Spurgeon: Trials As Stepping-Stones To Greater Things

This Charles Haddon Spurgeon quote is taken from Steve Miller's great little book on Spurgeon, called, C. H. Spurgeon on Spiritual Leadership:

"Faith leads us to believe in difficulties being overruled to promote success. Because we believe in God, and in His Holy Spirit, we believe that difficulties will be greatly sanctified to us, and that they are only placed before us as stepping-stones to grander results. We believe in defeats, my brethren; we believe in going back with the banner trailed in the mire, persuaded that this may be the surest way to lasting triumph. We believe in waiting, weeping, and agonizing; we believe in a non-success which prepares us for doing greater and higher work, for which we should not have been fitted unless anguish had sharpened our soul. We believe in our infirmities, and even glory in them; we thank God that we are not so eloquent as we could wish to be, and have not all the abilities we might desire, because now we know that 'the excellency of the power' shall 'be of God, and not of us.' Faith enables us so to rejoice in the Lord that our infirmities become platforms for the display of His grace."

The doctrine of election ought not divide Christians.

Charles Spurgeon:

We give our hand to every man that loves the Lord Jesus Christ, be he what he may or who he may. The doctrine of election, like the great act of election itself, is intended to divide, not between Israel and Israel, but between Israel and the Egyptians, - not between saint and saint, but between saints and the children of the world. A man may be evidently of God’s chosen family, and yet though elected, may not believe in the doctrine of election. I hold there are many called, who do not believe in effectual calling, and that there are a great many who persevere to the end, who do not believe the doctrine of final perseverance. We do hope that the hearts of many are a great deal better than their heads. We do not set their fallacies down to any willful opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus, but simply to an error in their judgments, which we pray God to correct. We hope that if they think us mistaken too, they will reciprocate the same Christian courtesy; and when we meet around the cross, we hope that we shall ever feel that we are one in Christ Jesus.

HT: Pastor and People

I am ashamed of every sermon I preach.

Richard Baxter:

For myself, as I am ashamed of my dull and careless heart, and of my slow and unprofitable course of life, so, the Lord knows, I am ashamed of every sermon I preach; when I think what I have been speaking of, and who sent me, and that men’s salvation or damnation is so much concerned in it, I am ready to tremble lest God should judge me as a slighter of His truths and the souls of men, and lest in the best sermon I should be guilty of their blood.

Me thinks we should not speak a word to men in matters of such consequence without tears, or the greatest earnestness that possibly we can; were not we too much guilty of the sin which we reprove, it would be so.

HT: Pulpit Magazine

Revival = The rediscovery of radical, God-centered Christian living.

"This is what revival is all about—a church experiences revival when a large number of people get red hot about trusting Christ, and red hot about turning to God for help, and red hot about loving others, especially the lost, and red hot about showing the glory of God. That's revival. That's spiritual awakening. It's the rediscovery of radical, God-centered Christian living. And it is intensely practical. It will change more at home and work probably than it will at church."

- John Piper. Excerpt from the sermon, "Practical Help for Praying for Help," delivered on January 3, 1988.

God is the Gospel

"Our love to him should begin on earth, as it shall be in heaven; for the bride taketh not by a thousand degrees so much delight in her wedding-garment as she doth in her bridegroom; so we, in the life to come, howbeit clothed with glory as with a robe, shall not be so much affected with the glory that goeth about us, as with the Bridegroom's joyful face and presence."

- Samuel Rutherford, The Lovliness of Christ, pg. 23


2 Thessalonians 1:10, "...when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed--for our testimony to you was believed."

When a burden allows the burdened to fly...

"Christ's cross is such a burden as sails are to a ship or wings to a bird."

- Samuel Rutherford, The Loveliness of Christ, pg. 21

Here I Will Abide Till...

The Great Master Gardener, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a wonderful providence, with his own hand, planted me here, where by his grace, in this part of his vineyard, I grow; and here I will abide till the great Master of the vineyard think fit to transplant me.

- Samuel Rutherford, The Loveliness of Christ, pg. 1

We Must Have The Gospel Preached.

These words from Charles Haddon Spurgeon, British Reformed Baptist preacher (June 19, 1834 - January 31, 1892):

I may not have many more opportunities of preaching, and I make up my mind to this one thing, that I will waste no time upon secondary themes, but when I do preach it shall be the gospel, or something very closely bearing upon it. I will endeavour each time to strike under the fifth rib, and never beat the air. Those who have a taste for the superfluities may take their fill of them, it is for me to keep to the great necessary truths by which men’s souls are saved. My work is to preach Christ crucified and the gospel, which gives men salvation through faith. I hear every now and then of very taking sermons about some bright new nothing or another. Some preachers remind me of the emperor who had a wonderful skill in carving men’s heads upon cherry stones. What a multitude of preachers we have who can make wonderfully fine discourses out of a mere passing thought, of no consequence to anyone. But we want the gospel. We have to live and to die, and we must have the gospel. Certain of us may be cold in our graves before many weeks are over, and we cannot afford to toy and trifle: we want to see the bearings of all teachings upon our eternal destinies, and upon the gospel which sheds its light over our future.

- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol. 28 (1882) (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1971), 200.

[HT: Provocations and Pantings]

We believe because we are saved

“A man is not saved because he believes in Christ; he believes in Christ because he is saved.”

- Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Philadelphia, PA: P&R Publishing, 1965), 101.

[HT: Of First Importance]

What I contribute to my redemption.

“All is of God; the only thing of my very own which I contribute to my redemption is the sin from which I need to be redeemed.”

- William Temple, quoted by Sinclair Ferguson, In Christ Alone (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2007), 42.

[HT: Of First Importance]

How To Prove You Don't Have Brains

This Spurgeon quote courtesy of Justin Buzzard:

"The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains, proves that he has no brains of his own."

-Charles Spurgeon, Sermon: Paul, His Cloak And His Books

These words affirm my frequent quotations of men like John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, Spurgeon, R.C. Sproul, and the like. But can a preacher quote others too much? Hmmm...

God's Gift Does Not Replace Our Effort...

From John Piper's A Godward Life, pg. 39:

God commands what he wills and grants in measure what he commands, but we should always pursue what he commands. He says, "Work out your salvation...for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). God does not say, "Since I work, you shouldn't." He says, "Because I do, you can." God's gift does not replace our effort; it enables and carries it.

Mark Dever: The Right Way to Think About Church Growth

Thanks to Thabiti Anyabwile for this quote...

It comes from Mark Dever's 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, pp. 214-215:

A healthy church has a pervasive concern with church growth--not simply growing in numbers but growing members. A church full of growing Christians is the kind of church growth I want as a pastor. Some today seem to think that one can be a "baby Christian" for a whole lifetime. Growth is seen to be an optional extra for particularly zealous disciples. But be very careful about taking that line of thought. Growth is a sign of life. Growing trees are living trees, and growing animals are living animals. When something stops growing it dies.

Growth may not mean that you negotiate this rapid in half the time you negotiated the last; it may simply mean that you are able to continue in the right direction as a Christian, regardless of the adverse circumstances. Remember, it is only the things that are alive that swim upstream; the dead things all float along with the current.

In less than one paragraph, D.A. Carson demolishes the church growth movement...

I certainly wish that I would have read this when it was published...back in 1993:

Ever so subtly, we start to think that success more critically depends on thoughtful sociological analysis than on the gospel; Barna becomes more important than the Bible. We depend on plans, programs, vision statements - but somewhere along the way we have succumbed to the temptation to displace the foolishness of the cross with the wisdom of strategic planning. Again, I insist, my position is not a thinly veiled plea for obscurantism, for seat-of-the-pants ministry that plans for nothing. Rather, I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry.

- From D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons From 1 Corinthians (1993), p. 26.

MacArthur: Why Doctrine Matters

This John MacArthur post via Pulpit Magazine...an excerpt:

Is it enough to “believe in Jesus” in some amorphous sense that divorces “faith” from any particular doctrine about Him, or is doctrine—and the content of our faith—really important after all?

Scripture plainly teaches that we must be sound in the faith—which is to say that doctrine does matter (1 Tim. 4:6; 2 Tim. 4:2-3; Tit. 1:9; 2:1). It matters a lot.

“If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing” (1 Tim. 6:3-4, emphasis added).

Sound, biblical doctrine is a necessary aspect of true wisdom and authentic faith. The attitude that scorns doctrine while elevating feelings or blind trust cannot legitimately be called faith at all, even if it masquerades as Christianity. It is actually an irrational form of unbelief.

Click here to read the rest of the post.

A Culture of Grace

Thanks to The Blue Fish Project for reminding me of this crucial truth:

...As we become increasingly Jesus-centred we'll become increasingly other-centred.

The Young Pastor and His Family

This courtesy of Ted Tripp, via Justin Buzzard's blog:

There are many seasons to life. You are in the season of new ministry and the cares and concerns of a new family. There will be other seasons of life as you and your family mature and even grow old. It is important that you are a predictable, stable leader with integrity. Your wife and family will draw strength from seeing you live as a man who is dazzled by God and who is, therefore, full of joy and confidence in all the seasons of life.

- Tedd Tripp, Love Your Family. Chapter 3, p. 61, in Dear Timothy: Letters on Pastoral Ministry.

The Kind of Teaching That Lasts...

John Piper, in A Godward Life, p. 17:

Teaching that lasts - and books that last - will be the kind that "bleed Bible." C. H. Spurgeon said of John Bunyan, "Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God." God wills that there be human teachers of his divine Word, but he wills that teachers be "full of the Word of God." The Bible should "flow from them." Their blood - and their books - should be "Bibline."

Oh, Give Me That Book!

John Piper, quoting John Wesley in A Godward Life, p. 16:

I love the words of John Wesley: "I am a creature of a day. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God. I want to know one thing: the way to heaven. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. He has written it down in a book. Oh, give me that book! At any price give me the book of God. Let me be a man of one book." That book is the Bible, the precious Word of God. Only there do we find the way to heaven. Only there do we learn a Godward life.