ASIDE: One of my sabbatical goals was to connect with five spiritual heroes of mine in their "urban" setting. My hope was to be encouraged and renewed (again) by their ministry and to reflect on principles from their life and ministry that might inform my urban calling. The first of these five heroes I will reflect on is Charles Spurgeon.
Do you remember when the grace of God came alive in your heart? When you first stumbled upon the idea that your salvation did not originate with your making a decision for Jesus or committing your life to Christ but found it's origin much further back in the loving purposes of your heavenly Father?
I remember those early days when the biblical truth of the mighty grace of God electrified my heart and converted my mind. Before that time I might have explained salvation in this way: God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son to die on the cross for us. Now I'm God's child because I believed in Jesus Christ and have committed my life to him as Lord. While none of this is unbiblical, it does not display the full glories of the grace of God. It is still "man-centered". It still places the deciding factor in human salvation in the will and decision of man.
But I remember when my mind and heart changed, and the truth of the amazing grace of God overwhelmed me, and I came to a new understanding of my salvation.
It was in 1987. I was a freshman at Western Baptist College. Having experienced a powerful spiritual awakening, in theological terms, regeneration, I had a new passion for God's Word and for prayer. But, at that time, I hadn't delved deeply into theology or biblical doctrine. By God's care, I know see, I stumbled upon Charles Spurgeon's autobiography. "Stumbled" perhaps isn't the correct word. One of the theology professors at Western had said that I was an up-and-coming "Spurgeon." I had no idea what that meant, but I wanted to find out.
So I searched and came upon the autobiography of Charles Spurgeon. More importantly, I discovered the heart and soul of his ministry: reveling in the mighty, all-conquering, irresistable, unfathomable grace of God. As I read about Spurgeon's own spiritual journey, and how he had come to understand the "doctrines of Grace", I followed him into the same discovery.
"When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul - when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron; and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man - that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God." (Autobiography: The Early Years, p. 164.)
In his preaching Spurgeon often unfolded summaries of the breadth and vastness of God's plan of salvation and yet the glorious unity of all its parts. I'll share one example from a sermon on Galatians 1:15 titled "It Pleased God."
"You will perceive, I think, in these very words, that the divine plan of salvation is very clearly laid down. It begins, you see, in the will and pleasure of God: 'When it pleased God'. The foundation of salvation is not laid in the will of man. It does not begin with man's obedience, and then proceed onward to the purpose of God; but here is its commencement, her the fountain-head from which the living waters flow: 'It pleased God.' Next to the sovereign will and good pleasure of God comes the act of separation, commonly known by the name of election. This act is said, in the text, to take place even in the mother's womb, by which we are taught that it took place before our birth when as yet we could have done nothing whatever to win it or to merit it. God separated us from the earliest part and time of our being; and indeed, long before that, when as yet the mountains and the hills were not piled, and the oceans were not formed by his creative power, he had, in his eternal purpose, set us apart for himsel. Then, after this act of separation came the effectual calling: 'and called me by his grace'. The calling does not cause the election; but the election, springing from the divine purpose, causes the calling. The calling comes as a consequence of the divine purpose and the divine separation, and you will note how the obedience follows the calling. So the whole process runs thus, - first the sacred, sovereign purpose of God, then the distinct and definite election or separation, then the effectual and irresistable calling, and then afterwards the obedience unto life, and the sweet fruits of the Spirit which spring therefrom. They do err, not knowing the Sciptures, who put any of these processes before the others, out of Scripture order. They who put man's will first know not what they say, nor wherof they affirm." (The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 72-73).
Spurgeon gloried in preaching the Grace of God. It was his chief delight to show the glory of God in the salvation of sinners. Spurgeon's preaching filled the Metropolitan Tabernacle, in South London, morning and evening (in his day the Metropolitan Tabernacle seated 5,000).
Ian Murray, in his book "The Forgotten Spurgeon" records one instance of Spurgeon's glorying in the mighty grace of God. On September 4th, 1855 some 12,000 people stood in a field off King Edward's Hackney to hear Spurgeon preach. "I shall never forget," Spurgeon later wrote in his Autobiography, "the impression I received when, before we separated, that vast multitude joined in singing "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." That night, I could understand better than ever before why the apostle John, in the Revelation, compared the 'new song' in heaven to 'the voice of many waters'. In that glorious hallelujah, the mighty waves of praise seemed to roll up towards the sky, in majestic grandeur, even as the billows of old ocean break upon the beach."
