Shepherding with Spurgeon

Weekly Newsletter for Pastors from SpurgeonBooks

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

“Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people… will inherit God’s kingdom.” (1 Corinthians 6:9–10)

The first set of sinners mentioned in this terrible catalogue is “sexually immoral people,” men and women who have been guilty of unchastity with those who are unmarried. We will not all necessarily be in the bonds of wedlock, but we must always be in the bonds of purity; and those who sin against that which is pure in their intercourse with one another, will not inherit the kingdom of God. Nothing could be more explicit than this inspired declaration of the apostle. If any persons live in lust and uncleanness, God will not permit them to defile his true church on earth or to profane his temple above.

It is quite possible that I may be speaking to some people upon whose ears this message grates very harshly, for all sorts of hearers come to this place, and they will be the first to say, “The preacher should not mention such a subject.” My answer to that remark is, Then, you should not commit such iniquity, and give me cause to speak of it.

As long as there are, in the world, sinners of this character, there must be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ faithful enough to pluck the velvet from their mouths, and to speak with the utmost plainness about them and to them. Let there be no mistake concerning this matter, you cannot be Christians if you defile yourselves in this way. You cannot be children of God and live in filthy sin. It must not—it cannot be, and God here, by the pen of the apostle Paul, excommunicates all who pretend to be members of his church, and yet are guilty of the sin of fornication.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION FROM SPURGEON

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe seeking change from the heart (rather than behavior modification).

I have heard of a certain shepherd who had a flock of sheep in a meadow. A stream of water that ran through the meadow was very foul and muddy, so the shepherd dug some new channels. But after he had dug them, the water was still not very clear. He cleared out the channels again and again but still, after a little time, the water was again impure. It was better than it had been before when flowing through the muddy channel, but still it was not such as he could wish it to be. At last, someone said to him, “Why do you not clear the water up on the hill? There is a mass of mud and filth there, and the water comes down the hill filled with all this impurity. Purify it there—purify it near the fountainhead.”

So, when man gets purified at the fountain, when he gets the law of the Lord in his heart, then it is that he is sure to be all right as to the streams of his actions. You cannot put the law, then, in a better place than in the heart, because there it will be preserved, and there it will influence the entire man.

RESOURCE FOR PASTORS

I wrote a book about sex

I wrote it for two reasons:

1. There are a lot of terrible Christian books about sex. Whether they say that sex is only for men (and a necessary chore for women) or brush aside sexual sin in the name of being “sex positive,” there is a lot of garbage that needs to be corrected.

2. A lot of the Christian books that get God’s design for sex right, sacrifice crucial aspects of his design for marriage. (For example, The Great Sex Rescue has a lot of great, important things to say, but those authors argue that good sex is incompatible with biblical gender roles in marriage.)

Sex is meant to be unifying and mutually pleasurable, but far too often it’s one-sided and selfish.

I think the reason this happens is because we’re really confused about what sex is and how it’s supposed to function in our marriages.

My book, Sex and Self-Forgetfulness, is available for pre-order now. If you want to strengthen your own marriage and be better equipped to strengthen marriages in your church, I hope you’ll pre-order a copy today.

Pre-Order Sex and Self-Forgetfulness:

• Amazon

• ChristianBook

• New Growth Press

ONE MORE REMINDER: PREACH JESUS THIS WEEKEND

“The Spirit of God bears no witness to Christless sermons. Leave Jesus out of your preaching, and the Holy Spirit will never come upon you. Why should he? Has he not come for the purpose that he may testify of Christ? Yes, the subject was Christ, and nothing but Christ, and that is the kind of teaching which the Spirit of God will own.” — Charles Spurgeon