Welcome to the 2006 Shepherds
Conference, General Session number 6, Stephen Lawson. It was our graduation at the
Master's Seminary this past year when Dr. Stephen Lawson, my dear
and treasured friend, was invited to come and give the graduation
address. I've heard a lot of them. I've
given a lot of them. No message that I ever heard
and certainly no one that I ever gave moved me such as that one
with a compelling and clear call to preach the Word of God. So
I prevailed upon him to take another look at that great text
on your behalf this morning. And I want you to welcome Dr.
Stephen Lawson as he comes. Well, thank you, John. What a
joy it is to be here with you today. And I feel like I need
to say this. I feel such a great debt of love
for the Shepherds Conference and all the people who have poured
their lives into making this for us what it is. For me, this
is the one time in the year when everything is right. This is
the 25th year of the Shepherds Conference, and it was 23 years
ago that I came to my first Shepherds Conference. I had just graduated
from seminary. I grew up in a very liberal church
that did not preach the Word of God. had never been in an
elders meeting, had never been in a deacons meeting, had really
hardly ever sat under the preaching of the Word as far as a home
church. And when I came here as a young
man 23 years ago, there were only 200 of us that met. We met over in the chapel. And
we all ate over where the bookstore is. And I can't tell you the
effect that it had upon my life. The Shepherds' Conference in
many ways sits on my shoulder and speaks into my ear every
day of my ministry. I remember we had a Q&A with
John, and honestly, I closed my eyes and I thought, I'm in
Geneva. I am a French Huguenot who has
escaped France. and have come to Saint Paris
Church in Geneva. And as I heard John expound the
Word of God and give biblical answers, it was far beyond even
what I had learned in seminary. And I just trust that you men,
as well as myself, that we will savor these hours and that they
will be etched upon our mind. This is rich. And this is life-changing. John, on behalf of all of us,
I just want to affirm you. You are Mr. Valiant for Truth
to us. And as we see your courage and
as we see your compassion for fellow pastors, it encourages
us to press on in faithfulness in those parts of the vineyard
where the Lord has placed us. So God bless you, brother. You're
the man. I mean that in an endearing way. If you would take God's Word
and turn with me to the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter
8, the title of the message this morning is, Bring the Book! Nehemiah
chapter 8, beginning in verse 1. This is the Word of the living
God. And they all gathered together
as one man at the square which was in front of the water gate.
And they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Law
of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel. Then Ezra the priest
brought the law before the assembly of men, women and all who could
listen with understanding on the first day of the seventh
month. He read from it before the square, which was in front
of the water gate from early morning till midday. In the presence
of men and women, those who could understand, and all the people
were attentive to the book of the law. Ezra the scribe stood
at a wooden podium, which they had made for the purpose. And
beside him stood Mattathiah, Shammah, and Nahum, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maseah on
his right hand. And Paddaiah, Mishael, Malkijah,
Heshum, Hashbad, Anah, Zekiah, and Mishugam. They were not from
Southern Alabama. There is no Billy Bob in this
list. Ezra opened the book in the sight
of all the people, for he was standing above all the people. And when he opened it, all the
people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the
great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen. while lifting up their hands.
Then they bowed low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to
the ground." Also, Yeshua, Benai, Shira, Baya, Jamin, Acob, Shabbatai,
Hodiah, Maseah, Kelita, Azariah, Jay is bad. Hey, now. Tell a. The Levites explaining
the law to the people while the people remained in their place,
they read from the book. From the law of God, translating
to give the sense so that they understood the reading. Then
Nehemiah, who was the governor and Ezra, the priest and scribe
and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people,
This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep,
for all the people were weeping when they heard the words of
the law. Then he said to them, Go. eat
of the fat, drink of the sweet, send portions to him who has
nothing prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be
grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." So all the
Levites calmed all the people, saying, be still, for the day
is holy. Do not be grieved. All the people went away to eat,
to drink, to send portions, to celebrate a great festival because... because they understood the words
which had been made known to them. Every great season of Reformation
in the history of the church And every great hour of spiritual
awakening has always been a time that has ushered in a recovery
of biblical preaching. J.H. Merrill Dubonnet, the noted
historian of the Reformation in Geneva and Europe, has written,
quote, The only true Reformation is that which emanates from the
Word of God, unquote. Such was certainly the case in
the Reformation of the 16th century, which witnessed the recovery
of biblical expository preaching by men like Martin Luther and
John Calvin and John Knox that literally turned Europe upside
down. Such was the case with the golden
Puritan era of the 17th century. which also witnessed the recovery
of biblical preaching in Scotland and England and of the likes
of John Owen and Jeremiah Burroughs and Samuel Rutherford and Thomas
Watson and an entire army of biblical expositors unloosed
upon the kingdom. Such was the case of the Great
Awakening with the biblical preaching of Jonathan Edwards and George
Whitefield and the tenants They took New England by storm. They
electrified the Atlantic seacoast with the preaching of the Word
of God. Every great reformation and every
great awakening and every great true revival has been ushered
in by a recovery of biblical preaching. The noted church historian
Philip Schaff writes at the beginning of Volume 7 of his History of
the Church, Quote, every true progress in church history, every
true progress in church history is conditioned by a new and deep
study of the scripture. While the humanists went back
to the ancient classics and revived the spirit of Greek and Roman
paganism, the reformers went back to the sacred scriptures.
in the original language, ad fontes, back to the fountain,
and revive the spirit of apostolic Christianity. They were fired
by an enthusiasm for the gospel such as had not been seen since
the days of Paul." This is what was ushering in the Reformation. Sola Scriptura. but not simply
only the Scripture, it was a preaching of the Scripture. Describing
that time, James Montgomery Boyce writes, quote, Calvin had no
weapon but the Bible. From the very first, his emphasis
had been on Bible teaching. Calvin preached from the Bible
every day, and under the power of that preaching, the city began
to be transformed. As the people of Geneva acquired
knowledge of God's Word and were changed, the city became, as
John Knox said, the most perfect school of Christ since the days
of the apostles." Brothers, this is what is so
desperately needed. It is a recovery not just of
preaching, but of biblical preaching, expository preaching, true preaching. That's why I love this chapter
in Nehemiah chapter 8. because it puts its arms around
what God has called me to do. And it puts its arms around what
God has called you to do, to be an expositor of the Word of
God. Here is the setting. The date is 445 B.C. The place
is Jerusalem. It is less than one week after
Nehemiah has led God's people in completing the rebuilding
of the wall around the city of Jerusalem in 52 days. It is a
time in which the whole nation now has come together to celebrate
the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. The city wall is built. The temple
has been restored. The people are back in the land
after 70 years of captivity. But they need more than a mere
building program. They need more than just a crowd. They now need the preaching of
the Word of God to ignite their souls so that they may grow in
the godliness that God has called them to live. And so we see in
these verses the case for biblical preaching. I want to give you
an overview of what we will look at in this hour, and I underscore
the word hour. I want you to know in verse 1
with me, the cry for biblical preaching. And then in verses
two through eight, the characteristics of biblical preaching. And I
want to draw to your attention five non-negotiables for biblical
preaching. And then finally, the consequences
of biblical preaching, beginning in verse nine and following. So first, the call for biblical
preaching. In verse one, the text begins
where every revival and every reformation must begin with a
cry and a hunger for the preaching of the Word of God. Look at verse
one. And all the people gathered as one man at the square, which
was in front of the water gate. This was a very sizable gathering. Commentators tell us. that there
were upwards of 42,000 people gathered here as one man in front
of the Watergate. It is an enormous crowd. It is
by the Watergate on the east side of Jerusalem near the Gihon
Spring. And it says that they gather
as one man, meaning intent on one purpose. They are here for
the right reason. They are here to make their plea,
to cry out to their leaders, to bring us the book, to bring
us the word of God. And so we read in verse one,
and they asked Ezra, the scribe, to bring the book of the law
of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. This is remarkable. This is coming from the pew.
This is coming from the people. This is coming from the crowd
that gathered here this day. They are crying out, bring the
book, bring the book. There was to be a public reading
of the word of God every seven years, Deuteronomy 31, 10 through
13. And they have been in captivity
for these last 70 years. And they are long past this time
of public gathering in the holy city for the word of God to be
brought to them and for the Pentateuch to be read to them and for exposition
and explanation to be given to them. And so they are under the
heightened awareness of this and they cry out, bring the book. Ezra is the right man. to step
forward with the book. He is the key figure here. It
was 14 years earlier that Ezra himself returned from captivity
to Jerusalem to begin this ministry of teaching the word. Turn back
to Ezra chapter 7 if you would. Ezra chapter 7 and I want you
to turn back 14 years with me to the time when Ezra himself
first came back to the holy city God has been preparing him for
14 years for this revival. God has been preparing the man
for the moment and the moment for the man. And notice in Ezra
chapter 7 in verse 10, this verse with which you are no doubt very
familiar. For Ezra had set his heart. To study the law of the Lord
and to practice it and to teach his statutes and ordinances in
Israel. Ezra had set his heart, he was
resolved. The word set, to set his heart
means to be fixed, to be established. He was a man of one thing. He
was a man of the book. And notice he, it says, to study
it. That means to seek with careful
inquiry. The word carries the connotation
of digging out as a miner would dig out riches that are beneath
the surface. This was the ministry to which
God had called Ezra. He was a student of the Word.
He was digging out the truths of God's Word. And he had been
doing this, we know, for at least this fourteen years leading up
to this revival. This is where any meaningful
ministry begins. A digging out of the text by
yourself, alone with God. That's what Paul told Timothy
in 2 Timothy 2 verse 15. Be diligent to present yourself
approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. Accurately handling the word
of truth. My friend, the revival began with Ezra alone before
an open scroll studying the word of God. The man whom God calls
into the ministry to be a preacher of the Word and to be a teacher
of the Word, God supernaturally gives that man an insatiable
desire to study the Word of God, just like here. Just a word of
personal testimony, and I really mean this in a self-deprecating
way. I grew up in a professor's home. I grew up in the home of an academician. My father was a professor in
med school. He was a brilliant man. Every morning he rose early
before I would even rise and was already off to the med school
and off to the university. He had his laboratory. He did
his research. He wrote his periodicals. He taught his classes. A brilliant
professor. And my brother is a professor
at Vanderbilt Medical School, a cardiologist, a brilliant man. My mother was Valedictorian.
My sister is an accomplished teacher. And growing up, all
I wanted to do was play football. I was the misfit in the family.
I played football. When football was over, I played
on the basketball team. When basketball was over, I played
on the baseball team. And while we were playing baseball,
I ran on the track team. And while that was going on,
I was lifting weights with the football team. And then when
summer came, I played golf and played all of those tournaments.
And when fall started, I just did it all over again. That was
my entire life. I didn't want to study. I didn't
want to read. For my father, this was the core
value of being a Lawson in our home. I remember when I played
college football, I signed a full scholarship to play for Texas
Tech University. And I remember when I signed
that scholarship, The spring before I graduated, I actually
thought I didn't have to study anymore because I had a college
scholarship. I had no idea that my father
was meeting with my English teacher, meeting with my, you know, math
teacher and science teachers, etc. And even right before I
graduated from high school, I was one of the outstanding seniors,
etc., etc. My mom would love to hear this,
but my father sat me down and I can hear this lecture on the
importance of academics and I didn't want to have anything to do with
it. I went to Texas Tech and I majored in finance but I played
football, I was there for football, my whole life was immersed in
that. The only thing I'd ever read was Cliff Notes just to
get me through. I don't know that I even owned
a book. It was a couple of years ago that my father was standing in my study at the church. I remember when I went to that
church, the pastor said, or the search committee said, we think
you probably have more books than our previous pastor. And
so they knocked out some walls to enlarge my office. And I had the largest office,
six, seven walls, ceiling to floor books. And I remember my
father standing in the middle of this office and looking around
And he actually said this, and my father is a believer. He said, now I know there is
a God in heaven. My son, the student. That's what he said. And he walked
over and hugged me. I want you to know that's not
me. I'm an athlete. I'm the jock. But when God calls
you into the ministry, He gives you an insatiable desire to dig
into the text. And it is a supernatural work
of God and if you don't have it, you haven't been called.
If God wants you to fly, He'll give you wings. And if he was
what Spurgeon said, and if he wants you to preach, he will
give you an insatiable hunger and desire for his word. And
you'll become a student of the word of God. And you will dig
and you will dig and you will dig, knowing you'll never plumb
to the depths of this inerrant, this inspired and this infallible
book. That's what Ezra was. I think what Spurgeon said of
of John Bunyan, he said the man was a walking Bible. He said,
cut him anywhere and he bleeds bibline, whatever that means. Let me say to my own heart and
say to you today, you and I must be walking Bibles. We have nothing
to say apart from the Word of the living God. Now, not only
did He set His heart to study it, but second notice and to
practice it. He became a living epistle of
what he was reading and what he was learning. Ezra lived the
Word of God. He put it into practice. Let
me point out something very interesting, this word practice. It is used
elsewhere in the Old Testament, a word that carries the idea
of expending great energy in the pursuit of something. It's
literally the word that was used of Noah's strenuous effort in
building the ark. And that carries the idea here.
He was building the word of God into his life with strenuous
effort. He wasn't passive in his sanctification. He was active. He was aggressive.
He was bringing his life under the authority of Scripture. And
he was an incarnation of the book that he was reading. And
then third, to study it, to teach it. Notice, and to teach his
statutes and ordinances in Israel. This word to teach in the Hebrew
means to goad or to prod. It carries the idea to teach
and to instruct with goading and prodding. In other words,
there was an edge about his ministry. Not only was he laying out information
for those who were in front of him, but there was a point to
the truth and he was pushing people towards the will of God
as he was teaching the truth. You know, I love what Charles
Hodge once said as he recognized that what a preacher does is
he really stands between, as John Stott said, the ancient
world and the present world, between the Word of God and the
people whom you minister to. And you just stand in the middle
and the truth flows through you from Scripture to the people.
Charles Hodge, on the 50th anniversary of writing the Princeton Repository
and Review, having been its editor, these many years, 50 years on
faculty at Princeton, other than Jonathan Edwards, the greatest
theologian, the greatest theological mind America has ever known,
Charles Hodge. This is what he said on his 50th
anniversary. I have never had an original
thought in my mind, in my life. Meaning, he brought forth no
new truth. He simply was an echo for the
Word of God. I mean, this is what God has
called us to be. We are to be students. We are
to dig. We are to live the message. We are to teach it. We are to
preach it. And this is where the revival at the Watergate
began. It was birthed 14 years earlier with Ezra alone with
God, with scrolls of Scripture unraveled before him, studying
the Word digging into the text, grasping its meaning, capturing
its thunder, incorporating it into his soul, applying it in
his personal life, practicing it in his walk, teaching it faithfully
all these years, becoming immersed in the Word of God, becoming
a walking Bible himself. Yes, Ezra was the man they called
for. And he was a man who had long
in the process been made for this hour. This revival at the
Watergate began with the people crying out for biblical preaching
and Ezra was ready and Ezra was prepared and Ezra was immersed
when he heard that cry, bring the book. I want you to know
the people in your congregation who truly know God and who love
God in their heart, they are crying out the same to you. Preacher,
bring it on. Bring the book. Bring it to me. And sad to say, there are pastors
all over this country, rather than hearing the heart cry of
their people, bring the book, they're going to other kinds
of conferences and they are hearing, oh, this is what we do. We go
out and survey unbelievers and we give them what they want.
While our own people are malnourished and there is a famine in the
land. Well, let me tell you, you go
survey lost people and they're not going to say, we want more
Bible exposition. The natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him,
for they must be spiritually discerned. They will want entertainment. They will want shtick. They will
want drama. They will want skits in church.
And we sin under heaven before Almighty God to cave into that. I thank the Lord for the people
in our church. I pastor in Mobile, Alabama. It's a different L.A.,
lower Alabama. But I thank God for them. When
I stand up to preach and it's a relatively small church, there
are people who have driven to be here. They drive from Florida.
They drive from Mississippi. Some people come from Louisiana.
We have people in the state of Alabama who drive two hours to
come to church. I meet with our men on Friday
morning in our church at 6 a.m. There are men who awaken at 3
a.m. and get in their car and drive
two hours to be there for Friday morning at 6 a.m. for the teaching
of the Word of God. They're not just driving past
other churches to come, they're driving through other towns to
come. That's how hungry true believers
are for the Word of God. There is this cry for biblical
preaching and it always precedes a great movement of God in reformation
and awakening and revival. May you be a man like Ezra who
is studying and digging and studying and digging so that you may feed
your people the word of God. That's the cry for biblical preaching.
Open your ears and you will hear it in your own congregation.
Second. The character of biblical preaching.
I want you to know what kind of preaching that Ezra stepped
forward to deliver, because it's not just more preaching that
we need. We don't need more hot air in
the pulpit, do we? It's a certain kind of preaching
that we need. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the doctor,
wrote once, quote, What is it that always heralds the dawn
of a reformation or of a revival? It is a renewed preaching, not
only a new interest in preaching, but a new kind of preaching. And he goes on to say the new
kind of preaching is really the old kind of preaching. I was in one of the pastor's
offices a couple of days ago sitting down writing some things
and I noticed that on his desk there was a brochure from another
major pastor's conference in our country entitled, Creative
Preaching. And on the front cover is a box
of crayons and all I could think of, yes,
That is the level at which this conference is aimed, is to pass out a box of crayons
to teach their people how to color in a coloring book. So, look at verse 2. This was
not creative preaching. Then Ezra the priest brought
the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could
listen with understanding on the first day of the seventh
month. I want to tell you again, his
whole life was a preparation for this moment in time. And
I want to give you now five indispensable characteristics of biblical preaching. I want you to write these down.
