by Charles Finney

The design of this article is to propound several rules by a steady conformity to any one of which a man may preach so as not to convert anybody. It is generally conceded at the present day that the Holy Spirit converts souls to Christ by means of truth adapted to that end. It follows that a selfish preacher will not skillfully adapt means to convert souls to Christ, for this is not his end.

Rule 1st. Let your supreme motive be to secure your own popularity; then, of course, your preaching will be adapted to that end, and not to convert souls to Christ.

2d. Aim at pleasing, rather than at converting your hearers.

3d. Aim at securing for yourself the reputation of a beautiful writer.

4th. Let your sermons be written with a high degree of literary finish.

5th. Let them be short, occupying in the reading not to exceed from twenty to thirty minutes.

6th. Let your style be flowery, ornate, and quite above the comprehension of the common people.

7th. Be sparing of thought, lest your* sermon contain truth enough to convert a soul.

8th. Lest your sermon should make a saving impression, announce no distinct propositions or heads, that will be remembered, to disturb the consciences of your hearers.

9th. Make no distinct points, and take no disturbing issues with the consciences of your hearers, lest they remember these issues, and become alarmed about their souls.

10th. Avoid a logical division and subdivision of your subject, lest you should too thoroughly instruct your people.

11th. Give your sermon the form and substance of a flowing, beautifully written, but never-to-be-remembered essay; so that your hearers will say “it was a beautiful sermon,” but can give no further account of it.

12th. Avoid preaching doctrines that are offensive to the carnal mind, lest they should say of you, as they did of Christ, “This is a hard saying. Who can hear it?” and that you are injuring your influence.

13th. Denounce sin in the abstract, but make no allusion to the sins of your present audience.

14th. Keep the spirituality of God’s holy law, by which is the knowledge of sin, out of sight, lest the sinner should see his lost condition and flee from the wrath to come.

15th. Preach the Gospel as a remedy, but conceal or ignore the fatal disease of the sinner.

16th. Preach salvation by grace; but ignore the condemned and lost condition of the sinner, lest he should understand what you mean by grace, and feel his need of it.

17th. Preach Christ as an infinitely amiable and good-natured being; but ignore those scathing rebukes of sinners and hypocrites which so often made his hearers tremble.

18th. Avoid especially preaching to those who are present. Preach about sinners, and not to them. Say they, and not you, lest any one should make a personal and saving application of your subject.

19th. Aim to make your hearers pleased with themselves and pleased with you, and be careful not to wound the feelings of any one.

20th. Preach no searching sermons, lest you convict and convert the worldly members of your church.

21st. Avoid awakening uncomfortable memories by reminding your hearers of their past sins.

22d. Do not make the impression that God commands your hearers now and here to obey the truth.

23d. Do not make the impression that you expect your hearers to commit themselves upon the spot and give their hearts to God.

24th. Leave the impression that they are expected to go away in their sins, and to consider the matter at their convenience.

25th. Dwell much upon their inability to obey, and leave the impression that they must wait for God to change their natures.

26th. Make no appeals to the fears of sinners; but leave the impression that they have no reason to fear.

27th. Say so little of Hell that your people will infer that you do not believe in its existence.

28th. Make the impression that, if God is as good as you are, He will send no one to Hell.

29th. Preach the love of God, but ignore the holiness of His love, that will by no means clear the impenitent sinner.

30th. Often present God in his parental love and relations; but ignore His governmental and legal relations to His subjects, lest the sinner should find himself condemned already and the wrath of God abiding on him.

31st. Preach God as all mercy, lest a fuller representation of His character should alarm the consciences of your hearers.

32d. Try to convert sinners to Christ without producing any uncomfortable convictions of sin.

33d. Flatter the rich, so as to repel the poor, and you will convert none of either class.

34th. Make no disagreeable allusions to the doctrines of self-denial, cross-bearing, and crucifixion to the world, lest you should convict and convert some of your churchmembers.

35th. Admit, either expressly or impliedly, that all men have some moral goodness in them; lest sinners should understand that they need a radical change of heart, from sin to holiness.

36th. Avoid pressing the doctrine of total moral depravity; lest you should offend, or even convict and convert, the moralist.

37th. Do not rebuke the worldly tendencies of the church, lest you should hurt their feelings, and finally convert some of them.

38th. Should any express anxiety about their souls, do not probe them by any uncomfortable allusion to their sin and ill-desert; but encourage them to join the church at once, and exhort them to assume their perfect safety within the fold.

39th. Preach the love of Christ not as enlightened benevolence, that is holy, just, and sin-hating; but as a sentiment, an involuntary and undiscriminating fondness.

40th. Be sure not to represent religion as a state of loving self-sacrifice for God and souls; but rather as a free and easy state of self-indulgence. By thus doing you will prevent sound conversions to Christ, and convert your hearers to yourself.

41st. So select your themes and so present them as to attract and flatter the wealthy, aristocratic, self-indulgent extravagant, pleasure-seeking classes, and you will not convert any of them to the cross-bearing religion of Christ.

42d. Be time-serving, or you will endanger your salary; and, besides, if you speak out and are faithful, you may convert somebody.

43d. Do not preach with a divine unction, lest your preaching make a saving impression.

44th. To avoid this, do not maintain a close walk with God, but rely upon your learning and study.

45th. Lest you should pray too much, engage in light reading and worldly amusements.

46th. That your people may not think you in earnest to save their souls, and, as a consequence, heed your preaching, encourage church-fairs, lotteries, and other gambling and worldly expedients to raise money for church purposes.

47th. If you do not approve of such things, make no public mention of your disapprobation, lest your church should give them up, and turn their attention to saving souls and be saved themselves.

48th. Do not rebuke extravagance in dress, lest you should uncomfortably impress your vain and worldly churchmembers.

49th. Lest you should be troubled with revival scenes and labors, encourage parties, pic-nics, excursions, and worldly amusements, so as to divert attention from the serious work of saving souls.

50th. Ridicule solemn earnestness in pulling sinners out of the fire, and recommend, by precept and example, it jovial, fun-loving religion, and sinners will have little respect for your serious preaching.

51st. Cultivate a fastidious taste in your people, by avoiding all disagreeable allusions to the last judgment and final retribution.

52d. Treat such uncomfortable doctrines as obsolete and out of place in these days of Christian refinement.

53d. Do not commit yourself to much-needed reforms, lest you should compromise your popularity and injure your influence. Or you may make some branch of outward reform a hobby, and dwell so much upon it as to divert attention from the great work of converting souls to Christ.

54th. So exhibit religion as to encourage the selfish pursuit of it. Make the impression upon sinners that their own safety and happiness is the supreme motive for being religious.

55th. Do not lay much stress upon the efficacy and necessity of prayer, lest the Holy Spirit should be poured out upon you and the congregation, and sinners should be converted.

56th. Make little or no impression upon your hearers, so that you can repeat your old sermons often without its being noticed.

57th. If your text suggest any alarming thought, pass lightly over it, and by no means dwell upon and enforce it.

58th. Avoid all illustrations, repetitions, and emphatic sentences, that may compel your people to remember what you say.

59th. Avoid all heat and earnestness in your delivery, lest you make the impression that you really believe what you say.

60th. Address the imagination, and not the conscience, of your hearers.

61st. Make it your great aim to be personally popular with all classes of your hearers.

62d. Be tame and timid in presenting the claims of God, as would become you in presenting your own claims,

63d. Be careful not to testify from your own personal experience of the power of the Gospel, lest you should produce the conviction upon your hearers that you have something which they need.

64th. See that you say nothing that will appear to any of your hearers to mean him or her, unless it be something flattering.

65th. Encourage church sociables, and attend them yourself, because they tend so strongly to levity as to compromise Christian dignity and sobriety, and thus paralyze the power of your preaching.

66th. Encourage the cultivation of the social in so many ways as to divert the attention of yourself and your churchmembers from the infinite guilt and danger of the unconverted among you.

67th. In those sociables talk a little about religion, but avoid any serious appeal to the heart and conscience of those who attend, lest you should discourage their attendance, always remembering that they do not go to socials to be earnestly dealt with in regard to their relations to God. In this way you will effectually so employ yourself and churchmembers as that your preaching will not convert anybody.

The experience of ministers who have steadily adhered to any of the above rules will attest the soul-destroying efficacy of such a course, and churches whose ministers have steadily conformed to any of these rules can testify that such preaching does not convert souls to Christ.

Obtained from Gospeltruth.net at this link.  Nothing has been changed or edited.

In this article, we revisit an often overlooked and forgotten fundamental of gospel preaching; the convicting power of God, an essential component in the experience of conversion. Conviction is that divine power that convinces and draws the sinner to Jesus. Thus, unless men are convicted and convinced of their awful sinfulness before a holy God they will never come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
-John 6:44

Jesus presents us with an absolute, the theological implications thereof, are often overlooked/neglected in this hour of seeker-sensitive, easy-believism. Sadly, the tendency today is to overlook, redefine, or ignore altogether the necessity of conviction in the new birth experience. If we fail to understand the dynamics of the gospel, and conviction in particular, we are ill prepared to be a witness for Jesus. Now, if conviction is absolutely essential in the conversion of souls, then we must desire to see lost sinners come under conviction, yes? This being true, let us consider what the Bible tells us about true Holy Ghost conviction.

I. FIRST, HOW MIGHT WE DEFINE CONVICTION?

John 6:44a No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…

Now, we’ve heard this term “conviction” many times before, but what does it actually mean? According to Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, “conviction” can be described as…

The act of compelling one to admit the truth of a charge; the act of convincing of sinfulness; the state of being convinced; the state of being sensible or aware of guilt. By conviction, a sinner is brought to repentance.

Thus, conviction is the experience of the sinner being awakened to the sinfulness, the penalty, and the only remedy of his sin. There is perhaps nothing in the human experience more disturbing, unsettling, and gut wrenching than Holy Ghost conviction. If it were not for its glorious end, it would be accurate to call conviction awful and terrible torment of the mind and soul. And remember, we, above all, must desire/have this happen to those we hope to win to Jesus.

II. AS I MENTIONED, CONVICTION IS AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY FOR CONVERSION.

John 6:44a No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…

Our text irrefutably teaches the absolute: no man will come to Jesus apart from God’s convicting power. Now, contrary to popular thought, fallen humanity has no innate interest in God, but rather, is predisposed to evade and hate Him. And thus, there has never been even one man who sought God of his own accord: not because we can’t, but we won’t.

Psalm 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

I heard a preacher say, “the increased popularity of the occult proves men are spiritually hungry, searching for a God they don’t know.” Such a statement presupposes three unscriptural and illogical concepts:

a. Sinners can seek God apart from God.

Romans 3:11 …there is none that seeketh after God.

b. Sinners can sincerely seek God and not find Him.

Jeremiah 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

c. Sinners are completely oblivious to God, His nature, and His law.

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse…

Such unscriptural notions reveal how little we understand about the gospel and the new birth. No, men infatuated with the devil may mean many things, but certainly not that they are hungry for God. The Bible teaches that sinners, by their sins, are utterly alienated from God. This separation is not merely a difference of opinion, or a philosophical misunderstanding. No, the sinner has willfully set himself against God: his ultimate enemy. The sinner is a rebel against God, His authority, His law, His gospel, and His Son. Sinners are willfully separated from God and have chosen to remain in a hostile position of opposition toward Him.

Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

We no longer believe this, the sinner is somehow, unconsciously seen as some kind of victim. And this one truth alone necessitates the utter need for the prevenient grace of conviction: they will never come, except the Father draw. Thus, as our text teaches, without conviction, no sinner will ever seek God.

III. THERE ARE THREE ESSENTIALS IN HOLY GHOST CONVICTION.

John 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove (convict) the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment…

There can be no Holy Ghost conviction apart from the reproof regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment. And perhaps there are no three topics more rejected in the professing church, and more hated in the world. Should we wonder why there is so little Holy Ghost conviction? Yes, the gospel preacher’s message, if anointed and led by the Spirit of God, will emphasize reproof. And his rebuke will concentrate on the sinner’s sin, his lack of righteousness, and the judgment he will soon face. Now, the world and religious hypocrites hate such preaching, accusing it to be, “judgmental/offensive/counterproductive.” Over the years, the professing church, carnal, backslid, and seeking the approval of man, has been seduced by such reasoning. Above all, they seek to avoid the preachy image, bending over backwards to be non-offensive and make the sinner feel comfortable. There is an obvious denial of Biblical conviction. That leads me to our next point…

IV. THE CATALYSTS FOR CONVICTION.

Romans 10:14 …how shall they hear without a preacher?

Without a true Gospel preacher there can be no Holy Ghost conviction to draw the sinner. Gospel preaching is God’s ordained means to communicate the gospel. And as we pointed out, his message, for the most part, will be a message of reproof: declaring the law to expose sin, lifting up Jesus to define righteousness, and boldly warning of the great and terrible day of God’s judgment. If we don’t get back to preaching the fundamental gospel message, men will never truly be drawn to Jesus. There can never be Holy Ghost conviction without Holy Ghost preaching (not Holy Ghost singing, not even Holy Ghost living alone). No, the human vessel, consecrated wholly to God, filled with God’s Spirit, declaring God’s Word is essential to God’s method of drawing.

John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

Yet, the modern church, Biblically illiterate and carnally motivated, has thought to promote the gospel like a bargain rummage sale. They say, “if we are prosperous, joyful, blessed, folks will come to get what we have.” Indeed, they may, but this is not the right motivation (see John 6). Or, they reason, “if they see miracles, they will believe the gospel.” They apparently forget that Jesus, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, renounced such thinking…

Luke 16:31 …if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

Others say, “If they just see Jesus in us they’ll come knocking at our door.” But the Bible says…

Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

In light of the absolute stated in Isaiah 53 how can this be? No, as the Bible teaches, we must first GO, before they will ever be under conviction and then COME.

VI. THE NATURE OF THE CONVICTION EXPERIENCE.

John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…

As we’ve mentioned, conviction is synonymous with reproof for sin, which produces a crisis. Holy confrontation always draws a line, gives an ultimatum, and forces a moral choice.

Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous…

Conviction literally compels lost sinners to do what they would never do themselves. To consider what they would never consider otherwise: look at the Greek word translated draw in John 6:44…

Draw: {Greek} hel-koo’-o, Literally or figuratively to drag.

It is a crisis, not a circus: serious, grave, and sober. A man diagnosed with cancer has some hard decisions to make, nevertheless, they are necessary. Likewise, the man under the eternal sentence of divine conviction realizes his latter end. It is no laughing matter. Conviction is, above all, loving, compassionate, and merciful beyond human comprehension: but to the unregenerate it seems tormenting. It is an affront to the sensibilities, a slap in the face of fallen human pride, and an offensive and brutal attack on sinful self-worth. And it will only lift when the sinner either repents or resists to the point of grieving God’s Spirit.

VI. FINALLY, THE DIFFERENT RESPONSES TO CONVICTION.

John 7:12, 41, 43 And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people…Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? So there was a division among the people because of him.

Conviction brings men face to face with the Biblical Jesus, and then they must make a gut-wrenching choice. They must either believe the gospel and therefore forfeit their own life to gain Christ, or reject Christ, so as to justify their sin. There is no middle ground, conviction either breaks a man or hardens him. For those who resist conviction reactions can run from insanity to violent persecution, but react, all men do.

May God help us to get out of the way and allow God’s Spirit to drag sinners to Jesus.