Why I Preach The Word
Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Why am I resolved and resolutely focused on expositing God’s Word faithfully, powerfully, authoritatively and prayerfully? What drives my thinking, my praying, my studying, my heralding?
Here are a handful of reasons why I preach the Word.
1. to submit to the Word. I preach the Word because the Word of God is my authority. I have nothing to say apart from the Word. Without God’s Word as my authority & object of heralding, I stand as nothing more than a clanging cymbal or a dumb animal. I herald the Word because I stand under authority, and on commission, and in burning affection for the Bible, the very Word of God.
2. to hear from the Father. I preach and minister the Word because God speaks to His people through His Word. Every word of Scripture is God-breathed and therefore wholly inspired and totally sufficient. People gather each week, throughout the week, not to hear man’s quips and thoughts and jokes, but they assemble to hear a word from the Almighty who has revealed Himself savingly in the Word of God. This is why Scripture is my source and message of preaching.
3. to exalt the Son of God. I preach the Word to exalt and extol Jesus Christ, the only substitute for ruined sinners. He alone can reconcile guilty man with the Holy God. No other mediator exists. God provides no other redeemer or atonement or propitiation to save wretches from eternal wrath. Christ alone! Proclaiming Christ and Him crucified is needed for the converted the unconverted. All need to hear of Christ regularly. He is glorified as He is heralded.
4. to employ the means the Spirit uses. The Spirit of God ministers and speaks through the Word He inspired to both bring salvation to dead sinners and to sanctify believers as they grow in Christlikeness. The Spirit of God does not work apart from His Word. In the teaching and expounding of the Word, the Spirit powerfully works to convict and to convert those whom He shall draw to Christ.
5. to instruct the believer’s mind. The ministry of preaching instructs the minds of believers. God’s people must remember that Christian living does not consist of a feeling-oriented life, but a Truth-driven and a Truth-governed life. Feelings and emotions and circumstances change. God’s Truth in His Word never does. Thus, I must relentlessly preach the Word to instruct believers on the nature and character of God, the glory of Christ, the duty and specifics of repentance and faith, humility, love, and Christian virtues.
6. to save the unconverted. The Word of God must go forth because this alone is the means by which God saves the unconverted soul. No man can be saved apart from the truth of the gospel. Though the unbelievers cannot hear and believe on their own, being dead in sin and haters of God, the Word of God that goes forth has irresistible power to humble the proud, save the lost, deliver the enslaved, and wash the filthy.
7. to model biblical hermeneutics. I am devoted to preaching the Word to provide an example for God’s people in how to read, study, interpret and apply Scripture. I preach through books of the Bible consecutively, remembering context, doing word studies, comparing Scripture with Scripture, arriving at the meaning and authorial intent with the aim of applying and implementing the Word in my life and the lives of my hearers. This process, week by week, models how to do Bible study.
8. to obey God. I preach the Word because God commands it. The timeless, ultimate prescription in the Word, as demonstrated by His faithful mouthpieces in both Old and New Testaments is the clear, bold proclamation of the Word. The heavenly Lord commands that preaching be the main driving power in the local church, so I obey my Master’s orders and preach the Word.
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