Preach The Word

1:21A few weeks ago, we started this series called Back to the Basics. It's very different for us because we normally preach verse by verse through books of the Bible. But after the past 18 months with the pandemic, it seemed to us that there was so much confusion about the church and about the Christian life that it would suit all of us well to go back to the basics and consider what the scriptures say about a variety of topics.

1:49And so we started with God and his world and what we learned from general revelation about how God has revealed himself. We then went to God and his word, and we looked at special revelation, what God has shown us about himself in the scriptures. Last week we talked about God's people, the church, the worshiping community. And starting today for the next four weeks, we're going to be talking about Christian worship. Because I think at this juncture in history, there is more confusion about Christian worship than maybe at any other time in our country.

2:25Christian worship is not a concert and a TED Talk. Instead, it is the gathering of God's people to actively worship Him in the ways that He has commanded by preaching the Word, by praying the Word, by singing the Word, and by seeing it through baptism and the Lord's Supper. It requires active participation with the body of Christ. And that's why the idea of a virtual worship service is In a sense, a contradiction in terms. So, we're going to spend the next four weeks talking about Christian worship. And today, we're going to be talking about the most important element of Christian worship, which is preaching.

3:16If you have your Bible, I'd like you to look at the end of 2 Timothy chapter 3. If you don't have a Bible, you can open up the one on the seat in front of you, page 996. There. The end of 2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul is talking about what's going to happen in the last days and the persecution that's going to come to anybody that follows Jesus Christ. So, he kind of sets all of that up with those words, and then I want you to look at 2 Timothy 3, verses 14 through 17.

3:48Paul says to Timothy, But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

4:24So, leading into the section that we're covering today, what Paul has told Timothy is, you're going to be persecuted for falling. Christ. That's going to happen. So, what you need to do, Timothy, is you need to remember everything that you've learned from me, from your mother, Lois, and your grandmother, Eunice, the scriptures that you were taught from your earliest days, because they are from God, and they will equip you with everything that you need for your ministry.

4:52So, with that context, let's jump into our text today, chapter 4, verses 1 through 4. Let's start there in verse 1. Again, Paul says, This: I 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. So, Paul starts, I charge you, and that Greek word charge is connected with the legal world where witnesses were called upon to bear witness in court.

5:28And so, what Paul is doing to Timothy here is he's putting him under oath, and he's putting him under oath. How? He charges him in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. So, he's reminding him: this is not a human court, this is not a human judge, this is not a human jury. I am putting you under oath, I'm charging you before God and His Son, Jesus Christ, who is to judge the living and the dead, and who is returning one day to establish his. Perfect and permanent kingdom.

6:04You see, friends, Jesus taught very clearly that every single one of us would be held to account for every careless word that we speak. God is going to call us all to account on the last day. And then, James chapter 3, verse 1, James says that those of us who presume to become teachers are going to be judged more strictly. Paul is at the end of his life and his ministry. He's about to be martyred for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's running out of time.

6:38And so he wants to impress upon Timothy the need to fulfill his ministry, this ministry that God has given to him. And so he charges him. He puts him under oath before God and his son, who's returning to judge the living and the dead and rule over his kingdom. What is the charge that he gives him? Take a look, verse 2. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching.

7:16Well, to preach is to proclaim. It is to announce truths while urging acceptance and compliance. So we could maybe give this definition of preaching. Take a look. Preaching is proclaiming God's truth and urging listeners to live in light of it. It's proclaiming God's truth and urging listeners to live in light of it. So, this is very important to understand. Preaching and teaching are not the same thing. That should be evident from the verse itself. Otherwise, Paul would be saying, teach the word with complete patience and teaching. Well, that's redundant. That doesn't make any sense.

8:04Teaching is informative, it is instructive in nature. And teaching has to be a part of faithful preaching because all of us need to be instructed about God and His will. But here's the difference: preaching is distinct from teaching in that preaching always calls for a response. So, what I'm doing up here on Sunday mornings, or what any of the men who stand up here on Sunday mornings to preach, what we're doing isn't primarily teaching. I do hope you learned something today about God, about his world, about yourself. Learning is good, but remember, preaching is not primarily a TED Talk.

