What Is Redemptive-Historical Preaching?

I have had a couple of people comment on my previous post and ask what RH preaching is so I will try and explain it using as many monosyllabic words as possible. Basically RH preaching takes Jesus' words in LK 24:27 seriously, "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."

The Bible is a Redemptive-Historical book. Gen. 1-3 informs us of the creation and fall of mankind. Gen. 4-Rev. 22 informs us of God's redeeming of fallen mankind. It is easy to find Christ and His work in the New Testament, but Christ Himself informs us the whole of the Old Testament is about Him as well.

Let me give an example. It is all too easy today to find someone preach the David and Goliath passage as moralistic. What do I mean by this? Well what you might hear is a sermon on "What are the giants in your life?" or "What are the smooth stones in your life that can help your slay the giants in your life?" The problem with this is the sermon is then centered on you, the listener, instead of Christ. David in this story is a type of Christ, a foreshadowing of the great deliverer to come. When David defeats the giant the Old Testament is preparing the people of God for the coming of Messiah. To make the listener live up to a type of Christ in David is just plain cruel, this is a burden no believer should have to endure.

In this story if one must identify with anyone it surely is the Israelites who stood around, afraid of the giant waiting until a deliverer finally arrived on the scene. We should be able to identify often with the people of Israel, miserable failures who are graciously delivered by a merciful God.

One accusation leveled against RH preaching is that it is against application. This is entirely unfounded. There is a small group who surely feel this way but the vast majority of Biblical Theologians do not. Biblical Theology and Redemptive-Historical for the most part go hand in hand. RH preachers most assuredly believe in application, as one of my former pastors said you have to make sure you answer the "So what," of the sermon. Meaning the listener in the pew is saying "so what," to the sermon until the pastor informs him.

The bottom line is this, a Christian sermon must be about Christ, not about the listener. Let me give two quick diagnostics you may use when listening to a sermon. The first is very simple, ask yourself "Did Christ have to die to make what is being said in this sermon true?" If the answer is no, you have not heard preaching, you have heard a lecture. The second is three parts but I find this one very helpful. 1)Is Jesus mentioned? Don't laugh you could go for months listening to Joel Osteen and not hear a thing about Christ. 2)If Jesus is mentioned, is He the subject of the verbs? Is He doing the action or is being acted on? 3)If He is mentioned and He is the subject of the verbs, what are those verbs? Is He making you happy, healthy, wealthy? Or is He suffering and dying on a cross for the redemption of the believers, and is He rising again on the third day assuring us of eternal life.

I hope this helps shed some light for some of you. I also want to say how delighted I am to have at least a couple of people reading this while my posting has been so terribly sparse. Feel free to ask any more questions if I have not lived up to expectations with this post.

In Christ,
Alan

Must We Know The Original Languages?

This question comes up time and time again in conversations I have had with various people. I think if you are going to pastor a church, it is non-negotiable. You will be the final word on the Word Of God for many, many people and if you cannot give a definitive answer you should not be in that position.

Let me give an example. We will look at Deuteronomy 24:5 in two of the more popular translations of the day.
First the NIV:
5 If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.

Now the ESV:
5 “When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.

Look at the italicized part of both translations. Which one is it? Is the man supposed to make his wife happy or make himself happy? Now I know this does not impinge on any essential doctrines but still, if a congregant wants an answer and you can't provide one you will be doing those you are to shepherd a disservice.

Oh, you want to know which one is right? Ok, in this case the NIV happens to have it right. Now don't throw out your Reformation Study Bible and go out and purchase a Ryrie Study Bible, this is an exception rather than the rule. It appears the ESV just brought over an old error from the RSV. You will find the ESV right much more often than the NIV.

This is just the first of hopefully many lessons from "Things I Learned In Seminary." Hope this helps.

In Christ
Alan

I Meant No Offense

So today we received a nice letter from First Pres. the church we attended last Sunday. It was very nice and Ligon Duncan even put a personal note in at the end, if I remember correctly he said something about reading the blog post. I have never written about someone and had them read it, so now I had to scramble to the computer to remember what I said. Okay, I know I would not say more but I almost feel obligated now, the sermon was very good. It was on Psalm 92, and there was plenty of application, it just, in my opinion, was not overtly a historical-redemptive sermon, the kind I have become used to from my pastors from Iowa and St. Louis. Boy do I feel like I am trying to take my foot out of my mouth. I guess this does give me and opportunity to lay out the diagnostic I use one more time.

It is three parts:

1) Is Jesus mentioned? Don't laugh you could listen to Joel Osteen for months and never hear the Lord mentioned once.

2) If He is mentioned, is He the subject of the verbs? Is He doing the acting or is He being acted upon? Does He drive the verbs?

3) If He is mentioned and is the subject of the verbs, what are those verbs? Is Jesus making you happy? Making you healthy? Making you wealthy? Or is He living a righteous life we can never live, suffering on the cross to pay for our sins and rising from the dead on the third day assuring us of eternal life?*

That's it, if the sermon you are listening to passes this little diagnostic you most definitely are listening to a Christ-centered, cross-focused sermon.

*Of course this time the attention garnered by this post makes it appear this is my diagnostic. I have posted this many times previously and this is the first time I did not give proper credit. This is a diagnostic developed by Todd Wilken and can again be heard on the Issues etc. radio show.

Every Now And Then Even A Blind Squirrel Finds A Nut.

This video is from a Way of the Master show aired on TBN. It features Paul Washer and one of the things I love listening to him talk about—his experience as a missionary. It does not matter where one is, in America or in a tribal country, the message is the same: Christ crucified for sinners. When we start doing programs and groups and whatever to appeal to a larger audience, the gospel gets lost. The gospel is an offense, and we should worry if the numbers of converts we are seeing goes up. This should make us question our methods and what we are doing and preaching. Enjoy this video; I did.

It Really Is ALL God's Work.

If more men would preach the word of God like Paul Washer I think we would most definitely have less wealthy pastors. It is about God and the work HE does not about man and the work we do. I will never understand how someone can say we must make a decision for Christ and at the same time say that is not a works salvation. If we do ANYTHING it is a works salvation and not at all what the scripture teaches. Preach on brother Paul!!

Refuting Decision Theology

Paul Washer at it again. No wonder he does not get invited back!

Still More On Preaching

I do not believe this can be overstated, and I will continue to state it until everyone understands it. Amen brother Sproul!

More On Preaching

One of the main problems with preaching and the worship service as a whole is the pastor/worship team and all involved betray their lack of trust in God's revealed word and also their lack of faith in God's promises. They do this by coming up with all sorts of programs, dramas, stories, and illustrations because they lack the faith that the preached gospel of God will be efficacious for the salvation of the lost. John Piper has hit the nail on the head with this brief video.

Christ Centered Preaching!

I have mentioned the diagnostic I use to determine if I am listening to a Christ-centered sermon before but I like the question this man uses in this short video. "Did Christ have to die on the cross to make what I heard in this sermon true?" If the answer is no, then it was not a Christ-centered, Cross-focused sermon. I love it.

A True Dichotomy, Paul Washer.

I was browsing around looking at videos for the previous post and found some more Paul Washer videos I just felt I had to post. It does seem like I spend more time on negative posts at least as far as the videos go, so here are some positive ones. Well I mean that the content is truthful.









Is not the difference between Paul Washer and Rick Warren clear? Rick Warren sells millions of books, tickling people's ears. Paul Washer does not get invited back to most of the places at which he speaks. Preach on brother Paul!!
To hear more of Paul Washer go here.

Listen To This

This is what a heart for Christ sounds like! Oh Lord give us all this kind of emotion.

Everyone knows they sin, let's just preach the positives.

I am still playing with this blog thing and wanted to try and embed some video in a post. I could not think of a better one than this. This is Mark Keilar, who is fantastic at explaining the reformed/ biblical doctrine. Enjoy.

Preaching

I want to make a few points about the state of preaching today, because it is in sad shape. Now, I am not saying it is worse than it has ever been. I am sure that during the dark ages, some homileticians were probably as poor as those passing as preachers today. However, we are alive now, so I must address our current situation.

It amazes me that so many of our preachers today fail to get it. I sat through a homiletics class at an Arminian school where the professor made us make a preaching calendar for an entire year, and we had to have a topic for every sermon for 52 weeks. He was not impressed when I turned in a calendar with the same topic for each of the 52 weeks, "Christ and Him crucified". It's not rocket science guys. When Paul tells the Corinthians he determined to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified(1 Cor. 2:2), what makes us think we know better?

Another problem is pastors today trying to appeal to as many people as they can. In order to do this, they water down their messages and fail to deliver the bad news (Law), before they deliver the good news (Gospel). As the subtitle for this blog clearly states, the good news is not that good unless the bad news is that bad. In an effort to be less offensive, they offer a different gospel, one in which God loves everyone. I have news for you: unless the Holy Spirit regenerates you, you are an enemy of God, and to tell unregenerate people God loves them is to outright lie to them. I am sure the intentions of many of these preachers are good, but that does not change the fact that our pulpits are straying from the only power unto salvation—the preaching of the gospel. (Can you say, "Tie a millstone around their necks?)

I want to give you a short, three-part diagnostic to help you determine if you are listening to a good Christ-centered sermon. I am indebted to Pastor Todd Wilken and his radio show (Issues etc.) for this diagnostic.

Part 1:
Is Jesus mentioned? Don't laugh! You could listen to Joel Osteen for nigh on a month and never hear the name of Jesus.

If He is mentioned, how many times?

Part 2:
Is He the subject of the verbs?

Is He doing the action or is He being acted upon?

Part 3:
If He is mentioned and He is the subject of the verbs, what are those verbs?

Is He making you happy, healthy, wealthy?

Or is He living a righteous life that is imputed to us, suffering and dying on the cross where our sins are imputed to Him, and rising again on the third day assuring us of eternal life.

It's really very simple: if your pastor's sermons do not pass this test, find a church with a pastor whose sermons do.

Another excellent test is to ask yourself, "Could this sermon be preached in a synagogue or a mosque without offending anyone?" If so, it's time to find a new church.

Historical-redemptive preaching of Christ and Him crucified is the model we are given in scripture. The gospel is for sinners, saved and unsaved alike. If you think, "We all know the gospel, so we can move on to others things," you are sadly mistaken. We learn things by repetition, and we continue to sin. That's why we need the power of God's gospel every Sunday, from every preacher, in every pulpit.

In Christ,
Alan