Session 5 — Al Mohler
March 6th, 2008
(By Nathan Williams)
Tonight we were treated to a special set of songs from the choir of The Master’s College. They are a tremendously talented group and we certainly experienced that as they praised our Lord in song. After the choir sang, Dr. MacArthur read a portion of Revelation chapter 1.
Dr. Mohler began by explaining how he was sitting thinking about how there is literally no time where John’s voice is not heard around the world. His ministry from this pulpit has gone around the world. He said he has heard from many people at the conference who have said that they get through the year by looking forward to the conference.
We are living in strange times. There is a crisis in preaching. Most of us do not have an expectation that we will hear expositional preaching when we visit an evangelical church. Look at so much of what is going on in the church and see how little exposition is happening in the world. Why is there such a crisis in the church in regards to preaching?
In Nehemiah 8 we hear what preaching is all about. Expositional preaching is difficult to do, but not difficult to understand. Here is the pattern: read, explain. Preaching is all about reading the text and explaining it.
It isn’t that just anyone can do preaching. The hand of the Lord falls upon certain men who are called to preach. Calling and study were very much a part of what Ezra was doing. A preacher is one called by God. The hand of the Lord is upon him. After we have been called, the instruction is simple; read and explain. II Timothy 4 tells us the same thing from the New Testament. How clever do you have to be to misunderstand this? The English translation makes it quite simple. Why is this pattern not happening in so many of our churches?
Let’s be clear. According to the Bible, exposition is preaching. If it’s not reading the text and explaining it, its not preaching. We have to stop saying “I prefer expository preaching”. Our diagnosis of the problem needs to center not in the technique, but in the faulty theology.
We will think together from Deuteronomy 4:32-40 about a theology of expository preaching. Deuteronomy is so intensely theological. It is the most quoted book of the OT by Jesus. The children of Israel are in the wilderness waiting to go to into the promised land. The book of Deuteronomy is about God speaking to His people. The book of Deuteronomy is a Word-Centered theology. Hearing God’s word is a matter of life and death. Disobeying is death and obeying is life. Moses wants the children of Israel to know that life and death hang in the balance of the Word.
Here are some observations from the text.
1. The true and living God is the God who speaks.
Dr. Mohler referred to a book by Francis Shaeffer. He is there and He is not Silent. We preach because God is there and He is not silent. God still speaks. This is the miracle of revelation. It is a manifestation of God’s love, mercy, and grace. Elijah will use this when he confronts all the pagan priests. There was no voice from the God of the priests. Where would we be if God had not spoken? We would be worshiping idols who don’t speak. This is the gift of revelation. The God of the universe forfeited His own personal privacy. We must cling to this revelation. There is not one person who will come to the knowledge of Christ by general revelation. There is an appropriate sense in which God spoke…If you think that all God’s speaking was done in the past, then resign from the ministry. God is still speaking through you through His Word. God speaks to His people now even as He did to His people in times past. It makes all the difference between true and false religion.
What if God had not spoken? We would be lost in an aimless cosmos. If He doesn’t speak then eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. There is no middle ground between understanding that every Word of revelation is God speaking and thinking He didn’t speak at all. Let us see clearly that God speaking is a matter of life and death.
2. God’s true people are identified by hearing His voice and obeying it.
Moses told the Isrealites time and again that they were the people to whom Yahweh spoke. He hasn’t spoken to everyone, but he spoke to them. This is not to produce an arrogant self confident people. It is only by grace and mercy that God chose to speak to Israel and not the other nation. Following verse 32 Moses asks the people a series of questions. The question he focuses on is found in verse 33.
How do the people of Israel know they are God’s children? No other people heard the voice of God speak to them from the fire and survive. Israel was at Mt. Horeb and they heard God speak and live.
In Matthew 13 Jesus explains to the disciples that they had been granted the opportunity to hear the voice of God. They were not granted this opportunity because they were the best. God sovereignly granted them to hear his voice. This is the same way we know we are believers. It’s all by grace. We hear because of the grace of God. God grants to us to hear in the same way he granted to Israel to hear. It’s not about the power, talent, or wisdom of Israel. God chose this tiny little people, who couldn’t even draw a straight line through the wilderness, in order to show His glory. Why did God choose us? He chose the weak things of the world in order to shame the strong.
The fact is that its not about us. When we obey God it shows to the other nations the glory of God. God’s electing purpose is to create a people saved by His son for His glory.
3. God’s people serve and survive by hearing His Word.
By God’s grace and mercy we have this Word. For Israel the Word was like manna. They had to have it every day to survive. This Word brings help and blessing, life and identity. Here again, this takes place in the NT as well. In Romans 10, Paul says that the faith that saves comes by hearing the Word of Christ. We have to live by the Word just as much as Isreal. How will we know we are His? How will we know how to live? It is only through the ministry of the Word.
4. As a result of all this, preaching had better be the exposition of the Word.
It is not just how will we build bigger churches. It is whether our people will live or die. We have the Bible. If the Bible is what we say it is, this puts preaching in its proper perspective. Is God going to speak or the preacher? When the Word of God comes through the preacher this brings life. Do we arrogantly think we can bring the people life through our words. We have been called to this and we obey the call by studying. We get up in front of God’s people, we read the text and then we explain it. We do it again and again until Jesus comes or we die. We yearn for people to leave the service and turn to one another and say, “Did we hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire and survive”?
The entire evening was breathtaking! We were able to view it via the live streaming link. What a privilege, what a joy divine hearing from Dr. MacArthur, Dr. Mohler, and Dr. Daniel Wong!
My heart was moved to desire more obedience to our God who speaks to us NOW in His Word as He did in ages past.
Nathan,
Thank you for posting this synopsis of Dr. Mohler’s message. I honestly don’t know how you are able to take such good notes and summarize a powerful message in the way you did. Your service to us is much appreciated!
I sure hope your ministry along Nate B. continues for a long time so that many more preachers can benefit from your work.
Also, if you ever have a chance, I would love it if you could email me some tips on taking notes on a sermon like you are able to do. I could use all the help you have to offer…
As a graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, I am delighted that a man like Dr. Albert Mohler
is our President. His faith in the Bible as God’s inspired
and infallible Word, is encouraging to all who believe the
truth of God.
The above message on the call for expository preaching from the pulpit is right on target. People need to hear what God has to say to us through His Word.
The idea that most people don’t expect to hear exposition
from the Bible in evangelical churches is sad but true.
God has called us to preach the Word in season and out of season. Dr. John MacArthur wrote in his book, Ashamed of
the Gospel, “The only hope is a return to Scripture and
sound doctrine.”
Nathan,
First of all, thanks for your post. I heartily agree with everything that you and Dr. Mohler have said regarding expository preaching, but I have a question.
When someone asks “what do you mean by ‘expository preaching?’”, the typical response is something along the lines of “well, it simply means systematically explaining the text”. Obviously there is more that could be said, but for the sake of this discussion, I will leave it at that.
Could you enumerate on what it means to “explain”. I know that sounds silly, but throughout Christian history, it seems that have been various ‘versions’ or ‘types’ of expository preaching.
Allow me to illustrate my question with this example. These are not criticisms, just the observations that have led me to this question:
1. Dr. Macarthur is well known for his technical exposition of the literal text. It is very hermeneutic-oriented. When listening Dr. Macarthur, one can expect to hear much of the source texts to be give their literal interpretation. Also, his exposition is a contextually exegetical one. He is very good at setting up the historical context in which the text was written. In short, simply explaining what the text actually says, as it was written.
2. I read a sermon by Jonathan Edwards the other day on Genesis 39:12 “And he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out”. Edwards briefly the gives the narrative of Joseph’s situation, and then spends the next 20 pages explaining Sin, Temptation, and Deliverance. He does occasionally give reference to the original language, but for the most part, he just takes something that is thematically represented in the text, and exhausts the subject. I think it must also be observed, that many of these older puritan sermons, were absolutely super-saturated with rich doctrinal content (or at least it seems that way today, looking back). After Edwards preached this sermon, his congregation may not have known all of the historical and grammatical context of Genesis 39:12, but they absolutely walked away have a better understanding of the doctrine of Sin, Temptation, and Deliverance, and from a sound Calvinistic perspective, no less.
It just seems that, in the second case, there are not many of the qualities or traits present that, we would use today to characterize faithful “expository” preaching. Yet at the same time, if one were to preach on Genesis 39:12, and give technical exposition (like Dr. Macarthur), without explaining to your congregation in great detail the nature of Sin and Temptation (as Edwards did), they would be remiss. The danger in the latter approach, is that one would be more prone to take liberty with the text. There is more of a chance that one will say something that the text is simply not saying.
In first case, the exposition is textually driven by a systematic, literal, hermeneutical, exegetical interpretation. In the second case, the exposition is faithfully constrained to a specific text, but it is more of a doctrinal exposition, drawn from the text.
I find this to be quite common in many older, puritan sermons. Jeremiah Burroughs preached on Isaiah 66:2 “For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” He goes on the exposit what it means for the believer to fear the Word, but without any real exegesis. Its almost like an NIV version of expository preaching. But again, if one preached on that passage, and set up the historical context, and explained the meaning of Hebrew, but didn’t spend time on what it means for God’s people to fear His Word, you would have missed a large part of the “point” of the passage (or so it seems).
Anyways, I know your at Shepherd’s right now, so it won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t get back to me, but I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
“God’s true people are identified by hearing His voice and obeying it.” “My sheep hear My voice…!” And what a voice it is!!! What a wonderful reminder and fact-of-the-faith for all present at the conference to hear, and for those of us who read-from-afar! From what I see, we’re doing something right at the Montana Bible College when we send our graduates to Southern Seminary! (: