Alan Dunn

It’s my delight to be with you once again this year. Last year, when we were together, I was assigned the topic of the priorities of the pastor. And this year I’m going to resume on that subject picking up where we left off. Last year, we considered the priorities of the pastor in relation to himself, the care of the pastor to himself and then we saw the priority of the pastor in relation to his family and then we invested two studies on the priority of worship.

This year we’re going to consider the priority of preaching, in this hour,
and then the priority of prayer and then the priority of shepherding and,
lastly, the priority of our witness to the world.

In this hour we look then, to the priority of preaching.

Charles Spurgeon writes, “We want again Luthers, Bunyans, Calvins,
Whitfields, men who are fit to mark their errors, whose names breathe terror
into our enemies ears.[”?] We have dire need of such men, from where will
they come? They are gifts of Christ to the church and will come in due time. He
has given—He has power to give us back again a golden age of preachers, a
time as fertile of great divines and mighty ministers as was the puritan age.
And when the good old truth was once again preached by men whose lips are
touched as with a life coal from off the altar. This shall be the instrument in
the hand of the Spirit for bringing about a great and thorough revival of
religion in the land. I do not look for any other means of converting men
beyond the simple preaching of the gospel and the opening of men’s ears to
hear it. The moment the church of God shall despise the pulpit, God will
despise her. It has been through the ministry of preaching that the Lord has
always been pleased to revive and bless His churches.”

Pastor Meadows is going to be focusing in his survey on 2nd Timothy with
our stewardship of the gospel and the content of that gospel. My focus in this
hour is more as to the method by which that gospel is to be communicated
and so we’re going to survey several passages as to what the Bible has to say
about this method, the method of preaching.

So we look first of all at the priority of preaching in the history of God’s
people. We want to look to the ancient past for a moment and recognize God’s
dealings with His people has always been through preachers. We read of
Enoch in Genesis chapter 5 and verse 24 that he walked with God and he was
not for God took him. God demonstrated His power over death in His dealings
with Enoch. A very mysterious man, a significant man, and Jude tells us in Jude
1 and verse 14 that Enoch was a preacher.

Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied or preached,
says Jude in June [Jude] 1:14 and his message is that of judgment, that God
would come to exercise judgment. We look at the Old Testament character of
Noah, we both, most remember him for his constructing of the arc, but Peter
tells us in 2nd Peter 2:5 that he was a preacher of righteousness.
Abraham, whose life is given to us again in the pages of Genesis. We read
in Genesis 18:19, “I have chosen him in order that he may command his
children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing
righteousness and justice in order that the Lord may bring upon Abraham
what he has spoken about him. Abraham was entrusted with the word of God
that he commanded to his family and his family, his household, consisted of
several hundred people. In Genesis 14, we are told that from his household,
three hundred eighteen men were raised to fight against the four kings.
He commanded his children and his household to keep the way of the
Lord, Abraham is said in Genesis chapter 20 and verse 7 to be a prophet.
Abraham was a preacher of the Word of God.

Likewise, Moses was a preacher. He received words from God and then
proclaimed those words to the Israelites. Much of the Pentateuch, the first five
books of the Bible records the words of Moses to the children of Israel. He
preached to the assembled people of God.

When we consider the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
Jonah, Amos, Haggai, Malachai, Habbakuk. We look at these men and see
something common to each one. Although they lived in different situations
and ministered in different circumstances, they were each preachers,
proclaimers of the Word of God.

We turn in our Bibles to the first of several passages that I want us now to
see and read from Scripture when we consider the ministry of John the Baptist
in Mark chapter 1 and verse 4. Mark 1 and verse 4. John the Baptist appeared
in the Wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.
The ordinance of Baptism defined John’s ministry. That was the activity that
characterized John. He is called the Baptist, but his ministry was that of a
preacher. He was one who preached a baptism of repentance for forgiveness
of sins.

When we look at our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we know that the
supreme purpose for which He came was to make atonement for our sins by
His death on the cross and His triumph over death in the resurrection, His
victory over Satan as our deliverer, but the ministry of Jesus made priority of
preaching.

In Mark chapter 1, we read in verse 14 and 15, “Now after John had been
taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and
saying, ‘The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and
believe the gospel.”

