Introduction:

"The king's servants are not asked to interpret the kings decree but to herald and proclaim exactly what the king decreed.  If a servant in the King's domain does not fulfill or do what the king wrote in his decree the king will say to the subject: you wicked subject I did not tell you to interpret my decree but to obey it!

       The Greek word for preach means to: herald or proclaim.  It is not about interpreting and teaching what your opinion about it is.  Proclaiming and heralding means like a messenger proclaiming and teaching the people word for word what the King has decreed for his kingdom to obey and follow.  Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." Here preaching is the faithful "witness" to Jesus Christ and not interpreting.  A Faithful witness tells exactly what he saw and heard, nothing more is needed or required to be a faithful witness! 

       2 Peter 1:20 "[Know] this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation." The Greek word for interpret means to: loosen.  The meaning of the Greek coveys is this: there is a hard rope in a tight knot and now it is being loosened. Or in other words there is a difficult math problem and now the teacher will loosen it and explain how to find the one and only correct answer.

       Thus, we are to preach or proclaim the exact message that we have seen in the scripture as its English (or whatever langue you read it) plainly tells us. To go beyond this is to be outside your bounds of a human being or a faithful servant of the king, by making yourself king, proclaiming your desires and not what you were faithfully handed. 

       But herein also lies the difficulty: being Faithful. Proverbs 20:6, "Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, But who can find a faithful man?" Because of indwelling sin and lust, being faithful to proclaim the simple English meaning of the bible is of the greatest difficulty.  This is why one of the, if not the main qualifier of being an elder in the church is to be "faithful" to the word you were taught; for it is on these grounds that the mature differ from the weak. The mature have the God given strength to simply have faith and believe what the word teaches and hold fast and be content to that only. Titus 1:9, "holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict."

       Christ even interprets His own parables, what is left to interpret?  The only thing for the church to do is simply love and obey what it proclaims! Example: the word for "knew" in the bible, by it interpreting itself, takes on a more intimate loving meaning than what we today commonly make it to be.  Therefore, when the bible says God "foreknew", if I am to continue without prejudice let the scriptures interpret itself, by the grammar laws its written in, then fore-knew means that God not fore- saw us (merely), but that He fore-loved us intimately. 

         This I would say is one of the greatest secretes in how to be a faithful preacher of witness of our King's words. This secret is that our King has for the most part interpreted His own words for us in this writings.  Jesus interprets His own parables, the cross of Jesus (along with the book of Hebrews) interprets the Old Mosaic law and the meaning of the Passover and Exodus out of Egypt.  In the New Testament God interprets many mysteries of the Palms and prophets.  The point being is that our King does not need interpreters but faithful witnesses or preachers of what He said to them in His word!  Dear reader, are you content with this, or do you wish to join the Devil desiring to take the place of the King so that you make speak, interpret and order others to witness what you said?"  [1]

      There is a second cornerstone that I must lay before moving one and this understanding is that God does all things for this glory.  Or that the bible is not mainly a love story but is mainly about how Glorious God is!  Or that God loves Himself above all things including humans, and therefore does all things to glorify or make Himself famous.  I will not make a long defense of this since I have done so already in my writings.[2] The reason God loves Himself above all things is due to the fact He is the greatest of all Beauty by an infinite degree. 

 "Isaiah 66:14-19,  "I will set a sign among them; and those among them who escape I will send to the nations...to the coastlands afar off who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles."  Herein our text (Isaiah 66:19) the Gospel is spoken of as the declaration of the Fame and Glory of God.  But if the Gospel is about the declaration of God's glory then surly of all creation is for the same purpose since the rest of creation surrounds the central purpose of the gospel.

Furthermore, It only makes since that if we know what the end purpose of redemption is, which redemption is the end reason of all creation in general, then we would know what is God's main passion and goal in creating the universe in the first place.  So listen as our beloved Lord and Savoir as He speaks about this issue, "But for this purpose I came to this hour." Father, glorify Your Name(John 12:27-28)."  Christ clearly states that the reason He came to this earth to save sinners, as His Chief and most Ultimate end, was for no other reason than to, Glorify His Father.

