Hearing the Voice of Jesus

Amen. Well, I can tell you that it's doubtful this will be the best sermon you've heard all year in this pulpit.

Hopefully it won't be the worst sermon you've heard all year in this pulpit, but I can say with basically absolute certainty this will be the last sermon you hear this year in this pulpit.

And I say that a bit in jest, but also to think about how God has been good to us this year in this pulpit.

Think about how many sermons that you've heard this year from this pulpit.

We've preached 52 sermons on Sunday morning and probably around maybe 50.

I know we have a couple different things sometimes on Sunday night, maybe 48. Let's say 48. There's been a hundred sermons in 2024 preached from this pulpit.

They've been faithful sermons. I know we've heard men this year like Pastor Jacob Rayon.

We've heard from myself and Pastor Jacob. I know Gunnar is preaching the pulpit this year.

Trying to think if there's others. I'm sure I'm missing Pastor Randall Chronister came and I know he's preached some.

I know there's one Sunday we were out in Mexico and he filled in both Sunday morning, Sunday night.

You've heard faithful men. What an amazing thing it is preaching the

Word of God and that's what I want to look at tonight from Romans 10. We are going to finish

Psalm 119, but this is just something I guess the Lord began to stir in my heart late in the week after I was kind of ready or kind of printed off outline my outline for Psalm 119.

Then I just began thinking about this text more and this afternoon looking at it some more. I want to look at Romans 10 and I want to talk about hearing the voice of Jesus from Romans chapter 10 and I hope by the end we'll have a greater.

I think our church puts a high value and and a great love for the preaching of the

Word, but I hope by the end of the sermon that we'll have an even greater appreciation for the preaching of the

Word of God. So let's read Romans 10 and I'll start in verse 1 and read through 17.

Would you stand with me so we honor the reading of God's Word. Brothers my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish her own they did not submit to God's righteousness.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.

But the righteousness based on faith says do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven that is to bring

Christ down or who will descend into the abyss that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say?

The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart that is the word of faith that we proclaim.

Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.

There is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord is Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

And how are they to preach unless they are sent as it is written how beautiful are the preaching?

We pray in Jesus name amen. You may be seated. I saw a try to think how

I want to phrase it but I saw a clip I saw a clip of a service where a man got up and he said some true things for a little while but he didn't have his

Bible open and he didn't even have his Bible he just was standing saying things in a service and I thought to myself that place doesn't have a high view of preaching and then

I thought to myself I always want to evaluate like do we have a high view of preaching just because it's tradition you know because it's easy to idolize tradition you understand it's very easy to say well we've always just done it that way we kind of get nostalgic about it and I forgot what it was about but Gunnar and Alex were talking about something oh it was a key they're talking about a key a song a key a song glorious exchange and I said have we always do we always do it in that key they were practicing this morning and they both look at me like and it was so Baptist they were like yes this is the way we've always done it you know and I was like okay that's the

Baptist motto the way we've always done it so so we want to be careful don't we we want to be careful not to do things simply because that's the way we've always done it that's not a good apologetic that's not a good defense for the preaching of the

Word of God so we shouldn't just say well you know the man stands up and he opens the Bible and he exegetes he exposits the text and we should do that because we've always done it that way no we should have a biblical case for preaching a biblical defense for preaching and I hope to give you that tonight now some of you might be worried you're like man has a lot of verses he read and sometimes we spend a few weeks on one verse so how possibly long could this be so let me just summarize really the first few verses there at least the first 10 verses if I could summarize

Paul has a desire to see the ethnic Jews saved okay he wants to see those who have physically descended from Abraham saved and he introduces the problem there verse 3 they're ignorant of the righteousness of God they seek to establish their own they're not submitting to God's righteousness so in other words if I can summarize the

Mosaic Covenant for you the the Mosaic Covenant comes in and says this is the law do this essentially do this and you will live but the point of the

Mosaic Covenant is to say you're impossibly short of being able to come to meet the standard of righteousness when you are confronted with the law of God what should happen to you is you should say

I can't meet that I can't do that I fall short I need the

Messiah I need Christ I need the promised one in the Old Testament they should have said I need the promised one to come and to save me and to fulfill this and to be my righteousness and many many did that most did not many did look to Christ but those who didn't look to Christ they saw the