Jesus came preaching. Again, chapter 1, verse 38 of Mark’s gospel. “Jesus
said to them, ‘Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby so that I may
preach there also, for that is what I came for and he went into their
synagogues throughout Galilee, preaching and casting out demons.”
Jesus’ works of power were demonstrations of validating, validating the
Word that He was proclaiming.

In Luke chapter 4 we’re given the message of Christ to His home town of
Nazareth. We read in verse 18 and 19 that which is His Messianic mandate
derived from the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because
He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to
proclaim to the captives, release to the captives and recovery of sight to the
blind. to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of
the Lord.” Jesus’ ministry is one of proclamation, it is one of preaching and the
gospels record to us many of Jesus sermons.

In Matthew chapter 7 we come to the conclusion of the Sermon on the
Mount and we read the final words in verse 28 and verse 29, “When Jesus had
finished these words the crowds were amazed at His teaching for He was
teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes. The people were
astonished, not only at what He said but the way in which He said it, the
method of His communication. It was a manifestation of power. It was a
manifestation of authority.

Those in John 7, verse 46, who were sent to capture Jesus were met up by
His preaching. They heard Him preaching and they returned empty handed
and they said, “Never did a man speak in the way that this man speaks.”
When He was brought before Pilate in John 18, He tells Pilate in verse 37,
“For this I have been born and for this I have come into the world to bear
witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
To bear witness to the truth requires a voice. It is describing Jesus
preaching ministry, a ministry of words that made men accountable to God
having heard His witness to the truth.

Jesus was a preacher and He commissioned His apostles, likewise, to be
preachers.

Again, in the gospel of Mark chapter 3, Mark 3, verse 14 and 15. “And He
appointed twelve so that they would be with Him and that He could send them
out to preach and to have authority to cast out demons.”
The powers of darkness are attacked through the medium of preaching
the gospel.

When we come to the ministry of these men in the book of Acts, we
turn to Acts chapter 1 reading from verse 8. “You will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be My witnesses both in
Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samara, Samaria and even to the remotest part
of the earth.”

To be a witness is to take responsibility for the message, for the Word, to
preach this gospel and this, indeed, becomes the focus of apostolic ministry.
In Acts chapter 2 we see Peter doing what? He is preaching. We notice, in
verse 14, Peter taking his stand “with the eleven raised his voice and declared
to them.”

Peter proclaims a message, he preaches a sermon, a sermon derived from
three Old Testament texts with three main points in his sermon, the
application driving to men’s consciences to bring them to faith in Christ Jesus.
We read verse 40, “and with many other words he solemnly testified and kept
on exhorting them saying, be saved from this perverse generation.”

When Acts chapter 2 is considered and the only thing recognized there is
that people spoke in tongues, you’re not seeing what the Spirit has given to us
in Acts chapter 2. It is a record of a sermon. It is the account of a preacher who
opens the Word of God and preaches from Joel and preaches from the Psalms
and declares Christ crucified, risen and urges men to repentance and faith.
In Acts chapter 3 the Lord uses Peter to heal a lame man and what does
that bring? An opportunity for preaching, the second sermon recorded in Acts
chapter 3. It’s described for us in Acts 4 and verse 2. What was it that was
preached? They were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the
resurrection from the dead. They were teaching; they were proclaiming.
Peter’s preaching was then opposed by the Sanhedrin. In Acts chapter 4
reading in verse 18:

“And when they had summoned them they commanded them not to speak or to teach at all in the name of Jesus, but Peter and John answered and said to them, ‘whether it is right in the sight of God to heed to you or rather to God, you be the judge for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.’”

Peter realizes that it is his preaching that is being opposed and he
determines to be obedient to God even in the face of opposing authorities and
resolves to continue speaking to continue bearing witness so in Acts 4, verse
33, “with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus and abundant grace was upon them all.”

I have come to bear witness. You are My witnesses. Proclaim. Declare.
Preach. Teach. Give testimony.

The preaching brought on more persecution. In Acts chapter 5 verse 42, in
the midst of the opposition and persecution we read, “And everyday in the
temple and from house to house they kept right on teaching and preaching
Jesus as the Christ.”

