Now, as Mr. Murray has already
intimated, and as you have discovered in looking over the brochure,
I have been asked to address you on the subject, what constitutes
true preaching. Now, the subject is obviously
a vast and a complex subject, and in many ways a most elusive
subject. Because of these characteristics,
any treatment of this subject of any length in any circumstances
is a most difficult assignment. But to attempt to handle this
subject in one lecture with any degree of comprehensiveness and
balance to a group of men who come from a diversity of backgrounds
who sit here tonight with a diversity of perspectives on some of the
most fundamental issues relating to preaching, in those circumstances
it would almost border on presumption to make the effort. But I trust
that in mutual dependence upon the Spirit of God, and with a
determination to concentrate all of our faculties upon this
most critical issue, that we will grapple together with this
vast subject, and by the grace of God, through the Spirit, ministering
by the Scriptures, that we may be instructed and helped and
urged on in the great task of preaching. As we stand on the
threshold of our study, I do want to say just a word by way
of introduction concerning the tremendous importance of this
subject. And perhaps I can do this in
no better way than to quote a very brief paragraph from the opening
pages of Broadus's classical work on the preparation and delivery
of sermons in which Broadus says, and I quote, in every age of
Christianity since John the Baptist drew crowds into the desert,
there has been no great religious movement, no restoration of scriptural
truth, and reanimation of vital piety without new power in preaching,
both as its cause and as its effect. From the days of John
the Baptist until this present hour, no restoration of scriptural
truth, no true religious movement, no reanimation of vital piety
without new power in preaching both as its cause and as its
effect. Now I trust that the brethren
gathered here on this occasion are deeply concerned with these
very issues, the issues of the restoration of scriptural truth,
the reanimation of vital piety, the very issues that Pastor Chantry
brought to our attention in his exposition of Habakkuk chapter
3 and verse 2 in the previous hour. I trust we are not only interested
in these matters, but that these matters form no little part of
the focus of our prayers. However, we do not pray for these
things as fanatics, nor do we pray for them as hyper-Calvinists. That is, as those who expect
God to answer those prayers without the ordinary means being used
in the granting of that answer. And as surely as the elements
of gracious sovereignty are stamped on every period of revival, and
powerful advancement of truth. So the elements of a gracious
wisdom are stamped upon those same periods of revival and reanimation
of piety. As surely as the history of revivals
is the history of the mighty, free, gracious, sovereign intervention
of God It is the history of preaching that was suited to the ends that
God himself was securing by his own mighty and sovereign power. This emphasis is seen so clearly
in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Luke the historian
always writes as Luke the theologian, and again and again when he is
giving the record of the success of the gospel, in begetting divine
life, advancing and developing divine life, he's careful to
trace the efficiency back to the almighty power of God. The
language of Luke the historian is this language, very familiar
to all of us. Then hath God also granted to
the Gentiles repentance unto life. Him hath God exalted for
to give repentance and remission of sins whose heart the Lord
opened so that she attended to the things that were spoken of
Paul and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be
saved and yet it is this very Luke Luke the historian writing
as Luke the theologian who says in Acts 14 and they so speak
that a multitude believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. And the
emphasis there is placed on the fact that there was a direct
relationship between the manner of their preaching and the God-ordained
and God-caused success of that preaching. And I say this principle
that stands on the face of the record in the Book of the Acts
is simply underscored in the history of the great periods
of life and reviving in the Church. And so, brethren, we are dealing
with a subject that lies very close to the heart of those points
of emphasis that were brought before us in the previous hour.
There can be no intelligent, biblical concern for revival
without an intelligent and biblical concern with the question that
is before us tonight, what constitutes true preaching? For it is true
preaching which has been both the cause and effect under the
blessing of God in terms of precipitating and advancing revival. Now in
attacking the vast subject, I have two major divisions. I don't
know if I'll get to the second. I hope to. If I don't, at least
you'll know where I'd hope to go in our study. First of all,
I want to consider with you from the scriptures the fundamental
characteristic of true preaching. And having considered that, we
shall then address ourselves to the secondary characteristics,
plural, of true preaching. What, then, is the fundamental
characteristic of true preaching in the light of the Scriptures?
