to Colossians chapter 1 as we continue in our verse-by-verse exposition of the Word of God. And the Word of God is so good for us. We need the entire counsel of God, so that's why we preach verse-by-verse. When you write a letter to someone that you love, you don't want one sentence taken out of that letter and the rest of the letter forgotten. And so God intends for letters to be proclaimed in their entirety. And that's our philosophy of preaching here at Grace Life Church. Maybe you're new to expository preaching, that we give the text in its context as it's connected with the former and the proceeding verses, and draw out from it the meaning of the text that we might have the application in our lives. And God wants us to put the Word of God to work in our lives. We're to be doers of the Word of God, James 1.22, and not just hearers. Today we're going to be looking at the last two verses of Colossians chapter 1. I'll be preaching out of the Legacy Standard Bible this morning, for those of you that are wondering. Starting at verse 28, Him we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose, I also labor, striving according to his working, which he works in me in power." This is the inerrant, inspired, authoritative, infallible, sufficient Word of our God. Let's go to God in prayer. Lord, we're thankful for every Word of God. You have breathed them out. These are not just the words of man. These are not just the ideas of man. That this is the infallible, authoritative Word of Yahweh, our God. We ask that you would, by the Holy Spirit, take these truths and pin them to our hearts. Give us illumination. and give us desire to walk out truth in our lives practically. And may the Lord Jesus Christ receive the glory that is due his great name in his church. And we ask it in Christ. And the church says, amen. Let me just ask a question. I do this from time to time as I begin a sermon just to get our thanking wheels in motion. Sometimes our wheels of thanking get rusted. We need to pry them loose a little bit, don't we? Have you ever asked this question of yourself, what is the point of preaching? You may be thinking, that is a good question. Why am I sitting here? And it is a valid question. And here's why. We spend, if you're faithful, you spend 105 hours a year or more listening to preaching. That over the course of 20 years, that amounts to 2,100 hours of sitting and listening to the Bible being expounded. That's quite an investment, isn't it? And if you go behind the scenes, an expositor, the man that does the work of a preacher spends approximately eight to 10 hours, and I'm speaking conservatively, on every exposition. That means that there are 1,050 hours of study in preparation to preach every year, and that's minimally. That's not to mention the preparation for special services, and other churches, or conferences, or funerals, or weddings. And when you think about that, just in one year, 1,050 hours in study and in preparation, and that's a conservative number, that's a massive investment of time and labor, is preaching that important. And it's interesting to me that so many churches have answered that question by the way that they practice cutting back on preaching. The church that at one time in history gave itself to an hour of expository preaching every week has cut it to 30 minutes or less. I remember one time I had a dear pastor friend rode with me in the night shift as a chaplain in our law enforcement agency, and he asked me how my sermons were going. I said, well, I'm just preaching. He says, how long does this church give you? I said, an hour. He looked at me and he says, are you kidding me? They give me 15 minutes. I'm like, well, my introduction is longer than that, brother. So the churches that at one time were fed upon a healthy diet of biblical exposition have almost become extinct, or maybe they've become topical that's heavily dependent upon hype or entertainment in the church. It's become common in church life for pulpits to be removed only to be replaced with entertainment or some relevant idea or some new church growth method. And some people just simply want that cheap substitute of an emotional elevation or to have our emotions stimulated or tickled a little bit. And so I'm just saying the practice of so much of evangelicalism preaches the unimportance of preaching. That the way that we practice it shows how irrelevant that it is, sadly. So we come to the question this morning personally in the life of Grace Life Church and in your life individually, is preaching important? And if it is important, what kind of preaching is important? Well, the Apostle Paul writing to the Church of Corinth answers the question in 1 Corinthians 1, verses 20 and 21. Listen to the word of God. For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. We preach Christ crucified, Paul says. to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. He says that in the wisdom of God, we preach Christ. That God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save Jews and Gentiles that were headed to hell. That God uses preaching In another place, Paul would write in Romans 16, 25, he says, now to him who was able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept secret for long ages past, through the preaching of Jesus Christ. throughout the history of the church, beginning at Pentecost, where Peter stood, he preached Christ crucified. About 3,000 souls were converted underneath that faithful expository sermon given by the Apostle Peter. Mind you, God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save sinners and to sanctify saints like you and I. And the kind of preaching that God has ordained is text-driven and Christ-centered preaching. Now I want you to write this down if you have notes. If you don't have a pen and a paper, write it down in your memory and rehearse this. The most important endeavor on earth is the faithful preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Did you hear me? That the most important endeavor on the face of the earth is the faithful preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? The gospel being preached is more important than our economics. The gospel being preached is more important than our politics. The gospel being preached is more important than our sciences. The gospel being preached is more important than astronomy. The gospel being preached is more important than philosophy. And church, listen to me this morning. The anemic condition of the modern church is due to gospel starvation. We are starved of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us, Jesus Christ tells us that he builds his church by way of divine revelation being proclaimed. He told the apostle Peter, upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Upon what rock? He says, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, which is in heaven. The revelation that Christ is the Messiah of God and the heralding of that truth. I will build my church upon that truth and the gates of hell will not prevail. So for a church to be nursed to biblical health, that church must have a steady diet of divine revelation proclaimed week in and week out, week in and week out. For a church to return to health, we've got to return to the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, my friend, we need more preaching, not less. We need more faithful Christ-exalted exposition and less tickle-ear talks. We need more doctrinal preaching, theological preaching, and less cultural commentary. We need a return to the Bible and to preach what the Bible says, line upon line, precept upon precept, a little bit here and a little bit there. Listen to me, brothers. Your children will never be converted unless the gospel is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Grace Life Church of Prior will never be Spirit-filled without the fullness of Spirit-inspired truth being proclaimed faithfully and the power of the Holy Spirit. We need the Bible to be preached faithfully in season and out of season. So what we have in our text in Colossians 1 verse 28 and 29 is a pattern for apostolic preaching. It's God's will for the kind of preaching that he will bless in his church. Paul's just mentioned in the previous verses how he will suffer for carrying out the preaching of the Word of God, that he saw the gospel as a stewardship, an entrustment of divine mysteries that had been hidden previously in time gone by, but has now been manifested or given to us. And that mystery is realized in verse 27b, that it is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you. So we see foremost here, and my first point is the object of preaching in verse 28, because all biblical preaching has an object. It has a central and a preeminent message. Biblical preaching doesn't concern itself with the opinions of the preacher. You didn't come here to hear what I think. You wanted to come this morning to hear what saith the Lord. What does God say? The opinions of man are so fallible and unimportant, but the wisdom of God is eternal and saving. Listen, the Bible and the preaching of the Word of God does not concern itself with our culture, nor politics, nor the wisdom of man. The true preaching keeps the main thing the main thing, and Jesus is the main thing. In John 5, 39, you're very familiar with the verse, Jesus was discoursing with the Pharisees who were troubling him, and he told them in a way that was a rebuke, that you search the scriptures because in them you think that you have eternal life, but the scriptures testify of me. What is the point of the Bible? What is the point of Genesis and Exodus and Numbers and Leviticus as we go through the Old Testament narratives? The point of the Bible is Christ crucified for sinners. That's the central theme. First of all, I want you to know that biblical preaching has its person. Look at verse 28a. Him we proclaim. Do you see it in your Bible? It's a good place to circle it or highlight it. Him we proclaim. This is the mission statement of the church. We preach Christ, as Paul would say to Corinth. If you'll look back at verse 27, it clarifies who the hymn is of verse 28. It says, Christ in you, the hope of glory, that every sermon ought to be central to Jesus Christ, that he is the object of our sermons. This is a very critical reality. Charles Haddon Spurgeon used to say in his preaching ministry, whenever I go to the Bible, I take my text and I make a beeline to the cross and start preaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. That is true biblical preaching. That biblical preaching heralds Christ. Biblical preaching extols the finished work of Christ. Interestingly, the word proclaim here, as we're looking at it in our text, hymn we proclaim, it comes from the Greek term kanangelo. Catangelo, it means to publicly declare a completed truth or a completed happening. In the New Testament, this term is used to refer to the proclamation of the good news about Jesus Christ and his finished work, what he's done on account of sinners, who he is in his persons. The Apostle Paul, who wrote this letter to Colossae, was a Christ-centered preacher. He was writing to Corinth in 1 Corinthians 2 too when he says, for I have determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So Jesus was central to the message of the apostles, that wherever they went, they preached Christ. In 1 John, we see the beloved disciple of Jesus Christ writing what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have beheld, what we have touched with our hands concerning the word of life and the life was manifested. Listen to this, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you or preach to you the eternal life which was with the Father and manifested to us, what we have seen and heard, we proclaim, we preach to you also. What was from the beginning, Christ, what we have seen, Christ, what we have witnessed, Christ, we proclaim to you. Grace Life, listen to Pastor Derek. We need the Bible preached more, not less. We need the centrality of the message of Christ. We need more Jesus. The power is in Christ. He is the name that is above all names, that all salvation is through the name of Jesus Christ. Acts 4.12 says, and there is salvation in no other name. but the name of Jesus Christ. So we need the person of Christ. We need the work of Christ preached. That's what took place in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. Peter stood and he preached the cross. He preached Christ. It was the early church that was seeing great wonders and the God of the ages was shaking the place where they gathered together. Why? Because they preached Christ. We see that in Acts 4.20. Fast forward to the Reformation, what was the engine that ran the Reformation? It was a return to the preaching of Jesus Christ. What was it that overturned the heresy of the Roman Catholic Church? It was a return to Christ-centered preaching, that they began to speak about Christ more and the Pope less. They began to proclaim the truth of the gospel more and the the church and its power less, and they began to see that Christ was a central figure of the scriptures, and that nowhere in the Bible was the pope even mentioned, and they began to speak against the pope, and they began to proclaim Christ and his excellencies, and God breathed upon it, and there was a reformation, and it crumbled the Roman Catholic Church, and we see the Protestant Reformation with the engines of the power of God roaring. And we see men of God like John Knox thundering in Scotland, and John Calvin in Switzerland, and Martin Luther in Germany. These men of God standing and preaching Christ, and God was blessing the message preached. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Christ-centered preaching, brothers and sisters, is the power of God. unto salvation for those who believe. In the beginning of his letter to the believers in Rome, the Apostle Paul made that very statement, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe. For it, the gospel, the definite article, the one and only gospel, is the dunamis, the glorious, explosive, mighty, unstoppable power of God for salvation for those who believe. So biblical preaching has its person, but secondly, its purpose. Look what it says, admonishing every man. I'm in verse 28, look at it in your Bible. Admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom. Well, there's a lot in that statement, isn't there? Let's just take a moment to unpack it, that the purpose of all true preaching is both admonition and instruction in the wisdom of God. So true preaching illumines the mind with divine truth, but it also stirs up the affections, and then it calls for a verdict. That's what true preaching does. The word admonishing comes from the very familiar Greek word to those that understand New Thetic counseling, because the word New Thetic comes from New Thetaeo. It's a powerful term. It's a term that has the idea of providing correction that will in turn correct the behavior of a sinner. It means to advise someone of their wrongdoing, nuthatel. It means to reprimand. So biblical preaching is not all positive and encouraging. True biblical preaching is not your best life now. True biblical preaching confronts our sinfulness. Sinfulness that robs God of his new glory. Paul would describe this in his ministry there to Ephesus in Acts chapter 20, verse 31. He says, therefore, be watchful, remembering that night and day for a period of three years, I did not cease to, nutateo, admonish you, each one with tears. Paul's pleading tearfully, correcting their behavior, calling them to repentance. But note this, true preaching is driven with a divine purpose. And that divine purpose is to warn us of the dangers and the consequences of sin, because this is part and partial of true biblical exposition. And it's also a warning for the modern church, because I believe by and large that we've abandoned true preaching, that we've embraced a more positive, upbeat social communication. But what we've done in the wake of this is abandoned the biblical mandate for true preaching, and that the life of holiness in the life of the church has become compromised because of it. Admonishing every man, it says in the text. Paul would write to the Christians in Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 5.14, we urge you, brethren, and admonish you. Here's the same Greek word, nutheteo. We admonish the unruly. and encourage the faint-hearted and help the weak, and that we are to be patient with everyone. Grace to life. Hear Pastor Derek, that true biblical preaching, according to the Word of God, is to be confrontational. It confronts our sin. It makes us realize the dangers of sin. It pleads for repentance for sin and restoration. Listen, if preaching loses this vital element of admonition or