God-Honoring Ministry Part 6

your Bibles and turn back once
again to Acts chapter 20 where we have been for several weeks. Acts chapter 20 we are looking
at what we have entitled the marks of a God-honoring ministry.
It is Paul’s testimony. It is Paul’s personal testimony
of life and ministry and we have to center on that truth because
otherwise to look at this passage and to see all of the I statements,
that one would have to conclude that either Paul is, as we’ve
already acknowledged, he’s either an egotist or he has a God-given
design in citing himself over and over again as an example
to be followed. Paul had a good relationship
with the Ephesian church, not the warmest of all the churches
which he had planted or to which he had ministered, but he had
a good, sound relationship with them. At one juncture, they had
literally begged Paul to stay with him. He did not consent,
but he promised to return, Lord willing, and he did. He spent
almost three years ministering in and around Ephesus and that
is where he cultivated this rich relationship with them that was
very business-like, almost matter-of-fact. This, I believe, was a stout
hearted church. This was a no-nonsense church.
This was a church where there wasn’t a lot of drama. They saw
the scriptures and saw them for what they were. They took them
at face value and they immediately got down to business. A very
serious-minded church and you can tell by the way Paul interacts
with them. Well, we have already acknowledged
five of these marks of a God honoring, four rather, of these
marks of a God honoring ministry. We’ve come to the fifth this
morning, and I just would encourage you to look with your own heart
and mind and interact with these passages and see what other examples
you see that Paul is setting forth there If you would, I want
to go all the way back to verse 17 of chapter 20 as we review Paul’s testimony
one more time. From Miletus he sent to Ephesus
and called to him the elders of the church. And when they
had come to him, he said to them, you yourselves know from the
first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the
whole time serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and
with trials, which came upon me through the plots of the Jews. How I did not shrink from declaring
to you anything that was profitable. teaching you publicly and from
house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance
toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold,
bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what
will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly
testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions
await me. But I do not consider my life
of any account as dear to myself so that I may finish my course
and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify
solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold,
I know that all of you among whom I went about preaching the
kingdom will no longer see my face. Therefore I testify to
you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For
I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and
for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with
his own blood. I know that after my departure,
savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And
from among your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse
things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be on
the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three
years, I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. And now
I commend you to God. and to the word of his grace,
which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance
among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one’s silver
or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these
hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who are with me.
In everything, I showed you that by working hard in this manner,
you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that
he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. When
he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them
all. And they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul and repeatedly
kissed him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken,
that they would not see his face again. And they were accompanying
him to the ship. It’s a solemn occasion. Paul
knew that his ministry to the Ephesian church was quite possibly
over, that he might never see these people again. We’ll come
back to that point here in a moment. We know that there is a distinct
possibility given the biblical evidence that he did return.
The way I would characterize this statement is almost like
any baseball team I’ve ever coached. is never the same the following
year. The players change, the players grow, the players develop. I remember one guy that was just
so accomplished came out the following year and because he
had grown he couldn’t even throw. And I think what Paul’s saying
here to the Ephesian church when he says that they’re likely not
to see one another again, he means not all of them. It’s going
to be, if he comes back again by God’s providence, it’s going
to be a different team. It’s going to be a different
group. Some will be in glory with the Lord. And that’s the
kind of down-to-earth, solemn, straightforwardness that he communicates
with the Ephesians on a regular basis. He had that almost business-like,
matter-of-fact relationship. Well, we have begun looking at
these I statements. and trying to decipher whether
Paul is indeed just an egotist constantly talking about himself
or whether there was by the Spirit’s direction a design in him constantly
quoting himself. We said that there were 20 I
statements here. I was, I did not, I am, I am
not, I do not. And those are the kinds of things
that we’ve built this framework of looking at Paul’s example. what we’ve called the marks of
a God-honoring ministry. We’re looking at Paul’s testimony
and the testimony of his life in ministry. And we noted, first
of all, that a ministry that honors God is a ministry that
is characterized by undaunted service. We noted that its service
that it’s legitimate work, that it is service before the Lord,
but it’s not just service, it’s undaunted service. It’s service
that doesn’t stop in the face of difficulty, that isn’t pushed
aside by persecution or challenges such as Paul faced. It is undaunted. Secondly, we noted that a ministry
that honors God is not only undaunted service, but a commitment to
proclaiming the gospel. We saw that in verses 20 and
21, where Paul says, and he doesn’t use the word gospel here, he
says, I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable.
