Preaching Christ
by Charles H. Spurgeon
Two items here:
First, from Spurgeon's Lectures To My Students.
"Of all I would wish to say this is
the sum; my brethren, preach Christ, always
and evermore. He is the whole gospel. His
person, offices, and work must be our one
great, all-comprehending theme. The world
needs still to be told of its Saviour, and
of the way to reach him. Justification by
faith should be far more than it is the daily
testimony of Protestant pulpits; and if with
this master-truth there should be more generally
associated the other great doctrines of grace,
the better for our churches and our age.
If with the zeal of Methodists we can preach
the doctrine of Puritans a great future is
before us. The fire of Wesley, and the fuel
of Whitfield, will cause a burning which
shall set the forests of error on fire, and
warm the very soul of this cold earth. We
are not called to proclaim philosophy and
metaphysics, but the simple gospel. Man's
fall, his need of a new birth, forgiveness
through an atonement, and salvation as the
result of faith, these are our battle-axe
and weapons of war. We have enough to do
to learn and teach these great truths, and
accursed be that learning which shall divert
us from our mission, or that wilful ignorance
which shall cripple us in its pursuit. More
and more am I jealous lest any views upon
prophecy, church government, politics, or
even systematic theology, should withdraw
one of us from glorying in the cross of Christ.
Salvation is a theme for which I fain enlist
every holy tongue. I am greedy after witnesses
for the glorious gospel of the blessed God.
O that Christ crucified were the universal
burden of men of God. Your guess at the number
of the beast, your Napoleonic speculations,
your conjectures concerning a personal Antichrist--forgive
me, I count them but mere bones for dogs;
while men are dying, and hell is filling,
it seems to me the veriest drivel to be muttering
about an Armegeddon at Sebastopol or Sadowa
or Sedan, and peeping between the folded
leaves of destiny to discover the fate of
Germany. Blessed are they who read and hear
the words of the prophecy of the Revelation,
but the like blessing has evidently not fallen
on those who pretend to expound it, for generation
after generation of them have been proved
to be in error by the mere lapse of time,
and the present race will follow to the same
inglorious sepulchre. I would sooner pluck
one single brand from the burning than explain
all mysteries. To win a soul from going down
into the pit is a more glorious achievement
than to be crowned in the arena of theological
controversy as Doctor Sufficientissimus;
to have faithfully unveiled the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ will be in
the final judgment accounted worthier service
than to have solved the problems of the religious
Sphinx, or to have cut the Gordian knot of
Apocalyptic difficulty. Blessed is that ministry
of which Christ is all."
2) Next, Spurgeons first words at the new
Metropolitan Tabernacle in London
"I would propose that the subject of
the ministry of this house, as long as this
platform shall stand, and as long as this
house shall be frequented by worshippers,
shall be the person of Jesus Christ. I am
never ashamed to avow myself a Calvinist,
although I claim to be rather a Calvinist
according to Calvin, than after the modern
debased fashion. I do not hesitate to take
the name of Baptist. You have there (pointing
to the baptistery) substantial evidence that
I am not ashamed of that ordinance of our
Lord Jesus Christ; but if I am asked to say
what is my creed, I think I must reply: "It
is Jesus Christ." My venerable predecessor,
Dr. Gill, has left a body of divinity admirable
and excellent in its way; but the body of
divinity to which I would pin and bind myself
for ever, God helping me, is not his system
of divinity or any other human treatise,
but Christ Jesus, who is the sum and substance
of the gospel; who is in himself all theology,
the incarnation of every precious truth,
the all-glorious personal embodiment of the
way, the truth, and the life."
3) And as an additional note of inspirational
interest ........ the first words of John
Gill at Carter Lane. Spurgeon was a later
successor of Gill in the church in London.
The meeting house at Carter Lane was opened
on October 9, 1757. The pastor, John Gill,
preached from Exodus 20:24. In the course
of his message he made the the following
comments.
"As we have now opened a new place of
worship, we enter upon it, recording the
name of the Lord by preaching the doctrines
of the grace of God, and of free and full
salvation alone by Jesus Christ; and by the
administration of gospel ordinances, as they
have been delivered to us. What doctrines
may be taught in this place after I am gone
is not for me to know; but as for my own
part, I am at a point; I am determined, and
have been long ago, what to make the subject
of my ministry. It is upwards of forty years
since I entered into the arduous work; and
the first sermon I ever preached was from
those words of the apostle, 'For I am determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ, and him crucified:' and through the
grace of God I have been enabled, in some
good measure, to abide by the same resolution
hitherto, as many of you here are my witnesses;
and, I hope, through divine assistance, I
ever shall, as long as I am in this tabernacle,
and engaged in such a work. I am not afraid
of the reproaches of man; I have been inured
to these, from my youth upwards; none of
these things move me.