Fulfilling the Great Commission

The church only speaks with God's authority as she handles aright the Word of God. The church must conform herself to God's thoughts recognizing the authority of God over the heart, mind, and soul. Whenever anything is substituted for the accurate teaching of Scripture, God's authority is usurped. Pride must never allow this. Pastors especially are stewards who are to explain the meaning of the text of Scripture and exhort people to obey it. Expositional preaching is the communicating of God's truth by God's servant to meet the needs of God's people. Unfortunately, many postmodern trends being adopted by the church deny that the Lord Jesus Christ will build His church by the agency of the Holy Spirit and by the power of the Gospel. Very simply, it is the Word of God building the church. The church grows quantitatively and qualitatively through the systematic teaching of God's Word. The Holy Spirit creates the church by the Word of God (2 Kgs. 22-23; Neh. 8-9; Isa. 55:10-11; Ezek. 37:1-14; Mt. 4:4; Jn. 1:1, 4, 14; Acts 19:20; 20:32; Rom. 1:16; 10:17; 1 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 4:12; Jas. 1:18, 21; 1 Pet. 1:23, 25). When the church neglects the accurate preaching and teaching of the Word of God, the church hinders the work of the Holy Spirit. The church will be catapulted into the future only as she is carefully governed and powerfully driven by the Word of God.

Although evangelism and communicating to a lost person the reality of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone are vitally important components of the total responsibility of the local church, the church must be continually reminded that the New Testament places the utmost emphasis upon the feeding (teaching) of those who are already Christians! Indeed, it may be said that the indoctrination of converts in the whole counsel of God's Word is the basic New Testament pattern for world evangelization. Apart from this emphasis, Christian evangelism will soon become ineffective and superficial. Again, the Word builds the church. It is crucial to teach the church that God's chosen method to bring new life is to use His Word. If God's chosen method for building His church is replaced with man's thoughts and will, it will inevitably ensure the eternal futility of the church's work. Our primary method for fulfilling the Great Commission is to communicate the Word of God accurately and clearly as widely as possible.
As written in the introduction to Thomas Boston's classic, The Art of Manfishing: "The main way in which God advances conversion is through the sustained faithful of parents, friends, and church leaders witnessing, instructing, and encouraging informally, and of preachers expounding the gospel from Scripture in worship contexts." Can it be any clearer? PREACH THE WORD!! HEED THE WORD!!