correction, you can't even call it biblical preaching anymore. Listen, Christians are prone to error. We just sang this morning of this. We're prone to wander away from the truth and to succumb to lies. Paul's writing this to a church that was under jeopardy of false teaching. And our hearts are prone to wander away from God. We sing that hymn so often, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Why are we prone? Because there's still sin indwelling us. And sometimes the voice of that indwelling sin is very loud and very persuasive. and we need to be admonished, we need to be confronted, we need to be corrected by the Word of God. So the Bible calls for that kind of preaching in the church, the kind of preaching that admonishes, the preaching that confronts sin, the preaching that convicts of sin and corrects our behavior. The second term is a more positive one. Look at it again in our text. Again, we're in verse 28. It says, him we proclaim, admonishing every man. Now let's stop on this word teaching. Teaching every man, didasko, it literally means to provide instruction. We get our word didactic from this word, which is a course of instruction. And by the way, this is part of the Great Commission, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, even until the end of the age, teaching them. This is the impartation of divine revelation. It's the explanation and the application of Scripture to the lives of Christian people. It's the rightful dividing of the Word of Truth, 2 Timothy 2, 15, a workman needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth, rightly dividing the Word, and then proclaiming the instruction, the teaching of the Word of God in the context of the church. And know this, my friend, that this admonition and this teaching go hand in hand, and without the one or the other, you do not have biblical preaching. Preaching instructs the mind, exhortation challenges the will, and the will needs that instruction so that it might be acted upon, that the truth might be acted upon, so we see that both are absolutely critical to biblical preaching or biblical exposition. We need the facts. about Jesus. And you ought to be like on Dragnet, give me just the facts, just the facts. And that ought to be your heart's cry. That's what you ought to demand of a preacher standing in the pulpit of Grace Life Church, give us the facts, give us the Word of God, give us the facts, teach us Christ. because they do go hand in hand. Instruction does what? It informs the mind. What does exhortation do? It challenges the will. And that we need both of these, that you and I as Christian people might act on the truth of God. And both of these central truths are critical to the exposition of the Bible. We need the facts about who Jesus is, what Jesus has done. And then we need to be challenged and exhorted to lay hold of them by faith. And to let go of the sin that besets you, Let go of the sin that hinders you, and to lay hold of Christ. I want you to note something here, it's pretty interesting. He uses the Greek word pos, four times in this verse. Admonishing pos, every man. Teaching pos, every man. with all pos, wisdom, so that we may present pos, every man complete in Christ. There's the fourfold use of that every, every, every, every. What's the deal? It just stands out like a sore thumb, doesn't it? If you're in the Greek text, it really stands out like a sore thumb because that word pos is everywhere on every line, almost two or three times in the sentence. In detective work, we called that a clue. You need to pay attention. Here's what's happening. The false teachers in Paul's time and in the life of Colossae was pushing a theology of elitism. That this higher gnosis, this higher knowledge is only for the few. Only the elite of the elite can really grasp it. The rest of you are just a bunch of nobodies. The truth of this higher life was only for this upper echelon. The rest of you are just common. But here the Apostle Paul confronts this lie by throwing down the universal appeal of the gospel and the scope of the gospel and he says it's as broad as the east is from the west. The gospel is to be preached to every living creature. The gospel is to be heralded to all men. We proclaim Christ and we proclaim Christ to every man. It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor. It doesn't matter if you study Greek or study Hebrew. It doesn't matter if you can't even speak English yet. We proclaim Christ to every man in all wisdom, that all men would hear the gospel of Christ. This is not an elite social club that the gospel is for the common man, that the gospel is for the poor, the beggarly, the halt, and the maimed, and the lowly. Not for you heretics that are heralding salvation is only for the elite that could climb up high enough to get it for yourself. Then the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ condescends to the most beggaredly, the most poor, the most offensive of rotten sinners, just like the one you're looking at. The third feature, the biblical preaching also has its presentation that we admonish every man and teach every man with what? With every wisdom, is literally what it says, with all wisdom, with every wisdom. that the admonition and instruction of the Lord is to be used wisely. That means that a preacher must use discernment, discretion, that there must be a mingling of wisdom with the truth of God. Wisdom is something that's beyond knowledge. Knowledge applies to facts. Wisdom applies to the rightful use of those facts. And to use those facts and truths in the most profitable way. And again, knowledge is the possession of those facts, but wisdom is the proper rightful use of them. This really has powerful implications on how admonition and teaching are to be brought to bear on a specific congregation in its unique setting. You think in terms of the Apostle Paul and his ministry at Mars Hill in Acts 17 that he went there to preach to these high lofty philosophers and he wisely identified the deficit with great discernment in the way that he proclaimed Christ with the wisdom of God. And then Paul uses classic logic and classic rhetoric with the gospel to a well-suited situation that these Greek philosophers might hear the gospel in a way that would ring to their ears. The wisdom of the proverb writer in Proverbs 25, 11 says, and you listen to this, like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances. That we're to use wisdom in the exhortation and in the teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Verse 28b, my second main point this morning, we're moving right on along, is that we want to make a note of the objective of preaching, not the object, but the objective of preaching. Take a look at it with me. At the end of the verse, it says, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. We ask, Pastor Derek, what is the aim of biblical exposition? It's more than just simple knowledge. My aim in preaching this morning is not just to get more information into your head. A biblical view of preaching is that it's not just information, that it's transformation. Remember Leonard Ravenhill once preached into a crowd, I was listening to it 20, 25 years ago, and he asked this statement, it came to mind in my study, he says, I'm not asking you if you're challenged, I'm asking you are you changed? I want you to know the primary goal of preaching that we might present every man complete in Christ. So the goal of preaching is the maturity of the saints. He wants you to grow up. When he returns, he wants you to be arrayed in white linen. We're to be transformed by the preaching of the Word of God that we might be more and more like our Savior. The Bible tells us that the purpose of a pastor teacher is that we might become like mature men. It says that in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 to 13. God gave apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attend the unity of the faith and the full knowledge of the Son of God. Listen to this, to a mature man. Now, I know there's a time for those young in Christ to be on a pacifier. But through the preaching of the Word of God and the work of the Spirit through the Word, that pacifier gets cut in half like some of you mamas have done to your childrens. I remember when it comes to my grandkids, they really, they like their binky. And then their mean mama would get the scissors out in due time and whack that dude in half. And they look at that binky, and like that binky had gone forever. There ain't no more. It's time for that little baby to grow on up, all right? It's the time for believers to get off the milk and to go on to some meat, right? That we need to mature, and the point of preaching is to mature us. The point of preaching is to conform us. The point of preaching is to challenge us. The point of preaching is to change us, to put off the old man, to put on the new man, and to confront practicing sin, that we might put it away by thorough biblical repentance and to put on Christ. Listen, this is critical. God wants you to grow and to mature. It's not right that men that have been in the faith 50 years can get in squabbles one with another, like a two-year-old brat. Thank God for the mercies of Jesus Christ and his patience towards us. But we ought to be maturing. We ought to be getting beyond some of the elementary teachings. We ought to be getting on to meat. We ought to be maturing. So many Christian people are so stunted spiritually in churches because they're not sitting underneath faithful preaching. Not sitting underneath faithful preaching. They make time for everything that they think's important in life, but they don't prioritize the preaching of the Bible. Listen, this is another one of those moments you ought to take note and write this down, that we grow and mature proportionate to our intake of the preached Word of God. Paul was praising Epaphras in, well, just turn the page a couple pages, chapter four. You got your Bible open right there, so just thumb over to chapter four, verse 12. Epaphras, who is one of your number, that's the pastor of the church of Colossae. He's a slave of Christ Jesus. He sends you his greetings, always striving for you in his prayers that you may stand complete and fully assured in all the will of God. The word complete, teleos, in the Greek means to be mature. It can mean to be perfect. But I think the best sense is this, listen to me. To be fully developed. Fully developed. To present every man fully developed in Christ. That's the aim, that's the objective of true preaching. that the church might be fully developed in Christ, that He doesn't come back for a miniature church, that He doesn't come back for an adolescent church, that He comes back for a bride that's mature, a bride that's been sculpted, a bride that's been cleansed, a bride that's been confronted by the Word of God, that's been challenged, that's been changed from one glory to the next, line upon line, word upon word, here a little bit, there a little bit, by the faithful two-edged sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. That's the primary objective in preaching, that Christ would have a bride that's arrayed in white linen, that's pure. Paul wrote to Corinth, he says, I'm jealous for you of the godly jealousy. I betrothed you to one husband so that I might present you as a chaste virgin unto Christ Jesus. Paul says, I'm laboring that I might present you to Christ as a pure virgin, chaste, godly. Take a moment and look at me. This is not a secondary issue. This is critical. This is the main point of the main point, that we preach Christ crucified faithfully, admonishing and instructing in all wisdom that we might present you fully developed, to Jesus Christ. Listen, a Christ-centered expositor is the chisel in the hand of Yahweh that forms and fashions us to the likeness of Christ. He died to purchase a people for God out of tribes and tongues and nations. He shed his blood to purchase the church. But a Christ-centered expositor is the chisel in the hand of Yahweh, as he has you and I upon the spindle, the potter and the potting wheel, and you are the clay, to chisel and fashion the likeness of Christ in you, which is the hope of glory. John 17, 17 says, the Word of God is a sanctifying grace. Sanctify them by thy truth, thy Word is truth. Ephesians 5, 26 says that the Scripture preached is clean water that cleanses you. Jeremiah 23, 29 says that God's Word preaches like a hammer that dashes your sin and pride to pieces. And Jeremiah 18 says that the Scripture's preach is the very thumb of God that fashes the clay, which is you and I, into a useful vessel for the glory of God. Are you faithfully underneath the preaching of the Word of God? Are you underneath the primary means of God for your maturing in Christ? And again, I want to just reiterate in context, the Colossian heresy was largely that this kind of perfection was only for a few elites that had higher knowledge or gnosis. But Paul here is telling us that he labors to present every man complete in Christ. That's my passion. That's Pastor Jason's passion. That's Pastor Tommy's passion. That's the passion of our deacon body. That's the passion of the members of Grace Life Church. That is my mandate to preach Christ crucified. And by the way, that's the ultimate end of my labors. And whenever I die and you put me in the grave and don't make a big to-do upon me, but I would like it on my headstone, he preached Christ. And let that be my memory. Careless if anybody remembers that I was a police officer. It meant nothing. Then may I be known as a Christ-centered expositor, that I loved Christ and made him known. I want you to note, lastly, in verse 29, the obsession of preaching. Look at it with me. For this purpose, I also labor, striving according to his working, which he works in me in power. Paul here is ending the chapter, chapter one, with his obsession for preaching. This vast and gut-wrenching commitment to Christ-centered exposition was unwavering in this man of God that he knew that the gospel was indeed the power of God unto salvation for those who believe. And he knew that his entrustment that he had been given was rich and something to be treasured. Look at verse 25 with me in the previous scriptures, to fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God. So I want you to note two facts and then we'll be done. First of all, biblical preaching is evidenced by its intensity. I'm not here to give you a pep talk, I'm here to roar for the lion of the tribe of Judah. For this purpose, verse 29 in the first part of it, for this, this only purpose I labor. I want you to note that Paul's all in. This is a man that sold out lock, stock, and barrel. I am crucified with Christ, yet nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me in the life that I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and has given himself for me. This is a man that has put all of his chips in one basket, and Christ is the basket. He has a stewardship that he's been entrusted, and he's so consumed Look at your text here in the first part. Note that word labor. It's very bland in the English. It's very vigorous in the Greek. Oftentimes, whenever we think about labor, we think of going to a job, and we think about casually getting through the day with a mocha on the side. But that's not the sense of this word. This word, kopeo, in the Greek language, literally means to work yourself to the point of exhaustion. It means to be tired, to become weary because of hard or difficult endeavors. It means a weariness as though one had been beaten. because of the exertion which causes this state. It's a fatigue that includes suffering for this purpose. What purpose is he talking about? He's talking about the purpose he mentions, we proclaim Christ admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom that we may present every man complete in Christ for this purpose I labor. That's what it's all about. And he says, I wear myself out with it to the point I feel like I've been beaten. This is illustrated in the life of Epaphroditus. It says in Philippians 2.30 that he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to fulfill what was lacking in your service to me, Paul says. Paul was mentioning his labors to the church of Corinth. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak like I'm insane. I, far more, in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, in far more beatings without number, in frequent dangers of death, I have been in labor and in hardship, in many sleepless nights, in starvation and thirst and hungry and cold and without enough clothing. Paul says, I've worked my fingers to the bone. This is a laborious effort that I'm striving, that I'm laboring, that I'm preaching and making Christ known that they might be conformed to Christ, and it's for this purpose I toil, I labor, I exert myself. Some of you have probably heard of the great Scottish preacher Eric Alexander, a great expositor, I highly commend him to you, that whenever he was a young preacher, he was in a service where he was in some sort of leadership, but the preacher that night would be Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. Lloyd-Jones ascends to the pulpit and preaches and roars and thunders Christ, preaches the gospel. He comes down out of the pulpit, Young Eric Alexander goes to Lloyd-Jones and says, well, how do you feel? You know, he's thinking about, did you feel like you really made an impact? Man, did you really lay him low? And he looked at the young preacher and he said, I'm tired. Eric Alexander, being a young, ignorant preacher, says, yeah, but you know, you got up and you preached the word of God. How do you feel? He says, young man, sit down. He says, when a man is in the pulpit preaching, it's the closest thing a man will ever know to a woman giving birth to a child. And as Eric Alexander himself took upon the mantle of an expositor, he amened Dr. Jones' point. Grace life, preaching biblically, is labor-intensive. Intercessory prayer is labor-intensive. Exegesis is intensive. That's the study of the Word of God, drawing from the text, its meaning, reading it in its original languages, looking at the verbs, looking at the original languages and the moods, the tenses, the actions, it's intensive. Sermon preparation is intensive. Shepherding is very labor-intensive. There's nothing easy about the life of an expositor. My dear friends, John O'Simm's, many of you know, likens it to preparing two master-level theses every week. But it's even more than that because it's soul-demanding. It zaps the strength of a human being in a way nothing else can. My wife will not ask me any theological questions this afternoon, my brains will be mushed, my body will be exhausted, I'll be spiritually zapped and I'll go home many, many times feeling like a dog that's been beat with its tail between its legs, exhausted, wore out spiritually, physically, mentally, just wrecked. You say, pastor, I don't understand. I know you don't understand, but it's true. Every faithful expositor will say the same thing. And that's what Paul is saying for this purpose, I also labor. And then Paul goes on and says, apart from such things, there is the daily pressure of me and the concern of all the churches. Shepherds give watch over your soul, it's weighty. Your lost children bear upon a true man of God. A church member that's despondent, that's not even caring, that's sleeping to the preaching of the cross like it's inconsequential. It weights down our souls. It hurts to preach to little boys and girls who sit and laugh and coarsely joke and mock the things of God. It rips your heart out. You go home and you weep. And you wonder why the pastor's not bouncy and springy. He's burdened, he's weighted down with eternal realities, coming to bear and smashing and dashing against his soul. There's so much labor. The ministry is no place for a sluggard, a lazy man. The care of the people of Jesus that he purchased with his own blood is so critically important and that the spiritual health of the church is a burden upon the shoulders of any godly exposit or any godly shepherd. And above all else, we just simply want to be faithful because we've been given stewards of the ministry of the gospel. Biblical preaching is evidenced by its intensity. We're wrestling with God for eternal things, that there's life and death and the balance, there's heaven and hell. This is not imaginary, it is not philosophy, it is the revelation of God. There is a heaven and there is a hell, and this is all coming to mix in the biblical exposition that we persuade men. Knowing the terrors of God, we persuade men. And it wrecks our souls in the most glorious way for the honor and glory and majesty of the one that we love and serve. Not only is there intensity, there's dependency. Look at the last part of verse 29, striving according to the working of the preacher. Please somebody say no. striving according to his working, which he works in me in power. So paradoxical, isn't it? The irony of the pastoral ministry. And here it is, that our labor is absolutely futile as God the Holy Spirit breathes on it. All of my study, all of my parsing Greek verbs, All of my headbanging in the office, and I'm not talking about rock and roll, I'm talking about when I hit my head on the desk because things aren't coming to me. I don't have enough spine left to headbang the other way. We are helpless to produce any spiritual life in men. We are helpless to contribute towards the sanctification of any Christian, we are absolutely, forevermore, and utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit of God to work in the soul of men as we proclaim Christ. Now listen to me. Paul's language is specific. Note the wording, I am striving according to his working. This is another one of those great Christian paradoxes. Paul doesn't know whether it's him or Christ in him. He says, I'm striving according to his working. Who's working? Paul, Paul says, I'm striving, but I'm striving according to his working. Powerful word there, agonizomai. Let me say that again, agonizomai. We get our word agony from that word. It means to engage in an intense struggle involving physical or non-physical force against strong opposition. One of the uses here is in the idea of the training of an athlete and the resistance that he or she faces to prepare for competition, and they agonize in that preparation. That's the idea. So Paul's labor, agonizing labor, was in accords with the working of God. Paul says, I'm crucified with Christ, but nevertheless, I live. Yet, not I, but Christ lives in me. In the life, I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loves me and gave himself up for me. Is it me or is it God? He says, yes. Paul says, likewise, in the same sort of struggle here, is it me? Yes, I am actually agonizing, but it's according to that which he works in me. One source said, the struggle is carried on in proportion, not to his natural powers, but to the mighty working of the energy of Christ in him. Paul would write to Corinth in 1 Corinthians 15, 10, and would say, but by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. I outlabored them, I outlabored them, yet not I but the grace of God that is within me." He is literally saying that there is a rigorous work ethic necessary, but it's insufficient that we need the life of God in the soul of man, right? We remember Ezekiel 37 in the Valley of Dry Bones. Can these bones live, O son of man? Prophesy to them, preach to them. Ezekiel preaches, but there is no life. But then God breathes the Ruach of God, the life of God goes in and raises up an exceedingly great army. So he preaches, but it demands the life of God. Jesus said, I am the vine, you're the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. John 6, 63, the spirit is the one who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. So the pattern for apostolic or biblical preaching has both elements of intensity and dependency. It's not one or the other, it's a both and. Both working together for the glory of God, so we understand as Christian people, spirit-empowered exposition is what God uses to present every man complete in Christ. It's said of Spurgeon that whenever he would go to the pulpit there in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he preached to 6,000 people his whole life. There was a little staircase that went around and around and around and around, where he got up to the pulpit. It was way up high. Had a preaching rail, and he had his Bible there. He would preach without use of microphones. This is in the 1800s, no electricity. With every step, he would climb up to that pulpit. He would say, I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. This is the Prince of Preachers. This is one of the most profound Christ-centered expositors that's ever lived, I believe, this side of the Apostle Paul. I'm talking about human beings. The Lord Jesus Christ was the best preacher. But here the great prince of preachers climbing, saying, I'm nothing. I need the Holy Spirit of God. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. He did this every time he preached the gospel. I pray that these truths are our testimony. This is the kind of biblical preaching that's demanded of me. This is the kind of biblical preaching that God will require of you that you sit underneath. Proverbs 23, 23 says, buy the truth and sell it not. Get wisdom and discipline and understanding. So biblical, theological, historical, exegetical, redemptive preaching is the means of grace that God has commanded for your growth and maturity. And so the question is, what price are you willing to pay for that kind of truth? Get up in the morning and come to church, come on a Wednesday night, On a Sunday morning, the sanctuary's full. On Wednesday night, you can cut it in half. My question is to those of you that aren't here on Wednesday, why are you not here? Does the word of God and the preaching of the word not matter? Does Christ not deserve you to be arrayed in white linen when he comes back? This is a serious, serious matter. I said it before in this message, it's not secondary. Christ deserves your all, and every time the sword is unsheathed, it's for your conforming to Jesus. So are you willing to prioritize your life? Are you willing to prioritize Scripture and preaching, and in that, yield yourself to Christ as your Lord? I appreciate your commitment so much that you have the love of the truth, but listen, Never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never sell the truth. Never sell the gospel. Buy it and treasure it. Amen. This is the pattern for true apostolic or biblical preaching given to us in these verses. May the Lord work His work in us, amen. Well, Lord, we're so thankful that we have opportunity to hear the Word of God proclaimed. May the Holy Spirit take these arrows from the Lord and direct them into our hearts. Lord, bother our consciences, sharpen them, make them sensitive again. And may Christ be honored and glorified, and may the church become conformed to the image of God through the preaching of the word of God. May Christ receive glory in his church. Lord, thank you for this time we've had this morning together, and Lord, may the word of God preached produce fruit for the name of Christ. Lord, by the grace of God, may we present every person at Grace Life Church mature, fully equipped in Christ Jesus. May that be my aim and Pastor Jason and Pastor Tommy's aim, and our hearts cry in burden, and may that be reflected in this congregation. Lord, we need the Holy Spirit. Lord, I desire to be thorough in my study and in my expositions, but Lord, I know that I can't give life. The flesh profits me nothing that the spirit must give life. So we ask, Holy Spirit, come and form Christ in us. May we be fitted for Christ. May we be ready when he returns. May we be arrayed in white linen. May the bride have prepared herself when he comes. And even so come quickly, Lord. Amen.