Shallow Pulpits

A friend of mine years ago was a pastor and he was driving the famous British theologian Major Ian Thomas to the airport after this man had finished a week of meetings at his church in Tennessee and my pastor friend turned to Ian Thomas and asked him the following question while they were driving down the road he asked well Major now that you've spent some time among us what do you think of Southern Baptists and the British preacher did not respond but looked out the window in the distance as if he had not heard him so my friend raised his voice and he asked once again well Major now that you've spent some time among us what is your opinion of Southern Baptists to which Ian Thomas replied with one word shallow meaning a mile wide and an inch deep the title of my message today friends is shallow pulpits and my text can be found in the book of Jeremiah you can turn in your Bibles there now friends we will be in chapter 6 and verse 16 and let me read us this word of God at this time and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word thus saith the Lord I will pause here friends for I fear that our pulpits today have lost the divine authority where a servant of God can stand tall in the pulpit and boldly proclaim thus saith the Lord I'm afraid we fear men today more than God and pastors are just like just like the dialogue instead of boldly proclaiming the Word of God and let me continue with our text stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your souls let me pause here again friends here Almighty God is calling his people back to himself to stand in his presence and to walk with him in a vital walk of intimacy with him and obedience to him but listen to how they respond to this invitation but they said we will not walk therein in other words they wanted to go their own way the shortest definition of sin found in the Bible is in Isaiah 53 6 which states all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and that's what sin is it's going our way when we know it isn't God's way the people respond to God and Jeremiah by saying no we will not walk in the old paths but cut a new road out for ourselves to travel on and God says in effect go ahead then without me and the church in our day has done just that we have forsaken the old paths of holiness and obedience and fear of God and we've made our own way with our own modern devices and modern gospel and see where that has gotten us and God has withdrawn himself from among us a few are being saved today and few lives are being transformed by the Spirit of God because we have rejected him your average pastor today will quote the popular religious guru of the moment whether it be a Keller or a Driscoll and they are no deeper than another man's philosophy but men of former times immersed themselves in the Word of God and stayed in the presence of God through their surrendered and holy lives unto God they knew their Bibles better and they knew their God better and consequently they live better and more useful lives of fruitfulness to God as they reach their generation with the gospel of the Son of God men like Moody and Studd and Whitfield and Edwards a man who tried the old paths and in doing so traversed a different hemisphere in their walk with God and breathed in a different atmosphere that was full of the presence of the Almighty when they preached they spoke with attending divine authority and lives were transformed for all eternity they were Christ intoxicated men who were willing to risk all for God and the sake of the gospel and in doing so their lives stand out down through the centuries like black ink on a white page with boldness and clarity as to their usefulness to God in third generation and I look around a day and all I see is shallowness like Major Ian Thomas accurately described the American Church those many years ago what would the old boy think if he could come back and take a look at its sad figure today this is a call to return to the God of the Bible and to once again ask for the old paths to walk therein without power from on high how can the church continue to make any progress against the forces of darkness that smother society with perversion and violence the church must repent and turn from her wicked ways of going her own way and turn back to God with her whole heart and preach the whole counsel of God once again with the anointing of the Spirit of God society unravels all around us while the world stage is a powder keg ready to explode in war and annihilation will we obey God and follow him or will we say like the audience in Jeremiah's day but they said we will not walk therein will we continue to go our own way without God and end up being destroyed by God through divine judgment upon a nation in rebellion to him heaven help us all let us pray