Lecture 3: Fundamentals of Expository Preaching - Dr. John MacArthur

we started talking about expository preaching yesterday gave you a number of points a dozen or so on essentially the foundational mandate of expository preaching I want to just pick that up and add a few today and maybe in an hour or so will will give you the rest and then I'll turn it over to dr. Lawson glad to do that just a reminder that that as a pastor you have one primary duty and that is to bring the people the truth of the word of God by explaining the scripture that's your role and even in the personal aspects of your ministry when you go house to house even in those times of counsel and comfort in those times of edification instruction and personal help that you bring to people you are the bearer of divine truth you will do the same thing whether you're talking to people in a counseling situation whether you're teaching a class whether you're doing training or whether you're standing in the pulpit and that is you will bring the people the truth of God by explaining the meaning of Scripture and helping them grasp it and then apply it in their lives this is what you do and the good news is that everything you need to know is in one book and the other good news is that it's been translated into English so you have no excuses and the English translations that you have are are good they are sound I don't know what the popular one is how many of you use the new American Standard okay yeah that's that in my judgment is still the best I'm going to use the ESV okay anybody on the NIV trail yeah well we'll convert you we III I'm in the process and dr. Mayhew is helping me in the process of doing an NIV MacArthur Study Bible and I mentioned that at Shepherd's conference last year it took us about a year to decide whether to do that and the first question was does anybody that reads the NIV care what it means and once we had decided that there might be some people who read the NIV who do care what it means we decided to go ahead and do that and there was some criticism why would you you put the macarthur study notes inside an NIV and the answer is because it's a Trojan horse you know if you let me get in your city and release the troops then you know that's a problem for you not me I don't mind conquering so so anyway so you'll find that there's a little bit of a dominating influence of the NA s still here although it's only 2% of the Bible market and may not survive over the long haul there they're certainly a growing interest in the ESV which is a which is a good translation and they're doing an update on it as we speak to even make it more accurate so our responsibility then in whatever ministry we're engaged is is to be primarily the source of people's understanding of the revelation of God which is contained in one book and the task for us then is to master that book and one of the benefits of expository preaching is you do that piece by piece by piece by piece understanding the scripture in all of its necessary contexts expository preaching is essentially giving people the meaning of the scripture and I made a statement yesterday I repeated the meaning of the scripture is the scripture alright so we said then that first of all and taking it on a negative aspect a failure to do expositional preaching that is the preaching that explains the meaning of scripture well what it does is it assaults the authority of God in other words it it replaces the authority of God in the mind of the people secondly it denigrates undermines the lordship of Christ over his church he is the head of the church it is he who should speak to his church some of you may have heard me and this is something I talked a lot about doing a message on Christ ahead of the church and giving the history of that if you haven't heard that you might want to get that download that message on Christ the head of the church and listen to it because it will change how you view the the lordship of Christ over his church and it will it'll establish a strong and firm foundation and in that message I make the statement that the the the headship of Christ over his church has sailed down to this generation on a sea of blood people died over that doctrine thirdly we said if you do not preach expositionally that is explaining the meaning of Scripture then you undermine or you hinder the work of the Holy Spirit so we started out with kind of a Trinitarian mandate that God may be the authority that Christ may be the head of the church and the Spirit may do his work demands that the Word of God be given to the people of God and that is why first Peter 5 says feed the flock of God feed the flock of God so expository preaching then establishes the authority of God over the mind of the hearer affirms the lordship of Christ over his church and facilitates the work of the Holy Spirit fourthly we said that the expository preaching presents the Word of God in such a way that it demands submission so a failure to explain the meaning of Scripture a failure to elevate the scripture above everything else in the church undermines submission to Scripture was Luther who said the Roman Catholic Church does not speak for God only the Bible does only the Bible does fifthly we said that if you do not do expositional preaching you sever the preacher personally from the regular sanctifying grace of Scripture how important it is for us as men of God to have a pure Souls pure hearts pure minds and the word does that John 15 you know that verse where we're literally pruned by the word number six failure to do expositional preaching undermines the depth and transcendence necessary for true worship and that's what we talked about immaturity and maturity and the juvenile is a ssin of Christianity number seven I think this is the same order a failure to do expositional preaching prevents the preacher