The Pulpit of Power is the Pulpit of the Gospel

The Pulpit of Power is the Pulpit of the Gospel THE PULPIT OF POWER IS THE PULPIT OF THE GOSPEL
By L. S. WHITE In this discourse, the word “pulpit” is not used in reference to the platform on which a public speaker stands, but to every means the Lord has ordained for the teaching of His word. Our Savior said: “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every crea-ture” (Mark 16:15). This text is the basis of all that may be said on this subject, at least so far as this discourse goes; and much is said in the Bible on the subject of the gospel.

Paul said he was “Separated unto the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1). It is the gospel of God because it originated in the mind and purpose of Gbd, and came from him. But in Romans 1:16, it is called “the gospel of Christ.” Why? Because Christ died to establish the gospel, and is the imediate author and subject matter of the gospel. In Acts 20:24, we read: “Which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” It is called “the gospel of the grace of God” because it is the means the Lord used in bestowing the grace of God on the human family. Also in Ephesians 1:13, this same gospel is called: “the gospel of your salvation,” It is thus called because the gospel contains the conditions with which people must comply in order to be saved. And in Romans 10:15, it is called, “the gospel of peace.” It is so called because by obedience to the gospel, we make peace with God, and stand free and justified in his sight. These different Scriptures all coin-cide, and teach a great lesson. The apostle, Peter, asked the question: “'"What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17). Paul answers Peter’s question by telling us that people who do not obey the gospel will be :“Banished from the presence of God, and from the, glory of his power” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).

If the pulpit ever loses its power, it will be because it ceases to preach the gospel. The gospel is the message. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that bellevetli; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). Paul did not say, “The gospel is a power of God,” neither did he say, “It is some power,” or “A part of a power,” but emphatically declared it “is the power of God.” And I want to emphasize the fact that the gospel of Christ is the only power God uses to save people. The power of the pulpit lies in the message, and the messenger. The message is the gospel. The message is perfect and sufficient. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for re-proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur-nished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). But the message may be hindered by the messenger. Every minister of the gospel is either a “live wire” or a “cut-off”; he transmits the power or sidetracks the current. The messenger who has character and wisdom gives the gospel an opportunity to reach the hearts and consciences of men and women. And here we had as well learn as anywhere that God has made it the privilege and duty of the pulpit to bring fallen humanity into contact with the gospel. “For the word of God is quick and power-ful” (Hebrews 4:12). The word “powerful” means “full of' power.” And while this is absolutely true, that power must be applied to become effective. For example, an engine has power to draw a train of cars, but is powerless to move the train till the train is placed in contact with the power of the engine. So is the gospel powerless to save till the unsaved are placed in contact with G*od’s power in the gospel to save. Hence, the binding obligation of the pulpit to bring the gospel message to the lost. Nothing else will do. Jehovah never inspired any man to know as much as he knows, nor to preach what Christ did not proclaim. Those who say, “Here is something in religion Christ has not told you” are “blind leaders,” and should not be heard, much less, followed. Spurgeon once said “If the revelation of God were not enough for our faith, what could we add to it?” And since revelation was completed, many have tried to teach new things and make them true; but their true things were not new, and their new things were not true. To one and all I plead that the foundation has been laid by our Lord, the healing medicine has been prepared, the cleansing element is ready, and what remains is the redeeming power of Christ in the lives of his people.

Christ said, “If I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). "While he was lifted up on the cross a long time ago, he must now be lifted up in the gospel and in our lives; for the preaching of the gospel produces faith in the mind and heart of the honest seeker after truth. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17) And the application of the gospel to an honest, inquiring heart, produces conversion, as the following Scriptures show: ‘‘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 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:21-24). ‘‘For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:13-14). “Many of the Corinthians bearing, believed, and were baptized” (Acts 18:8). Paul and Barnabas went into the synagogue, “and so spake, that a great multitude, both of the Jews, and also of the Greeks, believed” (Acts 14:1). “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is the word of faith, which we preach” (Romans 10:8). In fact, our God has revealed no other way of making Christians; for Christ said, “All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with Vou always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt, 28:18-20). “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15-16).

"Thus it is written,and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and re-mission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47). ‘‘Neither is there salvation in any other (than Christ) : for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). This is the message of the pulpit; and it is the gospel that saves. And those who hear, believe, and obey this gospel are added by the Lord himself to the inner circle he Is pleased to call the ‘‘church.” “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47). And no power can prevail against this church. “Upon this rock I will build my church: and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it” (Revelation 3:8). The preaching of the gospel by the early pulpit broke down all barriers of easte, race, and nation. Prejudice and error entrenched behind wealth and social position gave way before it. In fact, the most marvelous thing in the world is the power of the gospel as preached in its simplicity and purity in the early church. It will have the same effect today when the pulpit is as true to the word of the Lord as in the Apostolic age.

Some pulpits have lost their power. Why? Simply because they have substituted something else for the gospel. “Social service,” and various sorts of amuse-ments and societies have taken the place of the gospel in some places: and when these things, or anything else, is substituted for the gospel of Christ, I am ready to say, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they laid him.” Such a message has no power to save the lost or to help the saints.

It s sad to see some of the announcements in the daily papers of what men are going to preach about from their pulpits on the Lord’s day. Here are some samples:

1 was conducting a meeting in a great city, and a preacher announced through the paper that he would preach on Sunday morning on the subject of “Thirty Cent Gas.” A fight was being waged in that city to reduce the price of gas to thirty cents a thousand cubic feet. In another city where I was in a meeting, a column and a half of a daily paper was used to give a synopsis ’ of a sermon preached on Sunday morning oh the subject: “The Unfinished Work of Abraham Lincoln.” I recently saw in a paper where a preacher announced he would preach on the question: “Is Kissing Sanitary?”

