God Is a Spirit
In John 4:24, Jesus grounds everything the New Testament teaches about the worship of God in the truth that God is a Spirit. What does it mean that God is a Spirit and why is that so important?
In the worship of God, God’s spirituality means especially that He is invisible. Not only is He not seen but He is so great and so glorious that He cannot be seen. Just as our mortal eyes cannot “look at” the sun, so no man can behold the glory of God and live (I Tim. 6:16—note the word “can”).
All we shall ever “see” of God is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, in whom dwells all the glory of the Godhead bodily (II Cor. 4:6; Col. 2:9). “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father,” Jesus says.
This is crucial for the worship of God.
First, because God is a Spirit He cannot be worshipped with images of any kind, either graven by hand or conceived in the heart and mind of man. Who can make an image of the unseen God? And if an image is made, how can it be anything but a lie?
If this is true then every false doctrine, every ill-spoken word about HIM is also a graven image that falls short of His glory. Be careful then what you say and think of Him in your worship.
Second, because He is a Spirit He must be worshipped only in and through the word, for that is where He reveals His glory in Christ. This is what Jesus means when He says, “They that worship him must worship him … in truth.”
That truth must be the content of our worship but it must also be the rule for our worship. The Scripture of truth regulates both what we do in worship and how we do it. How can man decide the content and way of worshipping a God whom he has never seen?
Third, because God is a Spirit He must be worshipped from the heart and not by mere outward rites. Worship “in spirit” in John 4:24 does not mean “through the Holy Spirit” but is the opposite of all that is outward, fleshly and carnal.
How often all this is forgotten today. All sorts of things are substituted for truth in worship, and in place of spiritual worship is found mere outward formality or a nauseating display of fleshly and carnal things that is little more than worldly entertainment.
Pray then that the Father, by the power of His sovereign grace, may teach many that He is Spirit and so find many true worshippers to worship Him in spirit and in truth in these days of idolatry and neglect. Rev. Hanko
God the Saviour of All Men (1)
“For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe” (I Tim. 4:10).
This text, along with others like it, has often been quoted in support of “the free and general offer of the gospel,” which teaches that God desires the salvation of all men. The text says, so it is argued, that God is the Saviour of all men.
Those who regularly receive our newsletter know that the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church in Northern Ireland firmly believe that God does not desire the salvation of all men but that God wills the salvation of His elect only.
But how is this text of Scripture, part of the infallible word of God, to be explained?
Two more general remarks ought to be made before we explain what the verse teaches.
The first remark is this: whatever else the text may teach, it does not teach that God desires to save all men. The text does not say that God desires the salvation of all men. It says rather, “God is the Saviour of all men.” Those, therefore, who want to use this as a universal text must remember that they would also have to conclude that all men are saved. In the end every man who ever lived will be saved, no man will be lost, none would go to hell, all because God is the Saviour of all men.
The second remark has to do with the text as a whole. We must remember that the clause that causes so much dispute is not the main thought of the verse. The main thought is found in Paul’s statement to Timothy: “Therefore, we both labour and suffer reproach.” Paul is reminding Timothy of what they endured for the sake of the gospel. They toiled with great weariness, spending themselves in the work of the ministry. They endured the reproach of those who hated the gospel and brought suffering upon them for their faithfulness to it.
Why were they willing to do this?
They were willing to labour to the point of overwhelming weariness and they were willing to suffer in the cause of the gospel because their trust was in the living God—so the text emphatically states.
But how was their trust in the living God the incentive to labour and suffer reproach?
Paul answers that question in the words, “Who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” So the text teaches that these men, and all faithful ministers, are willing to exhaust themselves in the cause of the gospel and endure every persecution because they know that God will save all men, especially those who believe.
Having put the disputed statement in its context, we are now in a position to ask: what does that statement mean?
If one studies the history of interpretation one discovers that orthodox and Reformed commentators differ in how they explain the text. Basically these commentators take two different positions, both of which are plausible.
One group appeals to the fact that the word “Saviour” can also mean “Preserver” or “Sustainer.” These men would translate the clause, “… God, who is the Preserver of all men, specially of those that believe.” Their idea is to stress the truth of God’s providence: God, who creates every man, also sustains each man by the word of His power. But He is specially the Sustainer or Preserver of believers.
Another group concentrates on the word “specially.” These men prefer to translate “specially” as “namely” or “that is.” Then the meaning would be, “God is the Saviour of all men, namely, of those who believe.” The text would then teach that “all men” means “all kinds of men”: men from every nation, class in society, tribe and language. These would take “Saviour” as meaning salvation from sin and death and the bestowal of blessedness in heaven.
Both translations are possible and both interpretations seem plausible.
We shall wait with examining them until the next issue of the News. Prof. Hanko
What Is Preaching?
A reader sent the following related questions: “What is the definition of ‘preach’?” “Would drama fit this definition?” “Should drama be used in the preaching of the gospel?” and “What should we think of ‘creative evangelism’?”
The first question is the most important. What we say about the use of drama in preaching and about “creative evangelism” depends on how we define preaching. The real question, therefore, is: how does the Bible define preaching?
Scripture uses two words for preaching. The first, from which we get the word “evangelize,” means literally “to bring good news” or “to announce glad tidings.” The other word means “to be a messenger” or “to herald.”
Both words tell us that the preacher is not his own man. He is only a servant. Nor is the preacher’s message his own (II Cor. 4:5). However interesting and informative his own ideas may be, he has no business bringing anything but the message God has given him. That message is found in Scripture.
This means: 1) the only proper kind of preaching is expository preaching in which the Scriptures are faithfully explained in their context, 2) a pulpit is not a political or social forum but a place where all the truth of Scripture is taught and 3) the preacher’s message is essentially always the same: “Christ crucified” (I Cor. 2:2; II Cor. 4:5). That is the message, the “good news.” A sermon without Christ is no sermon.
Think of a herald. When there were such, their only business was to tell the people exactly what the king wanted them to know. If they added anything to the words of the king or left anything out they ceased to be faithful heralds.
Here lies a great fault with much preaching today. Too much of the great King’s message is left out because the heralds (preachers) have decided it is too hard or too uninteresting for the people. Too much of the herald’s own ideas, especially about political and social issues, are added, while the people remain largely ignorant of the King’s message as it is found completely and sufficiently in the Scriptures.
Most errors regarding preaching, though, follow from a misunderstanding of the purpose of preaching. At best most seem to think that preaching is merely the imparting of information from Scripture or an “offer” God makes to sinners. But preaching is far more than that. Through it God efficaciously (powerfully) calls His people to salvation (II Cor. 4:6). Through it Christ speaks to us (John 10:3, 27-28; Rom. 10:14).
Gospel preaching is therefore “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16; I Cor. 1:18, 24) and the means of faith (Rom. 10:17). More than that, because God speaks through the preaching it is always used either for salvation or for hardening (II Cor. 2:15–16).
For true preaching there is no substitute. Drama is not a substitute for preaching. It is not the “heralding” of the good news. Moreover it has no place in the worship services at all since the word of God regulates our worship by prescribing exactly what we may do in worship. “Creative evangelism,” which tries to use drama and other such things in presenting the gospel, ceases to be evangelism when it does so.
We need more true gospel preaching and less of the nonsense that so often passes for preaching today. Rev. Hanko
