A young preacher just out of the seminary had been called to pastor a church in a college town. Most of the college professors were members of the church. As he thought about that cultured congregation, he became very intimidated in preparing his first sermon.
He called his dad, who was a wise and godly pastor, and said, "Dad, I'm having a hard time preparing my sermon. If I talk about geology I will be looking at a Ph.D. in geology. If I talk about sociology I will be staring at a Ph.D. in sociology. If I talk about philosophy I will be facing a Ph.D. in philosophy. What do you think I ought to do?"
That wise godly father said, "Son, why don't you just preach the Bible. They probably know very little about that!"
That advice is extremely similar to the counsel that the Apostle Paul gave to his young protégé Timothy two thousand years ago. I have built my ministry on two pillars: biblical exposition and personal evangelism. I want to bear my soul and share my heart and I want to be very candid right up front. I see a generation of preachers, both boomers and busters, who are getting away from these very two things.
You can sum up Paul's advice to Timothy with this statement: Preach the Word and reach the world. As I share this message with you, keep in mind the backdrop to what Paul said as found in verse one. "I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom."
Friend, it doesn't matter what the editor of your state paper, your Director of Missions, your State Executive Director, or the latest church growth guru thinks about your ministry. The only thing that matters is what God thinks about your ministry.
I do not believe there is a more relevant passage with more practical truth on how to have a God-blessed ministry in the 21st Century, than this one. If you follow Paul's advice in this passage, the hand of God will be on your life and ministry in any century or any millennium.
I. The Charge to Be Faithful
Paul charged Timothy to "preach the Word!" He did not charge him to heal the sick, raise the dead, speak in tongues, or trade in miracles. He charged him to preach the Word. He not only told him what to preach, he told him how to preach.
a. Preach Confidently
His charge again is "preach the Word!" Not book reviews, not economics, not philosophy, but the Word, the Scripture, the whole counsel of God.
To quote John MacArthur:
Clearly there was no room in Paul's philosophy of ministry for the give- people-what-they-want theory that is so prevalent today. He did not urge Timothy to conduct a survey to find out what his people wanted. He did not suggest that he study demographic data or do research on the "felt needs" of his people. He commanded him to preach the Word—faithfully, systematically, reprovingly, patiently—and let it confront the spirit of the age head-on.
Now hear me clearly. I want to meet needs. I want to scratch people where they itch. I want to soothe people where they hurt. But Paul's advice to Timothy was not to start with the needs of man, but to start with the Word of God. I want to submit to you that the Gospel is not addressed primarily to felt needs—but to unfelt needs.
The first eight chapters of the book of Romans tell us that man's three greatest needs are: (1) realize he is a lost sinner; (2) repent of his sin; (3) receive by faith Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. These are all unfelt needs. Only the Holy Spirit can convict a man that he is lost. It is the goodness of God that leads one to repentance, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
People's deepest need is to confess sin and receive salvation. So preaching that fails to confront the sinner, convict the sinner, correct the sinner, and convert the sinner through the Word of God, does not meet people's need. It may make them feel good. They may become better leaders and better lovers, but that type of preaching does not meet real needs.
May I tell you what I have learned? If you will preach this Book, you will find that not only will you meet every felt need there is, you will uncover needs people don't even know they have. I've got news for all of us preachers. This book is the Word of God without us, but we are nothing without the Word of God.
You don't have to relegate verse by verse biblical exposition to the back burner of a Wednesday night service out of deference to people who are lost. This Book, preached verse by verse, is still a fire that can melt the coldest heart, a sword that can cut the hardest soul, and a lamp that can lighten the darkest mind.
Don't be like the young preacher I heard of who finished his sermon, walked out of the pulpit and asked an old veteran preacher, "What did you think of my sermon this morning?"
He said, "My dear brother, if your text had had the smallpox, your sermon would never have caught it."
b. Preach Compellingly
Paul says, "Be ready." (v.2) That word was used of a soldier ready to go into battle at a moment's notice. It refers to urgency, passion, and zeal. The prophet Jeremiah was right. Preaching ought to be like a fire in your bones. I know some preachers who either ought to put some fire in their sermons, or put their sermons in the fire. Your people will never be more excited about your sermon than you are.
I like what a black preacher said when asked how he prepared his sermons. He said, "First, I reads myself full; next I thinks myself clear; next I prays myself hot; and then I lets go!" I'm afraid too many preachers let up when they ought to let go.
c. Preach Continuously
We are told, "Be ready in season and out of season." (v.2) In other words, we are to preach the word when it is convenient and when it is inconvenient; when it is popular and when it is unpopular; when people like it when they don't like it. It is not our job to make the message acceptable; it is our job to make the truth available.
d. Preach Convictingly
The word "convince" in v.2 means to reprove. That is, we are to confront people with the fact of their sin. We are being told today that's a no-no in the pulpit. You don't confront people with their sin on Sunday morning. A famous TV preacher out in California said, "I don't think anything has been done in the name of Christ, and under the banner of Christianity, that has proven more destructive to human personality, and hence counterproductive to the evangelistic enterprise, than the un-Christian, uncouth strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition."1
There is a good old fashion word for that—heresy. We've been told that whatever we do we should never hurt people's feelings. The old evangelist, Sam Jones, said, "When I started preaching I thought I would hurt somebody's feelings. Now I'm afraid I won't."
