August 26, 2024 Show with Ed Romine on “The Booming Baritone Bell of England: The Pedagogy & Practice of Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s Open-Air Preaching”

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Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer
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George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend
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Jim Thorpe. It's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,
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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.
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Proverbs, chapter 27, verse 17, tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.
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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.
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And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,
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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth.
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We're listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.
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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 26th day of August, 2024.
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Before I introduce my guest and our topic, I want to remind you of a couple of important things.
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If you are a man in ministry leadership, you are invited to the next free biannual
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to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania, which is
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Perry County, Pennsylvania. And our featured keynote speaker for the very first time is
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Dr. Joseph Boot, who is a world -renowned author and highly sought -after conference speaker and founder and president of the
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Ezra Institute. Not only is admission free and your time to hear what will no doubt be a powerful and edifying message from Dr.
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On top of all of that, everybody in attendance receives a heavy sack of free brand -new books personally selected by me and donated by generous
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If you're a man in ministry leadership and you'd like to register for this free event, just send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail dot com, chrisarnson at gmail dot com, and put
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Pastors Luncheon in the subject line. And please include not only your name, but the name and location of your church or para -church ministry and the number of men who will be joining you.
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That's Thursday, October 10th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. at Church of the
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Living Christ in Lloydsville, Pennsylvania. The free, biannual Iron Trip Insignia Radio Pastors Luncheon featuring
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Dr. Joe Boot. I also have another reminder of a prayer request that I announced last week, a very urgent prayer request.
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A longtime cherished friend of mine, Gary Wolfe, who was a member of the same church where I was saved and began my new
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Christian life in my mid -twenties back in the 1980s.
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Gary Wolfe, in fact, was a classmate of mine in the same high school where I attended in the 70s, graduating in 1980 at Medieval Memorial High School.
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My friend, Gary Wolfe, was just recently diagnosed with stomach cancer, and he is having more tests being done tomorrow,
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Tuesday. I would really appreciate it if you would pray for Gary, not only for physical healing, but for the
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Lord to give him a perfect peace, trusting in his will, whatever that may be, and that Gary may be able to even face this frightening, terrifying battle with confidence in Christ and joy, and that he would be a wonderful, effective ambassador in the name of Jesus Christ to all with whom he comes in contact during this trial in his life.
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So please continue to pray for Gary Wolfe, and God willing, I will be giving you updates on the progress of his health and hopefully giving you praise reports with good news of healing or good news of diminished cancer and so on.
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But I am excited to have a returning guest today on the show. His name is Ed Romine, and he is an author and pastor of education and evangelism at First Baptist Church of Provo, Utah.
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Today we're going to be addressing his latest book, The Booming Baritone Bell of England, The Pedagogy and Practice of Charles Haddon Spurgeon Open Air Preaching.
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It's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Trip and Zion Radio. Pastor Ed Romine, and it just occurred to me that I probably mispronounced your last name, didn't
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I? No, you did not. No, you did not. Okay. So, most people add an
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A in that last name and they say Romaine, like the lettuce. Right. And nothing drives me nuts more than that.
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Well, there are things, but not much. Well, why don't you -
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It's good to be back, dear brother. Yes. Amen. Well, why don't you first and foremost let our listeners know about First Baptist Church of Provo, Utah.
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It might surprise people that there is a Baptist church in Provo, Utah.
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I understand that Provo has one of the most highly concentrated
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Mormon populations in the United States, even more than Salt Lake City. And so, it's great to know, wonderful to know, that there is a solid
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Christian church in the midst of that. So tell us more about First Baptist Church of Provo. Yes, sir.
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Well, the First Baptist Church of Provo, as Brother Chris said, is a mecca for what's officially known as the
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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, commonly known amongst Christians as Mormon.
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And the First Baptist Church of Provo is a Calvinistic Southern Baptist church.
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We affirm the abstract principles and we love and cherish and preach the biblical
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Jesus Christ from only the Holy Bible. We do expository preaching through books of the
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Bible, and I get the joy and privilege of being one of the members and pastors of the
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First Baptist Church of Provo. My official title, as I think was stated, is the
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Pastor of Education and Evangelism. And what that basically entails is
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I do whatever the church needs me to do. I preach, I teach,
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I organize our Thursday night Bible studies and whatever other curriculum we may have during the year.
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And then I also do a lot of evangelism, a lot of open -air preaching in downtown
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Provo and around the outskirts of Brigham Young University.
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And that's another thing that a lot of people don't realize is that Brigham Young University is not in Salt Lake City.
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It's actually in Provo. That's why there's such a high concentration of members of the
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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. It's because Brigham Young University is right there.
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And so with that said, it's a wonderful place to do ministry for a lot of different reasons.
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And the good Lord has been so kind to us. We recently, within the past month, got to celebrate two baptisms.
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And if you're in the area, come join us. We love it when Christians from back east or around the
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USA come visit us. It always encourages our soul. We read the word.
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We pray the word. We read either the Apostles' Creed or Nicene Creed together each week, reminding ourselves that our faith goes back 2 ,000 years and God's always had his elect.
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And then we also have, as I said before, expositional preaching.
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Pastor Brendan, who is the main preacher, is preaching through the book of Luke. And then when
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I preach, I'm going through the book of Psalms. So it's just a joy to be a part of First Baptist Provo.
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God has been so good to us. Our services are at 10 o 'clock a .m. mountain time.
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Amen. And if anybody wants to find out more about First Baptist Church of Provo, go to FBC for First Baptist Church, Provo .org,
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FBC, Provo .org. And God willing, we will remind you of that information later on in the program.
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Well, we are about to address, as I already mentioned, the latest book from the pen of Ed Romine, The Booming Baritone Bell of England, The Pedagogy and Practice of Charles Haddon Spurgeon's Open Air Preaching.
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And this book has gained the accolades of people that I know, love, and admire, who
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I have actually had as guests on Iron Sherpa and Zion Radio, some of them multiple times.
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Let me read a commendation by my dear friend Justin Peters, Evangelist with Justin Peters Ministries.
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E .G. Romine provides us tremendous insight into the philosophy, hermeneutics, and evangelistic zeal that compelled
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Charles Spurgeon to herald the gospel, not merely behind the pulpit, but also, and especially so, out in the open air, to be heard by multiplied thousands at a time.
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The Booming Baritone Bell of England ably fills what has been lacking in Spurgeonic scholarship.
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I enthusiastically commend this work to the pastor, scholar, and layman alike, and also my dear friend
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Andrew Rappaport, Executive Director at Striving for Eternity Ministries. Many books have been written on the life and preaching of Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
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When most people write on the preaching of Spurgeon, they focus on his pulpit preaching. What E .G.
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Romine has done in this book is focus on the preaching that was so dear to Spurgeon's heart, preaching in the open square.
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If you would like to understand Spurgeon better, and even more, to preach like Spurgeon, this book is for you.
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And there are quite a number of other accolades for this book.
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Let me just quickly read a couple more. Ray Rhodes, who is the pastor of Grace Community Church, I believe that's in Douglasville, Georgia, if I'm not mistaken.
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I'll correct that if I'm wrong, but he's been a friend of mine for a long time, and I have interviewed
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Ray on his book about the wife of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Susie.
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But Ray writes, Spurgeon preached everywhere from village cottages to London's vast halls.
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Buildings couldn't contain the crowds. Therefore, he also preached outside to the masses.
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Scholar and open -air preacher E .G. Romine is the most qualified person that I know to write a book on Spurgeon's open -air preaching.
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Read this joyful and well -informed book. And I'll just include one more out of the many accolades for this book.
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My dear friend, Dr. Tom Nettles, senior professor of historical theology at the
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Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in addition to being the current executive director of Founders Ministries and pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Cape Coral, Florida.
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Dr. Nettles writes, E .G. Romine has captured the spirit zeal, theology, and love of Charles Spurgeon in this volume.
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If anything showed the true passion of Spurgeon for truth and for people, it was his open -air preaching.
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His polemics throughout his ministry manifested his love for Orthodox, evangelical, and yes,
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Calvinistic truth. All of that, however, was in service of the purity of the gospel preached to the lost.
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This excellent work explores the theology practice and pedagogy of preaching in the open air.
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Romine has given it a charming presentation. Well, those,
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I should say, are some powerful commendations. And I know that one of the reasons that you wrote this book is because you yourself, in addition to being a pastor, like Charles Adams Spurgeon, are an open -air evangelist like Charles Adams Spurgeon.
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What did you do to discover more information about this aspect of Spurgeon's life?
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Because as one of the commendations accurately said, and I believe it was
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Andrew Rappaport's commendation, that most of the time when you pick up a book by Spurgeon, it is either something directly from his pulpit ministry or something that doesn't necessarily focus on his open -air evangelism.
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So how did you go about discovering these truths that are largely unknown to your average reader?
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Yes. So to back up just a little bit to answer your question, I first heard about Charles Spurgeon through a gift of a book called
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The Gospel -Centered Focus of Charles Spurgeon, written by Stephen Lawson.
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Yeah. And it was through that book that I fell in love with Charles Spurgeon.
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And I started reading what I could get my hands on, like Spurgeon on the
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Holy Spirit, published by Whitaker House. And I soon realized through some research that that was a bridge.
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And we're talking about 2012 when I started figuring out
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Spurgeon was a big deal to a lot of people, even beyond Reformed and Calvinistic camps.
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And it was through Lawson's book that I got introduced to Spurgeon.
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And in being introduced to Spurgeon, I eventually ran across his lectures to my students.
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And it was about this time that I ran across his lectures to my students that a dear friend of mine, who actually wrote one of the endorsements, was named
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Taylor Christian Calvin. You'll see his name on there. He's currently the pastor of Horicon Baptist Church in Brant Lake, New York.
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And one of the things I tried to do was to get well -known people in personal ministry, friends of mine, and a lot of them are both, like Justin Peters and Andrew Rappaport, to recommend the book.
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Nobody knows the name Taylor Christian Calvin unless you went to school with him, but he's a faithful pastor up in upstate
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New York. And when he was in Bible College himself while I was in seminary, we went to the same school, the
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Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He got me involved in street evangelism, tracting, open -air preaching, and all that stuff.
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And I fell in love with that form of evangelism, and Taylor was willing to take me out in my wheelchair and push me around everywhere, and we would go out and evangelize.
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When he first started getting me into this, I told him, I can't do that.
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I'm disabled. I have several palsy, and said, if you want to come do it,
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I'll help you get to where you need to go. And I fell in love with the act of open -air preaching as a method for getting the gospel to people.
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And then as I was reading lectures to my students, I came across the two lectures that are on open -air preaching that Spurgeon taught to his students.
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And those two lectures are a sketch of its history, open -air preaching, a sketch of its history, and then open -air preaching remarks their own.
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And I started looking around, and I was doing my Master of Divinity at the time, and I started realizing, hold on, nobody's actually written on this.
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And I asked my professors, and nobody knew, and I thought to myself, this could be an actual contribution if I wanted to run with it.
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So I ended up finishing my MDiv, finishing
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THM. Then I went to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where the
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Spurgeon Library is held in Kansas City, Missouri. And I went through my coursework there, did a bunch of research.
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And when I was living out in Utah back in 2020, I ended up writing the dissertation.
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And people, by God's grace, ended up really appreciating it for those who love
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Spurgeon. So I just couldn't believe for something that Spurgeon found so important, nobody had written on it yet.
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And so many guys, especially when the quote -unquote Young Restless Reform Movement was really in full swing, everybody wanted the
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Spurgeoning ministry, but nobody was talking about it, about its open -air preaching.
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So I'm just really grateful to the Lord that he gave me the endurance to write the book and to God be the glory.
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Hallelujah. I hope that answers your question. Yes, it does. And we are going to our first commercial break.
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If you have a question for Ed Romine about his book and perhaps even more broadly about Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The 19th
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Century Prince of Preachers, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.
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That's C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.
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As always, give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the
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USA. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.
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You are having some kind of theological disagreement with your own pastors, for an example. Perhaps you have fallen in love with the teaching of Charles Haddon Spurgeon and the church where you are a member.
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Your pastor despises that theology, even if they are unaware that Charles Haddon Spurgeon loved and taught it very dynamically and boldly.
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You have a lot of that, the anti -Calvinists who love Spurgeon, allegedly. But whatever the case may be, we will honor your request to remain anonymous.
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But please, if it's a general question, give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.
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We'll be right back with Ed Romine, and we'll be looking forward to hearing from you and your questions to chrisarnsen at gmail .com.
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chrisarnsen at gmail .com. We'll be right back. Hello, I'm Phil Johnson, Executive Director of Grace to You with John MacArthur.
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Don't forget to mention Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. And I am now back with our guest today,
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Ed Romine, a pastor of First Baptist Church, or one of the pastors, I should say.
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At First Baptist Church of Provo, Utah. And we're discussing his new book on the open air preaching of Charles Aden Spurgeon.
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And we have a listener who is asking something that is somewhat off topic, but it's about Spurgeon.
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And since he is, according to his own words, a good friend of yours,
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Ed, and he's also a very close friend of mine, longtime friend, that's
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Pastor Jason Wallace of Christ Presbyterian Church of Magna, Utah. I love
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Jason Wallace. Yes, so do I. He is also a very gifted documentarian.
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I have volunteered my services as a voiceover artist for a number of his documentaries.
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And Jason asks, what did Spurgeon see as the roots of the downgrade in the
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Baptist Association? And I think it would also obviously be wise for you to define what the downgrade controversy actually was.
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So the downgrade controversy is thought by many Spurgeonic historians to be the heartbreak of Spurgeon's life.
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And essentially what it was, he decided to withdraw from the
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Baptist Union at the time because the Baptist Union was sliding closer and closer into liberalism, denying such things as biblical inerrancy, biblical infallibility, denying the need for justification by faith alone and Christ alone.
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And Spurgeon fought hard during the end portion of his life not to leave and to reconcile with people.
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And even Phil Johnson has said, who is a Spurgeon expert in his own right, that even
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Spurgeon's brother, I believe it was Thomas, don't quote me on that,
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Thomas Spurgeon, turned against Spurgeon during this time and sided with the
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Baptist Union. And like I said, many people believe that that controversy alone contributed to the early, humanly speaking, early death of Charles Haddon Spurgeon at the tender age of 57.
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Well, as Jason asked, what do you think the roots of the downgrade controversy was?
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Obviously, there was something occurring in the churches at large in England in the 19th century that began to increase and multiply to the point where it even reached the downgrade controversy.
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Right. Yeah, the answer there, the main part of his question, I would say it was a lack of accountability in the union for gospel preaching and gospel shepherding.
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So if you do not have accountability, if you do not have mechanisms in place to say, hey, brother, that was doctrinally wrong, why are you preaching that?
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Then what you end up having is a slow sliding away from orthodoxy.
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And it happens so subtly. But before long, you start denying things that you never thought you'd deny.
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We see this in Utah, especially. Somebody gets, quote unquote, saved out of the
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LDS church. And they have systems in place where there's no accountability.
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There's nobody watching their doctrine. And before long, man's sinful heart is going to be slipping into things that are gospel denying.
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So I think that that's one of the main impetuses that allowed the downgrade controversy to happen.
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There was no true system of accountability to make sure that there was true gospel preaching going on and true biblical fidelity.
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Does that make sense? Yes, and it's just a reminder to church leaders today that they can never view it to be a loving act to let error go uncorrected.
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And the tolerance of error is seen by many as an act of love and Christian humility.
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Now, obviously, we're not talking about being legalistic, pharisaic, nitpicking and micromanaging the beliefs of others.
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But at the same time, we cannot have unity that is truly faithful to the scriptures if it's not based on truth.
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That's right. That's right. And that's not to say that there's not theological triage.
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But what you've got to understand is that in the downgrade controversy, people were denying things that you cannot deny and hold on to biblical, evangelical
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Christianity that we would say goes back all 2 ,000 years.
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Well, Pastor Jason, we've got good news. You have just won a free copy of The Booming Baritone Bell of England, The Pedagogy and Practice of Charles Haddon Spurgeon's Open Air Preaching.
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And by the way, I am pronouncing pedagogy the way Spurgeon would since he was British, and that is the
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British pronunciation. If he were an American, we would call it pedagogy.
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But how do you prefer pronouncing that word? Oh, I'm a
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Texas hick. I say pedagogy. Okay. And why don't you define that for our listeners?
39:12
Yeah. So pedagogy is the art and study of how to teach.
39:20
Okay. And I get that from Spurgeon's second lecture on open air preaching, which is
39:30
Remarks Their Own. Open air preaching, Remarks Their Own. And that's exactly what it sounds like.
39:38
If we were to go through that lecture, we'd see such practical things. If I may jump into this, dear brother, as stand with your back against the wall so that nobody comes up behind you and does something mean or nasty to you, don't preach.
39:59
This one's super helpful for today's bad open air preachers. Don't scream your lungs out the whole entire time because he says people will think that you're angry and you'll lose your voice.
40:17
And do such things as preach with a good, full voice but preach with the wind.
40:25
If it's windy, don't try to fight the wind. Just such simple things as that, which
40:32
I find very, very interesting that in today's open air preaching climate, you have those who would call themselves open air preachers, but they're really, as one person dubbed it, open air screechers that come to the
40:52
LDS general conferences that happen twice a year, and they say such things as, you're not
41:00
Mormons, you're morons. That's how one guy opened his quote -unquote open air sermon up.