We saw there that he’s not just talking about something that’s
good, but something that is ultimately good, superlatively good, something
that is perfect for us. And we noted that that was one
of the factors that pointed us that the only thing that can
be in reference there is the gospel. Only the gospel is profitable
for our souls. Only the gospel, Paul goes on
to say, can be taught publicly and from house to house. Only
the gospel is good for both Jews and Greeks. Only the gospel speaks
of repentance and faith, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
there was a third. There was a third mark of a faithful
service that we zeroed in on, and that was what we found in
verses 22 and 23. A ministry that honors God is
characterized by a faith in God to proceed into the unknown.
Paul didn’t know what lie ahead in Jerusalem. Paul knew that
difficulty certainly was there, possibly even arrest, persecution. No doubt he’d faced it anywhere
else he’d been. Why not in Jerusalem? Paul knew
that a life of difficulty lie ahead, but the service of Christ
was paramount to him. And he was willing to step in
even into the unknown. Paul was willing to proceed even
when he didn’t have a clear picture of precisely what was going to
be delivered to him. We came to a fourth last Lord’s
Day. The fourth mark of a faithful
ministry is a ministry that honors God is characterized by a selfless
dedication to the work of God. Paul was willing, as we saw,
to be pawned. Paul was willing to be used and
abused even if it meant, if it only meant the success, the advance
of the gospel. We looked at the book of Philippians
and that full report were over and over again He presents himself
as one willing to be pawned for the sake of the gospel. We come
to a fifth. The fifth mark of a God honoring
ministry. Not only undaunted service, commitment
to proclaiming the gospel, the faith in God to proceed into
the unknown, a selfless dedication to the work of God. Number five,
an absolute commitment to God’s word. An absolute commitment
to God’s word. Look at verses 25 through 27.
Where Paul says, and now behold, I know that all of you among
whom I went about preaching the kingdom will no longer see my
face. Therefore, I testify to you this
day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not
shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Look if you would back at verse
25. Where Paul says, and now behold. And
essentially what he does, if you’ve got your Bibles open in
front of you, he jumps back to verse 22 where he had essentially
initiated this discussion of what was going to transpire,
what he had to look forward to, what difficulties might lay ahead
of him. And it’s almost like he interrupts
his own thought. with the fact that he was selflessly
willing to be spent for the sake of the gospel. And he picks up exactly where
he left off in verse 22. Here’s how it goes. And now behold,
bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem. And then he goes
off essentially on this side point that he was willing to
be spent for the sake of the gospel. But then he comes back
again and now behold, He reminds them that there is a purpose
to this statement. And now behold, among whom I
went about preaching the kingdom. He points to all of them, all
of these Ephesian elders that had come to him, possibly from
a number of different churches and bodies there in Ephesus.
And he refers to them as all of you. this great body of men,
we don’t know exactly how many, but he reminds them of one feature
of his ministry while he was there. He says, among whom I
went about preaching the kingdom. And what he points to there is
that he no doubt had a wider sweep of ministry than just in
Ephesus, a big and bustling city as it was, likely with multiple
churches embedded within it, all called the Church in Ephesus. But from there, Paul used Ephesus
likely as a home base, a base camp, if you will, for ministry.
And from there he would go out on likely these short missionary
journeys to the regions and towns and cities in the outlying areas. That’s why he says, I went about
preaching the kingdom, not just in Ephesus. Paul would occasionally
venture out into this wider area of ministry And he says that
Paul here basically addresses those who had come from all these
churches and he calls them to mind again. He wants them to
look at his example. He’s not afraid of standing himself
before them as an example and telling them to look and consider
and essentially do likewise. Use this city, this place in
which you’ve been placed here in Ephesus as a sphere of ministry
and go out Go out. Even though Paul was speaking
to the Ephesians only, Paul calls to mind the memory of his missionary
visits throughout Asia. And he went about preaching,
mind you, the kingdom of God. He went about preaching the kingdom.
He went about telling people about the kingdom of God, about
the fact that God is king, that God is sovereign. that God is
judge, that God judges sin, but that God as a judge is a merciful
judge and has provided a savior. Paul went about preaching the
kingdom in order to reap the great harvest for that kingdom
and to draw them in. Some people were distressed that
Paul doesn’t actually refer to the kingdom of God here, which
is no trouble. There’s only one kingdom. There’s
only, there’s no other kingdom that God or Christ, before God
or Christ could be called the kingdom. So when Paul went about
preaching the kingdom, he was preaching about the kingdom of
God. And then he says those solemn
words. Now I behold, I know that all
of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, he calls
them to mind to recall how he had conducted himself in their
midst. I know that all of you will no
longer see my face. Paul dealt with it. Paul took
it. face on, that in all likelihood
he would not see this group of men again. We don’t know for
sure that Paul ever again visited Ephesus. We know that toward
the close of his ministry, when he was at Rome, he certainly
intimates hopes of visiting. He presents hopes of visiting
Colossae and they’re in reasonable proximity that if Paul went to
one place, he certainly would double back and visit Ephesus
again. But the interesting thing here
is Paul has already said he doesn’t know what his future holds. And
so even when he says seemingly, somewhat definitively, that they
will no longer see his face, he leaves the door open. He says,
in all likelihood, you probably won’t ever see me again, but
he certainly is hopeful. If Paul’s Roman captivity, though,
ended with his death, then it’s true, Paul never saw the Ephesian
elders again. But the pastoral epistles, if
you look at the pastoral epistles repeatedly, seem to suggest that
Paul did visit Ephesus again. Several passages point to the
fact that Paul did visit Asia, 2 Timothy 1.15, Troas, Miletus,
2 Timothy 4.20. We’ll know in glory, but Paul
deals with it head on. Have you ever known people when
you have a parting, whether you’re moving or what have you, they’re
reluctant to say goodbye, aren’t they? They’re reluctant to entrust
you into God’s hands. People have a difficulty saying
goodbye, but not Paul. Paul was willing to step into
the unknown, and here Paul, in his absolute commitment to the
word of God, takes that whole thing on straightforwardly. Look at verse 26, where Paul
says, calls them to mind again. Therefore, I testify to you this
day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.” What an absolutely
immense statement. He basically says, let me take
you to record. Let’s look at the facts that
I declare and I call you to witness that I am innocent of the blood
of all men. That image if you would turn to the book of Ezekiel. In what we shamefully call the
clean part of our Bible, Ezekiel, look first of all at chapter
three where we pick up this image. This is where Paul is borrowing
this image and it’s not the first time that he used this statement. Ezekiel chapter three. to the right of Isaiah and Jeremiah.
And if you’re in the minor prophets, keep going backwards. Ezekiel
chapter three, look at verse 18. When I say to the wicked,
you shall surely die and you do not warn him or speak out
to warn the wicked from his wicked way so that he may live. That wicked men shall die in
his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. He basically
is dictating the rules for ministry. Look at verse 19. Yet if you
have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness
or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you
have delivered yourself. It’s giving marching orders to
the prophet. Again, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness,
and commits iniquity, and I place an obstacle before him, he will
die. Since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin,
but his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered,
but his blood I will require at your hand.” Turn, if you will,
to Ezekiel 33, a much more complete treatment of this. Ezekiel chapter
33. The word of the Lord came to
me saying, verse 1, Son of man, speak to the sons of your people
and say to them, if I bring a sword upon a land and the people of
the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman,
and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet
and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet
and does not take warning and a sword comes and takes him away,
his blood will be on his own head. He says, look, I’ve given
you warnings. I’ve given you a heads up. If
you don’t heed the warnings, it’s your own fault. He heard the sound of the trumpet,
but did not take warning. His blood will be on himself,
but had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life.
