The Great Need for Great Preaching

Both believers and unbelievers show signs of a need for great biblical preaching. Among believers the need manifests itself in, among other things, the proliferation of home Bible studies and the large sales of religious books. Unbelievers reveal the need in their frantic pursuit of personal fulfillment and in disillusionment with much of modern life, including traditional forms of religion. Yet this is a time also when preaching has fallen from its formerly impregnable position in church life. In recent years, the majority of sermons (even in conservative pulpits) have failed to interest or challenge their hearers, and even the very word “preaching” has taken on a negative tone.

If preaching really is outmoded, as many of its detractors affirm, then current opinion should not trouble the preachers of the Gospel; ministers should surrender their preaching ministry and take up some other worthwhile pursuits. But if this is not true—if preaching is still the primary means under God’s grace by which men and women are won to faith in Jesus Christ and are built up into the fullness of Christ’s stature—then the current trends should trouble them and they should look diligently for the causes of the decline in good preaching and for a cure.

The Authority Of Scripture

What makes preaching the kind of proclamation that God intended it to be? What is required of the minister? Clearly the first and essential requirement is a joyful and total commitment to the absolute authority of God’s written revelation. There has never been a great expository preacher who has not held this high conviction; there have been pulpiteers who have not, but never expositors. Since belief in the Scriptures as the infallible and authoritative Word of God has declined in the life of the Church generally, it is not surprising that the eloquence and power of the proclamation of this Word have diminished also.

What is the result? It is well put in this description of a panel discussion involving a rabbi, a priest, and a Protestant minister. The rabbi stood up and said, “I speak according to the law of Moses.” The priest said, “I speak according to the Church.” The clergyman rose to his feet and said, “It seems to me.…”

This is an entirely abnormal situation. From the beginning of the Christian Church until well into the eighteenth century, the vast majority of Christians of all denominations, even heretics, acknowledged that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are uniquely the Word of God. In these books God speaks to men. And because God speaks to men in Scripture—as he does in the same way nowhere else—all who claimed to be Christians recognized the Bible as the divine authority binding upon all men, a body of objective truth that transcends subjective understanding. In these books God’s saving acts in history are made known to men so that men can believe. And the events of that history are divinely interpreted so that men can understand the Gospel and respond to it intelligently both in thought and in action. The Bible is the written Word of God, therefore it is authoritative and infallible. This was earnestly believed and became the basis for biblical preaching.

It was the glory of the Church that in the first sixteen or seventeen centuries all Christians everywhere, despite their differences of opinion on theology or on questions of church order, showed at least a mental allegiance to the Bible as the supreme authority for the Christian in all matters. It might have been neglected. There might have been disagreements about what is teaches. It might even have been contradicted. But it was still the Word of God. It was the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

Unfortunately, in the post-Reformation period the orthodox view of Scripture came under increasingly devastating attacks. In 1546 the Roman Catholic Church, already weakened by centuries of appealing to the Fathers rather than to the Scripture in its defense of doctrine and in its violent reaction to the Protestant Reformation, officially placed the tradition of the church alongside Scripture as an equally valid form and source of Christian doctrine. The full significance of this decision was doubtlessly overlooked at the time of the Council of Trent. But it was monumental. And the act had tragic consequences for the church of Rome, as seen in the continuing development of debilitating doctrines such as Mariology and the veneration of the saints.

The Protestant Church, as the result of its heritage and its sharp polemic against Catholicism, held on longer—for two hundred years. But in the eighteenth century and even more in the nineteenth, a critical appraisal of the Scriptures, backed by a naturalistic rationalism, succeeded in dislodging the Bible from the place it had previously held. For the Church of the age of rationalism, the Bible became man’s word about God rather than God’s word about man. And when men rejected the unique, divine character of the Bible, they rejected its authority also.

The Catholic Church weakened the orthodox view of the Bible by exalting human traditions to the stature of Scripture. The Protestant Church weakened the orthodox view of Scripture by lowering the Bible to the level of traditions. The differences are great, but the results were similar. In both cases the unique character of Scripture was lost, its divine authority was forfeited, and the function of the Bible as the reforming voice of God within the Church was forgotten.

Fortunately, neither position is tenable. And so, the confusion that haunts today’s religious scene is an opportunity for all who believe the Word. The Protestant Church is finding that without a valid basis for religious authority, theology withers and the Church becomes increasingly powerless to preach the Gospel. The Roman communion is discovering that although two sources of authority are better than none, Scripture and tradition will often conflict, and the deep human preference for traditions rather than Scripture inevitably shifts the balance of authority away from the written Word. In such a time a challenge emerges for those who, holding the orthodox view of Scripture, boldly exalt the Word as the revelation of the Father and proclaim it with power as the final arbiter of human thought and conduct.

Depth Of Doctrine

The second requirement for an effective pulpit ministry is a profound understanding of the doctrines contained in Scripture and a fearless proclamation of them. By these I mean not merely the so-called basic or evangelistic doctrines but all doctrines, particularly those having to do with the sovereignty and grace of God.

Paul exhorted the young man Timothy to preach sound doctrine, that is, to preach all those themes that Paul had taught him. He wrote, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be diligent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:1, 2). Elsewhere in the same letter he says, “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me” (1:13). And again, “The things that thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2:2). In First Timothy, Paul declares, “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, unto which thou hast attained” (4:6).

Are these weighty exhortations being followed today? Generally not, I fear. Pick up a Saturday paper listing sermon topics for the next day in some city. The crisis in the Mideast will be discussed. There will probably be sermons on the problems of race, the economy, Sino-American relations, and other current matters. Many ministers will be expounding on some biblical story. Many will be using a text in order to bring an essay on ethics. But where in this long list of topics are the titles of those expositional sermons that set forth the themes of God’s sovereignty in all human affairs, his grace to the undeserving, his love, his hatred of sin, the nature and specific object of the atonement, irresistible grace, the keeping power of God, repentance, forgiveness, God’s plan for the ages, the plans and ultimate defeat of Satan, the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so on? There are not even many serious attempts to do this in the context of exegetical preaching in which a certain part of the Bible is preached on over a period of time.

“Current” themes should be preached on and will be preached on as the result of good doctrinal and exegetical preaching. The point is that it is not these themes but rather the great themes of the Scriptures that touch men’s lives, convert them, fill the churches, and satisfy the hungering soul.

I am told that the doctrines of grace cannot be preached today, that such teaching will drive listeners away. That may be. At any rate, I am sure that at least one of these things will happen. Either these truths will drive the people away, or the people will drive the minister away, or there will be a great awakening, as there has been at many different points in church history.

Some ask, “Where is revival today?”

I reply, “Where are the faithful teachers of the whole counsels of the Word of God?” Let the angry God be proclaimed, as well as the God of Love, and men’s hearts will be stirred to repentance. Let the sovereign God be proclaimed, and some will bow before him. They have done it before. They will do it again. Preach doctrine, and many will, out of a true sense of need, flee to the Saviour.

The Devotional Life

The third requirement for power in preaching is a personal closeness to God expressed in the devotional life. There was a time when it could be assumed that the preacher observed set times for prayer and Bible study. The need for the devotional life was taught in the seminaries, and it was practiced in the manse and study. Today this has changed. In a recent survey of a theological college in the United States 93 per cent of the students preparing for the ministry confessed, “I have no devotional life.” Without this communion with God, preaching lacks power and will inevitably be despised.

If power in the preaching of the Gospel came from human ability, there might be shortcuts to success and the devotional life could be discarded. However, since the power comes from God, the preacher’s pursuit of God is essential. Knowledge and meticulous preparation will never be enough. Without the presence of the Holy Spirit there will be no power, and even the most eloquent preaching will be ineffective.

No wonder, then, that Paul adds to his exhortations to pursue sound doctrine such words as these: “Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness” (1 Tim. 6:11); “flee also youthful lusts” (2 Tim. 2:22); “let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:19). Or, as the author of Hebrews also writes, “Follow … holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).

The Love Of Christ

Fourth, if we are to be effective in our preaching ministry our words, works, and attitudes must all be characterized by love. Nothing else wins men. We may be orthodox; our teaching may be filled with doctrine; indeed, we may have “the gift of prophecy, and understanding all mysteries, and all knowledge, and … have all faith so that (we could) remove mountains”—but without love all this will profit us nothing (1 Cor. 13:2).

When E. Stanley Jones was in India years ago and met Mahatma Gandhi, Jones asked him, “What must the Christians do to win India for the Lord Jesus Christ?” Gandhi was not Christian but he understood Christianity well, and he replied: “First, Christians must live like Jesus Christ. Second, they must not compromise their faith. Third, they must learn all they can about the non-Christian religions. And fourth, they must let everything they do be characterized by love.” I believe that Paul would have concurred heartily with Gandhi, and would have stressed the fourth of Gandhi’s prescriptions.

Toward A New Day In Preaching

What must we do to see a new day dawn in preaching? Let me summarize my suggestions.

First, we must recognize once again that the primary task of the Church and of the Christian minister is to preach the Word of God. There are other perfectly valid forms of ministry, and there are various ways of preaching the Word. My point is, however, that the preaching of the Word is primary and that, in a sense, only it is essential.

Second, we must firmly believe that the Bible is the inspired and therefore totally authoritative Word of God. If any minister does not believe this, I strongly urge him to seek a form of ministry other than preaching. He can teach. He can counsel. He can administer programs. But he ought not to preach. Great preaching, true preaching, comes from an awareness that in this Book God Almighty speaks, and by means of it does a transforming work in the lives of men and women.

Third, in our preaching we must resist the temptation to moralize on the biblical stories or, worse yet, extrapolate from them in order to deal on an entirely different level with “real” events of our world. In Scripture we are dealing with facts. Treat them as facts. Treat the biblical people as real people. And then proclaim that the same God who dealt with the biblical characters in such and such a way will deal in similar ways with us also.

Fourth, let us preach the great doctrines of Scripture and not withhold them in the mistaken notion that they are too deep or too “theological” for our people. This will require diligent study coupled with intellectual and spiritual growth on the part of the minister.

Fifth, we must be certain of our own relationship to Jesus Christ and, if necessary, take the required steps to rekindle the altar of our devotional life.

Finally, we must be aware of the effect of our own example upon the next generation of ministers, all of whom are now sitting in our pews. I am convinced that under God nothing so moves young men into the ministry as the example of an effective and God-glorifying ministry on the part of an older preacher. We have been so stimulated ourselves in many instances. This should now happen again and again through you as God uses you to influence others in preparation for a better day.

The place of preaching has declined, it is true. But this is a day of new and unparalleled opportunities. They can be seized as those who know the Word seek to confront the weak and conflicting ideologies of our age by the eternally valid and dynamic Word of God.

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