A Separating Ministry — E.A. Johnston

When I study preachers whom God has used in remarkable ways to reclaim backsliders back to a right relationship to God and break up the false foundations whereupon unconverted church members sit on rotten planks over the very pit of hell itself, I see men whom God had a smile upon their ministry, and every time it was a separating ministry.

Isaiah 41 and the Separating Ministry

Allow me to explain. The title of my message today, friends, is A Separating Ministry, and my text can be found in the book of Isaiah in chapter 41. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verse 15.

This verse typifies a separating ministry. A separating ministry will separate you from your self-righteousness and awaken you to your lost condition. A separating ministry will often separate you from your sins through biblical repentance.

It will often separate the sheep from the goats, separate the world from your goals, and turn your life upside down for God and His glory. I'll never forget, as long as I live, how I signed up for a preaching institute in Memphis, Tennessee, conducted by the late Dr. Stephen Olford.

Stephen Olford's Convicting Preaching

I went into that week-long meeting under the providence of God, and as I sat there under Stephen Olford's preaching, my world as I knew it was turned upside down. As I sat in that room full of preachers, I was a rich businessman whose God was the game of golf.

I lived to play golf. I would not spare any expanse to go play Pebble Beach or Riviera Country Club in L .A. or any other top golf course. I played with the most expensive golf equipment money could buy to feed my addiction and idol.

But that all changed as I sat under the separating preaching of Dr. Olford, because his words cut me like a knife, and his preaching hewed me down like Samuel Slew Agag. When I left that week of meetings, I was a changed man.

My whole worldview was altered. God in his mercy, under the separating preaching of Stephen Olford, opened my eyes to my folly as I faced the God of all eternity. There's a big difference, friends, between a popular ministry and a separating one.

Popular Ministry Versus Separating Ministry

A popular ministry will have no opposition from the evil one, because it does not threaten his kingdom. A popular ministry will be full of fun and laughter and a good time in church, and when you leave, you'll feel better about yourself because self has been placated.

On the other hand, a separating ministry won't placate self, but cut it all to pieces. Sitting under that kind of preaching is painful, upsetting, and you'll sit and squirm in defiance to much of it. But if God begins to work in your hard heart, he will kick all your false props from beneath you and show you how far away you really are from him.

Preaching the Whole Counsel of God

Jonathan Edwards had a separating ministry, and it eventually separated him from his church. Listen to me, brother pastor. If you're preaching to please your deacons, you might as well resign right now.

You're not being true to their souls. It'd be better if you preached the full counsel of God, honored the spirit of God, and were run off by your deacons than scratched their itch. I've had deacons look me in the face with fire in their eyes and hatred in their belly and confront me with threats.

But most men want to preach to be accepted and acknowledged by their hearers. I don't like it when people tell me they've enjoyed my sermon. That means I've failed miserably. I'd rather be a splinter under their fingernail that gnaws at them and bothers them until God can deal with them for his glory.

Isaiah's Sharp Threshing Instrument

I want to read a serverse, friends, which I feel best describes the separating ministry as found in Isaiah 41 .15. Let me tell you why I always say, here now is the word of God. I heard a Japanese pastor one time begin his sermon and he reverently held out his Bible on his two hands and solemnly declared, here now is the word of God.

The Bible meant something to that man who lived in a pagan nation. Well, America is just as pagan as Japan, so I speak to you. Here now is the word of God and may the spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word.

Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth, thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shall make the hills as chaff. Listen to me, friends. Our text describes a serrated blade.

Some of you hunters know what kind of blade that is. It's good for cutting through leather or hard rope. It's a slicing machine. Our verse is speaking of a serrated saw blade used in agriculture in the East in Biblical times.

The Threshing Instrument Separates Grain from Chaff

It was used to separate the grain from the chaff. A new sharp threshing instrument spoke of a corn drag, and here's how it worked. The drag consisted of a frame of strong planks made rough at the bottom by hard stones or iron, and it was drawn by horses or oxen over the corn sheaves spread on the floor, the driver sitting upon it, and the wain was much like the drag, but having wheels of iron teeth or edges like a saw.

The axle was armed with iron teeth or serrated wheels throughout, and as these blades rolled over the sheaves, they separated the corn from the husk. It was a separating machine. And that's what our text in Isaiah's Describement about God's preachers.

They would be a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth, oh friends, how the congregation groaned under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards as they felt the very soles of their feet warmed by the fires of hell, how people would cry out and drop dead under the preaching of George Whitfield when I was in Gloucester at the church where Whitfield preached his very first sermon, which, it was said, it drove fifteen people mad.

I found a rare document there describing how an eyewitness of Whitfield was listening to him preach in the open air in a field, and the man standing next to him groaned and dropped down dead. This left such a lasting impression upon this man that he gave his life to Christ.

Separating Preaching as Spiritual Warfare

A separating ministry will be fought tooth and nail by both the devil in hell and devils in the pulpits. It will be a battleground. When Jesus preached, his separating ministry moved his hearers to try to throw him off a cliff.

The religious leaders of his day hated him so much they eventually crucified him. And any unsaved religious leader today will fight against a separating ministry that separates men from their sins, that separates souls from the kingdom of darkness, and brings them into the kingdom of light and life through Jesus Christ.

Mordecai Hamm and Revival Through Conviction

Rolf Barnard had such a separating preaching ministry that in his meetings it was not uncommon for an ambulance to come and carry out his hearers on stretchers. Mordecai Hamm was physically attacked on four separate occasions because of his separating ministry.

He was a separated preacher, separated not to God. He said his first objective in a meeting was, and I quote, I started my meetings with preaching intended to convict folk of their sins. First I had to clean up all the backslidden church members.

Then after that I had them thoroughly convicted and in a praying disposition. I could start on the sinners and take the hide off them. In some of our longer meetings I had to preach several weeks before giving an invitation.

When we finally did give an invitation it was like the opening of a mighty dam. We had over a thousand respond in one service. When Mordecai Hamm preached in Jackson, Tennessee in 1905, over one-third of the city was gloriously saved in a sweeping revival, a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth.

A Call for Preachers With Teeth

Let me ask you, brother preacher, does your ministry have teeth or do you have a toothless gumming ministry? Oh great God, send us today some young preacher boys who have teeth, who are not afraid to preach the whole counsel of God and call sinners to repent us.

Raise up a whitfield for our day before it's too late. In the strong name of your son Jesus I pray, amen.