This
week's "thought" comes from someone we haven't heard
from for quite a while - Charles H. Spurgeon. He
has been dubbed the "Prince of Preachers" and is
considered by many to be the most gifted preacher ever. This excerpt
comes from a message he preached on October 6, 1872 entitled "The
Comforter." Spurgeon began his preaching career in
1850 at the age of 15. By the time he was 19 he had accepted a call to pastor
one of the biggest Baptist churches in London. Within a short time they
had to build an addition onto the church to increase the seating capacity from
1200 to 5000 seats to accommodate the weekly crowds. He was an
extraordinarily gifted man.To those who wrongly believe that Christianity was universally popular back in the mid-to-late-800's in England, this somewhat auto-biographical account should clear up that misunderstanding. I've been reading this sermon in my devotional time and found it both interesting and true; that's why I wanted to pass it along to you. Enjoy.
The Comforter
“In
the 15th chapter of John’s Gospel we find the Savior describing His saints in
the world as hated and persecuted for His sake, and He bids them expect this.
But He consoles them in verses 26-27: “When the Comforter is come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceeds from the
Father, He shall testify of Me. And you also shall bear witness, because you
have been with Me from the beginning.”
Now
verses 18-27 mean just this—while Jesus Christ was here on earth, if anyone had
anything to say against Him or His disciples, the Master came forward to the
front, and He soon baffled His foes so that they confessed, “Never has anyone
spoken like this man” (John 7:46). At this present time our Master and head is
gone from us, so how are we to answer the attacks of the world? The
answer is we have another Counselor who comes to speak for us, and if we had
but confidence in Him, beloved, He would have spoken for us much more loudly
than He has sometimes done!
Whenever
we learn to leave the business in His hands, He will do two things for
us: FIRST - He will speak for us Himself, and SECOND - He will
enable us also to bear witness. At this present time many questions of
doctrine are brought up for discussion, many objections to the truth of God are
blocked, and there are many who would lay the axe at the very root of
Christianity and cut it down as a rotten tree! What is our answer?
I will tell you: Nearly all the books that have been written to answer modern
philosophies are a waste of time and a waste of paper. The only way in
which the church can hold her own, and answer her detractors is by real power
from God!
Has
she done anything for the world?
Can
she produce results?
By
her fruits shall she be proved to be a tree of life to the nations!
Now
the Spirit of God, if we would but trust Him, and give up all this idolatry of
human learning, cleverness, genius, eloquence, rhetoric, and I know not what
beside, would soon answer our adversaries! He would silence some of them
by converting them as He answered Saul of Tarsus by turning him from a
persecutor to an apostle. He would silence others by confounding them and
making them see their own children and relations brought to know the truth of
God! If there is not a miraculous spiritual power in the Church of God at this
day, she is an impostor! At this moment the only vindication of our
existence is the presence and work of the Holy Spirit among us. Is He
still working and witnessing for Christ? I fear He is not in some churches.
Here
in our fellowship we behold Him. Look at His workings in this place.
Nearly 20 years ago [back in August of 1854] our ministry began in this city
under much opposition and hostile criticism. The preacher [that is, Spurgeon
himself] being condemned on all hands as vulgar, unlearned, and, in fact, a
“nine days’ wonder”! Jesus Christ was preached by us in simpler language
than men had been accustomed to hear, and every one of our sermons was full of
the old-fashioned gospel. Many other pulpits were intellectual, but we held to
the pure Scriptures. Rhetorical essays were the wares retailed by
most of the preachers, but we gave the people the gospel. We brought out
before the world the old Reformers’ doctrines, Calvinistic truth, Augustinian
teaching, and Pauline dogma! We were not ashamed to be the, “Echo of a
long-dead evangelism,” as some wiseacre called us.
We
preached Christ and Him crucified, and by the space of these 20 years have we
ever lacked a congregation? When has not this vast hall been thronged? Have we
ever lacked conversions? Has a Sunday passed over us without them? Has not the
history of this church, from its littleness in Park Street until now, been a
march of triumph with the hearts and souls of men being the spoils of the war
and the flag under which we have marched been Christ crucified?
And
it is so everywhere! Only let men come back to the gospel and preach it
ardently, not with pretty words and the artificiality of polished speech, but
as a burning heart compels them, and as the Spirit of God teaches them to speak
it. Then will great signs and wonders be seen! We must have signs
following—else we cannot answer the world! Let them sneer; let them rave;
let them curse; let them lie—God will answer them! It is ours in the
power of the Spirit of God to keep on preaching Christ and glorifying the
Savior. Just as Jesus always met the adversary in a moment, and the
disciples had no need of any other defender, so we have another Helper, who in
answer to prayer will vindicate His own cause, and gloriously avenge His own
elect.”
In
a world of competing ideas and religious views, something must set Christianity
apart from all the rest. Something more than "mere
morality" as C. S. Lewis called it. Something more than
mere religious gatherings. Something that shows our faith to be different
from all the rest. And that "something" (as
Spurgeon points out) must be the power of God! People must be able
to see and sense the evidences of God's presence and the supernatural working
of the Holy Spirit among His people if we are to truly testify to the reality
of Jesus and His gospel (I Cor. 14:24-25 / II Cor. 10:3-5).
Be
it the miracle of an extraordinary and other-worldly love; the miracle of
someone turned to repentance and faith; the miracle of a healing or a prophetic
word that hits home as if it were tailor made; or the miracle of a regenerate
heart -- the greatest miracle of all -- the power of God must
be seen if people's objections are to be stifled! "The only way in
which the church can hold her own, and answer her detractors is by real power
from God!... If there is not a miraculous spiritual power in the
Church of God at this day, she is an impostor! At this moment the only
vindication of our existence is the presence and work of the Holy Spirit among
us... Only let men come back to the gospel and preach it ardently,
not with pretty words and the artificiality of polished speech, but as a
burning heart compels them, and as the Spirit of God teaches them to speak it.
Then will great signs and wonders be seen! We must have signs
following—else we cannot answer the world!"
To
use the words of Isaiah in his deep yearning for a visible and incontestable
manifestation of God's power: "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come
down, that the mountains would tremble before you!" (Is. 64:1-2) That's what we need more
than anything else -- a fresh outpouring of the Spirit of God in incontestable
and saving power! Not manufactured miracles, but God-given
miracles. Not the stuff of mere human emotion, but the supernatural
intervention of a sovereign God. And it must stem from earnest prayer and
the gospel ardently preached, as Spurgeon says, from a burning heart that's
moved and compelled by the Holy Spirit. Our prayer, Like Isaiah's,
must be, "Come down Lord!"
With
Prayer for the Renewing of Christ's Church on Earth, Pastor Jeff
