Evangelistic Preaching

Some time ago I was assisting as the junior minister at a Communion in a North-Westerly congregation of the Free Church. There were some elders present at the Communion season, and one of them posed a very interesting question. It was as follows: 'Why do we not hear the law preached on Sabbath night of the Communion like we used to?'

The question revealed two things about the questioner. First, he recognised a distinctive style of preaching which he called the 'preaching of the law'; and secondly, such preaching ought to be expected on the Sabbath evening of a Communion, although in the opinion of this particular gentleman, the reality and the expectation had become divorced from one another. Given that I was the junior minister, and therefore expected to preach on the Sabbath evening, I took the words at least as an indication of what I was expected to preach, and sought to return to the honourable tradition.

For, by the preaching of the law, our friend was describing overt evangelistic preaching, the kind of preaching which we are seeking to examine this afternoon. There is, of course, a clear and marked theology of evangelism evident in the very question the man asked: evangelistic preaching he understood as the kind of preaching that brings the whole of God's law to bear on a man's sinnership, by which the Spirit of God will convict a man of his sin and need; and that points to the remedy for the wound by bringing into focus the fulness of God's saving work in Christ.

I must admit that I do have difficulty with the phrase 'evangelistic preaching', because preaching is nothing if it is not evangelistic. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save. All preaching, in all contexts, must have as its aim the salvation of sinners. There ought never to be in our ministries such a thing as a non-evangelistic sermon. Timothy is exhorted in 2 Tim. 4:5, to do the work of an evangelist, not as some adjunct to his pulpit minstry, but as part of that very ministry itself. The Jerusalem Bible translates this verse as 'make the preaching of the Good News your life's work'. The point is that we must avoid at all times any tendency to non-evangelistic preaching. To be sure, our preaching will be many things, depending on our people and their situation, but it dare not be non-evangelistic.

At the same time, we must appreciate that overtly evangelistic preaching does have certain characteristics that set it off against other kinds of preaching. Lloyd-Jones' view, as expressed by Iain Murray in the introduction to Old Testament Evangelistic Sermons was that "evangelistic preaching ought to exist as a special category of preaching" (p.xi). The reason, as Iain Murray goes on to point out, is that "the type of sermon most likely to be used to aid the non-Christian is not the same as one intended for those who already believe" (ibid.). The main distinction lies in the peculiar interests and needs of each party. The believer, by definition, has a vested and a marked interest in truth. The unbeliever does not. Evangelistic preaching seeks to make such a presentation of truth as will, by the grace of God, kindle a new interest and yield a new sense of things to the unregenerate man.

I should like us to look at three areas in connection with our subject:

i) The nature of evangelistic preaching

ii) Some difficulties with regard to evangelistic preaching

iii) Practical suggestions in connection with evangelistic preaching.

(1) The Nature of Evangelistic Preaching

The Directory for Public Worship lays down the following principles regarding the way "the servant of Christ, whatever his method be, is to perform his whole ministry":

1. Painfully, not doing the work of the Lord negligently.

2. Plainly, that the meanest may understand.

3. Faithfully, looking at the honour of Christ...not at his own gain or glory.

4. Wisely, framing all his doctrines in a manner as may be most likely to prevail.

5. Gravely, as becometh the Word of God.

6. With loving affection; and

7. As taught of God, and persuaded in his own heart, that all that he teacheth is the truth of Christ.

These principles reflect the high ground which preaching occupied in Puritan thought and practice. Long sermons were eagerly awaited, and were common. Preaching was central to the whole of religion. The Anglican Bishop of London complained that the common people resorted to Puritan meetings and Puritan preaching "as in popery they were wont to run on pilgrimage" (quoted in L. Ryken Worldly Saints, p. 91). Modern historians have summarised Puritanism by saying that "Preaching, by mouth or pen, was life for the Puritan" (op.cit, p. 95). The centrality of preaching in our pulpits is the crown of our religion, and we must labour to preach the Gospel effectively and biblically.

The one thought I wish to isolate out of the Directory's principles is that preaching looks to the honour of Jesus Christ. For evangelistic preaching is nothing if it is not Christ-centered preaching. Let us explore the implications of this.

(a) Evangelistic preaching finds its warrant in the commission of Christ

Christ was the great evangelist, who went about "preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God" (Luke 8:1), and who commissioned His disciples "to preach the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:2). These disciples "departed and went through the towns preaching the gospel and healing everywhere" (Luke 9:6). The reason that they preached was because they had a mandate. This was of supreme importance to the apostle Paul in the infancy of the New Testament church: "none of these things move me", he said to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, referring to his unknown future, "neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24).

