Learning from the Prince of Preachers - Phil Johnson
00:00:00.880 | And this is the seminar on Spurgeon,
00:00:03.120 | Learning from the Prince of Preachers,
00:00:04.840 | that's the title they gave me.
00:00:06.780 | I've done so many seminars and conferences
00:00:10.920 | where I've talked about Spurgeon,
00:00:12.880 | it was hard for me to come up with something new.
00:00:15.440 | But this is one I've never done, at least in America.
00:00:19.040 | I did a lecture like this, similar to this,
00:00:22.760 | in London a couple of years ago.
00:00:25.320 | But this will be one, if you've heard me speak on Spurgeon,
00:00:28.900 | you probably haven't heard this yet.
00:00:30.900 | And I decided what I would do is survey his lectures
00:00:36.520 | to his students, 'cause it's such a rich source of material.
00:00:41.520 | This idea came to me last summer,
00:00:45.520 | popped up on my Twitter feed,
00:00:48.000 | an announcement that Spurgeon's College in London
00:00:51.940 | had installed Rick Warren as their first honorary chancellor.
00:00:56.940 | (audience groaning)
00:00:58.660 | That was my response, too.
00:01:00.400 | (audience laughing)
00:01:03.640 | And in fact, the reaction from evangelicals on Twitter,
00:01:07.400 | understandably, included scores of people
00:01:10.920 | who expressed consternation about that.
00:01:13.400 | Anyone who knows anything about Rick Warren,
00:01:16.600 | I think, understands that he is the anti-Spurgeon.
00:01:21.520 | Warren and Spurgeon are just poles apart
00:01:27.040 | on practically everything,
00:01:28.720 | ranging from their contradictory philosophies of ministry
00:01:33.320 | to the virtually opposite theological points of view
00:01:36.840 | that undergird what are really antithetical approaches
00:01:40.700 | to preaching and church leadership and really everything.
00:01:44.920 | And I was amused by some of the comments
00:01:47.540 | that popped up on Twitter.
00:01:50.280 | Here are some of the tweets I collected.
00:01:52.520 | I'll just read 'em to you.
00:01:53.360 | I didn't write these.
00:01:55.240 | (audience laughing)
00:01:58.280 | So if they sound really snarky,
00:02:00.280 | don't blame me for that.
00:02:03.400 | I'll read three or four of the tweets.
00:02:07.520 | This is an embarrassment to Spurgeon's name and legacy.
00:02:10.960 | I said amen to that one.
00:02:13.200 | Another guy writes, "What an absolute kick of dust
00:02:15.720 | "in the face of Charles Spurgeon."
00:02:18.280 | And then somebody else goes, "Spurgeon would not like this."
00:02:22.120 | (audience laughing)
00:02:24.440 | That's an understatement.
00:02:25.840 | And my favorite, he goes,
00:02:28.800 | "Spurgeon would roast this compromiser like a London broil."
00:02:32.800 | (audience laughing)
00:02:35.960 | And of course, all those comments are exactly right.
00:02:38.960 | If Spurgeon could come back to the college he founded,
00:02:43.520 | I'm absolutely certain he would ask them
00:02:45.640 | to take his name off of it.
00:02:47.280 | Rick Warren is the living embodiment
00:02:51.600 | of everything Spurgeon opposed
00:02:53.880 | in his philosophy of ministry,
00:02:55.600 | in the way he handles biblical texts and deals with doctrine,
00:03:00.280 | in the way he deliberately ignores or glosses over
00:03:04.360 | all of the potentially offensive aspects of gospel truth,
00:03:09.360 | and especially in the way he seeks to befriend
00:03:12.520 | and impress the secular world.
00:03:14.800 | And can we be honest?
00:03:17.000 | Virtually everything Rick Warren does as a pastor
00:03:20.780 | is antithetical to what Spurgeon said pastors should do.
00:03:25.580 | He's the anti-Spurgeon.
00:03:28.160 | He represents exactly what Spurgeon did not want
00:03:32.440 | his own pastoral students to become,
00:03:35.360 | and that's not mere guesswork on my part.
00:03:38.120 | Spurgeon left us a very clear record
00:03:41.640 | of what he taught his college students
00:03:43.920 | back when the pastor's college
00:03:46.600 | didn't yet have his name on it.
00:03:49.200 | But it reflects his biblical and theological convictions
00:03:53.920 | in what was taught there during his lifetime.
00:03:56.640 | He lectured to his ministerial students at the college
00:04:01.180 | on every Friday, usually on Friday,
00:04:03.940 | and about 30 of his lectures have been preserved for us
00:04:08.000 | in a volume that, as far as I know,
00:04:09.600 | has never been out of print.
00:04:11.000 | It's called Lectures to My Students.
00:04:13.560 | And the original version of this collection
00:04:16.000 | was published in stages over several years' time
00:04:21.000 | in, I said stages, four thin volumes.
00:04:25.560 | It's now one thick volume,
00:04:28.200 | but you'll find some later editions
00:04:30.320 | that included only three of those four volumes
00:04:33.780 | because in Spurgeon's own reckoning,
00:04:36.800 | commenting and commentaries belonged in this set.
00:04:40.400 | That was actually volume two that he released,
00:04:43.160 | his book on commenting and commentaries.
00:04:45.960 | And if you include that in the series,
00:04:48.000 | then it's four volumes.
00:04:49.400 | But it usually, that one is separated out.
00:04:53.760 | Commenting and commentaries is an annotated bibliography
00:04:57.120 | of commentaries, and it has just two lectures in it,
00:05:00.800 | two lectures and then this really important bibliography
00:05:05.800 | of the commentaries that Spurgeon read and used.
00:05:11.000 | But the two lectures are titled,
00:05:15.760 | one is a chat about commentaries,
00:05:18.520 | and the other one is on commenting.
00:05:21.080 | And so in chronological terms,
00:05:23.080 | that volume, commenting and commentaries,
00:05:25.800 | was the second volume published.
00:05:27.760 | And as I said, these days it's usually published
00:05:30.460 | as a standalone volume separate
00:05:32.800 | from Lectures to My Students.
00:05:35.040 | So if you buy the current one volume edition
00:05:37.400 | of Lectures to My Students,
00:05:38.680 | you've actually got three of the four volumes.
00:05:41.580 | And if you want the fourth volume,
00:05:43.320 | get Commenting and Commentaries.
00:05:44.920 | Volume one was published in 1875,
00:05:49.440 | and it contained 13 of Spurgeon's best lectures.
00:05:54.240 | Volume two then was Commenting and Commentaries.
00:05:57.060 | It was published exactly a year later.
00:05:59.640 | Volume three came out the following year.
00:06:02.620 | So it looked like it was gonna be a series
00:06:04.940 | of books every year.
00:06:06.640 | But after volume three, the series stood at three volumes,
00:06:11.120 | literally for 20 years, until the fourth volume,
00:06:15.760 | which is also sometimes published as a standalone volume.
00:06:19.360 | It was called The Art of Illustration.
00:06:22.480 | And it was published in 1897,
00:06:24.920 | that's five years after Spurgeon died.
00:06:27.300 | And if you can find the original edition,
00:06:31.400 | its title page says Lectures to My Students,
00:06:34.600 | and the subtitle is The Art of Illustration.
00:06:37.880 | And by the time it was published,
00:06:40.020 | Commenting and Commentaries had secured its position
00:06:44.020 | as a standalone reference work.
00:06:46.300 | So the series was already being published then
00:06:49.040 | as just a three-volume set.
00:06:51.040 | So I say all that because it's confusing.
00:06:53.780 | You'll find in used bookstores, sometimes a single volume,
00:06:57.900 | sometimes the three-volume set,
00:06:59.640 | sometimes, you know, just two volumes,
00:07:03.140 | and just so you know what you're getting.
00:07:05.800 | The Art of Illustration, then,
00:07:07.200 | was the final book in the series,
00:07:09.520 | and it was the only one of the four volumes
00:07:11.240 | that was published posthumously.
00:07:13.480 | It was put together by Spurgeon's private secretary,
00:07:17.400 | Joseph Harold, who assembled this final set of lectures
00:07:22.040 | around the theme of sermon illustrations.
00:07:25.540 | And Harold says that Spurgeon was actually working
00:07:28.020 | on that volume before he died,
00:07:30.320 | and he was the one who gave it the title,
00:07:32.520 | The Art of Illustration.
00:07:34.320 | Lectures to My Students, then,
00:07:36.160 | is generally published as a single volume these days,
00:07:39.180 | like I said, and you might find,
00:07:41.020 | if you compare it with the table of contents
00:07:44.180 | that I'm going to talk about,
00:07:45.320 | or if you look at the old volumes,
00:07:47.160 | the order of the lectures has been rearranged.
00:07:51.860 | But then the question always comes up,
00:07:54.800 | how were these lectures recorded?
00:07:58.380 | How were these, how do we know
00:08:00.640 | what Spurgeon said in a lecture?
