Song of Solomon chapter six.
You don't have to look this up. I just want to read two verses.
Whither is thy beloved gone? The daughters of Jerusalem are
asking the bride of Christ, where's your husband? Where's your husband? Whither is thy beloved gone,
O thou fairest among women? Whither is thy beloved turned
aside, that we may seek him with thee? My beloved has gone down
into his garden to the beds of spices to feed in the gardens
and to gather lilies. I am my beloved and my beloved
is mine. He feedeth among the lilies. Let's stand together. Tom's gonna
come lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. With harps and with viols there
stands a great throng in the presence of Jesus and sings this
new song. To him who hath loved us and
washed us from sin, unto him be the glory forever, amen. all these once were sinners defiled
in his sight now arrayed in pure garments their voices unite to
him who hath loved us and washed us from sin Unto him be the glory
forever, amen. He, he maketh a rebel, a priest,
and a king. He hath brought us and taught
us this new song to sing. To Him who hath loved us and
washed us from sin, unto Him be the glory forever. Amen. How helpless and hopeless
we sinners had been, if He had not loved us and washed us from
sin. To Him who hath loved us and
washed us from sin, ? Unto him be the glory forever, amen ?
? Aloud in his praises our voices shall ring ? ? So that others
believing this new song shall sing ? To him who hath loved
us and washed us from sin, unto him be the glory forever. Amen. Please be seated, Archie. Thank you, Greg, for putting
those handrails up. We hardly ever think of the Old
Testament saints as our brothers in the Lord, but they are. And
our brother Job made three amazing statements in his life. He lost
10 children. All of his livestock was rustled. They say he was the richest man
on earth at that time, now he has nothing. The Lord left him
with a wife who told him to curse God and die. In chapter one it
said this, and Job rent his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down
to the earth. and said, the Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all these things, Job sinned
not, nor charged God foolishly. After the death of 10 children,
he said, blessed be the name of the Lord. In chapter 19 and
verse 22, Job said, why do you friends. Why do you persecute
me as God and are not satisfied with my flesh? Oh that my words
were written. Oh that they were now printed
in a book. That they were graven in the
stone with an iron pen and lid forever. For I know that my Redeemer
liveth And in the latter day he shall stand upon the earth.
Day, singular, talking about the second coming. In the latter
day he shall stand upon the earth. And even though after my skin
worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God at
the resurrection. Whom mine eyes shall behold,
and not the eyes of another, though my reins be consumed within
me. That's the raising from the dead. And when God brought Job face
to face with him, what did Job say? He said, I have heard of
thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth me. And I hate myself. I abhor myself. Father, we thank you that we
have these illustrations, Father, to comfort us in times of need. We ask you'll be with Greg as
he brings the message this morning, Father. Bless him with the ability
to put forth Christ, Father, and bless us with hearing ears
to receive Christ. We ask these things in Jesus'
name, amen. Let's all stand together, we'll
sing hymn number 300 from the hardbacked hymnal, number 300. More secure is no one ever than
the loved ones of the Savior, not yon star on high abiding,
nor the bird in homeness hiding. God his own doth tend and nourish,
in his holy courts they flourish. Like a father kind he spares
them, in his loving arms he bears them. Neither life nor death
can ever from the Lord his children sever, for his love and deep
compassion comforts them in tribulation. Little flock to joy then yield
thee, Jacob's God will ever shield thee. Rest secure with this defender,
at his will all foes surrender. What he takes or what he gives
us shows the Father's love so precious. We may trust his purpose
wholly, it is his children's welfare solely. Please be seated. You open your Bibles with me
to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. It is very fitting that the Lord
in his providence has directed us to this passage this morning. I've titled this message, Gospel
Preaching. gospel preaching. In the last
two verses of chapter one, Paul said, whom we preach, warning
every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Whereunto I also
labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in
me mightily. We've been going verse by verse
through the book of Colossians, and here's where we find ourselves
this morning. And I say that it is fitting
because next weekend, we're gonna have an opportunity to hear eight
