Stop Preaching Extemporaneously

I recently wrote a blog titled: “Witness”. In that blog I showed who the witnesses of Christ Jesus are; His chosen apostles, not you and I. Remember, the gospel is purely the good news concerning Jesus the Christ the Son of God; His righteous life, His sacrificial death for the sins of men, His burial, His bodily resurrection from the dead, and His ascension into Heaven. So when the Lord said to His disciples; “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15) He was telling them, “go tell the world about Me, go tell them what I have done.” Why is this important to understand, because we can easily get caught up in so many different things, but the gospel alone is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16). We are not witnesses of any of these things; the apostles of Christ Jesus are His chosen witnesses into the world. They have left us with their witness, which is the New Testament. “You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:48)

So then what are we, the redeemed in Christ to do if we are not His witnesses? We still have the commission that was given to the entire church throughout the ages by Christ in Matthew 28:18-20; “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." We still have His chosen method of making disciples. The preaching of the gospel (Mark 16:15, Luke 24:46, 47); but we are not the witnesses of these things, it is His apostles alone who are the witnesses of the good news concerning Jesus the Christ the Son of God; His righteous life, His sacrificial death for the sins of men, His burial, His bodily resurrection from the dead, and His ascension into Heaven. So, therefore, when we proclaim the gospel, we must take out anything that is not their witness. We must first proclaim the scripture as it is written, and then secondly explain the scripture exegetically, which is a critical interpretation of the text. We are not to take individual scripture out of its context, and then apply them to fit our ideas. We are to take what has been written within the context of what proceeds and follows it.

So what am I saying? Stop preaching extemporaneously! Most pastors are not guilty of this, but many of my open-air preaching brethren are. Instead of first proclaiming what has been written, which is the first hand account, and then secondly explaining what has been written by critical interpretation of the text (exegesis), they will speak what has been formed in their own minds off-the-cuff or use some credo form that was given to them by someone else, and will often spout individual verses out of context, making themselves the witness of Jesus Christ. I am guilty of this, and am currently repenting.

I know that many of you will not like what I just said, but it is true nonetheless. Preaching is not a game, it is serious stuff, and needs not be taken lightly, but taken with much care and respect for the word of God, and the authority with which God has given men to proclaim His word. Open up the scripture, read the scripture, study what has been written with much care and diligence; then and only then go preach. When you go preach; firstly open up the scripture, don’t just hold the bible in your hand as a symbol, but actually proclaim what is written on the pages, then secondly explain what has been written, within context. I recently heard a brother in Christ and fellow open-air preacher whom I respect say; “Preaching is teaching with authority” (Tony Miano). Do not take this authority lightly.

This is not to say that you can never spontaneously preach the gospel, of course you can and should; but only after you have previously put in the necessary time, of opening up the scripture, studying the scripture. Then and only then will you be prepared to firstly proclaim, and then secondly explain what has been written by those who are the witnesses of Jesus the Christ the Son of God; His righteous life, His sacrificial death for the sins of men, His burial, His bodily resurrection from the dead, and His ascension into Heaven.



Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ

Witness

What is the gospel? The gospel is purely the good news concerning Jesus the Christ the Son of God; His righteous life, His sacrificial death for the sins of men, His burial, His bodily resurrection from the dead, and His ascension into Heaven. So when the Lord said to His disciples; “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15) He was telling them, “go tell the world about Me, go tell them what I have done.” Why is this important to understand, because we can easily get caught up in so many different things, but the gospel alone is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16).

I have three questions for you while keeping the gospel in mind:
1) Did you witness these things?
2) Who did witness these things?
3) Who then are the witnesses for Christ Jesus?

I'm going to teach you about something you may not have heard before, at least in this way, but it's not new, the reformers referred to it as “Sola Scriptura”. Now “Sola Scriptura” referrers to all of scripture, both the New and Old Testaments, but what I would like to talk about today is the gospel. We are the redeemed in Christ; what that means is we have been saved from the wrath of God for our sins; by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in the Jesus Christ alone. We are the redeemed in Christ, but make no mistake, brethren; you and I are not His witnesses. Yes, you heard me correctly, we are not His witnesses. The apostles chosen by Jesus Himself are His witnesses: both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. They are the ones who witnessed His righteous life, His sacrificial death for the sins of men, His burial, His bodily resurrection from the dead, and His ascension into Heaven. When you and I preach the gospel in this world, we are not giving witness of the things we have seen and heard; we are simply reporting the news given to us by those who did. When you come to understand this, it will revolutionize the way you preach the gospel, and talk to people about Jesus. You will also have understanding with regards to what really should be said, and the reason why. What I have to say today is in no way exhaustive on the subject; it is just a beginning, scratching the surface on a subject that covers the entirety of the gospel accounts and Epistles. Pay close attention to the personal pronouns when you are reading both the gospel accounts and Acts; this will really bring this subject to light. I’ve included in this post four short passages of scripture as examples of this.

