Sermons and Biblical Studies

Religious people are psychologically conditioned to the trite phrase and the hackneyed expression. True, the stereotyped pattern varies slightly between different groups, but there would seem to be no reason why a clever speaker could not preach tonight to Calvinists, tomorrow to Arminians, the next day to Pentecostals, the next to Holiness people, and successively … Continue reading “PREACHING:
WATERED DOWN; RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE; PASTORS: INTEGRITY”

If some watcher or holy one who has spent his glad centuries by the sea of fire were to come to earth, how meaningless to him would be the ceaseless chatter of the busy tribes of men. How strange to him and how empty would sound the flat, stale, and profitless words heard in the … Continue reading “PREACHING:
WATERED DOWN; PREACHING: PREACH THE WORD; PASTORS: VISION OF GOD”

Admittedly, this is not an easy concept for us to grasp. We are not used to stretching our minds! The preachers of our generation are failing us. They are not forcing us to crank up our minds and to exercise our souls in the contemplation of God’s eternal themes. Too many preachers are satisfied to … Continue reading “PREACHING:
WATERED DOWN; PASTORAL MINISTRY: SHALLOWNESS”

The contemporary moral climate does not favor a faith as tough and fibrous as that taught by our Lord and His apostles. The delicate, brittle saints being produced in our religious hothouses today are hardly to be compared with the committed, expendable believers who once gave their witness among men. And the fault lies with … Continue reading “PREACHING:
WATERED DOWN; BOLDNESS; DISCIPLESHIP”

I have listened to certain speakers and have recognized the ingredients that went to make up their teachings. A bit of Freud, a dash of Emile Coulé, a lot of watered-down humanism, tender chunks of Emersonian transcendentalism, auto-suggestion à la Dale Carnegie, plenty of hopefulness and religious sentimentality, but nothing hard and sharp and specific. … Continue reading “PREACHING:
WATERED DOWN”

Many a preacher would like to challenge the intellectual and thinking capacity of his congregation, but he has been warned about preaching over the people’s heads. I ask, “What are people’s heads for? God Almighty gave them those heads and I think they ought to use them!” As a preacher, I deny that any of … Continue reading “PREACHING:
TOO DEEP”

It is carelessly assumed by most persons that when a preacher pronounces a message of truth and his words fall upon the ears of his listeners there has been a bona fide act of hearing on their part. They are assumed to have been instructed because they have listened to the Word of God. But … Continue reading “PREACHING:
RESPONSE TO; LISTENING TO GOD”

The difference between a wooden leg and a good leg is that if you prick a wooden leg the person would never notice. The difference between a church that has dry rot and a church that is alive is that if you prick the live church it will respond. If you prick the other kind, … Continue reading “PREACHING:
RESPONSE TO; CHURCH: SPIRITUAL CONDITION”

Every one who has come to the years of responsibility seems to have gone on the defensive. Even some of you who have known me for years are surely on the defensive—you have your guard up all the time! I know that you are not afraid of me, but you are afraid, nevertheless, of what … Continue reading “PREACHING:
RESPONSE TO; CHURCH: BOREDOM”

There is a problem in this passage, but I may die tomorrow and I would not want to die knowing that only a day before I had been too cowardly and timid to deal with a text of Scripture! Acts 2:20, 27, 30; 1 Timothy 4:6; 1 Peter 3:1–7 I Call It Heresy!, 118.