PREACHING
Though God uses teaching to reach people for Christ, the Lord has chosen preaching as His primary method of wining souls. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21). Teaching and other things are great for winning souls, as they give out information, but preaching has urgency in it. It grabs hold of your soul and stirs it. Teaching shows you how to do something but preaching makes you want to do it. Often a pastor of a church will use the Sunday School hour to plant (teach) and the main service to reap (win souls).
Is it wrong to tell a joke from the pulpit? “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Proverbs 17:22). A church is a spiritual hospital and sometimes the medicine is a merry heart. God uses preaching in many different ways. One person is exhorted, one is rebuked, one repents, one receives truth, one is saved, and one hears a funny story and laughs and forgets about his troubles and leaves seeing things in a different light. On the other hand, joking can be bad or overdone. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29). “Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks” (Ephesians 5:4). Strong’s definition for “jesting” is 1) “pleasantry, humor, facetiousness, 2) in a bad sense, scurrility, ribaldry, low jesting.” Women are to teach other women and children (Titus 2:3–4). “But I suffer not a woman to teach … the man” (1 Timothy 2:12; see also 1 Corinthians 14:34–35). Christ called 12 men to be His apostles, not 12 women.
There are ministers today who want to be only “positive.” Today there are some churches that are so positive that they will no longer teach the Ten Commandments, which are considered too negative, because most start with “Thou shalt not.” The Ten Commandments were given to show us we need a savior, not to make us feel good about ourselves. How could a person ask Christ to come into his heart, but not repent of his sins? God’s Word says, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2). In many churches today, it is acceptable to exhort or be longsuffering, but not to “reprove” or “rebuke.” But before you can plant, you must root out the weeds. I am not talking about being ugly or holier than thou, but when you love somebody enough, you will tell him what he needs to hear. Instead, many today are looking for preachers who will tell them what they want to hear; not what the Bible says. I like preaching on the love of God, but the Bible says “reprove, rebuke” and then “exhort.”
Suppose you are at home and your son runs in and shows you his hand that has been cut open with dirt and glass in his wound. You rush to the doctor and he immediately begins to put a bandage on it. And you say, “Hey, Doctor, shouldn’t you clean it out first?”
“No,” he says, “I have taken a survey and found people like to hear positive things.” Your son smiles when he hears this.
But you insist, “Doctor, you don’t understand. His wound has glass and dirt in it. If you don’t open it up and clean it out, it will become infected.”
The doctor says, “Now, don’t be so negative. What I am doing is the easiest for the both of us. Besides, do you have any idea how much pain it would cause your son to open up his wound?”
Your son is now pleading with you to listen to the “nice doctor.”
But a real doctor would have said, “Son, this may hurt a little, but if we do it right, it will be as good as new.” (The above story was taken from our book Great Stones. Also see Jeremiah 43:9–10.)
“And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies…Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace” (Ezekiel 13:9–10). “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).
Instead of a Band-Aid, why not get real help? Before we plant, we prepare the soil and get the rocks and weeds out (Matthew 13:18–23). “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:1–4).
Though God uses teaching to reach people for Christ, the Lord has chosen preaching as His primary method of wining souls. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21). Teaching and other things are great for winning souls, as they give out information, but preaching has urgency in it. It grabs hold of your soul and stirs it. Teaching shows you how to do something but preaching makes you want to do it. Often a pastor of a church will use the Sunday School hour to plant (teach) and the main service to reap (win souls).
Is it wrong to tell a joke from the pulpit? “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Proverbs 17:22). A church is a spiritual hospital and sometimes the medicine is a merry heart. God uses preaching in many different ways. One person is exhorted, one is rebuked, one repents, one receives truth, one is saved, and one hears a funny story and laughs and forgets about his troubles and leaves seeing things in a different light. On the other hand, joking can be bad or overdone. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29). “Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks” (Ephesians 5:4). Strong’s definition for “jesting” is 1) “pleasantry, humor, facetiousness, 2) in a bad sense, scurrility, ribaldry, low jesting.” Women are to teach other women and children (Titus 2:3–4). “But I suffer not a woman to teach … the man” (1 Timothy 2:12; see also 1 Corinthians 14:34–35). Christ called 12 men to be His apostles, not 12 women.
There are ministers today who want to be only “positive.” Today there are some churches that are so positive that they will no longer teach the Ten Commandments, which are considered too negative, because most start with “Thou shalt not.” The Ten Commandments were given to show us we need a savior, not to make us feel good about ourselves. How could a person ask Christ to come into his heart, but not repent of his sins? God’s Word says, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2). In many churches today, it is acceptable to exhort or be longsuffering, but not to “reprove” or “rebuke.” But before you can plant, you must root out the weeds. I am not talking about being ugly or holier than thou, but when you love somebody enough, you will tell him what he needs to hear. Instead, many today are looking for preachers who will tell them what they want to hear; not what the Bible says. I like preaching on the love of God, but the Bible says “reprove, rebuke” and then “exhort.”
Suppose you are at home and your son runs in and shows you his hand that has been cut open with dirt and glass in his wound. You rush to the doctor and he immediately begins to put a bandage on it. And you say, “Hey, Doctor, shouldn’t you clean it out first?”
“No,” he says, “I have taken a survey and found people like to hear positive things.” Your son smiles when he hears this.
But you insist, “Doctor, you don’t understand. His wound has glass and dirt in it. If you don’t open it up and clean it out, it will become infected.”
The doctor says, “Now, don’t be so negative. What I am doing is the easiest for the both of us. Besides, do you have any idea how much pain it would cause your son to open up his wound?”
Your son is now pleading with you to listen to the “nice doctor.”
But a real doctor would have said, “Son, this may hurt a little, but if we do it right, it will be as good as new.” (The above story was taken from our book Great Stones. Also see Jeremiah 43:9–10.)
“And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies…Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace” (Ezekiel 13:9–10). “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).
Instead of a Band-Aid, why not get real help? Before we plant, we prepare the soil and get the rocks and weeds out (Matthew 13:18–23). “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:1–4).
