A deeply encouraging message on preaching

I have finally a new mentor who isn't already with the Lord.  Alistair Begg is his name.  May God bless his ministry.  For many years, my mentors were men in my own church who cared deeply for preaching the Word.  Now they have all become too preoccupied with building churches to show the same interest in the preaching of the Word or mentoring those who are called to do it.


Much of what Alistair Begg preaches is addressed to preachers. Thanks be to God!  I need this kind of preaching. The last 9 weeks I have not preached at all.  My family no longer wants to worship in our house church, as we have done for the last 8 years, but to attend a local church where they can be with other Christians and grow in a community.  I don't blame them at all.  This is what even the Lord wants for them and me, I am sure.  Why?  Why does God not make my church planting successful?

In the particular message I'm speaking of, "God's Revelation", AB speaks to me and all who preach, answering this very excellent question.  How long I've waited to hear this!  Thank you dear brother Alistair.

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The message begins with a reading of Isaiah 66:1-13, esp. v.2b [RSV]:

But this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.

Earl of Rochester, on parenting: "Before I got married I had six theories about raising children. Now I have six children and no theories."   Preaching is similar.

V.1: The earth is my footstool.  "Where is the house you will build for me?"

How we like to compare our church buildings with one another's.
Acts 17:24 - Paul - God doesn't dwell in buildings made by hands.
God doesn't gaze on our buildings, but on his servant, esp. on a particular kind of servant, one with these three qualities, one who is:

• humble
• contrite in spirit
• trembles at my word

Humility: The lowest place for you, God, I am prepared to take.  As the hymn, So Send I You, so rarely sung today,

So Send I you to suffer unrewarded,
To die dear desires, self-will resign.

Contrition:  means contrite in spirit, essentially "crippled", like Mephibosheth.
Weakness rather than strength is esteemed by God.Not external humble appearances, but on the inside.  Some appear humble but aren't.
Has time fashioned in us the idea of the expert, of the powerful, of  "We've Got IT!"

Two dangers in going to preach: 

1. believing no one is interested in what we'll say, 
2. believing everyone is intensely interested in what we'll say.

Both strategies are from the devil and neutralize and paralyze and diminish effectiveness.
Examples of humble preachers:

• Is 6, contrition illustrated by Isaiah: where the spirit sears Isaiah's lips, and he says, "Here am I, send me."  He said it very humbly, "Would I do?  I'm willing."  
• Jeremiah was told, "Do not say, `I am only a youth.'"  Marked by sensitivity, "Trembles at my word".
• Also Ezra in Ezra 9:3,4, 

Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel assembled to me, because of the transgression of those who had been carried away captive, and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice.

• John the Baptist:  "I am only a voice of one calling in the desert."

Often the gifts we have are easily the occasions of our sin:  Leadership which becomes autocratic and useless;  Ability with language ->  Self-aggrandizing and critical; Ability to move people -> in the wrong direction.
The prophets are known for words. But Isaiah said, "I am a man of unclean lips"= his greatest usefulness was the potential for his greatest sin (i.e. pride).

Contrite = ack. our INabilities, rather than heralding our great Abilities (imagined or real)
Our culture urges us to boast of our strength and ability.

We feel jealous of those who have "made it", esp. among triumphalists ("Many, millions").  It's tough when you know you're not that good, stuck with people who are convinced they are good because of their success.

People were not impressed with Paul.  "I think he was trembling. We need someone better. Demas has been doing well!"

I was never picked to preach at London Bible College. The mixture of emotions were driving by pure, basic jealousy.  These are destructive emotions.

Sensitivity = Trembles at my word.
Waiting for my future wife's letters, setting them down to anticipate what had been written, waiting before reading.  I trembled at the prospect of reading them!  We become so familiar that we lose sensitivity.  Familiarity, able in it, able to preach from it:  These are not the test.  The test is: Am I sensitized to it.

The way scriptures are read publicly by an individual says a lot about the view of scripture which they hold. They seem to be making it up as they read, carelessly skipping things, as if we believe God had just inspired the ideas but not the words themselves.  A casual, flippant approach isn't trembling sensitivity.

I fail in every one of the three parts of the test.  V2 describes who I aspire to be, but am not, the person I need to be, the person by God's grace I may be.  Not only is this an exam, but an encouragement.

We won't be a footnote in history.  Looking at those who are apparently successful, we feel like we're at the bottom of the pile. We need to remember that God's priority is the humble, contrite, trembling servant. I can attempt it, with God's enabling, and those who pray for us.  We differ in our abilities. A PhD isn't for everyone; but we may and must look to be humble, contrite, trembling (HCT).

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I know God hasn't failed in sending me here to Virginia.  But as for the church I came to plant, I'll have to call that a failure on my part. I only have built in vain. But God has done what He set out to do here...


In this sermon I've found out what it was:  To remove the dross from me, to make me humble, contrite and to make me tremble before His word.  It's not about the ministry or church or even saving lives. God's work is the business of transforming us into His image, restoring us to be His humble and contrite servants, not making us great, but making His Name great.

Lord, thank you for this sermon.  Please help me to forget all that I have done for you, and dwell on daily and continually all that you have done for me.  Lord, I am so tired of being ineffective. But it is my own fault, for hanging on to my pride and self-reliant mentality. Please deliver me from the pride, and make me humble, contrite, trembling at your word.  I am of no use, but here am I, send me, so that it may be seen plainly that YOU use the weak and useless ones to shame the able and proud.