“Your Word is completely pure, and Your
servant loves it.” Psalms 119:140
Do we love the holiness of the Word? The Word is
preached—to beat down sin, and advance holiness.
Do we love it for its spirituality and purity? Many
love the Preached Word only for its eloquence and
notion. They come to a sermon as to a performance
(Ezek. 33:31,32) or as to a garden to pick flowers;
but not to have their lusts subdued or their hearts
purified. These are like a foolish woman who paints
her face—but neglects her health!
Do we love the convictions of the Word? Do we
love the Word when it comes home to our conscience
and shoots its arrows of reproof at our sins? It is the
minister’s duty sometimes to reprove. He who can
speak smooth words in the pulpit—but does not know
how to reprove, is like a sword with a fine handle, but
without an edge! “Rebuke them sharply!” (Titus 2:15).
Dip the nail in oil—reprove in love—but strike the nail
home!
Now Christian, when the Word touches on your sin
and says, “You are the man!” do you love the reproof?
Can you bless God that “the sword of the Spirit” has
divided between you and your lusts? This is indeed a
sign of grace, and shows that you are a lover of the
Word.
A corrupt heart loves the comforts of the Word—but
not the reproofs: “You hate the one who reproves…
and despise him who tells the truth!” (Amos 5:10).
“Their eyes flash with fire!” Like venomous creatures
that at the least touch, spit poison! “When they heard
these things, they were enraged in their hearts and
gnashed their teeth at him!” (Acts 7:54). When
Stephen touched their sins, they were furious and
could not endure it.
How shall we know that we love the reproofs of the Word?
When we desire to sit under a heart-searching ministry.
Who cares for medicines that will not work? A godly man
does not choose to sit under a ministry that will not work
upon his conscience.
When we pray that the Word may meet with our sins. If
there is any traitorous lust in our heart—we would have
it found out, and executed. We do not want sin covered;
but cured! We can open our heart to the sword of the
Word and say, “Lord, smite this sin!”
When we are thankful for a reproof. “Let a righteous
man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it
is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it.” (Psalm
141:5). David was glad for a reproof.
Suppose a man were in the mouth of a lion, and another
should shoot the lion and save the man; would he not be
thankful? So, when we are in the mouth of sin, as of a
lion, and the minister by a reproof shoots this sin to
death—shall we not be thankful?
A gracious soul rejoices, when the sharp lance of the Word
has pierced his abscess of sin! He wears a reproof like a jewel
on his ear: “Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold
is a wise man’s rebuke to a listening ear.” (Proverbs 25:12).
To conclude, it is convincing preaching which must do the soul good. A nipping reproof prepares for comfort—as a nipping frost prepares for the sweet flowers of spring. ~ Thomas Watson, “The Godly Man’s Picture Drawn with a Scripture Pencil
Lev 19:17 You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. NKJV
When I expound the Holy Scripture, I must always make this my rule: That those who hear me may receive profit from the teaching I put forward and be edified unto salvation. If I have not that affectation, if I do not procure the edification of those who hear me, I am a sacrilege, profaning God’s Word.
For God will have his people edified… when we come together in the Name of God, it is not to hear merry songs and to be fed with wind, that is vain and unprofitable curiosity, but to receive spiritual nourishment. — John Calvin
We need preaching to be Practical and Applicatory. But Preaching should not drive people to just do practical things, or to do these duties or use methods because you will get better results, like the world and psychology teaches.
We do well to share these as legitimate means of grace, but drive them to see that this is all ineffective unless God chooses to work through it. God gives the results.
We do these duties, not just because we will get better results, but we do it out of obedience in love and thankfulness regardless if the results are better or not.
We may do all the good works, be obedient in our duties and use the means of grace yet God may not favor us temporally.
Then we persevere in the duties with thankfulness and rejoicing in the circumstances and results anyway, favorable or not to us. We trust in Him, knowing ultimately the only rewards that count are not the ones we get here on earth that cease, but the eternal ones.
Therefore seeing your inability to get any results, Go to the Father asking Him to work through you, in faith, with no doubting, to get what you want that He may be glorified. Perform and Repeat.
Matt 6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. NKJV
Luke 6:26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets. NKJV
The devil’s old delusion! ~ Don P
J. C. Ryle, “The Gospel of Luke” 1858
John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire!” Luke 3
We have, in these verses, a specimen of John the Baptist’s ministry. It is a portion of Scripture which should always be specially interesting to a Christian mind.
We should first mark the holy boldness with which John addresses the multitudes who came to his baptism. He speaks to them as a “brood of vipers!”
He saw the rottenness and hypocrisy of the profession that the crowd around him were making, and uses language descriptive of their case.
His head was not turned by popularity. He did not care who was offended by his words.
The spiritual disease of those before him was desperate, and of long standing, and he knew that desperate diseases need strong remedies.
Well would it be for the Church of Christ, if it possessed more plain speaking ministers, like John the Baptist, in these latter days.
A morbid dislike to strong language; an excessive fear of giving offence; a constant flinching from directness and plain speaking, are, unhappily, too much the characteristics of the modern Christian pulpit.
Uncharitable language is no doubt always to be deprecated. But there is no charity in flattering unconverted people, by abstaining from any mention of their vices, or in applying smooth epithets to damnable sins!
There are two texts which are too much forgotten by Christian preachers. In one it is written, “Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you.”
In the other it is written, “Obviously, I’m not trying to be a people pleaser! No, I am trying to please God. If I were still trying to please people, I would not be Christ’s servant.” (Luke 6:26; Gal. 1:10)
We should mark, also, how plainly John speaks to his hearers about HELL and danger!
He tells them that there is a “wrath to come.”
He speaks of “the ax” of God’s judgments, and of unfruitful trees being “thrown into the fire!”
The subject of HELL is always offensive to human nature. The minister who dwells much upon it, must expect to find himself regarded as . . . barbaric, violent, unfeeling, and narrow minded.
Men love to hear “smooth things,” and to be told of peace, and not of danger. (Isaiah. 30:10)
But the subject of hell is one that ought not to be kept back, if we desire to do good to souls.
It is one that our Lord Jesus Christ brought forward frequently in His public teachings. That loving Savior, who spoke so graciously of the way to heaven, has also used the plainest language about the way to hell.
Let us beware of being wise above that which is written, and more charitable than Scripture itself.
Let the language of John the Baptist be deeply engraved in our hearts. Let us never be ashamed to avow our firm belief, that there is a “wrath to come” for the impenitent, and that it is possible for a man to be lost, as well as to be saved.
To be silent on the subject is dreadful treachery to men’s souls. It only encourages them to persevere in wickedness, and fosters in their minds the devil’s old delusion, “You shall not surely die!”
That minister is surely our best friend who tells us honestly of danger, and warns us, like John the Baptist, to “flee from the wrath to come.”
Never will a man flee until he sees there is real cause to be afraid. Never will he seek heaven until be is convinced that there is risk of his falling into hell.
The religion in which there is no mention of hell, is not the religion of John the Baptist, and of our Lord Jesus, and His apostles.
Half the diseases of Christianity
J. C. Ryle, “The Gospel of Matthew” 1856
“These are the names of the twelve apostles . . .
and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him.” Mt. 10:2-4
We are taught here, that all ministers are not necessarily saved men. We see our Lord choosing a Judas Iscariot to be one of His apostles. We cannot doubt that He who knew all hearts, knew well the characters of the men whom He chose. And He includes in the list of apostles one who was a traitor!
We shall do well to bear in mind this fact.
Ordination does not confer the saving grace of the Holy Spirit. Ordained men are not necessarily converted. We are not to regard them as infallible, either in doctrine or in practice.
We are not to make popes or idols of them, and insensibly put them in Christ’s place. We are to regard them as “men of like passions” with ourselves, liable to the same infirmities, and daily requiring the same grace.
We are not to think it impossible for them to do very bad things, or to expect them to
be above the reach of harm from flattery, covetousness, and the world.
We are to prove their teaching by the word of God, and follow them so far as they follow
Christ, but no further.
Above all, we ought to pray for them, that they may be successors not of Judas Iscariot; but of James and John. It is an dreadful thing to be a minister of the Gospel!
Ministers need many prayers.
It is plain that the life of a faithful minister of Christ cannot be one of ease. He must be ready to spend body and mind, time and strength, in the work of His calling. Laziness and frivolity are bad enough in any profession, but worst of all in that of a watchman for souls.
It is plain, for another thing, that the position of the ministers of Christ is not that which
ignorant people sometimes ascribe to them, and which they unhappily sometimes claim for themselves. They are not so much ordained to rule as to serve. They are not intended so much to have dominion over the Church, as to supply its needs, and serve its members.
Happy would it be for the cause of true religion, if these things were better understood! Half the diseases of Christianity have arisen from mistaken notions about the pastor’s office!
Money can hire workers. Universities can give learning. Congregations may elect.
Bishops may ordain. But the Holy Spirit alone can make ministers of the Gospel.
Letters to Young Ministers — The Cultivation of Personal Piety
by James Alexander (1804—1859)
In every Church there are some aged and experienced Christians. These are specially regarded by the Master, and require to be fed with the finest of the wheat. The ministry is appointed with much reference to such; and they know when their portion is withheld. They may be poor and unlettered, and incompetent to judge of gesture, diction, or even grammar; but they know the difference between the ‘language of Canaan,’ and the ‘speech of Ashdod.’ I hold them to be the best judges of the ministry. How little does the starched and elegant—but shallow young divine suspect, that in yonder dark, back pew, or in the outskirts of the gallery, there sits an ancient widow, who was in Christ before he was born, and who reads him through and through. Mr. Summerfield once related to me, that Dr. Doddridge, when other more learned helps failed, used to consult a poor old woman, living near him, upon hard passages in his Commentary, and that he generally acquiesced in her conclusions. There is no teacher like the Paraclete; and the promise is, ‘All your children shall be taught of the Lord.’ To be able to feed such sheep of Christ, if for no other reason, the young minister should seek to attain high degrees of piety.
