The Prophet’s Commission - Glenn Conjurske

The Prophet’s Commission

Abstract of a Sermon Preached on July 4, 1999

by Glenn Conjurske

“See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.” (Jeremiah 1:10). Here is the prophet’s commission. Now observe, that while this commission contains six items, it may be divided essentially into two, the negative, and the positive. Observe further that the negative comes first, and that there is twice as much of it. But the terms of this commission are rather unpopular today. Modern Evangelicalism practically repudiates the negative. It wants a positive message. It speaks with contempt of “negativism.” And this for the simplest of all reasons. It would rather please the world and the flesh than the Lord. This is the ruling passion of modern Evangelicalism.

But Fundamentalism dislikes the negative part of the prophet’s commission also. Fundamentalism at large is addicted to a false doctrine of grace, and it is to save this false doctrine that the negative message is feared and shunned. The Bible tells us to put off the old man, and put on the new, in that order. But our grace theologians will not have it so. They will have us put on the new man without putting off the old, and tell us that if we put on the new, the old will fall off of itself. Evangelicalism, then, wants no negative message because it displeases the world. Fundamentalism wants no negative message because it overturns its one-sided doctrine of grace. And many there are who want no negative message for both of these reasons combined.

But God prescribes a negative message. The prophet of God is sent to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down. All this is to clear the ground, in order that he might build and plant. But the negative comes first, and must come first. God’s first work is always to clear the ground. He does not sow his wheat among thorns, nor build upon a faulty foundation.

If I were asked what is wrong with the modern church, there are many things which I could reply, but one which would be prominent among them is that we have a myriad of men who have set up to be prophets, who aim only to build and to plant, without first clearing the ground by rooting out and pulling down. I have no doubt that one of the primary reasons for this is that many of them know so little of the word and ways of the Lord that they see nothing to pull down. They see nothing amiss. They suppose that modern Christianity is just what it ought to be, and all we need is more of it. But I believe there is another class who know very well that there is very much amiss in the modern church, who yet decline to root out and pull down simply because it is too difficult.

Let it be well understood that the prophet’s commission is no easy one. He is to “root out.” This is not easy. When we moved into our former residence seventeen years ago, we set to work to turn a horse pasture into a garden. We went to work with a shovel. We turned over a shovel full of dirt, picked up the sod, and shook the dirt out of it, and threw the roots aside. Of course modern folks have found an easier way. They go into the pasture with a rototiller, and till up the whole field without taking the roots out, but before their vegetables come up, they have a thriving field of hay, all deeply rooted. And this is exactly what happens in the spiritual realm when men think to plant without first rooting out.

Roots are deeply entrenched, and hold fast to the soil. If we take hold of many weeds, and endeavor to pull them out, we will come off with only a handful of leaves, while the root remains just where it was. Many of these roots have been long growing. They have gone deep, and spread wide. They grip tenaciously, and will not come out easily. These roots are doctrines long held, customs long practiced, sins long indulged, false ways long supported, worldly ways long cherished.

Now when the prophet first sets out, nothing looks easier than to root out these false things. He proceeds upon the mistaken notion that reason will prevail in the church. It will be a simple matter of pointing out the wrong—-quoting the pertinent scriptures—-demonstrating the evil tendencies or consequences of the thing. But when he takes hold of that weed and begins to tug, he does not find reason at the root of it, but emotion. Men have long enjoyed the thing, long supported it, long poured their energies and resources into it, and to touch that root will immediately raise a storm of opposition. Men will not inquire, “Is this thing right or wrong?” They will not ask, “Does the Bible countenance or condemn it?” They will only say, “We like this thing.” I recall years ago attempting to deal with a young couple in our congregation, in which the wife was obviously the head. When I pointed this out to them, and endeavored to prove it by what I had seen with my own eyes, the wife replied with some feeling, “We like it this way.” I had the temerity to ask her whether God liked it that way, but this was a question which she had not troubled herself about.

Next the prophet must pull down. And pull down what? Obviously what other folks have been building up. And who will sit idly by and watch us pull down what they have been building up? Here again we will meet with a good deal of emotion, and very little reason. Men don’t like to see their buildings pulled down. Yet if you will not do this, you are no prophet of God.

