Only If I Read This Years Ago...

From the pen of Herman Hoeksema:

You go to church not to hear a "nice sermon," not to be entertained by splendid oratory, not to discover the opinion of a certain learned man on a subject, but to hear the Word of Christ addressed to you by Him. And that is a matter of life and death. For this is the essential thing in true preaching from mere lecturing: that Christ Himself speaks to you through the word of him  that officiates as a preacher. If Christ does not speak then there is no preaching. All the wisdom of the world , all the glittering oratory of a wonderfully fluent  and attractive speaker, all the sentimentalism of a modern revivalist, all the touching stories he may be able to tell, all his emotional begging and pleading, are in vain. What matters, as you and I listen to the preaching of the Word, is that we hear the voice of Jesus say,"come unto me, and rest"; that we hear Him call, "Repent and believe"; that we hear Him assure us, "Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace." Unto this end preaching is a means.

...A preacher has no message of his own to deliver. He is an ambassador of Christ, and as an ambassador he must deliver the message with which he is charged by Him that sent him. One who occupies the place of a preacher and pretends to be a minister of the Word, but who disregards this mandate and delivers his own philosophy on various topics pertaining to this world, is a false prophet. The church that is unfaithful to her calling, and instead of preaching the pure Word of God according to the Scriptures, presses the pulpit into the service of the world and its humanistic philosophy, is an abomination to Jehovah. She is like the Jerusalem of old that killed the prophets.*

Soli Deo Gloria!


*Herman Hoeksema, Whosoever Will (Grandvill, MI: 2nd Edition Reformed Free Publishing Association, 2002), p. 91-92

What Have We Done To Preaching?

I do not speak here as an expert on the subject. I do not claim to be a decent preacher, either. I am quite grateful that my congregation comes back each Sunday morning to worship the Lord through the proclamation of His word despite my inadequacies. The Lord is really gracious.

Yet I need not be an expert with authority on the matter in order to observe and mention that we have really soiled preaching. In many different areas. The content, form and from the listeners -what to expect. Almost everything that comes from a pulpit or pastor has "sermon" or "preaching" tacked onto it. Anything from very well theologically informed academic lectures to self-help pep rallies devoid of any substantive biblical content. We simply proclaim any message from pastors (or others) as "preaching." Congregants have long been accustomed to sitting through some of these (I know, I know people may say the same about me) lectures and pep rallies that when, by chance, they do come across preaching they are not quite sure what is going on. Their first thought may be "who is this clown yelling at me?" 


I've often wondered how many today could endure sitting under the preaching of the Puritans? Or the Reformers? Even the early Church Fathers? How about the Apostles? As we read through Paul's letters it is obvious that he is not simply giving any cerebral message devoid of any passion. In fact he can get so passionate and worked up that he has been accused by grammarians of being improper at times. He sometimes  does not quite complete his thoughts before he is onto his next point. It is quite obvious that none of his preaching was self-help lectures. One simply needs to read Galatians and Romans to observe how theological and doctrinal he can get.

We have drifted far off course. I think one of the real dangers is that we have too many academic seminary lectures coming from pulpits. Those messages would be fantastic for the classroom, just not for the pulpit. This may be from a reaction to the un-biblical non- doctrinal preaching that is found in churches throughout the world. We have become content with pastors that can not only spell propitiation but also expound it. Oh we rightly salivate when we see that. The problem arises when that is accomplished in dry and purely academic language. Instead of preaching that includes the doctrine of propitiation we are now getting lectures on it.

On the other had others that are not qualified to preach have been extended the pulpit and not only do they not like doctrine and theology they lament about the "evils" of it from the pulpit! They are more concerned with entertaining the people sitting before them so that they will come back each Sunday perhaps with friends. They want to be spoken well of; so the people are being doctrinally un-informed and expect all messages from the pulpit to be like that.

I recall the first time I heard preaching. It contained both doctrinal truth and was conveyed with much passion. The "man of God" was obviously pierced and moved by the Word of God; it drew him to behold the greatness of Christ which it was evident from the way he was preaching from the Bible. He even used "big words" but was sure to break it down for the common man. It was not a well doctrinally informed dry lecture. Nor was it a doctrine-less message aimed at making me feel good. No, no, my friends, it was more like a man who had been moved by the greatness of God.

