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WHY PREACHERS WON'T PREACH THE TRUTH "And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." (Isa. 59:14)"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." (John 14:16-17)"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:" (John 15:26)"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come." (John 16:13)"We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." (I John 4:6)Okay, we just saw a verse where God is not pleased with the fact that truth is fallen in the street, and we saw a few more verses where Christians are said to have the "Spirit of truth" living within themselves. That means that it is perfectly natural for Christians to love truth. In fact, even Jesus himself is called "the truth" in John 14:6. Yet, we are told that in the last days men will be turning away from the truth (II Tim. 4:4) That is, they, preachers included, will leave God's truth laying in the street while pursuing their own selfish interests. In fact, many will leave God's truth laying in the street IN ORDER TO pursue their own selfish interests.Now, why would a preacher do such a thing? Why would a man who claims to believe the Bible actually ignore and refuse to preach certain things from the Bible? Samuel "did let none of his words fall to the ground" (I Sam. 3:19), yet many preachers today leave a great many of God's words on the ground all the time. Why? Why do so many leave God's words fallen in the street? I'd like to give you four reasons . . .I. THEY'RE WORRIED ABOUT PRAISE"Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." (John 12:43)Look at that! They enjoyed coming together, not to worship God, but rather to praise one another, to "Amen" one another and to go home feeling all spiritual and important because people had praised their message, their Bible study, their testimony, or maybe their new suit or their wife's new dress. They were ADDICTED to that regular praise from men, so it affected the way they spoke: "they did not confess him." The truth suffered so that religious men could continue to be praised by religious men!I'm telling you that that is a cancer in the body of Christ, the magnitude of which only the Judgment Seat of Christ itself will reveal. It's massive, it's powerful, and it's like an addictive drug that a man cannot live without once he has become hooked, and THOUSANDS of preachers are hooked. God's truth suffers because too many preachers refuse to say "Thus saith the LORD" out of fear of losing some praise and flattery from the brethren. Makes you wonder if God really called them or if they just called themselves. Maybe they weren't sent; they just went.Beware of the praise preachers who will always give you just enough drama to make you think you're getting something, but then stop short of giving you the whole truth. They're addicted to the praise of men, so the truth remains fallen in the street.II. THEY'RE WORRIED ABOUT PROBLEMS"And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good. And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak." (I Kings 22:13-14)Man, that is solid gold! They were terrified that Micaiah would just come out with the old twoedged sword and rip the place apart, so they told him to tone it down and go with the flow by preaching what all the other guys were preaching. Unity would be maintained, the king would like it, and the other preachers would like it. But he knew that God would NOT like it, so he said, "As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak." Glory to God! Unlike that bunch of crooks, he wasn't worried about problems. He was worried about that truth that kept laying there in the street that no one ever picked up and embraced, so his attitude was IF THE TRUTH IS FOLLOWED BY PROBLEMS, THEN IT'S ONLY BECAUSE THE PROBLEMS WERE ALREADY THERE!I'll show it to you. Look at I Kings 18:17: "And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" Wicked Ahab accused Elijah of being the troublemaker, but notice Elijah's answer in verse 18: "I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim." You see that? The real troublemakers were Ahab and Jezebel, and Elijah was only the messenger that God used to shine the light of truth on them. God basically said, "You see that flashlight laying in the street? Pick it up and shine it in Ahab's guilty face!" The light didn't CAUSE the trouble; it only REVEALED the trouble that was already there.I can't count the number of times that I've heard preachers say, "I can't preach that in some of the places I preach." THEN DON'T PREACH IN THOSE PLACES! There, wasn't that easy?! LOL! No, it's not easy at all, not for them, because they WANT really bad to preach in those places, so they must always perform a balancing act from church to church: "How much truth can I preach here and still not cause trouble?" Many pastors engage in this balancing act in their own churches on a weekly basis while most gave up on the truth many years ago, so their weekly routine is to just preach the expected three points and a poem and leave God's truth in the street. After all, "we don't want problems" and "unity" is a beautiful thing in the eyes of God.So is Bible truth, and too many preachers refuse to preach it out of fear of the problems that might arise. THE PROBLEMS ARE ALREADY THERE! Our job is to REVEAL and EXPOSE them so that people can repent and get things right.We had the Servall exterminator man do the annual termite inspection here and at my house on Wednesday. He comes out from under the house and tells Angela that we had a "pinhole" leak spraying water on one of the flood joists. So, I spent a couple hours yesterday crawling around under the house and