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The subject of death is one of great interest to most people. Since we will all one day die, and since death is draped in such mystery, we spend a lot of our lives wondering about it. What awaits on the other side of death? If we could communicate with the people who currently reside in the city of the dead, what would they tell us?

The Bible records at least three conversations that took place involving people who had already died: voices from beyond the grave. One of them is recorded in 1 Samuel 28. It was the end of King Saul’s doomed reign as Israel’s first monarch. God had long before rejected Saul and was no longer speaking to him. But Saul was in a bind and desperate for direction as he faced the Philistines. So, he resorted to a witch (or a medium) in Endor. He disguised himself and went to see her and he (and her) got much more than they bargained for. Let’s read the story beginning in verse 11: “Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!” And the king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What did you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth.” So he said to her, “What is his form?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is covered with a mantle.” And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed down. Now Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” …”

This chilling scene is quite unusual, and I can assure you Saul did not receive the answer he was looking for.  I want to talk with you today about three messages that are coming to us from beyond the grave.

The land of the living is filled with death. All through our lives we are surrounded by death. We pass funeral homes and cemeteries every day. Every family is touched by death every so often. And most of us spend a portion of our lives thinking about, wondering about, and trying to avoid death. As common as death is, it is also one of the most mysterious phenomena in all the world. We who believe the bible understand more about it than anyone else, but even the bible tells us relatively so little about what occurs in and after death that it is still a mysterious thing. Beyond our morbid curiosities like ‘what does it feel like to die’ and so-forth, several spiritual and philosophical questions usually surround death. Most people ask: “where are the dead?” What happens to us when we die? Are we asleep? Does our spirit go to an intermediate place to await the resurrection of the body and the judgment at the end of time? Or do we immediately go to heaven or hell? Some imagine that human spirits come back and haunt houses, buildings, or graveyards, though the bible gives no such indication. But we’re curious about where the spirits of the dead go.  And then another common question is: are the dead conscious of us and aware of what is going on in the world? While I personally believe that the bible teaches the dead are conscious and have memory of things in the world, I don’t believe it necessarily teaches that they are aware of what is taking place now.

But those are questions that we can think about some other time. The question I’m interested in today is: what would the dead say if they could speak to us?  While it is not possible to communicate with the dead (contrary to what some say and try to do), in the bible we do have some messages from the dead to the living. And they’re important and urgent messages. They come from the righteous and from the unrighteous dead, but all are relevant and urgent for us today.

The first voice from the dead that I want us to hear is that of the great prophet Samuel. In life, Samuel was one the grandest men to ever live. He was certainly one of the most influential prophets of the Old Testament and was a not only a prophet and a priest but a close counselor to King Saul. Samuel anointed the first succession of kings over the nation of Israel, Saul and later David. His confidence in Saul was misplaced though and he came to regret his involvement with this stubborn and rebellious man. All started well but the relationship quickly soured when Saul presumptuously assumed things that he had no right to assume. In 1 Samuel 13 and then in chapter 15 we read of two events that were representative of Saul’s arrogant and self-centered attitude. In chapter 13, he took it upon himself to offer a sacrifice that he had no right to offer and then in chapter 15, he refused to obey Samuel’s inspired instruction to destroy the wicked Amalekites. Such behavior caused God to reject Saul as king and to reveal plans to take the throne away from Saul and give it to David, whom Saul hated. This marked the end of Saul and Samuel’s relationship. With a broken but indignant heart, Samuel announced God’s judgment upon Saul and turned and walked away never again to go see his former friend, Saul.

As time went on, Saul’s life became a pitiful spectacle. In 1 Samuel 28, Saul is faced once again with the formidable foe of Israel, the Philistines. He needs direction. He needs counsel, but God has long since ceased talking to Saul. God had moved out of Saul’s administration a long time ago. So, with no word from God and no prophet Samuel with whom to consult, he resorts to the necromancer of Endor; a witch who claimed to be able to call people up from the dead. Now, she didn’t really have that power and neither does anybody else regardless of what they may claim, but nonetheless people thought she could and so they would go and see her when they wanted to communicate with the dead. Ironically, Saul had outlawed such activities in the kingdom but now he himself in desperation is resorting to this Satanic and pagan practice. So, late one night, he puts on a disguise and goes to this witch’s cave in Endor.

