Romans 10:8
“But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;”
The climate of today has produced a generation of people who distrust authority—all authority, including biblical authority. Once people exercised a healthy confidence in government, police, church and Bible, now they are more cynical and mistrustful of traditional authority figures—like preachers—and are less apt to be impressed by the statement “Thus says the Lord.”
It used to be that church-goers would walk miles to hear a good sermon and would feel cheated by a sermon that was less than an hour in length. Today, any preacher who dares to go longer than 15 minutes is in danger of incurring the wrath of impatient pew-squirmers. Reminds us of how Time magazine once published a cover story posing this question: “American Preaching: A Dying Art?”
Despite the apparent crisis of preaching that seems to be plaguing this generation, and despite the fact that this generation is also apparently culturally ill-equipped to listen to sermons, it is still a fact, a divine fact, that preaching is indispensable to God’s Church. Indeed, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that without the preaching of the Word of God, one simply cannot be a Christian. It is imperative that we understand that we can’t believe unless we hear and we cannot hear unless someone preaches to us. “So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
That is Paul’s regressive argument, that is, he argues from a conclusion to a cause. He states that everyone who calls upon the Lord in faith will be saved. But to call upon him, one must first hear about Him and to hear about Him, one must first have someone tell him about the Lord and that someone is a preacher. Preaching is indispensable to believing and believing is a prerequisite to salvation. Preaching is the “without which nothing”—of faith and true salvation. Without preaching a vital part of Calvary’s Cross authenticity has been lost.
God’s Church is a religion of the Word of God. ??“Preach the Word!” Paul admonishes Timothy in II Timothy 4:2. “Be prepared in season and out of season,” he says. THE first qualification for as given by Paul in I Tim. 3:2 is that he be able to preach. Why? Because preaching is fundamental to the job. “All Scripture is God-breathed,” Paul says in II Tim. 3:16.
God’s Word is a living expression and conviction underlies true biblical preaching. The Word has power, therefore, to change people, indeed it has the power and ability, by the working of the Holy Ghost, to change the mind, and melt the hard heart and offer a place for obedience (i.e. Acts 2:38). It is powerful. The Word of God can convert the soul. The Word of God is active it plants seeds in the heart; moves within the soul, and breaks down walls. In Isaiah 55:11 God declares: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”?
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