Rev. David Holwick R
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 20, 2018
Mark 6:14-20 & Acts 24:24-26
HARD TRUTH
I. Sin matters.
A. An early American evangelism strategy.
Just before the American Revolution, a revival spread across
the 13 colonies.
It was called the Great Awakening.
One of the stars of the revival was an English preacher named
George Whitefield.
He could preach to up to 25,000 people without a sound system
beyond his own voice.
Benjamin Franklin attended some of his meetings and was very
impressed by him, though he didn't convert.
Whitefield had a simple strategy in his meetings.
The first night he would preach on the wonderful love and
grace of God, freely given to anyone who would believe.
The rest of the nights he would preach on sin.
Whitefield was convinced that any presentation of the gospel
had to begin by exposing the listener's sin and his dire
need for salvation.
He believed that no one seeks salvation until they are
convinced they stand in God's condemnation.
So Whitefield preached on the holiness of God, the curse of
disobedience, the certainty of death, the reality of the
final judgment, and of eternal punishment in hell.
Whitefield was relentless, and tens of thousands were saved.
Many of you have never heard of him, but he made a lasting
impact on Christianity in America.
There is a straight line from George Whitefield to Billy
Graham.
#66077
B. Sin is a touchy topic.
1) We may be interested in the sins of others, but we sure
don't want to reveal our own.
2) Modern American Christians want to emphasize God's love
and grace, and ignore sin.
a) Confronting sin is a great way to end up rejected.
b) Jesus said, Judge not, and we are fine with that.
3) But are we getting people right with God? Is anyone being
converted?
II. Two stories about men who didn't pull their punches.
A. John the Baptist and Herod Antipas. Mark 6:14-20
1) John criticized the king's marriage to his sister-in-law.
a) This is an example of what is called "speaking truth
to power."
b) John didn't water down his message to stay popular.
2) Herod's wife had John arrested and eventually got her
revenge by having John beheaded.
3) Yet Herod respected John up to the end.
a) It appears Herod didn't understand the finer points of
John's teaching, but he felt it was from God.
b) There is something about truth, sincerely communicated,
that sinners find compelling.
B. Paul and Felix, the Roman governor. Acts 24:24-26
1) Felix was a slave who rose to great power.
a) He had a reputation for being a ruthless man.
b) The ancient Roman historian Tacitus described him as
"a master of cruelty and lust who exercised the
powers of a king with the spirit of a slave." [1]
c) He was also a pagan and not a Jew.
2) Speaking before a man who could let him go free, Paul
focussed on salvation in Jesus, right living,
self-control and the Judgment Day.
a) Heavy stuff! Paul sounds a lot like George Whitefield.
b) And probably none of it was something Felix wanted to
be lectured on.
Television talk show host Dick Cavett once said,
"It's a rare person who wants to hear what he
doesn't want to hear." #20519
3) Yet Felix didn't reject Paul, but kept listening to him.
a) Of course, the fact that Felix was angling for a bribe
may have had something to do with it.
b) Felix doesn't seem to have the moral interest that
Herod did.
C. Notice what both episodes have in common.
1) Both John and Paul were speaking to powerful leaders.
a) And they spoke while being imprisoned - it wasn't a
fair forum.
2) Neither man minced his words.
a) They spoke the truth even though their lives were at
stake.
b) For John the Baptist, it became a reality.
3) I believe both men earned respect, if not agreement, from
their captor.
III. Moral witness is a strong theme in the Bible.
A. Prophets of Old Testament.
1) Future-predicting was a smaller portion of what they did.
2) Criticizing moral and social conditions took up more of
their time.
a) Amos castigated the rich over how they treated the poor.
1> You can find this theme in most of the prophets.
b) Ezekiel condemned religious compromise, where they
combined Biblical worship with pagan idolatry.
c) Malachi raked his audience for skimping on their tithes.
3) Read any of the books of the prophets and make a list of
predictions vs. rebukes for sin and you will see what
I mean.
B. New Testament heroes.
1) Jesus could be harsh with his religious opponents.
a) He calls them sons of hell, blind guides and fools.
b) He hated their hypocrisy and lack of mercy.
c) Matthew 23:23 is typical - they have neglected justice,
mercy and faithfulness.
2) Paul was very strong against heretics and Christians who
failed morally.
a) Paul loved sinners, and did his utmost to reach them
for Christ.
b) But once they claimed to be Christians, they had better
toe the line.
c) Those who would not, he rebuked and threatened with
shunning.
3) James, the brother of Jesus, sounds just like an Old
Testament prophet.
a) The rich and those indifferent to human need were
worthless to him.
b) His conclusion in James 4:8 -
"Come near to God and he will come near to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts,
you double-minded."
IV. How should we deal with sin around us?
A. God wants us to be harsh on sin and easy on sinners.
1) We are offering something good to them.
a) Jesus loved people like the Samaritan woman at the well,
who was challenged in making lasting relationships.
