Steven Lawson: The Word of the Lord Stands Forever

well rc is still with us didn't he and i don't know about you but he still sits on my shoulder and he's in my ear and i can still hear that raspy voice and teaching theology and the truth and we love ligonier ministries that perpetuates and continues this ministry of instruction and discipleship and teaching sound doctrine to us and through the medium of cassette tapes that used to be now podcasts uh we can still sit under the influence and under the teaching of our sea sproul and as the bible says though he is dead yet he speaks so so thankful to the lord to be a part of this ministry that has an outreach around the world that i think is unlike any other ministry i i don't know of another ministry on planet earth that has such a global impact as does ligonier ministries and really in many ways we've only just begun and the future i think has never looked brighter in what god is doing and so there actually has not been a slowdown since the lord took our seed to glory if anything the lord is pushed down on the gas pedal and we're accelerated all the more so praise the lord even for us to be able to see this well i want you to take your bible and turn with me to the book of second timothy chapter four and i want to begin this message by reading the passage that we will be looking at i just received message from bob godfrey to my wife and my wife to me ask steve if he's going to have any bible in his message tonight so there's going to be a lot of bible okay there's there's going to be a lot of bible and really the preacher has nothing to say apart from the word of god right because when the bible speaks god speaks and so ii timothy chapter 4 i want to begin reading in verse 1 and i've been asked to address the subject of the word of god but from this unique angle the preaching of the word of god and so ii timothy 4 beginning in verse 1 the words of the apostle paul to his young son in the faith i solemnly charge you in the presence of god and of christ jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and by his kingdom preach the word be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with great patience and instruction for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will it will turn aside to miss but you be sober in all things endure hardship do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry anyone who picks up a bible and reads it from cover to cover from genesis to revelation is first of all impressed with the message of salvation that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in christ alone based upon the authority of scripture alone for the glory of god alone that runs from cover to cover in the entire bible the other thing that we would be impressed with is that the means for this message to go out to the four corners of the earth for this message to go out into the highways and to the byways is that it would be proclaimed by the public preaching of the word of god there would be many other means such as one-on-one evangelism and small group discipleship and and books and and just the sheer reading of the bible but the primary means of grace by which this message of salvation would come to a lost and perishing world would be that god would send out waves of preachers into the world to herald the message of salvation in jesus christ as you read the old testament the entire canon of the old testament 39 books from genesis to malachi there there are legions of prophets that have been dispatched from the courts of heaven to go into this world and to trumpet this message thus says the lord they were god's mouthpieces they were god's spokesmen in fact one entire book in the old testament ecclesiastes which means the preacher is devoted to the preaching of the word when we come to the new testament god had only one son and he made him a preacher and he sent him forth to preach the gospel of the kingdom and called men and women to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand god sent a forerunner before the coming of jesus and he too was a preacher john the baptist and he was a voice crying in the wilderness repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand jesus spent the three years of his public ministry he had called 12 men to travel with him and he trained them to be preachers of the word of god in the great commission in luke's gospel he called them and commanded them to go into all the world to all nations and to proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins when we come to the book of acts one out of every four verses in the book of acts is a sermon or is the equivalent of a sermon and we all want to recover the vitality and the and the power of that first century church and one aspect of that is it was a preaching church the title of the book of acts is the acts of the apostles i think it's mislabeled it is really the preaching of the apostles that's what the book of acts is and when we come to the pastoral epistles there are three first timothy ii timothy in the book of titus and the primary emphasis of these epistles is to charge timothy and titus and every other preacher down through the centuries to preach the word when we come to the book of hebrews the entire book of hebrews is one sermon it is hebrews 13 verse 22 it is said to be a word of exhortation that that phrase is used in acts chapter 13 to refer to the preaching of the apostles and when we come to the book of revelation that we continue to read of the preaching that will take the church into the future the point is from cover to cover what we read is in the bible the primary dominant emphasis upon the preaching of the word of god to dispense the message from heaven when we come to church history the high points of church history are defined by the great preachers whom god has raised up when we go to the reformation it is a a panoply of of great preachers from martin luther to john calvin to ulrich zwingli to heinrich bollinger and and then the english reformation with ridley and latimer and and cranmer and and all the rest the great eras of church history are identified by a season in which there is a new generation of preachers of the word of god we come to the puritan era it was a golden era for preachers as giants walked the land of england and scotland and were raised up to blow the trumpet beginning with john knox and down through the puritan age it was a golden era of preachers and when we come to the great awakening it was a time in which god sent forth preachers of the word of god that led the charge of what god was doing in these colonies as well as in england men like jonathan edwards and george whitefield and and all of the rest of those they were men who electrified the colonies with the preaching of the word of god and the same can be saying can be said for the great victorian era with men like charles head and spurgeon and j.c ryle on into the present day in the reformed resurgence with men like john mcarthur and r.c sprole james montgomery boyce god has always made his church strong through the preaching of the word of god no church will rise any higher than its pulpit no church will grow beyond its pulpit no church will mature beyond its pulpit you need to be under the sound preaching of the word of god and as i bring this message tonight we come to ii timothy chapter 4 of verses 1 through 5. these are the last words to come from the inspired pen of the apostle paul the year is 67 a.d the place is rome the mammartine prison these are the last words to come out of that prison this is no time to equivocate this is no time to talk about that which is secondary or that which is peripheral this is the time to address that which is of utmost importance and as paul addresses timothy in the last of his 13 epistles this is what was burning on his heart ignited by the holy spirit within his bosom as he writes these words his final farewell before his head will be severed on the ocean way he writes preach the word and so what we are looking at here tonight is not of lesser importance it is of great importance now most of you here tonight may may may not be preachers and you may say why are you preaching this to us and the answer is because this is exactly what you need to be sitting under sunday by sunday and weekday by weekday you need to be under the sound preaching of the word of god and there are those of you here among us who are preachers and i have met countless numbers of you at this conference already this is your job description this is what god has called you to do and as we walk through this tonight i want god to directly speak to your heart because the great and crying need for the church today is for men of god to take the word of god and in the power of the spirit of god proclaim the son of god to the people of god so let us walk through this passage tonight let it revibrate in our soul again and as i break out this passage there are several headings that i want to set before you number one in verse one i want you to see the sobriety of this charge the sobriety of this charge because this charge could not be any more serious and solemn verse 1 tells us that what paul has to say is as serious as a heart attack so notice how verse 1 begins i solemnly charge you you need to know that this is a military term that issues a command from a high-ranking officer down to a foot soldier and paul is mandating and charging and commanding young timothy to fall in line and to follow the instruction that he is about to receive that this is not an option for ministry this is not a uh a suggestion for timothy but this is coming to timothy with apostolic authority he has only one choice whether he will obey or whether he will disobey what follows he says i solemnly charge you in the presence of god and christ jesus and he is bringing now the first and second person of the trinity into this matter as though god the father and god the son are standing with paul and they are speaking with one voice and in reality this is coming down from the throne of god above i solemnly charge you in the presence of god and of christ jesus and now to just tighten the accountability on this paul adds concerning christ jesus he says who is to judge the living and the dead john 5 22 says that the father has given all judgment to the son and what paul is saying to timothy is that you must follow what i'm about to tell you because you will be judged by this you will give an account to the head of the church on the last day at the judgment seat of christ whether or not you followed this instruction that i am giving to you james 3 verse 1 says let not many of you become teachers my brethren knowing as such we shall incur a stricter judgment there is a stricter judgment that will be administered to the one whom god calls to preach because he will give an account to the head of the church on the last day as to whether or not he followed this instruction in first corinthians 3 and verses 13 through 15 paul says to the church in corinth that on the last day every minister's doctrine and ministry will be tested by fire and those who build with gold silver and precious stones will receive a reward and those who build their ministry with a superficiality of wood and hay and stubble it will all go up in flames they themselves will be saved yet so as through fire and their entire ministry will go up in flames and it will have had no eternal value and no eternal significance whatsoever unless you build with gold silver and precious stones and so paul is telling timothy there is a divine tribunal that is on the horizon of time that is on the brink of eternity and second corinthians 5 10 says we shall all appear before the judgment seat of christ just because we have been justified by faith does not mean that every believer will not stand at the judgment seat of christ we will all stand there and will give an account of ourselves to him as a as a slave and servant to his master but standing at the forefront will be every god called preacher who will give an account for their preaching and for their ministry and for their doctrine and then to heighten the the sobriety of this even further he adds at the end of verse 1 and by his appearing in his kingdom and what paul wants timothy to know is that the lord jesus christ is soon to appear and when he appears he says behold i come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according to his deeds we are saved by grace we will be judged by works and every preacher will be judged on the last day according to his works in the ministry and then in his kingdom and when the lord will usher in his eternal kingdom and so what we see here in verse 1 human language would fail to heighten the intensity of this any further of the seriousness for the preacher who stands before an open bible and ministers to the people of god this must be followed and so this is number one the sobriety of this charge i have this calligraphy that hangs on my wall and has hung on my wall for decades and every time i would walk out of my pastor's office and walk into the worship center i i see this passage to remind me that i must give an account one day to the one who has enlisted me to preach his word so that's first the sobriety of this charge now second i want you to note the substance the substance of this charge and what we see in verses two through five are nine imperative verbs that will come in rapid fire staccato fashion and the first verb is the basis of the last date the first verb is really like the umbrella over the other verbs that will follow and so what we see here in beginning in verse 2 preach the word everything that will follow will tell us how to preach the word but paul begins with the big idea he begins by saying preach the word please note he does not say lecture the word please note he does not say share the word he does not say talk the word he does not say whisper the word he does not say entertain the word he says preach the word now this word preach is the dominant word that's used in the new testament caruso to describe this this dynamic ministry of the proclamation of the word of god the word caruso means to herald it means to lift up the voice it means to declare the truth of the word of god with all of the dynamics that accompany a public proclamation of the word of god it is drawn from the the culture of the day caesar had his heralds in the palace and whenever caesar would issue an imperial decree and he wanted to dispense it to the corners of the roman empire he would summon for his heralds to be brought into his inner court and there he would give to them the message that they were to take they were dispatched into the highways into the byways they would go into the surrounding cities they would go into the what would be for us like the town square he would gather the people around him and the herald would cup his hands he would lift up his voice and he would say something like this hear ye hear ye this day rome has won a great victory we have annexed another kingdom into the empire or the herald would say something like this hear ye hear ye this day caesar has a son there is an heir to the throne of rome he was not to enter into negotiation with those who would gather around he was not allowed to withhold any part of the message he was not allowed to add his own editorial or his own personal opinion to the message he was not to come across like the court jester he was representing caesar and he must speak with the authority of caesar and with the dignity that represents the the high court of of rome and once he had given the message he was to report immediately back to rome and to re-enter into the palace and give an account of himself to caesar whether or not he had been faithful to discharge his duty as a herald and if he failed to give the whole message it would cost him his life this is the very word that is used preach the word and when paul writes this to timothy timothy can immediately see and understand what what paul is calling him to do it is not to go out and whisper the message it is not to even bring simply instruction it is to go beyond that and to herald and proclaim and preach and declare this message that had been entrusted to him you see it matters to god not just what the preacher says but how the preacher says it and as he preaches he is to come across with an element of intensity and fervency and urgency and dignity uh there is to be uh a sense of the importance of this message that is being brought from the high courts of heaven from the head of the church jesus christ and preaching is to come with all of the elements of a public proclamation of the truth that goes beyond mere instruction mark lloyd jones was once asked by a young man lord dr lloyd jones can you tell me the difference between