What is a Reformed Baptist..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. This evening, we are going to continue with our Bible studies. Of course, we are going to be addressing the second topic within the third category that we have defined as the distinctives of a reformed church.

Remember that we are trying to answer the question of what a reformed Baptist church is. And in order to do so, we have defined three different categories that we're trying to address one by one. And at this point, we find ourselves in category number three, which is what a reformed church is. And something that I forgot to mention last week is that these distintives of a Reformed church is not something that we have just decided that we want to put on the table and to present to you, but rather, these are historical distintives of a Reformed church. And when I say that these are historical distintives, I mean that all Reformed churches throughout history or after the Reformation have hold to these principles or to these doctrines that we are teaching.

So this is not something that we have come up with, something that we just decided just to put on the table, but rather it's something that belongs to the Reformed tradition from history. And we said last week that we are trying to build upon the concepts that we have said already. So we've addressed what an evangelical church is, what a Calvinistic church is, And now we find ourselves addressing the nature of a reformed church. And last week we started with the first one of the doctrines within those incentives of a reformed church. And that was the regulative principle of worship.

This evening, tonight, we are going to be addressing a second category or a second doctrine that somehow is derived from the regulative principle of worship. And that is the topic of preaching. Beloved, we do not understand the importance of preaching. Preaching was a very relevant and crucial and vital component, not only of the Reformation, but also of the Church growing and taking this reformed shape that we spoke about last week. And the passage that I want us to address this evening, or at least to start with, is found in 2 Timothy.

So if you have your Bibles, go to 2 Timothy chapter 4, And I want us to read carefully this passage here that the Apostle Paul writes to his disciple Timothy, 2nd Timothy, chapter 4. And I'll be reading from verse 1 to verse 4. I want you to pay attention what the Apostle is doing here. What he is going to say to Timothy Who is he bringing as witness for this charge that he's given to Timothy, and then the whole structure of the sentences or the message that he's communicated to his disciples? Let's see it step by step.

He says, I charge you, that is Timothy, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reproof, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wonder of intimates. Beloved, here we have the Apostle Paul speaking to his disciple Timothy.

He is going to give him a charge, a very important charge. And now he is calling upon the witnessing of God the Father and Jesus Christ, who is going to judge the living and the dead. And he says, before the presence of God and before Jesus Christ, who is the judge of everyone, I charge you, Timothy, to preach the Word, to be ready in season and out of season, to reprove, to rebuke, to train in the Word with all patience, with complete patience. And then he says something very important. The reason why he, the apostle Paul is given this charge to Timothy, very serious charge to preach the word and to rebuke his people and to be ready in season and out of season in the following verse, he says, for there will come the time we can read it here in verse three for the time is coming when people will not endure.

That is, they will not put up with, or they will not tolerate. sound teaching, but having each in ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. I want you to see here the individual importance of preaching and the corporate importance of preaching. Paul is saying to Timothy that he is called to preach the word of God because there will be a time in which not preachers, but rather people within the church, that they will change the truth of the word of God and they will drift and they will move to myths. But he says something very, very important.

These people that will drift and move away from the truth are people who were within the context of the preaching of the truth. They will turn away from the truth, from listening to the truth, and they will do that which corresponds to their passions. But now pay attention to something more important even here. The Apostle Paul says that these people will accumulate for themselves teachers. It's the people, the ones that produce or bring teachers to preach that which they want to hear.

They have itching ears and that correspond to their passions. And these people are the ones that bring teachers that will preach to them that which is contrary to the truth. that Paul is exhorting Timothy to preach. So preaching beloved, it's something crucial, not only for the sake of the preacher himself, but also for the life of the church. Go to first Timothy.

And here the apostle Paul is also going to give something very important to his disciple. In first Timothy chapter four, in verse 15 and 16, after Paul has spoken to Timothy of all the things that he should look after in his ministry and all the things that he should be, he's going to say something very important about that which he has exhorted him in 2nd Timothy, which is the preaching of the word or the teaching of the word. And he says in 1st Timothy chapter 4 verse 15, practice these things. Those are the things that he has explained to him before. immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress.

And now he says in verse 16, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Keep a close watch on yourself. That is who you are before God and all the things that he has said to Timothy before this and on the teaching. And the reason is persist in this for by doing so, You will save both yourself and your hearers by persisting in doing those things and can keep in keeping a close watch on himself and the teaching of the words of God. Of course, he will save himself and the hearers.

Beloved preaching is vital and is important, not only for the person who says that he's preaching on behalf of God, but it's also crucial and important for the corporate life of the church. It is not a responsibility alone of the person who opens his mouth. Yes, James 3 says that there will be a stricter judgment for those who want to teach or who desire to teach, but also the message that comes out of the mouth of the person who says or claims to be a preacher should be tested and received by the congregation and by the church, receiving that and comparing that against the scripture, because that which happens on Sundays and in these moments when we preach the word, it is vital for the life of the individual and for the life of the congregation. Preaching is fundamental for our growth as believers. So I'm going to submit to you that we will not know how to identify biblical preaching and the effects of biblical preaching in the life and in the context of the church if we do not know what preaching is according to the Bible.

If we do not know what the Bible says about preaching and the act of communicating the message of God and proclaiming the word of God, then we will not know how individually, and as a church, we will compare the preaching that we're receiving against that which is true and that which is not true. So that means that whatever I'm going to be saying here, and if it's insofar as it's biblical, it is vital for the life of each one of you, beloved, and also for our life as a congregation and as a community. So let me just start by giving you a definition of what preaching is. And we will take the definition and we will work from that definition into the Bible. And then we will see not only what preaching is, but also we will see how we should preach and how we should expect that the preaching that comes from our pulpit is so that we protect ourselves from those who will walk away wanting to hear things according to their passions.

And beyond that, we will protect ourselves in our hearts. So we are not those who will depart from the truth. So this is very serious and very important. So Beloved, definitions of preaching is somehow complicated to give. People give different definitions of what preaching is.

But let me just attempt to give you this definition and then we'll see it from scripture. Preaching is an act of worship. It's an act of worship, individual and collective, in which We worship God, of course, and by the power of the Spirit, we communicate or we impart or we reveal the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. We communicate that message so that God will accomplish the purpose that he has for those who hear. Preaching is an act of worship to God the Father, and I want you to notice there the triune nature of the definition that I'm giving you.

Worship, or better, preaching is an act of worship to God. in which, by the power of the Spirit, we communicate the unsearchable glories and riches of Jesus Christ, God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son, Jesus Christ, with a purpose. We communicate that, or we reveal that, so that God will accomplish the purpose that he has for the hearers of that message. and that being ultimately His glory. So basically what I'm saying is that preaching is worship, that the preaching reveals and the preaching accomplishes.

When we preach and when we hear preaching, we are worshiping. When we are preaching, we are revealing a message. And when we are preaching, we are accomplishing something. worship, revelation, or communication, if you want to put it that way, if you don't feel comfortable with that word, and then accomplishing something. Now, it is an act of worship, beloved, because this happens within the context of the church.

The message of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and we have been called to preach that gospel, to preach the word of God. And that happens individually, the person who is actually preaching, but also it happens within the context of the word, of the church. You might remember that when Peter was preaching his first sermon on the second day, on the day of Pentecost, And he was speaking to all of these people. In the end, almost 3000 people believed what he said. And the Bible says that those people were baptized and they were added to the church.

And after that, these people were partaking in the apostles teaching fellowship, the breaking of the bread and prayers. Those people who were added to the church after they were saved, They were partaking of the doctrine or the teaching of the apostles. This is how the church started. This is an act of worship and beloved. Last week, we addressed the nature of worship.

And if there was something that I wanted you to have in your mind is that definition of worship that I gave you last week. that worship is an external expression that is true, that is an external expression that corresponds to the Word of God, of something that is internal and it is spiritual. So I'm saying that preaching is one of those external expressions that should be true, that correspond to an internal spiritual reality of a person. And that's why it is worship. It is worship, not only in the individual sense, but also in the corporate sense.

So when we preach the word and when there is the hearing of the words of God, we come in before God and we are offering worship to him. That happened in the early church when 3,000 people were added. They were devoted, the Bible says, to the doctrine and the teaching of the apostles. And then you might remember that later on, the apostles in chapter six in the book of Acts, they were so busy with the things of the tables and serving and ministering to people that they choose a group of men who will do those things. And they say, so we will devote ourselves to the ministry of the word.

and to prayer. The apostles knew of the importance of this, which we call preaching, the ministry of the word. This was fundamental for the church, for those who were listening and those who were proclaiming the message of God. So when the church comes together, we are worshiping God by the message that is being preached. But it's not only a message that is preached, beloved.

If it was only a message that is preached, It will be exactly the same to the message that we watch on TV that people communicate or the things that we see on TV and the message that they communicate. is a message that is empowered by the Spirit. It's a message that comes from the Holy Mouth of God and it is given to us. And because it's a message that belongs to Him and not to us, when it comes to us with power, reveals to us that which was hidden to us. Go to 1 Corinthians 2 and here we will see that preaching is not only an act of worship, but it's also A knot that reveals something.

1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians 2, here the apostle is going to give us a lot of insight on his view of preaching, how he did it, and what he perceives of what preaching actually is. He says, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1, he says, and when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling."

Pay attention to verse four. And my speech and my message were not implausible words, of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your fate might not rest in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. Beloved, I said to you, that preaching is an act of worship in which, by the Spirit and by the power of the Spirit, the excellences and the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ are revealed or communicated or imparted So by that impartation or by that communication of the riches of Christ by the power of the Spirit, we will not only be worshipping God, but God will be also accomplishing His purpose for those who listen and those who hear that message that is being preached. Here the apostle says that when he came to the church and he preached the gospel for the first time, that he did not do that with wisdom of men, but rather he did it with a demonstration of the spirit of God and power. And the purpose of that was that their faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

And then he moves on to something very important, because in the next section, he's going to speak to us about the revelatory nation of preaching. And I may have some issues there then with that word, but with this communicating and imparting nature of the art of prophesying, of the art of preaching, as the Puritans will say. There, go to verse six in the same chapter, and pay attention to what Apostle says. Yet, among the mature, we do impart wisdom." So he said, when we came to you, when I came to you, I preached not with wisdom of man, but with a demonstration of the power of the Spirit.

This is when you received your faith, when you received the gospel. Now in verse 6, he says, yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom. Although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away, but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. The apostle is saying that we, those who are communicating the message, that they impart a wisdom that was hidden, that it was decreed by God, hidden and was decreed by God for their glory. Verse 8.

None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, that is the wisdom that was communicated, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. but as it is written, what no eye has seen, no ear heard, nor the heart of men imagine, what God has prepared for those who love Him. And I've seen this verse taken out of context many times. People speaking of the things that they receive as being those things that no eye has seen or no ear has heard. The apostle is speaking about those things that are of the secret wisdom of God.

that God has prepared for those who love Him. Now, he says in verse 10, these things, those are the things that correspond to the hidden wisdom of God. Those things that are prepared for those who love Him. These things, God has revealed to us through the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that makes those things that are hidden and unavailable to human understanding available for those who by faith receive the Lord Jesus Christ.

Preaching is an act of worship in which by the power of the spirit we reveal or we impart or we communicate the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ so that God will accomplish his purpose for the hearers or in the hearers. But now the apostle is going to tell us how that revelation that was given to him and to those who preach is given by the spirit. He says then, For the Spirit, that is the Spirit of God, searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thought except the Spirit of that person which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Now, verse 12, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God. that, and this is the purpose, so we have been given this revelation through the spirit, our eyes have been opened to the wisdom that was secret and reserved and kept, so that we might understand the things freely given to us, that is one thing, that we might understand those things freely given to us, and verse 13, and that we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit. interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The apostle is saying that this wisdom that was kept, that was hidden, has now been revealed by the preaching of the gospel in the power of the spirit. And now he speaks about those things that are secret of God and that are known by his spirit and made available to us the church Beloved, if we had a clearer glimpse and understanding of how small we are and how great He is, we will see that what the Apostle is saying here is majestic.

He is saying that by the preaching of the Word or that by that life that has been given to us through the Spirit, that we have access to the wisdom of God, that it was secret and revealed and kept from men and that these things cannot be discerned by the natural mind, that these things can, should and must be interpreted and understood by the Spirit. Beloved, Every time that a person preaches, or every time that a person opens his mouth, every time that this person opens his mouth on behalf of God, a message from God is being communicated. Well, at least this is what we want, and this is what we pray, and this is what we expect. And that message is not only an intellectual message, but this is a message that reveals who God is and what He has done. This is what Apostle Paul says in Romans.

that he is not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And in that message that he preaches, which is the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. God is revealed and is publicly portrayed or is given to us his information and his wisdom. He has decided to do so through preaching. Preaching is folly and is the foolishness for the world.

But for those who believe, the message of the cross that is preached and is proclaimed, it is the power of God. It is the wisdom of God. The Apostle Paul also will say it in Ephesians when he's speaking about the coming together of Jews and Gentiles, that Christ is the cornerstone and the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets and all the building is established and that this is the temple of God. that he is the recipient of a message, of a mystery. And this mystery is that the Gentiles were also part of this message of this gospel, that the gospel is also for the Gentiles and that this was hidden from all the ages, from the ages before, and that this was revealed to him in his preaching, in his gospel and to the church.

The mysteries of God are publicly given through the preaching of his word. Now, beloved, this is fundamental. And this is very important because preaching the lacks and his voids of the power of the spirit will not produce in you what it should produce in your soul and in your being. After thinking about these things and after meditating upon all of these, that what preaching is, To be honest, I'm afraid. I'm afraid that the messages that we are communicating are not filled with that truth that comes from the Spirit of God.

Because if I'm communicating to your minds only intellectual messages, Then I'm doing something wrong to your heart. I'm doing something really bad to your soul and to your life. We have to pray that whatever comes from the mouth of the person who is seated here on the pulpit comes with a demonstration of the power of the spirit so that your faith might not rest on the wisdom of men, but might rest on the power of God. The Word of God is that which reveals that substance and that power and everything that it is contained in that specific message, which is the gospel. But it's not only, beloved, that this is an act of worship, individual and collective, within the context of the church, and that reveals this powerful message through the power of the Spirit.

The message that is preached also accomplishes something. And the accomplishment of the preaching of the Word It is both glorious, but it's also very scary and it's terrifying. Because when the message of the word is given, it will never come back void. It will accomplish its purpose. But the purpose is not always what you think that it will accomplish in you.

Sometimes the preaching of the word is for judgment on those who listen to the proclamation of the gospel is death to death. And for those who are in Christ and receive the word is life to life. This is what the puzzle pulls in second Corinthians. Go to second Corinthians and I will show you that from the Bible. Second Corinthians chapter two.

2nd Corinthians chapter 2, we're going to be reading from verse 15 to verse 17 here, that Paul has given, where he's speaking about his ministry, preaching the gospel through different places. That's starting in verse 13. And now he's saying how the spreading of the knowledge of Christ is a pleasing aroma. It is a good sacrifice. And then in verse 15, he will say, for we are.

Those are the people who preach the gospel and who are in the mission of communicating this message and spreading the knowledge of Jesus Christ. For we are, in verse 15, the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, he says. that the proclamation of this message that he and the others were preaching through different regions and through different places, it is not only, it does not only cause effect on those who are being saved, but it's also the aroma among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. Verse 16, to one, a fragrance from death to death. Those are the ones that are perishing.

And to the other, a fragrance from life to life. Every time that the Word of God is proclaimed, every time that the Gospel and the message that is contained in the Word of God is publicly given to the hearers, something is accomplished. It does not come void. Those who reject the message of the Gospel are to death. wrath, they are storing wrath for the day of wrath, the Apostle Paul says in Romans 2.

But it's also life and it's power for those who receive it. And then I love what he says. He says, who is sufficient for these things. Who is sufficient for these things? Imagine that the one who preaches the word of God has in his lips the message that comes from the mind and from the heart of God that takes people to death if they're rejected or edifies people in life and for more life if they are in Jesus Christ.

Who is sufficient for these things? And then he says, for we are not. like so many peddlers of God's Word, that is, those who corrupt God's Word. And I love this. And there is a brother in South America who wrote a book about this verse.

But as men of sincerity, he says, as commissioned by God in the sight of God, that is, on behalf of God, that those who are commissioned to preach the gospel, they come on behalf of God and in the sight before God. So when I'm preaching to you, yes, I am preaching to you, but my message is going ultimately to God. I'm preaching and I'm bringing the message of His Word before God and in the sight of God. Because when that happens and I do it for Him and ultimately for Jesus Christ and God the Father and the power of the Spirit, that message will produce in you what it is meant to produce. And then he says, Beloved, we speak in Jesus Christ.

Words, Beloved, words are not sufficient to explain and to express the depths of what I'm trying to say and the importance of this message, the message that is preached. Now, Beloved, think about this. I've said to you now a couple of times, probably many times, that the individual purpose of the Christian it is the same to the corporate purpose of the church. Paul says in Ephesians that we have been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless individually as the saints of the church. And then in chapter five, he says that the church has been chosen or that he died and gave himself for the church to make and to present the church corporately, covenantally as an organization, as a body to present the whole church blameless and holy.

I'm saying to you that preaching is this act of worship by which, in the power of the Spirit of God, we reveal, we communicate the riches and the unsearchable glories of Jesus Christ so that God will accomplish the purpose in those who hear. the purpose of the individuals of the church, and the purpose of the church as a whole. So therefore, beloved, preaching has preeminence in our worship. The communication of the words of God is what feeds and informs everything that we do. When we come to faith, think about this, when we come to faith, we come to faith through the preaching of the word.

And then as a result of the message of the gospel that we hear for the first time being preached, then we pray for our salvation. Then we have fellowship with those among our church, if we are in a church. Then we do all of these things that correspond to the life of a Christian. But the first thing, the first grace that is given in virtue of our union with Christ, it is the hearing of the preaching of the word. So the preaching and the communication of the word fits and is the substance of everything that we do.

How are we going to be a church that prays more? How are we going to be a church that reaches the lost? How are we going to be a church that reaches the poor and that is filled with grace and mercy? How are we going to be a church that is filled with love and with unity? if we focus on that which is preeminent, and that is knowing who God is in Jesus Christ, and revealing that, or communicating that, or imparting that by the preaching of the Word, so that as a community, we may know who He is, what He has done, and then we will be what He wants us to be, and what He has determined for us to be.

The preaching of the Word, it is foundational. It reveals and communicates. So that is what the preaching is, beloved. But we've said that this preaching, it is a distinctive of a Reformed Church. So how is preaching, and all of these things that I've said, that probably you already How this definition of preaching, that is, this act of worship, individual and collective, that by the power of this period will reveal, communicate, or impart the unsearchable glories of Christ so that God accomplish the purpose and the hearer, how is this preaching a distinctive of the Reformed church?

How then do we preach? If we take that from the Bible, how do we apply it? How do we come as a congregation and make sure that our preaching is actually an act of worship, that it is founded in the power of the Spirit, and that it accomplishes that which God intends His Church to receive? And this was one of the questions that not only the Reformers, but also the Reformed people, and primarily the Puritans, in the 16th century and in the beginning of the 17th century tried to address the most. They were concerned about the preaching of the Word.

Beloved, the Word of God was kept and preserved from the normal people for many hundreds of years. people did not have access to the Word of God. The Gospel or the message of the Word of God was preached or communicated in Latin, in languages that were not accessible for the people. And that is when the Reformation comes, that not only the Word of God is translated in languages that people would have access to, but also that the art of prophesying, as the Puritans would say, started to grow in the 16th century. Preaching started to take preeminence in every single place.

Why? Because people had access now to the word that they did not understand before. So there is a sense in which the Reformation and Reformed theology and everything that has happened in history happened because of the public message that was preached and that was given to people. So then the Puritans and then the Reformed tradition started to address of how we should preach. So then, when we preach, God is worshipped, we do it in the power of the Spirit, Jesus Christ is revealed or communicated or imparted, and more importantly, that God accomplishes His purpose on those who hear.

For the saints will be for life, and for those who are reprobate and outside of Christ will be for death. But for the Church, then, for those who are in Jesus Christ, Puritans then came together, or let's say the Reformed tradition, they came together and they addressed this topic of the art of prophesying. But I'm going to give you, they've given different points on how preaching should look like and how preaching should be done in the church, but at least I'm going to give you a couple of points of why Reformed preaching is distinctive and different to other types of preaching. The first one is that because the nature of preaching is of worship and of revelation of who God is, and that revelation is through His Spirit, and His Spirit has given us the ultimate revelation of Jesus Christ in the world, which is closed, and there's nothing to be added to the Word of God, it is that we come to this Word of God and we expose the Word of God, or we do an exposition of that which is contained in the Word of God. So then preaching should be a preaching that is expositional of the Word of God.

That means that when I come to the Word of God I want to expose Not what I think or not what the Bible says to me or what I believe the Bible is saying, but rather I do and I make all my efforts to understand what the Bible actually says. I'm trying to expose and bring to light the meaning of the Bible and the Puritans or the reform, but primarily the Puritans gave at least two points in which expositional preaching should be founded. How do we go and find the meaning of what the text says? How do we do it? First thing, we go into the text and the immediate context of the text, and we ask ourselves the question, what is the meaning of the text grammatically and within the context of the letter that it was written?

Now, beloved, bear with me here, please, because this might be a little bit boring or technical, but I really want you to learn this. Expositional preaching, then the Puritans will say, go into the text and then find the meaning of what the text is grammatically and within the context of the text. This is what they call the explanation of the text. But not only that, once you have the meaning and the explanation of the text, go into the theology of the text. go into the theology of the text.

And the reason why they will take the immediate context, the grammatical context of the words, and how the author will just use the words, and then take it from the theology of the text, it is because this theology will correspond to the theology of all the Bible. So then the text will be confronted with the message that is across the Bible. So the exposition of something that was on a page of Scripture will contain at least those two elements, coming into the grammar of the text and the context of the text immediately there, and then confronting that with the theology that is contained there in the whole Scripture. Of course, the Puritans had more aspects to this. I'm just simplifying.

I'm giving you those two so you can just remember those things. But they will speak about the grammatical context, the historical context, or the covenantal or the canonical context in order to understand what the text says. But this will be confronted with the theology of the text. Now, beloved, if that was the only case or that was the only point that they addressed about preaching, it will be somehow easy. The second point and the second level that the Puritans, the Reformed tradition, addressed was what they call experiential preaching.

That which takes what we see in the text and in the theology to the text to experience. That it is not only an intellectual thing, but rather that can be applied to the life of the person, because preaching pretends or intends the purpose of preaching is to accomplish God's purpose for the life of the hearer. So our preaching should always be experiential. We'll bring that text and apply it to the life of those who hear. to the life of the one who is communicating the message and to the life of those who are listening to that very important message.

So it is not only that it's expositional, but it's also a preaching that is experiential, that brings people to experience. Now, beloved, The Word of God is sufficient for everything that we need. It is breathed out by God. It is inspired by God. And it is good for everything that we need, for reproof, for rebuking, for exhortation, for training in righteousness.

The apostle will say that we might be complete, that we might not lack nothing, anything, that we might be, the men of God might be ready for every good work. The Word of God, when it's faithfully presented, will not only change the life of those who are speaking, beloved, but it will also change the life of the person who is communicating the message. This was very important for the reformed tradition of the 17th and the 16th century, beloved, because religion back then was cold and was empty and was dead. It was only moral principles of how you should do things and how you should regulate your life. But when the word of God was made available for people and the preaching of the word was made available for the normal hearer, then lives started to be transformed.

It is because it comes with power of the spirit. So the prayer of this church and the prayer of this community should be always be that the message beloved that is communicated from the pulpit and every one of us who comes here and says that is teaching that he might come with the power of the spirit, not only for you, but also for the life of the person who is communicating this message. If we do not have the intervention of the Spirit in everything that we do, then our efforts are void, and there's nothing in them that will be only human efforts. The Word of God, it is powerful to change and to discern everything in our soul, in our spirit, to discern the intentions that we have in our hearts. This is the power of the Word of God.

And as a church, we should always have the commitment to listen and to proclaim the words of God. And this is let me just finish with this beloved. Preaching is not only an act of worship that happens from the person who is communicating the message. There is a responsibility on the person or in the people who receive the message, a responsibility before the message, during the message and after the message. The preacher comes before God and he intends and he prays and he prepares a message.

But the one who is going to listen to that message should have and hold that person in his or her prayers so that the message that is going to be communicated on a Sunday will correspond to that which is written and not according to the wisdom of that person. But then when that person comes to the Sunday, and that person is seated under the preaching of the Word, that person should have a heart that is attentive to the preaching of the Word, and open to receive that which the Word says to the church and to the congregation. And after the message has been received, and after the message has been heard, to compare that with Scripture, to know if what was said corresponds to what is according to Scripture, and if it is, to apply through prayer and communion with God to our lives. Otherwise, every Sunday that we come, we are just doing a message that goes to the air, to a video on YouTube, and then it remains there. We want that that message goes beyond that particular moment inside of your mind, inside of your heart, so that if it's according to a scripture, we might grow as a community according to the word of God.

So individually, we will accomplish our ultimate purpose. And also corporately, we will accomplish the purpose for which the church has been redeemed. Beloved, who is sufficient for these things? Nobody is sufficient for these things. So that's why the preaching of the word should be preeminent in the life of the church, not only the person who preaches, but also for those who hear and those who listen.

So every time that someone claims to be speaking on behalf of God, then actually the things that are being said are according to the word of God. This is the art of prophesying as the Puritans will say. Everything that we need has been given to us in the words of God. When we come and speak to you, we're not bringing new revelation. We are speaking that which is contained in scripture.

And we hope that our message is faithful to what is said. So then you will be edified and your faith may rest not on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. That's why you should not care about my opinions. You should not care about my wisdom. You should not care about my preferences or how I perceive things.

The only thing that you should care about my life and my brother's life is that the Spirit of God might use us in our times of preparation so that when we come to this book, we might bring to you that which comes from Him and not from us. In only that way, the people who speak before or in front of God on behalf of God will be removed. And then we will not be followers of men, but we will be followers of Jesus Christ through the slaves, through the servants that he has chosen to serve him and to serve his bride. Amen.