The Preacher's Plain Truth

Piper on what the Lord Never Says

2012-01-04T21:17:00.001Z

A professor asked me once about the processes I use to help me think, “Isn’t all that a crutch?” I simply said, “Yes. Because when it comes to thinking fruitfully about God’s fathomless Word I feel like a cripple. I need all the help I can get.”

I am usually dull and unperceptive when I read the Bible. So I pray earnestly that the Lord will incline my heart to his word (Ps. 119:36) and open my eyes to see wonders (Ps. 119:18). When I do that, the impulse God gives me (through his Word) is: “Think over what I say” (2 Tim. 2:7). Dig for understanding. “Seek it like silver” (Prov. 2:4). The Lord never says, “Stop thinking about my Word; I’ll tell you what this means.”

John Piper: Think

Piper on What the Mind is For...

2012-01-04T21:12:00.000Z

While it is true that mind and heart are mutually enlivening, it is also clear that the mind is mainly the servant of the heart. That is, the mind serves to know the truth that fuels the fires of the heart. The apex of glorifying God is enjoying him with the heart. But this is an empty emotionalism where that joy is not awakened and sustained by true views of God for who he really is. That is mainly what the mind is for.

John Piper: Think

Edwards on the glories of the incarnation...

2010-12-16T09:36:00.001Z

“How astonishing is it that a person:

who is blessed forever and is infinitely and essentially happy should endure the greatest sufferings that ever were endured on earth!
who is the supreme Lord and Judge of the world should be arraigned and should stand at the judgment seat of mortal worms and then be condemned.
who is the living God and the fountain of life should be put to death.
who created the world and gives life to all his creatures should be put to death by his own creatures.
of infinite majesty and glory, and so the object of the love, praises and adoration of angels, should be mocked and spit upon by the vilest of men.
infinitely good and who is love itself should suffer the greatest cruelty.
who is infinitely beloved of the Father should be put to inexpressible anguish under his own Father’s wrath.
who is the King of heaven, who has heaven for his throne and earth for his footstool, should be buried in the prison of the grave.

How wonderful is this! And yet this is the way that God’s wisdom has fixed upon as the way of sinners’ salvation, as neither unsuitable nor dishonourable to Christ.”

Jonathan Edwards, “The Wisdom of God Displayed in the Way of Salvation,” in Works (Edinburgh, 1979), II:144

Sproul on God's Justice Satisfied...

2010-11-29T13:59:00.001Z

“The cross was a glorious outworking of the grace of God, by which the Father commissioned the Son to make full satisfaction so that sinners might be saved with no sacrifice of God’s justice.””

R. C. Sproul, The Truth of the Cross, (Orlando, Fl.: Reformation Trust, 2007), 84

Piper on Alleviating Suffering...

2010-11-29T13:51:00.002Z

...Could the evangelical church say—we Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering? I hope we can say that. But if we feel resistant to saying “especially eternal suffering,” or if we feel resistant to saying “we care about all suffering in this age,” then either we have a defective view of hell or a defective heart.

From his sermon at the Lausanne Conference 2010

Calvin on what Stops a Person Yielding to God...

2010-11-25T21:57:00.003Z

Until men feel that they owe everything to God, that they are cherished by his paternal care, and that he is the author of all their blessings, so that nought is to be looked for away from him, they will never submit to him in voluntary obedience; nay, unless they place their entire happiness in him, they will never yield up their whole selves to him in truth and sincerity.

Calvin, Institutes, Book 1

Calvin on God the Giver of all Good things...

2010-11-25T21:54:00.001Z

"We must be persuaded not only that as he once formed the world, so he sustains it by his boundless power, governs it by his wisdom, preserves it by his goodness, in particular, rules the human race with justice and Judgment, bears with them in mercy, shields them by his protection; but also that not a particle of light, or wisdom, or justice, or power, or rectitude, or genuine truth, will anywhere be found, which does not flow from him, and of which he is not the cause; in this way we must learn to expect and ask all things from him, and thankfully ascribe to him whatever we receive."

John Calvin, Institutes, Book 1

Calvin on Raising our Thoughts to God...

2010-11-25T21:46:00.003Z

If, at mid-day, we either look down to the ground, or on the surrounding objects which lie open to our view, we think ourselves endued with a very strong and piercing eyesight; but when we look up to the sun, and gaze at it unveiled, the sight which did excellently well for the earth is instantly so dazzled and confounded by the refulgence, as to oblige us to confess that our acuteness in discerning terrestrial objects is mere dimness when applied to the sun. Thus too, it happens in estimating our spiritual qualities. So long as we do not look beyond the earth, we are quite pleased with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue; we address ourselves in the most flattering terms, and seem only less than demigods.

But should we once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and reflect what kind of Being he is, and how absolute the perfection of that righteousness, and wisdom, and virtue, to which, as a standard, we are bound to be conformed, what formerly delighted us by its false show of righteousness will become polluted with the greatest iniquity; what strangely imposed upon us under the name of wisdom will disgust by its extreme folly; and what presented the appearance of virtuous energy will be condemned as the most miserable impotence.

John Calvin, Book 1, Institutes

Tripp on the Being Made New through Repentance...

2010-11-24T18:29:00.002Z

“Because Christ lived perfectly, died sufficiently, and rose victoriously, you and I can come out of hiding. We are free to own up to, without fear, the darkest of our thoughts and motives, the ugliest of our words, our most selfish choices, and our most rebellious and unloving actions. We are freed from our bondage to guilt and shame. We are freed from hiding behind accusation, blame, recrimination, and rationalization.

Confession is powerful and effective.

It turns guilt into forgiveness.

It turns regret into hope.

It turns slavery into freedom.

It turns you from mourning over your harvest to planting new seeds of faith, repentance, and hope.

You see, you are not trapped! Things are not hopeless! The Lord, the great Creator and Savior, is the God who never changes, but at the same time he is the God who promises and produces deep personal change. The changes he makes in us are so foundational that the Bible’s best words describing them are ‘new creation.’ God’s plan is to change us so fundamentally that it is as if we are longer us; something brand new has been created!”

- Paul David Tripp, Lost in the Middle: Midlife and the Grace of God (Wapwallopen, Pa.: Shepherds Press, 2004), 124.

Wells on what we see at the Cross...

2010-11-23T08:03:00.000Z

“What we see at the cross is the white-hot revelation of the character of God, of his love providing the price that holiness requires. The cross was his means of redeeming lost sinners and reconciling them to himself, but it was also a profound disclosure of his mercy. It is, in Paul’s words, an ‘inexpressible gift’ that leads us to wonder and worship, to praise and adore the God who has given himself to us in this way.”

- David F. Wells, The Courage to be Protestant (Grand Rapids, Mi.; Eerdmans, 2008), 129

Luther on Gospel Growth...

2010-10-20T09:28:00.000+01:00

This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished but it is going on. This is not the end but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified.

Jensen on the Preacher's Mission Statement...

2010-08-24T21:50:00.003+01:00

My aim is to preach the gospel by prayerfully expounding the Bible to the people God has given me to love.