The woman, I think was a little suspicious to start with and thought that this tall visitor was an informant who would report her illegal activity to the king. But Saul assured her that no harm would come to her and so she asks, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring Samuel up for me.” Just reading that sends a chill up my spine. Now these supposed soothsayers would usually put on a convincing show. The setting such as this cave would be dark and mysterious and spooky. And these hucksters would often use ventriloquism and make it appear that sounds were coming up out of a hole or crack in the earth. I suppose she was going to do something along that line and so she begins her supposed divinations. But all the sudden, God took over and the bible says, “When the woman SAW Samuel, she shrieked!” Now, commentators and scholars debate what really happened here. Some maintain that the witch only thought it was Samuel. Others think she possessed Satanic power. I think it was a miracle of God, however. I believe that God made an exception in this case and really did cause Samuel in some form to appear from beyond the grave. Exceptions don’t make rules. They’re just that: they’re exceptions. And God had a special purpose, and He had His own reasons relating to Saul for causing this to happen.

Well, when she screamed, Saul said “what did you see!?” And the old witch scared out of her wits said to Saul, “I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth.” So, he said to her “What is his form?” (What does he look like?). And she said, “An old man is coming up and he is covered with a mantle.” And Saul knew it must be Samuel. And Samuel perturbed said “why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” And Saul explained that he was distressed because the Philistines were again making war with him and since God was no longer speaking to him, he wanted Samuel to tell him what to do. But instead of the help he was looking for, Saul instead got a dreadful warning. Samuel reminded him that God’s judgment was upon him for his sins and that he would lose the battle the next day but worst of all, so far as Saul was concerned, Samuel said “And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.” In other words, the death bell began to toll for Saul and the bible says that Saul fell out flat on the ground “and was dreadfully afraid because of the words of Samuel.”  These were chilling words from the dead prophet but they are also, in a sense, a message to the living today. “Thou and thy sons shall be with me.” Samuel’s body was in the grave and his spirit in the unseen realm of the dead and his warning simply meant that Saul was going to die.

We all need to be reminded of the certainty of death as the Hebrew writer calls our attention to the fact in Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” and as Joshua told the people when he gathered them together before his death in Joshua 23:14, saying, “Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth…”  We all need to be reminded of that but especially they who are living like Saul lived: in rebellion to God. Many who are unprepared for death refuse to think about it. They refuse to face the possibility of what comes after death. If they think about it at all, they put it far off into the future. Or they deceive themselves into believing that when death occurs, it will all work out and be alright. But after death, comes the judgment, said the writer of Hebrews. And Samuel told Saul “TOMORROW you will be with me.”

Friend, at best, everyone is “near” to death. If you live a week, a year, or fifty years from now, it still will seemingly be only a ‘tomorrow’ or a short time until we die. For Saul, the next day brought him no tomorrow. And for tens and even hundreds of thousands of people around the globe today there will be no tomorrow. Cancer, heart attacks, stroke, aneurysms, blood clots that you don’t even know are there, car accidents, natural disasters, freak accidents, and on and on we could go are all there lurking in the icy cold shadows waiting to reach out and claim as many as 150,000 victims per day. And one of these days, you’ll be one of those statistics. Samuel’s immediate warning to Saul should serve as a warning to all sinners today that death is coming. A reckoning day is approaching. The voice of Samuel from the grave warns of the certainty of death.

And then there is another voice that speaks from the great beyond and it affirms that there is EXISTENCE after death. Not only is there a continued existence, but there is also a conscious and aware existence after death. In the 16^th chapter of Luke, Jesus lifted back the veil that separated time and eternity and showed us two men who once lived but had both died. One was a poor beggar that laid outside the gate of a rich man’s palatial estate begging for crumbs to eat. He finally died and Jesus said in verse 22 that angels came and bore his spirit off to the peace and rest of Abraham’s bosom in Paradise. But then it tersely says, “The rich man also died and was buried.” And listen to verse 23: “And being in torments in Hades (which refers to the unseen realm of the dead), he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” He was very much aware of what had happened and where he was. He also had memory of his life on earth. Seeing Abraham, he begged for mercy and relief and that Lazarus might be sent to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue because he was being tormented by the flames. But it was not to be. And then he remembered his five brothers he left behind on earth and begged for him to send Lazarus back from the grave to warn them to repent and not come to where he was. But Abraham said if they wouldn’t listen to Moses and the prophets then neither would they listen though one rose from the dead.

Here is a man who was awake, he was aware, he could feel, he could suffer, he could worry, he could dread, he could converse, but he could not leave, and he could not overturn the judgment that he was now facing because of the life that he lived on earth.  Now friend, this conversation was recited by Christ to warn the Pharisees who refused to believe in Him but it’s recorded in scripture to warn us as well that there is an existence after death. Death ends nothing except for our time on this earth. There was a time when you did not exist but there will never come a day when you will not be someplace in a conscious state.

Many if not most believe that the story of Lazarus and the rich man describes an intermediate state of the dead between death and the resurrection at the last day but the bible also teaches that at the last day when Jesus returns and the dead are raised and we each one stand before Him to receive our eternal sentence that “these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:46) and the words everlasting and eternal in that verse are the same word in the original text. When we leave the physical realm of time and space, there is a metaphysical realm of eternity which, as the word itself suggests, will have no end. The rich man speaks from the grave and tells us there is existence beyond death.

And then there is one more voice coming from the city of the dead: the voice of Abel. And he tells us about PREPARING for death. In Hebrews 11:4, the bible says: “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.”

Abel was of the second generation of humankind and he and his brother Cain set precedents for all people of all time that there are two ways to worship God: One God will accept and the other He will not. God established, in the beginning, the requirement of blood sacrifice to atone for sin. This must have been revealed to them because the record says that Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain and he did it “by faith”. Since faith comes through hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17), then it must be inferred that God had revealed to Abel what kind of sacrifice he was to bring to the altar. To do something by faith means to believe and act according to what God has said. So, in other words, Abel obeyed God and Cain did not. He brought a vegetable offering instead which God rejected. You likely know the story that Cain was angry when God rejected his offering and he rose up and killed his brother Abel. Well, the bible says that “he being dead still speaks.”

These two brothers provide a great contrast that is still seen in the human race today. The way of Abel is the way of faith and obedience to God’s commands and the way of Cain (as it is called in scripture) represents the way of human opinion, human effort, substitution, and disobedience. Cain represents those who refuse to humble themselves and submit to God and Cain represents those who approach God though the way God has appointed – through faith in Christ and obedience to His will.

The message of righteous Abel is the witness of obedient faith. The bible shows us that a yielding, submitting, trusting, and obedient faith is reckoned for righteousness in the eyes of God. If somehow, one could come back from the grave today and speak to us or speak to the world at large, we would be very interested in what they have to say. But all of us should be willing to listen to these voices who did and do speak from the dead in God’s word because they’re speaking the eternal truth in all candor and honesty and in great concern for our eternal souls. Hear the voice of Samuel concerning the certainty of death. Believe the voice of the rich man and know that there is life and conscious existence after death and for most people it will not a pleasant existence. And then heed the voice of Abel and prepare for death by believing, trusting, and obeying the word of God. Place your faith in the Christ and be obedient to the gospel message repenting of your sins, confessing His name, and being united with Him in baptism so that your sins can be washed away and begin worshipping and serving Him according to His word. And I pray you’ll consider doing that today.

 

©2021 BibleWay Media. All rights reserved. BibleWay Media grants permission to copy this material for personal use. Permission is also granted to distribute this transcript as long as it is reproduced in its entirety, used solely for its original purpose of spreading the gospel, and attribution is given to the author and Let the Bible Speak.

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Welcome to Let the Bible Speak and thank you for joining me to study the bible. I want us to go back to about 630 BC when a very young king named Josiah assumed the throne of Judah. The nation was in sorry shape. Josiah’s grandfather, Manasseh, had been a wicked king and had led the people into sin and idolatry. When Manasseh died, his son Amon took the throne, but he didn’t do any better. He was killed and his son Josiah was made king. Unlike his grandfather and his father, Josiah had a pure and tender heart that wanted to do what was right in God’s sight.

Josiah became king when he was only 8-years old, and he set out with a youthful zeal to reform the nation and bring it back to God. He commissioned his people to repair the temple. As the work was being done, Hilkiah the High Priest came across a dusty old scroll in one of the storage areas of the temple and brought it to Shaphan the scribe. Their conversation and the events that followed are recorded in 2 Kings 22:8-13. The record says: “Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. So Shaphan the scribe went to the king, bringing the king word, saying, “Your servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work, who oversee the house of the Lord.” Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king. Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Michaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

It may seem incredible that the priests were trying to worship God and did not even have a copy of the law which prescribed their worship. But it’s not so unusual when you consider that much of the religion in our world today doesn’t seem to depend upon God’s written word either. When the book of the law was brought to King Josiah and he heard it read, Josiah was distressed to learn just how far away from God the nation had drifted. He saw the need for a great restoration. And that need exists today as well. I want to use as the basis for our study today: I HAVE FOUND THE BOOK. What will happen when we find, read, and apply the word of God to the church today?

Renovations can lead to some incredible discoveries. A few years ago, a family in Pennsylvania tore out a wall of their old family home which had say empty for 20-years. They found $200,000 worth of old coins.  In 2006, a man tore down a false wall in his home and found an original painting by Norman Rockwell worth $5 million. And in 1990, a man was going through an attic and found an old trunk. Inside was the missing hand-written manuscript of ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’, Mark Twain’s famous novel first published in 1884. How excited all these people must have been when they uncovered those treasures.

But it wasn’t just excitement; there was a shocking realization when, during temple repairs, the High Priest Hilkiah came across the Book of the Law in one of the rooms of the Lord’s house. He found a dusty old scroll containing the Law of Moses. When he sent it to King Josiah and a scribe read it aloud, the king immediately recognized that he and his people were not living and worshipping according to its precepts. They had violated their part of the covenant, and this distressed Josiah. He ‘tore his clothes’ and said “…great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.” (2 Kings 22:13) He realized when God’s written law was lost — the people lost their way. That’s what always happens when we set aside God’s word and begin worshipping and living according to our own ideas and traditions. The remedy is to take out the book, read it, see where we are failing to follow it, and make the necessary changes. That sounds simple enough, but few of us seem to have the virtue and determination to do so.

Josiah was a reformer and a restorationist. He led perhaps the last movement in Old Testament times to restore the law to its rightful place of governance over the temple and the lives of the people. Just as in the days of Josiah, a restoration of God’s word and God’s ways is in order today. While we no longer live under the Old Testament law as the people of Judah did long ago, Christ Jesus did establish His church (Matthew 16:18); became the head of it (Colossians 1:18); and through His apostles gave it His word to guide it (John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 14:37).

Just as the Book of the Law was lost to the people in the time leading up to Josiah, so the word of Christ and His apostles has largely been lost to the religious world today. Oh, we have copies of the New Testament in abundance, but the fact is its commandments and apostolic examples have been buried by thousands of years of human tradition and doctrines of men. What we need today is to be like Josiah who opened his ears and his heart to the book of God’s law and who recognize how far adrift we are from what it says and determine to return and restore what was originally authored and instituted by Christ.

Let’s imagine that we’ve just uncovered the New Testament and opened its pages for the first time in many generations. Would the things we read shock us as they did Josiah long ago and prompt us to make changes to restore the bible order of things?

When we find and open the book, we’ll learn about the ORIGIN of the Christian faith and of the church. The church that Jesus established began on the Day of Pentecost in the city of Jerusalem after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. It is an ancient institution that was founded by Christ Himself and was made complete by and in Him. It was not established by Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Smith, Wesley, Campbell, Eddy, or any other theologian or some professing prophet. It was built by Christ. Jesus said to Peter and the apostles “…on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” The religious landscape is dotted with a dizzying number of denominations and divisions today that are the result of the doctrines of men and not the teaching of Christ. No man or woman has any right to build a church. Christ did that.  And then, that book will tell us that Christ only built ONE church and desired for it to remain one. He prayed that those who would believe on Him through the word of the apostles would be one just as He and His Father in heaven are one. Yet, today, we not only have a maze of denominations and sects, but we also justify such and claim that such is somehow the will of God. I’ve heard people express thanks for the many denominations that represent such diversity of belief and practice and extoll the virtue of such a system. Religious division has been the norm for so long until we take it for granted and believe that one church is as good as another, and one can be saved no matter what he professes and practices in religion today. Find and open the book and you’ll discover that such was not only not the case in the first century, but it is contrary to everything Christ and His apostles taught while they were on earth. Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 “Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” Christ never willed there to be hundreds of contrary and opposing institutions all claiming to be His church.

And then, when the book is found and read, we’ll read what that church was called and how it was described. It bears the name of its builder and its head, Christ Jesus. It’s called ‘the body of Christ’ (Ephesians 1:22). It’s called the church of Christ (Romans 16:16). It’s called the church of first-born (which refers to Christ) in Hebrews 12:23. It’s called the bride of Christ (Revelation 21:9). It is the church of the living God (1 Timothy 3:15). It’s referred to as the church of God which He (Christ – God the Son) has purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28). We never read of it being Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Mormon, Seventh-Day Adventist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal, Catholic, or any other such description of name. The church revealed in the book was founded by Christ, headed by Christ, one in Christ, and described as belonging to Christ. Do you suppose the religious world forgot that many years ago?

When we find and read the book, we’ll also learn how people become part of that church. We won’t read that people we’re voted in by the church. We do not read where they signed a card or even where they joined it. What we will read is that when men and women heard the gospel, believed it, repented of their sins, and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins, that the Lord added them to it. The Lord considered them a member of His church the moment they were saved when they obeyed the teaching of the gospel. Look at Acts 2. The people on the Day of Pentecost heard Peter’s convicting sermon and wanted to be saved. They asked Peter, “what shall we do? Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Verse 41 says: “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.” Added to what? Look at verse 47: “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” When preachers suggest that you can join the church through baptism or any other means at some point after you’ve been saved, friend, they’ve lost the book of the law. They’ve departed from the biblical pattern. For that matter, when they tell you that you can be saved by only believing or by praying a prayer you read nothing about in the early church, that ought to tell you that they have drifted away from the book. In the New Testament, people were saved and added by the Lord to the church at the same time when they in faith and repentance, obeyed the Lord in baptism for the remission of their sins.

And then, what will we find when it comes to the worship of the church? If we, like Josiah, suddenly found the lost word of God and opened it afresh, we would find many things being practiced that are contrary to the commands and examples of scripture. We would, for example, find where Paul forbade women from becoming preachers and teachers in public. “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says.” (1 Corinthians 14:34) Or “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.” (1 Timothy 2:12) Today, women preachers, pastors, and evangelists are becoming more and more commonplace and as the practice is more accepted and normalized, the farther those who claim to be the Lord’s church will drift from the sacred scriptures. When we find and open the New Testament scriptures, we will only read of the church singing praise to God. You must go forward several hundred years in church history to find the introduction of instrumental music into Christian worship. Most religious bodies, including a vast number of churches of Christ, began using multiple loaves and individual communion cups several generations ago. But neither will you find in God’s law for the record plainly tells us in all four accounts of the institution of the Lord’s Supper that Jesus took a loaf (‘artos’ in the Greek) of unleavened bread and ate it with His disciples, and He took, blessed, and gave to them a cup containing fruit of the vine telling them all to drink of it. And He gave each item memorial significance as He instituted the feast. If Josiah lived today and found the New Testament, what would he say of such practices?

Now then, some will say that none of these things matters because Christianity was meant to evolve and change with the passing of time. They contend that the New Testament contains no instructions or pattern for the church that is meant to be followed until the end of time. They argue that the plea for restoration of first-century apostolic Christianity by carefully following the teachings and examples of the primitive church is unreasonable and irrelevant. Friend, if that be the case, I want to sincerely ask a question: where do you draw the line? At what point do we stop and say that this is one change too much. Or is there such a line where you are concerned? How far are we willing to go along with all the change and innovation that has occurred and continues to occur?

I contend that the plea to restore apostolic Christianity is very much valid and that’s it’s called for today. I contend that such a plea is always appropriate when men depart from a ‘thus says the Lord’ to follow their own traditions. It was a worthy plea during the days of Jeroboam – the first king of northern Israel. His apostasy is outlined in 1 Kings 13. Instead of keeping the worship of God pure and free of graven images, he set up golden calves through which to worship. Instead of the temple in Jerusalem, he substituted the cities of Bethel and Dan as centers of Israelite worship. He made it ‘more convenient or expedient’ in other words. He decided that the priests no longer had to be taken from the tribe of Levi but instead opened the priesthood to all. Then he changed the day of the feast of tabernacles to a different day. Now, much of that would seem minor and insignificant to people today but what did God think? Twenty-one times, the Old Testament says that Jeroboam made the people to sin.

Now, that was under the Old Testament law. Does the principle apply today? Well, the early church was commended for continuing “steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine.” (Acts 2:42) Paul later taught the church at Corinth that were not to “think (or ‘go beyond’ as the American Standard Version puts it) the things that were written.” (1 Corinthians 4:6) And John declares that “Whoever transgresses (goes beyond) and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.” (2 John 9)

The idea of an evolutionary faith that changes and adjusts to the times is simply not found in the word of God. We are to apply God’s unchanging word to our times and circumstances and not the other way around!   Now, you see, Josiah understood this. When the book of the law was found, and he saw that he and his people were not seeking God after the due order – that they were adrift from the pattern that Moses originally gave – he was grieved, and he saw the immediate need to reform the nation and restore the divine order of things. That’s because he had a heart to want to please God and not the people. For the scripture says of him in 2 Kings 23:25, “Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him.” May God give us the heart of young Josiah who want to please and honor God in all our ways.

 

©2021 BibleWay Media. All rights reserved. BibleWay Media grants permission to copy this material for personal use. Permission is also granted to distribute this transcript as long as it is reproduced in its entirety, used solely for its original purpose of spreading the gospel, and attribution is given to the author and Let the Bible Speak.

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Preaching has been a part of God’s plan since nearly the dawn of time. The scriptures call Noah “a preacher of righteousness” who warned of the coming flood while he prepared the ark. God sent a long procession of prophets forth during the times of the Old Testament to preach to His both faithful and wayward people. I don’t know that there was ever a greater preacher, besides the Lord Jesus, than John the Baptist who stirred the hearts of multitudes of people and pointed them to the imminent revelation of the Messiah and His kingdom. And, of course, Jesus Christ can never be paralleled as a preacher sent from heaven. His sermons and sayings captivated multitudes, stumped the scholars of His time, melted stony hearts, and left people gazing in wonder and saying, “never a man spake like this man.” And when Christ sent His apostles forth to herald the gospel of salvation and when He built His church, He commissioned that the good news be spread through preaching. Most preaching is out of vogue today but there is just as great a need for preaching today as there ever has been. When Paul wrote his second letter to his protégé’ and son in the faith, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 4:1-2, he said: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” 

God has an important job for the preacher. It is a job that comes with stringent requirements and with strict judgment. And as I said, the world and the church needs preaching today as much as they ever have. But WHAT KIND OF PREACHING DO WE NEED? That will be the question we pose for our sermon today.

It may seem as though we are experiencing these days a dearth of preaching. That’s not really the case. There are all kinds of preaching going on and its relatively easy to find. Besides the church buildings we see on nearly every corner, there are entire television and radio networks devoted to nearly 24 hours a day of preaching. The internet, including YouTube and other social media sites, as well as countless websites, all contain hours and hours and hours of preaching. There is so much preaching available that you can listen to as much of it as you desire any time you like and no matter where you live. In fact, I would venture to say that there is much more preaching going on in the world today than there ever has been. But preaching comes in many forms, styles, and approaches, not to mention the many things that are bring preached. So, you can not only readily find preaching, but you can also find about any KIND you want to hear. And there are about as many opinions about what kind of preaching is best and what kind of preaching is most needed in our modern world. Not all preaching is good preaching. Not all preaching is worth your time and attention. In fact, a great deal of the preaching going on today is doing more harm than it is good.

So, just what kind of preaching do we need today? What kind of preaching pleases and honors God? Paul told the Corinthian church that “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.” Now, Paul is not suggesting that preaching is a foolish thing to do. He is rather referring to the world’s attitude toward preaching. He is saying that in the eyes of the self-righteous Jew and the sophisticated Greek, preaching Christ and Him crucified was a foolish thing to them. But Paul says that such preaching is God’s means to save mankind. That makes preaching an essential thing. And it’s just as important today as it was then. To some, preaching is out of vogue, and we have replaced it with lecturing; or counseling; or with entertaining; but we need preaching and God demands that His will be preached. But what kind of preaching pleases God and accomplishes the purposes for which He commissioned it?

I would like to point out at least five things that the word of God sets forth that describe the kind of preaching that God desires to be done and thus, the kind of preaching we need today as opposed to much of what we hear. First, we need APOSTOLIC preaching. The apostles of Christ not only possess the authority Christ gave them to legislate all matters in the church, but they were also the ones immediately commissioned by Christ to preach the gospel to the world and to instruct the church in righteousness. And so, the apostles are our examples in preaching and the truth they passed down to us through their word is the thing we are commanded to preach. Paul told the younger preacher Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1-2, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” It was not up to Timothy to preach whatever he wanted to preach. Paul charged him with preaching the things that he (Paul, the apostle) had given to him. He then told him in chapter 4:2 to “Preach the word…” That’s all the faithful gospel preacher can preach is the word. He’s not there to preach or promote himself or his own work or ministry. He’s not there to share his opinion. He’s not there to be an entertainer. He’s not there to do whatever he needs to do or preach to draw a crowd or attract a following. He’s not there to give people what they want. He’s not there to get involved in the kingdoms of men and the political system and dabble in the affairs of the civil state. He’s not there to right the wrongs of society through social initiatives and programs. He’s not the CEO of a business enterprise. He’s not there to merely visit the hospitals, perform your weddings, and conduct your funerals. He’s not there to review the book of the month, he’s there to preach the book of the ages! Friend, let me tell you, if you listen to a preacher who spends more of his time quoting various authors, citing statistics, reading poetry, and telling stories than he does quoting scripture, you’ve got the wrong preacher. That’s not the kind of preaching the world nor the church needs.

The gospel is the power of God to save those who believe it (Romans 1:16). The word of God can save those who hear it (James 1:21). The word is the weapon and the instrument through which the Spirit of God converts the sinner and sanctifies the believer (Ephesians 6:17). If all of that is true, shouldn’t a preacher be in the business of preaching the word and only the word? Shouldn’t that be what he is there to do and what you can count on him to ALWAYS do? That’s the kind of preaching Jesus and His apostles did, and we are charged today just as much as Timothy and others were 2,000 years ago to preach those things the apostles gave us to preach. “Preach the word. Be instant in season and out of season.” Preaching should point people to Christ. It should instruct people in how to live the Christian life and please God. It should lead to faith and obedience on the part of the hearers. It should strengthen and develop Christians and result in them becoming more like Christ. And it should impart the hope and comfort that comes, not from the preacher’s affirmation, but from the blessed promises of the word of God to the faithful.

But our preaching should not only be APOSTOLIC; it should thus be ABSOLUTE and AUTHORITATIVE. Preachers need to preach with conviction. Of course, we must be studious and ever so careful to be sure that what we are preaching comes from God’s word and is therefore true, but the preacher should never approach the word of God with a mealy-mouthed, take-it or leave-it, live-and-let-live attitude. If the bible teaches something, preachers should preach it with fervor and with authority. One of the reasons the world and sometimes the church doesn’t take the word of God as seriously as they should is because their preachers don’t leave anyone with the impression that it’s really that big of a deal.

Jesus spoke with authority. When people heard Him preach, they walked away “astonished at His doctrine”, the bible says in Mark 1:22, “for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.” The teachers of the law would stand in the synagogues, and they would cite the opinions and the teachings of the various rabbis, and they would cloud the law with their own interpretations and traditions, but Jesus was different. He said “‘you have heard…’ but I SAY UNTO YOU.” And if we’re preaching what Jesus and His apostles preached, we should do it with the same confidence and authority that they did. People need to know that the word of God means what it says. They need to know that the word of God has authority over them today. They need to know that its testimonies are true and that one day we will be eternally judged by what it says. Arrogant? No! Ignorantly dogmatic? No! But confident in a thus sayeth the Lord? Absolutely! May the Lord send men into the fields today who have the burning word of God in their hearts and preach it like people’s lives depend upon it. Because they do.

And not only do we need preaching that is APOSTOLIC; and preaching that is ABSOLUTE; but we need preaching that is AUTHENTIC. The field of preaching has been disgraced by far too many who have preached for gain or for popularity and who have shamed the name of Christ and His cause by wicked and hypocritical living. Men who have built their religious empires by fleecing the poor and the vulnerable so they can fly on private jets and live in the lap of luxury and in some cases were living morally wicked lives in the process have discredited the gospel they claim to preach. I want you to listen to what God said through the Psalmist in Psalm 50:16-17. This is a stinging indictment of the hypocrite if there ever was one! He says: “But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, Or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, And castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, And hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, And thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; Thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” That’s what God thinks of the man who preaches for gain or for whatever purpose and doesn’t try to live by the word he preaches.