00:08:01.960 | Because one of the sad facts of Spurgeon's life and career
00:08:06.520 | is that although recording technology existed,
00:08:11.440 | nobody ever thought to record Spurgeon's voice.
00:08:14.720 | So today, there is not a single recording,
00:08:17.460 | we don't know what Spurgeon sounded like,
00:08:19.240 | other than the descriptions that were written of his voice.
00:08:22.800 | If you look it up on the internet,
00:08:24.680 | you'll find a recording of one of his sons,
00:08:28.080 | and always attached to it is a bunch of people saying,
00:08:31.960 | well, people said he sounded just like his dad.
00:08:34.900 | He might have had the same regional accent as his dad,
00:08:39.120 | but his voice can't possibly be like Charles Spurgeon,
00:08:42.160 | because it's a soft voice,
00:08:44.320 | and Spurgeon actually could project his voice enough
00:08:47.680 | that without any kind of amplification,
00:08:50.720 | he could speak to a crowd of 20,000 people,
00:08:54.060 | and be heard on the outer edges of the crowd.
00:08:57.680 | I don't even know how that's possible,
00:08:59.400 | but Spurgeon did it, and George Whitfield did it,
00:09:03.420 | and I don't think I've ever heard
00:09:04.680 | of anyone else who could do that, but Spurgeon did.
00:09:07.680 | Anyway, there was no recording ever made of his lectures,
00:09:11.960 | but what happened was there were always stenographers
00:09:15.000 | present whenever Spurgeon spoke to audiences of any size,
00:09:18.740 | and the lecture hall at the pastor's college
00:09:21.400 | was no exception to that,
00:09:23.120 | so there are undoubtedly many lectures besides these
00:09:27.300 | that did not get transcribed and published.
00:09:30.780 | Some of them occasionally were transcribed and published
00:09:33.840 | in his magazine, The Sword and the Trowel,
00:09:36.200 | and some of those didn't make it
00:09:37.960 | into this collection in the books.
00:09:40.120 | I'm gonna talk about one of those at the end,
00:09:42.800 | but anyway, I can't imagine that Spurgeon
00:09:45.560 | had tons of time to prepare lectures for pastoral students,
00:09:50.560 | and I can't find any record of how he did this,
00:09:53.440 | whether he spoke from notes when he delivered these lectures
00:09:56.920 | or whether it was just all off the top of his head.
00:10:00.240 | I imagine, knowing how Spurgeon worked,
00:10:03.120 | that if he used notes at all, they were minimal,
00:10:06.040 | because, of course, that's how he preached as well,
00:10:08.760 | usually from no more than a bare outline,
00:10:11.060 | sometimes that he would record
00:10:12.480 | on the back of an old envelope,
00:10:14.320 | and the introduction to volume one is a short,
00:10:20.240 | well, it's an introduction,
00:10:21.220 | but it really is the length of a short chapter
00:10:23.960 | titled Introduction and Apology,
00:10:27.240 | and although there's no reason, really,
00:10:29.280 | for Spurgeon to have to apologize for anything,
00:10:32.120 | he explains the reason that the style of these lectures,
00:10:35.760 | which he perceives as unusually informal,
00:10:40.760 | and he sort of apologizes for that.
00:10:42.680 | They're not as formal as he would be when he preached.
00:10:46.260 | In fact, he says it in these words.
00:10:47.780 | I'll quote him.
00:10:48.620 | He writes, "My college lectures are colloquial,
00:10:52.440 | familiar, full of anecdote, often humorous.
00:10:56.200 | They are purposely made so to suit the occasion.
00:10:59.880 | At the end of the week, I meet the students
00:11:01.960 | and find them weary with sterner studies,
00:11:04.800 | and I judge it best to be as lively and interesting
00:11:08.160 | in my prelections as I well can be," he said.
00:11:12.640 | "I am as much at home with my young brethren
00:11:15.280 | as in the bosom of my family,
00:11:17.120 | and therefore I speak without restraint,"
00:11:20.400 | which is what makes these lectures, frankly,
00:11:23.640 | the most interesting.
00:11:24.880 | It's probably the most interesting material
00:11:26.440 | you can read from Spurgeon,
00:11:28.280 | and I'm always sorry that it doesn't get read well enough.
00:11:32.280 | I think a lot of people overlook it
00:11:34.040 | because you think lectures to my students,
00:11:36.880 | that's gonna be academic.
00:11:38.720 | I don't need to read that.
00:11:40.580 | It's really some of the most fun
00:11:42.040 | of Spurgeon's material to read,
00:11:44.700 | but in his own assessment,
00:11:46.160 | these lectures you might call Spurgeon unplugged.
00:11:50.760 | You know, he's speaking here freely without filters,
00:11:54.400 | without, you know, the normal restraint
00:11:57.680 | that he would use in his public speaking,
00:11:59.960 | and that explains, I think,
00:12:01.600 | some of the charm of these lectures.
00:12:03.440 | They're very instructive when it comes
00:12:06.480 | to understanding Spurgeon's philosophy of ministry
00:12:10.160 | and his preaching style and his extraordinary giftedness.
00:12:14.920 | In fact, it's, I think, fairly certain
00:12:17.240 | that Spurgeon's busy schedule would not have permitted him
00:12:20.560 | to do a lot of special research
00:12:22.560 | and preparation for these lectures,
00:12:24.520 | and yet, as is always true of Spurgeon's speaking,
00:12:29.520 | it's full of insight.
00:12:32.040 | He loads these lectures with references
00:12:34.760 | to classical literature and history
00:12:37.780 | and advanced theological observations,
00:12:40.920 | and of course, lots of biblical references.
00:12:44.280 | There's a lot more humor, as he says,
00:12:46.160 | in these lectures than Spurgeon would use in his sermons.
00:12:50.540 | There are funny things in his sermons, too,
00:12:53.720 | and he's well-known that he tried
00:12:56.080 | to restrain his humor when he spoke.
00:12:58.280 | Once a lady came and scolded him and said,
00:13:00.780 | "You shouldn't say funny things like that
00:13:02.800 | "when you're preaching.
00:13:03.640 | "Preaching is serious business."
00:13:05.920 | And he said, "Madam, if you knew all the humorous thoughts
00:13:09.880 | "that come into my mind while I'm preaching,
00:13:12.240 | "you would congratulate me on my restraint."
00:13:14.780 | (audience laughing)
00:13:17.780 | But he felt free to be a lot more candid
00:13:22.720 | when he's lecturing in these ministerial students,
00:13:25.760 | so his criticisms are a little harsher,
00:13:28.280 | his humor is a lot more, there's a lot more of it.
00:13:32.280 | Still, I wouldn't say, reading these,
00:13:34.780 | that these lectures are colloquial,
00:13:37.520 | that was the word he used,
00:13:38.640 | or they're not breezy, informal talks.
00:13:42.000 | He weaves a lot more literary and historical references
00:13:46.800 | than he would use in his sermons.
00:13:49.120 | He clearly expected these ministerial students
00:13:52.760 | to think and listen at a very high level.
00:13:56.300 | And so I want to run through with you
00:13:58.640 | a list of the 13 lectures in that first set
00:14:02.520 | of lectures to my student.
00:14:03.760 | I wanna kinda summarize 'em for you.
00:14:06.200 | I'll give you the titles of all 13 lectures in order,
00:14:09.880 | and I'll summarize the main point of each lecture,
00:14:13.040 | and if time permits, I'll give you a few salient quotes
00:14:17.360 | from each lecture, and I hope this'll be enough
00:14:20.280 | to give you the flavor of these lectures,
00:14:22.400 | because I want to try to motivate you
00:14:24.780 | to read these for yourselves.
00:14:26.500 | They're really edifying and well worth your time,
00:14:29.960 | and I hope this'll motivate you for that.
00:14:33.580 | So we'll cover the first of these four volumes,
00:14:36.680 | and remember, there are two or three more volumes
00:14:38.780 | after that, depending on how you count,
00:14:40.800 | but I'm pretty sure that a survey of this first volume
00:14:44.440 | is gonna give you an appetite for more.
00:14:46.040 | And then at the end, I want to mention
00:14:48.440 | this one other lecture that was not included
00:14:51.040 | in any of the four volumes that Spurgeon conceived
00:14:54.620 | in this set, but first, let's survey volume one.
00:14:57.880 | I mentioned that this volume starts
00:15:01.800 | with Spurgeon's introduction and apology.
00:15:04.920 | It's short, it's just six paragraphs.
00:15:07.440 | Of course, knowing Spurgeon, these are long paragraphs,
00:15:11.100 | but it's about two pages in the original,
00:15:13.740 | two pages of fine type in the original edition,
00:15:16.800 | in which he gives the first ever hint
00:15:19.980 | that his book Commenting and Commentaries was in the works.
00:15:24.800 | By the way, if you don't have that, you should.