41:08
And I told my dear friend I was with at the time, we need to leave this man.
41:14
I don't want to be associated with him. Really hateful stuff. Yeah, and that's exactly what ruined the open air evangelism that Dr.
41:29
James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries was involved in to the Mormons because at one time, he didn't have hardly any competition out there, but then the area became flooded with these hateful mavericks who were just there to mock
41:52
Mormons, had no real interest in seeing them come to Christ. Right, right.
42:00
Go ahead. I was going to say, in true open air preachers, to follow
42:09
Peter's admonition and proclaim the excellencies of Jesus Christ, we're out there to make
42:19
Jesus look good. If I could use a human word to make him almost look attractive, as it were.
42:29
Spurgeon actually talks about just the beauties of our Savior in the last sermon he ever preached.
42:40
And during a break, I'll get to it. I would love to read that quote, but it's so warm and so inviting.
42:49
And that's how he ended his life, was making Jesus look good without making him attractional, but also not downplaying the truth of you must come to him, you must believe in him.
43:07
That's very different than sitting out there yelling and screaming at people, telling them how bad they are, all in all, and no
43:17
Jesus at all. By the way, yes, and you have 10 minutes to quote that source.
43:25
Yes. If you'd like to do that. Let me repeat our email address, chrisarnson at gmail .com,
43:31
if anybody has questions. Go ahead. Yes, absolutely.
43:36
I got to get to you first. chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name, at least your city and state of residence and your country of residence.
43:46
If you live outside the USA. Oh, by the way, Pastor Jason, make sure we have your full mailing address in the
43:54
Magna Utah area where Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com
44:01
can ship out Ed Romine's book to you. Have you located that?
44:08
Yes, sir. Yes, I have. Yes, I have. So this is the last sermon that Charles Spurgeon ever preached called the
44:20
Statute of David for the Sharing of the Spoil, and the sermon text that he preached on was from Samuel 30 verses 21 through 26, and he preached this sermon on June 7th, 1891.
44:41
Listen to Spurgeon here. This is so beautiful. What have
44:48
I say lastly? What I have to say lastly is this. How greatly
44:54
I desire that you who are not yet enlisted in my Lord's band would come to him because you see what a kind and gracious Lord he is.
45:06
Young men, if you could see our captain, you would down on your knees and beg him and let you enter the ranks of those who follow him.
45:16
It is heaven to serve Jesus. I'm a recruiting sergeant and I would fain find a few recruits at this moment.
45:27
Every man must serve somebody. We have no choice as to that fact.
45:33
Those who have no master are slaves to themselves. Depend upon it.
45:40
You will either serve Satan or Christ, either self or the
45:45
Savior. You will find sin, self, Satan in the world to be hard masters.
45:52
But if you wear the livery of Christ, you will find him so meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls.
46:03
He is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was, he is like among the choices of princes.
46:11
He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold, he always takes the bleak side of the hill.
46:20
The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders.
46:26
If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yea, lavish, and superabundant in love, you always find it in him.
46:44
These forty years and more have I served him, blessed be his name, and I have had nothing but love from him.
46:55
I would be glad to continue yet another forty years in the same dear service here below, if it so pleased him.
47:04
His service is life, peace, joy, all that you would enter only at once.
47:12
God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus even this day.
47:19
Amen. Hallelujah. I wonder if that quote was any source of inspiration to Bob Dylan when he wrote the song,
47:30
You've Gotta Serve Somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you've gotta serve somebody. Back in the days when...
47:36
Maybe so. Back in the days when Bob Dylan was actually outwardly appearing to be a faithful servant of Christ.
47:44
I don't know where he is in regard to his standing before God today.
47:54
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention to our listeners that the foreword to this book has been written by Phil Johnson, executive director of Grace to You, the media ministry of John MacArthur.
48:10
Phil Johnson has been on this program as a guest numerous times, and you heard his voice earlier on in the commercial for Rare Document Traders, which happens to be a phenomenal source for original, authentic Charles Spurgeon memorabilia.
48:32
But as far as open -air preaching goes, how did it get to the point when the great open -air preachers that immediately come to people's minds, if they know anything about history, like George Whitefield, for instance, these men were
48:51
Calvinists. So, how did we reach the point where Calvinists make up a minority today of open -air evangelists?
49:03
That is a fine question. I'll give you my opinion. So, there was also, if you look at Spurgeon's sketch of open -air preaching,
49:19
Spurgeon doesn't leave out good gospel -fearing Armenians, the
49:25
Methodist circuit riders. You can go back and read that on your own time.
49:31
You can read my analysis of it in the book. There have always been, dare
49:37
I say on this radio show, good open -air, more Armenian -persuaded preachers back in the day.
49:46
I think, to be more pointed with your question, how did open -air preaching get involved in the hands of outright
49:57
Median heretics, people that are sinless perfectionists, people who deny the original sin altogether?
50:08
I think it came about because the
50:13
Reformed and Calvinistics stopped doing it. Where that history comes into play,
50:23
I'm not exactly sure right now, but maybe you can have me on for another program once I study it.
50:29
But that's a fine question. I don't know the details of the answers. Yeah, because it's a tragedy, because it just feeds into the slanderous stereotype of Calvinists as not having a passion for the lost and being unwilling to go where the lost gather, which very often is in the open air at parks and all kinds of areas where there are numerous people who are anywhere on the spectrum from being indifferent to the gospel to being openly and passionately hateful of it.
51:15
Right. So, I always grieve when people get the idea that even historically faithful and biblically faithful Calvinists, when they get the idea that they're hyper -Calvinists because of things like this, the uninvolvement of men of sovereign grace in the open air, preaching.
51:47
Go ahead, I'm sorry. Yeah, I was going to add on to that.
51:54
A lot of modern -day Calvinistic and Reformed in a well -meaning way have this attitude of, well, open -air preaching turns people off and turns them away.
