Iain Murray
“Preach Christ and leave doctrines alone,” has been the popular outcry. As though it were possible to declare who Jesus is, and the necessity and nature of conversion, without teaching doctrine! Beneath such a statement there lies the common delusion that it matters not what a man believes so long as he rests on Christ in some vague way. We are here concerned to assert that not only doctrine in general, but the doctrines of grace in particular are necessary for a correct presentation of the Gospel. We mean such doctrines as fallen man's total inability, the sovereign mercy of God in election and the almighty work of the Holy Ghost in conversion. Now the objection which confronts us is one which is widely accepted by evangelicals, namely that whatever be the truth of these doctrines, they have no essential place in the preaching of the Gospel, they are not necessary for Scriptural evangelism. There can be no question that this commonly accepted view has governed the presentation of the Gospel fro many years, yet when we stand aside for a moment from the opinions of our times and look back across the centuries, we are met with the plain fact that this view is in reality a radical departure from the evangelical witness of former generations. We are not therefore raising this matter in a controversial spirit byt out of the conviction that the spiritual barrenness of our days, the withdrawal of the powerful operations of the Holy Ghost, the widespread absence of the fear of God among the people, may well be related to this variance in our presentation of the Gospel.
Now of course the only way to ascertain whether such variance does in fact exist is to examine some church history. Let us then direct our attention to periods when the Spirit of God was mightily poured out upon people under the ministry of the Word. How was the Gospel presented in such times? Under what kind of doctrines were multitudes savingly converted? We will look at three perio9ds during the last 300 years when the operations of the Spirit in great power have been in evidence.
Between the years 1625-1630, there was a widespread revival of serious religion in Scotland, wrought through preaching attended by the authority of the Holy Ghost. Five hundred persons traced their conversion to one sermon preached by John Livingstone in 1630 at Kirk of Shotts. At Irvine, multitudes under deep concern for their souls attended the preaching of David Dickson. “Few,” says Howie “were more instrumental in this work than he.” On Monday evenings (being market day) Dickson preached to large congregations, many coming in from the countryside. This was accompanied by such distressing, then saving effects, that a revival known as the “Stewarton sickness” broke out in the area. Listen then to something of Dickson's preaching; from his text 2 Timothy 2:19, he concludes: “that the doctrine of election and reprobation is a doctrine which may be safely taught and propounded unto people, albeit men say it should not be meddled with, because (say they) “it makes some men despair, and others become careless what they do.” I answer, let God make an answer for His own doctrine, who has commanded us to teach it... The apostle says boldly, the election obtained it and the rest were blinded. Would Christ have propounded this doctrine if it had been dangerous? Therefore we oppose to such canal men, secure sleepers in sin, this doctrine of Christ and His apostles, clearly set down in scripture. Let non take offense at this doctrine, for Christ's sheep will hear His voice and if any will startle away, let them go... This doctrine is a strong attractive to draw back those who are fallen in error or vice, that they lie not in it; for this doctrine forces such men to turn to God, or else, to take on the name of reprobates... It is a doctrine meant for this age, wherein God is mocked and blaspheme by the lewd lives of those who are called Christians, to tell them that they must either turn to God, or take home with them those black tidings, that they are vessels of dishonour, fitted for destruction. This doctrine is very needful to put men to their decisions; and yet it condemns not a man to hell presently, who is lying in sin; but it tells him that there are some elect who will come home; and some reprobate, who will not come home. Therefore, if a man be elect, albeit for the time he be a deboshed villain, this doctrine will serve him for the third and last summons: for when he hears that he must either quit his sinful courses, or have no portion with God, presently he must resolve, I will renounce my old lovers, my uncleanness, worldliness, and turn in to God, and seek a covering to hide my vileness, and a garment to make me beautiful in the eyes of God. This effect will this doctrine work in the elect.”
Such was the preaching which accompanied the great Scottish awakening of the seventeenth century.
