We in the church have no problem with acknowledging that God mightily blessed His church through the ministry of George Whitefield....for this was the past. It does not affect our own image....so we can say great things about him.....but the church at the time felt threatened by what Whitefield was doing....and if someone today got too serious about his messages....we would feel threatened also.
Charles Spurgeon....the rightly titled....Prince of Preachers.....was a bothersome country bumpkin to the established church of the day....and eventually his own denomination censured him. Martyn Lloyd-Jones had his critics. J. Gresham Machen was defrocked.
If Whitefield were preaching in the cemeteries and courtyards today....we would use his example as an illustration....or include anecdotes about him in a sermon here or there.....but we would hold off if the people were getting fanatical on his message. Spurgeon would be a good one to invite to our conferences.
It appears to me....this after forty years of personal experience....and a healthy interest in church history....that God has given the church a mixture of Whitefield and Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and Machen....in John Piper....but just as with Whitefield and Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and Machen....we want to use his gift....but at the same time....keep him in his place....for ultimately....a Whitefield or a Spurgeon or a Lloyd-Jones or a Machen.....is a threat to what we ourselves want to do....instead of an answer to prayer. Well that is how I see it anyway. Bonhoeffer might just be a troublemaker today. Once they're gone you can build them up....but not until then.
John Piper's sermon of the day set me down to type this post. My guess is that it was a lecture given at a pastor's conference. We look back at the four men mentioned above with great admiration....but never got to experience them first-hand. Billy Graham is the closest thing we have in this regard....and his last crusade was eighteen years ago, It is not often that one has the opportunity to partake in and realize that a certain man is being used greatly by God....but this may be one of those times.
Might I beg of you to listen to just one sermon....and decide for yourself....if the message is not one of great urgency....and if it does not appear that God has found another vessel....with just the right amount of humility....just the required amount of passion....and just the needed store of courage to say what needs to be said?
The lecture in question can be easily Googled....Why Expositional Preaching Is Particularly Glorifying To God.
