The Spurgeon Fellowship Journal - Exerpts from a Sermon


	Excerpts From A Sermon The Church And The Preaching Of The Word 2 Timothy 3:10 - 4:5 by Sinclair Ferguson We come today to the theme of the church and the preaching of the word. I am going to read Paul’s letter found in 2 Timothy 3:10 and continuing to 4:5. As we read this passage, you will recognize this as one of the places in our English Bible that the chapter division should not really be there . . . Let us hear God’s word: “You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” A number of years ago, I had a conversation with a long-standing friend, the wife of one of my close friends at home. She startled me with something she said in the course of the conversation. Indeed, it left a very deep and a lasting impression on me. I was asking her about her work and she said to me, “What I do isn’t really important.” Then she said to me, “What you do, now, that’s really important.” She wasn’t the kind of Christian who would demean the Biblical teaching on calling. She wasn’t actually a woman who was just doing a little work in order to occupy her mind; or for that matter, for a little more in the family budget. She was, in fact, the only international-level scientist that I think I knew in Scotland. Her work had prolonged the life of those who were destined to die within weeks. She was a woman of high intellectual power. Here is what I believe she meant by what she said: What she does prolongs people’s lives in this world. Preaching, however, transforms people’s lives for all eternity. It made a profound impression on me. It was a reminder of how important the preaching of the word of God is in the life of every Christian, every church, and the world. Indeed, that is the Pauline sense of things. When he speaks to his young friend, Timothy, towards the end of his own life he says, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and I charge you by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word of God.” Paul understood, as my friend understood, that the preaching of the word of God is His great instrument for the salvation of sinners and the transformation of saints. In response to Paul’s statement, some may assert that Paul lived in an age when people really responded to preaching and we no longer live in that kind of age. But did you notice in our reading that the context in which Paul exhorts Timothy to preach the word is precisely the context in which people no longer want to listen to orthodox Christian preaching? Paul tells Timothy that he must not do as so many others have done and will continue to do . . . He reminds his young charge that he must preach the word of God to those whom God has entrusted to his care . . . The word of God, about which he was speaking, is the very word of God which he described in chapter 3, verses 16 and 17: the scripture that is “breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” Did you notice how Paul picks up the language that he’s used in chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 and says in essence: Since this is what the word of God is for (teaching and for reproving), preach it that way! Be ready in season and out of season to reprove, rebuke, and exhort . . . Incidentally, that is a great guide for you and me in our private Bible study. As we open the scriptures . . . we are to use the scriptures in the way they were given to us to be used: for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, and for equipping. So Paul, in essence, is saying to Timothy: since God has placed His word into your hands and into your heart, use that word in your preaching that it may fulfill its glorious four-fold function in the lives of God’s people . . . It is that four-fold function of preaching that I want us to think about for a few minutes together this morning. The Apostle Paul says that the preaching of the word is important, first of all, that we may be taught . . . To be taught the truth about God, as we sometimes say, “to learn to think God’s thoughts after Him,” to view our lives in this world not from a merely human perspective but with the wisdom, truth, and insight of God’s word. And this is so important throughout the whole of scripture . . . remember God’s words in Hosea, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” The prophets and the priests are condemned by God. Having been given God’s word, they withheld God’s word from His people. There are things in God’s word that are hard for us to take. There are aspects of God’s word that penetrate us as a sharp sword. There are portions of God’s word that will offend us. And Paul is saying to Timothy: if you are going to preach God’s word, be prepared for people to be offended. But do not hide God’s word from them because it is God’s means of communicating His truths and His teaching to them. And that is why the teaching and the preaching of God’s word is what we call expository. The preacher is not there to communicate his own personal insights or his own world view. He is there for one single purpose: to teach God’s people what God has said in His word. And he dare not deviate from that responsibility or he starves the people of God and he destroys them for lack of knowledge. Why is this so important for the Apostle Paul? Why is he so passionate about this? Why does he charge Timothy to preach the word? Because he understands that the transformation of our lives is utterly dependent upon the renewing of our minds. Click Here to Download Article in PDF Format 1 \| 2
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Excerpts From A Sermon
The Church And The
Preaching Of The Word
2 Timothy 3:10 - 4:5
by Sinclair Ferguson

We come today to the theme of the church and the preaching of the word. I am going to read Paul’s letter found in 2 Timothy 3:10 and continuing to 4:5. As we read this passage, you will recognize this as one of the places in our English Bible that the chapter division should not really be there . . . Let us hear God’s word:

“You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

A number of years ago, I had a conversation with a long-standing friend, the wife of one of my close friends at home. She startled me with something she said in the course of the conversation. Indeed, it left a very deep and a lasting impression on me. I was asking her about her work and she said to me, “What I do isn’t really important.” Then she said to me, “What you do, now, that’s really important.” She wasn’t the kind of Christian who would demean the Biblical teaching on calling. She wasn’t actually a woman who was just doing a little work in order to occupy her mind; or for that matter, for a little more in the family budget. She was, in fact, the only international-level scientist that I think I knew in Scotland. Her work had prolonged the life of those who were destined to die within weeks. She was a woman of high intellectual power. Here is what I believe she meant by what she said: What she does prolongs people’s lives in this world. Preaching, however, transforms people’s lives for all eternity. It made a profound impression on me. It was a reminder of how important the preaching of the word of God is in the life of every Christian, every church, and the world.

Indeed, that is the Pauline sense of things. When he speaks to his young friend, Timothy, towards the end of his own life he says, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and I charge you by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word of God.” Paul understood, as my friend understood, that the preaching of the word of God is His great instrument for the salvation of sinners and the transformation of saints. In response to Paul’s statement, some may assert that Paul lived in an age when people really responded to preaching and we no longer live in that kind of age. But did you notice in our reading that the context in which Paul exhorts Timothy to preach the word is precisely the context in which people no longer want to listen to orthodox Christian preaching? Paul tells Timothy that he must not do as so many others have done and will continue to do . . . He reminds his young charge that he must preach the word of God to those whom God has entrusted to his care . . . The word of God, about which he was speaking, is the very word of God which he described in chapter 3, verses 16 and 17: the scripture that is “breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

Did you notice how Paul picks up the language that he’s used in chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 and says in essence: Since this is what the word of God is for (teaching and for reproving), preach it that way! Be ready in season and out of season to reprove, rebuke, and exhort . . . Incidentally, that is a great guide for you and me in our private Bible study. As we open the scriptures . . . we are to use the scriptures in the way they were given to us to be used: for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, and for equipping. So Paul, in essence, is saying to Timothy: since God has placed His word into your hands and into your heart, use that word in your preaching that it may fulfill its glorious four-fold function in the lives of God’s people . . . It is that four-fold function of preaching that I want us to think about for a few minutes together this morning.

The Apostle Paul says that the preaching of the word is important, first of all, that we may be taught . . . To be taught the truth about God, as we sometimes say, “to learn to think God’s thoughts after Him,” to view our lives in this world not from a merely human perspective but with the wisdom, truth, and insight of God’s word. And this is so important throughout the whole of scripture . . . remember God’s words in Hosea, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” The prophets and the priests are condemned by God. Having been given God’s word, they withheld God’s word from His people.

There are things in God’s word that are hard for us to take. There are aspects of God’s word that penetrate us as a sharp sword. There are portions of God’s word that will offend us. And Paul is saying to Timothy: if you are going to preach God’s word, be prepared for people to be offended. But do not hide God’s word from them because it is God’s means of communicating His truths and His teaching to them. And that is why the teaching and the preaching of God’s word is what we call expository. The preacher is not there to communicate his own personal insights or his own world view. He is there for one single purpose: to teach God’s people what God has said in His word. And he dare not deviate from that responsibility or he starves the people of God and he destroys them for lack of knowledge. Why is this so important for the Apostle Paul? Why is he so passionate about this? Why does he charge Timothy to preach the word? Because he understands that the transformation of our lives is utterly dependent upon the renewing of our minds.

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