"We would do well to begin by remembering that pastors don't preach to the church they create but to the congregation that God gathers and places under their care. The people in our ministry are God's not ours. The goal of ministry isn't to grow our personal kingdom but God's kingdom, and the pastor's job is not primarily to rule the church, but to love God's people - to love them by preaching the gospel through prayerful Bible exposition."

Phillip Jensen, p22 - the Archer & the Arrow.

Piper on Pastors

2010-08-12T09:37:00.001+01:00

...One of my great desires is to see Christian pastors be as strong and durable as redwood trees, and as tender and fragrant as a field of clover—unshakably rugged in the “defense and confirmation” of the truth (Philippians 1:7), and relentlessly humble and patient and merciful in dealing with people.

John Piper

Spurgeon on a Right Understanding of our Sufferings

2010-08-12T09:31:00.002+01:00

I have learned to kiss the wave that strikes me against the Rock of Ages

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Ryle on Preaching the Pure Gospel...

2010-07-02T08:44:00.001+01:00

We have no right to expect anything but the pure Gospel of Christ, unmixed and unadulterated, the same Gospel that was taught by the Apostles, to do good to the souls of men. I believe that to maintain this pure truth in the Church—men should be ready to make any sacrifice, to hazard peace, to risk dissension, and run the chance of division. They should no more tolerate false doctrine—than they would tolerate sin. They should withstand any adding to or taking away from the simple message of the Gospel of Christ.

JC. Ryle

Warnings to the Churches, “The Fallibility of Ministers”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1967], 105.

David Platt on the Reality of God's Character...

2010-06-30T15:40:00.002+01:00

The Gospel reveals eternal realities about God that we would sometimes rather not face. We prefer to sit back, enjoy our cliches, and picture God as a Father who might help us, all the while ignoring God as a judge who might damn us. maybe this is why we fill our lives with the constant drivel of entertainment in our culture - and our church. We are afraid that if we stop and really look at God in his Word, we might discover that he evokes greater awe and demands deeper worship than we are ready to give him.

David Platt, Radical, p29

What Malik Can't Live Without...

2010-03-10T21:12:00.001Z

I speak to you as a Christian. Jesus Christ is my Lord and God and Saviour and Song day and night. I can live without food, without drink, without sleep, without air, but I cannot live without Jesus. Without him I would have perished long ago. Without him and his church reconciling men to God, the world would have perished long ago. I live in and on the Bible for long hours every day. The Bible is the source of every good thought and impulse I have. In the Bible God himself, the Creator of everything from nothing, speaks to me and to the world directly, about himself, about ourselves, and about his will for the course of events and for the consummation of history. And believe me, not a day passes without my crying from the bottom of my heart, ‘Come, Lord Jesus.'

Charles Malik (HT: John Piper)

Harris on Standing Your Doctrinal Ground with Humility

2010-03-04T21:48:00.002Z

We should “stand for truth with a tear in our eye.

“We should strive to hold our beliefs with a charity and kindness that won’t embarrass us in heaven.”

Joshua Harris, Dug Down Deep, pp. 225, 229.

Spurgeon on the Converter of a Man's Soul... (and it's not the preacher!)

2010-02-17T08:12:00.000Z

“The gospel is preached in the ears of all men; it only comes with power to some. The power that is in the gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher otherwise men would be converters of souls. Nor does it lie in the preacher’s learning; otherwise it could consists of the wisdom of men. We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were mysterious power going with it – the Holy Ghost changing the will of man. O Sirs! We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it power to convert the soul.”

Charles Spurgeon, quoted in Stott, I Believe in Preaching, 335. (HT:Colin Adams)

Piper on God, the Doer of Regeneration

2010-01-25T22:52:00.000Z

God is the great Doer in this miracle of regeneration. And he has not been silent about it. This means that he does not want us to be ignorant of what he does in the new birth. It means that knowing what he has revealed about the new birth is good for us. When Jesus said to Nicodemus, ‘You must be born again’ (John 3.7), he was not sharing interesting and unimportant information. He was leading him to eternal life.

Piper, Finally Alive, p22

Piper on what an Understanding of Regeneration Gives to a Christian

2010-01-25T22:43:00.005Z

1) “When you are truly born again and grow in the grace and knowledge of what the Lord has done for you, your fellowship with God will be sweet, and your assurance that he is your Father will be deep. I want that for you.”

2) Second, “If you know what really happened to you in your new birth, you will treasure God and his Spirit and his Son and his word more highly than you ever have. In this, Christ will be glorified.”

3)“In the process of believers discovering what really happened to them, the seriousness and the supernatural nature of conversion will rise and that, I pray, will serve a more general awakening of authenticity in the Christian church so that religious hypocrisy will diminish and the world will see real love and sacrifice and courage in the service of Christ.”

9 Marks Workshop Announcement

2009-12-14T11:28:00.002Z

to book or to find out more, go to

www.charlottechapel.org/9marks

DeYoung on why Church is Boring...

2009-08-17T11:31:00.002+01:00

Church isn't boring because we're not showing enough film clips, or because we play an organ instead of a guitar. It's boring because we neuter [church] of its importance.

DeYoung, Why we love the church, p102

Kluck is Grateful that Church is not like Starbucks...

2009-08-17T11:07:00.002+01:00

I, for one, am thankful that I go to a church that isn't trying to be like my coffee shop. I'm glad that someone cares enough about the gospel to preach to me in a powerful and convincing way. A way that has edges. A way that makes me feel uncomfortable. And I'm thankful that my church doesn't do this to make me feel awkward, unloved or unwelcomed, rather, for my sanctification and growth.

Kluck, why we love the church, p69

DeYoung's Concern regarding Church Disillusionment...

2009-08-17T11:03:00.002+01:00

I can't help feeling that lurking beneath the surface in much of the current disillusionment with the church is a dis-ease with the traditional message of salvation.

People are passionate about the poor, the environment, and third-world debt. But they seem embarrassed by a violent, bloody atonement for sin, let alone any mention of the afterlife that hangs in the balance.

Deyoung, Why we love the church, p50.

DeYoung on the Necessity of Proclamation...

2009-08-17T10:45:00.006+01:00

Mission must involve proclamation - the actual using of words to communicate the gospel so that by putting their faith in Christ, the covenant blessings of Abraham might come to all who believe (Gal 3:14).

We don't want to fall for the old 'deeds not creeds' slogan or the confused aphorism, 'preach the gospel and use words only when necessary.' No matter what he trenmeisters recommend, it is absolutely biblically and eternally necessary that we verbally tell people the gospel and call people to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

Luther on Beating the Gospel into the Listener's Head...

2009-08-04T10:54:00.004+01:00

Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law), but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.

Martin Luther, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, 206.

Stephen Um on the Church's Greatest Need...

2009-07-21T12:17:00.003+01:00

“I believe the greatest need for today’s American church is for its individual members to make a radical commitment to the centrality of the Gospel as Christ’s finished work for every aspect of their life and mission. We need to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened (Eph 1.18) in order to savor the supremacy of Christ in all things and to move away from anything that chokes or blinds our ability to value his worth and glory.

