A Dangerous Call (Part 2)

When I started this blog, I made it a goal to try and post on average once a month, but it hasn't even been a week since my first/last post and I've been itching to add to what I said last. So here we go!

My last post mentioned the central issue modern evangelical churches face today-- the loss of confidence in Holy Scripture. Not only have we lost confidence in the Word of God, but the church has reverted to the expectations found in present culture. We nowadays often find pulpits filled with psychologists, story tellers, and cheerleaders-- All of which are sadly known by all too well to most churched people.  All these styles possess one thing in common—robbing God of His glory by unsuccessfully attempting to aid His Word. I might note, that story telling is not all bad. It can be a helpful tool to directly apply the Word, but it is no substitute to preaching what was written under the Divine inspiration of God.

There is a growing contemporary distrust of anything authoritative in Western culture that has badly infected the church as we know it.  Liberals have challenged the miraculous by attempting to “demythologize Christ.” --liberals challenging the miraculous and questioning the divine and opposing the historicity of the New Testament documents. This is inherently dangerous to the spreading of the gospel because it ultimately takes away from the Deity of Christ and the authority of His inspired Word. The church cannot tolerate the adjustment of the gospel message to what people want to hear. Instead it must remain faithful to what God has commanded to declare. Dick Lucas said it well when he wrote, “The pew cannot control the pulpit. We cannot deliver ‘demand led’ preaching because no one demands the Gospel.”

Expository preaching is important firstly because it gives glory to God, which ought to be the chief end of everything we do. Exposition starts with the text of Scripture and its proclamation of almighty God, exalting Him to His rightful place above all else.  Secondly it requires the shepherd of the church, the pastor,  to study the word of God.  John Owen once said, “A man only preaches a sermon well to others if he has first preached it to himself… if the word does not dwell in power in us, it will not pass in power from us.” When God’s word is being preached faithfully, His sheep are being strengthened, fed, and herded. 

The Bible is the inspired Word of God—inerrant, and fully authoritative. Churches must not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by preaching of the Word and the work of the Holy Spirit.  Scripture’s purpose, as all of creation’s, is to magnify the Glory of God, and there is no other way to do that more faithfully than to preach the Word as it is.  The God of the Bible is the Alpha and Omega. It is silly to think we can assist the power of His Word by making it “user-friendly" or making a new beginning or new end.

Preaching the Word is a difficult task. Exposition of God's Word takes time of rigorous training and study of history, languages, word syntax, etc.  Preaching in this way is positively the most time consuming and the most challenging. It's no wonder that we have so many preachers shying away from the call to "preach the Word..." and be able to "rightly divide the Word of Truth." But preaching the Word of God faithfully and in the power of the Holy Spirit will edify and grow a church. Though it may not be the fastest proven technique, it is the only way that will give lasting nourishment and life. Just as Martin Luther said, “…for God’s Word cannot be without God’s people and, conversely, God’s people cannot be without God’s Word.”

Shepherding a church will more often than not be controversial, unglamorous, and taxing. A pastor at times may feel that his extensive efforts and long times of study, prayer, and petition for the church are expended in vain. After all, the message that we bear is offensive to the world. No one demands the gospel. Moreover, the task of a pastor in preaching the Word of God has a nasty way of getting him into trouble. In fact it could be said that the more faithfully a minister preaches the text, the more controversy it will bring. It is not a popular message, but it’s power and depth is mysterious beyond the human intellect. No man can cause this to happen, but the Gospel’s message is world-altering, life-changing, groundbreaking truth that will always impact those who hear it. Just as the prophet Jeremiah speaks of the message that has brought him great suffering and persecution; nevertheless, He must speak of the Lord. He writes, “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I can not.” Genuine faithful preaching often leads to conflict, but it is the conviction of any believer to testify to the glories of God no matter the cost.

The preachers' job is to be a servant of the Word, even if that costs them their job, their health, their family, or their life. They have a simple but burdening task. They must tremble, but not from the fear of man or the consequences of bearing Christ’s message. they must tremble in reverence of serving Almighty God and speaking on His behalf. The ultimate goal of preaching should be to present every Christian complete in Christ and to urge those who are not in Him to cry out for mercy. Teaching the Word of God will always uncover error and disclose sin. It gives listeners the option to come into alignment with scripture in terms of the way they live, or to continue in disobedience. Those are the only choices.

Every teaching from God will undoubtedly lead us back to God.  The song of the life of pastoral ministers, and every Christian, is that which testifies to the glories of our Lord.  The true meaning of life is simply, to bring glory to God.  If there were any other meaning than this, our God would not be God. If there were something else apart from Him that brought fulfillment, He would not be God alone. Preaching is a call of service to read, explain, and apply His Word, solely for His glory.

A Dangerous Call

     Because this is my first blogpost, I need to give forewarning that I'm attempting to kill two birds with one stone here. I want to provide an answer to why I'm doing this (blogging),  and then hopefully provide some encouragement and direction on considering certain necessities in our life, this one addressing the importance of Word of God.

