Preach the Word - 3
PREACH THE WORD!
2 Timothy 4:2
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
· The more I study the word of God, and the more I meditate on what I have studied, the more I owe you, my Father’s children an apology.
· The lambs and sheep of Christ need to be feed.
o And sheep and lambs do not eat slop, pigs do.
· So I, a preacher of the word of God ask for your forgiveness because I have fallen short in the three areas that preaching the Word should address.
· And in these three areas, I must admit before you and my God, that
o I have not been convincing enough,
o I did not exhort enough,
o I did not have the patience, the longsuffering to stay with it long enough,
§ Even now, I am tempted to move on to something else.
· The last description mentioned is that of teaching;
o Preach the word also means teaching.
o Now any good teacher, in all honesty, will tell you that if the student is falling short, the teacher must also evaluate their teaching to see if it is also falling short.
· My prayer, and brothers and sisters I ask for your prayers to join with mine, is that as the Lord takes me to new levels and new discoveries (for me) within His word, that I will continue to trust and obey Him and His Word.
· Oh, how easy those words flow off the tongue but I truly want to live what the Proverb says;
· “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil.”
· Preach the Word should address three areas and when we don’t the local church falls short.
· These three areas I will call the three E’s of the preached word
o Exalt God
o Equip the believer
o Evangelize the World
o These are my three points
· Preach the Word is about exalting and elevating the God we serve
o In one of Richard Smallwood’s songs titled “Procession of the Levites”, words like
§ Praise the Lord, praise Him with timbrel and dance, from Psalm 150
§ Oh magnify the Lord with me, from Psalm 34
§ Lift Him up, lift Him up and the sopranos come along and say higher and higher, from John 12:32, where Jesus says; “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself
o This is just one reminder that the choir bless us with that the Preach Word is God’s Word preached
o Preaching is an important part of our worship and it too must be done in spirit and truth
o Listen to how Paul says it in First Corinthians 2:1-5
o 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 2 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
o When you leave New Hope on Sunday, has the Preached Word convinced you that our God is real and knows all about you and where you are?
o Are you rebuked with the preached word for not trusting in Him enough, calling on Him and leaning and depending on Him?
o Are you exhorted or urged to say never the less thy will be done in all of my life?
o Are we longsuffering with each other, me with you and you with me?
§ As James says in his first chapter; “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
§ New Hope, do you truly believe these words from James epistle?
o This is where we have learned to praise Him, worship Him, pray to Him and witness about Him and give Him thanks.
· Preach the Word is about equipping the believer and just like we see in Ephesians 4:12, I can add another ‘E’ word and say the Preach the Word is also about edifying the body of Christ
o These are the ‘in reach’ ministries
o Some like to call them the discipling ministries
o The charges I gave last week, are addressed to the believers
o Titus address to the older women and men speaks to the saints
o Ephesians 4 tell us
§ How long, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God
§ The reason, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men
§ The method, speak the truth in love
§ The result, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ
o After the Preached Word are you convinced, rebuked, and exhorted enough to change or is the preached word the type that by the time you get into your car you have forgotten it?
o Real life crises let you know where you stand on the word and whose word you are standing on. Too many times we end up standing in the fragile words of;
§ Human wisdom
§ Psychology
§ Sociology
§ Culture, Anthropology and ethnic background
§ Economics and accounting
o It is here where the temptation to disbelieve the Word preached, taught, and studied is at it greatest. Where I will not question the praise and worship of God. But I will question the use of the Bible in my practical every day life
o It is here where the yielding to this temptation and the justification of the yielding is also at it greatest
§ Let me call it what it really is; it is here where the sin is greatest and the lack of repentance is at its highest
o Why is that?
§ Well, you can not put it on the Scriptures because they are given by inspiration of God, and they are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
§ I feel that it is me as a preacher and not yielding fully to the charge preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
· I know and realize in my Mathematics classes that there are some subjects that need to be taught slowly and even then I must be patient (longsuffering) with some of my students who will not get it the first time.
§ It is so easy to say
· “I preached this and the fellowship should know it”
· “Hey they know that they need to be more involved in Sunday School, Growth Group, Men and Women fellowship, I can move on to something else”
· Brad taught this or Willie taught this, I don’t need to do it again
o But this Word of God that I am exhorting you to believe, I too must believe and it says Preach the Word, in season and out of season.
o And New Hope, I must do that, with long suffering and enduring afflictions.
· The preaching of the word is also evangelistic. In other words it is about introducing a disbeliever to Jesus Christ and seeing that disbeliever become a believer. Look at Romans 10:8-178 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” 14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
· Brothers and Sisters, do you believe this Romans chapter 10? Are you really convinced by it? Does it rebuke you? And is it a form of exhortation?
· A first priority in our hearts should be a concern for the souls of our love ones, friends and neighbors
· We need to be preaching it
· The lost need to hear it, and the gospel associated with it, they need to hear that;
o Romans 3:10-12
o 10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;
o 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
o 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”
o Romans 3:23
o 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
o That the word ‘all’ means everyone including you and I!
o Romans 6:23
o 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
o This death is eternal death, condemnation, or going to hell for every. And yes, I believe that hell is real
o But the gift of God, it is unmerited favor, and that is called Grace is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
o And no there is no other way
o John 14:6
o 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
- My confession New Hope is this, the Word of God has convicted and convinced me that I have not done the best I could in these areas, especially the last two.
- I have not been concern enough for the soul of the lost individual, extending to you the invitation and the reminder to get them to church where they can hear the Word of God preached and thus be born again.
- I have not been engaging enough with those who like Acts 17:22-27 where they had an altar with the inscription “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD”, religious, yes, but not knowing Him – Jesus Christ
- I have not been equipping enough for the souls of my brothers and my sisters in order to have you prepared for the storms of life and the winds of time.
- I must also admit that I have not prayed hard enough and frequent enough the pray similar to what Paul prays in Ephesians 1:15-23, Listen to it
- Ephesians 1:15-23 15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
- Paul said he did not cease praying for the saints, I am learning how to do this more and more.
- My prayer today is that we, New Hope, have been convinced if convincing is needed, rebuked if rebuking is needed, or exhorted if exhortation is needed, that we hold in our hands the Bible. It is the Word of God and gives the standard by which we are to live our lives. And we who are called saints, believers, Christians must believe that the Scriptures are indeed true and we must pattern our lives according to the way God has prescribed for us in His Word.
- Let me close with Psalm 51:1-13
Psalm 51:1-13
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight—That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.