Page 3 Preaching Christ

We preach such works, first, as absolutely excluded from having any part in procuring our Justification before God; secondly, as essential fruits and evidences of our having obtained such Justification. We preach the office of Faith as so vital that only by it are we united to Christ, as living stones built upon the living head of the corner; and the necessity of good works as so absolute, that only in them can we walk as God has ordained and have evidence that we are true believers in Jesus; and at the same time both faith and works deriving all being from the Spirit of God and all value and efficacy to salvation from the Righteousness of Christ.

Here let me add some few miscellaneous observations. We are bound to instruct the believer in all the privileges and consolations that are in Christ that his joy may be full. But we must lay equal stress on all His obligations, that Christ may be glorified. Out of the same wounds of the cross come privilege and duty, promise and commandment, the consolation of faith and the duty of obedience; and the same preaching that leads to the one must alike insist on the other, and on both as necessary to our having that rest which Jesus promises. It is a great matter so to preach the precepts of Christ as to lead men to embrace his promises; and so the promises as to draw the disobedient to the love of his precepts. In all our work we have two great sources of persuasion, according to the example of Paul, namely, "We beseech you by the mercies of God," and again; "Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;" the love of God in Christ as a Savior, and the wrath of God in Christ as Judge of quick and dead; a cloud of light and a cloud of darkness, each proceeding from the cross as accepted or rejected. We must do all in tenderness, but all in faithfulness. The whole counsel of God embraces the fearful penalty of unpardoned sin as well as the glorious inheritance of the reconciled in Christ. The faithful preacher of Christ keeps back none of it. While he delights in the loving aspect of his grace, he is not ashamed of the severities of his justice. He does not indeed denounce or judge. It is not for him to command or condemn. His work is always to entreat and persuade; tenderly, lovingly, patiently, in the mind of Christ.

But persuasion has the alarming truths to use as well as the encouraging. That, "God is a consuming fire," out of Christ, is as much an argument of persuasion and tenderness, as that in Christ, "God is Love." We read of "the goodness and severity of God." (Rom. 11:22) We must exhibit both. They interpret and enforce one another. But how to balance aright judgment and mercy, invitation and warning, precepts of obedience, and promises of consolation, the tender "Come unto me and I will give you rest," with the stern "Depart you cursed into everlasting fire," the darkness and the light -- the loving voice from the Mercy-seat and the dreadful sentence from the Judgment-seat -- all under the duty of teaching and preaching Jesus Christ, is not learned from books only, is not given by specific rule, comes chiefly out of the state of the heart, under the general light of the Scriptures, and by a careful endeavor to learn of, and be like, him of whom it is beautifully written that he has "the tongue of the learned to know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." (Isaiah 1:4)

From all that has now been said, it appears how mistaken is the idea that by confining our preaching to Christ and him crucified we have a very narrow range of truth to expatiate in. In reality, we have the whole vast range of natural and revealed religion. A wider field no preacher can find who does not seek it beyond the confines of religious truth. The difference between the man who confines himself to the preaching of Christ and him who does not, need not be that the latter embraces any portion of divine truth -- of doctrine or duty, of history or prophecy or precept which enters not into the range of the former. It may be wholly a difference in the mode of presenting precisely the same truth -- a difference in the bearings; in the relations assigned to every part; in the cardinal points to which all is adjusted; in the polarity, so to speak, which governs such manifestation of truth as deserves the name and praise of the preaching of Christ. You may take truth from the immediate neighborhood of the cross, or from the farthest boundaries of the domain of Christianity, and when its just relation to Christ and his redemption is exhibited Christ is preached. Thus there is no reason why, in the most faithful ministry, there may not be abundant variety of topic and of instruction. The sermon may be always shining in the light of our glorious Lord, while receiving it either by direct looking unto him, or indirectly from secondary objects which, as satellites of the sun, revolve around him and shine in his glory. The sermon, in all its spirit and tendency, may say, "Behold the Lamb of God," and yet the view may be as changing as the positions from which it is taken, the circumstances which influence it, the lights and shadows of the several conditions and necessities of the minds before which it is placed. In general we may say that, as no subject is legitimate in the preaching of a minister of Christ that does not admit of being presented in some important relation to Christ; so no sermon is evangelical that does not truly exhibit such relation, giving him the same position to the whole discourse that he holds in the Scriptures to the whole body of truth therein. As some subjects have a much nearer and more vital relation to him than others, they will be much the most frequent and engrossing in the preaching of a faithful Christian minister. The great truths, the great facts, the great duties and privileges and interests and consolations which proceed the most directly from the person and office -- the death and intercession of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit -- as well as those which lead the most immediately thereto, will be so habitually the subjects of his preaching, that the more remote and indirect will be only occasional, exceptions to the standing rule and habit. And which of these classes of subjects his mind and heart most delight in, and which draw forth the deepest earnestness and the strongest emotions of his soul, will not be doubtful.

We have now exhibited as much of our great and wide subject as we could with any propriety occupy your time with. You will, of course, understand that we have not attempted to embrace the whole field. What has been attempted, we are deeply conscious is most imperfect and inadequate. Still, we have not withheld our best endeavors, where even Paul exclaimed, "Who is sufficient for these things!"

We conclude with a brief view of THE STATE OF MIND AND SPIRIT which qualifies a minister to be a faithful preacher of Christ.

1. A spirit of Faith. I mean Faith not merely in such of its exercises as make the minister a living Christian, and a growing, vigorous Christian; but in that special exercise which enables him to go on patiently, persistently, hopefully, immovably, preaching the Gospel as we have seen the Apostles preached it, in like simplicity and spirituality -- with as little of the devices and mixtures and dilutions and subterfuges of man's wisdom, no matter what the obstacles or what the apparent fruitlessness -- believing it is God's own way, to which alone His blessing is promised and which He will bless as his own "wisdom and power unto salvation." It was precisely with such meaning that Paul, just after he had pronounced, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord" -- and just after he had adverted to the fact that such preaching failed to open the eyes of many that heard saying "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to those who are lost, in whom the god of this world had blinded the minds of those who believe not." (2 Cor. 4:3,4) It was in full view of all whom their preaching did not succeed in convincing, but only made the more hardened and hopeless, that he said, "We believe and therefore speak," (v. 13) meaning not only that they believed what they spoke, but that they believed it was just what God commanded them to speak. And no rejection of it by man could shake that confidence or lead them to speak any thing else or in any other way. Well they knew what a "stumbling-block to the Jew," and what utter "foolishness to the Greek," was their testimony concerning Christ crucified; but not a word would they change -- "We believe and therefore speak." It was this lesson of faith that Paul gave to Timothy. He warned him of a time of apostasy approaching -- "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine -- and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and be turned unto fables." (2 Tim. 4:3,4) How then was Timothy to do in such times? What "sound doctrine," meant in the mind of Paul, we well know -- all that way of justification by the righteousness of Christ imputed and of sanctification by the Spirit of God imparted to the believer; that whole way of life of which the vicarious propitiation by the sacrifice of Christ was the central power and life. It was all that doctrine which men would not endure.

And what was Timothy to do? Conclude that he, and other preachers of Christ, had taken the wrong method because thus unsuccessful? that they must find out some other sort of preaching because that was so rejected? Since men would not endure sound doctrine, must he try to get them into the church, or if in the church already, to make them satisfied to stay there, by giving them unsound doctrine? If the truth caused them to turn away from it, must he turn away from it also and give them something else to correct the evil? What said the faith of an Apostle? -- No compromise -- no accommodation -- only so much more earnestly and continually that same rejected doctrine. Hear Paul's remedy! "I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom -- preach the word (the same offensive word), be instant in season, out of season -- reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine." (2 Tim. 4:1,2) The more the truth is turned away from, so much the more proclaim it. God will see to the issue. "So we preach, not as pleasing men, but God, which tries the heart." Such is the faith of which we are speaking, as of such importance in our ministry.

The times which Paul predicted, and which began before Timothy had ended his labors, are yet in being. We all know how they have been exhibited since the beginning of this century; in this country, under the name of Unitarianism, and on the continent of Europe, under that of Rationalism. And we have heard with amazement and grief how they have appeared of late in the venerable Church of England, among some of her clergy, in her high places of college and pulpit teaching, and how even a Bishop takes the lead; and how while it is manifest that he cannot endure the sound doctrine of the Scriptures, and therefore labors to destroy their authority, he dares, with a dishonesty most astonishing, and an effrontery unexampled, to persist in holding the office of a Bishop in the Church of Christ against the remonstrance of all his peers, and to the great disgust of right-minded people. The case is singular. There were Bishops of the Romish Church who under the reign of infidelity in France during the Revolution, renounced the faith; but they renounced also their office in the Church. We have a more primitive example. Judas Iscariot, when he had betrayed his Lord, having been "guide to those who took Jesus;" had too much conscience left to continue in his "apostleship." "His Bishopric" another took.

But perhaps we have adverted with more point to the case of this English Bishop than his importance deserved. We were speaking of the new aspect of affairs among certain of the Church of England. True, the most prominent manifestation is in attacks on the Inspiration of the Scriptures. But let not any suppose the ultimate or inspiring object to be there. The citadel of truth and life can not be reached until that outwork is reduced. The Atonement is the final object. Atonement for sin by the precious blood of Christ, with all the precious doctrines of salvation which reside therein, as branches in the vine, and which are dead and only fit to be cast away as rubbish the moment such atonement is taken away; That is the doctrine they cannot endure. That is the truth from which they turn away, but which they know is safe so long as the Scriptures are the final Rule of Faith. Meanwhile they would counsel us to give up the old way of preaching Christ, as no doubt the best way for the old times, but unfit for these times when through mature growth of man's wisdom such doctrine is counted, just indeed as it was by similar minds in olden times "foolishness." They would have us lay aside creeds and confessions, in order that they who cannot endure the doctrine of Apostles and Prophets may be accounted Christians no less than those who believe and love it. They would make the Church so broad that any varieties or oppositions of belief may be embraced in its communion and even in its ministry, thus strangely sacrificing gospel-truth to church-comprehensiveness.

Now suppose such evil times should visit us in our church -- what must we do? I ask it to illustrate what I mean by the faith of which I am speaking. Must we preach the word, as Paul understood it, any the less? Shall we suppose that to preach Christ crucified is not as much "the wisdom and power of God" as when apostles set us the example? Or shall we believe as they believed, and therefore continue to speak as they spoke, even though the whole earth should be covered with a flood of apostasy, and men everywhere should be turned unto fables? What says a true faith in God? No change, but in more earnestness with the unchanged. "Preach the word" - the same word - "Instant in season, out of season," "with all long suffering and doctrine." Let patience have her perfect work. Be not faithless - but believing - God’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save by that same word now as in ancient times.

These observations are not applicable only to circumstances which may hereafter exist among us. Always, everywhere in our ministry we find those calling themselves Christians, or at least numbered in Christian congregations, to whom what Paul meant by "sound doctrine" is an aversion. They do not like to hear, they turn away from hearing so much about atonement and justification, and a new heart, and faith, and all the inward work of the holy Spirit. A less spiritual religion would be far more to their taste - and they think if we would preach much less about the great distinctive features of the Gospel and more about mere moral duties - that is, less religion and more of something else, many ears, now turned away, would hear. Very likely. And under the influence of such views, the testimony of the pulpit is sometimes grievously deformed. The minister seeks to commend himself more to the people's preferences than their consciences; and hence of course, not by manifestation of the truth in its simplicity, directness, spirituality and completeness. He enlarges the list of communicants by reducing the spiritual qualifications for the communion. He makes the narrow gate wider; invites a condition of mind which the Lord invites not. The middle wall of partition between the church and the world is broken down, the more to please the world, the more to enlarge the church. Such compliances we have no right to make. They spring out of unbelief. They poison the life of the church. If men will not endure sound doctrine we cannot help it, we have no unsound doctrine to give. If the ground will not receive the good seed given us to sow, we cannot mend the matter by sowing bad seed. To the end of the world, come what may, that seed and only that must we sow. "God (that gives the seed) gives the increase," and will give it. Our strength is to believe.

But to preach Christ is not only "a work of faith," it is a "labor of love." I will not say that no man can do it in a certain sense, that is, with doctrinal correctness, without the love of Christ in his heart; for Paul speaks of some in his day who preached Christ, "even of envy and strife, not sincerely," from selfish and evil motives. I will not prolong this discourse in enlarging on the elementary truth that without a personal experience of the preciousness of Christ to our own souls, by each one's individual participation in the hope that rests on his justifying righteousness, and is witnessed by the sanctifying power of His Spirit dwelling in us, we cannot preach Christ, according to his will, in his mind, in the tenderness and earnestness and patience and godly wisdom which alone become our office, however correct our teaching in a mere doctrinal aspect. What I wish, in these concluding words to insist on is, the importance of a very earnest, tender and overcoming love, to give spirituality to our theology, and the mind of Christ to our teachings concerning him. Two preachers, alike in accurate and full statement of all that is revealed concerning our blessed Lord and his salvation, may be very different in the spiritual power of their ministry, and the difference will not depend so much on the superiority of talent or of eloquence, or even in diligence of one over the other, as on their comparison in point of love. He will preach best who loves most. His preaching will go most to the heart, and will be attended with most of "the demonstration of the Spirit," who, in all he says and does, is most constrained by the love of Christ, dictating, animating, sanctifying, with the tenderness and patient earnestness of his Master's mind, his whole discourse. Oh, brethren, that we were more earnest to grow in this grace! What ought we to value in personal attainment compared with it? If your ministry fail in spiritual efficacy, inquire into the cause by searching the state of your hearts in regard to the love of Christ therein, to what extent the aim, the zeal, the topics, the temper of your work, and the whole character of your personal example are under the dominion of that love.

But I have already occupied too much of your time, and yet I feel that I have come very far short of the height and breadth of what I sought to exhibit. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us." Blessed be God, that in our weakness we have His power to lean on. I humbly pray that power of God to bless you, dear brethren, what in so much weakness and imperfectness and unworthiness I have now addressed to you. Nothing in this world could I rejoice in so much as to be instrumental, under God’s grace, in promoting the spiritual excellency and efficacy of your work and your personal growth in the faith and love of Christ. The time is at hand when nothing else will seem of the smallest value. I commend you to God and the word of His grace which is able to build you up and make you good stewards of the unsearchable riches of Christ. "The God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever." Amen.

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