Evangelism on the Foundation of the Reformed Faith by the Preaching of Christ
Summer 2024
In evangelicalism today it is common to view those that hold to reformed theology as standing in the way of evangelism. Many of the same feel that those who hold to the sovereignty of God in salvation are fatalists and lack zeal. It is assumed that the reformed Church is all head and no heart. They are all theology, but no passion. But to assume this is wrong.
The reformed faith has a history of red-hot, passionate, and Christ-centered preaching. Furthermore, it is from this spring of the Reformed Faith that the modern mission’s movement sprung. It is from this well that men like Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones, the Bonar brothers, M'Cheyne, Carey, and Whitefield came. Many of these men are recognized across the board as being forceful evangelists behind the pulpit and out of it. When they preached, they thundered from the pulpit the reformed faith and pursued sinners with holy violence. These men pressed the crown rights of King Jesus upon every soul to whom they preached. Though they were Calvinists, they did not weaken their evangelism one iota. Rather than putting cold water on a fire, their reformed theology was like putting gasoline on a fire. People came out to watch them burn.
Perhaps there is no better example of the wedding together of the reformed faith by the preaching of Christ and evangelistic zeal than is seen in the Rev. Samuel Davies. That name may be unfamiliar to you, but Dr. Lloyd-Jones said that he was the most eloquent preacher the American continent has produced. The Rev. Davies was born in Delaware on November 3, 1723 to Welsh immigrants. Years later, Davies was mightily used in the South, particularly in the state of Virginia. He was a contemporary of men like Gilbert Tennent and Jonathan Edwards. He was a Presbyterian, and he preached the Word of God with passion and pleaded with sinners to come to Christ. The reality of this is seen in his sermons.
Samuel Davies' sermon on John 3:16, which he entitled, The Nature of Salvation through Jesus Christ Explained and Recommended, shows ample desire to bring together the reformed faith with an urgent appeal to sinners to be saved. In this sermon he clearly gets to the heart of the issue, which is the human heart. As he unpacks this text, he begins first with this: “My text implies that without Christ you are all in a perishing condition.”1 The preacher must begin here, with the sinfulness of man. For how can grace ever be sweet if a man knows not his condition as a depraved sinner? Man must be confronted by the reality of his sinfulness before a holy and just God. Davies goes on to explain the condition of men:
“[They]are sinners, rebels against the greatest and best of beings, against their Maker, their liberal Benefactor, and their rightful Sovereign…all sinners without exception: sinners from age to age for thousands of years…There appears no difficulty in the way of justice to punish such creatures. But what seeming insuperable difficulties appear in the way of salvation! Let me mention a few of them to recommend the blessed Saviour who has removed them all.”2
Before heaven can be sweet, the sinner must taste the bitterness of sin. He must hear the law condemn him. He must know the moral holiness of God as the prophet declared, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity” (Habakkuk 1:13). He must know the justice of God and that if a man does not repent, God will sharpen His sword and thrust him through (Psalm 7:11–12). A man must know that it is his iniquities that have separated him from God and his sins have hidden God’s face from him (Isaiah 59:2). A man must know that he is utterly incapable of doing anything to save himself, and the best he can offer is filthy rags in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6). As Davies is driving the sword of God’s Word into the hearts of men and causing them to see their sinful condition, he will now show them how God through His Son has dealt with sin. He will show them how God can be both “just and justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).
Davies shows how Jesus endured the wrath of God upon the cross for His elect people. Jesus did not die to make salvation possible for all men, but died to accomplish redemption for a people. Jesus died to satisfy the righteous wrath of God against the sins of His people. Rather than feeling that this reformed view of salvation had constrained or truncated the offer of the gospel, Davies pressed men that the “grand pre-requisite to your being saved…is faith in Jesus Christ.”3 Davies gets to the “you” in preaching. He engages the mind, stirs the heart, and summons the will. As he is preaching, he is constantly lifting high the blessed Savior. The Savior remains central in his preaching of the reformed faith.
But as he draws to the end of the sermon, he draws the gospel net. He does what is so needful: he presses upon men, and pleads with them to come to the Savior. Hear his words:
“I have set this day life and death before you…And now I would bring the matter home, and propose it to you all to consent to be saved in this method, or, in other words, to believe the only begotten Son of God; this proposal I seriously make to you…I also insist for a determinate answer this day; the matter will not admit of a delay, and the duty is so plain, that there is no need of time to deliberate…Before you leave this house, or go out of hearing, I insist on a full, decisive answer of this proposal, Whether you will believe in Jesus Christ this day, or not?”4
Here is a man in earnest as he preaches Christ. Davies ends his sermon with this passionate appeal:
“I call heaven and earth, and your own consciences to witness, that life and salvation, through Jesus Christ, have been offered to you on this day; and if you reject it…you may witness for me at the supreme tribunal, that I am clear of your blood…Many sermons forgotten upon earth are remembered in hell, and haunt the guilty mind for ever. Oh that you would believe!”5
It is this preaching that we desire to characterize the pulpits of the FPCNA. It is this preaching that calls for the verdict. This is who we are. This is our lineage and our heritage. The founder of our denomination, Rev. Ian Paisley, modeled this preaching, did he not? Though he was a Calvinist, he was a red-hot evangelist who called for men to give their lives to Christ as he heralded the Word of God. Dr. Alan Cairns demonstrated what it was to be a Christ-centered expositor of the reformed faith. His voice still booms through the radio airwaves, “Preaching Christ in all His fullness to sinners in all their need!”
May this flaming torch of the Christ-centered preaching of the reformed faith, coupled with a fervent zeal for evangelism be passed on to the succeeding generations within our denomination. May the Lord be pleased in His providence to raise up men with a passion to expound the Word and then press that Word upon the hearts of sinners.
Rev. John Kelly | Licensed minister, Northwoods FPC, ME