8:48My primary concern is not that you walk out of here this morning saying, that sermon was really interesting. I learned a lot of new information. No, my primary concern is to tell you the truth. Truth about God, and then to urge you to walk in repentance and faith based on that truth. So, Timothy and every pastor is called to preach. But preach what? Preach the word. That's shorthand for the word of God. So, what he's referring to is the word of God that came through the prophets and the apostles and Jesus Christ Himself that's recorded for us in Scripture.

9:37He says, Preach the Word. But, friends, many pastors are not doing that. Instead of preaching the Word, they're teaching you principles about how to have a better, more fulfilling, less frustrating life. Maybe even your best life. Now, so, in those scenarios, what you're going to get is you're going to get a three-week series on how to have a better marriage, a five-week series on how to deal with stress and anxiety, a four-week series on managing your finances, maybe a six-week series on parenting that's based on Modern Family or This Is Us or whatever show is hot right now.

10:27And what these pastors do is they decide. Beforehand, what points they want to communicate to you. Have you noticed that in our culture, the word preaching has been replaced with communicating? The word preacher has been replaced with communicator? Preaching sounds too preachy. So they decide beforehand what points they want to communicate to you, and then they go to God's Word looking for verses that seem to support those points. Well, that kind of preaching is problematic for at least four reasons.

11:06The first is that it allows preachers to set the agenda rather than God. When a church only hears that kind of topical preaching, they're only going to get sermons and topics that the preacher feels confident talking about. But as we just saw at the end of 2 Timothy 3, all scripture is God-breathed and it's profitable. So, what that means is we need to hear sermons on the entire counsel of God's Word from Genesis to Revelation. We need it all.

11:41Second, this type of preaching often ignores context. When preachers decide what they want to communicate and then they go to the Bible looking for verses to support that point, what that often means is verses get pulled out of context. So, you've probably heard a sermon somewhere along the way where the preacher was essentially encouraging you to have a positive outlook on life, and maybe he pulled Jeremiah 29, 11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

12:22Well, the problem with using that verse to make that point is that Jeremiah is speaking to the Jews who were exiled to Babylon. And what he was telling them was, guys, you've been exiled for your sin. God has sent you away. You've been captured and taken out of the promised land, but after 70 years, I have a plan. I'm going to bring you back into the promised land so that you will see me as your rescuer and your redeemer.

12:49Listen, it's absolutely true that God has a plan for your future. It's absolutely true that we can trust God with our future. There's lots of places in Scripture that make that point for us. But when we pull Jeremiah 29, 11 out of context and someone makes it mean to say that your bright future includes a happy marriage or a fulfilling career or kids that will never have serious health problems, we're pulling that verse out of context and we're applying it in a dangerous and misleading way.

13:30Third, this type of preaching views the Bible as an answer book. Now, don't get me wrong, the Bible answers many questions about life and about how to live as God intended. But, friends, it's not primarily an answer book. The Bible is a story. It is the true story of how God created us for his own glory and then rescued and redeemed us through the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's about how he's calling us to himself to build a people for his own possession. It's not primarily an answer book. And when we treat it like that, we're often going to be disappointed because the Bible simply doesn't address many things that we come across in life directly.

14:19And then, fourth and finally, this kind of preaching makes Christians overly dependent on preachers. Think about the current situation in modern American Christianity. Many pastors are great communicators, and people walk away from hearing their sermons thinking, that guy is so talented. I could never understand the Bible the way that he does. So they don't even try. They wait until the next Sunday or until the next podcast comes out so that that great communicator can tell them what the Bible says.

15:01Well, friends, that's not good. If you look at the job description for pastors in Scripture, what you find is that we are called to preach and to set an example, among other things. And so, what I want to do in my preaching is I want to set you an example for how to open God's Word and study it for yourself. I don't want you to walk away saying, Alan is so talented, how did he do that? And thankfully, I've met that goal.

15:31No one has ever said that to me. I want you to walk away saying, I feel equipped to do that same thing. I feel equipped to go home, open the word, study it in its context, and consider how it applies to me today. That's why, on the rare occasions that we preach topically here at New Life, we always make sure to preach expositionally. And what that means is, we're going to read a passage of Scripture, we're going to work hard to understand the author's intended meaning, and then we're going to ask how that meaning applies to us today as followers of Jesus Christ.

16:16You see, God commanded preachers to preach the word. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Preachers are heroes. So, back in the day when kings ruled over vast territories, when they wanted to communicate to their people, it would have been impossible and somewhat unsafe for them to just journey throughout the whole country doing that. So, they sent out heralds to announce the king's command and the consequences for disobedience. The herald had one job: to accurately convey the king's message to the king's people. That's it. He couldn't add to it or subtract from it or alter it in any way.

17:09So, you know the expression: don't shoot the messenger. That applied to heralds, but it applies to preachers as well. The reality is, if you're mad at the end of a sermon when the preacher faithfully conveyed God's word to God's people, you're not mad at the preacher. You're mad at God. You don't need to find a new church. You need to repent. You need to thank God that there is a man there who is courageous enough and faithful enough to tell you not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear.

17:53Look again at verse 2: The charge is to preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. So, what that means is, preachers have to be prepared to preach whenever there's an opportunity, when it's convenient and when it's not. But I think we have to remember that all of Scripture is profitable for all Christians. So, this is not just talking to pastors. Pastors proclaim the Word of God, but so do all Christians. All Christians are called to be disciple-making disciples. So, all of us, it's our job together to proclaim the truth of God's Word to our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers, and classmates. That's all of us. We have to be ready to take advantage of opportunities when it's convenient and when it's not.

18:47But I think all of us have had a similar experience where, you know, maybe you've had a tough morning in class or a tough morning at the office, and you finally sit down to lunch by yourself, and you just want some peace and quiet. You don't want to talk to anybody. Or maybe you've had a hard day. It's the end of the day, you've finally sat down in your favorite chair, a good book, your favorite drink, you don't want to talk to anybody. And then your classmate, your coworker, one of your kids comes up to you and sits down and wants to talk.

19:21And in your flesh, you're like, I just don't want to people anymore. I'm all done peopling today. But people aren't machines. And the Spirit of God blows where he wishes. He moves when he moves. So we can't tell our classmates, our coworkers, our kids, you know, this is really not a good time for me to talk about your eternal soul. What are you doing next Tuesday at 10? It doesn't work that way. We have to be ready in season and out of season. We have to be ready to take advantage of those opportunities. There's no guarantee that your classmate, your coworker, your child is going to be ready to talk about spiritual things next Tuesday at 10. They're ready now. The Spirit of God is moving now. So we have to take advantage of those opportunities now, in season and out of season.

20:20Next, take a look again at verse 2. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. Well, this word reprove is to expose or to convict. It's to state that someone has done wrong. To rebuke is to reprimand sharply. To exhort means to strongly encourage someone to do something. So if you take all these together, Paul is telling Timothy to preach the word, and his preaching should expose. Sin and error. It should correct it. And then it should call the hearers to walk in repentance and faith. That's what preaching should do.

21:14But, church, that's not what we want, is it? None of us likes to have our sin exposed. We would rather just leave it in the dark. And we definitely don't want to be corrected. I mean, we don't like having our sin exposed, but we definitely don't want somebody to correct us about it. Our flesh rises up and we justify ourselves immediately. Well, who are you to correct me? You're not perfect either. And we don't want to be encouraged to live differently. In our flesh, we want the path of least resistance. We don't want to have to go through the trouble of thinking about what does it mean to put this word into practice? How do I have to change my thinking, my speech, the way that I'm living my life? We don't want to do that.

22:09And that's why preachers are called to do these things how? With complete patience and teaching. I'm reading this book right now called A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. And as the title indicates, is this Christian man who's been a shepherd for most of his life? It's been a fact. Fascinating read, and it helps us understand why God refers to us as sheep over and over again in His Word. And I would say that my big takeaway at this point in the book, I'm almost done with it, my big takeaway at this point is that sheep are impossible.

22:50That's what I've learned. They are perhaps the most difficult form of livestock to manage. They wander off and get into trouble in bizarre ways. They are virtually defenseless against predators. They tip over and then they can't get up. They don't get along well together, which causes them, this is true apparently, tension and anxiety because all the relationships in the flock aren't right. I'm just done at that point. I'm just not going to manage their tension and anxiety. They have to be led to food, shade, water every day, or they will die. Friends, people are similar. That's why God refers to us in His Word as sheep. And that's why the Word says over and over in places like Hebrews 13 that we need faithful pastors, which is just another word for shepherds, watching over our souls. Because we are those sheep that are prone to wander, prone to get ourselves in trouble, prone to tip over and not be able to get back up in some way, shape, or form.

23:58So the pastor has to preach. The word, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting, not because that's fun or because anybody likes that, but because we need it. And he's got to do it with complete patience and teaching. We can't yell at the sheep to try harder to do better. So, pastors are to preach the word in all seasons, calling believers to live God-glorifying lives of repentance and faith. But the question is: why is this so important? Why does Paul seem so worked up about these things?

24:32Remember, he's at the end of his life. Take a look at verse 3. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching. But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Paul saw a day, even in Timothy's lifetime, where people simply wouldn't tolerate biblical preaching any longer. These are people in the church he's talking about, guys. He's not talking about the outside world. They've never tolerated biblical preaching. They won't tolerate it any longer. Instead, they're going to surround themselves with teachers who will say what they want to hear.

25:23And that was a part of Greco-Roman culture. If you're familiar with how some of that worked, what these wealthy patrons would do is they would bring. In these famous speakers from outside, they would pay them well to come and address them on some topic. And the payment was predicated on a couple of things. First, the speaker had to say flattering things about the patron. And then, secondly, payment was predicated upon them not saying anything offensive. So you can see even some parallels to modern American Christianity, where there are some men who are getting paid so much, and money has become such a thing in their life that they're unwilling to say what needs to be said because they don't want to offend the people who are giving. That's a scary position to be in.

26:19So Paul is telling Timothy that a day is coming in the church, not just in the world, where many professing Christians don't want to hear sound teaching anymore. So I want you to think about how Paul did this in his own ministry. And if you ever read the letter to the Ephesians before, Paul is writing to Timothy, and Timothy is pastoring in the city of Ephesus. It's on the west side of Turkey. And throughout that letter, he confronts their idols and their sin issues. And so I just want you to consider how Paul does this very thing.

26:55In chapters 2 and 3 of Ephesians, he confronts their prejudices. And he says, it's not okay for Christians to show partiality or favoritism to anybody for any reason, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, socially connected or the outcast. It is sinful to show partiality because we are all one in Christ Jesus. In chapters three and four, he confronts their hidden sins, their adultery, their drunkenness, their lying, their anger. And he told them those things do not honor God. You can't live in those ways.

27:40In chapter five, he confronts harshness and disorder in the home. So he tells husbands that they need to love and sacrifice for their wives. And he tells wives that they need to submit to and respect their husbands. In chapter six, he confronts rebellion in children. He tells them you need to honor your father and mother. And then he tells parents not to be lazy or spiritually negligent because God will hold you responsible for training your children to know and fear the Lord. So you can see in the same church where Timothy is pastoring, Paul is an equal opportunity offender. Everybody in the church got something that they needed to repent of.

28:26So, friends, it should be no surprise to us that some of the factors. Fastest growing churches in our community and around the world are those where preachers tell people what they want to hear. They help them justify their sin by either telling them it's okay or, more often, just by not saying anything about it at all. We don't need preachers who will tell us what we want to hear. We need preachers who will tell us the truth of God's Word, who will proclaim it and then call us to respond in repentance and faith.

29:05If you're a member here at New Life already, you've got three very important jobs when it comes to the preaching of the word here. The first is that you need to listen carefully and apply the word of God to your own life because we are called to be doers of the word and not hearers only. So it's not good for us to gather together and nod along with things that we agree are true if we as a church are not putting those things into practice in our own lives.

29:39Second, your job as a member is to help the other members and the children here at New Life to understand and apply God's word through our Sunday morning classes, through our life groups, through one-on-one discipling relationships. We have to take it seriously that the preacher is a word of God. Of God's Word and the proclamation of that word, the understanding and application of that word is not just my job or the pastor's job, but it's all of our jobs to help each other understand and apply it and live it out.

30:13And then, third, and finally, your job is to pray for and encourage the men who preach here at New Life, whether that's me or the other pastors or others that we have preach on Sundays. And if we veer from preaching the word of God, your job as a member is to confront us in love and bring correction where we have erred. You are responsible to make sure that what is preached from the pulpit comes from God's word.

