SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/03/2025 9:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3
“The Content of His Commission”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2
Timothy 4:2a
Message
of the verse: “preach the word;”
I begin this SD with a quotation from John MacArthur’s
commentary: “Intellectually brilliant as
he was, the apostle testified to believers at Corinth: “Brethren, I did not come with superiority
of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you
except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in
persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that
your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God’ (1
Cor. 2:1-5).
‘In
his next letter to that church, he said, ‘We do not preach ourselves but Christ
Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake’ (2 Cor.
4:5).
“By far the most reliable and effective way to
proclaim all of God’s Word is to preach it expositorially. In his book Ministry of the Word, the
nineteenth-century Scotsman William Taylor writes,
By expository preaching, I
mean that method of pulpit discourse which consists in the consecutive
interpretation, and practical enforcement, of a book of the sacred cannon…Exposition
is the presentation to the people, in an intelligible and forcible manner, of
the meaning of the sacred writer…It is the honest answer which the preacher
gives, after faithful study, to these questions, “What is its bearing on
related Christian truths, or on the life and conversation of the Christian
himself?’ ([Grand Rapids: Baker, 1975], 155, 157, 159)
Like countless men before and after his time,
Taylor preached expositorially because he wanted to know the mind of the
Spirit, because he wanted to know how one Scripture truth bore upon another,
and he had to carefully understand what God desired for His people.
John
MacArthur then goes on to give seven reasons why faithful and full proclamation
of the word is the only right way to preach, and I will now begin to give those
seven reasons as I continue this SD.
First,
such preaching lets God speak rather than man, because it declares God’s own
Word. And it is an incredibly thrilling
privilege to give voice to God!
Second,
preaching the word is the only right way to preach because it brings the
preacher into direct contact with the mind of the Holy Spirit, who is the
author of Scripture. Now it is for that
reason that the preacher of the Word can find the process of study and
discovery to be even more rewarding than the preaching that results from it,
gratifying as that can be.
“It
is tragic and puzzling that so many preachers who recognize Scripture to be God’s
own Word spend more time investigating and interacting with the limited and
imperfect minds of other men that delving into the infinite and holy mind of God. Part of the reason, of course, is that many hearers
do not really want to delve into the depths of God’s righteousness and truth,
because it exposes their own shallowness and sin. Paul already has warned Timothy about the
danger of those who hold ‘to a form of godliness, although they have denied its
power’ (2 Tim. 3:5). Later in the
present passage he will warn again that ‘the time will come when the will not
endure sound doctrine;,,, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will
turn aside to myths’ (2 Tim. 4:3-4; cf. Acts 20:29-30).
Now we move onto the third point, and that is
preaching the word is the only right way to preach because it forces the
preacher to proclaim all of God’s revelation, and this includes those truths
that even many believers find hard to learn or accept.
Number
four: Preaching the word is the only right way to preach because it promotes
biblical literacy in a congregation, not only through what is learned from the
sermon itself but also through the increased desire to study Scripture more
carefully and consistently on their own.
Now the faithful pastor, and all other faithful believers, love to learn
God’s Word because they love the God of the Word. I and now think of the 119th Psalm
where in all but a few verses, perhaps three or four of the 176 verses the name
of God is mentioned.
Fifth,
preaching the word is the only right way to preach because it carries ultimate
authority. It is the complete and
perfect self-revelation of God Himself and of His divine will for mankind,
which He has created in His image. So
the question arises as to why any faithful preacher would go to any other
source to preach the truth. Now I am not
saying that examples cannot be made in a preachers sermons for after all Jesus
used parables to help explain truth, and yes I do know that is part of the Word
of God.
“Sixth,
preaching the word is the only right way to preach because only that kind of
preaching can transform both the preacher and the congregation.”
Seventh
and final and most compelling reason that preaching the word is the only right
way to preach is simply that it is His own Word, and only His own Word, that
the Lord calls and commissions His preachers to proclaim.
MacArthur
concludes “In the book mentioned, above, William Taylor writes, ‘Let it never
be forgotton, then, that he who would rise to eminence and usefulness in the
pulpit, and become ‘wise in winning souls,’ must say of the work of the
ministry, ‘This one thing I do.’ He must
focus his whole heart and life upon the pulpit.
He must give his days and his nights to the production of those
addresses by which he seeks to convince the judgments and move the hearts and
elevate the lives of his hearers’ (p. 7).”
Spiritual Meaning for my
Life Today:
MacArthur in this section was writing about something that I truly love,
as there are many days when I am taking my 5 mile walk that I listen to the
preaching of John MacArthur to help me to live for the Lord in a better way,
and also to prepare me to write my Spiritual Diaries which go onto my blogs and
then the Holy Spirit of God sends them around the world each and every do to
those He desires to read them, and truly blesses my days.
M y Steps of Faith for
Today: I
continue to trust the Lord, through His Spirit to send these Spiritual Diaries
around the word in order to bring about salvation and to cause believers to
grow in their walk with the Lord, and to most of all bring glory to my Lord
Jesus Christ.
7/3/2025 9:05 AM
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