In a blog entry dated April 10, Dr. Albert Moehler wrote this:
I am certainly supposed to be a mouthpiece for Scripture, a human instrument through which the Scripture is heard and received by God's people. But the human preacher's authority only reaches the human ear. It is only God himself who can take his word from the human ear to the human heart.
I stand by this answer, and by the large comments I made in the interview about the fact that the preacher is actually a mouthpiece for God only when the Word of God is rightly preached. As the Reformers made clear, preaching is the means by which God speaks to His people as a gathered community. Through the preached Word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, God actually speaks to His people.
This was in agreement with some things written by Billy Graham in the 1950s.
Just curious; what's your comment on this quote?
5 comments:
I live in an area where the Bible is preached with much shouting and jumping and sweating all in the effort of having that one lost sinner come down to an "old fashion alter" and surrender his life to Christ. As a result we see many come forward, but very few changed lives. Our salvation is the work of God but many in our area believe it is the coersing of the preacher. This results in the word of truth not being rightly divided and instead of the gospel of Christ we have the guilt trip of the Pastor. I also have noticed that those who do a good job of preaching the whole word of God are accused of not being a good preacher because it is not that "hard preaching" they have been conditioned to see as the only acceptable way to preach. There is much more I could say but the last will be this, many who sit under this type of preaching, in my experience, tend not to be as grounded in their faith. I believe that we who preach should preach the whole word of God and allow the Spirit of God to work and draw men to the Saviour.
Dear Anon, (BTW, are you the same Anon who wrote all that poetry with your name attached to it? Just wondering).
You wrote: "I believe that we who preach should preach the whole word of God and allow the Spirit of God to work and draw men to the Saviour."
I agree, and isn't that exactly what Dr. Mohler indicated when he wrote,"...the human preacher's authority only reaches the human ear. It is only God himself who can take his word from the human ear to the human heart."
Preach the Word. You won't get them saved anyway. That's the Holy Spirit's job. And He uses the Word.
I think I agree. Along with that thought, it indeed reminds me a Derek Webb song called "Mockingbird" where he says a bit more poetically of his words/lyrics, "i am like a mockingbird: i’ve got no new song to sing; and i am like an amplifier:
i just tell you what i’ve heard."
I like the emphasis of the idea of being a mouthpiece, amplifier, etc, for scripture, juxtaposed with the more dangerous idea of starting with something to say and then trying to squeeze out scriptures to back up that idea/opinion. It's inevitable, even if not intentional to do so, but I'd agree that scripture has something of it's own to say already. We more rightly should instead seek to repeat what it already says, particularly when the assignment is to do so (i.e.e preaching teaching etc)--not just use/twist/distort it to try to say what we want.
I agree with the quote. It is the Holy Spirit who knocks on the "doors of the heart" and up to the hearer to open that door to receive the truth that is being heard by the ears.
My question to you is: what do you mean about "rightly preached?" According to whom? You, I assume?
I caution Christ-followers against getting caught up on pious controversies. Let the Lord be the Lord, let His Word and the Holy Spirit do the work and let us get out of the way instead of looking for controversy. Do I get "an Amen?" :-)
I doubt it. But that's ok with me!Have fun with your online discussion; it's always interesting to hear what your opinion is and to see what others have to say as well.
Please note that it was Dr. Mohler who used the phrase "rightly preached."
I do, of course, agree. There are enough who don't rightly preach but use the alleged sermon time for screeds of their own.
"Rightly preached" means more scripture; less me.
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