Religious Feelings and Preaching (3)

Compel them

A born salesman can persuade people to buy. It happens that a buyer later feels that he “has been had,” and regrets the purchase because he has been talked into it. Is not a preacher in danger of offering the gospel in such a manner that the hearers begin to like it and accept it without really desiring it from the heart? Then later feelings of “buyer’s remorse” set in, so that this “sales technique” is needed again and again to keep them motivated.

Does not the preacher then have too big a role? Does he really bring the people to the gospel? This danger is not imaginary. Enthusiastic preaching has such an influence on certain people that they are persuaded by the preacher to think that they are believers. The offer of grace can be brought so persistently and compellingly that people think they believe.

Such compellers appeal to Luke 14:23, “Compel them to come in, that My house may be filled.” But does that provide us with an argument to break in and enter with spiritual violence? The preacher must earnestly persevere in his admonitions, but he must know his limits. One should not thoughtlessly come unto Christ, and therefore the preacher should not use force, but continue to try lovingly to convince the hearers. Naturally, he should use all the arguments of the Word for that purpose.

One-sided preaching can also have the effect that hearers are being deceived. For example, think of the one-sided preaching about Christ. Jesus Christ must, of course, be preached as the only means unto salvation, and there is an offer of God’s grace. But if the sermon does not go beyond that, the hearers would leave the church with a false comfort. In order to have true peace, more is needed than the believing of an uplifting message. We must be born again. Preachers may certainly encourage people, but it should be to seek their peace in Christ, confessing their sins before Him.

Alas! this is not always understood, with the result that some people leave their church for another, a thing which I fear will happen more and more in the future. Modern man wants to hear an easy message, and after the sermon, he likes to leave the church enriched.

On the other hand, care is also necessary in preaching about judgment and sin, because that, too, can take on an overbearing character. It speaks for itself that we cannot speak seriously enough about man’s state of death, but that is different from preaching a person into despair. It is possible for preachers to frighten and alarm their hearers and make them depressed, but a sorrowing after God is not worked by preachers, but by the Holy Spirit.

Understandings and feelings

Should the preacher appeal to the understanding or to feelings? We must not choose between these two extremes. A preacher must not influence the intellect only, nor should he desire merely to set the emotions to work. Moreover, I would not know how one could approach the feelings without involving the mind.

However, there are dangers here. It is sometimes the custom in revival circles to urge the hearers to an immediate choice at the end of the sermon, and the preacher can then very emotionally persuade them to make their choice right there. If the emotions are more compelling than the truth and the Word itself, the person making the choice actually does not realize what he has done. He made a choice based on the experience of that particular moment, but it did not come from the innermost recesses of the heart.

Others have said that preachers must, in the very first place, influence the mind, and that what is brought to their understanding will then sink in, so that the hearer will, hopefully, be persuaded to believe. In my opinion, this also goes too far, but it does contain a nucleus of truth. The truth must be experienced; what the Lord says in His Word must fully penetrate our understanding, and that must bring us to a sorrow about sin, to a sincere choice, and to faith in Christ.

It is therefore the preacher’s primary task to proclaim the truth objectively and to clarify it in the minds of the hearers, hoping and praying that the Holy Ghost will enlighten the understanding, and that, as a result, the truth will settle into the heart. It is essential that in the definition of “faith,” knowledge is mentioned first, followed by confidence. The preacher must, in the very first place, influence the understanding, but not the understanding only! This is certainly not to say that God works in the understanding only, and that the feelings must proceed from that. Those who teach this expect people to do a lot themselves. God, by His Spirit, works directly in the heart, changing the will, taking away the stony heart, and giving a heart of flesh. For us it is impossible to reach the heart directly, and the preacher must sincerely and warmly proclaim the Word.

Rational preaching?

I do not know whether it is true that sermons are becoming more and more rational deliberations with rigid, dogmatic contents. It is indeed possible that this characterizes certain Christian circles. There is, in any case, the danger that preaching becomes a message which leaves no impression and stirs no emotions. The preacher must also reveal something of God’s Spirit. Paul’s “preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:4).

On the other hand, people today have unlearned the art of listening, for everything in our day must be short, appealing, and pretentious. If we have to fulfil that condition, the choice of our texts would be very limited, and, what is worse, there would be no depth to the preaching. Regarding this, I think of Paul’s clear words from Galatians 1:10-12, “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

There is a real possibility that people actually do not want to listen to the Word, and they make that clear by accusing the preacher of cold rationalism. Or it is possible that people in this cold world have a desire for preaching which is filled with much feeling, so that their religious needs can be satisfied. It seems to happen, especially in the computer world, that people often seek compensation in New Age thinking. It is probably true that especially professionals who do not experience a lot of social tasks have a somewhat exaggerated need for sentiment, also in the preaching. The person who says that the preaching is too rationalistic is by this also making a statement about himself.

Depressing preaching

Is it possible that preaching can depress people? 1 suppose that this is indeed possible, but I find it hard to believe that everyone would become depressed by a certain type of preaching. Only for people who are greatly inclined to be depressed, or when other factors are involved, can the preaching cause such problems. For example, it can occur in cases where the preaching is unbiblical, and not welcoming and inviting.

The tone of preaching also plays a major role with people who have a tendency to depression. Even when grace is spoken of in a biblical manner, but the tone is melancholic and lacks warmth, the effect of the preaching could be just the opposite of what the preacher is trying to achieve. I must add that, in practice, everything can have a wrong effect on those who are sensitive, and it is questionable whether the preaching may be blamed. The preacher should, however, guard against remarks which are too sharp. People who are mentally weak usually take them to heart, and those for whom the preacher had meant those remarks in the first place usually do not pay attention.

The preacher, on the other hand, should not go so far that he avoids everything which people could take to heart and which could potentially create depression. Then he would have to exclude a large part of the Bible and refrain from preaching about sin and guilt. Then he would not even be able to preach about the way grace is received, or say anything about an apparent faith. I remember that a woman once told me that she tuned out certain parts of the sermon because the fact that she was a child of God was beyond examination. She could not bear to scrutinize that fact.

Can we blame the preacher when he preaches what Scripture states? Jesus’ preaching was also not without offense, and Paul writes, “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). However, what remains is that the preacher must strive for balance in his sermon and also in the choice of his texts. One sermon may have a completely different emphasis than another, but during the course of time the complete breadth of Scripture must be covered.

— to be continued —

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