But the first thing that caught
my mind as I was looking at this passage of scripture I just read
is where Paul asked the Colossians to pray for him, with all praying
for us, verse 3, that God would open unto us a door of utterance. I pray that the Lord opens doors
for me and for you to preach the gospel. I hope that's a continual
prayer of ours, that the Lord will open to us a door of utterance
To what? To speak the mystery of Christ. For which also I'm in bonds,
I'm in prison because I do speak the mystery of Christ. And this
is what caught my attention, verse four, that I may make it
manifest as I ought to speak. I've entitled this message, How
Preaching Ought to Be. or how preaching the gospel ought
to be. Now, we're gathered here on a
Wednesday night to hear a man stand up and preach. And there's
a lot of other things we could be doing. I think that this good
crowd here yet represents a very small percentage of the population,
folks coming to hear preaching on a Wednesday night. A lot of
other things you could have been doing. Now, what's this all about?
Why are we here? Well, I want to read three verses
of scripture regarding the preaching of the gospel. Would you turn
with me to 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 21. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now this is
how God saves through the foolishness of preaching. Turn back to Romans
10. These are familiar passages of
scripture. Verse 13, for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Aren't you thankful
for that promise? Whosoever. I don't care who you
are. You call upon the name of the Lord. You shall be saved. That's a gospel promise. And
then Paul asks these series of questions. How then shall they
call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Sent by God. As it's written,
how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But they've not
all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who have
believed our report? So then faith cometh by what
we're doing right now. Hearing. Hearing. Preaching the gospel and hearing. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. Turn with me to the book of Titus. Chapter 1, verse 3. But hath God hath in due times
manifested his word through preaching. That is how God manifests his
word through preaching. And those scriptures give us
some idea as to what the importance of preaching is. So what is preaching? I've read these verses of scripture
regarding preaching. So what is preaching? Well, it's
the verb form of the word gospel. It is bringing glad tidings. It's where we get the word evangelize
from, to bring good news, to bring glad tidings. So right off the bat, we know
that preaching ought to be the bringing of good news. That's
what preaching ought to be, and true preaching is. It's the bringing
of good news. Now, good news is relative. It's
dependent upon the condition of the one hearing the news. If I say I'm going to give away
$100, that doesn't mean much to somebody that has $100,000
in his back pocket. But if I say I'm going to give away $100 to
somebody who doesn't have anything and needs something to eat, oh,
it's totally different, isn't it? It's good news. You see,
how you receive something is relative to the condition you're
in or to the way you think. You all know I'm a sports fan.
The Reds lost last night. They're doing bad, bad news,
bad news. But you know, to somebody else,
to the Dodgers fans who beat them, it was good news. It depends
on what point of view you had. So we see good news is relative. Now, if somebody is completely sinful, That's
how they view themselves. Completely sinful. Nothing good
about them. No ability. No spiritual ability. And you tell them, God will save
you if you fill in the blank. God will save you if you do this. If you do that. God will save
you. Is that good news? No. That's not good news at all. You see, good news is relative
to the condition of the one hearing the news. Now, if you're a bankrupt
sinner, the only thing that's good news to you is that Christ
has done everything and that all that God requires of you,
He looks to His Son for. Now, that is good news. Now, there are different words
the Bible uses to describe this thing, what we're doing right
now, preaching. You're sitting here and hearing the preaching
of the gospel. It's described as declaring,
proclaiming, persuading, testifying. You can only testify that which
you've seen and heard. Exhorting, speaking, bearing
witness, expounding, communicating, confessing. And how preaching
ought to be is important. You know, when we talk about
how preaching ought to be or how the gospel ought to be preached,
you know how you say something in some respects is as important
as what is said. And here's what I mean by that.
If I say something in a cold, uncaring way, I'm denying everything
I'm saying, aren't I? In reality, I'm denying it if
I say everything with no zeal or no, just a, you know, like
turn on a tape recorder and listen to the truth. How you say something
in some respects is just as important as what you say. I love the illustration
Scott Richardson gave. He talked about a farmer with
a handful of corn. Same farmer, same corn. If he just puts out
the corn, Chickens will come and get it, eat it up. But if
the same farmer takes the same corn and he just throws it at
the chickens, they'll... they'll run away, scare them.
