The Demands and Failures of Preaching.

The purpose of preaching is to reveal to man, his Creator. The Creator has revealed His will to man, and preaching is to make this known. In so doing, certain demands will be made upon man. The demands are to believe in the Creator, and in the things the Creator has purposed and promised for man. The 'demands' are not threats, a plea to accept the great love from God for man. This acceptance is simple submission of man's will to God's will. It will be seen by obedience to God. Obedience indicates belief in what God has done and in what God has promised. This is described as the "obedience of faith" [Romans 1:5; 16:26]. That God has love for man in demanding acceptance, are evident in that man will be blessed for submitting to God's will. This we see from the words of Jesus in Matt. 11:29, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
If preaching fails to point this out, man will not only suffer in this life, but suffer eternal consequences. Thus, the demand to accept God's offer of salvation are vitally important.

When preaching ceases to expose and condemn sin, there will always be consequences. One consequence is the hardening of the conscience. When this happens, the following changes develop in one's life: man becomes insensitive to sin, then overtaken by covetousness. What is worse, while this digression is going on, he maintains that he still has God’s favor. This is because of his spiritual blindness. We know this to be true, for we see that it happened again and again in the Old Testament, with the children of Israel. 

Many of their prophets and priests, took bribes and preached lies to the people. As a result of their failure to expose and condemn sin, the majority of the children of Israel became insensitive to their sin, and became more and more covetous, all the while claiming to have God’s favor and calling upon Him as their God. They were very religious, but very hypocritical. 

However, there were those who did not, and preached God's will (i.e., demands). Notice from the words of THESE prophets, how covetous and hypocritical the people had become: 

Hosea 7:13-15 - “…they speak lies against me. They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me. Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me.” 

Micah 2:1-2 - “Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.”

Amos 6:1, 4-6 - "Woe to those who are at ease in Zion...to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!”

2 Chron. 36:15-17 sums up the sad results: All the prophets that spoke truth, called upon the nation to return in repentance to God, by observing the Law that God gave them through Moses. The prophet Malachi wrote, "Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel" (Malachi 4:4). What was their attitude toward his preaching of repentance and obedience? We find from the prophet Jeremiah that the word of the Lord was, “…to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it.” (Jer. 6:10)

2 Chron. 36:15-17 sums up the sad results: "The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy."

So is it true today...there are those who preach perversions of the message that Jesus preached and gospels "other" than "the" gospel preached by the apostles of the Lord (Gal. 1:6-9).  

The same mindset that Israel had of still being in God's favor, even though they have rejected God's will exists. Therefore, the same consequences will come upon all who maintain a disobedient faith.

For those who will heed the demands of God's will, the blessing that God promised of old, yet remains. It is stated in the words of the prophet Malachi, "Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. RETURN UNTO ME, AND I WILL RETURN UNTO YOU, SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS" (Malachi 3:7).

Jesus gave His word, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest..." (Matthew 11:28).

1/30/2019

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