Latest / Reformed Thinking / Sermons Likely to Win Souls | Charles Spurgeon

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Sermons Likely to Win Souls | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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If God has already decided who is going to heaven, why does a
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preacher need to prepare a good sermon?
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Yeah, that is a massive question.
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Right. Welcome to reformed thinking.
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I want you to think about that paradox for a second.
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It is something that trips up so many people.
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It really does, because we are told that salvation is entirely
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in the hands of a sovereign God. The wind blows where it wishes,
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and you hear it sound, but you know you do not know where it
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comes from or where it goes. Exactly.
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So is everyone born of the Spirit?
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Yeah, so if that is true, if the human soul is entirely passive
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in the moment of regeneration, then human logic sort of
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dictates that the preacher's method shouldn't matter at all.
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Right, like their rhetorical skill or their preparation is
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just irrelevant. Yeah, a terrible sermon should
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be just as effective as a brilliant one.
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But reality and scripture tell a completely different story.
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They really do, and today we're taking a deep dive into the
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source material to unpack Charles Spurgeon's specific
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advice on what makes preaching effective in converting hearers.
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Yes, we are drawing directly from his classic work, The Soul
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Winner. Then, right at the starting
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line, Spurgeon establishes A premise that sets the tone for
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everything else. He states that only the Holy
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Spirit knew creates a soul according to God's eternal
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purpose. Humans cannot take credit.
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Not a single drop of it. That is the necessary starting
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point for anyone viewing this through a reformed lens.
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Absolutely, and it is vital to lay that track down before the
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train leaves the station. Yeah, I.
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Agree. The Westminster Confession of
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Faith articulates this beautifully in its chapter on
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effectual calling. That is such a great chapter.
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It really is. It states that God alone calls a
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person out of a state of sin and death, taking away their heart
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of stone and giving them a heart of flesh.
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So the individual is entirely passive in regeneration.
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Yes, entirely. The Holy Spirit is the one doing
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the inward work of making them willing and able to answer the
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outward call. If we think about this in modern
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terms, God is not just sending an invitation in the mail and,
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you know, hoping you RSVP. Right, he is rewriting the
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recipient's spiritual DNA so they actually desire to open the
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envelope and attend the feast. But this raises A fascinating
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tension, one that trips up a lot of people both inside and
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outside the church. It is a huge stumbling block for
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some. If God does all the saving.
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If the Holy Spirit is the sole agent of the new birth, why
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should a minister worry about how they construct their sermon?
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Right. Why agonize over the delivery if
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the results are entirely predestined?
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I hear the subjection all the time.
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It is the classic fatalist argument.
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Yes, the old If the house is going to burn down anyway, why
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buy a fire extinguisher? Exactly.
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But Spurgeon provides a brilliant answer to this by
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bringing up the story of David and Goliath.
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I love this analogy. It is so good.
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God had already ordained that Israel would be victorious.
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God was going to deliver the giant into David's hands.
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That was a fixed decree. Right.
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But David didn't just walk out onto the battlefield empty
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handed, close his eyes, and expect Goliath to spontaneously
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combust. No, he did not.
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He chose a sling. And why a sling?
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Because he had practiced with it for years while watching sheep.
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He was familiar with the weight, the tension, the exact release
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point required to hit a target. Yeah, and he didn't just grab
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any jagged chunk of rock off the dirt.
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He went to the brook and selected 5 smooth stones.
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He chose a smooth stone because it fit the leather of the sling
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perfectly. Thing about Goliath, the man was
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a walking tank. Covered in brass armor from head
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to toe. He was practically invulnerable,
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but there was one tiny unprotected spot on his
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forehead. And a shagged, irregular rock
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might have caught the wind, veered off course and missed the
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mark entirely. Exactly.
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A smooth stone flies straight. The principle of adaptation is
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what we are looking at here. Yes, adaptation.
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God ordains the ends. Yes, he decrees that Goliath
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will fall, but he also ordains the means by which Goliath
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falls. And he perfectly adapts those
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means to accomplish his intended ends.
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Spurgeon makes a biblical comparison between the Apostle
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Paul and the Apostle Peter to illustrate this. .0 right the
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Paul and Peter comparison. The Holy Spirit needed someone
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to reach the Gentiles, and the Gentiles had specific
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philosophical backgrounds, cultural barriers, and
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intellectual hurdles. They were debating in the stows
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of Athens, right? So who does the Holy Spirit
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select as his primary instrument?
