"the Priority Of Preaching" Series

Fellow under-shepherd, I've been there. I know the frustration you feel when it seems that you preached your heart out this past Sunday. You fed your flock the food of the Word and gave the message God placed upon you. I know what it means to study for long hours, to pray, to compose the right words, to allow the Holy Spirit to give you the right words to say once you are behind the pulpit, and to use you as a chosen vessel of service to care for the people whom God has graciously given you, whether it is in a church, mission, prison, hospital, battlefield, or other places where angels fear to tread. You've looked at the crowd to whom you are preaching. You notice that most of them are either looking at their phones, or their watch, or the bulletin. Some are staring into space or take the opportunity to catch a few winks before heading off to the nearest restaurant for lunch. You have given these people time, tears, preparation, and the Scriptures, yet it seems for a moment that it has all been for naught. You feel within you a mix of sadness, anger, and justifiable frustration. You are tempted for a moment to walk away from it all and do something else for a living, which a lot of your peers have done at a rapid rate in these last days. Know that God is with you. He is still on the throne, victorious over sin, hell, death, and the grave, always ready and able to equip and strengthen you to fight the good fight of faith as have those before you and among you today.

If you have been faithful to Jesus Christ along with preaching and teaching the inerrancy and sufficiency of the Bible, rest assured that what you have done will not return without some kind of result. You have continually held out your hand to pull the drowning people into the lifeboat of salvation by the power of God. Many have taken it in gratitude and thanksgiving. Some still chose to stubbornly flounder in the waves, seeing if they can stay buoyant or hold their breath long enough until things get better, only to go under into an eternity of terror where rescue of any kind is wishful thinking. Our Lord Jesus preached the Word to thousands in Judea and the surrounding areas, yet at the Day of Pentecost, He had only 120 faithful followers. This was certainly not failure on His part but was an object lesson in showing His elect that not everyone will accept the message of the Gospel, but once they have heard it, they are without excuse before God on the Day of Judgment.

If you have been faithful and stalwart in declaring the truth of the Gospel, the results are not yours to count. You have to leave that in the hands of the Holy Spirit to wake the sleepers, open the ears of the indifferent, and warm the heart of the skeptic. He opens their eyes and softens their hearts. He shows to the anxious sinner that the Scriptures are the only source of reality and truth in this wicked world, and that true peace is found only through Jesus Christ (John 14;6; Acts 4:12, 16:31; Romans 5:6-11, 10:9-10). We do not have only apathetic and hostile sinners with which to contend, but also their father, the devil (Matt.13:38; John 8: 38, 44; Acts 13:10; 1 John 3:10). Satan knows he has but a short amount of time to fulfill his wicked, yet futile goals. He will do and say anything he can to silence the message and messenger in order to drag as many souls as he can with him to the Lake of Fire (Matt.25:41; Rev. 20:10-15). He is a defeated foe, but still fights like a fanatic with nothing to lose. Our job is to get his victims to the safety of the cross and the healing arms of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus called on everyone who would listen to Him to "repent and believe in the Gospel" (Mark 1:14-15). By repentance, I do not mean some half-hearted mumbling of "I'm sorry" to Almighty God, hoping that He will look the other way the next time we sin. Repentance according to God's standards means that He makes us look in His mirror at our reflection, darkened with our wickedness and wretchedness. It is something we do not want to face but must in order to see that we can do absolutely NOTHING to remedy the problem in our own strength or method (Ephesians 2:8-10). Preacher, now is the time to gird up your loins, sharpen your sword, fasten your armor, and hit your people with the power of the Word and Spirit three ways: hard, fast, and continually. Their souls are at stake, and as these days draw to a conclusion, the time to come to the cross is NOW (2 Cor.6;2).