Hear this, all ye self-righteous, tremble, and behold your doom!

What this printed sermon doesn't convey is that these words were punctuated by streaming tears. Whitefield lamented over souls and saw himself just as wretched and hell-deserving as as the lowest sinner, if not for God's grace. This very same exhortation, preached without the same compassion, is but a litany of death and religious banter. This sort of preaching of God's judgmental terror is but powerless, laughable diatribe if it is done without tears.

With tears, however, such an exhortation penetrates the heart and prostrates men, women and children. God was able to bring such an effect through His evangelist because Whitefield himself had probably been crushed and prostrated before God earlier that morning. He had shed real tears in prayer over the prostitutes, the drunkards, the atheists, the gamblers. Whitefield had wept in private and therefore God had given him the right to preach these words. This is something street preachers today do not take into account. They want Whitefield's authority without the tears, and so they try to mimic his style and are either ignored or laughed off the stage.

Always remember that when you read or quote Whitefield, that he was quintessentially a man of of much weeping and love and his preaching was ancillary to this. Otherwise you can go off balance and spread legalistic death.

By the way, Whitefield is my all-time favorite minister, outside of the men of the Bible. Thanks for posting this snippet.

Brother Paul

That's pretty important (additional) information.

Thank you, Paul.

Speaking of the men of the Bible:

For My WORD is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. But many cannot hear My WORD because My WORD has no place in them. He who is of God hears the WORDS of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My WORD he shall never see death, but many of you neglect the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. You nicely set aside the Commandment of God in order to keep your traditions. JESUS

By His cross I am crucified to the world and the world is crucified to me. Consequently, I am crucified with Christ; NEVERTHELESS I LIVE: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. So, exhort all disciples to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God. PAUL

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered for a LITTLE WHILE will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. PETER

Here are two examples of scriptures that are difficult to apply in today's religious system. We can believe the WORD or adjust it. If we choose to believe the Word in the following instances and not adjust it then we ought to seek the Lord for more understanding of it and not be quick to dismiss it or ignore it.

2Jn 1:9-11 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine (teaching) of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

1Co 5:9-13 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

Pilgrim

This very same exhortation, preached without the same compassion, is but a litany of death and religious banter. This sort of preaching of God's judgmental terror is but powerless, laughable diatribe if it is done without tears.

Hi Paul,

Whether brother Whitfield preached this with tears in his eyes or with a straight face in no way lessens the power of the message.

The fact that the Lord gave him the courage to speak the message in the face of great wrath in itself is encouragement enough to me. This message will not get you firmly ensconced on the preaching circuit.

We don't hear of John the Baptist's tears, yet Jesus said that there was not a man who had walked the Earth that was greater than him. Tears do not make us great, obedience does. Tears did no make George Whitfield, obedience did. Tears did in fact grease the cogs, but the Lord was the engineer.

i think you might be misunderstanding ,paul west

it the brokeness of spirit he preached with and interceed with ,,,,,and with out that preaching has no power

brother just because it is not recorded in scripture ,it would be an asumtion to say that about the baptist john

jesus was a man of sorrows aquainted with grief and he preached in the brokeness ,it was recorded

i dont think paul said it was the water that flowd from his eyes that made him great

and i dont think paul was saying that the lord was not the enginer of power

he saying with out true compassion ,that is linked with a broken and contrite spirit ,,whare tears are an outward manfestion of the inward burdan ,,,there is nothing but a dry sermon

Amen brother Paul!

Amen brothagary!

It is so easy for any of us to quote another man's words but miss the heart, compassion,tone of his voice, and spirit that motivated the truth of the message he was compelled to convey.

Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Blessings...from brother rbanks

QUOTE:"This sort of preaching of God's judgmental terror is but powerless, laughable diatribe if it is done without tears."==PAUL WEST

How true. Your statement recalls to mind Paul Washer and his Shocking Youth Sermon which he gave with tears and compassion. Without that his words would have fallen on deaf ears. By his tears we listeners knew that he loved us/them. And without love, he would have been as a tinkling cymbal or sounding brass...

1Cor. 13: 1

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become [as] sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

We don't hear of John the Baptist's tears, yet Jesus said that there was not a man who had walked the Earth that was greater than him. Tears do not make us great, obedience does. Tears did no make George Whitfield, obedience did. Tears did in fact grease the cogs, but the Lord was the engineer.

