REFORMED WITNESS
Volume XIV, April 2006, Number 4
Witnessing And Preaching
By Steven R. Houck
From the March 15, 1987, issue of The Standard BearerSee more articles by this author
All of God's people are called to be witnesses of the glory of God and His Son, Jesus Christ. We are to show forth the beauty of God's holiness and the wonder of God's works. Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). We must be shining lights which reflect the glory of God to the world around us. It is as impossible to conceive of a believer who does not witness of the wonder of God and His works as it is to conceive of the sun without its shining radiance.
The witness of God's people, however, is impossible apart from the official preaching of God's Word. Biblical witnessing is completely dependent upon the saving call of God that comes through the preaching. When God calls His elect people to salvation, He gives to them faith, love, obedience, and all that belongs to the Christian life. The Apostle Paul says, "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus" (Colossians 1:28). The Apostle preached Christ in order that God's people might grow in faith and become mature Christians. Witnessing is a part of the Christian's spiritual life. Therefore, it is as dependent upon the preaching as any other aspect of the Christian life. Just as you cannot grow in faith without the official preaching of God's Word, so you cannot be a faithful witness without the preaching.
The relationship between witnessing and preaching is three-fold. The preaching determines the subject of the witnessing, the motive of the witnessing, and the method of the witnessing.
Without the preaching of God's Word the Christian has nothing to say. He has nothing of which to be a witness, for the subject of which he speaks in witnessing is the subject also of the preaching of the gospel. We are to be witnesses of God and the wondrous works which He performs through His Son, Jesus Christ. We are not to speak of ourselves and man's accomplishments. We must speak of God and His glory. The Psalmist says concerning God, "I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works" (Psalms 145:5). When the gospel is faithfully and properly preached, God's people witness the glory of God's majesty and the wonder of God's works. They know the true God and therefore can faithfully witness of His glory.
The believer must take care that he faithfully attends worship services, where he hears the preaching of God's Word so that he develops in his knowledge and understanding of God. The more we sit under the preaching and the more we learn about God, the better we are able to be faithful witnesses of God and His works. This is why doctrinal preaching is absolutely necessary. If you do not hear about God in the preaching, you cannot speak of Him. If you do not learn about His attributes, if you do not learn about His works, what can you say about Him? This is why so much of what is called witnessing today is nothing but a counterfeit. Many who profess to be Christians know next to nothing about God, and therefore, can only speak about themselves and their own subjective experiences. They cannot testify of God. A faithful witness, however, is one who knows God, and therefore, is able to tell others about Him. The more you learn of God through the preaching of the gospel, the better equipped you are to witness of God and His works.
The preaching also determines the proper motive in witnessing. Through the preaching we see that God is worthy of being known by others. We want to be a witness of God just because He is such a glorious God. When the eternal, all-powerful God is manifested before our eyes in the preaching of the gospel, the believer is filled with awe. He sees the grace, love and mercy of God. We see His power, righteousness, truth and knowledge. We see the wondrous things that God does for His people. God's mighty deeds are before our eyes. The knowledge of God fills our hearts with love and adoration. As a fountain shoots forth its spray of water, we are so impressed with the glory of God that we overflow with praise. We cannot contain the wonders of God within us, but must declare them to the world. Like the Psalmist we say, "I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts" (Psalms 145:1-5).
Where there is no proper preaching of God and His glory, the proper motive for witnessing is replaced by all kinds of improper ones. Rather than being impressed with God and His worthiness, the professing Christian is impressed with man and his need of salvation. Man's salvation becomes more important than the glory of God. Men witness, not because God is great and greatly to be praised, but because man is worthy of salvation. The call goes out to bring the gospel into all the world because thousands are perishing. Little or no concern is given to God and His great name. The driving force in such "witnessing" is man's love of man and not his love of God.
The preaching of the gospel also determines the method of the believer's witnessing. Proper preaching teaches us that God is the only One who can build His Church. God is the only One Who can save a soul. He is the only One who can so work in a man's heart that he believes the truth of the Scriptures. No matter how hard a believer tries to make a person see the truth of the Gospel, apart from the sovereign working of God's grace, that person will never embrace the truth. The believer's calling; therefore, is not to save souls, but simply to witness of the God, Who alone can save the soul. We do not have to worry about all kinds of man-made methods. Rather, as we live our daily lives, we take care to show forth the glory of God by our lives and by our words.
If the official preaching does not present God as the sovereign Lord of the world, the only Savior, then the method of the witnessing of God's people becomes man-centered. This is why so many gimmicks are used in witnessing today. You have to learn how to be a salesman and sell a product in order to witness properly in today's ecclesiastical world. You have to know how to offer children ice cream and other nice things in order to get them to Sunday School. You have to be skilled at putting on the pressure at just the right moment so that you get a decision for Christ. You have to know how to appeal to the emotions of the one with whom you are dealing. In fact, you have to attend all the latest seminars on witnessing in order to keep up with the latest and best techniques of witnessing.
The preaching of God's Word is also essential for the testimony which we give by our godly life. The believer must declare God's glory with his mouth, but that testimony is worthless, if his life is not in harmony with his words. We must live a life that reflects the glory of God to the world round about us. We can do that only as we live in harmony with the preaching of the gospel. When we see in the preaching all the wondrous things which God has done for us and our salvation, our hearts are filled with thanksgiving and gratitude. That thanksgiving causes us to seek to live a godly life that is pleasing to God. We live as those who have been redeemed through the blood of the Lamb. Out of love for God, we seek to keep His commandments and to order our lives according to God's Word. The preaching of the gospel even shows us what a godly life is.
Where there is no preaching of the wonders of God, there is no thanksgiving. Where there is no thanksgiving, there is no desire to live a truly godly life. Moreover, where there is no preaching of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of sin, there is no knowledge of what a godly life even is. Thus the professing Christian's ability to be a faithful witness is destroyed. This is the problem with much "witnessing" today. The world looks at Christians as nothing more than hypocrites because so many of us say one thing with our mouths and another with our lives. If we are to be testimonies of the wondrous grace of God in our lives, we must show forth the power of that grace in godly living.
Where the preaching of the gospel is missing or where it is corrupted, true witnessing is lost. When the preacher loses sight of the God of the Bible and preaches the humanism of our age, the people in the pew lose the subject, motivation, and method of witnessing. This is the dilemma of the church today. There is much activity. The church has many programs. The people are busy "sharing their faith". There are "souls being saved." But all of this leaves out the true God of the Bible.
What the church needs today is the faithful preaching of the Sovereign God in her pulpits and people in the pews who are awed by that glorious God as He is presented to them in the preaching. Then they will have something important to tell others. They will desire to tell it to others. They will tell it to others trusting that the God, Who saves His people by His sovereign grace alone, will use their testimony as He pleases.
From Book IV, Chapter 1, Paragraph 5 of the
Institutes of the Christian Religion
by John Calvin
But let us proceed to a full exposition of this view. Paul says that our Saviour "ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:10-13). We see that God, who might perfect his people in a moment, chooses not to bring them to manhood in any other way than by the education of the Church. We see the mode of doing it expressed; the preaching of celestial doctrine is committed to pastors. We see that all without exception are brought into the same order, that they may with meek and docile spirit allow themselves to be governed by teachers appointed for this purpose. Isaiah had long before given this as the characteristic of the kingdom of Christ, "My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever" (Isaiah 59:21). Hence it follows, that all who reject the spiritual food of the soul divinely offered to them by the hands of the Church, deserve to perish of hunger and famine. God inspires us with faith, but it is by the instrumentality of his gospel, as Paul reminds us, "Faith cometh by hearing" (Romans 10:17). God reserves to himself the power of maintaining it, but it is by the preaching of the gospel, as Paul also declares, that he brings it forth and unfolds it. With this view, it pleased him in ancient times that sacred meetings should be held in the sanctuary, that consent in faith might be nourished by doctrine proceeding from the lips of the priest. Those magnificent titles, as when the temple is called God's rest, his sanctuary, his habitation, and when he is said to dwell between the cherubims (Psalm 132:13,14; 80:1), are used for no other purpose than to procure respect, love, reverence, and dignity to the ministry of heavenly doctrine, to which otherwise the appearance of an insignificant human being might be in no slight degree derogatory. Therefore, to teach us that the treasure offered to us in earthen vessels is of inestimable value (II Corinthians 4:7), God himself appears and, as the author of this ordinance, requires his presence to be recognized in his own institution. Accordingly, after forbidding his people to give heed to familiar spirits, wizards, and other superstitions (Leviticus 19:30, 31), he adds, that he will give what ought to be sufficient for all - namely, that he will never leave them without prophets. For, as he did not commit his ancient people to angels, but raised up teachers on the earth to perform a truly angelical office, so he is pleased to instruct us in the present day by human means. But as anciently he did not confine himself to the law merely, but added priests as interpreters, from whose lips the people might inquire after his true meaning, so in the present day he would not only have us to be attentive to reading, but has appointed masters to give us their assistance. In this there is a twofold advantage. For, on the one hand, he by an admirable test proves our obedience when we listen to his ministers just as we would to himself; while, on the other hand, he consults our weakness in being pleased to address us after the manner of men by means of interpreters, that he may thus allure us to himself, instead of driving us away by his thunder. How well this familiar mode of teaching is suited to us all the godly are aware, from the dread with which the divine majesty justly inspires them.
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