Well, I want to make an assertion which I believe embodies the
teaching of Scripture, and then we shall turn to the Word of
God to see the raw materials out of which that assertion was
formed. True preaching consists of the
proclamation explanation and application of the Word of God
by one who legitimately and self-consciously occupies the position of and
conducts himself as a herald of God. What is true preaching? It is the proclamation, the explanation,
and the application of the Word of God, that is, the Scriptures
of the Old and the New Testaments, by one who legitimately, he has
not intruded himself into this office or position, who legitimately
and self-consciously occupies the position of and conducts
himself as a herald of God. Now, what are the raw materials
of Scripture out of which this assertion has been formed? Well,
I'm sure that most, if not all of you, are aware of the fact
that there are four major families of words used in the New Testament
to describe the act of preaching or communicating the Word of
God in verbal form. You have that family of words
translated in our English Bibles to preach the Gospel in the verbal
form, o angelizo, or in the middle form in which it most frequently
appears, o angelizomai. And then you have that second
major family, didasco, to teach in the noun form, didascalia,
the thing taught. Then you have the third family,
martyretto, often translated to bear witness in the verbal
form, in the noun, to be a witness. But there is a fourth family
of words, and it is this family of words which in our English
Bibles is most frequently translated to preach. And it is the caruso
family of words. The verb, to preach, the two
noun expressions, the kerubs, the one who preaches as a herald,
and the kerubma, the message that is preached. And it is,
I say, this third family of words which, more than any others,
identifies and describes the essence of true preaching. The
first family of words points to a more limited element of
the content of the preaching. The second family of words points
to the manner of communication, but it's this family that focuses
upon the very essence of what constitutes preaching, preaching
in a New Testament sense. First of all, see this demonstrated
as we see the word the Holy Spirit uses to describe the activity
of preaching. and we'll take just several specimen
passages first of all from the Gospel of Matthew when the Spirit
of God would describe the activity of John the forerunner of our
Lord Jesus Christ his activity is described in the language
of Matthew 3 and verse 1 as follows and in those days cometh John
the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea He came not
teaching. He came not witnessing. He came not gospelizing or preaching
the good news. He came proclaiming. He came heralding. He came preaching. Then when the Spirit of God would
describe the activity of our Lord Himself after He is clothed
with the Spirit of Power, we read in Matthew's Gospel chapter
4 and in verse 17 from that time began Jesus to
preach and to say repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand
and here the activity of our Lord is described as an activity
of preaching when he commissions the 12 and sends them forth as
recorded in the 10th chapter of Matthew we read in Matthew
10 and in verse 7 he commissions them saying and as ye go preach
saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand when our Lord prophesies
the universal spread of his gospel in Matthew 24 and verse 14 he
uses this word again and this gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached among all the nations for a witness and then shall
the end come Now when we turn to the emphasis of Luke as found
in his gospel and then on into the book of Acts, we find this
similar focal point on preaching as the proclamation of a herald. In Luke 24 and verse 47, our
Lord says that repentance and remission of sins is to be preached
in his name among all the nations. Acts 8 in verse 5 we read the
account of Philip going down to Samaria and preaching Christ
unto them. In Acts 10 in verse 42 Peter
says that he and his fellow apostles were ordained to preach that
God is the judge of the living and of the dead. When Paul describes
his ministry at Ephesus to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20-25,
he speaks of that activity as a preaching of the kingdom of
God. And so this emphasis is found
throughout the book of Acts, that preaching in its essence
is to be understood in terms of this concept of the proclamation
of a herald. And then in that very strategic
passage on the subject of preaching in Paul's letter to the Romans,
Romans chapter 10, here again the emphasis falls upon the Cheruso
family of words. In Romans chapter 10 and beginning
with verse 8. But what saith it? The word is
nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the word
of faith which We preach. Verse 14. How then shall they
call on him whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? And so this emphasis comes through
in this strategic passage, bringing into the closest proximity the
activity of faith unto salvation and the necessity of the person
who believes coming within the orbit, not of sharing, not of
some dramatization of the gospel, but coming within the orbit of
preaching by a duly authorized herald of the message of God. And when the apostle describes
his own activity in the passage read in your hearing tonight,
we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves
your servants for Christ's sake. When he would charge Timothy
with this great responsibility in 2 Timothy 4 and verse 2, he
says, Preach the word. Well, brethren, I don't want
to weary you with just dragging out reference upon reference.
