Chuck Smith :: Expositional Foundations

thank you thank you thank you you don't know what a miracle it is that I'm here today after listening to the first two speakers this morning I was ready to run having these guys hit those home runs and then realizing I'll get up and probably strike out you know I must confess when they first gave me the topic of expositional foundations I didn't know what to say I didn't know how they wanted me to go with it so I decided that I wouldn't pay any attention to this subject that they gave me but the importance of biblical exposition I know this is preach the word that's important I think that the preaching however is in the New Testament usually confined to proclaiming the gospel to sinner's but once a person has accepted the Lord I think that they really need to be taught and so God sort of led me into a teaching kind of a ministry and we're always just saying teach the Word of God simply but the the James when he was speaking I was just admiring him how that he could move around and you know and just was so dynamic I can remember when I first started in the ministry I was pastoring a little Church in Tucson and my dear wife Kay sought to help me she said honey you're just not dynamic enough you just stand behind the pulpit now watch Billy Graham he doesn't just stand behind the pulpit he moves around and of course those days they didn't have the little you know the little mics and so forth like that so he would take the big stand and all and he would go over to the side of the platform enoyed lift his hand and very dynamic and so as she said honey you've got to be more dynamic I'll never forget the Sunday I decided to be dynamic I remember it so clearly I was getting to the major point of my message I grabbed the microphone and I went over to the side of the platform I lifted my hand ala Billy Graham was going to drive this point home and my mind went totally blank now I experience that more often today than I did then they call it senior moments I think I remember how that two fellows had met together old fellows and they haven't seen any each other for years they've been in high school played football together and they were talking about the good old high school days and how you know exciting and all it was and the teams that they were playing against and finally the one fella said you know we had some great experiences and wonderful memories but I can't remember your name what is your name now he said you have to know this very moment I heard of this wonderful psychologist that helped senior citizens in their memories and so these two fellows were talking about you know how that a jury become a senior you begin to forget things you know I notice how he walked he I mean the things that he I was amazed I mean I just really was impressed with him so dynamic and all in the one fella said well you know he said I've been going to the psychologist and he has helped me tremendously I used to have those senior moments I'd forget things but now that I've been to him no more problems I really you know just got it nailed now and the fella said well that's interesting what is your doctor's name and and how did he do it he said well he taught me Association you start associating and you remember by association he said well that that is amazing what what's your doctor's name he said well let's see it has a stem thorns on it and a beautiful blossom smells great the guy says rolls yes Rose honey what's the name of that doctor I've been going to you laugh you'll get there years ago when I was in the early ministry or the years of my ministry my preaching was all topical preaching I had topics for about two years so after being in a church for two years I would ask for a transfer and I would go to another church and preach my two years of topics and that went fine until I arrived in Huntington Beach greatest surf on the coast little beach town 6300 people in Huntington Beach when I first arrived all of the oil wells provided a tremendous tax base for the city so our taxes were the least in California because the oil wells took care of it we had the finest schools in all of the state swimming pools in the grammar school enclosed swimming pools I loved Huntington Beach love the sir but my two years was running out I don't want to move you know I'd like to say that I got a revelation and the Lord spoke to my heart and said Chuck start teaching you know but it wasn't that way it was just I've got to do something to stay here so I was reading the book the Apostle John by Griffith Thomas I think was chapter 7 where he gave outline studies of first John I began to read these outline studies they were good as I began to study them I realized I can make a sermon out of each of these 42 outlines that he has I could stay in Huntington Beach for another year all I have to do is change from topical preaching to just expounding teaching the Word of God so I announced to the people next Sunday we're going to do something different we're going to start a study of first John now the first outline that he has is the purpose of the book and he gives you the three reasons that John said he wrote the book so I told the people I want you to read first John this week and I want you to find the three reasons why he wrote it now I had never ever you know you always said read your Bible read your Bible that's you know pretty broad isn't it of course that was my problem of finding a text you go through and trying to go through the whole Bible to find a text I mean you spend half your week trying to find your text for Sunday but I gave them an assignment first time ever just giving an assignment I want you to read this book and I want you to find the three reasons why John wrote it about the middle of the week people started calling me they said Chuck are you sure there are three reasons I have found two I said keep reading I've read it through ten times I can only find two keep reading I said Sunday morning I'll be at the door as you come in and I want you to give me the three reasons why John wrote his first epistle of course John very obvious he said that it was writing it that your joy might be full that which we had seen in her be declaring to you that your joy might be full and in chapter 2 he talks about these things have we written unto you that you sin not chapter five again he talks about having written to them that they might know that they have eternal life so the purpose of the book and then I gave them assignments every for every Sunday of finding things within first John there are several things that people say if a man says I know God and and there are some six things that people say and and he gives to you these six things that people say that are not always so so I want you to find those six things and then there are proofs to our Christian life by this we know and I want you to find the seven things that we oh and why we know them and then we started through first John took a whole year the amazing thing was that there were more people came to Christ that year than in any year of my ministry more people were baptized in the church doubled in the year just teaching through first John well I was excited I still didn't want to leave Huntington Beach and I had developed a new style of ministry not topical but just expositional studying of the word so had a professor in Bible College that said the book of Romans will revolutionize any church I thought well I'd like to see a revolution I'll teach the book of Romans so I announced the people we're going to go now to the book of Romans I got all of the commentaries I can find on Romans and started to develop outline studies through the book of Romans took two years going through the book of Romans and it revolutionized me I discovered the grace of God I had grown up in sort of a legalistic kind of a background in the church that I was in and I discovered the grace of God and it was just a glorious discovery personal discovery my life was transformed and really understanding God's grace Hallie's bible pocket handbook i used to make a practice of giving one out to everyone who accepted the Lord that they could read it along with their Bible because it was so chock-full of just good information in a condensed form and I would always give I could go to my library because it made an impression take my book and hand it to them and then I go get me a new one because they were always revising it you know and so I bought a new Halley's Bible pocket handbook for my librarian I noticed on the Flyleaf it said the most important page in this book I think was 848 well I had gotten so much out of Halley's Bible him but now it's called Bible handbook it was called Bible pocket then I had gotten so much out of it I thought what does he consider the most important page and I turned to it and he said every Church should have a system of taking the whole congregation through the whole Bible and ideally the Sunday morning message would come out of the passages that the people read the previous week and he gave a reading how do you know he gave a pattern for going through all the New Testament but I thought well why not just go straight through the Bible start with Genesis and go straight through and I can spend the rest of my life in Huntington Beach but unfortunately my church began to prosper and grow so much that the denomination I was in noticed and they sort of insisted that I take one of their largest churches which was floundering because of a problem that the pastor had with morals and so I left Huntington Beach reluctantly but I had developed the pattern of expositional teaching just simply teaching the Word of God simply and I've followed that pattern through the years in the ministry over 60 years now well but the pattern didn't start out seventeen years in the ministry so but since that time following that pattern of just simply teaching the Word of God simply so today I would like to just sort of go over with you how I go over a text to prepare my study of that text it's important also always to consider the text within the context just getting a text if you take it out of its context oftentimes you can change the meaning of the text completely for instance the text work out your own salvation with fear and trembling you can preach a tremendous topical sermon on the importance of works and the working out of your own salvation and you can develop this in a you know you can you can with that topic but if you read on it says for it is God that works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure changes it completely it isn't what you are doing it's what God will do he is the one that has given you the will that it's the Lord that is helping you not just to will but to do of his good pleasure so the importance of taking the text within the context in outlining the exposition for the sermon your points should all come from the context and then I love to use as much as possible biblical illustrations for explaining the points of the message and so if you want to turn to Romans chapter four we'll do a little bit of an expositional look at the fourth chapter of the book of Romans if you find X just turn right here Paul is talking basically about justification by faith apart from works and then speaking of justification by faith of course we look at Abraham and Paul uses Abraham here as the classic illustration abraham believed God and God imputed it unto him for righteousness so in reading over the fourth chapter over and over again you begin to get the whole whole picture in your mind but you want to narrow down and so in looking it over in preparing a study on it narrowing down my own self to verses 19 through 24 as he is talking about Abraham's faith that God imputed to him for righteousness now in looking at the context going down to verse 22 if therefore it was imputed unto him for righteousness now it was not written for his sake alone but it was that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead so this is where I'm going to go with a message this isn't just written for his sake alone it's written for us the purpose is to bring them to put their faith in Jesus Christ and thus I know where I'm going to go with this text and I do feel that it's extremely important that you know where you're going with your message because if you don't know where you're going with your message you'll never know when you got there and you'll begin to ramble so know where you're going with the text very important so this is where I'm going to go with this text and the path that I take to my goal is to study the keys to Abraham's faith