Shepherding with Spurgeon

Weekly Newsletter for Pastors from SpurgeonBooks

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

To preach Jesus Christ rightly we must preach him in his infinite and indisputable Godhead. We may be attacked by philosophers, who will either make him no God at all, or one constituted temporarily and, I must add, absurdly a God for a season. We shall have at once upon us those who view Christ as a prophet, as a great man, as an admirable exemplar; we shall be assailed on all sides by those who choose rather to draw their divinity from their own addled brains than from the simplicity of Holy Writ; but what does this matter?

We must reiterate again and again the absolute and proper deity of Christ; for without this we are in the position of those described by the prophet, “Your ropes are slack; they cannot hold the base of the mast or spread out the flag” (Isaiah 33:23), and soon our enemies will prevail against us. Take away the divinity of Christ from the gospel and you have nothing left which the anxious soul can rest on. Remove the Word who was in the beginning with God, and who was God, and the foundation of the temple is overturned. Without a divine Savior, your gospel is a rope of sand; a bubble; something less substantial than a dream. If Christ were not God, he was the worst of impostors. He was either one of two things, very God of very God or an arch-deceiver of the souls of men, for he made many of them believe he was God and brought upon himself the consequences of what they called blasphemy; so that if he were not God he was the greatest deceiver that ever lived. But God he is.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION FROM SPURGEON

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration (which Spurgeon borrowed from Thomas Adams) in your own preaching to describe the Trinity.

There once was a pastor who promised his congregation to preach the next Sunday more clearly of the Trinity and to make that mystery plain.

While he was studying the point by the sea-side, he spied a boy very busy with a little spoon trudging often between the sea and a small hole he had dug in the ground. The pastor asked him what he meant. The boy answered, “I intend to bring all the sea into this pit.” The man replied, “Why do you attempt such impossibilities and waste your time?” The boy answers, “So do you. I shall sooner bring all the sea into this hole as you bring all the knowledge of the Trinity into your head. Both are equally possible; we have begun together, we shall finish together. In fact, of the two, my labor has more hope and possibility of succeeding.”

RESOURCE FOR PASTORS

Are you completely missing the point of sex?

One survey of 22,000 Christian wives indicated that 95% of husbands say they reached a climax in most sexual encounters with their wives while only 48% of women said they reached a climax most of the time.

In other words — in many Christian marriages, spouses (especially men) are failing to serve one another sexually. 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. Men, if you want to see your sexual relationship thrive, you need to put your wife’s needs first.

My book, Sex and Self-Forgetfulness, is available for pre-order now. If you want to strengthen your marriage, deepen your intimacy with your wife, and make sex better than ever (for BOTH of you!), I hope you’ll pre-order a copy today.

Pre-Order Sex and Self-Forgetfulness wherever books are sold.

ONE MORE REMINDER: PREACH JESUS THIS WEEKEND

“The preaching of Christ is the whip that flogs the devil.” — Charles Spurgeon