The Speech of the New Man, Part 2

Here is the speech of proclamation. Here is the Apostle Paul saying, pray for me that I may open my mouth and proclaim.

And by allusion here, not of course by a direct statement to us, we see that another element in the speech of the new man is the speech of proclamation. Maybe you remember a teacher who had a lot of don'ts for your class. Don't talk, don't leave your seat, don't chew gum.

And of course, rules are important, but when everything seems to fall into that don't do category, you might end up wondering, what am I supposed to do? Well, where your speech is concerned, John MacArthur is going to start taking you through a biblical to-do list today on Grace To You as he continues to look at the speech that should characterize you as a Christian. He's titled this convicting study, Taming the Tongue.

And now here's John MacArthur. Colossians chapter 4, verses 2 through 6. One of the greatest studies you'll ever make in the Bible is to study the mouth of Jesus and just go through the New Testament and catalog everything Jesus said. One that has meant a great deal to me is this one in Matthew 5, 2, and He opened His mouth and taught them.

That's a great thought, isn't it? He opened His mouth and out came instruction, Matthew 5, 2. And there are other things that we find about the mouth of Jesus.

They're in the book of Luke and there are many, but I'll just give you a couple of illustrations. And all bore Him witness, Luke 4, 22, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. He opened His mouth and taught. He opened His mouth and spoke with grace, graciously or gently or courteously, becomingly. In Luke chapter 11, verse 54, and Luke seems to be somewhat preoccupied with the words of Jesus, but in Luke 11, I think it's verse 54, it says that they were laying wait for Him and seeking to catch something out of His mouth that they might accuse Him.

And we all know that they never, ever were able to do it. And the New Testament tells us in the book of James that a man in whose mouth there is no deceit and who makes no error with his mouth is a perfect man. And Jesus never did make an error with His mouth. In John chapter 6 and verse 63, again in reference to the mouth of Jesus, says, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. In 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 22, again regarding the mouth of Jesus who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. He never said a word that would deceive anybody or trick anybody or hook anybody or cover up any truth. And that's just four little looks at the mouth of Jesus, or five.

You can study it for yourself and He's the model. So that the new man has a new mouth and he begins to speak with a new accent. He begins to lose the accent of the world.

Now what comes out of this new mouth? Well, four things that Paul deals with here in chapter 4 verses 2 to 6, and we mentioned one last time. The first distinct element in the speech of the new man is the speech of prayer, verse 2.

Let me read it again. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Now the first characteristic of the speech of the new man is prayer. The new man speaks to God.

Let's look at the second. The second element of speech is the speech not of prayer, but verse 3 and 4, the speech of proclamation, the speech of proclamation. The new man's mouth utters this. Notice verse 3. And Paul links it up with prayer as a prayer request.

Praying also for us that God would open to us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in prison, that I might make it manifest as I ought to speak. Twice you see the word speak. Once you see the word utterance.

Once you see the word manifest. And here is the speech of proclamation. Here is the apostle Paul saying, pray for me that I may open my mouth and proclaim.

And by allusion here, not of course by a direct statement to us, we see that another element in the speech of the new man is the speech of proclamation. Notice the phrase at the end of verse 3, for which I am also in prison or bonds. Paul at this particular point in his life, and I'll give you a little background of the book of Acts.

Let's look at it just very briefly. Look at Acts 21 and let's see how Paul got to the place where he is. In Acts 21 verse 27, Paul had come to Jerusalem and boy, it had been a long trip getting there and it had been a very arduous one. He had very lovingly collected money all over the Gentile world to give to the poor saints and to try to conciliate the Jews in the church there with the Gentile believers.

And he had done some great, great things to get over the hump of getting this thing accomplished. And he finally arrived with great joy in Jerusalem and no sooner had he gotten there than all chaos broke loose. Verse 27, after the seven days of a vow he was involved in, it ended nearly. The Jews of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up the people, laid hands on him, crying out, men of Israel, help. This is the man that teaches all men everywhere against the people and the law and this place, that is the temple.

