Recently many people seem to be tired of hearing the word of the cross. However, we thank and praise God the Father that He has reserved for His own great name many faithful ones who have not bent their knees to Baal. Still, I feel that there is one thing the faithful servants of Christ should know. Why, after they have done so much preaching of the cross, have the results been so discouraging, and people have not had much change in their lives after hearing the true Word of God? I think this problem deserves our greatest attention. We who labor for the Lord should understand why we cannot gain others by the gospel we preach. I hope that we would pray quietly before the Lord and ask the Spirit of God to enlighten our hearts that we may know where our failure lies.
At the present time, we should pay attention to the word which we preach. We do not have to mention those who preach the wrong gospel. Their belief is in error anyway. What we preach is the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ and how it saves sinners from the condemnation of sin and the power of sin. When we preach, we pay much attention to the outline, the logic, and the thought. We do our best to make our doctrines clear. In this way, even the most unlearned person may understand. We also pay attention to man's psychology. We try as hard as we can in our homiletics to match man's psyche. What we preach is truthful and scriptural—our topic is the cross of the Lord Jesus. We know that the Lord Jesus died for sinners on the cross so that all who believe in Him can be saved apart from any work. We also know that the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus is not only for substitution but also for the crucifixion of the sinner and his sin together with Him. We know the way to be saved. We know how to die with the Lord, how to apply the death of the Lord by faith, and how to die with Him to deal with sin and self. We are also clear about other related doctrines in the Bible. Our preaching is presented in a nice and clear way so that anyone in the audience can understand. The audience pays much attention to us when we preach the cross of the Lord; they like it and are touched by it. We may even be gifted in our eloquence and be able to present the truth in a persuasive way which causes us to think that our work is very effective. We may think that our work is very effective! Under such circumstances, we ought to see many people receiving life and many believers gaining the more abundant life. However, the results are the opposite of what we expect. Although the audience may be touched at the meeting hall, they do not gain anything that we hope to see them gain after they leave the meeting hall, even though the speech is still fresh in their minds. They do not have any change in their lives. They understand what we preach, but it does not have any influence on their daily living. They only store the word preached in their brains. They do not apply it in their hearts.
One possible reason for this is that what you have is only eloquence, words, and wisdom. It seems that behind your speech you do not have the power that touches people's hearts. You have the best words and voice, but behind the words and voice you do not have the kind of authority that "controls" people's lives. In other words, you can make people listen attentively to you at the meeting hall, but the Holy Spirit is not co-working with you. Therefore, your labor is either ineffective or it lacks lasting results. Your words cannot leave a lasting mark on people's lives. Although your mouth flows out words, your spirit does not flow out life to nourish, raise up, and quicken the dying audience.
In recent years, the Lord has told me to be careful about this kind of preaching. We do not want to be popular orators (our Lord is a Life-giver); we want to be channels of life, directing life into people's hearts. When we preach the cross, we should have the life of the cross flowing into others' lives. The saddest thing to me is that so many people are preaching the cross today, but men have not gained God's life. Men seem to agree with and gladly receive our words, but they have not received God's life. Many times as we preach the substitutional death of the cross, men seem to understand the meaning and reason for substitution, and they seem to be touched at the time. However, we cannot see the grace of God working in the audience to the point where they truly obtain the regenerated life. We also preach the co-crucifixion of the cross. We explain it in a very clear, moving way. At the time when people hear it, they may pray and may make up their minds to die together with the Lord and to gain the experiences of overcoming sin and self. But after the whole thing is over, we do not see them gaining the more abundant life of God. Such results sadden me very much. It humbles me before the Lord to seek His light. If you have the same experience as I have, I hope that you will grieve before the Lord as I do and will regret our failures. What we indeed lack now are men and women who will preach the cross, but what we need more than this are preachers who will preach the cross in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let us now read the Word of God. Paul said, "And I, when I came to you, brothers, came not according to excellence of speech or of wisdom, announcing to you the mystery of God. For I did not determine to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling; and my speech and my proclamation were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Cor. 2:1-4). In these verses we see three things: (1) the message that Paul preached, (2) the person of Paul himself, and (3) the way Paul preached his message.