Satan here then changes his strategy. He’s not able to shut them up by
opposition and persecution so in chapter 6, he decides to distract them and
attempt to silence them by a good reason that they might neglect preaching
having been caught up in other legitimate kingdom pursuits. We read in Acts
chapter 6, “Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number a
complaint arose from the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native
Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of
food. So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is
not desirable for us to neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables.
Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation full
of the Spirit and of wisdom whom we may put in charge of this task, but we
will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. The
statement found approval with the whole congregation and they chose
Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus,
and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.
And these they brought before the apostles and after praying, they laid
their hands on them.”

The apostles here were wise enough to see the importance of ministering
to the needy widows among them. They do not neglect that need, but rather
direct the congregation to recognize men who are servants who will be able
then to take responsibility to meet that need for this is a necessary gospel
concern, a necessary church ministry, but as necessary as that ministry is, it
cannot distract from the preaching of the Word of God. It cannot displace the
attentions of the apostles and cause them to neglect the Word of God in order
to give themselves to these very good and legitimate concerns so the apostles
maintain the priority of preaching and they don’t allow even a good and
necessary thing to distract them from the Word of God.

Luke tells us the result of that decision, verse 7, “The Word of God kept on
spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in
Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the
faith.” The Word of God kept on spreading.” That is Luke’s way of describing
the success of the preaching of the Word of God: the Word of God being
proclaimed publicly from house to house, testifying, preaching, witnessing, all
of these vocabulary that describe the Word being advanced.

We look at the example of the apostle Paul when he describes his ministry
among the Ephesians in Acts chapter 20, look at the words, look at his
vocabulary and notice in Acts chapter 20, beginning in verse 18, how many
ways he describes verbal declaration, proclamation of the Word of God. When
the elders from Ephesus arrive at Miletus, they came to Paul and he said to
them, “You yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia how I was
with you the whole time serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and
with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not
shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you
publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to you to both Jews and
Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul says, “Remember when I first came among you. What is it that stands
out in your mind when you saw me in the public setting, when you saw me
privately from house to house, where were your eyes focused? My lips,” said
Paul, “my lips, they were always moving. I was declaring, I was teaching. I was
solemnly testifying, I was endeavoring at every point to get the words into
your ears through verbal proclamation.”

Verse 24, “I did not consider my life of any account as dear to myself so
that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord
Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. Here is Paul’s focus,
here is his priority, to testify of the gospel of the grace of God.

Verse 25, “Behold, I know that,” “Behold I know that all of you among
whom I went about preaching the kingdom will no longer see my face.” I went
about preaching.

And again, verse 27, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole
purpose of God.”

Paul describes his ministry at every point, public, private, from the
beginning all the way through the end, all to the end of his life, what he’s going
to do is preach, declare, proclaim, testify, teach, instruct, constant, continued,
verbal communication of the Word of God.

When he comes to the last letter of his life, when he now stands on the
brink of eternity, what does he define himself to be?

2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 11, we saw it this morning, how does he
describe himself? Verse 11, “I was was appointed a preacher and an apostle
and a teacher.”

Here is my ministry. It is a ministry of proclamation. It is a ministry of
declaration. It is a life that is given to a particular kind of communication:
preaching, preaching.

When we turn from our Bibles to consider, secondly, the history of the
church and I, I cannot presume to survey the history of the church in its
centuries, but I submit to you, brethren, to think for a moment of a time in the
history of the church that attracts your attention.

Think for a moment of some period in the history of the church that has
peculiar interest to you and I will venture to say whatever you’re happening
to think about right now you can associate that period of history with
preaching, you can name someone in the early church who was useful and
significant because of the foolishness of preaching.

You think of the Reformation and you can think of men who were
powerful in the pulpit, men who opened the Word of God and proclaimed it.
You think of the Great Awakening. you think of the Second Great Awakening;
you think of the of the movements of the Spirit in revival, regional, national,
and what do you see in your mind’s eye? You see a pulpit and you see a
preacher.

Whenever God has been pleased in history to advance the gospel, He has
done so through preaching. It’s our prayer in this place that the Spirit would
come upon us and enable us to be mouthpieces for the God who lives, the God
who speaks, the God who has given us a book, the God who has given us
words that we might be His heralds, His proclaimers, preachers in our day.
Consider with me the priority of preaching in the life of God’s people. The
priority of preaching in the life of God’s people. The church as a community is
responsible to proclaim the gospel. The church as church has as stewardship
for the advancement of the gospel through the ministry of preaching. The
church has several tasks assigned to it by her exalted Lord, but central to
those tasks is the advancement of the gospel through the proclamation of a
preacher.

