The Power of Weak Preaching - 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Where does revival come from?

Can we have a big pepper rally and maybe get some musicians up here and stir up our emotions and just kind of beat the drum?

Let's have revival.

Let's have revival and get people excited.

And I think a lot of churches function that way in seeking to excite revival, to push revival in some form of external way through emotionalism.

And it can do a, it can seem beneficial during the event Sunday morning when the worship is lively and moving and you can leave thinking, wow, that was wonderful.

Kind of like a pepper rally is to a sporting team.

That was amazing.

That was fun.

But 10 minutes after you drive out of the parking lot, nothing's changed.

It was great in the moment, but there was no life changing event.

And you go back to the same sins.

You go back to the same lukewarmness.

You go back and your life is not anymore.

In reality, I move towards holiness and to godliness.

There's really no change.

And if we think about how, how, how can we have revival and another way of looking at it, if it's not looking for revival is like, how can the church have an impact in the world or gain power in this world or authority?

Where is the authority of the church found?

I mean, churches are looking to be taken seriously in the communities.

We want a voice.

We want to be seen as a viable option for the community to go, look, this is, this is where we need to be.

We need to listen to the church.

And so often churches are given to trying to build authority in the community, build respectability influence upon the community.

But the church has an inherent problem to overcome.

There is a major difficulty in impressing the world.

And a lot of church growth is based upon trying to impress unbelievers.

I want to be there.

There's something they have to say, but there's an inherent problem that the church has to overcome.

The message it has to give the world is something the world disdain.

We have a message of crucifixion and death.

We have a message that teaches that there's none righteous, no, not one.

It's a message of humility, a message of man is not good.

It's a message that men and women are sinners.

A message of depravity is not a message that the world wants to hear.

We have a message of judgment, hell, wrath.

This doctrine is not what the world thinks is respectable.

So the church has a message that they're called to proclaim, but is a message that the world inherently doesn't want to receive.

And so the church is tempted to gain respectability and authority in the community, to gain a voice among unbelievers by adopting the same tactics that secular societies and institutions ploy to gain a hearing.

And this was the problem of the church of Corinth.

We've already talked about how they are evaluating preachers, not based upon spiritual credentials, but upon showy credentials, what appeared to be more impressive.

They gravitated to the preaching of Apollos because he was an articulate presenter of the gospel.

He was trained speaker.

And they looked at Paul and go, Paul, you're not that good of a speaker.

And if we're going to impress society, we need those who are impressive, something that can attract hearers if you would.

And so Paul has given arguments, why not to evaluate preaching and in one way, the ministry of the church based upon the evaluation that the world would evaluate a church on.

And he says, you're looking at Paul and Apollos through these lens of who can preach better and who can speak better and who seems to be the more educated among them.

That's what you're evaluating preaching upon.

But actually, that's not where the power is.

And he comes to his third argument and he uses himself as an illustration.

He says, remember when I came to you.

You were converted under my preaching and under my ministry.

Now remember, was I very impressive?

He starts off in verse one of chapter two.

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.

And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and a power so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

See what Paul is doing is explaining where real power comes from.

He's really explaining if we want revival, where revival would come from, where power comes from.

What is revival?

Martin, Lord Jones says revival is when the spirit comes in power and unusual way to bring effect on many people at the same time.

And would we not want God to work in our day, work in our preaching, work in our church services that would be truly transformational among ourselves, that we would come to church and we would be transformed into the likeness of Christ, that we wouldn't just come and you know, as soon as the sermons over go, hey, I can't wait to eat.

I can go back to my normal life and unbelievers and visitors coming in couldn't just come in and sat down in their life, just be essentially the same.

Or maybe they learned a couple of true facts about scriptures, but there was no power.

There was no sanctification.

There was no humbling of the self and a more exalted view of God in their minds and hearts.

Do you desire to come to church and be unchanged?

Do you desire to come here and just listen and be entertained?

Or do you want to meet God?

You want to experience God in a real way?

Is this an act of supernatural power in your lives?

Or is it just like every other lecture that the world can offer you?

You know, you've gone to the seminars, you've gone to school, you've said in the classroom, you've learned some things, but learning in of itself will only pop you up and think you're smart.

It won't humble you.

Where is the real authority of the church?

Do we need a better musicians and better entertainment?

Do we need fog machines?

Do we need lights?

Do we need schools?

Do we need these things to bring the world in?

And maybe if we get our kids to love the church, maybe we can get teenagers to be, I want to go there.

They've got a fantastic youth ministry and I could really get along with all people there and I can't wait to go to church.

Is that what we need for the church to have power?

For God to work in our lives?

Well this text tells us where the power comes from.

First it tells it where it doesn't come from, then it tells us where it does come from.

First it doesn't come from man, it doesn't come from us.

There's nothing I can do to produce it.

I can't speak in a way that you're going to believe.

There's no school that will teach me how to speak or preach in a way that you'll believe.

That's humbling.

There's no performance, there's nothing we can do here to save souls.

It doesn't come from us.

It doesn't come from man.

It doesn't come from our oratory skills or from our wisdom.

First we see it doesn't come from our oratory skills in verse 1.

You see the world is going to take the, if the world is going to take the church seriously then the church needs winsome spokesmen.

I mean think about the marketing firms that are looking for the athlete or the Hollywood star that is articulate.

Good looking and can speak well.

There's a lot of money that can be made if you have the right spokesmen offering a product.

We need you to sell our product.

You can speak well and you look well.

People know you, you have a platform and then we can sell a lot of stuff if we have you in front of the cameras.

Maybe the church says maybe if we can get just such people behind the pulpit the world would buy our products.

The world would be attracted to our churches.

We don't need poor preaching and humble men and people that can't string a couple words together.

We need the right spokesmen.

We need articulate speakers.

Those who are trained in the art of speaking.

We need professionals.

We're tempted to think we need professional speakers, spokesmen, those who are trained in oratory skills.

Google says about oratory a good orator knows how to make an entrance appears as as it appears aspirational and has a commanding presence.

Oratory is the skill of eloquence and persuasion.

You see eloquence is being smooth and fluid in your speech.

Persuasion is the art if you would of closing the deal.

We need good salesmen.

We need men who know how to persuade.

We need such men to get the church to be taken seriously.

You see this was a big deal in ancient Rome.

The Greeks trained not just to know philosophy but they had a whole branch of philosophy called rhetoric.

And Aristotle defined rhetoric as the ability to persuade, to convince.

And if we just had men who knew how to convince people how to die to the self, to glorify God then we could be successful as a ministry.

Yep Paul says such professional orators is not where the authority is found in the church.

You see look at verse one.

When I came to you brothers I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech.

One translation translates this as eloquence of human wisdom.

The NASB says I did not come as someone superior in speaking ability.

The original has the idea of elevated or high speech.

Speech that seems superior to other speech.

He says there was nothing about my preaching that would mark me as a better speaker than anybody else.

In fact he says you deemed me as my speaking ability as nothing to take note of as a base.

You weren't a great preacher.

You weren't a great speaker.

Paul says well that wasn't my concern.

When I came to you I wasn't trying to impress you.

I wasn't trying to get you to be a follower of Paul because you thought I was a great orator or as a great speaker.

I didn't want you to be impressed with me.

That wasn't my objective.

You see Paul's preaching was discounted and looked down upon because he wasn't as eloquent as the Apollos, his friend Apollos.

You see he wasn't overly gifted.

That's not where power comes from.

You see rhetoric and oratory skills cannot precise sinners to turn from their sins.

Simply it cannot raise people from the dead.

If you understand depravity you understand it's not in the preacher.

You see look at verse 4 skip down to verse 4.

It says my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom.

The USB says my preaching was not in persuasive words.

The King James says my preaching was not with enticing words.

You see Paul knew that salesmanship cannot raise the dead.

Salesmanship was not sufficient in bringing revival.

Salesmanship wasn't sufficient in bringing forth sanctification.

This is why Paul had no confidence in his flesh.

He had no confidence in his preaching ability.

He wasn't thinking I've been a preacher for many years now.

I know what I'm doing.

I can go and persuade people to follow the Lord and they're going to follow the Lord because I know exactly what to say, when to say it and how to put the emphasis here and I can skillfully move and manipulate people's emotions where they're going to believe what I have to say.

It's like no.

It's not found in speaking ability.

Secondly it's not found in learning.

It's not found in man's wisdom.

The church may think to themselves the last thing the world wants is churches that have uneducated hillbillaries as their preachers.

If the world is going to take the church seriously then the church must be taken seriously by education.

We need preachers and pastors who are conversant in the so-called wisdom of the world.

We need professional philosophers who are trained in apologetics.

Those who know all the nuances of the different philosophical systems of the day and able to interwove that philosophy into their theology to show that theology is really congruent with the wisdom of this age.

You don't have to look down upon us because we believe that crud created the world out of nothing and just because we believe in Genesis doesn't mean we can't embrace evolution too.

If you think we deny evolution, you think we're stupid then we need to somehow take that learning and show how it's compatible with theology if you're going to take us seriously as a voice in this community.

To reach the world we have to impress the world with the wisdom of the world so is the thinking.

Yet this too was not where authority and power is to be found.

Our message is foolishness to the world.

It's inherently foolish to them.

The gospel they cannot receive.

They don't want to receive it.

They think it's a mockery.

They think it's ignorant.

Selma Harris says Christianity is only for the ignorant.

And if you believe in Christianity that makes you ignorant.

That's what they think of us.

Well we've got to change that impression.

How are you going to change that impression?

And is that our goal to make the world think that we're smart or we're heavily educated?

Is that going to change the world?

Paul says it doesn't.

Look at verse 1.

When I came to you brothers I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

He says the same thing in verse 2 in my speech and my message or not in plausible words.

That's verse 4.

Words of wisdom.

According to John and Galvin Paul did not aspire after such knowledge.

In fact rather Galvin says he despised the learning of this world.

In fact he determined to know nothing.

See I don't know anything but the gospel.

I come to you I've determined not to know anything but this gospel which you think is foolish.

That's all I have to offer you.

I don't know anything else.

It's not that Paul didn't know anything else but that's all he had to communicate.

That's all he had to speak.

That's all that he had to offer them is what they thought was foolish and unlearned.

That's my message.

That which you are not impressed with that's what I have to deliver.

And he says I'm not ashamed of it.

I'm not ashamed of it.

I don't have to fancy it up.

I don't have to apologize to God.

It bothers me whenever you hear a preacher says I don't shoot the messenger and this is not you know this is the Bible.

This is not don't apologize for it.

This is the word of God.

How are you?

Who is the philosophers of this world?

Who are they?

This is the wisdom of God.

Don't be ashamed of the word of God the power of the gospel in the gospel not man's wisdom is where salvation is found.

That's where real power is found and not in fancy speaking not in the education of this world.

God says the wisdom of this world they did not know God and he shows them to use foolish children babes to confound the wise ones of this age.

Don't be ashamed of God's wisdom.

I've come nothing to you.

I've known nothing but the gospel.

But the Corinthians viewed Paul's preaching as too simplistic, too elementary.

His presentation was not impressive and they were looking for something that could attract the world and impress the world and Paul didn't seem to measure up.

However Paul was not seeking to impress his hearers with his education or with his learning.

He was trying to get people to live well that's a smart man.

How many preachers would do better if they were just hide their education rather than trying to display it.

The reason why we'll see at the end is because Paul didn't want the faith to rest in him or in his wisdom or in his speaking ability.

Look at verse 5.

So that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of man but in the power of God.

If I can convert you to the faith then I can unconvert you.

When we come to Spurgeon says I saw one of your converts drunk at the park.

Spurgeon says yeah it must have been my convert.

If it was God's convert he wouldn't have been drunk in the park.

It's not our goal.

We can't convert anyone.

We can water and we can plant.

But only one person can give the increase.

Only one person can change your life.

He said in verse 17 of chapter 1 Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel not with the wisdom of words lest the cross or Christ should be made of non-effect.

You see if we were in sales if the church was a car lot and we're trying to sell cars then let's look for the most professional salesman we can find.

Let's train men in the art of the sale the art of closing the deal.

If our goal was anything other than raising the dead to new life in Christ we would need we would not need supernatural power.

However we are not trying to grow a church full of unconverted moral people.

We are not trying to remove the offense and disdain of the gospel message.

We're not trying to smooth over the offensive doctrines of sin hell and judgment because our goal is nothing less than regeneration from the dead.

We need power beyond us not in man's oratory skills or in man's wisdom do we need.

That's not where authority is found and that's why the world is rejecting the church.

It's evaluated the church and no matter how much entertainment they give or how smart or learned they present themselves the world still is not buying it.

Where is authority found?

Where is power found?

Where is real change found?

Where is revival found?

Found in two things.

The word of God and the spirit of God.

First we see verse two it's found in the word for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Now Paul is not saying he only preached the lie of the death from the resurrection of Jesus Christ that only his message was on those historical realities of the lie of death and resurrection of Christ that he didn't speak up on anything other than that.

That's not what he's saying.

You could read first Corinthians and see that he said a lot more than that.

The second Corinthians and read through his epistles that he wasn't just merely limiting it just to the mere gospel if you would rather he's saying the gospel does not need any addition.

It doesn't need the wisdom of man.

It doesn't need to be propped it up aided for it to be powerful.

It doesn't need our fancy apologetics to save souls.

I've determined that that alone is sufficient.

I've come to you with the recognition that the gospel alone to know nothing but that that alone is all I need to preach for the conversion of souls and you may be here say I don't know how to evangelize.

So you don't have to go to evangelizing class and know all the philosophies and world religious to be effective evangelists.

All you need is the gospel and that is the power of God into salvation and that alone is the power of God into salvation.

And if you know the gospel which you do then you're sufficient and equipped to preach to others and evangelize others.

Don't minimize where the power is found.

Don't trust your ability to talk people into conversion just unleash the gospel.

You see it's the simple gospel that has the power to save sinners.

This is why Paul says I'm not ashamed of the gospel Romans 1 16.

I'm not ashamed of it.

I'm not embarrassed of it.

I don't have to dance around it and try to make it look better and add the wisdom of this world around it and wrap it with fancy paper where you can receive it and swallow it.

I can give it to your role and unadulterated your center you're bound to hell.

Christ is the Savior and if you repent of your sins and believe in Christ Jesus you shall be saved.

That is sufficient.

That's good news.

That is wonderful news.

That's the only testimony.

That's the only word that will save us from our sins.

It's powerful.

First Corinthians 1 18 for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

They're not going to like it.

You're not going to you're not going to impress everybody.

But I would say the majority of you don't think you're full and if you're interested in trying to not look foolish before the world then you're going to compromise the gospel.

Right.

They think it's foolish but that's our message and don't be ashamed of it.

Let our church not be ashamed of it.

That is and it alone is the power of God into salvation.

If you're saved here this morning if you have have passed from death to life if you know the living God it's only because you believe this gospel.

He says the message of the cross is foolishness those who are perishing but to those of us who are being saved it is the power of God.

No wonder why churches have lost their power or have no authority in today's.

It's because churches are more worried about impressing and entertaining sinners than they are faithfully preaching the word of God.

I mean we don't need you.

We don't need you.

We don't need this thing.

We don't need this.

I'm not saying these things are wrong.

We don't need.

It's putting a speaker.

We don't need fancy lights.

We don't need a fancy building.

We don't need a lot of things.

But we do need the word of God.

You see the word of God according to Paul or according to the author of Hebrews is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword and piercing even the dividing of the soul and spirit above joints and morrow and quick to discern the thoughts and the intent of the heart.

It's the word of God not not the preacher's words not the persuasion and the selmanship of the of the evangelist.

It's God's word spoken through the evangelist or this preacher or through the churchman.

It's his word.

It's this that begins to correct you.

You rebuke you.

You begin to judge this and all of a sudden you realize this is judging you.

And once you see that this word is judging you then you know you're hearing from God.

You're hearing God speak to you and say hey this is this is not right in your life.

This needs to be corrected.

You're a sinner.

This is something that you should be changed or sometimes you need to be encouraged and you don't just need a good pat on the bat back by some churchman.

You need you need the Lord to speak to you.

You need the Lord to lift you up and to minister to your soul.

And if you're a sheep you hear his voice and it's not just the voice of a stranger but it's the voice of the living God.

When God has placed the authority and the authority of the church is not inherent in the church.

The authority of the preacher is not inherent in the preacher.

The authority of the church is the word of God.

What does that mean?

Be faithful to this.

Preach this.

Be accurate with the word of God.

Proclaim its truth.

Stick to this.

The reason music is wonderful is not because of the musicians and thank God we have them to help us stay on tune.

I told Leith on the way here it's like when we get to heaven there's a friend of mine named Carson who is very gifted.

I said do you think God's going to give Carson's gift to me and give my gift to him of singing?

I want to sing really bad.

And I'm thankful.

I'm thankful for our musicians to help us stay on tune.

But you know what makes the singing powerful?

Not well that was pleasant.

I enjoyed that.

You know what it makes music powerful?

It's the word of God in the music.

It's the truthfulness of what we're singing complete in the.

That's powerful because it's true.

That edifies.

That brings glory to God.

It's the truth.

You need to be a church that's committed to the word of God committed to truth.

That changes things.

That's power.

But secondly it's not just merely the truth.

We don't just need articulate Orthodox teachers who uphold the right confessions and that can properly exegete and apply God's word.

We don't need dead Orthodoxy.

Martin Lloyd Jones says dead Orthodoxy is a smug contentment with confessional adherence.

When we become prideful in our Orthodoxy I know the truth.

These other denominations or other churches don't.

I'm reformed.

I'm this.

I'm that.

And I can properly explain this passage.

You know you can properly explain a passage of truth and it doesn't do you or any other person any good in and of itself.

We need more than just the word.

We need the word empowered by the spirit.

The church needs the anointing of the spirit of God.

The life vitality and power of the church is the Holy Spirit.

Now we don't need the spirit operates in and by through this the truth.

So we're not just saying we need emotionalism or we just need the spirit without the word nor we say we need the word without the spirit.

We need both word and spirit and God has chosen the spirit has chosen to work in and by and through his word.

But we need that word to have power behind it life behind it.

Why is our preaching sometimes so lifeless.

Our prayers are so useless and our witness is often so hopeless.

You see without the spirit we can do nothing.

If we can understand this we never get to a point as a church or as ministers of the gospel we never get to a point where we're self sufficient.

I can lecture so much easier than I can preach.

Because I understand that preaching is something is incapable of doing.

There's something that's inherently impossible about preaching.

I can get behind a pulpit and yak.

I can do that and I can be fairly accurate with the word of God.

I can do that.

But I recognize my inability to change souls.

I have in of myself not the ability to persuade you to walk with God.

And this is why I think Paul was himself afraid and why he trembled when he preached.

Look at verse three.

I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.

Now why was Paul scared when he preached when he evangelized.

What scared him was it was that he was afraid of men.

You know he was persecuted.

But do you think he was scared of being persecuted.

And I think he had to overcome that.

There was being he was fearful of men.

I know I'm fearful of men in many ways.

I don't think it was because he was being persecuted that he preached with such fear and trembling.

Nor do I think it was because he was afraid of God.

I think he was scared.

He was right with God.

He wasn't scared of God.

I think it was because he was afraid of himself.

You see I believe it was because he was aware of his own weaknesses and inabilities on this passage John Calvin says the term weakness employees in this passage and also in several places elsewhere in this book.

It includes everything that can detract from man's favor and dignity in the opinions of others fear and trembling are the effects of Paul's own weakness.

That seems to be the context.

I was with you in weakness.

Matthew Henry says few know the fear and trembling of faithful ministers from a deep sense of their own weakness.

They know how insufficient they are and are fearful for themselves.

Everything but Christ crucified is plainly preached.

Thus men are brought to believe to the salvation of the souls.

They need more than the preacher.

This is why Paul says this message is a saver unto life for some and a saver unto death for others.

Who is sufficient for these things?

Who is capable of such message?

I mean think about it put yourself in a position.

One of you come up here and take my place and say I'm going to preach to lost souls and depending upon what God does and depending on if they believe or not they're going to go to heaven or hell.

Or I might lose a car sales.

Oh okay I don't sell a car or I might I lose it.

I might not get this transaction close or I might lose a little money.

Well that it could be overcome.

We're talking about eternity here.

We're talking about life and death.

Who's a bishop or such things?

The gravity of the message the gravity of what's going on the severity of hell and the glories of heaven.

These are eternal way.

These are these are things that no preacher can communicate correctly.

No wonder Paul was afraid.

No wonder he trembled.

See the more we know our need our inabilities the more we don't take confidence in our flesh.

I think we all need to learn to think less of ourselves.

We all need to become more and more dependent so less less self confident.

You know if a good order is when it comes in with a commanding presence and seems like he's on top of the world and knows what he's talking about he's he's going to persuade you and he seems like he knows everything it we need less of self confidence.

Paul says if you want me to boast I'm not going to boast in anything but my weaknesses.

It says that twice in 1 Corinthians and the Lord explained it to him.

It's like unless you become boastful and arrogant and think you're something when you're really nothing I've given you a thorn in the flesh and both the fleece take it away and whatever the sworn was it humbled him.

It brought him down.

It made him realize he was weak and feeble.

It made him realize he was but mere man.

He said Lord please take this away and Paul says no God said to Paul no I'm not because you need this in order that you can see your own weakness.

You need this so you become dependent.

You need this to see that you to keep you humble and then he says my power is perfected in weakness.

Therefore Paul I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of price and I am content with weaknesses insults hardships persecutions calamities for when I am weak that I am strong.

See Paul humbled himself and he preached with fear and trembling.

He understood his weaknesses in order that he wouldn't be self confident.

He wouldn't trust in his speaking abilities or in his learning or his education that he would come low and look to another power to aid him.

This is because Paul was dependent upon the power of the spirit rather than the power of his own flesh.

Verse 3 tells us that I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling in my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power.

See was it just in word alone?

The spirit demonstrated himself through my preaching.

God worked through the preaching.

He demonstrated he the spirit of God in the power of God authenticated my word.

It was demonstrated not just in weakness but in power.

Yes you saw my weakness but you saw the power of God so that you didn't look at me as the hope of your faith.

God alone is your savior.

You saw Christ lifted up.

You saw a weak man but a glorious gospel and that is your hope.

Not in Grace Bible Church or its ministers or its preachers but your hope is in the word of God in the truthfulness of the scriptures.

But it came to you and I in word only.

Well you just you heard the word you laugh ago that was entertaining.

I learned a little bit there but no you were changed.

You were transformed.

You went from serving idols to serving the living God.

That's not just human instruction.

That's just not merely just the word of God being properly executed to you.

I mean how many sermons can just properly go through the text and go no that's good.

But you're not moved you're not broken you're not changed.

I think about that we only have 52 weeks this year only 52 sermons.

I don't want one to be wasted.

I don't want ordinary services.

I don't want to be content.

Do you?

Spurgeon sure didn't.

He prayed for conversions every Sunday and asked him why do you think God's ministering to you.

Why do you think God's behind your preaching Jesus because my people pray for me.

He showed them the showed a group of people into the Metropolitan Tabernacle as a building that holds five thousand people is just you want to see the bowling room in the basement.

And they said no that's okay.

We don't need to see the bowling room.

That's okay.

Because no you got to see it.

So it leads this tour group down into the basement open the door into the bowling room and it was a it was a as a room full of hundred people praying.

Says this is with the power of our church.

This is where the power of the preaching comes from from the bowling room.

You see is not word alone but the word with power of the spirit.

First screen is 420 for the kingdom of God does not consist in Paul but in power.

This is where the confidence of Paul laid.

This is where it lied.

Second Corinthians three four and six such as the confidence that we have through Christ towards God not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us like I'm not looking at myself.

I have no self sufficiency.

I don't have any boast.

I don't have anything confidence that I could do anything but our sufficiency or our power or confidence is from God who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter here is killed but the spirit gives life our confidence is in the Holy Spirit.

You see Christ needed to be anointed by the Holy Spirit before he preached fulfilling the prophecy Isaiah says I've been anointed to preach the gospel of good tidings.

The apostles themselves needed this anointed this Holy Spirit anointing before they went off into their ministry.

Martin Lloyd Jones says we would have thought these men the apostles were now in a perfect position to go out to preach but according to the Lord's teaching they were not.

They seem to have all the necessary knowledge but that knowledge is not sufficient.

Something further is needed indeed is essential.

The knowledge indeed is vital for you cannot be witnesses without it.

To be effective witnesses you need the power and the unction and the demonstration of the spirit in addition.

The assertion of power or if you prefer the effusions upon Christian preachers is not something once for all.

Rather the baptism with the Holy Spirit is not regeneration the apostles were already regenerate and is not given primarily to promote sanctification.

It is the baptism of power or baptism of fire a baptism to enable one to witness.

The old Moody says there is no use in running before you are sent.

There is no use in attempting to do God's work without God's power.

A man working without this unction a man working without this anointing a man working without ghost upon him is losing.

You see we need more than just to be educated expositors of God's word.

We need more than just knowing our Bibles.

We need the spirit on our lives.

We need the spirit to work in and by and through the scriptures.

You see the power of the church is both the word and spirit.

It's the gospel empowered by the spirit.

That's why some people believe after hearing the gospel and other people hear the gospel and they're unchanged.

That's why some of you come to church and one Sunday you get something out of it and the next Sunday you're bored and daydreaming.

What's the difference?

The word of God is still being proclaimed.

Let me close in some applications for us for preachers and for seminary students.

Preaching is not just faithfully exegeting and having the right homiletical skills.

You can be puffed up knowing all these things.

You can have a lot of self confidence because you've been trained correctly.

Yes, you need to be a faithful exegete.

You need to know the word of God.

You need to study to show yourself approved.

You need to rightly divide the word of truth.

You need that, but you need to understand it and it takes the Holy Spirit to understand it.

Not to mentally comprehend it, but for that word to dive deep into your soul and to change your lives.

It takes the Spirit.

Lord Lord Jones says we all tend to go to extremes.

Some rely on their own preparation and look for nothing more.

Others as I say tend to despise preparation and trust the unction.

I'm just going to go up there and the unction of the Spirit is going to leave me.

The anointing in the inspiration of the Spirit alone, but there must be no either or.

It's always a both and.

We need to diligently study and properly exegete the passage and understand the word of God.

That takes time and effort and study, but don't be content with just that much.

We need God to come with you.

The Spirit to put to use you.

If we were to pray in the Spirit, how much more we are to preach in the Spirit.

We need God's fresh anointing.

Every time we open the word of God, and this is what you need to be evangelist.

For church members, couple applications for us.

It's not just the preaching that needs anointing.

Your hearing needs to be anointed.

John 14, 17, the Spirit of truth, the word cannot receive him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but it says in first John 2 20, you have an auction.

You believers have an auction from the Holy One.

You have the Spirit anointing you and it tells us why in verse 27, but the annoying thing that you've received from him abides in you and you have no need that anyone should teach you, but as anointing teaches you about everything as it is and is no lie, just as it has taught you about in him, who teaches you the Holy Spirit.

This anointing is what you have to have to have ears to hear.

Let young who have ears hear.

So as you come to church, are you prepared yourself?

Have you prepared yourself?

Have you prayed Lord speak to me.

I mean, I want to treat you like my friends.

Do you want me, your pastor, to come up dry and dead?

Or would you prefer that I had spent some time in prayer before I preached?

What would you prefer from me?

I want the man of God standing in front of me to have come out of the prayer closet before he preaches to me.

I want him to know that he's communed with God.

He's been with God.

He's with God.

I want that.

Okay.

Is that all that you want that?

Okay.

Here's what I want from you.

I want you to come into this room having been with God.

I want you to not just come in here and you know, I know what it is.

You rush to church and especially if you've got kids and hey, don't do this.

The frazzle of getting here and then the plans afterwards and you come and sit down and you go, well, I don't get much out of that.

That wasn't that helpful to me or you know, or that was amusing.

Maybe would you come next week praying that God would speak to you that the spirit would open up your hearts, that you'd be ministered by the word of God.

Would you pray that I think if you seek the Lord, you will find him.

I think if you hunger and thirst after the living waters, you will be filled.

I think we can get the, I think if your heart is right and you're, you're seeking the Lord, we could take the least preacher among us.

The one who fumbles and mispronounces things and put them right here.

And I think you would leave enriched spoken to God may not have spoken to the preacher.

Maybe God hasn't spoken to everybody around you, but do not yourself want to hear from the Lord or pray.

Hey that God would come.

I close by saying we're praying for revival and it really doesn't have to be this massive movement.

It doesn't have to be a repetition of what took place in 1740s and 50s under Jonathan Edwards of George Whitfield, which sweeps America by storm.

What if it's just a revival in your soul?

What if it just you ever suddenly become so precious it becomes the most important day of your week and not just Sunday, but the opening up of the scriptures on Monday and Tuesday and that you find that by your new fresh love for Christ and love for the word of God, you find that you're not watching TV as much and you didn't have this legalistic command don't watch TV.

You find that you're putting your phone down and all that time you're scrolling, you're not got this legalistic rule like oh, this is evil.

I can't do that.

No, it's okay.

Scroll if you want, but you're finding because you're enthralled with scriptures and the word of God that you find you're doing less and less of these things.

These weights are easily entangle you and you find that you're more enamored with the love of God.

You can't get enough of Christ.

You find that it's starting to overflow in your conversation.

You can't have a conversation with others without it being turned to the Lord and you're never being an encouragement to the saints and they'll say something little and go all that is so wonderful.

That's so good.

And then when we sing songs, you're coming to go that it was rich.

That's what your heart is enriched in and thriving rather than being dead rather than being apathetic.

Let us not be content.

May you thirst and hunger for the word of God.

And let me close.

Let me close with a word to the unconverted here because I've been joined me saints join me with praying for the unconverted.

May our hearts be burdened for the unconverted among us and let me say a word to you young men and young women, older men, older women, any of you who don't, you know, you know, in your heart there's something not right.

You know, you need something and you don't have assurance or you're lacking assurance or you know that you're in sins.

You know what must you do?

Let me tell you something glorious.

There is a man who died on a tree for your place and he says come to me and you'll be forgiven.

Your conscience will be clear.

You'll be filled with joy and glory.

All your sins, all your sins wiped away.

Come to me.

Do you believe me?

If you believe, if you believe what I say is true, run to Christ, look to Christ and I'll give you my word to the word of God.

You shall be saved.

Amen.

Thank you.

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