The Devastating Consequences of Modern Preaching

Contemporary Preaching and a Postmodern Worldview

Let's dive into our discussion today, the devastating consequences of contemporary preaching. I just wanted to sort of follow up on what Phil had said, because so much of this quote-unquote contemporary preaching is flowing naturally from this altered worldview that is not a Christian worldview at all.

We need to understand, as Phil said, that the postmodern mindset, the postmodern worldview, is an anti-Christian worldview. It's not neutral. It's not something that we can Christianize. We can't baptize it and make it better.

It is fundamentally opposed to the idea that God has spoken, and that he has spoken with clarity. And as such, we as those who are tasked with the ministry of the Word of God must remember that those doors out there do not filter out the anti-Christian worldview of people as they come through.

It would be wonderful if it worked that way. But it doesn't work that way. And that means that when our people, even our good, faithful people, come through those doors, they come through soaked with exposure to a world that seeks to cause them to think in a way that is not godly, to think in a way that will cause them to question the Word of God, that will cause them to not see the harmony and beauty of God's truth.

And that means that we as ministers must be purposely seeking, in our presentation of the Word of God, to train our people by modeling and by direct didactic teaching to recognize the influence of the world around us and to counteract it through the constant exposure to the Word of God.

We just simply have to do this. The 1950s are gone. The days when people just showed a natural respect for the Word of God, even if they didn't believe it, are gone. Our people, especially our young people, I have such a burden for our young people.

We wonder why it is that our young people go off to university and all of a sudden, notice I said university. I just got back from England. Sorry, that's how they speak over there. But we wonder why they go off and we lose them.

Such a huge percentage of them. It's because we didn't talk about the tough issues. We didn't talk about worldview issues. We didn't talk about how to respond to what the world's going to be throwing at them in the context of faith.

That needs to be taking place in our Bible studies. It needs to be taking place in the sermons. There is nothing wrong with opening up the Word of God and then making application to the context in which we live.

So these are all very important things. I had a young man come up to me last night after the debate and he said, I was raised in a Christian high school and I'm a freshman here at Duke. Wow. You got some resources for me?

Because I'm in the middle of a battle. And he is. At least he was coming to me to ask that question. Sadly, a large portion of those folks just go, man, this stuff I was taught is just ridiculous. I'm going to go with the flow.

And it's a tragedy. I just mentioned as well the fact that the postmodern perspective is death to apologetics. What is a postmodern apologist anyway? It's an oxymoron. How do you debate? How do you argue?

The very idea of argument, the very idea of defense, it's like telling a general, defend. Defend what? Don't ask questions like that. It makes no sense. You can't do it. And that's why that form of what calls itself Christianity is absolutely powerless in giving a defense.

And, of course, we're all commanded to be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks us a reason for the hopelessness within us. So the unbiblical nature of it is so plain and so clear. I'd like to look at three passages I was really frightened when Phil started talking about with the text because I thought he was going to cause me to have about a half hour presentation where my main text would be gone.

But thankfully we just missed each other on that one. I'd like to start in Acts chapter 14. Acts chapter 14, verses 21 through 23. And I will be putting these on the screen if you want to follow along.

Acts 14 beginning verse 21. After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God.

When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Now, just a couple of observations from this particular text.

It is very clear that the apostles, as they are spreading the gospel, as they are involved in the very founding of the church in these cities, as they are involved in the tasks the Spirit has given to them, of the very beginnings of the Christian faith, recognize the vital importance of the organization of the church.

And so, while they have preached the gospel, while they have made many disciples, they don't just run off at that point. They recognize that there is going to be a need for those disciples to have a mechanism by which they will be able to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This idea of the Lone Ranger Christian is nowhere to be found in the New Testament. I am a churchman, which makes me a total freak amongst apologists. One of the greatest problems that I see with those who call themselves apologists is that the vast majority of them are not intimately associated with the church.

They do not have positions in the church. They do not have to teach on a regular basis. I think one of the greatest things that has helped me in keeping balance in what I do is I teach the adult Sunday school class.

