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The Necessity of Ministerial Progress | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Hello and welcome to another session of Reformed Thinking.
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  We are really glad to have you with us today as we open up the
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  archives of Church history for a new deep dive.
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  Today we have a pretty massive subject on the table.
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  We are turning our attention to the Prince of Preachers himself,
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  Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Specifically, we are looking at
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  a lecture he delivered to his students at the Pastors College
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  and it is titled The Necessity of Ministerial Progress.
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  Yeah, it is. It is always a good day when we
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  get to walk with Mr. Spurgeon. This text is a particular
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  treasure because it gives us a very different angle on the man.
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  You know, we often think of Spurgeon in the pulpit,
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  thundering to thousands at the Metropolitan Tabernacle on a
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  Sunday morning. But here we get a glimpse of
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  Spurgeon the professor, the mentor.
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  He's speaking to men he views as fellow soldiers in a desperate
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  fight. Right.
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  That military language really jumps out right at the start.
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  He does not sugarcoat the vocation of ministry at all.
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  He calls them picked men, not just of the Church, but of the
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  universe. He sets the stakes incredibly
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  high right from the opening remarks.
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  He really does, and the that high view of the calling
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  dictates the urgency of his message.
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  Because the battle is fierce and because the enemy is real, the
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  minister cannot remain stagnant. Spurgeon gives them a motto, a
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  simple two word command that anchors the entire lecture, and
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  that is go forward. Go forward.
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  It sounds so simple, but as we are about to see, he applies
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  this to every single facet of a man's life and work.
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  We have a lot of ground to cover today because Spurgeon breaks
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  this down into 6 distinct areas. Those are mental, oratorical,
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  moral, spiritual, practical action, and additional scope.
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  It is a totally comprehensive blueprint.
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  I mean, he starts with the mind, moves to the tongue, checks the
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  character, examines the soul, demands action, finally widens
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  the horizon to the ends of the earth.
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  So let's not waste any time. Let's start right where he
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  starts, which is mental advancement.
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  Right, the mind is an offering. Yes, exactly.
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  Well, precisely. He begins by referencing the
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  greatest commandment to love the Lord with all thy heart.
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  But he quickly pivots to the next part, which is loving God
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  with all thy mind. He says we must give him our
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  mind as well as our affections, and that mind should be well
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  furnished, that we may not offer him an empty casket.
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  That image of the empty casket is incredibly striking.
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  It addresses a tendency that you sometimes find in hyper
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  spiritual circles to downplay the intellect in favor of raw
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  emotion. Spurgeon, good Reformed Baptist
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  that he is, we'll have none of that.
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  He argues that ignorance is not a virtue.
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  If we are to work for the God of truth, we can represent him with
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  a mind that is lazy or barren. He even makes a very practical
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  point about the congregation itself.
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  He says the time has passed when ungrammatical speech will
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  suffice in the pulpit. He notes that even in country
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  villages, the schoolmaster is abroad.
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  So if a preacher makes foolish mistakes in his speech, the
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  audience will fixate on the grammar error and completely
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  lose the gospel message. Precisely.
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  It becomes a stumbling block for the listener.
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  Instead of discussing the glory of Christ on the way home, they
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  are joking about the pastor's poor syntax.
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  Spurgeon is demanding excellence not for the sake of the pastor's
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  ego, but so that absolutely nothing distracts from the
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  message. And he uses this wonderful
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  agricultural metaphor of the barn, the winnowing fan and the
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  storehouse to explain how a minister should handle
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  knowledge. I really love that metaphor.
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  Could you break that down for us?
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  Gladly so. First you must fill the barn
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  that is the acquisition of knowledge.
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  You have to be a reader, a student, a sponge.
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  You gather information, but you cannot stop there.
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  Then comes the winnowing. You have to separate the wheat
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  from the chaff. Not everything you read is true,
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  and not everything is useful. You need sharp discrimination.
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  And finally, the storehouse. You must retain it.
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  You need a memory that holds on to the good grain so you can use
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  it later. And he is quite specific about
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  what kind of knowledge we need to be gathering.
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  Obviously the Bible comes first. He uses an analogy of a
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  blacksmith here that I thought was just brilliant.