teaching and preaching lloyd jones said young man if you have to ask me the difference between teaching and preaching it is obvious you have never heard preaching because if you've heard preaching you know the difference between the two preaching is to start out with teaching but then it is to shift into a higher gear with a higher trajectory of the message with a higher aim not simply to instruct the mind but to ignite the heart and to challenge the will and to call for the decision in the heart of the one who hears preaching is too important is to include beyond instruction it is to include correction confrontation persuasion exhortation edification exhortation motivation affirmation inspiration evangelization summons as well as constellation all of these elements are to be included in the delivery of the message and so as as paul tells timothy to preach the word there is only one message that is to come from the lips of timothy he is not to be citing the wisdom of the world he is not to be a mouthpiece for athens and allow the philosophers to to speak through him he is to speak the word of the living god and he is to preach the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth and he may not censor or edit the message or hold back any part of it and so he says preach the word and we understand what the word is because in the previous chapter in chapter 3 verse 16 he says all scripture is inspired by god this this the scripture the word scripture means the writings and that is clear from verse 15 the sacred writings it's not that you thought you heard voices it's not that you had some mystical experience it's not that you thought you had some word from god no you are to stick with the written scripture and you are to preach the book that has been inspired by god to preach and what do we believe about this book and we believe number one it is the divinely inspired word of god that there is no other book on planet earth that is divinely inspired except this book jesus said in matthew 4 verse 4 man shall not live by bread alone quoting deuteronomy 8 verse 3 but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of god this book is literally god breathed it has come out of the mouth of god and not only is it inspired it is inerrant it is it it is pure unadulterated rc would say unvarnished truth jesus prayed in john 17 verse 17 sanctify them by your word your word is truth this book is infallible this book is authoritative this book is sufficient this book is clear this book is immutable this book is eternal this book is invincible for the word of god is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword able to pierce as far as the division of soul and spirit and pierces to the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart for there is no creature hidden from his sight but all things are open and laid bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do if you believe this book is the inspired the inerrant the infallible the all-sufficient authoritative word of the living god then you would be an absolute fool not to preach it you would be a walking contradiction in terms to affirm the inspiration of scripture but then to preach your own stuff and to be have so little of the word of god in your message the bible the bible speaks of itself as the word of god and so this is the substance of the charge preach the word timothy is left with no choice but to preach the word and every preacher down through the centuries is left with no choice but to preach the word we do not need less bible we need more bible in our preaching [Applause] now i want you to note third the specifics of this charge because the next imperative verbs define and dictate how timothy must preach the word and all preachers must preach the word let me put it to you this way no preacher is free to reinvent preaching no preacher is free to preach according to how the culture would dictate to him how people want preaching to be this has been placed in the canon of scripture for every timothy on every continent in every generation in every century this is binding upon every preacher so i want to walk us through now these next eight imperative verbs and i want you to know this is not a multiple choice where you can pick three out of the eight for your pulpit ministry no all eight like links in a chain are equally important and must be at the very center of the preaching of the word of god and as we look at this this is the kind of church you need to be in this is the kind of preaching you must be under if you are to live a healthy and and prosperous christian life so please note now i need to go through these rather quickly here's the first one that defines how you preach the word be ready be ready in season and out of season that this verb be ready is another military term and it means to be on red alert it means to to stand ready it means to be always ready to preach the word and when he says in season and out of season that's a euphemistic way of saying all day every day there is no other season than in season or out of season can you think of another season what paul is telling to timothy you need to always have your sword drawn and ready to preach the word at the drop of a hat when he says in season and out of season it means to preach when it is convenient and when it is inconvenient when when it is welcomed when it is not welcomed when the people want to hear it when the people do not want to hear it young man you are under apostolic authority you are to preach in season and out of season you are to be always preaching the word of god and you know we used to