The leading word in the seventh verse, and the key to spiritual progress is this word ‘remember’ – think, reflect, recall. Past teachers are probably in mind as well as present teachers.
You read now and again, even from evangelical Bible believers, the assertion that the preacher is acting as the representative of Christ. So when you hear him, you are as it were hearing Christ. But that is an exaggeration and it is completely forced and unreal. No, the authority is in the word and the preacher must expound it, show his working, and apply it. He must decrease and fade while the word of God increases and is applied to the heart. You listen because you really are listening to God and not to a man and his mistakes and his opinions.
The preacher has four tasks. He is in evangelist: he is to seek to persuade sinners to come to Christ. He is to present the means of salvation, the son of God coming suffering and dying on Calvary, making an atonement for our sins. He is also to teach doctrine, the great doctrines of the faith which are in the Scripture. He is also to be an exhorter, and he is to apply these things to the heart both to encourage and also to convict. Then he is a representative of the glory of God and of Christ and he is to lift up souls and to show the greatness of these themes and these matters. In so far as he does that, we must try and retain the knowledge and the exhortation that we have. There must be preaching. There are quite a lot of people today who do not like preaching and they say let's minimise preaching. The house churches very often do this. They want all kinds of other means of communication. The emerging church has a bit of drama, cosy fireside chats and so on everybody involved, discussion groups, the blind leading the blind so often and everybody's opinion counts. Instead of expanding the word of God, it is a dozen opinions being shared from people, including young people who really would much prefer to be learning and deepening in the truth. There must be a proclamation of the word of God by people who are qualified according to Scripture and set aside to teach and can be trusted to have been prepared.