I Am Appointed a Preacher

If you will open your Bibles
now to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, I'll read the text again. Verse
21, 1 Corinthians 1, 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, right across the page in
verse 15 of chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians, Paul, speaking of the believer,
every believer, every child of God, says that the regenerated
man understands the mysteries and the spiritual wisdom of the
gospel of Christ, yet he himself is not understood by his fellow
man." Now look at that. 1 Corinthians 2.15, "...but he
that is spiritual," talking about he that's regenerated, child
of God, "...judgeth all things," the word there is discerneth,
understandeth, "...yet he himself is understood of no man." In
our Sunday school lesson this morning, Peter talked about us
being strangers and pilgrims in this world. A believer can
be a stranger in his own house, among his own circle of friends.
He can be a stranger where he works. They know you, but they
don't know you. They don't understand you. There's
a part of you they cannot understand. You understand the mysteries
of the gospel. We know in part. I know that.
We prophesy in part, we see through a glass dimly, but God has revealed
unto us his wisdom in Christ, how he can be just and justify
the ungodly, how he can be righteous and forgive our sins. God has
revealed to the spiritual, awakened, regenerated, born-again individual
the mysteries of the gospel. We don't know all about them
by any means. We haven't laid hold upon that for which we've
been laid hold. Count not ourselves to have apprehended.
We have not arrived. But we do understand something
of the mysteries of God. But we're not understood. Don't
expect to be. You're a complex and strange
person, maybe even to your husband or to your wife or to your children
or to your brother or sister or to your mother or father.
They don't understand you. You understand the mysteries
of the gospel and you live in another kingdom, in another world,
in another family, and they haven't entered into those mysteries.
They haven't entered into those spiritual mysteries that God
has revealed to you. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God. He doesn't know them, neither
can he know them. They're spiritually discerned
or understood. The believer is a child of God,
yet he considers himself the chief of sinners. Now, the worldly
man can't explain that. But here Paul talks about being
a child of God, a son of the King, and yet he says, Christ
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. Paul talks
about, I'm not one whit behind the chief apostle. Don't put
Peter in front of me, he said. Don't put James or John in front
of me. I'm not one whit behind the chief apostle. Then he turns
right around and says, I'm less than the least of all the saints.
I'm not worthy to be called an apostle. There's no natural man
can understand that. He can't explain that. Some of
you can. And then, the child of God has
great heaviness and continual sorrow. Paul says that. He said,
I have continual sorrow. I have great heaviness of heart
for my brethren, according to the flesh. And yet he turned
right around and said, I rejoice in the Lord always. And again,
I say rejoice. In whatsoever state I am, I'm
content. content. Yet a moment ago he
was talking about being heavy of heart and enduring continual
sorrow. You explain that. The natural
man can't even understand that. He can't enter into that kind
of situation. And then the child of God, his
spirit longs to be free and to go to be with the Lord. And yet
his flesh will hold to this world as strongly as anybody else's.
He will fight to live. and yet to be absent from the
bodies, to be present with the Lord. And he's in a turmoil,
he's in a conflict, he's in a strait betwixt the two. He has a desire
to depart and be with Christ, and yet he knows that for you
it's better that he remains, and he really wants to. He knows
that he's complete and secure in Christ, that Christ died for
his sins, as the Lord prayed a moment ago. We are secure and
complete in Christ who came down here and redeemed us by his blood. And yet, the child of God continually,
every sermon that he hears, every scripture that he reads, he continually
examines himself, whether he's in the faith. That's right. Am I a child of God? I'm full,
but I'm empty. I'm weak, but I'm strong. I'm
dead, but I'm alive. I'm sinful, but I'm holy. My
sins are ever before me, and yet they don't even exist. They're cast behind the back
of God to be remembered no more. Is it any wonder that he's not
understood? And after hearing some of those
statements, which are all scriptural, A preacher gets up and talks
about preaching the simple gospel. There's nothing simple about
it. It's so profound an angel can't understand it without a
revelation from God. And God's preacher, God's appointed
preacher, he's even less understood. He's even less discerned. They don't understand preachers
or preaching. The world doesn't. Some believers
do, some don't. But the greatest blessing that
God can possibly bestow upon any generation, and I say this
carefully and I believe it, the greatest single blessing that
God can bestow upon any group of people is to send them one
of his preachers, is to send them one of his prophets. For
this to be true of that group or that generation or that people
or that nation, there was a man sent from God whose name was
John. If God doesn't send a man with
his message, we're not going to hear his message. And the
greatest judgment or condemnation that God can bring upon a people
is to be silent and to give them no prophet and to give them no
preacher of the gospel. If there's one to be heard, we
need to hear him. If there is a man today sent
from God, then we need to listen to him. And all the time we know
five things. Now these are five things that
I want to bring out in this message. All the time we know these five
things. What's true of every believer
is true of that preacher. There is a man sent from God. We have this treasure, but we
have it in earthen vessels. All right, first of all, the
preacher is nothing. He is nothing. In himself, he's
nothing. And yet, without him, there's
not going to be any saving paper. That's so. Now, turn to Romans
chapter 10. I don't have time to read every
verse that I'm going to use this morning. I'm going to quote a
few. But Paul says, he said, some of you say I'm a... while
you're finding Romans 10, some of you say I'm a Paul, I'm of
Apollos, I'm of Cephas. He said, who is Paul? Who is
Apollos? Who is Cephas? But ministers
by whom you heard the Word of God. He that one planteth, and
one watereth, and one soweth, one ploweth, but he that planteth
is nothing? He that watereth is nothing?
He that soweth is nothing? God gives the increase. And the
verse I quoted a while ago, he said, I'm not one whit behind
the chief apostle, though I be nothing. The preacher's nothing.
Don't try to make him anything. And yet without Him, there'll
be no salvation. Look at Romans 10, verse 13.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And how shall they call on Him in whom they've not believed?
And how shall they believe in Him of whom they've not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach except they be sent? As it's written in the Old Testament,
how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace. and bring glad tidings of good
things. There are three necessary persons in this business of conversion. If anybody is going to be converted,
there are three necessary persons. Number one, the Holy Spirit who
reveals the Word. Paul said, Our gospel didn't
come to you in word only, but in the Holy Ghost. If my voice
is the only voice you hear, nothing will be accomplished, no spiritual
value, no eternal value. You've got to hear Him speak
who speaks from heaven. Our Lord said, when the Holy
Spirit has come, he will take the things of mine and show them
to you. He will convince the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. We must hear from the Holy Spirit.
If the Holy Spirit is not present, there'll be no understanding.
No man can come to me, he said, except my Father which sent me
draw him. And they shall all be taught of God. Everyone that
hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me, Christ
said. So the first person that must be present in conversion
is the Holy Spirit. And then secondly, the sinner
who hears the Word, not just with these ears. There are a
lot of people hearing the Word with these ears, but there must
be a man present there who is hearing the Word, not just with
the outward ear, but with the heart. Now think about Herod. Herod went to hear John. It's
not enough just to hear somebody. He went to hear John. All the
people went out to hear John, out by the Jordan. And Herod
the king went to hear John. But it profited him nothing.
And it's not enough to hear the right preacher. He heard the
right preacher. Sometimes we think, oh, if I
could just get my loved one to hear this person or that person
or the other person. The preacher is nothing. That
sinner must hear with the heart. Herod heard John the Baptist. Christ said of him, none born
of woman greater than John the Baptist. So Herod heard John
and he heard the greatest preacher. but it didn't profit him. And
then it's not enough to admire the preacher, or to like the
preacher, or even to enjoy the preacher, because Herod liked
John. And he feared him, and he respected
him. But the sinner must hear the
message in his heart. He's got to hear the message
here. And then the third person that must be present. This is
what God's Word teaches. The Holy Spirit, the sinner,
whose heart has been opened by the Spirit. He's got to hear.
A man's not going to be saved until he hears the gospel. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. We're quickened unto life by
the gospel. It's the Word that brings life,
the seed of the Word, the incorruptible seed. So the sinner has to hear,
and the third person is the one who preaches that gospel, the
preacher. He's nothing in himself, but
he's God's voice. They said, John, who are you?
He said, I'm just a voice. But oh, what a voice, God's voice. The preacher has no power in
himself. These preachers that claim to
have healing in their hands, they have no power in themselves.
The power is of God. There's no magic in me or any
other preacher. There's no power in any preacher.