00:15:27.420 | People always ask me, how do you choose
00:15:29.180 | the commentaries you use when you study?
00:15:31.920 | And I always say, the first place I go
00:15:34.540 | is to Spurgeon's Commenting and Commentaries
00:15:37.900 | and see what he recommends.
00:15:40.020 | And frankly, I'm maybe a little jaded in this,
00:15:43.780 | but I think older commentaries are almost always better
00:15:46.580 | than the ones that have been published in the 20th century.
00:15:50.060 | That's my personal opinion.
00:15:52.140 | Anyway, at the end of this introduction, he writes this,
00:15:55.540 | quote, should this publication succeed,
00:15:58.800 | I hope very soon to issue in similar form
00:16:02.100 | a work on commenting containing a full catalog
00:16:05.260 | of commentaries, and also I'd like to print
00:16:08.780 | a second set of lectures.
00:16:11.340 | So he hints that he doesn't expect his book
00:16:14.620 | Commenting and Commentaries to find
00:16:17.380 | a very enthusiastic reception.
00:16:19.020 | He says this, persons interested in our subjects
00:16:22.060 | are not numerous enough to secure
00:16:24.020 | a very large circulation.
00:16:26.700 | Now he was wrong, of course.
00:16:28.020 | Commenting and Commentaries sold more than 10,000 copies
00:16:31.940 | in its first printing in the first year alone,
00:16:35.640 | which made it a remarkable success.
00:16:37.860 | And I think Spurgeon would probably be amazed
00:16:40.700 | to know that it has been reprinted
00:16:44.380 | and reprinted more times than I can count
00:16:47.060 | in the 20th century.
00:16:49.060 | And like I said, speaking personally,
00:16:51.340 | I still use it as the first resource I check
00:16:54.320 | when I'm trying to decide what commentaries to buy
00:16:57.340 | on whatever new passage I'm going to study.
00:17:01.100 | So, lecture one in the first series
00:17:03.840 | is called The Minister's Self-Watch.
00:17:06.900 | And in some ways, this may be the most important lecture
00:17:11.140 | in the whole series.
00:17:12.720 | It is a must read for anyone in church leadership,
00:17:17.500 | where Spurgeon urges his students to guard their hearts
00:17:21.980 | and their personal habits.
00:17:23.620 | He says this, quote, it will be in vain for me
00:17:26.940 | to stock my library or organize societies
00:17:30.060 | or project schemes if I neglect the culture of myself.
00:17:34.980 | For books and agencies and systems
00:17:37.120 | are only remotely the instruments of my holy calling.
00:17:40.560 | My own spirit, soul, and body
00:17:42.980 | are my nearest machinery for sacred service.
00:17:46.660 | My spiritual faculties and my inner life
00:17:50.380 | are my battle axe and my weapons of war.
00:17:53.240 | And he cautions then about poisoning your life
00:17:56.660 | with secret sins or double-mindedness.
00:18:00.220 | And he points out that if you do this,
00:18:02.980 | it will inevitably corrupt your preaching.
00:18:06.380 | If the channel is full of poison,
00:18:09.060 | how can it distribute the water of life?
00:18:12.180 | He says this, quote, it's a terrible thing
00:18:15.020 | when the healing balm of the gospel loses its efficacy
00:18:18.820 | through the blunderer who administers it.
00:18:22.540 | You all know the injurious effects frequently produced
00:18:26.440 | on water through flowing through leaden pipes.
00:18:30.360 | Even so, the gospel itself in flowing through men
00:18:33.340 | who are spiritually unhealthy may be debased
00:18:36.660 | until it grows injurious to their hearers.
00:18:40.340 | It is to be feared that Calvinistic doctrine
00:18:42.720 | becomes most evil teaching when it is set forth
00:18:46.620 | by men of ungodly lives and exhibited
00:18:50.200 | as if it were a cloak for licentiousness.
00:18:53.100 | And Arminianism, on the other hand,
00:18:55.420 | with its wide sweep of the offer of mercy,
00:18:58.460 | may do most serious damage to the souls of men
00:19:01.540 | if the careless tone of the preacher
00:19:03.620 | leads his hearers to believe
00:19:05.220 | that they can repent whenever they please
00:19:07.780 | and that therefore no urgency surrounds the gospel message.
00:19:11.860 | My favorite sentence in the lecture is a short one.
00:19:16.500 | He says, "Beware of being shoddy preachers."
00:19:22.300 | It's a convicting lecture about the high calling
00:19:25.460 | of being a pastor, and I can't read it without wondering
00:19:28.320 | if there might have been a few men in that lecture hall
00:19:31.060 | when he delivered this who subsequently withdrew
00:19:34.820 | from the pastor's college
00:19:36.660 | and decided to pursue a different calling,
00:19:39.720 | because he will leave you with a definite understanding
00:19:43.620 | that the calling of being a pastor is a high calling,
00:19:46.860 | and if you're not worthy of it, you shouldn't do it.
00:19:49.780 | If you're not called to it,
00:19:51.100 | you shouldn't pursue that vocation.
00:19:54.380 | Here's one more line from that first lecture.
00:19:56.620 | Quote, "Many are disqualified for office in the church
00:20:00.740 | "who are well enough as simple members."
00:20:05.060 | He's saying you don't have to be a pastor or an elder
00:20:08.180 | in order to have a fruitful ministry in the local church.
00:20:11.080 | To those who would be pastors, he says this.
00:20:14.860 | Quote, "When we say to you, my dear brethren,
00:20:17.600 | "take care of your life, we mean be careful
00:20:21.160 | "even of the minutia of your character.
00:20:23.660 | "Avoid little debts and unpunctuality."
00:20:27.760 | I'm convicted 'cause I was almost late here.
00:20:30.080 | (audience laughing)
00:20:33.840 | "Avoid gossiping and nicknaming and petty quarrels
00:20:37.340 | "and all of those other little vices
00:20:39.260 | "which fill the ointment with flies."
00:20:42.440 | And especially, he says, you should never ever fail
00:20:46.220 | to keep your word, keep your commitments.
00:20:49.040 | He says, quote, "We cannot be too careful.
00:20:52.500 | "Truth must not only be in us, it must also shine from us."
00:20:57.500 | And one more point, by the way, in this lecture,
00:21:01.400 | Spurgeon warns strongly against the practice
00:21:06.120 | of restoring men to public ministry
00:21:08.960 | after they have been disqualified because of moral turpitude.
00:21:13.360 | He says, quote, "I hold very stern opinions
00:21:16.720 | "with regard to Christian men
00:21:17.980 | "who have fallen into gross sin.
00:21:20.540 | "I recognize they may be truly converted
00:21:22.920 | "and they may be with mingled hope and caution
00:21:25.660 | "received back into the church,
00:21:27.580 | "but I question, I gravely question
00:21:30.940 | "whether a man who has grossly sinned
00:21:33.040 | "should be restored to the pulpit.
00:21:35.700 | "As John Angel James remarks,
00:21:37.880 | "when a preacher of righteousness
00:21:39.460 | "has stood in the way of sinners,
00:21:41.540 | "he should never again open his lips
00:21:43.880 | "in the great congregation
00:21:45.460 | "until his repentance is as notorious as his sins."
00:21:49.880 | Spurgeon says that in such cases,
00:21:53.380 | he doubts whether the man was really called
00:21:56.100 | to public ministry in the first place.
00:21:59.020 | In his words, quote, "Having been once tried,
00:22:01.980 | "they have proved themselves to have too little grace
00:22:05.360 | "to stand the crucial test of ministerial life."
00:22:09.860 | He comes back to that same theme in lecture two.
00:22:13.840 | Lecture two is titled, "The Call to the Ministry,"
00:22:17.580 | and he's answering the question,
00:22:18.960 | how can students know for sure
00:22:21.100 | that they are called to full-time ministry?
00:22:24.980 | And he says this, "The first sign of the heavenly call
00:22:28.440 | "is an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work."
00:22:33.260 | Other qualifications he names are
00:22:34.860 | that the man must be able to teach,
00:22:37.460 | he must meet the other qualifications for eldership
00:22:40.180 | that are given in Scripture,
00:22:42.020 | and then third, he says,
00:22:43.100 | the man who is truly called to ministry
00:22:45.220 | must see a measure of conversion work
00:22:48.580 | going on under his efforts.
00:22:50.840 | He's saying, if you're not already clearly winning souls
00:22:55.100 | in your capacity as a lay Christian,
00:22:57.460 | what makes you think you're called to full-time ministry,
00:22:59.900 | or even short-term missions?
00:23:02.080 | And then fourth, he says,
00:23:03.660 | you should see the signs of a fruitful response
00:23:06.680 | to your preaching.
00:23:07.680 | And in fact, one other thing about this second lecture,
00:23:12.220 | before I move on beyond it,
00:23:15.020 | when Rick Warren was appointed
00:23:16.980 | Chancellor of Spurgeon's College,
00:23:19.360 | a number of people pointed out
00:23:20.780 | that Rick Warren's well-known advocacy
00:23:24.540 | for ordaining women to pastoral ministry
00:23:27.940 | and making women preach,
00:23:31.140 | that is seriously at odds with Spurgeon's views
00:23:34.460 | on the qualifications for ministry.
00:23:37.240 | But Rick Warren himself,
00:23:38.860 | who evidently doesn't know a whole lot
00:23:40.900 | about what Spurgeon actually believed,
00:23:44.000 | he published a statement on that,
00:23:45.480 | and it said this, quote,
00:23:47.040 | "The 167-year-old Spurgeon's College in London
00:23:50.880 | "inducted me as their chancellor,
00:23:53.280 | "telling me that my views on ordination
00:23:55.680 | "are identical to Spurgeon's."
00:23:57.760 | Well, the person who told him that
00:24:00.840 | was the president of Spurgeon's College,
00:24:02.840 | who currently is a woman.
00:24:04.380 | So, that's how things are going there,
00:24:08.980 | but Spurgeon lays that claim to rest
00:24:12.280 | in the very first paragraph of this lecture
00:24:15.900 | on the call to ministry.
00:24:17.040 | He points out that there are many ways
00:24:19.600 | to serve the Lord and serve the church
00:24:22.640 | and have a fruitful ministry in the church.
00:24:24.500 | He says, quote, "Our service to Christ
00:24:27.220 | "need not take the particular form of preaching.
00:24:30.480 | "Certainly, in some cases, it must not.
00:24:33.460 | "As, for instance, in the case of females,
00:24:37.120 | "whose public teaching is expressly prohibited."
00:24:40.320 | That's in the first paragraph.
00:24:41.760 | And he cites, of course, 1 Timothy 2.12
00:24:44.240 | and 1 Corinthians 14.34,
00:24:46.440 | and if that's not clear enough,
00:24:48.440 | and in case anyone is confused by the false claim
00:24:52.480 | that Spurgeon was just fine
00:24:54.440 | with ordaining women as pastors,
00:24:56.580 | listen to what Spurgeon said
00:24:58.280 | in a sermon he preached on Sunday morning,
00:25:00.760 | April 19th, 1885.
00:25:03.780 | And, trigger warning here,
00:25:06.520 | by today's standards,
00:25:10.600 | this kind of blunt candor is not politically correct,
00:25:14.900 | but Spurgeon said this, not me.
00:25:16.560 | So, he said this, quote,
00:25:20.020 | "Women are best when they are quiet."
00:25:22.380 | (congregation laughing)
00:25:26.120 | He said, "I share the Apostle Paul's feelings
00:25:28.540 | "when he bade women be silent in the assembly,
00:25:31.760 | "yet there is work for holy women."
00:25:34.440 | And we read of Peter's wife's mother
00:25:36.680 | that she arose and ministered to Christ.
00:25:39.720 | She did what she could and what she should.
00:25:42.580 | She arose and ministered to him.
00:25:45.280 | Some people can do nothing that they are allowed to do,
00:25:48.000 | but they waste their energies in lamenting
00:25:50.200 | that they're not called on to do other people's work.
00:25:53.520 | Blessed are they who do what they should do.
00:25:56.760 | It's better to be a good housewife or nurse
00:25:59.120 | or domestic servant than to be a powerless preacher
00:26:02.760 | or a graceless talker.
00:26:04.500 | She did not arise and prepare a lecture or preach a sermon,
00:26:10.060 | but she arose and prepared a supper,
00:26:12.240 | and that's what she was fitted to do.
00:26:14.880 | Was she not a housewife?
00:26:17.080 | As a housewife, let her serve the Lord.
00:26:21.320 | Again, that doesn't sound very tactful by today's standards,
00:26:24.260 | but in fact, you couldn't get by.
00:26:26.080 | If you said that on Twitter nowadays,
00:26:28.560 | you'd almost certainly get ratioed,
00:26:30.680 | but I think that excerpt should be sufficient at least
00:26:34.660 | to show that Spurgeon was not singing
00:26:37.320 | from the same songbook as Rick Warren.
00:26:39.660 | Lecture three in that first series
00:26:43.260 | is The Preacher's Private Prayer,
00:26:46.480 | and it's another extremely convicting lecture.
00:26:51.200 | I'm warning, you read this,
00:26:52.720 | you will feel like Spurgeon has stepped on your toes.
00:26:56.200 | Here's just a sample.
00:26:57.280 | He says, quote, "Among all the formative influences
00:27:01.080 | "which go to make up a man honored of God in the ministry,
00:27:04.520 | "I know of none more mighty than his own familiarity
00:27:08.760 | "with the mercy seat.
00:27:10.680 | "All that a college course can do for a student
00:27:13.200 | "is coarse and external compared with the spiritual
00:27:17.000 | "and delicate refinement obtained by communion with God.
00:27:20.600 | "Prayer is the tool of the great potter
00:27:22.800 | "by which he molds the vessel.
00:27:25.140 | "All of our libraries and studies are mere emptiness
00:27:28.760 | "compared with our prayer closets."
00:27:31.520 | And then in lecture four, he stays with the theme of prayer.
00:27:37.120 | The third lecture was about private prayer,
00:27:39.560 | and number four is about public prayer.
00:27:42.600 | And Spurgeon opposed the idea of writing out a prayer
00:27:46.280 | and reading it.
00:27:47.860 | He didn't like that.
00:27:48.700 | He believed that a pastoral prayer should be extemporaneous
00:27:52.580 | and not just, to use his words, liturgical devotion.
00:27:57.580 | And he didn't think that exaggerated eloquence
00:28:01.100 | was a plus in praying.
00:28:03.300 | He said this, quote, "Fine prayers are generally
00:28:06.740 | "very wicked prayers.
00:28:08.980 | "In the presence of the Lord of hosts,
00:28:11.400 | "it ill becomes a sinner to parade the feathers
00:28:14.460 | "and finery of tawdry speech
00:28:16.880 | "with the view of winning applause from his fellow mortals.
00:28:20.880 | "Hypocrites who dare to do this have their reward,
00:28:24.380 | "but it is a reward to be dreaded."
00:28:26.600 | And then there was a particular kind of vain repetition
00:28:31.020 | that he deplored as well.
00:28:32.660 | He said this, quote, "Another fault equally to be avoided
00:28:36.660 | "in prayer is an unhallowed and sickening superabundance
00:28:40.260 | "of endearing words.
00:28:42.560 | "When dear Lord and blessed Lord and sweet Lord
00:28:46.720 | "come over and over again as vain repetitions,
00:28:50.320 | "they are among the worst of blots.
00:28:52.980 | "I must confess, I might feel no revulsion in my mind
00:28:57.060 | "to the words, dear Jesus, if they fell from the lips
00:29:00.180 | "of a true Puritan, but when I hear fond
00:29:03.500 | "and familiar expressions hackneyed by persons
00:29:06.940 | "not at all remarkable for spirituality,
00:29:09.860 | "I'm inclined to wish that they could,
00:29:11.540 | "in some way or another, come to a better understanding
00:29:14.140 | "of the true relation that exists between man and God.
00:29:17.560 | "The word dear has come from daily use
00:29:20.880 | "to be so common and so small, and in some cases,
00:29:23.780 | "so silly and affected a monosyllable,
00:29:26.680 | "that interlarding one's prayers with it
00:29:29.220 | "is not to edification."
00:29:31.280 | Now, I heartily agree with all of that,
00:29:34.660 | but I have to confess, I don't agree with everything
00:29:37.940 | Spurgeon says in this lecture.
00:29:40.700 | I don't think a written prayer,
00:29:42.540 | if it's delivered meaningfully, is a bad thing.
00:29:45.740 | I think it's actually better to ponder
00:29:48.980 | what you want to say and word it very carefully beforehand
00:29:53.360 | than to be groping for words and stuttering around
00:29:56.700 | when you're trying to be extemporaneous.
00:29:59.940 | Nevertheless, in fact, the first Spurgeon sermon
00:30:03.020 | I ever read was a sermon titled
00:30:07.220 | "Order and Argument in Prayer,"
00:30:09.540 | which is a phrase he borrows from the book of Job,
00:30:12.340 | where Job says he's going to plead his case before God
00:30:15.820 | and he's gonna order his thoughts beforehand,
00:30:18.780 | and Spurgeon is saying, "Before you go to God in prayer,
00:30:21.420 | "you should at least think through
00:30:23.480 | "what you're going to say."
00:30:24.880 | So, in my mind, it's easier to do that and write it out
00:30:29.880 | than to make myself try to extemporaneously come up
00:30:35.160 | with the right thing while I'm praying.
00:30:37.520 | Personal preference, I don't think what he's giving here,
00:30:40.940 | even Spurgeon would intend to be a legalistic measure,
00:30:43.940 | but I definitely agree with the spirit of what he's saying,
00:30:46.980 | that sort of formal liturgical devotion is worthless.
