It seems that there was a preacher one time who moved into Kentucky to begin work with a congregation there. The first Sunday that he was there, he preached a sermon on smoking. After the lesson, a member came up and said, "Preacher, I'm sorry, but you can't preach on that. You see, we have members here who grow tobacco and they might be offended." So the next Sunday, he decided to preach on drinking. But he met with the same reply. "I'm sorry," he was told, "but you can't preach on that either. We have members here who work at the distillery, where they make bourbon." So the next Sunday the preacher thought that he would try preaching about gambling. Again, he was met with opposition. "Preacher, I'm sorry again," he was told, "but we have people here who raise horses and run them down at the race track. You are going to have to find something that is less offensive." Upon hearing this same story for the third time, the preacher finally threw up his hands in disgust and exclaimed, "Well what can I preach about?" The member replied, "You might try preaching about them heathen witch doctors. I don't think that there is one of them in a thousand miles of here."
I am afraid that we have too many members of the church who just want to hear about heathen witch doctors. If preachers preach on much needed subjects such as adultery, drinking, immorality, and so on, they are rebuked by the members. As long as the preacher doesn't say things that I don't want to hear, everything is just "peachy." Too many today are like the people in Isaiah's day who told their prophets, "Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits." (Isaiah 30:10). They just want their ears tickled (cf. 2 Tim. 4:3-4).
It seems that there are at least two charges that are always made when a preacher proclaims things from God's word that members just don't want to hear. First, he is charged with negative preaching. I suppose that people never stopped to think that the Bible is full of what some people might consider "negative" teaching. It constantly warns against certain doctrines and practices. This being so, it is very difficult to preach very much, without something negative in nature entering into one's preaching. I'm sure that there were some in Paul's time who could have made this charge of him. He rebuked the Corinthian brethren for continuing to fellowship and adulterer. He rebuked the Galatian brethren for turning away from the gospel. Why, he even "jumped on" Peter, one of his fellow apostles.
Usually connected with the charge of negative preaching, there is the charge that this type of preaching runs people off or causes visitors to be offended. However, of you examine the New Testament, you immediately see that there were many in that day who were offended by the teachings of Jesus and the preaching of His apostles. Some were so offended at what Jesus had to say that they wanted to stone Him (John 8:48-59). Some were so offended at what Paul and Silas said that they beat them and threw them in jail (Acts 16:16-24). I have heard it said that you really can't preach the gospel without offending someone. If you preach God, you offend the atheist. If you preach Christ, you offend the Jew. If you preach baptism for the remission of sins, you offend the Calvinist. The Bible by its nature is offensive to those who are influenced by Satan. Truth is always at odds with error.
A second charge that is usually made by those who are offended by the preaching of all Bible truth is that the preacher is a hobbyist. Those who do not like to hear a particular Bible truth expressed will invariably claim that the preacher preaches every sermon on that very thing. What usually happens, though, is that a person is so offended by the mere mention of a particular subject, that when any reference is made to it, no matter how slight, that is all they hear. Maybe one statement is said about the subject in passing and the person who si so offended by the subject immediately begins to say, "See! He's harping on it again!" A person with such an attitude would probably have thought that Peter was a hobbyist. He wrote, "Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth." (2 Peter 1:12). John would have been considered a hobbyist. It could have been said of him, "Love, love, love. That's all he ever talks about. I certainly wish he would talk about something else."
Preachers need to be careful to always speak the truth in love. And all of us who listen to preaching must develop the right attitude toward what is being taught. We need to search the Scriptures to see that what is being taught is true (Acts 17:11). Then, we need to determine in our hearts that we are going to follow the truth, whatever it may be. If we are studying the Bible in order to do what it says, rather than to justify ourselves, we will not try to ignore what the Bible says by making absurd charges concerning the preacher. If a preacher or any other teacher of God's word is teaching false doctrine, he should be dealt with in the way that the Bible tells us. But many times it is easier for us to say that we don't like the way the preacher is preaching, than to admit that we don't like what the Bible says and that we don't intend to do it.
-- Edward O. Bragwell, Jr.