Please take your Bibles and turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3
where we've been turning to pretty much the whole men's class all year.
1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 2.
Just give me a moment to turn there.
1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 2.
The Bible says,
A bishop then must be blameless,
the husband of one wife,
vigilant, sober of good behavior,
given to hospitality, apt to teach.
The title for the sermon tonight is apt to teach.
2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 24 says,
And the servant of the Lord must not strive,
but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient.
So you see, in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy,
1 Timothy, Timothy was a younger pastor.
Paul is saying, hey, you've got to be apt to teach.
These are one of the qualifications.
As you look for men that you want to ordain as pastors,
they have to have an aptitude to teach.
And then later on, as we were going through on Wednesday,
2 Timothy takes place a few years later.
Again, he tells Timothy, you've got to be apt to teach.
You have to have the aptitude to teach.
And as I was going through the previous session,
these things that we have laid out for us are good character,
good behavior traits that we should be striving to achieve in our lives.
If you're someone that cannot teach,
if you're someone that you've never taught before,
you don't know if you're able to convey or communicate very well,
well, this is an area that you can work on.
This is an area you can develop in.
But as a leader, especially as someone that comes and stands behind the pulpit,
you may not be a leader by office.
You may not necessarily be a leader just in practical running of the church.
But when you get behind the pulpit,
at that point in time, you are now taking on a leadership position.
You are taking on a position of teaching.
You're opening the Word of God,
and everyone is ready to hear what you have to say,
what you have prepared,
and so it's important that you have the ability to teach,
that you are apt to teach.
When it comes to this characteristic that we need to develop,
I've got ten points that I want to cover with you today.
Ten points.
So I'm going to get you to, it's much more of a Bible study tonight,
but I'll get you to turn your Bibles to Exodus 24, please.
Exodus 24, verse 12.
Point number one is straightforward, but it's important.
So I've got ten points as to how you can be a great teacher of the Word of God.
The first point that I have is, number one, is to teach the Word of God.
Point number one, straightforward, common sense, logical, teach the Word of God.
But look at Exodus 24, verse 12.
Exodus 24, verse 12.
It says here,
God didn't say teach quotes from pastors.
He didn't say teach poems.
He didn't say teach, you know, open up the hymn books and start teaching from the hymns.
He didn't start teaching from some historical illustration.
He said, no, teach them.
Teach the tables of stone, the law, the commandments, which I have written.
And so we take this application today as pastors, as preachers, as teachers,
and say, well, I'm going to teach from the Word of God.
When you stand behind this pulpit, that's what I want you to do.
I don't care about anything else.
You focus on the Word of God.
That's what God has commanded Moses.
That's what he's commanding us.
But I want you to notice something else.
God has given Moses all these commandments and laws.
He doesn't say state them to the church or to the congregation.
He doesn't say just show them and state them.
He says teach them.
Teach them.
It's one thing for you to say, you know, I believe X doctrine.
It's another thing for you to teach X doctrine.
And that's what you need to learn.
It's not just this is what the Bible says.
You have to teach.
Why does it say that?
What does it mean?
How does that apply to me?
You need to learn how to be a teacher.
Go to Exodus 4 verse 10, please.
Exodus 4 verse 10.
Moses did not think he would be a good teacher.
He did not think he would be a good leader.
Exodus 4 verse 10.
It says, And Moses said unto the Lord,
O my Lord, I am not eloquent,
neither heretofore,
neither since thou has spoken unto thy servant,
but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.
And brethren, I feel like I'm that person.
I don't think I'm eloquent.
I have very simple language, right?
I grew up by parents.
English was their second language, right?
So I didn't really get the best English out of my parents.
I went to school in Canley Vale,
which a lot of Asian immigration in that period,
in that place, in Cabramatta.
So a lot of my friends were immigrants.
Again, English is not their first language.
So I sometimes struggle.
You'll see this as I preach.
I'm trying to find just a very simple word,
and it's just stuck in my brain.
I can't get it off the tip of my tongue.
Eventually it comes out,
or I have to rephrase it some other way.
I'm not eloquent with my speech.
I can kind of relate to what Moses is saying here,
but then look at verse 11.
You say, Pastor Kevin, when I get behind the pulpit,
what should I say?
What God put in your mouth, okay?
What God has taught you.
How did he teach me?
When you read the Bible, right?
When you prepared, when you got ready,
that's God putting his words into your mouth, okay?
So please take the opportunity when you preach,
if you say, I'm going to preach 40 minutes,
I'm going to preach for an hour,
I want to hear what God is saying through your mouth.
Your personality is there, right?
Your personality, God is using you
to convey the message that God has given us.
Point number one is teach the Word of God.
Point number two,
if you guys can please go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2.
1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 4.
Let's read it first before I give you the second point.
1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 4.
Paul writes,
And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power,
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God.
The second point that I have for you here
is teach in the power of God.
You see, when I get behind this pulpit,
I don't preach, I don't speak
the way that I would speak to you day by day.
You know, if it's just one on one,
just you and I speaking about different things.
Before I get up to preach,
I'm always asking the Lord,
please, Lord, give me your strength,
give me your power,
please help me to be able to project properly,
help me to communicate properly,
because these are your people
and I have weaknesses, Lord,
please just give me your power,
give me your Spirit, give me your strength.
You need to have that
to be an effective teacher to the church.
Please never become so prideful
where you just get,
oh yeah, it's my turn behind the pulpit,
oh man, everyone loves me,
I'm the best preacher.
You know, you may think you're the best,
but the hearers will hear the Spirit of God
or the wisdom of man, okay?
And Paul is very clear,
no, I'm not using the wisdom of man here.
When I teach, when I preach,
I'm using the Spirit of God,
I'm using the power of God.
And this is so important,
and you know,
the times I see this most in my life
are those times when I'm very limited,
when I have very limited time to prepare.
The few times that my plane's been late
in Sydney or whatever,
I'm coming back, I'm like,
oh man, I've got to get back,
I've got to preach a sermon tonight,
you know, on Wednesday night,
and there's been times,
not very often,
but there's been times when I've just
only had an hour to prepare.
