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Itching ears abound in our day - those who want to be stroked and coddled even as their soul remains in a state unprepared to meet its maker. What is a preacher to do?
Recent Entries
Theological SteakApril 10, 2012
These words by P. T. Forsythe on the magnificence of Christ's work are to theology what Ruth's Chris is to a good steak.
Describing the Indescribable
February 11, 2012
What we have in Christ will take all eternity to describe. But for one segment of one sermon, a great preacher made a mighty attempt.
Making Sense Of It All
January 30, 2012
Where are things headed? Is there rhyme and reason to the endless cycle of summer, fall, winter and spring? Is there a plan in place, or is randomness the explanation?
Suffering Saints
January 25, 2012
We get nervous thinking about it - suffering for the sake of Christ. How necessary is it, and what does it produce in us?
George Herbert on Prayer Meetings
January 21, 2012
Prayer Meetings are a thing of the past. Or so it seems. What has been lost? Maybe more than we realize.
When Fear Is Good
January 7, 2012
NO FEAR, we are told. And the point is well taken. But fear can be healthy, at least when it comes to eternal matters.
Happy, Happy, Happy
January 4, 2012
The declaration of independence holds up the pursuit of happiness as a right. Did you ever consider the reading the bible might be the one source that will never let you down?
Tickling And Hell
February 14, 2009
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teacherrs in accordance to their own desires. 2 Timothy 4:3
Paul in his wildest dreams could not have anticipated the self-esteem movement, and the pressure for present day pastors to preach in a manner that massages the ego, and flatters. "How-to" sermons play right into our needs-based culture.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a very influential preacher in London from World War II until the Sixties. Ian Murray, in his two volume biography points out that Martyn Lloyd-Jones believed that modern preaching had gone fundamentally wrong. How so?
".....the first work of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin and to humble men in the presence of God. He knew that any preaching which soothes, comforts and pleases those who have never been brought to fear God, nor to seek his mercy, is not preaching which the Spirit of God will own"
"The truth that he was going back to a principle once regarded as imperative for powerful evangelistic preaching, namely, that before men can be converted they must be convinced of sin."
"In 1883 C. H. Spurgeon declared: 'In the beginning, the preacher's business in not to convert men, but the very reverse. It is idle to attempt to heal those who are not wounded, to attempt to clothe those who have never been stripped, and to make those rich who have never realized their poverty.'
How did Martyn Lloyd-Jones put it?
"It is made perfectly clear in the pages of the New Testament that no man can be saved until, at some time or other, he has felt desperate about himself."
ML-J continues: "There is something even worse than that aobut the situation as I see it, and that is that present-day preaching does not even annoy men, but leaves them precisely where they were, without a ruffle and without the slighest disturbance...."
"The church is regarded as a sort of dispensary where drugs and soothing mixtures are distributed and in which everyone should be eased and comforted. And the one theme of the church must be 'the love of God.' Anyone who happens to break these rules and who produces a disturbing effect upon members of his congregations is regarded as an objectionable person..."
Paul in his wildest dreams could not have anticipated the self-esteem movement, and the pressure for present day pastors to preach in a manner that massages the ego, and flatters. "How-to" sermons play right into our needs-based culture.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a very influential preacher in London from World War II until the Sixties. Ian Murray, in his two volume biography points out that Martyn Lloyd-Jones believed that modern preaching had gone fundamentally wrong. How so?
".....the first work of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin and to humble men in the presence of God. He knew that any preaching which soothes, comforts and pleases those who have never been brought to fear God, nor to seek his mercy, is not preaching which the Spirit of God will own"
"The truth that he was going back to a principle once regarded as imperative for powerful evangelistic preaching, namely, that before men can be converted they must be convinced of sin."
"In 1883 C. H. Spurgeon declared: 'In the beginning, the preacher's business in not to convert men, but the very reverse. It is idle to attempt to heal those who are not wounded, to attempt to clothe those who have never been stripped, and to make those rich who have never realized their poverty.'
How did Martyn Lloyd-Jones put it?
"It is made perfectly clear in the pages of the New Testament that no man can be saved until, at some time or other, he has felt desperate about himself."
ML-J continues: "There is something even worse than that aobut the situation as I see it, and that is that present-day preaching does not even annoy men, but leaves them precisely where they were, without a ruffle and without the slighest disturbance...."
"The church is regarded as a sort of dispensary where drugs and soothing mixtures are distributed and in which everyone should be eased and comforted. And the one theme of the church must be 'the love of God.' Anyone who happens to break these rules and who produces a disturbing effect upon members of his congregations is regarded as an objectionable person..."
