Shepherding with Spurgeon

Weekly Newsletter for Pastors from SpurgeonBooks

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

Ah, dear friends, when we see what the gospel can do—how it can reclaim the thief, how it can make chaste the harlot, how it can lift up the very vilest of men from the lowest depths of degradation—we may well say, “What a Word is this!” The power of the gospel does not lie in the preacher, but in the truth which he proclaims. What a Word is this, which not only knocks at the door of the human heart but also carries the key with which it can open that door. It does not simply invite the sinner to trust the Savior, but there is a power which goes with it to sweetly woo the heart until the unwilling become willing, and those who have despised God and his great salvation up to now, cheerfully yield themselves to him. Christ not only comes to those who seek him, but, in the splendor of his grace, he is often found of them that sought him not. Yes, those who cried “Leave us alone,” are not left alone, for grace brings them beneath her blessed sway.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION FROM SPURGEON

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe justification.

You are just as much a child of God as the greatest saint. Some of you have five or six children. There is one child of yours, perhaps, who is very tall and handsome, and has, moreover, gifts of mind; and you have another child who is the smallest of the family, perhaps has but little intellect and understanding. But which is the most your child? “The most!” you say; “both alike are my children, certainly, one as much as the other.” And so, dear friends, you may have very little learning, you may be very dark about divine things, you may but “see men as trees walking,” but you are as much the children of God as those who have grown to the stature of men in Christ Jesus. Then remember, poor tried saint, that you are just as much justified as any other child of God. I know that I am completely justified.

ONE MORE REMINDER: PREACH JESUS THIS WEEKEND

“It is your business to preach the gospel to dead sinners, for it is the gospel that makes the dead to live.” — Charles Spurgeon