Let's pray. Grace is Heavenly Father. We come again and we ask that you would speak to us. Word perhaps fitting for Jose and for others here and instructed with preaching your Word but it is part of your scripture and it is therefor profitable for all of us. So help us to learn what we need to learn be reminded of what we may have forgotten in Lord would you correct, rebuke, inspire, equip us. We pray by your most holy and unhearing Word in Jesus' name. Amen. Our text for this evening fitting for a service of ordination and installation but also a word fitting for all of us, though most everyone in this room will not preach or be a preacher in a formal sense. We will hear sermons. We will pray for preachers. We will be in churches with preachers and we will have tonight the ordination of one whose office will be chiefly to preach the Word. So follow along as I read these two verses from 2 Timothy chapter 4. I charge you all rights to young Timothy in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. Who is to judge the living in the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season, approve, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. It would be nearly impossible to state and to overstate the importance of preaching. Virtually impossible to state more strongly the importance of preaching in the local church and in the world than what Paul does here in these first two verses. And I wonder if we believe in preaching as much as the apostle Paul did. And I use we meaning this preacher, other preachers, all of you who listen to preaching. Years ago, some 50 years ago, Martin Lloyd Jones giving his famous lectures on preaching at Westminster Theological Seminary and then published as a book said this at the very beginning of those lectures. Ultimately, my reason for being very ready to give these lectures is that to me, the work of preaching is the highest and greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called. If you want something in addition to that, I would say without any hesitation, that the most urgent need in the Christian church today is true preaching. And as it is the greatest and most urgent need in the church, it is obviously the greatest need of the world also. Wow, even given Lloyd Jones' penchant for some enthusiasm in the way he states things, I wonder, do we really think that's true even at a place like this in a good reformed Presbyterian place? We are doing the most of Presbyterian things tonight. Do we really believe that about preaching? Seldom will depue rise higher than the pulpit. The preaching will set the spiritual tone for the church and will set its direction. It is the word which calls out a people, all throughout scripture. It is the word which forms a people, the word which builds up a people, the word which sends forth a people. First, Peter one tells us that we are born again not a perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. And this word is the good news that was preached to you, Peter says. Yes, scripture, only scripture is inherent, not your pastor's sermons. But did you hear what Peter said there? The word that delivers you from darkness into light, that imperishable seed which saves your souls, he said, that is the word that was preached to you. Well, simply read or studied in inductive fashion in a small group Bible study, as important as that may be, but it was preached. Amos chapter 8 tells us that of all the chastisements that Israel suffered, the final and most severe. Do you remember? It was a famine, not a food or drink, but of hearing the words of the Lord. For some reason, I'm not sure what my children have in mind for me, but they asked me a lunch today. Dad, how long could you survive without food? I think it was because I wasn't eating the glutenous sandwiches that they were eating. Well, you can actually survive a number of weeks. What about without water? Well, just a couple of days. What they didn't ask, but we should ask, how long could God's people survive without the word? Well, they may survive on for years and even centuries with a vestige of religiosity. They may even have buildings. They may even have people and budgets or even presbyteries, but they cannot survive as a true vibrant church without the word preached. There is always a need to reassert in each generation the centrality of preaching. There are any number of cultural objections one may have to preaching. You can think of them. People may say, well, monologue is bad, or this sort of just one person talking, speechifying, that doesn't work anymore. People don't listen to that. Well, really, you can look online at these TED talks which have tens of millions of views sometimes, or just coming through a campaign season, even one that may have been restricted by COVID, whether you are in front of a camera or you are in front of thousands of people, what did candidates mainly do? They spoke words. People may say, well, certainty is bad, or people can't listen anymore because they need pictures, they need clips, they need skits, they don't have the attention span to follow a linear progression of thought for 40 minutes, or they simply won't stand for this authority. But do you remember what they marveled at after the sermon on the Mount? Not that Jesus could tell a good story, or that he had amazing illustrations, or that he was funny, or clever, or brilliant. But he spoke as one who had authority, not as describes in the Pharisees. John Stott writing decades ago said, the anti-authority mood makes people unwilling to listen. Addiction to television makes them unable to do so in the contemporary atmosphere of doubt makes many preachers both unwilling and unable to speak. If that was an indictment, when was that in the 1980s, how much more so today? But if we're honest, it's not just that the culture has objection, sometimes it's Christians or preachers or churches that lose confidence in preaching. They no longer have confidence in the text, or they aren't sure it's authoritative, or they aren't sure that they can really know what it says, or that it really changes people. A number of years ago, I read a book called The Seven Churches, Not in the Book of Revelation. It was an interesting sort of book just playing off of Revelation two and three, and talking about the different kind of churches that a pastor may encounter as a Christian book. And yet, I found this to be absolutely stunningly wrong-headed. The author says, here's sin number two in this different churches. He says, sin number two is, quote, believing that preaching will change them. And he writes about this fictional pastor he calls Jason. Quote, Jason has begun to labor under the mistaken notion that if he preaches well enough, people will change. Jason was told in seminary that preaching is the most important thing a pastor does. No, Jason. It's the most important thing in preaching class, but it's not all that big a deal to grandma and grandpa out there in the pew. What word should we use to describe that sentiment? I would suggest the word diabolical. It is to suggest that preaching, the word of God does not change people. Now, perhaps, grandma and grandpa don't think that they want to listen to another sermon. Perhaps their pastor isn't very good at giving another sermon, but it's absolutely false to say that preaching the word of God will not be used by God as he sees fit to build up the church. The church in its best days has always been marked by strong preachers, strong pulpits. Now, preaching to be sure is not the only ingredient in making disciples of Jesus. It is a necessary ingredient. A key ingredient, it's not the only one, if that's all the book said, is listen, you need to do a lot more than preach. Well, that's certainly the case. It may take years or decades, but faithful, biblical, passionate, humble, textual preaching will change people and it will build up God's church. And if I am wrong about that last sentence, then my whole approach to ministry is wrong. I hope that Jose's whole approach to ministry will be wrong and we probably shouldn't be in the ministry because everything that I'm about from this pulpit and I hope that Jose and I hope that these pastors here are about is banking on the fact that the word of God has power to do the work of God. Paul certainly believed in preaching. If you look at these two verses, he could not have stated his command to Timothy in any stronger language. If Paul had been typing this out on a computer, he would have used italics in 38-point font and underlined and made it bold and it would have been obvious. Well, he's making it as obvious as he can. He underscores the command there in verse 2 with an oath formula. In the Old Testament, especially in 1st and 2nd Samuel, people often swear in oath. Now, Jesus is going to say something about not swearing in oath and I think we're not meant to take that as an absolute case, but don't use your oaths to try to get out of what you really need to do. You see this language all the time in the Old Testament. As the Lord lives, that's a typical oath formula. Well, here in verse 1, we have not one, not two, not three, but four, a four-fold oath formula. In the presence of God. In other words, as God is witness, Timothy, as God watches over you, as God helps you, as the holiness and love of God surrounds you, Timothy. In the presence of God, 2nd and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead. Timothy, Christ is coming back and he will judge you. And more than that, he will judge your hearers. Will you tell them where they can be saved? And by his appearing, so Christ is coming again. Timothy, keep on doing what you're doing until he comes again. Think of the great commission promise and low. I will be with them always to the end of the age. In the presence of God, 1nd and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, 2nd and by his appearing, 3th and then here's the 4th part of the oath. And his kingdom, his coming kingdom, his arrived kingdom, the kingdom that you are a part of, Timothy, the kingdom you are praying for, the kingdom that you are laboring for, he gives in the most solemn terms imaginable. This injunction to me, preach the word. It's one author puts it and I would love to give him credit but I don't recall where I read it. Gospel preaching is the chariot that King Jesus rides to victory. Do we believe that? Paul did. There are certainly lots of bad preaching out there. Commentary preaching, that's just sort of a running commentary of what the verses say and there's no real central point or no exhortation. Just now I saw this and this and this. There's esoteric preaching, the preaching that's overly intellectual and may have won you plot it among your seminary friends. Maybe that's what the book was trying to argue against. Spurgeon once said in his very spurgeon way. The text said, feed my sheep, not feed my giraffes. So don't put the meal so high that the sheep have to climb trees to get it. Well, that's true. That's bad preaching soap box preaching, the pastor who just gets up and you just know whatever he's been reading online, whatever he's fired up about, he's just going to launch into a rant, law preaching, a sermon that's always just imperatives, no indicatives, feel good preaching, the type of message where no one has ever cut to the quick, no one has ever laid low, no one ever thinks of leaving to repent and sack cloth and ashes, story preaching, the pastor who is rather dull and drab until he says, that reminds me of a time and then everyone perks up. He's got a story. Illustrations are like windows. Spurgeon said, they're there to let the light in, not to be stared at. Sermons should have clear windows, not stained glass windows. There's clumsy, same sermon preaching, the message that ends in a formulaic way every single time or flattens the text of scripture to make every passage sound alike. There's unnatural preaching. Lloyd Jones said theology in preaching should come through a man on fire. It's true through personality. Spurgeon said it is better to be clumsy or eccentric than to try to perform or to parent someone else. And often this takes years and congregations must be patient as young men or new pastors seek to find their own voice, what they naturally sound like. There's contextual preaching. Stought gives the illustration of the man who finished reading his scripture passage and then announced, maybe we will meet again, my text and I, maybe not. He tells the man who preached a sermon against the Old Testament and he used for his text the second half of Matthew 2240, hang all the law in the prophets. Well, that is not really the gist of that passage. The best preaching should come from the most careful attention to the text. The pastor must get up into the pulpit and feel not as if what he's most excited about is a great story about his kids or some clever one liner or something that he's been reading online but the most exciting thing that's as Jeremiah said, a fire in his bones is what he saw in the text this week. There's platitude preaching where the sermon is always a fog instead of a laser full of