have a lot of preaching we used to have preaching on sunday morning we used to have preaching on sunday night we used to have preaching on wednesday night we used to have bible conferences and now what we have we have discarded preaching during the week we have discarded preaching on sunday night we have shortened the preaching on sunday morning is it any wonder that the church has become so anemic because it has cut itself off from the primary means of grace that would come into their lives the puritans used to say this if you had only one hour to give to the word of god which would most profit your soul one hour alone with god with just your bible or one hour under the preaching of the word of god by a spirit-filled man who has been gifted by god who has invested 20 hours in the preparation of this message and it he brings the message with heart searching application and draws out the theology and the doctrine that is in the passage which of these two would most profit your soul and the puritans said to a man it would be it would be to be under the preaching of the word of god now it's not either or it's both in but which one would be of greatest prophet to you it is to be under the preaching of the word of god that is why paul says to timothy be ready in season and out of season now notice the next imperative verb he says reprove that that's not a noun that's a verb it's a call for action reprove that word means to expose what is wrong it means to as light exposes what is in darkness even so the preaching of the word is to expose wrong living wrong attitudes wrong doctrine and to show the error in the lives of people john 16 verse 8 this the spirit has come into the world to convict men of sin and righteousness and judgment it's it's the primary ministry of the holy spirit to to bring about conviction of sin and the preaching of the word of god is to reprove to convict to tell a fault if there is no reproof there is no preaching then rebuke the word rebuke means to charge sharply it means to call for repentance of wrongs that have been committed it means to bring a prosecution against the one who has failed to keep the law we are to bring not only reproof expose what is wrong but rebuke in order to show what must take place in order to make this right there must be repentance and then the word exhort pericleio which means to call to one side this word means to urge to plead to persuade to to summons the word means to call for action and that is what preaching does that is where it goes beyond instruction which is directed to the mind exhortation is directed to the will to summon the will to respond to the truth that has been taught to the mind think of it this way the preacher is to be like a an attorney in a courtroom a lawyer in a in a courtroom and he has to call to the witness stand his witnesses to present his case he calls matthew and mark and luke and john and peter and paul and to bring their testimony into the public record he is to then bring his evidence and he has to bring exhibit a and he has to bring exhibit b and he is then to cross-examine the false witnesses and to expose the fallacy of their testimony then at the end of the trial he is to address the jury and he will restate his case and with all of the persuasion that he can he will then call for the verdict he he will call for the answer whatever it is in the case that that he is presenting and that's what true preaching does it presents the scripture it refutes false teaching it brings evidence but then it calls for the verdict how will you respond to the truth do you see what god requires from your life on the basis of this truth and as timothy is to do it in verse two he says he's to do with great patience and instruction in the word patience means endurance under difficulty it means to be long-suffering and to be forbearing it means to be persistent in the face of resistance and it is an allusion to the the pushback that timothy will receive from his listeners and he must be patient he must be persistent he must persevere he must not back down he must continue to bring the truth with much patience and then he says and instruction which refers to sound doctrine and to continue to build his case from the whole of scripture that what he has presented is the absolute truth of the word of god the puritans used to put it this way there needs to be a fire in the pulpit the pulpit needs to be on fire and a fire gives off two elements a fire gives off light and it gives off heat and in as they understood preaching and i believe as the bible presents it there needs to be the light of instruction there needs to be the light of sound doctrine there needs to be the light of clear teaching from the scripture but it is to be presented with the heat of passion with the heat of persuasion with the heat of exhortation it is not one without the other and if all you have is light but no heat you will have a certain kind of church and if you have all heat but no light you're going to have another kind of church but what god desires is that there to be the light of instruction that comes with the heat of rebuke and reproof and exhortation so look at verse 3. the next imperative verb does not come until the beginning of verse 5 but paul sets the scene sets the stage beginning in verse 3 for what he will say at the beginning of verse 5. so let's walk through this for the time will come there is a certainty about this timothy as you go forth to preach you can you can you can you can be guaranteed of this that the time will come in your lifetime that they will not endure sound doctrine they will not put up with it they will not receive it and the they in verse 3 refers to unconverted unregenerated church members who do not want the full counsel of god they will not endure sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled that that's a metaphorical picture they want a preacher who will tell them what they want to hear they will want a preacher who will be a backslapping ego massaging entertaining preacher who will appeal to their carnal flesh who will not bring reproof who will not bring rebuke they want a preacher rather than than boxing their ears will tickle their ears and pour honey in their ears and tell them what they want to hear he says they will accumulate for themselves and they're usually on pulpit committees and many times they they are in leadership they are the ones who are accumulating these these preachers and teachers they they will hand pick and stockpile they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires not according to god's desire but according to their own desire and they will appeal they want the preacher to appeal to their flesh and sing to them how great thou art martin luther said of the preacher either the preacher will lead the people to hate their sin or they will rise up and hate the preacher one of the two now verse 4 and they these unconverted church members will turn away from the truth and this verb turn away is a medical term that literally means to throw a ju a part of your body at a joint that they will so turn their head away from the preacher turn their ear away from him that they will throw their neck at a joint that they will turn away from the truth that he is actually preaching and will turn aside to miss and these myths are religious superstitions that are drawn from the bankrupt dry wells of worldly wisdom now here comes the verb at the beginning of verse 5. but you and you can also almost just see paul pointing his finger to timothy as as he writes this but you be sober and this word be sober means do not be intoxicated by what they smoke they will blow in your ears as they will try to conform you to what they want in a preacher you be sober do not be pulled in by their desires of what they want you to preach and how they want you to preach i love martin lloyd jones who was a physician who was a doctor before he entered the ministry and people were coming to him at westminster chapel it's like oh all the preaching we need to change our church we need to have another strategy and lloyd jones said when i was a physician i never let the patient write the prescription and neither will timothy under the instruction of the apostle paul you also need to know that when martin lloyd jones entered the ministry he went to wales and he went to the most difficult church of all of the options that he had it was a church that had a drama ministry and on saturday night to get people into the building they took the pulpit and they moved the pulpit off the floor and all of these great sea actors in the church were playing out their fantasies and they were bringing in people from the community to see their little plays and the first thing martin lloyd jones did when he came to be the pastor of the church he bolted the pulpit to the floor he manned up and it was making a statement to this church that the very primacy and centrality of the ministry of this church will be the preaching of the word of god and so paul says to timothy be sober don't become intoxicated with what everyone else wants you to do you are under divine mandate to preach the word to reprove to rebuke to exhort with much patience and instruction next verb endure hardship do you see that in your bible endure hardship the word means to suffer evil and the idea here is timothy in your church where god will send you there's going to be great rejection there's going to be resistance there's going to be hardship because unconverted people do not want sound doctrine they don't want to hear about total depravity they don't want to hear about sovereign election they don't want to hear about definite atonement and the effectual call and monergistic regeneration they want to be told about how to have a how to have your best life now that's what they want to hear and so he says you're going to have to endure hardship because when you go into the ministry it's going to be the challenge of your lifetime ask john calvin about that he lasted two years in geneva before they ran him out of town asked jonathan edwards about that he was the spiritual leader of the great awakening and after 22 years as pastor in northampton they voted him out of the church with a 90 vote ask charles head and spurgeon about it who essentially died of a broken heart the result of the downgrade controversy great preachers will be met with great resistance when the people have not been taught the word of god and he must not capitulate he he must not he must not retreat he must continue to bring instruction with much patience and then he says notice do the work of an evangelist that's not talking about outside the church that's talking about inside the church that's talking about maybe some of your elders maybe some of your deacons and maybe some of the charter members in your church those who have been a part of the church they've just never been born again they have learned the vocabulary of christianity they know how to fit in but they have never entered into the kingdom of god you need to do the work of an evangelist in your own church timothy and you need to win people to christ and it'll be amazing how that will free up your church and to remove some of the