Demise of the Itinerant Preacher

In Luke's gospel, in chapter 14 and in verse 23, it speaks of the itinerant preacher of the gospel of the Son of God. And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. That word compel, friends, in the Greek, means that the God called evangelist is to constrain, entreat, invite, and persuade sinners with the claims of the gospel.

I was speaking with my good friend Richard Owen Roberts yesterday, and we both were lamenting the sad spiritual condition of the church and how hard it is these days for a true believer to find a Bible-believing church that honors God with a God-centered Bible and God-centered preaching, how scarce they are. And we were lamenting how hard it is to find work these days as a God called preacher. The big churches don't want truth, so they won't hire a God called preacher to come because if he did, he'd preach man's duty of repentance and turn the place upside down, and they mustn't have that.

Or he would preach searching sermons that brought many into conviction and alarm of their lost condition, and they mustn't have that because the big churches don't want anything or anybody to rock their boat and upset the good deacons. The big churches enjoy their crowds, and they only invite polished professionals who know how to move a crowd to laughter and tears by pulling on their emotions and to get them to give at the offering time. And although the little churches desire truth, and many of them hunger for revival, and they want to see God do a deep work in their midst, they don't have the means or the money to hire a traveling preacher to come to their church because of the cost involved of bringing that preacher to them.

So hardly anybody today is holding revival meetings to invigorate spiritual life into the church and to reach the lost within the community because most pastors are merely interested in church growth and building programs. Subsequently, if you're a big name within your denomination, or if you're an entertainer, you'll be invited to preach at big churches because they love to laugh and be entertained. But if you have a message that emphasizes repentance and regeneration, chances are nobody wants to hear you.

And if you preach against sin and preach upholiness, they will hate you. What we're seeing today in America is the demise of the itinerant preacher. If they want work, they have to go to a third-world country that is hungry for God.

When one studies historical religious awakenings, like the Great Awakening and the colonies of the mid-18th century, you'll find it was the itinerant preaching ministries of George Whitefield and other men like Gilbert Tennant, Jonathan Parsons, Jonathan Edwards, that through their searching sermons, sinners became alarmed and awakened to their lost condition. In Enfield, Connecticut, Jonathan Edwards was the itinerant preacher that evening when he preached his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And a historical record of one that was there relates that the preacher had to desist from speaking because he could not be heard over the shrieks and cries of the whole meeting house.

I've been to that field in Enfield, Connecticut, where the meeting house used to stand, and I've walked the ground. There's a stone marker that memorizes what occurred there that night. You can still sense the solemnity of a holy God hovering over that sacred ground.

After revival and revival occurred under the mighty preaching of George Whitefield, who tirelessly traveled up and down the colonies, warning his hearers that they must be born again. Whitefield was the grand itinerant. And in Boston, a local minister asked Whitefield the following question.

He said, Mr. Whitefield, since you've been among us all your preaches, you must be born again. When, sir, will you preach a new message? To which the great evangelist replied, When ye are born again. And it was during the second great awakening in America which was gripped by the itinerant preaching of Charles Finney and Azahel Nettleton.

When I was writing my definitive biography on Nettleton, I did primary research throughout the main three states he labored in, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. And I located 60 places where revival broke out under Azahel Nettleton's powerful preaching. Many of those churches are still standing today.

In the 19th century in America, it was under the itinerant preaching of D.L. Moody and Sam Jones that shook this country from coast to coast. Sam Jones had such a powerful revival in Nashville, Tennessee, they had to build an auditorium to hold the crowds for him to preach in. This is the Ryland Auditorium that has housed the Grand Ole Opry for years.

And in the 20th century, it was under the itinerant preaching ministry of Mordecai Ham and Billy Sunday that God sent powerful revivals that shook entire towns. In Jackson, Tennessee in 1920, Mordecai Ham preached such powerful sermons that God sent such a powerful revival why one-third of the population was saved. But why aren't we seeing revival in our day, friends? Do you think there is a connection between the fact that in those days the country was replete with traveling evangelists, but today there is no place for them? How can we have revival without them? Duncan Campbell was the itinerant evangelist who traveled to the Isle of Lewis in 1949 in Scotland, and it was under his search and sermons that revival gripped the entire island to such a degree there was felt the awful presence of a holy God.

Townspeople would be silently drawn to the churches at night under a power greater than they to where there were so many people there they had to stand outside beneath the stars strained to hear Duncan preach. I believe it's the demise of the itinerant preacher that's one of the main reasons why we're not seeing revival in America today, friends. And it's my prayer that God in his mercy will raise up men such as these, men like the Apostle Paul, Luther, Wesley, Whitfield, Knox, Edwards, Finney, Spurgeon, Moody, each shared a common denominator, a fire in their belly.

They each were so eaten up with the gospel and thirsty for Christ and filled with the Holy Ghost they could not stand idly by while others perished. They saw nothing but eternity, worshipped a holy God and served a risen Christ, living not for earth nor its gains but living only for heaven and its rewards. When they preached, they linked the devil with sin and the cross with salvation.

They preached hell and its fire and Christ and Him crucified and not one of them feared king, queen or pope and not one of them sought the compliments of men. O great God, raise up men like these for our day. Let us pray.