Preaching; for Guilty, Needy Perishing Sinners.

When a man stands in the pulpit to preach, it ought to be the passionate pursuit of that man. Jeremiah wrote,

“But His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay” (Jeremiah 20:9).

I believe this is what we have lost in the recent years as we see preachers preach from the pulpit.

We look back at few mighty men of God such as John Wesley during the First Great Awakening where George Whitfield preaching along throughout England and the US were deep in theology and great conviction.

Fervent passion in preaching is no dead orthodoxy. High theology produce red hot doxology! Flaming torch in the pulpit: We are burning and blazing with zeal for the God of the truth we preach.

A man named Joseph Williams heard John and Charles Wesley preached:

“I found him standing on a table-board, in an erect posture…. surrounded by, I guess, more than a thousand people, some of them fashionable persons, but most of the lower rank of mankind. He prayed with uncommon fervency… He then preached about half an hour in such a manner as I have scarce ever heard any man preach…. I think I never heard any man labor so earnestly to convince his hears they were all by nature in a sinful, lost, undone, damnable state; that notwithstanding, there was a possibility of their salvation, through faith in Christ…. All this he backed up with many texts of Scripture, which he explained and illustrated, and then by a variety of the most forcible motives, arguments, and expostulation, did he invite, allure, quicken, and labor, if it were possible, to compel all, and every of his hearers, to believe in Christ for salvation”

The Prince of Preachers Charles Spurgeon said once, “No one who preach of God without zeal is of God”  If there is no passion, there is no preaching. He who preaches without passion is an instrument of Satan, damning the souls of men to hell.

It is in our dull preaching that will haunt us on our dying beds. Tearless preaching without the unction of the Holy Spirit! “I dare not play with you sinner. I dare not tell sin is trifle.” attitude that one holds when one stands before a guilty, needy and perishing sinners.

A young preacher approached Spurgeon and said, “When I preach, no one will come to hear me”

Spurgeon responded, “Dash yourself with gasoline, strike a match, set yourself on fire, and people will come watch you burn”

We must be on fire for God when we preach the Word of God. Nothing less, nothing more.