     Most of the people reading this and who know me are probably wondering why I'm starting a blog. It seems silly to most people, and even to myself I must admit, to think that anyone has much of an interest in what I have to say. But as 2013 began, one of my convictions was that I needed to share more. Share thoughts, share time, share THE GOSPEL with others. So I started to think of new ways in which I can engage people and the culture around us and one of my ideas was to start a blog. So here we are. My goal  is twofold: 1. To fill up Christians with encouragement and exhort them with the grace that the Good Lord has given me and 2. To point the lost to Christ. After all, He is the one who said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." So then, It would make sense that if we want to consider necessities to this life and the next, that Christ would be the center.

     So that leads me to my next subject. If you are familiar with the recent events in my life, then you know that I plan to enter into vocational ministry when I finish school. And in my training to teach and preach the Word of God, I took a class last semester that gave me great insight into the call of preachers and teachers alike. I read several books of some of the greatest preachers in the world to find that they stood united on this issue-- the full authority of the Word of God.

     It is evident that our world is encountering a serious epidemic. The effects of Postmodernism has pushed people to compromise time and time again and to question if even there is such a thing as absolute truth. But the problem has not just stopped in the world. Its worked its ways into the churches and has consumed the lives of the congregation and even pastors! This is DANGEROUS! The church has become desperately sick today because they have lost trust in the power of the Word of God. A greater part of churches today have pastors who do not preach the Scriptures and this malady is starving the body of Christ of its nourishment.

     Exposition, preaching and explanation of the Word, needs now more than ever to be reinstated to its rightful position as the heart of worship. Preaching is not the task of saying something interesting about God, nor is it delivering a religious discourse or narrative story. Biblical preaching is declaring the revealed Word of Almighty God and explaining the meaning ant its implications to "the sheep", the congregation.

     Expositional preaching, is the only genuine type of preaching.  The church must be careful not to corrupt the worship of God, because the saints are called to worship in spirit and in truth.  How can anyone worship if they do not know the truth of whom it is they are worshiping?  Christians must know the God of scripture to worship Him.  Huges had it right when he said, “Our confused worship corrupts our theology, and our weak theology corrupts our worship.”  The personal event of worship must be pronounced on the central truth of God who has revealed Himself through His Word.  Authentic worship preceded by a true vision of the living God will be followed by a confession of sin.  Through a sinner’s confession, God displays His redemptive power, which enables the proclamation of the gospel.  Dr. Mohler explains, “If our worship is weakened, our missionary witness will be weakened as well.  We will forget the God who has sent us, and we will neglect the content of the message of redemption with which He has sent us.”  The Word of God is central to the church’s worship.

            

     By taking The Word out of preaching, there is no longer preaching at all, and as John Stott said, “Preaching is indispensable to Christianity.”  Therefore it is vitally important that preachers keep God’s Word at the heart of every sermon. Deuteronomy chapter four demonstrates the importance of preaching with several key elements.  Firstly, the Israelites knew that their God was the One true and living God because He spoke to them.  They did not see him or speak to him as the pagans did, but their God revealed His will to them and continues to do so today.  Therefore if the church has received the revealed Word of God by His grace, why would they ever substitute anything else in place of the expository preaching of the Bible?  The second point the passage makes is that God’s people will hear His voice.  The teaching of revelation is directly tied to the teachings of election.  God’s people are those to whom He speaks.  Preachers are to faithfully preach the Lord’s Word so that His sheep are continually fed.  Thirdly, God’s people are fully dependent upon hearing His Word.  Once again, Dr. Mohler exclaims, “We know who God is only through the Scriptures, and we know who we are in Christ only through the Scriptures.  Preaching is therefore always a matter of life and death.”  If the people do not know who God is, how then can they know His wrath toward sin, or His grace outstretched to the humble and broken?

     Dr. Mohler notes in his book, He is Not Silent, that expositional preaching will be noted by three definite characteristics: authority, reverence, and centrality. In genuine exposition, there will always be the note of authority because the preacher speaks on behalf of the Almighty God.  He is a steward of the riches and mystery of the Lord declaring the truth of His Word and the power of His Word.  Secondly, authentic exposition cultivates a sense of reverence among God’s people.  As Dr. Mohler explains, “Reverence is the only appropriate response to the acknowledgement that the Bible is the Word of God and that preaching is the proclamation of that Word to God’s people.”  And Thirdly, exposition must be at the center of the church’s worship.  It is worth stating again that the Word of God will make its home at the center of Christian worship.  Just as the Israelites were dependent upon the bread that God provided for them in the wilderness, the church is dependent daily upon its nourishment from the Word of God.  Without it being read and explained faithfully, the people will surely die.

     In my closing, please understand that this is not a rant so that people will think highly of my opinions. This is meant to be a loving warning and exhortation to find a church that preaches the Word of God faithfully, and to be careful in your theology, because it does matter! And if you have found a church that is faithful to Scripture... Praise God!!! Let us then be active to encourage others to think rightly upon the Almighty, and never assume anything about our God unless it is taught in His Word.