Using "Dirty Words" in Preaching -- Tim Phillips

First of all, my name is not Mark Driscoll, and I don't mean those kind of words. Nor would I suggest that any preachers out there try to spice up their sermons with salty language. We are called, as ministers of the word of God, to preach the word with great patience and instruction (2 Timothy 4:2). The gospel of Jesus Christ is to be preached to the nations (Matthew 24:14). We are called to proclaim the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ and His glorious resurrection. It is wonderful duty to do this in the pulpit of my local church every Lord's Day, and it is an immense honor when I am asked to preach in another congregation. All of us preachers should say, along with the Apostle Paul, "woe is me if I do not preach the gospel."

Yet there are many potential pitfalls when it comes to this task of preaching the gospel. One is that we may assume that folks know what the gospel is when they actually may not. Ask someone to explain the gospel to you sometime and you might actually be surprised with the results. We must not take this knowledge for granted, which is why we need to regular proclaim the gospel and not make assumptions about the spiritual states of those in our congregations or those who may be visiting our sermons (or, in these days, watching virtually or otherwise listening online).

But there may be some other words, besides gospel, that people may not know, or may misunderstand, simply because they rarely (or never) hear them mentioned from the pulpit. There are several that could be mentioned, but I will name three: repentance, sin, and hell. These are "dirty words" which must be a regular part of our preaching.

I have often joked that the word "repentance" is a dirty word in many churches today, but it's not really a joke. Years ago, I mentioned to a church member (a life-long member of that particular church) that a certain situation called for repentance. My comment was promptly met with laughter by the individual. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it because repentance is something that other people do (the big sinners!), but the rest of us have things under control and don't need to worry about such trivialities. And yet our own confession of faith tells us the foolishness of this kind of unbiblical thinking:

Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace, the doctrine whereof is to be preached by every minister of the gospel, as well as that of faith in Christ. By it, a sinner, out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature, and righteous law of God; and upon the apprehension of his mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, so grieves for, and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with him in all the ways of his commandments. Although repentance be not to be rested in, as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof, which is the act of God's free grace in Christ; yet it is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it. (Westminster Confession of Faith, 15.1-3)

What about "sin" and "hell"? Some might maintain that it is better to preach a gospel message that is "kind and gentler" by not mentioning such negative terms. However, we may be doing great damage to the gospel message itself if we leave out the uncomfortable parts -- we have a watered-down, half-hearted message that many will consider too irrelevant to give a hearing. J. Gresham Machen observed a century ago:

We preachers do not preach hell enough, and we do not say enough about sin. We talk about the gospel and wonder why people are not interested in what we say. Of course they are not interested. No man is interested in a piece of good news unless he has the consciousness of needing it; no man is interested in an offer of salvation unless he knows that there is something from which he needs to be saved. It is quite useless to ask a man to adopt the Christian view of the gospel unless he first has the Christian view of sin.

But a man will never adopt the Christian view of sin if he considers merely the sin of the world or the sins of other people. Consideration of the sins of other people is the deadliest of moral anodynes; it relieves the pain of conscience but it also destroys moral life. Many persons gloat over denunciations of that to which they are not tempted; or they even gloat over denunciations, in the case of other people, of sins which are also really theirs. King David was very severe when the prophet Nathan narrated to him his sordid tale of greed. ‘As the Lord liveth,’ said David, ‘the man that hath done this thing shall surely die.’ But Nathan was a disconcerting prophet. ‘And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.’ (II Samuel 12:5, 7) That was for David the beginning of a real sense of his sin. So it will also be with us.

Ray Comfort uses an illustration to communicate the necessity of this complete message. Suppose you were on an airplane, and a flight attendant shoved a parachute into your arms and told you to put it on. As you start to do so, you look around and everything seems fine. The plane does not appear to be experiencing any problems. Furthermore, you look a bit ridiculous holding a parachute, and everyone is looking at you and laughing. Since you are embarrassed, you decide to hide the parachute. But suppose the flight attendant instead comes to you and says in a loud voice, "Put this on because the engines have failed, the pilot is unconscious, and this plane is about to crash!" You wouldn't care what others thought at that point. You would be far more willing to heed to the warning if you knew the dire consequences which awaited you if you didn't listen.

All this is to say, brothers, is to preach the word. Preach the gospel. Preach Christ and Him crucified. And don't be afraid to speak of repentance, sin, and hell. Those aren't dirty words; they're necessary words. They are words we all need to hear.