Preacher: Preach the Word

Welcome. Welcome to The Dividing Line for today. My name is John Sampson, filling in as a guest host for Dr. James White, who is out on his travels. He had a debate last night in London, England, and as far as I know, has already flown to Wittenberg in Germany for the next stage of his ministry trip.

So be praying for him, praying for safe conduct, as they would have said in the 16th century, but also for health and for just the power of the Lord to be with him as he ministers. It's my assignment to talk about something very close to my heart and I believe close to the heart of the Lord.

If you're watching rather than just merely listening, you might see a difference in me. I'm about 70 pounds lighter than the last time I was hosting. If you're in sermon audio, just carry on. Nothing's changed.

But suddenly, I'm two-thirds of the man I used to be, to misquote the Beatles. But appreciate your prayers for myself, my family. We just lost my mother on the 7th of May and a deep loss, although it's her gain.

Had a wonderful memorial service just a few days ago, but please pray for us as a family. We're missing her very, very much. Also, I thought I'd mentioned last night my brand new book just became available for pre-order.

It's on The Five Solas. It's called The Five Solas Standing Together Alone. There's some very nice endorsements with the book. Dr. James White, who I'm sure you know, Phil Johnson, John Hendricks, Jeff Durbin.

There's one or two other, Steve Weaver, Dan Phillips. Just very excited to get something into the hands of people. What I wanted as a pastor is to put into people's hands something that's small enough that they'd actually read it.

There's some terrific books already out there on The Five Solas. Dr. James Montgomery Boyce's book I think of, Dr. R .C. Sproul, there's others. But I wanted something that people will be more inclined to read.

I found that I give people something over 100, 200 pages and they just look at it. Three months later, I asked did it impact their life and they haven't read it. People are intimidated by larger books, so I put something together that I thought would crystallize the central theme of The Five Solas, but in a way that people can grasp fairly easily.

It's accessible to them and that's what I sought to do. I'm the kind of person, if I can get that, I want to get 30 or 40 to hand out to visitors and people that come to the church or people that are in any way wanting to inquire of the Christian faith because I believe The Five Solas are at the very heart of the gospel.

To pre-order, you can go to my blog site which is effectualgrace .com and there's a link there. It'll be available before the end of the month, I'm told, but you can pre-order right now. Let's get into God's Word though.

The Call to Expository Preaching

Let's go to the book of Nehemiah and chapter 8 and I'd like to discuss the subject of preaching. Not that I'm speaking as someone who's arrived, but I think after 30 plus years I've left and there's some things that I think can really be of help to us.

I wish someone had sat me down and given me what I'm about to get into today as I started out in ministry, but here we go. We're going to start here and go to the text of Scripture. Here's what I believe.

The preacher is the true worship leader in the church. The pulpit is the greatest influence in the life of the church. How goes the pulpit is how goes the church. People will not rise to a higher view of God than what they hear proclaimed from the pulpit.

It's so important that the preacher is filled and intoxicated with a sense of the awesome majesty of God. As goes the church, so goes the world in the sense of for the church to be an influence in the world, it has to have a high view of God flowing from the pulpit.

Martin Lloyd-Jones, to quote him, the work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called. If you want something in addition to that, I would say without any hesitation that the most urgent need in the Christian church today is true preaching.

As it is the greatest and the most urgent need in the church, it is obviously the greatest need of the world also. I totally agree. John Calvin said this, when we enter the pulpit, it is not so that we may bring our own dreams and fancies with us.

As soon as men depart, even in the smallest degree from God's word, they cannot preach anything but falsehoods, vanities, impostures, errors and deceits. A rule is prescribed to all God's servants that they bring not their own inventions but simply deliver as from hand to hand what they have received from God.

So, so true. What I want to talk about is expository preaching. A lot of people think the last thing the church needs is more preaching. My response to that is, if you're saying that, I don't think you've ever been exposed to true preaching.

Preaching by itself is not going to cause too much, but when we're exposing God's word in the preaching, it's God's very voice to the people of God and there is nothing more needed than that. I want to encourage people who perhaps have a sense of the call of God to preach but intimidated by that task.