The power is of God. And then the preacher is an earthen
vessel. He's just a human being. But
the gospel of God's in that vessel. That's what Paul said. We have
this treasure. What a treasure it is. It's in
an earthen vessel. We need to get where somebody's
preaching the gospel. Not where the musical program
is the best. Not where the activities for the young people are the
best. Not where the I get tickled at
these churches advertising the paper, the friendly church. Brother, we need a gospel preacher,
not a friendly church. You find the Elks are friendly,
the Masons are friendly, the Lions are friendly, the Rotary
Club is friendly, a football team is friendly. This is silly. What you need to get under is
preaching of the gospel. Somebody handling this Word.
some voice, some power, some person, some man, whom God has
anointed, whose heart God has opened, and to whom He's given
His Word for this day. Now, preaching is sowing the
seed, and there's not going to be a harvest until somebody sows
the seed. That's just so. Christ said a
sower went forth to sow, and the seed is the Word of God,
and it's got to be preached. Preaching is a net cast into
the sea. No fish are going to be caught
unless a net's cast into the sea. There's going to be some
good fish and some bad fish. But there'll be no fish at all
if we don't cast the net. And happier you if you live where
the net is cast. And I think it's so important.
I've moved my whole family to a place where the gospel's preached.
And if I lived where the gospel wasn't preached, I'd get out
of there and go where it is. It's a whole lot more important
to you than these other things. And then preaching is Christ
passing by. Blind Bartimaeus sitting in darkness
by the wayside, a commotion. He said, what's going on? They
said, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Well, when the gospel is
preached in your hearing, you say, what's that I hear? What's
that commotion? It's Christ passing by, because
Christ is the gospel. Paul said, we preach Christ. And then preaching is Ezekiel's
vision. He stood out there and looked
over that valley of dry, dead, bleached, parched bones, and
God said, preach to them. What shall I preach? Well, you
preach not what I want them to do, but you preach what I'm going
to do. Did you ever notice that? Turn to Ezekiel 37. This is very
interesting here. In Ezekiel chapter 37, what Ezekiel
preached to those bones. He didn't say, preach to those
bones what they were supposed to do. He preached to them what
God was going to do for them. Ezekiel chapter 37. Turn over
there just a moment. Let's read the message that Ezekiel
preached to these bones. In verse 4, he said to me, prophesy upon these bones, and
say to them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord." What
is the word of the Lord? Here it is, "'Thus saith the
Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter
into you, and you shall live, and I will lay sinews upon you,
and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin,
and put breath into you, and you shall live, and you shall
know that I am the Lord.'" Well, secondly, the preacher
is weak, but he's bold in the Lord. And he speaks this message
with authority. And it's by his message that
men live and die. You say, you take too much upon
yourself. No. Now, the preacher is weak. Paul said, look there in 1 Corinthians
2, you've got it open to the text there, He said, verse 3,
I was with you in weakness and fear and trembling. In himself,
the preacher's nothing. In himself, he's weak. In himself,
he's nothing but a man. But turn to 1 Corinthians 15
and listen to Paul here. He says, I'm weak, but he says
in 1 Corinthians 15, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, and which also you have received,
and wherein you stand, and by which you are saved, if you keep
in memory what I preached to you, unless you believe in vain."
That's pretty plain. He even calls it, My gospel. My gospel. Paul several times
calls the gospel, My gospel. strongly declares it to be the
gospel of God, the gospel of God's glory, the gospel of God's
grace, the gospel concerning God's Son, but three times he
calls the gospel, my gospel. In Romans chapter 2 verse 16
and Romans 16 verse 25 and 2 Timothy 2, 7 and 8, why does he call
it my gospel? I'll tell you why. Three reasons.
He calls it his gospel because he was redeemed by it. He was
saved by that gospel. And you here this morning who've
been redeemed by the gospel of free grace, you too can call
it my gospel. It's my gospel. And secondly,
it's his gospel because he was sent to declare it. He was sent
to preach it. He was sent to be a witness of
that gospel. My message. I've come to deliver
my message, my gospel. God gave it to me and sent me
to deliver it, but it's mine. It's the one that he particularly
gave to me to declare. And then it was his gospel because
he would die for it. One of the interesting things
to note about preachers that God used. Take, for example,
Moses. Moses' life was divided into
three parts. Moses lived 120 years, as far
as I can determine. And his life was divided into
three parts. And this thing of preaching the
ministry is not a vocation, a profession, a job, it's a calling. God either
calls a man to preach there. All of God's people are witnesses.