In Ephesians 3:9-11 we read, "...to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Here, we see God making His "manifold wisdom" known through the salvation of the church by Christ Jesus.  God's wisdom is behind all creation.  It is seen clearly in the design of the redemption of the church through Christ Jesus.  God's wisdom is an exceedingly great attribute which He wants to make known to all.  He makes it known primarily through Christ: He who is eternal, yet clothed in time, Christ who is God but made Himself man, Christ who is the eternally blessed, happy God, but became to us the "man of sorrows."  Creation as a whole is of little wisdom and glory compared to that which is made known to us through Christ Jesus.  Christ has forever made the glory of the invisible God perfectly known to all.

Through Jesus, the righteousness, mercy, power, and wisdom of God are made known to all beings, whether on Earth or in heaven.  This is the primary function of the gospel.  This is not the first time we learn of such things, for in Isaiah 43:6-7 we read, "I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not keep them back!' Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth-everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him."

Ezekiel 36:21 echoes this thought: "But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went. Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: "I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify My great name."  What a startling thing to read!  God saved us, not mainly because He loved us, but because He wanted to repair the dishonor that we humans caused brought His Holy Name!  Does this not put us prideful humans, dust of the earth, into out place, back in the dust before our Creator and God?  For in this position is found the only safe pace to be.  Yes, a position in the dust is the only safe place before God, for it is here one cannot fall, but humbly receive the infinite love of Yahweh of Host." [3]

 

 "What has been said may be sufficient to show, how those things, which are spoken of in Scripture as ultimate ends of God's works, though they may seem at first view to be distinct, are all plainly to be reduced to this one thing.  Namely, that God's internal glory or fullness existing in its shining forth being a great public display.  Although God, in seeking this end, seeks the creature's good, yet therein appears God's supreme regard to Himself.

The shinning forth or communication of the Divine fullness, consisting in the knowledge of God, love to Him, and joy in Him, has relation indeed both to God and the creature.  But it has relation to God as its fountain.  Indeed everything communicated is something of His internal fullness.  The water in the stream is something of the fountain, and the beams of the sun are something of the sun.  Yes, they have relation to God as their object.  For the knowledge communicated, is the knowledge of God.  The love communicated, is the love of God.  The happiness communicated, is joy in God. 

In the creature's knowing, esteeming, loving, rejoicing, and praising God, the glory of God is both displayed and acknowledged.  In this God's fullness is received and both returned.  Here is both displaying and re-displaying, or communication and re-communication.  God's radiance shines upon and into the creature [like the moon], and is reflected back to the radiant Sun.  The beams of glory come from God, are something of God, and are reflected back again to their original. Therefore, the whole is of God, and in God, and to God.  He is the beginning, and the middle, and the end.  Amen!" [4]

If we can all start here, by God's grace, then we have the foundation to step into why I wrote this article.

Main Goal: 

Now I will give a brief ordering of statements and questions to consider when preaching.

The main goal of preaching: Is to preach the glorious Person of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

       This becomes evident from the two basic principles we learned earlier.  First, we learned that preaching is a faithful witness of the truth of our Godly king; to be a true messenger of the glory of God to the nations.  In scripture we read that "Jesus Christ  [is] the faithful witness." [5] He is the "word of God." Or in other words, He is the perfect word of God in communicating the truth of God to man.  This is because Jesus Christ is the "outshining" of God the Father, the perfect "image" of God.  Therefore, He is able to perfectly tell of the infinite glory of God to all.  Yes indeed, it even pleased God that because Jesus so perfectly displays and communicates His true glory to the all, that Jesus His Son should have the "supremacy" and "preeminence"[6] in all things.

        Because Jesus is the prefect (and I say prefect as strongly as one can) witness of God to the world and the prefect revelation of God to man, then we must preach in such as way that we give Him this "supremacy" and "preeminence" in all we say.  Do you dear reader?

       Second, we learned from Jesus Himself that His coming to earth to save us was ultimately to bring God glory.  In fact everything God does is ultimately summed up in giving God glory.  God's (1) glory is the like the light from the sun and (2) His Holiness is the burning of the sun.  When seen this way God's glory, or God glorifying Himself is His Divine beauty, Nature, or Holiness going public.  Scripture teaches us that God's Son Jesus Christ is the prefect radiant outshining of the Father's worth and Excellence.  Particularly Jesus Christ the Person ((The God-man) who came to earth, forgiving sinners, dyeing for them, and giving them new life in His resurrection is the highest intensity of the Father's glory shinning through His Son to all the nations of the world so that they may see and marvel.  

       Therefore, if we are to join in with God with His quest to make His glory known and displayed, we must aim at, above all things, to display the glory of our Father radiantly shining through His Son Jesus Christ in the gospel.  Furthermore, since the brightest of His glory shown in this saving of sinners by His death for them in their place, then this must be our center point of ever sermon.  Can a sermon be said to have honestly and correctly accomplished giving God glory if the best part is left out?  Can you honor a father with out mentioning his only son?

       John 5:23, "All should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him."  If this is the case, then how do you honor the Son of God?  Romans 15:8-9, "Jesus Christ has become a servant... that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy."  Jesus came to give mercy to the world so that we might be constantly be thankful giving glory to God.  Therefore, can we honestly say we have preached the "kingdom of God" in a particular sermon if the King's Son of the Kingdom is not honored for His mercy; if the people do not rise up with praises in their hearts to the Prince who, with brilliant radiance and power, saved them by mercy, suffering for them on the cross?  Yes, even in Heaven we are again taught how to honor the King's Son, for who He really is.  Revelation 5:6,11-12, "I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain.... I heard thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!" 

       When preaching is finished this type of worship in the hearts of the listeners is the goal, and if not accomplished has failed!  This is the end goal for preaching given by scripture, is it yours?  If not, then who's glory are you exalting in your preaching: yours, this world's wisdom, this modern culture, your theological affiliation, your family, who's?  When your finished preaching a particular sermon are they left, above all, with exalting in the Person of Jesus Christ or in brotherly unity?

       The goal then is to preach in every sermon the deepness of the theological and doxology of Jesus Christ crucified that is found in the first 11 chapters of Romans, for example.  The result is to have the sheep singing loudly in their hearts: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain," for He has saved us and reveal the glory of God to us face to face, therefore, "O how deep is the wealth of the wisdom and knowledge of God! For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever....To God, who alone is wise, be the glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen." [7]

       The secret of the greatest preachers is found when no mater what biblical topic they preached from the hearts of the believers, after seeing the glory of the Father shown forth in Jesus Christ crucified, were singing: "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever."  Sinners when they saw such majesty gave way to sincere repentance under the holiness and mercy of the King display in His Son, Jesus Christ. 

       The book of Romans and Hebrews are two full-length biblical gospel sermons.[8]  In other words they are the basic biblical standard for what gospel preaching is suppose to look like.  Does yours?  The preachers who can capture the essence of these two standards into all they preach are the true diamonds in the rough.

Preach the glory of Jesus Christ in the gospel:

(A) The immediate basic effect of preaching the famousness of Jesus Christ and His message of the cross is:

 (1) Loving Jesus Christ -(treasuring Him, more enamored with Him)

(2) Trusting Jesus more.

(3) Sincere repentance to Him as God.

Believers should experience all three of these, while the third point is the first goal for preaching to unbelievers.  Without repentance nothing else maters for the unbeliever.

(B) When you preach ask these three  basic questions:

(1)   Did the preaching or teaching that I witnessed before the people, which God place before me today, lead them to, Love the glorious Person of Jesus Christ more than before I proclaimed the King's message?  Do they treasure Him as the humbled crucified Savior and exalted Divine Son of God?  Did they grow in their enjoying of the Father's love though His Son being a propitiation for them?  Did the world diminish and the Son of God grow in their hearts?

(2)   Did the people above grow in their trusting of God and every word He spoke through His faithful Son?  Did the people grow in thief trusting of the Person of Jesus Christ?  Did they grow in trusting, without doubting for a moment, that God loves them through His Son and view every word God spoke as infinitely trustworthy?

(3)   Did the over whelming view of the holiness and majesty of Jesus Christ lead sinners to repentance, and continual repentance of the saints?

(C) Therefore, how can we simply sum up the main goal in preaching?  What is the main goal in preaching gospel centered? 

       It is to make the Lord Jesus Christ as beautiful and valuable as possible; to exalt Him to the true height of loveliness and majesty that He really is. [9]

            Example: How can I preach the gospel of Jesus crucified in a sermon of sexual sin in such a way that the person of Jesus Christ, shines forth infinitely beautiful and irresistibly lovely?

(1)   Jesus is God and thus properly has the beautiful right to make the rules.  He being Holy and beautiful commands and invites us and all creation to be Holy, happy and beautifully shinning as radiant light just as His is.  Therefore, the Person of Jesus Christ, as King of Kings, is a wonderful and glorious King!

(2)   God Almighty became a humble man and lived without sin in this dirty world.  Therefore, the Person of Jesus Christ knows and sympathizes with our struggles.

(3)   Because the Lord Jesus died on the cross for our sins, He has eternally proven and assured us all of His great love and mercy. He give us the confidence to know that He, the Person of Jesus Christ is an endless fountain of love, unwavering and unending.

(4)   Because Jesus is Almighty God, therefore He has the strength to save, heal, redeem, and keep you!

(5)   The glorious Person of Jesus Christ is able and willing to wash us clean of all our sin and wrongs completely away, because He was our Passover Lamb and escape goat. 

(6)   The Lord Jesus Christ cares for you and wishes for you to cast your cares on Him.

(7)   The wonderful Person of Jesus Christ hears our prayers for help and deliverance; He wants to hear and has the ability to hear all our prayers and He bottles up all our tears.

(8)   Our God and Savior Jesus Christ is a giving God, who purchased the gift of the Holy Spirit, giving His blessed Spirit to live in us to strengthen us against all temptation.

Another example:  We pray to our Great Awesome God as our caring Father, but how has this happened? How come we get to be so close to the God of Justice and unapproachable light having infinite happiness?  We answer this by taking the time to exalt Jesus Christ crucified, who once and for all accomplished for us- our peace, forgiveness, freedom, and blessed adoption as sons of God!  Honor our Father by honoring and exalting His Son, Jesus Christ.  For this is what the Father is doing.  Are you with God our Father or against Him in this greatest pursuit of His to exalt or glorify Himself by exalting His Son?  Who or what are you exalting?  Each soul, nation or any created thing stands or falls on this one issue: are you honoring the Son of God, the Son of His love, the Divine Person of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel.  Amen!

[1] From my "Oshea Miscellaneous" writings.

[2]  See www.osheadavis.com, my books: The Divine Decrees, Where to find the Glory of Jesus Christ, and Love Never Fails.

[3] Oshea Davis, "Where to find the Glory of Jesus Christ," from the chapter, God's Passion for His Glory.

[4] Jonathan Edwards, "The End for which God Created the world," edited by Oshea Davis.

[5] Revelation 1:5, "Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood."

[6] Colossians 1:18, "He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence."

[7] Romans 11:33,36

[8] Lord willing I am soon to begin writing a full length book on the lessons to learn for preaching both to ourselves and others from the sermons of Romans and Hebrews.

[9]  The basic way to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ is in two ways.  One is to showcase His Divinity or His Almightiness.  How often to most professing Christians mediate everyday that their humbled Messiah who died for them, to whom they pray to every day, was the One who actually created their souls, physical bodies and all things!  Because they should!  You cannot honor Jesus in His humble love without honoring His Almighty power and universal dominion in your hearts, minds, prayers and words as often as you think upon His mercy!  The second is to showcase His humble love, mercy, even His power to defeat the grave, forgive sinners and heal brokenness as the God-human.  Often the burden of preaching this is explaining the office of Jesus Christ as our mediator or great High Priest and all that He gloriously accomplished in these roles for us, for our benefit.