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Paul. A man who is highly educated,
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large minded, steeped in classical literature.
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And fully capable of standing on Mars Hill and quoting their own
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poets back to them. Paul was a highly specific
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customized tool. Then you look at Peter and the
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contrast is just striking. Very striking.
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Peter was a Galilean fisherman. He was rough around the edges,
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strong minded, straightforward and firmly rooted in Jewish
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tradition. He was perhaps a bit narrow in
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his initial scope, but he was highly effective for his
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specific context. He was the perfect instrument
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for the Jews, the circumcision party.
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Paul in his place is the right man, and Peter in his place is
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the right man. If you swapped them, the
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friction would have been immense.
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Would. Have been a disaster.
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God doesn't just pick up any random stick to do his work, He
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sharpens the tool for the specific task at hand.
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So when we talk about a preacher's preparation, their
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style, their delivery, well, these are the smooth stones.
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Yes, the sovereign God demands the use of well prepared
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instruments to strike the precise target He has ordained.
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And since God uses specific instruments, the instrument must
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actually be aimed at the correct target.
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A sharp sword is useless if you are swinging it at empty air.
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That brings us to a rather tragic anecdote Spurgeon shares,
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which perfectly highlights the absurdity of ignoring the means.
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Oh, the one about the praying minister, Yeah.
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He talks about a minister who stood in the pulpit and
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earnestly prayed, asking God to save souls through the sermon he
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was about to deliver. But then the minister proceeded
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to preach a discourse that was completely disconnected from the
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gospel. It was a dry philosophical
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lecture. Spurgeon notes that God himself
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could not have blessed that sermon to save his soul unless
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he miraculously made the people misunderstand everything the
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preacher said. The sermon was structurally
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designed to harden a Sinner in their intellect, not lead them
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to a Savior. That is the ultimate, ultimate
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cognitive dissonance. It really is.
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You are asking God for a miracle of salvation while handing the
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congregation a manual on how to remain dead.
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Spurgeon had a great, albeit dark, sense of humor about this.
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He did. He mentioned an old lady who
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kept attending a church where the sermons were just awful.
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They were completely devoid of any gospel truth.
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Someone asked her why she kept going week after week when the
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preaching was so poor. And she compared herself to a
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hand scratching over a huge heap of rubbish.
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Right. She admitted she never found any
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actual corn in the rubbish sheep.
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But she said the physical exercise of scratching around
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kept her spirit warm. It is a funny image, but when
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you apply it to the listener right now, it is a devastating
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picture of a starved congregation.
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It is heartbreaking. How many people are sitting in
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pews this Sunday just scratching it rubbish, hoping the mere
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habit of attendance will somehow keep them spiritually warm?
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It happens far too often, and the root cause is often the man
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in the pulpit. A preacher cannot guide a soul
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if they do not comprehend the fundamental reality of the new
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birth themselves. If the guide is blind, everyone
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falls into the ditch. Spurgeon tells another story
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about a troubled man who is under severe conviction of sin.
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This man felt the crushing weight of God's law.
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He knew he was guilty, he felt the wrath of God hanging over
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him and he went to his local clergyman for help.
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And the clergyman was completely baffled by the man's distress.
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He told the troubled man not to worry, pointing out that he was
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a respectable fellow and had never been a poacher or a
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criminal. The clergyman tried to apply a
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moral Band-Aid to a mortal spiritual wound.
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The man replied. But, Sir, you said in your
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sermon that we must be born again.
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He is quoting the minister's own words back to him.
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And the clergyman's response is just staggering, he said.
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Oh, that was all done in baptism.
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He completely brushed off the agonizing reality of the man's
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spiritual awakening. That that demonstrates A
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catastrophic theological error, one that reformed theology
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aggressively pushes back against.
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Absolutely. The clergyman confused the
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outward sign of baptism with the inward, invisible reality of
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regeneration. He assumed the ritual
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accomplished the reality. Yes.
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When the troubled man pressed him further, saying he had a
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real internal sense of sin that water couldn't wash away, the
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clergyman finally admitted he didn't understand such things.
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Because he had never experienced this new birth himself.