52:09
And I just lovingly say to them, you're thinking like an Armenian. Yeah, the gospel turns people off.
52:18
Right, exactly. No matter where it's proclaimed. That's right, that's right.
52:24
God can take an absolute jerk of a human being, and I'm not endorsing doing this, but if that jerk of a human being is preaching a faithful gospel,
52:36
God can still use that gospel preaching if he so pleases. That being said,
52:42
I think lives ought to match our testimony, so I'm not advocating going out and doing that, but that's an extreme example of showing that I believe so much in the sovereignty of God that God can use the most crooked stick to save his people.
53:03
Amen. And we have to go to our midway break right now. If you have a question for Ed Romine on Charles Haddon Spurgeon or specifically on his book,
53:16
The Booming Baritone Bell of England, The Pedagogy and Practice of Charles Haddon Spurgeon's Open -Air
53:22
Preaching, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. chrisarnson at gmail .com.
53:29
Give us your first name at least, city and state and country of residence. Please be patient with us as the midway break is longer than the other breaks.
53:37
Please use this time wisely. Respond to as many of our advertisers as you can, knowing that our advertisers and the finances that come through them are what keep
53:50
Iron Triple Zion Radio on the air. And also send in your questions to Pastor Ed Romine to chrisarnson at gmail .com.
53:59
We'll be right back. Don't go away. It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron radio listeners from all over the world.
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Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland, who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed
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Dr. Joe Morecraft. I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron radio listener here in a tie in County Kildare, going back to 2005.
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One of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is Dr. Joe Morecraft. If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron radio,
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Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio on the air. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said,
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Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted.
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He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own.
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Dr. Nettles found a book in their library by a largely unknown elder who served alongside
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon at the Park Street Chapel and also the
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Metropolitan Tabernacle. Also, folks, before I return to my discussion with Ed Romine and our conversation on Charles Haddon Spurgeon's open -air preaching and theology, we have some important reminders for you.
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Last but not least, if you are not a member of a Christ -honoring, biblically faithful, theologically sound, doctrinally solid church like First Baptist Church of Provo, Utah, I have extensive lists spanning the entire globe of biblically faithful churches, and I've helped many people in the
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and put I Need a Church in the subject line. That's also the email address where you can send in a question to Ed Romine, and we are discussing his book,
01:13:37
The Booming Baritone Bell of England, The Pedagogy and Practice of Charles Haddon Spurgeon's Open Air Preaching, and that email address again is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.
01:13:51
Give us your first name at least, city and state and country of residence.
01:13:57
We have Drew in Hewlett, Long Island, New York, and Drew says,
01:14:06
I misunderstood something you were saying about Spurgeon earlier, who was rebuking people who raise their voice constantly.
01:14:14
Isn't that sometimes a necessity when you're open -air preaching? And also, aren't there often many things to be angry about when you are preaching, especially when you're condemning rampant sin in the community?
01:14:32
Yes, both of those questions, and I'll elaborate on them.
01:14:39
If you go and look at Spurgeon's lectures, he will tell you, you want to speak loudly and boldly from your diaphragm, so breathe well, and then project your voice.
01:14:55
What he is against is literal screaming where you're talking from the throat up here, and that's how, you know,
01:15:04
Tony Evans does it, and he gets this kind of air that's really bad on your voice.
01:15:11
Don't preach that way. I've heard preachers both in the pulpit and on the streets do that, and using that, that makes me want to cough just demonstrating it, and a lot of people, they'll preach from a tightness right here, and that's really not good for the vocal cords,
01:15:30
God gave you. So that's what I meant by that. I don't scream because he says it makes you sound like a lunatic.
01:15:41
To the second question, absolutely, absolutely, we should be angry when we think about the murder of the pre -born that's still happening around this country.
01:16:04
We should be angry about the way our country is going politically, whereas every year that passes by, our country is not caring more and more about the biblical principles upon which our country is based.
01:16:28
We should be angry about those things, but anger should not characterize our preaching.
01:16:36
I've read a lot of Spurgeon. He was not an angry preacher, but he was a firm preacher.
01:16:45
There was a solemn seriousness, both when he was talking about the sweetness of Jesus and the harshness of where those who go into eternity without the blessing of Jesus end up.
01:17:02
Could I read two very contrasting quotes from the open air?
01:17:08
Is that okay, dear brother? Of course. Okay, so that first quote that I read in the first half, that was from his last pulpit sermon, and one of my goals, my main thesis actually, is to show that Spurgeon's open air preaching made him the preacher he was in the pulpit.
01:17:31
So, I'm going to give you two contrasting quotes here. Here is the first one, and he's pleading for sinners to repent.
01:17:44
I'll give you a little bit of my commentary in my book, and then I'll tell you when the quote starts. Spurgeon, this is me,
01:17:52
Spurgeon, a strict Calvinist, was not afraid to say in the open air, you do feel your need of a savior.
01:18:02
Remember, Christ died for you. Believe that, will you? Spurgeon continues, there he hangs upon his cross, dying, looking into his face.
01:18:16
It is full of love. It is melting with forgiveness. His lips are moving, and he says,
01:18:23
Father, forgive him. Will you look to him? Can you hear him say it and yet turn away?
01:18:31
All he asks you is simply to look, and that look will save you.
01:18:37
You do feel your need of a savior. You know you're a sinner. Why, Terry?
01:18:44
Do not say you are unworthy. Remember, he died for the unworthy.
01:18:50
Do not say he will not save you. Remember, he died for the devil's castaways, the very dram and scum of the world
01:19:00
Christ has redeemed. Look at him. Can you look at him and not believe him?
01:19:07
Can you see the blood streaming from his shoulders and trickling from his hands and side and not believe him?
01:19:15
Oh, by him that liveth and was dead, and is alive forevermore,
01:19:20
I entreat you to believe on the Lord Jesus. For thus it is written, he that believeth on the
01:19:27
Lord Jesus and is baptized. So you can see he almost sounds
01:19:35
Armenian if you don't know him. I think that's why so many people mock him because they read stuff like that.
