1 Timothy chapter 4, I want to
begin reading in verse 13. This is God's inspired, inerrant,
and infallible Word. Until I come, give attention
to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual
gift within you. which was bestowed on you through
prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these things. Be absorbed in them so that your
progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself
and to your teaching. Persevere in these things. For
as you do this, you will ensure salvation both for yourself and
for those who hear you." These verses are found in one of the
three pastoral epistles, and they tell us much about what
God desires of us in preaching. And as Paul writes this to his
young son in the faith, Timothy, Timothy is in a very difficult
pastorate. Paul has sent Timothy to Ephesus,
which was an old established church, there to preach the Word
and to pastor the flock there in Ephesus. And Timothy, quite
frankly, is in over his head. He is a young man, Those in the
church, no doubt many of them charter members, looking down
upon this young preacher, he has inherited quite a ministry.
He has unqualified elders. And that is why Paul writes in
chapter 3, verses 1 and following, that an elder or an overseer
must be these things. And the reason he says so emphatically
is because Timothy does not have these kind of men with whom he
is serving. I know what that's like. The
first church that I pastored, I stepped into a plurality of
elders who did not meet this standard. And I know the challenge
of trying to carry out a biblical philosophy of ministry with unspiritual
and even unconverted elders. On top of that, he has unqualified
deacons. And that's why he says in chapter
3, beginning in verse 8, that a deacon must be these things. Because that is what was lacking
in the church at Ephesus where Timothy finds himself. He is,
in essence, trying to push a rope uphill. And it is the challenge
of his life. On top of that, he has aggressive
women in the church. He has women who have assumed
the role of a teacher over men. And that is why Paul must say
to Timothy, I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority
over a man. And here in the church where
Timothy finds himself as a young pastor for the first time without
Paul at his side, he has passive men and aggressive women. It is the total opposite of God's
design for the church, and it is the result of the fall and
the curse upon the race. In addition to that, they are
overlooking the care of the widows. And many precious godly saints
are the prayer warriors in the church. They are being overlooked
in their care. There are those who have money
in the church, and they are becoming way too influential in the matters
of the church. Timothy is facing many problems,
and it has reached such a point that there no doubt is a knot
that has been jerked in Timothy's stomach. He's become ill, and
that is why Paul will say to him, you need to take a little
wine for your illness, and perhaps that's even related to the problems
that are going on in the church. Timothy is discouraged, and Timothy
is backing down in his preaching. He is letting the situation shape
him into the mold, and to preserve the peace, he's looking for the
lowest common denominator, And as a result, the Apostle Paul
writes to Timothy, and as only a father can do to a son in the
faith, he has some strong words to say to Timothy on how to set
the church back in right order and how to put the ministry on
the right tracks, headed in the right direction. Maybe you can
relate to where Timothy finds himself. I certainly can relate. In many years of pastoral experience,
exactly where Timothy finds himself. And the fact of the matter is,
there are no easy places of ministry to be found. Everywhere the Lord
will send us, the devil is waiting on us. And wherever the Lord
will send us, there are challenges, there are obstacles, there is
backward thinking, there is carnal mindset. Wherever the Lord will
send us, and if that church was any better, they probably wouldn't
call you to be the pastor. And they wouldn't call me to
be the pastor. And so Paul writes to Timothy, and it finds itself
in this pastoral epistle that will come down through the ages.
It's found itself in the canon of Scripture, so that every man
of God, no matter on what continent he serves, in what generation,
or in what century he finds himself, these words are more up-to-date
than tomorrow's newspaper. These words are relevant. These
words, in reality, are what must shape our ministry. And as we
look at this passage tonight, I pray that even as Jeffrey Thomas
instructed us, may God open our hearts, may God open our eyes
to the simplicity and to the profundity of what is found in
these verses. As we walk through this, I want
to set several headings before you. that will help organize
our thought. I want you to note first the
priority of biblical preaching. The priority of biblical preaching.