She was married more than Elizabeth Taylor - well, not
more than her because she had 8, but close.
b) Jesus loved dirty and sick people and offered them
a Kingdom.
2) But they have to see their condition for what it is.
a) Broken people don't go to heaven.
b) They have to be fixed by the blood of Jesus first.
B. It is easy to fall into the trap of the Pharisees.
1) Many Christians have strong convictions on religious
doctrine and the failings of others but are blind to
their own shortcomings.
a) Jesus warned about criticizing small sins in others
when you have a two-by-four in your own eye.
b) When we point out sin, we have to have a clear grasp
of our own sins and weaknesses.
2) We speak the hard truth, but we do it in love. Eph 4:15
a) Always offer them something positive.
b) Help them to find God, and change their direction.
C. Areas that call out for rebuke today.
[If I did this sermon again, I might give examples of how to
challenge specific sins - someone who is cohabiting, an
active homosexual, someone who lives only for money - rather
than the general categories I used below.]
1) Materialism.
a) It is not just the billionaires, but every class that
is measuring themselves by their stuff.
b) As we conclude another week of the Family Promise
ministry, Becky sent an email to those who helped.
One member told her yesterday that until she herself
became homeless, she had no compassion for them.
Now, she does.
Becky says a good way to show someone is to go into
an occupied client's room and look at their stuff.
In some cases, it is all they have in the world.
It makes you think.
Especially me - as Celeste and I prepare to take a final
truckload of stuff to our new house, we have a wall
of boxes piled up from the floor to the ceiling.
Her fantasy of downsizing has not happened because I
can't let go of stuff.
But do I hang on to my stuff more tightly than I hang
on to Jesus?
Do you?
2) Sexual sin.
a) Our culture is obsessed with sex.
b) Modern pills can bypass old consequences, but new
consequences have arisen, and old ones still pop up.
c) Don't compromise on what the Bible teaches in this area.
1> We need committed, lasting relationships more than
we need physical bliss.
2> Keep it within God's boundaries.
3) Clannishness.
a) This might seem like an odd one.
1> What I mean by it, is the dividing of our society
into ethnic, social and political groups.
2> We have so many groups we cannot see the whole.
3> Those outside our group are vilified as the enemy.
b) I see this in the secular world and in the religious one.
1> Of course, even the Bible says we must make a
distinction between our group and the others.
2> But we need to reach the other groups and find
some common ground, not lay it waste.
V. Rebuke is not the final word from God - hope is.
A. Christians have a positive message for the world.
1) Things can get better.
2) We can find love and peace.
B. Even hardened sinners can experience it.
The book (and TV series) "Band of Brothers" followed an
American paratrooper unit through World War II.
One of the few men to survive from beginning to end was
Sgt. "Skinny" Sisk.
After the war, Sisk had a hard time shaking his memories.
In July 1991, almost 50 years after the war, Sisk wrote to
Capt. Dick Winters to explain:
"My career after the war was trying to drink away the
truckload of Krauts that I stopped in Holland and the
die-hard Nazi that I went up into the Bavarian Alps
and killed.
Old Moe Alley made a statement that all the killings that
I did was going to jump into the bed with me one of these
days and they surely did.
I have a lot of flashbacks after the war and I started
drinking.
[He spent a lot of time drunk or being hung over, and most
of his family avoided him.]
"Then my sister's little daughter, four years old, came
into my bedroom and she told me that Jesus loved me and
she loved me.
And if I would repent, God would forgive me for all the
men I kept trying to kill all over again.
"That little girl got to me.
I put her out of my room, told her to go to her Mommy.
There and then I bowed my head on my Mother's old feather
bed and repented and God forgave me for the war and all
the other bad things I had done down through the years.
I was ordained in the latter part of 1949 into the ministry,
and believe me, Dick, I haven't whipped but one man since
and he needed it.
#29209
=========================================================================
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
1. Expositor's Bible Commentary on Acts; Tacitus quote is from his
Historiae 5.9.
#20519 “Hearing What You Don't Want To Hear,” by Dick Cavett, quoted in
“Bits & Pieces” internet newsletter, October 12, 2001.
#29209 “Forgive Me For All the Men I Kept Trying To Kill,” by Stephen E.
Ambrose, from his book “Book: Band Of Brothers” (Touchstone:
2001), page 299; collected June 23, 2005 by Rev. David Holwick.
#66077 “Revivals Must Start With Sin,” by Rev. David Holwick. The fourth
paragraph in this illustration was derived from the article
"Whitefield's Sin Exposing Spotlight," by Steven Lawson,
Ligionier.org, April 18, 2018; <link>.
I recall hearing this in seminary back in the 1980s but I am
not positive if Whitefield or Wesley was the example.
Whitefield's ministry certainly emphasized the penalty of sin
so I believe it was him.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Free help authoring environment