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  He says a Smith might be able to make golden girdles for angels,
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  but if he cannot shoe a horse, he fails as a Smith.
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  That is the core principle of vocational fidelity.
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  A minister might be a poet, A philosopher or a scientist by
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  hobby, but his trade is the cure of souls, Spurgeon says.
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  It is a small matter if you can write brilliant poetry, if you
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  cannot comfort a suffering St. or convince A hardened Sinner
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  using the Word of God. The Bible is the tool of the
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  trade. If you are not a master of that,
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  you are like a blacksmith who cannot shoe a horse.
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  You are useless in your actual function.
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  And this leads him into a fierce defense of theology.
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  He mentions that some people sneer at theology, but he says
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  it cannot do any hurt to the most lively evangelist to be
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  also a sound theologian. This is a crucial point for you
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  listeners to grasp. There is often this false
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  dichotomy presented between the theologian who is supposedly dry
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  and dusty, and the evangelist who is passionate but shallow.
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  Spurgeon entirely rejects that separation.
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  He argues that sound theology saves you from gross blunders.
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  He describes men who tear a verse out of context and shout
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  Eureka thinking they have found a new truth.
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  Yes, he says, they have not discovered a diamond, but a
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  piece of broken glass. That is such a vivid picture of
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  bad hermeneutics. And it really is, when you take
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  Scripture out of its context to become sharp and dangerous like
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  broken glass, rather than precious and reflective like a
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  diamond. He urges them to understand the
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  analogy of the faith, which is a very Reformed concept, letting
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  Scripture interpret Scripture, seeing the whole counsel of God
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  rather than isolated fragments. But he does not limit study to
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  just the Bible either. He encourages them to look at
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  nature, history, even science. He says the presence of Jesus on
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  the earth has sanctified the realms of nature.
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  He even suggests reading a naturalist journal or an old
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  herbal manual. He credits the Creator with all
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  truth. He says to select.
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  No field of knowledge is off limits.
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  If God made the world, then the minister should not be afraid to
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  learn from it. He uses the example of Samson's
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  dead lion. Even from a dead carcass, Samson
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  got honey. So even from a secular book, a
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  discerning minister can extract illustrations and insights that
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  glorify God. Now we have to talk about his
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  warning against novelty. This felt very relevant to our
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  current age. He contrasts the fair made of
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  truth with Jezebel. Yes, this is Spurgeon at his
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  most combative against the theological liberals of his day,
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  what was eventually called the downgrade.
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  He describes truth as having a native beauty.
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  She does not need makeup, but modern thought, and he uses that
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  term with absolute scorn, is like Jezebel.
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  She paints her face. She changes her fashion every
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  week to suit the current culture.
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  He describes these men, who are constantly shifting their
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  beliefs, as Golden Horn birds. What is the historical story
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  behind that reference? It is a reference to flocks of
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  birds seen in Constantinople that seem to be always on the
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  wing, never landing. The locals call them lost souls.
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  Spurgeon likens the theological revisionists to these birds.
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  They hover, they drift, but they never rest on a solid
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  conviction. They simply do not have a place
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  to land. He is pretty harsh on them.
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  He compares them to Nero fiddling while Rome burns.
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  It is a harsh comparison, but from his perspective it is
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  entirely accurate. If you believe that hell is
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  real, that souls are perishing, and that the gospel is the only
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  remedy, then to spend your time spinning new clever theories
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  instead of preaching the old gospel is criminal negligence.
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  It is fiddling while the city burns, he says.
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  Hell gapes wide, and those who should spread the tidings of
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  salvation are pursuing fresh lines of thought.
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  That really drives home the soldier aspect of the
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  introduction. You do not experiment with new
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  weapon theories in the middle of a bayonet charge.
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  You use what works. You use the sword you were
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  given. That is correct and first
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  version. That sword is the biblical
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  gospel, delivered once for all to the Saints.
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  All right, let's move to the second area of progress, which
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  is oratorical, the tool of speech.
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  He starts this section with a very humble admission.
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  He says it is a pity that even the feet of this image should be
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  of clay, meaning the message itself is gold.
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  The minister's character might be silver, but if the delivery
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  the speech itself is bad, the whole image can topple over.
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  He uses the horseshoe analogy here.