In 1st Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15, “I write so that you will know how
to, how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God which is the
church of the living God, the pillar and the support of the truth.”

The church is the platform upon which the truth is erected and launched.
The church is responsible to maintain the integrity of the doctrine of the truth
and the church is responsible for the launching forth, the advancement of that
truth.

In 1st Peter chapter 2 and verse 9, Peter describes the church as church as
responsible for this proclaiming ministry. You are a chosen race a royal
priesthood a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession so that you may
proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light.”

The people of God as a community are responsible to see that the Word of
God is proclaimed and their identity as a gathered community is for the
proclamation of that gospel for the declaration of the excellencies of the God
who is our Savior. There is no other institution in the planet who is given that
responsibility. There is no other organization who is assigned the task of the
responsibility for truth and for its maintenance and for its proclamation and
advancement in the world. If the church does not ensure that the gospel is
proclaimed then the gospel will not be proclaimed. The church therefore must
make preaching a top priority. The church must establish a biblical preaching
ministry and seek to send forth biblical preachers: the priority of preaching in
the life of God’s people.

Which brings us, then, to consider, thirdly, the pastoral ministry must
focus on preaching and teaching. If it is the responsibility of the people of God
and they exercise that responsibility in recognizing us as men gifted, as men
as men endowed of the Spirit to proclaim and they set us aside for this task,
then we must make preaching and teaching primary focus of our labors. We
must preach the gospel, certainly, then to those who have never heard or
never believed in Jesus Christ.

We must, in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 and verse 5, we must do the work of
an evangelist. We must seek opportunities to do the work of gospelling those
who are outside of Christ, seeking to preach to the unconverted, seeking to
address the consciences of the unsaved when they assemble with us in our
worship services so that there is a word to those who are outside of Christ to
call them to faith and repentance and bring them into union with Christ and
we must seek opportunities whenever and wherever God gives us
opportunity, house to house or in a public setting in our Athens, where there
are discussions, where there is a forum for the voice of the gospel to be heard.
We need to take aggressive steps to proclaim the gospel into the ears of
those who are outside of Christ. Paul makes this evident when we read in
Romans chapter 10 and verse 13 and 14, “whoever will call upon the name of
the Lord will be saved. How then will they call upon Him in whom they have
not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard and
how will they hear without a preacher?”

A preacher. Not a movie director, a preacher. Not a puppeteer, a preacher.
Not a dance choreographer, a preacher. That’s how they will hear. And
through the foolishness of preaching preached the Spirit sovereignly will open
their ears and they will come to believe in Him whom they hear. Notice the
words. Not, in Him of whom they hear but Him whom they hear for the
preaching of the gospel by the Spirit is the very voice of Christ to those who
are assembled underneath this form of communication. They hear Christ in
Spirit empowered preaching. Not of Him, not about Him, not concerning Him,
they hear Him through preaching. We must therefore endeavor to preach to
the unconverted.

We must also preach for the edification of those who believe, giving to
them what Paul calls the whole counsel of God. We read in 1st Timothy
chapter 4 the mandate of the apostle Paul to Timothy in 1st Timothy chapter 4
reading from verse 13. “Until I come give attention to the public reading of
Scripture to exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the Spiritual gift within
you which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying
on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these things. Be absorbed in
them so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to
yourself and to your teaching, persevere in these things for as you do this you
will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.”
Timothy, you’re a minister of the Word of God in the assembly of God’s
people. Give attention to the Word of God. Read it. Read it publicly. Don’t
neglect the public reading and exhort and teach and preach. Make this your
focus. Be absorbed in this, so much so that people who sit under your ministry
over a lengthy period of time can recognize that you’re making improvement,
that you’re growing, that your progress is evident toward all. Watch yourself,
pay attention to yourself, because you are the instrument through which the
preaching comes and you yourself must commend the preaching. You are the
means as we learned in the last hour. The man of God is the means that God
uses to advance His kingdom in any generation.

John 1:6, “There came a man sent from God whose name was John.” That’s
God’s method.

