2 Timothy 4:1-5

• "Preach the Word" – Dr. John Wiers

  Text: 2 Timothy 4:1–5
  Theme: The solemn call to preach God's Word faithfully, seriously, and consistently.

  Key Points:

  • The Charge: Paul solemnly charges Timothy in the presence of God and Christ Jesus to preach the Word—a divine, serious calling.

  • Preaching is Serious Business: Ministers are held accountable before God (v.1), and must preach in season and out (v.2).

  • Expository Preaching Matters: Faithful exposition respects the biblical text's divine and human aspects. It should follow Scripture’s context and flow.

  • Dual Effects of Preaching: Preaching should reprove, rebuke, and exhort. It comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.

  • Preaching Isn't Measured by Popularity: Many will reject sound teaching and prefer ear-tickling (v.3-4). Popularity is not the metric of faithfulness.

  • Examples from Church History: Reformers like Calvin and Zwingli restored expository preaching. Faithful preachers resist shortcuts and gimmicks.

  • The Role of the Congregation: Hearers must listen with diligence and prayer, receive the word with faith and meekness, and apply it to life.

  • Personal Encouragement: The Word—not personalities or techniques—is God’s ordained means to save and sanctify His people.

Preach the Word

Text: 2 Timothy 4:1–5
Theme: The enduring and countercultural call to gospel proclamation.

1. Scriptural Exposition

Read: 2 Timothy 4:1–5

• v.1 – Paul issues a solemn charge invoking Christ’s role as Judge.

• v.2 – Timothy is to preach the Word regardless of convenience, with patience and solid teaching.

• v.3–4 – A time is coming (and is now) when people reject truth for comforting myths.

• v.5 – The pastor must remain sober, suffer well, and do the work of an evangelist.

Discussion Questions:

• Why does Paul emphasize Christ's judgment when giving this charge?

• What does “in season and out of season” practically look like in church life today?

• How do we recognize “itching ears” in our culture—and even in ourselves?

2. Theological Emphasis

Key Doctrine: The Ministry of the Word as a Means of Grace

• God calls preachers to faithfully exposit His Word, which is His chosen instrument for conversion and sanctification (Romans 10:14–17).

Historical Example:
Reformers like Calvin and Zwingli insisted on preaching through books of the Bible, reclaiming the pulpit from man-centered spectacle to Christ-centered proclamation.

3. Practical Application

• For Ministers: Be sober-minded, prioritize study, avoid popularity traps, and preach with urgency and humility.

• For Congregants: Prepare prayerfully, listen actively, test sermons by Scripture, and apply truth with sincerity.

Reflection Questions:

• Do I hunger for the truth or for spiritual entertainment?

• How can I better support my pastors in preaching faithfully?

• Am I applying the Word in both repentance and trust?

4. Westminster Standards Integration

📜 Westminster Confession of Faith

WCF 21.5 – “The reading of the Scriptures with godly fear; the sound preaching…are all parts of the ordinary religious worship of God.”

📘 Larger Catechism

• Q.159 – Ministers must preach sound doctrine diligently, in season and out, for God’s glory and the hearers’ salvation.

• Q.160 – Hearers must receive the Word with faith, examine it by Scripture, meditate on it, and bear fruit.

📗 Shorter Catechism

• Q.89 – The Spirit of God makes the reading and especially the preaching of the Word an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and building up believers in holiness and comfort.

📚 Suggested Memory Verse

“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)

Our scripture text this morning for our sermon is 2 Timothy chapter 4. As I mentioned last week, we are continuing on in a series I started when I was here a year or so ago. And we will finish this up today. And then I'm scheduled to be back here in early September. So we'll finish the last portion of this book up then. But this is the word of God. Let's hear it as the Lord speaks to us through his word. 2 Timothy 4, the first five verses. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Let's pray. Lord, we come today to hear your word that speaks about the importance of preaching the word. We pray that we would hear, listen, be challenged, and comforted, but above all that we would recognize this is your word, your inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient word. We pray that I would be faithful in proclaiming it, and it would be the word we would hear that we would hear you speak your truth through your word. For in Christ's name we pray, amen. A little over 150 years ago, the famous American evangelist Dwight L. Moody was preaching in England. And he preached at Cambridge University. And the students there mocked his grammar, which was he wasn't a highly educated man. And some of his grammar left something to be desired. They laughed at his accent. He had a New England accent. And he was noted for saying, instead of saying Daniel, he said Danel and other strange pronunciations. They laughed at that. They were used to hearing the proper Queens English there at Cambridge. And they did everything they could to disrupt his meetings. Yet the Holy Spirit moved. and hundreds of students were converted. He went to Oxford, the other famous British university, and the students started to do the same thing. They had heard what the students at Cambridge had done, and they thought, well, let's try to also disrupt his meetings. When he got up to read the Bible, they stomped and shouted, and he stopped, and he looked at them, and he said this. This is a direct quote. You jeered at the hymns, and I said nothing. You jeered at the prayers, and I said nothing. But now you jeer at the word of God. I would rather play with fork lightning or metal with the most deadly disease than to trifle with the word of God. And that's important for us to understand, because it's this confidence in the word of God, which last week we looked at the fact that scripture is God breathed and authoritative and profitable. Because of that, the apostle Paul here in this very next section, can urge his young protege, Timothy, to preach that word, to preach the word. That's the main point of the passage. And it's especially important because this is Paul's last will and testament. He's saying, OK, Timothy, my young understudy, if there's anything I can leave you with, it's this. Preach the word, Timothy. Reach the word. This is what you should do. I'm going to be gone soon. But I'm leaving you behind to preach. It's with such confidence then that he can say, I'm going to be gone. But Timothy. you have the word. And in this passage, he's going to show us some implications of what it means that Timothy should preach the word. The three of them we're going to focus on today, not as many implications as last week. So maybe the sermon will be shorter, although there's no Sunday school. So I guess that's a free reign for me to preach, preach to noon if you want me to, but no, just kidding. Uh, but There are some implications in this passage of what it means to preach the word of God. First implication that we will see is that preaching the word is serious business. You notice how he begins this instruction to Timothy. I charge you in the presence of God and Jesus Christ. Did you notice that basically is an oath formula? He's saying, Timothy, I'm Putting you under oath that you will preach the word. You know, you go into court and they have you put your hand on the Bible and you raise your right hand. You say, do you swear to tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth to help you, God? You're put under oath. That's what Paul is saying to Timothy. I'm putting you under oath that you will preach the word. Some translations say, I solemnly charge you. One paraphrase put it this way, God is looking over your shoulder. God is looking over your shoulder, Timothy. So this is what you need to do. Now, he reminds him that God is not only looking over his shoulder, but one day will hold him to account who is to judge the living and the dead. He's saying, Timothy, you have a commission here to preach the word. And on judgment day, God's gonna hold you accountable. Did you preach that word? And he uses what is essentially what we would call creedal language. If you're familiar with the historic ecumenical creeds, like the apostles and Nicene Creed, this statement to judge the living and the dead. Apostles in Nicene Creed talk about Jesus who will return and judge the living and the dead, or the old versions used to say the quick and the dead, those who are alive and those who are dead. He's saying, Timothy, there's a day coming, the trumpet's gonna blow, we'll all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and be judged. But you in particular, as a preacher of the word, are gonna be called to account, did you preach that word? Timothy, you're under oath and you're responsible to preach that word. It's serious business. It's so serious a commission that he's supposed to do it in season and out of season. Which is a way of saying, well, you use that. Something's out of season. We mean, nobody's doing it right now. But it's a way of saying, not just when it's convenient, but realizing this is your commission. This is your calling. You'll likely have your patients tested with complete patience and teaching. Sometimes you're going to find yourself frustrated, Timothy. You're going to want to preach the word and people are going to get restless. There are going to be times when it's not so convenient. But he says, Timothy, preach that word. It's serious business. It means, as he says later on in verse five there, always be sober minded. I believe the New King James, which your pew Bible and what many of you probably have says to be watchful, but it literally is be sober minded. It comes from a word that means don't be drunk. Don't be drunk. You know, if you find someone that's talking and you run into somebody and they're drunk, do you pay any attention to them? No, you say, he don't know what he's talking about. He was just drunk. And people even use that excuse. Well, I was at this party and I had too much alcohol and you can't, you know, you get out of control. And so you don't always want to hold me responsible for what I was saying. They use that as an excuse. He's saying, Timothy, you be absolutely sober minded. Be completely focused on what you are doing. Be willing to endure suffering, he says, as well, to make sure that the word is being preached. Now, this shows us the importance of preaching the word, expository preaching, in the life of the church. Preaching what I, what Pastor Schneider does every week, what any other guest preacher that you have here does, is not entertainment. It's not entertainment, it's serious business. In other words, no matter how much our popular culture will want to judge preaching by its immediate effectiveness, is it working or not? Are there lots of more people coming? Are people entertained? Do they find this man enjoyable to hear? Those are really irrelevant questions in one sense. We preach because God says we are to preach. And it's sober business what we are doing. That's why preaching is preaching of the word. Why the primary mode of preaching in the church is expository preaching, preaching the word of God. I like doing consecutive expository preaching. I know Pastor Schneider does a lot of that as well. And that's a way of saying where you start at the beginning of a book or a section of a book, and you work your way through. During the time of the Reformation, expository preaching was rekindled. Early church, there was a lot of it. You can look in the early church and you can find there were some great expository preachers, John Chrysostom and others, where they preached through whole books. Augustine did that. A lot of the early church fathers did that. But it got lost in the medieval period. The reformers recovered it. Calvin, for example, Zwingli and others. preached through books, as I mentioned last week. Calvin, when he was booted out of out of Geneva because he bumped heads with the city council, they decided and then things went to chaos and they invited him back three years later. He got up on the pulpit in Geneva and he said, well, I don't remember which book he was preaching. This is where I was three years ago. We're going to pick it up right here. Literally, he did. Three years ago, I was preaching through this passage. This week, I'm picking it up right here in Zurich. Zwingli, the Reformation came to Zwingli because he got tired of the jumping around all over the place in the Bible and not having any consecutive exposition. He started, he announced in the big church that he was preaching and he was the pastor and they called the Grossmünster, the big church in Zurich. I'm gonna start at Matthew 1, 1 and just keep going. And he did, and God brought Reformation. Well, why do we have expository preaching like this? Well, it helps God set the agenda for us and not us setting the agenda. It treats the Bible as God treated it, respecting the particular context, the history, and style of the human authors. We mentioned last week that the Bible is 100% divine, but it's also 100% human book. And it's set in a context written by a human author that God spoke through. And you see the distinctiveness of that human author. You have to understand the context. It gives us ample time to understand that context when we're preaching. Expository preaching now sometimes some preachers have slowed down the expository preaching that really it comes It sounds nothing more like a series of topical sermons all connected together just by one word in a text and where we were in Romans 1 1 Last week and now we're in Romans 1 1 B and it's another and then next week I'm in Romans chapter 1 to the first three words and they end up being a series of topical sermons all just happen to be connected from from the text and But true expository preaching will help us to understand the context and the word. I had a professor in seminary who used to tell us this. He said, you know, you can preach one topical sermon a year, he said. And then he said, then you repent the rest of the year for preaching that. Now, I'll admit that I probably preached a few more topical sermons than Dr. Kaiser told me I could preach. But he was an Old Testament professor, although one time he was in chapel and he preached out of Second Peter and he said he found all those little books in the back of the Bible. So he thought he would look at one of those little books once in chapel. But he said, we're here to preach the word. We're here to preach the word. We're not here to give you our ideas. We're here to preach the word. It demands from the preacher that they study the word. And sometimes this seriousness isn't easy. I don't know if you know, but preachers can subscribe to services that give you canned sermons. They're not very good. I looked at one of them once, they're pretty junky really, but they give you an outline and they tell you, they give you a couple of humorous stories and a poem to end with, but you can get those. But preachers aren't there to just go get somebody else's canned sermon. They're here to wrestle with the text. They're here to wrestle with the text and proclaim what God's book is telling us and then applying it to your life. It means that there are high stakes. It means every preacher will have times, and I can attest to you, I've had those too, where you walk out of there sometimes and you think, hmm. I think I nailed that one. You get proud a little bit, and then find out later, well, no, actually, I didn't so much. And there are other times you think, man, I blew that one. That one, that was a dud. And then somebody will tell you, you know, God spoke to me through that. And you go, okay, Lord, you know, I thought that was an absolute bust, that sermon. And the Lord will speak through it. So one of the things that you can do is for Pastor Schneider, or any guest preacher like myself, is to pray that we would take our preaching seriously. Pray that there would be an urgency in our preaching. It's possible that every preacher can come into times where you're doing it week in, week out, and you find yourself after a while, you get in a rut. And you find yourself saying, okay, this is my job. I'm reminded of, The well-known Baptist preacher, he's retired now, but John Piper wrote a book and he says, brothers, we are not professionals. And he's reminding preachers that this is a calling, not a profession. A profession, you hone skills. Not that preachers aren't supposed to hone skills. I've benefited from preaching. There was some one particular thing that I benefited, you know, at least five or 10 years into my ministry and it helped me help really improve my preaching. So yes, we can hone skills, but it's not just that we're professionals who just hone skills. We are people who are proclaiming the word of God and we take it with seriousness. But the second point we wanna see, second implication we wanna see in this passage is that it should bring, preaching that is, both comfort and discomfort. You see what Timothy is told to do? Be ready in season and out of season to reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort. And exhort basically means encourage here. In other words, there isn't just one sort of effect that preaching is supposed to have. You're not just supposed to go away from here feeling wonderful, nor are you supposed to go away from here feeling most down in the dumps you could ever feel every Sunday. Because preaching is supposed to apply the word of God, both the demands and the promises of the word of God. Now, you can say, reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Does that mean I read a text and immediately start saying, OK, shape up, shape up here, shape up there, you here, shape up there, without any content of what the text is teaching, doctrinal content? No, not at all. Last week, remember, what did Paul say about the scriptures? They were profitable for doctrine. They're profitable for teaching. So the scriptures are profitable for teaching, for correcting, for instruction, but it isn't just mere instruction. I never forget, there's a certain style of preaching that in an extreme form, it's called redemptive historical preaching, and I use some of it too, where we see the redemptive flow of scripture, but there's an extreme form of it that is hesitant to give application. And we had a young man come to our presbytery and he was from a well-known family. And he went on to be a professor, actually got a PhD and ended up being a college professor. But he came to our presbytery to be licensed because he wanted to supply churches while he was finishing his PhD, seminary grad. And he preached this wonderful doctrinal exposition of Colossians chapter two. And this was his only application. Are you living the resurrection life? And he was shocked when the Presbytery failed his sermon. And they told him, you didn't have any application. He got mad at us, frankly. He did. He told the candidates committee, well, I gave application. I asked them, are you living the resurrection life? And they said, well, you have to apply that. What does it mean to live the resurrection life? Well, I would be moralizing on the text, and I don't wanna do that. And they made him come back, and he preached a sermon with more application. I don't think his heart was really in it, because he thought he had the right method of how he was supposed to preach. But the point is is that Paul says here we are to reprove, rebuke, and exhort. This is probably one of the hardest things to do because it requires knowledge of your congregation. That's why guest preachers sometimes find it more difficult. Pastor Schneider knows a whole lot more about all of you folks than I do. I know a number of you. We've been here enough times that I know a number of you. We've been in some of your homes. We know some of you, but some of you are new. I'm just this guy that comes in occasionally when Pastor Schneider isn't here. You say, you don't know me. You don't know what struggles I'm having. But I can still reprove, exhort, and rebuke. Now, you have to be careful how you do this. Because sometimes there are some things, some reproving, rebuking, and exhorting that needs to be done privately. If we're getting in one of my churches, I had a session that came to me, and there was a particular issue. We had a family, and I'll tell you what the issue was, that we had a family that just refused to join the church. They didn't think they needed to join the church. And so the session told me, you know, you need to preach a sermon on church membership. I said, well, you know, there's no Bible text that explicitly says church membership, and I can find, there's a text in Hebrews that says submitting to your leaders. I can preach on that. Okay, you preach on that. Well, I preached on that passage, You know what we had? I had a whole congregation full of mad people because they felt like I had taken this one family, everybody knew who that family was, like I had marched them up to the front of the church and said, you, this is just for you. And the session spent a whole week or two putting out brush fires because they literally had their phone ringing off the hook from people saying, why did you have him preach that? Because all I could say as I was asked to preach, you know, on that passage. So there are some things that are best done in private exhortations, but there are many things that are done for everybody because there are things that everybody needs to hear. Do you know that Calvin did not want to have his sermons published at first? They're good models of biblical exposition and expository sermons because he said this, he says, these were preached for the church in Geneva. Not for the church worldwide. He says, I tailor made these for the church in Geneva. He said, I knew the problems that the Geneva church had. So I preached specifically with those people in mind. Now, many things, of course, have universal application. And as the old saying goes, that the Bible is designed to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. So that's what every preacher is trying to do. And if you never get comforted or never get afflicted by the preaching, then you probably aren't listening carefully. I'm sure Pastor Brian is trying to do that, but you're not listening carefully then, because that is what scripture is to do. And I have to have the scriptures both comfort and afflict me. Now, that doesn't mean there shouldn't be a fair amount of content. There should be. I need to learn, I need to handle the text accurately. Pastor Brian needs to handle the text accurately. Any other guest preacher or future pastor that you will have here needs to handle the text accurately. There's an old joke among pastors. The pastor who finished on Saturday morning, finished his sermon for the Sunday morning service, looked over the text, looked at point two, ballpoint pen out, wrote a little note in the column in the edge, and he said, weak point, talk louder. You know, every pastor has had that experience sometimes when you look and you say, oh boy, that's not a very good strong point. So the goal is not to just talk louder, is to make sure that you're accurately handling the text and your points accurately reflect what the scripture is saying. How we go about rebuking, comforting and reproving can vary. but it also means many times reminding you of the promises of God. I think it was Sinclair Ferguson that said, part of the preacher's job oftentimes is reminding people of what they already know or they should know of the promises of God. Sometimes you need to be reminded of your duties as Christians. Sometimes you will see something new in a text, I hope you do. Because if you're accurately handling the word of God, it will show you something new. And you thought, I never saw that before. I don't think there's a one of us who reads the Bible regularly who hasn't all of a sudden looked at a text and say, I don't know if I ever saw that before. It's a big book, requires study. Pastors study it and proclaim it. Preaching, again, is not there to entertain. It's a means of grace. Everyone who preaches regularly has had the experience of someone who comes up to them years later, I've had it, and they'll tell you, you preached a particular sermon on this text, and it really spoke to me, and I remember it. And you know, if you're like me, you probably think, you start going through the files in your mind and thinking, oh yeah, yeah, okay, okay. Maybe I remember preaching that sermon there. And you find yourself thinking, did it really have that impact? Yes, it does. Because if you're preaching the word of God, God will use it to speak to people. That's why the reformed churches have always had such a high view of preaching. In some churches, they refer to the minister as the minister of the word of God. And I like that. That's what I'm doing. Every era of renewal in the church has met a strong emphasis on preaching. The Reformation, strong emphasis on preaching. First Great Awakening, strong emphasis on preaching. And it's in eras of weak preaching that the church tends to go downhill. But the third implication I want us to look at today is that it does not depend on popularity. Paul has very interesting discussion here. He says, the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate from themselves teachers to suit their own passions. This is probably one of the most stinging things, rebukes he could give As to what will happen when people will no longer want to hear sound preaching the metaphor that he uses here Itching ears. What do you do when you have an itch? You scratch it People have itching ears and it says they will get preachers to suit their passions They won't like to hear certain things. So they'll find preachers that tell them what they want to hear They want ear ticklers When he says the days are coming, some people want to say, oh, is this the time referring just before the second coming of Christ? Well, that could be of time when they get ear ticklers. But the history of the church is a whole series of ups and downs, ear ticklers, and then we get a restoration of good preaching. And then you get a time when you get ear ticklers. And then we have another restoration. It's almost like a roller coaster between ear ticklers and sound teaching. Some might be enjoyable to listen to, but will tell you only what you want to hear. Eugene Peterson, who did the Presbyterian minister who wrote, paraphrase the message, and that paraphrase put it this way, they will fill up on spiritual junk food, catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They'll give you a diet of spiritual junk food. And frankly, that is what most of those canned sermons that you get, spiritual junk food. They don't want to get them too detailed. But it's interesting, I think I know why Peterson translated it that way. Because in one of his other books, he tells this story. He graduated from seminary. It was a sound seminary. As a matter of fact, some of you knew Bob LeMay, who preached here a number of times. Bob LeMay went to the same seminary. It's a seminary that's not in existence anymore, but it was a good sound seminary, taught the word. And Eugene Peterson went there. He took a position in a mainline Presbyterian church. And he was all excited. And he got there. And he found that there were a group of people who were serious about, he was an assistant pastor, to study the Bible. And he thought, great, this is what I'm looking for. And he started meeting with them. It was a modest-sized group. After a few months, the senior pastor called him aside and he said, this is what Eugene Peterson literally said that this senior pastor told him. He said, spending your time with this small group of people who are serious about studying the scriptures is not cost effective. He says, your job here is to make people feel good about themselves. And if you spend all your time with a small group of people who want to study the scriptures intensely, you're not helping all these other people feel good about themselves. And he said, he finally, he said, it was this there for a couple of months, he realized, oops, this was not the call I probably should have taken. And he said, shortly after that, he found another church that took a call. But it exemplifies exactly what Paul is saying here. The senior pastor of that church just wanted people who would stroke, literally stroke the members of this affluent suburban congregation so they could feel good about themselves. Well, sometimes the promises of God will make you feel good, not about yourselves, but hopefully good about the gospel promises. But there are some times they're not gonna make you feel good about yourself. When they talk about sin and talk about the need to be conformed to the image of Christ, sometimes that's painful. It's not gonna help you feel good about yourself. And so it doesn't depend on popularity. Popularity then as a criteria for preaching is nothing new, but there's a deadly side to making popularity that criteria. Paul warns against this here, and he says there are gonna be churches that are gonna accumulate teachers, such teachers that stroke them because they have itching ears. Now, this is not an indictment against some large successful churches. There are some that are very good, and they are very good preachers that are there. Although sometimes the man who's a great preacher we'll have to have a whole staff of people to do the pastoral work. When I was in seminary, they brought famous preachers in, and they brought one preacher in, and this is before Jenny and I were married, and my roommate, Paul, started laughing when he heard who was gonna come preach. And I said, well, why? He said, you know, he said, he was the pastor of our church, small little New England church, when he was fresh out of seminary. And he said, you know, He bumped heads with some stubborn New Englanders, he was from Texas originally, and he said it didn't go so well. He says it wasn't until he landed a big church when he could have a whole staff of people who could do all the pastoral work that things went well. He was a well-known preacher and a good one, a good biblical preacher. Sometimes in big churches you have divisions of labor. You can have someone who can specialize in preaching, and you can have other pastoral staff who can specialize in the counseling. A church of modest size like Sherem, Pastor Schneider has to do it all, and that can stretch him. But that's good in one sense because it allows him to know what you as a congregation really need. There was a famous liberal theologian who admitted that Some of the books he wrote literally were written to impress lady friends. He admitted that. And his wife in his biography of him also admitted that he was a womanizer and other things as well. But he was trying to impress people. He admitted in what he was doing. Now, the point of all of this is that there will always be a heavy demand for an ample supply of popular preachers who simply want to tickle ears. The sheer number of teachers who want to tickle your ears is not a sign that they're good preachers for you, nor is it a sign of their orthodoxy. It can be simply a sign that they know how to tickle ears, and they know how to entertain. Some people have a gift of entertaining. There's a lot of pressure on preachers. There's a lot of pressure on churches. How to be successful. Every generation has a whole series of books. They don't say how to be a successful church or something like that, but that's basically what they're telling you. I'll never forget, one year into my first, or year or two maybe, it was very early on in my first church, was when, I'll just give you his name, Robert Shuler was a well-known preacher, and he wrote a book And he sent it to every minister he could find in America. And he basically said, if you preach on how people can have good self-esteem, this is the answer, the new reformation. And I read it, or glanced at it anyway, and I realized this was as unbiblical as could be. The goal is not to make you have great self-esteem. The goal is for me, as any biblical preacher, to both comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. But churches can have a vicarious longing to have a successful preacher. You ever found that yourself? You want to say, you should come hear our preacher. He's really good. And I know Pastor Brian is a good preacher. And I appreciate it. I've listened to a number of his sermons, and he is. I'm glad you do have a good preacher like Pastor Brian. The goal isn't a preacher that you can brag to your neighbors and friends about, but it's that the word is being preached. So one of the most important things you can do is to pray for Pastor Brian, that he won't fall prey to the temptation to be an ear tickler or for me or any other preacher that you have. And you can't judge whether the word is being preached by just by popularity. Sheer numbers are not the criteria, the major criteria for whether the word is being preached. R.C. Sproul said this really well. He said this, he says, I think the greatest weakness the church has today is that almost no one believes that God invests his power in the Bible. Everyone is looking for power in a program, or in a technique or anything else other than his word. And it's the word that works with the Holy Spirit and the sacraments. In other words, it's the word and the preaching of the word that God uses. Some contemporary church growth gurus, if you want to call them that, have suggested that, you know, we live in a soundbite era. And people aren't going to come and listen to 20 minutes, let alone a half hour or 45 minutes or once in a while, like someone like me who gets wound up and gives you a real stem winder. They're not going to come listen to people like that. But you know, it's the word. The last time in the history of the Christian church that the idea was to tone down the preaching or basically get down to 10 minutes or something like that was a disaster for the church. Think of the middle ages, say the 7th to the 12th century. Australian scholar Peter Adam put it this way. He says, the church decided that while educated people could understand words and theology, uneducated people could best be taught through statues, stained glass windows, and pictures. Medieval church had all of those statues, stained glass windows, and pictures. And he said, as the reformers discovered, this failed. And it failed miserably. And it produced people who knew the gospel stories, but did not know the gospel. I may repeat that. It produced people who could maybe know the gospel story. They could have a gospel story in a series of statues or pictures on a stained glass window, but people did not know the gospel. They did not know the meaning of the gospel. Pastor Adams says this, a picture is not worth a thousand words because a picture is hard to teach theology. A picture is not worth a thousand words because a picture can't teach theology. And all of the word of God is theology put into practical form. Ministers then are called to preach the word. Some of you know of John MacArthur, pastor's big church. His health has started failing now. He's on dialysis, but he's still preaching some, although he was in the hospital for a number of months. And he's not a member of a reformed church, but he's a fellow traveler. Ligonier regularly has him come and preach for them. His views on the second coming and some other things differ from us, but he believes the scriptures. He believes in salvation by grace. And he tells the story that as a young man, his father was a minister. not nearly as well known as John MacArthur is, but when he was ordained, his father gave him a Bible. Good thing for a dad who's a preacher to give to his young son. You know, it had a fly leaf in it, and there was, his dad had put one short sentence in it. Preach the word, Johnny. Preach the word. And he put in there 2 Timothy 4, 2. Preach the word, Johnny. That's what he called him, Johnny. That's what Paul is saying here. Preach the word. You can say, my dad used to call me Johnny. So he could have said that to me. You can say that to Brian. Preach the word, Pastor Brian. Get a guest preacher in here. You say, what do you say? Preach the word. It is God's key means of grace in the world. Our larger catechism talks about this in a very distinct way. And I just wanted to finish with summarizing question 159 and 160. Now you probably don't get into larger catechism very often because it's, put it bluntly, long. And one of the former pastors over at the Washington Church years ago used to kind of make jokes about it. He said, remember that in the time of the Westminster Assembly, they referred to the shorter catechism as designed for infants and idiots, whereas the larger catechism was designed for the adults. By idiots, they meant people of lesser mental facility. But this is what the larger catechism says. Question 159. How is the Word of God to be preached by those who are called thereto? They that are called to labor in the ministry of the Word are to preach sound doctrine, diligently in season and out of season. You hear the echo of 2 Timothy 4 there. Plainly, not in the enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. faithfully making known the whole counsel of God, wisely applying themselves to the necessities and capacities of the hearers, zealously with fervent love to God and the souls of his people, sincerely aiming at his glory and their conversion, edification and salvation. Now, that's what the minister is supposed to do. Question 160 says, what are you to do? What is required of those that hear the word preached? It is required of those that hear the word preached that they attend unto it with diligence, preparation, and prayer, examine what they hear by the scriptures, receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind as the word of God, meditate and confer of it, hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives. That's what you are supposed to do when you hear the word of God. Ministers have a responsibility to be faithful and not necessarily popular the old Continental Reformed churches the Dutch German and Swiss Reformed churches oftentimes had a special bench Would be about right over here and the elders used to sit there and they had big Bibles I mean they make this pulpit Bible look like a small one and And they were chained to the desk. And the elders had big, quite big Bibles. And there would be like six elders sitting there. So preacher was preaching. And I suppose he got nervous when all of a sudden one of the elders start flipping through the text. Like, uh-oh, what did I say now? But the point of it was, elders were there to make sure that what the minister and the pulpit was saying was preaching the word. That's what ministers are called to do. You are called to pay attention to that preaching of the word. I and any other minister are called to preach that word. Continue to pray for us. Continue to pray for Pastor Brian. Pray for me and any other guest preacher that you have, that we would indeed be faithful, that sinners would be called, and you who sit in the pew would be built up, you'd be reproved, rebuked, and exhorted. by the preaching of the word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you that it teaches us, that rebukes us, exhorts, and reproves us. Pray that the preaching in this church, as it has been for many years, will continue to be faithful, that you would bless Pastor Brian when he comes back as he proclaims your word. We thank you for being reminded from your word about the importance of preaching the word, for in Christ's name we pray, amen.

• Why is human righteousness insufficient before God? Human righteousness is insufficient before a holy God because, as Romans 3:10-12 and Genesis 6:5 highlight, we are all inherently sinful. Our thoughts, intentions, and actions consistently fall short of God's perfect standard. We are prone to evil, and even our best efforts are tainted by selfishness and pride, meaning we cannot achieve a state of righteousness that would satisfy God's justice. This demonstrates the dire need for an external source of righteousness.

• What is meant by 'substitutionary atonement' in the context of Jesus' suffering? Substitutionary atonement refers to the concept that Jesus, who was completely righteous, willingly took the punishment for our sins upon himself. As Isaiah 53:4-6 and 2 Corinthians 5:21 show, he suffered and died on the cross as a substitute, bearing the consequences of our wrongdoing. This act of love and sacrifice satisfied God's justice, allowing us to be reconciled to him. Christ's suffering was not merely a demonstration of love but a means of payment for the penalty that we deserved, hence the "just for the unjust".

• How does Christ's resurrection impact our hope and justification? Christ's resurrection is vital because it proves the completeness and success of his sacrifice. Romans 5:1-5 and Philippians 3:9-11 describe how it demonstrates that God has accepted Jesus' atonement. It signifies not only the forgiveness of our sins but also our restoration to a right relationship with God. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, the believer has been given an "alien righteousness", one that was not earnt by them, but imputed to them by God through faith. It is through Christ's resurrection that we have the hope of eternal life, having been both acquitted of our sin and declared righteous in God's sight.

• What does it mean for a Christian to be "blessed" in suffering for righteousness? According to 1 Peter 3:13-17, suffering for righteousness is a blessing because it means our lives are aligning with Christ's teachings, and we are participating in His suffering. When we are persecuted for our beliefs, it is not a sign of God's disfavor, but rather a testament to our faith and a confirmation that we are following Christ's example. It gives us a unique opportunity to testify to the hope we have in Christ. Instead of fearing such suffering, we are to view it as an honour and an opportunity to glorify God.

• How should Christians respond when they face evil or persecution? Christians are called to respond to evil or persecution not by retaliating, but by exhibiting compassion, humility and love. 1 Peter 3:8-12 says, instead of returning evil for evil, we should bless those who persecute us. We are to seek unity and pursue peace, trusting that God is ultimately just and will avenge us. The focus should be on reflecting the character of Christ, showing grace even when facing injustice. This includes being gentle and respectful when defending our faith.

• Why is the concept of Christ's finished work so crucial for Christians? The "finished work" of Christ means that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection were all sufficient for our salvation. This means our righteousness is not based on any personal achievement, but a gift given freely by God. As the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms point out, Christ's obedience and sacrifice fully satisfied God's justice. Because of this, we can have full assurance of our salvation. There's nothing more we can or need to add to what he has already accomplished. This frees us from the burden of trying to earn our salvation and establishes Christ as the sole foundation for our relationship with God.

• How should the assurance of Christ's finished work influence our daily lives? The assurance of Christ's finished work should lead us to live with a deep sense of gratitude and confidence in our relationship with God. Knowing we are righteous because of Christ, not ourselves, should cultivate humility and motivate us to pursue a life that is pleasing to him. We should seek to display unity, peace, and love in our interactions with others. In our lives, we must seek to give a defence to others for the hope that we have in Christ, in meekness and fear. This should inform the way we approach every aspect of our lives.

• What is the practical application of the phrase "the just for the unjust" in our lives? The phrase "the just for the unjust" highlights the central tenet of Christian faith: Jesus, being perfectly righteous, took the punishment that we, being unrighteous, deserved. This realisation should foster a spirit of gratitude and humility. We must acknowledge we have no merit of our own, and our salvation comes entirely through grace. The just one took our place so that we might be brought into the presence of God. The application is that we can never rely upon ourselves for our own righteousness, and so must place our full trust in Jesus. This should lead to living lives that honor God's grace.

• Justification: God's act of declaring a sinner righteous in his sight through faith in Christ, not through their own good works or merits.

• Imputation: The act of crediting or transferring something, in this context, God credits Christ's righteousness to believers.

• Atonement: The reconciliation between God and humanity through Christ's sacrificial death, which covers the debt of sin.

• Substitutionary Atonement: The doctrine that Christ died as a substitute for sinful humanity, bearing the punishment and penalty for their sin.

• Righteousness: Moral perfection and conformity to God's law. In Christian theology, it's seen both as a standard and a gift of God through Christ.

• Sanctification: The process of being made holy, where God works in believers to transform them into Christlikeness over time.

• Passive Obedience: Christ's willing submission to suffering and death as part of his obedience to God's will, not limited to simply his active obedience to the law.

• Alien Righteousness: A righteousness that is not inherent to the individual but comes from an outside source. In Christian theology, it refers to the righteousness of Christ imputed to believers.

• Reconciliation: The restoration of a relationship to harmony, specifically, the bridging of the gap between God and humans through Christ.

• The Spirit: In the context of this study, refers to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who is believed to give life and bring about spiritual regeneration.