This is a rebellious people
Dislike to ministerial fidelity
The Jews have very many followers under the Christian dispensation.
I. STATE THE TRUTHS WHICH ARE USUALLY OBNOXIOUS TO SUCH PERSONS. There are many doctrines to which every faithful preacher of God’s Word feels bound to give ample room in his stated ministry, that are by no means welcome to many of his hearers; such, for instance, as the spirituality and unbending strictness of the Divine law, the deep depravity of human nature, the exceeding sinfulness of man’s conduct, the universal necessity of regeneration, the inefficacy of works for justification, and the indispensable obligation to a separation from the world. The Scriptures, not only of the Old Testament, but of the New, abound with the most appalling descriptions of the Divine displeasure against sin. It is a striking fact, that He who was love incarnate--who was named Jesus, because He was to be the Saviour of His people--delivered, during the course of His personal ministry, more fearful descriptions of Divine justice and the punishment of the wicked, than are to be found in any other part of the Word of God. No man can fulfil his ministry, therefore, without frequently alluding to the justice of God in the punishment of sin. But such a subject frequently calm up all the enmity of the carnal mind.
II. THE CAUSES TO WHICH WE MUST TRACE THIS DISLIKE OF MINISTERIAL FIDELITY, and this love of smooth and delusive preaching.
1. In some cases it is occasioned by absolute unbelief. Multitudes who admit in gross the authority of the Bible, deny it in detail.
2. The refinements of modern society and taste lead many to ask for smooth things. There is no respect of persons with God; before Him the distinctions of society have no place.
3. Wounded pride is with some the cause of a dislike of faithful preaching. They hate the doctrine which disturbs their self-complacency, and revile the man who attempts to sink them in their own esteem.
4. But in by far the greater number of instances, this dislike of the truth, and this love of smooth things, is the result of painful forebodings of future misery.
III. THE FOLLY, THE SIN, AND THE DANGER OF A DESIRE TO SUPPRESS THE FAITHFUL VOICE OF TRUTH, and to be flattered with the soothing language of deceit.
1. Its folly is apparent from the consideration that no concealment of the situation of the sinner can alter his condition in the sight of God, or change the relation in which he stands to eternity.
2. The sin of this disposition is equal to its folly. It is sinful alike in its origin, its nature, and its consequences. Why does a person wish to have a false representation of his state? For this one reason, that as he is determined to go on in sin, he may be left to sin with less reluctance and remorse. As it is sinful in its origin, it is manifestly so in its nature, for it is the love of falsehood; a desire to confound the distinction between sin and holiness. Nor is this all; in aiming to suppress the voice of warning and the note of alarm, he acts the part of that infatuated and cruel wretch, who would bribe the sentinel to be silent when the foe is about to rush, sword in hand, into the camp; or would seduce the watchman to be quiet, when the fire had broken out at midnight, and was raging through the city. For thus saith the Lord, “O son of man, I have set thee a watchman over the house of Israel,” etc. (Ezekiel 33:7-8).
3. The danger of such a disposition to the individual himself, is as great as its sin and its folly. The man who is unwilling to hear of approaching misery, is not likely to use any means by which it may be averted.
By way of APPLICATION I infer, how great are the importance, responsibility, and difficulty which attach to the ministerial office, and how anxious should those be who sustain it, to discharge its duties with uncompromising fidelity.
1. The conversion of sinners should be the leading object of every minister of Christ.
2. This must be sought by suitable means. The means for awakening the unconverted are, of course, various. What might be called the alarming style of preaching is most adapted to convert the impenitent.
3. Ministers are under a great temptation to preach smooth things, and to shrink from what may emphatically be called the burden of the Lord. A false charity leads them, in some instances, to be unwilling to disturb the peace or distress the feelings of their hearers; or, perhaps, there are some in their congregation who may feel an objection to what they contemptuously call the harrowing style. But most of all are those in danger of compromising their duty, who are appointed to minister to well educated and wealthy audiences.
4. A word of admonition is here needed for professing Christians. Are there not many who are dissatisfied with everything but words of comfort and statements of privilege? They object to everything of a searching and practical tendency. (J. A. James.)