The man, Timothy, watch yourself as the man because you’re the
instrument. For what? For the sounding of the Word of God through the
preaching of the gospel. Be absorbed in this. Make this your focus. Make this
the driving goal of your time. So many things I can say personally that I would
like to have an interest in that over the years that have just fallen to
the side. There was a one point in my life I thought I would like to have been
something of a musician; it’s just fallen to the side. I thought at one point I’d
like to be something of of an artist. I would like to have learned how to draw
and, and, and do nice art work. How can I do that and be absorbed in the
ministry of the Word of God? The ministry of the Word of God is an all
encompassing endeavor.

Whatever I read I always have a mind, how can I bring this material to
bear upon my sheep? I very seldom read anything except it is not in relation to
helping my people, to feed them. When I read news magazine, I am looking for
something to bring to my people to help them understand the Word of God in
relation to the days in which we live. So many other interests and focus go off
to the side because we have to pay attention to ourselves, we have to pay
attention to our doctrine and we have to labor in such a way that our progress
becomes evident and we become that much more focused on this priority of
preaching, which is to bring us to this last consideration.

We must withstand the temptation to neglect the priority of preaching. The
words preach, preaching, proclaim, testify, declare, herald, announce, all of
these terms can be found over one hundred times in the New Testament. In
fact, the New Testament uses thirty-three different verbs to describe the
activity of preaching, thirty-three different verbs. Now, anybody who reads
their Bible with some honesty is going to come to the conclusion that
preaching is very important. Preaching is very important, and yet we live in a
day where increasingly the message that we’re being told as preachers is that
preaching is not important to Paul. if there’s one thing that is irrelevant in our
generation, increasingly, it seems, preaching. Don’t you feel that sometimes?
You sit down next to somebody in the airplane, “What do you do?”

And they tell you, “I sell widgets. I wanna sell as many widgets as I can and
I’m getting everywhere I possibly can to sell widgets. Widgets are great, let me
tell you about my widgets. What do you do?”

“I’m a preacher.”

“Oh.”

You feel like a window gets rolled up, right? Very seldom do you meet
with a warm welcoming interest, “Really? Tell me about that.”

Increasingly we’re living in a day where preachers and preaching is
looked down upon and sadly that happens even in the church. That happens
even among those who profess to be Christians, who if they are Christians
became Christians because somebody proclaimed the Word of God to them.
How else could they have believed unless they hear Him speaking through,
what? A preacher. A testifier. A proclaimer.

And yet it seems that Satan has been able to influence many to convince
them that the thing that we can take for granted, the thing that we can neglect,
the thing that we can discard is preaching. So, don’t be surprised that the
enemy of men’s souls takes every measure to discourage preachers and to
silence preaching.

Sometimes his opposition is very direct, very aggressive. He arouses
religious opposition to preaching and he arouses political opposition to
preaching and he brings the combination of religious and political opposition
together in order to aggressively persecute and silence the preaching, the
beast of Revelation 13 and the false prophet, political and religious forces
come together in a strategy to persecute and silence out of fear of bodily harm.
This is the strategy in the Easter, the church in the East, in Asia, in Islamic
countries.

Our situation is one where Satan uses a more indirect strategy, not the
beast in Revelation but the Babylonian harlot is the indirect strategy that
attempts to silence the voice of preaching in the West, the seductive enticing
allurement of affluence and convenience and self-centered indulgences that
rise up and urge preaching to be diminished and entice us to make
compromises in order that we might become more popular and appealing.
Here is the strategy in the West. I fear we’re living in a day when many
professed Christians are compromising not only the content of the gospel but
the method by which the gospel is to be communicated. Many are telling us in
our day that the method doesn’t matter as long as somehow the message is
communicated, the way in which it’s communicated is irrelevant, but I submit
to you that the Bible teaches not only the content of the message but the
method by which the message is to be declared, is to be advanced. You see the
message is the message of the cross and the method is the foolishness of
preaching and both the message and the method scandalize the unconverted
mind. In 1st Corinthians chapter 1, Paul writes in verse 21, “For since in the
wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God
was well pleased through the foolishness of the preaching preached to save
those who believe, for indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for
wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to
Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

