by Tim Killillay

One October morning the preacher taught the congregation what he thought was an amazing pearl of truth from the prodigal son in Luke 15. At the beginning of the message he said, “No one has ever seen this before and all the commentators I have read got it wrong, but the Spirt of God has shown me this truth.” These words were the beginning of what would become a moralistic message that led the preacher to admonish the congregation to be like the older son, the antithetical reason why Jesus told the parable. Most of the people had no clue that they had witnessed a train wreck as they were congratulating the preacher over the dead carcasses of grace, gospel, God’s glory, and even repentance. There were no survivors as the message contradicted both the nature and function of biblical preaching.
To avoid these profound legalistic errors, we must study the Bible to obtain a biblical theology of preaching, because a biblical theology of preaching will address both the nature and the function of biblical preaching. The nature is the sum of all the elements necessary to make preaching true and biblical, just like all the elements need to be just right before a tornado is formed. The function of biblical preaching is the intended purpose or the actual result of biblical preaching. Like a tornado that leaves a visible path of destruction so must a biblical message leaves its mark on the souls of all who hear. “Without a sufficient theology of preaching, the pastor’s preaching ministry will lack power! He must know what he is there to do.”[1]
Let all preachers be warned, as we study the nature of biblical preaching, that we do our preaching in the presence of a holy God. Paul strongly charges 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;…[2]”.
When Paul dispatches this weighty command that the Lord is the judge of the living and the dead, the reality of every preacher should be “…a feeling of desperation. You wake up on Sunday morning and you can smell the smoke of hell on one side and feel the crisp breezes of heaven on the other. You go to your study and look down at your pitiful manuscript, and you kneel down and cry, ‘O God, this is so weak! Who do I think I am? What audacity to think that in three hours my words will be the odor of death to death and the fragrance of life to life (2 Cor. 2:16). My God, who is sufficient for these things?’”[3] The charge is so immense that the only men qualified to preach in this way are men of ‘sincerity’, ‘commissioned by God’, whom under the discerning eye of their creator only ‘speak in Christ’![4]
When the preacher stands up to preach he should have a very real sense of the presence of God before him for he is not only preaching to the church but also to God himself (2 Tim. 2:15, Gal. 1:10, 2 Cor. 2:17). Therefore, preaching is a solemn task administered by a sober minded man. “James 3:1 and Hebrews 13:17, set forth the sober reality of stricter judgment for one’s teaching and an account for those under one’s charge on the Great Day.”[5]
The first element necessary is that the preacher must be a man of sincerity. He is a saved man, a man without hypocrisy who is growing in holiness. If a man knows not the transforming power of the gospel upon the mind and the heart, then he has no right to stand in front of a local church and speak of the excellence of Christ and the gospel in which he has no part nor understanding. He will be like the scientist with a hypothesis that he can never prove.
A sincere man is both an active and passive participant in the gospel that he proclaims as the message he preaches is first preached and applied to himself. It is “… dangerous to separate preaching from the life of the preacher. ‘Unless we would degrade preaching to a mere elocutionary art, we must never forget that the soil out of which powerful preaching grows is the preacher’s own life.’”[6]
As the preacher grows in God’s holiness so will the power of his preaching because, “Powerful preaching is conceived in the new birth and sustained and enriched in communion with our Savior Jesus Christ.”[7] The preacher like all children of God is called to be a holy man. Holiness is the fruit of ongoing communion with our Holy God. When communion is broken it is always a matter of sin. If the pastor hasn’t achieved some measure of practical holiness in his life to be above reproach then he is not yet ‘commissioned by God’ to preach (1 Tim 3, Tit. 1:5-9, 1 Pet. 5:1-2).
The requirements for pastors set as an example before the church in 1 Timothy and Titus are also the example set before the whole church as the type of a perfectly righteous man which should be the goal of each believer. The pastor, though not perfectly righteous, should be above reproach and an example for the church, because “They who are called to train others in godliness must be godly themselves. Not surprisingly does Paul say, ‘Watch your life and doctrine closely’ –life first, and doctrine second, in that order. ‘Persevere in them,’ urges Paul, ‘for if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers’ (1 Tim. 4:16).”[8]
The danger of unholy pastors or even lost pastors in these last times is that many pulpits are being filled by men whom like their followers have “the appearance of godliness, but (deny) its power”.[9] They compare their lives to the standard of the world instead of Jesus. It is a nauseous thing to watch so many pastors speak of God even quoting scripture, usually out of context, yet their lives betray the gospel message they don’t faithfully preach. Their pulpits become theaters for entertainment or stages for vending cultural relativism. It is equally infuriating to watch friends who profess Christ promote their church, not for its solid preaching, but by the venue of who’s who in Christian pop culture today. Let the sincere preacher take heed to the words of Jonathan Edwards. “If a minister has light without heat, and entertains his [hearers] with learned discourses, without a savour of the power of godliness, or any appearance of fervency of spirit, and zeal for God and the good of souls, he may gratify itching ears, and fill the heads of his people with empty notions; but it will not be very likely to teach their hearts, or save their souls.”[10]
The preacher is not only a saved man that continues to know the transforming work of the gospel in his life, but he is a man ‘commissioned by God’ or sent by God. The preacher is a man who comes in the name of another. “Paul says he is a herald…A ‘herald’…is one who proclaims the message of another. Paul says he is an ambassador (e.g., 2 Cor. 5:20). An ambassador never gives his own ideas, nor does he have the power to act on his own, he is a man sent by another. The same could be said of a steward (1 Cor. 4:1), an overseer (1 Pet. 5:1) and even a ruler (Heb. 13:7, 17). All these words reveal that the minister is speaking and acting on behalf of another, but only within the specified boundaries that have been established.”[11]
The preacher must only seek God’s approval. Paul says, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”[12] That does not mean that he doesn’t listen to and care for the needs of the church (1 Pt. 5:2-3, 1 Tim. 3:5). It means that the message he preaches isn’t diluted or altered by fear of men. Jesus tells us that the message we are commissioned to preach will cause many men to hate us even in our own families but we cannot change the message for fear men or their approval (Mat. 10:16-25).
A minister is a humble man for he is not a man out to make his name great. “A minister is a very little person, in comparison, a person with a narrow task: he is a man of God, with a specific call. In his case, as in all others in the church, it is extremely important that he does not think of himself more highly than he ought to think; he must, in fact, regard others as better than himself. …the minister today is really nothing more than an ordinary member of the church of Jesus Christ who is called to express His nature as ”man of God” in an especially high degree.”[13]
For the preacher to maintain humility as a servant of God he must never forget his true identity that is only found in the gospel. A needy humble nobody who is the recipient of God’s tender mercy and abundant grace in Christ because God took pity upon Him if for no other reason than how pathetic he is. His identity is not found in being a pastor. “Either (he) will be getting (his) identity vertically, from who (he) is in Christ, or (he) will be shopping for it horizontally in the situations, experiences, and relationships of (his) daily life.”[14] This means a minister must never forget his position if he will be a faithful minister of God. Be warned that “The danger of self-reliance and self-exaltation in the ministry of preaching are so insidious that God will strike us if he must in order to break us of our self-assurance and our casual us of professional techniques. So Paul rose to preach (he says in 1 Cor. 2:3) ‘in weakness and in fear and much trembling.’”[15]
Prayer is another vital element necessary for biblical preaching. The nature of prayer in the pastor’s life is the acknowledgement that we are incapable of the task alone and our absolute dependency upon God in every aspect of life and ministry is vital. Richard Baxter wrote, “Prayer must carry on our work as well as preaching; he preacheth not heartily to his people, that prayeth not earnestly for them. If we prevail not with God to give them faith and repentance, we shall never prevail with them to believe and repent.”[16]