Of course the Lord was the engineer in Whitefield's case, no one would ever doubt this. But obedience to God bereft of compassion is a one-way ticket to legalism, as seen with the pharisees. These were men who counted themselves perfectly submissive to God. They sought to obey God in every jot and tittle. The problem with obedience as the forefront qualifier is that everyone has a slightly different idea on what true obedience to God is. Obedience to God can be subjective, because your standard may be different from mine. You may be called to preach, the next person may be called to remain silent. As with often the case, the former has a great propensity to judge the latter for not conforming to what he believes is God's universal will for all believers. All believers, however, are called to compassion, to love, to servitude.

Notwithstanding, obedience to God according to the light He's proffered upon you should be a given. You can't be in a place to truly anguish over the lost if you're not first in a right standing with God obviously. But obedience alone to the light does not lend this kind of authority. You must have a broken heart before God and a love for sinners as well. Otherwise you'll just sound angry and judgmental like 99% of most street preachers who count themselves as obedient unto God.

I'm sorry for not making my earlier post more clear, I love everything about the life of George Whitfield. Honesty, I recommend books about his life more than any other.

I love the sprit in which he lived and preached, awesome indeed.

My point was that I don't think that there is any less compassion should there not be any tears. However, I do know dry angry preaching and would agree with all of you.

There is a very powerful message on here by David Wilkerson (Another Gospel), he's not preaching it in tears, yet it is straight from the heart of the Lord and is ultimately motivated by compassion.

Sorry for not communicating better earlier! :-)

Jim,

Nicely said. I appreciate your thoughtfulness in coming back to this thread in order to safe guard the fellowship here in the forum. And I share your high regard for Paul!

Words like you've taken the time to offer here set the tone in the forum.

Bless you!

MC

Dear Jim,

You're a precious brother and a friend and I love you in Christ. I pray that God bring you into His absolute best for your life. Thank you for taking the time to write such kind words to me. It really means a lot.

Your brother,

Paul

learjet wrote, "Whether brother Whitfield preached this with tears in his eyes or with a straight face in no way lessens the power of the message....We don't hear of John the Baptist's tears, yet Jesus said that there was not a man who had walked the Earth that was greater than him. Tears do not make us great, obedience does. Tears did no make George Whitfield, obedience did."

Amen learjet. I have read much of Whitefield, including a few biographies of him, and I do recall reading that He was full of compassion and literally in tears at times. But to assert that every single message of his was preached in tears I think is saying more than what history says. We can make the same mistake in adding things to Scripture that are not really there.

We read that Jesus wept, and that He was full of compassion and a Man of sorrows. But to assume that He preached every single message in tears would be to assume too much beyond what is actually written imho.

There was clearly a tone of very sharp rebuke in much of Whitefield's preaching, the type of rebuke that is seldom heard from today's compromised and apostate pulpits.

All that said, I agree with brother Paul West to a certain extent, in that preachers or evangelists need to make sure they are of the right spirit when preaching.

Appreciate the OP jimdied2sin. Great reminder to all of us to examine ourselves. And a good example of the kind of preaching there needs to be more of these days, with or without tears, as long as it is Spirit-led ;)

You are absolutely right bro. Paul! The preacher that can preach against the sins of a people, yet never weep over those same people, does not have God's heart. If we don't have His heart, all is in vain.

to assert that every single message of his was preached in tears I think is saying more than what history says. We can make the same mistake in adding things to Scripture that are not really there.

That said, I am total agreement with you about the error of "adding" things ;) I've been guilty of this many times.

Brother Paul

(quote)Just for the record, it was never asserted that "every single message" Whitefield preached was in tears. The focus was the spirit behind the particular exhortation in the original post.(quote)

I apologize for the misunderstanding or misrepresentation. I still stand by my view that not every message of rebuke need be preached in tears. There is not proof for the assertion that every message of rebuke from Whitfield, including particularly the one in the original post, was preached in tears, or that he shed tears in preparation for it. Tears may or may not be present. We are not to base any of our endeavors on emotions which can ebb and flow, but as learjet pointed out, on obedience to Jesus Christ.

My concern is that sometimes in our zeal for love and grace we downplay the need for exhortation or rebuke and discourage others from delivering such types of messages, unless done in tears. We have been over-fed messages on grace and love to the extent that messages of rebuke and exhortation seem too odd to us. But such types of messages are throughout the Bible, including after Pentecost. Clearly there is a place for rebuking and exhorting as Scripture clearly shows(Titus 2:15), with or without tears.

brother Paul, I do not mean to be divisive or contentious here. I was simply concerned about your post following the OP. It just seemed to downplay the plain reading and thrust of the original post.
For the record, I too have always respected you and have been encouraged many a time by your sound and wise counsel in many areas. On this we may have to agree to disagree brother, but that's okay. Again, my apologies for any misrepresentation.
Oracio