Mosaic Covenant as a means to garner their own righteousness they saw as a means to to be able to act well

I can just do this right well okay I've got all these laws that I'm supposed to do I can do this and I can obtain righteousness before God and Paul says this has been unto their damnation and so in verse 4 he says

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes you understand let's let's be clear here on the gospel what

Paul is saying here is that Jesus Christ is the one who fulfills the law of God because you and I can't do it so the law of God comes and says you're a sinner what are you going to do about it and our answer should be well

I can't do anything but a lot of people look at and say well I'll try my best and God will do the rest no that's a rejection of Christ Christ is the end of the law the law comes in and we should say

I can't do it I've broken it I haven't met it I'm not a victim of sin I'm a I'm a maybe a victim of sin but I'm also a very much a perpetrator of sin

I've broken God's law and as we've talked about this morning I'm fallen in Adam and Eve I'm fallen in my first father

Adam and now I've broken God's law in and of myself and I have no hope unless one would fulfill the law for me but how can someone do that because there's no man that's perfect and in steps

Jesus truly God truly man and he fulfills the law verse 4 very important he's the end of the law for righteous to everyone who believes and so how do we respond to the gospel so so Jesus is the one who fulfills all righteousness and then he pays the penalty for lawbreakers on the cross

God punishes Jesus for my law breaking and for your law breaking because God is holy and he demands you know this this is the gospel

God is holy and demands justice he demands he demands penalty demands payment for sin and the wages of sin is death and Jesus tastes death for us he bears the penalty he bears the wrath of God on the cross and he dies he rises again the third day and our response is we must believe the only people

I say this it's a bit tongue in cheek but I say it to really get you thinking the only people that will go to heaven are those who have perfect righteousness that should scare you in one sense because you say well wait a second

I don't have that and I can't get that but the answer is the gospel the answer is the gospel because by the work of Christ we are declared righteous by his work that's what we need and so Paul goes on he's laying out that argument now nine and ten you know you were growing up I was growing up we always heard this about and it is it's good it's very good

I think we need to understand it but it's very good I believe it I affirm this about how a person gets saved

Romans 10 9 and 10 we'd always talk about that because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved we should believe that that's true we can share that with people we can take

Romans 10 9 and 10 and say look look what it says now what it doesn't mean and sometimes it's been applied this way it doesn't mean that if you ever just walk an aisle and mouth these words and you really mean it that you're saved it's not a defense for the so -called sinners pray you just say these magic words and God saves you know what it's talking about is a heart that really embraces

Christ we know what by grace it's it's God's work in the heart that that brings a heart to Christ and then that heart embraces

Christ the Savior and Lord and turns from sin and believes this gospel message and understands that in and of myself

I have no righteousness in it of myself I cannot obtain or meet the standard of God I need a

Savior and I need a sin -bearer someone who would take my sin from me and and and pay for the sins that I've done against God we need that and so we embrace that message with the heart and then we confess we confess with our mouth with which is not just saying well

I come up here and I stood before the church and I said Jesus is Lord that's easy right I mean anybody in here you could stand up and if you said

Jesus is Lord what would our church say amen amen praise

God this confession needs to carry into your home it needs to carry into your sphere of influence it needs to carry into your workplace anybody can say

Jesus is Lord in a church building but it's a confession that carries over into your life

Christ is Lord and I take it into my home and I take it into my workplace and I take it to my friends and I take it to my family

I don't just have Jesus is Lord in this little corner and I put it in my pocket and then on Sunday mornings

I pull it out and I'm like yeah Jesus is Lord no I carry this this is the banner over my life Christ is

King all right and so that's what that's what Paul's saying here is not just he's not he's not giving an apologetic for the sinner's prayer he's saying this is what it looks like if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you'll be saved for the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved now he says in verse 11 and 12 the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame everyone is

Paul's argument verse 12 for there's no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord is

Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him for everyone who calls on the name of the

Lord will be saved you believe that amen I believe that with all my heart

I believe that with every fiber of my being I believe that when I take the gospel to the streets

