Preaching: Dispensing Truth to Be Received (4)

Some may object that preaching is only for the laying of the foundation of the church; it is not for the church when it is built. Then other disciplines like prayer help and we can do without preaching. Those that have such thoughts make themselves wiser than the Spirit of God. For Christ, 'when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, for he gave gifts to men, some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, for the edifying and building up of the church' (Eph. 4:9-12). The ordinance of preaching is still necessary for building up and knitting together the members of Christ. Further, those who are acquainted with their own infirmities know they are naturally dull, forgetful, and unmindful. Though we know,  we do not remember; and though we remember, yet we do not apply things. We are naturally weak and need all spiritual supports and helps to keep the vessel of our souls in perpetual good standing. The more we hear and know, the fitter we are for doing and suffering; and for communion with God for all passages, both of life and death. Let us choose Mary's part, 'the better part' (Luke 10:42), that will never depart from us.
The word of God preached is not just to teach us, but the Spirit going with it, to work the grace necessary to 'strengthen us in the inward man' (2 Cor. 4:16). And those that say they can know it enough, deceive themselves. Religion is a mystery, and can it be learned all at once? There is no mystery that doesn't require many years to learn.  If it be but a handicraft, men are six or seven years learning it. And is religion, and the mysteries and depths of it, learned so soon? There is a mystery in every grace, in repentance, in faith, in patience, that no man knows, but those that have those graces. Let us therefore set a high price upon God's ordinance of preaching. Preaching is the chariot that carries Christ up and down the world. The ordinance of preaching is a great gift. God esteems it so, Christ esteems it so, and so should we esteem it.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Fountain Opened, Works, vol. 5, pp. 508-09
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