Please note what Paul says is job number one. As Timothy finds
himself in this most difficult situation. He says in verse 13,
until I come. Paul is not with Timothy. Paul
is in Macedonia. Timothy is in Ephesus. And he
is saying, young man, until I can arrive, this is what is first
and foremost for you in your ministry. Until I come, give
attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation,
and to teaching. This is job number one. In America, there's a saying,
the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And this is the main thing. And
so many times in ministry, our choices are between good, better,
and best. And we cannot allow even what
is good or what is better to supplant what is the best. And what is job number one for
young Timothy and for every Timothy in this room is for us to give
attention with primacy to this threefold aspect of preaching. I want to draw your attention
to this verb, give attention to. It's one word in the original
Greek language. It's a compound word. The root means to hold fast.
And the prefix, which intensifies it at the beginning of the root,
means face-to-face. It's used in John 1, 1. The word
was with God, face-to-face with God, the Father and the Son throughout
all eternity past in intimate fellowship and association. Very
same prefix here. And what this means is that we
are to be face-to-face and hold fast to the preaching of the
Word of God. If you would allow me to even
parse this verb because I think there is importance in us grasping
the magnitude of this verb. It's in the present tense. In
other words, to be always giving attention to this, and not just
at the end of the week, not just on Saturday night. not just on
Sunday, but we are to be continually giving attention to the primacy
of the preaching of the Word of God. It's in the active voice,
which means we cannot be passive. We cannot wait and let this come
to us. We must take action and initiate
this pursuit of study and preparation and the proclamation of the Word
of God, and further, it's in the imperative mood. This is
a command. This is an order from headquarters.
This is an apostolic command from the head of the church,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Timothy has a choice now,
either to be obedient or to be disobedient, just as every man
in this room will either give attention to this or to allow
the better or the good to displace that which is best. And so this is where Paul begins
his instruction to Timothy as it speaks to the primacy of preaching
in the local church. This should not surprise us.
It was primary in the ministry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. As soon as he was baptized in
the River Jordan, he inaugurated his public ministry by proclaiming,
repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He trained 12 men
and sent out 11 of them to do what? To preach repentance for
the forgiveness of sins. This was always primary, and
it is the ministry of biblical preaching, the ministry of expository
preaching, the ministry of true preaching that should define
everything else that the church does. It is the preaching of
the Word of God that defines the worship of the church. The
preacher of the Word of God is the primary worship leader in
the church. Someone else may lead music.
But the man who holds this book is the primary leader in worship. It is our theology that is dictating
and driving our doxology. It is the preaching of the Word
of God that defines the level of spirituality in the church.
It is by the ministry of the Word that people grow in the
grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It defines ministry. It defines fellowship. It defines
the evangelism. It launches missions. Everything
that is good and godly and eternal that takes place in the life
of the church should be emanating from the primacy of the Word
of God. And if it's not, then we may
need another preacher in the church, because this is job number
one. No church will rise any higher
than its preaching of the Word of God. The first century church,
we all want to have a first century church. It was a preaching church. Do you realize that one out of
every four verses in the book of Acts is a sermon, or the equivalent
of a sermon of a witness that is being given, but far more
than just to one person? The first century church was
a preaching church, and that is why they had such spiritual
power. What is the first thing they
did on the day of Pentecost after 3,000 were saved? Acts 2.42 says,
they were continually devoting themselves to what was number
one on the list? What was driving everything in
the life of the early church? It was the apostles' teaching. It is by no wonder that Martin
Luther said, the first distinguishing mark of any true church is the
preaching of the Word of God. So that is number one, the primacy
of preaching. Now, I want you to note second,
the pattern, because we have set for us in verse 13, something
of a regulative principle for preaching. As Paul lays out for
Timothy in minimalist form, the three non-negotiable aspects
of true preaching. And before I read this in verse
13, I want to say this, there's not a man in this room who is
free to reinvent preaching. And we are not free to come up
with a new way to preach. Paul has set the pattern for
not only Timothy, but for every Timothy who will stand in Timothy's
shoes regarding the preaching. And here we read in verse 13,
until I come, give attention to And now these three aspects. These are like three legs on
a stool that hold up the stool. All three of these are to be
present in our preaching. This is not a multiple choice,
where we get to pick one or two out of these three and incorporate
this into our preaching. It's all or none. And so in verse
13, he says, until I come, give attention to Number one, the
public reading of Scripture. Number two, to exhortation. And number three, to teaching. All of these are a part of the
command that Paul gives to Timothy, and all three are incorporated
in the charge that is laid in our feet. Let's look at these
individually, and these three really serve as a template or
an overlay or a grid to lay over our preaching. These are three
non-negotiable, indispensable components of true biblical preaching. The first is the public reading
of Scripture. literally out of the original
language, it reads simply, the reading. Public and of Scripture
have been added by translators. The reading signifies a definite
specified portion of the message. It was to begin with the reading,
with the reading of Scripture. And what a statement that makes.
to begin the message by the reading of Scripture. It makes the statement
that everything that I have to say today originates in this
passage of Scripture. I have nothing to say to you
today outside of Scripture, and specifically this Scripture,
this text that I shall read. I shall open up this text and
the sum and the substance of what I have to say will flow
out of this passage of Scripture. How little reading of Scripture
there is today in the average church. I find more time devoted
to announcements than to the reading of Scripture. I find
many pastors more excited and upbeat and positive in giving
the announcements than even in the reading of Scripture. Included in the reading of Scripture,
many commentators tell us, is to be understood the explanation
of the text that is read. Certainly, we see that in Nehemiah
chapter 8, the revival at the water gate, when Ezra stands
up and from early morning until noonday reads the law. But as he read the law, he did
more than just read the law, he also gave the sense of the
law. He gave the explanation. The
interpretation of what God means by that is to be understood as
features as well as the whole body of the Word of God, we open
up the meaning of the Scripture, which is exactly what Jesus did
on the road to Emmaus as He opened up the Scripture for their understanding. This is what you and I do week
after week after week, nonstop. We are readers and explainers
of the scripture. William Perkins, who was the
prince of Puritan theology called by many, preached in a day in
which those who were in the high church of England were looking
down their long nose at the Puritan preachers, and those who were
of the high school of oratory, looked down at the Puritan preachers
as being just plain men, just simple preachers who lacked the
oratorical flourish that they brought into the high pulpit. And William Perkins said, it
is a byword among us. It was a very plain sermon. And Perkins said, yes, and I
say the plainer the better. Close quote. You need to be a
plain spoken preacher. When your family leaves church
on Sunday and the father looks in the back seat and asks the
children, what was the sermon about? It is not a compliment
if it goes over everyone's head. We need to put the cookies on
the bottom shelf where everyone can get to them. And to be as
plain spoken, Jesus was a plain spoken preacher. John MacArthur
has said, the meaning of the text is the text. And until you have the meaning
of the text, all you have is black print on white paper. It's
what we strive to present to our people, the meaning of the
text. And the preacher has nothing
to say apart from the Word of God, because he believes that
when the Bible speaks, God speaks. And the power of the sermon lies
not in the preacher, the power of the sermon lies in the Word
of God and the power of the Spirit to bring it home to human hearts. I'm reminded of Charles Hodge,
the great Princetonian professor of the 19th century, when Princeton
was a bulwark of Reformed theology. And on the anniversary, the 50th
anniversary of Charles Hodge being the editor of the Princeton
Review, this brilliant theologian said, I am thankful that I have
never had an original thought. In other words, everything that
he has said and written flows out of the Word of God. And sir, I pray you never have
an original thought in the pulpit. that you are simply a mouthpiece
for what God has said in His Word. So that's where biblical
preaching begins. It doesn't begin with a culture.
It doesn't begin with felt needs. It doesn't begin with politics.
It doesn't begin with a movie. It doesn't begin with a book.
It doesn't begin with anything except what God has said in His
Word. And then we will take it further.
Second, exhortation. This is the second component
part, and this is what separates teaching from preaching. I love
the story of one young man who came to Martin Lloyd-Jones. You've
heard of Martin Lloyd-Jones, right? Came to D. Martin Lloyd-Jones and asked
him, what is the difference between teaching and preaching? And Lloyd-Jones,
with that dry humor, said, young man, if you have to ask me the
difference between teaching and preaching, it is obvious that
you have never heard preaching. Because if you've heard preaching,
you know the difference between teaching and preaching. All preaching starts with teaching,
with reading the scripture and explaining the scripture, but
preaching reaches higher. Preaching stands on the shoulders
of teaching. Preaching has a higher gearshift,
and it involves this next word, exhortation. Periclesis. It means a summons, a call near. It is an appeal to the listener
to act upon the truth of the Word of God that has been declared. The preacher is never content
just to put the message out there and you can take it or leave
it. No, the preacher not only puts the truth out there, but
the preacher is after you. The preacher is like a lawyer
who calls his witnesses to the stand, who presents his evidence
But then he calls for the verdict. And so we as preachers must have
exhortation, a summons, an appeal. And the word exhortation includes
all of the dynamics of preaching, urging, pleading, persuading,
consoling, encouraging, comforting, admonishing, warning, challenging,
applying, motivating. All of those dynamics in one
form or another, in one message or another, are involved in true
preaching. The expository preacher is the
only person who addresses the entire person of the listener. Mind, affections, and will. There are some preachers who
are only one mind reaching another mind, and it goes no further. You, sir, are not a preacher.
You are a lecturer. You are a teacher. We love lecturers. We love teachers, just not in
the pulpit. Others are just a heart reaching
another heart. That's a devotional speaker.
That's a motivational speaker. But it is devoid and bankrupt
of the substance and truth and doctrine that we must bring. Others are just one will trying
to influence another will. That's just manipulation. That's
legalism on steroids. Only the expository preacher
addresses your mind, addresses your affections, and addresses
your will, addresses the entirety of who you are and what you are
on the inside. Expository preaching is to inform
the mind, but it is to inspire the heart, and it is to invite
the will. And sometimes I really think
in Reformed circles, we are so scared of Charles Fenning that
we are going to swing the pendulum so far in the other direction
that we think boring is spiritual. Nothing could be further from
the truth. And during the days of the Great Awakening, when
those stuffy-nosed Harvard-graduated preachers in Boston looked down
their long, self-righteous noses at Edwards and Whitfield and
Brainerd and the tenants and that new wave of preachers who
had burst onto the scene and said, why, they are just manipulators,
Jonathan Edwards responded, and said, it is my duty to raise
the affections of my listeners in direct proportion to the importance
of the truth that I am bringing. And so we are after not only
the minds of people, but the hearts of people. And we want
to capture the wills of people, as only God can do, but let us
be reminded that God works through means to accomplish His end. And so, the pattern of biblical
preaching, the public reading of Scripture, non-negotiable,
explaining the Scripture that you're reading. Number two, exhortation,
non-negotiable. The third element is teaching. You'll note that at the end of
verse 13. To exhortation, the word and
is very important. It's not or, it's and. It's not that we have a choice
between exhortation or teaching. They are joined together, they
are welded together at the hip, and teaching. This word, teaching,
means doctrine, sound doctrine. Bible doctrine, the apostles'
teaching, the faith once and for all delivered to the saints,
theology, systematic theology, biblical theology as it would
come to be shaped and formed. It is to extract the doctrine
out of this passage of Scripture. And every passage of Scripture
has doctrine in it. There are 10 major areas of systematic
theology. Bibliology, theology proper,
Christology, pneumatology, angelology, anthropology, hermitology, soteriology,
ecclesiology, eschatology. Every passage of scripture has
some of those elements in it. And we are to bring out of this
text what the Bible teaches about itself, it teaches about God,
what it teaches about Christ, the Holy Spirit, etc., through
all of these other areas of theology. In fact, this was so important
to Jonathan Edwards, he devoted an entire section of his sermon
to the doctrine. And he would have three major
headings in his sermons, much like the Puritans did, and he
had a whole section of just theology. And that was the thunder and
the lightning of his preaching. John Stott has put it this way.
