Welcome to the RTS Chappell Series. This tape is produced by the Antiochal Seminary Media Ministries. If you wish to inquire about the availability of other chapel tapes or tape theological courses, please follow us at 1-800-75-243-82. How then shall they call upon him and whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent just as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things? However, they did not all heed the glad tidings for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed a report? So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. Today's message is entitled, the posture of the preacher, a tale of two restaurants. I determined to know nothing among you this morning except Jesus Christ and him crucified to that end. Last fall, my wife went away for the weekend and left my daughter and me alone together. Sounds like an oxymoron alone together, but you fathers who have been left for the first time alone with your children know what I mean. Spontaneously on a Saturday afternoon, one of those beautiful fall afternoons here, just cool enough to let you know it's fall. I had this spontaneous idea of going to the Akiva Marina for lunch with my daughter. And we began this perfect lunch with a table by the river throwing bread to the fish and the turtles and watching the conures go up and down. 20 minutes later, when the waitress took our order, the edge was beginning to come off the day. And 30 minutes later, when our drinks were delivered, the day became less significant. And by the time we got our meal after about 45 minutes, it was all but a loss. And my only pleasure was to watch the man at the table next to us say what I wish I could have said.
He screamed for the manager and berated and bewildered their waitress until the manager finally appeared and put the use as recent reading at 101 different ways to apologize for the same thing. Now, that was one dining experience that was significant to me, but I remember another significant dining experience at the pizza den in Oxford, Mississippi. Pizza Bob ran the pizza den all by himself. Pizza Bob was a Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder. And Pizza Bob was a constant target of hopes, pizza delivery orders, and even provocation by walk-in customers. I never saw Pizza Bob at his best. The best I saw was when the pinball machine I was playing jammed up. And what he did, I can only describe as something what those machines do that make automobiles 12 inches high. Now, my friend who I was visiting Oxford on several occasions, he got to, he was at the pizza den often. And there was one occasion that he was there that Pizza Bob returned from a hopes pizza delivery with 12 cold pizzas in his car. Or to face the drunk, drunk and obnoxious fraternity men who were the walk-in customers. And he emerged from behind the counter with the largest meat cleaver you can own in Mississippi without a permit and issued a notice of temporary closure. And he said that when he described the exit from the restaurant, would parallel something like the evacuation of the World Trade Center a couple of weeks ago. And Pizza Bob would hang his sign that said, back when I don't feel like killing anyone, and that would end the episode for the evening. Now in this tale of two restaurants, there are many differences. A thread of limb, thread of limb or life lost is a difference. But the biggest difference is in one case, the customer was talking to the owner. Now, whether it's in a restaurant or whether it's in an automobile shop or the IRS office or the state license office or whether it's searching for a job, we all want to talk to someone who can make a decision, somebody who can tell us something about what's going on. In other words, someone with authority, someone whose word we can count on. Now, every sermon is in search of a crisis in order to validate itself as a sermon. And I don't want to create a crisis in order to preach a sermon, but I sincerely believe that there's a crisis in preaching today because there is a lack of authority in preaching. In many churches, there is a sense, both on the part of the preacher, as well as the congregation, that there is no authority or a little authority in what's being preached. The heart of the matter is authority. And I want to remind you this morning, and perhaps for many, it's not most of you, introduce you to a particular aspect of the reform doctrine of preaching. And that particular aspect will have to do with the posture of the preacher and therefore his authority. That doctrine is the doctrine of preaching that we know as the preached word as a very word of Christ. Because the preached word is the word of Christ and is a basis for authority in preaching, we must understand that doctrine in order to have authority in preaching. So the first thing to do is to understand the doctrine. But the preached word is the very word of Christ. Now, it's not a novel idea in terms of the prophets of the Old Testament that they spoke to the very word of God. Look, God said to Jeremiah, for instance, behold, I have put my words in your mouth. And all the prophets share that in some respect that God has given them words to proclaim. And what they proclaim are the very words of God. It's not a new idea with the prophets. They receive these words frequently in terms of visions or hearing voices. The apostles, too, they spoke the very word of God. Now, they received visions of heard voices just like the Old Testament prophets did. But in addition to that, we see them expounding scripture. As far as visions and voices posted to a gripper, for instance, I did not prove disobedience to the heavenly vision. The apostles were also eyewitnesses. What does John say at the beginning of his first letter? He said, We have what we have seen and heard. We proclaim to you also. But in addition to being eyewitnesses and receiving visions and voices, they expound the descriptors. Paul said this to a gripper. I stand to this day testifying both the small and great, stating nothing but what the prophets and Moses said was going to take place. So the apostles bear some difference with the prophets in that they relied more upon exposition of scripture rather than direct revelation. So then the question is, what about modern day preachers? You might say, well, modern day preachers are not apostles, and they're not prophets. And you would be right, at least in a certain sense. But the fact is, we're often so concerned about pointing out the discontinuity between prophets and apostles and modern day preachers, that we fail to recognize the genuine continuity that is there. And so, while we can't do full justice to the doctrine of the preachers this morning, I want to at least introduce it to you and talk about some implications. So look at Romans chapter 10 and we see Paul