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  A missing nail ruins the shoe, which ruins the horse, which
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  loses the battle. It illustrates perfectly how a
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  minor mechanical failure can sabotage a major spiritual
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  endeavor. You might be a holy man with a
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  massive theological intellect, but if you mumble, or if you
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  bore people to tears, the battle is lost before it begins.
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  Speaking of boring people to tears, we have to mention the
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  oyster joke. The oyster?
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  Yes, we absolutely must. He mentions hearing someone say
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  a preacher had no more gifts than an oyster, and Spurgeon
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  actually defends the oyster. He says this was a slander on
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  the Oyster, for that worthy bivalve shows great discretion
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  in his openings and knows when to close.
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  That is classic Spurgeon wit, but it cuts deep.
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  Knowing when to stop talking is a vital rhetorical skill.
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  He also mentions chloral, which was a heavy sedative used in his
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  day. He says some sermons are better
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  than Sleep Medicine. Yes, he says no chloral can ever
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  equal some discourses and sleep giving properties.
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  That is brutal. But his point is entirely
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  serious. He lists 4 qualities of good
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  speech, clearness, cogency, naturalness and persuasiveness.
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  Let's look at clearness first. He attacks what he calls the
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  Deep Well Fallacy. Oh.
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  This is a pet peeve of mine as well.
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  People often mistake muddiness for depth.
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  They hear a speaker using obscure words and convoluted
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  sentences, and they think the man must be so intelligent, the
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  thought must be so deep. Spurgeon says no.
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  If you look down a well and it is dark, it might just be empty.
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  It might have dead leaves and a dead cat at the bottom.
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  The dead cat. Very graphic, but highly
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  memorable, he says. True depth is clear.
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  If there's water, living water, you can see it.
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  If a preacher cannot make himself understood, it is
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  usually because he does not understand the topic himself.
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  Then there is cogency. He clarifies that being forceful
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  does not mean shouting. True, he says.
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  God does not require us to shout as if we were speaking to 10,000
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  when we're only addressing 300. Cogency comes from the weight of
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  the matter, not the volume of the voice.
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  It is the force of the argument and the energy of the Spirit
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  backing it up. And naturalness.
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  He hates the theatric strut and the mouthing of words.
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  He really wants men to just be themselves in the pulpit.
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  He wants the man to disappear so the message can be seen clearly.
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  If you are affecting a holy tone or a preacher voice, you are
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  drawing attention to your own performance.
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  Spurgeon pleads for a living, natural style that connects with
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  real human beings. Finally, we have persuasiveness.
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  He tells the story of Darius's son to illustrate this.
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  Yes, the son who was mute, dumb from childhood, but when he saw
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  his father about to be killed by a soldier, the shock and love
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  loosened his tongue and he screamed.
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  Know you not that he is the king.
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  Spurgeon applies this directly to the minister.
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  If we love God, and if we see sinners in mortal danger, it
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  should loosen our palms. We should be able to plead.
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  He wants ministers to buttonhole the listener, to grab them
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  figuratively by the collar and speak right to their heart.
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  He finishes the section on oratory with a discussion on
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  adaptability. He brings up the Tower of Babel.
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  It is a fascinating sociological observation, he says.
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  Babel did not just create different national languages, it
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  created class languages. He contrasts Billingsgate, the
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  fish market representing the working poor, with Bray's Nose,
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  which is a college at Oxford. He says the fishmonger simply
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  cannot understand the academic. So the burden is on the academic
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  to learn the language of the fishmonger.
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  That is the direct implication. He cites George Whitefield, the
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  great evangelist, Whitefield said.
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  I use market language. When he was in the fields with
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  the working crowds, he spoke their dialect.
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  But when he was in the drawing room of the Countess of
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  Huntington addressing nobles, he shifted his style.
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  He was all things to all men. Spurgeon warns against using
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  slang with nobles or Greek with coster mongers.
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  It is about respect and effectiveness for the listener.
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  It is about removing artificial barriers to the gospel.
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  If your lofty language is the barrier keeping people from
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  Christ, you are failing your primary task.
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  Let's move to Section 3, Moral progress.
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  This is where he makes the case that character Trump's talent
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  every time. He says we must shake off evils
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  like a fee. Paul shook the Viper from his
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  hand into the fire and the first Viper he mentions his self
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  indulgence. He calls it Delilah.
