This is the on preaching podcast with H.B. Charles Jr.

The podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better.

Good day and thanks for listening to the podcast.

In this final episode of the On Preaching Podcasts for 2023, I want to issue a challenge.

Preach the truth.

I know that seems like an obvious exhortation.

Seems like instruction and admonition that is unnecessary for the preacher who is called by God.

But we are living in strange times. Are we not friends?

And we who are heralds of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We who are ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ, we who are

messengers of reconciliation, need to be constantly reminded that whenever we are privileged to stand,

to preach or teach the Word of God, we are to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the

truth. I'm an advocate of expositional preaching, and expositional preaching is often called

these days text-driven preaching. And indeed, I am in full support of allowing the Word of God,

the chosen sermon text, to be in the driver's seat when one stands to preach. But to be

honest, I'm not just listening when I listen to preaching these days.

I'm not just listening to whether that sermon is text-driven.

I am listening to whether that text is truth-driven.

The text can be twisted, manipulated, corrupted to say what false teachers want it to say.

Or you can dance around the text. You know, you can do the hokey-pokey. Put your left foot in and your left

foot out and shake it all about and you're dancing around the text, playing with suggestions,

hanging out at the outskirts of the borders of the meaning of the text without digging in to find and then declare

the God-intended truth, the doctrinal theme of the text.

...