Heart-searching preaching, where it does not convince, is sure to offend. Nothing is so cutting to an unrenewed heart, especially where there is a decent outside, as to have its rottenness exposed, its refuge of lies swept away, and the pillow of forms, whereon it was sleeping, removed from under the head. Whosoever attempts this must expect to see the old man rise and fume, since to approve the real Christian, and the real truth, would cause the Pharisee to condemn himself. Sir Richard Hill
The prophets in the Old Testament spoke of the false prophets who spoke soothing words and Paul spoke of those who loved teachers who tickled their ears. This tickling of the ear can come in many forms. This tickling of the ear can be an entertaining type of preacher who is humorous or tells stories though they are disguised as illustrations. The tickling of the ear can be a libertine who does not condemn any sin and says all will be saved. The tickling of the ear preacher can be one that is orthodox in creed, but simply never speaks to the heart. The tickling of the ear preacher can be one that is extremely moral in the external sense and preaches on that, but the people are also that way and so they are never disturbed. The tickling of the ear preacher can be an exposition preacher who simply speaks of the text but never really reaches the heart of the people and so the people learn things about the Bible but are never disturbed.
A type of preaching that reaches the heart, on the other hand, is quite offensive to people who have unrenewed hearts and yet are moral on the outside. While virtually all preaching in the modern day appears to be planned to stay away from the hearts of people and leave them undisturbed, this is not what preaching should be. Preaching for the point of gaining knowledge or increasing morality is not Christianity, but instead the reign and rule of Christ is. Preaching in order to drive sinners from all hope and help from self so that they would see that Christ is the only hope is Christianity. Preaching the glory of God in all things and especially shining in the face of Christ is Christianity. Preaching the Gospel of grace alone and how God saves sinners to the glory of His own name is Christianity. But again, this is to say that true Christianity is rare in our day.
The heart of man rests on something for his hope and confidence at all times. If the sinner is sleeping on his rituals and forms and creeds as his confidence for salvation and someone comes along and sweeps those things away, the sinner will most likely be very angry as opposed to being thankful. This sinner was disturbed and now he has a lot of work to do to in order to rebuild his hope if at all. The sinner’s enmity toward God and the glory of His grace in the Gospel has been stirred up. The picture that Willcox gives is that of a person sleeping on a pillow of forms. We can also imagine that this is a very think pillow and when it is yanked out the person’s head lands on a hard object with a fair amount of force and as such is a very rude awakening. Such is the person that is resting on forms and rituals when that person has his or her heart searched during the preaching of the Word.
Willcox also gives the picture of a person that has a decent outside, which is to say that the person lives a moral life and thinks of self as a righteous person. This person can also be one that attends an orthodox church and hears the Bible preached in an expositional manner, but the heart is never touched. So the person thinks that s/he is orthodox because s/he agrees with the creed in an intellectual way and lives a moral life. But this person has never had his or her heart shredded and exposed to see what is really there. This person can simply believe some orthodox things in the intellect and live a moral life because it has its advantages and because it convinces that person that this is the fruit of true faith. There is nothing inconsistent about people like that and hearts that are unregenerate and at enmity with God.
The person in the previous paragraph has built a rotten edifice of some kind and is standing on that edifice of his or her own works and has no idea that it is rotten and will collapse at any moment. This type of person thinks that s/he is in great safety and is quite confident that s/he is converted. When a preacher begins to open the meaning of the Scriptures from a spiritual sense and begin to search hearts with it, the rotten edifice is seen and this moral person begins to see self and its rotten edifice in a totally different light. This type of person will hate to think of self as a rotten sinner with no hope of salvation in self and all of the lies that the unregenerate heart has taken refuge is shown to be nothing but a lie. This person is awakened with a start and sees that it is walking on rotten wood and is about to plunge through it. This person will respond with anger and perhaps get very nasty. But this just goes to show that genuine Christianity is quite rare. There are many orthodox moralists dead in their forms.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment