Preaching: Dispensing Truth to Be Received (3)

The gospel is declared in a sweet manner. 'I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God' (Rom. 12:1). The law comes with curses,  but now in the gospel Christ is preached with sweet alluring. 'We as ambassadors beseech you, as if Christ by us did beseech you, be reconciled to God' (2 Cor. 5:20). This is the manner of the spreading of the gospel, even to beg people to be good to their own souls. The great God of heaven and earth begs our love, that we would care for our own souls and be reconciled to him. It is more fit that we should beg of him, but God stoops in the ministry of the gospel, and he becomes the beggar and suitor to us to be good to our souls. He himself becomes a beseecher of reconciliation, as if he were the party that had offended. This is the manner of the publication of the gospel, showing us what it is to preach Christ.
Further, it is more helpful to people's weakness to have men who preach the gospel to speak out of their own experience, to speak of the comfort they have felt for themselves. Those who first preached the gospel, they were such as had felt the sweetness of it themselves. Paul, a great sinner outside of the church, and Peter inside the church. Peter fell after he was in the state of grace, that these great apostles might show to all people that there is no ground for despair. Paul was 'a blasphemer' and 'a persecutor' (1 Tim. 1:13), yet he found mercy . He found mercy for this end, that he 'might teach the mercy of God to others, that he might be an example of the mercy of God' (1 Tim. 1:16). If we relapse and fall, let no one despair. For Peter, a great teacher in the church, an apostle, see how foully he fell! Now, when men subject to the same infirmities, proclaim the mercy of God out of the book of God, their preaching will work more effectively upon their listeners.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Fountain Opened, Works, vol. 5, pp. 506-07
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