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I N t h is d a y o p p a l e p r e a c h in g , colorful language in the pulpit has become almost anathema. In order to sound intellectual we have paid a dear price. Dry, flat and insipid speech not seasoned with salt has become the rule. If some original brother dares to be an exception, he is viewed with suspicion and disfavor or at best with a tolerant smile. It just isn’t done these days. Our Lord did it, however, in the days of His flesh. One sparkling gem is found in this admonition: “ Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you” (Matt. 7 :6 ). The expositors have argued about this verse but some of the applications are so obvious that no scholar is needed. Such a text might be a bombshell on a quiet Sunday morning with the average comfortable congre gation. The proper exposition might amount to an explosion. Trying to explain spiritual realities to the natural man, trying to reveal the deeper things of God to unre generated sons of Adam is worse than a waste of time. One might as well try to describe a sunset to a blind man, play music to a deaf man or reason with a corpse. Talking about the secrets of grace to sinners is as vain as discussing Einstein’s relativity before a monument in a public park or nuclear physics with a hillbilly. The unsaved man is blind and cannot “ see it.” He is dead and cannot “ get it.” He may be a Ph.D. but that does not help in this case. It helps in other fields but an unregenerated Ph.D. has no advantage here. For under standing spiritual truth a Ph.D. without the Holy Spirit means only Phenomenal Dud. The reason for all this is set forth in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. We have been taught to believe that truth reaches us through the eye-gate and the ear-gate and inner impressions but Paul, quoting from Isaiah, says that the wisdom of God is communicated by the Holy Spirit. He puts it in unforgettable words: “ But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness Unto hiiq: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” This explains why many well-meant efforts to con vert the ungodly fall flat and instead of converting them often has the opposite effect. We cast holy things to dogs and pearls before swine and they trample these treasures under their feet and turn upon us to rend us. Sometimes Christian wives get the worst of it trying to persuade unsaved husbands to become believers. “ I have talked and talked and it only makes him angry” . . . so the complaint goes. Exactly. He will not be won by being argued with or preached to in the home. When Peter wrote, “ Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation
WASTED GEMS
by Dr. Vance Havner
THE KING'S BUSINESS
18
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