I want you to write this in the margin of your Bible. I want
you to tattoo this on your eyelids. so that every time you look at
the text to prepare a sermon, these five characteristics will
be the paradigm through which you prepare your messages. Number one, a biblical reading, a reading
of the Word of God. Look at verse 3. It's abundantly
clear. He, Ezra, read from it the law
before the square which was in front of the water gate. Ezra
began his exposition of the Word of God with an adult reading
of the Word. He simply read the book, knowing
that the Bible is living and active and sharper than a two-edged
sword. Unless we think that this was
a monotone mumbling of the Word, And you know, in the average
church, there's more inflection in the voice put into the reading
of the announcements than in the reading of the Word
of God. This word, read, you see it there,
second word in verse three, he read from it, Hebrew word, kara,
which means to cry out, to call aloud, to roar. To proclaim. In fact, it's the
word used in Jonah, chapter three, verse two, when God said, Arise,
go to Nineveh, the great city and. Kara proclaim in verse four,
Jonah went to go through the city and he cried out Kara. Yes, this public reading by Ezra
of the word of God, he was a lion as he read the scripture. This
public reading of Scripture is in keeping with Jesus' own practice
as He would go into the synagogue. You remember Luke chapter 4?
He goes into Nazareth and goes into the synagogue and He takes
the scroll of Isaiah and He reads the Word of God, hands it back
and said, today the Scripture has been fulfilled in your ears.
When Paul instructed young Timothy, as he was in difficulty in Ephesus,
He said, until I come, 1 Timothy 4, verse 13, this is what you
do to hold the fort, Timothy, until I can get there. Until
I come, give attention to number one on the list, the public reading
of the Scripture. To exhort and to teach. This
is how you begin the exposition of the Word of God. with a reading
of the passage of Scripture. And what you are doing is you
are making a statement to everyone who is listening that everything
that will be said in this message will originate from this text
of Scripture. And you are cutting yourself
off from the world, and you are drawing a box around this text,
and you are stepping inside of this box and saying, I will be
the mouthpiece of this Scripture to this congregation. When you
step into the pulpit, you're not to start with a stupid joke. You're not to act silly. There
are enough clowns in the ministry without any of us adding to that
number. A lot of preachers from where
I come from, it looks like they've fallen off the truck of hee-haw. Let me tell you something, you
are an ambassador of the King and you have showed up with His
book. And you need to conduct yourself like a man of God. You
need to be like Ezra and open the Bible and read from the text. Colossians 4 verse 16 says, when
the letter is read among you, have it also read in the church
of the Laodiceans. And you, for your part, read
my letter that is coming from Laodicea. The pastor is to stand
in front of the congregation and he is to read the Word of
God." 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 27, I adjure
you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren. If you have to go to their house
to read it to them, go read the Scripture. Revelation 1 verse
3, blessed is he who reads. And those who hear the words
of the prophecy and heed the things that are written in it.
This public reading of Scripture has long slipped away from the
worship service. I can tell you this, it's the
only part of the worship service that's perfect. It's the only part of the worship
service for which you can claim infallibility and I want to remind
you what God has to say is far more important than what any
man has to say. I remember when I was a student
under R.C. Sproul, of course he'll be preaching
here tonight, and I took classes under Dr. Sproul. I can still
remember those classes and I remember the day we spent the day on the
public reading of the Word of God. I ran into Dr. Sproul yesterday morning and
I said, Dr. Sproul, I can still remember.
