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 deep loss, although it's her again.

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. And 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 and three months later

I ask 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. 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. And 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.

And 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.

And 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 gone back a long ways, I was receiving seminary training in the

United Kingdom, Bible College as we call it there. And part of the task was to preach.

And 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.

But 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. And 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.

And 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? And the fact was, I was worried about what I would see when

I saw myself. And 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? Oh, do

I look like that? And oh, my voice, I couldn't get past my voice.

It's intimidating. It's not an enjoyable thing. And then 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. But 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. And 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.

And 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.

And 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. And my mother said, well, how's

John doing? And 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.

And 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 eight is a wonderful chapter. We're just going to jump into verse eight, 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 eight and verse eight, 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. 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 impostors 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 have learned it and how from childhood you have 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, 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 I was reading 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.

And in terms of quality of building, of the building, of seating, of viewing, there was not a bad seat in the house, even though there were thousands.

And the man of God came out and I could see there was no pulpit, but there was a stool and a little table, and he came and sat on the stool and said, today

I just want to share with you. And 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, and that was played, it was about an eight -minute presentation, and 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. And he was talking about a particular subject, and 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. And immediately my ears pricked up. Oh, we're going to go to the words of Jesus.

And 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. And 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. And 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. And 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.

And let me just summarize what he said. We didn't actually hear what Jesus said about marriage. And 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. And as Nehemiah brought out, I think it's a principle, 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. And 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, and 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. And 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, and 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, and 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, and 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.

Happens to be Ephesians 6, verse 10, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Oop, 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.

So oftentimes, we can be lazy as preachers by going to commentaries, and 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, and 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 1 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 that 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 breaststroke 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 their proper context. Brian Chappell, who wrote a great book on preaching, 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 Moller, 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 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 and 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 wish I had 3 more weeks to work on this because we can never exhaust the inexhaustible word of God and 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 watching the preacher and 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 three four hundred 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?

And 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 2nd 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 and 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. They want their ears tickled. 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 want, 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'll 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 and said, 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, 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.

The cook is the one who decides usually what goes on the plate. The waiter simply takes the finished plate to the table.

On the way, he should not be saying, you know, these people, I kind of know I'm a little bit better than the cook.

I've talked to them and I don't think they'll like carrots. I'm just going to leave that off and let me just make another plate, put that on.

So I know they will not like spinach. These are not spinach people.

That's not the job of a waiter. His assignment is to take the food that has been prepared and serve it to the people.

And that's the job of a preacher. I don't get to decide what it is I say.

God has decided what I will say and will hold me accountable to it. The time is coming when people don't want to hear that.

All right. Okay. But you, Timothy, preach the word, stay with it. Stay at your post.

It's interesting when you read 1 Timothy, the church is booming. The church is growing.

I'm sure Timothy wrote to Paul and said, now, what do I do when I need deacons and when

I need elders? What should I look for? And I think that's what 1 Timothy is all about. Paul is answering the questions

Timothy had, like, what should I look for when I'm looking to make someone an elder?

All right. That's what 1 Timothy 3 is about. When we come to 2 Timothy, things have changed.

The Christians are now being persecuted. People are leaving. The elders that were made elders after 1

Timothy have run off. If you read 2 Timothy, Paul is saying, everybody else has kind of gone from me.

2 Timothy 4, Luke alone is with me. He goes on, at my first defense, verse 16, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me.

May it not be charged against them, but the Lord stood by me. And so it goes on.

There's a few that's remained, but most had gone. Most had left. I just feel called to some other place right now,

Apostle Paul. God bless you. God bless you. We're behind you. We're behind you.

Very different scenario. And so Paul is writing to Timothy, and he's basically saying, be strong in the grace that's in Christ Jesus, 2

Timothy 2. You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that's in Christ Jesus. In so many words, suck it up.

People have left. You're feeling discouraged. What should you do?

Here's what you should do. Be strengthened by the grace that's in Christ Jesus and what you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust the faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

In other words, a lot have left, but God will give you faithful men. Find them. They are there if you look for them and plow your life into them.

Don't sit in the corner and feel rejected. You don't have that right, Timothy. Be strong in the grace that's in Christ Jesus.

As a good soldier, be strong in that grace. Find faithful men and teach them.

Teach them what I taught you. They'll be able to teach others also. They've all gone.

Start the process again. Some have gone. Keep on doing what you know you should be doing. Find the faithful guys.

Plow your life into them. Teach them what you know. They'll be able to teach others also.

That's what's happening. Timothy, I'm about to go and here's my last word to you.

Preach the Word as a herald. Don't mess with the food. Don't mess with the food like a waiter might try to do.

I've heard of some pastors who just preach topically because they know they can avoid certain topics or else.

If they are going to work through a book of the Bible, they quickly go through some phrases that they know are controversial.

They say, Divine election, I can't preach that. That will split the church.

Can't teach on God's view of women in ministry. That will split the church. Listen, you don't have a church if you can't preach

God's Word. What have you got? You've got a club.

You've got people that show up. Just about every verse in our

Bible is controversial. You can't get past the first verse of our Bible without being controversial in the beginning.

Some people don't believe there was a beginning. God, some people don't believe in God. Created, some people don't believe in creation.

Heavens and earth, some people don't believe there's a heavens and earth. They're in their own imagination.

Everything in that verse is controversial. The Trinity is controversial. Justification by faith alone, controversial.

The sovereignty of God, controversial. Preach the Word, preach the

Word, in season and out of season. When you lose everything, you know what happens?

You lose your fear of losing everything and no one can buy you.

No one can say, if you stay off this subject, we're going to slip you a few grand.

No, you don't serve money. You serve God and you know that when you've lost everything and God was still faithful to you, you can preach it knowing that God will be with you and you're under His gaze and He's going to make sure you're okay.

He's going to make sure you come through it. He's going to make sure you come through the trial. If you die, oh well, you're in the presence of Jesus and they're going to have to deal with the funeral.

That was a man of God. We didn't like him, but he preached the Word. Pastor, stay at your post.

Rather than saying, well, I can't say certain things, you preach the

Word. Rather than being on your own hobby horse, that is a malpractice of a preacher to just say,

I'm going to preach because I'm bent out of shape. I want to teach you. You know, there's some people that just topically, they will return to those subjects over and over and over and the people are not getting a healthy diet.

It's message number 48 on the rapture. No, preach the

Word. When you go through a book of the Bible, you know what's really neat?

You're preaching in the order in which the Holy Spirit inspired the text. You know,

He wanted people to hear verse 10 after verse 9 and verse 9 after verse 8. What are we going to do next week,

Pastor? Down the road, they're giving away bicycles. What are we going to do in response to that?

Well, we're in verse 9 this week. I think we'll be in verse 10. You mean, but there's more of a draw over there.

Yeah, but God's sheep will come back for verse 10. Who's going to show up for the bikes, the bicycles?

Could be God's sheep, may not be God's sheep. James White says so well, what you win them with is what you win them to.

I'd rather have a small group that love God's Word because as C.

H. Spurgeon says, Christ's sheep will never be offended by Christ's voice. And then actually will be a group that say, you know what?

There's a shepherd here who's going to give us sheep food. He's going to tell us what the

Bible says and explain it to us and apply it to our lives. That's one of the reasons when we started

King's Church in our home, we treated it as if 10 ,000 people were coming when there was a long way before even 10 came.

I wanted to make sure the six that came were fed. They got God's Word and they were surprised because we're in a living room and I got this music stand and they thought, well, can't you just sit and share?

No, I'm a herald. Sorry. And I got the music stand out and there was four people in front of me, maybe six.

And at some times there were even eight. And I preached my little heart out telling people what

God said in his Word. And you know what? Next week, we were down to five. A little bit discouraging.

Timothy, preach it when they like it, preach it when they don't like it. Preach it when there's five coming and when there's 5 ,000 coming.

You cannot give them anything better than God's Word. Your assignment as an ambassador herald of the

King is to tell them what he said. And being reformed means that God will do with his

Word, we know this, God will do with his Word everything he wishes to do.

For some, he'll bring them to life. For others, it'll be a form of judgment on the last day.

It will mean that their heart has been hardened. But the Word of God has fulfilled its function.

I used to think that only happens when people are converted. But God's Word has its function when people's hearts are hardened.

Isaiah 55 says that his Word will not return to him void, but will accomplish that which he desires.

If I'm just telling jokes, and I like humor, but if all I'm doing is telling jokes, what am

I giving the people? It's a bit like giving them a bag of Cheetos and a Coke, just to be a little bit crude.

One burp and all the nourishment is gone. I want to give them God's Word. I want them to know that man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

And the most important time in this person's life, this week, is right now.

Hearing the Word of God proclaimed among the people of God. There is nothing more important than this moment right now.

Every time I stand up to read the passage we're about to preach on,

I say, ladies and gentlemen, this is the Word of God. I want them to know this is different from the announcements.

This is different from giving bulletin news. This is what's going to happen this week on Tuesday at seven o 'clock.

No, this is the Word of God. Listen up. If you hear nothing else in this service, hear this.

Hear the Word of the Lord. That's my assignment. That's my assignment. I solemnly charge you as under the gaze of God, preach the

Word. The late Dr. E .K.

Bailey, founder, pastor of the Concord Church in Dallas, wrote an article called

Ten Reasons for Expository Preaching. He defined expository preaching this way, an expository sermon is a message that focuses on a portion of Scripture so as to clearly establish the precise meaning of the text and to poignantly motivate the hearers to actions or attitudes dictated by that text in the power of the

Holy Spirit. Then he gives the ten reasons why the desperately needs expository preaching.

Number one, expository preaching creates a Bible -bringing congregation. Two, expository preaching creates a

Bible -loving congregation. What's the vision of King's Church if we become a large church?

Well, I believe we'll be doing more of what we're doing now, preaching the

Word, teaching the Word. Three, expository preaching causes a word -conscious congregation.

Four, expository preaching forces the preacher to proclaim the whole counsel of God. Five, expository preaching arms the people for spiritual warfare.

You need more than one verse. Now, C. H.

Spurgeon used to spend his Saturday nights thinking of a text for Sunday morning.

Now, he could do that because he'd filled his mind for six days with Scripture and every time he taught and preached on a particular verse, he was bringing it in context, no doubt of that.

I've got nothing against. There are times when it's right to do a topical sermon, but I believe the healthy diet of the church is verse -by -verse exposition of the text.

Six, expository preaching addresses the needs of people which never occur to the preacher.

God knows more than us. Is that good theology? I think so. Seven, expository preaching engenders tremendous interest in what's coming next in the text.

Oh, in a couple of weeks, he'll be at verse 15. Can't wait till we get there.

Eight, expository preaching challenges the spiritual life of the preacher. Yeah, he can't go on things he knows.

The average preacher stays three years in a church and then he has to move on because he's run out of material.

Well, he's run out of his material. That man may have 30 years of being in the ministry, but he hasn't got 30 years experience of being a true pastor.

He's just done one year 30 times. No, when you're in the text, you've got to mine out what the text says.

You can't just quote your favorite 30 verses. Nine, expository preaching allows people to hear

God's word and not the preacher's thoughts. Let me tell you, I'm not interested in my thoughts.

I don't care what I think. I'm an ambassador. I represent him.

Ten, expository preaching establishes the absolute authority of God's word as opposed to situational ethics.

Oh, if you've been listening to the dividing line for any length of time, you know that's at the heartbeat of this ministry.

We want to know what God says, not merely conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

To what? To the standard of God's word. Well, it's been a joy to bring this teaching to you.

I hope it's whetted your appetite to get into the book of God as a preacher. I hope you'll get past yourself if you're called to preach and be a herald.

Master the text, understand it, apply it to the people, and all

God's people will be blessed. Christ's sheep love Christ's voice. They want to hear it.

They want to hear it. They want to hear it. And God will raise up sheep. He'll hear it.

Where can I send this sheep? I know I can put this one in this pastor's care because he'll give them

God's word. I'm John Sampson. You'll find my blog at effectualgrace .com.

Be praying for Dr. White on his travels. He's currently in Germany. So thrilled to have this opportunity.

Be praying and supporting this God given ministry. God bless you as you walk in the light of his word.