These have only been a few specimen references. Take your own concordance
and look up that word and trace it out and you will see how again
and again this emphasis comes through. Now when the Holy Spirit
describes the functional identity of the preacher, this is the
word he uses. Paul in 1 Timothy 2 and verse
7 says that he was appointed, first of all, a preacher, a herald,
a town crier, a duly authorized herald of the message of God.
Now he functioned in that capacity with the peculiar office of an
apostle, and as an apostle he was an instructor in divine things,
and so he brings together his function as herald, as apostle,
and as teacher. He does a similar thing in 2nd
Timothy 1 and verse 11, and then when Peter would describe the
ministry of Noah, he calls him in 2nd Peter 2 and verse 5, a
herald, a proclaimer, that preacher of righteousness. And then, of
course, when he would describe the message that is thus proclaimed,
it is called the kerubba. It is the thing proclaimed by
the herald. And perhaps the key text in the
use of this word is 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 21. How strategic
is this matter not of the message given in any form that we deem
wise, but the message given as a herald. 1 Corinthians 1 and
verse 21, For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through
its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the
foolishness of the thing preached to save them that believe. And then in that critical text
in Titus, Paul speaks of this great message of saving grace
in Titus 1 and verse 3, as being manifested, unfolded, made known,
how? In the thing preached, Titus
1 and verse 3. So brethren, the biblical materials
are abundant and profuse, pointing in this direction. that the essence
of true preaching is to be found in coming to grips with the biblical
concept of this family of words to proclaim as a herald. Now, what are the major biblical
ideas bound up in this concept of the preacher functioning as
a herald? Well, as with many other concepts,
the Holy Spirit took a word and a concept that was part and parcel
of the common verbal currency of that given society, seizes
upon it, expands it, adjusts it, elevates it, and makes it
something glorious in terms of the coinage of the Christian
faith. And this is true with the whole
concept of a kerutz, a town crier, a herald who brought the message
of his sovereign to his fellow citizens. And as we think through
the biblical concept of what it is self-consciously to occupy
the position of and to conduct oneself as a herald of God in
preaching, let me suggest, brethren, that at least five elements are
bound up in that concept. First of all is the matter of
integrity. The Herald had to stand in a
relationship of integrity with reference to the message given
to him by his sovereign. The Herald was not free to go
amongst his fellow townspeople and, by consensus, concoct his
message. His message was not the product
of his own imagination. His message was not the fruit
of his own cleverness. His message was deposited by
his sovereign. And when he self-consciously
occupied his place as a herald, and conducted himself in the
realm of that self-consciousness, bound up in that whole concept,
was integrity with respect to the content of the message conveyed
to him. And so you and I are under solemn
obligations to obey the command to herald the word. We are to hold fast the form
of sound words, or in the language of Titus, we are to hold fast
to the faithful word as we have been taught. Now it's not very
flattering. for a man to announce a message
and then being asked, tell me, sir, where does the message come
from? To say it doesn't come out of my own mind, it doesn't
come out of the minds of my fellow preachers, in that sense the
message has simply been deposited and it is my task to echo the
mind of my master and of my sovereign. Dabney in his classic work on
preaching, which Many of us are grateful to see again in print,
speaks to this very issue when he says, the nature of the preacher's
work is determined by the word employed to describe it by the
Holy Ghost. The preacher is a herald. His
work is heralding the King's message. Once the apostles called
themselves Christ Ambassadors, but of old ambassadors were no
other than heralds. Now the herald does not invent
his message. He merely transmits and explains
it. It is not His to criticize its
wisdom or its fitness. This belongs to His Sovereign
alone. And brethren, if we are to engage
in that which is true preaching, we must never lose the self-conscious
identity that is ours as heralds always seeking to maintain the
strictest integrity in relationship to the content of our message. This is what the Apostle Paul
is saying again in the text read in your hearing. Seeing we have
received this ministry as we've obtained mercy, we faint not.
