Untitled Sermon (54)

Last week we brought in end 2 Paul's theologically focused mind. The first eleven chapters of this letter our sound theology and sound doctrine. But these last few chapters take a shift. If you were reading this letter on your own chances are you will recognize that chapters 12 and onward feel different then the first eleven chapters.

And the reason for that is because Paul was laying down all of his doctrine . He was explaining the Christian life any theological and fascinating way. But now he is done laying that down and he is giving us the practical side of it.

Now the practical side of scripture has many titles it can be application, it can be life lessons or life principles, or some people just choose applying the scriptures. And there are many other names but I think the best title is what the puritans called it and that is practical divinity.

And the reason I prefer that title is because even though Paul is giving us this application, even though Paul is giving us these practical life lessons In the life of the Christian, it is still theologically rich and it is still doctrine.

Practical divinity was considered the art of holiness. That's what the Puritans used to call it, the art of holiness. They didn't see holiness as a duty they didn't see holiness as a chore, they didn't see holiness as a great burden they looked at it like art. Something beautiful for people's eyes to be looked upon.

And that is what Paul is giving to us now a very rich application based on all the doctrine that he has just taught us. Now, before we dive in I have to explain to you all certain preaching styles. It is not the first time I have taught preaching styles but we will be paying extra attention on the something that has been so prevalent in our culture.

So prevalent that I am almost certain that most Americans are in fact used this specific style I want to focus on. Let me first remind you on my preaching style. I do what is called expository preaching. I want the word of God to be proclaimed I want the word of God to be guiding us I don't want to my opinions being tossed out there I want God's word to dictate everything within this ministry.

Not just within this ministry but within your heart as well. And so expository preaching takes time . It takes time to set in but it also takes time to build. This is the classic way of preaching, an although the number of pastors doing this has dropped we have seen it beginning to make a comeback.

Now there are preachers out there who say they're doing expository preaching but they are really not. They say well i went through every verse in the book but they really did not in fact go through every verse. They would read a section of it and give just a kind of basic sermon never really unpacking the entire text and then the next Sunday they move on to another section.

Expository preaching is getting down to the nitty gritty of what is being said, how the original audience would understood it, what does the original language say, what was the original's authors intent, can we know his intent? There are many things put into expository preaching that makes it expository preaching.

is all expository preaching good? yes, but not always. It all depends on the preacher. The other type of preaching is topical, where are the preacher decides he wants to preach on certain topics instead of certain books within the Bible. Now some people like topical preaching and whatever topic they are doing it on they will pick one section of scripture and do a fantastic job of exegeting that text, of doing expository preaching.

So if they are remaining faithful to the text then I have no complaints nor do I have a right to complain. But some preachers in their topical sermons do not do that. And this is where the two types of preachings take on a different role. Because not only is there expository preachers versus topical preachers. There are Multiple types of preachers within those 2 styles that I just mentioned.

You have the morality preacher, you have the legalist and you have the gospel centered preacher. Now the morality preacher and the legalist preacher kind of go together but the one with the more positive upbeat attitude gets the title of morality preacher while the fire and brimstone morality preacher guess the title of legalist. But they're both doing the same thing.

And it is this morality preaching that has dominated the American culture for quite some time. What is morality preaching? This is where the preacher spends a bulk of his time, if I could sum it up in a short way, it would be that he spends his time telling Christians what to do and what not to do.

And this has appealed to the idle within our heart. Like the rich man who asked Jesus what must I do to be saved and Jesus told him and he goes i already did all that what else. That is the attitude of the American church goer, I've already did all that , what else?

So there's never really doctrine within those preachers. Now the three movements that are most guilty of this are the Baptist, the charismatic's, and the Methodist. Some credit the Methodist for being the ones to invent it as they were wilderness preachers at one point in their history. They weren't the only ones, but they had that reputation.

Another word for Methodist is Wesleyan if you see the word Wesleyan think Methodist. Now I know when I'm hearing a moralistic preacher but they're not easy to pinpoint, they're not easy to find. Because some of them are really good at giving the gospel.

as a matter of fact a lot of them really get an A plus for giving the gospel. For having a zeal to see people saved. But people in the congregations do not know sound doctrine . In the legalist form the preacher well focus on the sins of man. And so they will have a sermon about homosexuality or they will have a sermon on abortion or they will have a sermon on why liars go to hell.

They have a focus on the sinful side of things because they want to teach the hell bound thanks. The other group does the same thing but they're not as fire and brimstone focus. They may have a sermon where they take a text from scripture and they say do you see how Jesus responded to these people, I wonder what our work life would be if we acted more like Jesus

Or they may take a sermon about how Judas Iscariot was the treasurer for Jesus and the rest of the disciples an preach a sermon on how greed can cause us to do terrible things. They're not focus on really what God has to say to the heart of man they're more focused on life lessons you can learn out of the pages of scripture. Even though there may be really good doctrine it they're not focused on the doctrine what they're focused on is pulling out their point that they already have in mind out of one verse or out of a couple verses. So all the verses they used to make the point of what they're trying to make are usually out of context.

And that example is What is more dominant in American culture today. Then there is the positive morality preacher and these guys we actually call moralistic therapeutic preachers. Because their whole motive is to never upset anyone but to always be uplifting everyone. And so they avoid certain sad things within their sermons period or certain dark things within their servants.

And so you don't hear a lot of sermons about chilling sin from Joel o'steen. Because he's a moralistic therapeutic type preacher. And so he wants to lift people up all the time never giving the doctrine. I do not consider guys like o'steen preachers I consider them motivational speakers with scripture. And it's not the same.

Now on the other side there are people out there who are only obsessed with doctrine and don't care about the application side of it all. They are not concerned with the art of holiness. They'll read the doctrine of holiness , but living it they're not interested in.

And so, if we were to have a tug of war match the morality guys , the morality preachers will be pulling on chapters 12 through 16 of this letter and the doctrine guys will be pulling on chapters one through 11. And what they do when they focus on one style over the other is they rip this letter in half.

You see for Paul whose only focus was to be more like Christ was to not only give the doctrine but to give practical divinity as well. And this is what Jesus did, Jesus didn't come and just tell people do good don't do that , he gave us doctrine. He sat and taught the disciples. The word disciple means student , the word rabbi means teacher and the word doctrine means teaching.

And so it is not good for your soul to sit and listen to a moralistic preacher but it's also not good for your soul to sit and listen to a strictly doctrine based teacher. The 2 have to come together and Paul does that in this letter and we begin to see a wonderful section.

Now before we dive in you have to know that chapter 12 we will probably spend some time in, it's not a long chapter but there's a lot of content within this chapter. But after that in chapters 1314 and 15 we will probably move through a lot quicker they want the pace we have been going. And the reason for that is because we do not have to slow down and teach a doctrine that is being introduced we can gain the principles that Paul is trying to give us.

And so this is a long introduction to this entire chapter as this chapter deserves a great introduction. So let's dive in.