Great Christian Biographies with John Piper: Charles Spurgeon 2

So here's what he says to illustrate the importance of truth. Some excellent brethren seem to think more of the life than the truth. Life over truth for when I warn them that the enemy has poisoned the children's bread.

They answer dear brother. We are sorry to hear it and to counteract the evil. We will open the window and Give the children fresh air. Yes. Open the window and give them fresh air by all means but at the same time this ought you to have done and not left the other undone.

Arrest the poisoners and open the windows to. While men go on preaching false doctrine, you may talk as much as you will about deepening their spiritual life. But you will fail in it. So one of the things I love About RTS is that I hear them getting this life doctrine Interplay and how crucial they both are.

I will testify. I just finished my ministry at Bethlehem on Easter so 33 years pastor in the same church preached my last sermon on Easter Sunday evening and I can testify now after say that just just take the last two months of this transition process.

My successor is now in place. I went online to listen to him preach last Saturday night. Loving what God is doing at Bethlehem my experience in the last just two months is to testify that The most common expression of gratitude coming my way from my people who have come up to me.

We have this big Service coming this Sunday night to say bye-bye John. But up until now the most common expression of thankfulness has been from people who say that the storms of suffering in their lives Have not overturned the boat of their faith.

Because of the ballast of God-centered truth in their boat owing to God-centered preach. So you hear here's why I'm Deeply gratified by those testimonies because what they're saying is You're a God besotted preacher.

You elevate God's majesty a lot. It's weighty. It's heavy and it has landed in our boats like ballast and We have been hit by so many things in life the death of a child the death of a spouse the loss of a job the presence of breast cancer and On and on and on we've been hit and our boat Has not been turned over.

Because there's there's a weight of God. Thank you. Thank you, so do you hear the connection between God saturated preaching and Practicality of survival in life. This is very very true. Spurgeon says it I'm testifying to it.

I'm sure most of you have discovered it. To know the truth as it should be known. This is his definition again of preaching to know the truth as it should be known. To love it as it should be loved to proclaim it in the right spirit and In its proper proportions.

We give you a Bible verse to support what he's saying. 2nd Thessalonians 2 10. Paul speaks of those who quote are perishing Because they refused to love the truth and so to be saved. People are perishing not just because they don't know the truth.

They don't love it. Now if you believe as a pastor that your people can perish everlasting for not loving the truth. What would you do? Well, one of the things you would do is tell them the truth and Love it in front of them so that they absorb what it is to love the truth.

It doesn't do anybody any good to say here's the truth. Love that love that. What doesn't emotions don't work that way? Can't tell your kid like to clean your room like it but if you come alongside them and whistle in the first 10 or 20 times and Turn it into a game and help the kid Grow into his affections for good things.

He might wind up finding a way to like cleaning his room. And I know that people find a way to love God by watching a pastor love God. So it's not a small thing when he defines preaching as to know the truth as it should be known and Love it as it should be known as it should be loved and then and then proclaim it in these proportions.

That are under biblical. Now it doesn't go without saying so I'll say it that the source of all this truth for Spurgeon was the God-breathed inerrant Christian Bible. He held up his Bible and said this these words are God's Thou book of vast authority.

Thou art a proclamation from the Emperor of heaven far be it from me to exercise my reason in contradicting thee. This is the book untainted by any error. But it is pure unalloyed perfect truth. Why. Because God wrote it.

Spurgeons talk about The Bible. Oh. Those of you preparing for ministry labor to free yourself from all doubt in God's inerrant word. If you labor a lifelong with this niggling doubt. That I don't know if I can preach on that text.

I don't know if there might be some mythological leftovers here that You're gonna be lamed. And you're gonna be weak. You're gonna come to the end of your days feeling like you've poured 75 of yourself out.

Because you've just been constantly holding back. The Bible is worthy of your trust and a people want their pastor to labor to know it delivering with confidence. He wasn't just a Bible based preacher though.

It was a Bible saturated preacher. I used that phrase earlier and That's my passion for young pastors. I did a seminar here. I Would hammer on the head of every young aspiring preacher. Not to preach merely Bible based sermons.

Why not. I Don't think it Maximizes your impact your authority your effectiveness to hover just above the text. Never sinking down. So that people can see where this is coming from. I'm gonna hammer over and over and over again.

Would you get that would you get that would you get that show them show them? It's the second half of verse 1 where that came from. Do they see that you're saying it like you think they can see it. They can't see it say it point them make their heads go down.

Don't go on until there is go down. Into their iPad or whatever. It's a new day. When I came to Bethlehem, I said my favorite sound will be the swish of every page when I announced the text. It's gone.

No swishes anymore. Few Codgers with their Bibles and the rest reading their telephones when I'm it's alright. God's Word in a telephone. Don't hover in your preaching a lot of pastors here I'm pleading with you.

Don't hover just above the text saying true things about the text. Point them to the text. Our Authority lies in the text. The people need to make the connection. There's a lot of successful preachers.

You don't preach this way. I mean I can name lots of them huge churches. I Just want to say they could multiply their power and their long-term Deepening effectiveness for the sake of their people 20 years after they're gone.

If they were showing the people where they got their points and how they got their points as they preach Bible saturated and Not just Bible based. So here's a long quote from Spurgeon. It's very famous.

I love it. You've heard it. Maybe it's very good. Oh that you and I might get into the very heart of the Word of God and get that word into ourselves as I have seen the silkworm eat into the leaf and consume it.

So ought we to do with the Word of the Lord not crawl over its surface. But eat right into it till we have taken it into our inmost parts. It is idle merely to let the eye glance over the word. But it is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible.

Until at last you come to talk in scriptural language and your very style is Fashioned upon scripture models and what is better still your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord. I would quote John Bunyan as an instance of what I mean.

Read anything of his and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself. He had studied our authorized version till his whole being was saturated with scripture and though his writings are Charmingly full of poetry yet.

He cannot give us his pilgrim progress. That's sweetest of all poem prose poems without continually making us feel why the man is a living Bible. Prick him anywhere and you will find his blood is biblene.

That's the famous quote prick him anywhere prick Bunyan anywhere and you will find that his blood is Biblene. Spurgeon made up a lot of words. He did I collect them as I read and it's great. You should make up words, too.

Prick him anywhere and you will find his blood is biblene. The very essence of the Bible flows from him. So all that just to illustrate Bible saturation. Not just Bible basis while you become creative up here and and tell stories and read blogs and quote Newspapers and and try to entertain your people what you think will interest them when they're sitting there.

Say would you tell us what God said and show it in the book? I pray that RTS and the Nicole Institute of Baptist Studies will be lovingly known as Reformed Bible saturated theological seminary and the Nicole Institute of Bible saturated Baptist Studies.

Spurgeon is a great example of loving the whole of Biblical truth and exulting over it in the pulpit. So that's the end of point number one one more to Spurgeon loved people and Labored to win them and build them so first one he loved truth and he exulted over it in the pulpit and the second one now is he loved people and Labored and we'll underline that word labor To win them and Build them.

It appears that during his mature ministry say the last 20 years There was not a week That went by that souls were not saved Through his preached and published sermons. This is one of the reasons by the way Francis many people have embraced Charles Spurgeon as a soul winner and Not embraced his theology.

You can buy a 12 volume set of the Spurgeon works where Calvinism has been totally removed every hint of it. Because there are groups who love Soul-winning and they know he is the best and they can't explain how Calvinist can be like that.

Well Calvinist sure ought to be like that. We are totally out of sync with our God our Christ our Bible if we're not like that. He was always on the watch for souls. He said one brother in our church has earned for himself the title of my hunting dog.

For he is always ready to pick up the wounded birds. That was serious. His deacons were trained when he was doing to spot the people under conviction and bring him to a room. Spurgeon let us see his heart for people and their eternal good in this amazing statement.

I In the country and sometimes here that my whole soul has agonized over men every nerve of my body has been strained and I could have wept my very Being out of my eyes and carried my whole frame away in a flood of tears.

If I could but win soul makes me feel many regrets. So set your face young preachers to love people and their eternal souls. He was consumed with the glory of God and he was consumed with the salvation of people.

He embodies I think 2nd Corinthians 12 15. I Will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. Can you say that pastor are you young men ready to say that I will most gladly spend and be Spent. He died at 57 and he said I'm gonna burn out here.

He knew what he was doing. He said he would rather die young and do what he's doing then to live long and not do what he's doing. I would rather Spend and be spent for your souls or 1st Corinthians 9 22.

I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. He knew God saves. Paul did. Spurgeon did. But we are instruments and we are essential instruments because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

He was driven Never to be satisfied with past pursuits. But he pressed forward like Paul in Philippians 3. I Strain forgetting those things which lie behind. I strained forward. So he lived his life. This this quote that I'm gonna read you now just short has been the most significant for me and getting ready for this.

Satisfaction with results Will be the death knell of progress. No man is good. Who thinks that he cannot be better? He has no holiness. Who thinks that he is holy enough? Let me read it again. That's real real convicting Satisfaction with results, so I'm looking back on 33 years.

All right. All right, how should I feel about them? Satisfaction with results will be the death knell of progress. No man is good. Who thinks that he cannot be better? He has no holiness. Who thinks that he is holy?

Enough. So I was being interviewed by Colin Hanson day before yesterday. Online I mean to record make a recording and he said any regrets. 33 years any regrets. I said Everything and here's what I meant.

I mean, I had just read this. I quoted it. I think in fact on the video I said all I mean by that is I could have done everything I could. I can't think of any committee. I led any sermon I preached any counseling situation any funeral any wedding that I couldn't have done better the year he turned 40.

It's a dangerous year guys 41 .5. Jim Conway says you're gonna have a midlife crisis and buy a motorcycle and sailboat and leave your wife and Millions do so if you're pushing 40. Sink your roots down deep into Jesus because it's gonna be some tough sledding for the next five years called menopause sort of.

So That's only half a joke. I Don't know. I don't know how to explain it. I just think it's real. I think it's probably got physiological stuff going on. So he's 40 years old and he delivered a message to his pastor's conference with a one-word title forward.

Here's what he said in every minister's life. There should be traces of stern labor. Brethren do something. Do something. All caps do something. While committees waste their time over resolutions do something.

While societies and unions are making Constitutions. Let us win souls. Too often we discuss and discuss and discuss while Satan only laughs in his sleeve. Get to work. Quit yourselves like men. That's a good idea at age 40.

It's a good idea at any age do something. Let me relate that to regret. You not trusting Jesus. If you say what I said about regretting all things meaning you could do them better. If you let that paralyze you for tomorrow's ministry if you draw the inference, I couldn't everything better.

I'm just a Average, you know. C-minus pastor. Well, what inference you're gonna draw from that work? Get up get going do something do something do something. You're not called to be an a pastor. You call to be you Right and God will hold you accountable.

Not at all for being a Charles Spurgeon. No way He will he will judge you by whether you got out of bed in the morning. When you didn't feel like getting out of bed. Whether you did what you had to do until the fire fell and you loved it again.

So he was 40 and he said forward part of his motive for this Indefatigable pursuit of souls and the glory of God was his concern about eternal punishment. He believed in hell. I hope this seminary believes in hell until Jesus comes.

Here's what he said. Meditate with deep solemnity upon the fate of the lost sinner. Shun all views of future punishment, which would make it appear less terrible and so take off the edge of your anxiety to save Immortals from the quenchless flame.

Think much also of the bliss of the sinner saved and like holy Baxter derive rich arguments from the Saints everlasting rest. There will be no fear of your being lethargic if you are continually familiar with the eternal realities.

There's just so much trifling today. Twitter is a dangerous tool. Blogs are dangerous. Humor is dangerous. Being clever is dangerous. Being an effective communicator is dangerous because it can all just hover up here in a kind of communicative fun and People go out saying loved it fun a fun time at church today.

Nobody said that 50 years ago. Nobody talked that way. Now everybody talks that way. Or a fun time ministry at fun times. Conference had a fun time in church today a fun time. What what is how does the word fun connect with the realities?

The weight of the realities of hell and heaven and cross and death to self and joy in God. How does fun relate to that? So I'm I'm really smacking some of you around. Because you use that adjective which is a noun.

It became an adjective about 30 years ago. I can date it almost. That was not a good move. That's another talk. When Spurgeon's love for God-centered Bible saturated Christ exalting truth fed the zeal of Wanting to save perishing sinners an avalanche of energy and ministry was created.

I'm almost done One page, but you got to feel the wonder of this man, so you don't feel like you should imitate an Avalanche of energy an avalanche of Ministry happened when zeal for the glory of God Fed Zeal to rescue perishing perishing sinners.

Here's what he said. No one living knows the toil and care. I have to bear. He's writing in his autobiography. I Have to look after the orphanage. I Have charge of a church with 4 ,000 members. Sometimes there are marriages and burials to be undertaken.

There is the weekly sermon to be revised the sword and trowel to be edited and Besides all that a weekly average of five hundred letters to be answered. This however is only half my duty. For there are innumerable churches established by friends with the affairs of which I am closely connected.

To say nothing of the cases of difficulty which are constantly being referred to me on His 50th birthday. So seven years before he burns out on his 50th birthday a list of 66 Organizations was read that he founded and conducted.

Lord Shaftesbury was there and he said this list of associations instituted by his genius and Superintended by his care were more than enough to occupy the minds and hearts of 50 ordinary men. The missionary David Livingston Asked Spurgeon one time.

How do you manage to do? Two men's work in a single day and Spurgeon replied You have forgotten. There are two of us. I Think he meant Colossians 129 goes like this I labor I labor I Spurgeon labor striving according to his power Which he mightily works within me.

So there's Spurgeon in Jesus. I love that verse. I want that verse in the next chapter of my life Striving not with 67 year old energy But striving with his power Which he mightily works within me. Oh that every pastor and every burgeoning younger Dreaming pastor would hear who trains here learn the secret of striving in the power of another.

Otherwise, you're gonna burn out and be a legalist. He mean-spirited be frustrated angry Tired all the time blaming other people. But if you learn this secret and I think it is what Paul meant when he said I have learned the secret the secret of another's power leaned on moment by moment hour by hour so that it becomes an avalanche of energy for the cause of glorifying God and rescuing sinners.

Spurgeon stands as a witness To what happens when love for God-centered Christ exalting Bible saturated truth feeds the flame of love for people people who will perish without the gospel without God without Christ an explosion of zeal and energy and creativity For the church All of it aiming to glorify God and bring sinners to himself so Concluding longing may God make Reformed Theological Seminary and the Nicole Institute of Baptist Studies a breeding ground a nursery a seminary for such love of truth and such love for people and Such energy for the ministry.

Let's pray father. I thank you for these friends who have Spent their evening Listening about Spurgeon. Thank you for Spurgeon. Thank you for your grace in his life that he was two men at least and I thank you for his legacy and I pray that all the good things about it would be Kept and imitated and anything that's defective we would neglect and move on to greater imitation of the true one Jesus Christ His name I pray amen.