Distinctive Preaching

Introduction

That’s the best sermon I’ve ever heard.

He’s the greatest preacher ever. Words we don’t hear around here very often.

The reactions of people to preaching can be quite fickle. It’s sort of like college football. What have you done for me this week? When people say that’s the best sermon I’ve ever heard, it’s because their memory doesn’t go to the last sermon that they can’t even remember seven days ago. But this one struck them in a special way, so it’s the best sermon they’ve ever heard. But we all know what the best preaching is. He’s not too long-winded, right at the top of the list. He’s entertaining, or at least he makes me laugh every now and then. And he doesn’t preach in the same tone of voice for the entire time.

Those are the keys. Is popularity a bit overrated? Some of the greatest preachers that we read about in Scripture were not very popular. I don’t think Noah was very popular. Ezekiel was told right at the beginning, and this is really difficult. When God says, I’ve got a job for you to do, Ezekiel, here it is, and they’re not going to listen to you. So, I’m going to help you out. I’m going to make your forehead as hard as flint. That’s what every preacher needs, a really hard forehead. In Ezekiel 3. And so then he goes out among the captives by the river Kebar, where he’s at. He’s in captivity in Babylon, and he sits among them for seven days, and where he ever says a word, and he’s causing consternation.

I guess that’s what preachers do. They cause consternation as he sits among them. And then there’s Ezekiel 33, when God says to Ezekiel, you are to them like a sensual song. One who plays well on an instrument. They hear your words, but they do not do them. The preacher’s worst nightmares. Along with the one where I’m supposed to be in the pulpit preaching and I can’t find my clothes. I’ve had that one several times. Believe me, that’s a nightmare. And a nightmare for you as well. But Ezekiel 33 is worse. To preach a message to people that is unpopular, that they don’t want to hear. And I wonder if we are increasingly living in times where the messages that we need to hear may not be very popular.

I may be preaching one of those next Sunday. Don’t mean to scare you off. In Jewish tradition, and in Christian tradition, from documents that go back to the 100s and the 200s A.D., the martyrdom of Isaiah, the lives of the prophets, the Babylonian Talmud, the Jewish Talmud, there is some consistency to the report that the prophet Isaiah died as a martyr. In one of those, at least, there is a reference to Isaiah under the edict of King Manasseh in regard to his death, went and hid in a tree, and that they sawed the tree in two with Isaiah in it. Perhaps, even if that tradition isn’t correct, perhaps still the reference in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 37 about the prophets and the men of faith who were stoned and other such horrible conclusions to their lives, and it says, sawn in two, perhaps indeed, in Hebrews 11 and verse 37, we have a reference to that event.

So is being appealing necessarily a good sign. That depends on the audience. But I’m here to suggest, by way of introduction this morning, that actually one thing matters. And that one thing, as far as the preacher should be concerned, is that the saving message of Jesus is proclaimed. The reception of the hearers, how you might be liked or approved of, how you might be praised, is really irrelevant. One thing matters. It’s not the eloquence of a preacher that sets free. It is the truth that sets free, according to John chapter 8 and verse 32. And it’s only as we abide in the disciple, in the doctrine of Christ, that we are really his disciples. So one thing matters. And that’s why you hear this text a lot from 2 Timothy chapter 3 and 2 Timothy chapter 4.

Because it is a reflection of our times. And notice how it begins in chapter 3 and verse 14. In contrast to a lot of things that are going on in society and in Timothy’s world that are less than ideal, as you go back to verse 1 of chapter 3, he says, You, Timothy, however, you continue in the things that you have learned, and have become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them. And that from childhood, thanks to Lois and Eunice, a grandmother and mother. You have been made known the secret, sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And from that text, he talks about the importance of Scripture in teaching us God’s way.

It’s inspired. He says in verse 16, it equips man for every good work. And so he’s solemnly charged in chapter 4 to preach this message. Because people will accumulate teachers in accordance to their own desires. And will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside unto myths. Yes. By all means, send the light. Send the blessing. Gospel light. There’s a term that floats around among preachers these days. I’ve heard it several times throughout the last couple of decades, this idea of distinctive preaching. Well, what does that does that mean exactly? It’s often thrown around in a discussion of preaching that can be done from a pulpit like this that can be preached almost anywhere and embraced and received by everyone, regardless of where they are spiritually, regardless of whether or not they’re actually in Christ or not, it’s the kind of message that would go over well just about anywhere.

