Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and it is week three of our five-week summer series titled Five Life-Ching Sermons. I've selected five messages that are loaded with God's truth, and all of them are on a variety of topics, and each one has personally shaped my life in some way. And I want to share those with you each week as a surprise, and I'll announce our preacher and the message in just a moment. First, if you're listening on Apple or Spotify, make sure you've subscribed to our YouTube channel for the video version of this particular podcast, and all of the sermons will be available too as well. For the Gospel Ministry YouTube channel is where you need to go. So today, a sermon that is near and dear to my heart. The preacher is Steve Lawson. The title of the message is Faithful in the Pulpit. This sermon is from Shepherd's Conference in March of 2019. And it is one of the last sessions. I remember where I was sitting, I remember being so gripped by the message that night. This sermon in particular became the final tipping point for me in a season where I was praying about God opening a door for me to grow old, preaching his word regularly in the church. And not long after this, I was sent to Arizona out of Mission Bible Church. I spent three years serving at Redeemer Bible Church. And then they planted me alongside Brett McIntosh and our team in February of 2022. This sermon was the single most influential message on that entire process for me. I was willing to go to the ends of the earth. I'll do whatever. I'll go wherever just to preach God's word. And in his providence, thankfully, he chose the desert. And I love it out here in Arizona. This next 74 minutes should do three things for you. Number one, if you're a church member, this is what you need to expect of your church and your pastor. If at the end of the day you've got a pastor that does this, thank God for him, pray for him, and encourage him. But if you don't, then you need to find a new church. Don't play games with the pulpit ministry wherever you attend. Number two, if you're an aspiring preacher, this will bring to bear on your soul the weight of preaching. This isn't some nice career, it is a divine commission. And third, if you're a pastor, I hope this message will remind you to be a man of God in the pulpit in all respects, a man of the word. And if you have been, be encouraged to continue to be faithful. God will and has, I'm sure already, used your faithful preaching to accomplish his will in the lives of his precious people. Let's jump right in. Dr. Steve Lawson, Faithful in the Pulpit.
SPEAKER_01Well, as we start uh our time, I've been asked to make mention of the book of the day, which I'm very happy to do. Uh this book is Reform Preaching by my very good friend Joel Beake. And this is a tremendous book on walking through the centuries with the giants in preaching. It goes through the Reformers and their preaching with Calvin and Biza, through the Puritans, through those in the Great Awakening, all the way up to Martin Lloyd Jones. And Dr. Joel Beakey has done us such a wonderful service. This is a lifetime, really, of study and reading, and to put his arms around 500 years of preaching. I know I have learned more about preaching by studying great preachers and how they preached, really, than I have even reading a book on just preaching. So I think this book would be of outstanding value to you. The assignment that has been given to me for this session is faithful in the pulpit. It is in recognition of the fact that Dr. John MacArthur has faithfully occupied this pulpit for the last 50 years. This pulpit in reality began over in what is now the chapel. It then moved to what is now the gym until this beautiful worship center was built and this pulpit was put in its place. And this is a remarkable testimony for 50 years to occupy the pulpit of this church, and it is a testimony to the faithfulness of God to this man and to us. To put this in a larger perspective, John Knox, the trumpeter of Scotland, occupied his pulpit, St. Giles, Edinburgh, for 12 to 13 years. Jonathan Edwards, the great preacher of the Great Awakening, was in his pulpit in Northampton for 22 years. John Calvin, the theologian, according to Philip Melanchthon, was in his pulpit in Geneva for a total of 25 years. Martin Luther in Wittenberg, approximately 30 years. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, 38 years, the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. Martin Lloyd Jones, the doctor, London, Westminster Chapel, 30 years. The fact that John MacArthur has occupied this pulpit for 50 years is absolutely astonishing. And it is 50 years and counting. I want to just walk us through what all has taken place in this pulpit. John MacArthur came here February the 9th, 1969 to begin his preaching. He began with a sermon from Luke 7, 14 to 27 on how to play church. And in that year he preached from the book of Romans, Habakkuk, 1 Peter, 2 Peter. In the 70s, he preached through the Gospel of John 78 sermons. The book of Acts, 103 sermons. Hebrews 43. Superiority of Christ 7. Second coming of Christ 23. Galatians 24. Is the Bible reliable? 12. God, Satan, and angels, nine. First Corinthians 81 consecutive sermons. Colossians 23. Zechariah 19. Psalms on Wednesday night seventy-three sermons. Charismatic movement twelve. Spiritual boot camp four. Ephesians sixty. Matthew two hundred and twenty-six consecutive expositions. Daniel thirty-one. Second Timothy twenty-seven. Philippians forty-six. Daniel, which I already did, thirty-one. Romans 124. James 34 sermons. 