So how something is said is just, I'm not going to say it's as
important as what is said, but it is very important. So how ought preaching to be? I want to know, don't you, what
the Word of God says concerning preaching, how it ought to be.
Now there are two words in our text that really caught my attention.
The word, turn back to our text, Colossians chapter 3, he said
that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. What does he
make manifest? The mystery. with all praying
for us that God would open to us a door of utterance to speak
the mystery of Christ, for which I'm also in bonds that I may
make it manifest as I ought to speak." There's two words that
catch my attention about how Paul says the gospel ought to
be preached. The first word is mystery. And
the second word is manifest. Make it manifest. A mystery. is something we would have never
known unless God was pleased to reveal it. That's what a mystery
is. It's not something that we don't
know. It's something we do know because God has been pleased
to reveal it. And we would have never known
unless God was pleased to make it known in His Word. For instance,
the Trinity. One God in three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. We could have never known God
is one God in three persons unless He made it known in His Word.
There's not even anything we can compare it to. We don't have a proper illustration
to show how God is one God in three distinct persons. That's
just who He is. That's a mystery God has made
known. A mystery we believe. We don't
so much understand it, we believe it. That's the way it is with
mysteries. It's not something you so much
comprehend. I can't comprehend how God is one God in three distinct
persons, but I believe it. It's a mystery we believe. Everything
we believe is mysterious. How about the way the Bible teaches
the eternal union of Christ with His elect? How they've always
been in Him. Never been a time when they were
not in Him. Always accepted in the Beloved. How would we ever
know that unless God was pleased to make it known? How would we
know that there's a Lamb's Book of Life? Unless God was pleased
to make it known. How would we know God elected
a people and Christ died for the elect and God the Holy Spirit
gives them life? Unless God was pleased to make
it known. It's a mystery. Turn to Ephesians
chapter 3 for just a moment and listen to what Paul says about
this. Verse 1, for this cause I, Paul,
the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you've heard
of the dispensation, the stewardship of the grace of God which was
given me to you, have it by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. as I wrote forward a few words,
and he'd been saying all these glorious things in these first
two chapters, whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge
in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known
unto the sins of men, as is now revealed unto his holy apostles
and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow
heirs of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ by the
gospel, whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the
grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his
power unto me who am less than the least of all the saints is
this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Now these mysteries
are not so much things we comprehend but things we believe. Now what
do I mean by that? I remember a man's comment regarding
a preacher. He said there's no mystery in
his preaching. No mystery. And I know exactly
what he meant. Everything was cut and dry and
everything could be explained. That's not the way the gospel
is. It's not so much explained as proclaimed. It's not so much
understood as believed. Believing the mystery. For instance,
the scripture. Can I explain to you? Can I prove
to you by logical demonstration and scientific method that the
Bible is the Word of God? No. I can't do that. I just believe
it. I just believe it. I can't go
any further than that. I believe. God gave me the faith.
I believe with all my heart that the Bible is the Word of God.
I can't prove to you by logical demonstration that God exists
or that God created the world. I can't prove that to you, but
I believe it. I can't explain how He did it.
I just believe it. The Bible is to be believed. The gospel is to be believed.
Now Paul's desire was that he might make it manifest. Now that
word manifest comes from the word that means to shine. I was trying to read different
comments on this passage of scripture. And one man explained this word
as to take the lid off. I like that. To take the lid
off so that you can see, to make plain, to make clear. I remember
one time back on Grace Chapel, a couple of you were there. Henry Mahan preached the message
that lasted an hour and 45 minutes. That's a long sermon, isn't it?
