August, 1942
T H E K IN G ’ S B U S I N E S S
283
Wasted—A Million Sermons By WILLIAM HERSCHEL FORD* Jacksonville, Florida
M Y VACATION l a s t summer was s p e n t in a pleasant lakeside retreat in one of our I was there, I attended the churches near by. One Sunday morning I went to the First Church in a city of about ten thousand population. There were about fifty people present The min ister was a cultured and well-edu cated man. He had a good delivery and a pleasant smile. . He talked of international relation ships, about national policies, and about the troubles between capital and labor. As he spoke about the war and the troubles across the Atlantic, I looked around at the congregation and won dered what that small group could do about it. I could see the needs of life clearly written on the faces of his listeners. I knew that they needed Jesus Christ more than they needed anything else in the world. They needed to know Him as Saviour and Lord and Master. But they heard noth ing that would bring them closer to God, nor that would help them to live a Christian life during the week. The next Sunday morning I went to the First Church in a city of sixty thousand population. T h e r e were about 125 people present that morn ing, and the pastor talked at length about the preservation of democracy. Again I felt that a preacher had lost an opportunity by failing to bring a message centered in Christ, our only Hope. Sermons That Miss the Mark Webster defines a sermon as "a discourse on a text of Scripture.” If that definition is correct, these two sermons missed their mark. We are * Pastor,.Southsidt Baptist Church.
told by the Holy Spirit to "preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:2), not the matters of political strife, nor governmental trends, nor current events. The old, old. story, of Jesus and His love Is al ways current, it is always new, it is always fresh, it Is always needed. The average preacher delivers one hundred sermons a year. If ten thou sand preachers in America are preach ing a modernistic, social message, that means that a million sermons are wasted every year—sermons which, if of another kind, might have won men to Christ and blessed many lives. The average preacher feels that, in order to show to his congregation that he is abreast of the times, he must center his sermons in current happenings. Thus the pulpit, like the newspaper, becomes largely a bureau of war news. After glancing at a daily paper, a little girl said, “Daddy, what did the newspapers, write about when we, didn’t have a war?” One wonders what some preachers t o d a y would talk about if they could not talk about the war. Not long ago a certain newspaper article stated that "the churches were
responsible for this present war." If my church is carrying out its mission in the world, it has nothing to do with the conflict in Europe or in Asia or anywhere else in the world, except in its missionary obligation to send the gospel to every creature. That is not to say, of course, that the Christian w ill fail to give sincere loyalty and cooperation to his government, in peace time and certainly in war. But the mission of the true church of Jesus Christ is not to set up a new social order, but to proclaim Christ in such a way that men w ill be drawn to Him for salvation arid for service, for only when the “government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isa. 9:6) will righteous peace be maintained. 4 The Preacher's Twofold Task As a minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, I must never preach; a sermon which does not have a defi nite twofold purpose. First, I am to preach Christ to those who are lost, to warn them of their sin, to tell them of the Saviour who can redeem and transform their lives and give them hope of heaven. Secorid, I am to preach gospel sermons, leading those who already know Christ as Saviour to surrender everything to Him as Lord; I must impress them with the value of Christian service to them-; selves, to others, and to the cause of Jesus Christ; I must lead them to know that the happiest and best life j is the one spent in Christ's service. \ Oh, preachers, the time is short, and the responsibilities upon us are heavy!* Let us not waste our time and prosti tute our opportunities by preaching on any other theme than "Jesus Christ, * and him crucified.” That is the only message we have. It is the only mes sage we need. It is the only message that gets abiding results.
Northern states. On the Sundays that
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