Josh Buice | TMS Chapel | John the Baptist: A Very Dangerous Man

well good morning men it's good to be with you if you take your copy of God's word and open with me to Luke's gospel chapter number three Luke's gospel chapter 3 will be our Focus for this time together in Chapel I must say it is certainly a privilege to be here as always it's a privilege to partner with the master Seminary and with you men and the faculty of this institution I have the greatest respect for them and for you and for what you stand for and we certainly uh have a a common heartbeat if you will on on the subject of truth and the word of God and so a privilege to be here thank you Nathan for the kind introduction and a privilege to stand here this morning Luke's gospel chapter number three will be our Focus I will read verses one through six you can follow with me as I read aloud this is God's word and it reads as follows now in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of iteria and trackonitis and lucinius was tetrarch of Abilene and the high priesthood of anus and Caiaphas the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness and he came into all the district around Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the Forgiveness of sins as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet the voice of one crying in the wilderness Make Ready the way of the Lord make his path straight every Ravine will be filled in every mountain and Hill will be brought low the Crooked will become straight and the rough roads smooth and All Flesh will see the salvation of God this is the word of God if you would join me in prayer father what a privilege to be here with these brothers these men here at the Masters Seminary I pray father that you would encourage all of us through your word through your word preached we ask that you would continue to use this institution to train Faithful Men Who will go into various cities and communities and who will stand in pulpits and open the word of God and preach the word we pray that they would be faithful and steadfast in the faith and all of this For Your Glory now we ask this in Christ's name amen some years ago I had the privilege to travel through Germany in fact it was about 30 days prior to the 500th anniversary of the reformation and we stood in various different places throughout the story of the Reformation in various cities we stood there in front of the castle Church door in Wittenberg we went to various places where Luther had stood trial or various other locations where the word of God was proclaimed historic sites that are chronicled in the very story of the Reformation I had the privilege to preach in the pulpit in ice Laban where Luther preached his final sermon before he died and yet at the end of this tour we went back to Amsterdam and we had a little bit of a post-tour opportunity where a number of us would go out into various places and see other sites and one of the things that we were able to do together as a group was to go to the reichs museum and to take in some of the historic pieces of art if you're familiar with that museum you will know that in that museum hangs the famous Night Watch by Rembrandt it's a masterpiece it is a massive painting that's there on the wall and so as we were walking throughout the various different rooms we came to that room where it is Central and where it is put on display and so we stood there as a large group and we heard all of the details of this specific piece of art so much detail was being taught to us as we stood there that I started to literally drift off I'm not an art major I'm a preacher and so I started to sort of drift off a bit and so after I learned everything that I thought I needed to know about that specific piece of art I made my way into an adjacent room and I was looking around at other pieces of art there on the wall and one of the pieces of art caught my attention to this very day that has never really escaped my mind I stood there looking at this small painting there that was framed and and the light hitting it just right the colors coming from the the painting and it was the picture of a young lady standing there with a platter and on this platter was the head of John the Baptist and as I went about that Museum and as I walked back to my hotel that evening it was a constant reminder at the end of that historic tour as we studied the Reformation together of the cost of following Jesus the cost of walking in the footsteps of Jesus the cost of being a faithful preacher of the word and as we look at the life and Ministry of John the Baptist together from this passage this morning I want you men to know that it will cost you to stand in pulpits and to open the word of God and to Faithfully declare the truth of scripture week by week year by year you need to know that it will cost you but it will be a worthy price to pay nevertheless we look here at this passage before us in Luke's gospel chapter number three and we see in these verses we see the prophet John the Baptist and we see the prophet's Ministry in verses one and two I want us to see the prophet John the Baptist and and what we see in these first two verses is really the backdrop from where it was and from the very landscape in which God raised up this Prophet if you look there in in the first few verses you see various names Tiberius Caesar Pontius Pilate you see Herod mentioned you see other individuals that are mentioned there and obviously we need to know about the historic backdrop of John the Baptist ministry as we see the setting we see these various names Tiberius was a vile man he was a pedophile he was a horrific person and then of course if you continue down the list you see Pontius Pilate he was of course the governor of Judea he was the spineless man who oversaw Jesus's crucifixion and then you see Pontius Pilate again this this man who who was there who in many ways did not exemplify faithfulness he was a man who stood on the wrong side of Jesus on the wrong side of of the Cross Herod Antipas and Philip are named they are connected to the family of Herod the Great if you were to look up in the dictionary dysfunctional family there should be a picture there of this very family because