The Power of the Preached Word

Aim: To gain hearts able to receive the challenges and benefits of the preached Word.

Doctrine: The preached Word elicits inevitable spiritual reactions. All of them are passionate, but only some of them are good.

Exegesis: The way the Spirit works through the preached Word: first, He offends sinners' idolatrous security (vv. 7-9); then, He shocks sinners with an unlikely message (vv. 10-13); finally, He subdues sinners with the power of God (vv. 14-16).

Further application: How to properly hear good preaching: come ready to have my sins pummeled and Christ-faith enlarged.

Key verse: v. 7 ''So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.''