Gospel Preaching Gets Personal #1799

“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:2, ESV)

Preaching the gospel ought to include personal applications. After all, its purpose is to convict hearts of sin and convert souls to the Savior. That’s hard to do without getting personal. Nathan got personal when he exposed David’s adultery with, “You are the man!” (2 Sam. 12:7). Peter certainly got personal when he preached, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Yet, there is a lot of “no application” preaching these days. A well-known preacher (Joel Osteen) will not use the word “sin” when he preaches. (He is not preaching the gospel of Christ.) Others refuse to make personal applications that identify sinners with their sins like Paul did when he named Hymenaeus, Alexander, and Philetus and their error (1 Tim. 1:18-20; 2 Tim. 2:16-18). Some think a good sermon is one that flies over their heads and hits their neighbor between the eyes! No, a good sermon will cut us to the heart (Acts 2:37). We must preach the applications of God’s word or our preaching does not profit the listeners (Acts 20:20). Application-less preaching fails to declare “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). When gospel preachers preach there will be personal applications that “reprove, rebuke, and exhort” (2 Tim. 4:2). Listen for the personal application of truth in your life. Oh yes, gospel preaching gets personal!

Sugar Preaching and Truth Decay #1748

2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. (2 Timothy 4:2–4, NKJV)

A Christian friend shared the following sign with me: “Too much sugar preaching leads to truth decay.” I like that. Just as we are drawn to the sugary high of candy (that leaves us without nutrition, and eventually with cavities), we can be lured away from sound doctrine by feel-good preaching (that fails to nourish our souls with truth, as it leaves spiritual decay of error in its wake). Do you “endure” (allow, bear with) sound doctrine, or have you replaced it with the soothing scratch of your itching ears? We must not become intolerant of Bible preaching that convinces, rebukes and exhorts. Preach me the word, because its truth convinces me of Christ, of my sin, and of His way of salvation. Preach me the word, because its truth rebukes my error, and does not comfort me in sin. Preach me the word, because its truth exhorts me to bear the image of Christ, to live by faith in holiness and righteousness of truth. The word is not always easy to accept, but it is exactly what we must hear, receive, and hold fast to be fruitful and blessed in the Lord (Lk. 8:15).

Light in the Lord #434

8  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9  (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10  finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12  For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13  But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. (Ephesians 5:8-13)

Christians are “light in the Lord”. We do not live in the shadowy recesses of sin and shame. This passages calls us to the following actions: 1) Walk as children of light. Goodness, righteousness and truth are “acceptable to the Lord” and is the fruit our life must bear. 2) Have no fellowship with sin. To practice, teach, endorse or otherwise approve of sin and those who practice it puts one in fellowship with sin. 3) Reprove the works of darkness (sin). That is, expose sin for what it is; shameful before God and those who love God. Do not approve it. Do not be entertained by it. Do not compromise with it. Stand up against sin and call the lost to repentance. You were once in sin’s darkness, too. Now, you are a child of light. Live like it every day.