How is preaching an act of worship? Preaching is not only an act of worship, it is the premier act of worship each Lord's Day, as the right preaching of the word of God is the foundation for all other God-honoring worship. It is primarily through the worship of preaching that we learn how to worship in singing, giving, serving, and the ordinances. Both the congregation and the preacher worship God in the moment of preaching; the congregation through actively receiving the word, and the preacher through the active proclamation of God's truth.

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Craig Houston with the following message entitled, Preaching as worship. Well good morning, welcome, and it's a delight and a privilege to stand before you this morning to open up God's Word and to talk about a subject that I love dearly and that is the preaching of God's Word. Specifically preaching as worship and how it is that preaching is a form of worship unto the Lord. In fact, it is the kind of worship that leads and guides in every other realm of worship. Let's open up our Bibles and turn to 2 Timothy and then I'll pray.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you for the privilege of being here this morning to be with this people I thank you Lord for this conference and the theme the worship of God and I pray Lord that we would we would grow in our understanding, that we would grow in wisdom and discernment with regards to the worship of God and how we might worship you rightly, how that we might know a more perfect way from your word guide my lips my mind and I pray God that you would open up the ears of those who are here this morning that they might listen with intent and desire to know what the scripture says with regards to the preaching as worship. In Jesus' name, Amen. Second Timothy chapter 4, a very well-known and important verse with regards to preaching is Paul's admonition to young Timothy in 2 Timothy 4 and verse 1. The scripture says, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing.

Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and they shall be turned unto fables father I do pray that you'd bless this morning as we go to the Word of God and as we search the scriptures to see Lord your plan, your desire, your pattern for biblical worship and specifically as we look this morning at the element of biblical preaching that we could see how that in preaching we are to worship you both the preacher and the people help us Lord to understand your word and I I pray Lord knowing the tiredness of my mind even the tiredness of all of your people, after being in session and preaching for a day and a half, I pray you'd give us give us clarity, Lord. Give us a desire to understand. In Jesus' name, Amen. This morning it's my privilege to speak on the subject, a subject that I'm very passionate about and that is biblical preaching as worship.

When we look at worship and we talk about worship We have been learning at this conference and it was stated very clearly and succinctly last night as Dr. Beekie talked about three main areas of worship. We have our realm of personal worship as we worship the Lord in the secret place, as we seek to grow in grace and knowledge and wisdom and understanding and grow in closeness and unity with God, as we walk with Him as individuals. And this is – that is a vital aspect of worship. And then as we lead our families in family worship, it's something that I'm passionate about in daily opening up the Scriptures and teaching the Word of God to our children and that every head of household needs to be one who opens up the scripture and instructs their family in the Word of God and they worship the Lord together as a family.

There is also a very important aspect of worship and that is the corporate worship of the people of God. In corporate worship, we find there are elements of biblical worship. They are worship through reading of Scripture. There is a power in reading the Word of God and just reading it publicly and reading it in responsive reading where maybe the minister reads a verse and the people respond in reading and they read collectively and in unison. There is a power in the reading of the Word of God.

If you look in the scriptures you'll find passages that relate the power of just the scripture being read and how God worked through his word without a word of explanation ever added. We have in the scriptures the element of singing as worship and we have an admonition to sing unto the Lord psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing in our heart to the Lord with grace in our hearts to the Lord. We we learn of the importance and the priority of giving first giving of ourselves as a living sacrifice in the Lord and recognizing that he is worthy of everything that we have and then offering of our tithe and and offering unto the Lord giving with grace in our hearts to the Lord as an act of worship. And the Lord's Supper and baptism of these ordinances that we worship the Lord in remembrance in the Lord's Supper and taking the bread and the wine and we remember the broken body and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then baptism as we recognize God's cleansing and washing of us and we submit in humble obedience to the Lord.

These are all acts or elements of worship of our God. But this morning we're going to look at the importance and the priority of biblical preaching in the worship of God and I submit to you that it is it is the preeminent preeminently important element of worship. The reason I say that is because all aspects or all understanding of biblical worship must flow from the preaching of the Word of God. It is from the Word that we learn how to rightly worship and without the preaching and teaching, without the instruction of the Word of God, we would not know how rightly to worship. This goes first to the fact that we would not know God.

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God. How shall they hear without a preacher? So when we talk about biblical worship, when we talk about the elements of worship, we need to go to the scriptures to see, you know, without preaching we would know nothing about how to worship God rightly. Now that might sound self-serving as I am a preacher and I love preaching the Word of God, But it is true nonetheless. My life was changed by preaching just like I have seen people's lives changed by preaching.

All of our lives were changed by preaching. We are here at a conference hearing sermons and lessons and lectures because we want to learn rightly how to worship God in spirit and in truth and what are we all doing we're all going and we're coming here saying we want the source book we want the Word of God expounded to us to teach us a more perfect way. We're all going to the preaching to say, Lord we want to hear from you and we know that you have chosen to speak through your word to your people through the preached word of God. The depth of the the importance of preaching cannot be overstated. In the public worship service in the house of God, each and every Lord's Day, there should be a sense in which, without saying a word about it, that the preaching is central.

On Sundays at our church I don't have to stand up and say we come to the preaching of the Word of God and every Sunday I don't have to say this is the central aspect of worship. If a preacher, if a minister of the gospel handles himself rightly and handles the word rightly and ascends the pulpit or goes to the pulpit to preach the Word of God with the the heart of reverence and seriousness as he opens up the Word of God and as he reads the Word of God and as he preaches the Word of God without saying a word the people will know this is important. When there is the proper gravity or gravitas with regards to the preaching of the Word of God people will take note of its importance. Paul told Timothy, his son in the faith, to preach the Word. This passage of Scripture that we read in 2 Timothy is one of my favorite passages in all of the Bible.

Paul said, I charge thee, I commission thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Preaching, and this morning we don't have time to exposit every passage that we're looking at, we're going to be more topical this morning but preaching is not the same thing as teaching. Preaching, all good preaching, should have teaching in it but preaching is a declaration of authority. Teaching is sometimes just explaining or instructing about a subject.

Preaching is declaring, thus saith the Lord, on any issue of which the Bible deals with. Paul is exhorting Timothy to preach, but he's not telling him to preach just anything he wants, is he? He's telling him to preach the Word. This is important if we're going to rightly understand how we worship the Lord in preaching, we need to understand that biblical preaching needs to preach the Bible. If the preacher is going to preach biblically, he needs to preach the Word.

He's not to preach his own philosophies, his own ideas, his own, you know, opinions about things. Those things may come out in some ways during sermons, and I think it's very important if you're a preacher or a minister of the Word of God, that when you come to a time of application that you say this is not scripture this is just an application of how we might have something work out in our family but this is not thus saith the Lord this is just how we work this out there needs to be a clear distinction between that because when we preach we need to preach with authority and declare the Word of God. He's also admonished to preach the word instant in season and out of season. The idea is is that there will be times when the preaching will be well received. There will be times when the preaching is well rejected.

And in all those seasons, whether it is popular or not popular, whether you're speaking, if I could use this term, whether you're speaking to the hometown crowd at a conference like this where everybody says yes and amen, they're in agreement like we're here because we're all in the same team or whether you're preaching the Word of God in a context maybe in a church that's in error or a church that has gone in the wrong direction and you're not they're not pleased with you being there they're not pleased with the words that you're saying you must be faithful to proclaim sound doctrine and you must reprove that which is wrong you must rebuke even Titus is told to those who teach false doctrine shut their mouths. This is strong language. This is not easy work preaching the Word of God if you're going to do it in a way that pleases the Lord and in a way that worships the Lord. And I'll explain in just a minute why it's not about the preacher. It's about the preacher obeying the Word at all costs.

That's how we worship in preaching. To be instant in season, out of season, to remember the words of Jeremiah who says, don't look at their faces. If the crowd is hostile, just preach the word. Don't look at their faces. Don't look at their gestures of showing how they're in disdain to what is being said.

For the time will come when they will not endure. They will not put up with sound doctrine. But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. This is similar in other areas. We just looked at singing as worship and how people are driven by their own lusts, by their own desires, by their own worldly taste and affections with regards to music that they want to have as worship in the house of God.

They're just filled with themselves. And it is the same with what they want in preaching. They don't want preaching of sound doctrine. They want their ears to be tickled. They want to be told what they want to be, what they want to hear.

They want to be told how wonderful that they are and how, you know, just happy messages about how Jesus is, you know, going to give them joy in spite of the fact that they're walking in disobedience. A biblical preacher who wants to worship the Lord in his preaching cannot do that. In the public worship service of the house of God the preaching of the Word must be preeminent. Not the preacher, Not the people, but the preaching of the Word. Now what is worship?

Dr. Moorcraft gave a simple definition, which is true, of all the words in the Old Testament. It's the same in the New Testament. Worship means to prostrate oneself. Worship means to lay before in reverence.

Worship means to kiss the ring. The idea of worship is that there is something higher and more noble and more worthy and you bow the knee right there is a king who is the king of kings and Lord of Lords and when we worship him we don't worship him hey how you doing King we worship him prostrating ourself before him This is how we worship the Lord. So how do we worship the Lord? How do we prostrate ourselves in the preaching of the Word of God. I submit to you this morning that that worship and preaching goes two ways.

Worship and preaching requires that the preacher worship in preaching and worship in preaching requires that the people worship in preaching. The preacher is obligated, if he is to worship the Lord in preaching, he is obligated to prostrate himself before the Word of Almighty God. He is responsible to faithfully declare what the Scripture says, not what He wants to say. How do I worship the Lord when I'm preaching? It's when I say this is what God's Word says, whether it's comfortable for me or not comfortable for me.

It is what God's Word says and I have no business but to preach the Word of God faithfully. One of the things that I love about expositional Bible preaching and I preach messages sometimes that are topical or textual and try to be robustly biblical and in the Word but most of my preaching is systematic exposition. One of the things that that drives me to do is preach on things that if I was just preaching on the 20 topics that I really enjoy to teach on, I wouldn't. And yet, because of my flesh, right, These are the things I like to talk about. I like to teach on, you know, family and marriage, you know, you just name some things.

I like to preach about preaching. I like to talk about, You could get on hobby horses and preachers do. And one of the things that they do in that is that they neglect to worship the Lord by preaching all of scripture. By humbling themselves before the word. Do you know what preaching through books of the Bible does to you?

Over time it changes you. Because the Word of God is teaching you. It's admonishing you. It's growing you. And even the things that are uncomfortable when you have the heart that says, I must prostrate myself before the Word.

If I'm to worship the Lord rightly, then I have to say and teach and preach things that's not only going to declare it to the people, it's going to require that I obey it. Preaching through books of the Bible will enrich your theology, it will enrich your understanding of God, and it will cause you to lose friends, it will cause you to lose casual church members, it will cause you all kinds of things, but the thing that it will do the most is it will worship God. And that is what's pleasing to him. That's what he will bless. The preacher has this obligation not to be in it for himself, not to do what's going to make the people happy, not to do what's gonna keep the givers giving, not to do what's gonna keep the church filled.

And I'm not saying that we should try to empty the church with some kind of mean spirit or caustic nature in our preaching, but the truth sometimes causes people to separate themselves. The book of Acts, I love the book of Acts and chapter 20, the apostle Paul says in verse number 17, and from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church and when they were come to him he said to them you know from the first day that I came into Asia after what manner I have been with you at all seasons." Didn't it talk about seasons in first Timothy or second Timothy? Preach the word instant in season out of season? Here's a similar language Paul is using in writing to the to in the book of Acts. He's speaking to the the elders from the church of Ephesus.

He says, I have been with you at all seasons. What manner, how I lived serving the Lord with all humility of mind and many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying and way to the Jews and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you by my life, I've lived before you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. It continues and I'll read more in just a minute but think about this the Apostle Paul is saying towards the end of his days you know that in every season I've sought to be faithful to God and to his word. He's saying it's not always been easy. It's not always been popular, but his desire was to be worshipful towards God, to preach the message of repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

He says, And now behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. You have to understand when Paul speaks about things that he doesn't know they're going to happen to him. He has a long history of things that aren't so great stoned shipwreck left for dead beaten He had difficulty because of his prostrating himself before the Word of God and how he preached faithfully every Word of God, instant in season and out of season, when people received it, when grace, you know, He says, I know how to abound and I know how to be abased. I know how to be full and how to be hungry. I know how to have much and I know how to have a little.

And he experienced it all, not just in a material sense, but even in the sense of the message being received and God's Spirit seemed to be working in a powerful way and the message being rejected and Him being under a pile of rocks. He says, Now I go bound in the Spirit into Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save or accept that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. He had this confidence as he worshiped the Lord and as he fulfilled the ministry that wherever he went, the Holy Spirit went before him working in the hearts of men and women, preparing them to receive the Word of God. He says, But none of those things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God and now behold I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men." That's a reference to the Old Testament.

Their blood is not on my hands. And why is it so? Why is it that he could say that? It is because he has prostrated himself before the Word and he has faithfully proclaimed thus saith the Lord on everything God gave him to speak on. He says, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

How is it that a preacher, even in our day, how is it that you that minister the word as preachers and elders in your church, how is it that you can be found faithful in worshiping the Lord? It is by not shunning to declare all the counsel of God to your people. That's what God requires. He prostrates himself before Scripture, preaching boldly and faithfully every word that proceeds from the mouth of God in Holy Scripture. Can I just say after 16 years in the ministry, December will be 16 years, so almost 16 years, there are times in preaching, even in the church that I pastor, where what I was saying from the scriptures I knew people might leave and people have left And it wasn't that I've ever had the heart that says, I want to show them the back door?

But if it is the truth of Scripture, and I am obligated as I'm coming through a passage of Scripture to preach some difficult truth because this is what the Scripture has before us. I must. I must do it. I must humble myself. I must prostrate myself before the Lord and preach whether it's in season or out of season.

Regardless of the cultural tide, I must be faithful to the Scriptures and so must you. Otherwise, as a preacher, you're just filled with words. You're puffed up in your own vain imaginations. You're just giving what you want to give, even if you're attaching scriptures to it. If you're not faithfully proclaiming scripture in the whole counsel kind of way, you are not being faithful as a worshiper of God.

By preaching the Word, we must also live in obedience to what it preaches. If we preach one thing and live the exact opposite are we really worshipping? Are we really prostrating ourselves? When I say prostrating ourselves before the word I don't just mean opening up our mouth I mean when you find something that you are not doing right that you have to be honest with God and even before the people to say I needed this. I need to grow in this.

As we humble ourselves before him. Said take heed therefore under yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers and feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood for I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves come in enter in among you not sparing the flock even also after of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them therefore watch and remember and by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears and now brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance amongst all them that are sanctified." Paul's heart in preaching was to be faithful. He goes on to talk about not coveting any man silver or gold or apparel, he's there to minister the Word of God. But there's another way in which in the preaching there needs to be worship. It begins with a preacher who takes his task and he says it is not about me.

My greatest goal when I go before God's people and I stand at the pulpit should be to get out of the way. To allow God's Word to speak and allow me to disappear. To be a messenger boy for God, to prostrate myself before the Word. But there's another side to this, and it's the people. If we are to worship the Lord in preaching, if Preaching is worship, or preaching as worship, as the title of my messages this morning, it also requires the people prostrating before the Word.

That means when you come to God's house on the Lord's day, and you come to worship before Almighty God. Your heart needs to be the same as the preacher. You're not prostrating yourself before a man. You're not prostrating yourself before a preacher. You're prostrating yourself before the Word of God.

And you want your preacher to be faithful even if it hurts if what he's preaching from the Word of God affects you, convicts you, you should thank God for that. You should want to worship him by prostrating yourself before Almighty God and saying, God, I want to hear from heaven this morning. I have not come just to come and sing and to, you know, hear a message and then to see the people of God. I've come to worship you. And as I worship you, I want to grow in grace and knowledge.

I want to grow in understanding. I don't want to have my ears tickled. I want to be told what I need to hear. I want to hear holy scripture. The book of Nehemiah, chapter number 8, I love Nehemiah chapter 8.

The first 12 verses really give a wonderful pattern of how many of us kind of order or structure our worship services, even if you don't know that. This is where a lot of it comes from in Nehemiah chapter number 8 verse number 1 it says and all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street this is after the children of Israel had been in exile in in Babylon it says They gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate, and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. Bring the book! Don't bring me three points in a poem. Don't bring me five minutes of teaching and instruction from the Word and a 30-minute illustration to nail it home.

Bring the book. Bring the book. I want to hear what the Scripture has to say. I want to know what God says on a matter. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month.

And He read therein before the street that was before the Watergate, from morning until midday. There's a lot of reading going on there. Before the men and the women and all that could hear with understanding. And the ears of all the people were attentive under the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, a raised platform, which they had made for the purpose because it elevated the place of the preaching and the reading of scripture, which they made for the purpose.

And beside him stood Matathiah and Shema and Ananias and Urijah and Hilkiah and Messiah and on his right hand on his left hand Padiah and Meshael and Malachi and Heshom and Hashbandana and Zechariah and Meshelim and Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was above all the people." That doesn't mean as his person, it means he was standing on the pulpit of wood. And when he opened it, all the people stood up. If you stand for reading of scripture in your church, our church does, if yours doesn't, that's not a condemnation either way. But here's where we get the principle. They stood up to reverence the scriptures.

As we read the word of God publicly in worship, and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up of their hands, and they bowed their heads and Worship the Lord with their faces to the ground They they wanted to humble themselves before the word Joshua and Benaiah and Cherubiah and Jammim and Aqab and Shebethiah and Hodijah and Messiah and Keleta and Azariah and Jezebat and Hanun and Palaiah and the Levites caused the people to understand the law and the people stood in their place. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense, they explained it, they expounded upon it and caused them to understand the reading. They were preaching. They were explaining the word that had been read. They were expository preachers.

Here's a glorious truth. The preaching of the Word of God. But it was the people who said, Bring the book. Think what would happen if everybody in your church came to the house of God on Sunday morning with the heart. Bring the book.

We want to hear what the Spirit says to the church and we know that the Spirit is going to speak through His Word. And the preacher, we want you to be used in such a way that you're faithful to the Word, and you prostrate yourself before the Word, and you get out of the way, because we want to hear what God says. The people say, bring the book, but the people also have a heart to heed the book. Don't just be hearers only. We don't need any more people who are just puffed up, filled with in their minds with theological truths, theological neat-nicks and couch potatoes.

Spiritually, we need people who want to obey the Word of God. The psalmist David says in Psalm 119, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With thy whole heart have I sought thee, oh let not let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might sin not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord.

Teach me thy statutes. With my lips have I declared all thy judgments and I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimony. As much as in all riches I will meditate in thy precepts and I have respect unto thy ways I will delight myself in thy statutes I will not forget thy word he also prayed open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I think we need to have that heart when we come to worship the Lord in the time of the preaching that the preacher has prostrated himself before the Word of God and in that God is exalted God is high and lifted up because it's not about the people and it's not about the preacher it's about him we need to worship the Lord in preaching both the preacher and the people it requires a mutual submission. The scripture says submitting yourselves one to another fear of the Lord.

We need to submit ourselves first to the Word of God. I'm not trying to be too simplistic but would we know to submit to one another in the fear of the Lord if we didn't first submit to the Word of God that teaches us to submit to one another in the fear of the Lord? We wouldn't. We need to submit ourselves to say, I want to know what God says. We must both pray to our Lord and say, not my will, or we could say together the preacher and the people, not our will but thine be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The preacher and the hearer of the word must worship the Lord through absolute obedience to Holy Scripture. In previous talks I've shared the fact that obedience is really central in all of worship. To obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken rather than the fat of rams. It is what God desires, the essence of worship is us humbling ourself before him and obeying all of Holy Scripture, obeying all that he has for us. In a sense, preaching as worship in this mutual submissive requires both of us to bring an offering.

Sermon is to be preached as an offering to God and the sermon by the people is to be received as a gift from God. Biblical preaching, when it is done rightly, faithfully to our God, it'll essentially do three things. Preaching, biblical preaching, is for the exaltation of the Lord. Do you know the most high and holy thing that happens when the Word of God is proclaimed and it doesn't matter on what subject as we've prostrated ourselves both the preacher and the people to the Word of God? It exalts the Lord.

That very thing does, because we're saying when the Word of God is preached, we want to obey. It exalts God. That's what preaching should do. I'll just read one verse this morning. Scripture says, declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.

That verse is a parallel repeated passage. That was from Psalm 96. When we preach, we are to declare the glory of God. When we hold with reverence the Word of God, when we proclaim its truths as the very Word of God in preaching, we are exalting the Most High God. We're exalting the beauty of His holiness.

We're causing Him to be high and lifted up. We're proclaiming the name, the matchless name, the name which is above every name, the name which at every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. When we preach, we exalt the name of the Lord God Almighty. Preaching exalts the Lord by its obedience. A preaching that does not exalt the Lord is a preaching that exalts man.

If the preacher just stands up and everything is just you know his 10 tips and his ideas and his clever speech, God is not exalted. It doesn't mean that the preacher has to be dull and boring and monotone for God to be exalted. God speaks through all different kinds of people. That's one of the things you read about preachers throughout history and you learn about how they preached and kind of the the way they sounded you know what God used all different kinds of men like like a like a variety of musical instruments to preach his word different personality types He used them powerfully when they faithfully exalted him in preaching. But when it's man-centered and it's like the Greek orators and it's just all about how clever the man's speech is.

God is not exalted, man is. Preach the Word, Paul told Timothy. Preach the Word because it exalts God. Because it declares His Word. And there's something really important to remember.

The reason preaching the Word exalts God is because He has exalted His Word even above his own name. When we preach the word faithfully we are exalting the word. When we preach the written word we are exalting Jesus Christ who is the word. He is the one who ex nihilo spoke all things into existence and he is the one who keeps speaking. He is the one who holds everything by the word of his power.

By him all things consist and when we preach him faithfully he is exalted. When we preach his word faithfully God is exalted. Preaching is powerful in worship to exalt the name of the Lord but preaching is also powerful in worship because of the the fact that it edifies the Saints God wants his people to be built up to edify means to build up We get the word edifice of a building from this same root word. Edification is something that God desires in the lives of his people. And when we come to worship in the house of God, Lord's day by Lord's day, we come to worship in spirit and in truth and we come to be edified we come to be built up in the most holy faith but it's not the primary purpose it's the secondary Primarily we go up and he builds up when we do that and then we go out.

Preaching is for exaltation of God. Preaching is for the edification of the Saints. The Apostle Peter in 1st Peter chapter number 5 says, The elders which are among you I exhort, a challenge, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre with a ready mind neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples or ensamples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." The minister is not only to exalt God in this preaching, he is to preach the Word in such a way that he feeds the people of God. It's interesting that Peter exhorts us to feed the flock of God.

Do you remember what Jesus told Peter? Feed my sheep, feed my lambs, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed the people of God. If you're given the responsibility of preaching the Word, you need to preach the Word in a way that brings people up to the heavens to see God, and you need to bring the message of the Word of God to feed the people, to build them, to grow them, to edify them so they might grow in faith and boldness and holiness before the Lord so that they might grow in grace and knowledge and understanding. If you're parents, You understand the necessity of food for your children. If you don't give a child food, they'll have failure to thrive.

They won't grow properly. If we spiritually will not feed the people, we'll have congregations like are all over the Christian world, all over the West, who have failure to thrive. They are still as babes desiring the sincere milk when they ought to be teachers by now. They ought to be eating the meat of God's Word. That failure to thrive can be from the receiving end, but most frequently I think it comes because the teaching end or the preaching end is not feeding the people of God the Word.

Oh, they're speaking every week, but they're speaking what they want. They're not speaking what God's Word declares. Preaching is for the exaltation of the Lord. Preaching is for the edification of the saints to build them up. I love the Great Commission.

It's such a clear and concise declaration of all that we are to do. Bible says in Matthew's Gospel in chapter 28 verse 18, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations." We're to teach the gospel. We lead with the gospel, the proclamation of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection so that all men might be saved. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

We teach them to walk in obedience and baptism. And then it says this, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen. What does this last verse have to do with? Edification.

Building up the body. One of the reasons why I'm not a real big fan of ministries that are simply just, we're gonna just evangelize. We're gonna go, you know, show gospel films and preach gospel messages and then leave because I believe that the Great Commission is something that needs to be full orb the Great Commission needs to have a heart ultimately to exalt God but to evangelize the Saints and to edify those that remain, to edify those who believe, to build them up in all things whatsoever were commanded. My son and I will be going to Africa on December 29th And as in other trips before, my desire when I go to a foreign country is not just to go preach the gospel and then not care about whether they have godly families or not, whether they know how to walk in the truth or not as Christians, whether they grow in grace or not. Do you realize that God wants people in Africa to have godly families to bring their children up in the nurture of the Lord?

Do you realize that there's an attack on families there just like there is here? We need to teach everything that the scripture teaches to all people who follow God, wherever they live. That's frequently not a part of missions work, and it needs to be because it edifies the saints. It builds them up. The people of God being built up on the most holy faith as the Word is proclaimed, being reproved, rebuked, and exhorted, and encouraged.

Sometimes we need our toes stomped on by the word. Not by mean-spirited preachers, but by the word that is proclaimed. We need to say, ouch or amen. But we should say something. Preaching is for the exaltation of the Lord.

Preaching is for the edification of the saints. And preaching is for the evangelization of the world. The Gospel of Mark chapter 16 verse 15 it says, preach the gospel to every creature. We just read from Matthew 28, go into all the world and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. Preaching that is biblical preaching, preaching that worship God, worships God, will exalt God.

Preaching that worships God will edify the Saints but preaching that worships God will always evangelize the sinner It'll always have a heart for evangelism. I love what Charles Spurgeon says from any text, I can make a beeline for the cross. We need not forget to proclaim the gospel. And as believers, when we have been admonished, when we have been exhorted, and then we hear a declaration of the gospel, we shouldn't say, oh, I've heard this before so many times. We should, every time we hear the gospel proclaim, say yes and amen.

Thank you, Jesus, that You have done that for me. Lord, do it in the lives of others. Transform them, quicken the dead hearts. Give a heart of flesh in place of the heart of stone. Open the eyes, unstop their ears.

Let them hear what the scripture says. Transform their life. And we need to have the heart of boldness the Apostle Paul did even in the place like Rome where he said for I am NOT ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God and a salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Beloved, preaching that worships God will always include evangelization of the world. Romans chapter number 10 is a passage of scripture that I love thinking about and I love studying.

From the beginning of the chapter it talks about going to the Jews and also to the Gentiles and how the Gospel is spreading and expanding. And this is a book written to the church at Rome, which obviously was a Gentile congregation primarily at least there were Jews that were in Rome at the time but it says in verse number nine that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised them from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved how then shall they call on him and whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him and whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent as is written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things but they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah saith Lord who has believed our report so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God And the medium is preaching that God uses.

Preaching that worships God is preaching that exalts the Lord, preaching that edifies the Saints, and preaching that evangelizes the world. When the gospel is faithfully proclaimed from the pulpit, as the stranger sits in our midst, the gospel will transform lives. The gospel will reach the sheep that are scattered without a shepherd but that God knows and is going to call unto himself. The fourth century Bishop of Constantinople John Chrysostom was nicknamed the golden-mouthed preacher. John Stott writes this in his book, Between Two Worlds, speaking of John Chrysostom.

He is generally and justly regarded as the greatest pulpitor of the Greek church, nor has he any superior or equal among the Latin Fathers. He remains to this day a model for preachers in large cities. Listen to what John Stott says, four chief characteristics of his preaching may be mentioned. First, he was biblical. Not only did he preach systematically through several books, but his sermons are full of biblical quotations and illusions.

Secondly, his interpretation of Scripture was simple and straightforward. He followed the Antiochian school of literal exegesis in contrast to the fanciful Alexandrian allegorization. Everything's an allegory. Thirdly, his moral applications were down to earth. Reading his sermons today, one can imagine without difficulty the pomp of the imperial court, the luxuries of the aristocracy, and the wild races of the hyperdome.

In fact, the whole of life of an oriental City at the end of the fourth century could be seen in his sermons, in his simple descriptions. Fourthly, he was fearless in his condemnations. In fact, he was a martyr of the pulpit, for it was chiefly his faithful preaching that caused his exile. He was this wise preacher, the bishop of Constantinople, nicknamed the golden mouth. And what was it John Stott recognized about him?

His preaching was biblical. His pattern of belief was literal exegesis. His messages were simple and understandable by common people. That doesn't mean he was a simpleton. It means he preached in such a way that exalted God and fed the people and reached the people.

And his preaching was powerful. May we not forget, as we seek to preach the Word that we are preaching the very oracles of God. We're preaching the Word of the living God. The living God. 1 Peter 4 11 says, if a man speak let him speak as the oracles of God.

If any man minister let him do it as the ability which God hath given him, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. If you only get one thing from this morning about preaching as worship, I hope it is this, that if you were a preacher that you will come before God's people every Lord's Day, recognizing you're coming before the God of heaven before the people, and that your people would see you bowing down before the Word, prostrating yourself to every word of God, and you would worship in preaching. And I pray that you, as the people of God, as you come to hear the preaching each and every Lord's Day, that you too would say, it's not about that man, it's about the book that he proclaims. And even if what he says bothers me, convicts me, rebukes me, reproves me, or if it exhorts me, regardless I'm going to prostrate myself before that word I'm gonna have the heart that says bring the book I want to hear what the word says and I want to heed what it teaches me May we worship the Lord with mutual submission not first to each other but first to the Word of the Living God.

May he be exalted, may we be edified, and may the Word of God evangelize the world. Father, thank you for your word this morning. I pray that this lecture, this message, would be a little bit of light into this grand and glorious subject of the preaching of the Word of God as worship. May we not fall prey to the spirit of our age, of a people that want their ears to be tickled with nice truths, and a preacher who wants to please the people rather than God. May we prostrate ourselves before your word, both the preachers and the people, and may you God be pleased.

In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

For more messages, articles, and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the word of God, and for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website ncfic.org.