I could use much space in recounting subjects I have seen announced through the papers for men to preach on. A prominent preacher once said to me in a large city where he had preached for years: “I have good audiences on Sunday mornings, but only a handful on Sunday nights, I have tried various kinds of entertain-ments and amusements to draw crowds on Sunday nights.

I have even put moving picture shows in my services; but I stand in my church door on Sunday nights and see people pass by on their way to the theatre, I have tried everything I know to get people to come to church on Sunday nights, and have failed; and I would like to know what you have to suggest to me to try next.” I quickly said to him: “I suggest you try the gospel.” And I will say here that when the church goes into competition with the theatre, moving picture show, or anything else in the way of worldly amusement, the church will lose out, and ought to lose out; for the church is not a place to he amused or entertained, but a place to worship God in spirit and in truth. Oh, that we could make the world realize it means something to belong to the church. The pulpit of power is the pulpit of faith. “Nothing avails anything except faith which works by love” (Galatians 5:6). The pulpit is no place to preach doubts. In fact, the true gospel preacher has no doubts about the word of the Lord. Christ said, “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). People go to church on the Lord’s day after they have jbeen battered and scarred in the fierce con-flicts with the world, the flesh, and the devil during the past week. They are heart-sick and weary, and need help. They do not want a minister to preach about his doubts. They do not want him to have any doubts. They have enough doubts of their own. And I am persuaded that the people want a minister to preach the whole gospel as it is written in the Bible, without fear, favor, or apology; for the faith that saves is an affectionate confidence in, acceptance of, and obedience to a personal Savior. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1) And if the people can be made to realize that Jesus Christ sees and hears all they do, and will judge them accordingly, they are not going to lie, cheat, and defraud their fellow- man as many of them are now doing. Oh, for a pulpit with faith enough to make Christ real! “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). And in order to be able to lead the lost of Christ, the pulpit must have both love and zeal as well as faith. Paul’s great love and zeal for the Jews ought to stir our hearts to action. “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Pom, 9:1-3). Hear him again: ‘‘Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10:1-2). Such zeal as that today throughout the Church of Christ would shake the world from center to circumference. Oh, for more zeal! And last, but not least, the pulpit must put no soft pedal on the coming judgment. There is nothing better established in the Bible than the fact of the final judg-ment of all people as described by Jesus Christ in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. And this lesson on the great Judgment day is one of the most dramatic things in the Bible. For, knowing he was nearing the end of his earthly career, Jesus made an outlook on the inevitable coming Judgment day. And this scene was not painted by the brush of some Michael Angelo, nei-ther is it the poem of some Dante; but it is a solemn pageant, with its tremendous issues of life and death, builded by the burning words of Jesus Christ. And each sinner found his own place in a realm which had not
been prepared for him; but which had been prepared for the devil and his angels.

Paul said, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27) If a judgment, and there will be, then there is a law of the judgment, and everyone will be judged by that law. What is the law? Jesus said, “He that rejectcth me, and reeeiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was upened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hades delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire”- (Revelation 20:12-15). These Scriptures forever settle the matter as to the final judgment of all the earth. And here, I remind you that a court of justice is a solemn procedure; and it is a serious thing for one to be charged by indictment, and brought before a court for trial. It is even more terrible for the sentence of death to be pronounced on a condemned person. But God has an indictment against the whole human family in the following language: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And our Lord will pronounce sentence on the finally incorrigible: “Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, depart
from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). But we will be able to stand in the judgment if our life’s record is washed in the blood of Christ. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). The following description of the judgment is borne out by the word of the Lord: Here comes a man. The indictment against him is, that with full knowledge of the facts, he refused to believe. The law is plain and positive: “He that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16. Cast him out, and call next case. He refused to repent. The law is: “Except, ye repent ye shall perish” (Luke 13:3). He is cast into outer darkness. The next one refused to confess Christ. The law is: “Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33). Cast him out, and bring in next case. The charge against him is, he refused to be baptized because he said baptism is non-essential. What is the.law? “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16). “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). Cast him out, for the Lord has no “non-essentials.” What is the next one charged with? He substituted something for baptism, which he said would do just as well. He argued that, at least, it would be indecent for ladies to be immersed; and said it seemed right to him to do some other way.

What is the law in this ease ? ‘ ‘ There is a way that seem- eth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 16 25). What is the trouble with the next person? He did not think it necessary to meet with the church regularly for worship, and to study the word of the Lord. The law is plain in this case: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:25-26). What is the trouble with this person? He was stingy, and did not give regularly to the support of the gospel; and at no time gave as he was prospered. The last in this case is as binding as in baptism, or anything else. The law is: “ Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come” (1 Corinthians 16:2). Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor re\ilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Such people cannot be saved. Stingy, covetous people are placed in the same class as “fornicators, adulters, thieves and revilers”; and Paul expressly declares they “shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” But the next case is of a person who did not live a pure life. The law is “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). Cast him out, and call next case. Here he is. He did not assist widows and orphans, neither did he visit the sick. "What is the word of the Lord in this case? “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” 'James 1:27). And the great host of persons lost, as described in Matthew 25:41-45, were cast out because they did not do the things that the good Lord tells us it takes to constitute “pure and undefiled religion. ’'

If the pulpit will hold its place of power with God and man to the salvation of a lost world, it must preach in faith, love, and sacrifice, the full gospel of Christ in its ancient purity and simplicity; for it is the power of God. “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).