John Owen says of ruling elders that "though they have their power by the church, yet they have it not from the church...but really in Christ alone, and morally in his word" (XV.501). The same might be said of each one of us, whose calling it is to preach the word and do the work of an evangelist. Our authority is derived not from any man, but from the Head of the Church, whose ambassadors we are, and who delegated us to preach. Charles Hodge puts it thus: "An ambassador is at once a messenger and a representative. He does not speak in his own name. He does not act on his own authority. What he communicates is not his own opinions or demands, but simply what he has been told or commissioned to say" (Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:20). Dabney defines the work of the preacher as "forming the image of Christ upon the souls of men" (Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric, p.37). The Word of God is the die, the human heart the plastic substance on which the image is to be carved. Now, says Dabney, "the workman's business is not to criticise, recarve, or erase anything in the die which was committed to him; but simply to press it down....". Ours is a simple commission; we are men under authority, we preach because we have been told to.

(b) Evangelistic preaching finds its impulse in the experience of Christ

Paul tells us that he had two supreme motivations in preaching - first, the love of Christ constrained him, and, secondly, he knew the terror of the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:11,14). In other words, his work as an evangelist found its impulse in his own personal experience of gospel power. So he encourages Timothy in the work by reminding him that Christ Jesus the Lord put him into the ministry "Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy...Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief" (1 Timothy 1:15). The man who has tasted the power of the Gospel in his own life has the supreme motivation and impulse to evangelise.

George Whitefield preached a sermon in Glasgow in 1741 entitled The duty of a Gospel Minister. "It is absolutely necessary", he thundered, "before a minister undertakes to preach the gospel, that he should have an experimental acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ...It is true a man may study a scheme of divinity, and in order to get into a place, to please a patron or some great man, he may get Calvin's scheme, or any other scheme of religion. What is all this, if it doth not come from the heart?...It is poor preaching to preach an unknown Christ..." (The Revivals of the Eighteenth Century, Appendix, p.5).

Jeremiah described this as having the word of God as a 'fire in his bones', so that he could not but declare that Word (Jeremiah 20:9). All his 'familiars', as the AV has it, 'watched for his halting' (20:10), but he could not halt. In times of trouble for the church, when discouragement prevails and love becomes cold, and our familiars are watching for our halting, we are to derive our motivation to pulpit evangelism from our own experience of Christ in the Word. Does He still motivate us, irrespective of circumstances, feelings or discouragements, to proclaim His own unsearchable riches? John Owen says that a man "may preach every day in the week, and not have his heart engaged once. This hath lost us powerful preaching in the world" (IX. p.455).

John Stott, in I Believe in Preaching, tells the story of W. E. Sangster, who was once a member of a selection panel interviewing applicants for the Methodist ministry. A rather nervous candidate appeared, who, when allowed to speak, said that he was rather shy and was not the kind of person who could set the River Thames on fire (meaning he could not create a stir in the city). Dr. Sangster said, "Brother, I'm not interested to know if you could set the Thames on fire. What I want to know is this: if I picked you up by the scruff of your neck and dropped you into the Thames, would it sizzle?" (p. 285). Meaning, of course - was the young man on fire? "He must first," said William Perkins, "be godly affected himself, who would stir up godly affections in other men" (quoted in Worldly Saints, p.93).

(c) Evangelistic preaching finds its substance in the glories of Christ

Evangelistic preaching is informative. It presents Christ as He is to men as they are. Paul did not go running with a sign to the Jews, though they wanted one; nor did he go with philosophy to the Greeks; we, he said "preach Christ crucified" (1 Corinthians 1:23). In weakness, in fear, in trembling, with ten thousand carnal reasons why he should abandon his endeavour, he says that he determined to know nothing among his beloved Corinthian hearers, "save Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2).

"Let your sermons be full of Christ," urges C.H. Spurgeon; "from beginning to end crammed full of the Gospel" (The Soul-Winner, p. 79). "People have often asked me," he continues, "What is the secret of your success? I always answer that I have no other secret but this, that I have preached the gospel - not about the gospel, but the gospel - the full, free, glorious gospel of the living Christ who is the incarnation of the good news" (ibid.).

Dr. Kennedy of Dingwall, according to his son's biographical memoir, often began his sermons by picturing the state of the sinner by nature. "But, " we are told, "he did not, as a rule, linger long on the awe-inspiring terrors of the flaming mount. He soon turned with delight to speak, from the fulness of his heart, of the glorious remedy provided in Jesus Christ....his style became telling and instinct with life when he exhibited Christ crucified and invited sinners to believe and be saved. Christ was the centre and the sun of his preaching" (The Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire, p.cxiv).