He wrote a book, Between Two Worlds. And only the expositor
stands between two worlds. With one hand, he reaches back
2,000 years, 3,000 years, 3,400 years and lays hold of the ancient
world of the Bible and he takes the congregation back with them. to the Sea of Galilee, to a cave
in the wilderness, to Mount Sinai. And he opens up the historical
background and the geography and the culture and the times
in which this took place and gives the authorial intent of
what he meant by what he said in that ancient context. And
he never lets go. And with the other hand, He lays
his hand upon the modern day listener in the contemporary
world in which they find themselves. With all of the challenges and
all of the pressures that are around them, and he is like an
electrical wire as the truth of the ancient text surges through
him and makes application and shows the relevance to the modern
day listener. That is what the expositor does.
He stands between two worlds and he never lets go. If you
ever let go of that ancient world and you only have your hand upon
the modern day listener, you have become a life coach. You have become a motivational
speaker. You have become a culture warrior. On the other hand, if you let
go of the modern world in which people live, and you only have
your hand on the ancient text, once again, you're just a teacher. You're a lecturer. It is only
the expository preacher who stands in the pulpit with an open Bible,
empowered by the Spirit of God, does he read the scripture and
explain it. Does he exhort with it with the
intent that God would use his words to move you by the Spirit
of God into action? And he extracts the doctrine
and the theology out of that passage of Scripture. So, what is Paul saying to Timothy?
What is he saying to you and to me? there is the priority
of biblical preaching. We cannot allow the better and
the good to displace the best. We have seen the pattern of biblical
preaching. Third, I want you to note the
perseverance of biblical preaching in verse
14 because Timothy is in danger of backing down from his preaching. He's in danger of toning it down. He is in danger really of watering
it down to keep the peace. And so he says in verse 14, do
not neglect the spiritual gift within you. It's obvious what
the spiritual gift is in this context. It is surrounded by
verses that deal with preaching. Verse 13, verse 15, verse 16,
the spiritual gift is the gift to preach that only God can give. No seminary can give it. No church
can give it. No denomination can give it. It is a gift that only God gives
to those who are His chosen servants to preach the Word. But he says,
do not neglect the spiritual gift within you. Why would he
say that? Because Timothy is in danger of neglecting the spiritual
gift within him. Timothy is in danger of taking
steps back. He is in danger of preaching
less. He is in danger of letting other
things replace preaching. Timothy is becoming passive,
and so Paul must challenge His young son in the faith is only
a father in the faith can do. This is somewhat of a gentle
rebuke. Stop neglecting the spiritual
gift that is in you. And I wonder if that could be
a temptation to you tonight, to back down, to back off, to
preach less, to preach shorter. to preach thinner. I think personally we have too
little preaching in the church today. We have canceled midweek preaching.
