I never study the Bible to make a sermon.

I study not to make a sermon.

I study to know the Word of God and the God of the Word.

I seek the truth for my own soul.

I study for my own soul.

I go deep because that's where I want to go

so that I can be exalted in worshiping the Lord.

Thank you. so that I can be exalted in worshiping the Lord.

Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

When Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, would lecture a class of seminary students,

he would tell them to do any other job besides preaching if they could help it. Why? Because,

quote, if the man can help it, God never called him. But if he cannot help it, and he must preach or die, then he is the man.

Well, it's that sort of pressing call that steered John MacArthur to the pastorate more than 56 years

ago, and today John offers some insight into a pastor's heart. He's going to look at the primary

task of any preacher in a lesson that can help you better

understand and encourage the work that your pastor does. And so with that, here's John.

We are going to pick up where we left off. This discussion of preaching, I started by saying

if you're a pastor, you're a preacher above all else. That is what we are. That is what we do.

We are men utterly devoted to displaying God's glory by the exposition of God's word.

So I started by giving you at least one point in my little outline here, and that is perspective. And the

perspective is that preaching is to be both deep and high. It is to be both profound and transcendent.

...