when God promised to Abraham that through his seed all of the nations of the earth would be blessed so in verse 19 Paul tells the Romans and being not weak in faith he considered not his own body now dead now some translations say he considered his body but King James reads he's considered not but if you really think it through it doesn't make any difference he considered not his own body now dead when he was about a hundred years old neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb I take this to mean that he didn't consider the fact that he was impotent nor did he consider the fact that Sarah had gone through menopause you know whenever we are faced with a problem what is our first reaction to figure out how God might do it I've got this situation I've got some bills and I don't know how I'm gonna take care of them but if I will just win the Reader's Digest sweepstakes and I'm one of the finalists I got my notice and if they'll just draw my number I'll be able to pay off all these bills and can take Kay out to dinner lord help them to get my number Lord Lord let them draw my number but you see that's not a direct prayer that's a direction prayer I've got to figure it out how God to do it and so I'm giving God directions now on how to take care of my problem and our prayers turn into Direction prayers but the problem with direction prayers is that God doesn't always follow our directions the deadline goes and they guy didn't come with a big check and the photographers and the papers you know - and me the sweepstakes and Lord you don't answer prayer you know and we began to be defeated because God didn't follow our instructions but I've discovered that God has ways that I know nothing about God has resources that I know nothing about and so the direct prayer is Lord here are the bills I don't know how I'm going to manage this but Lord undertake for me you've promised that you would supply all of my needs according to your riches in glory by Christ Jesus and just Lord I place them before you Abraham didn't look at the impossibilities you know we have a tendon see two major things on a sliding scale from simple to difficult to impossible and the way we look at things is often reflected in our prayers someone comes up since pastor Smith I've had a bad headache would you please pray that God would heal my headache headache sure simple Lord touch and heal their headache thank you Jesus headaches and they're not a big thing I mean if it doesn't go away go to get an excedrin or something okay headaches aren't a major problem but if someone comes up and says Chuck I just came from the doctor and he said the biopsy shows that I have cancer would you pray that God would heal my cancer cancer cancer oh my well you know this this takes more than a simple prayer you just can't say Lord heal the cancer thank you I mean this takes real you know real Lord you know I mean you got to lift your voice and you got a you know sustain a bit on this because cancer serious it's difficult doctors have a hard time with this and and and we reflect it often in the way that we pray for things as we carry over our own human limitations over to God now here a guy comes up to me and he's missing his right arm he says Chuck I was in Nam and a grenade went off and I lost my right arm would you please pray that God would give me a new right arm are you kidding God doesn't give new arms to people only two octopi don't you know that but God said hey I'm God is there anything too hard for me well in my mind yeah but that's because I don't have a right concept of God Abraham didn't take that into account he didn't take him that he didn't consider his own body now dead nor yet the deadness of Sarah's womb secondly reread verse 20 he didn't stagger at the promises of God have you ever staggered at the promises of God oh I have I often do unfortunately try this one my god shall supply all of your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus our Lord have you ever staggered at that I have but Abraham strong in the faith didn't stagger at the promises of God you know the Old Testament tells us a very interesting story there in 2nd Kings chapter 7 when the city of Samaria was being besieged by the Syrian army the siege was beginning to take its toll inflation had set in a head of a donkey was selling for 65 pieces of silver a quart of doves dung was selling for five pieces of silver it was so desperate women were beginning to boil their babies and eat them and the king in a perverted way was blaming the prophet of God Elijah for this problem God helped me if I don't get that Elijah so he sent fellows down to Elijah's house and following after them with this prime minister and Elijah was no doubt a very interesting fellow to be around he had these times when he would sort of zone out so here he was with his friends talking with him and he went into one of these zonal things and he said unreal how about that I can't believe he said the king is sent guys down to get my head when they knock on the door open the door and hold them fast because the king is right behind so there's the knock on the door and they license friends pin the guys with the door and here comes the king with his Prime Minister this is alright you've had it man I've had enough of you you know it's over Elijah said King tomorrow by this time they will be selling a bushel of fine flour in the gates of Samaria for sixty-five cents and two bushels of barley for sixty-five cents the Prime Minister the man on whom the King leaned said if God should open windows in heaven could such a thing be he was staggering at the promises of God why because he tried to figure things out how God might be able to do that how God might be able to fulfill the promise that was being made through the Prophet and and all he can see was some crazy picture of us some kind of shoots being open in heaven and flour dumping ganja God open shoots in heaven could such windows in him could such a thing be and the prophet Elijah said you will see it but you won't eat it and that tragically is often the price of unbelief of staggering at the promises of God God's going to do it you'll see it but because you were staggering at the promises of God so often you're not able to participate in it and to enjoy it the next step of faith we are