Good Morning!
Man, I forgot how much I like the ocean and everything around it. The weather was wonderful, and the kids had a blast so it made it double worth it. Plus I had fun as well, which I guess I am allowed to do. 😊 One of the parts of the beach that I love the most is the sound of the waves crashing along with the brightness of the sun and the sand. There is something aesthetically pleasing about the whole thing. It also has a habit of reminding me how insignificant I am in the scheme of things, at least as far as nature goes.
The water rolls in and rolls out no matter whether my existence is true or false.
Part of that humbling reality is quite an encouraging message. While the world moves on doing what it has done since the fall of Adam and the Flood, the Creator of that world has seen fit to be organizing things in His providence to call me to be a part of His kingdom, through the means of the preaching of the word, and the ordinances of His Church. He has sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to lay down His life for my sins, and raise me up from spiritual death to be united to Him by faith alone. It’s almost too much to take in. Remembering the greatness of the work of salvation is always helpful to remind us of why it is we are to be thankful and spend time meditating on some of what we talked about last week in the catechism lesson.
When God has ordered things in a certain way to accomplish a certain purpose it is sin to not go about doing them His way. The Lord is wiser than we are and He knows how best to do things. We probably wonder sometimes, for instance, about preaching. It seems a poor way (at least the way some of us do it) to communicate God’s word to the lost, to afflict the comfortable, and to comfort the afflicted. Paul had something to say about that in 1 Corinthians 1-3. Many people are convinced however that there’s got to be a better way, especially in our social media and visual age. To put not too fine a point on it, not our way, but God’s way needs to be the mantra of all believers.
In today’s Q/A we are going to hear a little bit more about the why’s of the ordinances of Christ’s Church as we get into the home stretch of the catechism.
Here are today’s questions:
Q. 89. How is the word made effectual to salvation?
A. The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.
Q. 90. How is the word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual to salvation?
A. That the word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.
So back to the inquiry about the what for’s of preaching. We read in the first catechism question that the Holy Spirit works in and through the proclamation of the gospel to convict ungodly men and women and bring them unto Christ, and to encourage those who are of the faith to continue to grow in holiness and virtue as befits a follower of King Jesus. This reflects my own experience of coming to be a citizen of Heaven. It was through the right preaching of the Rev. Dr. Ian Paisley that I was awakened out of my sinful self-righteous pigheadedness, made aware of my need of a Redeemer, and then my subsequent resting on Christ alone for salvation. Even those of you who can claim the covenantal blessing of never having known a day where the Lord was not yours can think back to particular sermons or moments in the exposition of Scripture where your heart was warmed and you saw more clearly the doctrines of truth, and had the Spirit apply them to your soul.
I kind of gave the answer away for what my next point was going to be, and that is to define preaching a little. Preaching is the act of a man (1 Tim. 3:1-7), lawfully called and sent (Rom. 10:9-15), teaching others of the word of God (Matt. 28:16-20) from the word of God (Neh. 8:8). Ordinarily this takes place during another of the Lord’s means of grace, the Sabbath Day where the saints are gathered together in corporate worship. Yet, there are plenty of examples, like my own, where this preaching takes place at camps, conferences, street corners, over the internet, etc... That being said there is something unique and helpful about listening to the man particularly called to be your pastor regularly, weekly, each and every Sunday morning and evening. There is a contract being followed there that is worth speaking more on in this post about the catechism questions.
What the Westminster Divines tease out in the Shorter Catechism they make more explicit in the Larger Catechism. In WLC #160 they write:
Q. 160. What is required of those that hear the word preached?
A. It is required of those that hear the word preached, that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation and prayer; examine what they hear by the scriptures; receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the word of God; meditate, and confer of it; hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives.
Something worth noticing is that our Larger Catechism clearly helps us to understand that preaching is a two-way street, it is something we are all involved with. It is not merely an activity where one person is laboring and others are spectating, just hearing words. Everyone who is present for the preaching of the word is actively involved in what is happening. I know this is completely not Presbyterian sounding, but I personally love the times I have been allowed access to the pulpit in a missionary baptist church, or even an AME congregation. The AMEN’S and the call and response is helpful, and in no sense distracting. It tells me that people are not just listening to what is being preached, but understand what our catechism questions from both the larger and shorter catechism are asking of us: to be engaged with what is happening during that portion of God’s worship.
In closing, what are all of us being asked to do in this? If y’all start talking during my sermon next week that would be great and I’d be all for it, but I don’t expect that. We are Presbyterians after all. 😊 What I do hope you take out of what we’ve looked at today is the importance of preparing for the preaching of the word, praying for me, and for yourself in readiness for the event of hearing from the Lord through the sent minister of His word. Understanding that preaching is never a “one-time event” that we forget about as soon as it is over, but are called to allow it to marinate in our hearts and minds, considering the leading of the Spirit in conviction and hope, and take it with us through the week as we look forward to more exposition of the Bible that we might be built up in love for the Christian walk that is before us, both this day, and forevermore.
Here is another read on this:
https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/westminster-preaching-preparation-hearing
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church