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  That is a scary image. Delilah lulled Samson to sleep
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  and shore him of his strength. And self indulgence does the
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  exact same thing to the minister.
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  If a man cannot control his appetites, his desire for sleep,
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  his love of ease, he is entirely unfit to lead the Church.
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  He also talks about temper. Now Spurgeon admits that a
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  vigorous temper isn't altogether evil.
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  He does not like men who are easy as an old shoe.
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  No, he thinks a man who is easy as an old shoe is generally
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  useless. You need some fire in your belly
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  to fight sin. You need to be capable of
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  righteous indignation. But he says if you boil over,
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  ensure you scald nobody but the devil.
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  Self-control is the key. Then there is the delicate
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  balance between levity and cheerfulness.
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  This is a highly nuanced distinction.
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  Spurgeon was well known for his humor, so he defends what he
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  calls holy cheerfulness. He thinks a gloomy, miserable
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  Christian is a terrible advertisement for the gospel,
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  but he heavily distinguishes that from levity, which he
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  defines as flippant, hollow, and unreal.
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  Godliness is not a jest. He warns against religious
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  veneering, looking shiny on the outside but being thin and
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  superficial underneath. He has some very strong words
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  for bigoted Christians in the section too.
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  He calls them Wolf suckled. That is a reference to Romulus
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  and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome who were raised
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  by a she wolf, he says. Some Christians seem to have
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  been nursed by wolves rather than by the pure milk of the
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  word. They're just ferocious in their
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  dealings with others. He uses the terrier dog analogy
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  here to describe them further. Yes, ministers who go about
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  sniffing for heresies like terriers hunting rats in a barn.
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  It is a sharp critique of a certain type of hyper orthodoxy
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  that delights in finding fault and everyone else, Spudgeon
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  says. We should not be erecting steaks
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  to roast everyone who disagrees with us.
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  He calls suspicion and prejudice.
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  Juniper Cole's burning hot and lasting a very long time.
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  He moves from what to avoid to what to possess, focusing
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  heavily on integrity and courage.
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  He says a minister can be poor, despise and even lose his life,
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  but he absolutely cannot be crooked.
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  The face to face rule he gives here is 1.
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  I try to live by myself, he says.
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  Never say behind a man's back what you dare not say to his
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  face. That is extremely tough to
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  practice, but it keeps you thoroughly honest.
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  It kills gossip instantly in a church.
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  If you make that your rigid rule, cowardice vanishes, he
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  says. Cowardice makes men liars.
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  If you were afraid to speak the truth, you will eventually twist
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  it to save your own skin. His final point of morals is
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  concentration. He tells them to mass your
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  battalions. Do not try to be everything to
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  everybody. Do not be a Jack of all trades.
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  Focus your mental and physical energy on the work of Christ, he
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  quotes a military maxim. Don't scatter your fire.
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  Bring all your guns to bear on one single point.
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  Moving on to Section 4, spiritual qualifications,
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  Spurgeon calls this the main matter.
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  It is the engine room of the whole operation.
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  Without spiritual life, the mental and oratorical skills we
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  just discussed are just decoration on a corpse.
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  He sets up a fascinating contrast between two schools of
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  spiritual thought. This part is brilliant.
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  On one side you have the school that focuses heavily on
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  depravity, the heart, the loathsomeness of human nature.
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  They are always crying out, O wretched man that I am.
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  And on the other. Side the school.
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  That focuses almost entirely on the spirits work, cleansing
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  victory, the Tabers and hermans of glory and triumph, and which.
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  Side Does Spurgeon tell his students to take both of them?
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  This is the beautiful balance of Reformed theology.
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  We are simul justice epicator, simultaneously justified and yet
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  still sinners, Spurgeon says. A minister must know both
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  realities intimately. You must know where Adam left
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  you in the mud and where the Spirit has placed you in the
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  heavenlies, he says. Luther.
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  Used to say that temptation is the best teacher.
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  Yes, because. If a minister has not struggled
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  with his own sin, he cannot possibly help those in his flock
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  who are struggling. This leads right into the broken
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  leg anecdote. Tell us that story.
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  It is such a vivid picture. Spurgeon.
