Wise Counsel for Preachers to Follow<\/p>\n
The year was 1768. A young preacher by the name of Augustus Toplady, who wrote many of our best hymns, including \u201cRock of Ages\u201d, spent the afternoon in London with an older, veteran Gospel preacher, whom he greatly admired and from whom he learned much.<\/p>\n
The older preacher was a Mr. Brewer. I know absolutely nothing about him except what he told Toplady that hot July afternoon in London 240 years ago. Toplady thought his words were worth writing down; and I\u2019m glad he did. This is what Mr. Brewer said to the 28 year old preacher, Augustus Toplady, as Toplady later recorded them in his diary\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot conclude without reminding you, my young brother of some things that may be of use to you in the course of your ministry:<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Preach Christ crucified, and dwell chiefly on the blessing resulting from His righteousness, atonement, and intercession.<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Avoid all needless controversies in the pulpit; except it be when your subject necessarily requires it; or when the truths of God are likely to suffer by your silence.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When you ascend the pulpit, leave your learning behind you. Endeavour to preach more to the hearts of your people than to their heads.<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do not affect too much oratory. Seek rather to profit [your hearers] than to be admired [by them].\u201d<\/p>\n
I cannot imagine four more needful admonitions. Every preacher needs to constantly remind himself of these things. I try to give heed to them every time I preach.<\/p>\n
Don Fortner<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
The believer’s perfection <\/strong><\/p>\n I am most exceedingly distressed by my sins, and<\/p>\n feel the need of Jesus’ precious blood every hour!<\/p>\n I need a supply from the Fountain! “On that day<\/p>\n a fountain <\/strong>will be opened . . . a fountain to cleanse<\/p>\n them from all their sins and defilement.” Zech. 13:1<\/em><\/p>\n Feeling fully what I am in myself, and proving<\/p>\n afresh that “in my flesh dwells no good thing”\u2014<\/p>\n in this sad state I fly to Jesus <\/strong>as my only refuge!<\/p>\n Oh that the depth of my sin and misery may be<\/p>\n overcome by His rich grace, that with Mary I may<\/p>\n weep at His dear feet, and love much, having<\/p>\n much forgiven. While in the body we shall never be free from sin. I had been looking for something from and in my<\/p>\n flesh<\/em> which the Word of God does not warrant me<\/p>\n to expect. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh”<\/p>\n \u2014and ever will be!<\/p>\n The believer’s perfection<\/strong> is in Christ. Oh that<\/p>\n He may condescend to teach me, and lead me to<\/p>\n look straight out of self\u2014to a glorious Christ!<\/p>\n “And you are complete in Him.” Colossians 2:10<\/em><\/p>\n Ruth Bryan<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n As each part does it`s work.<\/p>\n “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work<\/strong>.” Ephes. 4:16<\/p>\n In a gigantic piece of machinery the small <\/strong>wheels have \u00a0their place and purpose as well as the large <\/strong>ones. God \u00a0gives His weak ones work to do, for which even His strong ones are unequal.<\/p>\n John MacDuff<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Weary?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n “Then Jesus said, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary<\/strong> and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28<\/p>\n The Lord’s purpose in laying burdens upon us is to <\/strong>weary<\/strong> us out<\/strong>. We cannot learn our \u00a0religion in any other way. We cannot learn<\/p>\n it from the Bible, nor from the experience of others. It must be a personal work, wrought in the heart of each; and we must be brought, all of us, if ever we are to find rest in Christ, to be absolutely wearied out of sin and self<\/strong>, \u00a0and to have no righteousness, goodness, or holiness of our own. The effect, then, of all spiritual labor is to bring us to this point: to be weary<\/strong> of the world<\/strong>, for we feel it, for the most part, to be a valley of tears; to be weary<\/strong> of self<\/strong>, for it is our greatest plague; weary<\/strong> of professors<\/strong>, for we cannot see in them the grace of God, which alone we prize and value; weary<\/strong> of the profane, for their ungodly conversation<\/p>\n only hurts our minds; weary<\/strong> of our bodies<\/strong>, for they are often full of sickness and pain, and always clogs to our soul; and weary<\/strong> of life<\/strong>, for we see the emptiness of those things which to most eople make life so agreeable.<\/p>\n By this painful experience we come to this point: to be worn out and wearied<\/strong>; and there we must come, before we can rest entirely on Christ.<\/p>\n As long as we can rest in the world<\/strong>, we shall rest in it. As long as the things of time and sense can gratify us, we shall be gratified in them. As long as we can find anything pleasing in self<\/strong>, we shall be pleased with it. As long as anything visible and tangible can satisfy us, we shall be satisfied with them. But when we get weary<\/strong> of all things visible, tangible, and sensible\u2014weary<\/strong> of ourselves, and of all things here below\u2014then we want to rest upon Christ, and Christ alone.<\/p>\n “Then Jesus said, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary<\/strong> and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28\u00a0\u00a0 -J.C. Philpot.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Preaching from the Heart<\/p>\n Bro. Scott Richardson once described preaching like this: \u201cPreaching is getting a message from God\u2019s heart to my heart, and from my heart to your heart.\u201d When I hear a man preach, I want to hear a man preach from his heart. When I preach, I want to preach from my heart; and I want to speak to your heart. Anything less is not preaching, but just filling time with religious exercise.<\/p>\n Let no one mistake my meaning. I do not suggest or imply that doctrine is secondary. It is not. Gospel doctrine is vital. But the Gospel must be preached from the heart, passionately, with fire in the soul. It is written, \u201cHe maketh His ministers a flame of fire\u201d (Hebrews 1:7).<\/p>\n Two hundred years ago John Rusk wrote, \u201cI want an experimental preacher, one who, when he has had one meal, is tried how he shall get the next; one who is tormented with devils fit to tear him limb from limb; one who feels hell inside himself and every corruption in his nature stirred up to oppose God\u2019s work; one who feels so weak that every day he gets over, he views it as next to a miracle; one who is hated with perfect hatred by the flying troop of hypocrites in our day.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know how to explain what it is to preach under the unction of the Holy Ghost, but I know what that unction is. I know when it is present and when it is absent; and I want never to preach again without it!<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wise Counsel for Preachers to Follow The year was 1768. A young preacher by the name of Augustus Toplady, who wrote many of our best hymns, including \u201cRock of Ages\u201d, spent the afternoon in London with an older, veteran Gospel preacher, whom he greatly admired and from whom he learned much. The older preacher was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin-editions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":515,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions\/515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}