But having renounced the hidden things of darkness, not walking
in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully. Peter speaks of the ignorant
and the unstable who wrest the Scriptures, and that word literally
means they put it on a torture rack and stretch it out of its
natural shape. They maintain the semblance of
biblical terminology, but by the time it passes through them,
it is totally distorted and out of shape. Apostle Paul could say, I kept
back nothing that was profitable unto him. He did not go about
and see what was palatable. He said, I kept back nothing
that was profitable. And what was that that was profitable? He tells us further on in Acts
20 in verse 26, I proclaimed unto you the whole counsel of
God. Now brethren, this speaks worlds
to us at the point of very personal application. It means that no
matter how fervently we may pray, and may we learn to pray fervently
for the outpouring of the Spirit, no matter how deeply our spirits
are exercised with the great issues that were set before us
in the previous hour, we mock God the Holy Ghost if we pray
with fervency and study and prepare with shoddiness. The Holy Ghost does not own with
power the distortion of His mind in Scripture. And therefore the
solemn obligation that is upon us is clearly delineated in 2
Timothy 2.15, Do thine utmost to show thyself approved unto
God. A workman that needeth not to
be ashamed, not before your fellow men, but before that God whose
approval you seek above all else. Cutting a straight course in
the word of truth. Oh, what honesty, what care,
what assiduity, what perseverance, what caution there ought to be
in the handling of the word of truth. We are heralds, brethren.
It is not for us to adjust, to trim, to expand, to shape the
message. We simply stand as those who
are to receive the message already shaped, already formed, already
deposited in the language of 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 4. But this matter of integrity
and relationship to the message not only affects the herald in
terms of the content of his message, but in terms of the power and
influence of his message upon himself. And here you see the
biblical concept of a herald goes far beyond the pagan or
the mere natural concept of a herald. The herald may be one who has
no love for his king or his sovereign, His job as a herald may simply
be a means of occupation, but not so with the heralds of God. And so the great emphasis in
Scripture upon those who would truly preach is that they must
manifest in every detail of life that their message has first
of all mastered them. What is the primary focal point
of emphasis in the requirement for an elder according to 1 Timothy
3 and Titus 1? It is not richness of the gifts
of oral communication. There is one Greek word used
in 1 Timothy 3, an apt teacher. We take three English words to
translate it. But there is phrase upon phrase,
word upon word delineating. balanced, vital, practical godliness
demonstrated before the Church and before the world. And before
all of that is the little particle of absolute necessity. If a man seeketh the office of
a bishop, he desireth a good work. The bishop, therefore,
they must be. Why? Why that tremendous emphasis? For you see, if we come as heralds
of a message which has as its ultimate end the glory of God
in the moral and ethical transformation of the sinner, how can that message
be conveyed with any credibility unless the one who conveys it
is the living embodiment of its end and of its power? So again and again Paul turns
to Timothy and says, Let no man despise thine. Be thou an example
of the believer. Exercise thyself unto godliness. Take heed to thyself. Be not a partaker of other men's
sins. Keep thyself pure. By this recurring
emphasis, almost to the point of redundancy, because it's part
and parcel of the biblical concept of a herald who, when he proclaims
that message, he does not do so as some kind of a theological
and clerical automaton, some kind of a robot, some kind of
a computer. He does so as one who can say,
not in the apostolic sense, but in a real sense, we speak that