01:19:42
They think, oh, I can agree with that. And then there's other places where he says such things as, go and try my savior.
01:19:53
Go and try my savior. And a lot of us are so strict five -point
01:19:58
Calvinists, we wouldn't dare speak of talking that way. But Spurgeon in his zeal in the open air would actually plead with people in that way.
01:20:11
I'm not even sure I agree with it necessarily, but the fact is Spurgeon did it.
01:20:17
Now let me show you a quote from the open air that is extremely different.
01:20:23
This is from his sermon entitled Heaven and Hell. And it's numbers 39 and 40.
01:20:33
This is my favorite open air sermon that we know that he did and have recorded.
01:20:40
He's pleading with young men not to go to hell.
01:20:45
Here's the context. That was a dreadful dream which a pious mother once had and told to her children.
01:20:55
She thought the judgment day was come. The great books were open. They all stood before God.
01:21:03
And Jesus Christ said, separate the chaff from the wheat. Put the goats on the left hand and the sheep on the right.
01:21:13
The mother dreamed that she and her children were standing just in the middle of the great assembly.
01:21:20
And the angel came and said, I must take the mother. She is a sheep.
01:21:26
She must go to the right hand. The children are goats. They must go on the left.
01:21:33
She thought as she went, her children clutched her and said, mother, can we part?
01:21:41
Must we be separated? She then put her arms around them and seemed to say, my children,
01:21:49
I would, if possible, take you with me. But in a moment, the angel touched her.
01:21:56
Her cheeks were dry and now overcoming natural affection, being rendered supernatural and sublime, resigned to do
01:22:06
God's will. She said, my children, I taught you well.
01:22:11
I trained you up and you forsook the ways of God. And now all
01:22:17
I have to say is amen to your condemnation. Thereupon, they were snatched away and she saw them in perpetual torment while she was in heaven.
01:22:31
Young man, what will you think when the last day comes to hear
01:22:37
Christ say, depart ye curse? And there will be a voice just behind him saying, amen.
01:22:45
And as you inquire, whence came the voice? You will find it was your mother.
01:22:52
Or young woman, when thou art cast away into outer darkness, what will you think to hear a voice saying, amen?
01:23:01
And as you look, there sits your father, his lips moving with a solemn curse.
01:23:11
It's weighty stuff, isn't it, brother? Amen. Yeah. Amen. You have very few people writing with the power that Spurgeon, with which
01:23:24
Spurgeon wrote many gifted and brilliant men throughout history, but not necessarily with the power and passion with which he wrote that oozes through the page, even though you can't audibly hear him.
01:23:41
And by the way, Drew in Hewlett, Long Island, New York, you have won a free copy of the booming baritone bell of England by my guest,
01:23:54
Pastor Ed Romine. So make sure that we have your full mailing address in Hewlett, Long Island, so that Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com,
01:24:07
can ship that book out to you. Let's see.
01:24:14
We have Stuart, who is located in Cincinnati, Ohio.
01:24:21
And Stuart says, can you list a handful of your favorite open -air preachers that you know today?
01:24:31
Absolutely. And I hope they don't get a big hit. So one of them is
01:24:41
Andrew Rappaport. One of them is a member of my own church.
01:24:50
His name is Joe Henson, and Joe works with Sports Fan Outreach International.
01:24:57
He's on staff with them. And Sports Fan International is run by Bill Adams, who is my favorite
01:25:08
Anglican, on top of being an open -air preacher. And then another brother that I really, truly appreciate that's alive today and doing wonderful work is a brother by the name of Jimmy Hamilton.
01:25:29
He's a Scottish open -air preacher, and he wrote a book called
01:25:35
So You Want to Be a Street Preacher? And I really book anybody who's even thinking about going out into the open air and preaching the gospel.
01:25:53
So that's just a few. Yeah, I've got my own recommendation.
01:26:00
A friend of mine who just moved to Tennessee recently, who I've had the privilege of hearing open -air preaching,
01:26:08
Ryan Hartzel, H -A -R -T -Z -E -L. I'm not sure exactly,
01:26:14
I can't remember where in Tennessee he is ministering today, but you can find out more about Ryan's ministry by emailing him.
01:26:29
I'm sure he's not going to mind me giving his email address, especially since he could use your support,
01:26:39
I know that. Ryan Hartzel Fitness at Yahoo .com.
01:26:45
He's also a fitness instructor. Ryan Hartzel, H -A -R -T -Z -E -L
01:26:50
Fitness at Yahoo .com. And Ryan Denton, do you know
01:26:56
Ryan Denton, brother? I know of him. We've talked on the phone.
01:27:03
He wrote a wonderful book called A Certain Sound, I think.
01:27:08
Yes, it is. Yeah. And the co -author with him, oh my goodness, his name is escaping me, and he'll make fun of me for not remembering his name.
01:27:22
I believe it's Scott. The co -author, right? It is Scott.
01:27:28
Okay, yeah. Sorry, Scott, for even doubting your name, dear brother. He'd be another one that I really, really like.
01:27:37
Scott's just one of the happiest open -air preachers there is, so hopefully
01:27:43
I made up for forgetting your name, dear brother. Amen. And yeah,
01:27:50
I've had Ryan, if you want to hear more about Ryan's ministry, either one, actually, because I've interviewed both of them on I Am Sherpa and Zion Radio.
01:28:00
Type in the name Ryan, and you'll have both of those interviews come up, or interviews with both of those brothers, and probably more.
01:28:14
Ryan's a fairly common name, but you could look for Ryan Hartzel and Ryan Denton.
01:28:22
What advice do you have, as an open -air preacher yourself, as especially for those who are up -and -coming brethren in Christ who have a passion in their heart to become open -air preachers?
01:28:42
What can you tell them, especially mistakes to avoid that perhaps you've even made through your own learning process, becoming an open -air evangelist?
