Grace to You Weekend

John MacArthur: Preach the Word because of dangerous times, godly examples, the power of the Scripture, accountability to God, and the tendency of people to drift. They'll drift, sad to say, even when you're preaching the Word. Hard to imagine what they'll do if you don't. Constantly be faithful to call them back. For all these reasons, great function in the church is to preach.

Phil Johnson: Welcome to Grace to You Weekend with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

Here's an interesting exercise. Do an Internet search for churches in your area. What do they emphasize? What do they say is their purpose? You'll probably find priorities like building relationships and addressing emotional needs and having a contemporary style. Now, those things are fine for a community center or a support group, but have those things found too high a place in the church?

Bottom line: What is the purpose of the church? And what is the purpose of the pastor? How can a church and its pastor make sure they are honoring the Lord every Sunday? Well, the title of John MacArthur's current study gives you more than a little hint. Here's John now to continue his series titled, "Why Is Preaching Worth Fighting For?"

John MacArthur: There are five reasons why the Lord has designed that the center and heart of the ministry of the church is preaching, and preaching the Word. The Word of God, the revealed Scripture.

Reason number one is because of dangerous times. Dangerous times. Look at chapter three, verse one.

But realize this, he says, that in the last days difficult times will come.

He says, "Preach the Word because of the dangerous times, the dangerous seasons." It is a, it is a time of all times to preach the Word. Here we are, getting further down the line, accumulating more and more danger, and at the same time a diminishing of the proclamation of the truth to meet that danger, rather than an escalation of it.

We're going to be doing exactly the opposite of what we are doing. Instead of setting preaching aside, we ought to be increasing the preaching and the preachers because of the increase in the dangers.

Serious dangers exist today in the church, threatening the church. And that's why we have to preach the Word because the Word answers all of these things. The Word sorts it all out.

Whether it's sacramentalism or rationalism, whether it's some form of liberalism or experientialism or mysticism or subjectivism or pragmatism or whatever it is, the Word of God gives the truth that comes to bear against all of that.

There's a second reason why Paul tells us we have to preach. Not only because we live in dangerous times, which can only be addressed by divine truth proclaimed, but we are to preach because of godly examples. Of godly examples.

Because we have been given a pattern to follow. Look at verse 10. Paul says to Timothy, "You followed my teaching, conduct, purpose. You followed my faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. What persecutions I endured, and out of them all, the Lord delivered me. And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

Then down to verse 14. "You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them."

Paul says, "You must preach because that's the pattern that's been set for you. You have followed me in my ministerial duty." That is my teaching and my conduct.

"You saw, you heard my teaching." "You watched my ministry unfold." You saw how I conducted myself as God's servant, as an apostle.

You not only followed my ministry, but you followed my personal life. Verse 10, "You saw my purpose." That is my motive, what drove me, what compelled me.

"You saw my faith." "You saw me in all of the issues of ministry, trusting God." You saw the strength and direction of my faith. You saw my endurance.

"You saw my love." In other words, the Lord brought you beside me to follow my pattern. A pattern of ministry, how I taught and how I conducted my ministry.

A pattern of personal quality, the motives of my heart, my faith in God, my endurance, my love for Him and love for people.

And then he says, "You even had the opportunity," because Timothy, of course, followed Paul, spent years with him, "You even had the opportunity to see me in difficult experiences." To learn, he says in verse 10, "of my perseverance." Then in verse 11, "to learn of my persecutions and my sufferings, such as happened to me, for example, at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra." All the way there to being stoned and left for dead on a dump. You saw the persecutions, you saw that I endured them, you saw that the Lord delivered me out of them all.

In other words, God gave you a model to follow. God gave you a model of ministry. Paul is saying to Timothy, "You must preach the Word because that's what we do and that's what we've trained you to do and that's the model that has been established for you."

You saw what we were, what we are. We're not entertainers. We are preachers, and we live and die for the truth.