We have spent the past four and a half, five years in the study of the synoptic gospels using Jolland's synoptic text. That is one of the toughest ways you can go through the gospels. It is really easy to go through Matthew.

It is much tougher to go through Matthew when he is paralleled with Mark and Luke and John and to have to deal with the issues that come up in the synoptic problem at that point. I think that is one of the best things I have ever had to do because it keeps you in the Word.

You are not just dealing with controversy. You are also having to preach through the entirety of the text. That balance, I think, is something that is missing in a lot of what calls itself modern-day apologetics.

The apostles knew that there would need to be a means by which the saints would be able to grow in grace. It would be found in the church. Notice that they returned to where they had been. It says they were strengthening the souls of the disciples.

Is that a goal that we have? Is that a goal that you have as a minister? When you are preparing your exegesis of the text, your sermons, is a part of your idea, I want my people to be strengthened in their souls.

I want them to be stronger Christians because they are going to face so many obstacles and so many forces today that would cause them to become silent Christians or to dissuade them from even following the faith as a whole.

How do you do that? Again, I think it goes back to recognizing the context in which they live, the problems they are going to be facing, and therefore making application to help them to see how this harmonious, beautiful truth of God speaks to their everyday existence, speaks to the lordship of Christ over every decision that they make.

The disciples need to have their souls strengthened. And here the apostles are doing so. Notice how they do this. They do this by encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God.

This does not sound like the kind of preaching that is so prevalent today. I don't know about you, but for me, one of the greatest difficulties I face, especially when I have opportunity, once in a blue moon, to do secular media appearances.

Larry King hasn't called me yet, John hasn't given him my number yet, but that will happen eventually when John gets tired of going to see Larry King. But in those types of contexts, all the time, you have to fight against the perception that people have of Christianity that is based upon this perversion that is so pervasive in our culture that they see on their television screens.

It's this name-it-and-claim-it, blab-it-and-grab-it type of surface-level religiosity that parades under the name of Christianity. It is a plague upon the church. There is no other way of putting it.

We might well not want to see it happen, but if persecution were to come against the church, that would be the first step that would be disappearing. And I can't say that that would not be a blessing on the believing church.

Even though we might have to suffer along with, but at least the purification process would get rid of so much of the dross that we have to try to distinguish ourselves from all the time. It truly is a plague on the church.

And so, here is preaching where there is straightforward recognition that the path that we have called people to is not a path of roses. Through many tribulations, we must enter into the kingdom of God.

When we do not preach the whole counsel of God when we present the gospel, we are doing no one any favors. When we try to lure people in, when we shave off the rough edges of the gospel so that we can inflate the numbers, we're not doing anyone any favors.

We're not showing any love to the people who are going to respond in a partial fashion or in a limited fashion to that. Because we're turning them into religious hypocrites who think they've done what they need to do to be alright with God, which may well be the very fastest route into the very pit of hell itself.

Religious hypocrisy is an ugly thing. But we're not showing any love for them, we're not showing any love for the gospel, and we're certainly causing ourselves no end of difficulties because there is no worse thing you could possibly do than to call a pastor to minister in a church filled with driftwood, filled with unregenerate people.

That's the best way to turn a promising pastor into a future computer repair or salesman. It's just the best way in the world to do it. So we don't do anything there if we don't follow the apostolic example, and people need to recognize Jesus' own methodology.

I cannot help but remember his calling the crowds to himself in Mark chapter 8 and saying, if anyone will follow after me, take up your cross. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me, join the death march.

What a wonderful, wonderful evangelistic methodology. And yet, that is the way that the Master presented the following of him. We really need to recognize that this is part of strengthening their souls, is being real with them, and helping them to recognize that there is such a thing as suffering in this world and God has not promised to take us out of the suffering but to be with us through the suffering and to use the suffering to strengthen us.

Now, some of these things are things that we only have to emphasize primarily in our very rich, very cushy Western society. There are many places in the world where the Christians would be looking at us going, could we get to something meaningful here?

We already knew all of this because that's our everyday reality. But in our context, it is something we have to emphasize. So they're very clear and straightforward in what they said, but then notice they didn't just stop there.