But there is a right way and a wrong way to go about this. Jeremiah, you know, is commonly referred to by a descriptive epithet, but he is never called “the prophet who rooted out and pulled down and destroyed and threw down.” If you called Jeremiah by such a name, most people would have no idea whom you meant. Jeremiah is called “the weeping prophet.” And there is no other way to root out and pull down and destroy and throw down. If this is done with tears, the people will accept it. If a man knows that you love him, you can tell him anything you please. The hard and the harsh will only offend people. We are to preach a negative message, but not to scold. I have preached two scolding messages in my life, and the people never forgave me for either one of them. We are sent to root out and to pull down, but this will never be done to any purpose but with weeping eyes. And this, by the way, is one great disadvantage of putting our message on paper. We won’t say it should not be done. Jeremiah, and all the prophets, put their negative message on paper, and so did Paul. But here is the difficulty. Paul says, “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears,” (II Cor. 2:4), but those tears do not appear on the paper. I have written many things which are weighty and powerful, and which may appear harsh, but I have written many of them with floods of tears. Thirty years ago, when I was hard and harsh myself, I used to read Christ’s denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees, and picture him speaking as the piercings of a sword, with scathing looks and caustic tone. But when God began to soften my own heart the picture changed completely, and then I saw the Lord speaking those same words with a voice choked with emotion, and tears running down his cheeks. This is the manner in which we ought to root out and to pull down, for in no other way will we win the hearts of men, and till that is done, there will be no building or planting.

But here is a grand difficulty. There are many who set up to be prophets, who are no prophets of God at all. Having no love, they are nothing. They go about in good earnest to root out and pull down and destroy and throw down, but having no tears, they offend everybody, and blame everybody, too, for being offended. But after a few years of this they get tired of offending everybody. At this point they ought to say, “I am not a prophet of God. I lack the main ingredients. If I am not a weeping prophet, I am no prophet at all. I lack the tears because I lack the love. I will retire from the prophet’s office, till I am fit for it.”

This, I say, they ought to do. But you will rarely find it done. No. Instead of this they hold the prophet’s office still, but omit the first two thirds of the prophet’s commission. They preach a positive message, and all the shallow and lukewarm and worldly souls are delighted with it, and with the man who preaches it. But they are no prophets of God.

I am highly delighted with the old Baptist evangelist Jabez Swan’s description of his commission. His business was to plow up to the fence. He would go into the various churches, and find the plot of ground all grown over with thorns and thistles, and inhabited by snakes and rats and vermin, with just a little square in the middle nicely plowed. He went in determined to plow up to the fence. To do this he had to uproot a great many briars and thorn bushes, and disturb all the snakes and rats, and the business was not very pleasant. But we have another sort of preacher now. A church or assembly wants a man to come to preach to them. He is flattered, and is glad to do so. He finds a little patch in the middle of the field beautifully plowed and planted, and he goes to maintain it. He thinks he can make it grow a little greener and a little taller. He is not unaware of the great unplowed border around the little patch in the middle, but he goes to co-exist with that. He ought rather to say, “I am no prophet of God, and will not go at all.”

But we must say something yet of the second half of the prophet’s commission. This is our proper business. The rooting out and pulling down is only to make room to build and plant. As difficult and strenuous as the rooting out and pulling down may be, we ought to get it done and over with, and get down to our proper business. There are some who never do anything but root out and pull down and destroy and throw down. Some of the cults belong to this class, and so do some Fundamentalists. Their whole existence is bound up in opposing everything, in proving all the churches wrong, all the preachers hirelings, and all their doctrines heresy. And I tell you, there is only one possible result of such a ministry. It will puff up all their adherents with the most reeking pride. The church is full of people who know how to oppose every error, while spiritually they are nothing but crying infants themselves. They can oppose every outward error, of doctrine or practice, while their own heart is all grown over with thorns and thistles, and inhabited by snakes and vermin. Our real business is to build the people up in faith and love and holiness and humility, to travail in birth till Christ be formed in them, to teach them to walk with God, and to prevail in prayer. But we must clear the ground first, and there is nothing that will do it but a negative message.

Glenn Conjurske