Like honestly, an hour,
like, oh man,
you know, I get dressed first,
I'm ready to go,
and then I'm like,
okay, I've got an hour,
and I'm thinking, oh man,
this is going to be the worst sermon ever,
you know, I'm just rushing through,
you know, getting things ready.
And then I preach
and it surprises me how many times
I've preached those sermons
and I'm like,
I'm praying to God all the way,
like, God, please just help me,
help me preach, right?
I'm so, I feel bad,
you know, people traveling to church
and they're hearing me
just prepare for an hour.
Now look,
that's not what you should be doing
on a regular basis,
like, I'm only going to prepare for an hour,
I'm going to go,
just use 10 minutes,
because when you're doing that constantly,
it's going to be shallow preaching,
everyone's going to realize,
man, this guy's not prepared,
you know.
But what I found was
when it's not my fault
and I'm forced to have that
hour to prepare
and I've preached,
that's where I get
most people saying to me,
that was a great sermon, right?
That was really, you know,
I really learned something,
I'm like, what in the world?
How did that happen?
You know why?
Because I preached
in the power of God,
I preached in His Spirit.
And of course,
if I'm not prepared,
if I don't have knowledge,
if I don't have wisdom,
I'm not going to be able to do that.
Of course, you know,
preparing to teach,
of course you're using
your lifelong lessons,
you're using the things
that you've learned,
you know, you're begging God,
please bring things back
to my remembrance,
please bring things back
to my remembrance,
the power of God
is what's going to help you
preach powerful sermons,
things that change people's lives
or just bring on new knowledge,
things like that.
You know,
2 Corinthians 12, 10 says,
for when I am weak,
then am I strong?
You know,
and for when I am weak,
then am I strong?
I love those words.
I always feel,
I almost like,
I almost feel weak all the time.
I'm like,
I'm in a failure of a man, God.
Like, I'm such a bad preacher.
Lord, and I listen to my sermons
and I'm like,
no, I said the wrong thing.
I didn't mean to say,
you know,
Jacob's father was trying
to kill him.
I meant Jacob's brother
was trying to kill him.
Why did I say that
in my previous sermon?
I'm always like,
well, anyway, Lord,
I guess you can use me
in my weakness
and I thank God
that he's able to do that,
but point number two
was teach in the power of God.
Please seek God's power,
his spirit,
before you come up to preach.
The third point that I have here
and you can go back
to 1 Timothy chapter 3
if you want,
1 Timothy chapter 3,
is teach your family.
Teach your family.
Please,
I don't want you to be
just a guy that gets here
and preaches to the church
and just teaches the church.
I really want you to
make sure you're teaching
your family as well,
your wife,
your children, right?
Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 9 says,
only take heed to thyself
and keep thy soul diligently
lest thou forget the things
which thine eyes have seen,
and lest they depart
from thy heart
all the days of thy life,
but teach them to thy sons
and to thy sons' sons.
Teach your family.
You guys are in 1 Timothy 3,
look at verse 5,
for if a man know not
how to rule his own house,
how shall he take care
of the church of God?
Your family is the primary
training ground for you
to be an effective teacher
in the church.
That's the primary training ground.
Yes, I'm giving you
the opportunities to come here,
preach so we can be blessed,
preach so you can gain experience,
so you can gain knowledge,
you can gain the experience
of putting sermons together.
That's great.
I'm going to continue giving you
those opportunities,
but if you want to be
most effective,
use your time most wisely,
and it's going to have
the greatest effect to the people
that you love the most,
preach to your family, men.
Preach to your family.
I'm not saying hour-long sermons.
I'm just saying open up
the Bible to your kids,
to your wife.
Let's read a chapter,
and let's understand this.
Let's understand this as a family.
Kids, what do you take out of this?
This is what the Bible is saying.
Please don't lose that opportunity,
especially if you're desiring
to be a pastor, a deacon.
If a man know not
how to rule his own house,
that has multiple means.
What does it mean to rule?
To be in charge,
to be a lead,
to be the head.
Part of that is training your family,
teaching your family.
That's where God wants you
to get the most experience
so you can become
an effective leader in the church.
This is why men that
do not meet the qualifications,
divorce, remarried,
one child, no children,
they're always failures.
They always get into heresies.
They always fail somehow
because they haven't got
the training ground.
They didn't learn
how to do things effectively.
They didn't learn how to be manly.
They didn't learn
how to be a leader at home.
And then they failed
to be a leader in the church.
That's point number three.
Teach your family.
Point number four
is teach what is right and wrong.
Please go to Leviticus chapter 10.
Leviticus chapter 10 verse 8.
Teach what is right and wrong.
Right and wrong.
And as I'm going through this,
I realize I might need
to work a little bit more
in this as well as a teacher
that gets behind this pulpit.
You know, I think it's easier
to teach what is right
than to teach what is wrong.
But they both need
to be taught together.
Leviticus chapter 10 verse 8.
And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying,
Do not drink wine nor strong drink,
thou nor thy sons with thee,
when thou go into the tabernacle
of the congregation, lest ye die,
it shall be a statute forever
throughout your generations,
and that ye may put difference
between holy and unholy,
and between unclean and clean,
and that ye may teach,
there it is,
that ye may teach
the children of Israel
all the statutes
which the Lord has spoken unto them
by the hand of Moses.
So God did not want these priests
to be tainted by alcohol,
to have their minds numbed
with these substances.
He wanted them to know
the difference between
clean and unclean,
holy and unholy,
so they could be
teachers to the people of Israel.
So they would be able to teach
the statutes of the Lord.
It wasn't just Moses that taught them,
these priests were required
to teach Israel as well.
And so,
when you're preaching a sermon,
it's one thing to say
we believe in
what's a good doctrine?
We believe in the post-treat,
pre-rapture.
This is why we believe it,
these are the verses.
Great!
You've taught which is holy,
you've taught that which is clean,
but then you also have to
differentiate and show people
what is unclean, what is wrong.
The reason we don't believe
in the pre-tribulation rapture
is because these verses
obviously contradict,
this position does not go in line
with these passages in the Bible.