When they had appointed elders for them in every church. Sort of an important point on many levels. It is amazing to me when I encounter folks who are so worried about Reformed theology because, well, you believe in them for all the elders things.

We don't want that because you've got to have one pastor. The monarchical episcopate. The what? No, you just need to have one pastor. That's the only way it's going to work. An animal with multiple heads is a freak.

It's a little bit scary some of the stuff that I hear sometimes about stuff like that. But it's pretty obvious when you actually let the text speak for itself that the apostles appointed elders for them in every church.

That's a multiplicity of elders. And the apostles appointed them. They recognized this is vitally important for the healthy functioning of the church. And I would say to you it's vitally necessary for the healthy functioning of elders.

Being the Lone Ranger on that level isn't good for you either. And I know for me, one of the greatest blessings I have had is that since I became an elder of the Phoenix Foreign Baptist Church 10 years ago now, there is a tremendous encouragement to be found when I enter into the service and I'm not the one doing the preaching, and my fellow elder Don Fry is up there.

We're a small congregation. And he's preaching. And though we have not communicated during the course of the week as to what I was going to be teaching in Sunday school or what he was going to be covering in the morning service, something like that, we end up saying the exact same things.

That harmony that exists, that is so encouraging on the simple level of my faith and hopefully his faith as well, that it's truly a blessing. I recognize that the opposite of that can be a very difficult thing to deal with as well.

And so we pray for the peace of the church and the harmony of its leadership and things like that. But standing together, confessing the faith together, saying the same things, having that mutual trust is a tremendous blessing in the church.

And so the apostles recognized there needed to be this multiplicity of elders. And then they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. They did not say now, try to just keep in existence until the papacy can be established or until Joseph Smith comes along or the Watchtower is founded in Brooklyn.

Never heard of Brooklyn? Don't worry about it. Look through the book of Acts and see the fact that the apostles never even give a hint of this idea of, well, there's more revelation to come, there's some new kind of leadership that's going to be established.

They commend them to the Lord in whom they have believed. This is the apostolic way. And see, many people wish there was something more. I, unfortunately, will have some really neat stuff sitting on my desk when I get home.

Some of you would all look at me and go, excuse me? I will have a book sitting on my desk when I get home that is a brand new, in-depth, uber-scholarly study of the canonization of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih al-Muslim.

It costs $207, just for that one volume. That's what you've got to do to debate folks like Dr. Shaw. I'm excited about that. You know what I'm not excited about? The book that costs about $12, which was Frank Beckwith's story about his return to Rome.

Frank Beckwith was the head of the Evangelical Theological Society when he went back into Roman Catholicism. And he thought he was going to just stay in that position until his term was out, until this really unkind, nasty apologist in Phoenix found out about it and blew the lid off the top of it, and so he had to resign and stuff like that.

And here is this, you know, another return to Rome story. I'm not looking forward to it. We look at people like Beckwith and others and we go, what happened? I understand the draw that some of these things have, but I only understand it if a person never had any true foundation in themselves to begin with.

If they didn't really understand what the gospel of grace is. I don't know how anybody can actually rejoice in the fact that I stand before God justified solely by the fact that through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to me, I have peace with God because my holiness is a perfect holiness because it's the righteousness of another.

I don't know how anybody who was once excited about that could then return to the treadmill of Rome and the penances and the confessions and all the rest of this stuff and say, oh yes, I've made the right move.

I can't begin to understand that, though unfortunately I've met many a convert who has made that particular move. Those types of folks will make all sorts of arguments about what you need more than the scriptures.

The apostles never give any hint. They commend the church to the one in whom they have believed. They do not commend them to anything else. I look especially when Paul meets with the elders in Ephesus in Acts chapter 20.

He tells them, difficult times are coming. People are going to rise up from your own midst and mislead people. And if there is any time to say, so just wait for the successors of Peter in Rome. Wait for whatever religious movement.

But what Paul says at the end of all that is, I commend you to God with the word of his grace. And that is God's purpose in the church. We're always looking to try to improve on what God's will for the church is.