Let me start by saying it's right to be intimidated. The moment you feel ready to preach because of your ability, your background, your skills, you're in trouble. You're no longer dependent on the Holy Spirit.

But more than that, it's such a high thing to walk into the pulpit and preach that if you're not scared, there's something wrong. Book of James chapter 3 says, let not many of you become teachers knowing that they will incur stricter judgment.

To rise and speak on behalf of God, there is nothing more solemn than that. The only way to get past that is to know God wants you to do it. Not because it's a career move and you couldn't get a job elsewhere.

In fact, I would say to anyone, if you can possibly avoid being in Christian ministry as a pastor, do it. Only do it because you sense the call of God and you can't do anything else. I remember back in 1986, so it's going back a long ways, I was receiving seminary training in the United Kingdom, Bible College as we call it there.

Part of the task was to preach. It was new at that time to record on video preaching. I hadn't seen that before. I'd never seen myself preach before. I preached a number of times even as a youngster. I was really intimidated with the fact that three of us were going to preach for 20 minutes.

It's going to take an hour. Then for the next hour and a half, maybe two hours, each of us are going to sit and watch the three presentations including our own. I had a sleepless night the night before.

I was all intimidated by it and I began to assess why would that be the case? Why would it be different from any other time? The fact was I was worried about what I would see when I saw myself. Sure enough, that 20 minutes of watching myself was more grueling than any horror movie you could expose myself to.

I saw all the flaws. I thought, oh no, what am I doing with my hands? Do I look like that? Oh, my voice, I couldn't get past my voice. It's intimidating. It's not an enjoyable thing. They were able to point out things that were encouraging but things that were painfully obvious.

I didn't smile and all of that kind of thing. It left a big impression on me because I thought, why am I so intimidated? In fact, there was a gentleman who witnessed what I was doing. He said, son, he was old enough to be able to do that, son, if you can ever get past yourself, you could be a blessing to people.

I thought about that long and hard and thought it was a real word in season for me. I gave what I thought was my best shot at the sermon but I was wrapped up in myself. That was true as a youngster. I remember my mother telling me, I can't remember the incident, but in kindergarten she came to visit the teacher and asked how I was doing after a full semester.

There had been quite a bit of time. My mother said, well, how's John doing? The teacher said, well, we think he's doing okay. My mother then asked, well, why do you only think he's doing okay? Well, he hasn't actually spoken yet.

Now, I don't know if God saw that and deemed it to be a challenge calling this non-talkative guy into the ministry, but I was wrapped up in myself. Some people think the person who's always talking is full of themselves.

Do you know the person who's not talking is always probably full of themselves too? Rather than appear foolish, stays quiet because they're all thinking about how they're coming across. But really if we think about it, a preacher has the task of speaking not his own mind but the mind of God, not his own words but the words of God.

It was actually a poll that took place a few years ago where they asked Americans what their greatest fear was and fear number one on the list was speaking in public. Fear number two was death. That meant that at the funeral people would actually be rather dead in the casket than having to give the eulogy.

So, what is it that scares us about public speaking? I think it's how we're going to come across, what we're going to look like. And again, it's being full of yourself. So, if we can get past ourself and think how I come across is not the most important thing.

The most important thing as a preacher is that God's word is conveyed to the people. If I can master the text, if I can fill my mind with what the text says and know what it says and understand it and I believe I can apply it to the people that will hear me, that is what should be center stage in our thoughts rather than how's my hair, how am I looking, what am I sounding like?

And if we can get past ourselves we can be a blessing. Nehemiah chapter 8 is a wonderful chapter. We're just going to jump in to verse 8, which I believe describes what expository preaching is. We're not just talking about preaching, we're talking about expository preaching.

I'm going to define that in a moment. Nehemiah 8 and verse 8, it says, they, that's Ezra and his helpers, read from the book, from the law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.

Let me read it again. They read from the book, the law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. That's the ESV. The New American Standard says this. They read from the book, the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.