It follows, therefore, that evangelistic preaching must be expository preaching. It was our Lord who said of the Scriptures in John 5:39 that they testify of Himself. On the Emmaus Road he began with Moses and the prophets and expounded what concerned Himself (Luke 24:27). I am not advocating an expository method here (each preacher must work this out for himself), but I am saying that pulpit evangelism can only be done by way of Scripture exposition, by presenting a whole Christ out of a whole Bible. Such a portrayal of Jesus will seek to do justice to His love for sinners, His death at Calvary, His supremacy in Glory, His return and His act of final judgement. It will paint Him in His true colours. It will show to sinners that there is no salvation without Him, and none in addition to Him. He can neither be detracted from nor supplemented. Evangelistic preaching is the preaching of the sufficiency that there is in Christ. The apostolic pattern is established by the end of the Book of Acts, where we find many coming to the place of Paul's lodging , "to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets from morning till evening" (Acts 28:23).

(d) Evangelistic preaching finds its fulfilment in pointing the way to Christ

God chose the foolishness of preaching not merely as an informative and descriptive exercise, but as a catalyst for effective change in the lives of men and women. There is a Puritan concept of preaching as a 'subversive' activity, which throws a man's life upside down, into complete chaos, by drawing him out of himself and away to Christ. Evangelistic preaching engages with the hearer with the supreme end in view that the listener will know how to get to Christ and find the Saviour. We must always say to ourselves before we preach evangelistically, 'What if the Philippian jailor is in our congregation?' Will he have found, by the end of the sermon, an answer to the question, 'What must I do to be saved?' If your sermon is to provide an adequate answer to his question, it must have four supreme features.

It must come with authority, authority which follows from the mandate. The ambassador is not the king, but when he speaks in the king's name, his words have royal authority and power. So Paul declared to the Athenians that now God commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30).

It must also come by way of invitation. Jesus Christ invites sinners to come to Himself. The sinner must hear in the preaching of the truth the voice of God in Christ saying, "If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink" (John 7:37); "whosever believes on Him will not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). John Newton says somewhere that he is glad John 3:16 did not say "God so loved John Newton .... that if John Newton believes...". What, he asked, if some other John Newton were meant? He had more assurance in the openness of the invitation - whosoever believeth.

The Gospel must come by way of earnest pleading. Christ's ambassadors are to 'beseech', to plead as God's advocates of mercy. Paul's first words to the Ephesian elders at Miletus highlight this for us: "You know," he says, "from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears..." (Acts 20:18-19). For three years, he continues, "I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears" (Acts 20:31).

This was what John Angell James called An Earnest Ministry. We cannot, he argues in that superb volume, do without an educated ministry, or a pious ministry, or a holy ministry; but, he argues, "there is something else wanted in addition to natural talent, to academic training, and even to the most fervent, evangelical piety, and that is, intense devotedness" (An Earnest Ministry, p.10). "It is this compulsion we want," he says, "this earnest entreaty, this laying hold of the sinner, and making him feel that his salvation is with us an object of intense desire, and that we shall be bitterly disappointed if it be not accomplished" (ibid., p.97). Without earnest, passionate, fiery argumentation and appeal, you do not have apostolic evangelistic preaching. I know, says James, "the contortions of an epileptic zeal are to be avoided, but so also is the numbness of a paralytic one; and after all, the former is less dangerous to life, and is more easily and frequently cured, than the latter" (ibid., pp34-35).

And there must also be a call to decision. However suspicious we may be of decisionism, there is no conversion without free decision. No man was ever forced to close in with Christ. The rejection of the Gospel is free, because of the power of sin on the will; the acceptance of Christ is free, because of the power of grace on the will. Evangelistic preaching presses home the need to make choice of the Saviour. By its very nature, it is preaching which calls to action. To be sure, it is preaching which shows men that they can do nothing for themselves - all their salvation must be in Christ's action; but preaching also which leaves them saying - 'Except we repent, we shall all likewise perish'.

(2) Some difficulties with regard to Evangelistic Preaching

(a) Is this a new Arminianism?