Many places we have canceled Sunday night preaching. Sunday
morning preaching is becoming shorter and shorter as other
things are encroaching into the worship service. Is it any wonder
that so many of our churches are becoming weaker and weaker
when the very primary means of grace, as the Puritans called
it, the preaching of the word of God, is being displaced by
so many other things? Is it any wonder that their lives
are as weak as they are and that our preaching is becoming as
weak as it is? Let me ask you this. If you were
trying to learn how to play the violin, do you think more practice
or less practice would help you get to the next level? If you
were trying to learn how to play the piano, do you think more
practice or less practice would help you? Well, the answer is
very self-apparent. In order to get to the next level
of proficiency and excellency, you would need to practice more
in order to develop your skill. I believe the same is true in
preaching, and I believe that most preachers do not come close
to reaching their potential if for no other reason they preach
so little. George Whitefield said, the more
we preach, the better we preach. And there is a lot of truth to
that, that the more you exercise your gift and the more that you
preach, the more it drives you into the Word of God, the more
it drives you deeper and deeper, the more it helps you learn how
to assimilate your tools and your resources and how to stand
on your feet with an open Bible and to preach and to proclaim
the Word of God. I would challenge you, I would
encourage you, not on the basis of what I would say, but on the
basis of what Paul warns Timothy, do not neglect the spiritual
gift that is within you. He then concludes verse 14 by
saying, which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterance
with the laying on of hands by the Presbyterian without going
into all that was transpiring here. At the essence of this,
Paul is challenging Timothy, remember those men who laid hands
on you. Remember those men who invested
in you. Remember those men who built
into your life it was not for you to slow down in your preaching. It was not for you to downshift
to a lower gear in your preaching. Think about all that has been
invested in you and poured into you. May it have a multiplying
effect in your life and ministry. I think about the people who
have invested in me. There's no way I can go backwards.
I think of R.C. Sproul who recently went home
to be with the Lord. The hours, the time that he poured
into me to take me to the next level, to be my professor in
seminary, to teach me preaching. All of that investment, I remember
those who in essence were laying hands upon me. I think of John
MacArthur. I think of James Montgomery Boyce.
I think of other great men of God. who built into me, and there
are men who have built into you as well. And it should stir and
motivate us not to neglect or gift of preaching, you may need
to create new venues in which you preach. You may need to go
to the college campus. You may need to go to a retirement
home. You may need to go to a street
corner. You may need to restart a men's Bible study. You may
need to start a midweek service. But whatever needs to happen
for you to not neglect your gift in preaching, The main thing
is to keep the main thing the main thing. Not only the perseverance,
but I want you to note, if you would, next in verse 15, the
preoccupation. As he comes to verse 15, and
I'm reading out of the New American Standard, it says, take pains
with these things. If you have the ESV, it says,
practice these things. The ESV is too weak. The New
American Standard may be overstated. What this Greek word means is
to meditate upon with great focus. In other words, to be locked
in in your mind on your preaching. The word literally means to take
care of, to resolve in your mind. It means to attend too carefully. Perhaps it goes as far as to
say, take pains with these things. This calls for strenuous effort
and great labor in our preaching. And then rather than backing
off, Paul turns up the heat. I know many times in my preaching
I can say something very aggressively and I can look at my wife on
the front row and realize I need to back off just a little bit. Paul has his foot on the gas
pedal and pushes down even harder with Timothy. He doesn't back
off, he pushes forward and he says next, be absorbed in them. And literally in the Greek language,
it just simply reads, be in them. The ESV says, immerse yourselves
in them. And that's a good translation.
What's the them? Be in them. What is the them? A blind man could see it. It's in verse 13. The public
reading of scripture to exhortation and to teaching, be immersed
in it, be absorbed in it, be consumed with it, be saturated. The average pastor in America,
I don't have to tell him, you're taking your pulpit ministry way
too serious. You just need to chill out. You
just need to back off. The average pastor in America
needs to hear Paul say to Timothy, you need to become absorbed.
in this. Your mind should always be on
your preaching. It should dominate your thought
life. You should be replaying in your
mind that last sermon and how can I get to the next level of
effectiveness. You should be anticipating what
you will be preaching next. You should be reading to bolster
your preaching. Throughout the day, there's illustrations
everywhere taking every thought captive to your preaching Ministry. Listen, if it was easy, we would
all be good. It doesn't take much of a man
to be an expositor. It just takes all there is of
him. Be absorbed in it. Take pains with it. That's the
preoccupation. And then fifth, the progress.
