Bulletin Articles: Full Article for Record Number 1044
Potato Chips And Cotton Candy
by Larry Ray Hafley
A brother in another state wrote of going to a meeting recently. Below are his comments on the lesson he heard:
"I went to hear (John Doe) at (Podunk) last night....He ’talked’ on marriage. The passages he used...were Psalm 15; Genesis 2; Song of Solomon 7; Matthew 19:6; Ephesians 5:25 26. None were discussed very definitively....Of course, others there may have thought differently, but for the most part he just talked. Part of his lesson consisted of the reading of the wedding vows he uses to conduct a wedding and of what he says at the exchange of the rings....The substance of his lesson...came more from the wording of the vows than from scripture.
"As for the invitation, he said, we need to come to Christ in faith. That was it! The conditions for the alien sinner to meet were never given, nor any mention of what an erring child of God must do to regain his acceptable state before the Lord."
Additional Comments
Of course, anyone may, if he wishes, make harshly critical remarks of any sermon he hears. We do not justify such behavior.
However, I fear some preaching, weighed in the balances of God, may be found wanting and falling short of what the Lord would have it to be. Therefore, to this brother, I responded, "What you described in your letter is exactly what is wrong with much of today’s preaching. While it may not teach any overt, blatant error, it does not sustain any distinctive truth. Such preaching will neither build sound churches nor souls for eternity. Potato chips and cotton candy are food; they will not kill you, but they will not build up the body. The same is true with much of the pablum that passes as preaching in many places."
Let us remember the spiritual climate that envelopes and engulfs our world today-"evil men and seducers (are becoming) worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived" (2 Tim. 3:13). Hence, in our preaching, let us be aware of the need to differentiate between the true and the false, between human religion and divine religion, between the counsels of men and the commandments of God, between the traditions of men and the appointments of heaven (Matt. 21:25; 28:20; Acts 2:42; 1 Cor. 11:2; Col. 2:8; 2 Thess. 2:15). We dare not assume that men today, not even those in the church, know the way of God which we may take for granted. Whether addressing morals or marriage, or Muslims or Mormons, let us give the sense and cause men to understand the will of God as expressed in word of truth (Neh. 8:8; Lk. 24:25-27, 45).
Failure to tell the lost what they must do to be saved is a growing problem. First, men must learn of "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come" (Acts 24:25). Second, intensive efforts and exhortations must be made to men to "save (themselves)" from this crooked nation and perverse generation (Acts 2:40). Third, "with great force and power," the lost must be told exactly what they must do to be saved by grace through faith. (Acts 20:21; 22:16). The lost must see the contrast between the "easy believism" (faith only) of denominational religion on the one hand and the plain, certain terms of gospel obedience on the other (Acts 8:5, 12, 35-39).
"But speak thou the things which befit the sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1). "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (2 Tim. 4:2-4).