making some of his most didactic or straightforward teaching statements on preaching. Pay particular attention to verse 17. See what he says there. So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Now the context is clear, verse 14 and 15 are talking about preaching. There's no question about that. But the discussion about verse 17 is whether the phrase of Christ in grammatical terms, whether it's an objective genitive or a subjective genitive. Or objective genitive meaning, is it the word about Christ or a subjective genitive, is it the word from Christ? Can you see the difference? Is it just describing what the preaching is about or is it describing the source of where this preaching comes from? While grammatically you can't determine the case just from verse 17, the context I think makes it clear that it's talking about the word from Christ. Look at verse 14. How then should they call upon him and whom they have not believed, and how should they believe in him, whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher? Now your NIV translations will supply the of whom in the middle phrase, which would read something like, and how should they believe in him of whom they have not heard. But the NAS is a better translation here. It does not supply that of. And so the phrase is, how shall they hear, how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? In other words, in the preaching of the word, people hear Christ, which then also helps us in verse 17 to understand it's a subjective genitive. In other words, it's the preaching of Christ. When the gospel is preached, the way it ought to be preached, it is Christ speaking. It is the word of Christ to God's people. And that's the doctrine of the preached word, that the preached word is the very word of God. John R.W. DeWitt says in his little book, what is the reformed faith? The apostle is declaring here that in the preaching is not simply the preacher's voice, which is heard, but the very voice of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now, being good students, you're going to ask a number of questions about that. Well, any kind of preacher says something, it doesn't mean he's speaking the very words of Christ, doesn't? And that's a good question, and of course the answer is no. First of all, preachers are not apostles or prophets. They are neither. In the absolute sense of the term, modern preachers don't receive the word of the Lord by auditions that is by hearing voices from heaven. Nor by vision, that is seeing visions of heaven. They receive it immediately. They receive the word of the Lord immediately through exposition of prior revelation. This means that modern preachers are only pronouncing the word of the Lord to the extent that they say is biblical. I hope that makes sense to you. So the great honest in his book, the modern preacher in the ancient text, said this, unless one would be guilty of both presumption and anachronism, one must constantly keep in mind the great difference between preachers been and preachers now. Preachers today do not receive their messages directly from God the way the prophets have been. Nor can preachers today claim with the apostles that they were eyewitnesses. And yet provided their sermons are biblical, preachers today may also claim to bring the word of God. But Calvin said it this way, the difference between apostles and the successors is the former were sure and genuine scribes of the Holy Spirit. And their writings are therefore to be considered oracles of God. But the sole office of others is to teach what is provided and sealed in the Holy Scriptures. So preachers aren't apostles or teachers in the sense that they are not scribes recording heavenly words but they are expounders of the word that has been given. And also we must say too that preachers are not infallible but they are subject to the church. Now the Presbyterian form of government, which I am a part, I am subject to the Presbyterian to have the doctrine of the church regulated as a testimony and examine me. And if they hear things that I say that are out of accord with Scripture, then I am held accountable for it. But it is not only that the upper courts are the church but it is the congregation itself. Remember what the Bereans did when Paul preached these things to them? What did they do? The examined the Scriptures daily to see if what he was saying was right, was true. And so preachers are subject to the regulation of the office of ministry as well as the discernment of the things. To know if what they are saying is the word of Christ, in other words if it is biblical. And that is the ultimate point to be made in terms of qualification that preachers must be biblical. Great Donna has said, with the prophets we noticed that their authority did not reside ultimately in their calling or office but in the words they spoke, whether they were from the Lord. So it is with preachers today. They have a word from the Lord but only if they speak the Lord's word. Much more to be said about Scripture on that. What do the creeds say? Is this something new that you are hearing that has been made up recently? Let me suggest you not. The Westminster, directly from public worship, we read from it earlier today. A servant of Christ is to perform his whole ministry as taught of God and persuaded in his own heart that all that he teaches is the truth of Christ. John Ardewitt has said in that booklet, what is the reformed faith? We are heralds with a message that has been entrusted to us to be delivered to the people. This takes us out of ourselves. It lifts us up out of the sphere, ordinary communication. We are not our own. The message we bring is not one of our own devising. The preacher is God's man with God's message. The clearest statement of this doctrine is found in the Second Helvetic Confession, one of the family of reformed creeds. In chapter 1, let me test my Latin. Pray to Cateo, whereby, day s, whereby, day. May I Latin students here? Then I said it perfectly correctly. What that means is the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. That's how that Latin phrase is translated. And that paragraph goes on to say, wherefore when this Word of God is not preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is preached and received of the faithful. And that now the word itself which is preached is to be regarded, not the minister that preaches. Simply said, when the preacher preaches sermons that are biblical, God is speaking to his people. And although that speech is through the mediation of the scriptures and preaching, and although it's not efficacious until the spirit applies it to our hearts, yet it is God who is speaking. And when we preach the Word of Christ, we preach as ambassadors with full diplomatic credentials, speaking as if our king himself were