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  Was riding on a train and he saw a man resting his leg up on the
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  opposite cushion. A train guard came by and
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  sharply scolded the man for putting his dirty boots on the
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  seat. The man put his leg down, waited
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  for the guard to leave the car, and it put right back up.
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  He turned to Spurgeon and said that guard would not be so sharp
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  with me if he had broken his leg in two places.
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  Wow. The application for pastors
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  there is just undeniable it is. If you haven't felt the broken
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  bones of the Christian pilgrimage, you will be harsh
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  with the sheep. You'll be just like that train
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  guard, scolding people for their dirty boots when they're
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  actually in absolute agony. A minister needs to know
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  suffering in order to show genuine mercy and the peak.
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  Spiritual qualification he gives is knowing Jesus, not just.
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  Knowing about him academically, knowing him personally, he uses
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  the beautiful illustration of the Italian Fern, the one
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  growing in the. Spray of the fountain, yes.
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  He saw a Fern in a grotto that was constantly sprayed by the
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  water of a nearby fountain. It was green and lush.
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  Regardless of the drought or the freezing winter outside,
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  Spurgeon says. We must live our lives in the
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  spray of Jesus love. We must abide there constantly.
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  He quotes an. Italian proverb to back this up,
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  Where the sun does not enter, the physician must, that is.
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  Profound wisdom. Well, very striking wisdom.
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  If the light of Christ does not get into your soul, spiritual
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  sickness inevitably will. You cannot be a healthy minister
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  while living in the dark. He ends this.
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  Section by humbling even the oldest, most experienced Saints.
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  He says No man knoweth the Son, but the Father, even the Saints.
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  Who have been in heaven for 5000 years do not fully comprehend
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  the glory of Christ. There is always more to learn.
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  There is always further to go in knowing Him that brings.
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  US to Section 5 actual work spurgeon is looking for fruit
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  over theory here he is a. Pragmatist in the very best
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  sense of the word, he says. I believe in eggs, but we must
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  get chickens out of them. The Ostrogag.
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  Analogy right? You can.
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  Have a giant theological idea, an ostrogag of a theory.
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  But if there is no chicken inside, if it does not result in
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  save souls or edified Saints, you need to clear away the
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  shell. It is just rubbish taking up
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  space. He specifically.
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  Critiques the prophecy gazers in this section.
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  The men of Plymouth. He's referring to the Plymouth
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  Brethren movement and their intense, almost exclusive focus
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  on eschatology and charting out the Second coming, Spurgeon
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  says. Why stand ye gazing into the
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  sky? The fact that Jesus is coming
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  back is a reason to get to work, not a reason to sit and stare,
• 18:53
  he said. Do not spend your time unlocking
• 18:54
  dark passages and revelation when you could be teaching in a
• 18:57
  ragged school down the street. He gives this very.
• 18:59
  Relatable image of the five bar gate swinging on a.
• 19:02
  Gate, you are moving, you are active, you are swinging back
• 19:05
  and forth, but you are not actually going anywhere, he
• 19:08
  says. Some ministers live in a
• 19:09
  perpetual Elysium, humming to themselves.
• 19:11
  We are very comfortable. Spurgeon completely hates that
• 19:15
  comfort. He wants the boring rod of
• 19:17
  actual hard labor, and then he channels.
• 19:19
  His inner general. Once again, he quotes Souvaroff,
• 19:22
  Alexander. Souvaroff, the famous Russian
• 19:24
  general, his military maxim was forward and strike no theory
• 19:28
  attack form column charged bayonets plunge into the center
• 19:31
  of the enemy that is so. Intense for a pastoral election
• 19:34
  it is. But Spurgeon says Satan laughs
• 19:37
  at our committees. Satan lasted our church
• 19:39
  resolutions, but Satan trembles when men charge bayonets, when
• 19:44
  they actually preach the gospel directly to lost sinners.
• 19:47
  He pleads with his students, do something, do something, do
• 19:50
  something. Finally, we arrive.
• 19:52
  At section 6, the choice of sphere.
• 19:54
  This is the missional call and here the.
• 19:57
  Scope of the lecture widens to the whole world.
• 20:00
  Spurgeon looks at the map and sees millions perishing without
• 20:02
  the name of Jesus. He completely.
• 20:04
  Flips the standard logic of the call on its head.
• 20:07
  Usually young men ask how do I prove I am called to go to the
• 20:10
  mission field? Spurgeon reverses.
• 20:12
  It entirely, he asks, can I prove I ought not to go?
• 20:15
  The default setting for the soldier is the front line of the
• 20:17
  battle. You need a very special reason
• 20:19
  to stay back in the rear, he says.
• 20:21
  God has. Myriads of his elect.
• 20:22
  Among the heathen there is the. Reformed theology driving the
• 20:26
  mission once again. He does not believe the heathen
• 20:30
  are saved without hearing the gospel.
• 20:32
  He believes they are utterly lost.
• 20:34
  But he also believes God has a people among them, chosen before
• 20:38
  the foundation of the world, and the only way they are gathered
• 20:41
  in is by the preaching of the Word, so we are obligated to go
• 20:44
  find them. He challenges the.
• 20:45
  Young men, specifically men who do not have families yet, he
• 20:49
  mentions. Turning down church openings in
• 20:51
  Australia because he had absolutely no men to send them,
• 20:54
  that clearly grieved him deeply. He points to the Moravians as
• 20:58
  the gold standard for missions. The Moravians.
• 21:01
  Were incredible in their dedication, They really were.
• 21:04
  Spurgeon notes that among the Moravians, essentially every
• 21:07
  single member was a missionary in some capacity.
• 21:09
  The farmers farmed specifically to support the mission.
• 21:12
  They pooled their money and bought ships.
• 21:14
  They literally sold themselves into bond service just to reach
• 21:17
  enslaved populations. Spurgeon asks the most
• 21:20
  convicting question. Christ did not purchase the
• 21:23
  Moravians any more than he purchased us.
• 21:25
  Ouch. That really hits home.
• 21:26
  We are under the exact same blood and the exact same
• 21:29
  obligation we are. Indeed, if it was right for them
• 21:32
  to be that radical in their obedience, it is right for us.
• 21:36
  He ends the section with a cry for men to be Barnabas and Saul
• 21:40
  separated for the work of the Holy Ghost.
• 21:42
  So we have. Walked through all six areas of
• 21:44
  necessary progress mental, oratorical, moral, spiritual,
• 21:48
  practical and missional. It is a complete.
• 21:50
  Overhaul of the minister's life as we.
• 21:53
  Wrap up this deep dive. I want to go back to his summary
• 21:55
  image. He says he wants us to be silver
• 21:58
  trumpets. He says God.
• 21:59
  Can blow through a ram's horn. A rough, unpolished instrument,
• 22:03
  and we should be incredibly thankful if he uses us at all.
• 22:07
  But if we had the choice, we should aim to be silver
• 22:09
  trumpets, refined, clear, pure instruments for the masters use.
• 22:14
  That is what all this progress is about.
• 22:16
  It isn't about personal glory or getting a bigger pulpit, is
• 22:19
  about being a better, sharper instrument for God.
• 22:22
  And he leaves. The students with a provocative,
• 22:24
  almost shilling thought, he brings back the image of the boy
• 22:28
  extracting the thorn, the famous statue.
• 22:30
  In Rome, the marble boy is bent over his foot, pulling out a
• 22:34
  thorn. Spurgeon says he went to Rome,
• 22:36
  saw the statue, came back a year later, and the boy was still
• 22:39
  pulling out the thorn. He asks his students, is this
• 22:43
  our model? Are we always learning but never
• 22:45
  coming to the truth, always preparing but never actually
• 22:48
  doing the work? And meanwhile.
• 22:50
  Hell gates. Why?
• 22:51
  That is the haunting. Note he ends on While we trifle,
• 22:55
  while we debate the nuances of modern thought, will we Polish
• 22:58
  our grammar for the sake of our own vanity?
• 23:01
  Real people are dying. The city is burning around us.
• 23:04
  So the question. For us and for you, listening
• 23:06
  today is simply this. Are you moving forward or are
• 23:10
  you just swinging on the gate? Let us prove.
• 23:12
  All things hold fast to that which is good and go forward.
• 23:15
  Thank you for. Joining us on this deep dive
• 23:17
  into reformed thinking, we will catch you next time.