Ministerial Godliness and Powerful Preaching

A life of piety, purity and personal devotion is indescribably important to the man of God who would preach powerfully. Prayer is also crucial. "If you want to know how popular church is, go on a Sunday morning; if you want to know how popular the preacher is, go on Sunday evening; but if you want to know how popular God is, go to the prayer meeting," (Ravenhill). No man will preach with unction without prayer and an atmosphere of prayer which hangs in the air when a man studies and preaches. 

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is also essential. Dr Wayne Detzler, "This is an obvious invasion of the Holy Spirit on the preaching process." S. Briscoe said, "Unction is clearly the relationship of the preacher to the Holy Spirit. It means to have a healthy balance between doing your homework and being prepared and yet at the same time recognising that unless the fire falls from heaven, then it was all in vain. "This is a good balance to strike. We need to preach with dependence upon the power of God, and of a recognition of our own need of that power. It is possible to prepare exemplary sermons with studied correctness, and yet preach them without the fire of God being upon them. Such 'dead orthodoxy' is a profanation of true preaching. How we need to lean heavily upon, submit to, and depend upon the Spirit's ministry as we declare the wonderful Word of the Lord. 

Ravenhill warns against trying to work up an atmosphere through singing, testimonies, lighting effects, etc. This can be done to the detriment of the work of God! When the Spirit comes upon a preacher and congregation, He comes as an act of sovereign bestowal on the part of our sovereign and gracious God and Father. We cannot force God to meet with us, but we can ask God to do so.

There is also the power of the Scripture as it explodes in the lives of both minister and congregation. Richard Baxter spoke of planting time-bombs in the hearts of his hearers that will go off at God's appointment. Unction comes in the unique power of the Word of God. The whole ministry must be "bathed in prayer,"(Briscoe). James Denney wrote, "The preacher's peril is the peril of coming to men in word only, saying things which he does not feel, and which they will not feel..." (Thes.p.48). Criswell argues that education per se does not enable a man to preach with power, (though it is a very good servant to that man). The three things which he says are needed are prayer, preparation, and the endeavour to win souls to Christ through the Gospel.

John Jones - Reformed Pastor par excellence

Dr Alan C. Clifford wrote this excellent piece:

Although John Jones had been preaching for several years, and had become famous throughout Wales and beyond, he had not received full ordination at this time. However, this occurred in the Bala Association in June 1829, when five others were ordained with him. At the close of the ordination service, John Elias delivered the charge. In the same Association, in the evening of the last day, John Jones preached on the words, ‘The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the mul titude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne’ (Psalm 97: 1-2). He was aware of the deep and solemn importance of ordination to the full calling of the Christian ministry. ‘His own sensitive spirit was deeply moved’, wrote Owen Jones, ‘and his sermon that night was delivered with great power. The Revd John Hughes, Wrexham, preached after him. In speaking of the event, Mr Hughes said, “It would have been disheartening even for John Elias to rise up after him”’.

Ever since the first ordinations of 1811, the Calvinistic Methodists were aware of the high privileges and responsibilities of an ordained  ministry. Freed at last from the shackles of Anglicanism, they were able to develop, establish and express a truly Reformed view of the Church. From a Continental perspective, the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists were truly ‘The Reformed Churches of Wales’, later known as the Presbyterians of Wales - without denying that other branches of Welsh Nonconformity share some characteristics of Reformed churchmanship. The Confession of 1823 outlined the ethos and duties of the people of God, which John Jones and his brethren promised solemnly to uphold, teach and maintain: 

Christ the head of the church, has instituted ordinances, means of grace, and an order of worship, to be used in the church by all his people, - in private, in the family, and in the congregation. Through these ordinances, God gives grace, and nourishes and increases the grace given. They are the ordinances of preaching, reading and hearing the word, prayer, praise, mutual instruction, conversation [cydymddyddan], the exercise of every part of church discipline, and the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Whatever biblical reservations John Jones entertained about the ‘Owenite’ features of Article 18 ‘Of Redemption’, he was fully committed to Article 37.  In his high views of the sacraments, he was neither Baptist nor Anglican. Furthermore, ‘he was anxious to keep these high in the estimation of the people’.

Regarding baptism, John Jones’s own family experience - as a son of godly parents and now a father of a growing family - was a constant reminder of God’s covenant mercies. Owen Jones creates a beautiful picture of John Jones’s understanding of the ordinance of covenant baptism:

And whenever the Sacrament of Baptism or of the Lord’s Supper was administered by him, he always performed the duty with the solemnity that was due to the occasion. In the case of the Sacrament of Baptism, he would deliver an appropriate address upon the duties which parents owe to their children, upon the profession of Christ made through baptism, the importance of bringing up the young in the church; at other times he would speak of the meaning of the Sacrament, and of the great change that was signified by it. Some of these addresses were very thrilling, and his prayers were always fervent for the blessing of God upon the parents and the children.