But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow
the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and a sword comes
and takes a person from them, his iniquity, he is taken away
in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s
hand.” In other words, he says, if I tell you to speak and you
don’t, if I tell you to warn them and you don’t, I will require
his blood at your hands. And Paul basically says, look,
that’s exactly what I did. God told me what to speak. I
preached it. And because of that, I am innocent
of the blood of all men. Now, literally, Paul didn’t come
face to face with every man and preach the gospel to every man,
but everywhere he went, he preached the gospel in such fullness that
he absolved himself, that God absolved him of the blood of
other men. In other words, it’s possible
to go about preaching and to be intense about preaching, but
the gospel that you’re preaching is so incomplete that you are
not absolved of the blood of other men. Just like the trustworthy watchman
in Ezekiel’s prophecy. Paul had sounded this
trumpet. Paul, everywhere he went, preached
this gospel with such clarity and such completeness that he
says that God essentially absolved him of his guilt. There’s no
way Paul could have said this otherwise. And as I said, it’s
not the first time that Paul uttered these thoughts. If you
would, I know you’re in Ezekiel, head back over to Acts, and before
you get to chapter 20, stop in Acts 18. In Acts 18, chapter one, or verse
one of chapter 18, after these things, he left Athens and went
to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila,
a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife,
Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave
Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he
stayed with them, and they were working, for by trade, they were
tent makers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue
every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. But when Silas
and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely
to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the
Christ. Now let me just set the scene. This is where you get
the idea for missionaries of a tent maker. Paul had this trade. He was good at this trade. He
was living with these people, making tents. And in some way,
shape, or form, when his friends Silas and Timothy came, they
either came with a gift, or they took up the tent-making trade
and said, Paul, we’ll do the sowing. You go preach. And that’s
what he does. Watch this. Paul began devoting himself completely
to the Word. solemnly testifying to the Jews
that Jesus was the Christ. But when they resisted and blasphemed,
he shook out his garments and said to them, your blood be on
your own heads. I am clean. From now on, I will
go to the Gentiles. He basically says, look, I preach
to you the very pure word of the gospel. You did not heed
the warning. And they knew this image so well,
they knew the image of Ezekiel 3 and 33. Paul said, look, I’m
a faithful watchman. I preached to you the gospel.
You did not heed it. Your blood is on your own heads. Paul was faithful. Where would
he get the temerity? Where would he get the boldness,
if you will, the audacity to say such a thing? I am innocent
of the blood of all men. He gives you the reason. He gives
you the clear reason for that in verse 27. For I did not shrink
back from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. We’ve already seen that image
of shrinking back. We saw it in verse 20. And it
was literally, that word was literally used of furling up
sails, folding them, rolling them, and stowing away. And Paul
said in verse 20, I did not shrink back from declaring to you anything
that was profitable. And here he says, I did not shrink
from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Or if you’re
reading the older translation, the whole counsel of God. Which
I, it may be the one place where I really enjoy the King James,
but I love that translation. I love the way that’s written.
The whole counsel of God. The issue for us is what is it?
What is the whole counsel of God? What is the whole purpose
of God? Now, if you want to skip the
math, Paul is referring to the plan of redemption presented
in the Word of God. Paul says, look, I preach to
you the whole Word of God, but we’re not going to skip the math.
You knew I wouldn’t skip the math. It’s the Word of God that
Paul’s referring to, and I want to do the math with you on this
one. How do I get from, I did not shrink from declaring to
you the whole purpose of God. How do I get the Word of God
out of that? Simple. In verse 25, Paul calls on his
friends’ minds, and he calls them to remember his faithfulness,
in preaching the kingdom. That was what Paul did. He was
a herald. He wasn’t necessarily a teacher, an instructor per
se. He went about heralding, proclaiming
the gospel. And that word, that preaching,
the word for preaching is a technical word. That’s essentially what
we do from the pulpit, even still. We open the word, we read the
word, we proclaim the word. We don’t come up with our own
personal material, our own personal message. I love the way one of my early
seminary professors said it, studying the Bible ruins more
sermons. What he meant by that is most,
or some people, they have this tendency to get in their mind’s
eye an idea of what they want to preach about, and then they
just find a verse that fits, and off they go. But the more
we get into the Word, the more that we study the Word, the more
that we examine what is actually being written, it destroys our
human notions, and what we’re left with is nothing but the
pure Word of God. That’s it. So step one in solving
this equation is that Paul is speaking about preaching. That’s
what he’s telling us about. He’s recording and asking the
Ephesian elders to remember what his ministry was about and his
ministry was about the preaching of the gospel. So it’s not really a big surprise
here that when Paul had such a rich access to what the scriptures
were that he would put such a high
view on the preaching of the word. One Puritan said it this
way, the public and continual preaching of God’s word is the
ordinary means and instrument of the salvation of mankind.