An hour, had 45 minute tapes, both went through, and you know,
both sides, and he went on another 15 minutes after that. Some of
you, some of you remember that message. He entitled it, Six
Stubborn Statements. God is either absolutely sovereign,
or he's not. There's no in between. Men are
either totally depraved, or they have some ability, but there's
no joining the two. It's one or the other. God either
unconditionally elected a people or election is conditional based
upon man's free will and acceptance of it. But it's two radically
different messages. You see, He was making manifest. Christ's atonement was either
successful or it was a failure. It was successful if He saved
everybody He died for. It was a failure if anybody He
died for was not saved. God's grace can either be resisted
or it's irresistible and invincible. God's people either persevere
all the way to the end or they can perish and be lost. One of
the two. Now in that, he was making manifest. I mean, there it is. Paul said,
I want to make manifest the mystery of the gospel. Now, right after
Paul was saved in Acts chapter 9 verse 29, in that chapter regarding
his conversion, it says that he spake boldly in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is how preaching ought
to be. It ought to be in the name of Christ. I'm not coming
in my own name. I'm not coming with some kind
of message I've concocted. This is not my message. I'm coming
as an ambassador of Christ. Christ sent me. I preach His
word. This is not my word. This is
not my opinion. This is the very truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. We come in His name by His authority. Turn with me to Luke chapter
10. Luke chapter 10. Now the Lord, in this passage
of scripture, was speaking to the 70. He wasn't speaking to
the apostles, he was speaking to the 70, just the regular preachers
that he sent out. And he said to them, as he sent
them out to preach the gospel, he said, he that heareth you,
heareth me. And he that despises you, despises
me. me, and he that despises me despises
him that sent me." Now, what our Lord is saying is this, if
I'm preaching the gospel and he sent me to preach the gospel,
you reject me, you reject him. And if you receive me, you're
receiving him. If I'm his ambassador, if I'm
preaching his gospel, if I'm telling the truth, I come in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in the name of some denomination
or doctrine, but in the name by the authority, by the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul put it this way in 1 Thessalonians
2, verse 13, he said, For this cause also thank we God without
ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard
from us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it
is in truth, the word of God. which effectually worketh in
you." Now, in Acts chapter 20, I'd like you to turn here. That's
how the gospel ought to be preached. First, it ought to be made manifest.
It ought to be preached in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
not in our known name, but as his ambassador. Like an ambassador
of the United States, when he goes into another country, he's
not so much concerned about pleasing them, he's telling them what
the United States expects out of them. That's what an ambassador
does. He's not trying to please them, he's trying to please the
country he's representing. Acts chapter 20, verse 20. 27,
Paul says, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God. Now that's how the gospel ought
to be preached. All the counsel of God ought
to be preached. Now that doesn't mean that every
time I get up I try to say everything I know, which may not take too long, but the
point I'm making is if someone withholds the truth out of fear
of the congregation, the people he's speaking to, being offended,
so he leaves out something. He doesn't preach all the counsel
of God. God never sent him. Paul said, I've not shunned to
declare all the counsel of God. Now, what if I declare a part
of the counsel of God? What if I give half the truth? What if I give 99% of the truth? I told a lie. I want the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And anything less
is a failure to preach the truth. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 2, verse
4. How are we to preach? Verse 4. Paul says, but as we
were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. And
what a sacred trust this is. This humbles me into the very
dust to think that the Lord has entrusted me with his gospel
to preach it to people. What a sacred trust. What an
evil thing it would be for someone to try to change it or not try
to preach what Christ gave them to preach. But look what he said.
But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel,
even so we speak not as pleasing men. but God which trieth the
heart. Paul said in Galatians 1.10,
if I yet please man, I would not be the servant of Christ.
Now there's ultimately one, I want to be pleased with what I say.
I want the Lord himself to be pleased with what I say. Now,
if you love the Lord, here's what you wanna hear. You
wanna hear what pleases him. You don't want to hear what pleases
you. You want to hear what pleases Him, if you love the Lord. And
someone who truly seeks to preach God's gospel, listen, it's not
that I'm indifferent about what you think. I want you to believe.
I want to persuade you to believe. I want us to believe together.
I want us to rejoice in the message together, fellowship in the gospel.
I'm not saying I'm indifferent about the way you feel about
it, but there's only one person I'm concerned about being pleased
with what I've got to say, and that is the Lord Himself. preaching His Word. In true preaching, we ought to
seek to please God only and leave our hearers with God. Ephesians
chapter 6. I'd like you to look at this
with me. Ephesians chapter 6. What ought to be done in true
preaching? Well, Paul is once again asking the Ephesians to
pray for him. He says in verse 18, praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there
into with all perseverance and supplication for all saints and
for me, pray for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may
open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,
for which I'm an ambassador in bonds, that therein I might speak
boldly as I ought to speak." Now, preaching the gospel of
Christ ought to be with boldness. To speak without ambiguity. To
speak so as to be heard, not in a code language where the
people who believe grace will get something out of what you're
saying, but the people who don't believe grace will not be offended
and you'll keep everybody happy. Not in a code language. That's not gospel preaching.
It's speaking the word boldly. Turn with me to Acts chapter
four and let me show you what boldness is. Acts chapter four. Verse 7, Peter has been arrested
for preaching the gospel. Verse 7, And when they had set
them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name
have you done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of Israel, and elders of Israel,
If this day we be examined of the good deed done to this impotent
man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all,
and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of the God of
Israel this man stands before you. That would have been true,
wouldn't it? That would have been true. God the Father did this, but
that would have been compromise, is all it would have been. Everybody
would have agreed with me if we said that God did this. Yeah,
we're on the same page then. You're free to go. But no, what
did he say? He said that by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from
the dead, even by him did this man stand before you whole. This
is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which
has become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there's none other name given under heaven among
men whereby we must be saved. Now when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, they marveled, and they took knowledge of them
that they had been with Jesus. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
2. Now this is, I've been talking about boldness, but look what
Paul says in this passage of scripture. How ought the gospel
to be preached? He said in verse 1, 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, And I, brethren, when I came to you, I didn't come
with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you
the testimony of God. I didn't try to wow you with
my oratory and rhetoric, for I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and I was with
you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. That's the
way the gospel is to be preached. Conscious of my weakness. Fear
of misrepresenting God. Much trembling. That's the only
way the gospel is to be preached. And he says in verse 4, and my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit. Simple reliance
on the Spirit of God and of power that your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men. but in the power of God." Now,
Paul said, here's the reason I came this way. If I were to
come trying to win you over with my rhetoric and brilliance, and
I won you over, somebody else would come along who was smarter
than me, a better speaker than me, and they'd take you in some
other direction. He said, that's not what I'm interested in. I wanted
your faith to not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the very
power of God. And I came with weakness, and
with fear, and in much trembling." Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter
2. I've already been in this chapter
once, but look what he says here in verse 5. Let's read verses 4 and 5 together,
or verse 3, for our exhortation, that it was his preaching, was
not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but as we were
allowed of God to put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak,
not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts, for
neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak
of covetousness. God is witness. Now, preaching,
ought not ever have flattering words. It is good to commend and to
encourage people. If somebody does a good job for
you, tell them and thank them. It's good to commend and encourage
people and to be appreciative. And we ought to express that
one to another. Somebody says, well, I don't want to compliment
somebody because I'm afraid that'll make them proud. The Lord knows
how to keep people humble. It's not going to be through
you withholding. No, the Lord knows how to humble his people.
But flattering words, it's not if you compliment someone or
seek to be an encouragement to someone or thank them or show
appreciation. That's not flattery. That's decency. That's acting
in a way that's becoming to the gospel. But flattery is when
you're using the words with another motive behind them. You're buttering
somebody up because you want to get something out of them.
You want to elicit something out of them. So you'll say all
these flattering words and say these wonderful things about
them and tell them how wonderful they are. You know, a false gospel
always makes man higher than he is, doesn't it? It's always
flattery. So in the gospel, there must
not be flattering words. We preach God as he is and man
as he is. Second Corinthians chapter one. You'll notice that in all these
verses I'm reading, it's where Paul described preaching, how
preaching ought to be. Now look in verse 18. Paul says,
for the preaching of the cross, well, I'm in the wrong chapter,
in the wrong book. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 18. Well, let's start in
verse 17. When I therefore was thus minded
that I use lightness, or the things that I purpose, to my
purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be
yea, yea, and nay, nay. But as God is true, our word
toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you, among You by us, even by me and Silvanus
and Timotheus was not yea and nay, but in him was yea, for
all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him, amen, unto
the glory of God by us. Now most preaching that I hear,
or most stuff that goes on under the name of preaching, is what
I'd call yea, nay preaching. Is salvation by grace? Yes, salvation's
all of grace. But you need to accept it, or
you won't get it. Is Christ, is His death enough
to save you? Oh yes, His death's enough to
save you, but if you don't do something to make His death work
for you, it won't save you. That's a yes and no to the same
thing. That's not true preaching. Is salvation really all of grace?
Yes, period. Is Christ alone all you need?
Yes, period. Our word toward you was not yea
and nay, for all the promises of God in him are yea and amen
to the glory of God by us. In Ephesians chapter 4 verse
15, Paul spoke of speaking the truth in love. Now this is how
the gospel is to be preached. Speaking the truth in love. In love to the one we're speaking
of, in love to the ones we're speaking to. As one man said,
it's one thing to love to preach, and it's another thing to love
the people we're preaching to. Now, I've said this before. I'm
going to say it again. I think this is a good statement
regarding what I need to have to hear somebody. If I'm going
to hear somebody preach, if I'm going to listen to what they
say, there's three things that have to be in place. Number one, God's got
to have sent them, and they have to have God's message. I'm not
interested in anything else. Number two, that man who brings
that message better live what he believes. And if he doesn't,
I don't care how accurate what he says is, I don't have any
interest in anything he has to say. He better live what he believes. He better be an out-and-out true
disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ or who wants to hear him. But
here's the third thing that's absolutely necessary. He's got
to have my best interest at heart. He's got to be someone who's
truly seeking me to know the Lord. I've got to have that,
and speaking the truth in love. Speaking the truth, who God is,
who I am, the only way of salvation, Christ being the way, the truth,
and the life, and doing so in love, love to God and love to
me. Paul said to the Ephesian elders
in Acts chapter 20, he said, feed the church of God. Peter
said, feed the flock of God. Gospel preaching is how God's
people are fed. It's mealtime. You know, I could not subsist
without hearing the Gospel. I'd dry up and blow away without
preaching the Gospel. This is my food. The Word of
God is given for instruction, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, and this is our food. We love
the preaching of the Gospel. I love to hear the Gospel preached
in the power of the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, there isn't
anything, Lord knows if I'm being honest, I am, but only the Lord
knows, but there isn't anything I get any more pleasure out of
than being able to hear the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit.
There's nothing, no, there's nothing this life has to me that
is better than that. Just the ability to hear the
gospel, just to sit there and hear. And this is good news to
me, to hear, oh, to be reminded once again that Christ is all
in my salvation. I love to hear. Now, when the gospel's being
preached, there's some confession going on. This is the last point.
Turn back to our text in Colossians chapter four. Notice what Paul says in verse
three, with all praying for us that God would open unto us a
door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which
also I'm in bonds. Now Paul was writing this from
a prison cell, and he had been thrown in jail, treated horribly
for preaching the gospel. You see, he confessed what he
believed. He confessed. This I confess
to thee. That's guilt, an admission of guilt. After the way which
they called heresy, So worshipped I the God of my fathers. I confess,
I plead guilty to believing this. I plead guilty. And he was thrown
in prison. Now Paul had preached the gospel
manifestly. He preached in the name of Christ.
He had not shunned to declare all the counsel of God. And he
sought to please God and not men in what he said. He preached
in boldness and he preached in weakness and fear and much trembling. He spoke without flattery, without
yea and nay ambiguity, He spoke the truth of God in love, and
he did so to feed the church of God, and he confessed what
he believed, and it got him into prison. And if we're not willing
to confess before men who and what we believe, we're failing
to confess him. Now that's what how preaching
ought to be. And I covet your prayers that
the Lord will enable me to preach the gospel as it ought to be
preached. I say with Paul, pray for me.
Pray for me that the Lord would enable me to do that. But one
last thought. If the preaching of the gospel
is so important how it ought to be preached, how important
is hearing? It takes just as much grace to
hear as it does to preach. And when you come into this place,
not only pray for me, pray for yourself. That the Lord will
give you a heart hungering after His Word. A heart panting after
hearing from Him. A heart that's thrilled when
Christ and His Word is preached. Pray for yourself that the Lord
would give you a heart to hear the Gospel. It's just as important
as what's said, Faith cometh by what? hearing. And you know, there's
nothing more passive than hearing. You're not contributing. You're
not doing anything. You're just sitting there and
listening, waiting to hear from God. Most passive thing in the
world. But if it required any activity,
where would that leave you? You just listen. Be like Samuel. Oh, may this be my attitude.
This is what I want to deal with in vacation Bible school to the
kids. Speak, Lord. Thy servant heareth. Oh, Lord, speak to me. Speak to my heart. Reveal yourself
to me. May the Lord enable the gospel
to be preached in this place. Whoever's preaching. as it ought
to be preached. And may He enable us to hear
as we ought to hear. Let's pray together.