And further, he brought Greeks into the temple and has polluted the holy place, which of course is not true. It simply says they had seen him in the city with Trophimus and Ephesian and they supposed Paul had brought him to the temple. And all the city was moved and the people ran together and took Paul and drew him out of the temple and at once the doors were shut. And they went about to kill him, verse 31.

Well, that was the beginning of the imprisonment of Paul. He was taken as a prisoner there, kept in prison, made a defense. He finally was delivered out of Jerusalem because it was too dangerous for them because of the plots to kill him. He was taken to Caesarea, which was on the coast and Caesarea was the Roman-occupied city where they'd set up their rule for the land. He was there for a while and he gave some great speeches there defending himself to Felix and Festus and Agrippa. And finally realizing he wasn't going to get anywhere there, he appealed to Rome and they put him on a ship and sent him to Rome.

Remember that? And on the journey to Rome he went through all that tremendous problem at sea, the shipwreck, and further on in the book as you get into chapter 27 you read about that. Finally in chapter 28 he arrives in Rome. Now when we get him to Rome, it tells us a little bit about what happened to him in relation to his being a prisoner.

Look at verse 16 of 28, Acts 28 16. And when we came to Rome, the centurion, that would be a soldier over a hundred men, delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard. Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. Apparently Paul was allowed a hired house or a rented house in which he was kept prisoner and tied to a soldier or soldiers that would come and go and guard him. Verse 30 of the same chapter, and Paul dwelt two years, two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him.

All right, now you can go back to Colossians. So we find the apostle Paul in that two-year imprisonment when he writes the book of Colossians. He uses his chains as a means to accomplish his ministry.

Gets a lot of letter writing done because he's not doing much traveling. And another thing he gets a lot of done is a lot of evangelizing of soldiers. The soldiers that came and went were no doubt evangelized. He says in Philippians 1 13, he also wrote Philippians during the same two years, so that my bonds or my chains in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places.

He says, this is the greatest platform I've ever had. They just keep sending me soldiers, they keep winning them to Christ, sending them back, and they keep winning others. And crowds of people were coming to his own hired house and he was preaching the gospel. Philippians 4 22 says, All the saints greet you chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. He had even won some of the people in Caesar's household. Now if you were to go backwards again to the last verse of the book of Acts, Acts 28 31, it says this, During the two whole years he was preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence and this great statement, no man forbidding Him. For two years, with imprisonment as a platform, he preached and taught and the prayer request in chapter 4 was answered so that he had an open door and nobody during that whole time ever forbid him to preach. All the time of his bondage was a time of proclamation. In Acts 21, when he was first taken prisoner, he gave a great sermon before the mob.

Read it, it's a masterpiece. In Acts 26, before Herod Agrippa, he gave another great message concerning the truth, including his wonderful testimony of his conversion. In Acts chapter 28, when he arrived as a prisoner in his own house, the first thing he did was call all the Jews together so he could evangelize them to start with.

And he called them all to his house in Acts 28 17 and they had a great time of Jewish evangelism to start off his imprisonment. The man never had a negative thought in his mind. Everything was only an opportunity. He was always proclaiming.

The only time his voice was silent was when the axe cut his head off. What a great lesson. There are no negative circumstances, only unique opportunities. It was a strategic thing in the city of Rome. You know, the golden days of Rome were gone. The dictators had gradually usurped all the power of the people and the republic was dead. Despotism ruled and the worst of them all was ruling at this time a man by the name of Nero. And when the Apostle Paul arrived in Rome, Nero would have been around 25 years old and he would already have been responsible for the bloody murder of his mother, Agrippina, and most assuredly he had also by this time murdered his wife, Octavia. In the middle of all of this stood the temple of Jupiter and the false worship that went on there.