00:30:51.120 | And I emphatically agree with the part of this lecture
00:30:56.140 | where Spurgeon says, "Do not let your prayer be long."
00:31:00.740 | And he adds this, "It is not required of you
00:31:03.620 | "to prolong your speech until everyone is longing
00:31:06.580 | "to hear the word amen."
00:31:08.700 | (congregation laughing)
00:31:12.700 | Can I get an amen?
00:31:14.080 | (congregation laughing)
00:31:15.380 | Anyway, lecture five, then, is titled,
00:31:18.500 | "Sermons," with then a colon, "Sermons, Their Matter."
00:31:23.500 | And I love this lecture.
00:31:27.380 | Spurgeon didn't model the kind of expository preaching
00:31:32.180 | that we here at Grace Church recommend and encourage.
00:31:36.900 | He wasn't the sort of expositor
00:31:39.500 | that we teach pastors to be,
00:31:42.100 | but he acknowledged that expository preaching
00:31:45.500 | is superior to any other approach.
00:31:48.380 | And nevertheless, he followed a style of preaching
00:31:51.520 | that was more common and more conventional
00:31:54.180 | in his generation.
00:31:55.920 | But this lecture is really full of good advice
00:31:59.060 | for biblical expositors, starting with his opening words.
00:32:02.620 | Here's the very first sentence of this lecture, quote,
00:32:05.840 | "Sermons should have real teaching in them,
00:32:08.580 | "and their doctrine should be solid,
00:32:10.780 | "substantial, and abundant."
00:32:14.180 | It's the opposite, again, of not only Rick Warren,
00:32:17.140 | but most preaching gurus these days,
00:32:20.700 | who say, you know, don't load it
00:32:22.940 | with too much doctrine or teaching.
00:32:24.540 | Tell stories, make it interesting,
00:32:27.060 | meet people's felt needs.
00:32:28.640 | None of that in Spurgeon.
00:32:29.900 | He says it should be full of doctrine.
00:32:32.780 | And he hammers the storytelling,
00:32:37.120 | sort of moralistic, motivational,
00:32:40.240 | super-contextualized approach
00:32:42.360 | that most megachurch pastors today
00:32:45.760 | would recommend and practice.
00:32:47.240 | In fact, here's an interesting contrast,
00:32:49.960 | not to keep picking on Rick Warren,
00:32:51.740 | but he's fun to pick on.
00:32:53.500 | (audience laughing)
00:32:55.360 | In The Purpose-Driven Church,
00:32:57.640 | Rick Warren says this, quote,
00:33:00.120 | "The ground we have in common with unbelievers
00:33:02.840 | "is not the Bible, but our common needs,
00:33:05.880 | "hurts, and interests as human beings.
00:33:09.420 | "You cannot start with a text,
00:33:11.380 | "expecting the unchurched to be fascinated by it.
00:33:14.820 | "You must first capture their attention,
00:33:16.840 | "and then move them slowly to the truth of God's word."
00:33:20.240 | So Warren is far more concerned with style
00:33:24.980 | than he is with content.
00:33:27.020 | He wrote an entire book on ministry philosophy,
00:33:30.760 | and in it, he has very little to say
00:33:33.160 | about the content of your message.
00:33:35.560 | But what he does say is loaded with warnings
00:33:39.120 | not to be too biblical, or too doctrinal,
00:33:42.600 | or too challenging to the interests
00:33:45.120 | or preferences of unsaved people in the audience.
00:33:48.320 | That's his view.
00:33:49.160 | Here's Spurgeon's view by contrast.
00:33:51.040 | He says, quote, "The sermon should spring out of the text,
00:33:56.160 | "and the more evidently that it does so, the better."
00:33:59.900 | He says, "Take care that your deliverances
00:34:02.620 | "are always weighty, and full of really important teaching.
00:34:07.620 | "Don't build with wood, hay, and stubble,
00:34:10.120 | "but with gold, silver, and precious stones."
00:34:12.980 | And he went on to condemn the notion
00:34:16.220 | that the pulpit is like a theater stage
00:34:18.820 | for the entertainment and amusement of unchurched people.
00:34:22.580 | And in fact, in that connection,
00:34:25.260 | he references an infamous 18th century preacher
00:34:29.660 | who actually he's introducing me to.
00:34:31.700 | I'd never heard of this guy,
00:34:33.620 | but apparently he attained some fame in his time.
00:34:35.980 | John Henley, from the 1700s,
00:34:39.500 | who literally moved his church to a theater
00:34:43.980 | in Lincoln Inn's fields in London,
00:34:46.940 | and Henley became well-known
00:34:49.100 | for the sort of clownishness and buffoonery
00:34:52.360 | that he did from the pulpit.
00:34:54.640 | One critic said of John Henley,
00:34:56.840 | "Fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue."
00:35:00.220 | And the poet, the famous poet Alexander Pope
00:35:04.840 | called John Henley a zany, a zany, he says.
00:35:09.320 | So I looked that up in the Oxford English Dictionary,
00:35:11.700 | and zany, when it's used as a noun like that,
00:35:15.500 | it refers to a comic performer attending on a clown.
00:35:20.000 | Not a clown, but the sidekick of a clown, okay?
00:35:23.500 | Who he says, this is from the Oxford English Dictionary,
00:35:26.140 | he's a comic performer attending on a clown
00:35:28.620 | who imitates his master's acts
00:35:31.140 | in a ludicrously awkward way.
00:35:34.560 | So as a preacher, you don't wanna be a zany,
00:35:37.020 | you don't wanna come across as a zany, okay?
00:35:39.540 | But this guy Henley, although ostensibly he was a pastor,
00:35:43.420 | was a clown's clown,
00:35:45.700 | sort of the very worst kind of living, breathing farce.
00:35:50.660 | In fact, look him up, John Henley,
00:35:52.760 | you'll be amazed that stuff like that went on
00:35:54.980 | even in the 1700s.
00:35:57.720 | I think there may be a Wikipedia page about the guy.
00:36:02.720 | And if someone suggested to me
00:36:05.720 | that Rick Warren resembles John Henley
00:36:07.780 | more than he resembles Charles Spurgeon,
00:36:10.420 | I wouldn't argue with you.
00:36:11.780 | Don't be like that, Spurgeon says.
00:36:14.700 | He says, quote, "We are on peril of our souls
00:36:18.280 | "bound to deal with the solemnities of eternity
00:36:22.060 | "with no earth-born topics."
00:36:24.940 | And again, this is a great lecture
00:36:26.900 | and it's filled with sound advice on preaching.
00:36:30.300 | This is the antidote to most of the books
00:36:33.100 | on preaching and pastoral philosophy
00:36:36.020 | that you may have read in the 20th and 21st centuries.
00:36:39.740 | Great lecture, but I gotta move on.
00:36:42.140 | Lecture six is titled, "On the Choice of a Text."
00:36:46.640 | Now, it's well known, I think,
00:36:48.460 | that Spurgeon usually didn't even decide
00:36:51.380 | what text he would preach on each week
00:36:54.260 | until Saturday evening before Sunday morning.
00:36:56.740 | Yeah, I emphatically do not recommend that approach.
00:37:01.240 | (audience laughing)
00:37:03.500 | But here's what Spurgeon says about it.
00:37:06.380 | "What is the right text?
00:37:07.840 | "How do you know it?"
00:37:08.740 | He says, "We know it by the signs of a friend.
00:37:11.640 | "When a verse gives your mind a hardy grip
00:37:14.620 | "from which you cannot release yourself,
00:37:17.020 | "you will need no further direction
00:37:18.520 | "as to your proper theme.
00:37:20.100 | "Like the fish, you nibble at many baits,
00:37:22.560 | "but when the hook has fairly pierced you,
00:37:24.500 | "you will wander no more."
00:37:26.320 | Now, in my judgment, this is not Spurgeon's finest lecture,
00:37:31.020 | but even so, it's worth reading
00:37:33.660 | and it is filled with some helpful tidbits.
00:37:37.380 | I don't need to say any more about it.
00:37:39.620 | Again, I don't think it's the best lecture in the book
00:37:42.720 | and since we recommend expository preaching
00:37:46.560 | where you follow through a passage week after week,
00:37:50.040 | it's kind of a moot point, but whatever.
00:37:53.400 | Lecture seven is titled "On Spiritualizing."
00:37:57.600 | That's the title, and here Spurgeon talks
00:37:59.960 | about spiritualizing the meaning of scripture.
00:38:03.640 | It may shock you to learn that he didn't think
00:38:06.880 | it was always a bad thing to find a spiritual meaning
00:38:10.580 | through allegory or symbolism in a biblical text,
00:38:14.940 | but nevertheless, he was emphatic in saying
00:38:17.600 | this should not be the rule in hermeneutics.
00:38:21.440 | He would stress that the meaning of scripture
00:38:23.820 | is not a coded message where the true sense
00:38:28.240 | is a hidden spiritual meaning that's deeper and richer
00:38:33.100 | than what the human author actually had in mind.
00:38:35.820 | That wasn't his view, but on the other hand,
00:38:38.180 | he didn't believe that it was safe to assume
00:38:41.220 | that there's never any symbolic meaning in the text,
00:38:45.020 | so he wouldn't rule out types and metaphors
00:38:48.300 | and allegorical symbolism like Paul uses
00:38:51.180 | in the book of Galatians.
00:38:53.220 | He saw that as an unwarranted wooden literalism
00:38:58.140 | to rule that out completely, and in fact,
00:39:00.740 | he called that a rule that is more fastidious than correct.
00:39:05.060 | And again, I think I understand what he's driving at,
00:39:07.980 | but he isn't as clear as I wish he would be
00:39:10.660 | on where the boundaries lie.
00:39:12.820 | But if you read this chapter, you can decide for yourself
00:39:16.300 | whether he's making a valid point.
00:39:18.260 | He gives several humorous examples of over-spiritualizing,
00:39:23.260 | and he also then suggests some examples
00:39:28.060 | of types and metaphors that, in his judgment,
00:39:31.180 | legitimize the occasional spiritualizing
00:39:34.360 | of a biblical text, and he does give this rule
00:39:37.580 | as a sound and necessary qualifier.
00:39:40.140 | He says this, that the meaning of Scripture
00:39:43.080 | is never merely spiritual, that Scripture is not,
00:39:47.640 | in other words, a secret message,
00:39:49.820 | and therefore, he says, quote,
00:39:51.680 | "Never allow your audience to forget
00:39:53.680 | "that the narratives which you spiritualize are facts.
00:39:57.780 | "They are not mere myths or parables.
00:40:00.760 | "The first sense of the passage must never be drowned out
00:40:04.980 | "in the outflow of your imagination."
00:40:06.900 | And then he delivers this line, quote,
00:40:09.240 | "It will be an ill day for the church
00:40:11.100 | "if the pulpit should ever appear to endorse
00:40:14.060 | "the skeptical hypothesis that Holy Scripture
00:40:17.380 | "is but the record of a refined mythology
00:40:20.560 | "in which globules of truth are dissolved
00:40:23.080 | "in seas of poetic and imaginary detail."
00:40:26.360 | He says that very poetically,
00:40:28.600 | but I hope you get the sense of what he's saying.
00:40:31.000 | Now, moving on to lecture eight,
00:40:33.960 | the title is On the Voice,
00:40:37.440 | and here he has some valuable things to say
00:40:40.080 | about what was, at the time, a huge tendency.
00:40:43.840 | It was the foolish practice of some preachers,
00:40:46.580 | and it, in fact, I would say the besetting sin
00:40:48.720 | of all preachers in, almost all preachers
00:40:51.620 | in Victorian times in the Anglican Church,
00:40:55.220 | where they would use an affected pulpit voice.
00:40:58.680 | They would deliver the sermon in a voice
00:41:01.800 | that's nasally and pedantic and atonal and even effeminate.
00:41:06.800 | He despised that kind of artificially,
00:41:12.200 | obviously artificial style.
00:41:13.960 | He says this, quote, "Take care not to fall
00:41:16.920 | "into the habitual and common affectations
00:41:19.960 | "of the present day.
00:41:21.240 | "Scarcely one man in a dozen in the pulpit
00:41:23.880 | "talks like a man."
00:41:25.440 | And there's some funny things in this lecture, by the way.
00:41:29.280 | In the published edition, the book editor
00:41:32.520 | actually inserts some comments along the way,
00:41:36.560 | apologizing for not being able to convey in print
00:41:41.240 | how Spurgeon imitated the vocal style
00:41:44.200 | that he was criticizing, you know.
00:41:45.920 | Spurgeon hated, for example,
00:41:49.000 | lisping and effeminate preachers.
00:41:51.200 | He says this, quote, "There is another style
00:41:54.760 | "at which I beseech you not to laugh."
00:41:57.120 | And then I assume he slipped into the lisping style.
00:42:00.960 | He said, "It's a method of enunciation
00:42:05.100 | "to be very ladylike and mincing
00:42:07.480 | "and delicate, servant-girlified."
00:42:11.140 | (audience laughing)
00:42:14.140 | I'll leave the accent behind there.
00:42:21.140 | He says, "It's a style that's dawdling and dundrearish."
00:42:25.160 | I don't know how else to describe it, he says.
00:42:27.280 | "We have, most of us, had the felicity
00:42:29.280 | "of hearing these or some others
00:42:31.680 | "of the extensive genus of falsettos
00:42:34.480 | "and high stilts and affectations."
00:42:37.500 | High stilts, that would be high-heeled shoes.
00:42:39.960 | So he's caricaturing this effeminate style
00:42:43.380 | as if it's coming from preachers who,
00:42:45.760 | you know, cross-dressers and stuff.
00:42:47.740 | And in fact, he wasn't the only one that did that.
00:42:50.600 | Some of the cartoons in the newspapers
00:42:53.640 | compared Spurgeon with his more manly style
00:42:57.240 | to the typical Anglican preacher
00:42:59.440 | who they portrayed as usually an old woman.
00:43:02.500 | But he says, "I've heard very many
00:43:06.340 | "different varieties of this,
00:43:08.360 | "from the fullness of the johnsonian
00:43:11.200 | "to the thinness of the little genteel whisper,
00:43:15.020 | "from the roaring bulls of Bashan
00:43:17.440 | "up to the chip, chip, chip of a chaffinch."
00:43:20.360 | I don't know what that is, some kind of bird.
00:43:22.840 | He says, "I've been able to trace
00:43:24.560 | "some of our brethren to their forefathers,
00:43:26.640 | "I mean their ministerial forefathers,
00:43:29.440 | "from whom they first of all gathered
00:43:31.640 | "these heavenly, melodious, sanctified,
00:43:35.360 | "in every way beautiful, but I must honestly add,
00:43:39.840 | "detestable modes of speech.
00:43:42.600 | "The undoubted order of their oratorical pedigree
00:43:45.740 | "is as follows.
00:43:47.460 | "Chip, which was the son of Lisp,
00:43:50.400 | "which was the son of Simper,
00:43:52.580 | "which was the son of Dandy,
00:43:54.820 | "which was the son of Affectation, or Wobbler,
00:43:58.860 | "which was the son of Grandios,
00:44:00.920 | "which was the son of Pomposity,
00:44:03.360 | "the same as the father of many sons."
00:44:06.380 | And he says, "Understand that where even
00:44:09.220 | "these horrors of sound are natural,
00:44:12.460 | "I do not condemn them.
00:44:14.440 | "Let every creature speak in its own tongue,
00:44:16.400 | "but the fact is that in nine cases out of 10,
00:44:19.860 | "these sacred brogues, which I hope
00:44:22.500 | "will soon be dead languages,
00:44:24.580 | "are unnatural and strained."
00:44:26.640 | He says, "I am persuaded that these tones
00:44:28.840 | "and semitones and monotones are Babylonian.
00:44:32.360 | "They are not at all the Jerusalem dialect,
00:44:35.360 | "for the Jerusalem dialect has this one
00:44:38.320 | "distinguishing mark, that it is a man's own
00:44:41.840 | "mode of speech, and it is the same
00:44:44.560 | "out of the pulpit as it is in it."
00:44:46.640 | I love that, and in fact, I have to say,
00:44:49.920 | the thing that first struck me,
00:44:52.040 | more than, almost 50 years ago,
00:44:53.880 | when I first heard John MacArthur preach,
00:44:57.360 | was the fact that he didn't put on some,
00:45:00.600 | you know, typical preacher style,
00:45:02.920 | which was popular even then.
00:45:04.240 | That was back in the early 1970s.
00:45:07.420 | I'd never really heard anyone preach
00:45:10.040 | just with a natural voice the way John MacArthur did,
00:45:13.080 | and it made it so much easier to understand,
00:45:15.800 | and as Spurgeon points out,
00:45:17.040 | there's something manly about that,
00:45:18.680 | that I think we should cultivate.
00:45:20.880 | Now I need to speed up, or I won't finish on time.
00:45:23.840 | Lecture nine is titled Attention,
00:45:28.480 | and Spurgeon, as he explains in the opening remarks here,
00:45:31.820 | the topic of this lecture is how to obtain
00:45:35.320 | and retain the attention of our hearers,
00:45:38.000 | and he says this is an inexplicably overlooked subject
00:45:42.120 | in most books on homiletics.
00:45:44.080 | He probably wouldn't say that today
00:45:45.640 | if he saw a lineup of 21st century books on church growth.
00:45:50.640 | You know, books for preachers today
00:45:53.920 | don't talk about much else
00:45:55.360 | than how to hold the audience's attendant,
00:45:57.160 | but to these days, most of the suggestions you get are bad.