Church and world
I. A chief part of the work of the pulpit is THE PLAIN AND FERVENT TEACHING OF DAILY LIFE MORALITY. There is no Gospel without morality, and the morality of Christ, i.e., a morality whose inspiration is the Spirit of Christ, is a very large part of the Gospel indeed. What of our Lord’s own teachings? Are they chiefly moral teachings or theological? It is needless to answer the question. What do we mean when we talk of being saved from sin? Just what the words say,--that sin shall be taken away; that is, that men shall obey God’s law instead of the devil’s; that is, that they shall live pure, virtuous, and moral lives.
II. And do not MORALS OCCUPY A VERY FOREMOST PLACE IN THE WELFARE OF MANKIND. What is it makes the world often so miserable? It is sin, that is, immorality; and if we can do away with the sin and immorality, and bring in virtue and morality, then we shall do much to diminish the miseries of our fellow men. And if it is important that morals should be taught for the welfare and happiness of mankind, who are to teach morals, if not the ministers of religion! It is for us to educate the public conscience, until men feel each moral distinction as a solemn fact, until the force of public opinion fall heavily upon him who violates the moral law, until a fairer morality take its place among us.
III. But why have we succeeded so ill? WHY IS THE GENERAL MORALITY SO LOW! It is because the people have said, “Speak unto us smooth things,” and we have yielded to their words. If you tell men the faults which are diseases in their characters, slowly but surely bringing them down to the grave, they cannot bear it, but keep the disease and dismiss the physician. Whether it hurts or not, the truth must be said, if men are to be saved from the error of their ways. (W. Page-Roberts, B. A.)
Speak unto us smooth things
The smooth things by which men are apt to be deceived
I propose to instance a few of these smooth things which teachers may address to the people who love to be deceived, or wherewith the people themselves lay a flattering unction to their own souls.
I. The first of these, which though not generally ranked among the smooth things, I hold to be the universal deceit, and that in virtue of which we so MAGNIFY THE PRESENT WORLD, give such an exaggerated importance to things present and things sensible, regard time as if it had all the worth and endurance of eternity, and look on eternity as a thing of remote and shadowy insignificance, the care and consideration of which may be indefinitely postponed.
II. A MEAGRE AND SUPERFICIAL IMAGINATION OF THEIR GUILT, AND PROPORTIONALLY TO THIS, A SLIGHT APPREHENSION OF THEIR DANGER.
III. A man who feels his disease so slight, will be satisfied with a very slight remedy; and accordingly the remedy which men are satisfied with, is RESTING ON THE GENERAL MERCY OF GOD. God is represented as a Being full of tenderness, thus making it the whole character of the Godhead, and in this way lulling themselves into a deceitful security--not thinking of one set of attributes, justice, truth, and righteousness, but keeping these in the background, and bringing in the foreground, God being of universal tenderness and benignity, and who will not be severe on the follies of His poor erring creatures.
IV. A CERTAIN ANTINOMIAN SECURITY which they connect with the doctrines of grace and justification by faith. When we see people reposing on their orthodoxy, and making use of it as a soporific to lull themselves, we should ply them with questions founded on the true representation which the New Testament gives. Are they running so as that they may obtain? Are they fighting so as that they may gain a hard won victory? Are they striving so as that they may force an entrance at the strait gate? (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
The craving for the entertaining
What did the speakers want? They wanted what is desired by every age, namely, to be entertained. It is entertainment that is often frittering away the noblest courage and finest faculty of the Church. There may be parts of the service which are instructive, and they are tolerated that the entertainment may be enjoyed: entertain us with ritual, with music, with stories, with something that will give us intellectual excitement and even a degree of intellectual delight: but do not prophesy, do not teach, do not become rigorously moral: let the day of judgment alone; if we have to go to hell let us go down a bank covered with velvet moss. The people make the pulpit. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The demand for smooth things
What was the utility of the Hebrew prophet, and what were the errors to which he was more particularly exposed?