And on the Palatine were the three great palaces of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula and they had been all lumped together to form the one home for Nero. And Rome had become the center of decadence and paganism. There were approximately two million people living in the city. More than half of them, one million or better, were slaves. And historians tell us that of the rest, 700 were senators, 10,000 were knights, 15,000 were soldiers, and the majority of the rest were poor, thousands of whom slept in the streets because they had no homes.

And into this melee and into this debauchery and into this problem area dropped this little Jewish bomb. And even though he was a prisoner and even though he was locked up in his own house, that never hindered his proclamation at all. During this time he wrote Colossians. During this time he wrote Ephesians. During this time he wrote Philippians. During this time he wrote Philemon.

It was a productive time. And so he says here, praying also for us that God would get us out of this. No, you don't see that. He didn't pray for where his body was, he only prayed that his mouth would have an effect. So he says, pray for us that God will open to us a door of what? Of utterance, of speech, to speak the mystery of Christ.

Pray for us is kind of nice. The plural pronoun means he probably was including some of his buddies who were with him. And if you look at the end of chapter 4, you'll see a list of names. And at one time or another, those dear co-workers of Paul were with him. And so he's saying, pray for us and especially that we would speak the mystery of Christ.

It's a man with one thing in his mind, one thing, and that was to speak. Why pray for Paul? That God would open to us a door of utterance.

Literally the Greek says, a door for the Word, a door for the Word. In Ephesians 6, 19, a similar prayer. He writes to the Ephesians.

Of course, he wrote this book at the same period of time, so it has much similarity. He says in Ephesians 6, 19, pray for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Pray for me that I might be bold. Pray for me that a door for the Word might be opened up.

This man was aware that he was on the battleground in the forefront, out in the trenches fighting as an infantryman. He didn't ask to pray for his personal needs. He didn't say, pray for me that I'll hold up under the stress. He didn't say, pray for me that I get released from prison. He just said, pray for me that I'll open my mouth and find a door for the Word. Boldness.

Nothing's really changed, people. You go all the way back to the book of Acts, and when the church was born, the first prayer meeting they ever had in which the events of the prayer meeting and the requests they prayed for are recorded is recorded in Acts chapter 4, verse 29. They had other prayer meetings. The first time we know what they prayed for is Acts 4, 29. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings. Lord, the whole town's after our hide. And grant unto Thy servants that we may get out of this mess alive.

Nope, didn't say that. Grant to Thy servants that with all boldness they may speak Thy Word. In verse 31, when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness.

And the multitude of those that believed were of one heart and one mind. The first time we know a prayer request of the early church, it's a prayer for utterance. It's a prayer for boldness. It's a prayer for proclamation. The mouth of the new man should speak the gospel. I've often said that Christians unfortunately are like the arctic river, frozen over at the mouth. Somehow, because of some inhibition, because of some fears, we are lost to the effort of evangelism unless we are poked and jabbed and prodded continually.

I know how Paul feels because I fight the same battle. How you desire above everything else that there would be a door for the Word of God, that you would have an opportunity to speak, and you have this terrible fear that in your own strength you can't do it. It's like Moses. And God said, Moses, speak for me. And Moses says, I can't, I stutter.

What am I going to do? And God says, who made your mouth? In other words, God says, if I had made it, I can make it work.

Just trust me. And Jeremiah had the same problem. Jeremiah said, if you think I'm going to get involved in this ministry, if you think I'm going to get involved in this ministry by myself, you've got another thing coming. Ah, Lord God, I can't speak, he said. God says, don't worry about it.

I can do it through you. And so, Paul is saying, look, I can't do it on my own. So, the Lord's going to have to provide a door for the Word. Now, a door in the New Testament means an opportunity. In the ninth verse of 1 Corinthians 16, Paul says, I'll tarry at Ephesus till Pentecost, for a great door and effectual is open to me. In other words, he says, I'm going to stick around Ephesus, it's too good here. I mean, the door is wide open and the door means opportunity. The reason he lingered in Ephesus for so long a time, well over two years, in Nihon 3, was because the opportunity was so great.