gospel messages from four different God-called gospel preachers. And I thought this is very needful. This is good that we would be
reminded of what preaching is. And preaching is not what most
men think it is. Most of what passes for preaching
today is nothing more than pop psychology. self-help kind of
advice with a little bit of God seasoned into it, or it's nothing
more than a doctrinal dissertation where some preacher gets up and
inflates men's ego with more knowledge about different Bible
doctrines. Or it's a motivational speech
designed to get men to make a decision and pull on men's heartstrings
until they finally give in and pray the prayer, whatever it
might be. What is gospel preaching? In
the two verses that we just read, we learn who it is that is to
be the subject of our preaching. We learn how preaching is to
take place. We learn why the necessity of
preaching. And we learn the means by which
the Lord enables us to preach. Now, surely those whom God has
called and charged to preach the gospel, this calling is their
life. consumes their thoughts. As soon
as they finish one message, they're thinking about the next. It is
the primary task of their life. It is the burden of their soul. But that having been said, I
want to remind you of how vital, and you know it is, that's why
you're here, how vital preaching is to you. And this matter of
preaching is not something done by one man who stands behind
a pulpit. It is done with all of us. We are preaching. I think I know I have shared
this before. I've heard that there are some
preachers who come to the church on during the week when no one's
here and they practice their preaching from the from the pulpit
to an empty building. Is that preaching? I know somebody's thinking, well,
maybe you should try that, preacher, to help you. Maybe it would,
but I've never been able to do it. It makes preaching to me
acting rather than a living. I can't do that. But my point is that preaching
to an empty building is not preaching. I could say all exactly the same
things to an empty building that I'm saying to you, and it's not
preaching. This matter of preaching involves you and me together. Preaching is the one thing needful
for you. It is vital for your soul. It
is the means by which the Lord gives faith. Sometimes people
speak of preaching being a means of grace. It's not a means of
grace. There is but one means to grace, one means to grace,
and that's faith. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that faith is not of yourself,
it's a gift of God. But preaching is a means to faith.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God. And
God is pleased to use the foolishness of preaching to save them, Believe,
it is according to the word of God, the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe. So the Lord has been pleased
to use this thing which we call preaching to save our souls. And for that reason, it is vital
and necessary for all of us to be involved in this thing called
preaching. Notice in verse 28, and we'll
go back, I'm going to try to answer the first question. Who
do we preach? And the Lord begins this verse
with, Whom we preach. Now notice the phrase in the
previous verse, Christ in you, the hope of glory. And it is rightly said that we're
not here to preach doctrine. We're here to preach Christ,
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that having
been said, let us be careful that we don't make the word doctrine
to be a bad word. The word doctrine means teaching,
and you'll notice in our text warning and teaching. So the
means to preaching Christ is the teaching of the scriptures,
which is doctrine. But we're not teaching doctrine,
we're not preaching doctrine, we're preaching those things
as a means to the one whom we are holding up. We preach Christ
and Him crucified. Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse
2 says, my doctrine shall drop as the dew, my speech shall distill
as the rain. So here we have the Lord's estimation
of His teaching, His doctrine. Proverbs chapter 4 verse 1 says,
hear ye children the instruction of a father and attend to no
understanding for I give you good doctrine. I give you good
doctrine. You see there's no preaching
without doctrine. There's no preaching Christ without
without filling in the necessary instruction as to who He is and
exactly what He did accomplish. But that having been said, we're
not preaching the sovereignty of God, we're preaching a God
who is sovereign. We're not preaching. The example
that you know to be true in your own life is the doctrine of depravity. The doctrine of depravity. You
know the Bible teaches it. You know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. You know that there's
no righteousness whatsoever in you. that everything about you
is infected with your sin, and that you stand before God with
nothing to offer Him, dependent upon Christ alone for all your
righteousness. And yet, if all you know is that
is a doctrine, and it hasn't been your experience, you haven't
been brought to fall broken before God as a sinner in need of a
Savior. Then it's just a doctrine. You
see, therein lies the difference. We don't preach one doctrine
as it is different from another doctrine. We're preaching these
things as a means to Christ. Matthew 7, verse 28, at the end
of the Sermon on the Mount, The scripture says, and the people
were astonished at his doctrine, for he spake with authority. He spake with authority. In other
words, he didn't just say, well, you know, here's one doctrine
over another doctrine. He preached doctrine as the truth,
as the truth, and that's what gives it authority. God's Word
is our authority. And this doctrine must be the
doctrine of Christ. Turn with me to 2 John, 2 John, right before Revelation, 1, 2,
3 John, Jude, Revelation. 2 John, verses 9 and 10. Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God." If our
doctrine, if our teaching does not lead us to whom we preach,
And Paul said, Paul didn't say, I know what I believe. He said,
I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. So our teaching is pointing us to Christ and God calls it
the doctrine of Christ. the doctrine of Christ. And if
a man preaches not the doctrine of Christ, he hath not God. He
that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath been born
of the Father and of the Son. If there come any unto you and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him Godspeed. Someone comes to you with a doctrine
other than the doctrine of Christ, the glorious person and accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, don't bid them Godspeed. Don't encourage them in their
false doctrine. Great. What is the doctrine of
Christ? It's the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. You see, the deity of the Lord
Jesus Christ was the offense of the gospel during our Lord's
physical life here. And it's still the same exact
offense of the gospel. That Jesus Christ is God. The
Lord said to his dissenters, he said, why do you seek to stone
me? For what good work? And they
said, no, not for the good works which thou doest, but because
you, being a man, make yourself out to be God. We're preaching
Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the sovereign, successful Savior
of sinners. The one who has the full power
of God residing in the body of a man. The one who was able by
himself to accomplish the purpose for which the Father sent him.
The salvation of his people. Only God could do that. You shall
call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. And so great is the mystery of
godliness. God was manifested or made known
in the flesh. God with us. That's who we preach. We're preaching a savior who
is God. A savior who is the surety of
his people. Now, a surety in the Bible is
one who provides everything on behalf of another. And that's
who we preach Christ as. One who provides everything that
God requires, everything that we have to have in order to stand
perfect in the presence of God, we look to the Lord Jesus Christ
for. All of our justification, all
of our righteousness, all of our wisdom, all of our sanctification,
All the hope of our glorification is bound up in this One called
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He came in the full power of
the Spirit of God to accomplish the purpose for which the Father
sent Him. He's God. That's who we preach. and whatever
doctrine, whether it be depravity or sovereignty or election or
particular redemption, it all points back to the Lord Jesus
Christ as God, the Son of God. And if the Lord's pleased to
make himself known, we will find ourselves just like everyone
else in the Bible, whoever found themselves in the presence of
God, worshiping Him, bowing to Him, depending upon Him for all
of their life. Oh, Isaiah fell at His feet and
said, woe is me, woe is me. Oh Lord, I'm a man of unclean
lips. Peter said, Depart from me, O
Lord, I'm a sinful man. Thomas, my Lord and my God."
Job, you read from Job, Robert, a few minutes ago. What did Job
see when he saw the Lord? What did he say? Oh, behold. And that word behold means I
see something I've never seen before. Oh, I've been brought
into the very presence of the glorious God. And behold, I am
vile. I am vile. I'm dependent upon
Him. He was able to do what He did. because He is who He is. Preaching is declaring the truth
about the Lord Jesus Christ. And lifting Him up, as the serpent
was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. And I, if I be lifted up, will draw men unto me. And you
come unto me, I will in no wise cast you out. Oh, what a gracious
and glorious and loving God we worship. We worship Him. So who do we preach? We preach
Christ. Christ Jesus, the Lord. That's
who we preach. And whatever passage of scripture
we're looking at, we're looking for Him. We're looking for our
Boaz. We're looking for that Rose of
Sharon. We're looking for our Advocate with the Father. because
the Lord Jesus Christ is who we need, and it is who we worship. Go back with me to our text.
Who do we preach? We preach Christ. How do we preach? Notice that
it begins with a warning. Warning. In 2 Kings 6, the king of Syria
was making plans to attack Israel. And the Lord gave to the prophet
Elisha the information on what the plans were. And so Elisha
went down to the king of Israel and told him what the king of
Syria was going to do every time. And here's what the scripture
says. And the king of Israel, he did the prophets warning and
saved himself not once or twice. The king of Israel heeded the
prophet's warning and saved himself not once or twice. This is what
preaching involves. It involves warning. Warning. Psalm 19 verses 10 and 11, the
law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, more to be desired
than gold. Moreover, by them thy servant
is warned. So part of scripture. Now, now let me, Let me read
from 1 Corinthians chapter 4 because Paul said, I write these things
not to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. Now, parents,
do we not warn our children continuously? Why do we warn them? Do we warn
them to shame them, to punish them? Do we warn them because
we love them? And yet, children need to be
warned, don't they? And the scriptures are filled
with warnings. Paul said, whom we preach, warning and teaching,
warning and teaching. This word warn means to admonish
or to exhort or to put in mind, to cause to remember. When we warn believers, we're
not We're not telling them things they don't know. We're reminding
them of the things that they do know. Hebrews 11, verse seven says,
by faith, Noah, being warned of God, of things not yet seen,
moved with fear and prepared an ark to the saving of his family. Noah warned of God of things
not yet seen, believed God, and prepared an ark to the saving
of his family. You see, that's the purpose of
the warning, isn't it? The purpose of God telling Noah
that there was going to be a deluge that would destroy the entire
world was to motivate Noah to build an ark. Now we know what
that ark is. That ark is Christ. That ark's
a picture of Christ. And as God sent the flood in
the days of Noah, So shall it be in the coming of the Son of
Man, only this time it's not going to be water, it's going
to be fire. And so, when that warning's heeded, what do we
do? What do we do? Well, we have
one of two choices. Well, I'm going to get my life
right so that when that happens, I'm not going to be caught in
a bad place. Not going to be caught, you know, doing something
I'm ashamed of. I'm going to, or we can get in
the ark. Get in the ark. You see, we don't warn men just
to make them afraid. Paul said, I'm not warning you
to shame you. I'm warning you out of love as
my children that judgment's coming. And you need a Savior. You need
a Savior. You need a Savior. I need a Savior. Sin will be punished. Not one
sin is going to go unpunished. Not a single one. So either every
one of your sins are going to be satisfied by the justice of
God in the sacrifice of his son, or we're going to pay for them
ourselves. And we'll never be able to pay
for them, which is why hell is eternal. It's why hell is eternal. Because the justice of God can
never be satisfied by my punishment or by your punishment. It can
only be satisfied by the punishment of the one who was without sin. The only thing that satisfied
God was the sacrifice that Christ made, because His sacrifice was
holy. It was pure, it was perfect.
The full justice of God was satisfied in Him. So the warnings are given
to us. Paul said, this is what preaching,
this is gospel preaching. We preach a person, warning them. And we don't just warn them of
the judgment to come as the Lord warned Noah and motivated Noah
to get in the ark. But we warn men of all the false
prophets and how many times we read in the Bible. Paul said
in Acts chapter 20, when he met with the Ephesian elders, he
said, by the space of three years, Paul had been in Ephesus for
three years. He said, by the space of three years, I ceased
not to warn every man day and night. And he said, I know that
at my departure, grievous wolves are gonna come in and they're
gonna take disciples for themselves. I'm warning you, I'm telling
you that's gonna happen. Sure enough, it happened. Oh. A wise child heeds the warning
of his father. The Lord tells us to beware false
prophets for many of them have gone out into the world. Try the spirits and see whether
they be of God. Many will come in my name. We read these warnings from the
lips of our Lord, from the lips of His penman over and over and
over again. The world is filled with false
prophets. One simple test. You say, well,
someone's thinking, how do I discern a false prophet from a true prophet?
One very simple test. God gave it to the children of
Israel in the book of Deuteronomy. He said if a prophet says something's
gonna happen and it doesn't happen, he's a false prophet. That simple. If a prophet stands up and declares
that he's got a word from God, something's gonna happen, and
in the end it doesn't happen, then he's a false prophet. Now what do the false prophets
of this world say? They say that the Old Testament
teaches that God is going to send his son into the world to
save the world. They say that Jesus died on Calvary's
cross, laid down his life for everyone. But most of the people
that he died for are going to end up in hell. Now that is a prophet saying
that something's going to happen and it doesn't happen. Did he
die? If Christ died for everybody,
everybody's saved. Let's just pack up our stuff
and go home. We're wasting our time. If Christ died for everybody. It is a false prophet who says
something's gonna happen and it doesn't happen. And that is
the essence of the man-made freewill works gospel. Something's gonna
happen. But of our own confession, it
didn't happen. They admit that their prophecy
didn't come to fruition. And we're supposed to listen
to them? Now the Lord tells us over and over and over in His
word. That's what Paul said, warning every man, be warned.
They can say a lot of true things. They say a lot of things that
are true. Balaam said a lot of things that were true. The scriptures
makes it clear that he was a false prophet. So you say, well, you
know, he said this and he said that and that's true and that's
true. Yeah, listen to the whole message and you'll find out that
he's prophesying something that did not come to pass. Be sober, be vigilant. That's a warning. Be sober, be
vigilant. Because your adversary the devil
as a roaring lion, seeketh whom he may devour. Walketh about
seeking whom he may devour. Now that's a warning from God. So who do we preach? We preach
Christ. How do we preach? We warn men.
We warn men. Not with a threat of the law
or some threat of fear, but just to say to, you know, flee to
Christ. You've got to have Him. And then notice the rest of this.
Teaching every man in all wisdom. The last thing the Lord said
in Matthew chapter 28, before He ascended back into glory from
the Mount of Olives, was He said, all power has been given unto
Me. heaven and on earth you go therefore teaching all nations started
out with teaching teaching them baptizing them in the name of
the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo I am with you always
even into the end of the earth So this command that the Lord
gives us as a church to teach is sandwiched between two glorious
promises. All authority has been given
unto me and I'll never leave you. Why should we be afraid to do
what he said? He said all power, he has all
power and he'll never leave us. So let's go. Warning and teaching,
instructing. We need to be taught, don't we?
We're in the things of God. It's amazing. You know this is
true. Never has there been a generation
of people who have increased in knowledge and become fools
in their hearts toward God. You listen to what your friends
say about God and about salvation. They're foolish. They have not
a clue. And yet they've got a plethora
of of trivial information that is of no value to their soul. And they're taking pride in how
much knowledge they have. And if they have any questions,
they just pull out the phone and ask Siri and get an answer
to that. You know, they know everything. There's
a reason why trivia is called trivia because it's trivial.
It doesn't have any, it doesn't have any, it doesn't meet my
need. Why? I am ignorant. I don't know
anything. I can't do anything. I don't
have anything. And Siri can't answer my question.
And Alexa can't answer my question. And the philosophers don't answer
my questions. And God's got to speak to me. We've got to be taught of God.
And we know that when we're teaching, and that's what I'm trying to
do right now, I know that it's going to fall on some deaf ears.
I stand amazed after all these years, sit and talk to people,
and be as simple and clear and plain, and they look at you and
shake their head, and then they make comments clearly. They didn't hear a word I just
said. Didn't hear a word. Why? Because the natural man cannot
receive the things of the Spirit. They are spiritually discerned.
And what I'm saying to you is part warning and part teaching.
Don't try to figure these things out on your own. Fall before the one who is God
and the one who is able to open the eyes of your understanding
and teach you the things of God. Because apart from that, I don't
care how smart you are, I don't care how much education you've
got. I don't care how religious you are, you're not going to
figure it out. You're not going to figure it
out. Period. You're not going to figure it
out. And I'm not going to figure it out. We've got to be taught
of God. And here's the promise of God.
They shall be all taught of me. Oh, there's our hope. Teach me,
Lord, and I'll be taught. Teach me. I'm just a hungry little bird
in the nest with my mouth wide open, just crying for my mother
to come put some grain in my beak. Lord, give me a worm. Teach me. The Lord's not going to let us
glory in what we know. Look at this, go back with me
to our text. Who do we preach? We preach Christ.
The person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we preach? We
warn men and we teach men. Those two things, that's two
sides of the same coin. Yeah, I don't wanna be a preacher
that's just always preaching against something. I've done
enough of that. But at the same time, We have
to warn men while we teach men. And so you can't separate those
two things. They're two sides of the same
coin, warning and teaching every man in all wisdom. In light of
Christ, in light of the Word of God, we're teaching men in
the wisdom of God in hopes that the Spirit of God will take what
we're saying audibly and make it effectual to our hearts spiritually. Why do we preach? Oh brethren,
this is so important. Why are you here? Why are you
here? People come to church and they
get religion because they're in the midst of a problem and
they're trying to get it fixed. And then when the problem goes
away, they go away. But if your problem is sin, that's
never going to go away. As you grow in grace and in the
knowledge of Christ, it's going to get worse. You will see more
and more of your own unbelief. It is the fountainhead of all
of our sin. It is the sin that doth so easily
beset us, our unbelief. And here's the truth. God will not settle for anything
less than absolute perfection. Absolute perfection. You've heard it. I've heard it.
People say, well, you know, I'm doing my best. I'm sorry. It's
not going to work. God's not satisfied with your
best. I don't care how good your best is. He's not pleased with
it. This is my beloved Son. In Him
I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. He's satisfied with
Christ. The sinless substitute. The sinless sin bearer. And my hope in preaching Christ
and in warning and teaching all men everywhere is that we may
present every man perfect in Christ. There's going to come a day when
you and I are going to stand in the presence of a holy God.
I know we live our lives as if that day is not coming. It is. It is. What a blessing it is
when the Lord teaches us to number our days, when the Lord teaches
us how frail we are, when the Lord shows us that life is but
a vapor and we find ourselves living on Christ every day. That's a grace. That's a blessing
that comes from the Lord. I want you, I want me to be able
to stand and not be charged. Holy, perfect, undefiled, unblameable, unreprovable in
His sight, in His sight. And if we are found in him, in
Christ, when Paul said, I've not yet apprehended that which
has apprehended me in Philippians chapter three, but this one thing
I do, I'm pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high
calling in Christ Jesus. So that one day, one day I might
be found in him. Don't worry about trying to figure
out whether you're found in him now. One day you're going to
have to be found in him. Found in him. For the Lord Jesus
Christ to stand in your stead before God and say to his father,
one of mine, I've redeemed them. Oh, only then can we stand perfect,
perfect in the sight of God. David put it like this, he said,
I will be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness. In thy likeness. The only thing that's going to
be acceptable to God is to be found in the beloved. David said, if thou shalt mark
iniquity, who shall stand? Now, to translate that verse,
It means if God takes notice of one minor, what we would call
minor, infraction, one little thought, one little wayward thought.
If God should take notice of that, you're going to hell for
it. That's what David said. If God
should mark iniquity, and the word iniquity means it doesn't
measure up. It falls short of the glory of
God. The word equity means equal and
inequity means it's not equal. It's not equal to what? It's
not equal to perfection. It's not equal to what God demands
and what God requires and what God provided in Christ. And if
God should mark iniquity, one thing that doesn't measure up
to the glory of God, who shall stand? It's a rhetorical question. What David's not saying, well,
who's going to stand in prayer? He said, nobody can stand if
God, if God marks one thing, one thing. And so we preach Christ
warning and teaching every man that we may present every man
perfect in Christ. Gospel preaching calls on men
to believe, to come, to look, to rest, to trust. And the very
nature of that, the very nature of that means that you don't
have anything to do with it. The nature of trusting, the nature
of believing, the nature of looking to Christ is the essence of total
dependence and inability to contribute anything to your salvation. That's
the only time we look. That's the only time we believe.