Peter Cartwright was a circuit riding Methodist preacher back in the 19th Century. On one occasion as he was getting ready to preach to a very large congregation, he was told that President Andrew Jackson would be in the audience, and he had better make sure that his remarks were positive and inoffensive.
When Peter Cartwright got up to preach, he began by saying, "I have been told that Andrew Jackson is in this congregation, and I have been asked to guard my remarks. Well, I want to begin by saying that Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he doesn't repent of his sin."
You could have heard a pin drop in that place. Yet, after the service President Jackson made his way to Peter Cartwright and extended his hand and said, "Sir, if I had a regiment of men like you I could whip the world."2
We need more Peter Cartwrights who will stand up and say that the President ought to repent of his stance on abortion and homosexuality; governors ought to repent of their stance on the lottery and gambling; that character is important and if you can't trust a man privately, you can't trust a man publicly.
If the major concern of your ministry is to win a popularity contest, and make sure that nobody ever gets angry at you, do yourself and God a favor and get out of the ministry. Your goal in life should not be to make the list of the "One Hundred Most Admired People in America." It ought to be to preach the whole counsel of God in such a way that the Word of God is magnified, the Son of God is glorified, and the Spirit of God is satisfied.
e. Preach Courageously
We are also "to rebuke." Now when you reprove you confront a person the fact of his sin, but when you rebuke you confront a person with the fault of his sin. You not only tell him he's a sinner, you tell him how bad his sin really is.
Now if you do this will you offend people? Yes. Will you upset people? Yes. Will you be called harsh, narrow-minded, mean-spirited, intolerant? Yes, but that's all right.
Somebody came up to Billy Sunday one time after a particularly hard message on sin, and said, "Billy, you've got to quit preaching that way. You're rubbing the fur on the cat the wrong way." Billy Sunday said, "The old cat is heading toward hell. When she turns around I'll rub her the right way."
Preacher, if people have never gotten mad over something you've said in your preaching, one of three things is true: Either they haven't heard you long enough, or they haven't been listening, or you haven't been preaching.
This age of unbridled iniquity, unabated immorality, and unabashed indecency is no time for weak men, weak messengers, or weak ministries. Our calling is not to make a sick world feel better. Our calling is to make a sinful world straighten up.
f. Preach Constructively
We are to "exhort." The word means to build up. We are not only to be negative in our preaching, we are to be positive. We're not only to tell people what they are without Jesus, but what they can be with Jesus.
g. Preach Compassionately
We are to do this "with all long suffering and teaching." Rome wasn't built in a day, roses don't blossom in a moment, and fruit isn't born in a minute. You may not see immediate results from preaching the Word, but you can be confident of ultimate and eternal results because God's Word does not return void.
Now the reason why Paul gave the charge to be faithful was because of
II. The Choice to Be Doubtful
Paul predicted that in the last days three things would happen to people in the pew:
a. Sound Doctrine Would Be Excluded
He said, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine." (v.3) The Greek word for sound gives us the English word hygiene. It literally means "healthy" or "health giving." That is, people will not want to hear what will make them holy, but what will make them happy.
I want you to listen to the way Eugene Peterson, in his tremendous translation, The Message, translates this verse:
You're going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy.
They'll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages.3
There are a lot of people, and their tribe is increasing, who do not want to hear sound doctrine. They want their preaching perfumed, chloroformed, and covered with velvet. They want to hear about the love of God, but not the holiness of God; the mercy of God, but not the judgment of God; heaven, but not hell.
b. Selfish Desires Will Be Exalted
Paul goes on to say: "But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears they will heap up for themselves teachers." Every church has people with an "itchy ear" syndrome. Our churches are filled with people who are more concerned about the length of the sermon than they are of the depth of the sermon.
One well known preacher expressed his own concern for sermonic length. January the first was coming and he made up his mind he was going to do better in the coming year. Here is what he said: "That means wasting less time listening to long sermons, and spending much more time preparing short ones. People, I have discovered, will forgive even poor theology as long as they get out before noon."4
Listen again to John MacArthur:
Bad doctrine is tolerable; a long sermon most certainly is not. The timing of the benediction is of far more concern to the average churchgoer than the content of the sermon. Sunday dinner and the feeding of our mouth take precedence over Sunday School and the nourishment of our souls. Long-windedness has become a greater sin than heresy. 5
Did you know that there are churches that even base their calling of a pastor on how long his sermons are?