Now, that doesn’t mean the preacher must be a perfect man – for that would disqualify all. It doesn’t mean that one who has lived a sinful life in the past but has left that life behind may never again preach – for that would have barred Peter, Paul, and everyone else for that matter from the pulpit. He MUST, however, be a man who is now seeking and striving to please God. He must be a man who repents when he is wrong and strives to practice all that he preaches and all that the word of God commands.

And then we need preaching that is AFFECTIONATE. That is to say, we need preachers who are motivated by love for the souls of sinners. I’m afraid in our zeal to preach what is right and to defend the truth against evil, some of us have gotten the wrong idea about preaching. The preacher’s mission is not merely to scold and to punish. That doesn’t mean that he never rebukes people in sin because if he failed to do that, he would be ignoring the command of God. (2 Timothy 4:2) But when he must rebuke, he does so because first, he loves the sinner, and second because it’s necessary to pull the person away from their sin. I have heard preachers that I honestly believe they enjoy condemning people. They derive some egotistical or sadistic satisfaction from denouncing and pronouncing judgment upon others. I have encountered church members who it seems they almost enjoy seeing others tied to the homiletic whipping post and being “worked over” by the preacher. That’s not what preaching is for. The object of preaching is not for the preacher to be able to walk away beating his chest and say “well, I sure told them.” Preaching is to save the sinner and a preacher must preach motivated by and always controlled by his genuine love and concern FOR the sinner. And if he’s not preaching because of his love for the Lord Jesus Christ and for those Jesus died to save, then he needs to find another profession.

Now, there’s another side to that too: a preacher who is unwilling to condemn sin and rebuke those who sin doesn’t really love the sinner and he doesn’t really love the will of God. Isaiah 58:1 says, “Cry aloud, spare not, Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, And shew my people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins.”  When Paul wrote to Titus about those who teach false doctrine, he said: “…Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;” There IS a time for rebuke and censure. The preacher does have a responsibility to point out sin and error and to condemn it by the word of God. But it is love for Christ and love for the sinner that should compel him to do so. And when that truly is his motive, it will be easily seen, and his rebuke will be more likely to be received and repentance brought about. (Story of man who got a letter from his son).

And finally, we need preaching that is not only apostolic, absolute, authentic, and affectionate, but we also need preaching today that is APOCALYPTIC. Apocalyptic writing in the ancient world was prophetic writing that generally foretold of some judgment of evil and gave the signal that victory was ahead for the righteousness. The book of Revelation, for example, is an example of an apocalyptic book. Now, today, preachers have no new revelation nor anything new of which to prophesy. But our preaching should point people toward eternity. There is a judgment to face, a heaven to gain, and a hell to shun and our preaching should be reminding our busy, distracted, and indifferent world of those facts. Someone counted and said that approximately one out of every 25 verses in the New Testament deal with some type of coming judgment, such as the Destruction of Jerusalem which the early disciples were repeatedly warned of; or the second coming of Christ; or the final judgment. But have you noticed the lack of urgency in much of the preaching we hear today? Much of what comes from modern pulpits emphasizes how to have your best life here and now. While we should certainly relish the joy that comes from living for Christ in this world, we must never forget that this world is not our home. It is temporary. Our lives are short. Death and the judgment are drawing nearer every day. We are 20-minutes closer to the return of Christ than when we began this sermon. Jesus said in Mark 13:33 “Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” And Paul said in Romans 13:11-12, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light.” Preachers need to be taking the word of God and lighting the fires of revival. The church needs to be waking up but much of the preaching we’re hearing is putting us to sleep. The world needs Jesus, and they need to know that time is running out and that a dark and terrible eternity is looming without Him. Does your preacher ever preach about the Judgment Day? Does he still preach about hell, and does he warn people about it? Jude said in verses 22-23: “And of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” Yes, we need preaching that is apocalyptic and that draws people’s eyes to the eastern sky and that challenges and urges them to prepare for the judgment and for eternity. Such may seem out of style, but that’s the kind of preaching that we need today.

 

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