Gripped by the Gospel

I fear most of us preachers today don't know what it's like to preach while rocks and rotten eggs are thrown at us. When George Whitefield preached, he had rotten eggs and pieces of dead cats hurled at him. We preach today mainly for acceptance and applause.

That's why so few are being saved. We don't want to alarm anybody with fire in our preaching, so we water it down so as not to disturb the good deacons. This way, everyone can sleep soundly without being upset from the pulpit.

I want to begin my message today, friends, with a story about the first Methodist martyr. His name was William Seward. He was a wealthy stockbroker who traveled with the young George Whitefield and supported his initial work.

Then seeing how the crowds who stood out in the open air and who listened to Whitefield, how they became melted down under the power of the gospel, it stirred something inside this man, William Seward. He became gripped by the gospel. He wanted to go out and preach it himself.

He teamed up with George Whitefield's friend, Hal Harris, and together he and Hal Harris preached all over Great Britain. I want to read you an entry from the diary of Hal Harris. When we came to the village, everything seemed calm while Brother Seward prayed and discoursed sweetly by the market house.

But when I proceeded to discourse after him, they began to roar horribly, pelting us with dung and dirt, throwing eggs, plumbstones, and other hard substances in our faces, while they howled so loud as entirely to drown my voice. Brother Seward had a serious blow on his eye, which caused him much anguish. As this affected his left eye, he was obliged to be led by the hand for a few days, and at length he became totally blind in the other.

Well, the diary entry by Hal Harris stops there, but William Seward went on to die from his injuries, becoming the first Methodist martyr of the gospel. And I want to ask this question to us. Would we be willing to stand there and preach if we knew that bodily harm could be yours? Would we want to preach if we knew it was our last sermon because of fierce persecution? Would we place our life on the line like that? Are we expendable for the sake of the gospel, or do we rely too much on our 401ks to get us through retirement? How badly do we want to walk in the steps of a crucified Savior? We are into self-preservation today like never before.

We get our precious feelings heard if a deacon looks at us the wrong way. I like what my late friend and Bible commentator William McDonald wrote about the disciples. Listen to what Bill said.

We often think that it must have been a wonderful experience to travel with Jesus when he was here on earth. We can see him and his disciples sauntering along, enjoying a continual Bible conference. But it wasn't like that.

It was more of a scalding experience in which the disciples learned their own sinfulness and failure, and in which they were called to a pathway of persecution, suffering, and death. I believe, friends, that the church in America has lost her way and forgotten her calling to make disciples. We have grown too soft, pampered by our own devices, and lulled into a false sense of success that if our churches are big and if our crowds are growing, then this is the obvious smile of heaven upon us.

But in reality, it's the smoke of hell that clouds our thinking and smothers our senses to the outright laying down of our lives for the sake of the gospel. We have lost ourselves because we have lost touch with God. We need men today who are so gripped by the gospel, who are ready to die if necessary for it, because the time of persecution will soon be upon us.

Here in this country, the chaff will be separated from the wheat. Christ will be exalted by the preaching of the cross. The need of our hour is desperate, friends, for we need men who fear only God.

John Wesley said it best, and his words should be a clarion call. They should be a battle cry at this sad and tragic hour to each of us. Wesley said, give me 100 men who fear nothing but God and hate nothing but sin, and I will shake the gates of hell.

And that's exactly what John Wesley did. Let us pray.