Experimental Preaching. 8

There are some godly ministers who have failed to express themselves consistently with their own actual experience and with that of other holy persons, and thereby the faith and hope of gracious souls are weakened and dismayed, and occasion is given unto unbelief to more completely prevail over them. Perhaps some ministers are fearful that if they speak too plainly and freely about their own failures and falls, the impression will be conveyed that Divine grace is an empty expression, rather than a powerful deterrent to sin. But such a fear is quite needless—surely none should hesitate to be as frank as was the Apostle Paul in Romans 7—and none was more jealous of the glory of Divine grace than he! But we suspect that in some instances it is pride which dominates, causing the preacher to be ashamed of acknowledging his own vileness, fearful lest his people will cease to look up to him as a spiritual giant.

Here too these are two extremes to be guarded against; while we are far from advocating that the preacher should make it a practice of referring to his own spiritual ups and downs in every sermon—yet we are convinced that he has failed in discharging an important branch of his duty—if he never makes reference to his own experiences. The servant of God is not only a herald—but a witness as well, and how can he feelingly testify to the longsuffering of God, unless he affirms that He has exercised infinite patience to such a wretch as himself? In like manner, he should bear personal witness to the ceaseless conflict between the two natures in the regenerate, the ragings of sin against grace, the surgings of unbelief against faith, the eclipses of hope by doubtings.

True, this should always be done in a spirit of humiliation and self-loathing, never minimizing the sinfulness of sin, and still less glorying in his "putrefying sores." There should be a balance preserved between describing how a Christian ought to live—and how the Christian does live—how far short the falls of measuring up to the standard which God has set before him, that "in many things we all stumble" (James 3:2).

There should also be a balance preserved between the reproving of failure—and a setting forth of the gracious provisions which God has made for the meeting of the same. There must be no hesitation in proclaiming the sufficiency of Christ to deal with the most desperate cases, His compassion for the most wretched sufferers, His readiness to hear the feeblest cry which goes up from a penitent heart. The groaning saint is to be exhorted unto cultivating the freest possible dealings with the Friend of publicans and sinners, and assured that He is as ready and willing to minister unto the needy now as when He tabernacled here on earth, for He is "the same yesterday and today and forever" and "His compassions fail not."

As the young convert, distressed by the discovery of the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of his heart, is to be informed that that is no proof he is still unregenerate; so he is to be told that the ragings of sin within him are no occasion why he should turn away from the Throne of Grace—but rather a reason why he should go boldly thereto, that he may "obtain mercy." While he is to be frequently exhorted unto keeping his heart with all diligence, and the necessity, importance, and method thereof explained to him—he is also to be warned that his most diligent efforts therein will meet with very imperfect success.

He is to be instructed that the spiritual warfare to which God has called him, the good fight of faith in which he is to be daily engaged, is a lifelong task, and that sincerity and faithfulness therein, rather than victory—is what God requires. The wounds which he receives in this warfare, are so many reasons for him to constantly have recourse to the Great Physician.

The mere quoting of Scripture in the pulpit is not sufficient—people can become familiar with the letter of the Word by reading it at home; it is theexpounding of it which is so much needed today. "And Paul, as his manner was . . . reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead" (Acts 17:2, 3). But to "open" the Scriptures helpfully to the saints, requires more than a young man who has had a few months' training in some "Bible Institute", or a year or two in a theological seminary. None but those who have been personally taught of God in the hard school of experience, are qualified to so "open" up the Word that Divine light has cast upon the perplexing experiences of the believer, for while Scripture interprets experience, experience is often the best interpreter of Scripture. "The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips" (Proverbs 16:23), and that "learning" cannot be acquired in any of man's schools.

As an example of what we have just referred to above, what would be the use of quoting, what benefit would be derived from simply hearing the words of such a passage as this?, "Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say. When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil? When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cummin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field? His God instructs him and teaches him the right way. Caraway is not threshed with a sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over cummin; caraway is beaten out with a rod, and cummin with a stick. Grain must be ground to make bread; so one does not go on threshing it forever. Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it, his horses do not grind it. All this also comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom." (Isaiah 28:23-29).

Where are the preachers today endowed with wisdom from on High to "open" a Scripture like this one? Obviously, the above passage is a parable—that which obtains in the natural world is made a similitude of what pertains to the spiritual realm. God's Church upon earth is His "husbandry" (1 Cor. 3:9). The subordinate "farmers" are His ministers, who, instrumentally, break up the fallow ground of the hearts of His people. As the farmervaries his work as occasion requires, plowing, sowing, reaping, threshing, as the need arises—so the ministerial gardener does likewise. The "seed" is the Word of God (Luke 8:11), and as God gives wisdom to the farmer to sow "wheat" or "barley" or "rye"—according as the soil be clayey, loamy, or sandy, so He teaches His ministers to preach according to the condition of the hearts of His people. Painful afflictions, both inward and outward, are God's "threshing" instruments, to loosen from the world, to separate the wheat from the chaff in our souls, to fit us for His garner.

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