22. The Restoring and the Preserving of the Ministry of the Word of God in the Local Church 22. What we're talking about in these two days is the restoring and the preserving of the ministry of the Word of God in the local church. 23. And not the ministry of the word of God as an 22 afterthought in the middle of a self-help 23 sermon, but as the centerpiece that shapes 24 and directs and supports passionate preaching 25 about a glorious God and about one and only 24 Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.
25 2 Corinthians 2, 17, Paul says this, 26 For we are not as so many peddling the word of God, 27 but As from God we speak in the sight of God in Christ. 30 001 001 001 001 The church needs preachers who will tenaciously cling to His word so that they can speak in sincerity and so that they can speak as from God. 31 001 001 001 28. 28. 28.
29. 30. 31. 32. 33.
33. 34. 35. 36. 37.
38. 39. 40. 41. 42.
43. 44. 45. 46. 47.
48. 49. 50. 51. 52.
53. Ezekiel 22. 22. And what he should say to the people. 23.
And he talks about it in terms of preaching and he tells him exactly what to say and God says to Ezekiel this, 24. Say, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord. And then he tells them precisely what to say. 31.
So the question for us is, men, how can we stand in the pulpit and say, Hear the voice of the Lord. 32. Thus says the Lord. Unless our preaching comes directly from the divinely inspired word of God. 35.
Of course the answer is obvious. We can't. 36. The church desperately needs the words of God. We need His thoughts.
We need His ways. We need His glory. We need His commands. 29. And this comes only from the Word of God.
30. And the church needs men who can stand in the pulpit and say, Thus says the Lord with confidence. 31. I want to spend some time in the introduction here talking about the Regulative Principle of Worship. 25 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 And you may be a little familiar with it, or a lot familiar with it, 26 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 or not familiar with it at all.
27 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 I'll tell you that the first 20 years, essentially, of my Christian life, 28 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> I was ignorant to it. But now that I understand it, I can look back on the whole church history and see how it shapes the practices of each church that I was in and my own practices as a member in those churches. So, why are we taking time to talk about the Regulator Principle? 12. Well, this is the reason.
13. Because it defines whether you'll leave the conference thinking, this is an interesting idea and I think I'll consider whether or not to be devoted to it or not. 14. Or whether you say, I see something that is 13 established in scripture and so I'm compelled to 14 do it. I must do it this week and next week and next month 15 and next year for the rest of my life.
16 Those who embrace the Regulator Principle will 17 say to anything that they see firmly established in scripture, I'm compelled, I must. There are two competing principles governing church practice. And they're not words that you find in the Bible, but you can see exactly how they're applied and how we get to our church practices. 12. The first is the Regulative Principle.
And what is that? Well it says this, 12. Whatever is not clearly warranted by scripture is forbidden. 13. In other words, when we go to look at where we should spend our time and our resources and our money, the best of everything that we have, we go to scripture and we find what's there and then we devote ourselves to it.
We bet the farm on those things. 12. Calvin subscribed to the regulative principle of worship. 13. And it's this combination of the inerrancy of word that God has given us something infallible and the 14.
Sufficiency of scripture that it's enough. It's all that we need. In fact, it's a lot more than enough. It's super abounding. It gives us everything that we need in great abundance.
29. The Regulative Principle asks, What must we do? And it seeks to answer the question through the words of scripture. 30. What must we do?
And let's go to the Bible and find out what the answer is. 13. Now turn to the normative principle. 14. It's similar but it's not exactly the same.
It says whatever is not specifically prohibited by scripture is permitted. 15. And Luther subscribed to this. 16. And there are some boundaries that people who subscribe to this principle put around it so that order is maintained in the church such as as long as it's agreeable to the peace and the unity of the church.
13. So the normative principle is similar but it asks this. What must we not do? Let's go to the scriptures and find out what must we not do. And then anything that's not prohibited is lawful for us to do in our worship.
Let's acknowledge that this is an argument among brothers. We're not talking about people who have no affection for the scripture and no intention of obeying the scripture. 29. There are Bible believing Christians in both of these camps. 55, 000 Calvin and Luther, there are giants in both camps.