Christian Standard Bible. They read out of the book of the law of God, translating and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was read. Very similar in all of the translations. But that is what expository preaching is all about.

The text is read, it's declared clearly, the meaning is given, and application is given. In far too many churches, the Bible is nearly silent. If you go to the creedal statement of a particular church, it might be very orthodox, it might be very, very good.

It might say, we believe the Bible is the inspired word of God. But really, it's how that church treats the word of God that really tells me and us their view of the Bible. A lot of people would say the Bible is necessary, you should believe it.

But is it sufficient for ministry? And in 2 Timothy chapter 3, we see the apostle Paul outlining the fact that the Bible is both necessary and sufficient. Paul was about to leave planet earth and was speaking or writing to his son in the faith, Timothy.

And rather than suggesting that other things were appropriate now that he was going, or giving him the mailing address of the apostle Peter so that if he had any questions, he could go to him as the first pope and he would decide any matter.

No, he gave him God's word and God's word alone. It's exactly what he did in Acts chapter 20, when he was saying goodbye to some elders from the city of Ephesus. And rather than saying, I'm going, but just talk to big Pete.

He said, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. That's Acts chapter 20 verse 32. So here in 2 Timothy 3, if we go there in our Bibles, the apostle Paul is writing to Timothy and telling him that the Bible is all he needs to have knowledge of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

You, however, verse 10, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you've learned it and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, talking there of the scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

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 competent, equipped for every good work. Chapter 4, verse 1, 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, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

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.

But as for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Then he goes on to say, I'm about to depart, I'm being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come.

I've fought the good fight, I've finished the race, I've kept the faith and so he goes on. So this was Paul's final word to Timothy, tells him scripture is all you need to help you understand that salvation is through faith in Christ Jesus.

And then in verse 16 of chapter 3, all scripture is theognoustos, God breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may become competent, equipped for every good work.

And in pointing Timothy to the scripture, he pointed him nowhere else, he didn't say this will do you for the next few years, this is all you need. Go to scripture, it's breathed out by God. Now when this was written, it was speaking of the Old Testament as we call it, the Old Covenant, but the meaning here is more than that, it's by extension any time you find scripture, it is something that is breathed out by God.

We would say it applies now to everything of the Old Covenant and the New. Whenever you find scripture, Timothy, it's breathed out by God and is profitable. All of scripture is profitable. In far too many churches, as I say, the Bible is almost silent.

There's very little public reading of the scripture, even though the Bible commands that in 1 Timothy 4 verse 13. Give yourself to the public reading of scripture. I remember going on a Saturday night sometime back to one of the largest churches in the valley here in Phoenix, and was surprised that although it was this mega complex with a number of huge buildings, as I was walking in, I was the only one walking in with the Bible.

Now I need to adjust my thinking because many people's Bibles are now on their phones, perhaps that's how they were going to access the Word of God, but I just felt strange that I was the only one doing that.

In terms of quality of building, of seating, of viewing, there was not a bad seat in the house, even though there were thousands. The man of God came out and I could see there was no pulpit, but there was a stool and a little table.

He came and sat on the stool and said, today I just want to share with you. He started talking for about a minute and a half, two minutes, and then he said, now we're going to go to a video that has been prepared.

That was played. It was about an eight minute presentation. I had to say it was phenomenal. It was as if CBS had spent millions on the thing or the BBC. It was just high grade quality. He was talking about a particular subject.

I was interested, but I was still kind of a little concerned that 20 minutes into this message, we hadn't actually heard a word of scripture. But then all of that changed, kind of, when after 20 minutes he said, now Jesus said something about this.

Immediately my ears pricked up. Oh, we're going to go to the words of Jesus. You know what he did? He looked at his watch and he said, now for the sake of time, we're not going to read what Jesus said, but let me just summarize what he said.

My heart absolutely just sank. You mean we've got all of this? We've got all the trimmings. We've got more trimmings than I could even imagine. We've got bells and whistles where I don't even know there were bells and whistles in this church.