Jesus perfectly lived the life that we should have lived by transferring his righteousness to his people so that our religious piety or social morality would be exposed for what it is, a form of self-salvation. The church needs to be aware of her tendency to focus on secondary, peripheral issues, that is addressing behavioristic symptoms, rather than on central issues of historic confessional Christianity, namely justification by faith alone on Jesus perfect record which gives us a vital relationship with a Holy God.

The crying need in our churches is for prophetic voices to expose the limitations of all other cultural worldviews (e.g. traditional, modern, or postmodern) while offering an ultimate satisfaction and substitutionary redemption which frees us from all kinds of enslavement. The confidence and humility which Christ’s righteousness provides will enable us to embrace this incarnational responsibility to be secure with ourselves while loving God and others. This commitment to a contextualized gospel will cause the church to be missional and counter cultural, and therefore more relevant and theologically sensitive in deconstructing other philosophical paradigms while illuminating both religious and secular people to engage in an organic relationship with the person of Jesus.”

Owen on the Marks of a Believer's Hatred for Sin...

2009-07-09T10:27:00.003+01:00

A man who only opposes the sin in his heart for fear of shame among men or eternal punishment from God would practice the sin if there was no punishment attending it. How does this differ from living in the practice of sin? Those who belong to Christ, and are obedient to the Word of God, have the death of Christ, the love of God, the detestable nature of sin, the preciousness of communion with God, and a deep rooted hatred of sin as sin to oppose all the workings of the lust in their hearts.

John Owen, Mortification of Sin: abridged and simplified by Rushing, p59.

Carson on Man's Natural Drift Towards Ungodliness...

2009-07-08T19:16:00.004+01:00

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.

D.A. Carson, Reflections, Christianity Today, 7-31-00.

Spurgeon Demands Passionate Preaching...

2009-07-07T19:28:00.002+01:00

We must regard the people as the wood and the sacrifice, well wetted a second and third time by the cares of the week, upon which, like the prophet, we must pray down the fire from heaven. A dull minister creates a dull audience. You cannot expect the office-bearers and members of the church to travel by steam if their own chosen pastor still drives the old broad-wheeled wagon.

CHS, Lectures to my Students, p45

Lloyd Jones Defines Preaching...

2009-07-07T19:12:00.005+01:00

What is Preaching? Logic on fire! Eloquent reason! Are these contradictions? Of course they are not. Reason concerning this Truth ought to be mightily eloquent, as you see it in the case of the Apostle Paul and others. It is theology on fire. And a theology which does not take fire, I maintain, is a defective theology; or at least the man's understanding of it is defective. Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. A true understanding and experience of the Truth must lead to this. . . . A man who can speak about these things dispassionately has no right whatsoever to be in a pulpit; and should never be allowed to enter one.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Zondervan, 1971), p. 97-98.

Spurgeon on the Compulsion to Preach...

2009-07-07T19:05:00.003+01:00

A man who has really within him the inspiration of the Holy Ghost calling him to preach, cannot help it - he must preach. As fire within his bones, so will that influence be, until it blazes forth. Friends may check him, foes criticize him, despisers sneer at him, the man is indomitable; he must preach if he has the call of heaven.

CHS quoted in Dallimore's biography, p30

Susannah Spurgeon on her Husband...

2009-07-07T18:59:00.002+01:00

Susannah's tribute to her deceased husband, CH Spurgeon,

'He lived in His embrace'

quoted in Dallimore's biography of Spurgeon, p28

Spurgeon on Having a Passion for Listeners...

2009-07-01T15:27:00.007+01:00

"I remember, when I have preached at different times in the country, and sometimes here, that my whole soul has agonized over men, every nerve of my body has been strained and I could have wept my very being out of my eyes and carried my whole frame away in a flood of tears, if I could but win souls"

Arnold Dallimore, Spurgeon, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1984), p. 198.

Spurgeon on What made him a Gospel-Centred Preacher...

2009-06-30T16:42:00.005+01:00

Dallimore tells us in his excellent bio of Spurgeon, 'After going to Newmarket [Spurgeon] attended services at one church, then another, hoping he might hear something that would help remove his burden.

" One man preached divine sovereignty but what was that sublime truth to a poor sinner who wished to know what he must do to be saved. There was another admirable man who preached about the law, but what was the use of ploughing up ground that needed to be sown? Another was a practical preacher, but it was very much like a commanding officerteaching the manouvres of war to a set of men without feet; what I wanted was to know 'how can i get my sins forgiven?' and they never told me that."

CHS in Dallimore's Spurgeon, a New Biography, p18.

Spurgeon on those who Think Lightly of Sin...

2009-06-30T16:38:00.003+01:00

Too many think lightly of sin, and therefore think lightly of the Saviour. He who has stood before God, convicted and condemned, with the rope about his neck, is the man to weep for joy when he is pardoned, to hate the evil which has been forgiven him, and to live to the honour of the Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed.

CHS, autobiography, 1890

Piper says Preaching is Expository Exultation...

2009-06-16T07:59:00.004+01:00

The reason the Word of God takes the form of preaching in worship is that true preaching is the kind of speech that consistently united these two aspects of worship (seeing and savouring God) both in the way it is done and in the aims that it has.

When Paul says to Timothy in 2 Tim 4:2, 'Preach the Word', the term he uses for 'Preach' is a word for 'herald', or 'announce' or 'proclaim' (keruxon). It is not the word for 'teach' or 'explain'... Preaching is a public exortation over the truth that it brings. It is not disinterested or cool or neutral. It is not mere explanation. It is manifestly passionate about what it says.

Nevertheless, this heralding contains teaching... Paul says preach the word... reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. So preaching is expository: it deals with the Word of God. True preaching is not the opinion of mere man. It is the faithful exposition of God's Word.

Piper - Supremacy of God in Preaching p11.

Piper on Seeing & Savouring God in worship...

2009-06-16T07:56:00.002+01:00

There are always two parts to true worship. There is seeing God and there is savouring God. You can't separate these. You must see him to savour him. And if you don't savour him when you see him, you insult him. In true worship, there is always understanding with the mind and feeling with the heart.

John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching, p10.

Spurgeon on the Minister's Self-Watch...

2009-06-16T07:50:00.004+01:00

Every workman knows the necessity of keeping his tools in a good state of repair. If the workman loses the edge from his axe, he knows that there will be greater draught upon his energies, or his work will be badly done.

The truth is, 'we [pastors] shall be likely to accomplish most when we are in our best spiritual condition; or in other words, we shall usually do our Lord's work best when our gifts and graces are in good order, and we shall do our worst when they are most out of trim.'

Spurgeon uses the illustration of an express train that is rendered useless all because one small screw is missing, and says... 'a man in all other respects fitted to be useful, may be by some small defect be exceedingly hindered, or even rendered utterly useless.'

'It is a terrible thing when the healing balm loses its efficacy through the blunderer who administers it. You know all those injurious effects frequently produced upon water through flowing along leaden pipes; even so the gospel itself, in flowing through men who are spiritually unhealthy, may be debased until it grows injurious to their hearers.'

CHS - Lectures to my Students, p7

Keller Pleads with Preachers to Let the Word drive them to the Pulpit...

2009-06-16T07:46:00.004+01:00

Do not let the pulpit drive you to the Word;

Let the Word drive you to the pulpit.

Sourced from Gospel Coalition 2009 Conference - Tim Keller quoting Ed Clowney during Panel Discussion.

Criswell says Passion is the Essence of Preaching...

2009-06-16T07:36:00.003+01:00

The sermon is no essay to be read for optional opinion, for people to casually consider. It is confrontation with Almighty God. It is to be delivered with burning passion in the authority of the Holy Spirit.

You cannot read the New Testament without sensing that the preachers were electrified by the power of the Gospel and swept off their feet by the wonder of the great revelation which had been committed to their trust. There is something wrong if a man charged with the greatest news in the world can be listless and rigid and dull. Who is going to believe that the glad tidings brought by the preachers means literally more that anything else on earth if they are presented with no verve or fire or attack, and if the man himself is apathetic, uninspired, afflicted with spiritual coma in unsaying by his attitude what he says in words.

W.A. Criswell, Criswell's Guidebook for Pastors, quoted in Preaching with Passion, p12

Montoya on the Struggle to be an Effective Preacher...

2009-06-16T07:07:00.003+01:00

In our struggle to be effective, contemporary preachers, we are tempted to avoid the charge [of 2 Timothy 4:1-5] or certain aspects of it. The lure of the crowd and of popularity can tempt us to compromise our call to 'preach the word'. Too easily we make merchandise of the divine message and sell it cheaply to the fickle crowds. The church at large has no lack of window-shopping hearers who seek peddlers of the Word who will be content with simply pleasing the ear instead of changing the heart. We preach in difficult times and all of us preachers know it.

from Preaching with Passion, p10.

Baxter on Loving your Flock...

2009-06-03T14:52:00.002+01:00

We must feel toward our people as a father toward his children; yea, the most tender love of a mother must not surpass ours. We must even travail in birth, till Christ be formed in them. They should see that we care for no outward thing, neither liberty, nor honor, nor life, in comparison to their salvation... When the people see that you truly love them, they will hear anything from you... Oh therefore, see that you feel a tender love for your people in your hearts, and let them perceive it in your speech and conduct. Let them see that you spend and are spent for their sakes.

Richard Baxte - The Reformed Pastor

Shafer on the Church's Call to Pastors Ministers of the Word...

2009-06-03T14:49:00.002+01:00

Make him a minister of the Word! Fling him into his office, tear the office sign from the door and nail on the sign: Study. Take him off the mailing list, lock him up with his books and his typewriter and his Bible. Slam him down on his knees before texts, broken hearts, the flippant lives of a superficial flock, and the Holy God. Force him to be the one man in our surfeited communities who knows about God. Throw him into the ring to box with God until he learns how short his arms are. Let him come out only when he is bruised and beaten into being a blessing. Set a time clock on him that will imprison him with thought and writing about God for 40 hours a week. Shut his garrulous mouth forever spouting "remarks" and stop his tongue always tripping lightly over everything nonessential. Require him to have something to say before he dare break silence.

Bend his knees in the lonesome valley, fire him from the PTA and cancel his country club membership; burn his eyes with weary study, wreck his emotional poise with worry for God, and make him exchange his pious stance for a humble walk before God and man. Make him spend and be spent for the glory of God. Rip out his telephone, burn up his ecclesiastical success sheets, refuse his glad hand, and put water in the gas tank of his community buggy. Give him a Bible and tie him in his pulpit and make him preach the Word of the living God. Test him, quiz him and examine him; humiliate him for his ignorance of things divine, and shame him for his glib comprehension of finances, batting averages, and political in-fighting.

Laugh at his frustrated effort to play psychiatrist, scorn his insipid morality, refuse his supine intelligence, and compel him to be a minister of the Word. If he dotes on being pleasing, demand that he please God and not man. Form a choir and raise a chant and haunt him with it night and day: "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." When at long last, he dares assay the pulpit, ask him if he has a Word from God; if he does not, then dismiss him and tell him you can read the morning paper, digest the television commentaries, think through the day's superficial problems, manage the community's myriad drives, and bless assorted baked potatoes and green beans ad infinitum better than he can.

Command him not to come back until he has read and re-read, written and re-written, until he can stand up, worn and forlorn, and say, "Thus saith the Lord." And when he is burned out by the flaming Word that coursed through him, when he is consumed at last by the fiery Grace blazing through him, and when he who was privileged to translate the truth of God to man is finally translated from earth to heaven, then bear him away gently, blow a muted trumpet and lay him down softly, place a two-edged sword on his coffin and raise a tune triumphant, for he was a brave soldier of the Word and e'er he died he had become a spokesman for his God.
Floyd Shafer

Plantinga on the Danger of Omitting Sin in Preaching...

2009-06-03T14:48:00.000+01:00

For the Christian church (even in its recently popular seeker services) to ignore, euphemize, or otherwise mute the lethal reality of sin is to cut the nerve of the gospel. For the sober truth is that without full disclosure on sin, the gospel of grace becomes impertinent, unnecessary, and finally uninteresting.

Cornelius Plantinga Jr.

Montoya on the Preacher's Job Description...

2009-03-05T14:01:00.003Z

A preacher's task is is to preach the Word! That is his job description. The preacher os tp be a faithful proclaimer of God's Word. Paul reminds Timothy of this awesome responsibility in 2 Timothy 4:1-5

A solemn charge - In the presence of God
A simple charge - Preach the Word
A ceaseless charge - Preach in season and out of season
A serious charge - Rebuke, reprove, exhort
A sober charge - Be sober in all things

Lloyd Jones Defines Preaching...

2009-03-05T13:58:00.003Z

Preaching is logic on fire.

He meant that good preaching must bring together both well-reasoned biblical content and intense passion.

Quoted in Alex Montoya's 'Preaching With Passion', p7.

Spurgeon on the Grace given in Trials

2009-02-18T12:31:00.005Z

There are some of thy graces which would never be discovered if it were not for thy trials. Dost thou not know that thy faith never looks so grand in summer weather as it does in winter? Hope itself is like a star--not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity.

It was but a little while ago that on thy knees thou wast saying, "Lord, I fear I have no faith: let me know that I have faith." Was not this really, though perhaps unconsciously, praying for trials?--for how canst thou know that thou hast faith until thy faith is exercised? Depend upon it, God often sends us trials that our graces may be discovered, and that we may be certified of their existence.

Spurgeon, Morning & Evening, feb 18th.

Spurgeon on our Necessary Intolerance of False Teaching...

2009-02-17T16:17:00.002Z

Some excellent brethren seem to think more of the life than of the truth; for when I warn them that the enemy has poisoned the children's bread, they answer 'Dear brother, we are sorry to hear it; and, to counteract the evil, we will open the window, and give the children fresh air.' Yes, open the window, and give them fresh air, by all means ... But, at the same time, this ought you to have done, and not to have left the other undone. Arrest the poisoners, and open the windows, too! While men go on preaching false doctrine, you may talk as much as you will about deepening their spiritual life, but you will fail in it.

Spurgeon, All Round Ministry, 164

Spurgeon says Effective Preachers are to be Sound Theologians...

2009-02-17T16:10:00.004Z

To know truth as it should be known, to love it as it should be loved, and then to proclaim it in the right spirit, and in its proper proportions"

"To be effective preachers you must be sound theologians"... "those who do away with Christian doctrine are, whether they are aware of it or not, the worst enemies of Christian living ... [because] the coals of orthodoxy are necessary to the fire of piety".

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, All Round Ministry, p8

Spurgeon on Ministry's most Crushing Blows...

2009-02-17T16:06:00.004Z

One crushing stroke has sometimes laid the minister very low. The brother most relied upon becomes a traitor ... Ten years of toil do not take so much life out of us as we lose in a few hours by Ahithophel the traitor, or Demas the apostate

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Lectures to my Students, p161.

Wells on the Holiness of God and Sin...

2009-02-11T20:53:00.002Z

Without the holiness of God, sin has no meaning and grace has no point, for it is God’s holiness that gives to the one its definition and to the other its greatness. Without the holiness of God, sin is merely human failure but not failure before God, in relation to God. It is failure without the standard by which we know it to have fallen short. It is failure without the presumption of guilt, failure without retribution, failure without any serious moral meaning.

And without the holiness of God, grace is no longer grace because it does not arise from the dark clouds of judgment that obscured the cross and exacted the damnation of the Son in our place. Furthermore, without holiness, grace loses its meaning as grace, a free gift of the God who, despite his holiness and because of his holiness, has reconciled sinners to himself in the death of his Son.

And without holiness, faith is but a confidence in the benevolence of life, or perhaps merely confidence in ourselves. Sin, grace, and faith are emptied of any but a passing meaning if they are severed from their roots in the holiness of God.

–David F. Wells, God in the Wasteland (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 144-45.

For Spurgeon, Calvinism is the Gospel...

2009-02-11T19:55:00.001Z

It's been a while since we've had a spurgeon quote so here goes...

"I have my own private opinion, that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and him crucified, unless you preach what now-a-days is called Calvinism. I have my own ideas, and those I always state boldly. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism. Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith without works; not unless we preach the sovereignty of God in his dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor, I think, can we preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the peculiar redemption which Christ made for his elect and chosen people; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation, after having believed. Such a gospel I abhor. The gospel of the Bible is not such a gospel as that. We preach Christ and him crucified in a different fashion, and to all gainsayers we reply, "We have not so learned Christ."

"A Defense of Calvinism," by C. H. Spurgeon, in C. H. Spurgeon Autobiography, eds. S. Spurgeon and J. Harrold, Rev ed., vol I, The Early Years 1834-1859 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1976: reprint),

Patrick Hamilton on the Gospel...

2009-02-11T15:32:00.003Z

The Nature of the Law and Gospel...

The law shows us our sin.

The Gospel shows us the remedy for it.

The law shows us our condemnation.
The Gospel shows us our redemption.

The law is the word of ire.

The Gospel is the word of grace.

The law is the word of despair.

The Gospel is the word of comfort

The law is the word of unrest.

The Gospel is the word of peace.

Patrick Hamilton, 'Dyuers gatherynges of scripture and declarynge of fayth and workes of the lawe (also known as Patrick's places), ?1534. Discovered in the Folger Shakespeare Library by Beth Tapscott.

Valley of Vision - a Puritan Prayer for the Sufferer

2009-02-11T15:31:00.001Z

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou has brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;

Let me find thy light in my darkness, Thy life in my death, that every good work or thought found in me thy joy in my sorrow, thy grace in my sin, thy riches in my poverty thy glory in my valley.

A Puritan Prayer for Comfort - From the Valley of Vision

2009-02-11T15:29:00.001Z

Giver of all good, streams upon streams of love overflow my path. Thou hast made me out of nothing, hast recalled me from a far country, hast translated me from ignorance to knowledge, from darkness to light, from death to life, from misery to peace, from folly to wisdom, from error to truth, from sin to victory.

Thanks be to thee for my high and holy calling. I bless thee for ministering angels, for the comfort of thy Word, for the ordinances of thy church, for the teaching of thy Spirit, for thy holy sacraments, for the communion of saints, for Christian fellowship, for the recorded annals of holy lives, for examples sweet to allure, for beacons sad to deter.

Thy will is in all thy provisions to enable me to grow in grace, and to be meet for thy eternal presence. My heaven-born faith gives promise of eternal sight, my new birth a pledge of never-ending life. I draw near to thee, knowing thou wilt draw near to me.

I ask of thee, believing thou hast already given. I entrust myself to thee, for thou hast redeemed me. I bless and adore thee, the eternal God, for the comfort of these thoughts, the joy of these hopes.

Puritan Prayer - Come Holy Spirit

2009-02-11T15:19:00.000Z

O Holy Spirit, as the sun is full of light, the ocean full of water, and Heaven full of glory, so may our hearts be filled with you! Vain are all divine purposes of love and the redemption wrought by Jesus except thou work within, regenerating by thy power, giving us eyes to see Jesus, showing us the realities of the unseen world.

Give us yourself without measure, like an endless fountain of inexhaustible riches. We regret our coldness, our poverty, our emptiness, our imperfect vision, our leisurely service, our prayerless prayers, and praiseless praises. Suffer us not to grieve or resist you.

Come as power, to expel every rebel lust nestled in our hearts and reign supreme;
Come as teacher, leading us into all truth, filling us with all understanding;
Come as love, that we may adore the Father, and love him as our all;
Come as joy, to dwell in us, move in us, animate us;
Come as light, illuminating the Scripture, and fashion us according to your laws;
Come as sanctifier, may our bodies, souls and spirits be wholly and unreservedly yours;
Come as helper, with strength to bless and keep us… to direct our every step;
Come as beautifier, bringing order out of confusion, loveliness out of chaos.

Magnify to us your glory by being magnified in us, and make us redolent with your fragrance.

From The Valley of Vision - A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions

The Gospel must be TOLD as well as Lived...

2009-01-20T16:16:00.003Z

No matter how well we live the gospel (and we must live it well, else we hinder its reception), sooner or later we must communicate the content of the gospel before a person can become a disciple of Jesus.

can't remember whose quote this was, but it was too good to omit.

Welch on the Challenge of Mission in our Neighbourhood...

2009-01-20T16:12:00.001Z

Aren’t the most popular mission trips the ones that take us far from our own neighborhood? Russia is easy; our own neighborhood is a constant challenge. Has anyone consistently had the boldness and clarity of Jesus in testifying about the gospel? Never. Has anyone consistently avoided the fear of man in evangelism? Certainly not. There is a “foolishness” inherent in the message of the cross. The clear proclamation of the gospel does not make us look good. It doesn’t make us popular.

Edward T. Welch - When People are Big and God is Small, P&R Publishing, 1997, p. 39- 40.

Spurgeon Can't Understand why Christians aren't Broken over the Lost...

2008-12-22T12:54:00.001Z

If I never won souls, I would sigh till I did. I would break my heart over them if I could not break their hearts. Though I can understand the possibility of an earnest sower never reaping, I cannot understand the possibility of an earnest sower being content not to reap. I cannot comprehend any one of you Christian people trying to win souls and not having results, and being satisfied without results.

Spurgeon - Tearful Sowing and Joyful Reaping, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1869, v. 15, p. 237

Spurgeon on why Christians Preach in Spite of Rejection...

2008-12-22T12:52:00.001Z

If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled with the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.

Spurgeon Sermons, 7.11

Piper on Pursuing the Supremacy of His Name...

2008-12-22T12:51:00.001Z

God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshippers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose -

John Piper, Let the Nations be Glad

Fernandez on the Bedrock of Mission...

2008-12-22T12:49:00.000Z

The bedrock of missions is not the value of man. It is the spread of God's glory. The biblical commitment to evangelism and missions is rooted in God's passionate concern to make His name known.

Steve Fernandez - Missions and the Glory of God's Name.

Spurgeon on the Only One who Saves in Evangelism...

2008-12-03T07:42:00.002Z

Suppose that without divine aid you should try to save a soul-- you might as well attempt to make a world. Why, you cannot create even a fly, how can you create a new heart and a right spirit? Regeneration is a great mystery, it is out of your reach. What can you and I do in this matter? It is far beyond our line. We can share the truth of God with others; but to 'apply that truth to the heart and conscience' is quite another thing. I have preached Jesus Christ with my whole heart, and yet I know that I have never produced a saving effect upon a single unregenerate man unless the Spirit of God has opened the heart and placed the living seed of truth within it.

Spurgeon, quoted in The Farm Labourer

Dever Defines Failed Evangelism...

2008-12-03T07:35:00.004Z

We think we fail in our evangelism if we tell the gospel to someone and they are not converted. We only fail if we do not faithfully tell the gospel at all.

You and I aren’t called to use our extensive powers to convict and change the sinner while God stands back as a gentleman, quietly waiting for the spiritual corpse, His declared spiritual enemy, to invite God into his heart. Rather, we should resolve to preach the gospel like gentlemen, persuading while knowing we can’t regenerate anyone, and then stand back while God uses all His extensive powers to convict and change the sinner. Then we’ll see clearly who it is that can really call the dead to life, and although He’ll use us in the doing of it, it’s not you and I who are actually doing it.

Mark Dever, quoted in The Gospel & Personal Evangelism

Baxter on the Absurdity of Protecting our Reputation in Evangelism...

2008-12-03T07:26:00.003Z

A foolish physician he is, and a most unfaithful friend, that will let a sick man die for fear of troubling him; and cruel wretches are we to our friends, that will rather suffer them to go quietly to hell, then we will anger them, or hazard our reputation with them.

Richard Baxter

Dever warns of Protecting our Pride at the Cost of their Souls...

2008-12-02T07:32:00.002Z

We don’t want to cause awkwardness. We want respect, and after all, we reckon, if we try to share the gospel with them, we’ll look foolish! And so we are quiet. We protect our pride at the cost of their souls. In the name of not wanting to look weird, we are content to be complicit in their being lost.

Mark Dever The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Crossway, 2007, p. 27

Calvin on the Holy Spirit & Mission...

2008-12-02T07:30:00.001Z

In order that the apostles may not be frightened of their weakness, He summons them to a hope of new and extraordinary grace, as if to say, ‘even if you know you are not equal to such a responsibility, there is no reason for you to despond, for I shall supply you with the power that you lack… the Holy Spirit.

Calvin, quoted in Calvin's commentaries, Luke... p247

Stott on Mission for God's Glory...

2008-12-02T07:27:00.002Z

"We should desire the spread of the gospel throughout the world, not out of a sinful imperialism or triumphalism, whether for ourselves or the church or even “Christianity.” Nor just because evangelism is part of our Christian obedience (though it is). Nor primarily to make other people happy (though it does). But especially because the glory of God and of His Christ is at stake. God is King, has inaugurated His saving reign through Christ, and has a right to rule in the lives of His creatures. Our ambition, then, is to seek first His kingdom, to cherish the passionate desire that His name should receive from men the honour which is due to it."

John Stott - The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, IVP, 1978, p. 170.

Packer on our Divine Aid in Evangelism

2008-12-02T07:22:00.001Z

We must remember that we are called to be faithful preachers who must learn to rest all our hopes of fruit in evangelism upon the omnipotent grace of God.

J.I. Packer -Evangelism & the sovereignty of God

J Gresham Machen on the Necessity of Pointing out Sin...

2008-11-28T10:32:00.001Z

No man is interested in a piece of good news unless he has the consciousness of needing it; no man is interested in an offer of salvation unless he knows that there is something from which he needs to be saved. It is quite useless to ask a man to adopt the Christian view of the gospel unless he first has the Christian view of sin.

J. Gresham Machen, God Transcendent, 1949.

McCheyne on Living a Cross-Centred Life...

2008-11-27T12:04:00.001Z

I am persuaded that I shall obtain the highest amount of present happiness, I shall do most for God's glory and the good of man, and I shall have the fullest reward in eternity, by maintaining a conscience always washed in Christ's blood, by being filled with the Holy Spirit at all times, and by attaining the most entire likeness to Christ in mind, will, and heart,that is possible for a redeemed sinner to attain to in this world.

McCheyne, quoted in Bonar's Memoirs and Remains, p150

Stott says Preaching is Indispensable to Christianity...

2008-11-20T13:16:00.003Z

Preaching is indispensable to Christianity. Without preaching a necessary part of its authenticity has been lost. For Christianity is, in its very essence, a religion of the Word of God. No attempt to understand Christianity can succeed which overlooks or denies the truth that the living God has taken the initiative to reveal himself savingly to fallen humanity; or that his self-revelation has been given by the most straightforward means of communication known to us, namely by a word and words; or that he calls upon those who have heard his Word to speak it to others.

Quoted in Between Two Worlds, p15

McCheyne Lays His Plans for the Year Before His Congregation...

2008-11-18T20:58:00.005Z

Dearly belonged and longed for,

I now begin another year of ministry among you and I am resolved, if God give me health and strength, that I will not let a man or woman or child among you alone until you have at least heard the testimony of God concerning His Son, either to your condemnation or salvation.

And I will pray, as I have done before, that if the Lord will indeed give us a great outpouring of His Spirit, He will do it in such a way that it will be evident to the weakest child among you that it is the Lord's work and not man's. I think I may say to you, as Rutherford said to his people, 'Your heaven would be two heavens to me'.

And if the Lord be pleased to give me a crown from among you, I do here promise in His sight that I will cast it at His feet saying, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain! Blessing, and honour and glory and power b unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever.'

McCheyne... quoted in Memoirs and Remains - Bonar, p116

Thomas on Why Pastors Should Preach Through Books of the Bible...