“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-5 NASB)

I used this passage because it is a good quick synopsis of the gospel. As you can see from the passage, Christ appeared to the apostles after His resurrection, they were witnesses of His resurrection. Paul received the news of Christ death for the sins of believers and Christ subsequent resurrection from the dead the third day, the same way all of us have; by the testimony of those who witnessed the events. Paul then passed this news along to others so that they may also believe and be saved. Paul did see the risen Savior and was sent by Him, making Him an apostle, so therefore he himself could give witness to the resurrection.

He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." (Acts 1:7-8)

As you can see from this passage, all the personal pronouns in reference to being a witness are of the apostles, His chosen witnesses, and in the greater passage of Acts 1:1-11 the Lord’s dialog is with the apostles, His chosen witnesses. The very ones He had chosen early on during His earthly ministry to be His witnesses.

"I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17: 20,21 NASB)

In this, the High Priestly Prayer Jesus is praying on behalf of the church, all those who will come to faith in Him. Take note as to how they come to faith in Him, through the word given by His chosen witnesses, His apostles.


"Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name." (John 20:30, 31 NASB)

In this passage the apostle John states the purpose for his writing this account. In this passage the signs Jesus performed where done in the presence of His disciples and they were not all written down. What has been written; has been written so that you, I, and a multitude of others would believe and be saved, to fulfill the commission that the Lord gave them, to be His “witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

As I stated earlier, this is in no way exhaustive on the subject, I try to keep these blogs brief, but I hope it does bring some understanding to something you may not have considered before. Remember what the gospel is; the good news concerning Jesus the Christ the Son of God; His righteous life, His sacrificial death for the sins of men, His burial, His bodily resurrection from the dead, and His ascension into Heaven. Remember that you were not a witness of these things, Jesus chosen apostles were the witness of these things. So when you share the gospel with others, weather that be one on one, or by preaching, take out of your presentation what does not belong there, and report what the apostles of Christ Jesus witnessed. Remember we can easily get caught up in so many things; we have a tendency to make the gospel about ourselves or the people of the world. Let us report what we have received from the apostles witness, worshiping our Lord by telling the world what He has done, remember; it is the gospel alone that is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16).

“So many things have to be done to attract a crowd and to keep that crowd they have attracted why is that? Is it because the Gospel no longer has power? Or is it because we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are preachers of the Gospel? Paul said the Gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone, and that is true because power is demanded.” ~Paul Washer



Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ

Solely by the Act and Will of God

It was two weeks ago today when I last wrote anything on this blog. I enjoy writing because it is a venue by which I can impart the thoughts the Lord has given me to others. During the past two weeks since my last writing, I have gone to the Herald Society in Philadelphia, PA, and since then, I have spent the past week reflecting on my calling to go out into the world and preach the most glorious news of all. That is, the gospel of the precious Son of the Living God, Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus has come in human flesh, He lived a righteous life, fully meeting the requirements of God the Father for eternal life, willingly dying in place of men for their sins against God, He was buried, then on the third day from His death Jesus arose from the grave, demonstrating that He is the Son of God, and that the Father was fully satisfied with His sacrifice on the cross as payment in full for the sins of men; “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John1:13 NASB)

The man who has been born again has been granted eternal life by God and it is solely by the act and will of the Sovereign Triune God of Creation. It is not of blood, this to say, it does not matter what family line you come from, it does not matter who your parents are, or who your grandparents are; the Jews thought that they would be saved because of their father Abraham; they thought it was by blood, but salvation and eternal life is solely by the act and will of God. It is not of the will of the flesh; every other religious system on earth is based on the will of the flesh. Follow the rules setup by the deity and just maybe, if he determines that you have dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s then just maybe, you can enter into paradise. You cannot do enough good to please this God of creation, He is righteous, and you have sinned against him, there is not enough good works in all of creation to appease a just and Holy God for the crimes committed against His sovereignty. The process of being born again is solely by the act and will of God. It is not of the will of man; some people believe that if a man makes a decision, if he decides of his own free will to repent of his sins and follow Jesus Christ, God will give him His Spirit and he will be born again. Salvation and eternal life is not the will of man; it is solely by the act and will of the Sovereign God. The gospel call is to tell the sinner to repent (have repentance toward God for their sins), and put their faith (that is their trust) solely in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior for the forgiveness of their sins. An unregenerate, unbelieving sinner cannot of himself hear and capitulate to the gospel call, he is dead in his trespasses and sins. Oh he might have some outward sign of contrition, because he got caught in an adulterous relationship or something else. He may even put on the Lord Jesus Christ and give the Christian thing a go for a while to see what he might get out of it, but in the end he was never born again. To be born again is solely by the act and will of the sovereign God. God cleanses a man of his sins by the blood of Jesus Christ through faith alone. The Father gave His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus. Jesus lived the righteous life that we should have lived, and did not. Jesus then willing gave up His reward; we deserve death, He deserved life, He willing stepped in and took death in our place; we are then granted His righteousness before God by the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ Jesus alone.

How does this saving faith in Christ happen? God the Holy Spirit takes out a man’s heart of stone and gives him a heart of flesh. The Word of God is described in Ephesians 6:17 as being the sword of the Spirit. A sword cannot penetrate a stone; if you were to take a sword and wheeled it against a granite stone it would strike the surface of the stone but not penetrate the stone. If you take that same sword and wheeled it against soft flesh, it would penetrate that flesh to the core. So the Lord cleanses a man by the blood of Christ Jesus through faith alone, he does this by taking out his heart of stone and giving him a heart of flesh, so that he can then hear the gospel, not being able to resist it’s call, the gospel penetrates to his core. The Lord then puts His Spirit within the man causing him to walk in His statues, sanctification. And the greatest revelation about all this, the reason God did this. It is for the Glory of God alone!

Ezekiel 36:22-32 is the best description of the process by which the Lord causes a man to be born again I have found in all of scripture, I’ve included it below.


Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ



"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God, "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. 23 I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord," declares the Lord God, "when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. 24 For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. 28 You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. 29 Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you. 30 I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you will not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. 32 I am not doing this for your sake," declares the Lord God, "let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel!" (Ezekiel 36:22-32 NASB)

Nothing is More Important than the Truth

Why do you not understand what I am saying? This is a very important question, and our Lord Jesus immediately follows this question up with the answer. Jesus asked the question and gave the answer to this question in John 8:43. He said, "Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word." 

So they could not understand what He was saying because they could not hear His word. Now why could they not her His word? 

In John 8:44 Jesus gives the answer for this; He said, "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." 

The reason they could not here His word, is because they had murder in their heart, and therefore they could only hear lies. Jesus puts anger on equal footing with murder (see Matthew 5:22,23). 

Perhaps you are angry about something today, and cannot hear the truth. Relax, take a breath, and spend sometime in scripture alone, not to prove your point, and be right, but to truly know what is right. Do as the Bereans of Acts 17:11 did, if you hear something that bothers you, or your unsure of, or you don't understand; examine the scriptures to see if these things might be so. We cannot see things as they are and hear the truth when we are angry. Also do what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13:5 "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-unless indeed you fail the test?" Don't just pick the passages out of scripture that you like and discard what you don't like. Your faith must be grounded in the Jesus Christ of scripture alone. Truly look at these things, nothing is more important than the truth. Don't let anger keep you from understanding the truth.

Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ

And I Saw a Devil

He walked as though he owned the place, he probably does. He was a man familiar with wealth and prosperity giving the appearance of one use to having his way. He walked with a steady gate as he slipped on his suit jacket over his blue shirt and yellow tie. His suit was grey and expensive, he had on brown leather shoes, and he wore glasses and had curly gray hair, approximately 56-62 years of age. He came around the corner at the back of the parking lot and walked by all the cars parked in the lot. He set his gaze upon me, staring at me as he walked. I was preaching from the gospels about our resurrected Savior, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. As he continued to walk and stare intently, I thought he might come straight up to me, but he then gave a devilish grin and snicker. He then made a left turn for the door of the abortuary, inside awaited 20 women with child. Not too long after this they would begin coming out one-by-one with the gaunt faces of someone who had been medicated, walking with an uneasy gate, obviously from discomfort.

Today was the most difficult day I have had in the nearly one year of going to plead for lives with the word of God and gospel of Jesus Christ outside of an abortuary, I was without my bride or the other brothers that often come with me. I arrived on the public sidewalk, adjacent to Kings Hwy, the road on which the abortuary is located, at 8:45 AM, the parking lot was empty but would soon fill to capacity. A sister in Christ was there whom I had never met in person, but my wife, myself, and others have grown to know her via social media. As we talked and introduced ourselves, having yet to turn our attention to the abortuary, one of the men hired by the abortuary, an off duty deputy city Marshall made a bee line toward our direction, he began to try and use his position to intimidate us, saying “You cannot stand on the sidewalk with your cross, you must keep moving.” I have a 4 ft wooden cross with a question written on the cross beam, “Are You Ready?” I replied, “You are not acting in the capacity of a city Marshall, you have been hired as a guard of this place of death, I will be staying right here. You need to repent!” He then turned and walked away.

If you have followed any of my blogs lately, you would know that when out in public I have been preaching directly from the word of God, word for word. I was doing this in the hearing of the hired escort and the two men hired as guards. I would pause and call out to the mom’s and dad’s as they arrived to have their baby torn out of the womb. As I preached the word of God a woman from across the street began to curse me with much heated anger. Telling me to shut-up with many filthy curse words flying from her mouth; I turned her direction and told her that I loved her and hoped that the Lord might grant her repentance and faith in Jesus. This was when she really began to curse. The escort who sits with a stoic face while the word of God is preached began to snicker. Car after, car after, car would arrive; very often with the occupants laughing. They would get out of their car and walk right through the door of death without even giving a second glance as we pleaded with them to have mercy on their baby.

As I left this place I was filled with much sadness and grief. I had been at a place, in the middle of a busy city in America; in which a wealthy man charged poor people money to tear their child out of their womb. I think that this is the biggest problem, unbelief; people do not want to believe that this is really happening, so they ignore it. I could find solace in no one else so I turned to the Lord, asking the question: How can anyone murder their child, and how can anyone hear the word of God and gospel of Jesus the Christ and not fall to their knees in repentance and faith? I already knew the answer, they cannot hear the word of God because they are dead in their trespasses and sins, it is the same reason that I couldn’t hear until the Lord took out my heart of stone, and gave me a heart of flesh that could be penetrated by the word of God, and gospel of Christ.

What does the Lord say about this? “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." (John 8:43-47 NASB)



Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ

Witness

I came to the realization of something today as I was meditating on Acts 1:8.

"but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

I am not a witness for Jesus, you are not a witness for Jesus; neither our words nor our actions are a witness for Jesus. He chose His witnesses Himself, and it was not us.  His witnesses are His chosen apostles, then and now.  When He said to them, you shall be My witnesses even to the remotest part of the earth, He meant His chosen apostles, not us.  How can that be, His apostles are no longer with us? Oh but they are!  They left us a New Testament, and that New Testament alone is their witness of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God into all the world.  You and I my friend, are simply vessels to carry their witness into the remotest parts of the earth.  Think about that brethren next time you go out and proclaim the word of God, and Gospel of Jesus the Christ, the only begotten Son of the living God.  You and I are not the witness of Christ, His chosen apostles are through the words of the New Testament alone. 

Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ

The Lord Longs to be Gracious

The other day I began to read a book called “The Institutes of Christian Religion” by John Calvin. In Book 1, The Knowledge of God The Creator, chapter 1, I read a statement that just struck me hard. It was one of those aha moments when you get something. My mind is always on evangelizing the gospel, therefore I related this statement to the proclamation of the gospel. The author said; "But should we once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and reflect what kind of Being he is, and how absolute the perfection of that righteousness, and wisdom, and virtue, to which, as a standard, we are bound to be conformed, what formerly delighted us by its false show of righteousness will become polluted with the greatest iniquity; what strangely imposed upon us under the name of wisdom will disgust by its extreme folly; and what presented the appearance of virtuous energy will be condemned as the most miserable impotence."

When men compare themselves to men they feel alright about themselves, they look pretty good when compared to other men. There has been a push in evangelism a few years back on using the Ten Commandments to bring the knowledge of sin. The law used correctly does have this effect, because when you are comparing your deeds to God’s perfect standard we all fall woefully short. Psalm 96:3 says; “Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.” And that is what John Calvin was saying in the quoted statement. That until a man has knowledge of his Creator he will think he is a pretty good person, and that is what the Law does, and the purpose for preaching it, to bring knowledge of the Creator God. When man sees God, when he comes to the knowledge of who the Lord is, he cannot do anything but what Moses did in (Exodus 34:8 NASB). “Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.” The Law says, this is God, this is His standard, and how absolute the perfection of that righteousness is, the Law declares the glory of God.

My pastor, Phillip Dancy of Sylvania church in Tyler, Texas, was preaching on Isaiah 30:18-26 today. While expositing this passage he read God’s Name from (Exodus 34:6-7 NASB) ; “Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

That is our God! A man would never come up with a God like this God; who is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He is just. Isaiah 30:18 says that the Lord longs to be gracious to you and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. This God of justice who will not leave the guilty unpunished longs to be gracious to you, all I can say is Wow!!! And because He is both just and gracious He crushed His only begotten Son, Jesus the Christ in our place to prove it. Wow!!! All you need do is cry out to Him in repentance and faith; “He will hear it, He will answer you.” (Isaiah 30:19 NASB) “And He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:6 NASB) Wow, Amazing!!!

So what should we do? Preach the Law to bring the knowledge of sin, declare the glory of the Lord, the Lord of Exodus 34:6-7, then preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father. Amen!!!



Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