THE CHARGE

Sermon of the Week #200712 – March 18, 2007

“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”...Paul told Timothy to preach the Word. In view of what the last thing Paul said in the previous chapter, what else is there to preach? He said in the last two verses of the third chapter, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Since all scripture is inspired of God, no wonder he said, “Preach the word.” He did not say, “I charge thee, preach psychology, biology, ecology or anything else”, he said, “Preach the Word!” Every other subject is beyond the range of the preacher’s responsibility. Preach nothing but the gospel because there isn’t anything else to preach. Preach the Word! He said, “I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, preach the Word.”

One preacher I know was invited to speak at a chapel service in a Bible College. Someone asked him, “Aren’t you afraid to preach before all of those scholars?” He said, “No, I'm not afraid, because I have been preaching before God and the Lord Jesus Christ for thirty years.” Preachers, when you preach, just remember who is listening to your sermon. Preach the Word! Preach the Word in view of the fact that you preach before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom. He said He would judge the living and the dead at His appearing. I do not see even a hairline crack between the word at, and His appearing. There is no room for a one thousand year millennium here. Some can see a chasm as wide as the Grand Canyon. There is nothing that we can do about the millennium until the Lord comes, so preach on, and the Lord will work out the details when He comes.

Paul admonishes us to be urgent in season and out of season. There needs to be a sense of urgency in every sermon. This is a life and death message. That is why you cannot afford to miss any sermon you hear on this broadcast. It might be the most important event that will take place this week. That is the urgency that we need to give every Bible School lesson and every sermon. He says, “Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering suffering and doctrine.” There are only two seasons to preach the Word; one is the in-season and the other is the out-season. Preaching the Word is always in season.

We have a lot of strawberry Christians. Strawberry Christians are the ones who preach, worship, and work in a particular season. They come in season, usually in the spring during the Lenten season and really get ripe on Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday, they are juicy, juicy, juicy! The strawberry contingent usually begins their season with Ash Wednesday. They go to services, and have ashes daubed on their face. This begins the Lenten fast. They may be dressed up in crocodile shoes and the latest fashion in clothing, and they go about with ashes smeared on their faces. Now what did the Lord say about that? He said in Matthew 6, “Moreover when ye fast be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”

The ashes in some way are supposed to represent repentance. Some of the Old Testament folk repented in sackcloth and ashes. If you put ashes on your face, wash it off before you appear in public. Lent ends on Maundy Thursday. Maundy comes from the Latin word man datum, standing for the Lord’s last mandate before He went to the cross, “By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples if ye have love one to another.”

Actually, the Devil doesn’t care whether you give the Lord forty days or not, just as long as you give him the other three hundred and twenty-six. Be urgent in season and out of season.

The question is often asked, “What are you giving up for Lent?” I heard of one lady who said she was giving up cod fish cakes. I never liked them anyway. One lady one time told me she was giving up ice cream. What a tremendous sacrifice! I’ll tell you what to give up; don’t give up anything unless you give it up for good. Give up your cigarettes. Give up your booze. Give up drugs. Give up what Paul said when he referred to vile passions. Give up sin. Preach the Word in season and out of season.

Sometimes we preachers think there is an off-season when it comes to preaching. We prepare a sermon with greater care for some event than others. A committee one time called on Enrico Caruso about singing for a concert at a benefit. The chairman said, “Of course, Mr. Caruso, we don’t expect much from you, just sing a little ditty, something easy, this is for charity, your name will draw the crowd. Caruso said, “Gentlemen, Caruso never does less than his best.” Paul spoke of the in-season and the out-season. He never said anything about the off-season. Preach the Word. Remember he said, “Reprove, rebuke and exhort.”

Whatever happened to reprove and rebuke? We never hear it anymore. I saw a religious television program one time when the preacher made his appearance in a glorious robe, opened wide his arms to the audience, and loudly exclaimed, “I am impressed with all of you beautiful people.” Perhaps you preachers listening in today might try that one for a few Sundays, if you want to get a raise. Whatever happened to reprove and rebuke? Personally I do not like to be rebuked anymore than you do. If anyone rebukes me, I might get mad and not come back, but that does not lessen the preacher’s responsibility to reprove and rebuke with all longsuffering.

One time in a large men’s meeting, I told them, “Go home, my brother, and spit in the Devil’s eye.” About a month later a preacher told me he did what I said, and they fired him. He said, “What is my next move?” I did not say the Devil would not fire him; I just said to spit in his eye. Of course, he won’t like it, but do it anyway!

However, reprove and rebuke is not all there is to preaching the Word. There is a little matter of exhorting. To exhort is to encourage and urge people. Try exhorting them to read the Word of God. A casual reading of the Word of God is not enough; just reading it through once a year simply won’t cut it. Go back and read it again. While it is important to read the Bible all the way through, in some cases, it is like a sightseeing tour. Suppose a person sets out to drive from the east coast to the west coast. He comes home and you ask him if he saw Saint Louis? He says, “Yes, I went to Saint Louis; I saw the skyline on the way around the circle freeway.” Then ask someone who has read the Bible through, “Did you see Abraham?” “Oh yes, I saw Abraham on my way to meet Moses, and I saw Moses on the way to meet David, and I saw Daniel on my way out of the Old Testament.” Try not to make your journey through the Bible a sightseeing tour stop off and visit with Abraham, and then take a long visit with Moses, spend some time with the Apostles, and spend much time at the cross and the empty tomb. Preach the Word! Reprove, rebuke and exhort.

And remember that he also said with all longsuffering and doctrine. He told Timothy to preach doctrine. Some preachers don’t preach doctrine; they cop out by saying, “Our people already know all that stuff.” I wish somebody would tell that to the preachers who are always preaching the doctrine of faith-only on the radio and television, “Just bow your head and ask the Lord to come into your heart.” Why do they say it over and over? Don’t they know that people already know all that stuff?

Then Paul gives Timothy this warning, “For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine, but having itching ears will heap unto themselves, teachers after their own lusts and turn away their ears from the truth unto fables.” The real problem is not the people who have itching ears, but some preachers who have itching palms.

Back in the thirties, there was an entertainer who always greeted her audience the same way, “Hello, suckers.” This was met with loud guffaws from the audience. As the show began, she shouted to the other performers, “Give the suckers what they want!” That is the philosophy of most preachers today. Give the suckers what they want. The message of the congregation to the preacher is, “Tell us what we want to hear and if you don’t, we will get rid of you and get somebody who will.” Give the suckers what they want! Keep ’em happy!

Many years ago I overheard a conversation in a country store. Two ladies were talking and one said to the other, “My son tells me he has had the itch four times this summer, and he has enjoyed it all four times.” Some are just itching for me to say, “One baptism is as good as another.” I will not scratch no matter how much you would enjoy it. Preach the Word!

Peter said in his second epistle with feigned words, “They make merchandise of you.” The word feigned in Greek, is plastois. Sounds like he says, “With plastic words.” The meaning of plastos is to mold to make fit. Some people can mold and shape, and make any verse in the Bible fit their particular slant. We have a lot of plastic preaching. Some conventions appear to be fifty percent plastic. Peter said, “They make merchandise of you.” That means that we have been sold down the river by a plastic ministry, whose philosophy is, “Give the suckers what they want.” Preach the Word!

Then Paul gives Timothy a word of encouragement as he considers the awesome responsibility of preaching the Word, “Be thou sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” Paul does not say that he is going to die. He says he is going to depart. He is going someplace else. This is not the end. There is more beyond. The time will come when you will depart. The question is, “Where are you going?”

The word depart is a nautical word. It suggests a ship being loosed from the pier, and setting out to sea. Paul is getting ready to go on a cruise, and sail away from this world. I want to go on that cruise too, and when I do, I say with the poet, Tennyson, “Sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me-And may there be no moaning of the bar when I put out to sea-But such a tide as moving seems asleep-too full for sound and, foam-When that which drew from out the deep- turns again home-Twilight and evening bell, and after that the dark-And may there be no sadness of farewell, when I embark-When through from out our bourne of time and place-The flood may bear me far-I hope to see my Pilot face to face-When I have crossed the bar.”

There was no doubt as to where Paul was going. He said, “I have fought a good fight.” When I was in about the second grade I heard the kids in the schoolyard say that there would be a fight that night in the schoolyard. So I thought the fight would be between two kids in school and they were going to come back after school-hours and fight. That night after supper, I told my mother that there was going to be a big fight in the schoolyard about two blocks away and I thought I ought to go. I told her that two guys by the names of Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney were the ones who would fight, and that Jack Dempsey was going to win. She informed me that the fight would not be in the schoolyard, it would be in Chicago, and Jack Dempsey was not going to win. She said Gene Tunney was going to win. During the fight, which, of course, I did not see, Jack Dempsey knocked Gene Tunney down. The referee began to count. He counted up to ten and because Dempsey had not gone to a neutral corner, he kept on counting. He counted all the way to twenty. Tunney got up and continued the fight, and won the decision. I’ll tell you about another fight greater than that. It is and was the fight that I have had all my life with the Devil. He knocks me down and never goes to a neutral corner. He just stands there and stomps on me.

Later when Max Baer fought Joe Louis, somebody said Baer would win because he had Dempsey in his corner. Dempsey did not do Baer a bit of good. I heard the fight on the radio, and Louis knocked him out in one of the early rounds. In the fight I have with the Devil, I am going to win, because I have Christ in my corner. Will you be able to say with Paul, “I have fought a good fight…”?

He also said, “I have finished the course.” He knew he had planted his last Church. He had written his last epistle. This was the end. I have finished the course. Paul told Timothy to fulfill his ministry; don’t quit; finish! It is at the finish that you will want to say, “I have prayed my last prayer. I have preached my last sermon. I have sung my last song. I have baptized the last convert. I have finished the course.” It has been wisely said, “It ain’t over till it’s over. It ain’t over until the fat lady sings.” Every time a lady who is pleasingly plump sings a solo before I preach, I say to myself this may be the day when it will be said, “He has finished his course, because the fat lady has sung.” Fulfill thy ministry. Then he said, “I have kept the faith.” If you believe the plan of salvation as preached by Peter the day the church began, never be satisfied with anything less; keep the faith. If you have been taught to observe the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week, never be satisfied with anything less keep the faith.

Then Paul speaks of that great day when the Lord, that righteous Judge shall give to me, the crown of life. Jesus is the righteous Judge. The righteous Judge will overturn many of the decisions of the lower courts of this world. Personally, I believe the law permitting abortion will be overturned. The prayer amendment will be overturned. On that day, some things some declared to be legally right, will be declared to be morally rotten by the righteous Judge of the universe. Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed unto men to die and after this the Judgment.”