When I was a schoolboy our headmaster (‘Boris’ we called him for some unknown reason) would regularly lead the morning school assembly. From time to time a dreadful scenario would unfold. The headmaster would spot someone engaged in a misdemeanour, point his finger and demand ‘That boy - out! Go to my room’. Lamentably, lacking the ‘gimlet eye’ of Bunter’s Quelch it was seldom immediately obvious at whom the headmaster was looking. Often he would be in apoplexy as a series of innocents murmured ‘me?’ while the guilty individual continued to sit there convinced he could not be the one intended.
The same sort of thing often happens on the Lord’s Day in many a church. The preacher denounces a particular species of sin. It is a great help to many. But there are still some innocent ones who feel guilty where they ought not to and some guilty ones who assume they must be innocent of sin. Or he preaches on Christian assurance. Again, there are those who take comfort where they should not and those who fail to take comfort where they should.
Now and again in the past as I have preached I have noticed one or two in the congregation nodding off. Rather than picking on individuals and embarrassing them I have said ‘some of us are bit sleepy tonight, let’s wake ourselves up’. Almost invariably the best responses to such words are from those who have been alert anyway and the worst responses have been from the dozing ones!
The story is told of a man who attended a rather traditional church somewhere and his parting words at the door following every sermon he heard were ‘Excellent sermon! Just what they needed to here.’ The minister concerned did not notice the exact phraseology at first but slowly it began to sink in and it really saddened him to hear it. After a few years of this, there happened to be a very bad snow storm. It transpired that on that particular Sunday evening only the man in question turned up to hear the preacher. ‘Ah’ thought the latter ‘Now I’ve got him. He won’t be able to miss the message tonight.’ And so he preached a sermon directed very pointedly to this man, the sole member of the congregation. As the minister stood at the door while the man put on his warm coat and galoshes he wondered what he would say as he left. Eventually he came out, shook the preacher warmly by the hand and said, ‘Excellent sermon! It’s a pity they weren’t here to hear it’!!!
Could that be you? It is so easy to apply the messages we hear to others and assume they cannot really be meant for us. Like Peter in John 21 we are more concerned about others than about ourselves, in quite a wrong way altogether.
I heard someone preaching a short while ago on the importance of Christian love and forgiveness. At first I began to feel quite pleased with myself as I was sure the rebukes he was giving did not apply to me. However, as he proceeded I suddenly thought of a Christian brother who had been quite critical and whom, I suddenly realised, I had not really forgiven from the heart.
It is a dangerous way of thinking. How much we can miss of God’s Word by such a misguided attitude.
Of course, some messages will not be as relevant as others. At times we will have to think a bit and apply a message in a slightly different way. He may be speaking of one specific sin that we are not guilty of, but is there a similar one of which we are guilty? He may be applying his message to a category of person to which you do not belong, perhaps never could belong. Yet with a little imagination we can easily see an application to ourselves. If wives are to be submissive to their husbands and their beauty should be of the inner self does that not say something to men about how they should treat the opposite sex and what they should consider the true hallmarks of beauty?
When the minister speaks against a certain type of sin do not be tempted to say, ‘Oh, I could never be guilty of that’. When he gives words of encouragement for various needs do not think ‘Oh, I will never need advice on that sort of thing’ or ‘This is my trouble but it can’t apply to me’. When he preaches the gospel, take a fresh step of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is vital that we realise that when the preacher says ‘You’ he means you, yes you. If the cap fits, wear it. If not, try it another way round and may be it will.
This applies, of course, also to our own personal reading of Scripture. God has given us his Word. We must believe it and apply it, first, to ourselves.
A number of Scriptures drive this lesson home.
- The promise is for you and for your children, etc. Acts 2:39.
- The words ‘It was credited’ were not written for him alone but for us Romans 4:23, 24
- For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us Romans 15:4
- Surely he says this for us doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us 1 Corinthians 9:10
- These things happened to them for examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfilment of the ages is come 1 Corinthians 10:11.
Finally, think of all those wonderful whoever texts. I counted at least 45 just in the Gospels! Yes, it’s for you. You better believe it!
