Deep Plowing ~ David Wilkerson Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (Romans 2:4) I do not agree with all of the Puritan writers´ doctrine, but I love their emphasis on holiness. These godly preachers called their sermons deep plowing. They believed they could not sow true seeds of faith until the soil of their listeners´ hearts had been deeply plowed. The Puritans made sure their preaching went deep, cracking all the fallow ground of their listeners´ souls. Their sermons produced genuine repentance in their congregations and, in turn, over the years this produced strong, mature, faithful Christians. Today, however, most preaching is all sowing with no plowing. I hear very few sermons nowadays that dig deeper than the topsoil. Deep plowing does not just address the disease of sin; it digs down to the very cause of the disease. Much of the preaching we hear today focuses on the remedy while ignoring the disease. It offers a prescription without providing surgery! Sadly, we cause people to think they have been healed of sin when they never knew they were sick. We put robes of righteous- ness on them when they never knew they were naked. We urge them to trust in Christ when they don´t even realize their need to trust. Such people end up thinking, It can´t hurt to add Jesus to my life. C. H. Spurgeon, the powerful English preacher, said the following about the need for repentance: I trust that sorrowful penitence does still exist, though I have not heard much about it lately. People seem to jump into faith very quickly nowadays. . . . I hope my old friend repentance is not dead. I am desperately in love with repentance; it seems to be the twin sister of faith. I do not myself understand much about dry-eyed faith; I know that I came to Christ by the way of weeping-cross. . . . When I came to Calvary by faith, it was with great weeping and supplication, confessing my transgressions, and desiring to find salvation in Jesus, and in Jesus only.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 01:42:56 +0000