The progress of biblical preaching. Notice the end of verse 15. So
that, here's why you need to be so absorbed. Here is why you
need to be so consumed in your preaching. So that your progress,
this word means your advancement. Your advancement in your preaching
skills will be evident. The word evident means that it
becomes clear as day. It is obvious. Your progress,
note the last two words, to all. Anyone and everyone who walks
into the building needs to be struck by the fact that you're
not the preacher you used to be. You're not where you were
this time last year. You're not committed to mediocrity.
You are committed to getting to the next level, and you're
willing to pay the price. More prayer, more study, more
preparation, more heartfelt delivery. That's what he says, so that
your progress will be evident to all. And even those people
who walk in and sit down on the back pew in your church, and
who fold their hands and fold their arms, are struck with the
fact your progress is obvious. You are more proficient. You
are deeper in the word of God. You're more compelling. You're
more persuasive. When I go to preach at certain
conferences, they'll ask me to address a certain passage. And
I'll call my secretary and say, will you email to me all my notes
on this particular passage? And sometimes it'll be a passage
that I've preached multiple times over these years. I've preached
almost 50 years now. And she'll email those notes.
I'll print them out. And I'll look at my notes from
when I was in my 20s. Awful. It was an imposter. This can't
be me. It's shallow. There's no depth,
there's no profundity. It was like da-da, ma-ma. It's just baby talk in the pulpit. I'll throw those away. I'll look
at my notes from my 30s. Eh, a little better. Not much, a little. I'll discard
those. I'll look at what I preached
in my 40s. Now we're getting better. In my 50s, now in my
60s. That's encouraging. There ought
to be progress as I preach through the decades and as I preach through
the years. And I ought not to be content
with where I was in my 20s. Same doctrine, same theology,
but it is shaped better and delivered more effectively. The same should
be true in your preaching as well. And as long as you and
I are still on planet Earth, We need to be striving to progress
to the next level of advancement in skill and preaching the word
of God. And the day you and I stop trying
to advance to that next level is the day we just need to retire
and go sell used cars. To just mail it in. Because you're
either getting better or you're going backwards, one of the two.
No one is just holding where you are. I hear John MacArthur
preach. He's 78. He's about to be 79.
I just sat under his preaching a month ago. I was struck by
the fact it's stronger, it's sharper, it's more profound,
it's more engaging, it's more compelling than 50 years ago. May that be said of me. May that
be said of you. And that is what Paul is challenging
Timothy. Timothy, you're a young man and
you have not arrived, son. Your progress needs to be blatantly
obvious to everyone, to all who hear you preach. The last thing
that I want to set before you is verse 16, and it's the purifying
of expository preaching because no one derives a greater benefit
from his preaching than the preacher. It would be worth it if you invested
the 20 hours in this sermon and never preached the sermon. Just
to have the truth of God flowing through your mind and through
your heart and driving you to your knees, it has a sanctifying,
powerful effect in our lives. What a privilege it is for us
to be able to be freed up by God to give ourselves to the
ministry of the Word of God. So this is what Paul says to
Timothy in verse 16. Pay close attention to yourself
and to your teaching. You need to, first of all, pay
close attention to yourself, to your own spiritual life, to
your own house, to your own heart, to your own life direction that
you are living this message before you preach it to anyone else.
Preach the sermon to yourself. Get on your knees and pray the
sermon to God and sift it through your own heart. and life." And
then he says, and to your teaching, to your doctrine. He circles
back from what he said in verse 13 to the importance of sound
doctrine. Pay close attention to yourself
and to your teaching. And then he says, persevere in
these things. Why would he say that? Because Timothy is slowing
down. He is slowing down and he needs
to pick up his pace and widen his stride as he presses on,
persevering these things. What are these things? It's ministry
of preaching. You need to persevere in the
face of obstacles and opposition. And then he says, for as you
do this, do what? Preach the truth and live the
truth. you will ensure salvation both for yourself," let's stop
there. He's not saying that Timothy was lost and needs to be saved.