J.I. Packer has some very helpful insights:

When I say, as frequently as I catch myself doing, that preaching is caught more than it is taught, it is partly of my own discoveries during that period that I am thinking. I do not, of course,  mean that I regard Dr. Lloyd-Jones as the only preacher I have ever heard do it right; over the past generation I have been privileged to hear many real preachers really preaching. I am only saying that it was Dr. Lloyd-Jones's ministry that under God gave me my standards in this matter. And standards are needed, for not all preaching is good preaching by any means. I suppose that over the years I have heard as much bad preaching as the next man and probably done as much myself as any clergyman you would like to name. Nonetheless, having observed how preaching is conceived in Scripture, and having experienced preaching of a very high order, I continue to believe in preaching and maintain that there is no substitute for it, and no power or stature  or sustained vision  or close fellowship  with God in the church without it.*

Third, low expectations are self-fulfilling. Most modern hearers have never been taught to expect much from  sermons, and their habit is to relax at sermon time and wait to see if anything that the speaker says will interest them- "grab them," as they might put it. Today's congregations and today's preachers seem to be mostly at one in neither expecting that God will come to meet His people in the preaching, and so it is no wonder that this does not happen. Just as it takes two to tango, so ordinarily it takes both  an expectant congregation and a preacher who knows what he is about to make an authentic preaching occasion.* 

Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando

*Samuel T. Logan Jr., The Preacher and Preaching: Reviving the Art (Phillipburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 2011), p.2


* Ibid, pp. 4-5 

Weekly Dose Of Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Since there is a Weekly Dose of Spurgeon I am inspired to start a weekly dose of Lloyd-Jones. Both men are two of the greatest preachers the Church has ever known. That and having my soul fed last Sunday leads me to post a weekly dose of Lloyd-Jones. He is known for two things: preaching and preaching the Gospel. Without further ado:

There was a very great preacher in the U.S.A. just over a hundred years ago, James Henry Thornwell. He was, possibly, the greatest theologian the Southern Presbyterian Church has ever produced; but he was also a great preacher and a most eloquent man. There are those who say that next to Samuel Davies he was the most eloquent preacher  the American continent has ever produced. This is how his biographer tries to give us some impression of what it was to see and hear Thornwell preaching. Notice that it confirms and illustrates my definition of true preaching as something to look at as well as to hear because the whole man is involved in the action. This is how he puts it:

 "What invented symbols could convey that kindling of the eye, those trembling and varied tones, the expressive attitude, the foreshadowing and typical gesture, the whole quivering frame which made up in him the complement of the finished author! The lightning's flash, the fleecy clouds embroidered on the sky, and the white crest of the ocean wave, surpass the painter's skill. It was indescribable."

That was his impression of the preaching of Thornwell. Then consider what Thornwell himself said about preaching, and about himself as a preacher.

"It is a great matter to understand what it is to be a preacher, and how preaching should be done. Effective sermons are the offspring of study, of discipline, and especially of the unction of the Holy Ghost. They are to combine the characteristic excellencies of every other species of composition intended for delivery, and ought to be pronounced not merely with the earnestness of faith but the constraining influence of Heaven-born charity. They should be seen to come from the heart, and from the as filled with the love of Christ and the love of souls. Depend upon it that there is but little preaching in the world, and it is a mystery of grace and of divine power that God's cause is not ruined in the world when we consider the qualifications of many of its professed ministers to preach it. My own performances  in this way fill my hear with disgust. I have never made, much less preached, a sermon in my life, and I am beginning to despair of ever being able to do it. May the Lord give you more knowledge and grace and singleness of purpose."    

There is nothing to add to that. Any man who has had some glimpse of what it is to preach will inevitably feel that he has never preached. But he will go on trying, hoping that by the grace of God one day he may truly preach.*

May the Lord raise up faithful preachers of His Word.
Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando

*Preaching and Preachers (Zondervan, 1971), pp.97-98.

The Church Did Not Burn Down

Yesterday I had the great joy of fellowshipping with some of my infant baptizing brothers. Every Thanksgiving I step out of the pulpit and take a vacation. Usually we celebrate it in California with my side of the family but this year circumstances wouldn't permit that. Instead we remained in Idaho and traveled two hours to Boise and spent it with my wife's side of the family.

Down the street from her parents house is Cloverdale United Reformed Church (part of the URCNA). Having never attended a 'Truly Reformed' church, this Reformed Baptist decided to fellowship with the saints there. Two amazing things happened (or in one case something didn't happen).