1. Correct Information and a Call to Faith

Should that be the nature of what comes from this place? Or should our message be somewhat more distinctive than what you might hear in our religious world in this time. What is unique about teaching in this place in this pulpit? And so when we talk about distinctive preaching, we must first talk about the correct information. It is my responsibility for this I’m going to be judged, that I am disseminating to you, the audience, the right information that will cause you to be saved if you heed it. That’s a tremendous weight that is upon me all the time. First of all, there must be correct information, and then, because just the information alone is not sufficient, I must call you to action in regard to the information.

Because without faith, it is impossible to please God. We can have all the right information. We can say all the right things, the right words can emanate from our lips, but without faith, without a life that is a proper response to God, a trusting response that involves trusting Him and trusting His Word, without faith, it is impossible to please Him. And not what we call faith, and not what we look at in our lives and say, well, I’m faithful, but what God determines is a faithful response. Without that, it is impossible to please him. And we have a definition even in this verse of that kind of faith. For the one who comes to God, and that needs to be us, needs to be you, the one who comes to God believes that he is.

Okay, that’s where it starts. We’ve got to acknowledge a very real God. The one who comes to God believes that he is, and then underscore this. He is a rewarder. Oh, that sounds good, doesn’t it? We want to be on the receiving end of that. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So we need to focus on that phrase. We must believe that God is, and he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And without the proper response of faith, all of our religious activity and the way we feel about it will not be sufficient. And I think most of you understand as we talk about distinctive preaching that I’m very concerned about the fact, as many of you are concerned about the fact that error prevails in our world.

2. Error Prevails: A Very Real Adversary

That is a message that is not consistent with saving truth. A message that does not call people to the life of faith that causes them to be rewarded in the end. Why is that? I think sometimes we scratch our heads, and I’ve been scratching my head for 35 years as I’ve been preaching this message. Why and how do so many people get it wrong? Is it just God made this all way too complicated? He could have spelled it out in simpler terms. It’s just way too difficult to understand. What’s going on? Why is it that error prevails? And I use the word prevails because in pulpits like this throughout the United States, you’re going to get a lot more error than you are true.

What’s that? Because as you read this text, you realize there are things going on that you cannot see. There’s a spiritual realm, and there’s a very active agent in that spirit realm who’s known as our adversary in the scripture. And he is adamantly opposed to truth. And it’s proclamation. That’s the last thing he wants for you. He’s not your friend. He’s a destroyer. He’s the father of all lies. And that’s sort of sensitive in contrast to truth. Now, doesn’t it? And we see some of his activity in scripture, how that he promotes lies and deceit and trickery. He even transforms himself into an angel of light. Such a compelling verse, especially in its context in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 14. He uses deceitful workers, false teachers, those who would oppose apostles like Paul.

And he is very crafty and effective at what he does. And so don’t discount the fact that error prevails because we have a very real adversary. And you know, he would just love to work his way into what happens here. That’s right. I really can’t affect what’s happening throughout. Yes, play my sermon everywhere this morning, all over the world. May every church hear it. That’s not going to happen. But I’m talking to you and me. And we need to give serious heed to what he may be playing. What he may be conniving to do to destroy us. I could have chosen a lot of verses. I chose these, because we’ve been talking about Jeremiah lately. An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. Well, just stop right there.

We’re talking about an appalling and appalling and horrible thing that has happened among the people of God, among his covenant people. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests, they’re doing their own thing. They rule on their own authority. And you know what? The people absolutely love it. Jeremiah said, This is what’s wrong. My people, God says, love it so. But then you must always ask the question that concludes the chapter. But what will you do at the end of it? And that’s why the saving message becomes so important. Because if you listen to a message, if you accumulate a teacher in accordance with your own desires, well, he’s pretty easy to listen to, his messages are somewhat entertaining and pretty light, and I sort of like it.

3. Not Carefully Investigating God's Word

He gets done by 11 30. So I think I’m just going to go there. But the question remains is the message that you’re hearing going to help you to get to heaven? To get the reward we talked about in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6. What are you going to do at the end of it? It’s an important question to consider. So why is it that error prevails? I want to go through a few things with you that I thought about as to why we have this prevailing problem in the religious world that we can’t allow to affect us. And I think right at the top of the list is that people are not taking the time to carefully investigate God’s word. There’s a lot of information here to consider.

We can’t start drawing conclusions that those conclusions come in conflict with other passages of scripture. We’ve got to be consistent. We have to realize that this text is in harmony with itself, and we’ve got to understand it in a way that doesn’t bring it into some state of disharmony. Most of what is taught in the religious world today is a message of disharmony with other texts of Scripture. And we’ll get more to that in a minute, but I want to say the cause of that is we’re not studying carefully. Instead of grappling with passages that don’t match what is being taught, folks just go with what is palatable. And that fits in with the problem of interfering theology. You see, people decide, and they read it in books, they read it in commentaries, they decide, or they read the creed of a particular religious group.

This is what we believe. This is what we teach and practice here. It is their theology, often inspired by Calvinism, which they do not know. Some people are Calvinists, they have no idea that what they believe was influenced by John Calvin. And that’s a very lengthy discussion this morning that I’m not going to go in this particular lesson. But what they believe is influenced by Calvinism, they’re closet Calvinists everywhere. You mentioned John Calvin, they have no idea who that is, but their theology is fueled by Calvinistic thought. It’s what prevails in Christianity in America. And so theology interferes because you start looking at the scripture through the lens of these statements of belief that you have. And so the theology gets in the way. Statements of faith, man-made creedal notions, misconceptions about the Holy Spirit.

That’s huge as well, along with Calvinism. And then there’s this.

Tradition is absolutely mesmerizing. And then, along with all of that, you have people who promote the things people are comfortable with. Who promote the wrong theology? Who dismiss the verses. Don’t even look at the verses. But don’t match the theology. I mean, I wonder what you do with Acts 22 and verse 16. Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling upon the name of the Lord. What Ananias instructed Saul of Tarsus, who would become the Apostle Paul, what he was instructed to do to become a Christian. He wasn’t saved on the road to Damascus. He still had sins to be washed away. And I wonder how, well, people just wash that passage away like it doesn’t even exist in their Bibles. How are you going to match your theology with what Saul of Tarsus was instructed to do?

4. Our Goodness Is Deceived

Somehow that’s got to match. No wonder Jesus warned about people who donned sheep’s clothing. I mean, think of the imagery there. Harmless, innocent little sheep, right? But inwardly, that’s not the right animal. On the inside, they’re ravenous wolves. They have their own agenda. It’s not God’s agenda. And that’s the thing that always concerns me the most, even about the work that I’m doing among you. Do I have God’s agenda at heart, or do I have developed some personal agenda of my own? Jesus’ warning about the agenda of men when they teach. But I think there’s one more thing here. All of these contribute to the mess. But there’s one more thing. I think this is becoming very powerful. And that is our goodness is deceived.

A pretty good person. I’ve been changed by the message of the gospel. I’m not the same person that I was. I’m good. There’s a lot of dregs in society, a lot of bad evil people murdering people. I’m a good person. I’m a good citizen. I’m a good Christian. I attend worship services. I’m good. The problem with this thinking is if we’re innately good, then we don’t need grace. Grace is for those who are not good. And that’s all of us. There is one who is good, and that is God alone. Jesus says that to the rich young ruler when it comes to him. The problem that all of us have who are adults and who are sinners is that we are not good. And there’s only one means of becoming good, and that’s submitting to the instruction that has been given to us.

5. Why a Counterfeit Mixture?

To be declared good by our good God. It’s not about doing enough good works and changing to the extent that I’m a productive citizen of society and a pretty good person and a pretty good Christian. I become good when I do what the master, the good master, bids me do. And respond as he has me respond. Actions must match profession. Let me get to another thought here before we wrap this up. And that’s why. Why a counterfeit mixture? This is an alarming story I read in Money Watch this week. It was written on May 9th of this year by Kate Gibson. Your indeed. That’s a medical doctor.

Your MD may have a phony degree. Oh, let’s hope that’s not the doctor you’re going to see. There were some high school journalists, high school in Pittsburgh, Kansas. I bet Ted didn’t know there was a Pittsburgh, Kansas. They did some research and found something very troubling. Their principal, Amy Robertson, had a degree from Corlands University. A university that does not exist. Upon their discovery, their principal resigned her $93,000 a year job because of her phony degree. And then this. A search on LinkedIn found 745 people with a Corlands University degree. LinkedIn can get you. Realize how many fakes and frauds. But it’s worse when you come to the medical profession. A report in 2006 suggested, I think this number is high. But still, two million bogus practitioners of medicine.

I think that number is high, but still, if it’s just 500, that’s too many. But think of terms of hundreds of thousands. People lie about their degree, and the article said, because they get away with it, because it works. Counterfeit messages spiritually are the same. They work, they bring in the people, they bring in the money, they grow the churches. But what if you have a phony salvation?

A mixture. You see, if you put in just enough truth to make it palatable, oh, the devil’s good at that. We see that happening in scripture. But put in just enough truth to make it go down smooth. Why a counterfeit mixture? Because men have always sought an easier way. Oh, I know there’s some false doctrines where actually they go beyond what is written and make rules that God didn’t make, but that’s not the norm. The norm is men seeking an easier way, a way of their own making, and a way that suits what one is willing to do.

What is your perception of what truth demands in your life? Here’s why what I do must be truth. Because watering down or altering the message has never helped anyone. You may be satisfied with it. It may seem to work with you. You may like it. But if it’s not the truth that saves, it’s not helpful. And so then I thought about what’s different about this place. And there are others like us, hopefully. I’m not, I don’t get around everywhere to know how it is in North Carolina or anywhere else.

6. What Is Distinctive About Us

What’s different about us here? What is distinctive about what we call people to do and to be. Number one. We declare the entirety of God’s saving message without compromise. There is no verse ignored. There is no verse unturned, no rock unturned, we might say. We look at the scriptures and want it all. And that’s what makes us unique. And that’s what makes us different. And we practice what God has revealed his church should be and his church should do. Not some ecclesiastical organization, but we as his church, what he calls us to be, how he calls us to act together corporately, that’s what we teach in this place. And it doesn’t matter whether other people like it or understand it or approve of it. And if we need to exercise discipline, because that’s what God instructed us to do to remove the wicked man from among ourselves, that’s what we’re going to do.

And that’s quite unpopular. We must be distinctive in this way. And in worshiping as God instructed. That’s why we sang today. Without instruments. And I don’t know about you, I like it. I’d like to hear other people participate. We don’t need to be entertained. We don’t need one person doing the worship for us. We need to be collectively involved in the action, and that’s what our singing together does. It gets everybody to be a participant. And there’s nothing like it. Just do things the way God has instructed us to do it and be content with that. No matter how simple it might be to our minds. And uniqueness in living as a disciple of Jesus. The King. What does that mean? What does discipleship? What is signing on to being Jesus’ disciple?

My hands are failing me in my old age. There’s a first time for everything. I’ve never done that before. Okay, the sermon’s pretty much over. For your humor.

Back to the important stuff. Living as a disciple of Jesus the King. Confessing Him and His way as us. It’s not just living like we’ve been instructed to do because it’s right, but because we’re convinced that His way is best.

It’s about pursuing purity of speech and conduct. There is so much filth that comes out of people’s mouths these days. I didn’t think it could be any more pervasive than it is, but it is. It’s worse. You want to be different? You want to be distinct in the world as a disciple of Jesus? Just purify your lips.

Give consideration to the way you’re dressing and what you’re conveying by the way you dress. And the way you treat others with respect and genuine concern rather than contempt. There’s some simple things that we can do to show that we are aligned with King Jesus and we’re his disciples. And we can be light in our dark world. And then there’s this. And I added this because I think sometimes we have our attention too much focused on the here and the now and the troubles of our circumstances. There is so much said throughout Jesus’ ministry, throughout the epistles, Peter and Paul, as they’re telling disciples continually, you’ve got to place your hopes in the world to come. You can’t place all your hopes here. I think it’s because of our affluence.

It’s because of the trappings of our world, and we have so much right now in this place that we can’t stand the least little bit of upset and difficulty when it comes at our door, and we’re going to do whatever it takes to remove it, even if it means casting aside scripture to do it. We’ve got to be looking beyond troubling present circumstances to an eternal reward with our God that will trump it all. And we’ve got to be patient until it comes. I know 20 years seems like a long time, 30 years, 40, however long it is, but it’s not as long as you think.

Focus on the treasure at the end of the road. I love the term that’s used of our astronauts that we send off into space. Or we send up to the space station. You know what all astronauts do when they get to the space station for their period of time in space as they circle the earth? They look out those little tiny windows the whole time, gawking at the stars. That’s what they do. That’s it. But that’s not what they do, is it? They have all kinds of little tasks that they perform and research that they’re doing while they’re in space, the things you can do only in space. And you know what we call them? We call them mission specialists. I love that. They have a specific set of work things that they are supposed to accomplish.

Conclusion

They have a mission to do while they’re out there. They are mission specialists. And it occurs to me that we would be a lot more successful in living this if we saw our lives in the world as mission specialists. And our mission is greater than the astronauts. We’re living our lives with a king. A new way of looking at yourself. I am a mission specialist. And my mission is the greatest on the planet. And that’s to be a beacon of light. Or Jesus the King. His calls. One thing matters. And that’s the actual truth of God. Because it is an obedience to the truth that souls are purified. Can we assist you in doing that today as Matthew did on Friday? Can we assist you in putting on Christ to the saving of your soul?

Let’s stay in the scene together.