Preaching for Revival

There's a story that Sam Jones used to tell about a new pastor who, upon taking charge of his church, was met by a delegation of the deacons previous to delivering his inaugural sermon. They said, Now, brother, you mustn't preach about fashion because our fashionable members will be out to hear you. You mustn't preach about drinking liquor or liquor selling because several of our members who are liquor sellers will be out to hear you.

And you mustn't preach about covetousness because several of our millionaire members will be out to hear you. Oh, well, what can I preach about? He asked in great perplexity. About the Mormons, replied the good deacons.

Give them blazes. There won't be a Mormon out to hear you. Now, the reason why that's funny, friends, is because it's true.

And there is a vast difference between preaching about revival and preaching for revival. George Whitefield preached for revival and revival broke out under his mighty preaching. But at the same time, he had to endure rotten eggs thrown at him while he preached.

And he had a duck when pieces of dead cats were hurled his way. He was stoned by a violent mob in Arlen for preaching Christ and bore Lord's score on his forehead throughout his life because of it. And his good friend, Jonathan Edwards, while in Enfield, Connecticut one evening, was preaching his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

And the meeting house became such a bedlam, it was said by an observer, ye minister had to desist from preaching for all the shrieks throughout the house. And Edwards saw glorious revival come and shake his town of Northampton because he was preaching for revival. And when we turn to the Old Testament prophets and examine their messages, hot from the heart of the Almighty, we see they were killed off one by one by those who didn't want to be disturbed.

They were sawn asunder for their alarming messages. And listen, friends, it's funny when the church goes through epochs where they need revival the most, that's when they want it the least. But we need preachers today who will preach revival.

And that's the title of my message today, friends, Preaching for Revival. My text can be found in the book of Amos in chapter 1 and chapter 3. And in the first chapter of Amos, we see the fiery prophet of God as he gathers a huge crowd under his preaching. He first pronounced judgment on the enemies of Israel to shouts of amen and tell it like it is, brother.

And his crowds ate up that kind of preaching like, honey, they couldn't wait to hear his next message to see who he was going to rail against then. Then Amos denounced the descendants of Abraham who were enemies of Israel and thundered ultimatums on Edom, Ammon, and Moab to the delight of his crowd. But then Amos turned his shotgun upon Israel, pronouncing the same judgments on them, and his crowd began to thin out.

And the prophet from Tekoa had learned the lesson that every true preacher must face, that when you get out your shotgun and preach against the social ills of society and preach against those who hate God, you gather a great and eager audience who will nod in agreement and shout their amens. But when the barrel of the shotgun draws a bead down the center aisle of the church, your crowd will scatter like chickens. When a fox gets in the henhouse, you begin to unload search and sermons on folks about man's duty of repentance and his necessity regeneration and God's requirements for a holy life lived under the lordship of his son, Jesus Christ.

And as that shotgun turns both barrels on that crowd of nice church folk, they will head for the exits and duck from being sprayed with any shotgun pellets of sting and conviction on their guilty hides. We see the work of a prophet in Amos chapter 3 and verses 6 and 7. Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Should there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants, the prophets. You want to find out what's on God's heart? Then you need to go and shut yourself up at your own river k-bar until the holy God speaks to you.

You want to see transformation in your church, brother pastor. Then preach what they need to hear and not what they want to hear. You want to see Bedlam break out in your meetings, brother evangelist, where sinners are crying out, what must I do to be saved? Then don't be afraid of the good deacons.

Don't hold back because you're afraid of upsetting some pew potatoes who sit and soak every week beneath the glare of the sanctuary lights until they are well done. Go get out your Bible and go get along with God long enough to where you can be ready to hear what he has to say to you. The reason why we're not seeing revival today is because preachers aren't preaching for revival.

We feed our folks nice little messages every Sunday that wouldn't upset a flea, much less an old sinner who's been a church member for years. But you go get along with God and shut yourself up entirely to him and draw close enough to him to hear him reveal his secrets to you, and they'll go back to your church with a message burning hot on your heart from the heart of God and proclaim it fearlessly under the anointing of the Spirit of God, and then sit down and shut up and watch God go to work. Like I said, we need preachers today who will be willing to preach for revival and lose some of their popularity and to preach up the great doctrines of the gospel, which are ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration.

O great God, send us some men like these in our day, the Apostle Paul, Luther, Wesley, Whitefield, 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, worshiped the Holy God, and served the 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 man. Let us pray.