Preface to this Lord's Day Post from last June:
Typical day today....in that I listened to a Spurgeon sermon while.....doing some things around the house. Here's why I bring this up. In the middle of his sermon Spurgeon gave a strong opinion that I have held for almost forty years....and to be honest....it just felt good hearing it from him. He admitted that Sunday Schools were a good thing in many ways....but also said that their very existence shows that parents do not teach their own children.....which they should be doing. I stopped taking my family to Sunday School after a few years of seeing that these teachers are telling us....what I should be teaching my family....and what I already know....but the optics are good.
I think that Spurgeon might agree on this also.....I say this after listening to nearly a hundred.....probably.....of his sermons in the last few years.....(I also listen to J. C. Ryle and Whitefield and Edwards and on and on and on from men from the past.....and also men today who preach like men from the past......MacArthur and Horton and Piper and others) It is practically the norm.....when I listen to pastors today preaching on a passage of Scripture....that the presentation may be fine....and obviously study was done on the passage....but we can do that! (We are no longer in that age when only the clergy could open the scriptures to us!)
Folks....let me say this....if for some reason I had to step up into a pulpit and preach a sermon....it would probably be a disaster. I am not denigrating the vocation of pastor....I'm elevating it....to where it should be.....to where it has been from time to time. Not only can all these pastors of today not be Spurgeons....there may be none.....certainly few.....who God has blessed with such abilities. They don't all have to be Spurgeons....but they all have to have an unction for saving souls! Spurgeon himself testified that on the day he was.....'saved'....he stopped in a small Primitive Methodist church....instead of his regular church.....because of a snowstorm.....and not only that but the regular preacher could not even make it to the church that day.....so a very unlearned....Spurgeon used the word 'stupid'....(it was used in a different sense back then)....and that timid man repeated Scripture that God used to bring the most marvelous preacher in the past two hundred years to salvation.
Here's another anecdote on Charles Spurgeon....this from memory....as he was beginning his ministry he was to meet a man about possibly going into seminary type training....he showed up....but the two of them were in different rooms....unbeknownst to each other.....so Spurgeon went straight into the ministry. God obviously had His hand on plans for Spurgeon.....(and this is not to denigrate seminary.....only to show that God can make a great preacher out of the man cleaning your basement drains if He should want) So preachers....as Dickens' Oliver Twist said upon not being fed enough...."Sir, I want some more food." Don't merely give us an exposition that God has enabled every believer to see clearly on his own....remind us the majesties and the wonders of Christ....and of our the glorious salvation that He offers....for in these tents of flesh we are prone to forget....give us afresh the words that God has given you....strong words to be vigilant and watchful....because you have been called to do this.....and because you pray throughout each and every day....each and every hour of every day....and because you pant as a deer pants for water....for words to bring to us....that is what you do....right?
