From and Before God: A Practical Introduction to Expository Preaching

What Others Have Said about This Work and Its Author

If there’s a topic I’ve always longed for pastor Sugel to write about, it’s preaching. For almost thirty-five years I have heard him preach. Therefore, I am a firsthand witness to the work the Lord has done and keeps doing in him and through him. I can ascertain that Sugel has proclaimed the gospel as from God and before God as a diligent worker (2 Cor. 2:17). I believe this book will be a mandatory reference for a long time. Here you have it; now immerse yourself in it.

Salvador Gómez-Dickson, pastor at Iglesia Bíblica del Señor Jesucristo in Santo Domingo

Do the sermons we preach please God? Or are we satisfied with a much lower aim—the mere aim of pleasing our human hearers? If we want our sermons to please God, then the first thing we must do in our sermons is faithfully reflect what God actually says. How could God be pleased with what we preach if we distort what He says, add to it, misunderstand it, leave bits out that we don’t like, and draw attention to ourselves instead of to His Son? This simple insight—that the best preaching pleases God because it faithfully reflects what God Himself says—lies at the heart of this excellent introduction to expository preaching. Sugel Michelén teaches us out of the overflow of his many years of faithful and fruitful ministry.

D. A. Carson, author and New Testament professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Expository preaching has been the hallmark of my ministry. It was vital for the church when I began pastoral ministry and it remains just as crucial today, especially in the Spanish-speaking world. I am pleased to find the same commitment and conviction to biblical preaching in Sugel Michelén. His faithful preaching has been a foundation for expository preaching in Latin America, and we now have the opportunity to benefit from his work in English. I am confident that this book will be a great asset to preachers everywhere.

John MacArthur, pastor-teacher at Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, California

I will say it plainly and without exaggeration: this book on preaching is the most informative, concise, and practical I have had the privilege of reading. I was so captivated by the first chapter that I spent the whole day studying the book´s content. I am convinced that this work should be translated to every possible language, for it will become a classic on expository preaching.

Paul David Washer, writer, speaker, and Director of HeartCry Mission

Sugel Michelén’s From and Before God well reflects needed principles of biblically faithful preaching empowered by an understanding of the gospel that pervades all Scripture. This is a work that should guide an entire generation to gospel faithfulness.

Bryan Chapell, pastor and author of Christ-Centered Preaching

God has graciously bestowed His mercy upon His church by providing it with pastors and teachers that instruct us with skill and intelligence. Pastor Sugel Michelén is one of Christ´s gifts to His church, for many of us have been aided, blessed, and edified by his ministry. He has served as a pastor for over three decades, and this book allows us to enjoy some of the fruit of his labor. This work reminds us of the example set by the Prince of Preachers, our Lord Jesus Christ, and exhorts us to remain faithful to the Word of God—a principle that should govern all of those who have been called by Him to preach the Word, so that each might fulfill his duty with honesty and integrity. We thank God for giving us Pastor Sugel Michelén for the benefit of our generation and of the ones to come.

Boni Lozano, pastor at Iglesia del Pacto de Gracia in Madrid, España

If you preach already, or would like to learn to preach, you need to read this book. Exposing a passage is treading on holy ground. Sugel shares this truth with us in this work and reminds us that our role as preachers is to serve the bread God has already prepared to feed hungry souls. Pastor Michelén takes you by the hand, not just in order to help you understand the importance of preaching but also to help you put it into practice. He writes because he knows the Word deeply and because he has seen the result of its power in action.

Miguel Núñez, pastor at Iglesia Bautista Internacional in Santo Domingo

The first time I heard Sugel Michelén preaching was not in front of a large audience; it was before a small group of pastors. It was a clear, powerful, and Spirit-filled sermon. Now, one of the clearest, most powerful, and most Spirit-filled pastors in Latin America has written a book about preaching. In From and Before God Sugel establishes a theology of preaching, defines expository preaching, and teaches us how to prepare a sermon from beginning to end. What you have here in your hands is a complete seminary course on preaching enclosed within two book covers. Read it and practice what it says. May the Lord bless you as you preach the Word commissioned by God, in the sight of God.

