Watchman Radio Hour

David Shulze: Welcome to the Watchman Radio hour. Coming to you from Portland, Oregon, here in the beautiful Northwest. This is David Shulze, your announcer. The Watchman Radio hour is a production of Watchman Radio Ministries International, an evangelistic ministry reaching out to the peoples of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now here's our speaker, Alex Dotson, to bring you this week's message from God's word.

Alex Dodson: For our scripture reading today, let us turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and we'll begin reading in verse 13. Let us hear the word of God. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? I am thankful that I did not baptized any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized in the my name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanus. Beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the Bible that you have given to us. We thank you that it's your infallible word and that we can put our full confidence in everything that it says. And now, oh Father, we pray that you will send forth your Holy Spirit in great convicting power. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Martin Lloyd Jones said, to me the work of preaching is the highest and greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called. Yet today preaching is taking a backseat in many evangelical churches. The pulpit has been removed and the worship team has moved in to take its place.

We have great media presentations, music without end, state-of-the-art acoustics. Powerful preaching is hard to find these days. Yet Paul said he was sent to preach the gospel. Powerful preaching was once heard in pulpits across the nation, especially in times of great revival. Today we are not in a time of great revival because powerful preaching is few and far between. Yet when true revival comes, powerful preaching will return. Now we are living in an age of PowerPoint sermons neatly portrayed on the screen or screens before us. Yet the power of the Spirit in those sermons is too many times missing.

We must pray for revival that powerful preaching may return to our pulpits. Our text for today is 1 Corinthians 1:17, which again says, for Christ did not send me to baptized, but to preach the gospel, not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Beware lest we lose the power of preaching. We need to be careful that we don't get so wrapped up in modern technology that the media presentation becomes more important than the sermon itself. We may meet in a sanctuary with all the state-of-the-art technical devices such as multiple screens, the most powerful projectors, the best sounding audio equipment, and superior acoustics.

Yet powerful preaching is not there. We have substituted something else and lost the most important thing. Great revivals have always been accompanied by powerful preaching. We should not expect revival to come until powerful preaching returns to our pulpits. Now let us see in the first place that Paul was sent to preach the gospel. Again our text says, for Christ did not send me to baptized, but to preach the gospel. That was his calling. He recounts his conversion before King Agrippa in Acts 26 beginning in verse 12 where he says, on one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.

About noon, oh King, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kink against kick against the goads. And then I asked, who are you, Lord? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, the Lord replied. Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.

I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles and I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins in a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Paul was being sent to proclaim the gospel to the Jews and especially the Gentiles. In Mark 3:14 it says, he appointed 12 designating them apostles that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach. The apostles were called by the Lord and sent to preach the gospel and they were set apart for that purpose.

In Acts 6 and verse 1 it says, in those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against those of the Aramaic speaking community because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distributions of food. And so the 12 gathered all the disciples together and said, it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and we will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.

Leon Morris writes, the essence of Paul 's commission was not to administer rights, even important rights like baptism, but to preach the gospel. Preaching is the primary function in the original commission given by Christ to the 12. Throughout the New Testament, this function remains primary. The apostles had a unique place as the witnesses to the saving act of God in Christ. Their main business was to proclaim it and thus they spent their time and ceased this labors as they made this gospel known. And this is the still the primary calling for God's servants as pastors, evangelists, missionaries, and so forth.

In Romans 10 and verse 14 and following it says, how then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. That's why preaching should be central on Sunday morning. Now the trend is that the preaching or the preacher is just one member of the worship team, not anymore important than anyone else.

We have lost something by doing this. We have lost the primacy of preaching and replace it with something that is inferior. The primary calling of the pastor is to preach the word and that should have the prominence in the Sunday worship. And then let us see in the second place at the cross of Christ is central. Again our text says, for Christ did not send me to baptized, but to preach the gospel, not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Not with the wisdom of the world. 1 Corinthians 2:4 says, my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power.

John Calvin writes, could not heed who designs the tongues of men for eloquence be himself skillful in speech if he wished. While he would be so while he could be so, he did not choose to be so. I can find two most important reasons for his unwillingness. First, is that the majesty of his truth might be all the clearer in the setting of unpolished and unrefined language and the efficacy of his spirit might penetrate the minds of men by itself without external aids. The second reason is that he might put our obedience and teachableness the better to the test and at the same time instruct us in the way of true humility.

For the Lord admits only little ones to his school. Therefore the only persons capable of heavenly wisdom are those who are content with the preaching of the gospel, though it may be worthless in appearance and who have no wish that Christ be covered over with a disguise. Therefore the teaching of the gospel had to be made to serve the purpose of drawing believers away from all arrogance and haughtiness. And then Calvin goes on to write, in the second place I reply that the spirit of God has also an eloquence of his own. It shines with a splendor that is natural to it, peculiar to itself, to use a better word, intrinsic as they say, more than with assumed rhetorical ornaments.

Prophets have such eloquence, particularly Isaiah, David, and Solomon. Moses also has a sprinkling of it. Indeed even if the writings of the apostles are not so polished, yet a few tiny sparks of it flash out at times there too. It follows that the eloquence which is in keeping with the spirit of God is not bombastic and ostentatious and does not make a lot of noise that amounts to nothing. Rather it is genuine and efficacious and has more sincerity than refinement. F. W. Grosheide writes, the Corinthians had not come to the point where they had where they no longer believed in the atoning work of Christ, but they nevertheless attached themselves in such a measure to the wisdom of the world that Paul is constrained to speak of a making void the cross of Christ.

Today we have let the ways of the world creep into the church to such an extent that the message of the cross is taking a backseat in many a Sunday service. It's not the latest wisdom of the world or the latest popular technological device that we need. What we need is the simple message of the cross proclaimed with power in our midst. And then let us see that the message of the cross is powerful. Ian Murray writes, the faith and work of the gospel ministry center on the atonement. The purpose of gospel preaching is to make known what God has done in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Murray continues, Jonathan Edwards believed it is past all contradiction that Christ died to give all an opportunity to be saved. And he urged his hearers except of the offered love of him who is the only begotten son of God. And John Owen writes, he was lifted up between heaven and earth that all creatures might see that God had set him forth to be a propitiation. It is the cross that should be lifted up by the preacher of the gospel. In the worship service we should hear the preaching of the cross above all else. The preacher can have the best PowerPoint presentation for every part of his sermon, but if the message of the cross is not proclaimed with power, that presentation means little.

Preachers need to concentrate less on a PowerPoint presentation and more on the message of the cross clearly proclaimed to the congregation. John Calvin writes, we must not condemn or reject the kind of eloquence which does not aim at captivating Christians with an outward brilliancy of words or or intoxicating them with empty delights or tickling their ears with its jingle or it covering up the cross of Christ with its ostentation. No, we must not condemn or reject it because on the other hand its aim is to call us back to the original simplicity of the gospel to set on high the preaching of the cross and nothing else by humbling itself of its own accord and finally to carry out as it were the duties of a herald to obtain the hearing for those fishermen and uneducated common people who have nothing attractive about them except the power of the Spirit.

Leon Morris writes, some at least of the Corinthians were setting too high a value on human wisdom and human eloquence in line with the typical Greek admiration of rhetoric and philosophical studies. In the face of this Paul insists that preaching with wisdom of words was no part of his commission. That kind of preaching would draw men to the preacher. It would nullify the cross of Christ. The faithful preaching of the cross results in men ceasing to put their trust in any human device and relying rather on God's work in Christ. A reliance on rhetoric would cause men to trust in man, the very antithesis of what the preaching of the cross is meant to affect.

Matthew Henry writes, Paul had been bred up himself in a Jewish in Jewish learning at the feet of Gamaliel. But in preaching the cross of Christ, he laid his learning aside. He preached a crucified Jesus in plain language and told the people that that Jesus who was crucified at Jerusalem was the son of God and savior of men and that all would be saved and that all who would be saved must repent of their sins and believe in him and submit to his government and laws. This truth needed no artificial dress. It's shown out with the greatest majesty in its own light and prevailed in the world by its divine authority and the demonstration of the Spirit without any human helps.

The plain preaching of a crucified Jesus was more powerful than all the oratory and philosophy of the heathen world. It's the message of the cross of Christ that's powerful. That's what we need to hear from our pulpits today. Now let us see in the third place the danger of losing the power of preaching. There is a de-emphasis on preaching today. Today's modern evangelical pulpits are substituting other things for the powerful preaching of the word. What we are getting are clever PowerPoint presentations, media presentation, drama, lectures. It's not that these things are wrong in their proper place, but they should not be taking the place of the powerful preaching of the word by the preacher on Sunday morning.

Gone are the days of the powerful sermon and the preacher who has continual eye contact with his audience. How can he have eye contact when everybody is looking or looking at the PowerPoint presentation? A nice lecture may have its place in the classroom, but the Sunday morning sermon should be more than a nice lecture. It should be powerful and penetrating, not just the mind, but the heart. John D. Payne in his book in the Splendor of Holiness writes, if the word of God then is the primary means by which God saves and nourishes the elect and the faithful proclamation of his word is his primary method of accomplishing his redemptive purposes, why has preaching taken a backseat in modern day evangelical churches?

