What Happens During the Preaching of the Word of God

But I want to start by asking you the question: why do you attend this church? Why did you come to this church? Of all the other churches in the neighbourhood, why did you? When you Googled us and you maybe checked us out, why did you choose to come here? Maybe it's a personal question to some of us. For some of us, we became believers in this church.

This is the place where we tasted grace, the grace of God, for the first time. Others come here because we have family members here and we like to worship together. Others of us come here because of the good morning tea. But what is ultimately the reason that keeps you attending? What makes you come week in, week out to participate, to actively and intentionally take part in what happens here?

This morning, we're going to look at criteria, which I think is the most important biblical criteria for choosing what church we attend. And I'd like to tell you this morning the one thing that you must prioritise in church above all other things is the preaching and the teaching of your church. More than any other thing, whether that is a good sense of inclusiveness when I go to church and everyone knows me and greets me and is friendly to me, whether we feel some sort of supernatural anointing and a heaviness of the spirit, so called, or whatever we may call it, the main thing that you must prioritise in the church is the word of God and the preaching of it. And we find this benchmark pointed out very clearly for us in 2 Timothy 3:3 through to 4:8.

So let's have a look at that. 2 Timothy 3:10 through to 4:8. Paul writes to Timothy: "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 complete, 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, fulfil your ministry." We'll end there. This is the word of God.

In the passage we read this morning, we find Paul writing to his apprentice Timothy, like we were looking at the last few months, his second letter to Timothy. And he is writing again about the things that Timothy should be busying himself with. Paul commands or charges Timothy with one thing in our passage. His words are few, his letter is short, but he gets straight to the heart of it: Timothy, preach the word of God.

Whether in good seasons or in bad, whether you feel ready for it or not, preach the word of God. We notice in our reading in chapter 4, verses 3 to 5, that the context in which Paul gives Timothy this command is one in which Paul fears a time coming when people would no longer listen to Christian preaching. Instead, Timothy must preach the word of God to those whom God has entrusted to his care. This word of God that Paul talks about is defined for us in chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, which is going to be the text that we reflect on this morning most specifically. It is quite common for Jewish believers to talk about their scriptures as the words of God.

These terms, these words, could be used interchangeably. We get this when Paul begins to explain that scripture, as he calls it in verse 16, all scripture, he says, is breathed out by God. These words are, in turn, he says, profitable, useful for teaching, for reproof, for correcting, and for training in righteousness. For what end? So that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Then jumping forward to chapter 4, verse 2, Paul says to Timothy: in light of what the word of God is, Timothy, I charge you, preach it. Declare it. Proclaim it boldly and confidently. Unapologetically. Preach it.

Now before we move on and we're going to discuss the work that this word of God must do, let's have a look at the significance of this action of preaching, what that is, how important and significant it is. Look at verse 1, where Paul begins by saying: I charge you, I command you. John Piper actually points out that there's an intensifying structure of all the things that Paul is calling upon as he gives this command to Timothy. Have a look.

He says: in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ, who will judge all of humanity, the living and the dead, in view of His appearing with His entire kingdom, preach the word of God. In other words, every human eye, whether they care about preaching or not now, the living and the dead, are concerned about preaching. Everyone watches on as Paul says to Timothy, little humble Timothy, the non apostle Timothy: preach the word of God, because creation is watching you do it. Why would all of creation be called to witness this? Because all of creation is at stake in preaching.

So I want to ask you: when you go to a church, when we listen to a sermon, when we go to chapel at school, perhaps some of us go to Christian schools, or when we decide which church to belong to, and you may be passing through here this morning, or you may be weighing up whether this church is your church, let me ask you the question: are you listening carefully to make sure that the preaching, the declaration that happens there from the pulpit, is the word of God? Paul gives Timothy four criteria, like I said, of what the work of God's word is. If Timothy is a faithful preacher, if he is to be a faithful preacher, then in turn, Timothy's preaching must do this. It will result in this if he is preaching the word of God. And so this morning, whether you are a member of Open House Church, whether you're visiting us this morning, or whether you're watching us online, I want to hold out these four criteria by which we determine whether our pastors are indeed preaching the Bible, not just saying that they are.

Firstly, the preaching of God's word must do this: it must teach. The apostle Paul says that the preaching of the word is important so that we might be taught. Now, to be taught the truth about God is to view our lives and this world not merely from our perspective, but from an outside perspective. We need external truth.

This is the idea of knowing God's will. Many people, as pastors, come up to me and they wrestle with trying to understand what is God's will for my life. Do you know? Do you want to know what God's will is? Be taught by His word and you will know it. This knowledge is life-giving knowledge.

In Hosea 4:6, God says: "My people perish for lack of knowledge." That is not, as some claim, some secret knowledge, some prophetic knowledge. It is the word of God knowledge. It is simply the declaration of God's will for our lives. In the context of Hosea, the prophets and the priests are condemned by God in Hosea because, having been given God's word, these prophets, these priests, withhold it from His people.

And because of this, the people were being destroyed by their enemies because they weren't living the life God wanted them to live. The curses that God had given them for not obeying Him were coming true. Without the teaching of God's word, they are falling. This is why the teaching and the preaching of God's word is what we call expository. This is the process of teaching God's word, exposing the truth of it, making sure that we all come to it and focus in on it and pull it apart for what it is.

Investigate it. To expose God's truth is to lift out the significant message in it, to bring it to light to the hearts of the people listening. It means that the preacher is not there to communicate personal insights and to make us laugh. The preacher's not there to communicate his own experiences of God. If you hear that regularly, if that is a part of your weekly diet, you have to get out of there.

The Bible's understanding of itself, the biblical understanding of preaching, is to teach God's word, what God has said in that word. And the preacher dare not deviate from that responsibility, or he starves the people of God and he destroys them for their lack of knowledge. Our minds have become so confused by the terrible curse of sin. The Bible says the human mind has been darkened by our nature. But what does the Bible refer to itself as being often?

Light. The Psalmist says in Psalm 119: "Thy word is a light, a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path." Our only hope is to understand who God is, who Christ is, who we are, and how we may come to know God. This knowledge is the essence of our salvation. It's what Jesus prayed in John 17:3.

He says: "This is eternal life." Let me give you a definition of eternal life. This is eternal life: to know You, the only God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. Isn't that fascinating?

What is eternal life? It is to know. It is to know God. It is to know Jesus Christ. How can we know if we have not been taught?

So the church's preaching must be grounded in teaching the word of God. Secondly, we find this aspect of reproof, or the NIV calls it rebuking. The word of God is given, Paul says, for rebuking the listener. We might translate this, or we might understand this, with the term convicting or causing us to change. The preaching of God's word must convict us.

Whereas the teaching of God's word has addressed my mind, the preaching is also meant to pass through my mind into my conscience, into my heart, and cause me to change. Of course, this is where the word of God is said to become very personal to us. It explains why under the ministry of God's word it matters far less about the personality of the preacher up the front, whether they are a funny, charming, charismatic, good-looking guy, or whether they are like me. One of the things that will happen is God Himself, through His word, finds me out. A preacher can be a pulpit-thumping, high-energy person, or they can be a quiet, soft-spoken communicator.

But if God's word is truthfully preached, God penetrates our hearts through rebuke, through conviction. A wonderful thing about biblical preaching is that you and I find ourselves under the authority of God's very own words. Do we believe that? Verse 16 begins by telling us that scripture is God-breathed. The words we are dealing with in preaching, therefore, are the very words breathed by God.

It is His voice that we hear every week. It's this verse that has caused us to speak of the Bible as being inspired, which is from the Latin word to be breathed into. The inspired word of God means that breathed-into word of God. It is this idea that God has breathed into the Bible His truth, His power, His wisdom, and it is this wisdom, power, and truth that comes up against my deceptions, my misunderstandings, my false assumptions. And then when that happens, rebuke happens. Challenge happens.

"Oh, I thought this, but God is telling me this. Something must take place now." Either in arrogance, I walk away from it, or in humility, I accept that. Chuck Swindoll tells the story of a nineteenth-century agnostic by the name of Thomas Huxley, who climbed aboard one of Dublin's famous horse-drawn taxis of the time. And getting into the carriage, he said: "Hurry, driver.

I'm late. Drive fast." Off they went at a furious pace, and Huxley, who was very tired, sat back in his seat, closed his eyes for a rest. After a while, he opened his eyes again. Glancing out the window, he noticed that they were going in completely the wrong direction.

He called out to the driver: "Do you know where you're going?" And the driver replied: "No, your honour, but I'm driving very fast, like you said." What good is it to go through life with all the style, efficiency, and urgency when you're heading in the wrong direction? Doesn't a good rebuke, doesn't a good command to change direction, come as a welcome relief? Hebrews 4:12 famously says: "God's word is a sharpened sword that breaks through all my defences.

It penetrates my heart. It exposes the lies and the misunderstandings. It exposes my insecurities. It exposes my hypocrisy. It lays me bare in the sight of God so that I may take up and drink the quenching water of salvation."

There's another remarkable passage in Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 8, in which another prophet, prophet Jeremiah, complains that the false prophets of his time were saying to the people of Israel: "Peace, peace." Meanwhile, Israel's greatest enemy, the Babylonians, are marching towards them as part of God's judgment. Naturally, the people are scared, hearing about this army. And these false teachers, feeling sorry for them, come to ease their fears. Verse 11 of Jeremiah 8 says that these teachers are healing the wounds of the people lightly.

They need a heavy healing. They are assuring the people: "You aren't really as bad as God is saying you are." And Jeremiah mourns this because he understands that God's redeeming work is hindered when the convicting work of God's word isn't being fulfilled. Preaching that says "peace, peace" when there is no peace is not God's word. God must rebuke when we need to change direction.

That's what Paul is alluding to in verses 3 to 4 in chapter 4, when he talks about a time coming when people won't endure sound teaching, but will gather, he says, teachers to suit their own desires. They won't listen to the truth. They will seek out words that their itching ears want to hear. It's a strong warning to all of us and to our friends and our family members who might call themselves Christians. Naturally, our ears don't itch for the truth.

We don't want to hear words of rebuke. Trust me, the amount of times I've sat with people who needed a rebuke, who were being rebuked by the word of God through me, who threw me out of their house, is proof that we don't love rebuke. But we can't be saved without repentance. We can't be healed without realising that we're sick. So whose words do we listen to, and who is guiding us?

On the Gold Coast, we are surrounded by people of all persuasions, even churches who preach a message of wellness. Everyone moves to the Gold Coast for the fancy cars, big houses, and paradise lifestyle. And so a prosperity gospel fits right in. But a gospel of prosperity is most likely a gospel without rebuke. A so-called word of God without conviction of sin is another way of simply saying "peace, peace" when all that there is is everlasting fire.

The third criteria of the word of God that must be centred in biblical preaching is correction. Now you and I, when we hear the words rebuke and correction, think that they are exactly the same thing. But the word used here is one that, interestingly, has been adapted from the medical world when Paul uses it here. You would correct, for example, a broken limb by setting it and realigning it to be restored to its former strength. To correct is to realign something back to its original purpose.

And Paul is saying, in essence, that the glorious thing about the ministry of God's word is not only that it lays bare our conscience through rebuking us, but after it has done so, it comes with a healing and saving message on how to realign back to the original purpose. After the prophet Jeremiah mourns that the false prophets of his days were saying "peace, peace" to the people, he cries out with these moving words in verse 22: "Oh, that there would be a balm in Gilead to heal souls that are conscious of their sins." In other words, he prays that God would send something that would soothe the souls of those who come to understand their precarious position before God. This is the true preaching of God's word.

This is what it must do. It needs to be corrective. It must be healing. In a sense, the pulpit is a place of deconstruction. God's word is breaking us down first before it starts rebuilding us.

Most of you might know that my brother, Dirk, is a doctor, and he will tell you that there are certain silly people, usually stubborn men, who do everything in their power to resist going to the doctor. Why? Because the doctor might find that there's something really wrong with them. This is the logic: if I avoid the doctor, then I avoid the illness.

And people have the same fear of biblical preaching. If I go to church, I might just hear that something needs fixing. But the flip side, of course, to this is that if I don't hear that something is wrong with me, then I'll never know how I can be healed by Jesus Christ. Jesus chisels away at my sin because He wants to realign my heart, my life, back to God's original purpose for me. So we need the correcting power of God's word in order to live the joyful, contented life that we were intended to live.

So the word of God is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and finally, for equipping. The phrase that Paul uses in our ESV says: the scripture is useful for training in righteousness. And this connects verse 16 with verse 17, which further explains what this training in righteousness looks like. It says: "So that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." What happens at a worship service on Sundays is something that will echo not simply into this next week that we go into.

Something of this will somehow remain with you for your entire life. Now you know why we listen to God's word, because of what you've heard today. Now you know why you will prioritise this in your life, in the life of your kids, why they must know this as well. The ultimate purpose of hearing the preaching of God's word is so that it moves us. Paul writes: the word of God trains us in righteousness.

God's word must do work in us. Here's the powerful truth I want you to hear: when we open God's word, when we sit under the preaching of it, when we study it in our small group, when we discuss it amongst friends, it is busy changing our lives. It is busy training us for righteousness, and the promise here is that it will succeed in it. Do we believe that?

It is not an "if" conditional statement. It's not a "maybe" statement. The word of God trains us in righteousness. There's a huge difference between training to do something and trying to do something. Spiritual transformation is not a matter of trying harder, but of training effectively.

Progress towards godliness isn't a case, therefore, of good attempts. Progress towards godliness is actual progress, and we make that progress when we are moved by the word of God. And so as we sit together listening to God's word, whether that is on a Sunday, whether that's on a podcast during the week, what is happening to us? Well, these four things are happening at the same time. This is the supernatural power at work in us.

Firstly, we are being trained, we are being rebuked, we are being corrected, we are being taught, and all at once, we find ourselves firstly in a classroom, taught how to think and view reality. We're students in a classroom. At the same time, we are in a hospital where our broken bones and our swollen tumours are being discovered. At the same time, we are in a surgery room where our cancers are being removed by the scalpel of the Holy Spirit. Our bones, our broken bones, are being realigned, corrected.

And finally, as we are being healed, we're in the process of physiotherapy. God places us in the training ground, and we are equipped to walk again. We must understand that when we come to God's word, all of us slightly crippled, slightly broken, wounded by our sin, but under the true preaching of God's word, we are able to walk out the door to live in the world again. So in finishing, friends, don't ever place your minds and your hearts and your lives under any kind of instruction that will not accomplish in you what the word of God has set out to do.

I charge you as church, I charge you as elders, as deacons, as Sunday school teachers who teach this to the kids, as mums and dads who must also teach their children the Bible, to be prepared in season and out of season, when we are busy, when we are tired, when we feel motivated or not, that we will protect and that we will promote the true and clear use of God's word. We cannot compromise it for anything less. It is our only hope. May the Lord grant us a piercing longing for that word, and may He send the Holy Spirit in our midst to breathe life into the words as it reaches our hearts and our minds. Let's pray.

Lord, we ask that even as we hear the word of God speaking about itself, that we will sense the veracity, the truth of it, and we will know that it is words of life that we listen to. Lord, help us to realise the futility of judging anything by our own understanding, the futility of a subjective-centred existence where reality can only ever be tied with what I can see and touch and understand. Lord, help us all to be willing to give up that arrogant position that our understanding is the barometer for truth.

And so, Lord, help us to come to a place of absolute humility, willing to be trained by Your word. And then, Lord, help us to be honest, to see our need of it when it comes to our own weakness, our own sin that is still inside of us. Help us, Lord, to see the collision of Your truth versus our understanding of reality, and help us to be willing to be rebuked. Help us to see the healing that comes from correction, that there is a balm in Gilead that can bring heavy healing to souls. And then, Father, help us finally to move into godliness and righteousness, to be so consistently rocked by Your word, to be so consistently penetrated and permeated by it, that we cannot help but be trained towards godliness and righteousness, that we leave the old things behind, where there is still a lack of love in us, cause us to love. Where there is bitterness in our hearts, Lord, help us to leave that behind to find forgiveness.

Where there is laziness, complacency in us, help us to find the urgency towards goodness and life. Lord, where there is cowardice and fear, help us to be brave. Help us to be intentional. Train us on all these things, Lord Jesus. Thank You for the word that You have given us.

Thank You that it is our hope and that we have access to it all the time. Help us to see its power. Help us to experience that in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen.