Spurgeon to his flock in 1858

Delivered on Sabbath Morning, February 28, 1858 by the REV. C. H. Spurgeon at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

When first it was my duty to occupy this pulpit, and preach in this hall, my congregation assumed the appearance of an irregular mass of persons collected from all the streets of this city to listen to the Word. I was then simply an evangelist, preaching to many who had not heard the Gospel before. By the grace of God, the most blessed change has taken place; and now, instead of having an irregular multitude gathered together, my congregation is as fixed as that of any minister in the whole city of London. I can from this pulpit observe the countenance of my friends, who have occupied the same places, as nearly as possible, for these many months; and I have the privilege and the pleasure of knowing that a very large proportion, certainly three-fourths of the persons who meet together here, are not persons who stray hither from curiosity, but are my regular and constant hearers. And observe, that my character also has been changed. From being an evangelist, it is now my business to become your pastor.(Continue Reading)

I know someone who should read this. He won't, but he should.

Spurgeon Said

So much for walking an aisle, saying a simple prayer, and being "guaranteed" of heaven by writing the day, date and time in the front of your Bible:

The works which are absolutely necessary are, in brief, these: First, there must be fruits meet for repentance, works of repentance. It is wrong to tell a man he must repent before he may trust Christ, but it is right to tell him that, having trusted Christ, it is not possible for him to remain impenitent. There never was in this world such a thing as an impenitent believer in Jesus Christ, and there never can be. Faith and repentance are born in a spiritual life together, and they grow up together. The moment a man believes he repents, and while he believes he both believes and repents, and until he shall have done with faith he will not have done with repenting. If thou hast believed, but hast never repented of thy sins, then beware of thy believing. If thou pretendest now to be a child of God, and if thou hast never clothed thyself in dust and ashes; if thou hast never hated the sins which once thou didst love: if thou dost not now hate them, and endeavour to be rid of them, if thou dost not humble thyself before God on account of them, as the Lord liveth, thou knowest nothing about saving faith, for faith puts a distance between us and sin; in a moment it leads us away from the distance between us and Christ; nearer to Christ, we are now far off from sin. But he that loves his sin, thinks little of his sin, goes into it with levity, talks of it sportively, speaks of sin as though it were a trifle, hath the faith of devils, but the faith of God's elect he never knew. True faith purges the soul, since the man now hunts after sin that he might find out the traitor that lurks within his nature; and though a believer is not perfect, yet the drift of faith is to make him perfect; and if it is faith to be perfected, the believer shall be perfected, and then shall he be caught up to dwell before the throne. Judge yourselves, my hearers. Have you brought forth the fruits of repentance? If not, your faith without them is dead.

Spurgeon calls it "A load of trash."

On April 28, 1878 Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. This was Spurgeon's Church and he generally preached to keep his people focused on Christ. He of course, was a master orator and expositor. One of the things I like about his sermons is the fact that he was unconcerned about what outsiders might think. He preached scripture and scripture only. He added nothing to it and took nothing away. Below is an example to make this point:

[...] ”If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”

He who does not hate the false does not love the true; and he to whom it is all the same whether it be God’s word or man’s, is himself unrenewed at heart. Oh, if some of you were like fathers you would not have tolerated in this age the wagon loads of trash under which the gospel has been of late buried by ministers of your own choosing. You would have hurled out of your pulpits the men who are enemies to the fundamental doctrines of your churches, and yet are crafty enough to become your pastors and undermine the faith of a fickle and superficial generation.

Most preachers today don't have the spine required to say things like that today. Instead they concern themselves with stroking the "felt needs" of those in attendance seldom even bothering to mention that Jesus began his ministry demanding repentance. I wonder what would be the case in American Christianity today if preachers actually preached the Word only instead of layering "trash" on top the Gospel?

Spurgeon and Lewis

Spurgeon said of himself:

I cannot understand the reason why I am saved, except upon the ground that God would have it so. I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover any kind of reason in myself why I should be a partaker of Divine grace. If I am not at this moment without Christ, it is only because Christ Jesus would have His will with me, and that will was that I should be with Him where He is, and should share His glory. I can put the crown nowhere but upon the head of Him whose mighty grace has saved me from going down into the pit. Looking back on my past life, I can see that the dawning of it all was of God; of God effectively. I took no torch with which to light the sun, but the sun enlightened me. I did not commence my spiritual life—no, I rather kicked, and struggled against the things of the Spirit: when He drew me, for a time I did not run after Him: there was a natural hatred in my soul of everything holy and good.

Spurgeon said this in giving a defense of Calvinism. I've been pushing, a little, against the philosophy that man has free will in my Church. Spurgeon did not believe it, Calvin did not believe, and Augustine did not believe it. In fact Augustine had quite a debate with a British Monk named Pelagius over this very issue. Oh, and I don't believe it either.

Most of those I talk to today blindly side with Pelagius and are not interested in discussing the subject. Others are of the mindset that, "all I know is what I learned as a child, I'm not going to argue about it because nothing is really settled that way." "I know I was lost, and I know I chose to get saved, and that's it."

When confronting these kinds of people I'm always stunned at the lackidaisical attitude with which they dismiss something on which eternity hinges. Do we choose God, or does He choose us?

I don't have the mental prowess to figure out the underlying processes that would make a human so unconcerned about eternity but there are those who do, that is why I read books.

C.S. Lewis figured out what is going on in this instance. He wrote a book it. The name of the book is The Screwtape Letters. It is about a head Demon, Screwtape, teaching a protege, Wormwood, how to neutralize people who might be tempted to consider the Church as a way of life. Here is what he told him:

Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily “true” or “false,” but as “academic” or “practical,” “outworn” or “contemporary,” “conventional”or “ruthless.” Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don’t waste time trying to make him think materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, stark, or courageous—that it is the philosophy of the future. That is the sort of thing he cares about.

Lewis was almost prophetic with that one. Look where are today. We have Churches that don't talk of hell because it is unpleasant, and a President who can't decide if he is Muslim, Buddhist, or Christian.

One thing is certain Jargon will contiue to be used as the backbone of too many ministries just as it is the mainstay of our National life. Wormwood appears to have learned his lessons well.

New/Old Idea #2

Day Number #2

Spurgeon's Catechism

Question 2 What rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify him?

Answer 2 The Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (Ephesians 2:20; 2Timothy 3:16) is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify God and enjoy him. (1John 1:3)

New/Old Idea #1

Second Timothy 2:15 commands us to "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

With that thought in mind, I thought for the next several months I would post a daily quote from Charles Spurgeon which will help me (and maybe you) better understand what it is I believe. Spurgeon listed and numbered a series of teachings to help his church. I hesitate to call this list what he called it because today the name he used is generally recognized as belonging only to a particular denomination. Oh well, I can't avoid the name forever so here is a quote from Spurgeon himself about his list:

I am persuaded that the use of a good Catechism [emphasis added] in all our families will be a great safeguard against the increasing errors of the times, and therefore I have compiled this little manual from the Westminster Assembly's and Baptist Catechisms, for the use of my own church and congregation. Those who use it in their families or classes must labour to explain the sense; but the words should be carefully learned by heart, for they will be understood better as years pass. May the Lord bless my dear friends and their families evermore, is the prayer of their loving Pastor.

          C. H. Spurgeon

So, with Spurgeon's words in mind, here is day one:

Question 1 What is the chief end of man?
Answer 1 Man's chief end is to glorify God, (1Cor. 10:31) and to enjoy him for ever. (Psalms 73:25,26)

1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. 26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever

Spurgeon read a lot

The Witenberg Door posted these facts about Charles Spurgeon. I am fascinated by them. I like to read and have a few books in my library. But 12,000? I know Preachers who don't read books and think they are capable of taking care of a congregation.

Spurgeon’s personal library contained 12,000 volumes—1,000 printed before 1700. (The library, 5,103 volumes at the time of its auction, is now housed at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri.)

It's one thing to have this many books, what about reading them. The Wittenberg Door post goes on to say, Spurgeon read 6 books a week, and remembered what he read and where, years later.

But, if that weren't enough, Spurgeon also wrote books, lots of books:

The New Park Street Pulpit and The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit­—the collected sermons of Spurgeon during his ministry with that congregation—fill 63 volumes. The sermons’ 20-25 million words are equivalent to the 27 volumes of the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. The series stands as the largest set of books by a single author in the history of Christianity.

And I think I'm really doing something if I read 20 or 30 books a year. I wonder what American Christianity would be like if we had a Spurgeon around today.