BACKSLIDDEN IN THE PULPIT

Paul wrote his last letter to his spiritual son Timothy. One warning stands out: The worst enemy Timothy will ever face is not devils, Roman tyrants or barbarians. It’s preachers who are backslidden in the pulpit.

2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.”

Here it is again in the Living Translation: “For there is going to come a time when people won’t listen to the truth but will go around looking for teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear. They won’t listen to what the Bible says but will blithely follow their own misguided ideas.”

These preachers abound in the church today. Audiences with sensual desires hired them. They are the toast of a generation that never reads their Bibles. The product of churches gone wild.

Why am I writing this?

Why am I writing this? The answer is in the prelude to Paul’s warning to Timothy in this final letter. 2 Timothy 4:1-2 says, “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all patience and teaching.”

Paul says, in essence, ‘Timothy you will stand before Christ. He will judge fake preachers with great wrath and burn up their works. Don’t be one of them. Fight them. Rebuke whenever it is needed. Instruct with patience as often as is needed. Don’t just do it when you feel like it. Prove that you are one of the real ones.’

But Mario, what real harm are these ministers doing? More than anything or anyone else is doing to the church.

But Mario, what real harm are these ministers doing? More than anything or anyone else is doing to the church. More than you can possibly imagine. First of all, they are grieving the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. And they are not merely doing more harm than good—they are doing all harm, and no good.

Backslidden preachers are a clear and present danger to the church and to themselves. Their messages create mutants—a huge number of Christian preemies—born in congenital compromise. Lacking in the essential nutrients to start a life with Christ as Lord.

How else do you think we lost marriage, gained late-term abortion, and headed down the path of Sodom and Gomorrah?

How else do you think we lost marriage, gained late-term abortion, and headed down the path of Sodom and Gomorrah? While the backslidden preacher didn’t cause our flood of immorality—they kept the army of God from rising up to stop it.

Because they are backslidden in the pulpit, churches are hostile to true saints. The remnant of God is grieved. They cry tears of sorrow and disbelief at what is pawned off as vessels of God. They struggle to find a church with even a hint of reverence or the presence of God.

To their shame, they and their followers have discouraged sincere young preachers, as well as urban youth who see the lifestyle of drug dealers and pimps and ask, “what’s the use of flipping burgers for minimum wage?”

-Young preachers see the tricks, the flamboyance, and easy money of carnal preaching while they struggle to get partners for a righteous cause.

Lost in all of this is the definition of a real man and woman of God. Let me remind you with these words from E.M. Bounds:

“The gospel of Christ does not move by popular waves. It has no self–propagating power. It moves as the men who have charge of it move. The preacher must impersonate the gospel. Its divine, most distinctive features must be embodied in him. The constraining power of love must be in the preacher as a projecting, eccentric, an all–commanding, self–oblivious force. The energy of self–denial must be his being, his heart and blood and bones. He must go forth as a man among men, clothed with humility, abiding in meekness, wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove; the bonds of a servant with the spirit of a king, a king in high, royal, independent bearing, with the simplicity and sweetness of a child.

“The preacher must throw himself, with all the abandon of a perfect, self–emptying faith and a self–consuming zeal, into his work for the salvation of men. Hearty, heroic, compassionate, fearless martyrs must the men be who take hold of and shape a generation for God. If they be timid time-servers, place-seekers, if they be men-pleasers or men-fearers, if their faith has a weak hold on God or his Word, if their denial be broken by any phase of self or the world, they cannot take hold of the Church nor the world for God.”

I wrote this in direct obedience to God. Judgment is coming upon those of you preachers who are backslidden in the pulpit. Maybe Jesus can use this to save you before it’s too late.

I wrote this because we need to shout it from the rooftops that God will bless those who go after Him with a clean heart. Those who have emptied themselves of all self, have no other plans than to do His will. He will give them untold provision and power. He will raise them up in true promotion. The Lord can still change the world through pure hearts, broken vessels, and Spirit-filled warriors!

When evil is exalted, God looks for deliverers. He scans the nation to see who will cleanse themselves from the carnal church and intoxicated preachers. He looks for those who will allow God to make them the indestructible and irresistible voices to restore righteousness to America

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