which we do know. Then there is a second characteristic
of the herald added to this matter of integrity as the matter of
authority. You see, the herald is conscious
that he did not come into the village on the basis of personal
whim Or the fact that when he got up in the morning, his wife
nudged him and said, Dear, I'd like a little notoriety in the
village today. Won't you go in, please, and
fulfill the role of a herald and get a little attention from
the folk in the village? No, no. No, no. No one went into the village
to fulfill the role of a herald but one who was duly appointed
to that task by the sovereign who ruled in that area. And when
he went into that village, he spoke with authority, demanding
the attention of his fellow citizens, not because of any inherent worth
in himself, but because of the consciousness of the authority
that rested upon him and stood behind him in that function. Now notice how clearly this is
exemplified in our blessed Lord. It is said in Matthew 7 that
when he finished preaching in the Sermon on the Mount, the
multitudes were astounded. Why? Because he spake as one
having authority and not as their scribes. Now their scribes were
good Bible talkers. Jesus said that. He said, what
they bid you do, do it. They sit in Moses' seat. To the
extent that they properly convey the mind of Moses, living under
that economy and framework, do what they say. But there was
no authority. Now what lay behind our Lord's
authority? Well, He tells us. He could say,
I speak not my own words, but the words of Him that sent And
you remember how he said when he commissioned men to go forward,
he that receives you receives me, he that receives me receives
him that sent me. You see that chain of authority?
And our Lord sought to make his herald self-consciously aware
of that element of authority. And so it is with us, brethren. We must have a well-grounded,
scripturally-based conviction of the legitimacy of our call
to the ministry. And I'm personally convinced
there are many men who speak with no or little authority because
they have never been willing to trace down with judgment-day
honesty the legitimacy of their call to that solemn office. the pressure of a praying grandmother,
the sentimental wishes of Mama and Daddy, or perhaps the well-meaning
intentions of the pastor who like to put notches in his rifle
and say very modestly, well, the Lord's been good to us. We've
got seven fellows preparing for the ministry, and while he's
bowed with humility, you can see him swelling with pride.
Some of you may be the victims of that kind of wickedness. Brethren, there can be no authority
unless there is a well-grounded scriptural conviction of the
legitimacy of our call. What enables the herald, who
in himself is nothing, to go into the village and demand the
attention of all of his fellow citizens? It's the consciousness. I'm not here because I had a
whim this morning that I'd like a little attention. I'm here
sent by my sovereign Furthermore, we must have a consciousness
of the validity of the activity to which we are called. On his
way into the village, you see, if the herald begins to question,
well, this is the silliest thing in all the world. How am I going
to get the attention of my fellow citizens simply by opening up
my mouth and speaking? I must first of all set up a
little stage and have a little play and get their attention.
do a few magic tricks, must do something. I mean, you just don't
go into a village and start talking, expect your fellow citizens to
listen to you. They know who you are. You're
the guy down the street. You live at 312, and your neighbor
lives at 313. Woo-hoo! But you see, when the
man came into the village, self-consciously aware of that authority that
stood behind him, there is something arresting in the very bearing
of that authority. When he self-consciously opens
his mouth, not as a private citizen, but as the duly appointed herald
of his sovereign, he speaks then with authority. In his classic
work, entitled The Power of the Pulpit, Gardner Springs speaks
so perceptively to this dimension of what constitutes true preaching.
He says the ministers of the gospel are the appointed ambassadors
of the head and king of the church. He sends them on their great
and responsible errand. They possess authority to publish
his gospel in his name, which belongs exclusively to themselves. It is not an authority which
they usurp, nor an office which they themselves have sought. but one which has been imposed
upon them. The responsibilities of it are
of no enviable kind. They must give an account of
their stewardship, and such an one as no other men must render. Nor are the disabilities and
dependencies of the office to be envied. No honest, right-minded
man was ever invested with it without much fear and tremble. Nor is there one among them all
who would ever have consented to this investiture, but for
the constraints of conscience they have been thrust forth into
the harvest in the language of Scripture. Now this is one of
the strong peculiarities of the pulpit, and places it upon high
vantage ground. Its legitimate occupants are
divinely commissioned men. Inspired men they are not. but sinning and fallible, like
their fellows. Yet do they utter His truth,
not on their own responsibility, but God's, not in their own names,
but His, not for themselves, but for Him, not as men merely,
but as accredited ministers of their Divine Lord, who has sent
It is not simply the authority of truth which they speak, for
then every man who utters truth would be invested with this authority.
It is the authority of truth uttered by those whom God has
raised up and qualified and sealed by solemn sacrament and sent
forth and specially authorized to utter the things that are
commanded them of Him. Arrogant as this claim may appear,
to some, and abused as it has been and will be by an ambitious
and tyrannical priesthood, God has given no less a preeminence
to it. May I press the question
on your conscience, my brethren? Is the note of authority present
in your preaching? It has nothing necessarily to
do with volume, with animation, with gesture, with a square jaw,
with temperamental pugnaciousness. It has to do with that something
that cannot be put into words, that constrains men to turn and
to listen when a man speaks self-conscious that he is sent by his soul. Then there is a third element
that is present in this biblical concept of the herald, and it
is embodied in the word boldness. Now you will remember how it
was this quality that the Apostle Paul coveted as a minister of
the gospel. When he writes to the Ephesians
and asks them to pray for him, notice the request that predominates
in Ephesians 6 and verse 19. watching thereunto with all perseverance
and supplication for all the saints and on my behalf." And
what are they to pray for? Not that my allowance will be
fully met so the mission board will be satisfied that they can
send me back to the field. He does not ask them to pray
for good health or for anything pertaining directly to his temple
needs, but this is his great concern. Pray on my behalf that
utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth to make known
with boldness the mystery of the gospel. We have a similar
request in his letter to the Colossians in chapter 4 and verses
1 and 2. Now what is the biblical concept
of boldness? Well basically it is outspokenness,
frankness, plainness of speech. It means that when we behold
the faces of men, neither their frowns nor their smiles will
move us one whit to restrain or to alter the unfettered announcement
of the message of the Sovereign. That's what it means. So you're not bribed by their
smiles, nor threatened with their frowns to do a thing with the
message. That's what boldness is. Conscious of your own weakness,
your own susceptibility to men's smiles and frowns, as no doubt
the apostle was. And therefore he says, when you
pray for me above all else, pray that utterance may be given unto
me. There must be a gracious and
powerful working of the Spirit. It's not something that he received
once for all. whatever measures of boldness
he had known in the past, he is conscious that he must have
increasing measures and the sustaining grace of God, even to maintain
the degrees already experienced. Paul could say, if I should yet
please men, I should not be the servant of Christ, one of the
most thrilling examples of this kind of boldness is set before
us in an incident that Gardner Spring records concerning Samuel
Davies, preacher of another generation, then president of the College
of New Jersey, which is now Princeton University. Well, what is now
is not what was then, but in the process of evolution and
devolution, there is that connection. Well, he was visiting England
on behalf of the college and was invited to preach before
King George III. His youthful queen was sitting
by his side and so enchanted were they by the preacher's eloquence
that the king expressed his admiration in no measured terms and so audibly
