1940, 1994. 1994, I got that right, right? The South Ridge earthquake. So it was a major earthquake, and we had a week off of college, a week off of classes, and so our first time back in the gym, and that's where chapel met, was in the gym. MacArthur is preaching on the power and the sovereignty of God and how God is in control of all things. There were several different times when there would be a major aftershock, right as he is preaching, and that whole gym would just shake. And it was during a real, always seemed to be during a really powerful point, when John was making a really powerful point. He just shaked like God was saying, amen, amen. And you know, nobody in the gym, none of the students, and there's 600 and some students in there, none of them get nervous, none of them get excited. It just all felt like it was so natural. So that little pop brought that to my mind. I don't know why they did it. Nothing compared to those aftershocks. They're really something to go through. This morning I want to direct our attention to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 and ask you to follow along as I read 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 through chapter 4 verse number 4. 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 16. I'll give you just a moment to get there in your Bibles. And while we're turning there, Carolyn, our dear sweet sister Carolyn, thank you so much for being here. And I want to give you the freedom right now that if your back gets to hurting, if you get sore and you need to get up and walk to the back, do not hesitate to do so. We will all understand, okay? It's just so good having you here. and I know sitting there for a while may begin to cause you to hurt and feel the pain. So if you need to get up, feel free to get up and walk to the back and stand up for a while, okay? All right, let's look here at 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. All scripture All scripture is inspired by God. Literally, it is God-breathed. All scripture, every part of it, is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God in Christ Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead by his appearing and his coming, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. The title of the message this morning is My Tribute to the Preacher. My Tribute to the Preacher. Let's pray. Great God Almighty, I praise you and I thank you for the different forms of your revelation. I thank you, Lord, for general revelation. I thank you, Lord, that the manner in which you reveal yourself through creation leaves every man without any excuse. No man has any excuse for rebelling against you. And yet every man born on the face of the earth rebels against you. They replace what is obviously known about you with some other form of an idol, something else that they have formed in their hearts. And because of that, Lord, they are worthy of your judgment. They are worthy of your wrath. Every one of us, Father, come into this world rejecting what is obviously known about you and creating an idol and worshiping it instead. And we deserve, rightly so, justly so, your wrath. The Father, Heavenly Father, in your great compassion, in your great mercy, in your great love, you have provided for your creation. You have provided for that part of your creation which is created in your image. You have provided for man another form of revelation. Special revelation. Sometimes that special revelation was given through your very voice, speaking to individuals. Sometimes through angelic, Lord, revelations. But Lord, the most powerful, the most precious special revelation we have from you is your word. It is by your word, Lord, that we learn of our rebellion against you. And it is by your word, Lord, that we learn of our sin. It is by your word, Lord, that we learn of how justly and rightly we deserve your wrath. And it is by your word, Lord, that we learn that there's nothing that we can do to make amends of the offense that our sin has been against you. There's nothing that we can do to advert the wrath that we justly deserve, and it is by your special revelation, by the word of God, that we learn that you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ came to this earth, the Son of God, become the Son of man, came to this world, and accomplished everything that needs to be done that we might not justly receive the wrath that we deserve. He went to the cross, He bore our sins, He satisfied that wrath that we deserve. And it is through faith in Jesus Christ that we can be diverted from your wrath. It is through faith in Jesus Christ that we can have forgiveness of sins. It is through faith in Jesus Christ that we can be made right with you. We are indebted to the Word of God. And Father, we are indebted to the gift that you've given the church of those who preach the word of God. Help us, Lord, to continue to demonstrate our eternal gratitude to you, we pray. In Christ's holy name, amen. It's probably rather obvious that when I say my tribute to the preacher, I'm really talking about John MacArthur. But even more specifically, it is my prayer that this message would be a gift unto God, because it's God that gave us John MacArthur. There's nothing great in the man himself. It is all because of what God did in the life of John MacArthur. John MacArthur was God's gift to the church and we need to give God thanks. And I pray this morning that this message would be somewhat of a tribute of a thanksgiving to God for the gift that he gave us in the preaching of John MacArthur. So obviously we're not going on and studying this morning any more about the resurrection. We'll have to continue that next week. When it comes to John MacArthur, there have been many times in the ministry where ministry got kind of difficult, and I would be looking for a word of encouragement, and oftentimes it would seem to come from John MacArthur. I remember one time in the ministry in Quincy, ministry was very difficult, and I'm looking for a word of encouragement to keep going, and I happened to find a cassette tape. So that kind of dates when this message was and it was a cassette date that John MacArthur had preached to the Master College Chapel. A message he preached at the chapel and in that message he talked about how he would reduce his life and he said if I was to reduce my life down to the lowest common denominator It would be to preach the word of God unto the glory of God and the honor of his word. John MacArthur said, if I was to reduce my life down to one thing, what is the life of John MacArthur meant for? The life of John MacArthur was meant to preach the word of God unto the glory of God. and the honor of his word, and that became a great encouragement to me. Kathy and I have often said that the second greatest act of God's sovereignty in our lives was to lead me to the Master's College and then eventually to the Master's Seminary because of the emphasis on the preaching of the word of God. What makes the Master's Seminary unique is they are preparing men for the preaching ministry either preparing men to go out and preach the Word of God or preparing men like David Ellington to go all over the world and train other men to preach the Word of God. John MacArthur understood the need for the Word of God to be preached. The Word of God preached is a historical imperative. When is it time to preach the Word of God? It is a perpetual now. It is always now. And when you live in a postmodern world like we live in, a postmodern world which denies truth, a postmodern world which hates authority, there is no greater time than to preach the Word of God with authority. Now, more than ever, when our world hates truth and our world hates authority, now more than ever, we need them to stand up and preach the Word of God with authority. Why? Because the Word of God is absolute truth. It is absolute truth. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it. God is the greatest reality there is. I think it was John Owens that said, nothing can be known rightly apart from a knowledge of God. You think you understand something and you don't have a knowledge of God? You have not yet began to understand it. God is the greatest reality. and it's through understanding Him that we have a proper understanding of everything else. I mentioned to you a memorable quote. Well, here's a memorable message that I sat under, and it was my first year at the seminary, and it was in chapel again. At this time, the chapel is just for the seminary students, men who have come to the Master's Seminary to be trained specifically to preach the Word of God. And we had the privilege of listening to John MacArthur preach to us 2 Timothy 4 1-4. I began this morning reading those verses, and so I just want to continue to focus on those verses and then branch off them. I'm certainly not going to exposit every point of these verses, but the first thing that I would point out is these verses come on the tail end of John 3.16 and John 3.17. We talk about scripture being inspired of God. God breathed in it. When we talk about it being profitable for teaching, reproof for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work, and we just stop there and we fail to recognize that just as important as it is that God's word is inspired, so it is important that God's word is preached. God's Word must be preached. When Paul tells Timothy, a young preacher, when Paul tells Timothy that God's Word is inspired and that it is profitable for teaching, reproof, and correction, and training in righteousness, he comes right back and he says, I charge you, Timothy, in the presence of God in Christ Jesus, who, by the way, Timothy, are going to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing in His kingdom. Paul is giving this young pastor, this young preacher a charge and he's reminding them. He's reminding Timothy this charge is coming in the presence of God and in the presence of Jesus Christ who's coming to judge. Timothy, listen to what I'm telling you. I'm telling you that all scripture is God-breathed and it is profitable. And now I'm telling you, Timothy, that you must take that scripture and you must preach that scripture. He says, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Always be ready to preach the word. Sometimes the preaching of the word of God is in season, and people love it, and they flock to it, and there's more and more coming to the truth, and there's great revivals and great awakenings. I think of the time of Jonathan Edwards, and I think of other great preachers in the past. When great multitudes are coming to Christ, they're preaching the word, and people are loving it. It's in season. But then there are other times when the Word of God is not in season. There are other times if you just stand up and preach the Word of God, and exposit the Word of God, and go verse by verse through the Word of God, people begin to twiddle their thumbs, they begin to think of other things, and they don't come back. They don't want that. And I've been to enough other churches, even other churches that have Master Seminary graduates, and you can tell, they're watering it down. Because they want people to keep coming. And there's almost like a fear that if I say exactly what it means, I'm going to give you an example. This is something I heard just in the last month. Just flip over to 2 Timothy 2, and look here with me. In verse 11, 2 Timothy 2, verse 11. It is a trustworthy statement. For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign with Him. Now here's the part I want to get to. If we deny Him, He will also deny us. If we deny Jesus Christ, He will also deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. He says at the end of verse 12, if I deny Jesus Christ, he's going to deny me. And then he says at the beginning of verse 13, if we are faithfulness, which is synonymous with denying him, he remains faithful. That is synonymous with the second portion of the last part of verse 11, verse 12. What he's saying is that if I'm faithful, he's going to remain faithful and he's going to deny me. That's what Paul is saying, okay? This is what I heard. It doesn't matter how faithless you become, God will always remain faithful to you and he'll always bring you back. That's not what Paul is saying at all. Paul is saying that if you deny him, he's gonna deny you. If you are faithless to him, he's going to be faithful to himself and he's going to deny you. That's a stark warning. And yet I heard from a good preacher, he preaches good messages, he loves the Lord, he understands the gospel. I heard him tweet it just a little bit. Why does he tweet it just a little bit? It's to endear himself to those that are sitting there listening. We cannot do that. That's not faithfully handling the Word of God. That's not rightly dividing the Word of God to handle it in such a way. I admit that to preach that truth as it is written there is not in season for a lot of Christians. They don't want to hear that. They don't want to hear the hard truths. But Paul's telling Timothy, you need to be ready to preach the Word of God when they want to hear it and when they don't want to hear it. because ultimately the one who's going to judge you is Jesus Christ. He's watching over you and he's going to judge you. Let's go on now and finish reading this portion in chapter four. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. And I know there are many preachers that lack the patience And they don't seem to have the patience and trusting in the work of the Holy Spirit. We preach with conviction, we preach with authority, but you trust the Holy Spirit. I can't make anybody believe in the truth. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. The sole responsibility of the preacher is to preach the word of God as accurately as he can to the glory of God and the honor of his word as best as he can that the Holy Spirit might not have to work in spite of him to bring truth upon the heart of God. To offer it up there in such a way that the Holy Spirit can take it now and do what he wants to do with it. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. We are in those days. People don't want to endure sound doctrine. But wanting to have their ears tickled, they'll accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires. That's exactly what's happening. People want their ears tickled, and so people tickle them. Preachers want to be liked, so they give people what the people want to hear. The people go where they want to hear what they want to hear, and it just becomes a vicious circle. And I call it madness in the pulpit. It's madness in the pulpit when the people want to hear what they want to hear. And all the man in the pulpit wants to do is give them exactly what they want to hear. Madness in the pulpit. When it comes to the preaching of the Word of God the only Interchange personal interchange that I had with John MacArthur. There's only one I Was intimidated by him I remember sitting at a master's college basketball game, and we're sitting on the front row. John MacArthur's right here, and I put David, my son who was in the sixth grade at that time, I put him between me and John MacArthur. I did not want to sit next to John MacArthur. I was afraid of him. I don't know why. I shouldn't have been. But I was. I was afraid I would say something wrong. I wouldn't talk right. Very intimidated by him. So I only had one interchange with John MacArthur. It was when I was in the doctor program. And in the doctor program at that time, they called them cohorts. Usually there were two cohorts. And the two cohorts together only made up 12 or 13 men. So we're in the, what you call the upper chambers of the Master Seminary Library in the room, the big long table. And John MacArthur and it was Stephen Lawson were sitting at the other end and we had an opportunity to ask them questions. And I remember I asked John MacArthur a question, I can't even remember what the question was. All I remember is how he responded to it, how he responded. The word of God must be preached. The word of God preached. That's what he said, that phrase, the word of God preached. It wasn't preaching the word of God, it was the word of God preached. And at that time, I'm thinking through my mind what I'm going to do for my final project. It's like comparison to a doctoral dissertation. I'm thinking, what am I going to do? And in my mind, it immediately came to me. I'm gonna do a study on the Word of God preached. I'm gonna begin at the very beginning and study throughout time up to the present on the Word of God being preached. And what I found is that it is an historical imperative. We are always to preach the Word of God. And it begins at creation. It begins right at creation. Look here with me in Psalm 33, Psalm 33. Recognizing that preaching does not suggest, but that preaching proclaims and commands. Preaching commands. Now look at Psalm 33 with me at verse 6. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps and storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. He didn't just suggest creation to come into existence. He commanded creation to come into existence. And commanding is an attribute of preaching. You could just as well say that God preached creation into existence. I am a firm believer that God's favorite form of communication is preaching. He loves to command. He loves to preach. He loves to proclaim. Look with me in Genesis chapter 12, verse number one. Genesis chapter 12, verse number one. Now the Lord said to Abram. This is God calling Abram out of the land of the Chaldeans, out of Ur in the land of the Chaldeans. This is God calling Abram. And the word there said is in the PL form. It is the Hebrew PL form, and that is an intensive form, and that is in a form, that is a form that emphasizes preaching. God didn't just suggest to Abram. God preached to Abram. God commanded Abram. God was preaching to Abram. Look with me in Deuteronomy, chapter 1. Deuteronomy, chapter 6. Well, chapter 1. Deuteronomy, chapter 1, I believe it is. We'll find out when we get there. It's either chapter 1, verse 6, or the other way around. I'm pretty sure it's chapter 1, verse 6. Yep, chapter 1, verse 6. Moses talking here to the people of Israel. It's during the last month of their 40-year wandering in the wilderness, and they're just getting ready to cross over the River Jordan into the Promised Land. They're just getting ready to take the Promised Land that God had promised them. The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, spoke to us at Horeb, saying, You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Again, the word there, spoke, is that same form. God preached to them at Horeb. Now look at verse 1. Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 1. These are the words which Moses spoke. Again, it's the same word, the same form. These are the words which Moses preached. All of Deuteronomy is a message that Moses preached to the people of Israel. And why is he preaching this message to the people of Israel? Because it is a message that God had preached to them at Mount Horeb when God gave them the Ten Commandments. He is preaching that word to them. Look with me in chapter 5 verse number 1. Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse number 1, Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn and observe them carefully. Hear is an imperative. He's commanding. Hear, not a suggestion. hear these words that you may learn them and that you may observe them carefully. Verse 4, the Lord spoke to you face to face at the mountain from the midst of the fire. Again, that word spoke is the peel form of Devar. He preached to them. And you follow the prophets and they're always saying, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord. Go through the book of Ezekiel and underline every time he says, thus saith the Lord. declare the Lord declare the Lord they're always preaching these prophets are always preaching and when the last Old Testament prophet comes on the scene John the Baptist what is he doing he's preaching look with me in Matthew chapter 3 Matthew chapter 3 Matthew 3 verse number 1. Now in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He's the last Old Testament prophet. And what is he doing? He's preaching. And what is it that Jesus does when he starts his ministry? Turn to chapter 4, verse 17. This is after the temptation. From that time, Jesus began to preach and say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He's preaching. A large part of Jesus' earthly ministry was to preach. Look with me in Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1, we'll begin verse 29. A large part of Jesus' earthly ministry was to preach and to prepare others to preach and send them out to preach. Look here with me in Mark chapter 1, verse 29. And immediately after they came out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever, and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her. He came to her, raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and she waited on them. When evening came, after the sun had set, they began bringing to him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city gathered at the door. And he healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who he was. In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place and was praying there. Simon and his companions searched for him, and they found him and said to him, everyone is looking for you. Everyone's looking for you. There's been all this healing going on and they're all looking for you, Jesus. Why do you think they're looking for Jesus? They want more healing. But what has Jesus been doing? He's been praying. Who's he praying to? He's praying to his heavenly father. He's looking to his heavenly father. And after praying to his heavenly father with all these people wanting to have healings, what is his decision? Look at it here in verse 38. He said to them, let us go somewhere else to towns nearby, so that I may preach there also, for that is what I came for. He's going to go preach because that's why He came. Why does He do all the healings? All the healings are meant to be a sign to show that His preaching is authority, that His preaching is right. The healings are not healings in and of themselves. He once ridicules a group of people because they saw the multiplying of the fish and the loaves and feeding of 5,000 men plus all their wives and children. They saw all that and they just want all more. He says, you didn't see the miracle. What do you mean you didn't see the miracle? There they ate of the miracle. Certainly they saw the miracle. No. They didn't understand the miracle. The miracle was to show them that they had the Son of God in their presence. The miracle was there to verify the words that Jesus was preaching. He came to preach. It's so clear right there in Mark. He says let us go somewhere else to towns nearby, so that I may preach there also, for that is what I came for. Look at Mark chapter 3, Mark chapter 3 verse 13. And he went up on the mountain and summoned those whom he himself wanted and they came to him. And he appointed 12 so they would be with him and that he could send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. And again, why is the authority to cast out demons so important? To verify the message that is being preached. He sent them out to preach. Now look at chapter six, verse seven. Mark chapter six, verse seven. And he summoned the twelve and he began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean spirits. And he instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey except a mere staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belt, but to wear sandals. And he added, do not put on two tunics. And he said to them, Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. Any place that does not receive you or listen to you as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them. They went out. that men should repent. He chose these men to preach, he trained them to preach, and they went out and preached. That was the ministry that God had given John MacArthur. to preach, to ensure that men were trained to preach and that they went out to preach. All he did was follow the example of Jesus Christ. We preach unto salvation. And I realize that you can come to saving faith apart from preaching, but so often when the Bible talks about people coming to saving faith, the Bible talks about it in connection with preaching. Just go with me to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Verse number 9. that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved. Confess Jesus as Lord. Confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you shall be saved. Verse 11, for the scripture says whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. Verse 13, Now, look at verse 14. Paul makes an emphasis to say that if you're going to confess Jesus Christ with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, if you're going to believe on Him, if you're going to call on the name of the Lord, there has to be a preacher so that you can hear about Jesus Christ. Again, that's not the only way people are going to come to saving faith. Certainly they can read in their Bibles and they can hear it on the radio or hear someone talk about it, but God emphasizes the importance of preaching the gospel. We go on here and we see, how will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. However, they did not all heed the good news for Isaiah says, the Lord says, Lord who has believed our report. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. But again, I would ask you in this context, we all understand that faith comes by hearing In hearing the word of Christ, we all understand that, we all believe that, but in this context you cannot separate that hearing from preaching. We need our faith to grow. And if our faith is going to grow, we need to be in the Word of God. You need to be reading the Word of God. You need to be studying the Word of God. You need to be reading about the Word of God. But you also need to be sitting under the preaching of the Word of God. In this context, when Paul says, so faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ, he's talking about the hearing that comes from preaching. We preach unto salvation and we preach unto sanctification. Look with me in Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 verse 24. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction." So that is a very interesting thought. Filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. But we are not here to talk about that right now. But that is a very interesting thought. Certainly worthy of your study. What does that mean? How am I ever going to fill up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions? What is lacking in his afflictions? Very interesting study, but that's not for today. He goes on here and he says in verse 25, of this church, I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit. John MacArthur was made a minister to the church according to the stewardship that God had granted on him for the benefit of those in his church. So that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, preach the word of God in its entirety. And again, did not John MacArthur. do all he could in his earthly life to preach the entirety of the Word of God, preached every single verse in the New Testament, and many, many, many verses in the Old Testament. I don't believe he ever got to preach every passage in the Old Testament, but he preached every passage in the New Testament, and some of them more than once, more than twice. That is the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations, but now has been made manifest to his saints. And this truth that we preach in the New Testament has always been in the mind of God. It's been a mystery in the mind of God, but now it's being revealed. And so often it is revealed through the preaching of the word of God. Verse 27, to whom God willed to make it known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, verse 28. We proclaim Him. We preach Jesus Christ. We proclaim Jesus Christ. Admonishing. We preach with admonishment. Admonishing every man. We preach teaching. Teaching every man with all wisdom. Why? Why is Paul doing this? So that we may present every man complete in Christ. He doesn't just preach the Word of God unto salvation. He preaches the Word of God unto sanctification. Why? Because this is God's form. This is His plan. This is how He's designed sanctification to take place. He's designed sanctification to take place through the accurate preaching of the Word of God. You don't just preach unto salvation, you preach unto sanctification. Now look at verse 29. For this purpose, to proclaim and admonish every man and teach every man with all wisdom, so that he might present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose I also labor, striving according to his power, which mightily works within me." He was all about the preaching of the Word of God. It was everything to the Apostle Paul. He preached the Word of God because he understood that the sanctification of those that would hear him was dependent upon him preaching the Word of God. Turn with me to Romans, chapter 15. Romans, chapter 15. Let's get Paul's understanding of the entirety of the gospel, what a full gospel really is. Romans, chapter 15, verse 14. Romans chapter 15 verse 14, And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another. You have all that going for you, but I have written very boldly to you at some points as to remind you again. I have written to remind you again. I'm going to remind you of the truth again and again. He's talking about everything he's written. He's at the end of the book of Romans now, so he's talking about all the truths in Romans that we're talking about. He's written to remind them. Why has he done it? Because of the grace that was given me from God. He does so because God has given him the grace to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest, the gospel of God. He takes the gospel beyond how he summarizes it in 1 Corinthians 15. This is the gospel that Christ died for our sins, was buried and raised again on the third day. That's a very core part of the gospel. But here, he's adding everything he has written so far in Romans to the gospel. He's been given the grace to minister the gospel, ministering as a priest, the gospel of God. Why? So that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable as sanctified by the Holy Spirit. He's preaching the entirety of the gospel, all the truths of God's word, so that again, he may present people acceptable to God. Look at Romans 16, Romans 16, verse 25. Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel, he's saying to God, to God who's able to establish you according to his gospel. What's his gospel? It's not just Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again. His gospel is the entirety of God's word. He's praying to God that God may establish you by the entirety of God's word and the preaching of Jesus Christ. That you may be established by the gospel, the entirety of God's word, and the preaching of Jesus Christ. They go hand in hand. The ministry of the preaching of the word of God is a gift that God has given the church, that the church might come to saving faith in Jesus Christ and that the church might grow in sanctification. Look with me in Acts chapter 17, Acts chapter 17 verse 30. We looked at this passage during the last resurrection season. We'll look at it again this morning. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. God is declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. How is God doing that? He's doing it through His Word, and certainly He's doing it through His Word as we read His Word, as we individually study His Word, but He's also doing it through His Word as His Word is preached. God is preaching with that thought. Just hang on to that thought. Quickly turn back to John chapter, or forward to John chapter six, verse 45. John chapter six. No, it is backwards. John chapter six, verse 45. It is written in the prophets that they shall all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. How are you taught by God? You are taught by God through the pages of scripture. And again, certainly it means your own individual reading and your own individual study, but you cannot ignore the fact that God teaches you through the preaching of the word of God. Preaching itself is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who believe it is the power of God. Go back now to Acts chapter 17. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. Why? Because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in the righteousness through a man whom he appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. God is no longer ignoring ignorance. He's declaring men everywhere they should repent because he has fixed a day when he's going to judge people according to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Do you have the righteousness of Jesus Christ? None of us do. The only way to obtain the righteousness of Jesus Christ is through faith. And God's means of demonstrating that to lost humanity is through the preaching of his word. I have two prayers that I want to close with this morning. One prayer is specifically for me. And again, it's in 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2. Most of you probably know where I'm going to turn. Verse 15. This is my personal prayer. Paul says here to Timothy, be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. That is my personal prayer. If you want to pray for your pastor, pray that God would ensure that your pastor would never be ashamed that he'd be approved workman before God. Pray that your pastor would accurately handle the word of truth. This is my prayer for all of us. Look with me in Philippians. Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1. My prayer for all of us. Philippians chapter 1 verse 9. And this I pray and I'm going to put Change the pronouns here. This I pray, that our love may still abound more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that we may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ. May our love abound more and more in real knowledge and discernment, so that we may be able to prove what is excellent, so that we might be sincere and blameless to the day of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Great God in heaven, The magnitude, the number of your blessings are beyond counting. Your word, Lord, is a rich, rich blessing. It is imperative that we receive this blessing of your word. Father, we thank you for the Holy Spirit that reveals the truths of scripture to us. We thank you, Lord, for the gift of preaching, for it is this, Father, that you have designed that we grow in salvation and sanctification. To you be all the praise and the glory forever, almighty God. It's with deep gratitude that we pray to you. Amen.