Owen Jones’s account of John Jones’s celebration of the Lord’s Supper is a narrative of exquisite rapture, and deserves to be quoted in full:

His administration of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was more impressive still. This is done in Wales generally at the close of the service. After prayer and consecration the minister goes round the members with the bread and wine; and while doing so he speaks words appropriate to the occasion. Mr John Jones always took some special point in connection with the death of Christ: His love, His humiliation, His self-denial and obedience to the will of God; the sufficiency of His sacrifice, the cleansing through His blood, &c.; and he dwelt upon it, and expressed his thoughts until gradually he became warmed by the subject; his ideas flowed as from a fountain; his mind was thrilled; those emotions passed from him to the congregation; the people became absorbed in the same great subject; and they forgot themselves at last, and seemed lost in a sea of gladness and Divine joy. We have heard it said that his addresses at the Communion table were at times so fervent, so glowing, so heavenly, that the people could hardly venture from a feeling of awe and reverence to take the elements from his hand. 

A uniquely-glorious experience of such heavenly joy was felt when John Jones was preaching at the Tabernacle, Bangor one Lord’s Day evening in the early summer of 1835. Again, Owen Jones paints the wonderful picture:

The service commenced at six o’clock. The sermon was not over till half past eight. Nevertheless, the people were not tired; under the spell of his oratory time was forgotten. On this occasion there was a Communion service to be at the close. The sermon itself was impressive; and the congregation had been worked up to a high pitch of emotion. It was felt at the Communion table that the service went on with great ease. The preacher was in a most elevated mood, and grace was evidently being poured into his lips, and a live coal from the altar of the sanctuary had touched them; so that they glowed with peculiar eloquence that evening. The preacher had gone round the large chapel with the bread, and was now returning for the wine. He took the cups in his hands, and held them up with the wine in them, and with his sweet voice he said, “Do you see, my friends, how the wine begins to redden?” These words, with those beautiful notes of his, ran electrically through the multitude. The tears rushed to the eyes of many, as if to see what was the cause of such a shock, and they gave vent to their emotions in words; and probably there was not a man who did not feel that moment something creeping shudderingly over him. After a while there was perfect silence again, and he went on speaking upon the “precious blood of Christ.” The time had gone; no one thought of looking upon the clock. Their minds had been absorbed. It was after ten o’ clock when he commenced praying in order to close the meeting. He said, “Indeed, Lord, we would have praised Thee to-night, only that it has gone late. Blessed be God, because we have hopes of going into a country where there will be no record of time to disturb our worship; and because we can hope for the day when we shall never become tired of the house of God.” Before he had gone any farther, the feelings of the people became too warm again; and their voices drowned the voice of the preacher; and there they remained till it was eleven o’clock.

Such were the amazing labours of the Revd John Jones, Talsarn. For all the joys of heaven poured out in such abundance, his Lord’s day travels denied him any rest. He often had to preach in three places, many miles apart, each service concluding with the Lord’s Supper and sometimes a baptism. Clearly his ordination as a minister of the Gospel had a profound influence upon him. His biographer appropriately describes this period in the preacher’s career: ‘He consecrated his energies, his talents, and his genius more than ever to the great cause of Christ. And though his toil was incessant and his labours excessive, yet he was employed with the work he delighted to be in; and he enjoyed times of most thorough refreshing and happiness. His ministry advanced in power, and his popularity became greater still’.

Dr Lloyd-Jones - a Personal Appreciation

On the occasion of the passing of Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones into glory, I draw to your attention this book that I wrote which is my personal appreciation of the life and ministry of this great servant of Christ and the Gospel.  Please click here to find out the influence he had on me and on my ministry.

Dr D Martyn Lloyd-Jones Remembered.

Dr D Martyn Lloyd-Jones died on 1st March 1981, 32 years ago.

A young man who knew Dr Lloyd-Jones personally, and who worshipped at Westminster Chapel, London, records his appreciation of the Doctor in this short video.

Please click here to view it and see this first-hand account of his relationship with Dr Lloyd-Jones.

Pulpit "Essay Readers" Need Not Apply

I have said it often, there are far too many 'essay readers' in our pulpits today with the result that they are far more concerned to get something out of our heads rather than get something into the hearts and heads of their hearers.  Preaching is about communication, communication of the highest and most exalted order; yet it is here that we fail so lamentably.  How sorrowful I am when I think that I used to describe my ministry as "a Bible teaching ministry."  This type of ministry is vitally important, but if that is all we are doing, then God be merciful to us.  My sinful heart was so full of pride of the worst kind that I blush to even say this.  My heart is pained to even admit this travesty.