One is that the church did not burn down. It was not struck down with lighting because credobaptists worshiped the same Lord along with their paedobaptist brethren in the same local church. We did not burn the church down. Who would have thought that saints purchased by the blood of the Lamb from all tribes tongues and nations and people could congregate together in His name to testify that all praise, honor, glory and worship be unto Christ the King? What a novel idea. I mean what kind of sick display of 'ecumenism' could possibly bring such glory to the Lamb of God of whom it is written, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth”(Re 5:9–10)? Tongue planted firmly in cheek.

What made it even more astounding is that an infant baptism was actually performed during the service. I was thinking to myself  "don't do it", "don't do it." Just kidding. I was actually paying careful attention to the brief discourse given on baptism before the baptism and the words being spoken during the ceremony. Of course I would strongly disagree with the notion that infants are members of the covenant of grace by virtue of federal headship. But I would not be so foolish as to say that their case for paedobaptism is without any merit. I must admit that the brief ceremony was moving and I understand how they try to get from point A to point Z. Of course that is if point is correct in the first place. Again, I disagree (strongly) but I truly enjoyed the service.

Here I must echo the words of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

One thing I have looked for and longed for and desired. I can forgive a man for a bad sermon, I can forgive the preacher almost anything if he gives me a sense of God, if he gives me something for my soul, if he gives me the sense that, though he is inadequate himself, he is handling something which is very great and very glorious, if he gives me some dim glimpse of the majesty and the glory of God, the love of Christ my Saviour, and the magnificence of the gospel. If he does that I am his debtor, and I am profoundly grateful to him. Preaching is the most amazing, and the most thrilling activity that one can ever be engaged in, because of all that it holds out for all of us in the present, and because of the glorious endless possibilities in an eternal future.*

This leads me to the second amazing thing that happened. The pastor, as Lloyd Jones put it, gave me a sense of God he gave me "some dim glimpse of the majesty and the glory of God, the love of Christ my Saviour, and the magnificence of the gospel." I could have been upset like many Christians today that I was not personally greeted outside of the greeters at the front entrance. That I went largely ignored by the church body. Or that nobody personally went out of their way to make me 'feel welcome.' No, I wasn't there for that. I was there to worship the Lord Most High with my brethren. It wasn't about me. And that day I was in submission to that pastor. Let me say that again- I was in submission to the pastor. He was handling the Word of God faithfully and accurately. He was cutting it straight.

He was giving me a taste of the glory of Christ from 1 Corinthians 16:19-24 with an emphasis on v. 22- "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!" He was passionate about proclaiming Gospel of Christ and equally passionate about warning people of the curse pronounced upon the heads of those that do not love Christ. He didn't paddy-cake the deliberate curse, given by the Apostle Paul who was inspired by the Holy Spirit, upon the heads of non believers- haters of Christ. At the same time he was moved by the proclaiming Christ as the wrath bearer of the Father in place of hell bound sinners. He was getting emotional and having to fight back those emotions when speaking of the saving work of Christ. He was pleading with people to long for the return of Christ or to repent and believe on His name. I, too was having to fight back tears. Not just because the preacher (he is a true preacher) was getting emotional but for the same reason that was stirring the emotions of the pastor- the Gospel of Christ.

The fact that he was rightly handling the Word and doing so with passion and that because he grasps the tremendous power of the Word of God. I was reminded of what Lloyd-Jones said:

What is preaching? Logic on fire! Eloquent reason! Are these contradictions? Of course not. Reason concerning this Truth  ought to be mightily eloquent , as you see it in the case of the Apostle Paul and others. It is theology on fire. And a theology which does not take fire, I maintain, is a defective theology; or at least the man's understanding of it is defective. Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. A true understanding and experience of the Truth must lead to this. I say again that a man who can speak about these things dispassionately has no right whatsoever to be in a pulpit; and should never be allowed to enter one.*

I had a great time in my first experience at a 'Truly Reformed' church. My only regret is that I did not stay after the service for coffee and further fellowship. I was like a ninja- in and out. Unnoticed. I had to be. I feared that they were going to sniff out this "Anabaptist" and forcefully remove me from the premises. Just kidding. I had to leave quickly as my son was sick while mom was taking care of him and I needed to give mom a little relief.


And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth” (Re 5:7–10).


Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando

*Preaching and Preachers (Zondervan, 1971), p.98.
*Ibid, p. 97