As you began the class, you opened the Bible to Genesis chapter
22 and you read for us in class the account of Abraham offering
Isaac. It was so powerful. I remember
that you assigned to me Daniel chapter five and the handwriting
on the wall at Belshazzar's feast. And I remember that you put something
into my soul that is still there, the importance of reading the
Word of God in the exposition of Scripture. There's some room
for variety. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he would
read the entire chapter before he would zero in on the one verse
from which he would preach. But he read the entire chapter
and he made expositional comments that would line up under each
of the verses as a prelude to zeroing in on this one text of
Scripture. But there is first a biblical
reading of Scripture. And men, if you want to stand
with Ezra, you cannot have enough of the Word of God in your message. You are making a statement to
everyone who sits under you that you are a naked man who has nothing
but the Word of God to bring to the hearts of people. Number
two, a lengthy treatment. Continue
to read in verse three, from early morning until midday in
the presence of men and women, those who could understand and
all the people were attentive to the book of the Law from sunrise
to high noon, from 6 AM to 12 noon. You can do the math on
that. That is for six hours. And you think Dr. MacArthur preaches
long. None of us really do. This was
not a sermonette for Christianettes. This is not like the average
church service in the South, a 20-minute sermon and a 20-minute
invitation. This is not like the average
seeker church, one hour of syrupy choruses and then a 20-minute
pep talk, someone sitting on a stool. No, this is a full treatment.
This wasn't the children's sermon. This was an adult in the pulpit
preaching the Word of God with adult language. And there was
a lengthy treatment. Obviously this is a unique setting,
not every sermon is...this is instructive, not prescriptive.
Not every sermon is to be six hours, but it does underscore
this, that there is to be a full treatment of the Word of God. Think about it. In order for
there to be Bible exposition, there needs to be an introduction,
there needs to be transitions, homiletical points, an explanation
of the text that would involve word studies, cross-references,
historical background, thematic context, authorial intent, application,
illustration, exhortation, persuasion and conclusion. It takes a little
while to get a 747 off the runway. I remember early in my ministry,
one of the matriarchs of the church where I pastored said,
pastor, your sermons are becoming too long. I said, well ma'am,
it all depends upon the size of the cup you bring to church. If you bring a little thimble
to church, it won't take me long to fill it up. May God enlarge
your heart for the things of His kingdom. Sometimes I'm asked
to speak in a seminary chapel and some dean or someone will
say to me, we want you to model Bible exposition. You have 22
minutes to preach. I can't model Bible exposition. in a compressed period of time,
not true exposition of the Scripture. There is a lengthy treatment
and there are many variables in that, your own giftedness,
where your congregation is. But there needs to be a full
disclosure of the truth from this text and it needs to be
connected to their lives. A public reading, a lengthy treatment. and authoritative posture. Notice
verse 4, Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they
had made for the purpose. Notice, it was not a plexiglass
podium. No plexiglass pulpit here. It was a wooden podium. You know one of the first things
Martin Lloyd-Jones did in his ministry when he was in Wales? Read it in volume 1 by Ian Murray,
it will change your life. One of the first things Martin
Lloyd-Jones did is he had the pulpit bolted to the floor so that no one could move the
pulpit aside. It's okay if it goes up and down. It just can't go sideways. Excuse me while I go under for
a moment. There is an authoritative posture
here, back on message. He stood at a wooden podium. He's not sitting on a stool,
sharing. He's not walking around, gabbing. He is standing at a wooden pulpit,
and the reason he is standing there is the Word of God is in
the pulpit. I become nervous when guys walk
around up here. And they don't have a Bible in
their hand. If the Bible's over here, you need to be here. If
you're going over there, you better take the Bible with you.
Because I'm not listening without a Bible open in your hand. So this wooden podium, it's a
raised platform, large enough to hold fourteen people. Ezra mounted the platform. in order to be seen and in order
to be heard. He had six men on His one side and
seven men on the other. It's like the day of Pentecost
when they put Peter forward to preach. There's a solidarity
here in the leadership. What He says, we believe. In
verse 5, Ezra opened the book. Man, you can't get your Bible
open soon enough when you're in the pulpit. You need to walk
into the pulpit with your finger in your text. He opened the book. It's a part of an authoritative
posture. He stood before them with an
open Bible. And notice, on the side of all
the people, for He was standing above the people. It's intentional. There's a transcendence
about this. The message is not on their level.
The message is coming down from above. And He is standing to
be seen and to be heard. And when He opened it, verse
5, all the people stood up. When the preacher is serious
about the Word of God, it becomes contagious. When you're ready
to bleed the book and die for the book, the people will take
notice." And he opened it in front of
all the people and they stood up. It's the authoritative posture
of the preacher. One of my favorite messages that
Dr. MacArthur has preached is a message
he preached from Titus 2 verse 15, the authority of the preacher.
You need to get that tape. It says, these things speak and
exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. The end of the Sermon on the
Mount, Matthew 7, 28 and 29, it says, it blew the people's
mind for He was teaching them as one with authority. Acts 2 verse 14. Peter stood
up and said, men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let
this be known to you and give heed to my words. There's an
authoritative nature about the preaching of the Word of God.