resistance as people are finally born again and brought into the kingdom of of heaven martin lloyd jones let me hear his testimony for many years i thought i was a christian when in fact i was not it was only later that i came to see that i had never been a christian and i became one what i needed was preaching that would convict me of sin but i never heard preaching that convicted me of sin the preaching we had was always passed on the assumption that we are all christians how naive it would be for me tonight to assume that you're all christians yeah just because you're in a conference doesn't mean you're a christian any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car except you be born again you will not see the kingdom of heaven and when lloyd jones started his ministry you know who was one of the first people to be converted under his preaching was the chairman of his board then after that was his own wife he married an unconverted woman and did not know it and she did not know it because she had never sat under real preaching that brought reproof and rebuke and exhortation and everything that paul calls for here listen to bethan lloyd jones's testimony i was for two years under martin's preaching before i really understood what the gospel was i thought you had to be a drunkard or a prostitute to be converted she was converted under her own husband's expository preaching as the word of god sifted through her heart and exposed her own heart to herself and for the first time in her life she saw herself as god sees her as the light of illumination came shining into her heart and brought conviction well this leads to the last imperative verb and it's really the summation of this charge is at the end of verse 5 paul writes fulfill your ministry that that really functions as a a summary bottom line statement that really serves as a conclusion to everything that he just said and to fulfill his ministry means the first eight imperative verbs to fulfill your ministry timothy means you must preach the word you must be ready in season and out you must reprove you must rebuke you must exhort you must be sober you must endure hardship you must do the work of an evangelist that's how you fulfill your ministry this verb fulfilled means to bring full to make full to fill full to fill to the full but we have the idea timothy you're going to have to go all the way you're going to have to fulfill every aspect of this charge that i am laying at your feet as i am now ready to pass from this world to the next world i have kept the faith i have finished the course timothy now i pass the baton to you and you may not do anything else you may not come up with your own scheme on how to preach you may not come up with your own methodology on how you're going to deliver the message this is recorded permanently in the inspired word of god to stare every preacher in the face that this is his job description among other things but this is how he is to preach and so as i bring this to conclusion i just want to ask you are you a preacher of the word of god here tonight and if you are a preacher of the word of god you have a special calling from heaven upon your life i believe it is the highest calling that there is and as you are called by god to preach his word this is exactly how you must preach his word you cannot cut any corners you cannot pull up short you cannot do anything but what god has specified in this passage of scripture with imperative command verbs and for the rest of us here who are believers in the lord jesus christ this is the kind of church you need to be in if you're not getting this you need to say where's the beef [Applause] if you're going to a church that does not bring this kind of preaching that's like going to a restaurant that doesn't serve you food and you actually pay for it and you actually give a tip and you underwrite that which is a poor substitute for the apostolic preaching of the word of god if we are to have a first century church again with all of its power and with all of its dynamite we must have this kind of preaching in our pulpits and i am of the mind we don't need more preachers we really may need fewer preachers so that we have real preachers standing in pulpits and if you're here tonight without christ if you're one of these church members who sit in church and just criticize and harp and critique you need a new heart you need a new life you need a savior the lord jesus christ and we do the work of an evangelist with you and i call you to flee from the perishing of this world i call you to flee to the lord jesus christ tonight this very moment and for you and your heart of hearts to throw yourself upon the mercy of god and to believe in his son the lord jesus christ and to repent of your sins and to be a part of the solution and no longer a part of the problem the church where you attend may god save your soul if you are here tonight without a personal relationship with jesus christ our lord god bless you you

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

Views: 63,818

Keywords: a stumbling block, christ, christ and him crucified, dr steven lawson, edifying the saints, expository preaching, god, god's word, jesus christ, know the truth, ligcon, ligonier national conference 2021, preaching, reformed, reformed theology, right now counts forever, steven j lawson, steven lawson, steven lawson sermons, the kingdom, the lord, the lord calls, the word, the word of the lord, the word of the lord stands forever, theology

Id: 7ShBO63X8aI

Length: 58min 40sec (3520 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 20 2021