I. It was THE DUTY AND THE PRIVILEGE OF ISRAEL to keep alive monotheism in the world. It was no less the duty of the prophetic school to preserve in the chosen nation itself the spirituality of religion. Both agents were in the same relative position--a hopeless minority. And both had but an imperfect success. Yet the nation and the institution served each an important purpose. Monotheism languished, but did not die. And though the prophets were not very successful in imbuing the nation generally with their own spirituality, yet they kept the flame alive. They served to show to the people the true ideal of spiritual, not ritualistic, Judaism, and thus supplied a corrective to priest taught Judaism.
II. WHAT WAS THE GREAT SOURCE OF ERROR IN THE PROPHET’S UTTERANCES? What was the great pressure that pushed, or tended to push him aside from the path of duty? The text has told us. “Prophesy not unto us right” things, speak unto us smooth things. The desire of man--king or peasant--to hear from the prophet, or the courtier, or the demagogue, not truth, but flattery,--it was that fatal longing which led them to put a pressure on the prophet which often crushed the truth within him.
III. FLATTERY EXISTS STILL. If nations have not prophets to flatter them, they have those whom they trust as much. Far from attempting to correct their faults, the guides whom they trust are constantly labouring to impress on them that they are the most meritorious and the most ill-used nation in the world. Eyes blinded to present faults; eyes sharpened to past wrongs,--there is no treatment which will more completely and more rapidlydemoralise the nation which is subjected to it. There will be no improvement where there is no consciousness of fault; and no forgiveness where the mind is invited, almost compelled, to a constant brooding over wrong. With the growth of such feelings no nation can thrive; and he who encourages them is not the saviour but the destroyer of his country. (J. H.Jellett.)
Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us
The Holy One of Israel repudiated
The meaning is not, of course, that the people disown Jehovah as the national Deity, but that they repudiate Isaiah’s conception of Him as the Holy One of Israel, and the teaching based on that conception. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Flattery
Smooth talk proves often sweet poison. Flattery is the very spring and mother of all impiety. It unmans a man, it makes him call black white, and white black; it makes a man change pearls for pebbles, and gold for counters; it makes a man judge himself wise, when foolish; knowing, when he is ignorant; holy, when he is profane; free, when he is a prisoner; rich, when he is poor; high, when he is low; full, when he is empty; happy, when he is miserable. (J. Bate.)
Truth sometimes unpopular
An animated debate took place whether Martinelli should continue his “History of England” to the present day.
Goldsmith: “To be sure he should.” Johnson: “No, sir; he would give great offence. He would have to tell of almost all the living great what they do not wish told.” Goldsmith: “There are people who tell a hundred political lies every day, and are not hurt by it. Surely, then, one may tell truth with safety.” “Johnson: Why, sir, in the first place, he who tells a hundred lies has disarmed the force of his lies. But besides, a man had rather have a hundred lies told of him than one truth which he does not wish to be told.” Goldsmith: “For my part, I’d fen the truth, and shame the devil.” Johnson: “Yes, sir; but the devil will be angry. I wish to shame the devil as much as you do, but I should choose to be out of the reach of his claws.” Goldsmith: “His claws can do you no harm when you have the shield of truth.” (Boswell’s Johnson.)
Harmless preaching
Two Chinese jugglers have been making a public exhibition of their skill. One of these is set up as a target, and the other shows his dexterity by hurling knives which stick into the board at his comrade’s back, close to the man’s body. These deadly weapons fix themselves between his arms and legs, and between his fingers; they fly past his ears, and over his head and each side of his neck. The art is not to hit him. Are there not to be found preachers who are remarkably proficient in the same art in the mental and spiritual departments? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Faithful preaching
Our preaching must not be general, but particular. “It is not lawful for thee to have her to wife.” This was John Baptist’s style. We must collar men. “Thou art the man--I mean you, sir.” We are not half enough convinced of the evil of general preaching. The beef must have the salt of truth, and the saltpetre of life, but it must be rubbed in by particular application, and rubbed into every part by a comprehensive mind, and rubbed in by clean hands. (R. Cecil.)