Instead of recognizing it is his purpose that we are to stand firm in the faith. And we are to do so amidst many trials and tribulations. Well, that little round thing at the back of the wall is moving very quickly.

So let's, I still have two more to get to. And they're really good ones. 2 Timothy chapter 4. This is where I was worried about Tim. Tim, yeah, Tim. My name is Tim. Few of you know what that one's from.

2 Timothy chapter 4. I didn't realize what Phil was going to go for, but we missed it. 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 through 4. A text we all know, but once again, just a few thoughts dry from it. I solemnly 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, exhort. With great patience and instruction or teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. They will not show patience towards sound doctrine.

But wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. And will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. Now, I would imagine that every single generation has turned to this text and made application to their day.

And I think appropriately so. But I think that the modern era has ushered in something that, while it may not be new under the sun, it certainly seems to be somewhat unique. And that is, you may recall that when Gutenberg's Folly was created, many people referred it to that in that way.

Because of what? Well, because while printing was a great opportunity to spread the truth, it was also an equally good opportunity to spread a lie. The printing press doesn't know the difference between the two.

But even up to modern times, it took time to communicate by that means. You had to, you know, the printed page has to go someplace and you have to find somebody that's going to print it for you. And so there was somewhat of a, at least some type of a stricture.

We live in a microwave society. I often chuckle that my daughter has no concept of life without a microwave. Popcorn is a little bag, it's not one of those things you go for a long time and hope the top doesn't blow up when you get to the end.

They have no concept of these things. Things move so fast now. You notice what Phil was saying about pre-modern, modern, post-modern. The speed at which things develop and become popular and then disappear is increasing so much that honestly most of us feel a little bit lost at times.

Most of us have a little handheld device attached to our body someplace now that not only makes us almost instantly communicable. That didn't sound right. Really didn't sound right at all. People get hold of this a whole lot faster than they could.

Sorry, honey, the battery died. Yeah, it's the third time today. But we can use those to obtain information at such a rapid speed now that I don't know that our minds were ever made to be able to keep up with this kind of stuff.

It really causes a lot of people to sort of give up and say, I'm just not going to be able to follow all this stuff. And so things are changing so rapidly and the internet especially has allowed for the dissemination of such utter foolishness.

Anybody today can publish a book. Anybody today can publish stuff online. Or publish books very easily anymore. You can publish ties. One tie at a time. Very, very easily done. These are all the prophecies of Jesus in Hebrew from the Old Testament.

I made it for my debate on Monday night with Shabir Ali and Lenny. Made only one copy of it. And it still only costs like about $24, $25. It's amazing what we can do now. But the problem is that means that the entire range of man's depravity can now be expressed so rapidly.

And I'm seeing that for many of us, Google has now become the portal to all knowledge. If you can't find it in Google, it must not be true. But what's worse is if you Google almost anything, you'll be able to find about 47 different opinions on it too within the first three pages.

And so a lot of Christians are going, well, but this person says this. Well, why does that person even have a right to be talking about this? Anymore, all opinions are equal. And the internet has helped to create and foster that type of an attitude.

And so as a result, we are facing a very challenging period for the person who wants to accurately handle the Word of God and to try to build people up in the faith because there is just such a constant force of erosion.

Not only just the media, which is just constantly putting pressure upon them to deny the Christian faith. We need to start saying this openly, by the way. We need to stop playing games and say that when the faith or when the media insists that you have to deny the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God and the only way of salvation, they are saying you must deny the Christian faith.

It is a form of persecution. And it's time to start identifying it for what it is while we still have the freedom to say it because I don't know how long we're going to have the freedom to say the things we're saying.

I was shocked I had the freedom to debate in London. I had pretty much given up on having anything like that happen in the UK. But especially with the results of November 4th, the forces who want to silence the proclamation of the Gospel have been greatly encouraged.

And the ungodly have been greatly encouraged. I've been gone during most of this, but even in the UK, I was able to get news stories about what's happening in California. And even in my own state, we passed Proposition 102.

Radical, hateful people that we are, that we passed a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as one man and one woman. What a horrible, horrible people we are. Truly, white is becoming black. Black, white, good, evil, and evil, good.

