James 1:18

THE POWER OF THE PULPIT

‘Of His own will begat He us with the Word of Truth.’

James 1:18

Simon and Andrew—called to be fishers of men—were not unknown to the Lord Jesus, nor He to them. They had seen Him as the Lamb of God; they had visited His home and held communion with Him; and they had witnessed some of His miracles. The call was not without preparation, nor was it unreasonable. The promised training to catch men was attractive. The subsequent miraculous draught of fishes was an encouraging sign of success.

I. Not only are the faithful ministers of Christ fishermen, but He who teaches how to fish is in the boat with them; the Gospel net is His own; and every now and then the order goes forth, ‘Let down your net for a draft,’ while the answer of faith is given, ‘At Thy word we will let down the net.’ And men, often the most unlikely, are caught and laid as a sacred offering at the feet of Jesus, meet for the Master’s use. The commission of the Apostle Paul is another case in point. Prepared by a vision of the Lamb of God, like the early Apostles, he was called as follows: ‘I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness.’ Now observe what ‘a minister and witness’ in our Lord’s estimation really is—‘both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.’ In other words, St. Paul was to ‘catch men’—the end of his ministry was the conversion of souls unto God.

II. St. Paul’s own ministry is in accordance with this commission.—Some persons have thought that he made comparatively little use of the sacraments, because they are so seldom alluded to or mentioned in his writings and speeches. But the fact is, the primary idea in his mind was, not so much the benefits of the sacraments to believers nor the privileges and blessings of those who were already saved, but the preaching of the Word, the reaching of the conscience, the will, the affection, the reasoning powers, by the Gospel—in other words, the bringing men into that status outside of which sacrament and Christian advantages were valueless. What he did himself is what he ordained others to do. Timothy was to ‘preach the Word.’ The manifestation of God’s Word through preaching is the basis of His Epistle to Titus. It is the same with the other Apostles. ‘The truth’ is an expression which serves as a special feature of St. John’s writings—an expression caught from the Saviour’s lips. St. Peter and St. James ascribe every blessing to the Word. St. Jude points out that heresy and viciousness of life were owing to a neglect of ‘the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

III. Our Lord not only preached the Word Himself, but He showed from the Parable of the Sower that the primary work of His disciples was to sow the seed of the Word.—Nay, the sower who soweth the Word is our Lord Himself. So St. Matthew tells us. His disciples act as His deputies. He is still the Sower, by whatever instruments or agents he works. Now it is admitted, in some sense and in some cases, that there is a necessity for conversion. But all do not rightly use the one great means by which it is to be effected. The Bible is not in the hands of our people, nor in our churches, nor in our day and Sunday-schools as it used to be. So-called Church teaching is not always sowing the seed of God’s Word. Vague utterances will never really touch or change a heart. To speak about conversion is not to convert. Moreover, conversion is not a mere resuscitation of grace, nor a living up to privileges, nor an outward reformation of life. It is an inward change effected by the Holy Spirit of God—a new birth, manifesting itself in a new life; and the instrument by which, in the case of adults, it is effected is the Word of Truth. To give the Bible, therefore, a secondary place, or to misstate the need of such a conversion and the means by which it is brought about, is never to attain the great end of the Christian ministry.

IV. No section of the Church of England makes light of the pulpit.—But preaching, however interesting, however eloquent, however widely instructive, is not always preaching that will convert. Sermons without any Christ in them, without an adequate estimate of man’s sinfulness, without a declaration, clear and unmistakable, of the design and effect of the atonement, may charm the ear, please the imagination, quickly while away the time, but they will never turn men from darkness to light nor from the power of Satan unto God; nor will sermons about the Church, her apostolicity, her catholicity, her energy and zeal; nor yet will sermons with the mere shibboleths of evangelical truth. If the great end of the Christian ministry be the glory of God in the conversion of souls, we may well ask, Have we aimed at or in any degree attained this glory? Exercising the very widest charity, we must say of a town, of a parish, of a church, how few are really on the narrow path of life and how many are on the broad road of destruction. I pause not to consider whether we and the godly in our congregation who are bound to aid us by prayer and sympathy are to blame in this matter, for I do not look back now to the past, but onward to the future that lies before us. Let repentance deal with the past; let hope animate us for the future.

V. There are three subjects God’s ministers ought incessantly to mention at the throne of grace.

(a) Personal sanctification according to the covenant of grace and the prayer of our great Intercessor—‘Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy word is truth.’

(b) A life for God’s glory.

(c) Ministerial joy. Ministerial joy is more than the joy of large congregations, crowded communions, and satisfactory offerings of money or service, very charming and encouraging as they are in their proper places; it is the joy of noting the signs of the conversion to God and of the sanctifying effects of that conversion. ‘I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.’

—Rev. Canon McCormick.

Illustrations

(1) ‘When Queen Elizabeth tried to check Archbishop Grindal in his preaching zeal, he wrote, “Public and continual preaching of God’s Word is the ordinary means and instrument of the salvation of mankind. St. Paul calls it ‘the ministry of reconciliation’ of man to God. By preaching of God’s Word, the glory of God is enlarged, faith is nourished and charity is increased. By it the ignorant is instructed, the negligent exhorted and incited, the stubborn rebuked, the weak conscience comforted, and to all those that sin of malicious wickedness the wrath of God is threatened.” ’

(2) ‘The primitive bishops were the greatest preachers of their time. “It is to preaching that Christianity owes its origin, its continuance, and its progress; and it is to itinerating preaching (however the ignorant may undervalue it) that we owe the conversion of the Roman world from Paganism to primitive Christianity, our own freedom from the thraldom of Popery, in the success of the Reformation, and the revival of Christianity at the present day.” No one can read 1 Corinthians 1, Romans 10, or our Lord’s commission, and the action of our Lord and His Apostles, without seeing the importance of preaching.’