present and speaking. That's the doctrine of the preached Word being the very Word of Christ. Now, so what? Well, the so what is the pressures that come upon, the temptations that come upon preachers to do something else than preach the very Word of Christ. There are external temptations. The temptation of influencing others. It's wonderful to have the influence of people. And the buying, the the influence available to the binding religious community is a tremendous one. To endorse political positions or candidates, to endorse certain views on social issues or economic issues. But it is a temptation that takes us away from the preaching of the Word of Christ if we preach beyond the counsel of God. Another major temptation is the external temptation is the fear of consequences. It's very difficult to think about preaching something and not think about its consequences. How will it be received? What ramifications will this have for my ministry? What will people think about me when I say this? I can't think of a sermon I have preached that I have not thought about its ramifications. But by the grace of God, we can go beyond that temptation to preach the counsel of God to preach the very Word of Christ because we understand that it is only the Word of Christ if it's Christ Word. There are internal temptations too. Our own hurts, our own woundedness in the ministry, our own personal weaknesses and sicknesses. They can tell us the preach about things that occupy our thoughts and minds but aren't the thoughts and minds of God. And so we may try to redress ourselves in the pulpit. For instance, I remember particularly having something happen and somebody in the church doing something and I determined the next time I would preach that I would address that matter in a general way, of course. And I was all primed to do that and of course the Sunday I preached that person wasn't there. And I have the sense of emptiness, of nothingness to say because this dialogue I had planned to engage and did not have the requisite other party for it to be a dialogue. So there are temptations or pressures that come against us to do to preach beyond the counsel of God or to preach to our own special interests but we must preach the Word of Christ to be God's mouthpiece. Two things about the preaching as a mouthpiece of God. Two things that I think this doctrine can help us in. First of all, in devotion to duty. It's a favorite theme of mind to warn you that in many churches you will be expected to display the skills of an MBA, not an MDF. But there will be pressures upon you to spend your time doing things that are more immediately fruitful or that will be responsive to the demands of key people in the church. And I would urge you to have the courage to pray that God would give you the courage to be diligent in your preparation. Think about the opportunity that is before whenever there is an opportunity to expound the Word of God. We have been invited by God to come into his presence and to receive a word from him and to proclaim it to his people. That should help us resist the squeeze of time on sermon preparation. Think, if you will, of what the prophets encountered when God gave them his word as they are standing, seeing the Lord high and exalted, his train filling the temple. Crying out, I am a man of unclean lips and I live among the people of unclean lips. And God sending an angel to purify his lips and saying, who shall go for me? Whom shall I stand? It's a rhetorical question and that context, isn't it? Isaiah's response was much different than Moses beside the burning bush. There's no question. And we have that kind of opportunity presented before us. Every time we have the opportunity to expound the Word of God. And so we can increase our devotion to that duty by keeping in mind that we have an opportunity to enter into the holy presence of God in his temple in heaven and receive a word from him to preach to his people. So devotion to duty is one effect to stop and should have on us. But secondly, it should have an effect on our passion because our preaching should be passionate. If we understand that when we preach faithfully, when we preach biblically, we are preaching the very word of Christ, we will find ourselves unable to be constrained in what we say and in how we preach to God's people. I have to admit something. This is my greatest weakness in preaching. I just like you. I love the Scriptures. I love the doctrine of Scripture that we have been given by our tradition. I believe this to be the Word of God inspired in the original autographs and in there is there. And so I want people to be in love with this book. But the effect that I have on our preaching is we stand and we say, hear the Word of God. It's right here. And look at verse 9 and look at verse 51 and look at verse 192 and we keep the Word of God on the page because of how much we love the Scriptures. But I am urging you to think in terms of the preached Word as the Word of Christ that what you say and so far as it's faithful to the Scriptures is the Word of Christ to God's people and that what you say is of consummate importance. Not surpassing the Scriptures, but of vital importance and as something deserving of passion. When we preach under the knowledge of the preached Word as a very word of Christ, we should preach as mad men. Not because we're mad but because we've come from the presence of God. We've taken, as Ezekiel was told, to eat the Word of God, we've taken it in, we've consumed it. And now we want to express and declare it to God's people. Deweat says this, that when a reformed administered preachers he does so with the consciousness of what he's task is and what he is about. He has to stand up and proclaim his message with a heart full of love for Christ and for the souls of men. He has to preach plainly, fearlessly, pastorally, lovingly and he has to preach in the awareness of the seriousness and the majesty and the glory of what God is doing through him. He knows that the Lord is consecrating to himself the mouth and tongue of a mere man in order to cause the resounds of the preaching, the very voice of the Savior himself. But our generation needs is not a company of communicators, of clever speakers, of effective workers, of interesting teachers, but a company of proclaimers of the everlasting gospel, in all its richness and comprehensiveness. We must preach as ambassadors, a given word by our king, preach with diligence and preach with passion, listen to Peter's exhortation. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with a strength God provides so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. Please continue listening to this side of the tape for the next message in the series. The message this morning is entitled the perspective of the preacher taking it to the street.