You have to teach both these things,
not just that which is clean,
but also that which is unclean.
Very, very important.
I think I can personally improve in this
as I was going through this myself.
It's important, yes,
that's the truth, yes,
but our children are one day
going to grow up
and they're going to hear
from other preachers,
actually, you were told that was right,
but actually this is right,
let me show you why.
But if you've not prepared your kids,
you've not prepared the church
to be able to understand
and see the errors of what is unholy,
what is unclean,
then they're not going to be able
to differentiate those things.
And so as teachers,
we're tasked to make sure,
to expand your knowledge a little bit,
understand why people
hold different positions
and why you don't hold that position
and how you can debunk that
using the word of God, okay?
So teach what is right and wrong.
That was point number four.
Point number four.
Point number five is teach by example.
Teach by example.
And if you guys can go to Matthew 5, 19,
Matthew 5, 19,
while you're turning to Matthew 5, 19,
I'm going to read to you
from Ezra 7, verse 10.
Ezra 7, verse 10 says,
For Ezra had prepared his heart,
pay attention now,
prepared his heart
to seek the law of the Lord
and to do it
and to teach in Israel
statutes and judgments.
We see how Ezra prepared
to be a teacher.
The first thing he did
was he sought the law of the Lord, right?
He went to the scriptures
and said, I'm going to seek what it teaches.
And then as he saw, okay,
this is what the Bible says.
The next thing he did,
seek the law of the Lord
and to do it.
He said, okay, I see this.
I have to be more like the Bible.
I need to be what God says I need to be, right?
And he started to make changes in his life.
He wasn't empty vein preaching.
He made sure that he was trying
to live out what he was seeing
in the Word of God.
And then,
and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.
Okay?
So you've got to be that example.
You've got to be that example.
It's such a bad thing
when preachers are hypocrites.
And you know,
we're all hypocrites to some measure
because no one's perfect, right?
And we're commanded to teach
the whole counsel of God.
Of course,
I'm not going to skip things
even if I'm struggling in that area.
Otherwise, I'll be avoiding
certain passages of the Bible.
But we see how we ought to teach.
We ought to teach by example.
When you get up here to teach,
make sure this is something
that you're doing well at.
That you're having success
and you're being productive at.
And that will make you
more effective as a teacher
because the congregation sees,
Oh, yeah, well, you know,
I can see brother so-and-so
is preaching there.
Yeah, you know,
he's put this to practice.
I've seen some examples in his life.
Yeah, I can see how this is true.
It's true to him.
And when it's true to you,
it's going to be more true to them.
It's kind of like when you go soul-winning
and you have the confidence,
you have the zeal.
You're like sure, you know,
the Bible tells us he can be 100% sure.
I know I'm 100% sure.
When people see that confidence,
they see that belief in you,
they see that effectiveness in you,
they're more likely to hear
and accept what you have to say.
But when you're more timid
and things like that,
you know, you're unsure, you're shy,
they're going to mind,
you don't even believe
what you're trying to say.
So it's important to teach by example.
Look at Matthew 5.19.
Matthew 5.19,
words of Jesus Christ,
whosoever therefore shall break
one of these least commandments
and shall teach men so,
he shall be called the least
in the kingdom of heaven.
Man, how bad is that?
Now this is all about saved people
because these are people
in the kingdom of heaven, right?
So preachers can break commandments, right?
And commit sin
and to make me feel better,
teach you to do the same sins, right?
It makes me feel better.
If everyone does it,
it doesn't look like such a bad thing.
But I'll be called, if I do that,
the least in the kingdom of heaven.
We'd rather be the next part that says that,
but whosoever shall do and teach them,
the same shall be called great
in the kingdom of heaven, okay?
And I think all of our desire
is to be great in the kingdom of heaven, right?
To do as much as we can for the Lord
to take up those higher positions
as much as possible.
Well, we have to do and teach them,
teach the commandments of Jesus Christ
of Jesus Christ.
So teach by example.
Of course, Jesus Christ was one
who taught by example.
So that was point number five,
teach by example.
Point number six is teach with preparation.
Teach with preparation.
It kind of does overlap a little bit
with what I mentioned before,
but teach with preparation.
I'll just read to you 2 Timothy 2.15.
You know this one.
It says,
study, study to show thyself approved unto God,
a workman, right?
What's study?
Working.
You know, you're working,
you're studying the word of God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
You know, when you have the opportunity
to get up here,
make sure you study,
make sure you become a worker,
a workman, all right?
And you put the effort in,
you get as much as you can
from the word of God
because you're about to preach it
to the children of God.
You're about to preach it
to those that are going to rule
and reign with Christ
for a thousand years and beyond.
You know,
you preach it to very important people.
Make sure you study.
Teach with preparation.
Please, like I said, you know,
yes, I have those opportunities,
those random, you know,
unplanned one-hour sermon preparation time,
but that's not my goal.
I'm not trying to just find an hour.
I'm not trying to find just half an hour
to preach a sermon.
Most of my sermons,
once I sit down
and start putting things on paper,
no less than four hours,
maybe somewhere between five to seven hours
I spend putting a sermon together, okay?
And it's not just what I put on paper.
Obviously, throughout the week,
I've been thinking about it,
I've been meditating about it, you know,
and I don't know how many hours.
I mean, if you really put all the hours together,
I don't know how long
I spend putting sermons together
and I trust you're doing the same.
And I know you are.
I know you are because
you're spending a lot of time
in the Word of God
rather than going, you know,
just waffling on about nonsense.
And you can tell
when someone hasn't prepared,
they're just waffling on
or they're going back to their pet doctrines
or they're just going back to salvation.
They're just going to the very things
that are milk,
the things that they're very common, aware of,
but they're not really getting deep
into the Word of God.
They're not really preparing.
And so I wanted to give you
some tips of preparation.
If you're someone that says,
look, I just don't know how to prepare a sermon.
You know, I want to prepare more.
I want to study more.
How do I do that?
Well, I'll give you some tips,
things that I've learned
and these are things
that I learned in primary school.
Okay.
I was taught in primary school
when you put in an essay together,
when you put in a presentation together,
an assignment together,
you start with the five Ws.
You know what I'm talking about?
The five Ws?
I don't know if you learned this stuff in school.
The five Ws are this.
Who, what, when, where, why.
And some will add how
because how's got a W at the end of how.
Or the six Ws or whatever.
But these are the five Ws.
Who, what, when, where, why.
This is going to help you.
I don't know if you,
you probably don't even realize this,
but I do this a lot in my sermons.
Now, I don't start,
I'm not like, all right, who?
You know?
And what?
You know, the second point.
It's not like that.
It's all sort of filtered
throughout the message, okay?
But generally,
I'll give you an example of this.
Again, I don't want you to just state the truth.
I want you to teach the truth, okay?
You need to be teachers.
So if I, you know,
if I come behind the point
and I want to encourage you
in the King James Bible,
the King James Bible,
the preserved word of God,
and I come here and I say,
well, you know,
I believe the King James Bible is perfect,
pure, without error, you know,
and it's the word of God
in the English language.
This church will say Amen, right?
I mean, we all agree with that.
But you haven't really taught anybody anything, right?
You're stating a truth
and you haven't really taught
why you hold that position.
Why is it?
We want to know.
I want to know, okay?
And so this is where the five W's really help,
you know?
So let me give you some ideas here.
It's who.
So the first thing would be, okay,
I want to really reinforce King James Bible,
really encourage everyone here, who?
First one might be
who were the translators, all right?
You might want to go about
how educated they were.
They knew all these languages
and all these kind of stuff, right?
Who were the translators?
Next one,
who commissioned the work into English?
Well, that was King James, right?
And he saw a necessity for the Bible
to be in the hands of the common man, blah, blah, blah.
Next one,
who promised to preserve the Bible?
That's God, right?
Psalm 12.
You know, God promised to preserve the Bible.
Who?
Who can publish
or make copies of the King James Bible?
So who?
Anybody can.
It's not copyrighted.
Praise God, unlike the modern versions.
And so you can see how
who can lead you to many questions
and, well, I can teach these things.
These are things that probably
a lot of people haven't thought about
or now I'm teaching
why I believe this book is perfect, right?
What? What?
What are the differences
with the other versions?
Now you can show errors in the other versions
and show how the King James Bible has it right.
What manuscripts
and other resources were used to translate?
Okay, it wasn't just the Greek and the Hebrew text.
They used previous works that were done.
You can show the work
and the purification process, if you want,
of the English language,
English Bible.
What?
What is the English standard?
Well, everyone knows
the English standard is the King James Bible.
All the modern translations
always point back to the King James Bible
and compare themselves to the King James.
What?
What is the best selling Bible of all time?
Well, it's the King James Bible.
That sounds like the word of God
if it's the best seller of all time, right?
When?
When was it translated?
You know, 1611.
You know, God's been using this Bible
for over 400 years.
Praise God for the work.
You know, when?
When was the English language at its peak?
You can say,
hey, those days,
the English language was much more rich,
was at its peak.
You know, and the King James Bible
has had a part in
molding what the English language is today.
Okay?
So there's so many things.
And then where?
Where?
You know, where were the translators from?
Where are the errors in the corrupt Bibles?
You know, where can I find a copy
of the King James Bible?
Why?
Why is the King James Bible
used to translate into other languages?
Why do other versions contain errors?
Why are the other versions copyrighted?
You know, why is it important to have
a perfect preserved word of God?
And so now you're breaking up those W's
and look, you're not going to,
you know, this is something I would do,
but I'm not going to answer every question.
Otherwise, this would be like a five-part series
in the King James Bible or something, right?
But you take what you think is most,
you think the church is gonna benefit most from,
you might even look at the things
that you might not fully have grasped,
you might be lacking a bit of knowledge.
So just to educate yourself,
you'll cover some of those questions.
And then when you preach
about the King James Bible,
not just I believe it,
well, that's great, praise God,
but now you can really tell people,
you can teach people
why you believe it
and why they should believe it as well, okay?
So you're really reinforcing people,
you're really nailing down doctrines
and that's what a teacher does, okay?
Nails down the things that need to be learned.
All right, so that point number six was,
what was point number six?
Teach with preparation, you know, prepare.
And so I'll just go over those six points so far.
Number one was to teach the word of God.
Number two is teach in the power of God.
Three, teach your family.
Four, teach what is right and wrong.
Five, teach by example.
Six, teach with preparation.
Prepare yourselves, all right?
Number seven, teach how to battle.
All right, teach how to battle.
Psalm 18, 34 says,
He teacheth my hands to war
so that a bow of steel is broken in mine arms.
That's pretty strong, right?
That he can break steel in his arms.
And I'm just going to read to you from,
if you guys can go to 1 Timothy 6.
Go to 1 Timothy 6.
Judges 3 verse 1 says,
Now these are the nations which the Lord left
to prove Israel by them,
even as many of Israel
as had not known all the wars of Canaan.
Look at this.
Only that the generation of the children of Israel
might know to teach them war
at the least such as before
knew nothing thereof.
You know, God wants us to know how to war.
God wants to teach us how to fight battles,
how to be a good soldier.
And this is why he's given us the word of God.
It's the sword of the spirit.
It's a sword.
He wants us to go to battle.
And so teach how to battle.
And this goes back to the idea of
teaching the difference between right and wrong.
So when people have false doctrine,
you want to also spend time teaching people
how to fight the false doctrine,
how to fight it using the word of God.
And it's not just,
well, I feel the Bible says this
and they feel the Bible says that.
Okay?
No, no, no.
I mean, if it's a total heresy,
you know, if it's a total heresy,
you've got to be able to show people
why that's dangerous, right?
And why the word of God is so contrary
to those teachings.
That's important.
You're going to battle.
You're fighting for the faith, right?
You're standing for the word of God.
And 1 Timothy 6-12, look at 1 Timothy 6-12.
It says,
You know, we're called to fight
a good fight of faith.
This book is what gives us faith,
the word of God, right?
Hearing the word of God gives us faith.
So we need to take this Bible
and go to war with it, all right?
We need to defeat our enemies
or deliver our brethren
from the clutches of the devil, right?
They might be falling to false doctrine.
We want to be able to show them,
deliver them from the false teaching.
In saying that,
we have to be balancing a lot of things, right?
Because do I know every verse?
I mean, if you say,
Pastor Kevin, can you show me extroversity?
Am I going to be able to, like,
just, oh yeah, that means this.
Now sometimes, I might,
because I've looked into that.
I'm not going to know,
I don't know every part of the Bible.
And one thing I've learnt is,
my mind can only take so much.
Sometimes I learn things,
and then I haven't visited those things
for a long time.
I'm learning some other things.
And I go back and I've actually forgotten,
or I need to be refreshed,
my memory of those things
that I've learnt before.
Also, there are verses in the Bible
that are just more cryptic, right?
They're challenging,
but obviously these things
are not going to affect the major doctrines.
They're not going to affect
the foundational truths
that we have as Christians, okay?
So, you know, I think there's a time
where we can say,
well, you know, that verse is quite cryptic.
These might be the interpretations of that,
so long as those interpretations
do not undo the strong foundations of faith
that you've already established, right?
The statement of faith,
the foundational doctrines.
So we need to be prepared,
you know, to teach to war,
how to battle,
teach our children how to fight
the good fight of faith.
And the next point that I have,
point number eight,
is to teach all things.
Teach all things.
And this is what I love about,
you know, what people commonly term
the new IFB movement.
In all honesty,
I love the general IFB churches.
I love many of the pastors I've met.
I love many of the preachers.
I've learnt a lot of good things.
But in hindsight,
I also didn't learn things
that I should have learned.
There are a lot of passages,
a lot of verses
that just weren't being taught to me.
And because they're not being taught,
I'm ill-prepared in life.
I'm ill-prepared to,
you know, stand strong on certain things.
And when you're not being taught
the entire word of God,
you're going to waver to and fro
with every word of doctrine potentially.
Okay, potentially.
And so, yes,
there's a lot of good churches,
a lot of teaching,
a lot of good things,
but they're not teaching all things, right?
They're not teaching all things.
Jesus Christ,
you guys go to Acts 20, please.
Jesus Christ says in Matthew 28, 19,
Go ye therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
And it says this,
teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you.
All things, Jesus Christ says, right?
And lo, I'm with you always,
even unto the end of the world.
Amen.
This is the Great Commission.
This is what we've been left to do.
Yes, we win souls.
Praise God.
If you're not getting out there
preaching the gospel,
you're not winning souls,
you're not doing the Great Commission.
And if you're not baptizing,
you're not doing the Great Commission either.
And that's what a lot of people think of.
They think of winning souls and baptism.
Praise God.
That's important.
Super important, right?
But that's not the end of the Great Commission.
You haven't fulfilled the Great Commission
if you're not doing all of it, right?
And it says once again there,
teaching them,
those that you got saved,
those that you got baptized,
where you're going to teach them,
that's where church fits in, right?
You get church in here,
people in here,
teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you.
And this is where churches really drop the ball.
In fact, they're dropping the ball
all over the place in the Great Commission, okay?
We need to make sure we're a church
that is not afraid to teach whatever chapter
of the Bible we're up to,
whatever topic we're up to.
We can't be that way.
I can't be that way as a pastor
or I'm letting you guys down.
I'm not fulfilling the Great Commission
if I'm like,
Lord, you've laid this on my heart here.
I see this here that I need to preach,
but that's a bit controversial, Lord.
I think I might skip that one this time.
I'm being a disservice to you
and I'm not honoring the Great Commission
that God has given us.
You guys are in Acts 20.
Look at verse 26.
Acts 20, 26, Paul says here,
Wherefore I take you to record this day
that I am pure from the blood of all men.
Why is he pure from the blood of all men?
For I have not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsel of God.
And Paul says,
Look, in order for me to just have a clear conscience,
my hand's free from blood.
If you destroy yourself, so be it,
but I'm clean from it
because I've been able to declare
all the counsel of God to you.
You know, I didn't avoid anything.
You know, I taught you all these things.
Verse number 28,
Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock
over which the Holy Ghost
have made you overseers
to feed the church of God,
which he has purchased with his own blood.
What do we feed the church of God?
Again, all the counsel of God.
If I'm not giving you all the counsel,
I'm not feeding you properly.
I'm not doing the task that God has assigned
pastors, teachers, leaders
to do in their churches.
And this is why I love the chapter by chapter.
Because all of us,
I don't care what you say,
all of us have our pet doctrines
that we love the most,
that we're more passionate about.
And you'll see that.
Like when you get new people preaching,
they're often, you know,
probably the first two, three, four sermons
are all very similar, right?
Because there's something that's on their heart.
They love it.
Nothing wrong with that.
They just have their pet doctrines.
But you have to break out of those shackles as well.
There's a lot of the Bible to cover, right?
And that's why I love going chapter by chapter
because I'm forced to cover things
that otherwise I would totally avoid.
And maybe not even on purpose.
It's just something that's not on my mind.
And by going chapter by chapter,
verse by verse,
I'm forced to teach something
to think and study.
And I don't always know the answer,
but I'll do the best I can
to give you a reasonable answer.
I'll do the best I can
to give you a good interpretation
of what is being taught there.
And so it's important that we teach all things.
Again, we've gone through Genesis recently.
We're still going through the book of Genesis.
How bad would it be
if I just skipped over Genesis 19?
How bad would that be?
Guys, I think you can read that in your own time.
We'll jump straight to Genesis 20.
That would be a failure of a pastor,
a failure of a preacher.
And yeah, so remember,
it's part of the Great Commission,
not just soul winning, baptizing believers,
but teaching them all things.
This is why it's important
for churches to have multiple services a week.
You're not going to cover everything in the Bible
if you're having just one service a week.
Now if that's all you can do,
that's all you can do.
But the goal is to build on those things,
to build, have extra opportunities
of preaching and teaching.
And God will help you then
be able to cover the entire Bible.
And look, at the end of the day,
I'm never going to cover the entire Bible.
It's never going to happen.
I can live 500 years old
and I'll still have things that I need to cover.
We might cover every chapter, every book,
but if I went for that book again,
I bet you my preaching will be different.
I'll be able to take different applications of that
for different things.
It's a never-ending Bible.
We just keep going.
I'm sure for all eternity in heaven,
we're just going to keep reading this Bible.
Jesus will gather us around.
We'll learn new things all the time.
I'm actually looking forward to that opportunity
to know more about His Word.
The next one here,
and we kind of spoke about this
a little bit in our session before,
point number nine is teach with compassion.
Teach with compassion.
And please go to Mark 6.
I want to show you this about Jesus Christ.
Mark 634.
And we're talking about how this is part of His personality
that He had here.
Mark 634, it says,
And Jesus, when He came out,
saw much people
and was moved with compassion toward them.
That's Jesus, the God of the universe.
Where should we just dust Him, right?
But when He sees the people,
He's moved with compassion.
He says it's because they were a sheep
not having a shepherd,
and He began to teach them many things.
Many things.
And when I look at this quality of Christ,
I'm really thankful that when I see
sheep without a shepherd,
I'm moved with compassion.
And sometimes we can be critical of sheep with no shepherd.
But they're just sheep, right?
They need a shepherd.
Maybe they've had shepherds,
and the shepherds were just not good shepherds, right?
Maybe the shepherd has failed them,
and it's easy to sort of look at the sheep and go,
Well, why are you without a shepherd?
We need to be moved with compassion for people.
And this is why the Sydney Church even exists.
You know, seeing those guys leave my previous church
and not sure what to do,
different churches losing their zeal for soul winning,
I don't want to go back to Sydney.
I love it up here.
I didn't want to go back there.
But you know, I did it because I saw the multitude.
I saw the families,
and I'm sorry, but I was moved by compassion for them.
But that's what Jesus did.
So I know that's a good quality to have, right?
And so the point that I have here, guys,
is that we should teach with compassion.
We need to develop a love and care for the brethren.
So when I get here to preach,
this is not the Kevin Sir Pulver to show, right?
I'm not here to just,
Oh, guys, look at me.
Give me your attention.
I come here preaching thinking,
What does brother Jason need to hear this morning?
You know, what does brother Callum?
What does Timothy need to hear?
What does Nicholas?
What does Isabel?
You know, what does Lily need to hear?
You know, what does my church need?
You know, Lord, and of course,
I mean, everything in the Bible they need, right?
But I'm thinking about the church,
and I'm thinking I want to make sure
these guys can gain knowledge,
that they can mature,
that they know what they need to do in life,
that, you know,
they're not just doing things on the outward
to impress people,
but the changes are happening in the inward man, right?
That they're walking a new man,
and then they can understand
why the outward is important
once they have the new man.
They'll never understand the outward
if they're just walking,
you know, living off of flesh.
It's never going to happen.
And so, you know,
I think of the church,
and I want you guys,
when you get up here,
is please have a love, compassion for the brethren.
When you prepare a sermon,
go, Lord, I love my brethren.
Please show me what I need to teach them
so they can grow in the Lord, you know?
You got to have compassion,
and that's where the emotions come in.
That's when you see that people
really mean what they say
is when you can see that the emotion
they have behind them,
again, you can emulate these things
for so long until you realize it's fake, right?
But at some point,
you know, this preacher there,
that teacher,
whoever it is,
not necessarily me,
other people get here,
and they love,
that person loves me.
He's put the work in.
He's thought about what we need to hear,
and he's put the effort in,
and I can see that he has a love
for the congregation.
That's the teacher you need to be,
someone that's moved by love and compassion.
And I'm looking at Luke 11, verse 1.
You can turn there if you want.
Luke 11, verse 1.
It says,
And it came to pass that
as he was praying,
that's Jesus, as he was praying,
in a certain place,
when he ceased,
one of his disciples said unto him,
Lord, teach us to pray,
as John also taught his disciples.
Did Jesus say,
well, I'm not teaching you that.
Verse number 2.
And he said unto them,
when ye pray, say,
our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
as in heaven so in earth.
One thing I realized as a pastor,
and I have made these,
I have told you guys this before,
and maybe I should mention it more often,
but if there's something you want me to preach,
if there's something you want me to teach,
come and tell me.
In fact, there are sermons that I've taught
that someone has come up to me
and said,
do you mind covering this topic?
I'm not that clear on that or whatever.
That's happened, right?
And so I've gone,
I've changed my schedule,
and I've taught that
because someone in my church needed it.
If you're not comfortable doing that,
use the offering box,
just put a note in there,
Pastor Kevin,
do you mind covering whatever topic?
And I probably won't do it next week, all right?
But at some point,
that'll be on my mind,
and I'll be seeking the Lord for answers.
It might be something
that I don't fully understand,
that I don't fully grasp,
and so I would seek the Lord.
And so I see this with Jesus, right?
He had compassion for the disciple
that asked him,
can you teach me how to pray?
He goes, yeah, I'll do it.
I'll teach you how to pray, you know?
And that's how we need to be as pastors.
We do need to be a little bit flexible, okay?
And here,
what the congregation,
that's being moved by compassion.
You have a love for the brethren, right?
It's not just what can I show, you know?
It's what do the brethren need.
That's point number nine,
teach with compassion.
I'm up to my last point.
Last point here is
teach deep things.
Teach deep things.
And again,
this will come with experience, okay?
You're not going to be teaching
the deepest things
when you're doing your first sermon,
you know, even your first 10 sermons.
You know,
the deeper things will come
as you start, you know,
preaching more and more.
And please go to,
please go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, please.
1 Corinthians chapter 2.
I want to show you this.
1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 10.
Please turn there.
Teach deep things.
1 Corinthians chapter 2.
While you're turning there,
I'm going to read to you from Hebrews 5, 12,
which says,
For when for the time
ye ought to be teachers,
ye have need that one teach you again,
which be the first principles
of the oracles of God,
and have become such as
have need of milk,
and not of strong meat.
Milk is important,
but so is meat, okay?
And as we grow as a church,
as I grow as a pastor,
as you grow in the Lord,
the milk needs to start developing into,
you know, cereal,
and then the cereal into potatoes and rice,
and then that needs to be turned into meat.
And when we get to the meat,
we're getting really deep
into the Word of God.
You know,
we're having a greater knowledge,
greater awareness
of how the depths of the Word of God,
the great wisdoms
that we can pull out of this.
You know,
it's like mining for gold
or something, right?
It takes a lot of work
just to find that little nugget of gold.
That's what it's like with the Bible.
You know,
you can get things on the surface,
but you get great truths
when you dig in deep, right?
And in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 10,
let's read this carefully.
It says,
But God have revealed them unto us
by his Spirit,
for the Spirit searcheth all things,
look at this,
yea, the deep things of God.
Right?
The only person that can get deep
into the Bible
is the one that has
the Holy Spirit of God in them.
And look,
you can resist,
you can quench the Holy Ghost
to some extent in your life.
You can grieve the Holy Ghost.
So it's important that you
make yourself available to God
to help you when you prepare
because it's the Spirit of God,
not you.
You're not gonna get the deep things.
It's the Spirit of God in you
that's going to reveal
the deep things of God.
Verse number 11,
For what man knoweth
the things of a man,
let's say the Spirit of man
which is in him,
even so the things of God
knoweth no man,
but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received,
praise God for this, right?
We have received
not the Spirit of the world,
but the Spirit which is of God
that we might know the things
that are freely given to us
of God.
Not only are they deep things,
they're free!
God wants us to know
those things, right?
He's not charging us anything, right?
He's not saying,
well send me
$50, whatever,
send me, you know,
$50 every week for a semester
and I'll teach you Bible college.
They're free things.
The deep things of God
should be free.
God's given it to us for free.
I should then offer these things to you
for free without charging you, right?
This is why Bible college is ungodly,
but that's another topic.
Verse number 13,
Which things also we speak,
not in the words
which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth,
comparing spiritual things
with spiritual, okay?
This is how we get deep.
We compare spiritual with spiritual.
The Bible is a spiritual book.
You compare scripture with scripture.
You have lived a spiritual life
as a saved person.
You compare scripture
with your personal experiences.
You say, I know this is true
because five years ago
when I was doing this,
God revealed this to me in the Word
and I did it
and He followed through.
God's Word was true in my life.
That's comparing spiritual things
with spiritual things, okay?
I started off by saying,
it's not about the poems.
It's not about the quotes
of great men of God
or past pastors or the hymns
and stuff like that.
Look, I'm not against
any of those things, strangely.
I don't know if you know that or not, okay?
I'm not against
as I preach something,
I might pull something out
or just quote a hymn
that you're all familiar with
that illustrates the same truth.
I'm not against a poem
that has great truths
and great wisdom,
pulling that out once in a while.
I'm not against
repeating something
a pastor had said
which has great truths.
I've said many times
in my sermons,
my old pastor used to say,
you can only have a great church
if it's made up of great families.
That's the truth, praise God,
but it came from
the wisdom of a man, right?
I'm not against these things,
but unfortunately,
in our independent
fundamental Baptist churches,
these guys that have
gone through college,
they've been taught
how to be a cookie cutter preacher.
Every sermon is like this.
Every sermon has the stories
of old preachers,
you know, preachers of old.
Every sermon has some poem.
Every sermon has them
going back to the Greek
and the Hebrew, right?
Every sermon has them
telling stories of people
that you don't even know
if they're saved or not, right?
From the 1700s, 1800s.
Again, I'm not against
those things, right?
In or themselves,
once in a while,
if you're supplementing
something you've taught
from the Word of God
with some truth like that,
good, praise God.
I don't want you to
never feel like I can
never do that.
Just make sure that's not
the emphasis of your sermon, right?
That's not,
you're not wasting time.
I feel like sometimes
these pastors,
oh man, I've got to preach
for 20 minutes.
When am I going to preach
for 20 minutes?
Well, if I give them a story,
that'd be five minutes.
If I quote a poem right
at the end,
that'd be another five minutes.
That's not how we should be.
We should be preachers,
teachers that get
into the deep things of God,
be connected to the Holy Spirit.
You need to appreciate
when you hear preachers
and pastors get really deep
and pull out truths.
You don't know
that person's study.
You don't know
that person loves me.
He wants to pull these.
You know that person's
been communicating
with the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Spirit's been
teaching them these things
and needs to take heed
when they're very deep things.
The Bible says in Isaiah 28, 9,
Whom shall he teach knowledge?
And whom shall he make
to understand doctrine?
Them that are weaned
from the milk
and drawn from the breasts.
For precepts must be
upon precepts,
precepts upon precepts,
line upon line,
here a little
and there a little.
You know,
when you teach the Bible,
you need to go line upon line.
The Bible's many times
like a puzzle,
and you need to just
show people
how you put that puzzle
together, okay?
Show people
how to do those things.
I'm trying to think
of a doctrine right now.
What would be a good doctrine?
Let's just go back
to the rapture.
Just an easy one, right?
The doctrine of the rapture,
we have stuff
in the book of Revelation.
We have stuff
in the gospels.
We have stuff
in the Old Testament.
We have stuff
in 1 Corinthians
and 1 Thessalonians.
I mean,
the rapture,
this incoming of Christ,
is found throughout
many passages, right?
The rapture,
this incoming of Christ,
is found throughout
many passages, right?
The rapture,
this incoming of Christ,
is found throughout
many passages, right?
And a lot of people
struggle to understand
eschatology.
Your job as a teacher,
when you teach
on these things,
is to get all those
puzzle pieces together,
and you know
they're going to fit somehow.
They're going to fit
because it's
the word of God.
It's consistent.
It's always right.
If you don't understand,
that's your problem.
Like, you need
to learn what it is.
You know those puzzle pieces
are going to fit.
Again, it's one thing
to say,
we believe in a
upholstery, pre-rapture.
You get plenty of amens.
It's another thing
where in spiritual
is spiritual,
putting them together,
now you're getting
really, really deep.
You know,
you're getting deep.
You're showing people.
You've put the effort in.
You're showing people
the Holy Ghost
is helping you,
working with you
to do these things,
and I love it.
I love when I hear
you guys preach,
and you guys take
this passage there,
and you go,
you know,
it's like this passage
over here,
and then you can
pull out certain truths
like this.
Now, there's a few
ways to do this,
and this takes time.
But I want to give you
an example.
I want to show you
how you can accomplish this.
Okay, let's go
to the book of Romans.
Let's go to
Romans chapter one.
This should be
the starting point
because as you piece
these puzzles together,
you're always going
to piece them correctly.
It's always right.
Jesus Christ makes it,
or God makes it
very easy for us
many times,
and the book of Romans
is a great example of this.
Go to Romans chapter one
verse 17.
This is where
you start as a preacher.
If you're not used
to comparing spiritual
to spiritual,
you're not used to comparing
scripture to scripture.
This is where you start.
Okay, Romans 1 17.
For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith
as it is written,
the just shall live by faith.
God's done all the work
for you already.
All you have to do
is go,
God, where was it written?
And then you find out
it's Habakkuk 2.4.
And then as you're
teaching this,
you go back to Habakkuk 2.4,
and you pull out
greater truths
that, hey, you're
putting the puzzle together.
God's already put the
puzzle together for you,
but you're comparing
spiritual to spiritual.
Look at Romans 2 24.
Romans 2 24.
For the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you
as it is written.
Thank you, God.
Another puzzle piece
put together.
Where is it written?
Isaiah 52 five.
Romans 3 four now.
Romans 3 four.
God forbid,
yea, let God be true,
but every man a liar
as it is written,
thou shalt mightest
be justified by thy sayings
and mightest overcome
when thou art judged.
Where was it written?
Psalm 51 four.
Romans 3 10.
As it is written,
there is none righteous,
no, not one.
We quote that all the time
so I'll win you.
Well, not all the time,
but a lot of the time, right?
There is none righteous,
no, not one.
As it is written,
where was it written, God?
Psalm 14 three.
Romans 4 17.
As it is written,
I have made thee
a father of many nations.
Now you guys should
know where that is.
Which book at least?
Genesis, right?
I've made a father
of many nations.
Before him,
whom he believed,
even God who quickened
the dead,
and called those things
which be not
as though they were.
Genesis 17 five.
Romans 8 now.
Romans 8 36.
As it is written,
for thy sake
we are killed all day long.
We are counted
as sheep for the slaughter.
God, where is it written?
Psalm 44 22.
This is where you start, guys.
As newer teachers,
newer preachers,
this is what you do.
Don't get hung up
with you being,
you know,
trying to be overly smart.
You know,
you need to,
line upon line, right?
Precept upon precepts.
Build these things.
Use the tools
that God has already
given us, okay?
Romans 9 13.
As it is written,
Romans 9 13.
As it is written,
Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated.
God, where?
Malachi one, two and three.
That's where he wrote it.
Romans 9 33.
As it is written,
because you have
a son, you have a son,
you have a son,
as it is written,
behold I lay in Zion
a stumbling stone
and rock of offense,
and whosoever believe on him
shall not be ashamed.
Where God?
Isaiah 28 16.
Go to Romans 10 15.
Romans 10 15.
And how shall they preach,
except they be sent,
as it is written,
how beautiful are the feet of them
that preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad tidings
of good things.
And this is the best to dismantle
dispensationalism,
because it's in Isaiah 52 7.
It's in the Old Testament,
when God quoted how beautiful
are the feet of them
that preach the gospel of peace.
You know what that means?
That means in the time of Isaiah,
there were people preaching
the gospel of peace.
Praise God, right?
And you can see God's
already connecting these dots for us.
Romans 11 8.
According as it is written,
God have given them
the spirit of slumber,
eyes that they should not see,
and ears that they should not hear,
unto this day,
Isaiah 29 10.
Romans 11 26.
And so all Israel shall be saved,
as it is written,
there shall come out of Zion
the deliverer and turn away
ungodliness from Jacob.
That's Isaiah 59 20.
Look at Romans 14 now.
Romans 14 11.
For it is written,
as I live, saith the Lord,
every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.
I think that's also in Philippians.
Anyway, it's in Isaiah 49 18.
Romans 15 3.
For even Christ pleased not himself,
but as it is written,
the reproaches of them that are reproached,
thee fell on me.
That's Psalm 69 9.
And then Romans 15 9.
Romans 15 9.
And that the Gentiles might glorify God
for his mercy,
as it is written,
for this cause I will confess to thee
among the Gentiles,
and sing unto thy name.
That's Psalm 18 49.
And the last one I've got here in Romans.
Romans 15 21.
But as it is written,
to whom he was not spoken of,
they shall see,
and they that have not heard shall understand.
That's Isaiah 52 15.
So you can see God wants us to go deep.
He wants us to compare spiritual to spiritual.
He's given us so many clues in the Bible.
And again, pay attention to when the Bible says
that these are foreshadowings of Christ
and compares Christ to things in the Old Testament.
God's just connecting the dots all over for us.
And then when you become familiar with this,
you become comfortable, you get used to it,
then you can really go in and seek
and find things for yourself
that are not so plainly stated.
Comparing spiritual with spiritual.
Comparing your own experiences.
I don't care about Spurgeon or other.
I care about you preacher.
I care about the guy that stands behind his pulpit
and says I experienced this from the Word of God.
I know this is true because this happened to me.
I want to know your story.
I want to know about your soul winning efforts
because I know you're a saved brother in the Lord.
I'd rather know about your stories
than some guy I don't even know if they're saved.
And Spurgeon wasn't saved by the way.
But you know, other names that people bring up.
Let me go through those 10 points once again.
App to teach.
How do we develop our teaching skills?
Number one, teach the Word of God.
Number two, teaching the power of God.
Number three, teach your family.
Number four, teach what is right and wrong.
Number five, teach by example.
Number six, teach with preparation.
Number seven, teach how to battle.
Number eight, teach all things.
Number nine, teach with compassion.
And number 10, teach deep things.
Alright, I'll leave it there. Let's pray.