1 Peter 50. That's just the 1970s. Revelation, 87 sermons. True worship, eight. Anatomy of a church, eight sermons. Heaven, eight. Spiritual growth, four. Spiritual stability, six. Whatever happened to the Holy Spirit, six. Into the nineties, First Thessalonians 36 sermons, consecutive expositions, 2 Peter 27, Revelation 87, Philemon 4, 2 Thessalonians 17, Titus 24, 2 Corinthians 96 expository sermons, Love of God, 6. Fulfilled Family, 11. Luke 298 Expositions. My twin boys entered the Master's University in Luke 11. They graduated four years later in like Luke thirteen. And not because they're fast learners. This is unbelievable. Genesis 1 through 11, 49 expositions. Mark 85. Now we're into the 2000s. Mark 85 sermons. Middle East and Terrorism, four. First John, forty-two expositions. Second John, four expositions. Third John, two expositions. Jude 15. Doctrines of Grace, ten. Spiritual terrorism, ten. Making a case for the Bible, five. Premillennialism, six. The kind of worship God desires, five. Hebrews 11 and 12, 12 expository sermons. And then into the 201 teens, Romans 8, 12 expositions. Isaiah 53, 10. Gospel of John again, 116. Acts 1 through 9, 33. Revelation 1 through 3, 8 sermons. 1 Corinthians 15, 6. Creating shade for your children, 4. Your responsibility to the church, 5. Philemon, 3. Galatians, again, 42. Social justice, 4. On top of that, isolated sermons, Christmas sermons, there's at least 50 of those. Easter, that comes once a year. Easter, 50 sermons. That's directed to all the CEOs in the church, Christmas and Easter only. Shepherd's Conference. There have been 46 Shepherd's Conferences, a minimum of two sermons. And originally, when I first started coming to the Shepherd's Conference, Dr. MacArthur preached all the sermons. Funerals, weddings, chapels across the parking lot at the seminary, at the Master's University chapels, other churches, other conferences. I can't even, it's thousands. From this pulpit. And flowing out of this pulpit an entire New Testament commentary set on every verse in the entire New Testament. And then flowing out of that the MacArthur Study Bible. All of it flowing out of faithfulness in the pulpit. After fifty years of faithful preaching from this pulpit, this sacred desk has truly become a world pulpit. And in my estimation, this pulpit is the world pulpit. The influence that has extended around the globe is unmatched by any other pulpit in the world. So let us give glory to God on this occasion. If you would take your Bible and turn with me to the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 4, and verses 13 through 16, this will be our text for this session. 1 Timothy chapter 4. Verses 13 through 16. I want to begin by reading the text, setting it in front of your eyes and your heart yet again. And may God write this text upon your heart. 1 Timothy chapter 4, beginning in verse 13, the Apostle Paul, as he writes to his young son in the faith, Timothy writes these words with apostolic authority. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these things. Be absorbed in them so that your progress may be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere in these things. For as you do this, you will ensure salvation, both for yourself and for those who hear you. As Paul writes these words, young Timothy is in a very precarious situation. He has been thrown into the deep end of the pool, and he is in over his head. Before this, Timothy has always been standing in the shadows, and the Apostle Paul has been the one standing before the congregations and been front and center, and Timothy has been simply an observer of the spiritual leadership of the Apostle Paul. But now Paul is in Macedonia, and Timothy has been sent by Paul to the church in Ephesus, and Timothy is in the challenge of his life. He is a young pastor in an old established church, the church at Ephesus. He has unqualified elders. That is why in chapter 3 and verses 1 through 7 he has to say, an elder must be these things. Why would he say that? Because that is what Timothy does not have. He is in the midst of spiritually unqualified elders. I don't know if you've ever been there or not. I certainly have. When I was 30 years of age, I went to pastor my first church. I walked into the very first elders' meeting that I'd ever walked into in my life. I had no idea who was supposed to speak first or even how the business was to be conducted. And as I was in that first elders' meeting, every elder was more than twice as old as I was. And they were, many of them were unqualified, some were unconverted. I understand exactly where Timothy was. And I think many of you here today can feel what Timothy was feeling as he is in the midst of a church that has unqualified leadership. That's like trying to push a rope uphill to try to pursue a biblical philosophy of ministry with men who have no concept of what a true ministry is all about. On top of that, Timothy has unqualified deacons. And that is why he says in 1 Timothy 3 and verse 8 that deacons likewise must be. And the reason he says this to Timothy is so Timothy can try to sort out the mess in this church at Ephesus. And they've been there for a long time. And no doubt the attitude was, Timothy, this was our church before you came. And it is our church while you're here. And it's going to be our church after you leave. In addition, Timothy has women, aggressive women, who are assuming the role of teaching the word of God and fulfilling spiritual leadership in the church. And that is why in 1 Timothy 2 and beginning in verse 12, Paul has to write to Timothy and say, I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. Why would he say that? Because Timothy is in a church with a matriarchal hierarchy. And what Timothy is up against is passive men and aggressive women, which is the result of the curse that men usurp their position of leadership and women step into the void and grab the steering wheel because no one is grabbing the steering wheel. And this is the mess in which Timothy finds himself. He has widows in the church who are not being cared for, and he has to address that in chapter 5, verses 1 through 16. He has the rich casting an undue influence just because they have money. Because many of you here today who are pastors, especially those of you who are young pastors, can immediately relate to where Timothy is as you find yourself in a very challenging and a very difficult ministry situation. And what Paul has to say to Timothy is more up to date than tomorrow's newspaper. It speaks exactly to where we are today. And what Paul will say to Timothy is essentially this young man, strap yourself in the pulpit and preach the word of God. I'm on the way. And until I can get there, hold the fort and preach the word of God. And the word of God, let the word of God have its effect and sort this thing out. Do not pull back on your preaching. That will make it worse. You must advance with the word of God and preach the word of God and let the chips fall where they may. Better to be divided by the truth than united in error. So let's look at this text. HB just gave me an amen. I like that, brother. Just yell out, help him, Jesus. Brother, I need it, okay? So all right, I want us to know several things. I can't preach unless you're talking to me, okay? So, 1 Timothy chapter 4. Let's walk through this text. Let's walk through this passage. This will cure a lot of ills in a lot of churches. Number one, I want you to know. But the priority of the pulpit. The priority of the pulpit. Because Paul begins in verse 13 by telling Timothy he must prioritize his preaching. This is job number one. Everything else is secondary. The church doesn't even know how to worship until you preach the word. You don't even know how to pray yourself until you get into the word. The church will not be pursuing holiness until you mark the path. The church will not be equipped for ministry until you preach the word. The word of God is at the very epicenter of the life of the church. Martin Luther said that the Lord rules his church through an open Bible in the pulpit. That this is the throne of God in the church. And so notice he says, until I come. Again, Paul is in Macedonia, Timothy is in Ephesus. Son, until I can get there, give attention to the public reading of scripture, exhortation, and teaching. Give attention to is one word in the original language, and it literally means to turn the mind to, to give your undivided attention to this. It's a compound Greek word, pros echo, and the pros, P-R-O-S, means face-to-face. Just like in John 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, face to face with God. Timothy, you've got to get face to face with your preaching ministry. And let me just parse this verb for a moment. It is in the present tense, meaning, Timothy, you are to be always giving attention to the preaching of the Word of God. This is not a seasonal matter. And it's not even a one-day-a-week matter. You need to be continually putting your face in front of this duty. Second, it's in the active voice, meaning you can't be passive about this, Timothy. You can't wait until the game comes to you. You're going to have to take action, Timothy. You're going to have to take the bull by the horn, Timothy. You can't let everyone else pressure you into their mold for what they think the ministry ought to be for you. And then it's in the imperative mood. This is a command from the Apostle Paul coming directly from the head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not an option. This is not a suggestion. Timothy, you must prioritize the pulpit. This speaks of the primacy of the preaching of the Word of God. And we're not surprised to see this. No church will rise any higher than its pulpit is strong. A church may not rise to the level of the preaching that takes place in the church, but no church will grow one iota beyond the depth and the profundity of the preaching in that pulpit. As has already been said, the first century church was a preaching church. One out of every four verses in the book of Acts is a sermon or the equivalent of a sermon where there is a witness being given with an entourage of people all around. The title of the book of Acts is really mistitled, if you ask me. It's really not the Acts of the Apostles, it's the preaching of the Apostles. We all want to have a first century church, right? Then it necessitates the priority of the pulpit. We cannot give up the high ground. And when you read Acts chapter 2, 42, what's number one on the list? They gave themselves to the apostles' teaching. Everything else flowed out of that immediately. Fellowship, prayer, breaking of bread, house to house, giving of their possessions to one another, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. What put all of that into motion? It was the preaching of the apostles. So number one, I want you to see here the priority of preaching. Now, second, number two, I want you to note the pattern of preaching. Because it matters to God not only what you say, but how you say it. And God has established here how we are to preach. None of us is free to reinvent preaching. None of us is free to come up with a new way to preach. I mean, there's not a Baptist way to preach, and then a Presbyterian way to preach, and then an independent way to preach. There's not a way to preach in the north and a different way to preach in the South. There's not one way to preach overseas. There's not one way to preach if you want to have a millennial ministry, and then there's another way to preach if you're at the retirement home with the old folks. There's only one way to preach. And it is what is set forth here. This is something of a regulative principle for preaching. This is really the template, a timeless pattern that can be laid over our sermons. This is a minimalist overlay of what is necessary in our preaching. And God is telling us how His word is to be preached. You deviate from this, and you have left true preaching. So three things. You can see it right there in your passage, clear as a bell. A public reading of scripture, to exhortation, and a teaching. If any of that is left out, it is unacceptable by the head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would remind you that this is given in the imperative mood. So he begins. Number one, read the text. He says, the public reading of Scripture. Words have been added from the original just to make this read more smoothly. In the original, it simply reads this way: the reading. Definite article the in front of the reading, which was the public reading of Scripture, but it the word the indicates that this was a designated part of the preaching of the Word of God. In