Is your 'preacher' a mere "essay reader"?  Or does he come with a heart burdened with the Word of the Lord for his congregation?  Are his sermons so well constructed that they have no room for the life of the Spirit?  Is the argument and logic so tight that there is no room in the sermon for Christ?  Does your minister come with a fresh message from the living God or with a lifeless message to a lifeless congregation from the living God?  If so, there is probably nothing more obscene that such a minister.  A minister of what, I might ask?  And a minister of Whom?

Preaching - Theology on Fire!

DML-J gave the church what is perhaps the best definition of preaching to be found anywhere.  He defined it thus: "Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire."

This definition highlights several important characteristics of true preaching.  First, it has to be theological.  That does not mean that preaching can be reduced to a theological lecture masquerading as a sermon - far from it.  But it does require that all true preaching must be theological, biblically theological not scholastically theological.  It must be based on what the Word teaches us about God.

Second, preaching is done by a man, and not just any man.  It is done by a redeemed man, by a man who has felt the power of true preaching and been brought to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  How can an unredeemed man preach Christ and Him crucified?  He cannot.

Third, it is to be done by a man who is on fire for God and His Gospel.  True preaching can only be done by a man to whom and in whom something revolutionary has happened, a changed and transformed man who, when he comes to the Word, is deeply affected by its power.  It can only be done by a man who is consumed by the truth of God, by the Gospel, by love for Christ and love for the perishing souls of men.  Preaching is only possible for a man driven with zeal for the glory of God, and who believes that God is glorified in the salvation of sinners.  Apart from this, no man can preach.

This is where a true understanding of the Gospel is essential.  If a man believes and is convinced that only the elect will be saved and that they will be infallibly saved because they have been predestined to eternal life, then such a man will have no zeal for God because his belief is a form of determinism that removes the need for consecrated human effort in the work of evangelism.  It does not matter what a man 'preaches,' God will save His elect.

Of course it is true that it is God Who saves sinners; but He has ordained the means whereby they will enter personally into that salvation.  And it is not by determining beforehand whether or not he is one of the elect.  It is by realising that he is a lost and condemned sinner who has no hope of eternal life apart from Christ Jesus, and by casting himself at His mercy and trusting Him to save him.  Remember, it is faith and not predestination that lies at the very heart of the Christian Gospel.  And it is faith in Christ alone that brings salvation.

So true preaching, preaching worthy of the name, can only be done by a redeemed man who is theologically aware and taught and who is on fire for the Lord.  If a man is not burning for Christ, then he will set no one else on fire for Him.

Pray that God will raise up men who are on fire for Christ and the Gospel, and whose desire it that sinners might be saved.  Only such a man will have passion in his preaching, and be a burning and shining light for Christ in this dark world of sin.  And let me say this: no intelligent and informed Christian will sit under any other kind of preaching, because such a man places the church far above the Gospel.
 
Are you such a man?

Anointed Gospel Preaching

I agree that regardless of the theological camp a man belongs to, there is an absence of divine unction in much of today's preaching.  The evidence from Jonathan Edwards and DML-J is as clear as could be that these men experienced the divine unction on their ministries and numerous conversions followed.  Sadly, the same cannot be said of Dr John Owen, who had no known conversions, though, of course, that does not mean there were none.  He did say, mind you, that he would give up all his learning to be able to preach like John Bunyan, the tinker and evangelist.  Wouldn't we all!

I also think we are fooling ourselves when we convince ourselves that no conversions equate to faithfulness to the Gospel.  Spiritual pride and arrogance drives us when we think like that.  McCheyne used to preach and pray with his face buried in his hands and the tears running down his cheeks.  My biggest fault as a preacher is that I cannot preach in that attitude, so hard is my poor heart.  Perhaps we need to read McCheyne's sermons and study them closely to see how to preach the Gospel with power sent down from heaven.  We need that sense of God in our services, and not "glorified Bible studies," as DML-J so rightly described them.  Orthodoxy is important, but if a preacher studies more to be orthodox than he does to know the Spirit's power upon him, he has no right to ascend any pulpit.  

A Grand Line.

It is very interesting that two of the greatest and best known itinerant evangelists in the UK, Dr John Blanchard and Roger Carswell, believe in and preach that died for all men.  This is the essential of the biblical Gospel message.  It is this message that was preached so powerfully by all the great evangelists in the Church's history - Calvin, Amyraut, Daille, the Wesleys, Whitefield, Edwards, John Jones, McCheyne, Ryle, DMLJ.

What a delight it is to realise that we stand in the true Gospel succession when we preach such a soul-stirring message.  How great it is to know that when we preach Christ as the Saviour of the world, we stand in the most noble and exalted line imaginable.  Would there were more preachers who embraced this liberating Gospel message.  Would that God would change men's hearts and thinking so that they would come to preach Christ as the all-sufficient Saviour of mankind and Redeemer of the world.  Would that a real message of real hope was set before a perishing world and sinners urged and pleaded with to trust Christ as their Saviour and Lord.

