No One Has Exclusive Rights to Preach the Truth
I have met arrogant, wimpy, conceited, foolish pastors, who are so pompous in their position as a church pastor, that they belittle anyone who would dare speak the truth outside of a church pulpit. Folks, that is retarded thinking for any pastor! In the 19th century, when the pastor didn't show up due to a snowstorm, a laymen got up and preached from Isaiah 45:22, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” A young 15-year-old lad named Charles Spurgeon was sitting in the pews of that Methodist church and received Jesus Christ as His Savior that day. Amen and amen for preaching laymen! As Baptists, let us not become “popish” in our view of pastors.
I understand that the Apostle Paul said, “I magnify mine office” (Romans 11:13). But Paul wasn't diminishing others in the Body of Christ either. When Paul warned against a “schism” (1st Corinthians 12:25) in the Body of Christ, he was warning against belittling a fellow believer who is just as important to the work of God as a pastor or evangelist. Any pastor or Christian who belittles my ministry is causing a “schism” in the Body of Christ. My voice is just as important as anyone else who speaks God's truth from the inspired Word of God on this planet. I admit that I am a nobody with a website, but God uses nobodies like me to get the job done, thankfully. Moses was a nobody, a humble shepherd who spent forty years living on the backside of the desert. David was just a humble shepherd boy, the tiniest member of the tiniest family of the tiniest tribe of Israel.
Whether you are a preacher or not, doesn't prevent anyone from taking a stand for what is right! If every preacher who has sinned no longer has a right to stand for truth and righteousness, then there would be no preachers! Think about that. A layman in the church has just as much right to preach the truth as does a pastor, but the pastor leads God's flock in the church. Being a pastor is a position of leadership in a single local church, nothing more. Every man of God who preaches, does so on the authority of God's Word. I preach with authority because the Holy Bible speaks with authority! A pastor who claims to be an authority is a cult leader! The only authority in a church ought to be the Word of God. It is the pastor's duty to make sure that the Word of God is heeded.
Respectfully, a pastor has no authority over people's lives except as he rules over them with the Word of God. Jesus is the Head of the Church! EVERY BELIEVER comprises the Body of Christ, and the apostle Paul makes very clear in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 that EVERY BELIEVER is an important part of the overall Body. In other words, we're in this thing together!!! Many pastors today are dropping the ball, selling out to ecumenism, not getting the job done. So then, church layman must get the job done! Somebody's got to fight on the frontlines!!! Somebody's got to contend for the Christian faith!!! No one has exclusive rights to preach the truth! Luke 9:49-50, “And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.”
So if a layman feels burdened by God to preach the truth, then he ought to do
so, and go start his own ministry, which is what I have done. I 100% support
New Testament churches. I am not doing my own thing apart from the church; but
rather, I am a missionary to the internet, preaching THE TRUTH around the
world from my humble abode. I was saved in a New Testament church. I was
trained in a New Testament church. I was ordained in a New Testament church. I
was sent out by a New Testament church.
I have
been involved in missions my whole life, especially since 1993 when I
graduated from Bible college.
All Men Can Preach, But Not All Men Can Pastor
Now,
please don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that anyone is qualified to
preach, nor should be allowed behind a pulpit. 2nd Timothy 2:15, “Study to
shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.” A man must prove himself doctrinally
sound before he is entrusted to pastor a church, and he ought not be allowed
to run a church in the meantime. A church needs an active official pastor. The
church itself has the responsibility to call a proper pastor. If a church
calls a man to be their pastor who denies the inspiration of the King James
Bible, or is soft on the Devil's Alexandrian Bible perversions, then that
church gets the pastor that they deserve.
This thing about Bible “inspiration” is a big issue I tell you. Behind all of the Bible corrupting going on today is the bogus claim that only the “original” manuscripts were inspired by God. Well we don't have any of those “originals,” and neither did the New Testament writers who oft quoted the Old Testament! So if our beloved King James Bible is not “inspired,” since it is not an “original,” then neither were the Hebrew manuscripts which the New Testament writers used.
Kindly, there is a local church, the
Family Baptist Church on Guam, that desperately needs a pastor. This has been
public knowledge
for many years now. God's method is for one pastor to lead a local church, not
a committee of two men. They have two men running the show at Family Baptist
Church, who have been preaching a Ray Comfort type heresy on salvation for
several years now. Those men are not doctrinally trustworthy to pastor. I know
someone who once attended there, who was publicly humiliated in that church,
by one of the two men lording over it. The former member announced during
testimony time that she had led three people to the Lord the past week, for
which she was corrected. The wannabe pastor told her, “We really don't know if those
people got saved or not, until we watch their lives and see how they live.”
Folks, that is damnable heresy! That is the
theological garbage of Calvinism,
which John MacArthur and Paul Washer teach. The new birth is immediate,
permanent and undoable. If all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags
(Isaiah 64:6), then why would you use those rags to prove that you are saved?
All Men Can Preach the Truth, But Will Be Held Accountable By God for Their Words
Matthew 12:36, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”
A man does not need to go to Bible college to preach the truth, nor to pastor a church for that matter. The mighty man of God and pastor, Harry A. Ironside (1876-1951) had no formal theological training, yet he was a masterful Bible teacher and 100% correct on God's plan of salvation. Humbly, I did spend 8 years in Bible college, preparing for the ministry. I have a degree in Pastoral Theology from Hyles-Anderson College, which I cherish because of Dr. Jack Hyles' godly influence and those who faithfully worked alongside him back then. Today, Hyles-Anderson is not the citadel of truth that it once was, and now they no longer believe that the King James Bible is inspired. Dr. Russell Anderson (whom I greatly admire) has even disassociated himself completely from the college and First Baptist Church of Hammond for their betrayal of God's Word.
God has given me the perfect
ministry, and I am fulfilling it faithfully for the Lord, by God's grace.
Colossians 4:17, “Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received
in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.”
To God alone by the glory, great things He hath done!!! All I have ever
wanted to do is preach THE TRUTH to get people saved, come what may! Without
mentioning any names, there are divorced and remarried men pastoring, whom I
love and support for their soul-winning ministries. Sadly, a bunch of losers,
who never lift a finger to win anybody to Christ, criticize such divorced
pastors for still pastoring. Oh shut up! I really loath critical people, who
have something bad to say about everything and everybody. GET RIGHT WITH
GOD!!!
The Voluntary Call To Preach (That's How I Was Called by God)
I
basically wrote this article to encourage any man who has a burning desire to
preach for God, DO IT! Where do you think that compelling desire came from? If
you are a born-again believer and have pure intentions, it can only be the
indwelling Holy Spirit of God burning in your heart. Jeremiah 20:9, “Then I
said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name.
But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my
bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.”
The prophet Jeremiah became discouraged, having to tell the Israelites that
they were doomed for their disobedience, and he quit preaching for a time,
seeking refuge in a remote place (as we would all like to do sometimes). But
the Word of God was like a fire burning in his bones, and Jeremiah couldn't
take it anymore and went back to his calling to PREACH THE TRUTH!!!
There is a definite call to preach from God, which some men experience. But there is, most often, a voluntarily call to preach, where a man feels a burning desire deep in his soul to preach the truth for God, and that is one of the ways that God calls men. The latter is how I was called to preach by God. I cannot point to a specific place and time where I knew that God was calling me to preach, as I can to a specific place and memory where I was saved. As I sat in church and heard the truth preached week-after-week, and as I read and studied my inspired King James Bible, and when I attended Bill Rice Ranch (in Murfreesboro, Tennessee) a couple years in a row as a teenager, and when I listened to Dr. Jack Hyles preach at some Youth Conferences in Indiana, the truth burned in my soul and I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life... PREACH THE TRUTH!!! Isaiah 6:8, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Just like Isaiah volunteered, so can you!
