We’ve all experienced it—when a preacher reads a passage of Scripture and then proceeds to teach any number of correct or erroneous things that have nothing to do with the passage he just read. Unfortunately, this happens more often than we think. Many churchgoers don’t even realize it’s going on. They have not learned to practice discernment. In some churches, the Bible is not even opened. But even if it is, man-centered preaching is too often supplied to gatherings of churchgoers who aren’t asking the right questions. They should be asking: Is that really the mind of God? Is that really what the Bible teaches? Is that what the passage actually says? Has that verse been understood in its surrounding context? Has the preacher’s interpretation and message been proven by the Bible?
Let’s be honest. If you visit a new church
in order to determine whether it might be a good place for you and your family
to attend, and you walk in and ask the question: “Does this church teach the
Bible?” No church member or leader is going to reply: “Oh no, we don’t teach
the Bible here!” My point is that every evangelical church believes it
teaches—and listens to—the truths of Scripture. No church would claim
otherwise. So it’s not enough to simply trust the testimony of those who are in
the church. You must do your own evaluation. You must be discerning.
The Apostle John gave the following
command: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see
whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1). Jay Adams explains:
In 1 John 4:1 there is an exhortation to ‘test [the word for proving
something to be genuine by means of testing] the spirits.’ As the passage
continues, the test is applied to heretics in the early church who denied that
Jesus Christ came in the flesh (verse 2,3). The test is doctrinal. There is no
direction to consult your feelings about these persons or to expect any
subjective prompts or checks. It is their teaching
that must be examined. . . . The general test . . . is found in verse 6;
‘Whoever knows God listens to us, but
whoever isn’t of God doesn’t listen to us.
From this we know the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error.’ There is no other test. Either someone’s
teaching matches the teaching of the apostles and the prophets (now found only
in Scriptures) or else it is false.[1]
One example of this kind of discernment is
found in Acts 17, where those Berean Jews who listened to Paul’s and Silas’s
sermons are described as being “more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica,
for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so”
(Acts 17:11). The discernment the Berean Jews displayed tells us they wanted to
hear from God alone. They knew God’s Word was the measure by which sermons
should be judged. Simply stated, if the preacher claims to be God’s spokesman,
but teaches something not supported by Scripture, then he should be
questioned—and sometimes silenced (Titus 1:10–11).
This means our sermon-listening cannot be
passive. Listening to a sermon is not like watching a movie or a game of rugby.
It requires active involvement, participation, and discernment. In his very
helpful booklet on sermon-listening, Christopher Ash warns: “Listening ought to
be an activity rather than a ‘passivity’. Unless we want to be brainwashed, we
ought never to hear or watch anything without engaging our critical faculties.”[2] He continues: “We
need to check that the preacher is actually using the only available authority,
which is a borrowed authority that only comes from teaching what the Bible
passage teaches. So, we need to listen carefully to the passage and ask whether
what the preacher says is what the passage says.”[3]
The question to ask is: “Where did he get
that from?” If the preacher can show he got it from the Bible, then we must
humbly submit to the authority of the Word of God. But if not, then it’s just
the opinion of one human being against another.[4]
This is what makes preaching a community
affair. Everyone is involved. There’s a mutual accountability that comes in
listening to a sermon in the context of a church. We’re all responsible to
maintain the integrity of the pulpit. We help the preacher in that regard—we
must be modern-day Bereans.
Second Timothy 2:15
says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does
not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.” Don’t treat
this instruction as if it only applies to preachers. All believers are
responsible to handle God’s Word correctly. Thabiti Anyabwile writes:
If churches are to be healthy, then pastors and teachers must be
committed to discovering the meaning of Scripture and allowing that meaning to
drive the agenda with their congregations. There is an important corollary for
every member of a local church. Just as the pastor’s preaching agenda should be
determined by the meaning of Scripture, so too should the Christian’s listening
agenda be driven by the meaning of Scripture.[5]
Now don’t get me wrong—I am not advocating that an immature or unregenerate
congregation should dictate what happens in the pulpit. Martyn Lloyd Jones saw
this sad practice in his day and lamented that sermons were being dumbed down
to make listeners more comfortable.[6]
This is a big problem in the church today, but I am not advocating that. I am simply
showing that genuinely converted Christians in mature congregations ought to expect
(and demand) that the preacher preaches the Bible accurately.
We need to check to see the preacher says what the passage says. We must listen with discernment. If we find that the preacher has indeed proclaimed God’s will and has proven the source of his message is God’s Word, then we are obliged to respond with action. Next week, I’ll show you that faith and obedience go hand in hand.
[1] Jay E. Adams, A Call for Discernment: Distinguishing
Truth from Error in Today’s Church (Woodruff, SC: Timeless Texts, 1998), 65.
[2] Christopher Ash, Listen Up!:
A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons (New Maiden, Surrey, England: The
Good Book Company, 2009), 9.
[3] Ibid., 9–10.
[4] Ibid., 10.
[5] Thabiti M. Anyabwile, What Is a Healthy Church Member? (Wheaton,
IL: Crossway Books, 2008), 19.
[6] Martyn
Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing,
1971), 122.
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