01:28:57
The first thing, and I think the most important thing, is to be an active, joyful member of your local church.
01:29:10
Don't be a rogue street preacher. Remember, we started this out answering
01:29:16
Brother Jason's question about accountability. That's why, in my mind, that's one of the main reasons why the downgrade happened.
01:29:25
There was no accountability in doctrine, no accountability in personal holiness. You've got to be an active, joyful, covenant member of the local church.
01:29:36
That's number one. As far as the mistake I made as a younger open -air preacher, it would be that I preach thematic gospel presentations rather than expositional preaching in the open air.
01:29:56
I've become convinced that the same sort of preaching that we get for Christian people is the same word of God that God uses, obviously, to open up hearts when you're presenting the gospel.
01:30:14
So, don't be afraid to preach what are essential evangelistic sermons in the open air.
01:30:24
One of my favorites to go to in my context is
01:30:31
Psalm 50. In Psalm 50, he rebukes the wicked.
01:30:38
In Psalm 50, God does. He says in verse 20, either 20 or 21,
01:30:46
Psalm 50, verse 20 or 21, you thought I was altogether one like yourself.
01:30:53
The wicked get rebuked for making God human -like, and he's not. He is transcendent.
01:31:00
He is holy. This is a wonderful open -air sermon.
01:31:07
Then thirdly, and this is in no order of importance, make sure that your pastors are on board with you wanting to be a preacher of the gospel, and make sure you have their blessing.
01:31:22
Make sure that they can keep you accountable. Make sure that you are striving towards the qualifications of being one of God's pastors and confessing sin and repenting of sin and living a holy life under the local shepherdship of your pastors.
01:31:44
And then fourthly, I would say this, don't pass up opportunities to preach in the pulpit.
01:31:54
I think the best open -air preachers are the ones who also love to preach to God's sheep.
01:32:01
So if a preacher or pastor gives you an opportunity to preach in the pulpit, take it.
01:32:10
Learn to love having people sitting there rooting for you, preaching, and hungry to hear
01:32:17
God's Word, because that'll help you preach pastorally in the open air.
01:32:24
Does that make sense? Oh, yeah. And I'm assuming that you believe this is an exclusively male activity.
01:32:34
Correct. Correct. I believe, and there's brothers out there who would disagree with me, but I'm firmly convinced that the open -air preaching ministry is an extension of pastoral preaching.
01:32:55
It is only, not only just for males, but God -qualified men.
01:33:02
So, you know, you can't take, you know, Joseph Smith Jr.
01:33:10
that's living today who just got saved last week and throw him out into the open air and say, start preaching, boy.
01:33:21
That's spiritually abusive to do that to him. Preachers of God's Word, I think, not only pastors, should spend time learning theology, reading the good books, knowing church history.
01:33:38
But when you do that, you got to trust your pastors, trust your local church, and when it's
01:33:48
God's time and God's put it on your heart, God'll put it on your church's heart.
01:33:55
Does that make sense? Yes, it does. And we have a listener in Gillette, Wyoming.
01:34:06
Tyler wants to know, did Charles Spurgeon give recommendations in this book that you have written on where are the ideal places to set up shop, as it were, as an open -air evangelist?
01:34:25
We recommended to his students, go wherever there's foot traffic, which for a lot of people in the 19th century would have been like any sort of events and festivals.
01:34:41
Like a couple of the sermons that I analyzed is actually at the old horse racing shows.
01:34:48
Spurgeon got up on a pedestal there at the grandstand, the old 19th century horse riding event in London.
01:34:58
And because he was Spurgeon at that time, he could already gather a crowd.
01:35:03
So those sermons really seem like they're more congregational. But what's interesting is that when he mentioned to his students, he assumed that they would be preaching the pastor -byes rather than a gathered crowd.
01:35:21
So you could think about maybe a difference of a Ray Comfort, who is known for gathering a crowd before he starts preaching, versus like an
01:35:34
Andrew Rappaport who will more than not oftentimes just preach to the pastor -byes.
01:35:45
In my experience, if you go where people are, whether it be a park, whether it be a pedestrian field, street, people are always listening, even when they don't seem like they're listening.
01:36:00
So that would be my two cents. Just go where the people are. It depends on your context.
01:36:09
All righty. And we'll take one more question before the commercial break.
01:36:19
Let's see here. I was just looking at the question. Okay. We have
01:36:31
Malverna, who is located in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
01:36:38
And Malverna says, one of the things that I think lost people have a right to complain about is when open air evangelists interrupt or become annoying when they are trying to enjoy an outdoor activity.
01:36:59
And the loud voice of the preacher is making it difficult to hear what they came to a specific location to hear.
01:37:08
It could be a concert. It could be a whole host of other things. But they are only finding these men involved in the open air preaching annoying, and therefore, it is counterproductive to the gospel.
01:37:24
Did Spurgeon have anything to say about this? And do you have anything to say about this? Yeah. Spurgeon would have the mindset, and this is also mine as well.
01:37:41
The gospel is the most important piece of news that anybody can ever hear.
01:37:48
And so, one of the things that I do every year, and we're about to start it up,
01:37:56
Joe, is preaching at the Brigham Young University football games.
01:38:04
We don't preach in areas where people can't get away.
01:38:10
We are not forcing people to sit there and listen to us. We are freely offering the gospel to all and hopefully all who will believe.
01:38:23
We're not forcing people before the game to sit there and listen to us.
01:38:30
And you would be surprised how many people listen and appreciate, whether they be
01:38:39
Christians or just people generally interested in religion. But I would say, as a patriotic
01:38:48
American, or at least for what American used to be, it's more important that we exercise our right of free speech while we still have it.
01:38:59
And one of the best things an American Christian can do who is a preacher is go out into the open proclaim the gospel.
01:39:11
And you're not forcing anybody to listen against their will. They can go and they can drown you out.