A door is open for me. Now, God had closed some doors in Paul's life. If you read Acts 16, he started to go into Asia Minor and the Spirit stopped him. He started to go into Bithynia and the Spirit stopped him.

So the Lord had closed doors and Paul knew that, but the Lord had also opened doors. He was closed to the east because he'd just been there. He was closed to the south because the Spirit stopped him. He was closed to the north and the only way to go was to the west. And he got to the west and he got to the Aegean Sea and he said, Now what, Lord?

And a man of Macedonia came in a vision and said, Come on over and help us. And God opened the door. So he was used to God opening and closing doors of opportunity.

And you see, that's God's business. Paul says, Just pray that God will give me an open door for the Word. You know, beloved, that's really all you need to pray about if you've got the courage to do it. Just pray for open doors. Pray for opportunities.

It takes a little courage to do that because you're going to get them if you do, and you're going to feel responsible. It's God's business to open doors. In Revelation chapter 3, verse 7, it says this, To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he that opens.

That's Christ. And no man shuts and shuts and no man opens. When the Lord shuts the door, it's shut. When the Lord opens the door, it's open.

He says, I know your works. I have set before you an open door. God gave him an open door and said, Nobody will shut it if I open it. You've got an open door for the Word. All I'm asking you to do is proclaim it. People, we have an open door, don't we? There's no man that can forbid us to preach, is there? There's no law to stop us.

There's nothing to prevent it except our own indolence, our own unfaithfulness, our own self-will. In Acts chapter 12, Rome had padlocked the prison doors and set a guard on Peter, but the Lord opened them because the Lord wanted him to preach. In Acts 14, Paul was beaten and stoned at Lystra, but God raised him up and sent him back into town because He wanted him to preach.

He returned to his brethren at Antioch and he testified to the church there that all that God had done with them and how He had opened the door to the Gentiles. God has opened the door for us. It's up to us to open our mouths and speak. The speech of the new man is a speech of proclamation. You know, you've got to push a little bit.

I mean, the door may be open, but you might have to just kind of push it aside. A young country boy came to apply for a job in the big city. He was awed by this big building that he went in, and he went into the prospective employer, sat down for his interview, and the employer said, do you have a motto in life, young man? Yes, sir.

Same as yours, he said. Well, what do you mean, son? Saw it on the door, sir. Push. It's a good motto. Push, might be open.

You'll find out if it isn't. And Paul is shoving here and he says, God, I hope this is open. Notice the word utterance there in Colossians really means word.

He is saying an open door for the word. I love the fact that Paul never bothered to share his opinion. Paul always taught the word. And what about it was he teaching? Well, look at verse 3, to speak the mystery of Christ. And we've studied enough to know what the mystery of Christ is. It's all the gospel and all that it embodies, all those sacred secrets hidden in the Old Testament, revealed in the New. All the truths about Jesus Christ, that He indwells the believer, that's the mystery of the indwelling Christ in Colossians 1, 26 and 27. That He is God incarnate, that's the mystery of the incarnation, Colossians 2, 2 and 3. The mystery of the rapture, that Jesus is going to return for His church, 1 Corinthians 15, 51 and 52. The mystery of the bride, that He's going to unite Himself with us in an eternal way as the bride and object of His love, Ephesians 5. The mystery of iniquity that He's going to come and put an end to, the fullness of sin, 2 Thessalonians 2, 7. All of those sacred secrets are revealed in the New Testament in the gospel of Christ, the mystery of the one church, Jew and Gentile, one in Him. In other words, Paul says, pray for me that I may have a door for the word to speak the full truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So important. He says in verse 4, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Notice the word ought. He had a divine ought in his life. Read Romans chapter 1. He says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes the Jew first and also to the heathen. Earlier he had said, I must speak. I am compelled to speak.

I am a debtor, remember that, to Jew and Gentile. And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, that great passage where he says, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. He doesn't care about liberty for his feet if he has liberty for his mouth. And he wants to do it right. I want to do it the way it ought to be done. I want to make it manifest the way it ought to be made manifest.

