ABSTRACT: Puritan sermons are rife with application because Puritan preachers believed the word of God needs to be brought home to the mind, heart, and will of its hearers. Building on biblical precepts and following biblical patterns, the Puritans applied Scripture to their hearers with simplicity, thoroughness, and force as they trusted the Holy Spirit to strengthen the saints and lead sinners to repentance.
For our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors and Christian leaders, we asked Jeremy Walker, pastor of Maidenbower Baptist Church in Crawley, England, to explain how the Puritans applied Scripture in their preaching.
I hope that you appreciate a discriminating ministry. I do not mean a discriminatory ministry, marked by unfair bias or cruel prejudice, but discriminating, marked by discernment and insight, with careful distinctions between truth and error, between genuine and spurious conversion, between true and false experience, between truth in principle and in practice, and between different spiritual categories and classes of people. In preaching, such a ministry distinguishes itself by the depth and power of its application.
