Two “Famines”

(The Pastor's Letter December 1972)

Dear Friends,

There are two “famines” made mention of in the Word of God regarding the Church of Christ and, therefore, the particular area or nation where a particular church or churches are called to witness to the saving grace of God as it is in Christ our Lord. The first is a famine of the preaching of the Word of God, and the second is a famine of the hearing of the Word of God. The two are not to be confused, although inter-acting upon one another. The first has to do primarily with the “pulpit”, the second with the “pew”.

Just prior to the emergence of Samuel as the prophet of the Lord we are told that “The word of the Lord was rare in those days, there was no open vision,” and then, in the prophecy of Amos, the nation of Israel is threatened with a famine; “Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,” says the Lord through Amos, “but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord”

Either of the two famines – either the preaching or the hearing – can have a tremendously detrimental effect upon the testimony of our God and upon the Church of His Beloved Son where He has seen fit to deposit the testimony of His saving name in this gospel age. And from the pulpit side of things, we believe that where there is no real preaching of the Word of God in all its fulness, then the church eventually moves into a situation spiritually comparable to the judgement which fell on Israel (on account of their neglect of the ministry of truth) when the Ark of God was taken from them and the cry of “Ichabod – the glory has departed,” echoed around the land and in every Israelite's heart. From the “pew” side of things, we see that when ears become accustomed only to receive those things which are most palatable to them, then, eventually they become completely stopped up altogether and no fruits of blessing, or comfort, or instruction can be reaped from the Word of God, even though a “harvest” itself may be there for the taking. Where both conditions exist, of course, then the result is a “double” famine, as it were, and the Church of Christ in the land appears to be almost non-existant as far as a real and vital Christianity is concerned. The “recapture” of either of these graces, then – either of preaching or hearing – must, indeed, always prove as a stirring from the dead for the Church. But – and this is what we would like to stress – if there is ever to be a real revival of true and vital Christianity to act as salt in this wicked and perverse generation, then there must not only be a loosening of the tongues of preachers, but an unstopping of the ears of hearers.

This is an aspect of “reformation” that few seem to take into account in these days when there is so much talk on that subject. There is a great deal of hope placed in the fact of “pastor so-and-so exercising a reformed ministry.” But, this is only part of the question; for although there may be a veritable harvest – even of reformed preaching – there may also be a veritable famine of “hearing the words of the Lord”. And, surely, the Lord intends that there should be a faithful ministry and a faithful listening to constitute His Church wherein He has deigned that His honour will dwell.

To escape from the morass of present-day evangelical laziness, apathy, and indifference, reformed “ministries” in the pulpits is only half of the answer to the real situation, and the crying need is not simply that a man exercises a reformed ministry, but that he exercise it within the context of a reformed church. Only then will we begin to get anywhere near the real and vital need of our day, which is the worship of Almighty God by the people of God.

In these days there is great stress laid on the fact that “the church is the real agent in evangelism,” and rightly so. We abhor the idea of the church performing its evangelistic obligations “by proxy” through the appointment of a personality evangelist for a two, or three-week campaign every now and again when the time seems opportune. But how ever desirable, and necessary, and obligatory the evangelistic work of the church is in the area where the Lord has placed it, it is still merely the out-workings of the church's life before the face of men, and can never stand in isolation to the united worship of God by that people of God under the sound of the truth of God to the glory of God. That is the only one and only true source of any spiritual life that the church is going to manifest to the world around it. In other words, our work for God only finds its motivating in our worship of God. This is why true Christian service has waned and goes on waning in our day. Side by side with turning the Lord's Day worship into an entertainment session for the unconverted instead of a “drawing near to God” by the people of God has gone, the constant decline in the effective testimony of the church, so that she appears to be creditable only to children and for children. It is one thing to send your child along to “the church”, or indeed, to go along as a child, but what an indictment of the professing church that when the majority of children “become men” and “put away childish things,” one of the first things to go is the evangelical church of today with its trite message of “no more blue Mondays” and its shallow services that hit somewhere between a religious gathering and an amateur talent contest.

The “witness” of the church can only be fully realised in proportion to the worship of the church being a true worship of its God and Saviour. And this must involve the church in its totality – in pulpit and pew – in pastor and people – in preaching and hearing – so that there is neither a famine with the one or the other. This in no way must be met with the old red herring about looking for a “perfect” church. Far from it; no one can hold the doctrine of the depravity of human nature and think such a thing, and we know that there will always be those within the congregations of God whose hearts are hard and whose ears are stopped; that fearful verse of Paul's to the Corinthians settles that question once and for all, “For there must also be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.” But, surely, where this type of hearer constitutes the mass of the membership of any particular church the true worship of God must have declined to a very low ebb indeed. If we hold that true preaching of God is the preaching of His free and sovereign love towards us in Christ the Lord, the true hearing must, of necessity, fall into the same set of doctrines. And, therefore, true worship is both the glad preaching and the glad hearing of those doctrines. In what other environment of worship is God more glorified than where a pastor extols the height, and the breadth, and the depth, and the length of the sovereign love and acts of Almighty God in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and where the people's hearts respond in glad and glowing “amens” (audible or inaudible) to the exposition of those glorious truths? We contend that there is no other environment quite like that in the normal run of God's dealings with His people.

Hence our contention, that the recapturing of a reformed “ministry” in our day, although desirable and a cause for much thanksgiving, is not the whole answer to the general famine conditions that prevail, because the famine is a two-fold famine – not only of the preaching of the words of the Lord, but of the hearing of the words of the Lord, as well. And the ultimate need of our day is not reformed ministries only but reformed congregations responsive to those ministries.

Why this aspect of present-day “reform” has apparently been left unattended, only those concerned can answer, and we are not inclined to deal with that side of things just now. There is always, of course, a desire for a “gentle” reformation, and it is obvious that a pressing of such principles to their ultimate conclusion would be costly in reputation, in standing, and in a dozen-and-one other ways. But, we will search history's page for that reform that was carried out in a painless fashion and without much tears and abuse, and search it in vain. It had invariably the shocks of revolution and disruption as its very life breath.

As we say, we welcome every intimation of a man “exercising a reformed ministry,” but we still long to hear of more exercising their reformed ministries together with reformed people, for if a man preaches one way and the people hear another way, where is the worship of God – the most pressing need of our day – in the midst of it all? The “voice” of Jacob and the “hands” of Esau are never a becoming combination; neither are the doctrines of grace preceded by duets, solos, choir pieces and banjo bands, and followed during the week with daffodil teas and teenage variety shows.

If we believe that the Lord is granting a reversal of the general famine of the preaching of His word today, then, let us not be at rest in that alone, but let us desire by prayer and purpose that He would also take away the general famine of the hearing of His word, so that there might not only be a “Thus saith the Lord” from reformed “pulpits”, but a resounding “Amen” and “so be it” from reformed “pews”.