera,

Show how this can become practical. This can be developed any way you
want--there could be a whole series on the grace of God.

Now, if all this is true, then why is it that we are such paupers in the
church? Because of what we do to the grace of God.

FIVE PLACES WHERE THE BIBLE TALKS ABOUT WHAT WE DO TO THE GRACE OF GOD:

1. 2 Cor 6:1 - VAIN: empty, devoid of value, useless, worthless, futile,
fruitless (SERVICE

2. Heb. 12:13-15 - FAIL: fall short, decline, become weaker, neglect,
reject as deficient--our everyday situations we do not see the grace of
God sufficient to meet our needs, we reject it as deficient. We think we
don't need it. (SITUATIONS)

3. Gal. 2:20-21 - FRUSTRATE: prevent from obtaining a purpose, thwart,
cut short. (SELF)

Frustrate--because of not entering into the truth of being crucified
with Christ.

This is a book that deals with law & grace--

- Gal. 2:20, to mix law & works with grace frustrates the grace.

- And in this light, to mix self with Christ's control frustrates God's
grace in our lives. We frustrate, cut short the things God wants to do
in our lives because we've mixed self with God's control, instead of
living at the cross.

(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 2, continued)

4. Heb. 10:29 - DESPITE: scorn, insult, defiance, abuse, injure, ignore.
In our self-sufficiency we just ignore the need for grace.

5. Jude 4 - LASCIVIOUSNESS: lewd & lustful (sins), moral sins. We have
turned the grace of God into lewd, lust.

What should be our right response to the grace of God? Rom. 5:20, "grace
did much more abound" -not a license to sin, for ch. 6 says, God forbid!
Ch. 6 & 7, 4 times it says,

"WE SHOULD..."

a. Walk in newness of life, 6:4 - a process, not merely a belief. The
key word is walk; cannot walk while standing still; it is, "salvation
plus" not salvation period. I Pet. 4:10 - we are stewards of the grace
of God.

b. Not serve sin, 6:6 - this is talking about the controls of our life,
not controlled by the sin principle which is SELF. The key word is serve
--servant. If I am serving someone I am his slave. I am no longer to be
controlled or a slave by the sin principle of self because of the grace
that is available.

c. Not obey sin, 6:12 - not obey sin. 6:6 talks about the control
factor; here we are talking about a choice. We need to learn what it
means to have victory over temptations--deal with sin. Every time we
deal with temptation we have a choice to make--obey God or yield to
temptation. Not obey sin means to make the right choice when we are face
to face with issues in our lives.

d. Serve in newness of spirit, not in oldness of the letter, 7:6 - Now
you are dealing with the ministry of the Holy spirit in your life. Is
spirit a small s or capital S? If in newness of the Spirit, the Holy
Spirit--He is in control of my life; if in newness of my spirit--the
only way my spirit can be new is through the Holy Spirit. So both are
the same.

-Please don't leave people just dealing with sins & self; make sure
there is the filling process. It is a mistake to leave the vessel empty
after it has been cleansed. Grieve not the Holy Spirit, quench not--
ignore--don't ignore the Holy Spirit. He knows the student who is ready
for the next lesson.

How to enter in: Eph. 6:23-24, "Peace & grace will be to all who love
the Lord with sincerity." Sincerity = mental honesty. How are we going
to enter in? All the phoniness has to be gone, a willingness to
recognize what we have done to God's grace, how we've fallen short--we
get transparently & mentally honest with it--I have sinned. Rom. 5:1-2,
peace & grace used again.

Objective truth, 5:1 "being justified by faith we have peace with God;"

Subjective truth, 5:2 "by whom also we have access by faith into this
grace wherein we stand."

PEACE is to wish all the bounties & riches which flow from God's
presence;

GRACE--the desire & power to do God's will (Gothard's definition). Most
people are totally

unaware of how full the Word of God is on grace.

This is vital after a crusade--after dealing with many issues they need
to be reminded of the grace of God.

TITUS 2:11-14 (p. 14) - look for the objective truth & the subjective
reality:

V. 11, objective truth (grace of God...truth)

V. 12a, objective & subjective (teaching, obj; denying is subj.)

V. 12b, subjective (live soberly)

V. 13, obj. & subj. (looking is subj; blessed hope is obj. truth)

V. 14, obj. & subj. (gave Himself...redeem is obj; from all iniquity...&
purify is subj.) THE DIVINE PURPOSE OF HIS GRACE IS FOR OUR DAILY
LIVING. God's grace becomes a divine schoolmaster for daily living as
well as the basis of eternal salvation. (Eph. 2:8)

(How to Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 2, continued)

HOW TO COMMUNICATE DIVINE TRUTH: (See pg. 17)

1. Understand the distinction between objective truth & subjective
reality

2. Understand the religion of the intellect & the religion of the
spirit. (See article, "The Editorial Voice, Religion of the intellect
vs. Religion of the spirit, by A.W. Tozer, p. 18, in new notes)

"So often pastors labor in ministry & are at ease in prayer when we
ought to labor in prayer & be at ease in the ministry." What is the
basic difference (in ministry)?

