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There are two ways of preaching the Gospel to lost people today. The first way is usually called “Easy Believism.” The second way is called “Lordship Salvation.” There is obviously something wrong with both of these methods because neither one of them have been used by God in an awakening of any great magnitude in the English-speaking world since the 1859 revival.

Also, leading preachers have said that most church members today have never been converted. In our book, Preaching to a Dying Nation, my associate Dr. C. L. Cagan and I quoted many such leaders who pointed out that most Evangelicals and Fundamentalists are lost, including Sunday School teachers, deacons, pastor’s wives, and even pastors themselves. Dr. A. W. Tozer said, “Among evangelical churches probably no more than one out of ten know anything experientially about the new birth.” Dr. W. A. Criswell, the famous Southern Baptist pastor of the large First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, said, “he would be surprised to meet 25% of his members in heaven.” Back in the 1940’s a young Billy Graham declared that 85% of our church members “had never been born again.” Dr. Monroe “Monk” Parker, speaking of fundamentalist churches, said, “If we could get half the church members saved we would see a great revival. In fact, I think if we could get half of the preachers in America converted, we would see a mighty revival” (Monroe “Monk” Parker, Through Sunshine and Shadows, Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1987, pp. 61, 72).

All of these figures are footnoted from their sources in our book, Preaching to a Dying Nation (pp. 42, 43). These numbers given by Dr. A. W. Tozer, Dr. W. A. Criswell, a young Billy Graham, and Dr. “Monk” Parker are only estimates, of course. But they show that these leading figures believed something was terribly wrong with the way we do evangelism. And, as I said, the two methods used in presenting the Gospel are “Easy Believism” and “Lordship Salvation.” Neither one of them have been used by God to produce very many real conversions.

The first way is usually called “Easy Believism.” That is the majority method used by Evangelicals and Fundamentalists today. It depends on getting the lost person to say what they call “The Sinner’s Prayer,” asking Jesus to “come into their heart.” Then the lost people are considered “saved,” even though they show no sign of change, go on living in deep sin, refusing to attend church regularly. There are literally millions of people in this condition in the English-speaking world.

The second method of evangelism is called “Lordship Salvation.” This method arose as a reaction against “Easy Believism.” But “Lordship Salvation” has failed to correct “Easy Believism.” Although those holding this view often have more light than the others, their method has never been used in classical revival, nor has it been used, in any major way, to add real converts to our churches. “Lordship” preachers attempt to correct the lawlessness and sin of “Easy Believism” by strongly and repeatedly stressing doctrine, and what they call “repentance.” This usually results in the lost person holding a form of “Sandemanianism,” and in holding a form of works righteousness. “Sandemanianism” refers to belief in Bible verses and doctrine, rather than Jesus Christ Himself. It is trust in Bible verses and doctrines, rather than trusting Jesus Christ Himself. One of these preachers said, “We must believe or trust in what God has done.” Though he may not know it, this is a definition of “Sandemanianism.” It tells the sinner he will be saved by trusting what the Bible says instead of trusting Jesus Christ Himself. See the chapter on “Sandemanianism” in Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ book, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors, Banner of Truth, 2002 edition, pp. 170-190. Also click here to read an article on “Sandemanianism” on Wikipedia. Click here to read my sermon on Sandemanianism.

The Pharisees in the time of Christ did not depend on any form of “Easy Believism.” They lived outwardly clean lives. They studied the Scriptures constantly and believed them. What was missing in their lives? Only one thing – Jesus Christ Himself! Jesus said to them,

“Search the scriptures; for in them [the Scriptures] ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life” (John 5:39, 40).

C. H. Spurgeon said, “That faith which saves the soul is believing on a person, depending upon Jesus” (“The Warrant of Faith,” The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, volume 9, Pilgrim Publications, 1979, p. 530).

In that same sermon Spurgeon said, “The mere knowledge of these facts [in the Bible] will not, however, save us, unless we really and truly trust our souls in the Redeemer’s hands” (ibid.).

The Prodigal Son, as we saw in the text, knew that the “father” had “bread enough and to spare” (Luke 15:17). But the mere knowledge of those facts did not save him from starvation. He had to come directly to the “father” to receive the “bread.” Belief in the Bible, even true belief in it, never saved anyone. Men can believe the Bible, and the great creeds, like the Westminster Catechism, without being saved. The Apostle Paul spoke of “the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (II Timothy 3:15). Belief in the Bible, and the creeds based on it, will not save. The Bible points us to Jesus Christ. We are saved “through faith which is in Christ Jesus”! We are not saved by saying the words of a “sinner’s prayer.” We are not saved by believing what the Bible says about Jesus. We are not saved by obedience to Christ the Lord. We can only be saved “through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (II Timothy 3:15). The Bible makes that clear when it says, “by grace are ye saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). And that faith must be centered on Jesus alone. As the Apostle Paul put it, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). My colleague Dr. C. L. Cagan said, “In fact, we are saved by a ‘direct’ trust in Christ, who is greater than these other things – ‘And he is before all things, and by him all things consist,’ Colossians 1:17” (Preaching to a Dying Nation, p. 220). Understanding this one basic truth would cure all forms of “Easy Believism” and “Lordship Salvation.”

What I am presenting here, we call “The Third Way – Crisis Conversion.” The first way is salvation by saying the “Sinner’s Prayer.” The second way is attempting to make Jesus Lord – which no totally depraved sinner could ever do! But the “Third Way – Crisis Conversion” is the Scriptural way of true conversion. I have coined the term “Crisis Conversion” – but it is only a name for the “old-school” views; it is only a new name for classical Protestant and Baptist conversion. “Crisis Conversion” is what Luther experienced. “Crisis Conversion” is what John Bunyan, George Whitefield, John Wesley, and C. H. Spurgeon experienced – and every other person who was truly converted before the “Sinner’s Prayer” and “Lordship Salvation” became popular – and all but destroyed the concept of the older “Crisis Conversion” of our Baptist and Protestant forefathers. To do this, I am going to describe “depravity,” and then I am going to describe “awakening.”

I. First, here is a description of man’s “depravity” as revealed in the third way of “Crisis Conversion.”

I have chosen the account of the Prodigal Son to illustrate what we mean by old-fashioned “Crisis Conversion,” as it occurred until it began to be replaced by “The Sinner’s Prayer” and “Lordship Salvation.”

The Prodigal Son was a sinner. He asked for his inheritance and took off from home “into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living” (Luke 15:13). That is what all of us do, in one way or another. We turn our backs on Christ and live without Him in a state of sin. We reject Christ, just as the Prodigal Son rejected his father. In fact, in our unconverted state, we despise and reject the Saviour, just as the Prodigal Son, by his actions, showed how much he despised and rejected his father,

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3).

In our hearts we were enemies of God and His Son. We were not subject to the law of God, as the Prodigal was not subject to the law of his father,

“Because the carnal mind [a lost person’s mind] is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7).

Our hearts were incorrigibly rebellious against the Saviour. In fact we are totally depraved sinners, without even a spark of righteousness in us. The Apostle Paul said that we were “dead in trespasses and sins,” and we were under the control of Satan, “the god of this world” (Ephesians 2:1).

If you are unsaved, that is not a pretty picture of you. The Apostle said, “They are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:9, 10). The prophet Isaiah described your spiritual condition graphically when he said,

“...the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores...” (Isaiah 1:5,6).

This was the condition of the Prodigal Son. The Bible says, “he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he [longed to fill] his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him” (Luke 15:15, 16). And it is your condition as well. The “citizen of that country” is the Devil, who controls your mind, “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). You are trapped in this horrible condition, a slave of Satan, living the life of a slave to Satan, “dead in sins” (Ephesians 2:5). This is known as total depravity. This was the condition of the Prodigal Son. His own father said that he was “dead” and that he was “lost.” He said, “This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found...” (Luke 15:24).

In your rebellion against Christ, you think you are free. But you are really a slave, entangled in sin, dead to the things of God, dominated and held in captivity by Satan. You are controlled by the Devil so much, that you actually think your slavery to sin is freedom! You are a hopeless case, totally depraved, just like the Prodigal, who was reduced to a hopeless life of slavery to sin. And you will argue with anyone who describes to you your lost condition.

II. Second, here is a description of the “awakening” of a sinner to his misery, as revealed in the third way of “Crisis Conversion.”

“And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” (Luke 15:17).

“When he came to himself.” That is, when he came to his senses, when he awakened from the coma of sin, the stupor and lifelessness of sin. “When he came to himself”; when he was awakened from the sleep of death – then he thought, “I perish.” This is the awakening of a lost sinner to feel the misery, the torment, the sorrow of living in sin. This awakening can only be produced by the Holy Spirit. In commenting on this text, Spurgeon said,

The insane man does not know he is insane, but as soon as he comes to himself he painfully [sees] perceives the state from which he is escaping. Returning then to true reason and sound judgment, the prodigal came to himself (C.H. Spurgeon, MTP, Pilgrim Publications, 1977 reprint, volume 17, p. 385).

This awakening is like that of a man who has been hypnotized, and then made to wake up again. In the Greek legend Circe, the enchantress, transformed men into pigs. But Ulysses forced the enchantress to restore his companions to their original human form. So the Spirit of God awakened the Prodigal. Only then did he realize what a hopeless and awful situation he was in. The Apostle Paul spoke of “awakening” when he said,

“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14).

But the “awakening” of a lost sinner is not peaceful. And this is when the crisis takes place in the third way of real conversion. By far the most common way people are awakened is through preaching, as the Puritan Richard Baxter (1615-1691) often pointed out. Many preachers quote Romans 10:13 when preaching the Gospel. But hardly any of them think about the very next verse, which says, “How shall they hear without a preacher?”

That is why we must have evangelistic preaching in church. “How shall they hear without a preacher?” And preachers need to learn how to preach evangelistically to the lost. Very few preachers know how to prepare and deliver an evangelistic sermon today – very few indeed! I have not heard anyone preach an evangelistic sermon correctly for many years! It has become a thing of the past. That is a major reason that most people attending our churches regularly remain unsaved! “How shall they hear without a preacher?”

Evangelistic preaching must show the sinner that he is doomed unless he comes to Jesus. It must show him that sin lies in the very root of his being. Not “sins,” but sin itself, separates God from him. Sin is characterized by rebellion and selfishness. The sinner must be made to face the fact that, like the Prodigal, he is overwhelmingly rebellious against God – and overwhelmingly selfish. The lost sinner must hear this preached from the pulpit until he sees that he must have a radical change in his heart. This must be stressed until the sinner begins to really try to change his heart. His attempts at changing his heart will always fail. And it is this failure that further awakens the sinner to the horrible truth about his lostness. He must be told repeatedly that he is lost. He must be told to strive to find Christ. He must be told to “Strive to enter in at the strait gate…” (Luke 13:24). As the sinner strives and fails, strives and fails, and strives and fails again, he will at last feel hopelessly lost. This is exactly the way he must feel, or he will never find rest in Jesus.

This is called “law preaching” – which all the old, classical preachers did – until sinners gave up all hope of changing themselves! This is what the verse means that says, “By the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). By repeatedly failing to become a holy person, by repeatedly failing to find peace with God – and especially, by repeatedly failing to come to Jesus – the sinner begins to think, “I really am lost!” This is the awakening he must have!

“And when he came to himself, he said… I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father…” (Luke 15:17-18).

At this point, when the sinner has given up all hope of “getting it right” or “doing it the right way” – he may then “come to himself” – wake up and realize that he must rest in Jesus, because he can’t do anything to save himself!

“And when he came to himself.” The Prodigal had to go through an inner turmoil, Hell on earth, like Bunyan went through, before he “came to himself,” before his mind was changed in true repentance. After all, the Greek word translated “repent” means “a change of mind.” This is “the third way.” This is “crisis conversion.” “I am nothing but a hypocrite and a rebellious sinner!” “There is no hope for me.” “I am in a crisis! I have to change – but I can’t! I can’t! I can’t! I’ve tried! I’ve tried! The harder I try, the more impossible it is! I can’t ‘repent’! I can’t change! I can’t change! I can’t change my heart! I’m lost! I’m lost! I’m lost!” Isn’t that exactly what happened to Luther, Bunyan, John Wesley, Whitefield, Spurgeon, and Dr. John Sung – and every other true convert?

Very good. I am glad you finally feel like them! Now perhaps you will find rest in Jesus. Now perhaps you will feel His love, that drove Him to the Cross to save you – because you couldn’t save yourself! Then you will feel gratitude toward Jesus, for dying on the Cross as your substitute, and shedding His Blood to cleanse you from all sin! Then you will be grateful to Jesus for the rest of your life – because you have experienced His grace, His love, and His salvation in a real “Crisis Conversion” – the only kind that changes the heart and saves the soul from the wrath of God! I hope you see how this is different from “Easy Believism” and “Lordship Salvation.” And I pray that this will be your experience as you trust Jesus, and are cleansed by His precious Blood! Then I pray that you will be enabled to sing with Charles Wesley,

Jesus, Lover of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly,
   While the nearer waters roll, While the tempest still is high!
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide, Till the storm of life is past;
   Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.

Plenteous grace with Thee is found, Grace to cover all my sin;
   Let the healing streams abound; Make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art, Freely let me take of Thee;
   Spring Thou up within my heart; Rise to all eternity.
(“Jesus, Lover of My Soul” by Charles Wesley, 1707-1788).

If you would like to speak with us about being saved from sin by Jesus, please leave your chair now and walk to the back of the auditorium. Dr. Cagan will take you to another room where we can pray and talk. Dr. Chan, please pray that someone will trust Jesus tonight. Amen.

(END OF SERMON)
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Scripture Read Before the Sermon by Mr. Abel Prudhomme: Luke 15:14-19.
Solo Sung Before the Sermon by Mr. Benjamin Kincaid Griffith:
“Jesus, Lover of My Soul” (by Charles Wesley, 1707-1788).

A CAUTION FOR EXPOSITORY PREACHING

by Iain H. Murray
(Trustee of the Banner of Truth Trust)

In a number of circles today “expository preaching” is in vogue, and it is being urged on preachers as the way to preach. If this means that the preacher’s one business is to confine himself to the text of Scripture, and to make the sense plain to others, there is nothing more to discuss; who can disagree save those who do not know that the Bible is the word of God.

But “expository preaching” has often come to mean something more. The phrase is popularly used to describe preaching which consecutively takes a congregation through a passage, or book of Scripture, week by week. This procedure is compared with the method of preaching on individual texts that may have no direct connection with each other from one Sunday to the next. The latter is discouraged in favour of the “expository” method.

Why has this view of “expository preaching” become comparatively popular? There are several reasons. First, it is believed that the practice will raise the standard of preaching. By a consecutive treatment of a book of Scripture, it is said, the preacher is taken away from any hobby-horses, and congregations are more likely to be given a broader, more intelligent grasp of all Scripture. The preacher is also delivered from a constant search for texts—he and the people know what is before them. These reasons are perhaps confirmed for younger preachers by the fact that at our main conventions and conferences the well-known speakers commonly deal with one passage in a few addresses, and when these find their way into print they are taken as models of the best way of preaching. Published sermons of any other kind are few and far between, for publishers definitely favour the “expository” on the grounds of their popularity.¹

In our view, however, it is time that the disadvantages of this view of preaching are at least considered:

1.  It assumes that all preachers are capable of making effective sermons along these lines. But men have different gifts. Spurgeon was not unfamiliar with “expository preaching” (listening to sermons in his youth he had sometimes wished the Hebrews had kept their epistle to themselves!), and he decided it was not best suited to his gifts. There is reason to think that being an effective “expository” preacher is not such a common gift as some seem to think. Even Dr. Lloyd-Jones was 20 years into his ministry before he slowly introduced “expository” series.

2.  The argument that the “expository” method is the best means to cover most of the Bible is too largely connected with the idea that the foremost purpose of preaching is to convey as much as possible of the Bible. But that idea needs to be challenged. Preaching needs to be much more than an agency of instruction. It needs to strike, awaken, and arouse men and women so that they themselves become bright Christians and daily students of Scripture. If the preacher conceives his work primarily in terms of giving instruction, rather than of giving stimulus, the sermon, in most hands, very easily becomes a sort of weekly “class”—an end in itself. But true preaching needs to ignite an ongoing process.

3.  Significantly, the churches—particularly in Scotland—once distinguished between “the sermon” and “the lecture.” The word “lecture” was not used in any pejorative sense, it simply meant what is now commonly meant by “expository preaching,” namely, the consecutive treatment of a passage or book. The commentaries of John Brown of Broughton Place, Edinburgh, originated in this way. So did Lloyd-Jones’ work on Romans—he called those expositions “lectures”; the difference between a sermon and a lecture, in his view, being that a sermon is a rounded whole, a distinct message—complete in itself—whereas the lecture on Scripture is part of something larger and ongoing. In contrast with his Romans, Lloyd-Jones conceived the contents of his Ephesians as sermons, and anyone comparing his procedure in these two series (the first done on a Friday night, the second on a Sunday morning) can quickly see the difference. This is not to devalue his Romans, the purpose was different.

4.  At the end of the day, the best preaching is preaching which helps the hearers most, and in that connection the track record of the consecutive “expository” method is not impressive. It has never proved popular in the long term, and the reason for that, I think, is clear: a sermon needs a text as the basis for a memorable message. The text may be remembered when all else is gone in the mind of hearers. Sometime, it is true, a text may be a paragraph rather than a verse—a Gospel parable or a narrative, for instance—but if, as often happens with “expository preaching,” a series of verses is regularly made “the text,” then a whole series of ideas get into the sermon, and clear over-all lessons (such as one may see in Spurgeon’s sermons) are lost. The preacher has become only a commentator. Sometimes he even ceases to give out a text from the passage he intends to take. But people could commonly get the same help, and perhaps better, by taking up a book teaching the same section of Scripture. But, it may be said, “Is not Lloyd-Jones’ Ephesians both expository and textual preaching? He enforces only a few leading thoughts at one time, and yet proceeds consecutively—why cannot others do the same?” The answer is that Lloyd-Jones did bring the textual and the expository together in his Ephesians, but this is exactly the type of preaching that is not within the gift of most preachers. Too many tyros have tried to preach verse-by-verse through major books of Scripture with near-disastrous results. It is arguable that this is one of the reasons why “reformed” preaching has, in more than one place, been criticised as “heavy” or plain “dull.” The less ambitious, who also adopt the “expository” mode, make no attempt to use single verses for their texts, and that is the danger that too easily turns preaching into a running commentary.

5.  Evangelistic preaching does not best fit the “expository” mode; in fact, where the “expository” is exclusively used, true evangelistic preaching to heart and conscience commonly disappears. It may be said that if this is true it is the fault of the man, not the passage, for is not all Scripture given by inspiration of God and profitable? Surely, it is objected, all Scripture may be used of the Spirit of God to awaken and reach the lost? It may, but it is clear from Scripture that there are particular truths most adapted to speak to non-Christians (witness our Lord’s example) and that it is these truths, and the texts that best epitomise them, which have special and regular prominence in most effective evangelistic ministries. The men most used in the conversion of sinners in the past have known what these texts are—Whitefield, McCheyne, Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones and a host of others knew. Today there is some danger of their being forgotten. When did you last hear a sermon on “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul”?

This is not an argument that the whole concept of consecutive preaching through a passage is wrong, simply that it must not be allowed to have an exclusive place in pulpit ministry. Let each preacher find what he is best able to do, and let it be ever remembered that, whatever the method of presenting the truth, it is preachers filled with faith and the Holy Spirit who are needed most at this hour. More than correct teaching is needed: we need messages that will move congregations and even sway communities.

Lest anyone should think the above observations are novel, I close with the opinion of one of the greatest preachers of the last century, R. B. Kuiper. His biographer points out that he refused to allow the term “expository” to be applied only to sermons given in serial form on passages or books of Scripture. The word should apply to all exposition of Scripture worthy of the name. He continues:

“It follows that it is a serious error to recommend expository preaching as one of several legitimate methods. Nor is it at all satisfactory, after the manner of many conservatives, to extol the expository method as the best. All preaching must be expository.... He was also objecting to the commonly held opinion that only a running commentary on an extended portion of Scripture (a chapter, perhaps) could be called expository preaching. The running commentary type of preaching has certain glaring faults, according to Kuiper. The exegesis tends to be superficial, since so much material has to be covered. And such sermons often lack unity, so that the hearer has no clear idea as to just what the sermon is about.”²

Whatever method the preacher adopts, the following words of Kuiper are relevant for all:

“A simple...yet forceful delivery commands both respect and response. Enthusiasm inspires. Logic is convincing, the illogical confusing. As preachers let us have a heart. Let us stop wearying our audiences. Let us make our preaching so absorbingly interesting that even the children would rather listen to us than draw pictures and will thus put to shame their paper-and-pencil-supplying parents. But we may as well make up our minds that an absolute prerequisite of such preaching is the most painstaking preparation.”³

FOOTNOTES

1. I am not necessarily deploring this. There are good reasons why the “expository” appeals on the printed page, but is dangerous to conclude that what is best for readers is also best for hearers. Reading and listening are two different things.
2. Edward Heerema, R.B., A Prophet in the Land (Jordan Station, Ontario [Paideia, 1986]), pp. 138–9.
3. Ibid, p. 204.