2008-11-18T20:52:00.004Z

In an age of relative illiteracy as far as the content of Scripture is concerned in many parts of the world, the need to preach the whole Bible, rather than serendipitously picking a text from here and there, is all the more urgent.

quoted in Feed My Sheep, p85

Carson on What Truly Builds a Church...

2008-11-18T20:45:00.004Z

If the church is being built with large portions of charm, personality, easy oratory, positive thinking, managerial skills, powerful and emotional experiences, and people smarts, but without the repeated, passionate, Spirit-anointed proclamation of Jesus Christ and him crucified, we may be winning more adherents than converts.

quoted in "The Cross and Christian Ministry" p80

Sproul on the Dangers of People-Pleasing

2008-11-18T20:32:00.002Z

Our servanthood should require no supervision. We should not need to have someone constantly watching us to ensure that we are working. Our goal should be to please Christ, not perform merely for the applause of people. People-pleasers cannot be true servants of Christ. We must keep our eyes on Christ and not on the judges of this world.

quoted in "5 Things Every Christian Needs to Know", p105

McChenye on the only thing that keeps a Pastor going in Ministry...

2008-11-04T14:17:00.003Z

Much peace and rest tonight. Much broken under a sense of my exceeding wickedness, which no eye can see but Thine. Much persuasion of the sufficiency of Christ, and of the constancy of his love. Oh, how sweet to work all day for God, then to lie down at night under his smiles.

McCheyne... quotes in Bonar's Memoirs & Remains, p56.

Carson Highlights Indicators of Christian Immaturity...

2008-11-04T14:11:00.004Z

There are Christians who are international class projectile vomiters, spiritually speaking. They simply cannot digest what Paul would call solid food. Only milk will suit them. If you give them anything else, they will upchuck. They are infants still and display their wretched immaturity even in the way that they complain if you give them more than milk. Not for them the solid knowledge of holy Scripture, not for them mature theological reflection, and they reveal not for them growing in perceptive Christian thought. They want nothing more than another round of choruses and a simple message, something that won’t challenge them to think, to examine their lives, to make choices, and to grow in their knowledge and adoration of the living God.

Carson, Cross and Christian Ministry, p72

Chapell & Robinson Define an Expository Sermon...

2008-11-04T13:58:00.003Z

An expository sermon is that which requires that it expound scripture by deriving from a specific text main points and sub-points that disclose the thought of the author, cover the scope of the passage, and are applied to the lives of the listeners.

Haddon Robinson said similarly...'Expository preaching, is the communication of a biblical concept, derived from and transmitted through a historical, grammatical, and literary study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and experience of the preacher, then through the preacher, applies to the hearers.'

Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching, p129
Haddon Robinson, Biblical Preaching, 21.

Calvin on the Folly of Failing to Prepare for Preaching...

2008-11-04T13:49:00.004Z

If I should step into the pulpit, without vouchsafing to look upon any book, and fondly imagine within myself, 'Truth, when i come thither, God will give me enough whereof to speak', and in the mean while I hold scorn to read, or study aforehand what I shall speak, and come hither without minding how to apply the Holy Scripture to the edification of the people, by reason whereof I shall play the presumptious fool, and God would put me to shame for mine overboldness.

Calvin, Sermons on Deuteronomy, quoted in the excellent Feed My Sheep, p65.

Spurgeon on Christ and Christ Alone as our Salvation...

2008-11-04T13:45:00.002Z

There is one thing which we all of us too much becloud in our preaching, though I believe we do it very unintentionally–namely, the great truth that it is not prayer, it is not faith, it is not our doings, it is not our feelings upon which we must rest, but upon Christ, and on Christ alone.

We are apt to think that we are not in a right state, that we do not feel enough, instead of remembering that our business is not with self, but Christ. Let me beseech thee, look only to Christ; never expect delieverance from self, from ministers, or from any means of any kind apart from Christ; keep thine eye simply on Him; let his death, His agonies, His groans, His sufferings, His merits, His glories, His intercession, be fresh upon thy mind; when thou wakest in the morning look for Him; when thou liest down at night look for Him.

Remember, sinner, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee–it is Christ; it is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee–it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that is the instrument–it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not to thy hope, but to Christ, the source of thy hope; look not to thy faith, but to Christ, the author and finisher of thy faith; and if thou doest that, ten thousand devils cannot throw thee down…

Spurgeon, quoted in The Forgotten Spurgeon, by Iain Murray, p42

Don Carson calls on Preachers to Proclaim the Testimony About God...

2008-10-29T13:48:00.004Z

1 Corinthians 1:21 tells us that God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what was preached, the focus being on the content. Nevertheless, Paul writes of the foolishness of what was preached, not the foolishness of what was discussed or commented or shared. So also here: the content of Paul's message is 'the testimony about God' (that is what God has done in Christ Jesus). But what Paul does with this message is proclaim it. He preaches it... Done properly, preaching is simply that re-presentation of the God's gospel, God's good news, by which men and women come to know him.

Don Carson, quoted in The Cross & Christian Ministry, p37.

Spurgeon on Why for a Believer It Is Not Death To Die...

2008-10-29T13:32:00.002Z

Death! I will not fear you! Why should I? You look like a dragon but your sting is gone. Your teeth are broken, old lion, so why should I fear you? I know that you are no more able to destroy me, but you are sent as a messenger to conduct me to the golden gate of heaven through which I shall enter and see my Saviour’s unveiled face for ever.

Spurgeon, quoted in his sermon entitled 'Christ the Destroyer of Death', 1876.

Spurgeon on the Gospel's Power over Death...

2008-10-29T13:29:00.001Z

“Death in its substance has been removed, and only the shadow of it remains.… Nobody is afraid of a shadow, for a shadow cannot block a man’s pathway for even a moment. The shadow of a dog can’t bite; the shadow of a sword can’t kill.” Christ Himself took the full force of death’s destroying power by dying and paying for our sin, then rising from the grave. Trusting Jesus may not remove death’s shadow, but remember, shadows can’t hurt us.

CH Spurgeon, quoted in an exposition of Psalm 23 from The Treasury of David

Hodge on What the Resurrection means for the Elect...

2008-10-24T11:24:00.002+01:00

As Christ died as the head and representative of his people, his resurrection secures and illustrates theirs. As He lives, they shall live also. If he remained under the power of death, there is no source of spiritual life to men; He is the vine, we are the branches; if the vine be dead the branches must be dead also.

Quoted in Systematic Theology vol 2, p627

Dever on What Makes the Church Unique...

2008-10-21T15:00:00.002+01:00

The uniqueness of the church is her message - the Gospel. The church is the only institution entrusted by God with the message of repentance for sins and belief in Jesus Christ for forgiveness. That Gospel is visualized in the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, both instituted by Christ. The distinguishing marks of the church, then, are the right preaching of this Gospel and the right administration of the biblical ordinances that dramatize it.

Mark Dever - the Deliberate Church - p26.

Spurgeon's Indictment on Today's Lack of Truth Defenders...

2008-10-21T14:55:00.003+01:00

Few nowadays will side with the truth their fathers bled for.

Spurgeon, quoted in Jesus, The King of Truth... Majesty in Misery vol 3 (BoT), p128.

Image: The cobbled initials of Patrick Hamilton, martyred in St Andrews.

Spurgeon Demonstrates Great Care in Preaching...

2008-10-21T14:47:00.002+01:00

I dare not preach to this congregation as if you were all Christians, for you are not. I dare not deliver even one discourse under the delusion that all my hearers are saved, for, alas, they are not. This is the fault with multitudes of sermons—that they seem to carry the whole congregation to Heaven when possibly the major part of those present may be going down to Hell! That will not do.

Spurgeon, quoted in The King in Pilate's Hall, Majesty in Misery vol 3 (BoT), p119.

Spurgeon Denounces the Fiction of Universal Salvation...

2008-10-21T14:39:00.003+01:00

The statue of Christ was set up among the statues of Plato, Socrates and other notable men—and some thought it was an honour to Christ, but it was not. They would crown Christ, so they say, among the great ones of earth. Ah, but they cannot crown Him unless they “crown Him Lord of all.” Our blessed Saviour is honestly intolerant! He says, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but He that believes not shall be damned.” Because He loves the souls of men, He will not bolster up the fiction of universal charity.

Spurgeon, quoted in The King in Pilate's Hall, Majesty in Misery vol 3 (BoT), p118.

Dever on God's Intention for the Local Church...

2008-10-18T22:32:00.002+01:00

God intends the local church to be a corporate display of his glory and wisdom, both to unbelievers and to unseen spiritual powers. More specifically, we are a corporate dwelling place for God's Spirit, the organic body of Christ in which he magnifies His glory. The church is God's vehicle for displaying His glory to His creation.

Dever in 'deliberate church', p26.

Packer Defines Holiness...

2008-10-18T22:21:00.002+01:00

Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find his mind described in the Scripture. It is the habit fo agreeing in God's judgement, hating what he hates, loving what he loves, and measuring everything in this world by the standard of his Word.

quoted in a Passion for Holiness, p19

McCheyne on Expository Preaching...

2008-10-18T22:13:00.003+01:00

Expound much; it is through the truth that souls are to be sanctified, not through essays upon the truth.

Robert Murray McCheyne, quoted in Bonar's Memoir's & Remains, p 217.

Thomas explaions how the Nature of Scripture should Dictate how we Preach...

2008-10-18T22:00:00.004+01:00

Expository preaching is a necessary corollary of the doctrine of the God-breathed nature of Scripture. The idea is not so much that God breathed into the Scriptures, but that the Scriptures are the product of His breathing out. Independent of what we may feel regarding the Bible as we read it, Scripture maintains a 'breath of God' quality. The preacher is to make God's Word known and make it understandable.

Derek Thomas, quotes in Feed my Sheep, p63.

Mohler asks What it Means to be a Servant of the Word...

2008-10-18T21:55:00.003+01:00

What does it mean to be a servant of the Word?

It means that our ministry is so prioritized that the preaching of the Word becomes so central that everything else must fall into place behind this.
It means that our congregations are aware of this priority and honour it.
It means that our preaching must be truly expository.
It will be evident that every other task and priority is submitted to that first priority task.

Al Mohler, quoted in The Primacy of Preaching, an essay in Feed My Sheep, p29-31

Spurgeon on Loving your Flock...

2008-10-18T21:49:00.002+01:00

A man must have a great heart if he would have a great congregation. When a man has a large, loving heart, men go to him as ships in a haven, and feel at peace when they have anchored under the lee of his friendship. Such a man is hearty in private as well as in public.

CH Spurgeon, Lectures to my Students, 183-4

Don Carson on the Power of the Cross...

2008-10-18T21:39:00.002+01:00

In deep irony, it is that moment of sumblime weakness, the cross of Jesus Christ, that most greatly displays the power of God.

DA Carson, The cross and christian ministry, p23

Boice on Today's False Gospel...

2008-10-18T21:26:00.006+01:00

Sadly, this is not the church's finest hour. We live in an age of weak theology and casual Christian conduct. Our knowledge is insufficient, our worship is irreverent, and our lives are immoral. Even the evangelical church has succumbed to the the spirit of this age... and lost it's grip on the Gospel.

Perhaps the simplest way to say this is that evangelicalism has become worldly. This can be demonstrated by comparing it with yesterday's liberalism. What was once said of liberal churches must now be said of evangelical churches: they seek the world's wisdom, believe the world's theology, follow the world's agenda, and adopt the world's methods.

According to the standards of worldly wisdom, the Bible is unable to meet the demands of life in these postmodern times. By itself, God's Word is insufficient to win people to Christ, promote spiritual growth, provide practical guidance, or transform society. So churches supplement the plain teaching of Scripture with entertainment, group therapy, political activism, signs and wonders - anything that promises to appeal to religious consumers. According to the world's theology, sin is merely a dysfunction and salvation means having better self-esteem. When this theology comes to church, it replaces difficult but essential doctrines like the propitiation of God's wrath with practical techniques for self-improvement. The world's agenda is personal happiness, so the gospel is presented as a plan for individual fulfilment rather than as a pathway of costly discipleship. The world's methods for accomplishing this self-centred agenda are necessarily pragmatic, so evangelical churches are willing to try whatever seems like it might work.

So, what happened to the Gospel of grace? It was lost in the church study, when the minister decided to give people what they wanted rather than what they needed. It was lost in the Christian bookstore, somewhere between the self-help section and the aisle full of Jesus merchandise. And it was lost in our minds and hearts when we decided to accept the world's theology of human achievement, saving room for our own personal contribution to salvation.

Boice & Ryken, Doctrines of Grace, p20-22

A Puritan Prayer before Preaching...

2008-10-18T21:16:00.002+01:00

My Master God

I am desired to preach today,

but go weak and needy to my task;

Yet I long that people might be edified with divine truth,

that an honest testimony might be borne for thee;

Give me assistance in preaching and prayer,

with heart uplifted for grace and unction.

Present to my view things pertaining to my subject,

with fullness of matter and clarity of thought,

proper expressions, fluency, fervency,

a feeling sense of the things I preach,

and grace to apply them to men’s consciences.

Keep me conscious all the while of my defects,

and let me not gloat in pride over my performance.

Help me to offer a testimony for thyself,

and to leave sinners inexcusable in neglecting thy mercy.

Give me freedom to open the sorrows of thy people,

and set before them comforting considerations.

Attend with power the truth preached

and awaken the attention of my slothful audience.

May thy people be refreshed, melted, convicted,

comforted,and help me to use the strongest arguments

drawn from Christ’s incarnation and sufferings,

that men might be made holy.

I myself need thy support, comfort, strength, holiness,

that I might be a pure channel of thy grace,

and be able to do something for thee;

Give me then refreshment among thy people,

and help me not to treat excellent matter in a defective way,

or bear a broken testimony to so worthy a redeemer,

or be harsh in treating of Christ’s death,

its design and end, from lack of warmth and fervency.

And keep me in tune with thee as I do this work.

From The Valley of Vision, Banner of Truth, p348-9