Preaching in the Flesh?

In a message Paul Washer preached several years ago, he told of preaching in a church where an elder approached him afterward, saying something like this: “Brother Paul, you preached the truth tonight…. But you did it in the flesh and you need to get down on your knees and repent.” Sobering words indeed.

Though I haven’t researched exactly what sermon I heard Brother Washer say that, the story stands very clear in my mind because when he related it, I could, also, relate. No, I was not rebuked by an elder in the church in that same way; however, there were a few times several years ago, that I have come away from the sermon, convicted even to tears at times, falling on my face before God in repentance. I continually pray that I might be alert, not slumbering to the truth, that I may be ever submissive to Him and constantly communing with Him, so as not to fall again: “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

It is a reminder that we are flesh and blood men. We have not yet been glorified, immortalized, nor yet made incorruptible. That is the awesome glory of God’s grace; that though we are yet sinners, we have been granted the grace and privilege of proclaiming gospel truth; God’s Word! Yes, if we are redeemed by the blood, we are growing in grace, maturing from faith to faith, and increasing from glory to glory as the Spirit of God conforms us to the image of Christ by God’s providence working all things together for good, yet, we are still merely fallen men. Remember, the best of men are merely men, at best. So we are prone to preach in the flesh and that’s why it is so very important that we, as preachers, pastors, ministers, stay in the Word of God by the Spirit’s power through prayer.

Now, before I ask you to CLICK ON the arrow in the center of this 5 minute and 51 second video segment of Mark Driscoll, let me just say that I’m not against Mark Driscoll as a person, nor do I suggest that he is unsaved. In fact, from what I’ve read from him and about him, I would say that, largely, we probably agree theologically concerning Biblical truth. Nevertheless, in this segment he very passionately rebukes sinners using terms from the vernacular (BE WARNED: use discretion when playing this segment with little children around).

The word “hell” is in the English Bible so, in and of itself, it is not a vulgar term. The phrase Brother Driscoll used, however, is of the world and easily recognized as how the unsaved unbelieving world speaks. One doesn’t have to spend a decade and a half in the U.S. Navy as a deep sea diver to detect that. Come on, you know that’s true. I’ve been around unbelievers who have let that very same expression slip out when I was around and when they saw me, they blushed and apologized.

Although Mark spoke the truth, he sunk to the level of depravity of those very same people he was rebuking. In that, was not his use of language as pragmatic as, say, some pastor using worldly marketing techniques to persuade people of spiritual truth? His passionately loud voice is not the issue. Paul Washer has inflected his voice in preaching; Rolfe Barnard did in nearly every sermon he preached; and I even heard J. Vernon McGee shout his words in a Sunday morning message once. Yet, Brother Driscoll’s use of the vernacular seemed to suggest that it was raging anger and not God’s holy wrath: “For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).

For those who would suggest that I’m going a little overboard here, let’s put a little perspective on this. Are the men who have not honored their wives with dignity, even in the slightest way (1 Peter 3:7), who are not ravished in their hearts for their wives (Song of Solomon 4:9), or who are not smitten to the point of love that silly metaphors are used to describe her (Song of Solomon 7:4), are they not also guilty of sin? Are they not also guilty of withholding all that is holy from a true, right, and good relationship between man and wife? We must say, yes, because sin is any lack of conformity to, or transgression against God’s revealed will found in Holy Scripture (1 John 3:4). Granted, Mark may have said those very things I mentioned concerning holy and wholesome relationships between a man and his wife in the majority of the message that was not included on this segment, but how powerful could it have possibly been when he employed the arm of the flesh in his speech. Think about this:

Could it be that the sin that needs to be rebuked in many local congregations today is there because the preaching of the gospel from the pulpit is not given the holiness and reverence God’s Word is due? To somewhat take Brother Driscoll’s own words, let me ask this: who in heaven and earth do we think that we are that we can take the grace and privilege of the precious Word of God given to redeemed men, and soil that Word with the filth of the world? Look, I’m not saying anything to you, or Brother Driscoll, that I don’t face myself daily. This is God’s precious Word we have been blessed to proclaim. When we soil it with expressions that are flesh, however slight it may be, then it has no foundation in truth, no direction in Scripture, and no place in the presence of a holy God (1 Corinthians 1:29; Romans 14:23; Hebrews 11:6).

When in the presence of the Holy, I repent just because I exist as sinful flesh. It’s no shame for the minister to fall on his face daily. I believe that we must; but deeper still, it is a grace also granted to us, to know the grace, glory, and goodness of repentance because of the hope of the glory of Christ Jesus; and we are so unworthy.

If the grace of God through Jesus Christ does not move me to desire holiness that I may please a holy God, then I cannot expect His people to be holy from my preaching, no matter how true the words that come from my mouth may be.

It’s not about us siding with John MacArthur or John Piper on the Mark Driscoll issue; it’s about the holiness of God and the glory of God. Yet, even as I type this, I realize this: who am I to even say such things? Yet, the Lord seems to remind me that I am a dying man preaching to dying men. It is my sincerest desire that Mark Driscoll know the joy of repentance before a holy God because, it seems to me, that the Lord may desire to do much, so very much more, through him if he would go before his Redeemer in brokenness. My heart pours out for him because it is a serious and sober responsibility to minister among the Lord’s flock, whether that under-charge is a small gathering like mine, or a much larger one like Mark’s; it is a responsibility that requires supernatural strength beyond the means of any mere man.