We're not to lord it over the sheep and we ourselves are to
come under the authority of the Scripture, but it's as Martin
Luther once said, the pulpit is the throne for the Word of
God. It is from the throne of the
pulpit that the Word of God is to reign." Philip Brooks, in his famous
1877 lecture series at Yale, on preaching said, if you're
afraid of men and a slave to their opinion, go and do something
else. Go and make shoes to fit them. Go and paint pictures which you
know are bad, which suit their bad taste. But do not keep on
all your life preaching sermons which say not what God sent you
to declare." There's the authoritative nature
of the pulpit. Every time you step into the
pulpit, you need to have your letter of resignation signed
and in your hip pocket. Whitefield used to say, I'm here
today to talk to you about your soul. Number four, not only authoritative posture,
but fourth, A God-exalting thrust. It's a God-centered message.
Look at verse 6, "...then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God."
And that seems to be an umbrella over it all, that there is a
magnification of the Lord. Tonight, Dr. Sproul will be speaking
on the eclipse of God, how in the modern church today there
is an eclipse of the glory of God. But for Ezra, as he brought
the book, he blessed the Lord and there was an unveiling of
the glory of God. John Piper says we are called
to be exaltational expositors. Benjamin Warfield said of John
Calvin, quote, here we have the secret of Calvin's greatness
in the source, a strength unveiled to us. Listen to this, no man ever had a profounder
sense of God. Ezra blessed the Lord, the great
God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, while lifting up their hands
as an emblem of receiving the Word coming down from heaven.
Then they bowed low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to
the ground." This should be the proper effect
of true expository preaching. You are elevating God and you
are lowering man. And you are magnifying the grace
of God, which spans that chasm. And the more you lower God and
the more you raise man, you are trivializing the grace of God. Because that becomes a very short
chasm. But when you put God in his proper
place, You are magnifying the grace of God that spans that
chasm. George Whitfield said, all doctrines
from God lead back to God, exalting His name. Fifth and
finally, look at verse 7. The Levites who were sprinkled
among the people As Ezra spoke, remember there are 42,000 people
here, there's no magnification of the human voice and so these
Levites are out among the people almost like a relay and as Ezra
reads the Word of God and there is explanation given, the Levites
are out there among them and they are explaining the law of
the people under the exposition of Ezra. Notice he explained
the law to the people. Notice the emphasis upon the
mind in true biblical preaching. This entire chapter unfolds around
this theme. Look at verse 2. He mentions
understanding. In verse 3, he again mentions
understanding. Verse 7 here, explained. Look
at verse 8, understood. Verse 12, understood. Verse 13,
insight. All true Bible exposition gives
a precise explanation of the biblical text. John MacArthur
has said, the meaning of the text is the text. And until you
have given the true meaning of the text, you have not given
the text. Dr. MacArthur goes on to say,
quote, authentic Christianity is concerned first and foremost
with the mind. The Christian faith is not primarily
about feelings, although deep feelings surely result from the
impact of truth. It is not about human relationships,
even though relationships are the main focus of today's evangelical
pulpits. It is not about success. It is
not about earthly blessing. Dr. MacArthur goes on to say,
biblical Christianity is all about truth. God's objective
revelation in the Bible, interpreted rationally, yields divine truth
in perfectly sufficient measure. God wrote only one book, the
Bible, and it contains all the truth by which He intended us
to order our spiritual lives." That's what Bible exposition
is. You explain the text and give the authorial intent of
that text. You explain the text, you persuade
with the text, you exhort with the text and then move on to
the next text. And there is a running explanation
that has shape and form that connects it to the lives of the
people. Look at verse eight. They read
from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the
sense. Now, there's two things going
on here. They've been off in Babylonian captivity. Some of
them are a little slow in their Hebrew. They come back. They
have been in a different culture. Some of this does involve translation,
but it goes way beyond that. It involves the explanation,
unfolding the meaning of the text before the hearts of the
people so that they understood the reading. That's at the heart
of expository preaching. And if you don't explain the
text to let God speak through that text, it's not expository
preaching, it's suppository preaching. The last thing I want you to
see is the consequence of biblical preaching. When the Word of God is preached
in power by the Spirit of God, what is the effect? It doesn't
always happen this quick. Sometimes God calls us to labor
faithfully for many years before we see this. Some preachers are
martyred before they live to see this. But I want you to know
the eyes of the Lord roam to and fro throughout the whole
earth looking to strengthen the one whose heart is completely
His. And God is looking for congregations and pulpits where His Word is
given a fair hearing. And people are called to commitment