EXAMPLE OF THE APOSTLE PAUL - I Cor. 2:1-13) (pg. 19)

THE APOSTLE PAUL'S MINISTRY CAME

1. NOT with excellency of speech or of wisdom, not with enticing words
of man's wisdom, not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of
this world----not with analytical professionalism, not with enticing
words.

We were taught when studying for the ministry that you put the "hay" on
the first floor of the barn, put the cookies on the shelf lower in the
pantry, because if you put the hay on the second floor the cows can't
get it--you put it right where the people live. NOT with fleshly wisdom
(2 Cor. 1:12) but in simplicity...the grace of God.

-Fleshly wisdom leads to bondage & law; fleshly wisdom is my ability to
measure up to someone else's standard.

-It's not my ability to measure up to somebody's standard, but my
availability to God's ability. We are not under law but under God's
grace.

ARTICLE: The Filth of the World, by Leonard Ravenhill, p. 20

ARTICLE: God Looks for Better Men, by E.M. Bounds, p. 20

A woman, who was mature & whose husband was the president of a mission
board & a wonderful Godly woman, handed Ralph a note after listening to
a man who did everything just right as a minister: "I should despair
after a hearing this man with his deep intellect if I were not
encouraged by Derrick Kidner's book on Prov. 1:20-23. Wisdom is offered
to the man in the street & for the business of living, not to an elite
for the pursuit of scholarship." Why? Because this man who ministered,
every hair in place, tie perfect, every word right, 6'4"--was the
epitome of perfection in appearance, very intellectual, brilliant, yet a
warm man, tremendous man of God. But I began to see & sense what this
woman was hearing--enticing words, perfection performance, yet couldn't
catch the spirit of the man even though it was there. Her husband said:
"I go to So. America to the City of Brasilia where all the intellectuals
are in that part of the world. I speak to professionals & intellectuals,
(& I never had more than an 8th grade education) & they said to me:
John, if you were talking to our heads we would reject you, but because
you are talking to our spirits we receive you."

A business man said to us in a meeting: I am a complicated man & live in
a complicated world. When I come to church I want it simple. I don't
want my mind to be fed, primarily because my mind is loaded with all
kinds of things, but my spirit needs to be fed.

Another pastor said: When I got out of seminary I was preaching to the
spirit of man, that God would touch their spirits. Then I went to a
church where there was a brilliant seminary professor who was a member
of the church, & found myself unconsciously catering to that man in my
preaching & I started preaching to his intellect. And this morning I
realize that that has been my problem. I needed to hear this.

(How To Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 2, continued)

There is a young man I know that I believe has one of the greatest
potentials in the ministry of any young man that we have worked with, an
anointing on his life has been very real, but I listened to a tape of
one of his messages in the car about a year ago, preaching at a camp
meeting. That message was so alliterated, for I knew he was reading it,
yet he is one of the best readers of any sermons I know. But every word
in the sentence started with the same letter, not only every point
starting with the same letter, but every word. And I know he worked over
that sentence. And after listening for an hour, I thought--not with
enticing words of man's wisdom--& I could not catch the spirit in the
process. Now this would make a tremendous manuscript for a book, but now
it seems he is slaving to make every single word is in right order, &
all at once you've lost the spirit of what he is saying.

One of the greatest needs today is somehow to communicate to educators
this lack of the wrong emphasis made in seminaries on scholastics,
intellectualism, rather than on the spiritual growth & development, &
personal prayer time.

2. BUT THE APOSTLE PAUL CAME

-In weakness, fear & much trembling - the humanness of the man.

-In demonstration of the Spirit and of power - in the weakest moments of
his experience that did not deter the demonstration of his power but
rather was probably the biggest enhancement to it. Al Henson (in
Nashville Tennessee, teaching students with balance in these areas) was
asked about something relating to his ministry... He said, "Pray for
weakness & if God answers your prayer, then watch for the results." Pray
that God will make me weak so that I will understand that it has to be
the demonstration of the power of the Spirit in my life.

-And then he said, I came in the wisdom of God in a mystery, the wisdom
which the Holy Ghost teacheth. The true nature of the kingdom of God is
not in word but it is in power.

People admire our strengths, but are discouraged by them. They relate to
our weaknesses & are encouraged by them. (Paul came in weakness, fear &
much trembling.) They relate to our weaknesses, not our sinfulness. If
they see a pastor so exact, they admire him & may say he is so great,
but then they say, but I can never be like that, so they are
discouraged. But when they realize that God has to deal with us the same
level He has to deal with them, they're encouraged.

-Sometimes while working in the background of the crusades & people come
in & see us in a sweater, no tie, etc. & they say, "Oh, I never thought
I'd see you like that." Sometimes people get a mental image & do not see
us as people. Somebody wrote in to Decision magazine: "Everything sounds
so good in Decision magazine that it becomes fairly unreal after while.
Maybe you should print the story of a loser who's still losing."

