Years ago, I heard of a preacher who began his sermon: “Let me read the text and then I’ll give you something solid—my testimony—to hang it on.”
Is that ever backward. The solidness in our proclamation is the living Word of God, not my testimony.
Your testimony and mine may be polar opposites.
One person has a testimony of the Book of Mormon inspiring him. Another finds comfort in Mary Baker Eddy’s foolishness. One person tells of speaking in tongues before he/she was saved, and another of speaking in a known foreign language without being tutored in it.
Keep your testimony. Give me the Word of God.
If you wonder why some denominations keep turning out spiritual dwarfs who know nothing about the word other than the few passages they keep hearing again and again, this is why.
If you wonder why some churches produce angry members who self-righteously look down upon Christians of all other denominations, this is why.
If you wonder why some pastors with shriveled souls make the Pharisees of old look like wild-eyed liberals, this is why.
If you wonder why some sermons are shallow and self-centered and negative to the point of being poisonous, this is why.
If you wonder why Christians who love the Lord and love His Word shy away from churches that glorify the preachers’ silly experiences, this is why.
“Preach the word. … For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. … And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be faithful in all things; endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:1-5).
You may preach the word or you may preach fables (shallow, made-up stories such as the testimonies of some people). You and I are to preach the truth and you may preach sound doctrine. But the truth does not arise from inside my soul. It resides in God’s Holy Word as inspired by the Holy Spirit. I must look there, not within me.
Lord, help us to get this right. The souls of so many depend on it.
