Within the Sound of the Pulpit

I have deep sadness when I listen to America’s popular preachers. They have stripped the gospel of that which is designed to awaken its hearers, and replaced it with a message of life-enhancement. And I suspect that they have no idea what they have done. Their large congregations and commendations from the world have confirmed them in their error. They are like a doctor who became extremely popular because he never used a needle to inoculate his ever-increasing number of patients against a deadly disease. He didn’t like the feeling he got when the needle brought them pain, so his discarded it in the name of love. When his patients began to die of an agonizing disease, his professed love was seen for what it was---a terrible betrayal. Millions of unconverted church-goers sit in pews with a Bible on their lap, asleep in their sins within earshot of the pulpit. Listen to these sobering words of warning from J. C. Ryle: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, but never so fearful as when men fall from under the Gospel. The saddest road to Hell is that which runs under the pulpit, past the Bible, and through the midst of warnings and invitations.” How much more sad is it when there is no warning given . . .