Prayer is important because we plead with God for a supernatural element necessary for biblical preaching. If we will preach biblically then we must have the unction of the Spirit of God! “If there is to be true Spirit-empowered preaching, then there must be earnest, prayerful, heart-felt dependence on the Spirit. Out of that dependence, there is the confidence that the Spirit will speak through the man of God in such a way that it exceeds anything he himself prepared in the study.”[17] It is the Spirit of God that makes dead men come alive (1 Pet. 3:18; Eph. 2:5-6; Rom. 8:9-10). The preacher does his work in the realm of the impossible but the ‘hand of the LORD’ is upon the man like it was on Ezekiel who prophesied in ‘the Spirit of the Lord’ to dry bones and they came to life .[18] We must plead for the Spirit of God to work despite our best efforts at studying and preaching for apart from God’s unction our best is nothing more than another pebble in the sidewalk. It is God who calls men from spiritual death to spiritual life.
By prayer the preacher is dependent on the Spirit to help him interpret clearly the Scriptures. “In the Puritan view, correct interpretation of the Scriptures was not only a matter of employing the right interpretative tools, but also of having and using the right spiritual tools, such as prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit for illumination.”[19] Prayer is probably the most neglected element in biblical preaching. We pray but do we really plead with God over the study and throughout the entire process to show us the meaning and convict us of our sin, or do we pray just to have something to say on Sunday? It should be a habit of the preacher to pray for understanding for his own soul’s desperate need of the transforming grace. The preacher should also pray before, during, and after the message.
The preparation of the message itself is another important element that is the responsibility of the pastor. Every preacher must do his “…best to present yourself (himself) to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”[20] As Brian Borgman has correctly said, the preacher must make “… a strait cut through the Word of Truth.”[21]
If the pastor that preached on the prodigal son had read the first two verses of Luke 15 perhaps his entire message would have been different. Maybe he would have seen that Jesus was responding to the grumbling of the Pharisees as they watched the tax collectors and sinners drawing near to Jesus. Perhaps he would have seen that the older son represented the Pharisees in the parable. Jesus would have never admonished men to be like the Scribes and Pharisees who “…clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence”[22] (Matt. 23:15-36; vs 25), yet that is basically what the preacher unwittingly exhorted us to do in exhorting us morally to be like the older son. Yet, “Ultimately this is Jesus’ own condemnation of the Pharisees.”[23] The greatest travesty of that day was when he gave God credit for his error by saying, “the Spirit of God showed me this truth…” If it was of a spirit it was definitely not the Spirit of God!
If the preacher will ‘cut straight’ then the preacher can never change the meaning of scripture whether it be knowingly or unknowingly. “The preacher creates the sermon he does not create the message. Rather he proclaims and explains the message he has received. His message is not original; it is given to him (II Cor. 5:19) …he is explaining and expounding the message that has already been given. Therein lies his authority and his confidcnce in the promise of God’s help and blessing. The sermon is not the preacher’s word; it is God’s Word.”[24]
Another important element in preaching is the passion of the preacher in the pulpit. For he must speak transparently as one who knows the dangers of hell and the power of a holy God that is mighty to save. When Elijah our five your old son ran into the street in front of a city bus, I did not gently remind him of the dangers of the street. I yelled for him to stop as I was running to the street to throw myself in harm’s way to save my son. Shock, anger, and adrenaline gripped me for about 5 minutes after the incident. I didn’t care what people thought of my reputation. I was to concerned for the safety of my son.
The manner of the preacher must not be hypocritical or exaggerated but the pastor must be passionate about the gospel and Christ and warn of the dangers of hell and the holiness of the Judge. “Whatever a man may carry into the pulpit, he carries nothing less than himself. The self he brings may enhance or detract from his message.”[25] One would question the power and validity of the preacher whose manner of speaking was like “…an emotionless, robotic, unfeeling man who preaches Christ, heaven and hell, sin and grace, repentance and faith,” for he is “… a contradiction of nature and grace.”[26] His mannerism betrays the very message he preaches. David Platt is a great example of a man who may have a speech impediment yet the listener is captivated by his genuine passion for the gospel. Every word he preaches seems to have been weighed in the glories of heaven or fires of hell before they pass his lips. A preacher should not care if the world thinks him foolish, but his passion must be sincere, “because of the power of “incarnational” communication, in which the speaker illuminates that which he proclaims by being transparently committed to it in a wholehearted and thoroughgoing way.”[27]
The nature of the message must target the whole man. Many reformed pastors today only target the intellect. Other preachers bypass the mind to target the emotions. Both of these examples miss the mark. “As J. I. Packer has said, the Puritan writers were popular because they were educators of the mind, expositors to the conscience, physicians of the soul, enforcers of the truth, and men of the Spirit.”[28] Preaching to the whole man then is preaching to target the heart by appealing to the mind and the conscience of the man. If a person doesn’t think differently then he won’t act differently (1 Pet. 1:13). Preaching to the conscience is applying biblical truth to the conscience of man to leave his soul without fig leaves to cover his sin (1 Sam. 16:7, Ps. 7:9, Lk. 16:15, Acts 1:24). It is that which stops a man from justifying his sin (1 Sam. 15:16). In preaching to the conscience “The exposure of sin and the prognosis for the impenitent are not the only forms of applicatory preaching. Just as there are conviction, reproof and rebuke, there are also consolation and comfort. The same Isaiah who scathed the Israelites in chapter 1 holds out the comfort of Jehovah in chapter 40.”[29] Preaching must ultimately target the heart because “The primacy of the heart emphasizes that the heart’s response to God is the sine qua non of salvation. The great commandment is to love the Lord God with all the heart, mind, and strength.”[30] When we target the heart we hit the emotions as well as the mind and conscience of the man. John Bunyan wrote, “O that they who have heard me speak this day did but see as I do what sin, death, hell, and the curse of God is; and also what the grace, and love, and mercy of God is, through Jesus Christ.”[31]
The last natural element necessary for a biblical theology of preaching is the Word that we preach. Paul says preach the word! “The act of proclaiming, or preaching, was not the giving of opinions or of reinterpreting old religious traditions in new and creative ways. It was proclaiming the Word of God.”[32]
The Word that we must preach is the entire Bible with its central focus on Christ. “Paul is so vitally clear on this whole subject of Christ-centered preaching. Let every preacher spend hours of exegetical, contemplative and prayerful time in 1 Corinthians 1:17-2:5. ‘We preach Christ crucified’, ‘I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’ For Paul there was no contradiction between preaching the whole counsel of God and ‘we proclaim Him’ (Col. 1:28).”[33]
The entire Bible points to Jesus and the gospel and the preacher must see this to be faithful to the calling to preach the Word the whole counsel of God. In Genesis we see Jesus as the Creator God who is the Promised Seed. In Exodus we see Jesus as the Passover Lamb the Redeemer, He is the High Priest in Leviticus and the Perfect Judge in Judges, our Shepherd in Psalms and the Wisdom of God in Proverbs, the Suffering Servant in Isaiah as every book can testifies to the Him. “Jesus says that the Old Testament is a book about him. …’You search the scriptures (the Old Testament) because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify of me. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life’ (John 5:39-40). And again, ‘If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me’ (John 5:46). Luke records for us the extraordinary claim of the risen Christ that he is the subject of all the Scriptures (Luke 24:27, 44-45).’ ”[34]
Jesus is the Word in John 1:1 of the New Testament who is the same triumphant Word of God in Revelation 19:13 who is the King of kings and Lord of lords (vs.16) worthy of all glory and honor who destroys his enemies. When we preach the Word, “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”[35]