and rudely as to draw the attention of the audience and to interrupt
the service. The preacher made a sudden and solemn pause in
his discourse Looking round upon the audience and fixing his piercing
eye upon England's noisy monarch said, When the lions roar, the
beasts of the field tremble. When Jehovah speaks, let the
kings of the earth keep silence. That's boldness. Now, you see,
it was not brashness. It was not an uncultured, uncouth
manifestation. It was a man who, standing in
the presence of an earthly sovereign, was conscious that he stood in
the presence of a greater sovereign. Self-conscious of his identity
as a herald. And he conducted himself in a
manner consistent with that self-consciousness. And probably when he went home
that night, he probably broke out in a cold sweat and said,
what did I say? Because that was said in that
spiritual context. And brethren, it is this element
again that is so desperately needed in our day. It is one
thing to make a passing allusion to the sins of our generation. It is another thing to speak
of them in such terms as to cause the consciences of men to smart. It would have been one thing
for John the Baptist to stand before Herod and to say, Mr. Monarch, have you considered
that perhaps, in some way or another, there may be a remote
possibility that you may be a bit left of center of the norms of
the Word of God? And then go home and say, Well,
I did rebuke him after a sort. But it's when he stood and said
to that man, It is not lawful for you to have her. That's what gospel is about. Oh, Nathan standing before the
monarch, who has all of the army at his disposal, and says to
his incensed king, who has no sense of anger at his own sin,
but at this hypothetical sinner, thou art the man I say, brethren,
it is one thing to deal with the sins of our people in an
oblique and in a veiled way in order to salve our consciences
that we are faithful to our trust. It's another thing to speak in
such terms as we find John and Nathan speaking with boldness. Then there is this fourth characteristic. of the person who is self-consciously
fulfilling the role of the herald, and it's bound up in the word
seriousness. Not somberness, not morbidity,
but seriousness. You see, the herald did not appear
in the village as the town jester. When the herald came into the
precincts of the village, he did not come simply to announce
the time of the day. When you saw him, you knew there
was a serious word from your sovereign. This element of seriousness will
always mark the man who is conscious of his identity as a herald of
God. Listen to the language of the
great apostle in 2 Corinthians 2. He says in verse 14, Thanks be unto God who always
leads us to triumph in Christ, to make it manifest through us
in every place the savor of his knowledge. We are a sweet savor
of Christ unto God in them that are saved and in them that are
perishing. To the one a savor from death
unto death. to the other a savour from life
unto life, and who is sufficient for these things? He says, The
message I bear, which is fragrant with the odour of Christ in the
very nostrils of God, wherever I go I preach Christ, and that's
a sweet savour to God, and in that I rejoice, there's the triumph
God is having His way in that His character is vindicated in
the proclamation of Christ. All of His glorious attributes
shine forth in the epitome of their brilliance in Christ and
in crucified. So as I preach Him, He said,
I'm always led in triumph in Christ. There is this sweet savor
of Christ in every place. He says that very message is
the arbiter of the destinies of man. And in some it is a message
from death unto death. This very message seals them
in the depths of damnation. For hell will have no torments
like the torments of the gospel rejecter. And he says it is also
the savour of life unto life. And when I carry a message like
that, There is felt weakness always resulting in seriousness,
even to the point of using the language of 1 Corinthians 2,
3, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. It's that seriousness that causes
the apostle Paul to be the apostle of tears. He could say to the
Ephesian elders, there in night I warned you with tears. He can
say to the Philippians, I've told you often and tell you now,
even weeping. Now this is not to say that we
must regard humor as something that came after the fall. That
when Adam and Eve saw monkeys in the garden, they didn't laugh,
but were very sober. Laughter is the gift of God in
creation. And there is a place for unplanned
humor even in the ministry of the herald, but the overriding
mood and climate of the work of the herald is that of seriousness. You can't tickle men into the
kingdom. The law and the gospel must operate
at the deepest levels of their consciousness as well as their
understanding, their affections, their wills. No man ever stands
giggling beneath the thunders and lightning of Mount Sinai.