other words, you were to start by reading the passage of Scripture. You don't walk into the pulpit and tell some silly joke. You don't start something off by, hey, a funny thing happened on the way to church today. When you stand before the people of God, Paul says to Timothy, there is to be the public reading of Scripture. And he makes a strong statement that everything that you have to say today will be drawn from this passage of Scripture. That I have nothing to say to you apart from the Word of God, and this passage before us will be the launching pad. Everything will emanate from this text. Not from the culture, not from the religious traditions of men, but from the word of God itself. Therefore, the real preacher is God. You're simply the mouthpiece. And this is so important. The only part of your worship service for which you can claim infallibility is the public reading of the Word of God. Everything else is subject to misinterpretation. We can't even produce the church bulletin without errors. This is the only part of the worship service that is 100% pure. It is unvarnished. But it is making a statement that this message comes from this text of Scripture. Do you know that the last sermon Martin Luther ever preached when he died in 1545? The last sermon he ever preached, he said, You're looking for the power in all the wrong places. You're looking for the power in your pilgrimages. You're looking for the power in the relics. You think the power is in the indulgences. You think the power is in Mary's milk or in Moses' staff. Luther said, God put the power in the Bible. Read the Bible. Proclaim the Bible. That's where God put the power. So you begin by reading the text. Now, what follows, exhortation and teaching, is subject to some explanation. It is possible that the public reading of Scripture is to be understood as being accompanied by the explanation of the text. That's possible. And that's how Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached. He would step into the pulpit, he would read virtually the entire chapter and explain every verse that he would read in the entire chapter, two or three or four verses of interpretation and explanation. And then he would dive down into the text and take just one verse and open it up and teach the theology in it and make exhortation from it. That's one possibility. The other possibility is that the teaching in verse 13 is the interpretation of the text that is read. And it is the pulling of the doctrine and the theology out of that passage of Scripture. And then the exhortation is the application. The exhortation is the persuasion and the pleading with the people to put it into practice into their daily lives. Regardless of how this is to be understood, nevertheless, these are the component parts. Let's move next to the teaching. After you read the text, you explain the text. The teaching here refers to the interpretation, the explanation, the authorial intent of this passage of scripture in this context, giving careful consideration to the meaning of the words and how it connects with the rest of the Bible. The analogia scriptura, the analogy of scripture, how this text that we're opening up is governed by all of the rest of the Bible. We never read the rest of the Bible through the lens of one verse. It's the other way around. We read one verse in light of the full counsel of God. And this teaching here refers to the theology and the doctrine and the instruction and the precepts and the principles. Every passage of Scripture has theology in it. There are ten major areas of systematic theology. You need to become intimately aware of every one of these ten areas of systematic theology and what are the subcategories under each of these. There is bibliology, theology proper, Christology, pneumatology, angelology, anthropology, hermatology, soterology, ecclesiology, eschatology. Those are the ten major areas, and every passage of Scripture has some kind of doctrine. What does this passage teach us about God? What does it teach us about Christ? What does it teach us about the Holy Spirit? What does this teach us about man, sin, salvation, the church, the last days, or the Bible itself? And so here we see the emphasis upon teaching. We need to hear Martin Lloyd Jones again. The doctor needs to make a house call here today. He says, What is preaching? It is theology on fire. And a theology which does not take fire, I maintain, is a defective theology. Or at least the man's understanding of it is defective. Preaching, he says, is theology coming through a man who is on fire. He goes on to say, preaching must always be theological, always based on a theological foundation. There is no type of preaching that should be non-theological. Listen, you can't even be saved without theology. You can't be sanctified without sound doctrine. Lloyd Jones says, you cannot properly deal with repentance without dealing with the doctrine of man, the doctrine of the fall, the doctrine of sin, and the doctrine of the wrath of God against sin. Then when you call men to come to Christ and to give themselves to him, how can you do so without them knowing who he is and on what grounds you invite them to come to him and so on? He says, in other words, preaching is highly theological. So as you preach the word of God, my friend, you're not to be given a sermon on how to have a happy vacation. You are to read the text, you are to teach the text, and you are to pull the theology out of that text and feed them the meat of the word of God. Then exhortation. Exhortation involves bringing it home to the hearts of the listener. It is showing the practical relevance of this doctrine to their daily life. You connect the teaching with where they live and what are the issues in their life, and how this truth requires a response on their part to live what is called for. The word exhortation really means a summons. It means an appeal to call near. And this word exhortation includes urging and encouraging and pleading and persuading and consoling and comforting and imploring and rebuking and reproving and warning and admonishing. All