fixing a leak. Now get this: NOT ONE TIME DID I BLAME THE SERVALL MAN FOR CAUSING PROBLEMS! I never said, "Everything was fine till he showed up!" No, thank God that he DID show up! He didn't CAUSE the problem. He REVEALED the problem so that I could address it. That's what a good preacher does, and a man is not a good preacher, if he DOESN'T do that.III. THEY'RE WORRIED ABOUT PERSECUTION"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (II Tim. 3:12)Please notice what Paul is saying here. He's not saying that persecution comes when you live godly. That's certainly true, but he's saying more than that. He said that persecution comes on all of those who WILL live godly. It's a conscious choice where a man says, "I'm going to be persecuted for this, but I don't care. It's right, so I'm going to do it or say it, and whatever comes will just have it come. I WILL live godly and suffer the consequences." It's a personal WILL to suffer reproach and persecution for the cause of Christ. The believer's focus is on LIVING GODLY, not on the persecution that will come; therefore, no effort is made to avoid the persecution. He isn't worried about it as he realizes that persecution is a natural part of the believer's life. Only cowards would focus on the persecution and attempt to avoid it. Choosing affliction and reproach has been the heritage of God's people for thousands of years (Heb. 11:24-26), and a preacher who preaches to avoid persecution is a worthless preacher.In addition to losing praise and having various problems, some preachers literally fear outright persecution. Just recently I heard of a preacher who was told by a big name, celebrity preacher that if he didn't do a certain thing, he would never preach again in a particular region or state. I've read and heard stories where preachers have told other preachers that, "I can make one phone call and you're finished." Even Dr. Ruckman was told early in his ministry that if he didn't compromise his message, he would not have good places to preach. Folks, that kind of stuff belongs in the mafia and in the highest ranks of the unsaved political world, but certainly not in the lives and daily practices of God's people!Whatever happened to the golden rule? Would you want someone treating you that way? Of course not! Then don't treat them that way! THAT'S BIBLE! That's Matthew 7:12! We aren't like the world! We live by a higher standard, or at least we should. Yet, most preachers know very well that they will suffer some level of persecution, if they preach the whole counsel of God, and most of the persecution will come from other "Christians." Consequently, God's truth remains trampled in the street.IV. THEY'RE WORRIED ABOUT PAYCHECKS"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (I Tim. 6:6-10)That's a warning about loving MONEY, and it's written to a young PREACHER. Notice that willing to be "rich" is defined as coveting something more than FOOD and RAINMENT. The devil shows up and says, "You can have nicer things, if you'll just leave some of that truth down there in the street. Not ALL of it, just a few things here and there you need to cut out and not preach." Then the young man reasons that that's a fair deal, since some of that stuff is not that important anyway. No Bible believer thinks that way! Samuel did let NONE of God's words fall to the ground, and Jesus said we are to live by EVERY word of God, not just the ones that we like.That's the dirty little secret that no one wants to mention. A "place to preach" is almost always a place to get a paycheck as well, and the wrong kind of preaching can affect that paycheck. When a man holds a regular job for his main pay and benefits, then he feels more liberty when preaching, because he'll go to work Monday morning and earn another paycheck whether his preaching yielded a nice paycheck or not. BUT, when a man is "full-time" in the ministry and 100% dependent on church paychecks, there is a tremendous temptation to cut corners in order to keep the paychecks coming. "The bigger the paycheck the smaller the Bible" is far too often the reality, and oftentimes the Bible becomes so small that it ends up being truth fallen in the street. Even Paul had to rely on tentmaking for some of his income, because TRUTH just doesnt pay very well.I'm not saying that ALL full-time preachers are compromisers, but many of them are, especially among the ranks of the ones who travel a lot and preach in many churches. Truth is not popular, so much of it ends up fallen in the street while the preachers preach for praise and paychecks.If doctors have to take the hippocratic oath, maybe preachers should have to take a truth oath at their ordination services. Maybe they should have their ordinations revoked if they refuse to preach "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." I guess there's no way to enforce that, but it sure would change a lot, because most are certainly not preaching all the counsel of God. They're preaching what they can get away with while leaving the rest trampled in the street. I sincerely hope that God will take me home before allowing me to bring such reproach and dishonor to His holy name. More than anything in life, I want to be remembered as a man who preached and published God's truth without fear or favor, and I want no associations with any preacher who doesn't share that conviction. God's words, all of them, deserve to be exalted and proclaimed everywhere without compromise. If you disagree, then I pity you, for you have some serious spiritual issues that need to be resolved. You might be the perfect picture of health, physically speaking, but you are spiritually sick and stand in need of some critical care.