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by Dr. R. L. Hymers, Jr.

A sermon preached at the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles
 Lord’s Day Morning, October 8, 2000

"There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.
And many of them said, He hath a devil and is mad; why hear ye him?
Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil.
Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?" (John 10:19-21).

I was recently driving across the state of Florida with another pastor. He turned on the radio several times to an evangelical station. Every time, every one of the speakers sounded about the same. Their messages and their voices were all alike. They were all soft evangelical Bible teachers - even though some of them claimed to be fundamentalists.

Then suddenly he turned on the radio and I heard a man preaching! He was laying it out flat and plain! I said, "Who is that?" My friend said, "That's Oliver B. Greene. He's been dead over twenty years."

It's a shame when the only decent preacher I heard on radio has been dead for twenty years! When I was called to preach forty-three years ago, every preacher I heard delivered his message in the style of Oliver B. Greene. Somebody changed and it wasn't me!

God called me to preach like the old-time preachers. But the churches got so fancy that now they say you can't preach like that. Well, I'll do it anyway, because God called me to be an old-fashioned preacher - not a soft, limp-wristed Bible teacher.

One evangelist told me that he went to preach in a Skid-Row mission while he was a theological student. He went with a professor at the Bible school. He memorized and preached John R. Rice's sermon, "Trailed by a Wild Beast," an old-fashioned, sin-condemning sermon on Numbers 32:23, "Be sure your sin will find you out." The points are these:

1. Sin will find you out in your face.
2. Sin will find you out in your body.
3. Sin will find you out in your character.
4. Sin will find you out in your children.
5. Sin will find you out in a remorse-stricken conscience.
6. Sins come out publicly, with open shame.
7. Sin will find you out in Hell.
8. An escape for ruined sinners.

After the young preacher gave Dr. Rice's sermon, the Bible school professor told him, "It's OK to preach that kind of sermon in a Skid-Row mission, but don't ever preach like that in a church."

So, a sermon Dr. Rice preached in many churches in 1944 (when the sermon was copyrighted by Sword of the Lord) could not be preached in these same churches a few decades later, because they had filled up with unconverted people. But such sermons are needed in our churches - now more than ever!

The kind of advice given by the Bible school teacher has produced a generation of chicken-hearted preachers. It is evil counsel. It will not be blessed with many conversions, and never with revival. Away with such Satanic counsel from the face of the earth! It would be better to have every church closed to you, like great Wesley and Whitefield did, than to follow such wicked, craven, self-serving advice!

Winston Churchill said, "People who are not prepared to do unpopular things and to defy clamor are not fit to be Ministers in times of stress." He was talking about ministers of the government, but his words apply equally to ministers of the gospel in times like these.

Every preacher needs to constantly remember two Bible verses:

J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) was a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary before he left because of liberalism in 1929. Later that year he founded Westminster Theological Seminary. He was defrocked by the liberals in 1936, and died one year later.

Dr. Machen took a strong stand for the Bible in the Presbyterian church. He had his ordination certificate revoked by liberals in the denomination for his stand, but he has been a hero to Bible-believing Christians ever since. Dr. Machen believed that modern preaching had gone wrong. He wrote:

Modern preachers are trying to bring men into the Church without requiring them to relinquish their pride; they are trying to help men avoid the conviction of sin…Such is modern preaching. It is heard every Sunday in thousands of pulpits. But it is entirely futile.

Iain H. Murray said this about Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great Welsh preacher, considered by many to be one of the foremost authorities in the twentieth century on revival:

Modern preaching, Dr. Lloyd-Jones believed, had gone fundamentally wrong. He saw the main proof of that fact in the failure of the pulpit to recognize that the first work of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin and to humble men in the presence of God. He knew that any preaching which soothes, comforts and pleases those who have never been brought to fear God, nor seek His mercy, is not preaching which the Spirit of God will own. The truth is that he was going back to a principle once regarded as imperative for powerful evangelistic preaching, namely, that before men can be converted they must be convinced of sin.

When I surrendered to preach as a teenager, I was asked to speak in a large youth group at our church in Huntington Park, California. I prayed and then spoke plainly on James 2:20, "Faith without works is dead." It was not a wild sermon at all, just a plain gospel sermon to lost young people. It was my first sermon, preached at the First Baptist Church of Huntington Park in the spring of 1958, when I was seventeen years old.

The Choir Director, who also led the youth group, took me aside after the sermon and told me I was wrong, that I must not preach like that again. I was shattered. My heart was so sick that it brings tears to my eyes even now, over forty years later. But a few months afterwards the secret life of this man came out. He had been molesting little children. Several parents took him to court. I watched as the young people I had spoken to fell away from the church until only a handful were left. Then the Lord seemed to say to me, "Hymers, you go back in there and preach, whether people like it or not. Preach to please me, not to please wicked, lost church members."

I have tried to follow God on this matter for over forty years now. Yes, it has cost me some misunderstanding and the loss of some friends. And yes, plain preaching has gotten me put out of a couple of churches across those forty years, where lost church members and weak preachers agreed I should be stopped from doing the work of true evangelism. Yes, some of my fellow preachers have said, as they did of the Lord, "He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?" (John 10:20).

President Reagan once said, "If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are." He was saying that children who are not taught the history of America will grow up not knowing what it means to be an American!

What President Reagan said applies also to Christians, "If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are." There's a whole generation of ignorant preachers who don't know a thing about America's three great awakenings or our leading preachers, like Jonathan Edwards, Asahel Nettleton, Gilbert Tennent, George Whitefield, Peter Cartwright or Cotton Mather. They are so ignorant of American Christian history that they can't even tell you who these men were, or what they did.

That dictum from President Reagan was exactly right - and it's the main reason there is so little real preaching today. We have forgotten what we once did, so we don't even know who we are - as fundamentalists and as preachers.

Let us remember three things about historical and Biblical preaching this morning.

I. Biblical preaching causes divisions.

The Book of Acts describes one division after another across its pages. For instance, in Acts 4:2-4 some of the people believed, while the rest were grieved. The preaching of the apostles produced grief or belief. There was no middle ground. In Acts 13:48-50 there was a division of the people which resulted in the preachers being "expelled…out of their coasts." In Acts 14:4 we read, "But the multitude of the city was divided." In Acts 17:1-9 we read of certain people who were "moved with envy" who "troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things." When Paul preached at Ephesus, "divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way…he departed from them, and separated the disciples" (Acts 19:8-9). At Rome, "some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not" (Acts 28:24).

Clear, plain preaching which caused people to examine their own salvation produced great division throughout the book of Acts, as the apostles followed the example set by Jesus in His own preaching ministry.

Jesus, Himself, quite often caused such division through His preaching (John 7:43; John 9:16; John 10:19). The last verse in this list, John 10:19, tells us: "There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings." Jesus' sermon was so probing (He called them thieves and robbers in verse 1) that although they understood little of its spiritual content, it angered and divided them. In Luke 12:51 Jesus said: "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division."

Dr. John R. Rice once said:

No need to blame Hollywood and the liquor and drug crowd for the mess we are in. Blame lies at the doorstep of sissy, compromising, back-scratching, ear-tickling preachers who know the truth yet refuse to preach it for fear of hurting someone's feelings. It is not inviting to be unpopular. No one likes to be shunned. It is not a good feeling to know you are not appreciated. But our Lord went through all that - and more. He set our example.

Yes, the preaching of Jesus and His apostles produced divisions between the saved and the stubborn, hard-hearted lost. This has happened throughout Christian history to men who preached as Christ and the apostles did; men who made lost people examine themselves to see whether they were converted (II Corinthians 13:5).

Remember that Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for this reason. Remember that John Wesley wrote again and again in his journal, "I must preach there no more," when church after church closed to him, and he was finally forced out into the fields to preach because no church would have him in his pulpit. Remember that George Whitefield was bitterly lampooned on the stage and also driven from the churches for such preaching. Remember that Bunyan was put into prison for such preaching, and Jonathan Edwards was fired from his church for trying to get lost teenagers in his congregation converted.

Brian Edwards has said, "Some of the most vicious opposition to revival has come from the professing church." He pointed out that "every church was closed to Bakht Singh," the great Indian evangelist. At Cambuslang, Scotland, in 1742, the Associate Presbytery called George Whitefield "a limb of Anti-Christ," and spread "lies, slanderous reports, and ridiculous stories" to prejudice people against his preaching. The Scottish evangelist Duncan Campbell was accused of hypnotizing people in the 1940s. Evangelist Howel Harris of Wales declared, "I was almost murdered once, and twice in danger of my life, besides being before the Magistrate." This sort of opposition to preaching for conversions is very nearly universal in history.

When we today take up the desperately needed task of preaching, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith," we must expect a response similar to that experienced by Jesus, the apostles, Luther, Wesley, Whitefield, Bunyan, Edwards, Wesley, Howel Harris, Bakht Singh, Duncan Campbell, and so many other faithful preachers. We must expect angry, hard-hearted, unconverted Protestants and Baptists to reject us, speak evil about us behind our backs, and put us out of their churches.

In this day of apostasy and soft, limp-wristed new-evangelical "Bible-teaching," a real, old-fashioned preacher will often be rejected. He will walk alone among the dead, his path described by the nineteenth century poet Thomas Moore:

I feel like one

Who treads alone

Some banquet hall deserted,

Whose lights are fled,

Whose garlands dead,

And all but he departed.

President Reagan said,

We must not forget what they said about that old-fashioned preacher, Jesus Christ. The people called Jesus insane and demon-possessed because he preached too hard to please them:

"And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad (insane); why hear ye him?" (John 10:20).

So, like his Master Jesus, the faithful preacher will be thought odd or unstable by some. After Paul preached the gospel to him: "Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad" (Acts 26:24). Festus said Paul was insane after he preached. This was the same response Jesus received, recorded in John 10:20. Many people who heard D. L. Moody preach called him "Crazy Moody." This will sometimes be the reaction to any preacher who speaks as forcefully as Jesus, Paul, Whitefield, or Moody on the need for Protestants and Baptists to be converted. Jesus said,

"Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you" (John 15:20).

It never makes anyone mad, like the preaching of Jesus did! It never angers sinners, like the preaching of the apostles did! It just isn't Bible preaching!

In the Book of Acts, the preachers were stoned, thrown out of cities, put in prison, screamed at, and spat upon by those who heard them. But multitudes also got saved. Has it ever changed? Before you answer, think carefully about this list of great Christians who were rejected for sharp preaching:

Chrysostom was exiled by the empress Eudoxia.

   Luther was expelled from the Catholic Church.

     Baxter was locked in the Tower of London.

        Bunyan was sent to prison for twelve years.

          The Wesleys were driven from the Anglican church.

            Whitefield was banished from every church in London.

              Edwards was forced out of his own pulpit.

               Spurgeon was censured by the Baptist Union.

                Machen was defrocked by the Presbyterian Church.

                  John R. Rice was blackballed by Southern Baptists.

"If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are."

II. Biblical preaching causes people to examine themselves - to see if they are saved or not.

In II Corinthians 13:5 the Bible says, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith."

Preaching which doesn't ever make you examine yourself isn't Biblical preaching. The man might read a Bible verse. He might even shout. But if he doesn't make you look at your testimony and life and question whether you are saved, that man is not a Biblical preacher!

III. And then, thirdly, Biblical preaching opens the eyes of the blind.

In our text, we read that they criticized Jesus for preaching too hard.

"And many of them said, He hath a devil (i.e. demon), and is mad (i.e. insane); why hear ye him?" (John 10:20).

But there were others in the crowd that day who said this:

"These are not the words of him that hath a devil (demon). Can a devil (demon) open the eyes of the blind?" (John 10:21).

True Biblical preaching is used by God to open the eyes of lost sinners

You say, "Why has that man yelled and preached and condemned and shouted at me?" The answer is simple: I want to see you get saved. I want to see you come into this local church and never miss. I want to see you come to Jesus Christ, the resurrected Son of God, so your sins can be washed away in His Blood!

I hear Thy welcome voice, That calls me, Lord, to Thee,

For cleansing in Thy Precious Blood that flowed on Calvary.

I am coming, Lord! Coming now to Thee!

Wash me, cleanse me in the Blood that flowed on Calvary.

        ("I Am Coming, Lord"

            by Lewis Hartsough, 1828-1919).

THE OUTLINE OF

by Dr. R. L. Hymers, Jr.

"There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.

And many of them said, He hath a devil and is mad; why hear ye him?

Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil.

Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?" (John 10:19-21).

1. Biblical preaching causes divisions, John 7:43; John 19:16; John 10:19; Luke 12:51; Acts 4:2-4;
   Acts 13:48-50; Acts 14:4; Acts 17:1-9; Acts 19:8-9; Acts 28:24.

2. Biblical preaching causes people to examine themselves, II Corinthians 13:5.

3. Biblical preaching opens the eyes of the blind, John 10:20; John 10:21.