Murray writes, "A reading of the words that were preached that night makes it easy to understand why the service ended with hearts being raised heavenwards in wonder and praise. Preaching on the words, 'Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of heaven,' Spurgeon gloried in the triumph of God's grace:
"Oh! I love God's 'shalls' and 'wills'. There is nothing comparable to them. Let a man say 'shall', what is it good for? 'I will', says another man, and he never performs; 'I shall', says he, and he breaks his promise. But it is never so with God's 'shalls'. If He says 'shall', it shall be; when he says 'will' it will be. Now He has siad here, 'many shall come.' The devil says, 'they shall not come'; but 'they shall come'. You yourselves, say, 'we won't come'; God says, 'You shall come'. Yes! There are some here who are laughing at salvation, who can scoff at Christ, and mock at the gospel; but I tell you some of you shall come yet. 'What!' you say, 'can God make me become a Christian?' I tell you yes, for herein rests the power of the gospel. It does not ask your consent; but it gets it. It does not say, will you hve it? but it makes you willing in the day of God's power...The gospel wants not your consent, it gets it. It knocks the enmity out of your heart. You say 'I do not want to be saved'; Christ says you shall be. He makes your will turn round, and then you cry, 'Lord save, or I perish!' Ah, might heaven exclaim, "I knew I would make you say that'; and then He rejoices over you because He has changed your will and made you willing in the day o His power. If Jesus Christ were to stand on this platform tonight, what would many people do with Him? If He were to come and say, 'Here I am, I love you, will you be saved by me?' Not one of you would consent if you were left to your will. He Himself said, 'No man can come to me except the Father who hath sent me draw him.' Ah! we want that; and here we have it. They shall come! They shall come! Ye may laugh, ye may despise us; but Jesus Christ shall not die for nothing. If some of you reject Him there are some that will not. If there are some that are not saved, others shall be. Christ shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands. They shall come! And nought in heaven, nor on earth, nor in hell, can stop them from coming." (The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 92-93)
There is one last, vitally important, aspect of Spurgeon's preaching that I want to draw attention to. To miss this aspect is to miss the heart and glory of his preaching. There are many preachers who believe and preach the doctrines of grace. But they have erred in that they make them the center of their "theological system." What tends to happen in their preaching is that it becomes doctrinaire, cold, proud. Somehow the grace of God has become the "center" or "the savior."
Spurgeon never fell into this trap. At the very "center" of all of his preaching, the "sun" of the solar system of all of his preaching was Jesus Christ. Spurgeon's preaching in the 19th century was Christo-centric in the same way that Tim Keller's preaching in Manhattan in the 21st century is ruthlessly Christo-centric.
Murray notes how Christ-centered Spurgeon's preaching was. Titles of his sermons in 1856 and 1857 reveal the constantly recurring name of Jesus: 'Christ about His Father's business'; 'Christ - the power and wisdom of God'; 'Christ lifted up'; 'The Condescension of Christ'; 'Christ our Passover'; 'Christ Exalted'; 'The Exaltation of Christ'; 'Christ in the Covenant'. Moreover, when you read Spurgeon's sermons you see them rich in Christ. Jesus is the great Savior, the hero of every sermon. Again and again broken sinners are implored to cast themselves completely on Him. And, in sermon after sermon, Spurgeon not only preaches Christ at the clue to Scripture and as the motivation for the Christian life but he glories and revels in Jesus.
Here is one example from the sermon entitled "The Eternal Name" that was preached early in 1855 when Spurgeon was only twenty years old. In the course of this sermon he depicts what would become of the world if the Name of Jesus could be removed from it, and unable to restrain his own feelings he exclaimed, "I would have no wish to be here without my Lord; and if the gospel be not true, I should bless God to annihilate me this instant, for I would not care to live if ye could destroy the name of Jesus Christ.
Murray writes that "many years later Mrs. Spurgeon had not forgotten this same sermon and she describes its close, when Spurgeon's voice was almost breaking in physical exhaustion, in the following words":
She writes, "I remember, with strange vividness at this long distance of time, the Sunday evening when he preached from the text, "His Name shall endure for ever." It was a subject in which he revelled, it was his chief delight to exalt his glorious Saviour, and he seemed in that discourse to be pouring out his very soul and life in homage and adoration before his gracious King. But I really thought he would have died there, in face of all those people! At the end of the sermon, he made a mighty effort to recover his voice; but utterance well-nigh failed, and only in broken accents could the pathetic peroration be heard, - 'Let my name perish, but let Christ's Name last for ever! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Crown Him Lord of all! You will not hear me say anything else. These are my last words in Exeter Hall for this time. Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Crown Him Lord of all!' an then he fell back almost fainting in the chair behind him."
(The Forgotten Spurgeon, 40-41)
LESSONS FROM SPURGEON'S MINISTRY
1. Preach Grace. Make much of the grace of God. The bible teaches one message from beginning to end: that salvation is of the Lord, that salvation is by grace from first to last. The message of grace is radically unique. Christianity stands alone and apart from all other religions in its message of grace. Christianity teaches that all humanity are fallen sinners, bent and broken, rebels against God. But God, in love, does not require us to reform our ways or heal ourselves. No! He has made a way to broken mankind. He has rescued us by sending his Son, the LORD Jesus Christ, who lived the life we should have lived and died, in our place, the death of judgment and condemnation we should have died. When we trust in Jesus' record and not our own, we receive Jesus' perfect and spotless and eternal relationship with God the Father; we stand "holy" and "blameless" before Him. As we learn to rely more and more on Jesus and not in our own goodness, morality, religious passion, etc. Christ's Spirit fills our lives and motivates us to love God and love others; it frees us to admit how broken and messed up we are and how desperately in need of God's grace we are to live each day. Any deviation from the biblical doctrines of grace, any slippage into a man-centered salvation leaves people self-reliant (because they hold the key to their own salvation) and proud (because they are better than others). But if the church proclaims grace and faithfully apply it to the hearts and consciences of believers and unbeliever a powerful community of grace (the church) will be formed. Grace both builds up believers and attracts sinners to the beauty and salvation of Christ.
2. Love and proclaim Jesus. Don't settle for right doctrine. Even the doctrines of grace, when they become "center" and "savior" will not set people free from their bondage to sin; they then become a badge of self-righteousness. No! Jesus Christ must be at the "center of gravity" of our theological system. He reveals God to Us. He is the final Word of God. He is the clue to understand the Scriptures. He is the ultimate Prophet, Priest and King. He alone as the bread and light and way and truth and life can satisfy the hearts of broken sinners. Jesus in his life reveals the beauty of God and obedience to the Law. Jesus on the cross reveals both the Justice and Mercy of God. Jesus resurrected reveals the coming hope of the renewal of all things. God the Father delights in His Son; when we rejoice in the Son we share in the Father's chief delight. The Holy Spirit magnifies the work of Jesus Christ. So when we look to Jesus, lift up our hearts and rejoice in Jesus, we enter into the very delight of the Trinity. But there is more. Jesus must be more than just our theological "center of gravity"; he must become our emotional - heart - center. As Spurgeon, we must learn to love Him. To make him the treasure of our heart; to find our inheritance in Him.
Spurgeon has been a great example to me of both of these areas - proclaiming the grace of God and rejoicing in Jesus Christ. I pray that the grace of God and the love for Jesus that moved his heart so deeply would also move mine.
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for your servants, mere dust and mist,
But called and used by you for your glory.
I thank you how you used your son and servant, Charles Spurgeon, in my life.
to reveal your mighty grace,
and to point me to love for Christ above all else.
Father, you know I cannot preach as Spurgeon did,
but I have as great of a gospel of Grace,
and a glorious Savior as he had, to proclaim.
By your grace, grant me power to relentlessly preach the grace of Christ,
and to glory in Jesus our Savior, sunday after sunday, day after day,
so that at the end of my life I may be able to say:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race,
Now I give myself up to the grace of God,
that chose me before the creation of the world,
and made me alive, and granted me the gift of faith,
and justified and sanctified me,
and perservered in me even though I walked away time and time again,
Now may that same grace achieve my final glorification, so that I can see,
In the flesh Jesus Christ, my Savior, my greatest of all loves,
And touch has hands and face, and feel his embrace,
And know his eternal love.
All this I ask in the name of Jesus, Amen.
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