Isaiah foresaw the day coming. And we are experiencing, but I'm sorry, I'm getting off my text here. Anyway, we are in a day where this solemn charge is one that we may have to count the cost to follow.

And it is a solemn charge. We are to do this in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ. And remember, Jesus Christ, this reference to the majesty of God, God and Christ, is connected to the fact that He someday will judge.

And folks, we have to keep that in mind. If I didn't think that someday God was going to judge, and that righteousness was going to be done, justice was going to be done, I don't know what I would do in light of what the world looks like today.

But we need to recognize God will judge. And we may not see vindication in this life, but there will be vindication. Justice is going to be done. That is the very foundation of this throne, the psalmist tells us.

Keep that in mind if you ever start getting discouraged at what you're seeing going on around you in this world. Preach the Word. Proclaim the Word. That is our first and greatest command. This is the freedom that we must demand for ourselves.

This is the greatest, this is the command that comes from the Creator Himself. And there is no power on earth that is to stop the Christian from doing what the command of God is for him. And the history of the Church is filled with those who have given their lives because they fulfilled this command and the hatred of the world was expressed against them.

We are to preach the Word in season and out of season, when it's convenient and when it's not convenient. There are times when preaching the Word was something that was looked upon in some of our societies as an honorable thing, both in the history of the United Kingdom and the United States.

There were times when those who were well known as accurate handlers of the Word of God were seen as men that should be respected. Those days are passing, especially with an utter lack of discernment in our society as to what handling the Word of God is actually supposed to mean.

But we may be in the out of season time now, but that does not change the command that is ours, that we are to preach the Word. And that in so doing, we cannot avoid the fact that when the Word is accurately preached, it results in certain things.

It results in reproving. It results in rebuking. It results in exhortation. Yes, this happens within the Church, but obviously, while it's important that we rebuke sin within the fellowship, for example, and rebuke worldliness within the fellowship, the proclamation of the whole counsel of God is going to force us, as it forced John the Baptist to rebuke Herod for his incestuous marriage.

And that means that we have to do so in a way that's honoring to God, but we must rebuke immorality when it is there. When it is becoming a part of the very fabric of our society, we cannot avoid the moral element of the Lordship of Christ.

And so today, as we live in a day where that kind of immorality, the wanton murder of unborn children in the womb, at a time we know more about our human existence in the womb than any time in history, means we have blood on our hands in this nation.

God will judge the nation that does these things. It does not the Old Testament tell us this. And the absolute perversion of the God-given institution of marriage, God defines that. Don't call it homosexual marriage, that's an oxymoron.

It's a square circle. There can be no such thing as that. It is a perversion of a God-given institution. And yes, I know, in Canada especially right now, I can get into a lot of trouble for saying that.

And believe me, it crosses my mind when I go there. But we cannot avoid these things. To preach the whole counsel of God involves bringing rebuke and reproving that which is against the clear teaching of the Word of God.

And there can be no question of those things, despite the fact that our post-modern society thinks that, well, I know a scholar that thinks differently. And in the post-modern mind, that means, therefore, no one knows the truth.

Well, of course, you can find a quote-unquote scholar that has believed anything. If that then becomes the standard, then there is no way of knowing truth at all. And it's interesting that people in the religious realm will accept that reasoning.

They will not accept it in the medical realm, the scientific realm, the realm of physics, you know, anything like that. But when it comes to religion, that's the one realm where all of that is to be accepted.

So we cannot, in our preaching, become fearful of the face of men so that we no longer bring rebuke against sin or reprove that sin. We are to exhort. And that's a wonderful thing, to exhort people. The very function of the Holy Spirit, the power they can come alongside.

But that exhortation will be toward being Christ-like, which means to live in holiness of life, which means to live in such a way that we stand out from the society around us as it becomes more and more soaked in its naturalistic materialism and its rebellion against God.

This is an exhortation toward godliness, not just a pat on the back and exhorting you to be, well, be the best you you can be. Isn't it a sad thing that we might have the comedian who popularized that kind of obsequious kind of...

Did you see it? He used evunkeal. And I almost didn't get up here because I don't know that I can follow someone who can actually find a way to use that in a talk. I just... So I had to find a way of saying obsequious.

