Yesterday, I began this summary of J.C. Ryle’s Simplicity in Preaching. Banner of Truth is the publisher and it’s well worth the 3 bucks they charge. In his recommendation, Sinclair Ferguson writes,
“Ryle packs more experience and sanctified common sense into two dozen pages than many others manage in a lengthy treatise. And, like all of his work, this one illustrates the very simplicity he commends to others. Here indeed is a work whose value and usefulness is out of all proportion to its length.”
Ryle begins with 4 prefatory statements, the first two of which we covered yesterday. The first was that to attain simplicity should be the goal of every minister who desires to be useful to souls. The second was a warning that those who wish to preach with simplicity should not consider it an easy task. In other words, this is no shortcut to sermon prep! So now we come to the third and fourth prefatory comments.
3) “When I talk of simplicity in preaching, I would not have my readers suppose I mean childish preaching.“
As the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us, knowledge puffs up. On many occasions I have witnessed preachers talk down to a congregation in a scolding or impatient manner. It was as if their thought was “how can you be so stupid? This is as plain as the nose on your face! What’s the matter with you?” No one likes being made to feel foolish or ignorant. Ryle points out that we sacrifice any possibility of being useful if people feel that they are being treated as inferiors and not as equals. Says Ryle:
“People do not like even the appearance of condescending preaching…. They will at once put up their backs, stop their ears, and take offense, and then we might as well preach to the winds.”
Sadly, many churches contain pastors who are already being shown the door and don’t yet know it. Their people quit listening some time ago. To preach with simplicity is not to speak in a childish manner but in a responsible one. Simplicity flows from a heart that has the highest respect for those it serves and longs to be useful to them.
4) “Finally let me observe, that it is not coarse or vulgar preaching that is needed.”
This pamphlet is part of a larger work published in 1888 but it certainly applies today! Let me start by addressing an issue of modern vulgarity and then get to what Ryle is speaking of.
Much has been said about crude language in the pulpit, quite a bit of which has surfaced in the recent wave of messages on sexuality. In 2009, Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle was drawing heavy fire from folks like John MacArthur over his use of profanity. The N.Y. Times reported: “he has the coolest style and foulest mouth of any preacher you’ve ever seen” and that his “Mars Hill Church is the furthest thing from a Puritan meetinghouse.”
Of course, being that there are hundreds of young pastors influenced by Driscoll, you can bet there has been a lot of this kind of thing. Now I like Driscoll. I like his passion for truth. He writes well and I’ve listened to a number of his messages which I have found compelling. So I’m not ragging on Mark. Unfortunately, he’s just the poster boy on this issue for many in the church. Now, I’ll be honest, while I have never cussed in the pulpit, I still do on occasion in private conversation. Usually it’s in a counselling appointment with a brother who’s avoiding some issue and I’ll tell him that what he just said is a big pile of bulls**t. Frankly it’s purely for shock value. Shakes them up when the pastor does that! But the truth is, it’s not necessary and the idea that somehow I need to do that to relate to the culture around me is actually a good idea (relevant speech) pushed to far. There really is to be something different about the speech of the believer. We know the scriptures:
Ephesians 5:4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Colossians 3:8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Think about it. Paul obviously wrote this knowing that his readers would would be familiar with what the contrasts of speech involved – what was filthy and foolish and what was thankful and grace-giving. So there is a cultural tide, when it comes to speaking, that needs to be resisted.
Now, all that being said, that is not what Ryle is talking about here. In Ryle’s day many of the churches were filled with men and women who were uneducated and illiterate. Consequently their speech was not refined or “courteous.” Ryle’s contention was that one could be simple while still being a “gentleman” and maintaining a high standard of dignified speech. He argues:
“It is an utter mistake to imagine that uneducated and illiterate men and women prefer to be spoken to in an illiterate way, and by an uneducated person.”
Ryle comes off sounding a bit snobbish here by declaring that if you have a choice between a lay reader or evangelist who only knows how to read and someone like an “Oxford man” who knows his Greek and Latin, then you should go with the more refined and educated gentleman. Now this is a fairly cultural thing to Ryle and his time but there is a point here that is important. When Ryle speaks of coarsness and vulgarity he is not talking about foul language (that was never even a consideration!) but rather speaking in ways more common to the uneducated. Our words should inspire, not just instruct. They should be worthy of the subject and invite people to think great thoughts. There should be prose and poetry, imagination and music in the words we use. The soul hungers for it. To quote Ryle:
“People only tolerate vulgarity and coarseness, as a rule, when they can get nothing else.”
Do we want our preaching to be something people have to settle for when in fact we could stimulate their minds and imaginations and not just their feelings and passions?
“ My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.” – Psalm 47:1
Next, we’ll look at the first of Ryle’s 5 hints for better preaching.
29. May, 2010 
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‘Our Lofty Idealism would argue that all Christians should be perfect, but a blunt realism forces us to admit that perfection is rare even among the saints. The part of wisdom is to accept our Christian brothers and sisters for what they are rather than for what they should be.
