PREACH THE WORD
PREACH THE WORD PREACH THE WORD
Avon Malone
“I was glad when they said unto me let us go up into the house of the Lord.” These, the words of the psalmist David written in the long ago express my feelings today better than I could in language of my own. Truly I am glad to have this privilege to speak. I am deeply grateful for it. I am glad now to be in the house of the Lord, to worship him, to sing praises to his name, to unburden the petitions of my heart .to him, and to study his word. I trust that you share with me in these feelings and surely now our minds are attuned to and focused on those things which are eternal in their nature and therefore just now we can study a portion of God’s word with a great deal of profit. In 2 Timothy 4 beginning with the first verse we find the valiant apostle Paul writing to Timothy, his son in the gospel, and saying, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the ivord; be instant in season,- out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsiif- fering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap unto themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn their ears away from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.” This passage of inspired truth well introduces the theme we want to discuss today—-preach the Word. We want to talk not only about the public proclamation of the gospel, but we also want to talk about the various other avenues through which the gospel is preached.
First of all, though, let us consider the preaching of the word in a public way. Right now I am addressing myself to many who are public preachers of the gospel; that is, you teach the truth publicly from a pulpit, and therefore this particular phase of our consideration is very appropriate. In an age when human opinions and doctrines, trav-elogues, book review, social gospels and political prog-nostications in the pulpit are gaining public favor and popularity we need, as never before, to hear Paul’s inspired command—“Preach the word.” Not human opinion, creeds or dogmas, not prophecies and current events, not travelogues and book reviews, but Preach the Word. Why is it so important to preach the word? Here’s why. The word is the weapon—the sword of the Holy Spirit. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit joint and marrow, and discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). Why preach the word? The word is the seed which when planted in a good and honest human heart brings forth fruit. That beautiful fruit being a Christ-like personality— a life that is molded and shaped by the living principles of our Saviour. Why preach the word? Here is why. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Just here let me emphasize that faith today is generated and stimulated only upon the hearing of the word of God. Christianity is a taught religion and we need in this day of spiritual confusion to herald boldly the divine truth, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” But then again why preach the word? Paul said, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall be turned aside from the truth and turned unto fables.”
Why preach the word? Paul said, “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” I want to submit this for your consideration—that time has already come, and I am not referring primarily to the error-filled denominational world round about us. I am now talking about the condition which we find existing in our own midst among those who profess to be members of the Lord’s body. The time has come where, in some places, we will not endure the sound doctrine but rather we heap to ourselves preachers and teachers after our own lusts who will tickle our ears and placate our own uneasy consciences. For instance there are some congregations of the Lord’s body where this passage of scripture is seldom if ever discussed, “They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away? He (Jesus) saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication and shall marry, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery” (Matthew 19:7-9). The teaching here recorded of our Lord Jesus in regard to marriage and divorce is scarcely mentioned in some places by some preachers. The challenging, vital subjects of worldliness, church leadership and even sometimes the undenominational character of the Lord’s body are given a back seat in preference to more popular, palatable themes. Brethren, these things ought not so to be. We need to preach courageously on marriage and divorce, worldliness, the moral and doctrinal purity of the church and kindred subjects. We need not only to cry ‘‘back to the old paths” in doctrine, but we need, just as fearlessly, to sound that clarion call, “back to the old paths” in regard to practical, pure, everyday Christian living.
I would like, just here, to use a statement made by one of the greatest statesman England ever produced. Edmond Burke, the statesman, made this statement in regard to the responsibility of a member of Parliament to his constituents: “He owes you not his industry only, but his judgment, and he betrays rather than serves you when he sacrifices it to your opinion.” I would like to paraphrase this statement to 'illustrate the point we are now considering. The gospel preacher owes you not his industry only, but the judgment of God’s word and his own judgment as it is based on divine truth, and he betrays rather than serves you when he sacrifices it to your opinion. It is, then, the responsibility of the gospel preacher to meet issues, problems, and particular situations squarely, never swerving from or sacrificing the truth. The classic definition of what preaching should be is found clothed in the language of Paul in Ephesians 4:15, “Speaking the truth in love.” Yes, speaking the truth for real love will impel us to speak the truth. If we really love a man we will tell him the truth no matter how violently it may clash with his opinion. So preacher friend, your sublime responsibility and mine is to Preach it! Preach it! Preach it! Preach the truth fearlessly in all its condemning power, in all its redemptive force, never sacrificing for a moment divine principle—yet ever preaching from the depths of a loved heart. A preacher who was working in what we would call a difficult field once said, “I’ve converted more people over the dinner table than I have from the pulpit.” This statement well serves to introduce a discussion of personal work—personal evangelism— one of the finest ways to preach the gospel since it meets the individual with his problems in a personal, intimate way.
Few of us realize as keenly as we should the power of personal evangelism nor do we recognize as we should our own responsibility to spread the gospel in a personal private way.
Let me stop here to ask you a question. When you see someone approaching you on the streets what do you see? Do you just see a physical body containing enough phosphorus to make 800,000 matches? Is that all you see? Do you just see a body of clay containing enough carbon to make 96,000 pencils? Is that all you see? Do you just a body which physically contains enough sugar to make sixty large lumps? When you see someone coming down the street, do you just see a body which contains enough iron to make a spike strong enough to hold its own weight? Do you just see a body that chemically is worth $2.57? Is that all you see? I hope not. I sincerely hope and pray that that is not all I see. I hope we see more than just a physical body. I hope we see an individual endowed by a loving creator with a soul which will never die—a soul whose salvation is vitally dependent on obedience to the gospel. I hope, too, that we realize, that we can take the gospel to him and thus an awesome, fearful responsibility is ours—we must spread the gospel at every opportunity.
We sometimes sing the song, “I love to tell the story.” You know, when a fellow says he loves to do something that means that he thoroughly enjoys doing it and he does it at every opportunity. If I pray I love to eat, I mean that I enjoy 'it immensely and I do it quite often. We sing and have been singing for years, “I Love to Tell the Story” but friend, let me ask you—how many times have you told the story that you love to tell so well? How many times have you told the story—-that you love so well—the story bf a Saviour’s dying love?
“I love to tell the story because I know ’tis true”. Sometimes I wonder if we really believe this—if we really believe that the gospel story is true—if we really believe that the souls of men cannot be saved apart from obedience to the gospel. If we really believe it is true, how can we remain motionless and inactive while living souls all round about us are being lost for all eternity? Just here, let me call to your attention the oft quoted statement of an infidel. Here is what he said he would do if he really believed the story is true: “If I firmly believed, as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of Christianity in this life influences destiny in another world, Christianity would be to me, everything. I would cast aside earthly cares as follies and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity. Christianity would be my first waking thought, and my last image before sleep sank me into unconsciouness. I would labor in its cause alone. I would take thought for the morrow and eternity alone. Earthly consequences should never stay my hands or seal my lips. I would esteem one soul gained for heaven worth a lifetime in effort. I would go forth to the world and preach Christ in season and out of season, and my text would be: “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” This man said that if he believed the story (as you and I say we do) then Christianity would be his first waking thought, his last image before sleep sank him into unconsciousness. He would labor in its cause alone. He would esteem one soul gained for heaven worth a life time of effort.
You and I believe the story is true, yea, through the eye of faith, we rest in full assurance of the story’s validity and truth, and yet is heaven our chief thought and concern? Do we labor in its cause alone? Do we esteem one soul gained for heaven a lifetime of effort. We ought to. We ought to have a sincere passion for the souls of men and we ought to give ex-pression to this concern by being personal evangelists, personal workers for the cause of the master. Jesus worked much in a personal way, the early disciples did likewise—and you and I must do the same if we are to fulfill the sacred sublime responsibility placed directly on our shoulders by the God of heaven. You must be a personal herald for Jesus in your own little world—or sphere of influence.
Public preaching and personal teaching are vital, yea indispensable to the spread of the gospel, but now I want to consider with you an avenue of approach which, at least in some ways, may surpass them in clarity and force.
I would like to introduce this by saying that the preacher’s spoken sermon is quickly forgotten. It very soon loses much of its original impact and quickly becomes muddled and indistinct in the ears of its auditors. The preacher’s most eloquent words, his most forceful gestures and even his most profound thoughts are soon forgotten. Why is this? Here is why. Beautiful words and classic gestures are easily effected and therefore easily forgotten but Christ-like lives are not easily developed nor are living gestures of love and kindness soon erased from the memory. Therefore the point I want to make is this: the greatest sermons are not limited by the confines of a church building. The finest sermons are not developed in a study and delivered from a pulpit. The greatest sermons, the sermons that continue to stand out with unmistakable power-packed clarity are those which are preached by the devoted consecrated lives of humble Christians.
“I would rather see a sermon than hear one any day, I would rather one would walk with me than merely point the way.”
Preaching by living then, is the third and final avenue of spreading the gospel which I would like to discuss with you today. But just here you might ask this question. “Well, I realize that I preach with life and I know too that I just have one life to live and hence just one living sermon to preach—but now I would like to know just how do I make that sermon what it ought to be— what I so badly want it to be?” In answer to your question let me submit a simple two point plant by which we can preach with our lives as we should.