from speaking fully for Christ on every issue right it was that where we were okay on every issue there is absolutely no premium on being an expert on the culture none and if you want to paint yourself into a corner and be obsolete really fast just try to stay up with the current trend that might have worked decades ago or centuries ago when trends lasted for centuries or decades they come and go so fast you couldn't keep up and why would you want to anyway the mind of Christ is everything and that's 1st Corinthians 2:16 we have the mind of Christ and that is our responsibility to disseminate that number 8 we said that a failure to do expositional preaching hinders the example of studying scripture in other words the spiritual duty of every believer is to study the scripture and they will learn how to do that by the way you do that they will handle the scripture the way you handle the scripture if it's fast and loose if it's culturally accommodated if it's a Living Bible or the message approach to it that's exactly the way they will view the Bible like like people like priests or are the words of Jesus when a man is fully disciple he'd be like his teacher it's the same principle as in proverbs turn up a child in the way he should go and when he's old he won't depart from it that is not a promise that's an axiom that is not a parental promise that if you give your kids the gospel they'll end up converted that's an axiom people become what you train and the the truth is you're gonna get the church that you train it's what you're going to have you're going to end up with the product that you have determined and of course first of all you certainly want to saved congregation and they will be begotten again by the word of truth and I believe the unconverted church is massive in this contemporary time in our country massive unconverted church not only in our country but around the world charismatic have contributed largely to the false church so you want to convert a church and then you want to sanctify church and it's by the word we said that they are sanctified they need to be able to approach the Word of God to know how to approach the Word of God to know how to discern its truths themselves and you model that for them you also model the view of Scripture that they have to have the expectation of grace Church is that people be serious about the Bible and indifferent to to everything else to some degree and where did they get that I could say that to them over and over and over again and it wouldn't have any impact on them at all if I didn't demonstrate they simply they simply follow my lead if if I'm serious about the Word of God if I find my joy and satisfaction and if I draw the truth out of the Word of God that changes their lives they're gonna buy into that and they're gonna be biblical people and as I said you're going to wind up producing teachers who who know how to study the Bible and therefore they're capable of teaching others in fact I used to say this probably haven't said it in a while that I when I'm teaching I'm really looking at a second generation I'm trying to present every message that I would preach with a view to the fact that the person listening to this could pass it on to someone else with conviction in other words they understand it they understand why I'm interpreting it that way they get it they take ownership of it and then it becomes part of the body of content that they believe and will end up passing on I'm looking at this generationally I'm always thinking about is this message going to have enough impact that these people are going to own this thing and they're gonna want to pass it on to their children to their friends is it going to become the topic of their conversation so you essentially instruct by example on the scriptural duty and benefit of studying scripture intently shallow produces shallow deep leads too deep so you're teaching not only the truth of Scripture but the method by which you come to that truth what was the next one on your list yeah being the voice of God on every issue and what this does is contribute directly I think to the glory of God in the congregation beyond that as we talked about yesterday and I changed my number a little bit yesterday that's why I asked you want to be the person that anybody could go to and get the right answer I pointed that out a little bit yesterday by way of illustration but it continues to drive me something short of crazy to hear suppose the religious leaders give the wrong answer to the culture you need to be the source of that which is absolutely true all right that was number nine at number ten what did you have okay yeah all right what's number eleven that's where I'll pick it up okay yeah failure to do exposition robs people of the only true source of their help on Charles Stanley's radio program this morning he said there they are producing a new magazine they have some kind of an in touch magazine and they're all very excited about it because the lead article is by John Eldridge John Eldridge wrote a really an inane book called wild at heart which is supposedly offering the path of true manliness and the path of true sort of male sanctification and he suggests in there that you need to have a great adventure you need to win the heart of a damsel you need to enlist all these crazy things conquer a great foe and capture your manliness and that's not gonna help anybody so his suggestion is I don't know if you read the thing you go out in the mountains by yourself and you know and muck around and build a fire and you know shoot a rabbit and you're laughing but that guy sells millions of books and he resents the church speaks against the church denounces the church tells about the horrible experiences he had in the church as if someone's spiritual life was enhanced by himself being with himself alone really