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He actually had to send the man down the street to a Baptist
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minister to get some real answers.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture of God's Providence, God
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does not usually place his newborn children in environments
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where the new life is misunderstood, mocked, or left
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without proper nurture. Right, he moves them to where
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the truth is preached. I want to stop right here and
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introduce some friction, because this is where the reformed
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framework gets tricky for a lot of people listening.
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OK, let's hear it. If God is completely sovereign
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over salvation, does a poorly aimed sermon actually limit him?
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That is a very fair question. I mean, God spoke through
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Balaam's donkey, he can use anything.
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Can't he save someone even if the preacher is completely
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confused, using terrible grammar and preaching a rubbish sermon?
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That is the core philosophical hurdle.
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The answer requires a firm grasp of God's ordinary versus
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extraordinary workings. OK, unpack that for us.
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God is not constrained by human failure.
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He can do whatever he pleases. Spurgeon freely he acknowledges
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this. He says God can ripen wheat with
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snow and ice if he chooses to. He can illuminate the world
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using heavy fogs and dark clouds.
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But that is not his ordinary way.
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Precisely his ordinary method of ripening wheat is through the
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intense heat of the sun. And his ordinary method of
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saving souls is through the clear, passionate, accurate
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preaching of the Gospel. We must expect results according
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to our faith and our aim. If a preacher doesn't believe
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their sermon will convert anyone, and they don't design it
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with the mechanics required to convert anyone, they shouldn't
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be surprised when the pews remain full of unregenerate
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people. You cannot presume upon a
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miracle to cover for your own laziness or theological
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ignorance. Which means the preacher has to
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do the hard work of waking the people up first.
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Yes, a perfectly aimed, theologically accurate sermon is
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entirely useless if the target is fast asleep.
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You have to engage the mind before you can assault the
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heart. Spurgeon references George
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Whitefield, the great open air preacher of the Great Awakening.
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Whitefield used what he called market language.
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He didn't stand in the fields of England and speak in theological
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double Dutch. He spoke the language of the
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working class, the exact vernacular people used when they
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were haggling over the price of fish in the town square.
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Communication relies on shared symbols.
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Often ministers get trapped in academic bubbles.
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Yeah, they spend four years in seminary learning Greek, Hebrew
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and complex historical theology. And then they step into a pulpit
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and use terminology that requires a master's degree to
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decode. They talk about super
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lipsurianism or the hypostatic union without translating those
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concepts. If a tired working class person
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walks into a church seeking hope and hears language that sounds
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alien, they will immediately conclude that the message is not
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for them. They will assume religion is an
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intellectual hobby for the educated elite.
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You know, a Country Club for theologians.
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Whitefield understood that the gospel is for the coal miner as
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much as the aristocrat, so the language must be accessible to
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the coal miner. Spurgeon also brings up Roland
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Hill, an eccentric preacher who is famous for making his
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congregations laugh out loud. Someone sharply criticized Hill
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for this, asking what business a minister had making people laugh
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during a sacred sermon. Hill's response was brilliant,
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he said. Did you not see that I made them
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cry directly after? He was using humor as a tactical
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weapon. It is about breaking through the
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hardened crust of apathy. Humor, when used correctly, is a
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sudden unexpected shift in a pattern.
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It drops the listeners defenses. When a congregation expects a
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somber, monotonous drone, their mental Shields are up.
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A laugh shatters that shield. I think about how we consume
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information today. Yeah, if you are listening to
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this, think about your own social media habits.
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You scroll through feeds with this cynical, glassy eyed stare.
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You have an outer shell of extreme skepticism, especially
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when it comes to anyone trying to sell you something or preach
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at you. If an advertisement or a video
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starts with a rigid, predictable lecture, your thumb instantly
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swipes away. The shell snaps shut.
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Spurgeon has this wild analogy about an oyster.
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He says you can't force an oyster open with a knife.
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If you stab at it, it clamps down tighter.
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But he says he sometimes tickles the oyster until it opens its
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shell just a fraction, and then he slips the knife in.
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Humor or a shocking cultural observation is the tickle you
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break the pattern. You surprise the modern cynical
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mind just long enough for the shell to open, and then you slip
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the sharp truth of the Gospel inside before they realize what
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happened. That relates perfectly to the
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concept of retention, right? It isn't enough to just get the
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truth inside the shell. The hearer must retain that
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truth. A sermon is not successful just
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because it was entertaining or enjoyed in the moment.
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If it evaporates by Tuesday, it failed.
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Spurgeon advises preachers to create deliberate memory hooks.
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He shares an anecdote about a dying tailor to illustrate this.
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Oh, this is a very memorable story.
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The tailors colleagues gather around his deathbed.
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They are waiting for him to reveal the great hidden secret
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to making a massive fortune in the tailoring business.
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The dying man pulls them close, gasps for air and says always
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put a knot in your thread. That is it.
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That is the secret. Because without a knot, you can
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push the needle through the fabric all day long.
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You can do a tremendous amount of sewing, but the thread just
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pulls right out the other side. The needle goes through it,
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makes a hole, but it accomplishes absolutely nothing.
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That is a devastating critique of a lot of modern
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communication. Preachers often push the needle
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of the biblical text through the congregation's minds.
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They make their three points. But because there is no not no
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memorable illustration, no striking phrasing, no emotional
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anchor, the truth slips right out of the mind by the time the
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congregation reaches the parking lot.
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Spurgeon also calls these hooks burrs.
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You know those prickly little seeds you brush against when
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you're hiking in the woods that stick stubbornly to your coat?
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You want to put burrs all over the sermon?
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You want to say things that are slightly awkward, phrased in a
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crooked way, or vividly unusual. You want to arrest the attention
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so the listener carries the truth home with them firmly
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attached to their thoughts, unable to shake it off.
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But capturing attention and creating a memory hook is just
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the vehicle. It is the delivery truck.
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Right. What is the actual cargo?
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Spurgeon is clear that emotion without knowledge is completely
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empty. There must be light as well as
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fire in the sermon. This raises an essential
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theological distinction that reformed thinkers guard
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fiercely. Yes, we are not aiming for mere
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emotional manipulation. A fiery delivery without solid
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doctrinal substance creates a dangerous illusion.
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It creates the illusion of conversion without the reality
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of it. You cannot just yell at people
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to believe. Believe what?
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Based on what authority? Why should they believe?
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If you strip away the intellectual framework, you were
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just whipping up temporary hysteria.
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Spurgeon compares A preacher who is all fire and no light to a
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little boy he saw crying hysterically in the street.
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Something distracted the boy for a second.
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He stopped crying, looked up at his mother and asked, Please,
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what was I crying about? He had the intense emotion, but
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he had completely lost the reason for it.
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Spurgeon also mentions a highly esteemed Dutch Quaker woman who
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spoke to an English audience. She spoke with incredible
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passion, tears and spirit. The audience loved the energy
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they felt. Moved, but they didn't
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understand a single word of Dutch.
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Spurgeon's reaction to this is priceless.
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He says he wouldn't have profited in the slightest unless
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someone translated it. He refuses to be moved by a
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vibe. He wants to know the specific
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facts he's being asked to respond to.
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The intellect must be engaged with specific hard truths.
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Spurgeon outlines the doctrines that must be taught to provide
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that light. You must teach the historical
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fall of humanity in Eden. You must teach the absolute
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crushing demands of God's moral law.
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You must expose the reality of human alienation from the
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Creator. Then, and only then, you must
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teach the person and work of Jesus Christ.
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And the nature of the Everlasting Father, and the
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absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit's work in the new birth.
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If those specific truths are absent, the fire is just burning
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useless wood. The listener needs a solid
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theological foundation to stand upon when the emotional high of
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the Sunday service inevitably fades on Monday morning.
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So let's track where we are. We have aimed at the right
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target. We have awakened the sleeping
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mind with market language and pattern interrupts.
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We have instructed the intellect with sound doctrine.
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But that is still not enough to save a soul.
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The message must carry genuine weight to impress the
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conscience. And here is the kicker, the part
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that makes or breaks the whole endeavor the preacher has to
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feel at first. You cannot fake this.
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Spurgeon warns heavily against the danger of using borrowed
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sermons. He references the biblical story
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from Second Kings about the borrowed axe head that flew off
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the handle and sank into the Jordan River.
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He jokes that borrowed sermons often lose their heads.
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The lack of authenticity is immediately perceptible to a
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congregation. Humans are highly attuned to
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inauthenticity. When a man reads someone else's
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sermon or downloads an outline from the Internet, he bypasses
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the agonizing process of wrestling with the text himself.
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He. Bypasses the conviction of sin
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that the Holy Spirit works in the preacher's own heart during
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the late hours of preparation. A borrowed sermon has no sweat,
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no tears, and therefore no spiritual gravity.
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I love the toothache analogy Spurgeon uses here to drive this
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home. It is a brilliant illustration.
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A little girl is crying bitterly because she has a terrible
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toothache. Her grandmother tells her to
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stop crying over such a trivial matter.
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The little girl looks at her and says it is all very well for you
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to say that for when your teeth ache you can take them out, but
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mine are fixed. A true preacher cannot take
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their teeth out. They cannot detach themselves
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from the agony of their own message.
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If a sermon is falling flat, or if the minister looks out and
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feels heavy and sad about the spiritual blindness of their
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hearers, they cannot just reach into a box and pull out a
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happier, lighter sermon to fix the mood.
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The burden is fixed in their jaw.
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That internal agony is a prerequisite for genuine impact.
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Spurgeon recounted a very telling conversation with his
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grandfather, who is also a minister.
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Spurgeon confessed the right before he stepped into the
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pulpit to preach, he felt terribly physically sick.
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He described it as feeling like he was crossing the rough,
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chopping waters of the English Channel.
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He asked his grandfather if he would ever outgrow that feeling
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of literal sickness. His grandfather replied.
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Your strength will be gone if you do.
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Think about what that means. The preacher must feel the
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terrifying reality of heaven and hell, the sheer weight of
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immortal souls gripping them tightly.
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If the subject has not gripped the preacher by the throat, the
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preacher will never grip the audience's conscience.
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That makes me think about what earnestness actually looks like
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in delivery. We aren't talking about
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manufactured yelling. Spurgeon sets an incredibly high
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bar for what constitutes true earnestness.
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He says you should plead with sinners as if you were standing
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before a judge, begging for the life of your closest friend.
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Or imagine bypassing the judge and appealing directly to the
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Queen to pardon someone you love who is on death row.
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How would you speak? You wouldn't be checking your
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notes or worrying about your posture.
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You would pour your soul out, he.
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Even uses the terrifying image of speaking as if a gibbet and
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executioner's gallows were erected right there in the room
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and you were about to be hanged unless you could persuade the
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authorities to release you. That completely eradicates
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flippancy. It destroys the modern idea of
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preaching as a casual intellectual exercise, a Ted
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talk, or a piece of performance art.
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You are an ambassador pleading for terms of peace.
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In the dark shadow of eternal destruction.
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Every word matters. He has this one striking visual
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that I just cannot get out of my head.
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Oh, which one? It is violent and beautiful at
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the same time. He talks about using up all your
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homolytical ammunition. Yes, you exhaust all your
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logical arguments. You run out of illustrations and
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when there is nothing left in your arsenal, you ram yourself
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into the great gospel gun. You fire your own experience of
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God's goodness, your own agonizing consciousness of sin,
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directly at the hearers. You are not just giving them
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systematic theology anymore, you are giving them your very soul
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on a silver platter. That kind of severe
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vulnerability is what breaks through human resistance.
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The sermon that breaks the hearer's heart is the one that
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is first broken. The preacher's heart is the
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transfer of a shattered spirit. But if you are firing this
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gospel gun, if you are acting as the projectile, you have to
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ensure absolutely nothing deflects the shot in midair.
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You have to aggressively strip away distractions.
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Think about Hannah Moore, the famous English writer and
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philanthropist. Spurgeon shares a story about a
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gentleman who spent an entire evening talking with her.
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When the man went home, his wife asked him how Miss Moore was
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dressed. The man stopped and realized he
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had no idea. He hadn't noticed her clothes at
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all because he was so entirely captivated by her conversation
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and her character. The burgeon says that is exactly
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how a ceremony should be dressed.
22:02
The diction, the vocabulary, the rhetorical flourishes, well,
22:06
they should be so perfectly suited to the message that
22:09
nobody notices them. If people walk out of the church
22:11
buzzing about the minister's majestic phrasing, or their
22:14
lofty vocabulary or their brilliant comedic timing, the
22:18
preacher has failed. They have drawn attention to the
22:20
garments, not the substance. They have hidden Christ behind
22:24
their own cleverness. Charles Finney, the famous
22:27
revivalist, told a story that perfectly illustrates the
22:30
incredibly fragile nature of a sinner's attention.
22:33
Oh, the story about the shoes. Yeah.
22:36
There was a person sitting in the congregation right on the
22:38
absolute verge of yielding to the gospel.
22:41
They were heavily under conviction, teetering on the
22:44
edge of salvation. At that precise moment, an old
22:47
woman wearing patents, those clattering wooden soled shoes
22:51
people used to wear in the mud, came shuffling loudly up the
22:54
wooden aisle. The clack clack clack noise
22:56
completely distracted the person.
22:57
The spell was broken, the moment passed, the conviction faded
23:01
away, and Finney believed that soul was lost because of wooden
23:04
shoes. While we maintain our Reformed
23:07
understanding that God's effectual call cannot be
23:10
thwarted by a pair of wooden shoes, if God decrees to save
23:14
that person, He will save them. We must also recognize the human
23:18
responsibility involved. We are commanded to avoid
23:21
placing stumbling blocks in the path of sinners.
23:24
The gravity of eternal matters requires us to minimize
23:28
friction. We do not want to be the reason
23:31
someone's attention drifts away from the cross.
23:34
That friction doesn't just come from external noises, it can
23:37
come from wandering away from the biblical text.
23:39
Spurgeon compares A preacher who wanders from the text to a
23:43
little boy who went fishing for three hours.
23:45
The boy came back and happily reported that he caught 0 fish,
23:49
but he lost a whole lot of worms.
23:51
Some preachers spoiled precious texts of scripture like that.
23:54
They read a verse and then they completely ignore it to talk
23:57
about politics or their favorite hobbyhorse.
23:59
They pack their own modern ideas into the text instead of doing
24:03
the hard work of drawing the original meaning out of it.
24:05
They lose the worms and catch no souls.
24:07
Or the friction can come from something as simple as poor
24:10
grammar and a lack of basic education.
24:13
Spurgeon issues a serious warning about this to young
24:15
ministers. He talks about preachers
24:17
dropping their HS or exasperating their vowels,
24:20
speaking in a way that sounds ignorant.
24:23
He tells that hilarious story about the author Charles Dickens
24:26
to prove this point. Dickens attended to seance and
24:29
was asked by the medium if you wanted to speak to his spirit.
24:33
Dickens agreed and asked to speak with the ghost of Lindley
24:35
Murray, who was a very famous strict grammarian of that era.
24:39
The medium went into a trance, the supposed spirit arrived, and
24:43
Dickens asked the ghost. Are you Lindley Murray?
24:46
The ghost replied IR. Dickens immediately stood up and
24:50
refused to become a spiritualist because the ghost of a grammar
24:53
expert used terrible grammar. It shattered the illusion
24:56
instantly. It is a funny story, but the
24:59
application for preaching is highly serious.
25:01
Spurgeon is not advocating for elitism or intellectual
25:05
snobbery. He is advocating for the removal
25:08
of barriers. If a listener is highly
25:11
educated, an engineer or a teacher, and the preacher
25:14
constantly makes glaring grammatical errors, the
25:17
listener's mind will involuntarily fixate on the
25:19
errors rather than the gospel. The truth is prevented from
25:22
reaching the conscience because the intellect is constantly
25:25
tripping over the delivery. We must do everything in our
25:28
human capacity to ensure the truth has a clear, unobstructed
25:31
runway to the heart. OK, so let's summarize the
25:34
blueprint we have aimed at the target.
25:38
Awaken the mind felt the crushing weight of the message
25:41
and stripped away all the distracting clothes.
25:44
With all of that cleared out, what is the core substance that
25:48
actually alters the listener? What is the Bayload?
25:51
It has to be Christ. Nothing else works.
25:54
Spurgeon tells a beautiful story about an old minister listening
25:58
to a young, eager man preach. After the service, the young man
26:02
asked for feedback. The old minister looked at him
26:04
and said he didn't like the sermon at all because there was
26:07
no Christ in it. The young man defended himself
26:09
defensively, saying that Christ wasn't mentioned in that
26:12
specific text of scripture he was preaching from.
26:15
The old minister's rebuke is legendary in preaching circles.
26:18
He said. Do you not know that from every
26:21
little town and village in tiny hamlet in England there is a
26:24
road leading to London? Whenever I get hold of a text, I
26:27
say to myself, there is a road from here to Jesus Christ, and I
26:30
mean to keep on his track till I get to him.
26:32
Even if the text is from a minor prophet or it obscure historical
26:36
narrative that does not mention Jesus by name, the preacher must
26:40
go over hedge and ditch, crossing any terrain necessary
26:44
to get to him. The entire Bible is a road map
26:47
to the cross. That is the essence of it.
26:49
If you are preaching A sermon and it does not lead to the
26:51
cross, you are just giving a motivational speech.
26:54
You are giving a Ted talk with a Bible verse attached to it.
26:58
Grounding this firmly and Reformed theology, we understand
27:01
that preaching just morality offers no actual salvation.
27:05
If you just give people a list of rules to follow, be a better
27:08
husband, stop lying, manage your money better, you are preaching
27:11
the law and the law only condemns.
27:14
It acts as a mirror to show us our filth.
27:16
It is not a sponge that can wash us clean.
27:18
Abstract doctrine, devoid of the living person of Christ, is
27:22
equally lifeless. The finished work of the cross
27:24
US is the only mechanism for justification.
27:27
A sermon without Christ is a well without water.
27:29
It looks nice, but it leaves the traveler dying of thirst.
27:33
A young preacher once asks Burgeon for advice.
27:36
The young man was going to preach at a new church and was
27:39
highly anxious about what the congregation believed.
27:42
He wanted to know their specific doctrinal views, their
27:46
theological camps, so he could carefully tailor his message to
27:50
avoid offending anyone. Spurgeon told him to ignore all
27:53
of that noise and just preach Jesus Christ.
27:56
If that didn't suit their doctrinal views, priced again
27:58
the next Sunday and the next. Keep preaching him.
28:02
Until the people who do not want him feel they cannot possibly do
28:06
without him, that concept flips. The modern marketing paradigm
28:09
completely on its head. In business, you identify a.
28:12
Demand in the market and you supply a product to meet it in
28:15
preaching you are. Speaking to people who are dead
28:17
in trespasses and sins, they do not naturally demand Christ,
28:21
their sinful nature. Actively suppresses the truth in
28:24
unrighteousness. The act of preaching Christ,
28:26
actually. Creates the demand.
28:27
The Holy Spirit uses the. Proclamation of the gospel to
28:30
awaken the dead appetite, making the Sinner suddenly realize they
28:34
are starving and that Christ is the only bread that satisfies
28:37
but the mechanics of preaching. Christ require a living, beating
28:42
heart. You need a spiritual.
28:44
Engine. To make this whole process
28:45
effective, you can have the right doctrine, but without the
28:48
engine and the car goes nowhere. Spurgeon describes a type.
28:51
Of Preacher, who is dry as leather.
28:54
He compares this man to a. Piece of dried seaweed hung on
28:57
the wall to predict the weather. Scarcely any weather effects it
29:01
it just hangs there. Stiff and dead, the man is
29:04
totally. Devoid of emotion, totally
29:07
unaffected by the reality of heaven, hell or the suffering of
29:10
his congregation, then Spurgeon contrasts that.
29:13
With another type of minister, one who is perhaps even more
29:17
dangerous, a man who is overly. Regular entirely faultless in
29:21
his routine, he studies for the correct amount of.
29:23
Hours. He prays for the correct amount
29:24
of minutes. He preaches for the correct
29:26
length of time. He uses perfect syntax.
29:29
He has no noticeable flaws, but he empties chapels.
29:33
Why? Because he.
29:34
Lacks any genuine brokenness. He lacks tears.
29:37
Spurgeon references the Prophet. Jeremiah, who wept day and night
29:40
for the slain of the daughter of his people, A faultless
29:43
mechanical. Minister has no excellences
29:46
because he has no heart. He's a theological algorithm, a
29:49
machine, not a shepherd who bleeds for his flock.
29:52
Contrast that faultless. Machine with a young girl
29:55
Spurgeon interviewed for church membership.
29:58
He asked her if she had a good heart.
29:59
She said yes, then he asked if she had an evil.
30:01
Heart. She also said yes.
30:03
He asked her to explain the apparent.
30:04
Contradiction, she replied. That she knew she had a good
30:08
heart because God had given her a new heart and a right spirit,
30:12
but she also knew she had an old evil heart because she
30:15
constantly found it fighting and warring against her new heart.
30:18
Spurgeon loved that answer. He said he would much rather a.