It is this biblical message that knows the anointing of God upon it and its servant.  And how the church needs men who are Spirit-anointed, men who see what is needed and take the appropriate action to bring about God-glorifying change.  The church today is in urgent need to beware of the subtle and not-so-subtle encroachments of Rome.  Evangelicals must be aware of what Rome is doing through ministers in the Protestant ministers.  She has bought them over by her smooth and sweet words, and they have not even seen what was happening.  They have been deceived into believing and doing what Rome has always believed and done, not least the insufficiency of Scripture.  Just as Rome developed a most complicated liturgy for its services, so today the evangelical churches have mimicked Rome in adding complexity to church services with all the razzmatazz of worldly show business.  But that's for another post.

The church must return as a matter of urgency to the simplicity and directness of the biblical Gospel if she is to avert divine judgement.  Nothing else will prevail.  The Gospel is "the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes," (Rom.1:16).  Let the church preach that soul-saving message to everyone and seek to make them into disciples. 

Noteless Sermons

Listen to these strong words from Prof. Robert Lewis Dabney:

Reading a manuscript to the people can never, with any justice, be termed preaching.... In the delivery of the sermon there can be no exception in favor of the mere reader. How can he whose eyes are fixed upon the paper before him, who performs the mechanical task of reciting the very words inscribed upon it, have the inflections, the emphasis, the look, the gesture, the flexibility, the fire, or oratorical actions? Mere reading, then, should be sternly banished from the pulpit, except in those rare cases in which the didactic purpose supersedes the rhetorical, and exact verbal accuracy is more essential than eloquence.

I have said it often, there are way too many "essay readers" in Christian pulpits that have been dedicated for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Why do we need a trained and ordained man to read out an essay?  Can such productions not be bought off the Internet and someone asked to read it out?

But whatever you might call that, it's certainly not preaching.  A preacher whose eyes are fixed on a manuscript cannot have any meaningful eye contact with those to whom he is preaching.  When we communicate with another person, we look at their eyes.  Preaching is communication par excellence.  To communicate from a pulpit, you need to see the whites of your congregation's eyes and they need to see the white of yours.  

I know that someone will cite Jonathan Edwards who is believed to have read his manuscript under candle-light and many were struck down, convicted of their sin and savingly converted to Christ.  But do exceptions prove rules?  Hardly.

Dabney is correct - "mere reading should be sternly banished from the pulpit" as a rule.

Unordained Preachers in Eighteenth Century Wales

Many of the 'exhorters' in eighteenth century Wales were not well-off nor were many of the well educated. Indeed some were "relatively ignorant of the doctrine of religion" (Calvinistic Methodist Fathers of Wales, Vol. 1, p. 263).

"But they had been given a view of the crucified Christ as an all-sufficient Saviour, his glory had shone in their souls with an overpowering intensity, their hearts were filled with an enduring love for him, and though they did not know what much about him they felt bound to express what they did know to all around them. As Ahimaaz of old, they were full of desire to run for the King, and if they had no clear tidings at the beginning, they soon found it before running very far.  The woman of Samaria knew very little about Jesus, but after his words had touched her heart she left her water-pot at the side of the well in order to tell her fellow-citizens of the remarkable Person she had met.  So also with the Methodist exhorters: they entered into the work as they were, and God sealed their labours with blessing" (263).

These servants of Christ ran because they had a message salvation to tell to all they met.  It was a message that had eternal relevance for the whole world.  God, out of His heart of love, had provided an all-sufficient Saviour who could meets the great spiritual needs of everyone.  The eternal value of His death on the Cross ensured that it was an all-sufficient salvation that His servants were to preach.

These were among the great influences on the ministry and theology of Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Exhorters in Wales

I have mentioned the marvellous two volume work, The Calvinistic Methodist Fathers of Wales, and commend these strongly.  These were books that Dr D Martyn Lloyd-Jones read often, and especially when he was feeling a bit jaded.

But the section to which I want to draw your attention is in Vol.1, p.263.  Here we discover a vitally important matter.

We learn that when schoolmasters were being appointed to Griffith Jones's schools, a necessary qualification was "that a man should have sufficient knowledge of the Scriptures.  He had to address his pupils from the Word and catechize them."

This is an important, nay, crucial, aspect of Huguenot philosophy of education.  They saw reading, writing and arithmetic as necessary tools but these were not, in themselves, education.  They were preparatory to education, which was to bring the children to a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures and to know Christ personally as Lord and Saviour.

Not a few schoolmasters became 'exhorters' in Wales during and following the revival in the eighteenth century.  Knowing how to communicate the Gospel to children was but a short step to doing similarly with adults - and they did!  Some 40 such men worked in this capacity and gave valuable assistance to the progress of the awakening in Wales.

John Jones, Talsarn Calvinistic Methodist Preacher (1796-1857)

(This article was sent by Dr Alan C Clifford to mark the anniversary of the death of Calvinistic Methodist preacher, Rev. John Jones, Talsarn. To be noted is the fact that he was born on the same date by day that Dr D Martyn Lloyd-Jones went to be with the Lord Jesus Christ.)

If the warriors of Greece and Rome ever deserved funeral orations and funeral songs, a great Welsh preacher was entitled to them on
far higher grounds. For whom is such a claim made? John Jones, Talsarn!
He was born on ‘St David’s Day’, 1 March 1796 at Tan-y-castell near Dolwyddelan in Gwynedd, North Wales. Brought to faith in Jesus Christ through the ministry of his young friend Henry Rees, John Jones became an eminent preacher of the Gospel throughout Wales. From his later home in Talysarn, he travelled widely for more than three decades. Ever-increasing demands were made upon him by a population hungry to hear the Way of Salvation. During the last year of his life, John Jones preached the Gospel of Christ three-hundred and sixty times.

Owen Jones wrote: ‘Preaching was the delight of his heart…“There is no occupation in the world so delightful as preaching Jesus Christ the Saviour of sinners, and the ideal of human life for those who believe in Him”...His countenance beamed with the sweetest love and the most boundless benevolence...Preaching absorbed all the energies of his life...he became the most efficient and most popular preacher of the age in Wales. The epithet is applied to him to this day, “The preacher of the people.” And no one since his time has arrived at anything like his popularity… He would often preach for an hour and a half or two hours, and the people not at all tired, but delighted and enchanted, and in raptures before the close...When expressing the believer's delight over the riches of God in Christ, there was such a heavenly sweetness in his voice as electrified every congregation. As to power, flexibility, sweetness and beauty of voice, the Welsh pulpit no doubt reached its climax in the orator from Talsarn’ (Some of the Great Preachers of Wales, 1885).

John Jones’s friend and biographer Dr Owen Thomas wrote: ‘We are disposed to think that he, during those years (from 1821 to 1857), made for himself a deeper home in the affections of his fellow-countrymen than perhaps any of his mighty predecessors or contemporaries - so deep a home, indeed, that the longing that is still felt for him in the breasts of his hearers is as keen and strong as if he had died
yesterday’ (Cofiant John Jones, Talsarn, 1874).

When he died at Talysarn on Sunday, 16 August 1857, John Jones proved the blessedness of all he had preached to others. Despite advancing weakness, his spirit was filled with rapture as he was heard repeatedly to whisper, “O! Iesu anwyl! O! Iesu anwyl! O! Waredwr bendigedig!” - “O dear Jesus! O beloved Jesus! Blessed be Thy name forever!”

With great poignancy Owen Jones wrote: ‘On Friday, 21 August, the day he was buried at Llanllyfni, the shops were closed in Talysarn and all the country around; and even in Caernarfon, which is several miles away; and the work in the slate quarries was at a stand that day. And in the eyes of some, great Snowdon seemed to wear a pall...’

Before leaving the house in Talysarn, Henry Rees spoke to the large crowd of mourners: “It is not becoming to say much now. Silence is the most eloquent. If you desire to have a real sermon today, look at the coffin, the funeral car, and the grave, and think of your sweet-mouthed preacher, who is now silent forever. His name was well known throughout the Principality for thirty or thirty-five years, and his
eloquence roused and charmed the minds of Welshmen. But today there is no John Jones, Talsarn, in Wales.”  Far be it from us, however, to weep for him as men which have no hope. ‘For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him!’ ”

In the funeral procession there were eight medical men, sixty-five ministers and preachers, three abreast; seventy deacons four abreast; two hundred singers, six abreast; six thousand men and women, six abreast, trending slowly on the road from Talysarn to Llanllyfni, singing on the way some of the old Welsh tunes, ‘Yn y dyfroedd mawr a’r tonau’, ‘Ymado wnaf a’r babell’, the hills around and Snowdon in the distance echoing the sound. That day and for many a day after a great gloom rested upon Wales’.

Between his birth at Dolwyddelan to his death at Talysarn, was there any Welshman who brought more blessing to Wales through the preaching of Christ than he? Did any preacher present the Saviour of sinners more gloriously, eloquently and tenderly than he? Was there any minister whose heart throbbed with more love to Jesus and his fellow-men? Is there any better Spirit-anointed model for preachers today than the Christ-exalting John Jones, Talsarn?

Surely such servants of Christ should be remembered. Recording their labours can only enhance our appreciation of God’s grace and mercy to the people of Wales. Let us pray, “LORD, do it again—everywhere!”

Dr Alan C. Clifford

Get Unction.

The issues that are relevant if we wish to see God move and bless His Work are godliness of life and  prayerfulness, and regardless of the theological camp a man belongs to, there is an absence of unction.  The evidence from Edwards and DMLJ is as clear as could be that these men experienced the divine unction on their ministries and numerous conversions followed.  Sadly, the same cannot be said of Owen, who had no known conversions, though, of course, that does not mean there were none.  He did say, mind you, that he would give all his learning to be able to preach like John Bunyan, the tinker and evangelist.  Wouldn't we all!

We are fooling ourselves when we convince ourselves that no conversions equate to faithfulness to the Gospel.  Spiritual pride and arrogance drives us when we think like that.  McCheyne used to preach and pray with his face buried in his hands and the tears running down his cheeks.  My biggest fault as a preacher is that I cannot preach in that attitude, for I am far too sinful.  Perhaps we need to read McCheyne's sermons and study them closely to see how to preach the Gospel with power sent down from heaven.  We need that sense of God in our services, and not "glorified Bible studies," as DMLJ so rightly described so many so-called sermons.  Orthodoxy is important, but if a preacher studies more to be orthodox than he does to know the Spirit's power upon him, he has no right to ascend any pulpit. 

How much we crave and pursue popularity with men, and neglect being in the special favour of God. Our hearts are so sinful and wicked.

I have said it often, there are far too many 'essay readers' in our pulpits today with the result that we are far more concerned to get something out of our heads rather than get something into the hearts and heads of our hearers.  Preaching is about communication, communication of the highest and most exalted order; yet it is here that we fail so lamentably.  How sorrowful I am when I think that I used to describe my ministry as "a Bible teaching ministry."  This is vitally important, but if that is all we are doing, then God be merciful to us.  My sinful heart was so full of pride of the worst kind that I blush to even say this.  My heart is pained to admit this travesty.

One thing I have been well aware of (and its something I have done more in the breach than in the observance) and that is "the barrenness of a busy life."  Satan works us so hard that we do not do the very spiritual exercises that we know are needed.  The church also plays into this because she does not want us to be "men of God" in any real and effective sense.  So, she puts us on all these committees and commissions with the very purpose of keeping us off our knees.  She invites us here and there, all to keep us from fellowship with the Lord.  And into the bargain, we become all puffed up with pride and entertain thoughts of how good/great we really are, when in reality we are no better than unprofitable servants. 

Satan will use anything and anyone to keep a man off his knees.  R. M. McCheyne said, "What a man is on his knees before God, that he is and no more."  We're not much, are we?  Someone also said, "If you want to humiliate a minister, ask him about his prayer life."  How truly devoted is he to Christ whom he preaches and offers to the lost?  How much does he love the Saviour (Jn.21)?  What are his real priorities in ministry? 

Perhaps we are much too full of our own importance for God to use us.  Perhaps self-righteousness has taken such a hold of us that we would not be prepared to admit it.  Perhaps we imagine that by 'performing' well in the pulpit, our own or someone else's, we are pleasing the Lord.  Are we?  Is ministry just about 'performance'?  How much do we really depend upon God's anointing when we preach, and how much on ourselves? 

We need to dedicate ourselves to doing serious business with God if we are see any move of His Spirit.  But we are not prepared to do what it takes to make this a reality.  We're too busy at other things.  We need to de-clutter our lives of all that does not allow us to do that very thing.

This is surely enough to be going on with for now.  We will continue this dialogue with a view to making the necessary changes in our lives so that we reflect more closely the pattern set out in Scripture.

Dr J. Edwin Orr and Revival

Dr J. Edwin Orr taught that if revival is to flower, certain things must happen:

"Little by little, the church loses its grip on essential things, becomes a social club, goes to sleep or flies off at a tangent. All over the world we find sleeping churches, and all round them are the gospel-starved masses. Instead of performing the first thing of importance, evangelising the masses, they are engaged in a bewildering variety of pastimes--anything but the real thing."

Let me take these points in order: Has the church today lost "its grip on essential things"?  Is the Gospel of God being proclaimed every Lord's day from every pulpit established for the preaching of the Gospel?  Is there passion and a sense of urgency in the preaching that marked a previous generation of preachers?  


Or has the church degenerated into "a social club"?  Is it now the kind of organisation that is only interested in men's well-being in this world, and not so much in their eternal souls?  Does it try to cater for every 'special interest group' within its jurisdiction?  Does it break up its congregations into ages and gender groups, rather than having the entire church involved in all church activities?


Has the church today gone to "sleep"?  I don't think there can be any doubt that this is a fair description of many churches today - they are asleep while their members and community goes to hell without the only Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ.  Is she so inebriated by notions of her own self-importance and by her seeking to be applauded and honoured by the godless world that she sees no dangers anywhere that should cause concern to the Church of Christ?


Is it true that the church in many of her manifestations worldwide has flown "off at a tangent" and has become involved in politics, social action, an organiser of charitable activities; has she been taken down the road paved by godless philosophers without even realising it?


Dr Orr is correct: "All over the world we find sleeping churches."  How utterly sad!  And how unacceptable!  Who has cast the spell upon them that has created this situation?  Satan.  The church has allowed Satan to become a church member!  He is welcome in very many churches around the globe.  He presents himself as "an angel of light," and very often has a good 'profession of faith' which the church elders accept without question.  Preachers who have been brought under his power and influence are lulling their congregations to sleep with empty sermons, pious platitudes and sloppy sentimentalism.  The churches are asleep.

So intent are ministers and churches to keep strictly within their pre-determined parish boundaries that evangelism of the masses is a non-starter.  As Dr Orr rightly asserts,"all around them are gospel-starved masses."  Multitudes are on the broad road that leads to destruction.  Why?  Because they have not been told the Gospel in a way that grips them and 'nails them to their pews' as they listen.  They might have listened to carefully Bible studies, but these are not, I repeat, are not sermons. The masses are not being evangelised and the sheep are not being fed because the church is intent in and dedicated to amusing the goats.  They are happier to have loads of good, and not so good, pagans, in their membership because that keeps the money rolling in, than to tell them the unadulterated truth of the Gospel. 


Churches today have programmes of all kinds to entertain the goats, but not so much activity that will turn goats into sheep, as William Still of Aberdeen once said.  She has lost her vocation and Ichabod has been written over her.  Even the so-called pure churches are facing the same problems today.  Their members do not want the Gospel preached in their church - that's for mission halls and street corners, not the church.


Dr Edwin Orr is totally correct.  There must be immediate and radical change in every church if they are to meet the challenges of "this present evil age," (Gal.1:4).


But the biggest question of all is, Is she up to it?


O CHURCH OF CHRIST, AWAKE!

Never Preach From Notes!

Dr Clarence Edward Macartney was quite a remarkable man.  From Scottish stock, his family moved to North America.  Approaching his final year in theological seminary, he was determined to follow the two precepts given to students by Dr David J. Burrell, which were:

"always have a clear outline and never preach from notes or with a manuscript."

Where would this leave some of us, I wonder!  In an eariler post I had stated that probably the reason why so much preaching is powerless is that the preacher places too much reliance upon his study preparation than upon the Lord's gracious enabling at the point of sermon delivery.  

Macartney never preached from notes and in 1946 he published a book entitled, Preaching Without Notes.  This book was reprinted by Baker Books in 1976. 

My challenge to preachers and to myself is to preach without notes.  To make this a bit easier, take only the briefest outline into the pulpit with you, and allow the Lord by His Spirit to give you the message He has for the congregation on that occasion.

What a challenge!  Are you up to it?  Am I?

The Power of the Spirit - Absent

In a few more years—I know not when, I know not how—the Holy Spirit will be poured out in a far different style from the present. There are diversities of operations; and during the last few years it has been the case that the diversified operations have consisted in very little pouring out of the Spirit. Ministers have gone on in dull routine, continually preaching—preaching—preaching, and little good has been done. ( Emphasis mine) I do hope that perhaps a fresh era has dawned upon us, and that there is a better pouring out of the Spirit even now. For the hour is coming, and it may be even now is, when the Holy Spirit shall be poured out again in such a wonderful manner that many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased—the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the surface of the great deep; when his kingdom shall come, and his will shall be done on earth even as it is in heaven. We are not going to be dragging on for ever like Pharaoh with the wheels off his chariot. My heart exults and my eyes flash with the thought that very likely I shall live to see the out-pouring of the Spirit; when “the sons and the daughters of God again shall prophecy, and the young men shall see visions, and the old men shall dream dreams.” Perhaps there shall be no miraculous gifts—for they will not be required; but yet there shall be such a miraculous amount of holiness, such an extraordinary fervour of prayer, such a real communion with God and so much vital religion, and such a spread of the doctrines of the cross, that everyone will see that verily the Spirit is poured out like water, and the rains are descending from above. For that let us pray: let us continually labour for it, and seek it of God.
For meditation: Spurgeon saw answers to his prayers in the 1859 revival. What are your visions for revival? Lots of excitement with extravagant claims that the Holy Spirit is involved? Or a genuine work of the Spirit which speaks for itself in real conversions, true fellowship and godly living ( Acts 2:37-47)?
Sermon no. 30, preached on 17 June 1855

Meditate on these things.


I would draw your attention to the statement in bold type above.  This has been a refrain of mine for many years - preaching and more preaching, but little good being done, and nothing much to show for it.  With all the advanced education of most preachers today, the Gospel has been undermined by degrees, as has the clear witness of the Christian church.

That something is seriously wrong, none but the most blind will deny.  What needs to be done to correct this malady does not find agreement.  It seems that the church today wants entertainers rather than true prophets.  She wants men who will bring the world into the church in a 'spiritual' way. The less preaching of the Word there is, the better; hence new churches seem to place the preaching of the Gospel at a serious discount all in an attempt to get the people in and to build up their own personal empire.

You Become What You Read.

