I. The Life of the Man of God in Relationship to God
Introduction
2 Tim 2:15a
2 Cor. 2:17
1 Cor. 4:1-5
A. Spiritually: You must strive to maintain a real, expanding, varied, and original acquaintance with God and His ways.
James Stalker, The Preacher and His Models (New York: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891), pp. 54-55.
1. The following headings exegete this statement.
a. Strive to maintain
1 Cor. 9:24-27
b. Acquaintance with God and His ways
Job 22:21
Ps. 139:3
c. Real
Jn. 17:3
1 Jn. 1:1-3
1 Kings 17:1
d. Expanding
2 Cor. 3:18
2 Pet. 3:18
Acts 26:16
Phil. 3:10
e. Varied
The broad spectrum of spiritual experience in the Psalms See Ps. 23 as a specimen example
James Stalker, The Preacher and His Models (New York: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891), pp. 53-54.
f. Original
James Stalker, The Preacher and His Models (New York: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891), pp. 109-110;
Thomas Murphy, Pastoral Theology (Audubon, NJ: Old Paths Publications, 1996), pp. 38-40.
2. Some vital observations concerning the means for attaining and maintaining this acquaintance with God and His ways
a. These means are integrated and interdependent.
b. These means are basic and foundational.
c. These means are ultimately useful only because of their divinely ordained function in enabling us to draw upon the fullness of life and grace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Col. 3:4
Gal. 2:20
Jn. 6:53-58
Jn. 15:1ff
Jn. 1:15-16
3. The ordinary context within which we cultivate this acquaintance with God and His ways
a. For God’s people in general, and especially for the man of God in particular, the context of a growing acquaintance with God is that of suffering, tribulation, affliction, temptation and opposition.
Octavius Winslow, The Precious Things of God (Ligonier, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1993), pp. 270-273.
b. Specimens of the scriptural proof of this
Acts 14:22
Jn. 16:33
Mt. 5:10-12
Ps. 119:67, 71
Heb. 12:5-11
2 Cor. 1:3-9
Jas. 1:2-4
Heb. 5:8-9