(Audio Book) Despise Not Prophesying (Clip)

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed. Simon and those who were with him searched for him. When they found him, they said to him, Everyone is looking for you. But he said to them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth. And he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons. Mark 1 verses 35 to 39 We ought to observe here what infinite honor the Lord Jesus puts on the office of the preacher. It is an office which the eternal Son of God himself undertook. He might have spent his earthly ministry in instituting and keeping up ceremonies, like Aaron. He might have ruled and reigned as a king, like David. But he chose a different calling. Until the time when he died as a sacrifice for our sins, his daily, and almost hourly work was to preach. There are many now who sneer at missionaries, and mock at those who go out into the highways of our own land to preach to crowds in the open air. But such persons would do well to pause and consider calmly what they are doing, the very work which they ridicule is the work which turned the world upside down, and cast heathenism to the ground. Above all, it is the very work which Christ himself undertook. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords himself was once a preacher. For three long years he went to and fro proclaiming the gospel. Sometimes we see him in a house, sometimes on the mountainside, sometimes in a Jewish synagogue, sometimes in a boat on the sea. But the great work he took up was always one and the same. He came always preaching and teaching, let us leave this passage with a solemn resolution never to despise prophesying. The minister we hear may not be highly gifted. The sermons that we listen to may be weak and poor. But after all, preaching is God's grand ordinance for converting and saving souls. The faithful preacher of the gospel is handling the very weapon which the Son of God was not ashamed to employ.