But one thing we don't have is God's word. I left the service without hearing a word of what Jesus said. A word of what the Bible said had everything else. I don't believe the Protestant reformers would call that a true church.

It has everything but the Bible. Now I went to a wedding there and attended the wedding. Do you know the same thing happened? There was an assistant pastor conducting the wedding. He did the same thing.

He said, now Jesus said a lot about marriage. Let me just summarize what he said. We didn't actually hear what Jesus said about marriage. I thought, maybe I'm catching them at a bad time, two services out of two though, oh and two, not hearing God's word.

I thought, what a waste of millions spent on these buildings. I'd rather have a church of 15 people where the word of God is proclaimed because that is a true church. That's what God commands as the activity of the people of God when they gather, that they would hear the word of God.

As Nehemiah brought out, I think it's a principle. It should be read, understood, explained and applied to the people. In far too many churches, the Bible is nearly silent or else a collection of verses are given but really the preacher has his idea of what he wants to talk about and he finds some verses that seem to apply to that subject.

I think again, that's selling the people short. I believe the Bible should be read and I believe that the point of the sermon should be the text of scripture, what it says. In expository preaching, the meaning of the passage is the message of the sermon.

The meaning of the passage is the actual message of the sermon so that when people leave the service, they may not like what they heard but anytime they go to that section of God's word, they're taking what the preacher said with them all the way home for the rest of their lives.

I want people to be able to say, I didn't like it but he said what it said. He said what the text said. He delivered what the text means. I don't like it but that's what the Bible says. John Stott said this, all true Christian preaching is expository preaching and it really arises from our view of scripture.

If we believe that all scripture is God breathed, that should be the central element in the preaching. Shouldn't that be the overflow rather than it referred to once or twice? It should be center stage in the preaching.

The preacher is to make God's word known and make it understandable and he's to limit himself to what it says, not add to it or subtract from it. If you have an ambassador who represents the president of the United States, his job, her job is to sit before the president and understand what his will is.

If he goes to another country, he would be asking, what would I say if they propose this? If they have this idea, what's your view? What would you want me to say? He is acting on behalf of another. It's not his job to be creative.

It's not his job to think I know better than the president. Now, in some cases on an earthly level, he might know more than the president. That's true of our time and previous presidencies. Not everybody who sits in the White House is the most intelligent person in the land and perhaps the ambassador knows more, but I don't know, when it comes to God, he knows more than us.

He knows everything. He's all wise. He's omniscient. He's given out his word and the job of the preacher is to sit before God in his word and say, tell me exactly what you mean. Let me make sure I understand what you say.

For that, rather than having a trip to heaven, our job as preachers is to sit before the word of God and master it. Master what it says. Think about it. I just happen to have before me right now what I do.

I'm working through the book of Ephesians at King's Church right now. What I do is print out the next verses I'm going to cover very soon after the Sunday meeting is over in preparation for the next week.

What I have here is the next few verses in Ephesians and I put that in my Bible. I also have another one that's in my car. When I'm stopped at a stoplight and I'm not first in line, I get this out and just look at the text, look at the text and then read the text.

It happens to be Ephesians 6, verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Green light, got to go. But I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about it. I'm asking that God would open up that word to me.

Oftentimes, we can be lazy as preachers by going to commentaries. What happens, I know in my own heart when I've done that, I'm so caught up with what someone has got out of God's word that it means I can't see for myself what it says.

I'm so impressed by what someone else says. I think it's perfectly fine to consult commentaries and I'm going to say we should do that. Find out what others have gleaned from the text. But it's not what we should do primarily.

What we should do as preachers is soak ourselves in the text so that when we come across a commentary, you can say, you know what, he's brought out what's in the text or else conversely say, you know what, I don't think that's really the meaning of the text at all.

You see the Bible is inspired and every commentary is not. We should go to God's word and make sure we understand it. Then we do the study. We study the words. We study it in its context and I will make a case that the best way to get things in context is to teach through a book of the Bible.

You don't have to introduce the background of the text you're going to be addressing every time you meet because it's just the next few verses in the passage and the people can be studying that passage through the week as well and they can see if what they're finding in the text is what you're finding in the text.

