I was thinking this week how impossible it would be for a true, God-called preacher, to preach anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. How could I, a desperately wicked sinner, stand week after week, and service after service and tell men how to live, when I struggle and fail daily myself? How could I, the wretched and depraved man that I am, tell others how to become better spouses, parents, children, friends, employers and employees, when I have failed and continue to fail miserably at these things myself? What hypocrisy and vanity that would be! It is not my place to try to straighten people out. A wise and older friend of mine told me not long ago, concerning preaching, to always remember that a man could shear a sheep many times, but he could only slay a sheep once. Friends, it is the preaching of Jesus Christ only that causes us to decrease (sheared). My responsibility is not to tell people how to live, but proclaim to them how our Savior lived, died and resurrected, doing everything perfectly for and in the place of hell-deserving sinners. If God is pleased to save a man or woman, that person will want to hear only one message and one message only: — That Christ came into the world to save sinners, and that sinners come to Christ by free and sovereign grace alone for eternal life.
A beautiful message from our brother David Eddmenson, pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Madisonville, KY
