“Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such a way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.” (A.W. Tozer)
There is absolutely no doubt that the Bible must be taught in order for a church to be a real church. In some way the Bible must be opened up with exposition. There has been a revival of sorts regarding expository preaching in the US the past few years. However, as Tozer notes, “exposition may be carried on in such a way as to leave hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever.” Not only can it be, but that appears to be the main way exposition is done. In other words, even if a person sticks with the text and deals with the words of the text, that does not mean that the text is being dealt with in terms of the spiritual understanding and the glory of God through Christ that under girds the whole Bible.
I have been under many preachers where the text was dealt with. The sermon consisted of dealing with the text that was there, the words in the text, some inner consistency was shown, and then some things were added at the end for the hearer to do. However, my soul was left dry since I was left wondering where God and His glory were. A man can be utterly faithful to the text in the sense of striving to expose what is there within its own context. However, the sermon that is faithful to the text in one sense can be very unfaithful to the glory of God and spiritual things in another sense. Faithful exposition in one sense can be a disaster to a church. When the text is dealt with in one way there is no spiritual nourishment for the souls of the people. Faithful exposition in one sense can be as dry as the dirt in the dust bowl days of the 1930’s. Faithful exposition in one sense can be nothing more than an intellectual exercise in the Bible guided by a text.
Preaching must be seen and understood as the means God has given the Church for spiritual nourishment. Preaching that does not feed the soul has failed the purpose that has been assigned to it by God and it fails the souls of the people that gather. The souls of people hunger for food too. Over and over men wonder why people leave the church when they (the pastors) are giving them solid food in expositional preaching. Perhaps it is simply because the pastors are taking care to preach the text in one sense but are not preaching in a way that nourishes the souls of the people. People are not always able to verbalize the problem, but no true believer is ever satisfied with a form of expositional preaching that does not nourish the soul. When hermeneutical and homiletical issues are expressed in the sermon more than things that nourish the souls of the people, there is a huge problem. In that case the preacher is more concerned with the form and style of preaching than with nourishing the souls of the people.
Martin Lloyd-Jones mentioned a style of preaching that he called “a running commentary.” In this style the preacher might go through a book or an extended text. But what the preacher does is essentially make comments on the text as he goes through the text. This ends up being little more than a commentary on the text as he goes through it. In some ways a lot of modern expository preaching is closely akin to a running commentary. The text is dealt with in its own context and comments are made that fit the text in a broader biblical context. However, the souls of the hearers are left dry and untouched. Information alone will never feed the soul anymore than telling someone about vegetables will nourish their bodies. We must wake up to what preaching really is or our churches will resemble the dust bowls of the 1930’s more than well watered fields that are bringing forth fruit.
People will starve to death under the style of expositional preaching that is becoming popular today. It sounds so good in that it is an exposition of Scripture. However, the Bible was never given for the purpose of simply teaching its words. The words alone will never provide meat and drink for the soul. We must never forget that Christ taught that He was food and drink for hungry and thirsty souls. Just hearing about Christ is not enough. Souls must be led to eat from the manna from heaven and to drink from the Fountain of Living Water. The duty of preachers is not fulfilled by a dry exposition that one can get from a commentary, but is only fulfilled by preaching the glory of God in Christ which feeds and nourishes hungry souls. People need God, not just dry expositions.
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