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February 22, 2018:
Dr. C Matthew McMahon, founder of A Puritan’s Mind, who will address:
“The LORD’s VOICE Cries to the City: A Biblical Guide For HEARING the Word of God PREACHED”
Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.
Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.
It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions. Now here's our host, Chris. Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City,.
Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arnson, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Thursday on this 22nd day of February 2017.
I want you to mark your calendars for tomorrow, and I actually want you to pray for me because I have a subject that I'm dealing with tomorrow which involves a very sensitive and delicate matter, and a matter that is sure to get people angry at me, and some people may even stop listening to this program.
I don't know what kind of reaction for certain I will get, but we are going to be doing a program focusing on the legacy of Billy Graham, who just went home to be with the Lord on Wednesday at 99, and the discussion is not only going to be highlighting the wonderful things that Billy Graham did indeed bless the world and the church with through the gifts that God had given him, but we're also going to be talking about some of the less biblical and, quite frankly, some of the disturbing ideology, theology, and issues of practice that Mr. Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association have been involved in for decades, and one of the reasons I think this needs to be done is that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is at a crossroads now, and they could have a revival among them and return to the early roots of Billy Graham, which were solidly biblical, or they could remain as they are, which, as we will discuss tomorrow, involves some very confusing and dangerous matters theologically, or they could get worse.
They could go even further to the left, but we will have this discussion with Brad Zell, who's an elder in the Bible Presbyterian Church of Charlotte, North Carolina, which is actually, I believe, the congregation where Billy Graham was raised, and he's also the president of the International Council of Christian Churches, president of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, editor of Redeeming the Time, a quarterly magazine, member of the Executive Committee of the American Council of Christian Churches, and stated clerk of Faith Presbytery, Bible Presbyterian Church.
That's tomorrow, 4 to 6 p .m., on Iron Trump and Zion Radio. But today I am delighted to have back as one of my favorite returning guests, Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, and it's always encouraging to receive the emails from a number of you in the listening audience who love Dr. C. Matthew McMahon's appearances on Iron Trump and Zion Radio.
I don't know if appearance is the correct word for a radio show, because nobody can see him other than people in his own studio there, or his own study, but he has returned today. He is the founder of A Puritan's Mind, and today, both of us are pretty certain, this is the very first time we are addressing a book that he wrote.
All of the books we have discussed previously have been written by Puritans, and he did indeed edit those books. Is that your wife that edits those with.
You? Yes, my wife, Terese, helps the other department, and she's the one that makes.
Everything sound nice. And also bringing the works of the Puritans into modern, contemporary English. That's a redundancy, modern contemporary, but an English that most folks can understand easily. But today, we are addressing his book, that means Dr. C. Matthew McMahon's book, The Lord's Voice Cries to the City, a Biblical Guide for Hearing the Word of God Preached, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Trump and.
Zion Radio, Dr. C. Matthew McMahon. Well, I appreciate very much being here, excited to talk about this particular subject matter and such. You know, as much as we publish many of the Puritans and such, which now, I believe even this year in 2018, we've hit our 20-year mark, we started in 1998, but every so often, one of my books kind of slip into our editing process or come about as a result of some kind of good providence, and in this particular case, this work is a bit unique in that it's not really a book that is on homiletics or on hermeneutics for, let's say, a minister.
It's really about hearing boldly, plainly, and faithfully preached. So it's particularly aimed at the Christian who's sitting in the pew, who is required by God to hear the Word of God preached with spiritual profit.
Preaching is generally about hermeneutics or exegesis or something like that, or maybe on homiletics, not generally directed towards the pillar one, is directed at the Christian hearer. And, you know, in thinking about that, you know, the listeners, just think about it this way.
The preacher who gets up in the pulpit and demonstrates any certain qualities and skills when he's up there on that stage, to hear him in general, in that place or so, as their view is infinitely very odd thing.
And usually on this program, you, when you have been.
Speaking about preaching, you have been speaking with alarm and dismay and rebuke toward those filling pulpits globally that have sadly and tragically failed very often in their duty to preach biblically.
But today, we are really focusing the attention on the responsibility and the accountability of those who are sitting there listening, because you very often, and I'm not even saying that I'm innocent of this, I am probably guilty of this far more than I would care to admit, but people will blame the preacher all the time, or nearly all the time, when they are not edified or when they are not moved in a positive way or in a biblical way to respond to the message.
They are very often just blaming the preacher alone. And sometimes I will hear people strongly, severely criticize, if not mock a sermon that I actually thought was an excellent sermon. So obviously, people listening are to be held accountable when the.
Word of God is preached, are we not? Absolutely. We're just finishing up Jeremiah Burroughs gospel. He has a very large section right now. Just think of anybody else in your church, and I'm using the word philem, speaking to me today, little examples of prod uses men in that way, because God has chosen evil, frank, careful, God, and then how much, you know, they have beautiful ears, might heed his mind.
Verse 9, he says in Micah 6, your case before, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Testify against me. From the land of Egypt, I redeemed you from the house of bondage, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
Oh my people, remember now what Balaam, king of Moab, counseled, and what Balaam, son of Baor, answered him. From Acacia grove to Gilgal, that you may know the righteousness before the Lord, and bow myself.
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
And now hear these next two verses. He has shown you, oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, the Lord to hear. And he is saying, and what he's doing is he's delivering God's message.
Broken by wayward sinners, this injustice against them, going to begin at God. Listen, our attempt, the prophets, and so it's gone on for a long time. Up with you, God even actually scares the people.
Mighty acts of bondage, he delivered. Remember, people are.
Yeah, we very quickly forget things we are to remember, as even as evidence from the Israelites who were getting sick of the manna that they were given, forgetting what they had.
Just been delivered from. Right. He has to like remind them of these great things that they physically saw with their eyes, and all of that really is legal living. Well, people can, as if they could in some way, it doesn't matter.
Not Noah, or Abraham, or Olive, or God in a right manner. So it's more than just mere, keep the law and you'll be like God. And that's what God told Adam in the garden. So the law by Micah, a judgmental message, because they were without passion or part.
The people, people he cries out to, talks about being not very wise, not listening to what the prophet has already been teaching them, but the word as it is in Micah's mouth is God's word. It's not his own word, but it's not his own word only in so far as he cries out God's message.
And so this is where it relates directly to the people sitting in the pew hearing the preacher on the Lord's day. As long as that preacher is preaching God's word and God's message in the way and manner that God desires them to do that, he's the Lord's voice.
And pick up right where you left off, because we have to go to our first station break.
Okay.
And if anybody would like to join us, we already have several people eager to have you answer their questions, and I appreciate your patience. If you'd like to join them and get in line, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com.
Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the USA, and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Let's say you disagree with your own pastor on something, or you're a pastor and you disagree with your own denomination on something that we are discussing.
We can understand you're remaining anonymous, but other than that, please give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence if you live outside the USA. Don't go away. God willing, we'll be right back with Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, and the Lord's voice cries to the city right after these messages from our sponsors.
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Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, inviting you to tune into A Visit to the Pastor's Study every Saturday from 12 noon to 1 p .m. Eastern Time on WLIE Radio, www .wlie540am .com. We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you, and we invite you to visit the pastor's study by calling in with your questions.
Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull. Join us this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time for a visit to the pastor's study, because everyone needs a pastor. Hi, I'm Buzz Taylor, frequent co-host with Chris Arnson on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio.
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And so please mention Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio to get that free book with a $50 or more purchase and also free shipping. We are now back to our discussion with Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, and where we left off was you were saying that Micah was only speaking with the voice of God as long as the message he was bringing to the people was God's message.
Exactly. Exactly. Whenever, whenever the preacher or the herald or the ambassador, now I'm not using the phrase, you know, intent that when he speaks, or the intent of the minister, when he speaks and he speaks truth, he speaks God's message.
It's God speaking. It's God's word. In this particular case, the people needed to be corrected. You know, Israel, you're in the midst of danger, the rod is coming against you, and here is where it hits the people who are listening.
You have to be wise, because the one who's threatening this rod, he can bring to pass what he threatens. He's God. He's the Almighty One. And yet equally, which was part of Micah's message, is the one that promises good things can also bring to pass what he promises for the good of his people.
But you can escape. You can escape if you're discerning, and you're wise, and you hear his voice, understood it in the city. But wisdom, in that verse, wisdom called for the wise people heard in the mouth of the crying.
The main meaning is the voice of the Lord, and whoever will see and hear the name of the Lord in that herald and acknowledge him to be his messenger, no matter what the word of the Lord is, there they're seeing God's voice.
They're hearing his voice. Now in this case, again, it was just the Eddie message. In fact, unless you.
Have a poignant thing to finish that thought, I do want to start taking some of our listeners, but... Yeah, no, go ahead. Let's see, we have, I think, a first-time listener, Patrick, or at least a first-time questioner, I should say, Patrick in Chandler, Arizona, in fact, he's actually on the faculty of Puritan Reformed Biblical Seminary, and Patrick said, would Reverend McMahon speak to the commonly used phrase by the layman in discussions, I am preaching this to you, I preach the fact that the Bible says, etc.
It seems many need a refresher about exactly who were the Lord's, I'm sorry, who were the intended audience of our Lord's Great Commission. If everyone is a minister, then no one is a minister. There is a difference between bearing witness to that which we hold dear and declaring ourselves to be ministers who preach without being called, examined, approved, and sent by the Church.
Yeah, assuredly, the non-greater man's capacity to lead others down the road of Islamism, the husband of one wife, and doesn't mean that he has any of being able to do that, and that these qualifications that go into that man to say, this is God's Word, and you should listen to it, and they knew, and I have this, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, or anything which he has sent you by me.
So Jeremiah spoke, he equated it, because he's the voice of the Lord, that was the Lord's Word. He was sent by God to do that. So in dealing with that particular aspect, you have to have a qualified person in order for them to say, that says the Lord, and you need to listen to that, by Hebrews, to encourage one another, while it is still called today, and we want to do that, but it's the job of the minister specifically commissioned that the Christian is to hear.
God's people should hear the crying voice of the preaching and teaching of all true ministers. Yes, and thank you Patrick in Chandler,.
Arizona, who's also, as I said, on the faculty at Puritan Reform Biblical Seminary, and also he says he's the founder of Reform Theology Institute. Well thank you very much Patrick for your question, and thank you for your mailing address, because you have won a free copy of the Lord's Voice Cries to the City, a biblical guide for hearing the Word of God preached by our guest Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, and since you're a first-time questioner, you are also getting for free a copy of the New American Standard Bible.
We have Brandon in Franklinton, North Carolina, who says, I have a simple question for Dr. McMahon. Please name the one Puritan author who I have most likely never heard of or read anything by, that I most need to equate myself with.
There's a little bit of mind reading going on in that one, but can you think of one that would probably be best answered as a general answer that most of us might not know the name.
Or the the writings of a certain Puritan? I'll go with one of my favorites. Okay. He was a Westminster Divine. I'm going to give you two. He died in 1656. His name was Francis Witten, and the sad part about Mr. Witten was that we only have one work by him, and we have published it, which was one of the most fabulous books for me.
You know, again, sometimes it's subjective, because of when you read something that way, but the book is called the Golden Topaz or Heart Jewel, namely a conscience purified and pacified by the blood and spirit of Christ.
Witten, nobody knows about him. I'll give you another one, though. Great, and thank you also, Brandon, because you have won a.
Free copy of The Lord's Voice, Cries to the City by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, and please make sure we have your full mailing address in Franklinton, North Carolina, so cvbbs .com can ship that out to you at no charge to you or to us, and we thank not only Dr. C. Matthew McMahon for providing us with these copies of his book, but we also thank cvbbs .com for shipping them out absolutely free of charge to our listeners who win the copies.
We have Joe in Slovenia. Dear brother Chris, I'm very interested to hear Brother McMahon's thoughts on the role of the sufficiency of scripture in guiding the preacher's approach to preaching. Brother McMahon, in your estimation, what effect does the continual, the continual, I think he means the continuationist position, meaning the person who is charismatic or Pentecostal or non-cessationist, what effect does the continuationist position regarding the notion that God is still speaking to individuals through direct revelation today have on preaching?
Please address this question from the viewpoint of both the preacher and those hearing him. Yes, obviously when you titled this book The Lord's Voice, Cries to the City, you were not talking about new revelation.
No, yeah, no, we're not talking.
About new revelation at all. You know, the canon is closed. The problem that the charismania has is there's no safety being the non-biblical. If new revelation is actually coming in, it should be written down, and they should continually put it in their Bibles, or somebody who really believes that, tell you, well, it can't contradict the Word.
At that particular point, you've already just kind of exploded that whole idea. You know, God has already spoken, and He has already, and that's actually something that I deal with in this very chapter, but with Micah, because the requirement for the preacher to hold steadfastly to what God's message is, not something that he makes up on his own.
So, I mean, even the charismatic preacher, unless he's way out, he's still going to say to you, well, you know, I might be led or might be challenged by the Spirit in some way to add into my message this, that, and the other that I feel is coming directly to him, but it can't contradict what God's Word...
I mean, if that's the case, then you don't need it, because you already have God's Word. It's really almost a defeatist argument overall, and in terms of then, once that person gets up and he starts doing that, and I've seen that for years.
I saw it firsthand many times. They would just get up with no preparation at all, and as much as it pains me to even say it, they would act like buffoons in the way that they dealt with trying to say something quote-unquote on behalf of God, because they were waiting, literally, for the Spirit to tell them something of the minister that...
Yeah, in fact, what you said of waiting for a message from God.
Sounds a lot like Quakerism to me. Very much so, yeah. And we have to go to our midway break right now. This is the longer break that we take between our two hours that Grace Life Radio 90 .1 FM in Lake City, Florida requires of us.
They require a 12-minute break, and so please take use of this time not only to write down the information of our advertisers so that you can patronize them, but also write down a question and email it to our guest today, Dr. C. Matthew McMahon on The Lord's Voice Cries to the City, A Biblical Guide for Hearing the Word of God Preached.
Our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com. C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com. And again, please give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence if you live outside the USA.
Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Don't go away, God willing, we'll be right back after these messages with more of Dr. C. Matthew McMahon. I am Chris Arnzen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, here to tell you about an exciting offer from World Magazine, my trusted source for news from a Christian perspective.
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For many years to come. Tired of box store Christianity, of doing church in a warehouse.
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Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, inviting you to tune into A Visit to the Pastor's Study every Saturday from 12 noon to 1 pm Eastern Time on WLIE Radio, www .wlie540am .com. We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you, and we invite you to visit the pastor's study by calling in with your questions.
Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull. Join us this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time for A Visit to the Pastor's Study, because everyone needs a pastor.
And if you call in during Pastor Bill Shishko's live call-in show, A Visit to the Pastor's Study, please tell Pastor Bill that you heard about that program from Chris Arnson at Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
Pastor Bill is a very dear friend whom I have known since the 1980s, and a really brilliant brother in Christ who is very, very biblically knowledgeable, a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian denomination, and just a really gifted communicator.
And I love him more than I can describe. He's a dear brother in Christ who has been with me through thick and thin in this life, and I urge you to listen to him either on the AM dial on your radio, 540 AM, if you live in the New York Tri-State area, and even parts of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, but you can hear him globally at wlie540am .com via live streaming.
That's A Visit to the Pastor's Study every Saturday, 12 noon to 1 pm Eastern Time. And now I just have a couple of announcements before we return to our guest, Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, and our discussion on his book, The Lord's Voice Cries to the City, a biblical guide for hearing the Word of God preached.
Coming up, special events here conducted by supporters of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. We have the Spirit of the Age and the Age of the Spirit, which is the theme of the Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology, which will be held in two places.
It will be held April 13th through the 15th at the First Christian Reform Church of Byron Center, Michigan, and it will also be held April 17th through the 28th at Proclamation Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
The lineup includes Daniel Aiken, Richard Gaffin, Daniel Hyde, Conrad Mbewe, one of the most powerful preachers on the planet Earth, in my humble opinion, a dear friend of mine since 1995, pastor of Kabwata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa, a really, really, I can't even describe how powerful a preacher he is, Dr. Richard Phillips, another friend of mine from Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina, Jonathan Master, who's been on this program, David Murray, who's been on this program, and Scott Oliphant, who I would love to get on this program, hasn't happened yet, but if you'd like to register, go to AllianceNet .org, AllianceNet .org, click on events, and then click on Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology 2018, the spirit of the age and the age of the spirit.
Finally, I have to, once again, do that very uncomfortable thing that I hate to do, but it must be done. I'm here to, right now, beg you for money. My advertisers, who have spent lots of hard-earned money to keep this program on the air, have urged me to make public appeals for donations, and out of respect for them, and out of gratitude for the money that they have spent, I am doing that regularly now.
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Just send us an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com, chrisarnsen at gmail .com, and put advertising in the subject line. That is also the email address to send a question to our guest, Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, and again we are discussing his book, The Lord's Voice Cries to the City, A Biblical Guide for Hearing the Word of God Preached.
That email address again is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, chrisarnsen at gmail .com, and we do, Dr. McMahon, have a question from our listener in Rome, New York, Charlie. Charlie in Rome, New York, says, I agree that there is no more revelation in regards to the entire body of Christ, but isn't it possible for God to give specific instruction to a Christian, such as in Acts, with the apostle Paul being sent to the Ethiopian eunuch?
Uh, no. The answer to that is no. Revelation has ceased. Everything that we have in the scripture, as Peter tells us, he's given us everything that we need for life and godliness. So, scripture. Now, a lot of times people go to the touchy-feely zone, and the reason they don't like it is because it requires you.
It means that you've got to study it, and you've got to be like those Bereans who studied the scriptures daily to find out whether or not what Paul said as the voice was true. We don't get direct revelation from God to go talk to the Ethiopian eunuch.
Um, and even in that case, think it through. The Ethiopian eunuch could have. He could have been sitting there, and God, instead of, zap him. Here's what Isaiah 53 means. Zap. Well, no, he didn't do that.
What he did is he went to the chariot to teach him what complete, and we don't run that. What he just told you wasn't right. He's telling me it's a mess, and it might not always be the occasion. When we get into the air from that, that's why people think from whether or not, quote-unquote, you've worshipped God or not when the preacher preached, and it's because when you receive the word of God, which you, uh, the New Testament has that happen.
129 is awesome. Now, if, if, if someone is, if someone is always leaving a worship service.
Filled with happiness, and if that's what they're actually insisting upon, they get upset if they hear some, say, a friend or a loved one invites them to church, and they are filled with guilt and sorrow, and they say, I don't like that guy.
He really bothers me because he makes me upset. I mean, are we always to walk out of a worship service just happy?
Well, no, it's not about happy. It's about being in strife. Have the happy thought.
And you can be rejoicing over the consequences of sin that you have been rescued from.
Absolutely.
And even the bondage of sin.
Totally. But the whole point is the supremacy of God in preaching, in being the Lord's voice, and putting God supreme. In that way, you know, we're to, uh, esteem God's word in such a manner in which we're hearing going to be all of that as part of the gospel.
The communication here is that for you, and he doesn't have to do that. Fine or not. He's not about leaving.
Just to clarify something, because someone may run away with the wrong idea of everything in Bible being the gospel. I have heard cultic preachers, evangelists, even Harold Camping, who would say similar things.
And what he meant by that is if you disagreed with his understanding of eschatology, you were damned. You were not among God's people. You were living in rebellion against God. There are people who would say, if you disagree with anything that is being taught by me or this congregation or this group, including things that we would view as secondary or tertiary matters, uh, you are, you know, you're, you're in violation of the gospel.
Your gospel is false,.
And therefore you're damned. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no, no. I meant he's progressed. That's what. Now we have a question that we're talking about. I have a question that I want to read to.
You and you could answer it when we return from our final break. Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County, Long Island wants to know, what can we who are the hearers of sermons do to better be prepared to hear God's word preached to us in the hours before and even days before we are sitting in that pew listening to the sermon?
And I think that's an excellent question. And we're going to have you answer it when we come back from our final word from our sponsor. Uh, and if anybody wants to get in line and ask your own question, do so now or forever.
Hold your peace because we're running out of time. Chris Arnzen at gmail .com. Chris Arnzen at gmail .com. Don't go.
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Now we are back with our final half hour of our interview with Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, founder of A Puritan's Mind, and we are addressing The Lord's Voice Cries to the City, A Biblical Guide for Hearing the Word of God Preached.
If you'd like to join us with a question of your own, do so now quickly because we're running out of time. Our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com.
And as I said before the break, Dr. McMahon, Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County basically wants us to know, wants you to tell us, how we can best prepare ourselves to be more effective.
Hearers when the Word of God is preached ahead of time? Well, that's a great question. That in and of itself is the deal with this topic. Thinking about what it is that you're going to do when you go to, one is not, you're going to get something, that's not why you go.
You're going because you're supposed to, that's not why you go. You're going to sanctify the name of God in all of the ordinances that he has for you on that day. You're going to regard him as holy because the creature owes homage to the Creator.
When you go and do that, one of those ordinances is hearing the Word. There's a number of different forms that it takes, or from the sermon, or in something that you sing and such. Thinking about that ahead of time has to come into our mind is that we're professing our dependence on God for knowing his mind.
We depend on understanding the Word to know what God means in it for us. When we go to, because this is an ordinance in which he requires us in our duty to hear well, so you have to have some kind of preparation for that to be in our mind.
I'm not going to hear. I'm going to hear God's voice, i .e. this is the reason because we often think we're going to hear the preacher. I'm going not to hear such and such a preacher. Do you want to come?
No, no, no, no. You're coming to hear God's mind in being watchful and in prayer, because we know that in some way God is going to speak to us and we're going to want to change, be changed in some way, either mortifying our sin or being sanctified in some way, and we need to be ready to yield and ask that God.
We also want to pray and ask that the Lord, that when we go, we are hearing God's voice, and then we want to pray. We maybe pray that night, that morning, for all of these things, preparing our heart and mind to receive what it is that God is going to tell us.
Now, here's where the sticking point comes in. You might be listening even right now, and you might be saying, as what I think Chris, you had said at the beginning, you know, my preacher isn't that good, and so I kind of go, and it's kind of okay, and so I'm not receiving.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. By the way, I was not saying.
That from personal experience. I knew you were. My preacher is phenomenal. I just want to make.
That clear. Excellent, excellent. Some peoples are not. I have a number of friends, they go, it's kind of okay. Day morning, and you're ready to go without any, that's not to say.
And Ronald, you have won a free copy of The Lord's Voice Cries to the City, a biblical guide for hearing the word of God preached by C. Matthew McMahon. Please make sure we have your full mailing address.
Also, I think I forgot to tell Charlie in Rome, New York, who had the question prior to that, you also won a free copy of The Lord's Voice Cries to the City, so please give us your full mailing address in Rome, New York, so that can be shipped out to you.
Compliments of Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, and also compliments of CVBBS .com. We have Christopher in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, who said, who asks, is it proper to ever call a pastor or preacher a prophet when you are speaking about him using the word of God alone to deliver a message?
Not that he is receiving new revelation or anything like that, but I have heard some use the term.
Prophet in regard to such men. Is that correct? Good question. Thank you, Christopher in Suffolk.
County. Please give us your full mailing address so that we could have The Lord's Voice Cries to the City shipped out to you by our friends at CVBBS .com. And we also have Robert in Westchester County, New York, who says, I understand that we are not to be expecting God's voice to tell us to do this and not to do that, other than from the word of God, but is providence ever a guide.
In such matters? Absolutely, discerning what providence is. You might even ask, I feel like I have the gift of teaching. Well, being a pastor, does it come together today that I might make a good pastor?
Well, thank you, Robert, and you have also won a free copy of The Lord's Voice.
Cries to the City, a biblical guide for hearing the word of God preached. And in the less than 20 minutes that we have left, I really want to make sure that our listeners know that there is likely things that they need to correct in their own habits of life, even myself, to improve our being better hearers of the word of God, if you could continue on that thought.
It's happening. If we're sitting in the pulpit, responding to it in the way that I saw John the Baptist when he was crying and mumbling, why for death? Preaching it, I'd be wise to. He reigns over sin and he reigns over death, but that we have also the immense love of God in Christ for our spiritual transformation.
Men, to have a closer communion with God through him. And William Perkins said that preaching is to preach one Christ by Christ to the praise of Christ. That in and of itself is the supremacy of God in redemptive preaching, so how do we hear that?
How do we discern hearing that? Because not only does the minister have the job of discerning what God's voice is in the text that he's dealing with, also the people have to discern what it is that that person is saying, so that not only are they going to hear when it's applied to them, what God's will, because in that preaching, it has the ability to bind the conscience, if it's God's word.
Because out of the mouth of the preacher himself, savor of life, savor of death. So every time we go into the sanctuary, we should be thinking to ourselves, we're going to one of two things is going to happen.
He's either going to draw us closer to the Lord, we're either going closer to heaven or closer to hell, one way or the other. And the preacher has that dreadful job of being both, so that where in one sovereign grace might be sent, and yet in the very same work of preaching, his wrath might be sent to someone else who's sitting there and listening.
So what are we discerning when we hear that? We should be thinking, listen, this guy's up there and he's preaching, it's not the guy anymore. Now it's God's voice. Think about the way that you would have been if you were an Israelite, right?
Next day is going to be the mountain, and God is going to speak from the mountain to you. Did the Israelites hang, shouted down from the mountain? They begged Moses to intercede and then tell them what God said because it was so frightening.
And you know, at the base of the mountain there, there was no cappuccino bar, there was no water fountain, no restroom, right? Nobody was fiddling about. Intensely, the seriousness of what God's word, Lord Christ, the last time we'll read any longevity, anything about the pew, whoever they are, we should be listening and holding steadfastly to that word.
Merely good advice, they're not speaking, thinking thoroughly, thinking in their minds that they're the voice of God. Because hearing God's word is part of worship. And so if they're not doing what they're never going to be able to do, the lessons themselves of the constituted voice of God that morning, then they're being a hindrance to the worship that the people in the pew are trying to do as their duty before God, even if they're thinking about in the right way.
You know, many ministers in the world believe that they simply, because they have the position of the minister, that Christ is speaking through them, like with some kind of spiritual default. This way, Christ speaks to them.
Now that's a complete fallacy, because Christ speaks through them when they preach Christ's word as a responsible herald. Then let's say that they do that. Let's say that you've got that preacher. Be blessed until you go and you listen to the voice of the Lord.
You only have 3 ,750 sermons to hear. That's if you attend church every day for 70 years. That's how many sermons that you're going to hear in the course of that particular time. And that's regarding whether or not they're speaking as God's voice, and they are stellar in it, and that you're prepared in hearing God's voice.
Do you imagine how sinful we are and what it is that we do in not being prepared and not doing what we're tired because we're up late and we shouldn't have been the night before because we're doing things we shouldn't have been doing.
We should have been preparing or whatever that happens to be, and yet we have a limited amount of time to be sanctified before we get to heaven. 3 ,750 sermons is not a lot in thinking about the full orbit.
That's your whole life, and not a lot of people actually even live that long. When you go back in time and you look at some of the Reformers and Puritans, some of them lived 25 years, 30 years, 35 years, 40 years, that's it.
They even got less in that way. Preachers shouldn't be engaged in just throwing together a sermon simply to have something to say, because if it's not thoughtfully set down word for word, line for line, prayed over and pondered, then they're going to be doing a disservice to the people in the pew who want to hear what God's voice is in that particular message that God's man is supposed to be preaching to his people.
In fact, I want to just squeeze in one more.
Anonymous question from a listener. Let's see, we have an anonymous listener in Pennsylvania who says, I have a friend who's a pastor and he said something that troubled me. He said that it is not his job to evangelize the lost in a worship service, that his function is to build up, edify, instruct, and correct, and rebuke the flock, and not to evangelize the lost.
That is their job when they leave the doors of the church. I happen to think that although expository preaching involves much instruction to the church that doesn't necessarily involve evangelizing the lost, that evangelizing the lost should at least have a part of that sermon, at least especially in.
The close of the message. What are your thoughts on this? Well, that's another topic that is, let me give you and read a number of his sermons right in a row on various topics, and not hear Jesus mentioned one time.
And yet, as you read through his sermon, they're full. Yet, it might not necessarily be a gospel message. Maybe the message has to do with, like in this case, with preaching. And yet, yes, there is a segue in which responsible ministers will address the various people in his congregation, but we're not talking about an altar call or things like that.
That whole evangelistic idea is foreign to what the Scriptures talk about. What would be rather smarter to talk about is what the Puritans would call cases of conscience. You have different kinds of people that need to hear different things in a particular sermon that you may be giving.
So it's important that the preacher think through who, and that's just a certain way, certain merit to it without making the pendulum swing too far to one way or the other. Because you can read some of Edward's sermons, for example, that sound extremely evangelistic, and then you go in the other direction and it doesn't have anything to do with that at all.
It's something completely different, and so there isn't any, quote-unquote, an evangelistic message in it. All of these guys that were preaching in history that way were thinking, when we preach, it should be said, so to speak, every time we say something, because sermons don't always occur.
You need to repent, you need to come to God, you need to believe. A lot of times preachers will do that, and I see them do that personally, irresponsibly, and right at the end, because they think that they have left something if you read any of the particular messages.
And we are out of time, and I know.
That your website is apuritansmind .com, apuritansmind .com, and also puritanpublications .com, puritanpublications .com. Thank you so much, Dr. McMahon, for being our guest today. I look forward to your return to Iron Sherpa's Iron Radio.
I want to thank everybody who listened, especially those who wrote in questions, and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.