You see, those at Corinth not only had difficulty with the idea of a crucified
Messiah, they also were not, they we—they were not very pleased with Paul.
They didn’t think that Paul was very impressive, they didn’t think that Paul,
that Paul really satisfied their understanding of what oratory should be.
You see, these are people, they didn’t go down to a movie theater on
Friday night, they didn’t turn on their television, they didn’t have any of that,
what they would do was that they would go down to the, to, to the theater and
gather by the hundreds and listen to grand and great rhetoric for three, four
hours at at time. Men who would come in with eloquent language and
eloquent speech and who had certain forms and structures that followed and
the audience sat and then they would judge and they would make assessments
of the way the man spoke and Paul would come and talk to them and here’s
this man and I think Paul, frankly, was a very ugly little man, he had been
beaten up how many times? I mean if you had been beaten up as many times
as Paul had been beaten up, I imagine your body was looking a bit worn, hm.
He didn’t impress anybody by his appearance and he didn’t follow the rules of
Greek rhetoric, he would start to speak and his passions would get so riled up,
he would begin and he would say, “First of all,” and then he would go and he
would never get to a second of all. And everybody sitting, “That’s not the rules.
That’s not how this is to be done. This man isn’t following the structure and
the beauty and the arrangement of Greek rhetoric. He’s not very impressive at
all.”

And they didn’t like the way Paul communicated and Paul says, “I’m not
gonna compromise. I’m not here in order to comply with Greek culture and
with its definitions of what good entertainment is all about and its
expectations about what is necessary in order to gather a crowd and please an
audience.

That’s not the game that we’re playing here. We’re dealing with men’s
souls. We’re dealing with the Word of God. We’re speaking to people who are
only seconds away from eternity and we have a stewardship. We’re not here
to entertain. We’re not hear to tickle ears. We’re not here to satisfy an
audience. We’re here to declare the Word of the Living God and in so doing
we’re going to speak in such a way that’s going to target not men’s aesthetic
artistic taste of presentation, we’re going to target their consciences. We’re
going to speak to the issues of their sin and we’re going to talk with a zeal and
a passion that communicates an authority that comes from the very throne of
God and we’re going to speak a message that is going to humble men’s pride
and we’re going to call them to measure their lives by the standard’s of God’s
law and discover themselves wanting, to learn that their sinners, lawbreakers
and to bring them in that condition of brokenness to see that grace of God
granted in a crucified Messiah by whose blood sin is atoned for, by whose
death the wrath of God is propitiated, by whose resurrection death has been
conquered, Satan has been vanquished and the new world has dawned upon
us through the gift and ministry of the Spirit.

This is not going to fit in to the categories of cultural entertainment. This
is a word from heaven, this is an announcement from God and it comes
through a medium, its comes through a vehicle, it comes through a man and it
comes by proclamation and the message itself aligns with the method, for the
method looks foolish. The method looks foolish and the message sounds
foolish but in the wisdom of God, His foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of
men and both the message and the method are designed to humble men and
to bring them to a place of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

I appeal to you brethren to hear the voice of your Master and to take stock
of your heritage, to identify yourselves as I’ve attempted to do in this hour and
trace the pedigree, the honor, the dignity of your labor all the way back to
Enoch and follow the hall of honor given to preachers, the most honorable
being Christ Himself and turn your ears away from the voices that are crying
out today often times even from our pews that are telling us, “Let’s push
preaching off to the side, let’s not be that serious about preaching. Let’s not be
that focused upon preaching, let’s not be that committed to preaching. Maybe
we should be using another method, maybe we should be trying a different
way to communicate.

Brethren, maybe one of the reasons that preaching is being attacked in
our day is because there are so few men that are giving themselves to the hard
work invalid in preaching, who are studying to show themselves approved,
workmen who need not to be ashamed, ha— accurately handling the Word of
God who gives themselves to these things and make sure their progress is
obvious toward all. Maybe one of the reasons preaching has fallen into
disrepute is our fault because we’re not working hard at preaching! So, we
ought not to be surprised sometimes when people say, I’m not interested in
the preaching, but we need to become better preachers, not to discard
preaching and we need to be warned not to replace preaching with music, not
to replace preaching with drama and dance and video and testimony times.

We need to give ourselves to preaching.

We look at what Paul tells us in 2nd Timothy chapter 4, the mandate of
the man about to die, what does he say to his young son in the faith? 2nd
Timothy 4 and verse 1, “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of
Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by His appearing and
His kingdom, preach the Word. Be ready in season, out of season, reprove,
rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction for the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears
tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their
own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to
myths, but you be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an
evangelist and fulfill your ministry.” Which is what? Preach the Word.
Preach the Word. Amen.

This is a lightly edited transcript of a sermon. All rights reserved.