the beams of our house

Whilst away in one of our other congregations elsewhere in the Highlands I heard a precious sermon on a text that is not expounded as frequently as others. The following are not the words that were used but simply a paraphrase in recollecting the drift of some of the things that were expressed.

Song of Solomon 1:17  The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir

The minister emphasised that the text speaks of "our house"; something that is a shared possession. A house speaks of a mutual dwelling place for fellowship. Jacob found this at Bethel in Genesis 28. What is referred to is a spiritual house, a place for the habitation of God where He may dwell and meet with His people. Moses had to build a house for the purpose of worship and communion, it had to be built according to the pattern shown in the mount but this is a spiritual house. Hebrews 3:1-6 brings in a contrast between Christ and Moses, particularly that Christ excelled Moses in building a spiritual house.  "Whose house are we if we hold fast". This spiritual house was designed in eternity by God who built all things and built in the incarnation, life and atoning work of the Redeemer. Solomon also built a house, the house of holiness, this had beams of the cedar of Lebanon which is of course very durable. There would have been a fragrance of the wood there. Christ built a house with the beams of cedar that are the beauty and glory of Christ's work in righteousness and atonement. There is fair, carved work there that doesn't need to be gilded with paint. He is the foundation and chief corner stone. He built a house which is for the mutual communion of Himself and His people. It includes all of the means of grace in public and private, all of which are intended for the exercise of grace. We should be seeking that grace would be in exercise anytime that we engage in these means of grace. Those that sit down at the Lord's table are beholding the fabric of this house for the fellowship that they are able to enjoy at that ordinance. They can say "the beams of our house are cedar".

If you would like to read James Durham's comments on this beautiful portion of Scripture go here.

The sermon taster's solemn warning

The sermon taster comes in various forms. Some will gad about from
church to church looking for what suits them for the moment. Others
will only come to hear those that they consider worth hearing. Others
also rate the preachers against each other as though they were being
entertained. Apparently, it was popular among wealthy Londoners in
Victorian times to race across the city from one church to another,
sampling the preaching of the more popular ministers. Each Monday in
Parliament, meetings were held to discuss which preacher delivered the
best sermon.

Other sermon tasters like to hear their pet subject or theme and will
not be satisfied without this. There was a man in Scotland whose pet
theme was the second coming. He visited several Edinburgh churches at
one time. When he returned to his hometown, he was asked, "How did you
like the Edinburgh preachers?" "They all fly on one wing," he
answered. "They all preach the first coming of Christ, but don't
preach His second coming."

body language Other sermon tasters have a more damaging effect. They
are not getting on with a sermon and they don't mind if everyone
behind them knows that. The body language tells the congregation
behind, "Switch off, don't listen". The head hangs down, the shoulders
droop, sometimes the head is shaken and the face wears a displeased or
pained expression. Perhaps they start leafing through their bible as
though to say - "I'm not pleased with this and so I'm not listening".
It seems as if they would rather be elsewhere. What a discouragement
to those behind. They can't help but notice. If they weren't
struggling with the sermon, they will feel now that they should be.
Some of them need to hear the gospel and not be put off from hearing
it yet Satan uses this distraction before them to snatch away the seed
of the Word. What of their spouse beside them? Or if they have
children that share their pew? How would they take this example? Will
the word profit them?

Some sermon-tasters are keen to let everyone know how they did not get
on with the sermon afterwards. They will pick over the expressions,
gestures and illustrations of the sermon in order to find fault. What
is of value and benefit is left aside so that the 'defects' may be
exposed. Their pride will not allow them to profit and will also deny
the privilege to as many as possible. This is the most dangerous in
its effect upon others, particularly those of the immediate family.
They may be put off the gospel and the church permanently. The
question is whether or not there is error and if error of how serious
a nature can it be corrected in the most gracious way without deleting
all effect from the sermon, disparaging the person, their office or
the way it was presented.

The following is from William James Hoge's "Blind Bartimaeus and His
Great Physician"

"your criticisms may turn it into very foolishness, and a
stumbling-block, and the savor of death to some beloved one for whose
salvation you have been striving. I cannot better illustrate this
caution than by a true narrative from "The Central Presbyterian." " A
pious lady once left a church in this city, [Richmond,] in company
with her husband, who was not a professor of religion. She was a woman
of unusual vivacity, with a keen perception of the ludicrous, and
often playfully sarcastic. As they walked along toward home, she began
to make some amusing and spicy comments on the sermon, which a
stranger, a man of very ordinary talents and awkward manner, had
preached, that morning, in the absence of the pastor. After running on
in this vein of sportive criticism for
some time, surprised at the profound silence of her husband, she
turned and looked up in
his face. He was in tears. That sermon had sent an arrow of conviction
to his heart!
What must have been the anguish of the conscience-stricken wife, thus
arrested in the
act of ridiculing a discourse which had been the means of awakening
the anxiety of her
unconverted husband!".

Watch then, your words and spirit. Take care what you say, and before
whom you say
it. Are you about to speak in love, in humility, in the temper of
Christ? Will any one be the better for what you say? Will your
criticisms deepen your child's or your friend's reverence for Christ's
Ambassadors, and God's chosen instrument for saving souls?

When you have said what you wish, will you become thereby
fellow-helpers to the truth?'
If not, oh, leave it all unsaid, lest in criticising the flaws of the
earthen vessel, you be found
to have despised the heavenly treasure; lest you turn aside the sword
of the Spirit, and
with great sin to yourself, bring destruction on some most precious soul".

Did the sermon-taster pray for a blessing from the sermon? Do they
pray regularly for the minister and before every sermon for every
preacher? Do they pray for the preacher while he is preaching, that he
may be helped, especially when he may be struggling? In the Welsh
revival of 1859 two preachers were talking together. One said, "Have
you noticed how all the ministers are preaching a great deal better
than they used to?" "Yes," his friend replied, "but perhaps people are
listening a good deal better than they used to." "That may be true,"
said the first man, "but I think the sermons ought to be much better
these days." "Why is that?" said his friend. "Because all the
congregations seem to be praying for their ministers now."

Is the sermon-taster depending too much upon the public means for
their spiritual growth and feeding and not being diligent in the
private means and the secret place? If they profit more in the one,
they may find that they are in a different spirit to profit from the
other.

The sermon-taster is responsible for themselves and not whether there
is or is not something deficient in the preacher whether in his life,
experience or style of preaching. Perhaps familiarity has bred
contempt and the sermon-taster has become too familiar with the
pet-themes, the mannerisms and turns of phrase of the preacher. They
may need to pray to be able to overcome this.

Has the sermon-taster examined their life and heart? Is there
something there that means that they are not profiting at all from
what they hear? Pride will certainly hinder it. There can be a carnal
response to what we hear. We are not getting the calibre of sermon
that we deserve, we think. We are not getting what we should. We have
particular spiritual needs that we want addressed and they are not
being addressed. But this does not mean that none of our spiritual
needs are being addressed. We forget that this, as with all other
things, is in the sovereign providence of God. This is to murmur
against that providence, wishing for one set of circumstances over
another. Surely if the man is orthodox, there is something that we may
glean from the sermon and meditate upon. Where this is not addressed,
a resentment can sometimes build up against the man and forms a great
barrier against profiting at all from any sermon. The resentment and
distaste eventually takes the sermon-taster to another preacher and
another congregation, but they have not submitted to God's providence
and learned from it, so it may be that the same thing will occur
again. They may need to consider whether they have what Scriptures
terms "itching ears".

What is experimental preaching?

Experimental preaching is the overflow of the preacher's experience of the Word of God to meet the experience of those to whom he preaches. It is vitally important but especially difficult to define. I tend to rely upon John Owen's acute observations on this as the best definition available.

"Experience of the power of the truth which they preach in and upon their own souls. Without this they will themselves be lifeless and heartless in their own work, and their labour for the most part will be unprofitable towards others…But a man preacheth that sermon only well unto others which preacheth itself in his own soul. And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of the food which he provides for others will scarce make it savoury unto them; yea, he knows not but the food he hath provided may be poison, unless he have really tasted of it himself. If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us. And no man lives in a more woeful condition than those who really believe not themselves what they persuade others to believe continually. The want of this experience of the power of gospel truth on their own souls is that which gives us so many lifeless, sapless orations, quaint in words and dead as to power, instead of preaching the gospel in the demonstration of the Spirit." Vol. 16, p. 76.

But it stands to reason that it is better experienced than defined. This sermon is probably the most experimental sermon I have heard.

how we take God’s name in vain in reading or hearing His Word

Thomas Boston has these solemn considerations in relation to our reading and hearing (i.e. hearing sermons) of the Word of God.