of this is involved in exhortation. In other words, we are to comfort the afflicted and we are to afflict the comfortable. It's a sharp two-edged sword. It cuts both ways. And it is to be brought with passion. There is to be a sense of urgency and a sense of fervency as you exhort with the passage. The Puritans used to say there needs to be a fire in the pulpit. And a fire gives off two elements: it gives off light and it gives off heat. There is to be the light of teaching and it is to come with the heat of exhortation. It is not either or, it is both and. With the exhortation, you raise the affections and you summon the will and you call for the verdict. In one of the very first shepherd's conferences John MacArthur ever gave back when it was over in the chapel, he likened it to this that the preacher, the expositor, is like a preacher in the courtroom. And he presents his case. He calls to the witness stand, his witnesses, and he examines them, and then he cross-examines the other witnesses. And then the lawyer submits exhibit A. And then he presents exhibit B to support his case and to give proof for what he says. But the hearing of the witnesses and the observing of the evidence is not enough. The lawyer must then address the jury. And he must be as persuasive as he can be with his presentation, and he must call for the verdict in the heart and in the mind of those who are in the jury. That's what we must do when we preach. So, what is the pattern? The pattern is you read the text, you teach the text, you exhort with the text. You move on to the next text. How simple is that? You know what's hard? To try it any other way. You're gonna have to watch every television program, you're gonna have to go to every concert, you're gonna have to read every magazine, you're gonna have to be up to speed on every latest trend, you're gonna have to know everything about everything except the Bible. That's hard. But you know what you can do? You know how to read, don't you? Just read the text like you mean it. And then open up what you've That's going to require some study, will it not? That's going to require some digging down into the text. What does God mean by what God says? It requires observation, interpretation, and application. And with that application, you exhort. You persuade. It's the Greek word pytho. We need more pytho in the pulpit. We need persuasion. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 11. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. You know, I think some of us, quite frankly, are so scared of Charles Finney that we're going to swing the pendulum all the way to the other extreme. And we think that we're spiritual simply by putting the truth out there and never calling for people to commit their life to Christ. When I asked my wife to marry me, I had to do more than do word studies on Agapeo. I had to call for the verdict. It was a come to Jesus meeting. And I was the mission field, I guess. But I had to say, will you marry me? And I think quite frankly, some of us are too proud to beg. We are too have our nose in the air and do not exhort and do not invite and do not summon. We feel so safe in the indicative case, we never get over to the imperative case or the imperative mood. So this is the pattern of preaching. So let me just ask you this. Do you teach theology? Michael Ricardi, that was an unbelievable sermon you preached today. Unbelievable. Yeah. A bomb went off in this pulpit this morning. And if you didn't hear it, shame on you. I'm sure you felt it. Because there was an earthquake that took place in this pulpit. It was doctrine, theology. He unpacked the doctrines of soterology in a way that we desperately need in our pulpits. But there then must be followed up with the exhortation. Here's what you do in preaching. You instruct the mind, you ignite the heart, and you invite the will. Anything less than that, you have fallen short of the divine standard. If all you do is instruct the mind, you're not a preacher, you're a lecturer. We love lectures in the classroom. We hate them in the pulpit. Just one mind reaching another mind, and that's all that it is. If all it is is one heart reaching another heart, you're not a preacher. You're a devotional speaker. You're a motivational speaker. You're a life coach. Just one heart trying to reach another heart. And if all it is is your will reaching another will, you're legalistic. You're just telling people what to do and giving them no basis whatsoever in the word of God. The only person under heaven who plays with a full deck is the expository preacher of the Word of God. He addresses the mind, he addresses the heart, he addresses the will. That's just great. All right, I better move on. So all right, number three. Let's move on. Verse 14. We're making progress. Here we go. Verse 14. I want you to see third, the perseverance of the pulpit. Notice Timothy, what Paul says to Timothy here, do not neglect the spiritual gift within you. Why would he say that? Because Timothy was neglecting his spiritual gift. Timothy is pulling back the reins of his preaching. He's toning down his preaching. He is even preaching less. He's just trying to keep the peace in the church. And so he is preaching less. He's doing all these other things. And Paul, as a spiritual father to his young son in the faith, Timothy, he has to speak to him as only a father can speak to his own son and says, do not neglect the spiritual gift within you. It's obvious what this spiritual gift is in the context. It is the divine enablement to preach the word of God. Timothy is preaching less, he's letting other things replace preaching. Timothy is becoming passive, and Paul must challenge him. In fact, this is a gentle rebuke to Timothy. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you. And concerning this neglect, I believe that we are in danger of the very same thing. There has never been a time in the church where there is less preaching. We have canceled Wednesday night preaching. We have canceled Sunday night preaching. We have shortened Sunday morning preaching. We have canceled Bible conferences. The average church member sits under so little preaching of the Word of God. No wonder we are so weak. We are neglecting, just like Timothy, the gift to preach the Word of God. And what is the result? Preaching becomes weaker, not stronger. If for no other reason preachers preach so little. If for no other reason that they preach so little. If you were trying to learn how to play the violin, do you think more practice or less practice would help you learn how to play the violin? If you were trying to get to Carnegie Hall and to play the violin on a grand stage, do you think you would need to practice to get to that point or just sit around and think about it? If you were trying to go on the PGA tour, the professional golf tour, and your wife and your children were dependent upon the money you bring home for how well you play on the professional tour, do you think more practice or less practice would help you? The answer is so obvious that we need to practice and not just practice, but to actually do it. George Whitfield said, the more we preach, the better we preach. There's just so little preaching today by preachers. You need to create venues in which you preach. You need to seek opportunities to preach. You need to occupy much of your ministry with either preparing, praying, or preaching the word of God. But at the same time, not only is preaching getting weaker and weaker because of so little preaching by preachers, churches and congregations are becoming weaker and weaker because they sit under so little preaching. You know what the Puritans used to say? If you just had one hour in your week to give to the Word of God, which of these two would bring the greatest benefit to your soul? For you to spend one hour alone with God with an open Bible. And that would bring good to your soul. Or you spent one hour under the spirit-filled, God-exalting, Christ-centered preaching of the Word of God by a man who has studied for 20 hours and who has opened up this text and is applying it to your life and is exhorting you, which of those two would benefit your soul the most? But the one that would most benefit your soul, the Puritans said virtually to a man, it would be to sit under the man of God who opens the word of God and brings it in the power of God by the Spirit of God. We need preaching today. He concludes, verse 14, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance by the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Without going into all that was going on here, the plurality of elders recognize the gifting of God in Timothy. And what Paul is doing here is calling Timothy to remember who laid hands on you, young man. You can't go AWOL now. There have been men who have invested in your life, they've poured their soul in your life. Remember those men who gathered around you and set you apart unto God and had taught you the word of God and had prayed for you and with you. And so it is here today that many of us need to remember who it has been in our life that has got us to this point. And we can't now stop running the race that God has set before us. And maybe you're growing weak, and maybe you're thinking about doing something else. Remember those who laid hands on you and poured themselves into your life. You can't, you cannot back off now. I want you to note fourth. The preoccupation with the pulpit. In verse 15, Paul says, take pains with these things. That's I'm reading out of the New American Standard. ESV says, practice these things. New King James says, meditate on these things. The NIV says, be diligent with these things. It's a very hard verb to translate. And it means to attend to something carefully. It means to resolve in your mind. It means to be constantly thinking about something. It means to pour your mind into this matter, to the point that it's translated here in the New American Standard, and it's hard to get it specifically exact. But take pains with these things. Listen, preaching requires a total commitment of all that the man is to this calling. It doesn't take much of a man to be a preacher. It just takes all there is of him. It'll require blood, sweat, toil, and tears. Listen, if this was easy, we'd all be good. This calls for strenuous effort and great labor of mind and body and soul and spirit. And then on top of that, rather than Paul backing off with Timothy to lighten up a little bit, Paul follows this up and is even more intense. And he says, be absorbed in them. Literally, it's be in them. The word absorbed is added by the translator. In other words, Timothy, you've got to be wrapped up in this. This is not a side issue in your life. Timothy, you must be immersed in this. You must be consumed with this. Timothy, you must be baptized in this. You must be totally given to this. Be absorbed in them. I want to tell you again, parsing this, this is in the present tense too. Timothy, you are to be always absorbed in this. It's in the active voice. Timothy, you must be always stretching forward to the next time you preach, digging into the text yet more, praying more, preparing the message more. You're just always in running this race, and it's in the imperative mood. This is actually a command to take action, always to be absorbed in these things. In other words, your mind should always be on your preaching. It should dominate your thoughts. You should be replaying in your mind what you just preached. And you should be anticipating what you'll preach next. You should be always reading to deepening your well. You should always be praying that more light will shine from heaven onto the text of Scripture. This is the preoccupation. And young men, those of you who are here who are contemplating going into the ministry and you begin to feel the tug, you must know and understand that this is a demanding marathon to which God is calling you. And it will take a heroic effort by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. But you're going to have to throw yourself into this. That's what he said to Timothy, and it's still in the book. Now, fifth. I want you to see the progress of