In short, it's because God centered careful exegetical authoritative preaching is not appealing to the culture. In order for the church to get big, church growth experts surmise biblical preaching must go or be changed into a superficial therapeutic anecdote field message. The pervasive spirit of our day, it could be argued is anti-authoritarian, anti-intellectual, and anti-formalistic. We see these attitudes in society at every turn. In general, people do not want to receive authoritative exhortation even from God. They do not want to think on a deeper level than what the shallow pop culture offers. And outside of a funeral service, most folks today rarely view an occasion which warrants a formal, reverent, and dignified posture.

The apostle Paul says, the apostle Paul states, for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Notice that Paul's Christ centered preaching is to some a stumbling block and to others folly. But to the called, those who have been saved by sovereign grace through faith, it is the wisdom and power of God. What is striking is the contrast between Paul's view of preaching and the world's view of preaching.

For Paul, the heralding of the person and work of Christ was a demonstration of the wisdom and power of God. To the world, however, it was foolishness. Does the great dearth of biblical preaching therefore indicate that the church has in large part accepted the world's assessment that scrupulous, exegetical, authoritative, thus says the Lord, Christ centered, God exalting, applicatory preaching really is foolish and unnecessary. It seems that modern that many modern evangelical churches have let the world into the church to such an extent that the old fashioned preaching of the cross of Christ is fading away.

John Calvin writes, Paul expressly states that according to the command of Christ, no real union or perfection is attained, but by the outward preaching. The church is the common mother of all the godly which bears, nourishes, and brings up children of God, kings and peasants alike. And this done by the ministry of the word. Those who neglect or despise this order choose to be wiser than Christ. Woe to the pride of such men. It is no doubt a thing in itself possible that divine influence alone should make us perfect without human assistance. But the present inquiry is not what the power of God can accomplish, but what is the will of God in the appointment of Christ.

There is an need for the powerful preaching of the word today. Powerful preaching had disappeared before the great evangelical revival in England in the 18th century. Former generations had heard powerful preaching, but it had vanished. When the great evangelical revival came, so did powerful preaching return. Ian Morris writes, but at the very point when such preaching was vanishing out of the world, it suddenly came back with power in the evangelical revival. John Payne writes, the act of preaching in its very essence is God speaking to his people through his living word. Thus if something other than God's word is proclaimed, it cannot be rightly defined as biblical preaching.

During the Protestant Reformation, the reading and preaching of scripture in public. During the Protestant Reformation, the reading and preaching of scripture in public worship was understood by many to be the voice of God speaking to his people. One of the most profound and elevated statements on preaching comes from the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566 which says the preaching of the word of God is the word of God. Therefore when this word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe the very word of God is proclaimed and received by the faithful and that neither any other word of God is to be invented nor is to be expected from heaven and that now the word itself which is preached is to be regarded not the minister that preaches.

For even if he be evil and a sinner, nevertheless the word of God remains still true and good. Today we need the power for preaching of the word of God as it was in the time of the Reformation and at the time of the great evangelical awakening in England. We should then be in prayer that the powerful preaching of the word of God will return as it has in the past. We're in a period now of the dearth of the word of God in the land, but it doesn't have to stay that way. Powerful preaching can return and we must pray continually that it will.

But what about you today? Maybe even now the Holy Spirit is brought conviction to your heart. You know that you are a sinner. Your sins deserve the wrath of God, yet Jesus has come and he has died on the cross for your sins. And so you must repent at once and flee to Jesus for in him is forgiveness and everlasting life. Our Father in heaven. We thank you for your word, for your powerful word. Oh Lord, we weep today because of the dearth of the preaching of your word in this land. But we pray, oh Lord, that you would return the powerful preaching of the word of God to the land.

We pray that you will raise up George Whitefield again, that you would raise up Jonathan Edwards. Edwards is again. We pray that you will raise up powerful preachers of the word throughout this land. And we pray that you will pour out your spirit in great convicting power all over the nation. We pray that the nation as a whole will repent and return to you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. This is Alex Dotson and I would like to invite you to write us this week. Our email address is info@watchmanradio.org. That's info@watchmanradio.org. That's w a t c h m e n radio.org.

You may also text us at 503 841 9643. That's 503 841 9643.

David Shulze: We hope this week's broadcast has been a blessing to you. If you have any questions about Mr. Dotson's message, please write us. You may email us at info@watchmanradio.org. Our mailing address is Watchman Radio Ministries International, Post Office Box 13251 Portland, Oregon 97213. That's Watchman Radio Ministries International, Post Office Box 13251 Portland, Oregon 97213. You may listen to this broadcast at any time on the internet at www.oneplace.com. In the list of ministries, just select the Watchman Radio hour. This week's program and previous programs are always available there for listening. Our web address is www.watchmanradio.org. That's w a t c h m e n radio.org.

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