Rather than one week I'm giving a verse from First Timothy, the next week I'm in Ezekiel, the next week it's the Psalms. People have no idea where I am but in walking through a book, it allows everybody to be on the same page, to understand in context what's being said.

I like that. Read the text. Explain the text. Apply the text. He starts with the text. He stays with the text. Mark Dever said this, expositional preaching is preaching in which the main point of the biblical text being considered becomes the main point of the sermon being preached.

Is that the case when someone is just bringing one verse as the message of their sermon? Oftentimes it's out of context. That's how cults are established. They take verses out of their setting so they say what was never intended but it's also true in false teaching in the church where we take a verse out of its setting and if you just read the three or four verses before that verse and three or four verses afterwards, you would not be saying what you're saying as a preacher.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Well, you can use that verse to say I'm going to win the 100 meters freestyle breast stroke event at the Olympics, Philippians 4 .13 because I can do all things and that's a thing so I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me but Philippians 4 .13 has a context and the all things refer to everything in life, good things, bad things, good times, hard times.

He said to abound and I've learned to be abased. That's the context. I've learned to go through trials. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That's so so important. We get things in a proper context.

Brian Chappell who wrote a great book on preaching, the one I'd recommend. The main idea of an expository sermon, the topic, the divisions of that idea, main points and the development of those divisions all come from truths the text itself contains.

No significant portions of the text is ignored. In other words, expositors willingly stay within the boundaries of the text and do not leave until they have survived its entirety with its hearers. Alistair Begg, unfolding the text of scripture in such a way that makes contact with the listener's world while exalting Christ and confronting them with the need for action.

That's his definition of expository preaching. Martin Lloyd-Jones again. Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire and that the chief end of preaching is to give men and women a sense of God and his presence.

Amen. John Piper, expository exaltation. That's his definition of preaching. Al Muller, expository preaching is that mode of Christian preaching that takes as its central purpose the presentation and application of the text of the Bible.

All other issues and concerns are subordinated to the central task of presenting the biblical text. People are not impressed with good quotes and poems if there's no scripture or else scripture is just added in.

It's part of the presentation. It should be the main focus. As an ambassador, our task is to preach the word. That's where we get to 2 Timothy chapter 4 where we read these words, I charge you. I solemnly charge you.

There's a solemnity about preaching. It should be absolutely intimidating to preach. My wife Linda often asks me, are you ready for Sunday? Sometimes it's Sunday when she's asking that. I said, I never feel ready.

I've done my homework, I've done my preparation, but I always feel I can improve it. I always feel I wish I had 3 more weeks to work on this because we can never exhaust the inexhaustible word of God.

I want to make sure that those under the sound of my voice are getting a good meal. There's a solemnity. I'm representing the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm giving his message. I want what he has said to be what is in my mouth.

No more and no less. I charge you in the presence of God. The words here speak of being under the immediate gaze of God. God himself is the presence of God. He is watching the preacher. Timothy Paul writes, I'm giving you this charge, this summons with great solemnity because what you do in the pulpit is under the gaze of God.

Now, everything we do is under the gaze of God. There's nowhere we can go that God is not watching. But the emphasis in this verse is saying, preacher, you're especially under the gaze of God when you preach.

I charge you under the gaze of God, in the presence of God, and of Christ Jesus, Jesus himself watching, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom. One day you're going to stand before him.

You might have had the applause of men all your lifetime, but one day, preacher, you're going to stand before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, when he appears in full regality, in his full majesty, you, preacher, will stand before him and give an account.

What a solemn charge this is. Preach the word. Verse 2. Preach the word. The word preach there speaks of being a herald. It's more than mumbling. It's more than giving information. It's to herald. It's to proclaim.

You're not just merely giving a lecture, imparting information, though information is part of the task of preaching. There is a herald's job description in terms of the preacher's job description. You remember the town herald.

He would announce to the cities in antiquity, in the last 300, 400 years, hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. The king has decreed that all who attend the ceremony at his palace shall whatever, and so the announcement goes on.