Yet we have an entire, I mean, the entire idea of ministry in
this days is to minimize preaching, to reduce the time spent, to
reduce the depth to which we go in our preaching, if we even
offer preaching at all. The ordinary means an instrument
of the salvation of mankind. By the preaching of God’s Word,
the glory of God is enlarged, faith is nourished, charity increased. By it, the ignorant is instructed,
the neglected exhorted and incited, the stubborn are rebuked, the
weak conscience is comforted, and to those that sin of malicious
weakness, the wrath of God is threatened. preaching of God’s
Word is the ordinary means of the salvation of mankind. But
it is just to open the Word and to herald the great plan of redemption
that God unfolds in His Word. It doesn’t say that we’re supposed
to convince. It doesn’t say that we’re responsible
for the results or that we have to so hone our craft of public
speaking that it becomes this spit-polished, erudite presentation. It doesn’t say that. In fact, Lloyd-Jones said it
this way, any true definition of preaching must say that the
man is there to deliver the message of God. That’s it. It’s a message from God to those
people. The man has been sent. He is
a commissioned person. He’s standing there as the mouthpiece
of God and of Christ to address these people. He’s not merely
there to talk to them. I remember I shuddered. I was
in church early on when I was in seminary, and a gal sat behind
us in church, and after I had had opportunity to preach, she
let me know that she too was a public speaker. And I thought,
I cringed, I thought, is that all I am? Is a public speaker?
He’s not there to merely talk to them. He’s not there to entertain
them. He’s there to do something to those people to produce results. Preaching should make such a
difference in a man who is listening that he is never the same again
because it’s an interaction with the very word of God. And so we herald the good news. preach forth the good news. It’s
the exercise we talked about a couple of weeks ago. It’s the
exercise of ambassadorship. You bring God’s message. You
herald it in a lively manner. You proclaim it with passion
and leave the results to Almighty God. Charles Bridges, one of my personal
heroes, of the faith said this, stick with me on this. We’re
thinking about preaching. He said, because therefore the
want of the knowledge of God is the cause of iniquity amongst
men. He says, look, the reason there’s
sin in the world is a lack of the knowledge of God. If people
only knew God better, they’d be less inclined to sin. As contrary
wise the ground of all our happiness. You want to be happy? Know the
word of God. And the seed of whatsoever perfect virtue grows
within us. You want to honor God? You want
to please God? You want to be virtuous? You
want to be righteous? Know the word of God. Because therefore the one of
knowledge, the cause of iniquity, the seed of whatsoever perfect
virtue grows. is a right opinion of things
touching the divine. It’s knowing God, knowing his
word. And he goes on to say, the instruction
therefore of all sorts of men unto eternal life, it is necessary
that the sacred and saving truth of God be openly published to
them, preached. Which open publication of the
heavenly mysteries is by an excellency termed preaching. Paul said,
look, I went about Preaching, you know it. That was my habit,
that was my ministry. And now we’re into the second
step, this process of discovering what exactly Paul is referring
to when he talks about the whole counsel of God. First of all,
we have to inform ourselves that it was in the context of preaching. Secondly, the second step in
this equation, really quite simple, it was the Ephesians themselves.
He preached the whole counsel of God to the Ephesians because
they were able to receive the whole counsel of God. They were
equipped, spiritually speaking, to interact with the deep truths
of God. They wanted it. They wanted to
know what God meant when He said what He said. So it talks about
a greater measure of receptiveness on the part of the Ephesians
to the truths of God’s Word. In fact, one commentator so excellently
described the epistle to the Ephesians. And he did so because
he’s pointing out the fact that look how stout hearted these
people are. What was it that they received?
What was this whole counsel of God? Listen to what he said about
the epistle. No epistle excels that to the
Ephesians in the richness of its thoughts and its conception
of a divine purpose running through the ages, the whole counsel of
God. No epistle more fully upon the
conception of the church as the body of Christ, or exhorts more
touchingly to diligence in keeping the unity of the Spirit, or insists
more practically upon the sanctifying power of the one Spirit, and
the sense of a divine membership in every sphere of human life. The rich and full teaching of
the epistle is addressed to such as were able to understand the
apostle’s knowledge of the mystery of Christ. To those whom he announced
more fully than to others, the counsel of God. The third step in evaluating
this equation, we not only have the context that Paul was preaching,
we have the people that so readily absorbed spiritual truth. Paul gets this acknowledgement
from the Ephesian elders, perhaps by nod. that he had been faithful
in his preaching. And in verse 26 he says, because
of that he’s innocent of the blood of those who had rejected
his preaching. And then in verse 27 he moves
to support that profound statement. For I did not shrink from declaring
to you the whole purpose of God. There’s only one thing that fits.
That which either brings about freedom from sin, from the bondage
of sin, or condemns is the word of God. And that same thing is
what absolves Paul or anyone who shares their personal testimony
from that irresponsibility. It’s the proclamation of God’s
word. You see Paul, what he says here
is he had not willfully held back. He hadn’t furled in the
gospel, rolled it up and tucked it away. He hadn’t held back
the uncomfortable parts of God’s word. Paul hadn’t done so to save his
own hide. Paul hadn’t done so to gain any
credit or glory for himself. Paul hadn’t declined to preach
the uncomfortable parts of scripture, the inconvenient parts, the parts
that sometimes even make us, in a human sense, cringe. The
blood of Christ, the cross. Does that mean that Paul preached
the whole Bible? in a sitting? No. But he did tell them all
of God’s will. He didn’t hold anything back.
He didn’t pander either to his own fear or to the favor of people. He preached the whole plan of
salvation. He preached the whole gospel, the whole plan of God.
God’s word in all of it was sufficient for Paul. You see, we’re called
as God’s people to preach the word. We’re not called to give
our opinions, not our, what one said, our notions and fancies.
We’re not supposed to just live on stories, on worldly wisdom,
our own agenda, philosophy, pleasant and humorous anecdotes, life
experiences. All of that can be used to illustrate
God’s word. But it can never be used to replace
God’s Word. One characterized Paul here,
he had preached to them nothing but the counsel of God. And he
had not added any inventions of his own. It was the pure gospel
and nothing else. The will of God concerning your
salvation, he said. The gospel is the counsel of
God. It is admirably contrived by
His wisdom. And it is unalterably determined
by His will. And it is kindly designed by
His grace for our glory. God determines what we need to
hear. And God says, go preach it. Go tell it. Leave the rest to
me. Woven into a right understanding
of the nature of preaching is the content of that preaching.
And it can’t be anything other than the word of God. It can’t
be. See, this whole thing harkens
back. Remember in your mind’s eye,
you know, the passages that some of us have memorized almost more
in a defense of the gospel 2 Timothy 3.16. All scripture is inspired by
God and profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, for
training in righteousness. It’s the word of God. There isn’t
any part that you can open to that isn’t instructive and rich,
that God can’t use, sharper than any two-edged sword. And he proceeds
from there to perhaps the consummate verse on preaching 2 Timothy
4. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ
Jesus, this is Paul laying it to Timothy, and of Christ Jesus
who is to judge the living and the dead by his appearing in
his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of
season, reprove, rebuke, exhort. And Paul did that with great
faithfulness. Paul’s example with the modern
advice that almost negates or nullifies the preached word. And I would even go so far as
to say, if it isn’t oriented in the word of God, it’s not
even really preaching. It may be oratory, it may be,
you know, the old word homiletics. It may be public speaking, but
it’s not preaching if it isn’t oriented in the very word of
God. Because we have no message of
our own. Why does Paul so insist on staying
within the bounds of scripture? Isn’t in all this history of
rich literature, isn’t there some little book that you could
countenance, that we might take up, that might give the saints
of God a good lesson? This is the biblical answer.
Only the Word of God promotes sound doctrine. Only the Word
of God, 1 Thessalonians 2.13 performs its work in you who
believe. Only the Word of God, 2 Timothy
3.15 is able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation. Only the Word of God is inspired
by God. Literally, God breathes. Only
the Word of God is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction,
for training in righteousness. Only the Word of God, 2 Timothy
3.16, is able to make you adequate, equipped for every good work.
Only the Word of God is living and active. Only the Word of
God is sharper than any two-edged sword. Only the Word of God,
Isaiah 40.6-8, is able to abide forever. Only the Word of God,
as Jesus said in John 17, is truth. Only the Word of God presents
Christ accurately as all that He is, the Savior of the world,
and it presents humanity accurately as all that we are in desperate
need of Him. Lloyd-Jones, again, said, and
I close, the moment you consider man’s real need, and also the
nature of salvation announced and proclaimed in the scriptures,
you are driven to the conclusion that the primary task of the
church is to preach and to proclaim this, to show man’s real need
and to show the only remedy, the only cure for it. Paul was
faithful in that fifth mark of a faithful ministry, Paul was
faithful in his absolute commitment to God’s Word. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, we would be faithful. We desire to do as you would
have us to do, to be absolutely dedicated to
God’s Word, to proclaim the Gospel in its fullness, And Lord, when you give us those
providential opportunities, sitting in a coffee shop with
friends, when we can talk about a lot of things, but we’re faithful
to look to you and to proclaim to our friends the whole counsel
of God. Father, we rejoice in that privilege. We rejoice when you give us the
grace to do as you’ve commanded us to do. Father, such is the
mark of great faithfulness. Lord, we thank you and we praise
you. Grant us the grace to be faithful. It’s in Jesus’ name
that we pray. Amen.