the pulpit. Because the end of verse 15 is what we call a HENA clause. So that here is why you must be absorbed in these things. Paul does not simply tell Timothy, he also is now reasoning with Timothy. And here is why you must be absorbed in this. Here is why you must take pains with this, so that your progress, we could say progress in what? It's obvious in the context. Your progress in your preaching skills, your preaching abilities, your effectiveness in the pulpit, your precision with the text, your understanding of theology. You need to be always progressing and getting to the next level. Notice this, so that your progress, and it's the progress, everything related to your preaching will be, not should be, could be, might be, so it will be. Evident, and this word evident means uh a bright shining light in a dark night. It's something that needs to be as clear as day. A synonym would be obvious. Your progress must be, will be evident to all. Everyone who walks into the building must be thinking, either I'm listening better or he's preaching better, and it's probably something of both. But people who are sitting under your preaching must be seeing you grow up from a boy to a man to an elder. They must be seeing you becoming yet more proficient in your preaching of the word of God, such that anyone who walks into the building from the front pew to the back pew, they can see it clear as day. You are making progress in your preaching. There can be no mediocrity in the pulpit. This demands our greatest effort. And so, preacher, you must be taking such pains in your preaching and to be absorbed in it so that everyone who hears you notes your progress. You have to be getting to the next level in your ministry. You need to be more precise, more persuasive, more compelling, more doctrinal, more theological, more penetrating, more encouraging, more comforting, more succinct. Sometimes someone will call me and ask me to preach in their conference. In fact, I said to Al Moeller before he walked up here, I said, I preached this passage in your chapel 20 years ago. And I'll ask my secretary, would you send me my sermon notes? For every message I've preached on this particular text. And I'll print them out, and there they are on my desk, and I'll just staple them. And sometimes it's a it's a text that I've preached multiple times. I've preached, been preaching for 48 years. I'll look at those sermon notes from when I was in my 20s. Those things are awful. I mean, there's hardly any meat on the bones. There's a lot of fat. I just like I'm I'm depressed. So I'll just set that aside. And I'll I'll look at the notes from when I was in my 30s. It's a little bit better developed. It's more on target. I'm not trying to say everything that could possibly be said on the subject, that it's more linear. It's more like a laser beam, but it's it's it's not quite there. The notes are rather thin. And then I look at my notes in my in my 40s, and and I can actually see the progress from decade to decade to decade, and Lord knows I needed to make progress. I'm not bragging on myself. I'm just saying I started off in such a wilderness area. The first time I ever preached, all I had was a living Bible. You remember the living Bible? It was only a New Testament, and it had pictures in it. It did. Yeah, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes gave it to me. It was hardback, it wasn't even a cheap imitation leather, and it had pictures of like track stars and football players, and there were no sissies in this Bible. That's all I had. I didn't have a commentary, I didn't have a book in the Bible to help me understand the Bible, I didn't have a study Bible. Dr. Mueller, the own the first Christian book I ever bought in my life, I walked down to the Baptist bookstore. Out of all the books in that bookstore, somehow, somehow, God directed my eyes to a book by W.A. Chriswell. Why I preach the Bible is literally true. That was the greatest thing I've ever read in my life. It just poured concrete into the foundation of my faith. But that's I'm starting off with a living Bible. In fact, when I first preached, I only said I would give the prayer. I'd never even prayed in public before. And the pastor said, Well, I've already told everyone that you were going to preach. I was playing football for a college, and I said, I've never preached in my life. In fact, I've only, I've never even prayed in public. So he said, Well, you've got to at least pray. I said, Okay, I'll at least pray. So as I'm walking to the pulpit, the pastor announces Steve Lawson will now, as I'm stepping up onto the platform, Steve Lawson will now bring the morning sermon. Yeah. I didn't even have notes. So I mean that's that's my start. But there's got to be progress and and growth and Development and advancement in your preaching. You've got to be always reaching forward to get to the next level. And you cannot be content with where you are. There needs to be a holy discontent with where you are, a gratefulness for where you are. But a desire to get to the next level. Well, finally, I want you to note the purifying, the purifying of the pulpit. Verse 16. Because nothing purifies like expository preaching. Nothing purifies like biblical preaching. Paul says to Timothy, pay close attention to yourself. Pay close attention to four words in the English, one word in the original Greek. It just simply means to take hold of, to take heed, to keep a close watch on. Just in a loose translation. It says it's got to start with yourself. You've got to preach the word of God to yourself. You've got to practice what you preach before you preach. You've got to apply the word of God to your life, to your mind, to your thoughts, to your attitudes, to your priorities, to your ambitions, to your choices, to your piety, to your godliness. Preacher, you've got to preach to yourself first. Your godliness is more important than your giftedness. Your maturity is more important than your ministry. Your character is more important than your career. Who you are is more important than where you serve. Your purity is more