Saturday, June 6, 2009

THE REFORMATION PULPIT! Email--June 6, 2009

“The Reformation Pulpit” (Email) June 6, 2009

What’s wrong with the modern pulpit?

The Method & Manner of Preaching the Gospel must be thoroughly biblical!
The Content of the Gospel Message Preached must be thoroughly biblical!
The Emphasis of every part of the Gospel Message Preached must be thoroughly biblical!

The Importance and Value of the Puritans!
Who were these men called the Puritans? Were they nothing but morbid and somber kill-joys? If one would take the time to read Puritan biographies, and their various writings on biblical subjects, he would find that they were well-balanced, faithful, and godly men. They were superb in their understanding, exposition, and application of the gospel. They knew not only the content of the gospel, but also how to effectively communicate it to men. They were men whose preaching was characterized by accurate exposition, precise and close application, and by great urgency and passion. We would do well to listen to their counsel on the major issues of the Christian life!

Charles Spurgeon on the Puritans:
Autobiography Vol 1-The Early Years, p.11, 387.
“Here I first struck up acquaintance with . . . the great masters of Scriptural theology, with whom no moderns are worthy are worthy to named with in the same day . . . . Believing that the Puritanic school embodied more of gospel truth in it than any other since the days of the apostles, we continue in the same line of things.”

NOTE: Some of Spurgeon’s contemporaries were: J. C. Ryle; Andrew & Horatius Bonar; Charles Hodge; A. A. Hodge; George Mueller; J. Hudson Taylor

George Whitefield: The Banner of Truth Magazine-Nov. 1991
“. . . They in an especial manner wrote and preached as men having authority. Though dead, by their writings they yet speak: a particular unction attends them to this very hour: and for these thirty years past I have remarked, that the more true and vital religion hath revived either at home or abroad, the more the good old puritanical writings, or authors of a like stamp who lived and died in the communion of the church of England, have been called for.”

NOTE: Some consider Spurgeon and Whitefield to probably be the two greatest preachers in the history of the church since the days of the Apostles. If this is true should we not listen to their counsel about the need to read the Puritans?

Joel Beeke: Puritan Evangelism, p. 40
“. . . Puritan preaching wooed the heart passionately. It was affectionate, zealous, and optimistic. It is unusual today to find a ministry which both feeds the mind with solid biblical substance and moves the heart with affectionate warmth, but this combination was commonplace with the Puritans.”

AW Pink: The Life of AW Pink-Ian Murray-p.229
“For the next fifty years the Church on earth was blest with many men ‘mighty in the Scriptures’, deeply taught of God . . . . Such men . . . taught the Word more helpfully (in our judgment) and were more used of God than any since the days of the apostles to the present hour.”

AW Pink: Practical Christianity
“It also requires to be pointed out that those men whose ministry was most owned and used of God during last century were those who followed in the steps of the Puritans.”

Peter Lewis: The Genius of Puritanism
“By this time it will be clear that whenever Puritanism was strong, the Puritan pulpit was very much in evidence, and the office of preacher and teacher was elevated to a place of dignity and prominence. From what did preaching derive its honor and dignity? The answer that was common to all who were Puritan in their thinking was plain, as we shall see. Godward, preaching derived its honor from that seal which God had placed upon it by which it was endowed with particular spiritual potency for the conversion of men and their building up in the faith; manward, its dignity was increased by the human need for it, to inspire, instruct, warn, rebuke and

comfort . . . . The Puritan preachers lived and loved their principal duty and preached on--a race of preachers whose teaching lived long after they themselves ceased from their labors.”

JI Packer: A QUEST FOR GODLINESS: P. 30, 43
“The great Puritans became superb pastors. The depth and unction of their ‘practical and experimental’ expositions in the pulpit was no more outstanding than was their skill in the study in applying spiritual physic to sick souls. Many of the pastors, were men of great gifts and unction, whose preaching was ‘powerful’ in every sense and whose counseling ministry as ‘physicians of the soul’ transformed many deranged lives . . . . The Puritans are giants with us, giants whose help we need if ever we are to grow. . . . The great Puritans, though dead, still speak to us through their writings, and say things to us that we badly need to hear at this present time.”







No comments:

Post a Comment