First of all, let us do all we can for the Lord in a positive way. Despite the fact that the New Testament is brimming with positive commands—things that we must clo—there are members of the Lord’s body, and their name is legion, who seem to think that Christianity 'is just a list of do nots and therefore they base all their hopes for pleasing the Lord on the things they do not do. They might say, “Well, I do not dance, I do not drink, I do not curse, I do not lie, I don’t commit adultery, I don’t commit all those obvious, overt acts of wrong and therefore I’m a pretty good fellow and I’m pleasing to the Lord.” Don't you see what he’s doing. He’s basing his hopes for spiritual success on the things which he does not do. I want to say this and I want you to mark it: in no other realm of human endeavor would man’s reasoning be so faulty. In nothing else but religion would man base his hopes for succeeding on what he did not do.
Take, for example, a housewife, and suppose she would greet her husband at the door after a long day by saying, “Honey, I didn’t burn the house down today, I didn’t spill food all over the house, I didn’t break the washing machine, I didn’t beat the children unmercifully.” He in turn, might say, “Well, that’s fine but what did you do today? Did you prepare me a good supper?” “Well, no,” she would say, “but I didn’t burn the house down, I didn’t break the washing machine,” etc.
We see how ridiculous that is. No housewife, in fact no one, expects to succeed simply on the basis of things not done. No one, that is, except some professed members of the Lord’s body. In James 4:17—“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” Thus we see most clearly that we sin against Almighty God not only by our committing of that which is wrong but also by our failure to seize all our opportunities for good—and thus do all we can that is right.
In Ephesians 2:10—“We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” If this teaches anything at all it teaches this—We must do something. We have a positive work to do. You and I then as Christians, in order to please the Lord, must grasp our opportunities and work unselfishly and tirelessly with our time, talent, money, energy, and, in fact, with all that we have at our disposal.
So, in answer to the question, “How can I preach best with my life?” we first would suggest
(1) do all you can in a positive way for the Lord and then our second point would be
(2) do not do anything which would weaken your influence or weaken, yourself either physically or spiritually. In other words, let us flee the very appearance of evil. In Romans 12:9 we read, “Abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good.” It is in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 that we find: “Abstain from (or flee) the very appearance of evil.” So we see that the New Testament teaches that we as Christians are to get as far away from sin and sinful practices as possible.
Despite this very obvious truth, many professing to be members of the Lord’s church seem to say, “Well, I’ll get over here just as close to the line between the church and the world as I can, I’ll enjoy the sensual, devilish pleasures of the world and at the same time I’ll be a partaker of all the rich spiritual blessings to be found in Christ.” They try, then, to walk with one arm wrapped tenderly around the waist of the world and with the other hand they try to hold to the wounded palm of Jesus. But I want to tell you, friends, it can’t be done. Jesus himself said, “No man can serve two masters for either he’ll hate the one and love the other or else he’ll cleave to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). He also said, “He that is not for me is against me—he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad” (Matthew 12:30).
We need so badly today, Christians who are resolved completely to flee the very appearance of evil. As long- as people who profess to be Christians listen to the same obscene talk, take part in the same questionable activities, are addicted to the same strength sapping, influence-weakening habits, in short as long as we continue to live, look and act just like the world about us—we can never lead a lost world to Jesus.
We need people today who will preach Christ with their lives. You can begin now to do that if you will do all you can in a positive way for the Lord and if you will make every effort to flee the very appearance of evil.
I do not think this lesson on preaching the word would be complete if I didn’t take this opportunity to emphasize, “there’s a call comes ringing o’er the restless wave—send the light.” There’s a world lying out before us virtually untouched by the saving gospel of Jesus. There are whole nations that know him not. William Jennings Bryant said, “I know of a land, deep set in shame, of hearts that faint and tire and I know of a name—a name that would set that land on fire.” You know of that name and I know of that name—the body of Jesus, our Savior. May God grant us the faith, love and stamina of body and soul to take it to every nation.
You and I as New Testament Christians are respon-sible before God to fulfill the great command as penned by Paul to “Preach the word.” Let us resolve right now to devote our heart and soul, every nerve and fibre of our being to the discharging of that obligation. Let us “Preach the word” fearlessly from the pulpit. Let us “Preach the Word” patiently, tirelessly in a personal intimate way to our friends and neighbors. Let us “Preach the Word” in an unforgettable way by the humble devotion of our lives. Let us preach it! preach it! preach it! and let us live it! live it! live it! May we preach it to all men. Let us take it to the shriveled beggar on the street. Let us take it to the wealthiest of this earth. May we preach it to the humble and the proud. Let’s take it to the moral and with it let us lift the depraved.
Let us begin at Jerusalem (or in other words right here) and go then to Judea, Samaria and on to the uttermost parts of the earth. May we be quick to respond to the Macedonian call—may we take it to this world’s far flung corners until earth’s remotest people have heard Messiah’s name. May we all resolve right now that we will utilize every means at our command and devote the remainder of our lives to fulfilling Paul’s command—“Preach the Word.”