So we preach in the church because of the dangerous seasons that can only be confronted by the truth proclaimed that threatened the life of the church and the honor of the Lord of the church. We preach because of godly examples who have passed on this baton to us.

I look back to a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, a great-great-grandfather. Five generations, passing on the preaching responsibility. My professors, my teachers in seminary, ministers and pastors and Bible teachers who influenced my life. I'm just one in a long line. I, I just want to keep being faithful to the same pattern that God established. That's why we preach, because our godly examples have established that pattern.

If there's anybody that I would choose above all to be like, it would be the Apostle Paul. You probably know that. I really don't want to change anything. I just want to try to do as closely to what he did as I can possibly do.

There's a third reason why we preach. We preach because of the dangerous times. We preach because we're in a line of godly examples. We preach thirdly because of the power of the Word. We preach because of the power of the Word. Verse 15.

"And that from childhood you have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."

We preach, and we preach because we know the sacred writings. What are the sacred writings? Right here. The books of Scripture.

And they are able to give the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. We preach because the Word is powerful to save.

First Peter chapter 1, verse 23, "You have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is through the living and abiding Word of God." And verse 25, "and this is the Word which was preached to you."

We preach because the Word saves. The Word transforms. Psalm 19, "The law of the Lord converts the soul." That's why we preach, the power of the Word.

Then in verse 16 he adds, "All Scripture." We preach all Scripture because it's all inspired by God. It's all profitable.

We preach the whole counsel of God because it's all inspired and it's all profitable. People sometimes say to me, "You go so slowly through the Scripture." The truth is I probably don't go slowly enough. If it's all inspired, I really don't want to skip anything. If it's all profitable, I don't want to go over anything.

It's all profitable for teaching. What's that? Doctrine. For giving people truth that is, listen, precise and accurate. The Bible is not just a blur that you can sort of fill in any way you want. The Bible is clear and precise.

And you are to study to show yourself approved, a workman needing not to be ashamed because you rightly divide it. It needs to be handled with great precision so that you can give people teaching or doctrine, sound truth.

Then he adds, "reproof." It has the power not only to give people truth, but it has the power to expose error. It reproves, it, it exposes error, it uncovers the lie.

And then he adds in verse 16 for correction. That literally means to restore someone to an upright position. It has the power to correct, to put something back in place, to put something broken set and back functioning.

And then he adds, "training," the positive side of correction. You pick up the broken pieces, reassemble, and train for usefulness.

Now, when you think about the work of the Word, when you think about what the Word does, it saves, it provides truth, it exposes error, it restores, and it trains, you begin to understand its power. Verse 17.

"That the man of God may be adequate." I don't think that's a very good translation because when we think of adequate, we think of something that's marginally acceptable. "Well, it's adequate." That's not what this means. It means that the man of God may be complete. Equipped for every good work.

Why do we preach the Word, folks? Because the Word makes the man of God complete, equipped for every good work. That's the sufficiency of Scripture.

We preach then because of the dangerous seasons. We preach because of the godly examples before us. And we preach because the power of Scripture.

We preach the Word because the Word changes lives. God has ordained by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.

And we were begotten again, as we read in First Peter 1, by the Word which was preached to us. I, I, I believe in personal counseling, I believe in personal discipleship, I believe in small group Bible studies, but I think the greatest power in the proclamation of truth in the church is preaching and teaching through gifted men who know the Scriptures.

Fourthly, we, we preach, in case we're not motivated enough yet, chapter four. We preach because not only of the dangerous times, the godly examples, and the power of Scripture, but we preach because of the command of God.

Chapter 4, verse 1, "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 His kingdom, preach the Word."

That is heavy language, folks. I charge you. Not because of some earthly ordination. Not because of some ecclesiastical expectation. Not because of some seminary training. I, I charge you. The word charge means command. And Paul is speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, like an Old Testament prophet, the very Word of God.