All writing, as Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, is really just thinking put to paper. So it turns out that what we’re reading, we’re thinking about; and what we’re thinking about is what most shapes who we are. We are (or are becoming) what we read.

Therefore it is most important that we read the best Christian books available.   Reading shapes our thoughts and gives direction to our lives.  It helps us discern the Lord's will for our lives. 

I am currently reading the first volume of "The Calvinistic Methodists of Wales" by John Morgan Jones and William Morgan (trans. by John Aaron) and published by the Banner of Truth Trust.  This book is a real inspiration to the Christian.  It lets us see the hand of God at work in what was, humanly speaking, a hopeless situation.  God worked inside the church and despite her.  He took His servants and used them mightily in the furtherance of His Kingdom.  Griffith Jones and Daniel Rowland, Howell Harris and Christmas Evans, were used by God to gather in His Kingdom.

If you are feeling a bit low at present, then dip into these excellent works and see your spirits soar in delight to God and delight with God.

By reading these volumes, you will become what you read.

Confessions and Longings of a Preacher

I am still enjoying immensely the DMLJ sermons and hopefully benefitting from them.  They are so fresh and relevant and easy to follow.  I know I can learn from his approach to preaching and hope to become a better preacher of the everlasting Gospel.  His evangelistic zeal is affecting, and I feel challenged by what I am reading.  There is certainly no 'take it or leave it' with the Doctor when he preaches the Gospel.  He appeals to his hearers, pleads with them and urges them to trust Christ as the only Saviour there is for them.  I wish I had the same warmth and intensity when it comes to closing a Gospel sermon.  I can but try to be better, but as always, unless the unction of God is upon the preacher and preaching, it will avail nothing.

But we pray on and preach on.  I am greatly encouraged by the Doctor's view that it is not great preachers or great sermons that God blesses, nor even great orthodoxy, but great likeness to Jesus (McCheyne's term) - that bit rebukes me, mind you.  I will not be a great preacher nor will my sermons be great sermons, but I can strive to be more like my Saviour, and depend much more on the risen Lord to send His Spirit upon us each Lord's day, and whenever I have opportunity to preach the Gospel of God.

God's Simple Gospel

Isn't it great that the Gospel is the only message that can deal with the spiritual and eternal problems of people of any condition or status in life?  It is shallow enough for a child to paddle in but deep enough for an elephant to swim in - I think it was Dr Leon L. Morris who made this point in the introductory section of his commentary on John's Gospel.

But how true!  And how insightful!  Fallen man tends always to make the Gospel a complicated and complex thing.  He wishes to adorn it with 'all kinds of everything.'  He wants it to become so deep that a child cannot grasp it. 

But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is essentially simple - it can be understood by the merest child.  Thank God that is true.  No one would ever be saved were it not true that sinners like us can actually understand enough of it to commit ourselves to it.  It is simple; but it is not simplistic - whatever that means.  Its profundity can be put across in simple enough terms and language.

So let us preach this Gospel will all directness, leaving asside all those dry academic niceties that keep some people in jobs.  Let us preach this soul-saving message in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Theological Compromise Robs Churches of God's Blessing

I have often thought about getting hold of the reports that senior churchmen in one of the Protestant denominations in Northern Ireland (who were given a year to go round the congregations, inter alia), gave when they finished their year, and read and study these reports to find out what the spiritual state of the churches really was - in their view. Having been and listened to about fourteen of these reports over the years, I would have to conclude that that church is in very good heart, is spiritually alive, has prayer meetings, good work being done, made up of good people, God’s work progressing steadily, and so on.   

Having listened to such reports, I could not reconcile what these church leaders were saying with what I and many other ministers were experiencing on the ground.  The annual meeting of that denomination was told very good news about life within and around that denomination, yet there were fundamental theological problems, such as, the acceptance of theological pluralism, the honouring of men and women ministers who held theologically liberal views and preached accordingly; there were all kinds of mix-ups with ecumenism, fraternising with Romanism on a frequent basis, the institutional cover-up of serious wrong-doing, and all emerging from a determined opposition to the Gospel and to Gospel preaching ministers in many places.  Yet, the annual reports spoke of how healthy the churches were spiritually speaking.  Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones gives such an attitude as the reason why revival has been withheld from many churches today.   

And, and here’s the irony, the churches that are furthest away from Scripture are the very churches that need the reviving power of God’s Holy Spirit more than the “purer” churches, whatever and wherever they are!  It is these very churches that claim how spiritual they are, how faithful they are to the Gospel, and how much work is being done for God's glory amongst them.  And these churches that make such unfounded claims are the churches that are being deprived of God's blessing - blessing that He is longing to pour out upon them.  They are also the most likely churches to be revived by God when His time comes to pour out His Spirit again.  DMLJ longed for this to happen in his day, but felt very disappointed that he had not experienced revival at the end of his ministry as he had done in Sandfields in the 1930s.