A Brief Bit On Preaching And Listening

The high and lofty place of preaching has all but vanished from the contemporary church. Not only does the average churchgoer today no longer appreciate biblical preaching; they can’t even tolerate it. Lax listeners, disinterested in hearing God’s Word, have had their way, and people-pleasing pastors have all too readily complied. This should come as no surprise since the charge Paul gave to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1–2 regarding the preacher’s obligation to faithfully preach the Word was explicitly given in view of the fact that a time was coming when people within the church “will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (vv. 3–4). That time has come.

In stark contrast to this low estate stands Paul’s testimony of the responsiveness of the first-century church in the port city of Thessalonica. The apostle Paul was immensely thankful for the manner in which they had received the preaching of God’s Word (1 Thess. 2:13). During his brief ministry there, Paul experienced an unusual sense of the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit while he was preaching the gospel to them, and the Spirit of God used the Word of God to perform an amazing work in the their lives (1 Thess. 1:5). Virtually overnight, these idol-worshipping pagans were radically transformed into devoted followers of Jesus Christ (1:9).

What was the reason for all of this dramatic change? They had accepted his teaching “not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God” (2:13). The word accepted was used to describe welcoming a guest into your home. The Thessalonians had swung the door of their hearts wide open and warmly embraced the Word as a cherished guest. They understood that by heartily welcoming the words of Paul’s preaching, they were welcoming the authoritative counsel of God Himself into their hearts and lives.*

Ramey, K. (2010). Expository Listening (1–2). The Woodlands, TX: Kress Biblical Resources.

Weekly Dose Of Lloyd-Jones (The Blood Of Christ)

People hate what they call this ‘theology of blood’, but there is no theology worthy of the name apart from the shed blood of Christ. 

Our gospel is a gospel of blood; blood is the foundation; without it there is nothing.

Spurgeon used to say, and I am increasingly convinced of the rightness of his dictum, that the ultimate way to test whether a man is truly preaching the gospel or not, is to notice the emphasis which he places upon ‘the blood’. It is not enough to talk about the cross and the death; the test is ‘the blood’

You cannot get away from this blood in the New Testament. It is central; without it there is no salvation. The law of God demands sin’s punishment, and the punishment is death; so our Lord came face-to-face with that demand likewise. Before He could be ‘the Saviour of the world,’ He had to satisfy the demands that the law makes upon guilty sinners in the sight of God. The message is that He went to the Cross; He set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem; He would not be delivered. He told His servants in effect, ‘I could command twelve legions of angels; but if I did how could I fulfil all righteousness? I must meet the demands of the law.’ He gave Himself as an offering and a sacrifice; He died passively there upon the cross, and God poured upon Him His wrath against the sin of man. He is our Saviour by His atoning death as well as by His perfect, blameless, spotless life of obedience.*

*Sargent, T. (2007). Gems from Martyn Lloyd-Jones: An Anthology of Quotations from 'the Doctor' (165). Milton Keynes, England; Colorado Springs, CO; Hyderabad, AP: Paternoster.

Weekly Dose Of Lloyd-Jones (On Doctrine)

If God has chosen to use such terms as righteousness, justification, sanctification, redemption, atonement, reconciliation, propitiation, then it is our duty to face those terms and to consider their meaning; it is dishonouring to God not to do so. Someone may say, for instance, ‘I am not interested in all those terms; I believe in God, and I believe in living as good a life as I can in order to please Him.’ But how can you please God if you refuse to consider the very terms that He Himself has revealed to the men who wrote the record?

...Unfortunately there are still large numbers of Christians who … say, ‘I cannot stand doctrine; it is too much for me. I find it difficult and boring. Give me the sort of Bible lecture which will do the whole of Hebrews in one evening and I will be very happy.’...

...It is important that we take the doctrines of Scripture in their right order. If you take the doctrine of regeneration before the doctrine of the atonement you will be in trouble if you are interested in the rebirth and having new life, before you are clear about your standing with God, you will go wrong and you will eventually be miserable...

...The man whose doctrine is shaky will be shaky in his whole life. One almost invariably finds that if a man is wrong on the great central truths of the faith, he is wrong at every other point...

...I spend half my time telling Christians to study doctrine and the other half telling them that doctrine is not enough...

...There is nothing which I know of which is more unscriptural, and which is more dangerous to the soul, than to divide doctrine from life. There are certain superficial people who say, ‘Ah, I cannot be bothered with doctrine; I haven’t the time. I am a busy man, and I have not the time to read books, and have not, perhaps, the aptitude. I am a practical man. I believe in living the Christian life. Let others who are interested in doctrine be interested!’ Now there is nothing that every New Testament epistle condemns more than just that very attitude...[I]f we go astray in our doctrine, eventually our life will go astray as well. You cannot separate what a man believes from what he is. For this reason doctrine is vitally important. Certain people say ignorantly, ‘I do not believe in doctrine; I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; I am saved, I am a Christian, and nothing else matters.’ To speak in that way is to court disaster, and for this reason, the New Testament itself warns us against this very danger. We are to guard ourselves against being ‘tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine’, for if your doctrine goes astray your life will soon suffer as well...

My observation over the years is that it is the people who have not been taught the truth negatively as well as positively who always get carried away by the heresies and cults, because they have not been forewarned and forearmed against them...

The whole purpose of doctrine is not merely to give us intellectual understanding or satisfaction, but to establish us, to make us firm, to make us solid Christians, to make us unmovable, to give us such a foundation that nothing can shake us...

...Take away the apostolic doctrine and you take away my motives for holy living.*

*Sargent, T. (2007). Gems from Martyn Lloyd-Jones: An Anthology of Quotations from 'the Doctor' (95-98). Milton Keynes, England; Colorado Springs, CO; Hyderabad, AP: Paternoster.