All of God's people are witnesses. He said, ye shall be my witnesses
in Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.
Ye are my witnesses. But there is a call of God given
to certain men to whom he gives his message for their day, for
their generation, for their people. And it's Moses, three parts. Now watch this. First of all,
for 40 years, and that's a pretty good while, 40 years, he was
in a place called Egypt where he didn't belong, where he was
dissatisfied, but he was God's preacher. in an educational system with
which he didn't agree, surrounded by idols which he did not worship. But he was in this Egyptian mess
for 40 years. God did nothing about it. He
just left him there. And then when he attempted to
enter the ministry on his own, he made a terrible mess out of
it. In fact, he even killed a fellow. He was going to enter the service
of God. He volunteered to lead Israel
out of Egypt. See, so he volunteered. He was
going to lead Israel out of Egypt. He volunteered. His mama told
him that he was an Israelite, you know. She helped raise him,
and his sister Miriam. And I'm sure they interjected
in his mind that God was his God, and he ought to serve God.
And so he rolled up his sleeves, spit on his hands, and went out
and started serving God. And he made a mess. He turned
the world against him and God's people, too, against him. In
fact, they told him, the whole shebang told him just to get
lost. He made a mess out of it and he left. And he went out
on a desert, the backside of a mountain, and he stayed there
for a pretty good while, about 40 years. He didn't know why
he was there. He didn't know God's purpose
for him. But I can be sure of this. He saw that in the strength
and energy of his flesh he could not serve God. He could not accomplish
the work of God in the strength and power of his own wisdom and
natural understanding and efforts. It's not by might nor by power
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. We ought not run till we're sent.
We ought not speak till we've been spoken to. We ought not
give a message till we receive one. Just going through the motions
of preaching is just as much a waste of time as reading Mary
Had a Little Lamb if God's not in it. And Moses sat back there
until he was 80 years old. Now God knows what he's doing.
And God Almighty finally came to Moses when Moses had been
whittled down sufficiently and stripped sufficiently and broken
sufficiently and brought to a humble, meek spirit in a sufficient manner.
And God said, I want you to go down to Egypt and lead my people
out." Well, he didn't want to go. He was very reluctant. He started putting up some excuses
that he couldn't talk and they wouldn't listen to him. Boy,
he's a lot different from that fellow that was whipping that
whole outfit back there just 40 years ago, isn't he? Well,
the man God's pleased to use is the man who's going to give
God all the glory. God will not share His glory.
I do know that. I don't claim to know a whole
lot about this book, but I do know God's not going to share
His glory. He'll whittle Gideon's army down. Peter stood and said,
the whole outfit might deny you, Lord, but I won't. He was the
only one that did, openly. But what kind of preacher would
he have made if God had let him go on in that boastful fashion?
in that confident fashion that God had to whip him. He had to
whittle him down. Same thing with Moses. So after
spending 80 years, 40 years where he didn't want to be and 40 years
where he didn't know why he was there, God brought him out and
led his people out and made him a man of authority. A man who
spoke with authority. But when the job was done, God
revealed that this man Moses was still a man. And he acted
ugly. He acted ugly. He lost his temper,
he lost his composure, and God killed him. God killed him. And then you take, turn to 2
Corinthians 12. You say Moses died. Yeah, but
he died by the will of God. He died because he violated God's
instructions. He acted ugly. And God took him
up on the mountain and let him look at the promised land and
wouldn't let him go in. There's reason for that, too.
Moses represents the Lord. Joshua represents Christ. But
here Paul even, 2 Corinthians 12, 7, "...unless I should be
exalted above measure." And many preachers are. Through the abundance
of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure."
So the preacher is strong in the Lord, if he's God's preacher.
He has authority. Authority is vested in him. But
he's still weak. He's still a man. Now watch this,
and this is a scripture that very few people ever preach on.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 9. Very few people ever deal with
it. God's preacher, God's true messenger,
must be a man of manyâ€”you've got to understand this the way
I'm trying to say it. I want to use the word attributes,
but when I think of attributes, I think of God. characteristics,
you think of personality, but let's say it must be a man of
many faces, and yet only one message. Now here's what Paul
is saying. Now, too often this is where
many ministers utterly fail. Utterly fail. They start in a direction with
certain principles and convictions and dogmatic holdings to these
convictions and principles. They want everyone to be molded
like them. They want them to become like
them. They want them to think like them and live like them
and dress like them. And this many churches and denominations
are founded upon this principle. They're followers of men. They
even talk like a certain man. and dress like him, and everything
has to be conducted just like he says it's supposed to be.
He enters into their private lives, and into their personal
lives, and into their social lives, and everything is ordered
in a certain mode. But now listen to Paul, in 1
Corinthians 9 verse 19, "...though I be free from all men." Yet
have I made myself servant unto all that I may gain the more.
Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. Jews
had certain principles about not eating pork. Paul was with
them. He didn't eat it. I assure you
he didn't. He wouldn't move into a Jewish
neighborhood, Don, and raise pigs. He's too smart for that.
He was not needlessly Though it was all right to raise pigs,
but he would not needlessly offend this Jew. Now, if he lived with
the Gentiles, they served pork, he'd eat it right along with
them. He said to the Jew, I became
a Jew, that I might gain the Jew. To them who are under the
law, the strict Jew about observing the Sabbath day, in other words,
if he went to a certain place to preach and the people taught
that on Sunday afternoon the kids didn't shoot marbles. And he wouldn't shoot marbles.
He wouldn't say, well, nothing wrong with shooting marbles on Sunday morning and
shooting marbles on Monday. But under the law, he said, I
became as one that were under the law that I might gain them.
And to them that are without the law, as without the law.
Now, he warns not being without law to God. That's not what he's
talking about. He's not going to get drunk with
a fellow. You see, that's the, you say, well, what I want to
do, this friend of mine, he, He goes out and gets kind of
spongy, and I want to win him to the Lord, so I sponge with
him. No, that's, now wait a minute, hold on. You know, I mean, this
is a wild crowd, and they won't go to church with me unless I
go with them where they, no, now wait, this Paul said, now
hold on here. To them that are without law, as without law being
not without law to God, but under the law to Christ. that I might
gain them that without the law. To the weak became I as weak."
I can understand your weakness. I don't condemn your weakness,
your infirmity. I don't sit in judgment on you
and say, you're not saved because you do this or think this or
say that. Paul said to the weak, I become as a weak man that I
might gain the weak. I made all things to all men
that by all means I might save some. And this I do for the gospel
sake. And I'm happy to partake of that
with you. He only had one message, though.
His message was Christ. But he knew how to be tender,
he knew how to be firm. Paul knew how to yield, and Paul
knew when to stand. There are places you can yield. Don't become so set. You know, There's some yielding sometimes,
there's some spiritual compromising to be done. But the believer,
the child of God, knows when to stand. He knows what cannot
be compromised. The Apostle Paul would have Timothy
circumcised to get along with the Jews, but he said if any
man preach any other gospel, let him be accursed. He would have his head shaved
in order to go into a certain surroundings, because that's
the way the men did these things. But he'd stand and say, other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid. And we have
a liberty in Christ, and these things, circumcision or uncircumcision,
profiteth nothing. But Paul had learned how to yield,
and how to stand, and when to yield, and when to stand, and
when to live, and when to die, and when to hold his ground,
and when to turn it loose. And we need to take some lessons
in that. All us preachers and all us deacons and elders and
Sunday school teachers, don't win the battle and lose the whole
war. You see what I'm saying? In other
words, here's a man that comes into your home, he doesn't believe
in election. Don't argue to the point that you lose any way at
all to minister to that man. Stand for the truth of the gospel. But do it in such a way that
you have an understanding and a gracious spirit and attitude
about you. Become unto the weak as weak,
to the strong as strong, to the Jew as Jew, to the Gentile as
Gentile, and you're just Godless, I have to explain to you what
I mean. But Paul knew this, there's only one message and one way
of redemption, and that's Christ. Back in the Old Testament, there
are three essentials to worship. There are three essentials to
worship. No use trying to worship God unless these three essentials
are present in the Old Testament. What were they? What were the
three essentials to approaching God? First, there was the place. Secondly, there was the priest.
Thirdly, there was the sacrifice. You can't come to God with two
of them, one of them, three of them. That's the only way, just
three. The place was the tabernacle. That's where God met man. That's
where God dwelt. He dwelt in the Holy of Holies.
That's where the presence of God was. And when Israel came
to worship, they came to the tabernacle. It was built for
that reason. That's where it was, the presence
of God. Secondly, the priest. Nobody dared come into the presence
of God except the priest. The high priest met once a year
with the blood of animals as a sacrifice. With the sacrifice,
you see, to approach God, It tells us that from Genesis all
the way to Malachi, to approach God, the example was set. There
had to be the place that God designed and designated, had
to be the priest that God appointed, and had to be the sacrifice of
blood. And we have the same thing. Where
is the place, the presence of God? The Holy of Holies, heaven
itself, we worship before the throne of God. Who's the priest?
Christ our Lord, our high priest. What's the sacrifice? His blood.
And that's where there's no compromise, you see. That's where there's
no yielding. That's where we stand. The presence
of a sovereign, eternal, omnipotent, almighty, omniscient God. That's
where we worship. We approach God. We don't worship
candles and statutes and idols and buildings and theology. We worship the Lord God. Come
unto me. Before the Lord, the sacrifice
was offered. Before the Lord! And we come
through the priest, Christ Jesus, by the sacrifice. And then last
of all, I close with this. The preacher is a man of great
confidence. He can say with the Lord Jesus,
All that my Father giveth me will come to me. He can say with
the Apostle Paul in Romans 8, For new he predestinated to be
conformed to the image of his Son, whom he predestinated, he
called, and he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified.
What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? Who is he that condemneth? The
preacher is a man of great confidence. Our Lord has a people. He redeemed
those people. His Spirit will call those people.
But the man of God, the true preacher, has many fears. Many
fears. The one I gave you a while ago,
he said, I come to you in fear and trembling. He didn't fear
men, but he feared God and the awesomeness of this responsibility. But now watch this. In two scriptures,
and we're close, 2 Corinthians 11, here's something else Paul
feared. He said in 2 Corinthians 11,
3, I fear, I fear, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled
Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity of Christ." Paul feared that. And then listen
to this, 2 Corinthians 12, just turn the page, verse 20. Paul
says again, I fear. This preacher's a man of courage
and confidence in God's purpose, but he's also a man of fear.
He says in 2 Corinthians 12, 20, I fear, lest when I come
to visit you, I'll not find you as I would, and I'll not be found
unto you such as you would have me, lest there be debates, envying,
wrath, strife, backbiting, whispering, swellings, tumults. Paul says,
I'm afraid of those things. a destructive to the spiritual
welfare of the people. And then he wrote again in Hebrews
4.1, Hebrews 4.1, listen to this. He says, Let us therefore fear,
lest a promise being left us of inner interest, any of you
should seem to come short of it. I want to read you a song that they used to sing
as a welcome to the minister. This is back in the old Methodist
churches when they welcomed a preacher back in the early 1800s. The
minister's welcome. We bid thee welcome in the name
of Jesus, our exalted head. Come to us as a servant so he
came and will receive you in his stead. Come to us as a shepherd. Guard and keep this foal from
error, pride, and sin. Nourish the lambs and feed the
sheep. The wounded heal, the lost bring
in. Come to us as a watchman and
take your stand upon the tower amidst the sky, and when error
comes in our midst, cause us to fight or warn us to fly, come
as an angel hence to guide a band of pilgrims on their way, that
safely walking by Christ's side, we fail not, faint not, turn
nor stray, come as a teacher sent from God, charged his whole
council to declare, and lift over our ranks the prophet's
rod, while we uphold your hands with prayer." Isn't that beautiful?
That would be a good welcome, wouldn't it? Our Father, hear
our prayer. Give us a word, a message. Anoint
that message in the power of Thy Holy Spirit. Cause that message
to exalt and magnify Him who is worthy. And, O Lord, give
hearing ears to the congregation. Show us the worth, the treasure,
the beauty of true preaching, the importance of it, the value
of it, the eternal value. the importance of our hearing
it, our attendance upon it. If God speaks, let us hear. If
God does not speak, let us flee. The voice of that man, in Christ's
name we pray. Amen.

I Am Appointed a Preacher

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I Am Appointed a Preacher

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