R. C. Sproul departed from us quickly a few months before Billy Graham. You might want to Google his very last sermon....raspy voice and all....simply put in R. C. Sproul's Last sermon. That type of message is gone today....replaced by the....God Loves You Just As You Are message. John MacArthur took ill at a Lord's Day service on the first day of the year....and thank the Lord is back....sort of....with a sermon here and there....even though his voice pattern has aged considerably.
So who does that leave? Well John Piper is still there. He used to have a 'sermon of the day' right there up front on his website....and I took advantage of that for about three years....with blessings....but for whatever reason that is gone.....the sermons buried so that you have to look for them....and in their place a 22 minute 'episode'....that they still call a sermon....which they shouldn't. The teaching is still there at desiringgod.org....but the power in the means of grace that was there for probably the few who took advantage of it....has been waylaid.....although anyone can Google a John Piper sermon....which I still do.....but how many are going to do that? We need the power of the preached Word Pastor John...we have enough teachers.
As I mention so often in these posts....Christian bookstores are essentially gone. No one is going to stumble across the the gospel anymore while out shopping....as I did in 1982. I'm typing this at a beach resort on Hilton Head island....out on the main patio so that someone might stumble across the gospel and the warnings that are therein. Forget Christian television....we can only hope that no one stumbles across this stuff. Christian radio used to be very popular in the Christian community....but we have moved on to other things.
Twenty years ago I was always trying to lead men that I would talk to at work....to a church....but the last decade I did that so very few times....because it is very hard to find a church to recommend. Megachurches have taken over....fancy sanctuaries....state-of-the-art sound systems....latte bars....with a great time to to be had all around....but no conviction....no mortification....and no warnings other than that our liberties are being taken away.
If Billy Graham were still with us....he would be hammering home to us....."Prepare to meet thy God!" All that our pulpits do is talk about revival....but they don't have the slightest idea what that would be. It wouldn't be through the sermons that they palm off as the gospel. And even if God should give....revival....or even an awakening....it would only be to gather the saints in from the coming storm....of which even the weaker extended bands of wind and rain are pummeling us into submission to whoever promises any relief.
Update: Since posting the above....I sat down to listen to a Spurgeon sermon....this one from 1890....near the end of his long ministry....this in London to those not familiar with Charles Spurgeon....I heard these words and wanted to put them in this post...."What have we to do with themes that are foreign to our design? If I were to come here and talk to you about strikes....or home rule....or socialism....and should you pray to God to convert souls by my discourse....would it not be a mockery or worse? I think so."