-One person said in a crusade, "The one thing I was afraid of, my
weakness, was the very thing that God used to meet the needs of my
people." He was an interim pastor for a year & he came to the meetings
in Canada, went back to his church having only 3 weeks more to go before
the new pastor was going to come & he shared how God dealt with him
through his weakness. In 3 weeks time he saw 3-4 people saved, now 4-5
are in Bible School who answered the call of full time service in those
3 weeks, when he had been there for a solid year & hardly had seen
anything happen--and now he saw more happen in the 3 weeks when he
shared out of weakness than the whole year put together.

-We had a lady speaker at one of our conferences who was a pastor's
wife, a wonderful, Godly woman, & she told of how perfect it was to be
in the ministry--a husband, & what a ministry God has given him, our
children have never given us a day's amount of trouble, & such a joy to
be

(NOTE: The beginning of SIDE 2 of this cassette tape is on page 12,
indicated above by the bold words, was asked about something relating to
his ministry...)

(How To Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 2, continued)

a pastor's wife, etc., & one woman came to Ralph & said, "That woman has
devastated me this morning, because everything was so perfect that I
could not cope with listening to it." Now she had raised 2 children, &
the 18 year old daughter had just kicked over the traces spiritually,
had grown up in the church & come along as a beautiful soloist, & just
in the previous 6 months decided she wanted a taste of the world. The
son is older & walking with God, a tremendous fellow.

Sometimes congregations put their pastor on a pedestal themselves, &
then get angry when the pastor falls off. And if he doesn't fall off,
God has to take him off. It's a paradox of the way it all happens in the
church.

When I say, relate to our weaknesses, there is a thin line as to what
you share & what you don't share. Learn how to be candid in what you
share, & yet discreet--that's the key. The flip-side of this is that
some men in the ministry & some people teaching in Sunday School class,
all they could talk about were the struggles they were going through.
And the people never seem to sense any victory in the process.

A perfect example is a pastor in Florida who was called of God through
our ministry when we were just in high school together. He has a church
of almost 2000 people, beautiful church, & is marvelous how God has used
him. We have seen him go from one church to the next, how they had to
build a larger church on. When we were with him in the older church for
a week of meetings, he'd say to me: "Ralph, you've got to pray for me
the whole week you're here." I said, "What's the trouble, Jim?" He'd
say, "I live in Rom. 7 the whole week when an evangelist is in my
church" (O wretched man that I am). "What's the trouble, Jim?" "There
are a lot of things I can't stand about it & I'll give you one: I can't
stand it when we're going to be at the back door of the church together,
& when the people come walking by to shake our hands after the service,
some of my best people are going to say, `Oh, brother Ralph, it's so
nice to have you here. We've waited for so long for someone to come &
give us the truth in this church,' or, `It's so wonderful that we now
can hear some messages that we can really relate to,' & I feel like
punching them in the nose." Talk about humanness. This is what he does
in that church: He'll get up & say, "I just want you to know that the
devil chased me all over town, Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday of this
week. He gave me fits. But I know some of you were praying for me,
because on Thursday God gave me the victory, & it's been a tremendous
time, & now I've been able to prepare the message for you for Sunday, &
it's just wonderful how God has released me. But the devil gave me fits
the first part of this week." He talks like that to his people. They say
that when that man goes to preaching the sermon after coming from the
stance of being human he is like a thundering Jeremiah in the pulpit, &
they sit on the edge of their seat & take in every word he says.

Some of you know Dr. Maxwell from San Diego. He started out in Ohio in
the Christian Union churches, & God has blessed his ministry to the
place where now he's got several thousand people who go to his church.
But the story is told about when he was asked to speak at the
International Wesley Youth Convention in Dec. of '82 at Urbana, Illinois
for the Wesleyan young people (expecting 7000 young people), & the
denomination was believing God that there would be approximately 1000
young people who would answer the call from God for full time Christian
service when he got done speaking. So he goes to this session, & he goes
to his hotel room, & he says, "God spoke to me. He says, John, do
nothing but read the Scripture because this service has already been
bathed so much in prayer. Do nothing. Just read the Scripture. And I
argued with God, What are these people going to think? I'm the guest
speaker with all these young people & you want me to do nothing but read
the Scripture? I thought, the least I could do is give an illustration.
So I gave an illustration, & it just `bombed'! I gave it because I
thought I'd help God out. When that bombed I thought I'd try it again, &
gave a second illustration, & it

(How To Communicate Divine Truth, Tape 2, continued)

bombed even worse. Then I did nothing but read the Scripture & prayed, &
gave an invitation, & 1500 young people responded." He has his sermons
that go out around the world on cassette, & he further said, "My sermon,
`My Greatest Flops & Failures' has sold more copies than all the rest of
his messages combined." God just needs to teach us how to be human, be
ourselves, let the Holy Spirit do His work in our hearts & lives. We
have seen churches where they have had the best & greatest of preachers,
& in the process lost people left & right because the ministry was to
the intellect & didn't catch the spirits of people, & the spirit of the
man was not caught, & the people couldn't relate even though in some of
those situations (& one specifically) they'll never have a better
preacher in their life, & they may never have a better pastor, but they
could not relate to him because they couldn't catch that humanness
necessary for people to enter in.

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