Expository Preaching In IFB Churches

You should get a tape of this guy who preaches over in the greater Oklahoma City area somewhere. I've heard him once, don't remember the details. He starts with Genesis 1:1 and goes thru to Revelation 22:21, disecting every word, phrase, parts of speech, pointing out nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, expositing to your heart's content. He's been doing it for so many years he has the Bible memorized. I could only listen to it once --- it was just too much to take in, presented too fast.

 

Agree.

If my neighbor didn't invite me to a baptist church where they did expository preaching, then I wonder if I would have gotten saved.

 

To answer that question in a honest fashion, from my own observations I have determined it is because of laziness. It is much harder to preach expository preaching. The preachers who are honest can back me up on this one. To preach through a book of the Bible is no easy task. Expository preaching is not for the weak at heart.

A good expository preacher is J. Vernon Mcgee. You can download his 5 year Thru The Bible program on his website , www.ttb.org

Hope you enjoy,
Andy

 

the one guy I know who does this is Arnold Murray with his Shepherd's Chapel....and I don't hold to almost anything he teaches.....yet because he uses this method I know some people who think he's a marvelous teacher. He teaches some pretty outrageous stuff though, and makes some extreme claims. One can get so bogged down in the verse-by-verse, word-by-word method that one loses the bigger picture of the Bible.

But to answer the OP, I guess it depends on what your philosophy of preaching is. I know in most IFB churches preaching is more for the purpose of exhorting to good works, rebuking worldliness, and presenting the gospel to the lost. We are expected and encouraged to do verse-by-verse studies on our own at home. My husband and I are working on a devotional right now that we hope will help teach our people how to do those sorts of studies. Although, alot of Sunday School time is devoted to the verse-by-verse sort of studying.

What do you think? Is church where we go to learn everything we ought to know about God's Word? or is alot of that learning supposed to take place in our personal devotion time? Personally I lean more toward the latter.....

 

The problem with topical preaching, is it allows the pastor to choose what type of sermons he can preach. He could just preach 'feel good' sermons all the time, or sermons about salvation , evangelism, whatever suits his agenda. Now, if a Pastor decides to preach the whole counsel of God, i.e. drawing from the whole of scriptures, he is going to have to deal with the passages that dont fit his particular agenda. You know, some of the 'hard passages' that normally get glossed over in most churches.

 

Excellent post :thumbs:

There is no way in the world preparing a topical message is harder than preparing an expository message.

 

Why does it have to be either/or? I personally think it should be both/and.

 

I quite agree. As a pastor I am committed to expository preaching, going through NT books or sections of Scripture.

Those who are not committed to expository preaching are depriving their churches of the whole counsel of God. Consider these great expositors: Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd Jones, Stott, Swindoll, David Jeremiah, Piper, MacArthur.

There are great books out there on expository preaching: Preaching and Preachers; Between Two Words; Rediscovering Expository Preaching; Christ-Centered Preaching, etc.

Please, brothers, let us be committed to faithful exposition of the text. But topical preaching certainly has its place, like on Mothers day.

 

As the ole saying goes: "Once you've had steak who wants hamburger"?

The same goes for sitting under expository preaching versus topical preaching.

The same goes for preaching expositorally versus topical.

 

I don't think it has to be either/or at all......

It seemed to me that the OP was pretty much against topical, that's all. I guess I was trying to explain why alot of IFB preaching is that way. I think we in IFBdom tend to do alot of topical in regular services, but then we do alot of expository teaching during Sunday School and midweek Bible studies. We also tend to have separate days during the week where various groups will meet and have a time of more expositional Bible study. I believe these times are being overlooked by some, as they are focusing mainly on what happens during the morning and evening services on Sunday.


I did not mean to imply that it should be either/or....I apologize if I gave that impression.

 

Was Jesus' preaching style topical, practical, or expository?

 

Exactly, bapmom. It is in the Sunday School, Training Union and midweek services where many IFB pastors do their expository teaching. I think this is an excellent method of pastoring, myself. Those in IFB churches who are serious about learning the Word of God can do so, yet they are exhorted in the Sunday morning service. Exhortation is also Biblical. "Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine" (1 Thess. 2:3).

Note Eph. 4:11-12, where we preachers are to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. In other words, we are to lead and equip our people to serve Christ. Topical messages can do that, while expository messages can edify and teach the saints the whole counsel of God. I preach both kinds, myself, as well as they occasional narrative sermon, etc.