 

In reading or hearing the word, we take God's name in vain,
[1.] When we do not prepare ourselves for it, appointing a meal in it to our souls by prayer and looking to God; and when we make it not our business to get our hearts emptied of worldly thoughts and affections, and come with an appetite, 1 Pet. 2:1, 2.
[2.] When we do not strive to understand what we read or hear of the word, Acts 8:30; but pass it, as if bare reading or hearing were all.
[3.] When we are not attentive thereto, but let the heart wander in the time after other things, Ezek. 33:30.
[4.] When we are dull, drowsy, sleepy, and weary in it, crying in our hearts, When will the Sabbath be over? like Doeg, detained before the Lord.
[5.] When we do not receive it as the word of the living God, looking on it as God himself speaking to us, 1 Thess. 2:13.
[6.] When we do not subject ourselves humbly to what we hear from the Lord by his word, being affected suitably to every part of the word, approving the commands thereof, believing the promises, and trembling at the threatenings, Heb. 4:2.
[7.] When we do not lay ourselves open to the word, to be taught our duty, to be reproved for our faults, to be searched and known as by the candle of the Lord; but ward off convictions, and rise against the speaker when the word toucheth us.
[8.] When we hear it partially, having more respect to the speaker, to receive it or reject it according to our opinion of him, than to the Lord's word itself, Acts 17:11, &c.
[9.] Lastly, When we do not meditate upon it afterwards, confer about it, and labour to improve it to our soul's good.

Reasons for not forsaking the assembling

The account is given of William Mackay, Diarachdcory near Tongue, Sutherland an eminently godly man of the nineteenth-century when Sutherland had many outstanding saints.

"He came one Sabbath to the church of Tongue on a day of drift and snow, during the ministry of old 'Mr. William', a distance of about sixteen miles, and there was no road at that time. After the close of the service the Minister asked him why had ventured out on such a stormy day, when only people in the near neighbourhood were at the service.

In reply, he stated that there were three things that moved him to attend the house of God:
1st- The Lord had given him strength and he considered it his duty to wait on Him in public worship.
2nd - He came to add to the number in the congregation and thus encourage the minister when he knew that many would absent themselves. 3rd-He came so that if the Spirit of God should be moving in the church that day, He might not find his pew empty."

From Records of Grace in Sutherland

Audio Sermons

The internet has allowed wider and easier distrubution of recorded sermons. There are some excellent audio sermons available on the internet. There is a wide range available from http://www.middletome.com/index.html including rare sermons from FP ministers from the past and also Youth Conference papers. The same site has links to Prof. John Murray's lectures on mp3. There are also a large quantity of sermons available at http://www.fpchurch.org.uk/Sermons/index.php.

 

The Trinitarian Bible Society has a number of good lectures on important issues at http://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=tbs.

 

The Inverness branch of the Scottish Reformation Society has its lectures available http://www.reformation-scotland.org.uk/lectures.php as does the Stornoway http://web.mac.com/srslewis/SRS/Audio/Audio.html and Aberdeen http://www.srs-aberdeen.org.uk/Pages/Lectures.html branches.

 

Perhaps the first one to listen to ought to a narrated version of Thomas Boston's sermon http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=82805213712 on Luke 8:18 "Take Heed Therefore How Ye Hear"

 

The points are:
1. Some things that go before hearing. 
2. Some Things that go with hearing.
3. Some Things that Follow after hearing the word.

Spiritual Worship

A spiritual worshipper actually aspires in every duty to know God....To desire worship as an end, is carnal; to desire it as a means, and act desires in it for communion with God in it, is spiritual, and the fruit of a spiritual life...

Rev. Stephen Charnock (Puritan)

A Fountain Sealed

In Song of Solomon 4:12 the church is compared to a garden shut up, a fountain sealed, which is to be understood not only in respect of the defence and protection God vouchsafes to His church (that none can destroy her) but also, because strangers and wicked men are not able to drink of her delicacies, or smell of her sweetness.

A spiritual sermon is a fountain sealed up; the spiritual administration of a sacrament is a garden enclosed. Superficial Christians understand not nor perceive the full sweetness thereof. There were many people in a throng and crowd about our Saviour, but only the infirm woman felt the efficacy come from Him. Although many may attend the ordinances, frequent the assemblies, few find the inward power of Christ derived unto their souls.

As, therefore, Thomas, though spoken wrongly on a false ground, said he would not believe Christ to be risen unless he saw His wounds and put his fingers into them, so neither must you believe your estate to be good and sound, unless you may see and feel the efficacy of Christ in His ordinances upon thee.

Anthony Burgess

Burgess was a member of the Westminster Assembly and wrote at least a dozen books that were based largely on his sermons and lectures. This extract is from a sermon contained in his major work, Spiritual Refining, a massive, two-volume work of 1100 pages that has been called an “unequalled anatomy of experimental religion".