important than your preaching. Your attitude more important than the attendance. You've got to pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. To your doctrine. It's the same word that was used in verse 13 for teaching. James Montgomery Boyce, a great expositor of yesteryear. And I was a young man. I sent him a letter, invited him to preach for me. I couldn't believe it when the envelope, the letter came from 10th Presbyterian. He agreed to come and preach for an entire week. Romans 1 through 4. Every night. I took him to breakfast. I took him to lunch. I didn't share him with anyone in the church. James Montgomery Boyce, a giant for God. I invited him again. He came a second time and preached Romans 5 through 8. I then went up to Philadelphia and spent time with him. And I remember one thing that he told me. He said, Steve, whenever I go on vacation, I go to the beach there in New Jersey. Can't you just see him in his three-piece suit on the beach there? Thinking he's Al Moller, you know. Don't we all dream that? He said, I would always take a systematic theology with me on vacation and just pour through that systematic theology. There is no way under heaven that he could have preached that series on Romans, that four-volume series, without him being a master of systematic theology. Paul says to watch over yourself and your teaching, persevere in these things, do not let up. Stay after it. Remain after it. He says, in these things, referring to everything that he's talked about related to preaching, your reading, your studying, your preparing, your writing, your rewriting, your structuring, your teaching, your preaching, your living. Why? For as you do this, you will ensure salvation, both for yourself. He's not saying Timothy is lost. He's using salvation in a most comprehensive way here to refer to sanctification. And for those who hear you, let me just tell you this. After Timothy went through all of that to study, to read, to prepare, if he had never preached that sermon, it would have been worth it all in solid gold for his spiritual life. For that truth to have poured through the pipes of his heart and to infect him with the holiness of God. Even if we didn't preach, it would be worth it for the study. But how much more so when we preach is it embedded within our heart and soul? I conclude with this. My first shepherd's conference was 1982. I was a very young man. I had just started my first pastorate. We held it over in the chapel. There were less than 200 of us.
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SPEAKER_01MacArthur preached the whole thing. There was no no one else preaching. And after one of the sessions, we I walked out of that chapel, and there's a little building over there. I haven't been able to make my way there this time, but it's where they used to sell the cassette tapes. And I walked over there, I had zero money. I landed at LAX, I had to catch the flyaway to Burbank, and then catch something else close to here, and then have someone, some usher in the church pick me up just to get me here. I walked over there and I bought a cassette album that had like 12 cassette tapes in it of the first sermons in the book of Acts, John preaching. And I'll never forget this paragraph. This was given on June the 4th, 1972. 1972. The subject was Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost. And Dr. MacArthur said this. There have been many things that have come along to try to supplant preaching. We have a lot of things today that try to replace preaching. And the sad part of it is that most people just let it happen. You open your newspaper instead of seeing the church page filled with men preaching the word of God, you just read about musical extravaganzas and movies and this and that and other things going on. And they all have a place, but they should never supplant the powerful, spirit-energized preaching of the Word of God. We can talk all we want about radio programs and TV programs and Christian movies and drama and everything else. But to me, all it is is a challenge to make my sermons more relevant, more fresh, more dynamic, and more exciting to people, so they want the real stuff. I'm not discounting the place of some of those things. I'm only establishing the priority of preaching. Those things can never supplant the preaching of the Word of God. Now, here is the knockout punch for me. A holy man gifted to preach by the Spirit of God and prepared in the Word of God has no equal in power presentation of the truth. That is the pattern of Scripture. And if the preaching doesn't make it, it's not the fault of the method, it's the fault of the man. Social work and pastoral work are all important, but they must never compensate for a lack of power in the pulpit. I have to ask myself, Dr. MacArthur said, the sad question. Where are the preachers? Where are they? Where are the great men who preach and teach God's word? Whose lives are so saturated with the word of God that as Spurgeon said, their blood is bibline? Where are the men of God who are lost in their message with no gimmicks, just firing out the word of God and the energy of the Spirit? Where are these men? By the grace of God, let us be those men. Let us have tongues set on fire to preach the word of God. We need exposition, not entertainment. We need the unfolding drama of redemption, not drama. We need the pure, unadulterated truth of the word of God. God has always promised to honor the preaching of his word. God had only one son and he made him a preacher. God sent prophets to preach. He sent John the Baptist to preach. He sent Jesus to preach. That is God's pattern from Genesis to Revelation. Brothers, let us preach the word of God.
SPEAKER_00But without a priority on faithful preaching, we will lose our voice. The church must proclaim the gospel and preach sound doctrine. We must call the lost to come home and preach so that the saved will grow. Next Monday is the next sermon, though I think I'll call it more of a testimony message, and you will soon figure out why. Don't miss next episode. For now, keep on living for the gospel.