30:21
Minister have two hearts, constantly fighting and
30:24
agonizing within him, dealing with the messy reality of
30:27
sanctification than have a minister with no heart at all
30:30
the danger of losing. That heart is very real,
30:33
especially for those in intense theological training.
30:36
Spurgeon warns about the. Drying influence of sheer
30:39
academia. He quotes a famous couplet.
30:42
Hebrew roots flourish best on barren ground.
30:45
The study of classics. Parsing original languages and
30:49
mastering complex systematic theology is necessary, but it
30:52
has a severely drying effect on the soul.
30:55
If it is not constantly moistened by the Holy Spirit,
30:58
you can become so absorbed. In the science of theology, the
31:01
mechanics of the text that the spiritual fire is completely
31:04
extinguished you are spending all your.
31:06
Time polishing the iron, Great, but letting the fire inside go
31:11
out to keep that fire burning. To keep the engine running,
31:14
Spurgeon introduces one final, almost bizarre analogy.
31:18
He talks about a quack Dr. Who claimed he could cure people
31:21
using a simple piece of wood when challenged on how a plain.
31:24
Piece of wood could possibly cure a disease, the quack said.
31:28
It wasn't the wood itself, it was the way he rubbed it.
31:31
He claimed he rubbed vital. Electricity into the wood,
31:34
transferring his own life force into the remedy before giving it
31:37
to the patient. It is a secular.
31:39
Scientifically absurd claim, but Spurgeon applies the underlying
31:43
concept masterfully to sermon preparation, the words written
31:46
on the minister's. Manuscript are just like that
31:49
dead piece of wood. They have no inherent capacity
31:51
to raise the spiritually dead. A preacher must work.
31:54
The very life of God into those words through intense, agonizing
31:59
private communion with God, the preparation of the.
32:02
Paper is secondary to the preparation of the man that
32:05
vital electricity. Is prayer precisely the?
32:09
Difference between a sermon that has been saturated in prayer and
32:12
one that has been prepared by a prayerless man relying on his
32:15
own intellect is vast it is the difference between a high.
32:19
Priest before and after his anointing in the Old Testament,
32:23
the High. Priest had the correct garments,
32:25
he had the correct lineage, he knew the correct rituals, but he
32:28
could not minister in the Holy of Holies until the heavy oil
32:31
was poured over him. The preacher must anoint their.
32:34
Sermons in the prayer closet. They must plead for the unction.
32:37
Of the Holy Spirit recognizing that their intellect, their
32:40
humor, and their rhetorical skills are entirely insufficient
32:43
without divine intervention. So if we look back at
32:46
everything. We've covered today in this deep
32:47
dive into the source material. The terrain is massive.
32:51
It really is what stands. Out to you is the.
32:53
Core thread connecting all these pieces if we synthesize this
32:57
entire. Discussion.
32:58
The central truth is a beautiful functioning paradox.
33:02
God is entirely sovereign in salvation.
33:04
He alone effectually calls. The Sinner he raises the dead,
33:08
yet he absolutely. Demands the use of sharpened,
33:11
earnest, Christ centered, well aimed, and heavily prayed over
33:15
instruments. The sovereignty of God does not.
33:17
Negate human responsibility or excuse human laziness.
33:20
It actually empowers it and gives it meaning.
33:24
We labor intensely over the. Text We labor over our delivery,
33:27
and we labor over the condition of our own hearts, knowing that
33:30
God delights to use appropriate, prepared means to accomplish His
33:34
eternal decrees. That brings us to a final
33:36
thought. Something for you to consider
33:38
long after this audio ends. Think back to that opening.
33:40
Image of David and Goliath, God specifically.
33:43
Adapts human instruments for his purposes.
33:46
He chose a smooth stone for a specific reason because it fit
33:49
the sling and it flew true. Look at your own life right now.
33:52
Look at your unique background your.
33:53
Specific vocabulary, your weird quirks, the intense trials you
33:57
have endured, and even the scars from your past flaws.
34:00
What specific smooth? Stone has God shaped you to be
34:04
how might God be planning to? Use those highly specific
34:07
customized traits to reach someone in your life this week
34:10
that no one else could possibly reach.
34:12
You are the instrument make. Sure, you are sharp.
34:14
Aimed and ready. Thank you for joining us on
34:17
Reformed Thinking.