It's a comprehensive understanding of salvation from regeneration
and justification, sanctification to glorification, all of that
involved in the big picture of salvation. This aspect refers
to Timothy's sanctification, and as Timothy is absorbed in
the word of God and in his preaching. He will ensure, it's a very strong
word, ensure salvation first for yourself, for your own spiritual
growth, depth, and development. And then he adds, and for those
who hear you. Paul was not a hyper-Calvinist.
And the souls of men and women are at stake. And you need to
so preach the Word of God and be so clear and so concise and
so compelling that you will be used by God to ensure not only
your own sanctification but those who hear you as they would come
to faith in Christ. Well, this was the counsel. It's
more than that. This was the command that the
Apostle Paul gave to Timothy And it's the counsel and command
that God gives to each and every one of us, and it's embedded
in this canonical book that no matter where preachers are around
the world, on whatever continent, and in whatever generation, these
verses would be addressing them. And in the midst of the many
mounting challenges that you and I face in pastoral ministry,
and oh, are they many. And oh, are they many in England. where the soil seems to be becoming
rockier and shallower, the soil having more weeds sown into it,
in the midst of discouragements and despair and defeat. Let us heed these words of Paul
to Timothy and to you and me. Let us prioritize the preaching
of the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of Christ. I will give Spurgeon the last
word. We want again Luther's, Calvin's, Bunyan's, Whitefield's,
men fit to mark eras, whose names breathe terror in our foeman's
ears. We have dire need of such. Whence will they come to us?
They are the gifts of Jesus Christ to the church and they will come
in due time. God has power to give us back
again a golden age of preachers. And when the good old truth is
once more preached by men whose lips are touched as with a live
coal from off the hot altar, this shall be the instrument
in the hand of God for bringing about a great and thorough revival
of religion in the land. Spurgeon said, I do not look
for any other means. of converting men beyond the
simple preaching of the gospel and God opening the ears of men
to hear it. It has been through the ministry
of preaching that the Lord has always been pleased to revive
and bless His churches. Men, let us mount the pulpit. Let us ascend the pulpit as though
it were Mount Everest. And as Luther said, may the pulpit
be the throne for the word of God by which God will govern
his church. And may God use it to the building
up of his church and the gathering in of his elect. God will honor
the man who honors his word and shouts it from the housetops.
for all to hear. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you
for the record for pastoral ministry that you have left for us. Not
a fallible, but an infallible record. And thank you for this
priority you have placed in the scripture. And thank you for
what you have instilled within our hearts this Strong desire
to dig into your word and to preach it and to herald it. Lord,
may we be men given to the public reading of scripture and to exhortation
and to teaching. May you bless my brothers here
tonight. May you lift them up. May you
encourage them. May you embolden them. May you
empower them to fulfill their ministry. and to fulfill the
task that you have laid before them. In Jesus' name, amen. Take your songbooks and turn
to number one. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing my great Redeemer's praise. Number one, let's stand to sing. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing my great Redeemer's praise, The glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of His grace, the triumphs of His grace. My gracious master and my God,
assist me to proclaim and spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of thy name. of thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our
fears, that bids our sorrows cease, His music in the sinner's
ears, His life and health and peace, His life and health and
peace. He breaks the bar of cancer,
of sin, He sets a prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest
flee. His blood availed for me. His blood. These things I'm listening to. His voice new like the dead receive. The mournful broken hearts rejoice. The humble poor believe. The humble poor believe. In ye deafness, raise ye up,
Your luscent arms employ, Please be seated. The bookstore will be open immediately
following this session. There's coffee and tea and cookies
available, biscuits available. My North American roots showing
there. Biscuits available. And although
fellowship is a wonderful part of this conference, I urge you
not to be too late because you have an appointment at 725 tomorrow
morning. We'll gather here for prayer.
It's tempting to skip that. It's tempting to get that extra
little half hour of sleep. Don't. You'll benefit so much
more from this conference by beginning each day in the fellowship
of prayer before the throne of grace. So please join us tomorrow
morning at 725. You're dismissed.