There are some men who feel that to preach with such earnest entreaties the full, free and unfettered salvation that there is in Christ is somehow to lapse into classical Arminianism, making men responsible for their own salvation. There exists the notion that it is a compromise of Calvinism, which has given such high ground over to the sovereign workings of God in salvation to preach the Gospel in these terms. Only the elect will be saved; only they will experience transforming grace in their souls; only they will come to Christ. How can we preach such a wide and open invitation and entreaty without modifying our Calvinism radically?

Klaas Schilder, the famous Dutch theologian, reminds us that "in the arena of preaching the covenant idea has reserved all seats" (Always Obedient, p.20); meaning that preaching derives all its efficacy from the sovereign God of the covenant. The mandate of evangelistic preaching is from Him, as is the example, the substance and the blessing of preaching. Evangelistic preaching can be effective only because through it God has purposed to save those who from all eternity were the objects of His discriminating, electing love. We are to preach evangelistically not in spite of, but because of, God's sovereign, covenantal, prevenient grace, which searches out and comes to seek and save the lost.

There have been few in the church more zealous for the doctrine of the sovereignty of God than Arthur W. Pink. For all his idiosyncracies he is a first-class exponent of the Calvinistic scheme. His biography contains excerpts from a sermon in Australia in 1926 on Luke 24:25, in which he says this: "There are Arminians who have presented the 'free-will' of man in such a way as to virtually dethrone God, and I have no sympathy whatever with their system. On the other hand, there have been some Calvinists who have presented a kind of fatalism (I know not what else to term it) reducing man to nothing more than a block of wood, exonerating him of all blame and excusing him for his unbelief. But they are both equally wrong, and I scarcely know which is the more mischievous of the two...O may God help us to maintain the balance of truth!" Pink ends his sermon with this powerful appeal: "Why not believe in him for yourself? Why not trust his precious blood for yourself; and why not tonight? Why not tonight, my friend? God is ready, God is ready to save you now if you believe on him. The blood has been shed, the sacrifice has been offered, the atonement has been made, the feast has been spread. The call goes out to you tonight, 'Come, for all things are now ready'" (The Life of A.W. Pink, pp. 51-53).

The examples could be multiplied. In the 1927 edition of The Free Church Pulpit, there is a sermon by the late Rev. Kenneth Macrae, author of The Resurgence of Arminianism, who laments in his diary entry for 14th March 1918 that after having spent the day working on the theme of 'Calvinism versus Arminianism' for his Class on doctrine in Lochgilphead, only thirteen came out. He mourns the lack of interest for "Free Church principles among my people" (Diary of Kenneth Macrae, p.131), stating, by implication, that Calvinism he regarded as a thoroughly Free Church principle. He has a sermon in The Free Church Pulpit on 'Everlasting Love (Jeremiah 31:3 is the text), in which He explores the great theme of God's sovereign love for His people. Kenneth Macrae ends his sermon with these words: "Is it nothing to you that you are outside Christ's love?...Can you face eternity without it? Can you face judgement without it? Oh be wise, and in a day of grace and while strength and reason remain, knock at the door of mercy and your errand cannot be in vain, for His promise is, "Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out" (The Free Church Pulpit, p.201).

Stewart and Cameron, in their treatment of the pre-1900 controversies in the Free Church, remind us of how controversies over the extent of the Atonement featured in the theological storms of the latter half of the nineteenth century. In particular, they argue, a new Amyraldianism developed, which tried "to reconcile the definiteness of the Divine purpose with the universality of the Gospel call" (A. Stewart and J.K. Cameron, The Free Church of Scotland 1843-1910: A Vindication, p.43). Hugh Martin was among those who opposed such developments, arguing that "The all-sufficiency of Christ's atoning merit is not the ground of an unrestricted Gospel call; the giving of that call finds its warrant in the free sovereign command and invitation of God in His Word". In his excellent work on The Atonement, Hugh Martin explores this theme: "A correct application of the doctrine of the Covenant", he says, "is eminently serviceable in refuting the argument for an indefinite atonement based on the alleged necessity of providing a foundation for a universal gospel call" (The Atonement, p.20). What is the connection between the covenant and the call? Well, says Martin, "That relation is very intimate. The gospel call comes forth from the covenant, and summons sinners into it. It is a voice from within the covenant, addressed to those that are without...Of course, therefore, it is a universal call" (The Atoment, p.24).

Let us disabuse ourselves of the notion that Calvinism is no friend of evangelistic preaching. It is only as Calvinists that we can preach a full Christ in a full Gospel and be assured that our preaching is not in vain.

(2) Is there a Gospel offer?

Dr. David Brown, in his life of John Duncan, tells us that on his death-bed, Rabbi Duncan said: "God has taught me that what they call Calvinism is God's way of grace and salvation - that is, evangelical Calvinism, with the free offer of the gospel. Did I make a free offer of the Gospel in my preaching? Did I not clog it with any legal enactments?" (Life of the Late John Duncan, LL. D., p.477).

Rabbi Duncan's words bring us to the second issue that concerns some of our Reformed brethren; namely the question of whether or not it is warranted for us to speak of a Gospel offer. That evangelistic preaching is a call is beyond debate; but some have argued that it does less than justice to the self-revelation of God to argue that God makes a sincere offer of pardon and salvation to those whom He does not intend to save. So, for example, the British Reformed Journal of July-September 1994 stated that "It is impossible for the defenders of the free-offer to maintain that the Gospel is the power of God especially in the case of the reprobate to whom the Gospel is preached" (p.5).

It was this very point that forced the Marrow Controversy in the eighteenth century, when Thomas Boston and the Erskines were called to defend and explain the free offer of the Gospel. The Marrow theology had been rejected on the grounds that only those sinners convicted and contrite had a warrant to believe. This, the Marrow-Men argued, was to conditionalise an unconditional and free offer of salvation. "God's whole heart and soul," declared Ebenezer Erskine, "is in the offer and promise of the Gospel" (quoted in the Banner of Truth, Vol. 11 (July 1958), p.10). They quoted approvingly from Samuel Rutherford that "reprobates have as fair a warrant to believe as the elect have" (ibid.). These men were neither Arminian nor universalists. They believed in limited atonement, unconditional election and total depravity. But they also saw in the Word of God a direct, unconditional offer of salvation to all who would come to Christ. And they were not afraid to preach it. "Let Arminians maintain at their peril their universal redemption," said Ralph Erskine, "but we must maintain at our peril the universal offer" (ibid., p.12).

It is precisely on this ground that John Murray reasons that "if we have any reserve or lack of spontaneity in offering Christ to lost men...it is because we have a distorted conception of the relation which the sovereignty of God sustains to the free offer of Christ in the Gospel. It is on the crest of the wave of the divine sovereignty that the full and free overtures of God's grace in Christ break upon the shores of lost humanity" (Collected Writings of John Murray: Vol 1 - The Claims of Truth, p.146-7).

(3) Some practical points with regard to Evangelistic Preaching

a) PREPARATION

There is no preaching without preparation; and there certainly is no evangelistic preaching without adequate preparation. Such preparation must concern itself with two questions - WHAT am I going to preach? and HOW am I going to preach? The demands on a minister's time are such as to intrude on the time that he can devote to preparation for preaching; but it is time that must be regarded as sacred and prime. You cannot preach adequately if you have not prepared adequately. After having conducted painstaking research into the teachings of the Reformers, William Cunningham concluded that "their strength and success...arose very much from their familiar and intimate acquaintance with the word of God" (The Reformers and the Theology of the Reformation, p.606). And, as J.W. Alexander reminds us, "Each instance of present labour is to be graciously repaid with a million ages of glory" (Thoughts on Preaching, p.108).

b) APPLICATION

I could wish that our preaching would make itself so intensely personal to the hearers that each of them would take the message as if it had their very name on it. There must be a return to the word 'you' - the Gospel issue concerns each and every individual in our audience. Nothing must be allowed to convey the impression that the message is for others. Dr John Ker of last century states that "A Difficulty in preaching is to individualise without personalising - to point out the man to himself without pointing him out to others" (Thoughts for Heart and Life, p.198). Yet that is precisely what the evangelist must do, to individualise the Gospel so that the hearer applies it to himself, and hears the Gospel invitation saying to him, as if it said to no other - here is good news for you.

c) PASSION

"God," says R.B. Kuiper in a bold statement, "has a passion for souls" (God-Centred Evangelism, p.108. It is inexcusable to preach evangelistically without preaching passionately. MacCheyne's complaint was that "We do not beseech sinners tenderly; we do not gently woo them to Christ; we do not authoritatively bid them to the marriage; we do not compel them to come in; we do not travail in birth till Christ be formed in them the hope of glory. Oh who can wonder that God is such a stranger in the land?" (Memoirs of MacCheyne, pp389-90). Lloyd-Jones in one place quotes Samuel Coleridge who described one preacher as a "ghost in marble" (The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors; p.383-4); too much so-called evangelistic preaching has no substance and no life. We need, more than ever before, a Bible-centred, theologically articulate ministry, godly and learned, that shares God's passion for the souls of men.

© Iain D. Campbell 2001