When a sinner begins to take seriously the claims of the Almighty
over him, claims exemplify in that summary of God's moral demands
in those ten words, And he begins to realize that those words touch
the deepest springs of thought and desire and feeling. And he
sees himself stripped in the presence of God. No man jiggles
beneath the thunders and lightnings of Sinai. No man titters and
laughs before the glory of Gethsemane and the proud of Golgotha. We come with a message announcing,
as Paul did, what things soever the law saith, it saith to them
that are under the law, that every mouth may be spout, and
all the world become guilty before God. We come with that message
of a herald inviting our fellow citizens as condemned and lost
and under the throne of the Almighty. Seriousness will through the
entirety of our announcement. And when we bring that glorious
news that all of the thunders and lightnings of Sinai broke
upon the head and in the heart of the Son of God when He died
for His people, and we then tell people that they must and that
they are warranted to flee to this when they are brought to
that wonderful consciousness that for the sake of Christ they
are accepted. There will be joy, but the joy
of Psalm 2. Rejoice with family. It is holy joy. It is the joy
that is marked by a heart that having seen itself before God
can never get over the wound. My brother, am I speaking to
someone who has been, shall I say, blessed or cursed with an unusual
measure of native wit? You have the kind of mind that
sees the incongruous and the ludicrous in everything. My brother,
if that is not harnessed and under the tight reign of this
self-consciousness of your identity, your carnal humor may be the
very thing that is withholding the blessing of the Spirit of
God upon your preaching. I have sat under men who under
God wielded the sword of the Spirit, and just as the point
was there upon my conscience and heart, and it was about to
be thrust through me, the titter of laughter caused it to fall
from the preacher's hand, and he never thrust me with a wound. It left its mark. I shall never forget either hearing
him preach or reading it somewhere, dear. A. W. Tozer, who's gone
to be with the Lord, saying early in his life he had to make the
choice, either to be a prophet or a clown, for he knew he couldn't
do both. And I've sat as close as some of these brethren are
sitting here where that man was preaching, and seen the twinkle
in his eye, and the little bit of mirth on the corner of his
lip, and seen him consciously swallow down one humorous thing
after another that was no doubt forcing itself up into his consciousness. And what a lesson it was to me
of the disciple of a man who knew, I'm a herald of God! I dare not give end to humor
that would neutralize the influence of the message I bear. And then
the final thing, and this is all we'll get to tonight, brethren,
the final characteristic of the herald of God, And this places
the Biblical herald in a category totally unknown by the secular
herald. It's bound up in the word unction. Without anticipating or borrowing
from my final message on the Holy Spirit in relationship to
preaching, suffice it to say that the ultimate authentication
of the herald is found in his unction. The ultimate authentication of
the herald is found in his unction. Paul could say in 1 Corinthians
2, I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling in
my speech and preaching were not with enticing words of men's
wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and the power. He
could say to the Thessalonians, My gospel came not unto you in
word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost. Peter
speaks of those who preach the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent
down from heaven. The great insignia of God's appointed
heralds is the entombment of power. It's the oil upon their
foreheads. And I am not speaking of some
categorized experience subsequent to conversion. I am not speaking
of anything other than that which God says forms the very essence
of a minister of the New Covenant in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We are not sufficient of ourselves
to think anything as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God
who has made us able ministers of the New Covenant, not of the
letter but of the Spirit. It is the ministration of the
Spirit. The crowning gift of the new
covenant is the gift of the Spirit, granted not because we have met
a thousand conditions, but because Christ has met every condition
necessary to grant His people the blessing of the Spirit. Reverend, one can only judge
that there must be either widespread grieving and quenching of the
Holy Spirit, for there are many men who lack this one final,
indispensable authentication of their position as a heretic. What is unction? I don't know
what it is. I can't describe it. But I see
in Scripture the teaching that there is a presence, a dynamism,
and again, it is not necessarily related in any way to any form
of legitimate preaching as far as intensity, animation, volume. These may or may not be connected
with that which is called umption. But there is, as Paul can say,
that living letter that is proof that you're not just a Bible
talker. Ye are our epistle written, he says, by the Spirit of God. Well, brethren, I suggest that
if we are going to grapple afresh with what constitutes true preaching,
we must begin with this biblical concept of preaching. as the
announcement of a herald, and give God in ourselves no rest
until we can, with some degree of self-consciousness, stand
in that position. And when we do, in dependence
upon the One who has commissioned us, then these things will characterize
our preaching.