Juan Ramón Sánchez De Jesús, head pastor principal at High Pointe Baptist Church, Austin, Texas

Biblical expositors are known by two things: their convictions on the Word of God, and their capacity to handle God’s Word well. In the decades-long ministry of Sugel Michelén, the church has seen a pastor who possesses a good measure of both. With From and Before God we finally get to drink from the well of his convictions in a way that will increase our own capacity to preach God’s Word. This next generation of preachers would do well to read this book, and give themselves to the pathway put forward. I commend it to you!

David Helm, pastor at Holy Trinity Church, Chicago and chairman at The Charles Simeon Trust

Biblical, clear, practical, humble, and spiritual, Sugel Michelén’s book is an excellent training manual for ministerial students and a potent encouragement for experienced preachers. The beauty of this book is that the author both lives and models what he preaches. His life is a transcript of his sermons. Make this the book you read on preaching this year—highly recommended!

Dr. Joel R. Beeke, president at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Any reader interested in expository preaching can find different options that will guide him theoretically and practically through this sacred calling to communicate the Word of God. However, I recommend this valuable work by Sugel Michelén first of all, because he is an example of a pastor who preaches expositorily, and secondly, because it is a pleasant read that combines simplicity with scholarship. I consider this work to be a gem, and I am certain all who read it will agree.

Otto Sanchez, pastor at Iglesia Bautista Ozama, Santo Domingo

Copyright © 2019 by Sugel Michelén

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

978-1-5359-7101-0

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 251

Subject Heading: PREACHING / PASTORAL THEOLOGY / SERMONS

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Also used: English Standard Version (esv). ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Also used: King James Version (kjv), public domain.

Cover design by Mark Karis.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 • 23 22 21 20 19

To Gloria, for giving me thirty-four years of her life to delight and bless mine abundantly.

Acknowledgments

Writing is a solitary enterprise, yet at the same time, in many respects, it depends on several people. No one is entirely original, and writing a worthwhile book without help from others is difficult. That’s why it would not be fair for me to neglect to say thank you to those who, in one way or another, contributed to the writing and publishing of this book.

To Cristopher Garrido, editorial director of B&H Publishing Group’s Spanish work, for proposing the idea for this book and encouraging me to write it, and for his patience with me whenever I had to move the deadline.

To Boni Lozano, José (Pepe) Mendoza, Giancarlo Montemayor, and María Silvia Chozas, for their corrections and recommendations. To be able to count on such keen and accurate readers is a privilege. I am convinced this book will be a better resource because of the help they offered me, and I accept full responsibility for its weaknesses and limitations.

To my pastors: Eduardo Saladín, Lester Flaquer, Salvador Gómez, Marcos Peña, Miguel Linares, Leopoldo Espaillat, Rafael Alcántara, and Eric Sigfrido Guillén, for supporting me in this project despite the impact it had on my agenda during the last months, and likewise for their faithfulness in evaluating the preaching that takes place in our church pulpit every week. This evaluation time was a true school for those of us who have the responsibility of being managers of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:1) in our congregation.

To the members of Iglesia Bíblica del Señor Jesucristo, for the attentiveness with which they listen to the preaching of the Scriptures every Sunday, their constant words of encouragement, and their regular prayers for their pastors. Shepherding a congregation that holds the preaching of the Word in such high esteem is pure joy.

To Eduardo and Cisnely Álvarez and José Ramón and Marisol Díaz, for the generous disposition with which they opened their respective homes as retreats where I could focus on writing. These two opportunities to be alone with my wife in the mountains were the most productive moments in the entire process of writing this book. Thank you with all my heart!

To Mark Dever, for setting aside some time in his busy schedule to read the manuscript and for writing the foreword.