forsake not what assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some isn't much the more as you see the Day approaching we need each other and of course we need the Word of God so the only true source of help that was just an illustration that hit me this morning all right and then we moved to the important principle of a fair your new exposition disconnects doctrine and life right creates a disconnect what is it is that number 15 did we skip some ok well let's let's start let's go there anyway ok because I knew I was shifting things around so I'm gonna give you a few that will just wrap up here this morning a failure to do Bible exposition makes the congregation now let me say it another way a failure to do Bible exposition to teach the full counsel of God is revealed in Holy Scripture eliminates the truths the trouble offend and terrify the lost and sinful I'm convinced that most preachers who lack the essential manliness of preaching they lack the ruggedness of message that assaults the sinners comfort we all know we've heard this phrase the church has been feminized there are so many feminine preachers and I don't mean women preachers that they're all out of bounds permit not a woman to teach take authority that they're all out of bounds but there are so many men who have been feminized in their their pulpits are nothing but sentimental and there's nothing in their preaching that troubles people there's nothing in there people that directly offends them there's nothing in their preaching that frightens them terrifies them Paul said knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men the preacher in a sense while on one side he is the benevolent comforter on the other side he is the trouble er of souls and I promise you that all of this sort of plexiglass preaching that has arisen around the seeker friendly church works very hard to eliminate anything that offends anything that terrifies anything that frightens and when I was preaching Sunday morning I made up some direct statements that there are some Judas's in this congregation there are some Judas's in this congregation who cannot be distinguished any more than Judas could be distinguished from Peter by the rest of the Apostles when Jesus said one of you would betray me what did they all say is it I is it I is that I they would have rather suspected themselves than him nobody pointed to Judas and I said there are Judas's in this church who have had the same experience heard the same preaching heard the same truth seen the same miracle of salvation watched the work of the Lord in this church and you're together on every level having all these experiences in common and you're going to end up as far apart as possible some of you in heaven and some of you in Hell that's a frightening thought I received a phone call yesterday from a man and he left me a message I'm gonna call him back today and he has an older man a very very prominent man a very successful man and he heard the message he just had a stroke in the edge of death and he called to say could I talk to you I want to make sure I'm Peter and not Judas now did I serve that man so today I will call him and I will even go to his house and I will sit down with him and I will talk with him and pray with him and do all I can to assure him that he doesn't need to be Judas his heart is moved he's trying to recover from a stroke he's he's a man of immense importance well-known but he's grappling with the reality of his own salvation that is the greatest service that I could render to that man is to make him fear right to terrify him about their reality of Hell and I don't know how many times I said the word hell but I must have said it thirty or thirty-five times in that message if you suck that out and end up sounding like Joel Osteen you're accommodating people's unbelief you're accommodating their deception who was the greatest preacher of hell that ever lived the Lord Jesus he said far more about Hell than he did about heaven and he didn't gloss it over it was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and darkness of blackness eternal punishment but even with regard to two believers one of the things that the contemporary church has done has been to basically the evangelical movement of today has been the death of the Lord's table it doesn't have a place in the secret friendly rock-and-roll Church it's been eliminated and what is the urgency and importance of the Lord's table it is the regular time when believers do what examine themselves and that's the time when we talk about discipline and we remind people of of holiness and that you can't come here and worship the Lord and take the cup and take the bread and celebrate his death for your sin well hold to sin that's hypocrisy and you don't want to do that because some incurrence did that and they died and some were sick and now if if if you're sinning you're gonna be confronted by your brothers and sisters that's a critical part of helping people of coming alongside people to strengthen them for their own benefit in their own blessing how do you get the balance look I through I started out in fundamentalism I started out being a fundamentalist that's I went to Bob Jones you know no fun too much damn and not enough mental so it was out completely out of balance I mean it was just condemnation condemnation on superficial legalistic basis without any any real biblical balance and I saw the kind of Hellfire and damnation fundamentalism that browbeat people and gave them no joy that's not what we're talking about that's not what we're talking about the Bible is full of calls to joy and I think if you when you integrate yourself to whatever degree you're able to do that at Grace Community Church you're gonna find a joyful group of people I can preach as hard and as confrontive and convicting a message as possible but if the hearts of the people are devoted to Christ they take it they apply what they need they go out the door and they have a Plaza fellowship and they laugh and they embrace each other and they're full of joy so expositional preaching will assure you sequential exposition will assure you that you're not going to avoid the things that trouble the soul offend people and terrifying even believers and listen the more the more power the law has with people the more they tend to be broken I have a pencil etching that was done a few centuries ago and it shows Moses and there's this poor beleaguered guy and Moses with the law about to smash him in the head and laying over him as Christ to take the blow of the law the only way people will ever understand the glory of the gospel is to understand the power of the law and it's right to destroy them so when you don't preach the law and you don't confront and trouble and offend and terrify the lost and the sinful you also forfeit the tenderness and the beauty of grace alright so that was number 16 okay number 17 and I could get carried away on this but I'll I'll fight myself failure to do exposition of scripture careful exposition of scripture disconnects God's people from the legacy of the past from the legacy of the past what do you mean by that well if you just contemporize your message and play off the culture and give a topical thing by analyzing current things and throw in some Bible verses your people have no sense of the history of the church I think that's by design in the contemporary church I think they mock the historic church I think they're indifferent to it I think they mocked the older generation of pastors it's really scary how many how many immature young entrepreneurial self-appointed guys call themselves pastors they are really non pastors in non churches the the the entrepreneurial style that has taken over in so many ways in evangelicalism is is often led by the uncalled and the unqualified unpassed errs of unchurched who reproduce a weekend event that is something less than a church somebody it was telling me about one called grace church and they asked me does it bother you that they call it grace I said no it just bothers me that they call a church because the church by definition is is established in the New Testament there's this idea that we've got to make sure all the music is coming out of the immediate moment of the culture that all the language all the articulation all the idioms all the idiosyncrasies all the stylistic all the lighting all whatever it is it's it's got a feel like now and that's a very isolated notion one of the great treasures that I think we can give our church is a sense that they belong to something and believe things that have been believed for centuries and centuries and centuries and they're a part of something far greater than this little building on Roscoe Boulevard in this century they know that they know that because we sing hymns that go all the way back to the Reformation we sing them often they know they're a part of something far bigger than the moment in time in which they live they also know that the resources that I would use to interpret the scripture come from men long dead long-dead whom we honor and elevate that's a very very assuring confidence when you give that to your people it's a little bit scary for people sitting in a place who whose only understanding of the church is the experience they're currently having because their pastor would never want to connect them to anything in the past because he has disdain for it it's a lot of egotism in that but but that kind of isolation frightens me I want people to know that what I'm saying to them is consistent with the truth that was proclaimed by the faithful men as far back as the New Testament I want them to know that I want them to know that the doctrines that we affirm were settled in the 4th century and they started being settled through history and that the same New Testament that Calvin and Luther were looking at is the New Testament that we're looking at it we're in this long line of grand historic tradition so I think it's so important to connect God's people to the legacy of the past to the great preachers the great theologians the great works the critical doctrines the Creed's the enduring hymns that that that is a very very assuring reality for them because in all honesty if you're the only guy they have to follow that can be a bit scary and if your badge of identity is that you do it differently and better than everybody else that's even scarier that's really scary and when the people who go to these kinds of events these repeated weekend rock star events have to face the realities of life it can be scary if all they have to depend on is the stick that was going on from this dominating personality it's so much different when you're staring death in the face or the possibility of the death of a child to know that you're anchored to something that is generationally and and a historically true and sound and solid and tested and proven Steve would camp on this one when we tell people in our preaching and he does it often more often than anyone and better than anyone when he tells the story of great preachers theologians and martyrs of the past it's amazing how people are strengthened by that right they love that don't they Steve yeah he carries in his Bible and you open his Bible a picture of John Rogers John Rogers was the first Marion martyr why do you have that there what does that have to do with you I mean when did the guy live [Music] which became known as the Matthews Bible does that matter to you does that communicate anything to you does that steal your heart with conviction do you want to be in that line yeah yeah is that that that matters to me does that matter to you I don't need contemporary heroes I don't I don't need guys that are trying to do it their own way I need people like that those are the heroes I need so we did a little road trip and went to South Carolina back into Baltimore and somewhere st. Louis yeah and I talked about preaching and he talked about preachers the the the great preachers Calvin Luther yeah those were the two and I mean when you see the massive character of these guys against all odds that's that's the kind of heroes this generation needs but but there's a lot of disdain for those men among contemporary culture driven kind of ministries and I think it's so wonderful for for our people to have these kinds of heroes in their heart and I think for you men these are the kind of guys that you need to be like you can you can leapfrog me and all the rest of us and anchor on those guys and part of what you're going to experience in one of the courses when you go through the history of preaching your life will never be the same after he's through with you taking you through the history of preachers you you want to be one of those kind of guys you don't ever want to cut your people off from that you don't ever want to isolate your people of the contemporary culture you don't ever want to convince them that everybody's done it wrong and you're the guy doing it right you want to bow your knee and your soul to the great men of the past all right and the next one done with the numbers the next one if they're to do Bible exposition removes protection from error deadly to the church removes protection from error deadly to the church that which is the most dangerous thing to the church is error right we're all about the truth a passage that I think serves us well on this point is 2nd Corinthians 10:3 2:5 you can read it later in in more detail but it says the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly that that is we're engaged in a spiritual war we are definitely in a spiritual war if you asked a sort of contemporary Christian what spiritual warfare is there probably tell you it's chasing demons it isn't it isn't you have no power to do anything with demons you can you can send them somewhere till you're blue in the face and they're not going to go in fact you might be sending them away and the Lord might have brought them so you better be careful anyway you know Jesus said to Peter Satan desires to have you and I'm gonna let him and even in the case of Paul he was sent a messenger from Satan that's a Angelus a satanic angel that's a demon that that the Lord used to humble Paul so you know the Lord has his purposes even with his devil and the demons that are under his power but spiritual warfare is not that it's defined there in 10 3 to 5 weapons of our warfare are not fleshly so we're engaged in a war where you can't use human weapons you can't use him annuity human ingenuity human marketing techniques human strategy human manipulation whatever kind of human weapon is not going to work because Paul says we are destroying fortresses and the word for fortress is the word for fortress same word for prison same word for tomb and it refers to some kind of a stone edifice in other words Paul is saying look we're engaged in a spiritual war in which human weapons are useless because this is too formidable if you traveled it all in Europe you you know what these massive stone fortresses are that still exist after centuries and centuries sometimes millennia gone by so Paul is painting that image and then he goes on to define it we are destroying fortresses he says and then the next verse he defines it we are destroying l'église mas is the greek word so we're destroying fortresses for the destruction of fortresses we are destroying logiss must therefore fortresses and lodges mas are the same if the second statement defines the first destruction of fortresses and we are destroying logiss mas what's that's word for ideas ideas not spirits ideas spiritual warfare is about the destruction of ideas theories viewpoints philosophies psychology's religions what kind of ideas next line even every high thing lifted up against the knowledge of God this is a brilliantly crafted portion of Scripture so what are we doing we're assaulting massive stone ideologies that are our people's fortresses they are there are logical fortresses that become their prisons that end up their tombs and these are all kinds of ungodly ideas theories viewpoints religions and the goal is to assault them mash them and bring every thought what captive to Christ we are in the business of changing how people think that's what spiritual warfare is people are imprisoned and entombed in error and the truth sets them free brings every thought captive to Christ these errors are pervasive they are ubiquitous they are all over the place and I suppose it's always been this way in the evangelical church to some degree but the level of ignorance in the church today is it's just to me mind-boggling we have a whole generation of people who could be defined as tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine Ephesians who can't discern truth from error some of them are at high levels they sign ECT they don't have enough discernment to know that shocking when you have not given your people the Word of God so that they understand the truth and sound doctrine you have left them wide open to be led astray and led into deception and you know this is not a popular time to take those kinds of stands because the the most popular approach is tolerance is it not that's why Benny Hinn said he would like to take his Holy Ghost machine gun and blow my brains out who do I think I am disagreeing with him does he actually believe that God speaks to him he knows better than that does he actually believe he has the power to heal he knows better than that got a trail of unhealed people through all the years of his entire life these are deceptions from deceivers and they're everywhere and the only way people can fend themselves as with the truth so Paul doesn't even in that passage mention what the weapon is the weapons of our warfare he says are mighty unto God and what what is the one weapon that destroys error truth what did Paul say to the Ephesian elders he said look for three years I have not failed to warn you because I know this x20 after I've left what's going to happen perverse men are gonna rise up among you to lead you astray and wolves are going to come in from the outside to tear you up how does he know that because that's the Satanic strategy attack attack attack with lies and deception and you want to take that congregation to becoming the the spiritual young man that john writes about strong in the word able to overcome the evil one Satan operates as we said it's disguised as an angel of light and you can actually take a congregation that are no longer vulnerable to false doctrine you know that I understand that you couldn't fool me with false doctrine it'd be unlikely for most of you that you could be fooled with deception and false doctrine you have gone from being spiritual infants to being spiritual young men you haven't come to full maturity yet to fully know the one who is from the beginning your intimate knowledge of God will increase as your affection for his truth grows but you you are safe in the sense that you now know the truth and you are protected from error and that is a that is an amazing gift isn't it and and that's the the reason you're there is because you've had the influences that brought you there and that's the reason you're here because you know how important that is and that's why you're here not somewhere else I read this last couple of weeks the biography of Herman Bhavik Herman Bob Inc was a little bit of a contemporary of Abraham Kuyper in in in Holland in the nineteenth century came twenty years later but they got to know each other and Herman Bhavik was in the CRC which was the offshoot of the Dutch church that was the state church in Bob ynx family his father was a pastor John Bhavik and he he wanted to to leave because it was liberal it was horrendously liberal the state church ostensibly Calvinist and they started the CRC which was the sort of faithful church and and Bob Inc was called to the ministry and he had to decide whether to go to campin to the seminary of the crc which was biblical and and faithful and devoted to the things of the Lord or to go to Leiden which was the ranked liberal seminary that was a reflection of how far off the the main state church was and I'm reading through the section thinking I hope he makes the right choice and of course history indicates he made that choice to go to Leiden because it was more prestigious and so he spent his seminary education literally being assaulted on every level and eventually it showed up he wrote dogmatix his work on dogmatix much of which is very very helpful insightful very brilliant guy but a weak view of man and a weak view of sin and just too much of a protector III just grieve in my heart when good men end up in places where they become weakened weakened I was so disappointed at that point that I hopped skipped and jumped over the rest of the book and put it in the library you're gonna be a protector of your people right you're gonna be their protector that's that's by the Word of God all right one final point expository preaching assures people that they have heard from heaven expository preaching assures people that they have heard from heaven this might be a strange way to illustrate that people sometimes will say to me what was the response to your message this morning hey I was asked that three or four times by elders after Sunday morning and I said oh no one said anything no one said anything what why is that should that bother me doesn't bother me because I don't think they think they heard from me this isn't about me I think they walked out knowing they heard from heaven and if you're standing at the door waiting for people to compliment you on what you did you might get disappointed because if you're there long enough they're gonna start to take you for granted you you could wallow in that a little bit and be disappointed but you know I'm content to know that they heard from heaven and they're dealing with heaven they don't need to deal with me I love that about our people I don't rise or fall on that I'm not an emotional person I'm passionate but I'm not high and low and and whether somebody like the sermon didn't like the sermon whether I liked it or didn't like it sometimes I think I preached a sermon that was the absolutely the best that I could do I understanding of that passage and I put it together in a way that satisfied my own heart and I have a pretty high standard and my wife will say you just want yourself today it wasn't up to us normal what woman get behind me what what are you talking about you don't know how hard that was and sometimes you know I'm laboring like mad to get through this thing and make sense of it and sometimes my brain is even detached and some of us you know pastor that's a great but for the most part it all sort of cancels itself out I can't tell necessarily one from another but that's not how you evaluate and I think in time you know if I go out of town people who know about me will say you know thank you for your message or whatever but here in the church they're listening to the voice from heaven that comes through the Word of God and there I thought III pray that they're dealing with heaven on these issues prayer room Sunday morning was full of people that's that's what you want because they're they're dealing with with the Lord not with me

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Length: 48min 44sec (2924 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 17 2012