56, 000 But you end up at a very different point depending on which one of these two that you subscribe to. 57, 000 Let's bore into the Regulative Principle a little bit. 58, 000 Mark Dever in his book The Deliberate Church defines it this way. Briefly, the Regulative Principle states that everything we do in corporate worship, in a corporate worship gathering, must be clearly warranted by scripture. Clear warrant can either take the form of an explicit biblical command or a good and necessary implication of a biblical text.
22, so we go to the text and we're looking for one of three things. Number one, we're looking for a command. That's easy. When there's a command, People on both sides of the debate agree that we have to do it. Number two, a precept.
Is there a clear guiding principle that we can say that's clear in the scripture we should apply it? And number three, a pattern. Do we see something in the life of the New Church under the direction of the apostles, the disciples, that we see them doing on a consistent basis. If we have any of those three things, then we're compelled to do them. So say those who subscribe to the Regulator Principle.
And you see at the bottom there, we have many spirited debates over what constitutes a good and necessary inference or a good and necessary implication of what you find in the text. So let's recognize that this is not two points. I'm regulative, you're normative. This is a continuum and people tend to fall on one side or the other but there's a line along the way and probably nobody's perfectly one or the other. And there's much debate about what would constitute a good and necessary reference But at least the baseline for the debate is what is seen in scripture.
There are a couple of confessions that really tease out what exactly is meant by the Regulative Principle. And so we're going to take a look at those. The first is the confession that our church has as a 18. 19. Document which is the second line of Baptist's confession of 1689.
20. Which says this. 21. The light of nature shows that there is a God who has 22. Lordship and sovereignty over all.
23. Is just and good and who does good to all. 23 Therefore he is to be feared, loved, 24 praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the heart and all the soul 25 and with all the might. And the normative people are shaking their 26 heads and they're saying, Amen! And the regular people are shaking their heads and they're saying Amen, and then we come to the second part, which is the dividing line.
20, but the acceptable way of worshiping the true God has been instituted by himself, and therefore, our method of worship is limited by his own revealed will. 25 He may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan. 26 He may not be worshipped by way of visible representations, or by any other way not prescribed in the scriptures. 27 Let's go to the French confession of faith, 1559. It says much the same thing, but I like how it fills it out.
Books has proceeded from God, 24 24 24 25 25 26 27 28 29 30 30 31 32 33 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 40 41 42 43 44 45 It is not lawful for men, 24 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 nor even for angels to add to it or to take away from it or to change it. 25 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 Whence it follows that no authority, whether of antiquity or custom or numbers or human wisdom or judgments or proclamations or edicts Or decrees or councils or visions or miracles 37. Should be opposed to these holy scriptures. But on the contrary, all things should be examined, 38. Regulated and reformed according to them.
The last phrase is the linchpin here. All things should be examined and regulated and reform according to them and then we will compel ourselves to do only the things that are well established in the scriptures 11th and turn to the normative principle again the definition whatever is not specifically prohibited by scripture is permitted so that when we go when we're thinking about practices and we go to scripture we're looking for things that are not allowed and then we're saying 25. 25. 25. 26.
27. 28. 29. 30. 31.
32. 33. 34. 35. 36.
37. 38. 39. 40. 41.
42. 43. 44. 45. 46.
47. 48. 49. 50. 51.
27 anything that didn't fall in the not allowed list is in play. 28 And among our normative brethren there are spirited debates about what's not specifically prohibited. 29 Because they're also looking for fidelity to scripture as well. 30 So things like polygamy, which you'll not find any specific prohibition against in the Bible, you won't find your normative brothers practicing that because of how they view this and where they fall in the continuum. 13.
I would submit to you that we all have our blissful inconsistencies in this, but hopefully I'd like to lobby successfully that we would have a regulative viewpoint where we would trust the scriptures for everything that we do in our practice and that we would devote all of our time and our energies for things that are well established in the scriptures. 21-13 So why would I advocate so lopsidedly for the Regulator Principle? Well it's because I skipped a part of my speech. 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 Here's an interesting quote. The reason I put it in here is regarding the normative principle.
And the reason I put it in is because it puts a finger right on some of the things that give me discomfort about where the normative principle has led the modern church. And this is a quote from Fred Maloney who's pastor of First Baptist Church in Clinton and 26 part of the Founders Movement. 27 Obviously the normative principle invites invention, creativity, and new elements of worship which are 24 never commanded or mentioned in Scripture. 25 It also permits practices which are prescribed in Old Testament 26 worship to be used in New Testament Christian worship by good and necessary inference, 27 even if these practices are not prescribed for 45-20 Christian worship. This accounts for the traditional 45-22 differences in worship between those from 45-24 normative versus regulative backgrounds.
It also explains 45-27 the normative additions of pageantry, 45-29 altars, priesthoods, vestments, prayer books, 45-32 Mariolatry, which is exactly what it sounds like, 34 it's idolatry of Mary, prayers to the saints and 35 0r practices not instituted by scripture for gospel worship. 36 37 Others today add drama, dance, puppets, clowns, 38 0movies, magicians, comedians, weightlifting, high-pressured altar calls, 39 0ntertainment, whatever else their heart desires. 40 41 When one holds to the normative principle, 22. 22. 22.
22. 22. 22. 22. 22.
22. 22. 23. 24. 25.
26. 27. 28. 29. 30.
31. 32. 33. 34. 35.
36. 37. 38. 39. 40.
41. Will it end up? 25. And so the reason that we advocate for the 25. Regulative Principle that we would regulate ourselves, examine everything by the Holy Scriptures is verses like I Timothy 3.5 where Paul writes to Timothy, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
22 Brothers, The church is not our playground. 25 It is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 26 And therefore there is a way that we ought to conduct ourselves in the house of God. 27 God has always been very specific about how he desires to be worshiped. Have you read Exodus lately and how painstakingly these things are drawn out?
But now somehow we think that God no longer cares how he's worshiped. This is madness. One last quote on the top of the regulator 17 principle and we'll get to our text for the 18 day. This is from Jim Elliott who was a missionary 19 really for a very short period of time. He was 20 martyred very early in his missionary journey.
21 But he said this. This came out of his journal. 13. The pivot point hangs on whether or not God has revealed a universal pattern for the church in the New Testament. If he has not, then anything will do so long as it works.
13. But I am convinced that nothing so dear to the heart of Christ as His bride should be left without explicit instructions as to her corporate conduct. 14. I am further convinced that the twentieth century has in no way simulated this pattern in its method of churching a community. It is incumbent upon me if God has a pattern for the church to find and establish that pattern at all costs.
Has in no way 27 27 27 28 29 30 principle, 22. That we would give ourselves to finding the pattern 23. That God has given us for the New Testament church and 23. Establishing it at all costs. 24.
Now you have your text for the day in large print, 25. The only reason I did this was because we're going to spend a lot of time here and I didn't want the different translations that are undoubtedly represented today to be any sort of a distraction to it. So we'll all work off the same text. 22 Timothy starting in chapter 3, 13 and going through chapter 4, verse 5. Normally you hear these separately.
There's the part about the sufficiency of scripture and how the Bible is God-breathed and then another sermon is about Paul's exhortation to Timothy to preach the word. And it's so much so that I was shocked to find them together with no break in between. And I thought it was very inconsiderate of Paul to put a chapter break in between there because they flow so nicely together. But I like to read the text together. This is Paul's exhortation to his son 33 001 001 in the faith Timothy.
And as chapter three 34 001 begins the subtitle in my Bible is Perilous Times and Perilous Men. And that just gives you 34 001 001 a flavor of the context where he's going. That there's not an 25 appetite for sound doctrine and there's going to be 25 persecution in Timothy's life as a result of him being 26 faithful to the word of God. Verse 13. But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived.
15. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 13. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 13. That the man of God may be complete, 13.
Thoroughly equipped for every good work. 14. I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead, and his appearing and his kingdom, 13. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season.
Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. 25 But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you, be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 24 Paul begins, evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
25 You can see Timothy reading those words saying, oh, thanks for the encouragement. This is exactly what every young pastor wants to hear. 38. Evil men will become worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 39.
And then he starts verse 14. But you, in contrast to the evil men who are becoming worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, don't be like that, be like this, but you, continue in the things which you have learned 14 and been assured of. And then he goes on to talk 14 about the Scriptures. And so what we see here is that 15 Paul is giving Timothy the antidote to the evil men 16 who are growing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 28 And that antidote is the Word of God.
It's continuing in it. 29 We'll speak about this more later. 30 And then in verses 15 through 17, Paul tells Timothy four things about the Scriptures. Four things. 25.
One, that the Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. They are able to make you wise for salvation. 25. They are able to make you wise for salvation. 26.
Hebrews 4-12 says this, For the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, 27. Piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 28. Of words, 13. Dead ink on dead pages.
For some he supplies the words with a tutor which quickens and enlivens and instructs according to those words in his heart. 14. Now how did this happen with Timothy? We get a glimpse of it here but it starts really in chapter one. 31.
How did the scriptures make him wise to salvation? 32. Chapter one tells us, Paul begins his letter to Timothy saying this, I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 30 30 30 31 31 32 32 33 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 40 41 42 43 44 45 28. That is in you which dwelt first in your grandmother 28. Lois and your mother Eunice and I am persuaded is also in you.
29. And then we fast forward to chapter three verse fifteen where Paul says from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures. 36 He had a believing grandmother and a believing mother who imparted the Holy Scriptures to him 37 and he became wise to salvation. God called him, God saved him, redeemed him. 38 And the scriptures, the living and active scriptures were a part of it.
26 It made him wise to salvation. This should be the pattern in our homes and in our churches that the Word of God is imparted in such a way, passionately, that they make many wise to salvation. 15. Number two. 16.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God. 25 We won't try to improve on the text there. 26 Any translations render it, it's God breathed. 27 Matthew 4, 4, Jesus has been in the wilderness for forty days. 28 This is what he says in the midst of the temptation.
Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. God has given us His inspired Word. He breathed it out and he preserved it for us. 27 And it's more important to us than food. Even if we haven't eaten for 30 days we need the Word of God more.
28 Three, scripture is profitable. It brings profit. Brings benefit. 29 Acts 20 is a great cross-reference. Paul has summoned the elders of the Ephesian church to the beaches of Miletus.
He's never going to see them again. This is his last chance to impart an exhortation. 36. And he talks about his own walk before them. 18.
17. 18. 19. 20. 21.
22. 23. 24. 25. 26.
27. 28. 29. 30. 31.
32. 33. 33. 34. 35.
36. 37. 38. 39. 40.
41. 42. 43. Emphasis for two years. 24 So they knew his walk.
They knew how he conducted himself. 25 Not looking good over a period of a couple of days, sounding smart, but living among them for two years. 26 Here's what he says. I kept back nothing that was helpful, nothing that was profitable. 25 I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house.
26 And then several verses later he says this, For I have not shunned to declare to you, what, the whole counsel of God. 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 24 The word of God is profitable. What is it profitable for? Four things. 24 Doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness.
The word of God is profitable for doctrine. The scripture is the body of teachings that must be taught and believed. And I get an award for stating the obvious. The scriptures are the body of teaching that are to be taught and believed in the church. It's profitable for doctrine.
We've already seen one of the ways it will make you wise to salvation. Number two, it's profitable for reproof. God disciplines his sons. If you're not disciplined, you're not a son. How does God do it?
One of the key ways that he does it is through his word. It's profitable for reproof. It rebukes us when we need it. 27. Our churches need this ministry that people who are drifting would be rebuked, not by a know-it-all pastor, But by the word of God, by the pastor standing before the people and saying, Thus says the Lord, not in his own strength or authority, but according to the word of God.
25. Number three, for correction. The Bible is profitable for correction. 25 How has your doctrine, your world view shifted over the last ten years? 26 It's just a reflection.
There's things in there that need to be corrected. There's things in there today you have no idea, but over the next ten years God is going to correct them. How? Through the word of God. The word of God is profitable for correction.
We are so wrong-headed in so many ways. Because we're in it, we're the fish, we're in the water. You have no idea that we're wet. 13. Because here we live, we were born in the house we were born in, we grew up under the parents we grew up under, we had the friends that we had who said the things that they said.
14. And we need to be retrained. How will we be retrained? We will be retrained by the word of God. By having our minds renewed, washed by God's own word.
Number four, instruction in righteousness. The Bible is profitable for instruction in righteousness. What is righteousness? How do we become righteous? There's only one manual for that.
It's the Bible. 26. The church desperately needs these things. These are the things the church needs most. What are we trading this for in the church today?
What would be so great that We would abandon doctrine and reproof and correction and instruction and righteousness to go after something else. Insanity. 55 Lastly, scripture makes us complete. Thoroughly equipped for every good work. It moves us towards maturity and usefulness.
30 30 30 30 31 32 33 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 40 41 42 43 44 45 55 56 57 58 59 60 60 70 for a little while. It seems amusing to us. But man does it get old. Has immaturity gotten old for you yet? It's gotten old for me.
I'm tired of being immature. I want God to move me on to maturity and to usefulness. When I was a younger Christian I just assumed I was getting away with things. And then you find out all the joy in the Lord that you've foregone by just chasing after the most trivial things, not applying yourself to the things that would have brought 24 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 you the most joy and you go, oh, I was stealing from myself the whole time and I thought I was getting 25 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 --> 001 away with something. It makes us complete.
It brings us to maturity. It makes us useful for the Lord. This is the life of joy in the Lord. 454. Ephesians 4, 11 and 12 says this, and he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
There's these ministry gifts that have been given to the church For the equipping of the saints. 25. How are we going to do that? I'm on that list. Are you on that list?
26. Of people who are supposed to be equipping the saints for the work of the ministry? 27. Paul tells us right here, the scripture makes us complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 46 00-25 00-25 This is the tool that we use in the life of the church to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.
47 00-25 00-25 There's not another tool in our hand that will do it, man. There's not. This is it. We should trust it. We should bet everything on it.
33. Moving to chapter 4, in verses 1-5 Paul gives Timothy specific instructions about what to do with this God inspired God breathed word. 25. And he's built the foundation. He's talked about what the nature of the scripture is as God breathed.
And he's talked to us about how it's profitable and it can be applied. And then he charges Timothy to do something with this great God breathed gift that has been given to the church. In verse one we have the charge. He says, 21. 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.
He says I charge you therefore Looking back to what scripture is like, scripture is like this, it's profitable. 35 It will bring us to maturity. And so 34 therefore I'm giving you a charge. Because scripture is like this, I'm giving you a charge. 35 And then he sweetens the pot.
He's charging him in the name of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Charge. 25. 25. 25.
25. 25. 26. 27. 28.
29. 30. 31. 32. 33.
34. 35. 36. 37. 38.
39. 40. 41. 42. 43.
44. 45. 47. 48. 49.
32. 32. Does Paul have your attention? 33. 34.
34. Jesus is coming back. He's going to 32. 33. 32.
Judge the world and Mike, your response to my charge will have an impact. 33. That's what's being said. 34. 35.
36. And this should significantly raise the discomfort level for everybody in the room who will stand That's what's being said. 21-20 21-20 22-20 23-22 23-23 24-24 25-25 26-26 27-28 28-29 29-30 30-30 31-30 32-30 33-32 33-33 34-35 35-36 36-37 37-38 38-39 39-40 40-40 41-40 42-40 53-42 53-44 them. This should raise our discomfort level in a healthy way. That's why James in James 3, 1 says, My brethren, let not many of you be teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.
Paul is saying that here. He's giving the most solemn charge that you can imagine. Jesus is coming back, he will 14 judge, and therefore I charge you with 15 faithfulness to this task. And what is the 16 charge? Preach the word.
Preach the word. And we act like he just stopped at preach. 17 Preach! Preach! 18 Say something, anything, whatever you think 25.
25. 25. 26. 27. 28.
29. 30. 31. 32. 33.
34. 35. 36. 37. No!
21. Preach the word. 22. It's the word that we're to preach. 23.
The closer we stick to it, the better off we are. 24. Remember, we've been charged according to judgment day. 25. Paul's written Timothy before.
It's called 1 Timothy, not surprisingly. The last words in 1 Timothy are these. 26. Oh, Timothy! 24.
24. 24. 25. 25. 26.
27. 28. 29. 30. 31.
32. 33. 33. 34. 35.
36. 37. 38. 39. 40.