Especially to my wife Gloria, for fully supporting me during the time I was engaged in this task and for reading and evaluating each chapter before anyone else. But more than anything, thank you for being an instrument in God’s hands to help me become a better believer, a better pastor, and a better preacher. You are the most beautiful and valued gift the Lord has granted me apart from knowing Him.

And above all, to the only wise God, who from before the foundation of the world chose me by grace alone to be saved and to proclaim the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). To Him and Him alone be all glory, praise, and honor for ever and ever!

Foreword

I love preaching. I agree with what C. H. Spurgeon once said: If I were forbidden to enter heaven, but were permitted to select my state for all eternity, I should choose to be as I sometimes felt in preaching the gospel.¹ I love preaching, but I don’t always love my preaching, and I often don’t enjoy some parts of preaching.

But I believe the Bible is clear about how important preaching is. So I’m thankful for this book—freshly translated and re-edited from its original Spanish edition—for English-speaking readers like me. Pastor Michelén has been a faithful preacher for decades. Our congregation has had members from his church come into membership with us, and they have spoken warmly and well of his ministry. From my own personal relationship with the author, I am not surprised that he has written this book or at what he has written in it.

If you are looking for a cutting edge, trendy book on preaching, you can put this book down right now and look elsewhere. Pastor Michelén has written accurately of what God has taught us about His own character, what He’s done to reveal Himself to us, and how He has planned to use preachers in bringing people to Himself and in building up His church.

Looking at the table of contents, you can see that the book is clearly constructed. It is as well outlined as his sermons. And his points are supported and explained by a truly great collection of quotations!

Having just read this, I am freshly convicted about my multiple conclusions and freshly thankful for my forgiving congregation. Sugel speaks directly and yet with empathy. You can tell that a pastor has written this book—and a pastor of long experience—who knows what it’s like sometimes to wonder on Monday about what happened on Sunday.

If you’re a preacher of much experience, I’m confident you will find these pages encouraging. He has illustrated his chapters as well as he encourages us to illustrate our sermons. At every point of practice, his own decades-long experience serves him and, therefore, us. Here are no idle speculations but rather observations reflecting on what he has seen in himself and others.

We know from the Bible that God continues to speak through His Word and that God gifts certain ones of us especially to teach and preach that Word to His people. This is a good book to help those of us who are called to be such servants of God’s Word.

It’s fair to say that you will find this book particularly helpful if you are a newer preacher. It will humble your pride (as your own experience will soon enough) and help root your future years of practice in the years of studying the truth you may be engaged in now.

Were a real Puritan commending this volume, he would tell you that it is plain, powerful, and practical. And all three of those would be positive comments! This book has lots of advice that I agree with and, in fact, none that I disagree with! Pastor Sugel shares with us his simple wisdom in a way that will surely benefit the readers.

One more word: What a joy it is to read of a faithful pastor laboring in the Dominican Republic and to be instructed—through translation—of the ministry of God’s Word. It is a worldwide ministry, and we saints in English-speaking countries can forget that sometimes. In forgetting it, we can ignore some deeply encouraging parts of God’s work in our world today. I thank God for Pastor Sugel Michelén’s ministry and for its multiplication through this book. May God bless him and all his readers to the extension of His church in these days before His return.

—Mark Dever

Prologue

"That pulpit, with what emotions of bitterness will it be remembered by the millions of the lost! ‘That sanctuary and that man of God,’ will many reprobate in the prison of despair exclaim, ‘forewarned me of this dreadful immortality, but I heeded not the admonition. That sacred desk told me of redemption through the blood of Jesus; but I scorned the message, and trod that blood of the covenant under my feet. I might have been happy on the same gracious and condescending terms with those I now see at God’s right hand; but I would not come to Christ that I might have life! And now I am lost—lost—lost! O how dreadful this eternal hell! That pulpit, O that pulpit! How it aggravates my woes! Why did it speak to me at all, if only thus to add fuel to these flames!’

"On the other hand, there will be those, and ‘a great multitude, which no man can number,’ who will remember the influence of the pulpit with grateful and adoring praise to Him, who ‘through the foolishness of preaching saves them that believe.’ That house of God, how many will remember it in heaven! ‘That pulpit, which looked upon me when I was a child, which taught me when I was ignorant, and reclaimed me when I was a wanderer; which reminded me of my wickedness, and told me all things that ever I did; which spake to me of my immortality, and made me tremble and made me weep; never can it be blotted from memory. That pulpit, which told me of a Saviour’s love, and how he bled, and died, and waited to long-suffering, that I might accept his saving mercy; which comforted me when I was cast down, and cheered me in my fatigue; which dissipated my delusions, and helped me to escape the snare of fowler; which dispensed to me the bread of life when I was hungry, and when I was thirsty gave me the waters of salvation; which brought its messages of peace to my bed of languishing, soothed my aching head, and when I was dying, told me not to let my heart be troubled’:—that pulpit, may millions now in glory say, ‘warned me of yonder fiery prison, and directed me to these mansions in my Father’s house!’" [1785–1873]¹

Introduction

Imagine the scene. You’re in an auditorium, and someone is lecturing about a topic you know exceedingly well. The speaker doesn’t know you’re there, sitting in the last row, and suddenly he mentions your name. He’s quoting something you said at a previous conference, merely a few days ago! If you were a little distracted earlier, now he has your full attention. Although it may be difficult for you to admit, you feel important. But your initial reaction begins to fade away when you realize that the person is taking phrases out of context here and there and distorting some things, thus asserting you said something you didn’t say. You don’t know if the speaker is doing this intentionally or because of ignorance, but quite frankly you’re upset. You have to exercise a great deal of patience to wait until the end of the lecture to approach him, ask for an explanation, and, if possible, restitution for the grievance.

Now imagine another scene. You are the one in front of the auditorium, preaching a passage of Scripture, and without your knowledge the Lord Jesus is sitting in the last row, listening attentively to what you’re saying! How would this reality impact your preaching ministry?

The truth is, except for the bit about the last row, this is no mere illustration: the Lord is present in His churches every Sunday, listening to the preaching of His Word. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:17 that the ministers of the gospel speak "as from God and before God" (emphasis added). What a great privilege and responsibility!

Although we preach for the building up of believers and the salvation of the lost, only one Person in the auditorium must agree with our preaching. We must seek to please only one Person, whose opinion is worth more than the whole world’s.

In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul argues, "For our exhortation didn’t come from error or impurity or an intent to deceive. Instead, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please people, but rather God, who examines our hearts" (1 Thess. 2:3–4, emphasis added). God entrusted Paul with the preaching of the gospel. He tests or weighs hearts; therefore, Paul sought to please only God. This conviction was a protective wall for Paul, guarding him against error and evil motives.

I wrote this book with the purpose of promoting the same conviction that dominated Paul’s conscience: we preach as those commissioned by God, in the sight of God—from God and before God. Although I seek to demonstrate that expository preaching is the best long-term diet for the edification of the Church of Christ and the most excellent means for the salvation of souls, I will also insist that preaching is not an end in itself. We must strive to faithfully communicate the Scriptures because God is glorified in fulfilling His work through His Word.

This perspective of preaching, although it places a huge weight of responsibility on preachers, is liberating because it reminds us that we are mere spokesmen of God. It pleased God to use human instruments to work in men’s hearts through His Word. Therefore, God’s work does not depend on our rhetoric and even less on our ministerial cunning; it depends entirely on the power of His Word. On the other hand, this perspective of preaching encourages us in the fulfillment of our labor by showing us that, as preachers, we do not speak on our own behalf but in the name of Him who has given us the charge of being His ambassadors. It is a solemn and joyful privilege to preach from God, before God!

This book is organized into three parts. In the first one, we establish the theological foundation that supports expository preaching: God has spoken and accomplishes His work through speech (chapter 1); God speaks through His