2008 Shepherd’s Conference – Session #5, Al Mohler

Readers of this blog are familiar with the prolific Dr. Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Seminary. Dr. Mohler's sessions at the Shepherd's Conference are always a high point of the week. Tonight was no exception. He spoke out of Deuteronomy 4 using the call to Expository preaching as this theme. Starting out by asserting that there is a crisis in preaching in the church today in that the expectation most people have in coming to church Sunday mornings is not that they will hear an expository sermon but that they will hear homilies, anecdotes and stories.

Nehemiah 8 depicts what preaching is all about, the reading and explanation of God's Word. The concept behind exposition is easy to understand but exposition is not easy to do. The premise in it's most basic form is to read the book and then explain it. Read……Explain! Why is this missing from so many of our churches today?

Of course, the actual practice of exposition has more to it. There should be an indispensable calling upon the expositor to preach (Ezra 7:1-4). There should be evidence of that calling (Ezra 7:9-10). The called one's response to the calling should be to study (Ezra 7:11). Ezra Read….then Explained!

The New Testament demonstrates the same pattern. Paul tells Timothy (2 Tim 4) to preach, reprove, rebuke, exhort and teach using the Word of God. He tells him to Read…..Explain. According to the Bible, exposition is preaching. If there is no exposition, there is no preaching. Why is there so little of this in our churches today? Mohler says, "We should stop saying, 'I prefer exposition' when I preach." Because if we are preaching, we should be expositing! Anything according to the Bible is not preaching." The church suffers not from faulty technique…but from faulty theology.

Deut 4:32-40 – God speaks to Moses. He is a verbal God and He speaks to Moses then Moses speaks to His people. God speaks to His people through Moses. His people are in the wilderness and in this passage, God prepares them to enter into the Promised Land. The book of Deuteronomy is all about the reversal of their rebellion. So, how will He prepare them? By the Word of God and His mandate to obey that Word! Hearing and obeying God is a matter of life and death for His people. Obeying Him is life. Refusal to obey Him is death. The problem with today's preaching is that we think this has, somehow, changed. Do we still believe that the Word of God is a matter of life and death. Here are some points that prove this is still true;

1. The true and living God is the God who speaks (Deut 4:10-19). His people were there when He spoke. We are His people now and we are here when He speaks. His Word is for us and this is true because, just as HE chose the Hebrews to hear Him, He choose us. He says, "…you saw no form, you heard a voice." His people see no form because man has, historically, allowed images to lead him into idolatry. So, God reveals Himself by speaking to His people. We will have either a God Who speaks…or an idol we make. "Remember you were led astray and you worshipped idols that do not speak." 1 Cor 12:2. We should be led by God's Word. We should learn by the reading and explaining of that Word. Read…Explain! The Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of god. God speaks to us two ways, through His Word and through His Son. How we listen and respond is a matter of life and death.

2. God's true people hear His words when he speaks. His people are identified by the fact that He speaks to them. This should not produce pride, it should produce humility. What evidence is there that God's true people hear His words when He speaks? We see the answers in Deut 4:22ff. They come in the form of a series of questions; Has God ever chosen a nation as His people before? (He made them captive so He could demonstrate His glory by rescuing them). Has any people heard God's voice before and survived? (Israel knows God chose them because He spoke to them and they survived this is seen in Matt 13 as well). What nation has a God so great (Deut 4:6-8) and a law so perfect?

3. God's people serve and survive by His Word (Deut 30). The do this by His grace. Israel did not find His Word, His Word was given to them (vs 15). Preachers don't find His Word, it is given to them. He speaks through His preachers so preachers should speak His Word, not their own. They should Read….Explain! For Israel, His Word was like manna, they needed it every day. His Word was health, life, blessing and identity. Israel could not have survived without the hearing of His Word. 2 Tim 3:16-17, "…equipped for every good work…" the Word is sufficient! We live by the Word the same way Israel did! It bears the testimony of Christ. How do we know we are His? By the preaching and ministry of the Word.

4. Preaching is always a matter of life and death! Therefore, it should always be expositional. It should always be directly from the Bible. The question that always must be answered is this, "Will the preacher speak or will God speak?" It's the difference between life and death! Preachers have been called. To obey the call, they….Read….Explain! Here's what a preacher should hope for; when God speaks, people will leave the service saying, "Did we just hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire and survive? Deut 4:10-11)"