41. 42. 43. 44. 45.
47. 48. 49. What was committed to your trust, 0 0 0 0 avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. 0 0 by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith.
0 0 Grace be with you. Amen. 0 0 Brothers, we're not innovators. We're guardians. 23.
Oh, Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust. We're not innovators. We're guardians. We're not creators. We're caretakers of something that was before us, that's larger than us, that depends not one ounce on us.
25 There are many teachings that make the rounds every century or so. 26 They are falsely called knowledge. 27 And in professing it, many drift away from the faith. God has given us the antidote. It's his word.
It's the sound, expositional, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, preaching. Whereas Andy said The topic of the passage is the topic of the sermon. The point of the text is the point of the sermon. 15. I loved when he said this.
16. The sermon is captive to the text. 17. It's captive to the text. How freeing is that to a man who will stand in the pulpit to know just delivering the mail.
30, 000. I don't have to be smarter than everybody else in the room. I just have to be faithful to the text. Oh brothers, this is so freeing. Praise the Lord.
001-24 Paul tells us when it's time to preach the Word. Two times. In season, out of season. Pretty much covers it. It's like the exhortation in Deuteronomy 6.
Teach these things diligently to our children when we rise up, when we lay down, when we walk by the way. That is pretty comprehensive. Here's what Matthew Henry says about in-season and out-of-season. 24. Be instant in-season and out-of-season.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort. 25. Do this work with all fervency of spirit. Call upon those under thy charge to take heed of sin, to do their duty. Call upon them to repent and believe and live a holy life, and this both in-season and out-of-season.
In season, 24 when they are at leisure to hear thee, 24 when some special opportunity offers itself of speaking to them with advantage. 25 Nay, do it out of season, even when there is not that apparent probability of fastening something upon them, 26 because thou dost not know, but the Spirit of God 25 may fasten it upon them. For the wind bloe'eth where it listeth. And in the morning we must sow our seed 24 and in the evening not withhold our hand. We must do it in season, that is, let slip no opportunity and do it out of season, that is, 25 not shift off the duty under the pretense that it is out of season.
26 This is what we see the apostles so clearly doing in Acts chapter 6. 37 37 37 37 37 38 38 39 40 40 41 42 43 chapter 6. 55. 55. 55.
May appoint men who are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to take care of church business so that they can do what? So that they can be continually devoted to prayer and the ministry of the Word. 55. God's people need his voice. And so the elders of the church should set themselves aside to continually devote themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.
The church needs God's voice. It doesn't need my voice. It doesn't need your voice. It needs the voice of God in the pulpits of local churches. 28 And the continual devotion of the ministry of the word is so important that Paul exhorts us to give double honor.
It exhorts us to pay to set aside elders who labor in the word and doctrine here's First Timothy five seventeen eighteen. 10 The elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. 12. 13. For the scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain, and the laborer is worthy of his wages.
14. Now I'm going to say something and I'm going to say what I am saying and what I'm not saying. What I'm not getting ready to say is if you've got a bivocational pastor that you're in sin you need to repent. I'm not saying that. What I am saying is I don't believe it's healthy for a church, 25 on the long term, in the long term, 26 to only have bivocational preaching.
27 I think the Bible would counsel us to set aside men Who can labor hard in the word. I think that's exactly what First Timothy 5 is saying. 20. That we enable this and it's in some ways it's selfish in the church that we would set aside a man 21. Because we realize the value of the ministry of the word is so high that we couldn't spare him to use his hours on something else.
22. We would direct him to be focused so that we would receive more of the ministry of the word. 30. Move a few more pages down and we'll read the parabola and 31. 32.
32. 33. 33. 34. 35.
36. 37. 38. 39. 40.
41. 41. 42. 43. 44.
45. 47. 48. 49. 50.
51. And deeper and we receive more profit by it. 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 001 In verse two we get a list that helps define and direct our preaching. We get three whats and two hows. What number one, This is our definition of preaching according to Paul.
Convince. What number two? Rebuke. What number three? Exhort.
Convince. Go and make disciples. Teach them to obey all I've commanded to you. 36 There's a lot of convincing to be done from the Word of God. 37 Because we do need to be corrected.
38 Rebuke, identify sin, and call for repentance in the church. 39 This is the work of a preacher. 25 He would identify sin. He would rebuke. He would call for repentance.
26 Exhort that a man would stand on behalf of God in the pulpit and call people to faith and to obedience. 12. Repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul also says in Acts 20. 13. How do we do this?
One, we do it with long suffering. We do it with long suffering. 14. Sometimes there's a prophetic voice in the church. Sometimes it's patience.
It's a patient teaching. Teaching is how number two. 12. But we're on long suffering now. Patience is required for the ministry of the word.
We don't get it the first time. 24. Remember the... Whatever idea it was, the first time you were exposed to it you just felt like you were drinking out of a water hose. It was too much too fast and it just took six months for it to sink in and for you to get over the rebellion that was rising up in your sensibilities because they've been trained completely in the opposite direction, then something you recognized was biblical but you just couldn't embrace it because it was too cross grain.
But God was faithful over time. God needs men and God desires men 23. In the pulpit who bring a steady pressure 24. From the Word of God with long suffering. 25.
Not sending the nuclear warhead in every single Sunday but are patiently with long 26. Suffering bringing the steady weight in the 27. Word of God. 28. Paul says this in the passage right before 29.
The ones we're studying now. And a servant 30. 30. 30. 31.
31. 32. 33. 33. 34.
35. 36. 37. 38. 39.
40. 41. 42. 43. 44.
45. 46. 47. 48. 49.
50. 51. 52. 53. 54.
Coral but be gentle to all, 55... Able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition. 55... If perhaps God will grant them repentance 55... So that they may know the truth and they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will.
God is so patient with us. 55 And so the servants of the Lord should be the same way. They're not quarrelsome, they're gentle, they're able to teach, they're in humility correcting. It's the steady weight of the Word of God. 17.
The second how, with teaching. It's with long suffering and it's with teaching. We're teachers. We come to impart something, to teach something, not out of our own head, not out of a bag of tricks, not stunts like Andy was describing to us in the last one. But we're teachers.
We have content to bring from God. The list here in chapter 4 verse 2 is very compatible with the list that we've already seen in 3.16. God. 12. 12.
In 3 16 God says that it's profitable for these things, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And he's talked to us about the character of the scriptures. And here in 4.2, he's exhorting Timothy to preach the word and he's telling him to convince, rebuke, exhort, and see how these just work hand in glove. And then finally in verses 3 through 5, Paul concludes with a warning about false listeners. False teachers are in there, But it's not about false teachers, it's about false listeners.
It's an interesting relationship between false teachers and false listeners. Sometimes people are deceived and sometimes people want to be deceived because it lines up quite well with their own appetites. 25 This is what Paul is saying. 26 And he's given us a window into this already in 3.13, which is also part of our text today where he says, 28 evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived. 29 The first time I read that I thought for sure, well, he's talking exclusively about the false teachers.
19. But now that I look at this and we look in Chapter 4 of the false listeners and then you come back to this verse and I think, I'm not so sure. Maybe the evil men and some of the imposters are false listeners also is definitely talking about false teachers that begins to become hard to sort them out there's People deceiving people being deceived and hard to tell who's here. 25. And then we come back to chapter four verses three and four and Paul talks about people who will not endure sound doctrine.
26. They won't abide it. But according their own desires because they have itching ears they heaped up for themselves teachers turn their ears away from the truth and they're turned aside to fables. 27. 18.
18. 18. 19. 20. 21.
21. 22. 23. 24. 25.
26. 27. 28. 29. 30.
31. 32. 33. 33. 34.
35. 36. 37. 38. 39.
40. 41. 42. Going back to Acts 20. 24.
Here in 2 Timothy 3 and 4 Paul is talking the talk about the Word of God. But in Acts 20 I just love it. We see him walking the walk. He was in Ephesus for two years and this is what his life was like. The things he is exhorting Timothy to do in 2 Timothy, 22 22 he did himself in Ephesus and he talks about it in Acts 20.
23 He says this in Acts 20, For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 24 Also from among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. 26 Look at Colossians 2.8, this is an interesting verse. Colossians 2.8, Beware, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of this word and 32. 32.
32. 32. 32. 32. 33.
32. 32. 33. 33. 34.
33. 34. 35. 36. 37.
38. 39. 40. 41. 42.
43. 44. 45. 46. 47.
48. 49. Not according to Christ. 24. 24.
Philosophy and empty deceit and the traditions of men and the basic principles of this world, they cheat the church and we let them in the front door when we don't use the Word of God for our preaching. 55. They rob from us and we invite them in by not barring the door with the Word of God. The Word of God would have fortified our people, God's people against these things, but when we don't do our job we just open the doors wide open and we find the church plundered. 32.
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit. It literally means plunder or to take captive. 33. So Paul identifies the antidote. And the antidote is the Word of God, specifically the Word of God in preaching.
In preaching. 25 Finally, Timothy is exhorted to fulfill his ministry. 26 Paul gives him a solemn charge to preach the 25. Word and then he exhorts him to fulfill his 26. Ministry.
Man, we cannot fulfill our ministry in the church without faithfulness to the word 27. Of God. It's impossible. 28. Let's summarize.
Number one, We must allow Holy Scripture to regulate our practices. 12. We're back to the Regulative Principle, that we would look at the Word of God and allow it to limit what we do. 13. That we would say, there are some things that may be lawful but they're not profitable, they're not firmly established in the Word of God and we will not give our time and our resources to them.
Only those things which are warranted in Scripture will we give ourselves to. We must allow Holy Scripture to regulate our practices. Number two, as we allow Holy Scripture to regulate our practices, Paul's church to preach the word will take us to a radical commitment to expository preaching. A radical commitment to expository preaching. Do I mean we never do anything topical in our churches?
No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm talking about the steady diet of the church. 43 What is the steady diet of your church under your leadership? Is it grounded in the Word of God? 26.
Calvin was radically committed to expository preaching. 27. He's preaching through a book. 28. He's out of Geneva for three years.
29. He comes back. 30. He picks up in the next phrase. 34 0he was radically committed to expository preaching.
35 36 Your job as a leader in the local church is to guard what was committed to your trust. 32. That's your job. If you view yourself differently than that, reconsider. Your job is to guard the deposit that has been 27 entrusted to you by Almighty God.
28 This should be freeing. We shouldn't chafe at this. We should 29 run to this. 30 That we're just a guard of something that God would graciously hand to us. 31 That casts success in a much different light, doesn't it?
32 In the work that we have to do in the church. 36 Paul's charge should make us tremble at our 37 responsibility before God Almighty. If any man takes to the pulpit regularly and 38 it's become a little too regular, you know what I mean, so that you no longer tremble when you get in the pulpit. 21 21 21 22 23 24 25 that you would have the fear of God in you, that you would handle His word rightly. 25.
I think we can be confident in the pulpit. I hope we're confident in the pulpit. 26. I don't think we should be manic or anything like that, But I think we should have a sense of the heaviness of what we're doing when we stand before God's people. They're not our people.
They're not our words. I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing 24 in His kingdom. Preach the Word. 25 The prophet Amos was given words by God to speak 26 about a judgment of God that is terrible and it should frighten us. And it was this, in Amos 8, 11 and 12, behold the days are coming, says the Lord God, 26 and I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east. 25 They shall run to and fro seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it. 26 Brothers, it should break our hearts that To some extent this has been fulfilled in our day. 30. 30.
That in the generations leading up to us in many ways the Word of God has been lost and devalued and dishonored. 31. As we've replaced faithful expository preaching in the pulpits 24 with all manner of other things, all unworthy, 24 every last one of them unworthy to replace expository 25 preaching in the pulpit. Let's return. Let's pray.
26 Heavenly Father, Your word is refreshing water to our souls. 22-3 We're before you just acknowledging our need for it 22-4 God and praying that you would increase the word of the Lord 12. 12. In our homes, in our communities, in our churches, in our nation, that you would restore your people, 12. You would cause us to love your word and trust it and look to it for everything.
13. We know it's sufficient for all of life and godliness. 13. For more messages, articles and videos on the subject of Conforming the Church and the Family to the Word of God, and for more information about the National Center for Thank you. Integrated churches where you