this family was full of sin full of human depravity they loved their sin they celebrated their sin of course you you can go back and stuff study the life of this figure known as Herod the Great who was a horrible man he was a ruthless leader and if you study his life and if you study his Reign you will find that he was a a man who was full of murder we see him murdering children in Bethlehem in order to kill Jesus that was his attempt anyway and then of course we see as he continued to roll through his Reign he would divide up his land in his area for three different herods specifically his three sons who would serve in many ways as overseers of these regions Herod Antipas Herod Philip and Herod Agrippa Herod Antipas was a a a vile man as well if you just study his life you can see how these men they just loved their sin and you can see that Herod Antipas married a woman who was the daughter of a king he was doing this for a very specific purpose and this was a political maneuver and then Philip his brother married a daughter of his half-brother literally he married his niece and her name was herodias and so you can see at this juncture as you can see these names that are mentioned here this is the backdrop of the political landscape from which John the Baptist was raised up to thunder the word of God and then you continue down the list and you see anus in Caiaphas these are the first two Jewish names mentioned up to this point in the text and they were Wicked vile leaders they were in many ways individuals who exemplified what Jesus said of the leadership of this day they were whitewashed tombs and of course we can see that the land was ruled by pagans the religious leaders were were vile full of sin and Men Who capitulated greatly and this is the backdrop of John the Baptist ministry and verse number two what we find is we find that there's a man named John here John is the son of Zacharias and he was a faithful servant if you go back and you study his life you will find that he was a Nazarite man a man that was committed to a very strict life in total submission and consecration to God he would not be able to touch dead bodies or drink alcoholic wine or to cut his hair there were only three men listed in the word of God that were held to a a lifelong Nazarite vow we find those men as Samson Samuel and John the Baptist and so this is the John who is mentioned here that we know as the Baptist the one who is baptizing in the wilderness but if you'll notice in verse number two it says that the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias so this is John who is the prophet he is a prophet he served as in many ways the last of the Old Testament prophets God would use the office of the Prophet as well as the New Testament office of apostle to communicate his word to the people and when the biblical Canon was complete the process was finalized the word of God was whole and thorough of course we can study the the history of of the Bible and you can find that you know the the whole uh Gathering of the manuscripts and and all of God's word into the biblical Canon was was complicated but after God's word was was completed the office of apostle in the office of prophet is no longer given to God's people but John occupied this very office the office of a prophet Scholars estimate that his ministry was 6 to 12 months in length although very brief it was extremely powerful it was the will of God for John the Baptist to be raised up during this very dark period of history and to thunder the word of God to preach the word of God to be the one who would show forth the light of God as he would direct the people's attention to the True Light who is Jesus Christ listen to what Jesus said about John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 11 verse 11 it says truly I say to you among those born of women there has arisen no one greater then John the Baptist this is the man that we know as the baptizer we also see the expanse or the breadth of his ministry the scope of his ministry is is almost unparalleled if you think about in A Primitive context without modern technology without buildings without Steeples without the things that we enjoy for Ministry it says that all of the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the River Jordan you can see that reference there in Mark chapter 1 verses 4 and 5 all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out and we're being baptized now obviously not every single individual in those regions went out to hear John preach and not every single person in those regions went out to be baptized by John but the point is is that a lot of people made their way out to hear John the Baptist many people went to hear this Prophet Thunder the word of God and so John's Ministry was was wide and it was it was massive and even in this primitive context if you look at his ministry and if you study even the way he dressed the way that he ate his appetite if you just look at his practices of ministry obviously he's not trying to draw a modern crowd to come and hear him he's not using or employing gimmicks or tricks to gain people's attention or to gain a following he's certainly not trying to build his own brand or his own name he is a man on a mission he is standing and he is proclaiming the word of God and as of course coming at this very juncture in history we find that after hundreds of years of Silence where God had not been raising up prophets to preach there was Darkness covering the land and so now as people are starting to talk and hear about this man they were interested in traveling out into the Wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach there was something of great authenticity to his preaching because John's Ministry was relevant and fresh and here's why because his ministry and his preaching was word centered the word of God came to John and what did John do he preached the word of God and so dear brothers I would urge all of us in this room to make that our ministry objective to make that our motto of ministry to make that our pattern of gospel Ministry is that we would be men of the word we would be men who would be taking the word of God to the people of God for the glory of God that