Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we are in the second message of a series of messages entitled "You are the Church".

On the day of Pentecost we are told in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples.

God baptized them into the body of Christ and the church came in to being.

The church was formed and immediately they began to preach the gospel as Christ had instructed them to do.

The preaching of the Word of God (The Holy Bible) today is so important.

For it is the foundation of the church.

The foundation of the church is the Word of God as we are going to see today from the scripture text found in 2 Tim.

4:1-5.

You can go ahead and turn there and will read that together in here in just a few moments.

We talked about the cornerstone last week, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the church, He is the founder of the church.

Now it says we are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Eph.

2:20).

Now the apostles and prophets are those to whom God spoke to give us this Book, the Holy Word of God.

God used these men through who to speak His Word and to write it down so we would have exactly what God wanted us to have in the inspired, inerrant Word of God.

And the inspired, inerrant Word of God is the foundation upon which every church should be built.

Now Paul emphasizes this in II Timothy 4 as he charges young Timothy.

Now it should be noted that 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are known as Pastoral epistles and they are God’s instruction on how a pastor is to pastor His (Christ’s) church.

Read II Timothy 4:1-5

The preaching of God’s holy word is the very foundation of Christ’s Church.

Paul says "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season;"v.2

Why is the Preaching the Word of God to be the foundation of His church?

There are at least five ways to answer that question from our text this morning.

I. BECAUSE OF THE SEASON SURROUNDING US

First off, We need to preach the word today because of the season that surrounds us.

In II Timothy 3:1 Paul begins by saying,

And then in verse 13 he says,

So regarding to the season in which we are living, what Paul is saying to Timothy is that there will be in the last days a season of false teaching will take place as the end of the age approaches.

Now we need to understand that the last days began when Jesus ascended to heaven.

And the last days have continued until now.

And the last days will not be consummated until the end of the age, at the end of the tribulation period and the glorious appearing of Christ and His establishment of His Kingdom on earth.

All of this period is the last days.

Again notice he says, "Things will get worse and worse".

There will be more and more of the power and influence of Satan.

There will be demons that will be let loose upon the earth, seducing spirits.

Doctrines of demons are going to invade the church so he says in light of the season that surrounds us, preach the word.

Never had we needed the preaching of the word more than we do in this season.

We see prophecy being fulfilled on every level.

Now from the very beginning of the church there was an invasion of false prophecy, an invasion of false teaching, those who infiltrated the church with their doctrines of demons.

Listen to what Paul says would happen as we get closer to the last days.

Strong’s Greek #646.

ἀποστασία apŏstasia, ap-os-tas-ee´-ah; fem. of the same as 647; defection from truth (prop.

the state) [“apostasy”]:—falling away, forsake.

And this is why it is so important that we preach the word, not human reasoning but the word, not human ideas but the word, not human marketing techniques but the word.

Preach the word.

It is the word that is going to have the power to convict, to convert, to conserve, and to cleanse.

So the word of God must be preached.

General Heresies

Positive Thinking The belief that your thoughts have the God-like ability to create your reality

Prosperity Gospel The belief that the promises of the Gospel include good physical health and Earthly wealth

Second Chance Theology The belief that the unsaved will be permitted to repent and trust in Christ after they die

Universalism The belief that everyone will go to Heaven

Vinism The belief that homosexuality is not a sin

Word of Faith The belief that human words have the God-like power to create or destroy

Works Righteousness The belief that we are saved by works or a combination of faith and works rather than by faith alone

That is just a few of the "isms" that are in our world today.

But they are just not in the world they are camping out in the church.

They are there because of this...Look at what Paul says again in II Timothy 4:2-5,

In other words, the people will want to hear things that will be pleasing to them.

So you go to a church growth conference and they say don't call people sinners.

One very popular TV evangelist who has a big smile on his face every Sunday morning, has been on TV a long time, said the greatest harm ever done to the Kingdom of God was the preaching that all men are sinners!

Now that is just a doctrine that will tickle itching ears, don't preach on sin, and don't mention hell.

If you did a survey of the preachers of Southern Baptists on the amount of times they preached on hell in 2018-2019, you would not get a very big amount of preachers who preached on that Bible doctrine in a whole year's time.

I was working in a retreat of sorts a few years back and spoke briefly about Hell in fact I didn't really get into the doctrine of hell all that much all I said was, “When I was 16 years old I got into a car accident and at the time I didn't know Jesus as my Lord and Savior and if I would have died that day I would have woke up in a devils hell.”

Later on I had a gentlemen come to me and say that I shouldn't be telling people that they would end up in hell if they died without knowing Christ.

Of course I said, “WHAT?”

So preach the Word because of the season surrounding us.

It is a perilous time.

It is an urgent time.

It is a special time.

Jesus is coming.

We have not much time.

Time is brief.

Time is short.

II.

BECAUSE OF THE SERVANTS WHO ARE BEFORE US

Secondly we need to preach the Word because of the servants who are before us, those who were faithful to preach the Word of God who came before us.

And we are here today because they preached the word.

They were faithful to preach the doctrine of salvation.

They were faithful to preach the doctrine of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is what he tells Timothy here.

He says in II Timothy 3:10, 14,

One of the big reasons to preach the Word is because of the servants who have gone before us.

We need to preach the word because C.H. Spurgeon preached the word.

We need to preach the word because R.C. Sprouls preached the word.

We need to preach the word because Adrian Rogers preached the word.

We need to preach the word because Peter preached it, James preached it, Paul preached it and they passed it down to others who were faithful to preach it.

And God has called us to be faithful.

Now we are living in this generation, in this time, in this season and we need to preach the word.

Not what people want to hear,

not what people would like to hear,

not what people would tell us to preach,

not practicing psychology from the pulpit,

but preach the Word of God.

III.

BECAUSE OF THE SCRIPTURE GIVEN TO US

We need to preach the word because of the Scripture given to us.

God has given us the Word of God.

He said, preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season, why?

Because God has given us the Scriptures to preach.

What else can we preach but the Word of God?

Only the Word of God has the power unto salvation to those who believe.

The Word of God has the power to convict.