I heard about a church that wanted a man who wouldn't preach very long and they heard about a man who had this reputation. They went to hear him and he preached for fifteen minutes. They called him on the spot.
The first Sunday he came to be their preacher, he preached for half an hour. Some of the deacons said, "We're going to have to keep an eye on him." The next Sunday he preached for three hours. Well, they called an emergency deacons' meeting and asked him to come and explain himself as to why he was preaching so long.
He said, "Well, it's like this. The first Sunday you heard me I had just had all my teeth pulled and my gums were very sore, and I could only preach for fifteen minutes."
"The second time I just got my new dentures and they didn't fit very well and they hurt, so I could only preach for half an hour."
They said, "We can live with that, but what we want to know is why you preached for three hours?" He said, "I'm sorry about that, I got my wife's teeth in by mistake."
The fact is, for a lot of church members today tact is more important than truth, diplomacy is more important than doctrine, and being polite is more important than being profound.
Incidentally, can I give you a surefire way to shorten your sermons? Make them more interesting.
c. Self Delusion Will Be Experienced
"And they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables." (v.4) If the solid meat of biblical exposition is not fed to our people on Sunday morning, they will drink the curdled milk of political correctness, New Age theology and satanic deception. If we don't teach our people to believe the right things they will believe anything.
III. The Challenge to Be Watchful
Paul has already told us that things are going to get worse before they get better, and they are not going to get better until Jesus comes back. So until He comes, Paul finishes with four commands to those preachers who want to be true men of God.
a. Be Alert
"But you be watchful in all things." (v.5) That word watchful literally means be sober. In other words, while others may be intoxicated with the liquor of liberalism, or drink from the cocktail of compromise, you keep your eye on the Word of God and the Son of God.
b. Be Adaptable
We must "endure afflictions." You may as well come to grips with this: When you stand for God, live for Jesus, and preach this Book, you are going to endure affliction.
Dr. Vance Havner used to say that a preacher should have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros. My friend, if your ministry is going to count, it's going to cost, and the ministry that counts the most costs the most.
c. Be Aggressive
Fellow preachers, listen, Paul says that we are to "do the work of an evangelist." Now not every evangelist is a pastor, but every pastor ought to be an evangelist.
Don't ever get away from personal soul winning. Don't ever get so big for your spiritual britches you think you're either too good or too busy to go out in your community and knock on doors and win people to Jesus Christ. John Wesley said, "You may be elegant, you may be winsome, you may be a good fundraiser, you may be in great demand as a speaker, but if you do not win souls you are a failure."
Charles Spurgeon said, "I would sooner bring one sinner to Jesus Christ than to unpick all of the mysteries of the Word of God.
d. Be Accountable
Paul ends up by saying, "Fulfill your ministry." If you are not doing the work of an evangelist, you are not fulfilling your ministry. Never have a worship service without presenting the gospel and giving people an opportunity to be saved.
Thank God Robert Eaglan followed that advice. He was a deacon in his church in Colchester, England. He woke up one January Sunday morning and the ground was blanketed with a foot of snow. He started not to go to church thinking no one else would go. Then he thought to himself he was a deacon, and if the deacons didn't go, who would.
So he put on his boots, hat, and coat, and walked six miles to his Methodist church. Most of the members did stay home. As a matter of fact, only thirteen people were present, twelve members and one visitor, a thirteen-year-old boy.
Somebody suggested that they go home since they didn't have a preacher. But Robert Eaglan would hear none of that. They had walked this far in the snow and they were going to have a service. Since he was the only deacon there he got up and said, "I will preach."
He did. His sermon lasted only ten minutes. He took as his text Isaiah 45:22. "Look to me and be saved all you ends of the earth!" At the very end, under the compunction of the Holy Spirit, he looked straight at that thirteen-year-old boy and said, "Young man, look to Jesus and you will be saved."
That boy, years later, said, "I did look, and then and there the cloud on my heart lifted, the darkness rolled away, and at that moment I saw the sun." That thirteen-year-old boy was Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
Thank God Robert Eaglan did not get up and preach a message on "How to be up when the weather is down." Thank God he didn't get up and preach a sermon entitled, "How to glow in the snow." Thank God he didn't preach a sermon entitled, "Snow White and the Seven Disciples."
Thank God he preached the Word, shared the gospel and gave that thirteen-year-old boy an opportunity to be saved. We don't need to follow fads, flakes, or fashion. We just need to keep the ship of our ministry anchored to the rock of this Book, believing it, obeying it, defending it, sharing it, and preaching it until Jesus comes.
1 Robert Schuler, Self Esteem: The New Reformation (Waco: Word, 1982), 98ff.
2 Steve Farrar, Standing tall, P.167
3 Eugene Peterson, The Message, p. 449.
4 Jamie Buckingham, Waste of Time, Chrisma (December, 1988), 98.
5 John MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel, XII.