Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
12 ¶ For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
What is the primary purpose of preaching? So much of what is called preaching today is focused on the minds of men, but is this the purpose of preaching? From this passage we can see that the primary focus and instrument of salvation is the heart. The heart is the key to salvation! The heart is also the key to the growth of a Christian. It is pretty clear in the Bible that problems of the mind stem from heart problems.
When people who have the "heart" problem of not being saved, get a change of heart what happens? Their mind changes! The way they thought and felt about things in their lives changed. The Bible says that old things pass away, and all things become new.
What about when a person is not yet saved? Many people focus on changing their minds about sin, but we can clearly see that the heart is the key to salvation. Belief and repentance come from the heart. Many souls have been led to an alter and led through a profession based on their thoughts that they needed to change, but have come away from the altar the same as when they went down on their knees because their heart was not in it.
What about when a Christian has trouble? Some Christians go through "mental" problems such as depression and anxiety. Why? Saul in the Old Testament seemed to go through a tough mental struggle, but what was actually happening was that his heart was not right with God. We see the mental struggle of dealing with the flesh in Paul's life in Romans, but he soon tells us that his problem is acutally a spiritual problem. Even Jesus in Gathsemane seemed to go through a mental stuggle, but His struggle was really about the spiritual issue of becoming sin for us.
My surmising is this: Is preaching about the mind or the heart? So many men try to incorporate pshycology, and the dealing with the mind into preaching, but is this the focus? God's Word shows us that the heart is what is dealt with in preaching, and I honestly believe that in so many circles that is why "preaching" seems to accomplish so little today. The focus is on the wrong area. God would focus on the heart, not on the mind.
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