And as heralds, we have good news to proclaim. We have his word to proclaim. The word of law and gospel. Some of the texts in our Bible are pure law, L-A-W. Some bring out the gospel, but the preacher's assignment is to bring both out.

The week before, I was preaching from Ephesians, and it had to do with bondservants and masters, and I thought to myself, that is not a passage I would ever probably have gone to should I have been a topical preacher.

I'm more inclined to talk about the cross and justification by faith alone, and these wonderful themes of the Lord Jesus and his majesty, but for a healthy diet for a church, we need to talk about relationships in the workplace, and that's what God does in Ephesians, and who am I to say, well, I think I've got a better idea.

No, bring out what's there, and it's amazing. As I spent time in the text, I thought, this is so healthy. This is so healthy for us to hear this. God is so wise. God is so wise. Preach the word. Be a herald of the word.

Preach the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Preach the word, the whole word and nothing but the word. Be ready in season and out of season. The words here speak of good times and hard times, when they like it and when they don't like it, when the people are thrilled with what you're saying, patting you on the back, and when they all leave.

We could say of Jesus, he preached the word in season and out of season. You read John chapter 6. He started with a big crowd, and by the end of the chapter, most had left, and he turned to his own disciples and said, are you going to leave too?

Peter spoke up and said, well, where else can we go? You have the words of eternal life. But Jesus pleased the Father, and that really is the message in 2 Timothy. Your first priority, Timothy, is to please God, please the Lord Jesus Christ who is watching everything you do in the pulpit.

He's going to judge the living and the dead. He's going to appear in his kingdom. So, be about the task of preaching the word. Stay at your post, Timothy. Don't do anything else. Do it when they like it, when they don't like it in good times and hard times.

Preach the word in season and out of season. Some people think that means be ready at any moment to preach the word. Wake you up in the middle of the night. Preach. Go for it. It's not really talking about that.

It means be ready in the sense of have the message, be sure of it, and proclaim it no matter whether times are good or hard. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. And so it goes on for the time is coming when people will not endure, not put up with sound teaching.

I'm not going to put up with that. But they're going to accumulate for themselves teachers because they've got itching ears. They want to hear something. Their ears tickle. They want to hear something that's positive and only positive.

But the law of God slays us. There are many churches so called that will not do verse by verse expositional preaching for the simple reason that they'll have to read things they don't want to say. They don't want to say the word sin.

They don't want to talk about redemption. Oh, that's beyond people. We'll make it accessible to people. God's word was not just given to people 30 years of age and older. God's word is given to everybody from the youngest to the oldest.

It's God's word for everyone. Everyone. Preach the word. Read the word. Be ready in season and out of season because people will at some point have itching ears and are not going to put up with sound teaching.

Oh, get that away from here. But having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. I used to think it was only the false preacher who was at fault when he was proclaiming the false message.

But this passage says the crowd is just as liable as well because they want to hear this. They want to hear about a get rich quick scheme. They want to hear about give $100 in the offering and you're going to get $100 ,000 by Tuesday.

They're dominated by greed just like the false preacher is. And so they accumulate for themselves. That's what the text says. Teachers who tell them that. Interesting. And will turn away from listening to the truth and will wander off into myths.

Instead, Timothy, back to verse 2. Reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. The word for patience here means long suffering. In other words, you may not have understood what you're telling them the first time you heard it.

I know when it came to the doctrines of grace. I had to study that for a long while because I'd been taught and had taught other things. Thank God there were people that were patient with me and continued when I had questions said rather than, well, you should know this by now.

Okay, you've asked this before. Let me walk you through the passage one more time. See if you can see what I can see in this passage. And it's the exposure to scripture over and over again, over and over again, repetitive, repetitive, repetitive that allowed me to see this is saying what I think it's saying and there's no way out of it.

And it allowed me to say, okay, God, allow me to submit myself to the teaching rather than lord myself over the teaching of God's word. Our job as preachers is to be something like a waiter in a restaurant rather than a cook.