I believe that when I pass out tracks I believe that when I talk to my children I believe that when I meet with people in my office who are wondering about salvation

I believe that God is serious and I believe that God means it that every single person who will call upon the name of the

Lord not my not maybe but they will be saved call upon the name of the

Lord some of you even in a Sunday night service you need to hear that what is preventing me from being saved is it because my name's not on a list in God's book is it because you know

God has failed me in some way no it's because you won't call on the name of the Lord because those who call upon the name of the

Lord will be saved now I know that we can get into discussions on effectual calling and and predestination and all those things but I'm gonna just tell you sometimes don't you just don't need to out think yourself and we can do that well but but but but no no buts right if you call upon the name of the

Lord what's the text say you will be saved we believe this and we preach this and we trust in this and we obviously know that only those will call upon the name of Lord or those that God sovereignly bestows his grace we understand that but we preach this text and we we believe it we hold fast to it now verse 14 is where I'm going to show us that most of our

Bibles are poorly translated now I'm not sure what the King James says sadly

I have to admit the LSB does a good job here so I have to give a hat tip back there to Alex but I want to see you can just look

I don't know how you're you could show me after the sermon I don't know how your Bible is translated but I want to I want to talk about verse 14 for a moment so here's the

ESV how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed and how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard and how are they to hear without someone preaching let me back up for just a second so here's the argument premise 1 everyone who calls on the name of the

Lord will be saved we believe that amen so everyone who calls on the name of Lord be safe now here's

Paul's question how is it that they're going to call on him if they don't believe him and how are they going to believe him if they haven't heard about him and how are they going to hear about him unless someone preaches so you understand the argument all right except there's a there's a there's a line in there that I think our

English translations get wrong so if you notice in verse 14 it says they will call on him whom they have not believed how will they do that and then second how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard now you can look in your translation some of you you're the of there might be in italics but it sounds to me like it's saying when we preach about Christ when we preach

Christ they hear about Christ right you understand that's what it appears that the

English is trying to convey there but I don't think that that's what the original it's in fact

I know that's not what the original says I think sometimes we were like well well maybe we supply some translation here to sort of some words here to make it make sense what the original says is how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard okay there's no of let me say that better because I said that clunky how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard does it make sense so the

English says of whom they have never heard the Greek is saying how are they to believe in him whom they've never heard now that's an important distinction

I think now it's not wrong by the way it's not wrong to say when we preach

Christ people are hearing about Christ that's true isn't it when we preach

Christ people are hearing about Christ but I think that Paul is saying something profoundly different here or at least vitally important for us to grasp and I'm gonna give you some quotes here in just a minute that I'm not crazy okay

I mean I may be crazy but I'm in good company so what Paul is saying is not merely when we preach that people are hearing about Christ I hope

I make it sense that this is no they say a miss in the pulpits of fog and the pure or whatever hope what

I'm saying is making sense Paul is not saying not merely saying that when we preach that they're hearing about Christ but what is he saying when we preach they are hearing who

Christ that's what the text is communicating how then will they call on him and whom they have not believed and how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard how are they to believe in Christ if they haven't heard

Christ well how do they hear Christ what does he say how are they to hear without what without someone preaching so let me let me give you some quotes well first of all

John 1027 says this my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me have you heard the voice of Christ I hope you have we hear the verse voice of Christ through his word and we hear the voice of Christ through the preaching of his word

Herman Hoeksema he's a Dutch reform theologian from the 1900s he says it's funny right the 1900s is old now right it's like I'm from the 1900s well he was too he says through preaching you do not hear about Christ but you hear him he goes on to say a preacher is not a person who merely speaks concerning Christ but one through whom it pleases

Christ himself to speak and to cause his own voice to be heard by his people a preacher therefore must proclaim the whole counsel of God unto salvation as contained in Holy Writ that's

Herman Hoeksema the Westminster larger catechism says this it is required of those that hear the word preached that they attend upon it with diligence preparation and prayer examine what they hear by the scriptures receive the truth with faith love meekness and readiness of mind as the

Word of God that is there to examine to make sure he's preaching faithfully but as they hear the

Word of God being preached they are to receive the preaching of the Word of God as the

Word of God the second Helvetic confession 1566 it says the preaching of the

Word of God is the Word of God and then Daniel Doriani he says he's got a long quote he uses some quotes within quotes so we're back to inception like we were this morning but here's what he says

Daniel Doriani Martin Luther said every honest pastors and preachers mouth is

Christ's mouth and the word which he preach it is likewise not the pastors and preachers but God's similarly

John Calvin said when a man has climbed up into the pulpit it is so that God may speak to us by the mouth of a man so Doriani continue so preaching is

God's Word in some sense yet the preacher's words are human too and therefore often garbled weak or even false but the spirit makes the broken human words become a living

Word of God to the hearers here's what I'm saying and it's not just what I'm saying it's what

I think the text is saying and of course I would issue a caveat of caution but I believe that the text is telling us that when we preach the

Word of God rightly we are preaching the very voice of Christ when we are preaching the

Word of God rightly when we sit in the service and we hear the preaching of the

Word of God being rightly preached rightly exposited rightly exegeted we are in a sense hearing the very voice of Christ to the church now the caveat of caution would be of course that doesn't mean everyone who stands in the pulpit doesn't mean every time

I open my mouth it doesn't mean everything I say is always right or infallible or in error of course we're not equating the preachers stammering with the infallible inerrant

Word of God but but we are trying to articulate that there's something more going on here than just a rambling man right a man who is faithful to the

Word of God a man who is preaching the Word of God is not merely giving his opinion he's giving me the the right sense and interpretation of the text and in that right sense and in that interpretation there is a sense that the church is hearing from her head from Christ this is important it's important for a few reasons

I'm going to give you those it means it means preaching is a means of grace it means that when the church is gathered and the

Word of God is preached that God is doing something with that now first of all you might say in rightly so well first of all let's back up even more first of all you might say this what's your definition of preaching and I forgot who said it maybe

Martin Lloyd Jones maybe Richard Owen Roberts somebody said it not

Quatro Nelson said if you have to define preaching you've never heard it and so we do differentiate between preaching and teaching all preaching is teaching but I would argue that not all teaching is preaching now

I do know this quote Martin Lloyd Jones said that preaching is logic on fire preaching is persuasion preaching has has with it the quality and attribute of passion it doesn't mean that everyone that stands in the pulpit is loud and crazy and yelling and slapping or whatever that's not what we're saying with passion but they have a a a a a point of persuasion they are trying to say this is what the text says this is where you're at let's bring you to where the text is let's see a change in your life let me convince you that what the text says is true and that your life is wrong and that you need to change and you need to come into conformity with the

Word of God you need to trust Christ you need to rest in him you need to do what the Bible says this is preaching now some people say well but preaching is for the lost and teaching is for the church and even in this text you might use it as an as a proof for that so you might say well you understand that what

Paul is saying here he's talking about preaching for sure but he's talking about preaching to the lost now

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with that in in the context but if you just flip real quick to Romans 1 if you just flip real quick to Romans 1 and you'll see this in Romans 1 verse 15 now we know verse 16 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel but in Romans 1 15

Paul says this so I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome well who's he talking to he's talking to the church he's eager to preach the gospel to the church in Rome so preaching is something for the lost preaching is something we do evangelistically and I'm going to talk about in a minute but don't miss this preaching is also a means of grace for the church in fact hopefully

I've got this right in my mind Romans 16 if you turn there at the end of the book he says in Romans 16 25 now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages in other words the preaching of is something that the lost need to hear amen amen

I'm not denying that and I'm going to get to that here in a minute but the preaching of Christ is also something the church needs to hear because when we preach

Christ and when we preach the Word of God rightly the church is hearing the voice of Christ and the church is being comforted that's why we call it a means of grace yeah it's like it means that God is is using the preaching of his word as an instrument of grace in your life it's like a pitcher full of grace and as you hear preaching he's pouring it out all over you and so you're listening to preaching you're being convicted or you're being encouraged or you're being sanctified or you're growing or whatever the case may be preaching is a means of grace and then of course in context it's not just a preach of grace a means of grace inside the church but also outside that's the whole point it right you understand so everyone who calls on the name of the

Lord will be saved but how are they going to believe or how they're going to call him if they don't believe in Christ and how are they going to believe in Christ if they never heard

Christ and that's the point and how are they going to hear Christ unless someone preaches

Perryville I'll just give you an example Perryville needs to hear the voice of Christ well how are they going to hear the voice of Christ well we there's multiple things that I don't think are necessarily wrong that we could do and we have done we could cook hot dogs and pass them out and you know pass out a track with them we could go door -to -door and pass out tracks and talk to people and we do that I don't have a problem with those things these are good these are evangelism we should have one -on -one talking with people this is evangelistic and this is evangelism and we should do that but there's also a special sense that when a man stands and proclaims

Christ rightly that Christ himself is speaking through the proclamation of the

Word of God does that make sense preaching is a means of grace inside and outside the church secondly let me say this preaching is done under authority this is a very important part of Paul's argument so he says in verse 15 how are they to preach unless they are sent that's interesting isn't it because there's a multiple different ways that Paul could have said it how are they to preach unless they go unless they just go you could say that and to an extent that's not necessarily wrong or how do they preach unless someone just comes up with something to say okay but Paul uses specific language here that I think teaches us something else important about preaching and that is preaching is done under authority let me say it to you this way preaching is not given to men individual men so much as preaching is given to the church that is it is the church's job to be the steward of preaching well how could

I say that well I'm saying it who's going to be sent who's doing the sending right we say well

God sends well amen I would agree with that God sends preachers right God calls preachers

God sends preacher it's not ultimately the church that sends preachers of the church that calls preachers it's

God that does that amen but the means by which God affirms the calling of men to preach is the local church it is the church's authoritative responsibility to send preachers when we don't call preachers but we affirm the call so someone says let's just make it up you know or whatever let's say you know someone comes up and says

I'm I'm called to preach is that true well it may be how our society wants to say is if I say

I'm called to preach there's nothing that you can say about it well that's not true there's a few things that we can say about it number one preaching is reserved for qualified men okay how do we know that well we can look at the at the

New Testament teaching we can look at first Timothy 212 that men are the ones that are to have the authority of the teaching qualified men we can look at the qualifications of pastors in first Timothy 3 qualified men are the only ones that should be preaching not all men not all men but only qualified men so if someone says

I'm called to preach and they're not a qualified man they're not called to preach well how could you say that you can't go against God no

I'm saying this God is not going to say one thing in the scriptures and issue a divine call that's in contradiction to the word you understand so whatever the word says that's our standard so if someone says they're called to preach they should be judged by the criteria tested by the criteria given to us in the

Word of God because it is the church's responsibility to steward the preaching of the

Word of God so preaching is done under authority it's not just well

I'm just going to go into this town and preach I don't think that that's the the biblical model it is it is the church's responsibility to send preachers to authorize preachers now

God is the one that that does this but it's the church's it's the mechanism that God uses he's given us in this life the authority structure of the local church to test the preaching so this man's called to preach to ascertain the qualifications yes this man's qualified to preach and then don't forget this time not to just test and not to just ascertain but to send the church must send preachers why the church sends preachers because when preachers go out they are heralding the very voice of Christ you understand so we want the whole nation to hear the voice of Christ what and I think we get we get weird and and and we we fall into like mysticism and maybe pietism and we say you know people say and and we come up with things like Jesus calling which is trash it's not good and we say like oh we come up all these weird ways to hear the voice of Jesus and God has said no no you want to hear the voice of Jesus here's how you hear his voice men preaching his word preach the

Word of God as men rightly preach the Word of God and that that qualifications important as they rightly preach the

Word of God we're extolling the very voice of Christ and so we send preachers to preach

Christ and to preach the very voice of Christ this brings up a whole list of things that we could talk about but today as we send out

Pastor Jacob to fill in for another pastor we're we're are in one sense

I know it's not a perfect application but we're in one sense doing what the text says we're sending out a preacher when we send our pastors and others to to Mexico to to help equip and and and build the churches down there we are sending preachers and when we support and we must support and encourage the preaching of Christ and in the public square in the and the public proclamation of the gospel we are obeying this text we are sending preachers to preach the very voice of Christ I'm just saying tonight that we must close out 2024 with a high view of preaching and I hope that we enter into 2025 with a high view of preaching in fact my last point is just this and just a few notes to mention but if all this is true

I believe this is true this is not just something I came up with this is the historic I believe reform position on the preaching the preaching is a means of grace the preaching is done rightly hearing the very voice of Christ okay then what are we to do with preaching well friends we should prioritize it we should prioritize preaching we should remember we need to be careful of our language

I'm guilty of this I failed in this too sometimes but sometimes we say well we have worship and then we have preaching but if preaching is in one sense hearing the very voice of Christ how can that not be worship because you understand what

I'm doing is when I'm listening to preaching I'm engaging I'm listening and I'm responding

I'm saying yes Lord I want to say yes to that or something in my life that I need to say no to okay

Lord no I say no now to that yes I want to do this no I don't want to do that anymore

I want to repent I want to grow I want to follow Christ preaching is worship we prioritize preaching preaching this is obvious and you know you know a guy's gonna say this on Sunday night preaching should be attended it should be attended okay we do live in a world that people talk about reading their

Bible but it's it's optional but we also really live in a world it's like preaching is optional you know

I may go I may or may not go to church today that's an interesting position that we have as Christ as professing

Christians in the so -called Bible belt but if preaching is the Word of God and if preaching the

Word of God rightly is in one sense the church hearing the voice of Christ then should we not have a high priority to the attending of preaching we want to come and we want to hear preaching we want to hear now

I'm not saying that things don't come up maybe you're out of town although I would argue with it I would I would give you a gentle encouragement when you're out of town find a place that is faithfully preaching right why because we want to hear

Christ sometimes you're sick I get it and it's not the same but sometimes you can you're able to tune in on the live stream

I get it but the point is preaching should be attended it should be prioritized and we should be a church and I'm not saying and you guys can joke and you can add you know like as your watch broken because I know

I preach long and honestly sometimes I preach too long and my apologies about that so I'm not making an argument for long sermons but I will say this we live in a day where sermons are getting shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter right like I said the other day

I turned on a on a thing and I watch and the sermon was like 12 minutes now I'm not saying that if you only preach a 12 minute sermon that you're a heretic or something like that but surely you can hear me say that weekend and week out the people of God need more than 12 minutes of preaching we need the preaching of Christ we need

I don't know about you I need to hear the very voice of Christ I need to hear what

God is doing and what he has for me I need these truths we should expect good preaching we should expect faithful preaching

I'm me and pastor Jacob sorry pastor Jacob and I we are not always going to preach a home run sometimes it's going to be a bunt single right it's barely getting on first base but you should you should have a high bar for your pastors and not just your pastors any person that stands in this pulpit any man that stands in this pulpit

I expect Providence Baptist Church to hold them to a high standard now we're not trying to be like the

IRS I know everybody in here loves the IRS we're not trying to be like the IRS Mike let's let's get home you know like now we're not trying to do that and we when we will

I hope even more we've we've tried to encourage gunner with preaching and even I hope as the years going on I hope

God calls even some of you teenagers in this pulpit in this congregation tonight maybe

God you say no way not me well I probably said that too when I was your age not me no way

I'm doing that well maybe God would call some of you young men and we want to be gracious and as young men are preaching we won't be gracious and we want to be encouraging and we want to help them preach however with that being said you also understand that we expect when a man stands here and opens the

Word of God that we have a high expectation we expect faithful exposition of the

Word of God we expect the gospel to be rightly articulated friends we're like the we're like the

Greeks and is it in John 11 who say to Philip sir we wish to see

Jesus and when a man stands in this pulpit that's what we say to him sir you're handsome enough you got a nice beard right yeah we don't want to hear from you we don't want to hear about you we wish to see

Jesus we want to hear from him let me also say a couple more things and then we'll close one we should help those preaching the

Word of God have the time necessary to study this church does a excellent job with that but we should always keep that in our mind when we have people who are preaching we want we have a high expectation of them getting in the pulpit but we also want to guard their time in the

Word of God I don't have any sort of exhortation or rebuke to mention to that there's this church has always been very very helpful to me and kind to me in terms of allowing me the opportunity to study there have been times that there's been something

Tuesday is usually my mainstay of study and there have been times that you've asked me to do something on Tuesday and then and then some of you have actually stopped said oh wait

Tuesday's your main study day let's do it Wednesday well I'm very grateful for that I am that's not that I can't ever do anything

Tuesday of course I can that would be foolish but you guys have really been helpful in that and I appreciate that but if we expect that the preaching is going to be faithful then we ought to guard those who are preparing to preach we ought to guard their time and then lastly

I just want to say this because I think this is in the context of the sermon of the passage we must not forget to preach and support preaching outside the walls of the church because because that is in essence what

Paul's getting it so if it is true everyone verse 13 who calls on the name of the Lord we say so everyone who calls so you believe that I believe it everyone who calls on the name of Lord be saved so now

Paul's argument okay so how will they call on him and whom they've not believed so there's someone out there is not going to call on Christ unless they believe in Christ okay so now we just got to get them to believe aha but they're not going to believe in Christ unless they hear

Christ oh well now we gotta hit they gotta hear Christ ah they're not going to hear

Christ unless he's preached and they're not going to hear preaching unless what preachers are sent and most you guys don't know this many of you do know it

I shouldn't say most many know it some don't know it many do know it I think about one of the members of our church who has boots on the ground in Belize and I know things have changed and recently he is he's he's here with us obviously

I'm talking about Brother Jerry no secret but Brother Jerry has spent many hours week in and week out preaching

Christ to the people in Belize preaching we should support that well what are you saying am

I saying we need to send him a check or something by support that's not what I'm saying although that can that can happen at times certainly but we need to support by encouraging him we need to pray for him we need to as we're able to message him and say

Jerry you're not alone you may feel alone and you and Maria you guys may feel alone out there in Belize but you're not alone this church and you guys know we can attest we can tell them to their face because we do it all year every

Sunday night we bring your names before the church and we pray for you we pray for you because we believe in what you're doing because we're in one sense now

I know it's a kind of a different situation here but in one sense our church is sending them preach preach

Brother Jerry preach Christ why the people in Belize they need to hear Christ the people in your area they need to hear

Christ and they're not going to believe in Christ unless they hear and they're not going to hear Christ unless you preach and you're not going to preach unless the church encourages you and sends you in that preaching that's just one example we need to do this in other areas as well same with Perryville are you guys going out there preaching in the parade that kind of makes me uncomfortable and account now look we shouldn't be antagonistic we shouldn't be jerks but we should encourage gospel preaching why because as we're preaching the people of Perryville are hearing

Christ and you know what's going to happen here's what's going to happen and it may be slow and it may be laborious and it may be a long time but I am just confident that what's going to happen is that somewhere in the preaching of Christ God's going to save people because I believe that he is a

God who saves and he works through the means of preaching

I know that tonight maybe wasn't ordered and structured and put together like some other messages that you've heard me preach but I believe tonight that Providence Baptist Church does have a high view of preaching but that we should ever grow in our understanding and increase in our view of the preaching of the

Word of God I don't know what 2025 I hesitate anymore like I think it back to like 2019 you know

I hesitate anymore to speculate what's gonna happen in the year to come so I have no idea what 2025 has in store while put it this way 20 to 25 has nothing in store the sovereign

God of heaven has all things ordered rightly so we trust his Providence but I have no idea what he will bring in 2025 but I do know this as we enter into a new year may we be a church that has a high view of the preaching of the

Word of God and may we press on in this endeavor for the glory of Christ Christ is

King Christ is worthy let's pray father would you bless our churches resolve would you give us more resolve may this not just be a pastoral resolve may it be a resolve of the people in our church we may we believe and hold fast to the necessity of preaching

Christ inside and outside the church for the good of every soul we pray even tonight that there would be some who have heard the voice of Christ for the first time now heard the gospel we talked about that Jesus Christ is the end of the law and the only way that they can stand right and justified before a holy

God is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone would someone even tonight heed that call and call upon the name of the

Lord and show forth the truth of Romans 10 13 that everyone who calls on the name of the