How should a preacher evaluate the message he preaches? There is “…no more challenging question for the preacher’s self-evaluation than to ask whether the sermon was faithful exposition of the way the text testifies to Christ.”[36] Christ is the central figure of Scripture and he must stay central in every passage that we preach. “According to Thomas Adams (1583-1652), ‘Christ is the sum of the whole Bible, prophesied, typified, prefigured, exhibited, demonstrated, to be found in every leaf, almost in every line, the Scriptures being but as it were the swaddling bands of the child Jesus.’ ‘Think of Christ as the very substance, marrow, soul, and scope of the whole Scriptures,’ Isaac Ambrose (1604-1664) said.’”[37] The preacher may know that the preaching was biblical if it was saturated with Christ.
What is the purpose or function of preaching Christ? The primary function of preaching is to regenerate and sanctify God’s people. “Preaching is the ordinance of God, sanctified for the begetting of faith, for the opening of the understanding, for the drawing of the will and affections to Christ.”[38] It is powerful, “…because preaching is God’s appointed means for the conversion of sinner, the awakening of the church, and the preservation of the saints.”[39]
Therefore, the function of preaching is first the power of God to make spiritually dead men live (Eph. 2:5, Col. 2:12-13, 2 Cor. 2:15-16)! The gospel according to Romans 1:16 “…is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (1 Cor. 1:18, 24, 2 Cor. 2:4, Jer. 23:29, Heb. 4:12).[40] An example of God’s power to save came as I shared with a young man hanging with his posse on the 16th street mall in Denver. After hearing the gospel, he came under conviction on account of his sins and confessed in front of his friends, “I believe that Jesus died for me.” The gospel to all of us who are saved is the sweet aroma of Christ that brought us to life (2 Cor. 2:15-16)! The power of God in saving souls was evidently seen under the powerful preaching of George Whitefield and Jonathon Edwards in the Great Awakening. Edwards wrote in 1734, “The town seemed to be full of the presence of God. It never was so full of love, so full of joy, and yet so full of distress, as it was then.”[41] The presence of God was felt by an entire town during the revival.
The power of the cross is also evident in the way others reject and hate the gospel as it is ‘death to death’ for them. Both acceptance and rejection of Christ demonstrate the purpose and power of the gospel as intended by God. If one pushes the issue while sharing the gospel with a lost man, they may soon find the reaction that often awaited George Whitfield for “He was not always greeted warmly. Many times people in the crowds would launch stones, vegetables, and even small dead animals at the preacher.”[42] That is also part of the gospel’s power.
The power of preaching the word is not only evident in the salvation and rejection of men but also in its power to purify the church. Paul in Ephesians 5:26 states that , “… having cleansed her (church) by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”[43] God redeemed his church so that it would be holy. Titus 2:14 shows that Jesus, “…gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”[44]
How can God purify the church? Because the Word of God is powerful (Heb. 4 :12) for “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” [45] The intended purpose of the Scripture is not only to save but to equip the saints for every good work. In Christ we know have a power greater than the lawlessness that we once served. This last week a young man in the church lost a great paying job in Peru. We have been meeting together for a few months now and we talk much about the Sovereignty of God in what God determines and allows to take place in our lives. The word is transforming this young man’s thinking so much that I had no clue he had lost his job. When I found out, I apologized. He shared with me that he is not worried because God has a reason for him losing this job and he will just trust in God. His testimony under this trial shows the power of God at work in his thinking, his affections, and ultimately his actions. How would a lost man respond? That is why the preaching is so important in the church because it saves not only the sinner but sanctifies the whole man.
In conclusion, “Any sermon, then, that aims to apply the biblical text to the congregation and does so without making it crystal clear that it is in Christ alone and through Christ alone that the application is realized, is not a Christian sermon. It is at best an exercise in wishful and pietistic thinking. It is at worst demonic in its Christ-denying legalism.”[46] Therefore, “The man of God must be convinced that biblical preaching is ordained by God as His appointed means of glorifying Himself through saving sinners and building up the saints (1Cor. 1:17-2:5).”[47] Let the man of God sweat and labor over the text so that he is faithful in exalting Christ.

ed. note: Tim is a dear friend of mine from my days at Northland Baptist Bible College serving the Lord as a pastor, evangelist, and educator of pastors in Cuzco, Peru, where he has lived with his dear wife Lillie and their five children for the past several years. Tim is one of many of us who left the college discouraged by an oppressive, subtle form of legalism, but found great joy and freedom in the Doctrines of Grace. His passion for the church and the ministry of the gospel is a joy to my heart, and it is my joy to post this article he wrote. His zeal has been tested by the fires of adversity, and his faith in Christ and his dedication to his calling has been proven genuine. Though not officially a member of the Common Slaves, (as if there were such a thing!) his heart beats as one with ours, and I hope to be able to introduce him to our gang in the flesh someday.

Photo is one I took overlooking the city of Cuzco while visiting Tim two years ago.-jr

Bibliography:
Beeke, Joel R. and Jones, Mark. A Puritan Theology (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 27, 681, 697, 700-701, 704, 718.

Borgman, Brian. My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching (Geanies House, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 31, 32, 128, 134, 140, 165, 172-173, 215, 222.

Ferguson, Sinclair B. The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 192.

Gansky, Alton. 30 Events That Shaped the Church (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2015) 161, 164.

Goldsworthy, Graeme. Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000), 20-21, 32, 124.

Hulse, Erroll. The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 67.

Nederhood, Joel. The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 39, 202.

Piper, John. The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2015), 43-44, 54, 60.

Packer, J. I. The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 16.

Sproul, R. C. The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 113.

Thomas, Geoffrey. The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 371

Tripp, Paul David. Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry (Wheaton: Crossway Publishing, 2012), 22.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Footnotes:
[1] Brian Borgman, My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching (Geanies House, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 128.

[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (2 Tim 4:1–2). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[3] John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2015), 43-44.

[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (2 Cor. 2:17). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[5] Brian Borgman, My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching (Geanies House, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 32.

[6] Brian Borgman, My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching (Geanies House, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 31.

[7] Geoffrey Thomas, The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 371.

[8] Erroll Hulse, The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 67.

[9] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (2 Tim. 3:5). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[10] John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2015), 54
[11] Brian Borgman, My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching (Geanies House, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 31.

[12] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ga 1:10). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[13] Joel Nederhood, The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 39.

[14] Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry (Wheaton: Crossway Publishing, 2012), 22.

[15] John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2015), 44

[16] Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 697.

[17] Brian Borgman, My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching (Geanies House, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 172-173.

[18] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ezek. 37:1). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[19] Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 27.

[20] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (2 Tim. 2:15). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[21] Brian Borgman, My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching (Geanies House, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 134.

[22] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Mt 23:25). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[23] Joel Nederhood, The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 202.

[24] Sinclair B Ferguson, The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 192.

[25] Brian Borgman, My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching (Geanies House, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 215.

[26] Brian Borgman, My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching (Geanies House, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 222.

[27] J. I. Packer, The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 16.

[28] Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 704.

[29] Brian Borgman, My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching (Geanies House, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 165.

[30] R. C. Sproul, The Preacher and Preaching Reviving the Art (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2011) 113.

[31] Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 718.

[32] Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000), 32.

[33] Brian Borgman, My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching (Geanies House, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 140.

[34] Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000), 20-21.

[35] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (1 Co 1:23–24). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[36] Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000), 21.

[37] Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 700-701.

[38] Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 681.

[39] John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2015), 60.

[40] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ro 1:16). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
[41] Alton Gansky, 30 Events That Shaped the Church (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2015) 161.

[42] Alton Gansky, 30 Events That Shaped the Church (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2015) 164.

[43] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Eph. 5:26–27). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[44] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Tt 2:14). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
[45] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (2 Tim. 3:16–17). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[46] Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000), 124.

[47] Brian Borgman, My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin’s Theology of Preaching (Geanies House, Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 128.

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