The next period when the soul-saving effects of the Gospel were so gloriously displayed was t the time of the New England revival. Jonathan Edwards, the foremost instrument in this movement has left us a full account of it, and of the sermons which he preached at that time, in his works. New England had flourished in the seventeenth century under the Gospel ministries of several eminent Puritans, but early in the eighteenth a marked decay in piety and seriousness became evident. “Mirth and jollity” and vain amusements began to engage the young. Concerning the year 1734, Edwards wrote, “Arminianism seemed to appear with a very threatening aspect upon the interest of religion here. The friends of vital piety trembled for fear of the issue. Many who looked on themselves as in a Christ-less condition seemed to be awaked by it, with fear that God was about to withdraw from the land, and that we should be given up to heterodoxy and corrupt principles; and that their opportunity for obtaining salvation would be past.”
Yet, as Edwards says,this event led to wonderful consequences. Despite the censure of some he began to oppose these errors in his preaching, and it was attended with a very remarkable blessing of heaven to the souls of the people. “In the latter part of December” (1734, Edwards' narrative continues) “the Spirit of God began extraordinarily to set in, and wonderfully to work amongst us... a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion, and the eternal world, became universal in all parts of the town, and amongst all persons of all degrees, and all ages...religion was with all sorts the great concern, and the world was a thing only by the bye. The only thing in their view was to get the kingdom of heaven. It was ten a dreadful thing amongst us to lie out of Christ...the number of true saints multiplied; the town seemed to be full of the presence of God: it never was so full of love, nor of joy, and yet so full of distress, as it was then... This remarkable pouring out of the Spirit of God extended from one end to the other of this country.” This is but a brief extract of the amazing account Edward gives, we are chiefly concerned with the doctrine preached at this time. “The drift of the Spirit of God in His legal strivings,” writes Edwards, “seemed most evidently to be to bring persons to a conviction of their absolute dependence on His sovereign power and grace... I think I have found that no discourses have been more remarkably blessed, than those in which the doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty, with regard to the salvation of sinners, and His just liberty, with regard to answering prayers of natural men have been insisted on... As to those in whom awakenings seem to have a saving issue, commonly the first thing that appears is a conviction of the justice of God in their condemnation. In giving an account of this, they expressed themselves very variously; some that they saw God was sovereign and might receive others and reject them; some, that they were convinced, God might justly bestow mercy on every person in the town, in the world, and damn themselves to all eternity; some that if they should seek, and take the utmost pains all their lives, God might justly cast them into hell at last, because all their labours, prayers and tears cannot make atonement for the least sin...some have declared themselves to be in the hands of God, that He may dispose of them just as He pleases.
Whatever Minister has a like occasion to deal with souls under such circumstances, I cannot but think he will soon find himself under a necessity, greatly to insist upon it with them, that God is under no manner of obligation to show mercy to any natural man... It appears to me, that if I had taught those who came to me under trouble, any other doctrine I should have taken a most direct course to undo them. I should have directly crossed what was plainly the drift of the Spirit of God in His influences upon them, and blocked up their way to that humiliation before the Sovereign Disposer of life, and death, whereby God is wont to prepare them for His consolations.”
In 1745 similar effects followed David Brainerd's evangelistic ministry among the Indians, resulting in a widespread revival. Scores of instances similar to the following could be quoted from Brainerd's narrative—“Those whom I have reason to think in a Christless state, were almost universally seized with concern for their souls. It was an amazing season of power among them, and seemed as if God had 'bowed the heavens and come down.' So astonishingly prevalent was the operation upon old as well as young, that it seemed as if non would be left in a secure and natural state...numbers of men and women, old and young, might be seen in tears, some in anguish of spirit...so that there seemed here a lively emblem of the solemn days of accounts; a mixture of heaven and hell, of joy and anguish inexpressible.” concerning his presentation of the Gospel Brainerd writes, “Those doctrines, which had the most direct tendency to humble the fallen creature, to show him the misery of his natural state, to bring him down to the foot of Sovereign Mercy, and to exalt the great Redeemer— discover His transcendent excellency—were the subject matter of what was delivered.” Brainerd records the effect of these doctrines upon numerous individuals; he is assured of conversion of one man for “his heart echoes to the soul humbling doctrines of grace, and he never appears better pleased than when he hears of the absolute sovereignty of God.” A woman who had long quarreled against God “because He would, if he pleased, send her to hell...was brought to a comfortable calm, and seemed to be bowed and reconciled to divine sovereignty; and told me 'she now saw and felt it was right God should do with her as He pleased.' Others,” continues Brainerd “were refreshed to find that love to God in themselves, which was an evidence of His electing love to them.”
Finally let us look briefly at the revival which began at Kilsyth in Scotland in 1839, and which spread to other parts of the land. The occasion of the outbreak of this awakening was the preaching of William Burns on the text Psalm 110:3, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.” Burns tells us that the heads of his sermon were these “I. The person spoken of—they are God's elect—those given to Christ of the Father. II. The promise of the Father to Emmanuel regarding those persons— 'they shall be willing.' III. The time of the promise—the day of Emmanuel's power.” In opening his discourse Burns insisted on man's inability to will what was pleasing to God, “it is the crowning part of man's depravity that his will is opposed to the will of God... this is the state of the fallen soul by nature; and therefore, my friends, when God brings back in His infinite love the souls of His elect people, He makes them willing.” At the end of this sermon while he was pleading with the unconverted to close with God's offers of mercy, the Spirit of God descended upon the people. “During the whole of the time that I was speaking, the people listened with the most riveted and solemn attention; but at the last their feelings became too strong for all ordinary restraints and broke forth simultaneously in weeping and wailing, intermingled with shouts of joy and praise from some of the people of God. The appearance of a great part of the people from the pulpit gave me an awfully vivid picture of the state of the ungodly in the day of Christ's coming to judgment. Some were screaming out in agony; others, and among these strong men, fell to the ground as if they had been dead...”
Now what do all these quotations prove? They demonstrate that these doctrines have been predominant in times when God mightily honoured the preaching of the Gospel.
It remains for us to briefly summarize some reasons why these doctrines are essential to Scriptural presentation of the Gospel. The natural man is content to live “without God in the world” Eph.2:12 until he sees the dreadfulness of his condition and the desirableness of conversion. This discovery comes to him by the apprehension that he is a creature of God, could to obey His Law in every point, yet because of his sin unable to do so. His duty to meet God's righteous claims is the same as when God created him perfect and holy; his inability is a proof of the fall and of his sin. He is still a creature and has not lost his responsibility, but as a sinner he is now “not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” Rom. 8:7. He has lost his ability to obey God. Guilt and helplessness are the causes of the sinner's misery, and only when he comes to self-despair does he start to “fear God which is the beginning of wisdom” Psa. 111:10. Pride is the grand obstacle to conversion, and nothing more humbles man than to realize that he depends upon the sovereign mercy of God, and that Christ alone is able to save him.
Man's sinful inability applies equally to the commands of the Gospel. Faith and repentance are his duty, God has commanded them just as He has commanded the Law; but he can no more believe and love Christ than he can believe and love God—which is the first commandment. The natural man is no mere able to decide for Christ than he is able to decide to keep the Law. Therefore while the preacher is to exhort men to believe on Christ, he is at the same time to plainly declare that conversion is a work of Divine power. Saving faith is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8) and not to teach this leads to the fatal error of accepting a mere profession of assent to the Gospel as a sign of salvation. There is a 'temporary faith' Matt. 4:16-17, and there is the faith of devils who believe and tremble (James 2:19). “The faith of God' s elect” Titus 1:1 is of an entirely different nature and origin; it involves a renewal of the whole person; God makes a new creature, implants new principles in the soul—hatred of sin, love of holiness, desires for heaven. To teach that a soul has a saving faith before these marks of his “calling and election” (2 Peter 1:10) by God are evident, leads to Antinomianism, carelessness, and the eternal delusion of multitudes. Unless these truths of God's Sovereignty in conversion are taught, Luther rightly says, 'every man will bolster himself up with a delusive home pf a share in that salvation which is supposed to lie open to all; and thus genuine humility and fear of God would be kicked out of doors.” In conclusion we would assert that unless the doctrines of Grace underlie the presentation of the Gospel, a true view of the glorious nature of conversion is impossible. Edwards tells us that prior to the revival in New England there had been “a great deal of talk about conversion and spiritual experiences,” but when persons became the subjects of conversion they declared their former idea of it was “brought to nothing... they have seen themselves brought down, and become nothing, that free grace and divine power may be exalted in them.”
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