01:39:19
People are very good at drowning out. But at the end of the day, and I hope this doesn't sound unnecessarily rude, but you gotta know my heart.
01:39:30
I don't care whether or not somebody can hear the
01:39:38
Pick Your Favorite Band concert. We'll go with Nirvana because I grew up in the 90s.
01:39:48
If you went to a Nirvana concert, you know, listening to Smells Like Teen Spirit is so much less important than hearing the gospel of Christ.
01:40:02
So that's my mindset. I hope it's not overly harsh. At the end of the day,
01:40:09
I can't really be concerned, and I think Spurgeon would agree, that people are being annoyed.
01:40:16
Does that make sense? Yes, and I guess it would be something that is a debatable issue, because there's an old saying that I agree with, the gospel is an offense to the lost, and we don't need to add our own offense.
01:40:37
Right. So I can see the side of someone knowing that a particular individual or group of people, for that matter, paid money even to go see and experience something that we hate ourselves, and even things that we believe
01:40:57
God hates primarily. But at the same time, we want to make sure that when we evangelize these people, that we are not angering them unnecessarily.
01:41:15
Like, for instance, perhaps handing out tracts to people at that event is different, because you're not necessarily drowning out what they came to hear.
01:41:29
Of course, it'd be hard to drown out a heavy metal concert or something like that, because it's so loud.
01:41:37
But I don't know if I'm making sense to you. Right. And I'll say this, too, just to be extremely fair.
01:41:45
Like, when we go to the BYU football games, we are there before the games start.
01:41:52
By the time the game starts, we're done. So it's not like we're actually interrupting the event itself.
01:42:01
We're just there giving the thousands of passers -by a chance to hear the gospel.
01:42:07
And I mean, they're still annoyed by it at some level. But, you know,
01:42:13
I don't believe football is sinful. I don't even necessarily believe going to a heavy metal concert in and of itself is sinful.
01:42:22
It depends on what the band is and what they're about. But I think you're exactly right.
01:42:29
So I think it's useless to try to preach a concert like that, because you're not going to be able to outperform the band as far as volume, if that makes sense.
01:42:43
Well, we've got to go to our final break. Send in your question immediately if you have one.
01:42:49
We're running out of time. ChrisArnson at gmail .com. Don't go away. We're going to be right back, right after these messages from our sponsors.
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And we are now back, and we have enough time for probably one more question for Ed Romine, and that would be from Tilton in Friendship Heights Village, Maryland.
01:54:06
And Tilton wants to know, should you ever engage other open -air preachers who you believe are preaching heresy by calling out to them that they are indeed false teachers, etc.,
01:54:19
or should you wait to do that and conduct yourself privately with that person?
01:54:28
I've done both. I've been to the
01:54:34
Super Bowl outreaches where the sadly late Ruben Israel, if your audience may know who that is, was open -air preaching, and I didn't call him out specifically.
01:54:50
I just said, folks, I want you to know that you might think we're on the same team, but we're not.
01:54:58
He's preaching hate, he's preaching condemnation, and he's mocking you.
01:55:04
We want to give you Jesus. We want you to see the glories of Jesus.
01:55:10
We want you to love him and worship him, but you've got to see yourself as a sinner first.
01:55:17
You've got to see yourself as condemned under the wrath of Almighty God. You've got to see yourself as a covenant breaker.
01:55:27
But then I want you to see Jesus as sweet, see him as the balm for your soul, as the one who will forgive you of all your sin if you'll place all your trust alone, your hope alone, your faith alone in this life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.
01:55:48
And if you do that, and the Holy Spirit comes to reside in you, you get all of Jesus' perfect, beautiful righteousness given to you as a free gift.
01:56:00
So I would say something to that effect. Now, are you aware— Lord. I was just going to say, are you aware of an encounter like that ever having happened in the outdoor preaching of Spurgeon?
01:56:17
No, I'm not. That would be a fascinating thing if we ever did find one.
01:56:24
Well, I want you to conclude with about two minutes of commentary that summarizes what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners.
01:56:34
I want you to love the Lord Jesus Christ more. This book is for all people.
01:56:42
It's primarily aimed at pastors. I want to see pastors get brave and get out in the open air if you're in a place with enough foot traffic.
01:56:52
But I want all of God's church to love the Lord Jesus Christ more, to be thankful for his glorious gospel.
01:57:04
Amen. Well, I want to remind our listeners that the website of the church where my guest,
01:57:14
Ed Romine, serves on the pastoral staff—that's
01:57:19
First Baptist Church of Provo, Utah, fbcprovo .org,
01:57:27
fbc, for First Baptist Church, provo .org. And is there a favorite website of yours where listeners can get a hold of your book?
01:57:41
Yes, you can get a hold of it through amazon .com. Okay, and make sure you enter the title,
01:57:50
The Booming Baritone Bell of England, The Pedagogy and Practice of Charles Haddon Spurgeon's Open Air Preaching.
01:58:00
And you can actually just also type in E. G. Romine, that's
01:58:06
Ed's initials, E. G. Romine, R -O -M -I -N -E, or also
01:58:12
Ed Romine. Try that when you are typing in the name in the search engine at Amazon.
01:58:21
Well, I want to thank you for being such a superb guest today, Ed. I look forward to you returning to the show.
01:58:29
You have an open door in my studio to bring up any topics. Thank you, dear brother. And folks, let me just give you one more reminder of the urgent need that we have here at Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
01:58:41
If you really love the show, please go to ironsharpensironradio .com, click support, then click click to donate now.
01:58:51
You can donate instantly with a debit or credit card, or you can mail in checks the old -fashioned way to the address that appears on your screen as well when you click support at ironsharpensironradio .com.
01:59:07
Please keep praying for my very dear friend Gary Wolfe, who recently had the diagnosis of stomach cancer, and perhaps
01:59:17
I will have more updates tomorrow or the day after he has another medical appointment tomorrow.
01:59:23
And I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater