Page 13 - Homiletics I Student Textbook

Authority from the Lord
The authority in a sermon comes from the Scriptures, not the preacher.The claim of Scripture and the
premise of expository preaching is that God has spoken. Our task is to communicate what he has
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committed to Scripture.

It starts with the belief that the Bible is the Word of God. All Scripture is breathed out by God… (2
Timothy 3:16a) The pastor must find the message from God in the text that He wants him to deliver to
his audience.

The, the pastor is convinced that the message is from God for the people.

For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have
been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please
God who tests our hearts. (1 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity,
and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing
evil to say about us. (Titus 2:7-8)

If our people see any appreciable gap between our preaching and our conduct, we will forfeit their
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respect in direct proportion to the width of that gap.

The Bible itself is the absolute truth, the Word of God, and it is enough of a reason all by itself for pulpit
passion. But when our experience confirms what we have studied, then so much the more can we
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preach with urgency.

To sum it up, when a preacher gets a fresh burden from God and conveys it by expounding Scripture in
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the power of the Holy Spirit, he is exercising the gift of prophecy.

The pastor must also believe the message is from God with the power to change people’s lives.
Because hearts are transformed when people are confronted with the word of God, expository
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preachers are committed to saying what God says.

Through the preaching of Scriptures, God encounters men and women to bring them to salvation
(II Tim. 3:16-17). Something awesome happens when God confronts an individual through
preaching and seizes him by the soul.
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Advantages of Full-Counsel Preaching

You are honoring God’s Word. God said what He wanted to say, nothing more and nothing less. Our job
as preachers is to do the same. You avoid preaching your own ideas.

10 Chapell, Bryan, Christ-Centered Preaching, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2002), 23.
11 Delnay, Robert G., Fire in Your Pulpit, (Schaumburg: Regular Baptist Church, 1990), 20.
12 Delnay, 20.
13 Delnay, 18.
14 Chapell, 22.
15 Robinson, Haddon, Biblical Preaching, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981), 18.
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