clichés, empty spiritual sentiments, never any definition, never application, just pious platitudes when the preacher is too lazy, too uninspired. So there's lots of bad preaching. Don't tell me if you have more examples. That's enough. What is good preaching? Well, note this word in verse 2, the word for preaching in the New Testament is a different word than teaching. The doscalosis the teacher, K-Rooks, is the preacher, the verb K-Russo means too herald. So preaching has teaching in it. We see that at the end of verse 2, but preaching is something a little different. Preaching is a herald coming from the king as an ambassador to say, hear ye, hear ye, I have a word from King Jesus. Erasmus said to Luther in their debates, I would prefer not to make assertions. Erasmus was always wanting to find some middle ground and of course Luther was much more bombastic. Luther was outraged by Erasmus' comment. You prefer what? You don't want to make assertions, take away assertions and you take away Christianity. The very mark of the Christian is that the Christian boldly makes assertions before the world. The Holy Spirit, Luther famously said, is not a skeptic. And the things he has revealed are more certain in life itself, away with the skeptics, away with the academics, Luther's typical overstatement. I like the definition from John Murray, who said, preaching is personal, passionate, pleading. Don't we have something of that in verse 2? Reprove, rebuke, exhort. It is the difference between merely preaching about the gospel and preaching the gospel. Preaching about the gospel tells people, here's this thing called the gospel. Let me tell you how it works. Jesus came down and he was born of a virgin and he lived a life we couldn't live and he died the death that we deserved. And if you put your faith in him, your sins can be forgiven and you to go to heaven. That's very nice. That's very true. That's preaching about the gospel. To preach the gospel is when the pastor says, no, listen, are you born again? Do you know this, Jesus? He's the only one who can save you from your sins. That's personal, passionate, pleading. That's the work. Not only a teacher, but of a K-rooks, of a herald. This man of God who preaches the word must be prepared. You see in verse 2, be ready in season and out of season. Likely means preach when it is convenient and when it is inconvenience. Convenience for the preacher or inconvenient for him or for the hearers. Preparation is of course weekly but it's really daily. Sometimes you ask, especially in older preacher, how long did it take you to prepare that message? He may say 45 years because it is the accumulated wisdom and exegetical insight that builds upon itself day after day, week after week, year after year. The most important preparatory work the pastor must do is to tend to his own soul, to nurture a passion for God, to cultivate his own love for Jesus Christ. Lloyd Jones said, do not think your sermon is done when you finish it on Saturday afternoon. I might add or Saturday evening after the kids are in bed or sometimes early Sunday morning. He says you have to pray at heart. You have to plead with God that the words you speak would have life and breath and vitality. The man of God is prepared. Then you also see this word, patience. No doubt this was what I needed to hear most when I was starting in ministry was to have patience. I wanted to pray. I wanted to preach. I wanted to be with people. I had forgotten. I just hadn't learned. You really need a lot of patience in ministry. You need patience when you're young and you have idealism. You need patience when you're old and you wonder if you're going to outlive these people or not. You need patience when you're misunderstood, when people disagree with you and some think you're too soft or too hard. You need a preacher who is passionate. You need one who is never unkind. If you're going to build a church with preaching, you have to realize that the work of preaching is sowing seeds, not slipping burgers. It's not fast. It's the work of farming and seeds that take time to grow and to germinate and for a harvest. Patience, and you see the last word in verse two, teaching. The preacher must also teach. I want to think, are the people, even if they have heard this verse ten times before, are they learning something new? Am I learning something new? You could do worse than to define preaching as theological exploration and practical application arising from the closest attention to the text. Probably the closest thing we have to a sermon, a full sermon from the apostles is Hebrews. Many scholars think that was a sermon and then you see quite a complicated sermon. It was careful attention in that case to many texts with rich theology and practical application. Billy Graham once said if he had to do it over again he would accept fewer preaching evitations and do two things. Pray more and study more. Technique can make an orator but theology makes a preacher. I would dare say that a man should not be a preaching pastor if he does not like to learn. We need to be challenged. We need our minds expanded. I heard Tim Keller say one time if you read one author you'll be a disciple. If you read two authors you'll learn something if you read from a multitude of authors then you just might become wise. The old adage is true. What you win them with is what you win them too. In our intention in this church and I know it uptown and across park that the work that Jose is being sent out to do we all share this aim. That what we would win people with is the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, not our winning personality, certainly not our good looks, certainly not any gimmicks or gadgets but the truth of God's word. Yes the pastor must do more than preach but you cannot do more until you do that. Be prepared, be patient and let the man of God preach under the most solemn injunction imaginable from the Apostle Paul and from God himself. Let us pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father may it be from this pulpit, may it be from the pulpits of every church represented in this room or ever who are listening wherever they are. It may be quite a stately pulpit like this it may be a plexiglass lectern it may be a music stand whatever it is from those pulpits may your word go forth with great power and work in us all of us not just preachers but all of us as your people to have confidence in the word of God to do the work of God and we look forward to what you will do as we so seed in Jesus name we pray. Amen.