Articles
Spoken Against Them
Have you ever been sitting in the audience listening to the preacher preach and won-dered, “Is he preaching this at me?” I know I have, and it’s not comfortable. Inevitably, the preacher will happen upon a subject that is reminiscent of something that happened, or a conversation you and he had; it is enough to make one wonder. Interestingly enough, I have found in my experience that most of the time it was merely coincidental and the preacher may not have had any idea how applicable his message was that day.
First of all, it should be understood by the preacher that he is not to take advantage of the privilege of the pulpit which has been entrusted to him by taking personal shots, by meddling in affairs that are none of his business (1 Pet. 4:15), or trying to resolve personal matters with another member. Jesus did not say, “If your brother sins against you, console yourself by scoring cheap potshots from the pulpit with veiled references to their bad behavior.” He said, “go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.” (Mt. 18:15) When this does not happen, it is only natural for members, who do not have access to the
Now that that is out of the way, I do wonder, when did we ever get the idea that preaching wasn’t supposed to make us uncomforta-ble? Where did we ever get the idea that preaching wasn’t sup-posed to be intimately applicable to my own situation? Paul charged Timothy to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort (2 Tim. 4:2), at least two of which don’t feel very good. The truth is, we’re all much more comfortable thinking about “those” who really needed to hear this, rather than why I needed to hear it.
Think about how this must have played out for Amos who was probably very well received in the northing kingdom during the introduction of his sermon, in which he denounced the sins of Da-mascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, even Judah. What they didn’t know was that his outline contained a whopper of a transi-tion from talking about others to a powerful denunciation of Israel for her sins. What Amos learned was that it was okay to preach about others, but people don’t like when you make application to them personally. He was then invited to “flee to the land of Judah and there eat bread” (7:12). They said, “Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not spout against the house of Isaac (7:16). In other words, we have no tolerance for that kind of preaching. You won’t find support here. What should have caused them to mourn their sins and turn from their wickedness, caused them instead to get angry with the messenger. How dare he come to our country and level those kinds of accusations at us! “Typical southerner, thinks he’s better than all of us.”
Those who get mad because the preacher “preached that at me” are not in very good company. Both Mark and Luke record the same response of the chief priests and the scribes when they heard Jesus’ parable of the wicked vinedressers: “And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spo-
ken the parable against them. (Mk. 12:12; also Luke 20:19) Two thou-sand years earlier, Solomon had written: “He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself, and he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser…(Prov. 9:7-8). Isn’t this the reason King Ahab hated the prophet Micaiah— “I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.” (1 Ki. 22:8)
If we are going to have ears to hear then we will make no differentia-tion between truth and truth preached “at me”. It is hypocritical to change our opinion of a message when we realize it applies to us. That is one thing about King David for which he deserves credit. When the prophet Nathan came to David in hopes of convicting his heart of his sin with Bathsheba, he told the story about a rich man with many flocks who had stolen the only little ewe lamb that his poor neighbor possessed. This so angered the king that he pronounced a death pen-alty upon that rich man, and ordered that restitution should be made fourfold. It was then that he learned, “he preached that at me!” (2 Sam. 12:7) He could have chosen to lash out in anger at Nathan, but instead he made application of the message to his life, humbled him-self, and confessed, “I have sinned against the LORD!” Faithful are the wounds of a friend (Prov. 27:6).
The next time the preacher “preaches at you”, be sure to thank him for having the courage to say those things which will save both his and your souls from death (James 5:20). You might be surprised to learn how many times a preacher acknowledges in his own spirit, even as he preaches, that the Holy Spirit is preaching at him just the same.