is what we see Happening Here It is believed that as many as 300 000 people came to hear John preach they did not travel out into the Wilderness in comfortable SUVs or nice uh automobiles or anything like that many times they would walk with their families long distances out into the Wilderness to hear this man thunder the word of God this is the prophet John but in verses three through six we see the prophet's Ministry if you look at verse number three what you will see is that he was there in the district around Jordan he was preaching the prophet's Ministry consisted of the fact that he was a preacher he was a preacher the word here is kerusso it means to make an official announcement it means to Herald the truth and and as I speak to men in this room you certainly know the definition of Caruso you know what it means it is different than the dasco it is different than teaching and yet this word has in mind this idea of someone who is the spokesman of the king who goes out into a specific region and announces a message on behalf of the king with the posture of authority and the people were to receive the message of that Herald as if the king himself we're standing there and so it is that that is exactly what we find John the Baptist doing he is preaching and he is preaching the word that came to him to the people preaching is is God's primary ordinary means of Grace for God's people preaching is Central to God's people and it is Central to God's Church The Herald was there not to entertain the People The Herald was not sent out there to dialogue with the people or to answer questions of the people The Herald the one who is preaching the preacher was not sent to survey the people the preacher was sent to preach the word to Herald the truth and so preaching is not talking preaching is not teaching preaching is not suggesting preaching is not religious philosophizing preaching is not providing a running commentary or a data dump to the people preaching is the heralding of the word of God the truth of God to the people of God for the glory of God the Old Testament period you see God raises up prophets and what do they do well they preach the word if you go to the beginning of the New Testament we find at the beginning of the New Testament begins with preaching we see that with John the Baptist and then we see Jesus's Ministry was a preaching Ministry Jesus was preaching and then he would gather 12 men that would be called apostles who would be sent out on a mission to do what to preach listen to Mark chapter 3 verse 14. as it pertains to the apostles and he appointed 12 whom he also named Apostles so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and so that has always been God's plans to raise up preachers prophets and then Apostles and then we come further into the life of the early church and we see that God gifts the church with pastors and pastors are to do what to continue in the very same line from the very beginning is to preach the word to disciple the church to equip the Saints for the work of ministry through the word of God that is God's primary ordinary means of Grace is the preaching and the proclamation of the word of God but sadly if we survey evangelicalism today it is not a pretty sight you can look at churches and you can see how preaching has now taken a back seat to the grandstanding of bands an emotional storytelling and even mysticism in many circles life principles moralistic therapeutic deism sappy stories and political commentary has crowded out the preaching of the word of God and it's depressing as a preacher to see it our church this past year exited the Southern Baptist convention which was a good thing for us not every single person in the Southern Baptist convention should be thrown under the bus mind you but needless to say it was time for us to depart that group of churches I can remember standing in an exhibit hall at a Southern Baptist convention a number of years ago and looking at hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of organizations and Ministries in two or three different exhibit Halls that were adjacent to one another for this annual meeting of the SBC I can remember walking through there and seeing magicians and ventriloquists and all sorts of gimmicks all spread around this exhibit hall and I just started to become depressed as a pastor thinking about why do so many people come to a convention like this and they try to employ so many different gimmicks and tactics to go back into the context in which they serve to grow their churches rather than just the the normal ordinary means of grace and the primary ordinary means of Grace which is the preaching and the proclamation of the word of God in his book preaching and preachers Martin Lloyd Jones says the following any true definition of preaching must say that the man is there to deliver the message of God a message from God to those people any time that you survey church history and you see that there is a lack of faithful preaching it's a dark time in church history and then any time that you see where preaching is emphasized it's a it's a bright time in church history there are Awakenings and reformations that happen and and those movements are centered on the preaching and the teaching of the word of God and we see figures raised up during those moments of church history that we certainly know well like Charles Hadden Spurgeon who preached 600 times before he was 20 years of age his sermon sold approximately 25 000 copies per week and were translated into 20 languages the collected sermons fill 63 volumes which is equal to the 27 volume ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and is the largest set of books produced by any author in the history of Christianity think about that he once preached to some twenty thousand people without a microphone and then slept for 24 hours straight when he was finished spurgeon's son Charles Jr said the following about his father's Ministry there was no one who could preach like my father in an exhaustible variety witty wisdom vigorous Proclamation loving and treaty and Lucid teaching with a multitude of other qualities he must at least in my opinion ever be regarded as the prince of preachers when