Preaching To Please The Lord - (No. 4)
When one reads God's revelation to man, one thing that stands out is that God has been specific about a good many matters. God, in dealing with man in the very beginning of Bible history upon different occasions, told man exactly what he wanted. When God was speaking unto the fathers by the prophets (Heb. 1:1, 2), he spoke in terms that man knew just exactly what God had said. When one turns to the New Testament, the apostles of Christ, inspired men and others spoke in such a way that the people knew exactly what they had in mind. Many are the times when they spoke in very definite, certain and specific language.
John The Baptist
John spoke before Herod in such a manner that Herod knew just exactly what John was saying, yea, even Herodias knew what John had said. Herod had a brother Philip, who had a wife named Herodias. (Matt. 14:3) Herod had taken this woman unto himself for his own wife. (Matt. 14:4) When John stood before Herod, he spoke in no uncertain terms the will of the Lord. John said to Herod the king, "It is not lawful for thee to have her." (Matt. 14:4) Now what king would have thought that John was talking concerning someone else? It took great courage to speak as John did, but Herod needed to be told in language that he could understand. (Matt. 14:10)
Paul Before Felix
When Paul stood before Felix, he reasoned of "righteousness, temperance and judgment to come" in such a way that the Divine record says, "Felix trembled."(Acts 24:25) The plain speech of Paul caused this ancient ruler to tremble when the Lord was preached unto him.
Felix had good intentions of calling Paul again when a more convenient time came, but according to Heaven's testimony, that time never came.
Peter Preaches On Pentecost
Had many modern preachers been preaching on Pentecost, no doubt part of their sermons would have sounded like, "Well, you know the man that was called Jesus has been crucified. Some people were responsible for that terrible crime, but since I followed afar off, I didn't see just exactly who they were, therefore I am not going to accuse anyone here of it. But, there are some people around here somewhere that are responsible for the crucifixion. And if any of you people just happen to be guilty, you need to get the Lord's forgiveness." But instead, Peter said, "YE have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" the Son of God. (Acts 2:23) By Peter's being specific as to whom he had in mind, "about three thousand souls" "gladly received his word" and "were baptized," then "the Lord added to the church" that number. The result of such preaching was that about three thousand obeyed the Lord.
Calling Specific Names
It is altogether possible that preachers — all of us — do not get specific enough when the occasion demands that we do. Paul named the false teachers and those who had renounced the faith by name so that others would know about them and know who they were. (Gal. 2:11, 13; 2 Tim. 4:14; 2:17; 4:10; 1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 1:15) Paul was not afraid nor ashamed to call sin and sinner by name.
We are prone to speak in too general terms. When we mean stealing, fornication, drunkenness, etc., instead of calling them by name, we say sin and expect people to know just exactly what we are talking about.
A few months ago I attended what was advertised as a "revival" meeting here and heard a preacher speak on the subject of "Sacrifice" When the audience stood to sing the invitation song, if one had responded to the invitation, from what was said that night, one would not have known whether he was responding to heaven's invitation, joining some civic club, entering some contest or what. The preacher had preached in such general terms that absolutely no person, not knowing before what the invitation was for, would have known from listening to the preacher that night.
Reaping Our Own Fruit
It is the firm conviction of this writer that much of the problem in the church today would not exist, if we had been specific when we should have. Many have been the preachers that opposed an organization smaller than the local church without calling attention to Bible classes performing works for the church.. Likewise, many have opposed organizations larger than the church without specifying some of them like Childhaven, Boles, and Tennessee Orphan Homes.
Even when preaching on the problems in the church today, many preachers think that they can preach the truth without getting too specific, only to have some individual leave the building and never even suspect what the sermon was supposed to be about.
When the time and the occasion demands it, all of us should pray that the Lord will increase our courage to declare boldly the will of heaven.
— Box 763, Jasper Alabama