I command you from God to preach because your whole life and ministry is carried on in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, and they will judge you.

That's why Paul said, "Woe is unto me if I what? Preach not." "Woe is unto me if I preach not."

God is watching. Christ is watching. Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead. And that's going to happen in the glory of His appearing, when He establishes His kingdom. There is coming a reckoning time.

First Corinthians chapter 4, Paul said, "It's a, it's not of concern to me what you think." Remember that in verses one to five?

And he said, "I, I it's of small consideration what men think about me." He said, "I don't even judge myself because when I know nothing against myself, I'm not necessarily justified. I'm not a very good judge of myself either. I tend to be biased in my own favor." But, he said, "The Lord will judge me in the day that the secrets of the heart are disclosed." That's the final verdict.

Then we'll find out how much wood, hay, stubble. How much gold, silver, precious stones. Hebrews 13:17 says, "Submit to those who are over you in the Lord, for they must give an account."

James said, "Stop being so many teachers, for theirs is a greater condemnation." Those of us who preach and teach the Word of God stand before God with an immense responsibility.

And obviously we realize, as James said, that the man who never offends with his mouth is a perfect man. And since none of us are perfect, we have a great liability to that kind of offense.

We must give an account to God and we will give an account to God for the character of our ministries and our preaching. And so again, I have to confess to you that it frankly matters little to me what human opinion is. It matters little to me and should continue to matter little to me what I might prefer to do. And it matters an awful lot to me what God has demanded that I do.

I really, I really could never do anything other than what I do, preaching the Word of God, because I I'm a man under command and I, I have to give an account. And an account will come in the day when I come before the Lord.

And then we will receive, says Paul in Second Corinthians 5, "according to what we have done, whether it's good or useless." And in the day that I give an account to the Lord, I, I want to honor the Lord.

Well, that's why we preach. Preach the Word, Timothy, because of dangerous times, godly examples, the power of the Scripture, and your accountability to God.

And lastly, he says, "Preach the Word because of the tendency to deception." Because of the tendency to drift.

Verses three and four, "the time will come." And he doesn't mean it's, you know, sometime in the nebulous eons ahead. He really means again, it's kairos, it's seasons again. And he's right back to kind of where he started. He says, "You need to do this because there are going to be those times when they will not endure sound doctrine." They will have had it, they will have heard it, you will have preached it, and they won't like it.

And so they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. They'll go looking for somebody who says what they want to hear.

They'll crave the teachers who suit their tastes. They'll crave the teachers who make them feel good. And truth will have a hard time getting a hearing.

You know, it'll happen in a lot of cases. It sometimes happens in a little church where there's some prominent individual in the church who starts a fight. And the preacher gets up and preaches to that issue and brings the Word of God to bear upon that fight and loses his job because they don't want to hear the truth.

It happens sometimes in a church where a prominent person, who maybe gave a lot of money, is involved in some serious sin and the preacher addresses the sin and loses his job because they don't want to hear the truth.

And maybe there's a meeting and he's told to cool it if he wants a paycheck. It can happen in a lot of ways. Those times when there's a tendency to deception.

It can happen when people don't want to come under the conviction of the, of the Word of God and, and they want the preacher to back off because they really don't want to hear that. They just want to hear what they want to hear.

And verse 4, "They'll turn away their ears from the truth, turn aside to myths." Pretty good reasons to preach the Word, right? Stay faithful. Stay on track, Timothy.

Verse 5, "Keep your priorities straight." That's what "be sober" means, it doesn't mean don't get drunk, it means keep your priorities right. "And when suffering comes, endure it. Keep reaching out to the lost, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." You know what it is, it's to preach the Word. Just keep doing it. And remember me. When you get to the end, don't expect too much.

"I'm ready to be poured out as a drink offering. The time of my departure has come." Here was the greatest, the greatest of all. And he was about to be executed. But he could say in verse 7, "I fought the good fight, I finished the course, I kept the faith."