I think that's... It's Scrabble. Which one of us is ahead? I'm not sure which one of those two turns works. But the guy who did that, that fellow, I forget what his name was, wore the little sweaters, and I like me and you like me, and Al Franken might end up in the United States Senate.

Is that not the judgment of God? I mean, is there anything about Jezebel that could even come close to having Al Franken in the Senate? I don't know, but it's an amazing thing. Sometimes I just sit back going, what is going on?

I mean, seriously, I watched a video last night of some Christians being chased out of an area in San Francisco by homosexuals. Some of you saw the same video that I did. It's just the hatred. It's like God has lifted his hand, and we're really seeing mankind as he really is.

Our Armenian friends are going to have real trouble with their view of man if this continues, because if you want to prove your total depravity, you're just going to be able to turn on the evening news, and it's going to be right there in front of you.

Obviously, to be able to do these things requires that we do so with great patience and instruction. Normally, patience and instruction would not be two things you would think would be put together. But what it's referring to is the fact that it is an ongoing process.

It's not always easy. Not everybody gets it. You've all had the experience of standing at the back door as people are leaving the church, and they make a comment to you about your sermon, and you're laughing.

Don't laugh down there. They make a comment to you about your sermon, and the first words you want to say out of your mouth but you don't is, what sermon were you attending? Because it wasn't mine. I have no idea where you got that one from.

And so you have to with patience. So, well, Mrs. Studebaker didn't get that one. Let's try it again next week. There's this need to be patient and also with much teaching. And I think one proper application of that phrase would be something along the lines of, not only does there need to be repetition, there needs to be that, but we also need to make sure that we are approaching the whole realm of God's truth.

Sometimes we get real comfortable in our comfort zone where we know we can do a good job, and there's other elements of God's truth that we sort of shy away from a little bit because we just don't feel that that's our strength.

That's one of the good things about having a chorology of elders, that can sort of help with some of that. But especially if you have the primary preaching duties, that's something we need to be aware of, that we need to be constantly expanding our own horizons.

No one ever gets there. No one ever arrives. There needs to be this constant desire to be growing in our own knowledge so that we can, with much teaching, exhort the people of God. Why? Why do we need all this?

Because the time will come when they will not endure. They will not put up with sound doctrine. Because, you see, ungodly people, people who are not indwelt by the Spirit of God, people who are playing at religion, will eventually get sick and tired of sound doctrine.

Because that sound doctrine will rebuke them. And there is a tremendous need for the minister standing before the people of God to recognize, I can't look into the hearts of everybody out there. The ministry of the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and applies it to the people of God.

When I see people rebelling against sound doctrine, that might be the best indicator I have of future problems and issues that might need to be addressed in the fellowship of the church. They will not endure sound doctrine.

Sound doctrine grates upon their ears. If our preaching is not with sufficient clarity to bother the ungodly amongst ourselves, we've got a problem. We've got a real problem. The Gospel is not something that can allow people to remain in a position of neutrality if it is with clarity being proclaimed.

And so notice what they do. They want to have their ears tickled. They want to have their desires fulfilled. And so what do people do? People for some reason want to remain religious. It helps them to assuage that conscience.

And so they will, because they've got money, they've got resources, they will accumulate for themselves. They will store up. Like young boys collect basketball cards or back in my day, baseball cards.

They will store up for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires. What a phrase that is. What a sad phrase that is. I understand liking certain teachers. You like the way they teach, speak, they sort of scratch your itch.

But if your quote-unquote favorite teacher doesn't sort of cause you to stretch yourself once in a while, if that favorite teacher doesn't convict you once in a while, you might need to expand your horizons as to who you're listening to.

This is a word for all of us. These people, they have certain desires and they don't want certain elements of their sin to be exposed so they collect teachers based upon that. We see that. We see people who are for sale along that level all the time.

But we as believers need to ask ourselves the question. One of the reasons I don't like listening to that guy is because he hits me where it hurts. Maybe I need to listen to him some more. Again, we live in a situation where these false teachers have multiplied around us.