00:46:01.400 | Spurgeon wouldn't be in favor, obviously,
00:46:04.280 | of those who think playing secular music
00:46:07.880 | or putting on a carnival
00:46:09.360 | is a good way to attract people's attention.
00:46:12.120 | He does have a few practical suggestions,
00:46:14.760 | and he opens with them.
00:46:15.920 | He talks, for example, about just opening the windows
00:46:18.980 | to the room and letting the foul air out of the building,
00:46:22.040 | and then after thus clearing the air, he says this,
00:46:25.040 | and this sums up his main point in this lecture.
00:46:27.960 | Quote, "In order to get attention,
00:46:30.240 | "the first golden rule is
00:46:31.720 | "always say something worth hearing."
00:46:34.140 | Seems like a simple point, doesn't it?
00:46:38.300 | But I know from personal experience,
00:46:40.520 | a lot of preachers don't get that.
00:46:43.280 | And he further expounds on that point with several others.
00:46:46.360 | He says, "Let your sermon be well-organized.
00:46:48.820 | "Let the points be clearly arranged.
00:46:51.780 | "Speak plainly.
00:46:53.260 | "Don't make the introduction too long."
00:46:55.520 | That steps on my toes a little.
00:46:57.280 | "Avoid speaking too long," and he goes on like that.
00:47:01.200 | You can read the chapter.
00:47:02.560 | There's lots of good advice for preachers here.
00:47:06.000 | Lecture 10 is titled "The Faculty of Impromptu Speech,"
00:47:10.700 | and it may sound from the title
00:47:13.140 | like he's going to defend extemporaneous preaching
00:47:17.880 | rather than preaching from a full manuscript,
00:47:21.280 | but he dispels that expectation in the opening sentence.
00:47:24.240 | He writes, "We are not about to discuss the question
00:47:27.640 | "as to whether sermons should be written and read,
00:47:30.720 | "or written, committed to memory, and repeated,
00:47:33.680 | "or whether copious notes should be employed
00:47:35.840 | "or no notes at all.
00:47:37.680 | "Neither of these is a subject now under consideration,
00:47:40.560 | "although we may incidentally allude to each of them,
00:47:43.220 | "but we are now to speak of extemporaneous speech
00:47:46.520 | "in its truest and most thorough form,
00:47:49.800 | "speech impromptu, without special preparation,
00:47:52.820 | "without notes, without immediate forethought."
00:47:55.780 | And he starts by warning that no one should ever preach
00:48:00.360 | without adequate preparation.
00:48:02.800 | He says this, "Unstudied thoughts coming from the mind
00:48:06.680 | "without previous research, without the subjects in hand
00:48:10.160 | "having been investigated at all,
00:48:12.400 | "these must be of a very inferior quality,
00:48:15.340 | "even from the most superior men,
00:48:17.860 | "and as none of us would have the effrontery
00:48:20.000 | "to glorify ourselves as men of genius
00:48:23.400 | "or wonders of erudition," he says,
00:48:26.400 | "I fear that our unpremeditated thoughts on most subjects
00:48:29.960 | "would not be remarkably worthy of attention.
00:48:32.980 | "Churches are not to be held together
00:48:34.720 | "except by an instructive ministry.
00:48:38.240 | "A mere filling up of time with oratory will not suffice."
00:48:43.240 | And so at one point he says,
00:48:44.720 | "Do not attempt to be impromptu
00:48:47.220 | "unless you have well studied the theme."
00:48:51.200 | And so even though I like never to speak
00:48:53.560 | without a manuscript, I heartily agree
00:48:55.720 | with most of his advice in this lecture.
00:48:58.880 | He does manage to take a backhanded slap
00:49:02.000 | at those of us who use a manuscript,
00:49:04.240 | but then he makes a kind of concession
00:49:07.480 | to us manuscript users at the same time.
00:49:10.520 | He says this, quote, "Very strongly do I warn all of you
00:49:14.360 | "against reading your sermons,
00:49:16.760 | "but I recommend as a most helpful exercise,
00:49:20.080 | "as a great aid towards attaining extemporizing power,
00:49:24.740 | "I recommend the frequent writing of them."
00:49:28.760 | And speaking personally, after I read what Spurgeon
00:49:32.680 | has to say about the pitfalls and the negative potential
00:49:35.600 | of careless extemporaneous speaking,
00:49:40.040 | I'm actually more committed than ever
00:49:41.840 | to the use of a manuscript.
00:49:44.000 | I'm a pretty good writer, but I'm a lousy preacher.
00:49:46.680 | So I just don't have the fluidity of mind
00:49:50.580 | and the speedy recall that is required
00:49:53.680 | to speak without having in front of me
00:49:56.400 | a written reminder of what I want to say.
00:49:59.280 | But nevertheless, this is a good chapter.
00:50:02.120 | It's full of advice that even us manuscript users
00:50:05.840 | will benefit from.
00:50:07.860 | Lecture 11 is titled The Minister's Fainting Fits,
00:50:12.280 | and this is a famous one because this is one of the rare
00:50:16.960 | firsthand resources that gives us insight
00:50:21.960 | into Spurgeon's struggle with depression.
00:50:24.960 | I did a lecture on this last year here at Grace Church
00:50:28.640 | on Spurgeon's chronic depression.
00:50:32.160 | He struggled with depression more than you would ever know
00:50:34.600 | from reading his sermons or even reading his biographies,
00:50:38.400 | but he was constantly beset with emotional depression
00:50:43.400 | and discouragement and physical weariness,
00:50:47.380 | and he discusses several of the causes
00:50:50.040 | of ministerial melancholy,
00:50:52.920 | and he notes that downheartedness
00:50:55.520 | actually has some benefits too.
00:50:58.160 | So it's an encouraging lecture to read.
00:51:00.200 | He says, for example, quote,
00:51:02.480 | "By all the castings down of his servants,
00:51:04.780 | "God is glorified, for they are led to magnify him
00:51:09.040 | "when he sets them on their feet,
00:51:10.660 | "and even while they are prostrate
00:51:13.480 | "in the dust of their faith, it yields him praise.
00:51:17.760 | "They speak all the more sweetly of his faithfulness,
00:51:20.540 | "and they are all the more firmly established in his love."
00:51:24.140 | And then here's the point he closes the lecture with,
00:51:26.900 | quote, "The lesson of wisdom is,
00:51:29.000 | "don't be dismayed by soul trouble.
00:51:32.020 | "Count it no strange thing,
00:51:34.160 | "but a part of ordinary ministerial experience.
00:51:37.760 | "Should the power of depression be more than ordinary,
00:51:41.720 | "think not that all is over with your usefulness."
00:51:44.860 | In other words, if you fall into a deep depression,
00:51:46.900 | don't assume your ministry's over.
00:51:49.680 | "Cast not away your confidence,
00:51:51.520 | "for it has great recompense of reward.
00:51:54.000 | "Even if the enemy's foot is on your neck,
00:51:56.860 | "expect to rise and overthrow him.
00:51:59.520 | "Cast the burden of the present,
00:52:01.180 | "along with the sin of the past and the fear of the future,
00:52:04.500 | "cast it upon the Lord, who does not forsake his saints."
00:52:08.620 | And he includes in that paragraph
00:52:12.820 | an amazing string of reminders of biblical truth,
00:52:16.220 | showing why impediments and disappointments in the ministry
00:52:20.860 | shouldn't defeat or discourage us.
00:52:24.280 | And in here then are his final words in that lecture,
00:52:27.420 | quote, "When we cannot see the face of our God,
00:52:31.860 | "we learn to trust under the shadow of his wings."
00:52:35.820 | That's become kind of a famous quote of Spurgeon's.
00:52:38.660 | When I can't see his face,
00:52:40.440 | I'm still comfortable under the shadow of his wings.
00:52:44.180 | Lecture 12, I'm almost getting to the end of the book.
00:52:46.860 | Good, 'cause we're running short.
00:52:50.060 | Lecture 12, "The Minister's Ordinary Conversation."
00:52:52.980 | And here his point is to encourage his students
00:52:55.820 | not to try to project an air of piety or superiority
00:52:59.920 | when they mingle with the flock.
00:53:01.640 | He says, quote, "First and foremost, let me say,
00:53:05.400 | "the pastor should give himself no ministerial airs,
00:53:09.000 | "but avoid everything which is stilted or official
00:53:12.240 | "or fussy or pretentious."
00:53:13.780 | He tells the students, quote,
00:53:15.420 | "If you're characterized by too much ministerial starch,
00:53:19.060 | "I would earnestly advise you to go and wash in Jordan
00:53:22.480 | "seven times and get the starch out of you,
00:53:27.480 | "every particle of it."
00:53:29.820 | He says, "I'm persuaded that one reason why our working men
00:53:32.820 | "so universally keep clear of ministers,"
00:53:35.220 | he's talking about blue collar people
00:53:36.660 | and why they don't like to hang around pastors,
00:53:39.220 | "is because they abhor their artificial and unmanly ways.