And then he could say in the next verse, "I'm, I'm going up there to get my crown." And it's a crown available to all who love His appearing.

Well, I think you kept the message here. Preach the Word because of dangerous times, godly examples, the power of the Scripture, accountability to God, and the tendency of people to drift. They'll drift, sad to say, even when you're preaching the Word. Hard to imagine what they'll do if you don't. Constantly be faithful to call them back.

For all these reasons, great function in the church is to preach, to preach God's Word. That's what we do.

Phil Johnson: You're listening to Grace to You Weekend with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. Thanks for tuning in today. John's current series is titled, "Why Is Preaching Worth Fighting For?"

Well, it's clear that John was committed to expository preaching. That's why Grace to You's motto is "Unleashing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time." But perhaps you're wondering, do pastors have to preach only expository sermons? In other words, can a pastor build a faithful ministry on a more topical preaching style? Here's what John said about that.

John MacArthur: Well, I think, um, it depends on what you mean by topical. I can preach on a topic. We're preaching on, preaching in this series. We're preaching on a subject. But in order to make the case for that subject, we have to expound the scriptures that apply to that subject.

So yes, I could do a series on the Christian life. I could do a series on the deity of Christ. I could do a series on um, the doctrine of sovereign election. That's part of the fullness of Scripture. So yes, the answer is, of course, you can preach on themes and topics. And as long as you understand that what underlies your conclusions is the careful exposition of the scriptures that relate to that subject.

So if you're going to preach on the deity of Christ, let's say, you would need then to do an exposition of John 1. You would need to do an exposition of uh, Philippians 2, which talks about how He humbled Himself and took on the form of a servant. So, yeah, the, the preaching on themes and subjects is very, very important. But those themes and the conclusions you draw have to be related to the exposition of the Scripture.

And I would even back it up another way and say, if I am preaching through, let's say the book of Philippians, and I come to chapter 2, and I'm preaching that Christ became a man and humbled Himself and took on the form of a servant, I start with that text, but I end up with the theology of the Incarnation. Right. So I end up talking about Christology.

So you could start with the subject of Christology and you could come to the conclusions by going to the word, the scriptures that relate to that doctrine. Or you could start with an exposition, and when you come across that doctrine in the exposition, you go to other scriptures and you build a case for the deity of Christ that way. But I, I would say it's important to, to acknowledge this that whether you start with the text or start with a subject, you have to rightly divide the Word, and in the end, you want to make the subject, the doctrine, clear from either approach.

Phil Johnson: That's right, friend. And of course, that means that pastors need to understand and accurately explain biblical truth. And really, every believer needs to know how to study and apply the Word of God. And with that in mind, let me suggest a resource that can help you discover the meaning and implications of God's Word, whether you're a pastor or a lay person. And that is the MacArthur Study Bible.

Other than the biblical text itself, the most important feature of this Bible are the 25,000 footnotes that help you understand virtually every passage. To get your copy of the MacArthur Study Bible, contact us today. Call us here at 800-55-GRACE, or visit our website, gty.org.

The MacArthur Study Bible is available in the English Standard, New King James, New American Standard, and Legacy Standard versions. It's also available in many non-English translations. To see all that's available and place an order, call 800-55-GRACE or visit gty.org.

And keep in mind, you can review each lesson from John's study called, "Why Is Preaching Worth Fighting For?" Download the MP3s and the transcripts at gty.org. Those are all available free of charge, not only for this series but also for 3,600 other sermons by John MacArthur. That's every message from John's 56 years as a pastor. Dive into the sermon archive and come back often at gty.org.

Now, for our entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to watch Grace to You Television Sundays on DirecTV Channel 378 or check your local listings for channel and time. And then be here next week as John MacArthur begins a helpful study for wives, mothers, and wives and mothers-to-be. It's called, "God's Design for a Successful Woman." Don't miss the next 30 minutes of unleashing God's Truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You Weekend.