told being strong in the faith he gave glory to God that is he was praising God for a child before Sara ever was pregnant is he God took Abraham and said look up into the sky Abraham and there in that desert sky no light pollution no air pollution they say that you can count six thousand six hundred and twenty four stars and so he is out there in the desert looking up and seeing that canopy of stars overhead and God said Abraham even as you can't count the stars you won't be able to count the descendants that will come from you and that's where it said abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness now I think to encourage us God let us know that his faith wasn't perfect because he still waited and nothing happened and in a lapse of faith Sarah his wife came to him and said Evie honey looks like it's not going to happen take my handmaid Hagar going unto her let her be a surrogate mother and when the child is born I will take the child into my lap and I will raise it as my own child so Abraham went in unto Hagar she became pregnant and the son Ishmael was born it's an interesting thing to me that Ishmael really is the product of the flesh it isn't the promise of the Spirit it's the product of the flesh and it it comes from trying to help God out God I know you've promised but you need a little help you know and and so we so often in our flesh make that mistake of trying to help God out doing his business but with Abraham he created a real problem that his descendants are really trying to deal with today because the Palestinians are the descendants of Ishmael and you know the moment you get into the flesh to try to help God up you're able to make a pretty good mess of things that lasts for a long time unfortunately some 13 years later the Lord said to Abram again I'm going to give you a son through Sarah you're to call his name Isaac and Abraham laughed now that's incredible Oh lack of faith laughing at the promises of God and the law and Abraham in his lack of a said Lord let ishmael live before you in other words that's alright God you don't have to you know play around with my brain anymore me lettuce I mean I've got that spine it does it know through Isaac shall your seed be called being strong in the faith he began to give glory to God now let's say that we could get in a time machine set the buttons for 2000 BC travelled through time travel through space we disembarked from our little time capsule and here we are in Hebron back in the year 2000 BC we decide to hike down to bear Shiva and as we are hiking along the road we look on the hillside and we see this vast flock of sheep we see the herds of cattle we see the servants that are watching over them and we see this expensive tent and they're under an oak tree sits this old man and so as we are passing he does come on over you know it's a long way to bear Sheba you know you need a little refreshment for you go and and he says saris we daren't fix some tea and crumpets we've got some company in Owen so as we are sitting here with this old man talking to him talking about you know his vast possessions here every once in a while he zones out on us and and as we're talking you say oh you're so good thank you Lord oh I'm so blessed Lord thank you thank you oh never dreamed this Lord you're so good and then he come back and he talked about us and then pretty soon he's on it Oh Lord thank you Lord you're so wonderful Lord oh I love your Lord I'm pretty similar curious we say oh man you seem to be awfully happy about something what's going on my wife is gonna have a son whoo you're pretty old aren't you yeah hundred well how old is your wife oh she's 90 well how long you been married I don't know after 75 I've lost count you know well how many children do you have oh we haven't been able to have any yet oh I understand why you're so excited and happy that's tremendous after all this geez how long has she been pregnant oh she's not pregnant yet as we walked towards Betty but with a on let him alone he's happy and a wipe widen disturb the old guy you know but here he is strong in the faith giving glory to God that's true faith when you are praising the Lord and thanking the Lord before there is any evidence of the fulfillment of the promise for faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen God's promises are as good as their fulfillment if God has promised that you can know he's going to keep his promises finally we read that he was fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform he was convinced that God was able to do it the Bible tells us now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think so as you look at the situation you look at those problems that you are facing let me ask you do you think that God can do it cause they old horse God can do anything you really believe that God could do it well yes I believe that God could do it wonderful you're 1/4 on the way of the four things of Abraham you've got one down you believe that God can do it now just work on the other three and you'll find that God will do it he is faithful and he will keep his word to you just as he kept his word to Abraham oh as the disciples said Lord increase our faith father we do ask that you would do that we have that tendency Lord to question to doubt to wonder how you could do it and dealing with issues that really are no business of ours they're your problems not ours and learn may we learn to just trust you implicitly completely may we learn Lord to praise you before we even see evidence of the fulfillment of the promise help us Lord that will not just look at things as impossible but realize Lord that with you all things are possible thank you Lord for your word that encourages us your word that leads us to faith and to putting our trust fully in you for our churches for the people that we're ministering to for the issues that arise in the churches Lord thanking you that it's your church and you're able to take care of it much better than we ever could thank you Lord for your word your promises in Jesus our Lord amen

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

Views: 46,811

Rating: 4.8705883 out of 5

Keywords: chuck, smith, preach, the, word, exposition

Id: qmae-pOIb_w

Length: 45min 20sec (2720 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 12 2009