That's the only time we rest, is when we've got no place else
to go. What a glorious hope. We preach
Christ, warning, out of love, get in the ark, teaching who
Christ is and what He's done that we may present every man
perfect in Christ. What is the means by which we
preach? And I remind you that I'm not
talking about what I'm doing right now or what any man would
do behind this pulpit. I'm talking about this thing
we call preaching that we're doing together right now. What
is the means? Because the same means that apply
to my ability to speak, apply to your ability to hear. Same means. And without that
means, we're just wasting our time. Look at verse 29. Where unto
I also labor? We do labor. I labor. I labor. Scripture says, study to show
thyself approved that a workman that needeth not be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. Paul told Timothy in 2
Timothy 2, verse 3, endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. For no man that woreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life, but that he might please
the one who called him. to be a soldier. So if I didn't
labor before I got up here, I wouldn't have anything to say. A lot of
work that goes into preparing messages. Again, Paul told Timothy, he
said, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a Good
work. A good work. A good work. And it is. It's a work. Oh, the burden of the churches,
the times of God breaks your heart.
But again, it's not about preacher. It's about us. Because what you're
doing right now is impossible as well. You labored to get here. Some of you labored a lot to
get here. Some of you drove a long way to come here. You labor in prayer. Prayer is
a labor, isn't it? If you haven't prayed, try it. It's a labor. It's a spiritual
labor. It requires the work of God to be able to pray. We can give our attention to
anything easier than we can give our attention to what we're doing
right now. You can watch sporting events and frivolous movies and
sit there and watch videos on YouTube easier than you can hear
what's happening right now. This is a spiritual labor. It's
a spiritual labor on the part of all of us. This is the means by which the
Lord enables us to preach. Let's read it again. Verse 29.
Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working which
worketh in me mightily. That word mightily means power. It's the power of God that works
in us, causing us to will and to do after his good pleasure.
It's God that caused me to want to be here. It's God that motivated
me to come and to hear. And it's God that opened up the
ears of my understanding. It's God that warms my heart.
It's the spirit of God that works in me, enabling me to speak and
you to hear. Fellowshiping is a labor. It's
like caring for others and ministering to others and being concerned. We're just so selfish by nature,
aren't we? Being a part of the body of Christ
is a labor. Being a part of a family is a
labor. But it's a good work. It's a
good work. When God puts it in your heart
to do it. He gets the glory for it, doesn't
he? Lord, if you not moved in my heart, if you not worked mightily
in me, I wouldn't have any interest in these things. I'd be just
like everybody else in the world. You talk to unbelievers, like
I said earlier, some of the most foolish things that people come
up with. They think they're being so wise
and spiritual and Why? Because they don't know Christ. Because they haven't sat under
and been a part of preaching the person of Christ and hearing
the warnings and the teachings that they might be presented
perfect before God and that they labor with the work of the Spirit
that works in them. Striving. That's gospel preaching. Aren't you thankful for it? I
know I am. Someone asked a preacher one
time, he said, he said, well, how was services this morning?
The pastor that did the preaching said, well, I'm glad I was there. Glad I got to hear it. God put that in our hearts. to
be glad to hear Christ preached, to heed His warnings, receive
His teachings, that we might be presented perfect before Him.
Our Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for ordaining and purposing
and designing preaching. Might we be faithful to preach
Christ and be prepared for His coming. Lord, bless Gabe and
Donnie and Chris and Todd this week. Prepare their hearts with
messages that will be profitable to us. Move in our hearts. causing us
to want to hear. For it's in Christ's name we
pray, amen. 36 in the spiral handle, number
36. ? Behold my soul, the love of God
? ? Behold the grace most free ? ? Before all worlds His purpose
stood ? ? His heart was fixed on me ? Elected by eternal love,
the covenant firm and sure, the triune God agreed in love, salvation
to secure. My soul was given to the Son
He promised to redeem By blood and righteousness His own He
would my soul reclaim In the due time Emmanuel came To live
and die for me ? He lives today and bears my name ? ? Christ
is my surety ? ? In love he sent his spirit down ? ? Who gave
me life and grace ? ? He drew me and I followed on ? ? My savior
to embrace ? ? Now I rejoice in covenant love ? ? Amazing
grace I see ? ? I now am conquered by his love ? ? My Savior is
my King ?