Experimental Preaching. 4

It is therefore the duty of the preacher to faithfully warn the young convert that the peace, joy and assurance which usually follows the first realization of sins' forgiveness, will in turn be succeeded by fierce temptations, inward conflicts, sad failures which will produce grief, darkness, and doubtings. It was so with Abraham, with Moses, with Job, with Peter, with Paul; yes, with all the saints whose biographies are recorded at any length in the Scriptures. Great changes are to be expected in the young convert's feelings and frames, so that his comforts are dampened, and the dew of death seems to settle upon his graces. A deeper realization of his awful depravity—what he is by nature—will make him groan and cry out "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24); yet that only makes way for a fuller and further weaning from SELF.

Very often the young Christian is allowed by God to sink yet lower in his experience. Satan is let loose upon him and sin rages fiercely within him, and strive and pray as he may, it often obtains the upper hand over him. Guilt weighs heavily on his conscience, no relief is granted from any source, until he now seriously questions the genuineness of his conversion and greatly fears that Satan has fatally deceived him. He feels that his heart is as hard as the nether millstone, that faith in him is dead, that there is no help and no hope for him. He cannot imagine that one who has been born again and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit could be so enslaved by sin. If God were his Father, He would surely hear his cries and grant deliverance from his spiritual enemies. But the heavens are as brass over him—until the very breath of prayer seems frozen within him.

Hoping against hope, he seeks relief from the pulpit. But in vain. The sermons he hears only aggravate his woes for they depict the Christian's experience as vastly different from his own—they deal with the bright side and say little or nothing on the dark side. If he converses with the professing Christians of the day, he is likely to get laughed at, and told to cease being occupied with himself and look only to Christ—to lay hold of the promises of God and go on his way rejoicing. That is the very thing he most of all desires, "to will IS present" with him, "but how to perform that which is good" he "finds NOT" (Romans 7:18). Poor soul! is there no one who understands his case? no one qualified to minister comfort to him? Alas, alas, there are few indeed in this frothy age!

Here, again, experimental preaching is urgently needed, preaching which enters into the very experiences described above—experiences shared, in some measure, by all quickened souls while they are in this "Wilderness of Sin." But O what wisdom from on High (not from books!) is needed if, on the one hand, the "smoking flax" is not to be "quenched" and the "bruised need" be not broken—on the other hand, sin is not made light of, failures are not excused, and the standard of holiness is not lowered. The pulpit should declare frankly, that there are times when the mind of the believer is filled with deep distress, that there are seasons when the light of God's countenance is turned away from His people, and the Devil is permitted to sorely wound them, tell them that they have committed the unpardonable sin, and that there is no hope for them; but that such experiences are no proof at all that they are still unregenerate.

The preacher has to bear steadily in mind that if there are among his hearers, carnal professors who are ready to seize eagerly anything which would bolster them up in their false assurance, there are also feeble and ailing babes in Christ which require tender nursing (Isaiah 60:4; 1 Thess. 2:7), and little ones of God's family who lack assurance, and because of this think the worst of themselves. It is therefore wise business to "take forth the precious from the vile" (Jer. 15:19)—that is, by a discriminating ministry expose and terrify the sin-hardened—but speak words of comfort to the real mourners in Zion.

"In our congregations there are wheat and chaff on the same floor—we cannot distinguish them by name—but we must by character" (Matthew Henry). We must make it clear that those who regard sin lightly, have not the fear of God before their eyes; those not grieved because they find so much in their hearts opposed to Divine holiness, are unregenerate—no matter how much head-knowledge of the Truth they possess or how loud be their Christian profession! It is at this very point that the true under-shepherd of Christ stands out in marked contrast from the "hireling" of the flock, concerning whom God says, "You have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life" (Ezek. 13:22).

On the one hand, the regenerate are "made sad" by pratings about "the victorious life," or "the second blessing," or "the baptism of the Spirit." These blind leaders of the blind claim to have so "got out of Romans 7 into Romans 8," to have so left behind them all inward conflicts and agonizing doubtings, as to virtually have entered into the state of the glorified—causing real Christians to conclude that they know nothing of that Gospel which is "the power of God unto salvation" and must be complete strangers to a miracle of grace within them.

On the other hand, these false prophets declare that all who have "accepted Christ as their personal Savior" are saved, even though they have not yet received the second blessing, that they are justified though not "entirely sanctified." They assure the godless, the worldling, the pleasure-intoxicated, that they may be saved at this very moment on the sole and simple condition that they believe God so loved them as to give His Son to die for them. Thus peace is assured to the unconcerned "when there is no peace," the hearts of the careless are hardened, and the wicked are promised life without any regard to God's demand that they must "forsake" their idols. "Nor can anything strengthen the hands of sinners more than to tell them they may be saved in their sins without repentance; or that there may be repentance, though they do not return from their wicked ways" (Matthew Henry).

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