Preaching Holiness

The only way to precipitate the experience and thus promote true holiness is to preach the truth as it is in the Word of God. If we are called and divinely commissioned men, we are called to preach The Word.

The truth of true holiness is clearly revealed as the final objective of the revealed word, and as the final objective of Christ's redeeming work. It is also the final objective of the work of every New Testament minister, Pastor, Evangelist and Teacher. "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:11-13).

"Wherefore I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus" (Col. 1:25-28). Perfect Christianhood is the final objective of all of the above.

This truth constitutes the doctrine, and to preach it, using the Bible terms, is the only way to accomplish God's purpose in the whole realm of his infinite grace. There are those who utterly reject this truth. Of course, we cannot look to such for its promotion. Our concern in this message is not for those who in either ignorance, prejudice, or blind unbelief reject, but for those who profess to believe the truth but who fail so to present it as to ever get anyone in, or feed and satisfy those who are true possessors of the grace.

The preaching of the life without being definite in the doctrine never gets anyone into the experience. It never precipitates the real holy battle. To try to preach so as to awaken no opposition, is to preach so that no one is convicted of the necessity of being sanctified.

Two very marked experiences in my past experience illustrate this point. While yet a pastor, I was called by a brother pastor to minister over the last week-end of a ten day tent meeting he was conducting on his charge. I drove to the meeting Friday morning, prepared to begin my ministry in the afternoon service. I felt clearly led to a very definite message on being sanctified wholly, from I Thess. 5:23. Upon my arrival I was informed by the Evangelist who had been there for eight days that the church there was in splendid condition, but the unsaved were not being reached. The great burden was for the unconverted, for whom they had labored for eight days. The emphasis was so strong, and the burden so great that it led me to question my leading. Between dinner and the hour of the afternoon service I went alone with God and I said, "Lord, thou knowest I love to preach to sinners. I am willing to change my message if I have mistaken thy leading. The Lord very clearly led me not to change, but to be definite in preaching the truth of entire sanctification. I did so, and when I gave the invitation the altar was filled, sinners came in genuine repentance and were converted, and Christians came to be sanctified, among them the pastor and his wife. After we arose from the altar and asked for testimonies, there was the glad witness of newborn babes in Christ. Presently the pastor, who was a holiness man made confession as follows -- "I came back to this charge for this my fourth year with the vision and burden for a real revival which would reach the unsaved. I had been true to the subject of holiness and preached it definitely until opposition was awakened. In the beginning of this year I was approached by a leading, wealthy official of the home church who notified me that if I continued to preach holiness he would withdraw his support and leave the church. I considered the matter and decided that I would preach the life of holiness without being definite, or using Bible terms. I avoided the doctrine and simply p reached the life. Last winter we had revival meetings in the home church for four weeks; we had the church filled night after night but not a conversion, nor even a hand raised for prayer. Today is the first conversion of the year on this charge, and now I see why. That is the reason for my wife and my being at the altar. The Evangelist who did not have the experience nor the light on holiness as a definite second-work experience fell sick and left the meeting. I continued very definite preaching over the week-end and a genuine revival which stirred the whole community was precipitated. We had filled altars and real salvation. Sinners were converted and believers sanctified. The meeting closed Sunday night with such interest that the phone where I stayed began to ring Monday morning asking for counsel and help, and continued all day Monday so that it was near night before I could leave for home.

Another experience occurred while I was Conference Evangelist. I held a four Sunday, three weeks of meetings in one of our churches where the pastor, a fine man and a true friend of mine had never been a definite holiness preacher. He preached the life, and wanted his people to have the truth, and that is why he called me to hold his revival meeting. The results were small. A few young people were saved, but the church as a whole remained unmoved. The fourth Sunday morning I preached very definitely showing the necessity of being sanctified wholly. Conviction was on but there was no large response. Walking with the pastor and a group of lay people after service, a leading official opened the question in real rejection of the truth, whereupon the pastor took sides with me and for the truth, assuring his lay member that this doctrine was really true and Biblical, also Methodistic. The layman turned on the pastor and said, "Why then have you not preached it to us?" The embarrassed pastor said, "Oh brother, I have preached the life."

I say, preaching the life, without teaching how to obtain the experience, and without being definite that it is an essential part of present salvation, and a necessity to be fully ready for judgment, does not precipitate the real experience. The experience is essential to prepare one for living the life. We need to be definite, use Bible terminology, and show the absolute necessity of being made holy, in order to precipitate the experience. This truth is one half of the good news of the Gospel. To preach one half and fail to tell the whole truth is indeed tragic.

We cannot preach the truth effectively unless we know it by personal experience ourselves. When Peter addressed the lame man at the gate of the Temple in Jerusalem, he said, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I unto you." The colored man who was asked how he liked the sermon of a preacher he had heard, said, "That preacher can no more give what he ain't got, than he can come back from where he ain't been." Paul said, "Woe is me if I preach not The Gospel. Amen.