30:45If you're a believer, but you're not a member here at New Life or anywhere else, then I hope that you have seen this morning how important it is for you to sit under the preaching and teaching of God's Word. And not only that, to be in a situation where you are known and loved by your pastors and other members of the church. Because, friends, the Christian life cannot be lived in isolation. The Christian life is not merely agreeing with a set of principles and then going on with your life. No, rather, the Christian life is meant, it's designed in every way to be lived only in community.

31:28Living in community ensures that. We don't just hear the word and agree with it, but that real people, real imperfect people who are trying to follow Jesus just like us, are helping us to apply it to our life. And they're not letting us get away with half-hearted Christianity. And so I want to encourage you guys, as we did last week, if you're not a member of a church, pick up one of these books on your way out. Why should I join a church? They're free. And if you'd like, you can get signed up for our Explore membership classes that will start in just a few weeks.

32:02And then finally, if you're here today and you're exploring Christianity, I bet that today was a little uncomfortable for you. I'm sure it was because 21 years ago, my new roommates at Texas AM dragged me to church. And I'll tell you, church was not a part of my agenda when I came to Texas AM. I came to church to get a business degree and meet girls. Church did not make the list. Like a magnet with two poles, though, I was simultaneously attracted to and repelled by what I saw in the church. I was attracted to the people who were the most kind, welcoming, real people that I'd ever been around. They didn't pretend to be perfect, they were open about their sins and their faults. They were simply trying and praying to be more like Jesus. I was attracted. To that.

33:02But I'll tell you, initially, I was repelled by the preaching. All the talk about sin and hell and the need to repent and believe. I didn't like hearing any of that. I thought I was a good person. I was better than most, anyway. I tried really hard. And I didn't want to be told that I needed to be saved by Christ and Christ alone. But through the faithful preaching of the word, I came to see that the Bible presents God as perfectly holy, as just and righteous, as worthy of all worship, who will hold everyone, including me, accountable for their sin and rebellion. I heard the good news of the gospel: that Jesus came to live the life that I should have lived, that he died the death that I should have died for my sin and my rebellion, and that he rose from the grave victorious over sin and death, so that through faith in him, I could be forgiven and granted eternal life.

34:08It became crystal clear to me that if those things were true, it required my whole life. If they weren't true, then Christianity didn't deserve any more of my time, not another second. But if they were true, It required everything. Why, friends, will we play around with Christianity? If these things are true, it requires everything. Be a Christian or be an atheist. The worst possible thing to be is somewhere in the middle. Living a life of guilt you don't fully understand. Feeling compelled to go to church for what reason?

34:54Feeling guilty about the things that you're doing or not doing. Listen, become an atheist. Do all of that with a clean conscience or become a Christian and understand what you're doing and why. That was the choice before me my freshman year at Texas AM, and that is the choice before some of you today to choose between playing around with Christianity or to receive Christ by faith, to be brought into his kingdom, to be forgiven and counted righteous, to be adopted into his family and our family through faith. And so I urge you, and we urge you this morning, if you're in that place, receive Jesus Christ. There is no other name under heaven by which you can be saved. And there's no other way to be a part of his church, the family of God.

35:53Let's pray. Father, we want to begin by praying for preachers this morning in our community and around the world. We pray that they would faithfully preach the word. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. We pray that you would bless the ministries of the many men in our community and other churches who are faithfully proclaiming Christ. We pray that you would bless the ministries around the world and the churches who are faithfully proclaiming Christ. But God, we also pray for the many people in our community and around the world who are not preaching the word of God.

37:20They bought into the idea that what people want, what people need, is principles on how to have a better life. And so we pray that you would bring them back to preaching the pure word of God, which alone is able to transform hearts and lives. And God, we pray for the preachers around the world who are preaching week in and week out, and they aren't even Christians. They went into ministry for one reason or another. Maybe they know, maybe they don't know. But they need their own hearts transformed. Jesus, you said that there would be many that would say to you on the last day, Lord, Lord, did we not do many mighty works in your name? And you will say to them, Depart from me, for I never knew you.

38:15We pray that preachers and ministers would be saved, and their ministries and churches would be transformed because of it. And God, finally, we humbly pray for our own church. We do not have it all figured out. We are far from perfect. We need your help. And so we pray that you would pour out your spirit. We pray that your word would be treasured and discussed and prayed over and lived out. And we pray that each one of us would take responsibility for doing that here.

38:55In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.