Shepherding with Spurgeon

Weekly Newsletter for Pastors from SpurgeonBooks

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

It behoves the minister of God, when he is dealing with men’s souls, to speak very plainly, and I am forced to put the truth to you this way. Nobody knows of your sin; you have never been found out; yet it may be that you are living in the constant commission of some secret sin. By the love you bear to your own souls, and by your desire to find Christ, I beseech you to flee from the evil thing, escape for your life, flee from the wrath to come, and then lay hold on eternal life, for there is salvation in Christ, there is life for a look at him, but that life consists in great measure in being healed of sin; and you cannot continue a foul life and yet be washed in the Savior’s blood. It is a contradiction in terms, and a contradiction in fact.

As I shall meet you, my hearers, at the judgment seat of God—and as a dying man who may never speak to you again, I thought that I would put this truth in such a way that, if I went home to bed to die, I should not have the blood of any one of you resting upon my hands—I beseech you, by eternity, by heaven, by hell—and there is a hell, let the smooth-tongued liars of this ago say what they will—by heaven, by hell, and by your own immortality, fly to Christ, give up your sin, and be saved by believing in Jesus even now!

SERMON ILLUSTRATION FROM SPURGEON

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the need to be born again.

To put the matter very simply—did you ever hear of Mr. Rowland Hill’s illustration of the cat and the sow? I will give it in my own fashion, to illustrate our Savior’s expressive words—“You must be born again.”

Do you see that cat? What a cleanly creature she is! How cleverly she washes herself with her tongue and her paws! It is quite a pretty sight! Did you ever see a sow do that? No, you never did. It is contrary to its nature. It prefers to wallow in the mire. Go and teach a sow to wash itself, and see how little success you would gain. It would be a great sanitary improvement if swine would be clean. Teach them to wash and clean themselves as the cat has been doing! Useless task. You may by force wash that sow, but it hastens to the mire, and is soon as foul as ever. The only way in which you can get a sow to wash itself is to transform it into a cat; then it will wash and be clean, but not till then! Suppose that transformation to be accomplished, and then what was difficult or impossible is easy enough; the swine will henceforth be fit for your parlor and your hearth-rug.

So it is with an ungodly man; you cannot force him to do what a renewed man does most willingly; you may teach him, and set him a good example, but he cannot learn the art of holiness, for he has no mind to it; his nature leads him another way. When the Lord makes a new man of him, then all things wear a different aspect. So great is this change, that I once heard a convert say, “Either all the world is changed, or else I am.” The new nature follows after right as naturally as the old nature wanders after wrong. What a blessing to receive such a nature! Only the Holy Ghost can give it.

RESOURCE FOR PASTORS

Make Christmas plans for your family NOW (before the craziness REALLY sets in)

Brothers, I understand how stressful the Christmas season can be for us. There are thousands of demands from internal ministries and countless opportunities for outreach. In the midst of the ministry madness — we need to be sure that we aren’t neglecting the spiritual formation of our families this Christmas.

If you’re a dad, I want to invite you to bring your kids on a journey through the Bible’s big story this Christmas with a new 31-day devotional I put together, The King is Coming.

This simple 31-day devotional (designed to begin on December 1) walks through the Bible’s big story — focused on the theme of God’s promise that King was coming to make everything right again.

I'm really excited about this family devotional. The promised king coming from the line of David is one of my FAVORITE themes in Scripture and fits perfectly with Christmas. I can't wait to use this devotional with my kids and I can't wait to hear about how God uses it in your family.

Learn more and download your copy here.

ONE MORE REMINDER: PREACH JESUS THIS WEEKEND

“We cannot too often tell someone that the only hope for salvation lies in Jesus.” — Charles Spurgeon