00:53:44.220 | "If they saw us in the pulpit and out of it,
00:53:46.880 | "acting like real men and speaking naturally
00:53:49.520 | "like honest men, they would come around us."
00:53:52.940 | He says, quote, "We must have humanity
00:53:55.340 | "along with our divinity if we would win the masses.
00:53:58.400 | "Everybody can see through affectations
00:54:00.480 | "and people are not likely to be taken in by them.
00:54:03.280 | "Fling away your stilts, brethren, and walk on your feet.
00:54:07.220 | "Doff your ecclesiasticism and array yourselves in truth."
00:54:12.220 | And at the same time, he reminds us
00:54:14.980 | that a minister should be aware that he is always on duty.
00:54:19.980 | Even when you're in those mingling in social circles
00:54:23.220 | and you're still a pastor, you're still on duty.
00:54:25.940 | He says, "A policeman or a soldier may be off duty,
00:54:29.720 | "but a minister never is.
00:54:31.460 | "Even in our recreations, we should still pursue
00:54:34.920 | "the great object of our lives, for we are called
00:54:37.760 | "to be diligent in season and out of season."
00:54:41.140 | And he also says that, and I like this statement,
00:54:43.680 | "The doormat in front of your study should say welcome
00:54:46.680 | "and not beware the dog."
00:54:48.820 | (audience laughing)
00:54:51.020 | I mean, I'd say I like that.
00:54:52.300 | Actually, I think there's a doormat in front of my office
00:54:55.020 | that says beware the dog.
00:54:56.380 | (audience laughing)
00:54:57.780 | But he tells his students, "Be cheerful.
00:55:01.080 | "Be a participant in conversations with your people."
00:55:04.500 | But he says, "Don't monopolize the conversation.
00:55:07.780 | "Turn every conversation to profitable use.
00:55:11.180 | "Don't court friendship with people
00:55:13.980 | "because of their wealth or status."
00:55:16.100 | He says these are the kinds of practical advice
00:55:19.020 | that he gives in this lecture.
00:55:21.020 | And then in the last lecture of the book, Lecture 13,
00:55:24.560 | it's titled, "To Workers with Slender Apparatus."
00:55:28.880 | And what does that mean, you ask?
00:55:31.700 | Well, Spurgeon explains in his opening sentence.
00:55:34.760 | He says, "What are ministers
00:55:36.980 | "who do have a slender apparatus?"
00:55:39.380 | I thought he was gonna talk about men
00:55:41.620 | whose voices don't project well or whatever,
00:55:44.060 | but here's how he defines it.
00:55:46.020 | "By a slender apparatus, I mean they have few books
00:55:50.180 | "and little or no means wherewith to purchase more."
00:55:54.060 | So he's talking about the tools pastors use
00:55:57.140 | to prepare their sermons, the commentaries,
00:55:59.620 | and books of biblical history, resource books,
00:56:02.820 | and Bible encyclopedias, and other vital Bible study aids.
00:56:07.820 | Spurgeon says the idea of a pastor
00:56:11.140 | who can't afford to buy books, Spurgeon says, is abominable.
00:56:15.400 | You'll love this lecture.
00:56:17.900 | (audience laughing)
00:56:19.900 | He says, quote, "This is a state of things
00:56:22.760 | "which ought not to exist in any case.
00:56:25.060 | "The churches ought to take care
00:56:27.940 | "that it should be rendered impossible
00:56:29.980 | "for a pastor not to be able to afford to buy books.
00:56:33.280 | "Up to the highest measure of their ability,
00:56:35.480 | "they should furnish their minister
00:56:37.480 | "not only with the food which is needful
00:56:39.260 | "to sustain the life of his body,
00:56:41.000 | "but with mental nutriment
00:56:42.900 | "so that his soul may not be starved.
00:56:45.240 | "A good library should be looked upon
00:56:47.060 | "as an indispensable part of church furniture,
00:56:49.760 | "and the deacons, whose business it is to serve tables,
00:56:53.720 | "will be wise if, without neglecting the table of the Lord
00:56:56.760 | "or of the poor, and without diminishing the supplies
00:56:59.820 | "of the minister's dinner table,
00:57:01.720 | "they give an eye to his study table
00:57:04.080 | "and keep it supplied with new works
00:57:06.200 | "and standard books in fair abundance.
00:57:08.720 | "It would be money well laid out,
00:57:10.340 | "and it would be productive far beyond expectation.
00:57:13.500 | "Instead of waxing eloquent
00:57:14.920 | "upon the declining power of the pulpit,
00:57:17.340 | "leading men in the church should use the legitimate means
00:57:20.000 | "for improving its power by supplying the preacher
00:57:22.540 | "with food for thought.
00:57:24.200 | "Put the whip into the manger,
00:57:25.860 | "is my advice to all grumblers."
00:57:28.220 | And if you're a minister in a small church environment,
00:57:33.740 | you will cheer him for saying that.
00:57:35.380 | This is one of the most winsome of these 13 lectures,
00:57:39.800 | because it shows Spurgeon's tender heart for,
00:57:42.980 | and his care for young pastors who had few resources.
00:57:47.740 | And he encouraged his students by pointing out
00:57:49.940 | that you can actually do a whole lot with very little.
00:57:53.500 | He cited Thomas Chalmers, who wrote a commentary
00:57:57.380 | on the entire Bible, and Spurgeon says this about him,
00:57:59.700 | "Dr. Chalmers used only the Concordance,
00:58:03.200 | "the Pictorial Bible, Poole's Synopsis,
00:58:06.660 | "Matthew Henry's Commentary,
00:58:08.340 | "and Robinson's Researches in Palestine."
00:58:11.460 | Five books, he says, "Those are the books I use,"
00:58:14.500 | he said to a friend, "All that is biblical is there.
00:58:17.360 | "I have to do nothing besides that in my biblical study."
00:58:21.900 | And Spurgeon says, "This shows that those
00:58:23.800 | "who have unlimited stores at their command
00:58:26.040 | "yet find a few standard books to be sufficient."
00:58:29.460 | If Dr. Chalmers were now alive,
00:58:31.860 | he would probably take Thomson's Land and the Book
00:58:34.500 | instead of Robinson's Researches,
00:58:36.420 | and he might give up the Pictorial Bible
00:58:38.400 | for Kiddo's Daily Bible and Illustrations.
00:58:41.540 | At least, I should recommend the alteration to most men,
00:58:44.660 | Spurgeon says, "This is clear evidence
00:58:46.540 | "that some eminent preachers have found
00:58:48.880 | "that they could do better with a few books
00:58:51.540 | "than with many when they're studying the scriptures."
00:58:54.140 | And I concur with that, I find the more commentaries
00:58:58.500 | I read through, sometimes the more muddled my thoughts are
00:59:03.500 | when I come to prepare the sermon.
00:59:05.540 | I wanna get a good idea of the passage,
00:59:07.700 | I wanna have a clear outline
00:59:09.000 | before I start to write my own notes,
00:59:11.540 | but sometimes that's easier to do with a few resources.
00:59:15.500 | I've been in situations where I'm traveling or whatever,
00:59:20.860 | and the only thing I have are the few resources
00:59:24.620 | I can carry on my iPad,
00:59:27.100 | and I've found sometimes less is more.
00:59:30.520 | By the way, this lecture, this last lecture
00:59:32.580 | is where Spurgeon made his famous comment
00:59:34.740 | about Matthew Henry's commentary,
00:59:36.940 | which I think is one of the most underrated commentaries
00:59:40.520 | of all, I think it's always very helpful.
00:59:42.980 | Spurgeon said about Matthew Henry,
00:59:44.280 | "No better investment can be made by any minister
00:59:47.320 | "than that peerless exposition."
00:59:49.820 | Get it, if you sell your coat to buy it.
00:59:52.620 | [audience laughing]
00:59:54.900 | And he tells him, I like this part too,
00:59:57.180 | if they have to borrow books, he says,
00:59:58.680 | "Be sure you return them quickly and in good condition
01:00:01.460 | "to their rightful owners," which is wise counsel.
01:00:04.180 | I wish some people who had borrowed my books
01:00:06.860 | had heeded that advice.
01:00:09.260 | But anyway, that's a speedy overview of,
01:00:12.260 | are we out of time already?
01:00:13.880 | Okay, so I'm not gonna get into the coda of this.
01:00:18.260 | I have five more pages of notes,
01:00:20.460 | which out of respect to you guys, I'm gonna skip.
01:00:24.280 | But that's a speedy overview of my series one
01:00:29.280 | in Spurgeon's lecture to my student.
01:00:31.400 | And I'll quit at that point, okay?
01:00:35.620 | Thank you for coming.
01:00:37.620 | Appreciate you giving me that much time.
01:00:40.860 | And I'll see you next year.
01:00:42.300 | [audience applauding]