The truth is, such are the discouragements of genuine cross-bearing ministry, and so repugnant to the flesh are many of its duties, that nothing but true piety will hold a man up under the burden; he will sooner or later throw it off; and begin to seek his ease, or preach for ‘itching ears.’ It is an easy thing to go through a routine, to ‘do duty,’ as the phrase of the Anglican establishment is; but it is hard to the flesh, to denounce error in high places, to preach unpopular doctrine, to labor week after week in assemblies of a dozen or twenty, to spend weary hours among the diseased and dying, and to watch over the discipline of Christ’s house. Nothing but an inward enjoyment of divine truth, and a reference to the final award, will stimulate a man to constancy in such labors.
The apostle Paul expresses his view of this, in terms of which the force cannot be fully brought out by any translation: ‘But I keep under my body’—I strike under the eye, so as to make it black and blue, a boxing phrase, indicative of strenuous efforts at mortification; as who should say, ‘I subdue the flesh by violent and reiterated blows, and bring it into subjection,’ ‘I lead it along as a slave;’ having subjugated it by assault and beating, I treat it as a slave, as boxers in the Palaestra used to drag off their conquered opponents. And the reason for this mortification of the flesh is, ‘lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.’
Dreadful words! but needed, to deter us from more dreadful destruction. The hell of apostate ministers must be doubly severe! It is the ‘deceitfulness of sin’ which hardens so many of us into carelessness about so great a danger. Pride goes before destruction, until suddenly, like Saul, the careless minister finds himself inveigled into some great sin. This may never be known to the world, yet it may lead to his ruin. ‘I am persuaded,’ says Owen, ‘there are very few that apostatize from a profession of any continuance, such as our days abound with—but their door of entrance into the folly of backsliding was either some great and notorious sin, that bloodied their consciences, tainted their affections, and intercepted all delight of having anything more to do with God; or else it was a course of neglect in private duties, arising from a weariness of contending against that powerful aversion which they found in themselves unto them. And this also, through the craft of Satan, has been improved into many foolish and sensual opinions of living unto God without and above any duties of communion. And we find that after men have, for a while, choked and blinded their consciences with this pretense, cursed wickedness or sensuality has been the end of their folly.’
Of all people on earth, ministers most need the constant impressions derived from closet piety. If once they listen to the flattering voice of their admirers, and think they are actually holy because others treat them as such; if they dream of going to heaven ex officio; if, weary of public exercises, they neglect those which are private; or if they acquire the destructive habit of preaching and praying about Christ without any faith or emotion; then their course is likely to be downward. Far short, however, a minister of Christ may be of so dreadful doom, and yet be almost useless. To prevent such declension, the best advice I know of, is to he much in secret devotion; including in this term the reflective reading of Scripture, meditation, self-examination, prayer and praise. And here you must not expect from me any recipe for the conduct of such exercises, or rules for the times, length, posture, place, and so forth; for I rejoice in it as the glory of the Church to which we both belong, that it is so little rubrical. How often you shall fast or sing or pray, must be left to be settled between God and your conscience; only fix in mind and heart the necessity of much devotion.
It is good sometimes to recall the examples of eminent preachers. John Welsh, the famous son-in-law of Knox, was, during his exile, minister of a village in France. A friar once lodged under his roof, and on being asked how he had been entertained by the Huguenot preacher, replied, ‘Badly—for I always held there were devils haunting these minister’s houses, and I am persuaded there was one with me this night; for I heard a continual whisper all the night over, which I believe was no other than the minister and the devil conversing together.’ The truth was, it was the Huguenot preacher at prayer. Welsh used to say, ‘he wondered how a Christian could lie in bed all night, and not rise to pray; and many times he prayed, and many times he watched.’ Such cases are not altogether lacking in our own days. Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge, in more than one instance is known to have spent the whole night in prayer. Let me seriously commend to your notice a paper contained in his life by Mr. Carus, entitled, ‘Circumstances of my Inward Experience.’ Almost every word of it is golden, and among other passages you will note the following:
‘I have never thought that the circumstance of God’s having forgiven me, was any reason why I should forgive myself; on the contrary, I have always judged it better to loathe myself the more, in proportion as I was assured that God was pacified towards me.
2 Peter 3:14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation — as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. NKJV
True Christians Do Not Continue to Sin