to this text and where the preacher calls for a verdict based upon
the preaching of this text. Notice, first there's repentance. It will take people down before
it builds them up. Look at verse 9, and Nehemiah
who was the governor and Ezra, the priest and scribe, and the
Levites who taught the people said to all the people, This
day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep." Why
would he say that? It's because the people were
weeping and they were mourning. And he goes on to say, for all
the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. What the Word of God is, it is
a mirror that allows us to see ourselves for who we are and
what we are. The Word of God allows us to
see ourselves as God sees us. The preaching of the Word of
God removes self-deception and allows us to see our sin and
our need for grace. And as they came under this revelation,
they began to weep and to mourn as godly sorrow and brokenness
began to come, it always accompanies true and genuine revival. I told
our men yesterday in our workshop how when Whitefield came through
Scotland and was preaching and the coal miners came out from
under the ground and they came in the field to hear Whitefield
preach and he preached, you must be born again. And Whitefield
looked at them, he said, their faces which were covered with
black soot, they were white. channels that were running down
their faces, these rough, vulgar men coming under the conviction
of their sin. That is good. No one can ever
be saved apart from the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. But
notice verse 10, it doesn't end down, it ends up. But you've
got to go down first before you can go up. There's got to be
repentance first, and then there is rejoicing. And so in verse
10, then He said to them, go eat of the fat, drink of the
sweet, and send portions to them who has nothing prepared, for
this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, as if to say,
do not mourn any longer, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. And He began to encourage them.
Your weeping over your sin is enough now. And he points them
to the greatness of God and affirms them that the joy of the Lord
is your strength. And a supernatural joy begins
to flood their soul because their hearts have been cleansed through
the ministry of the Word of God. Verse 11, so the Levites calmed
all the people, saying, Be still, for the day is holy. What an
effect the Word of God brings upon the souls of people. Do not be grieved. Verse 12,
all the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions and
to celebrate a great festival because... Here is the edge of expository
preaching. Here is the point of expository
preaching. Here is the apex of expository
preaching. Because they understood the words
which had been made known to them. Let me tell you, for 14
years in Jerusalem, Ezra had been digging and digging and
studying. Some believe he is the author
of Psalm 119. Some say he had memorized the
entire Old Testament. Ezra was a word man. He was a
walking Bible. And at this moment, Ezra stepped
into this context And He gave the right interpretation and
the proper instruction of the Word, and the rest is history. This is what God has called you
to do. Do you hear the people who are crying in your church
who are true believers, who are wanting to be fed that their
souls would be nourished, who are crying out for biblical preaching? These are the characteristics
of true biblical preaching. It is so Word-oriented. It appeals
to the mind first to explain the text, an authoritative posture,
a lengthy treatment, a God-exalting exposition. And these are the
consequences. Only God can do this. Towards the end of Luther's life,
as he had lit a match in 1517, it spread to the continent, it
spread across the English Channel. Scotland and England were infected
with this Reformation as people were coming back to the fountain,
coming back to the Scriptures. They asked Luther this question,
how? How did you bring about the Reformation.
How have you turned Europe upside down? Would you like to hear
his answer? I simply taught, preached, and
wrote God's Word. Otherwise, I did nothing. And
when I slept, The Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never
a prince or emperor inflicted so much damage upon it. I did nothing. The Word did it
all." You have that instrument in your
hand. You are called by God. to exposit
it, to preach it, to proclaim it, to get it out. The more you dig and study and
the more you live it, the more you're going to be able to let
it out and see this world changed. Let's pray. O God, I pray that in this hour,
in this place, with so many committed men to the Word of God and to
the pulpit and to the preaching of the Word of God. Lord, I pray
that You would raise up from this conference an army of men
who would be so committed to biblical preaching that they
would literally storm the gates of hell, that they would hold
fast to sound doctrine, that they would give themselves to
the deep study of the text, that they would be men of holiness
and purity who would live the very message that they study. And God, as they step into the
pulpit, may You be in the pulpit with them to undergird them and
to strengthen them as they declare Your Word. And may You bring
about another Revival as You did in the days of Ezra, and
may it shake this country and shake every continent in the
world from this place for the honor and the glory of Him who
suffered and bled and died for us upon the cross. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. That concludes this recording.
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