Preaching

Ray Exum
Crystal Lake Church of Christ, Crystal Lake, Illinois, USA
October 25, 1998

I would like to ask you to look with me in the Bible at two different passages. The first is in I Corinthians 1. I would like to read several verses from I Corinthians 1 in just a moment. On these Sunday nights in September and October we are looking at the five acts of worship.

We first looked at what constitutes acceptable worship. We saw in John 4:24 that acceptable worship is worship that is offered in spirit and in truth and also is directed to God. The next Sunday night we looked at the first of the five acts of worship, and that is the Lord’s Supper. Then the following Sunday night we looked at giving of our means on the first day of the week. Two weeks ago we looked at the concept of public prayer. This evening let us go to a fourth act of worship, and that is the preaching of the word of God.

Throughout the Bible we see the importance of preaching. In I Corinthians 1 there are some astounding statements that Paul made on the subject of preaching. Notice please, verse 17: "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel. Not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross would not be made void." That is very interesting. Paul said that his goal was not necessarily to baptize people, but it was to preach the word of God. If the Gospel is preached and if the hearts of people are open to the message, there will be baptisms. And yet, his primary goal was not to rack up the most number of baptisms that he could in a year, but it was to make sure, first of all, that he preached the Gospel.

Look at verse 21 for another powerful statement on this subject: "For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believed." Another very interesting passage. Notice "through the foolishness of the message preached." Indeed through the eyes of the world, preaching looks foolish. I mean, here is a man standing before an audience and using the Bible and trying to get people to repent of their sins and follow the word of God. To the world, that does not make any sense. And yet, to God, it did not matter what the world thought about it. This was His decision that the Gospel was to be preached to every generation. And it was to continue to be preached until Jesus tells us to stop. Think about the church at Corinth and all of the severe problems that they were having. It is interesting in this opening chapter that the Apostle Paul still emphasized the importance of preaching the word of God.

If you would turn with me to a second passage this evening, it would be in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel. Look, please, at Ezekiel 3. We have what might be the most classic statement in the Bible on the subject of preaching, Ezekiel 3:1. Ezekiel was living in a time when the southern kingdom of Israel was breaking up. For 150 years the prophets of God had warned the southern two tribes of Judah and Benjamin that they had to give up their idolatry or God would destroy the nation. Well, their response was to kill the prophets. Therefore, the patience of God eventually came to an end.

In 606 BC, God used the Babylonians to attack the southern kingdom of Israel. The first time, a number of Jews were taken captive and among them was Daniel. The second attack came in 597 BC. In that attack we are told in the scriptures that about 10,000 people were captured. Many were killed, but among those who were captured were the princes and the royal families and the skilled workmen and the philosophers of Israel. The final attack came in 586 BC, when the Babylonians broke through the walls of Jerusalem and left it in ruins. It remained in ruins until 536 BC when Zerubbabel and the first group of Jews to be released from captivity came back to Jerusalem and began rebuilding the city.

It was that second attack, the one in 597 BC, when the prophet Ezekiel was captured and taken to Babylon. He never physically returned to Israel for the rest of his life. In Babylon, he continued to preach the word of God to the Jewish captives there. He was also sending letters back to Jerusalem to encourage the people there to repent before the final attack came on the city. So we find that he was preaching both in person and in letter form for the remainder of his life.

In Chapter 3, God instructed Ezekiel about his role as a prophet or as a preacher of God’s word. Look at the first 21 verses of Ezekiel 3.

An incredible passage here on the nature of preaching to God’s people. Let’s go back to verses 1, 2 and 3, where God told Ezekiel that he was to be a constant student of the word of God. God asked Ezekiel to eat the little book or some translations say, the little scroll. There is a great message here. Before Ezekiel could preach to the people he had to eat the book. In other words, he had to eat the word of God. He had to take the word of God into his body. It had to be incorporated into his personal life, his thinking, and the way that he lived. We might say today that he had to know the book. This is what God is saying here. You must know the book. You must know the word of God before you can start preaching.

I think this emphasizes the place of study in the life of preachers. There will always be a need for deep and continued study of the word of God. There is a basic rule of public speaking that many may have heard of in the past. Maybe you learned it in school as I did. The basic rule of public speaking is that it takes 30 minutes of preparation for each one minute of speaking. That is a rule that I go by. In fact, a lot of times I wish I could get it down to 30 minutes of preparation for one minute of speaking.

If that kind of study is not put into a public presentation, then it is going to show. This is what God was saying to Ezekiel; you must eat the book. You must incorporate the word of God into your thinking before you can present a message to the people. The Apostle Paul knew the importance of studying. It is interesting that in the last chapter of the last book that Paul ever wrote of an inspired nature, II Timothy 4, he was awaiting execution. We believe his execution was probably about 3 months away and yet he wrote to Timothy. Listen to what Paul said to Timothy in II Timothy 4: 13. Paul said, "When you come, bring the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus and the books, especially the parchments."

This is amazing. Paul was in prison awaiting death, but he wasn’t finished studying. He said, "Timothy, I want you to come and bring all of those books that I left over there; all the parchments all the papers that I might need; (maybe my files, as we would say today). I want you to bring them over here because I am continuing to study the word of God."

It is unfortunate that public speakers do not study sometimes. Jessie and I were at a lectureship several years ago, not the one in Memphis that we usually go to, but another one. I remember the opening statement of the preacher who spoke for the first lecture for that lectureship. It was so incredible that I wrote his words down. This is how he began his presentation. He said, "I’m going to speak on true worship or pure worship, I have forgotten which." I thought, "This is going to be a disaster." It was. He didn’t even know what he was going to speak on that evening. He had not studied enough to understand the topic that was assigned him. I don’t remember anything that he said after that point because it was so disorganized.

What Ezekiel is being told here is that he has to study the word of God to make sure that he understands the word of God before he can make a presentation to the people.

Several years ago I was privileged to hear a great Gospel preacher answer questions from younger men about the nature of preaching. Somebody asked him, "What would you do if you knew for certain that the Lord would return in three years?" His answer was, "I would study the first two years and I would preach the third year." I’ve always thought about that answer: a very profound statement on the nature of study and on the necessity of constantly studying the word of God. Therefore, God said to Ezekiel, "Eat the book." Make sure you know the word of God and then you will be ready to preach.

In verses 4 to 15, Ezekiel was next told that he had to be tough. In fact, he had to be tougher than the rebellious Israelites. In verse 7, God admits here that His people are stubborn and obstinate; or as the New King James Version says, "impudent and hard hearted." In verse 8, we find that God made Ezekiel’s face as tough as the faces of the people. In fact, in verse 9, God made the forehead of Ezekiel like emery. It says that his forehead was going to be harder than flint. Flint is one of the hardest stones that we have in this part of the world. If you ever walk along a railroad track around here, you know that they use flint stones for the base for the rails. They will cut your shoes because they are so sharp and are such a hard stone. God says to Ezekiel that he is going to make his forehead like emery. What do we use emery cloth for? We use it for sanding down metal because it is a substance that is stronger than metal. Emery can cut metal. I suppose there are women here who use emery boards for their fingernails. You know that it has to be a substance that is tough. God says to Ezekiel, "I will make your forehead like emery, harder than flint."

We know in the Old Testament that prophets had to be tough. We look at the life of Moses and they were always trying to overthrow him. He was jeered regularly by his own people. What about Isaiah? We do not know from the scriptures how Isaiah died. The Jewish rabbis had passed down through the generations that during the reign of King Mannasseh, he became so upset with Isaiah that he forced Isaiah into a hollowed log and had the log sawed in two, and that brought about the death of the great prophet Isaiah.

We think about Jeremiah and the fact that he was thrown into the dry cistern and he sank up to his armpits in the mud there. He would have died had it not been for his good friend Ebed-melech who rescued him from the cistern. And so they pulled Jeremiah out of the dry cistern and put him in prison and the King sent for him. You would have thought after all Jeremiah had gone through that he might have been a little nicer to the King. King Zedekiah sent word that he wanted to talk to Jeremiah, so he brought Jeremiah up from prison and he asked Jeremiah to talk to him about what God had planned for King Zedekiah and for the city of Jerusalem. You can read about this in Jeremiah 38, beginning in verse 17, because Jeremiah said, "God is going to destroy this city." He did not back down an inch, even though he had suffered so much.

In the New Testament in Hebrews 11, after we have the names of all the great people in the Old Testament, the writer says that they were stoned, they were sawed in two. They were tempted. They were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated; men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts, in caves and holes in the ground. We come to the New Testament and we find, for example, the life of John the Baptist, that he was imprisoned. He was brought out to King Herod, who wanted to hear him. He brought him out of prison and the message was that it is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife. John paid for making that statement.

We look at the life of the Apostle Paul. We look at the life of the Apostle Peter and his ultimate crucifixion upside down. We look at James, the Apostle, who was killed by the sword. We understand a little bit of why God said to Ezekiel that I’m going to make your forehead stronger that flint. The same is true of the preaching of the Gospel today.

In verses 16-21, God required Ezekiel to preach the truth and to warn the people. In verse 17, Ezekiel is referred to as a watchman. Most of us are wearing watches this evening. Have you ever wondered where the word "watch" came from? Our word for watch goes back to the ancient, walled cities. When night came, the gates were closed and men of each city were required to serve one of the watches of the night. They were required to be on the wall of the city, looking out for any enemy that might be approaching the city. For the ancient Jews, there were three watches in the night. The first watch was from sunset until about 10:00. The second watch was from 10:00 until about 2:00am. The third watch was from 2:00am until sunrise. Roman cities had four watches in the night. Nevertheless, men were required to serve in those watches and to constantly look for any enemy or any danger that might be approaching the city. What was the purpose of the watchman? It was to warn the people. The watchman was not supposed to be an expert in public relations. He was not to be a promoter of the city for tourism. He was not to be a super-salesman. He was not an organizer. God said he is to be a watchman. Watchmen are not always popular.

Back in the 1930’s, Winston Churchill was a watchman and kept telling the British Parliament that Hitler was re-arming. He kept warning the British that there was going to be trouble ahead, as Hitler was violating the terms of the agreement that ended World War I. Churchill was hated for what he told the British people at that time, and yet he turned out to be a very accurate watchman.

Notice in verses 18, 19 and 20, that Ezekiel was to be a watchman to two different groups of people. First, there were the wicked people. God said, "Ezekiel, you are required, as a watchman, to tell the wicked people that they must repent or they will die." Notice what it says in verse 18, that if Ezekiel did not warn the people, they would die anyway, but he would lose his soul, because he failed at his responsibility of being a watchman.

Notice in verse 20 that there is a second group of people that he was to be a watchman for, and that is the righteous people. Ezekiel was obligated to warn the faithful Jews back in his day. He was obligated to warn them about the danger of falling away. It says here, very plainly, that the righteous can go back into sin and be lost.

You would be amazed at what the denominational commentaries say about Ezekiel 3:20. Almost all of the evangelical type of churches today teach that once you are saved you are always saved. You cannot fall away. You cannot be lost once you accept Jesus into your heart, as they put it. They have real trouble dealing with Ezekiel 3:20. The reason is that God plainly says here that the righteous can fall away. If they are not careful, they can be lost. You would be shocked at all of the phony arguments that are used in the commentaries, where they try to get around Ezekiel 3:20. Because of their belief that once you are saved you are always saved, many denominational churches have a tendency to preach what is known as "felt needs." This is the current theory in preaching, at least in the denominational world, that what people feel they need to hear is what ought to be preached; lessons on how to deal with cancer, or how to deal with loneliness or low self-esteem, or how to deal with life, or how to deal with old age. Ezekiel was told to be a watchman, even for the righteous, to encourage them not to fall away.

It is as the Apostle Peter said in I Peter 4:11, whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. I am reminded of a great statement that was made by John T. Lewis in his magazine in 1995. He said, "I would rather have thousands to say to me at the judgment, ‘We heard you preach and you hurt our feelings’ than to have just one lost soul say, ‘I heard you preach, but you did not tell me the truth.’ "

I think that is what God is saying to Ezekiel. There is a sense of urgency here. This man, Ezekiel, was responsible for preaching to the captives to encourage them to return to God, and also to preach to those in Jerusalem to encourage them to repent before the final attack came upon the city. Were the people going to listen to Ezekiel? In most cases, the answer is no. Then why did God require him to preach His word? If you would turn back one chapter, please, and look at Ezekiel 2: 5. Why preach to people who are not going to obey the word of God? Here is the answer in Ezekiel 2:5: "As for them, whether they listen or not -- for they are a rebellious house -- they will know that a prophet has been among them."

In other words, when the Day of Judgment comes, they will not be able to say, "Well, nobody told us about that." When the Day of Judgment comes they will have to say, "Yes, Lord. There was a prophet among us and we did have the opportunity to respond, but we chose not to." God, though, is making sure that everybody has an opportunity to hear His word.

God has asked us to incorporate preaching into our worship of Him. What is the greatest compliment that a preacher can ever receive? Somebody might say that it is when someone slaps you on the back an says, "That was a great sermon." No that is not the kind of compliment that a preacher wants to hear. The greatest compliment that John the Baptist was ever given in his life can be found in John 1:37. It says there that the two disciples heard him -- that is, John the Baptist -- speak and they followed Jesus. The greatest compliment is when someone says, "That has encouraged me to be more faithful to Christ or to obey the Gospel, or to study more deeply the word of God." It is not a case of inflating one’s ego or manipulating the audience, or as Paul said, "reporting how many baptisms we have had this year." It is a case of preaching the word of God, in season and out of season, whether it is popular or not.

I hope that there are men here this evening who are at least considering preaching the Gospel someday. Whether these are younger men or older men, there is a shortage of preachers in this country that is incredible. Two years ago, Brother J. J. Turner did some research on the shortage of preachers among the Lord’s church in the United States. Brother Turner is the Dean of the Bear Valley School of Preaching in Denver, Colorado. These statistics that I want to read to you are from 1996. He reported them in February, 1997, but I would imagine that they are still true today, as they were two years ago.

J.J. Turner looked at all of the schools of preaching in all of our Christian colleges and got a number for the men who said they were going into preaching. For 1996, that number was right at 200. That’s all of our Christian colleges, all of our schools of preaching; those who have declared that they plan on preaching full time after graduation, only about 200.

Brother Turner also found in 1996, that by his estimate, there were about 800 men who quit preaching in that year, either due to death, or maybe discouragement or retirement or illness or one reason or another. There is a net loss in the body of Christ year after year. Brother Turner went on to say in his bulletin that his estimate is that about 1/3 of the congregations in the United States are without preachers of the Gospel. I think that those statistics probably apply here to the Chicago area, as we look at the 86 congregations that exist in the six-county area. There is a need for men to think about preaching the Gospel.

Let me turn the coin over on the other side. There is also a need for women to think about marrying Gospel preachers. Or if they are already married to a man who wants to preach, to agree to become a preacher’s wife. Where I grew up in Nashville at the Vultee congregation on the south side of Nashville, there was a lady in our congregation, maybe 15 or 20 years older than I was, but she was determined to marry a preacher. She turned down dates, and she turned down marriage proposals. She had dedicated her life to marrying a preacher. All the years while I was growing up until I was 21 years old, she never got married. At least, she never got married in those years.

When we were in Nashville last week, I talked to my parents and they said that she had now gotten married at the age of 55. She had married a Gospel preacher whose first wife had passed away. That is a long time to wait. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that for all women. Nevertheless, that was her policy. She would not get married until she could find a preacher of the Gospel that she could marry. My parents said that she and her husband now go on campaigns overseas. They are constantly involved in mission work. He preaches for a small congregation outside of Nashville. I always think about her, Helen Jones. I think about her and her determination that she wanted to be in a marriage with a preacher of the Gospel. May God bless her for that goal, and may there be other women who agree to marry a young man or older man who is a preacher, or who plans to preach. There is a great need for preachers of the Gospel today.

It takes more than a good man, it takes a good wife. It takes a faithful family for that to be a success. Older men are needed in this profession. My Dad was 42 years old when he started preaching. He gave up selling steel for a leading steel corporation and began preaching at that age. For a number of years, the church here supported Paul Kerlis, in Duluth, Minnesota. Paul spent his earlier years in the Air Force. He finally retired from the Air Force, attended East Tennessee School of Preaching, and we sponsored him to the church in Duluth, Minnesota, for seven or eight years before he moved south once again.

It is a desperate situation. There are job openings constantly around us. Maybe some of the words this evening might encourage some of our men here to consider this and some of our women to consider what they could do to be part of a preaching family. I hope that these comments from Ezekiel and also from I Corinthians 1 will encourage some here to consider the role of preaching in God’s plan for worship.

Next Sunday evening, we will consider the last of the five acts of worship, so I hope you will be present at that time so we can study the final thing that God would like to see us include when we worship Him. If you are subject to the Lord’s invitation, if you are ready to be baptized into His family, we ask you to take this opportunity to come to the front to make this known to us.

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