I want to speak the fullness of that mystery. Listen, beloved, God wants you to proclaim Christ, but He wants you to proclaim Christ as it ought to be done. And I see two thoughts in that phrase, I ought to speak. That's the ought of doing it and that's the ought of speaking it the way it ought to be spoken.

I'm afraid sometimes that a good message proclaimed in a bad way will do just about as much as a bad message. Paul wants prayer about his own motivation to speak the way he should and about doing it right to speak the way he should speak about the gospel. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John calls his practical study on what the speech of a Christian should look like, taming the tongue. And along with his radio ministry, John is also chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. And John, you said a moment ago that the right message presented poorly is the right message to speak about the gospel. And John, you said a moment ago that the right message presented poorly will probably not be effective. And I know a lot of people who are hesitant to share the gospel, and the reason they give for that is this, well, I'm not eloquent, I'm not a gifted speaker. But of course, John, there is something that's even worse than a bad presentation of an accurate message, right?

John MacArthur Well, yeah, it would be an inaccurate presentation of the truth or an unclear presentation of the truth. I think what holds people back, two things. One is they're not confident in articulating the gospel.

You need to develop the ability to give the gospel. The second thing is they assume that it's going to be some kind of an intrusion, and they're going to get an immediate sort of resistance to it. And I think you overcome that by looking—and this is very important—by looking for common ground. One of the things that bothers me about many of the contemporary approaches to evangelism is it's this canned approach. You walk up to a person and you throw out this little formula, maybe it's the law, and you throw out commandments, and do you do this, do you break this, and what do you think is going to happen?

And this is very confronted, this is very hard to do, and you've really never established something that I think is really important, and that is common ground. You don't find that in the Bible. You don't find in the New Testament any formulaic presentation of the gospel. Every gospel conversation in the New Testament is different.

It's different because there's got to be common ground. You've got to find a way to walk with someone on a path of common interest until finally it deviates when you get to the point of the gospel. Our Lord went through his ministry having conversations with people. None of those multiple conversations recorded in Scripture is the same as the other one. The woman at the well, the rich young ruler, the Pharisees, whoever it was, it always started with him finding a common issue to deal with. The same is true for us as we evangelize. You find it even in the book of Acts with the evangelism of the apostles. When they were talking to Jews, they went to the Old Testament. When they're talking to Gentiles, they went back to creation or something common on Mars Hill, the idol to the unknown God.

Who is this unknown God? And you start there. So you need to have the ability when you get to the gospel to make the gospel clear, and you need to sensitively look to find a point of common ground where you can walk together at least a little way down the path in something with which you agree. Rather than confronting on an adversarial level. You don't want to be unclear, you don't want to be inaccurate, and we want to help you with that. We want to offer a book called Nothing But the Truth. Nothing But the Truth. If you're wondering how can I present the truth, this book will train you to do that.

Okay? Lots of discussion questions, application exercises, and prayer suggestions. Get a copy of Nothing But the Truth available from Grace to You. Yes, and friend, this thoroughly documented book can help you know right where to turn in Scripture for the truth you need to share with unbelievers.

The title again, Nothing But the Truth. To order yours, contact us today. Our number here, 855-GRACE, and our website, gty.org. John's book, Nothing But the Truth, will show you why there's only one road to heaven, and help you tell others about that narrow path with love, and yet without compromise. Again, to order a copy, call 800-55-GRACE, or go to our website, gty.org. And to learn even more about evangelism, God's design for the church, or any other biblical topic, let me encourage you to download our app. It's simply called the Study Bible. It's a free app that gives you the full text of Scripture in the English Standard, King James, or New American Standard versions, along with access to thousands of free online resources. And for a small price, you can add the notes from the MacArthur Study Bible. That's an additional 25,000 notes that will enrich your study. The Study Bible app is free to download. Just go to gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you to be here tomorrow, when John looks at how the Bible commands us to speak, and how your words can draw others to Christ. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.