we survey church history we see men who were literal trumpet blast of God's word who shaped entire countries and would spark Awakenings and would be used in the historic Protestant Reformation these were men who understood the Primacy of preaching and that is why it is that you're here at this institution is to understand that very truth that you would understand the Primacy of preaching and that you would be trained to be a faithful preacher and that you would stand flat-footed without compromising without blushing that this is the sufficient word of God and to declare the gospel of God for his glory that's why it is that you are here and John the Baptist was certainly a man who understood the Primacy of preaching and his calling as a preacher if you'll notice verse number three you will see that he was preaching a baptism of repentance for the Forgiveness of sins crowds of people gathered to hear the prophet preach and he was preaching a message of repentance now when we see this this language of preaching a baptism of repentance what we must understand is that he's not preaching baptismal regeneration that's not what's Happening Here uh oftentimes Baptists like to to Really you know put their seal of approval on John the Baptist evangelicals try to to Really claim him but certainly we could say that the Church of Christ and other Splinter groups cannot reach back in history and claim John the Baptist as someone who is preaching baptismal regeneration that's not what's happening here and of course this is also predating the baptism of the early church and so what is this well the closest thing that the Jews had to what we would consider baptism was a cleansing ritual for the Gentiles who wanted to become proselytes and so as we look at John here in the wilderness and he's preaching the truth and then he's commanding them to be baptized he's not just speaking to Gentiles interestingly enough he is centering his message also upon the Jews and so what is happening here is that John is saying that if if you want to follow and if you want to submit your life fully and holy to God it's not just Gentiles that need to be cleansed it's both Jew and Gentile that need to be cleansed and he was commanding them to show their sincerity by going through this ritualistic practice of cleansing this baptism and yet he's pointing them to repentance repentance is is something that should accent our preaching as we think about Spurgeon once again he preached a sermon on December 4th 1864 and the title of the sermon was now in the sermon I'm going to read to you just an excerpt from the sermon and this is what he said this is the prince of preachers he says some of my hearers who listened to me last year and in the years that are past are now in hell now where no hope can come now where no gospel shall ever be preached now where they bitterly regret their wasted sabbaths and despised opportunities now where memory holds a dreadful Reign reminding them of all their sins now where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched where they gnaw their fire tormented tongues in vain in this sermon he continued to Accent his his preaching using phrases like today is the day of salvation now is the accepted time in fact in this one sermon Spurgeon used the word now 188 times emphasizing the need to repent now not tomorrow right now is the acceptable time to repent you see that should be how we preach and if you look at John the Baptist preaching he is urging them to turn from to change Direction that's what the word repent means it means to go in the opposite direction and yet that is exactly what we see John the Baptist doing and if you go over to Mark's gospel chapter 6 verse 18 notice notice what Mark includes here for John had been saying to Herod it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife in other words he's being very specific he's not interested in diplomacy from his Pulpit he's not interested in in trying to water down his sermon based upon what he was thinking maybe that that the tone police might come in his direction or call him out for apparently John the Baptist was preaching a message of repentance and to emphasize and to illustrate the sincerity of his meaning he would then point to the leadership of the land yes you need to repent but also everyone needs to repent Jew and Gentile all need to repent in fact Herod should not have his brother's wife he was very specific And yet when we preach it will cost us as I go back to that moment in the museum and I'm reminded of that that platter with John the Baptist's head on it it was preaching like this that would cause that very scene to play its way out in history in his life the dear brothers I would encourage you that as a preacher you don't have to go looking for trouble you don't have to go looking for trouble if you will just preach the word of God trouble will come looking for you just preach the word and call people to repent call people to turn from their sin and to cling to the righteousness of God that comes through Jesus Christ and you will have enough trouble you do not have to go looking for it that's certainly not what John the Baptist was doing either he wasn't just looking for trouble he was being a faithful preacher and it would cost him his life today many preachers sadly are more like politicians than they are prophets now keep in mind there is no there is no modern Prophet today or Apostle for that matter in fact I was preaching in Brazil just a couple of weeks ago and a preacher there said it like this the best Apostle of our day is a dead apostle and what he was emphasizing is that there is no longer the gift of apostle given to the church in our day but what I would urge us to think about is how we model our preaching should be more like the vein of prophetic teaching than it should be that of being a a politician we need to have a balance of light and heat but there must be urgency in our preaching or else it's not real preaching it's not biblical preaching it's not K Russo if there's no genuine passion if there's no genuine urgency and sadly in many Evangelical circles today the church is asleep and unbelievers are unmoved by the preaching and teaching of many pulpits today but we need to be preaching repentance and not just stopping there but we need to be preaching the Forgiveness of sins if you look at verse number three it says he was preaching a baptism of repentance for the Forgiveness of sins faithful preaching does more than just point out the wrath of God faithful preaching does more than just Thunder and say you need to repent faithful preaching and a faithful Pastor by the way is not like a surgeon that goes into the operating room and opens up the chest cavity of a patient and then looks at the problem diagnoses and and confirms that the x-rays were were correct and then just walks out of the room there must be something more and and we see that exemplified here in John's preaching he was preaching a baptism of repentance for the Forgiveness of sins in other words we must preach and we must call for people to repent and then we must urge them to find their hope in God through Jesus Christ there is forgiveness in Christ a number of years ago when I was in Indianapolis for the Southern Baptist convention I was walking down the sidewalk for lunch with a friend and I noticed as we approached a traffic light there was a man standing there with large signs and he was street preaching as I got a bit closer I noticed by the coloring of the signs and by his message that he was from Westboro Baptist Church and we went through the traffic light and I was listening to him preach and he had his son standing there next to him and so we went on and we we ate barbecue and on our way back he was still there we made our way through the traffic light and across the walkway and my friend I just looked him I said listen I'll meet you inside I'm going to stand here for a few moments and I'm going to try to talk to this gentleman and I stood there and I was listening to every time the light would turn red he would just preach just judgment Of God Wrath of God judgment Of God Wrath of God judgment Of God Wrath of God and yet there was nothing of the forgiveness in the hope of Christ so I tried to talk with him he would not listen to me and so I just decided at the at that moment it was my first open-air sermon I decided you know would the next time the light changes when he preaches judgment I'm going to finish the sermon by preaching on the Forgiveness of sins that comes in Christ and so the next light turned and he's preaching wrath and judgment and Vengeance and the fury of God's anger and then I just started preaching over him and pointing people to find their hope in God through Jesus Christ that any and all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved and everyone who is in Christ can rest assured that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and we just continued that for the next few changes of the light until finally he started packing up his signs and getting in his vehicle and he decided to leave I tried to have a dialogue specifically with his son because Westboro Baptist is a cult and I wanted his son to hear the truth of the Gospel but the point is is that as a pastor as a preacher of righteousness we have to go beyond just saying repent we have to tell them to turn from their sin and then be specific to point them to Jesus Christ and that is exactly what John the Baptist ministry was it was a message that centered on the Thundering of the word of God to the people of God pointing to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and we see this repentance and forgiveness of sins preaching in the preaching of Jesus in Mark 1 15 we find Jesus preaching saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe the gospel there's repentance and there's faith in the good news the hope of the Gospel then we see that same method of preaching with the apostles we find them preaching as Peter did in Acts chapter 2 repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the Forgiveness of your sins so we see this as a as the way of biblical preaching it's the way of Godly preaching it's to preach repent and point them to find their hope in Christ and we see this happening all throughout the New Testament and that should be our message as well in verses four through six we see the prophet's Ministry was also centered on the Fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy in Verses 4 or 5 and 6 we see a quotation from the prophet Isaiah as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet the voice of one crying in the wilderness Make Ready the way of the Lord make his path straight every Ravine will be filled and every mountain and Hill will be brought low the Crooked will become straight and the rough roads smooth and All Flesh will see the salvation of God John's message was simple it was a message that directed people to God through Christ and yet he he pointed out that Jesus Christ is the one that is put on display in the Old Testament in other words as we as New Testament preachers we should not be welcomed back after one sermon in a Jewish synagogue if we are welcomed back the next week it's because we did not preach Christ Faithfully but what we see here is that John the Baptist was taking this Old Testament text and he was pointing to Jesus as the one who is indeed our hope and then in this text we see that this this work that's being prophesied here is the work of John the Baptist because you see John would be pointing people to Jesus but in doing so what would he do well he would do these very things as one who was crying in the wilderness he would be preparing the way of the Lord he would be making his paths straight he would be doing the work of the Forerunner that's what he would be engaged in and so in these passages in verses four five and six we see a collection of citations in verse number four you see a a citation of Isaiah 40 verses 3 through 5. in verse number five you see Isaiah 57 14 and Isaiah 49 11 and Isaiah 42 16 are cited and quoted and then of course we see in verse number six you see Isaiah 52 10 is cited there and so the voice of one crying in the wilderness is is John the Baptist and he is the Forerunner he is making the way of the Lord straight you see monarchs would send Heralds before them in a journey to clear away obstacles to make the causeways over valleys and to level out Hills to make the paths straight for the arrival of the king and that is exactly why it is that John the Baptist was raised up he was raised up as a preacher who would do that very work he would prepare the way of the Lord high places in the road would be lowered in Low Places in the road would be raised in rough places in the road would be smoothed out for the arrival of the king crooked places in the road would be made straight but the interesting thing is is the illustration is not just about geography it's about the hearts of the people that's what John the Baptist would be focused on he would be preaching a message that would bring the people to submit themselves to God he would be preaching in such a way that he would cause them to to remove all self-confidence to be stripped of all self-confidence before the Lord to crush their pride in National privileges to flee hypocrisy and all of this was to prepare for the coming of Christ and then of course if you see the final statement here that all flesh shall see the salvation of God if you go back to Isaiah's prophecy you don't see the word salvation being used there but it's a quotation from the Septuagint this is to emphasize the point is that all flesh shall see the salvation of God what a statement when you think about this right you start thinking about historically many prophets of old they would preach and they would Thunder and they would deliver the very message of God Faithfully but they would never see the one that they were preaching about in their lifetime and then you come to the New Testament and you see Simeon in the temple singing Praise because he saw the salvation of God and then you have this Old Testament Prophet here John the Baptist who is raised up as a link in the chain that would take the people and would point back to the old and then point forward to the new and see that this one Jesus is the one who fulfills those old prophecies and those promises you see one day every single person will see the salvation of God Philippians chapter 2 verses 9 through 11 is very specific therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father this is a wonderful message of Hope that all flesh shall see the salvation of God and this should give us hope as preachers to go out into Thunder and declare the hope of the Gospel of God for his glory now I want to encourage you all today as you think about the calling to be a preacher of righteousness and to be a pastor it's a high calling I would not want to trade the calling of a pastor for anything else under the sun but it is a difficult path it's filled with loneliness and suffering and it's a path that will cost you and as you think about the the closer that you get to the very front lines of the battlefield the more difficult it will be for you the more that you itch toward the very center of the battle you can expect to become the target of devilish attacks and gospel Ministry you will be opposed by obstinate church members you will be rejected by those in your community that you serve you will be despised and hated by unconverted church members you will experience the hardships and trials that will cause sleepless nights your wife will be abused oftentimes in Ministry because people simply don't like you and your preaching you will spend sleepless nights trying to think about how to balance Church budgets because the church is decreasing as you're trying to increase in faithful preaching after being called to a specific Church but you must count the cost of pastoral Ministry this is the cost of reforming churches this is the the this is what genuine real Biblical pastoral Ministry looks like but then you need to think about the prophets like John the Baptist and then you think about men who went before John the Baptist living in caves wondering about in desert regions despised and rejected mocked openly flogged severely Chained and imprisoned stoned and martyred that's the the ministry of the prophets and then the apostles who suffered for Christ 11 of the twelve suffered the death of a martyr and Jesus gave them their marching orders if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me he warned that a servant is not greater than his master if they persecuted me they will also persecute you and the Apostle Paul of course put into the stone dungeon cell the mammerteen prison there in Rome where he would be held captive and then the next time that he was pulled from that very cell he would be taken to a very specific place in the streets of Rome where he would be beheaded for preaching the word of God this is the call to be a preacher you have to just lay everything on the line to follow Jesus you have to burn the ships behind you and the bridges behind you and you just have to sell out completely to be a faithful preacher for the glory of God that was the ministry of John the Baptist the price of preaching is heavy we see that with individuals like Spurgeon you think about everything that Spurgeon accomplished and he was dead at 57 and much of that was because of the heaviness of the downgrade controversy David brainerd's Ministry was short but powerful and I asked you this question what will be your ministry's legacy what will you be known for gimmicks tricks games or a man of God who thundered the word of God so let Goods in Kindred go this Mortal life also the body they may kill God's truth abideth still his kingdom is forever so pastoral Ministry and faithful preaching no retreat no surrender no backing up no shutting up no giving up endure suffering preach courageously never give an itch to this Pagan world and may your entire Ministry be devoted to the glory of God so in the words of the Apostle Paul at the end of first Corinthians chapter 15 therefore my beloved brothers be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain may God bless you

Channel: The Master's Seminary

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Keywords: The Master's Seminary, John MacArthur, Expository Preaching, Inerrancy, Biblical Teaching, TMS, Bible, Truth, Scripture, Pastor, Chapel

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Length: 47min 48sec (2868 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 22 2022