Lectures to My Students – My Thoughts

J. I. Packer once said, “What has been said of Luther’s Bondage of the Will can also be said of The Reformed Pastor: Its words have hands and feet.” (page, 16) I agree with all my heart, but I would add that Baxter’s Reformed Pastor has as much hands and feet Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures To My Students. Both of these books pack a greater punch than Luther’s Bondage of the Will. I say this because Luther’s punch was directed at Erasmus, while Baxter and Spurgeon’s punch is directed at the reader.

Spurgeon’s Lectures To My Students was not a waste of time, and will not be a waste of time for the rest of my life. There are many chapters that I will go back to in my future life, marriage, and ministry many times over I’m sure. Of the 28 chapters I was assigned any 15 of my choosing. No doubt though, in the years to come this, along with my Bible, may prove to the most worn book I have.

First, I chose chapter 1 “The Ministers Self-Watch”. This was Spurgeon’s explanation of 1 Timothy 4:16, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine”. He made the argument that just as any other profession constantly keeps their tools sharp and ready for use, we ministers of the gospel are in greater need to keep ourselves sharp and ready for use. Why must we do this? For our good, and the good of our people. Because if we are not healthy, sharp, and ready for use, what makes us think that our people will be?

Second, I chose chapter 2 “The Call to the Ministry”. Spurgeon explains how all are called to be ministers of the gospel wherever you are in whatever profession you find yourself in. Then, he clarifies and says, “but not all of us are called to labor in Word and Doctrine…” He then gives us his reasons to know whether or not someone is called to the ministry of the Word or not. He said there must be a desire to do this, an aptness to teach, fruit must be seen from it, and your preaching must be acceptable to God’s people.

Third, I chose chapter 3 “The Preacher’s Private Prayer”. This perhaps could have one of the most convicting chapters of a book that I have ever read in my life. He labors to get across the point that of all people the preacher ought to be in prayer. Not just prayer for meals, but prayer over study, prayer over marriage, prayer over your people, prayer over your life, etc. Spurgeon so firmly believes this that he made it seem like those who are not laboring in prayer with their God are not fitted for the ministry. I agree.

Space does not permit me to go on about the others chapters I have read, but I will leave enough space to comment on my favorite chapter, 11 “The Minister’s Fainting Fits”. This chapter answered the question, why do so many preachers fall so deeply into depression, and times of darkness? Spurgeon’s reasons are: we are only men, we have unsound physical shape due to so much study time, this work lays our hearts open for such attacks, the hour of success is usually followed by days of darkness, and many more. The preacher desires his people to grow in Christ; when they don’t what can the pastor do but mourn over his people’s growth stunt?

Again, this book was not a waste of time. I have benefitted from it and will benefit from it in more ways than I know. This is one book that I am glad to keep by my side, and will do so for a long time coming. I highly reccomend this book to all people, minister’s or not. You will all benefit from it more than you think.

“Have you walked in the recesses of the deep?”

In the end of the book of Job, God asks Job 63 questions, all of which Job answers, “Not me Lord, only You!”  In Job 38:16 God asks Job, “Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?”  Job obviously has not done this, but God has.  I often feel that the more I learn about God, the more I awaken to the fact that I don’t really have a grasp on Him at all.  He is forever beyond my grip.  The more I seem to grasp His character, the more questions unfold about His being, actions, motives, heart, will, etc.  I often find answers in the Bible that open up more questions to me, so many that I will never have the time nor the life span to spend in hunting them down.  I often feel like Job.  I cannot ever exhaust a text of Scripture to the fullest!  The more I dig, the further I see how deep the hole goes!  Is this a bad thing?  Heavens no!  It is overwhelmingly great feeling to me!  Because when I see how much deeper the hole goes than I thought, I realize that I have only scraped the surface of the joy I have Jesus; and that there is an infinite amount of pleasure that is yet to be attained by me!  Charles Spurgeon felt this too and comments:

Some things in nature must remain a mystery to the most intelligent and enterprising investigators.  Human knowledge has bounds beyond which it cannot pass.  Universal knowledge is for God alone.  If this be so in the things which are seen and temporal, I may rest assures that it is even more so in matters spiritual and eternal.  Why, then, have I been torturing my brain with speculations as to destiny and will, fixed fate, and human responsibility?  These deep and dark truths I am no more able to comprehend then to find out the depth which coucheth beneath, from which old ocean draws her watery stores.  Why I am so curious to know the reason of my Lord’s providences, the motive of His actions, the design of His visitations?  Shall I ever be able to clasp the sun in my fist, and hold the universe in my palm?  Yet these are as a drop of a bucket compared with the Lord my God.  Let me not strive to understand the infinite, but spend my strength in love.  What I cannot gain by intellect I can possess by affection, and let that suffice me.  I cannot penetrate the heart of the sea, but I can enjoy the healthful breezes which sweep over its bosom, and I can sail over its blue waters with propitious winds. My Lord, I leave the infinite to Thee, and pray Thee put far from me such a love for the tree of knowledge as might keep me from the tree of life.

Will you join me in sailing on the blue waters of the Almighty?  Will you enjoy the healthful breezes of the sea of God’s Word with me?  I pray you will.  We cannot penetrate it to its depths, but we can enjoy it as fiercely as we can!

Subdued by Sovereign Love

“All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me…” (John 6:37)

Have you ever wondered what this means?   Hear Charles Spurgeon:

This declaration involves the doctrine of election: there are some whom the Father gave to Christ.  It involves the doctrine of effectual calling: these who are given must and shall come; however stoutly they may set themselves against it, yet they shall be brought out of darkness into God’s marvelous light.  It teaches us the indispensable necessity of faith; for even those who are given to Christ are not saved except they come to Jesus.  Even they must come, for there is no other way to heaven but by the door, Christ Jesus.  All that the Father gives to our Redeemer must come to Him, therefore none can come to heaven except they come to Christ.  Oh! the power and majesty which rest in the words “shall come.” He does not say they have power to come, nor they may come if they will, but they, “shall come.” The Lord Jesus doth by His messengers, His Word, and His Spirit, sweetly and graciously compel men to come in that they may eat of His marriage supper; and this He does, not by any violation of the free agency of man, but by the power of His grace.  I may exercise power over another’s man’s will, and yet that other man’s will may be perfectly free,  because the constraint is exercised in a manner accordant with the laws of the human mind.  Jehovah Jesus knows how, by irresistible arguments addressed to the understanding, by mighty reasons appealing to the affections, and by the mysterious influence of His Holy Spirit operating upon all the powers and passions of the soul, so to subdue the whole man, that whereas he was once rebellious, he yields cheerfully to His government, subdued by sovereign love.  But how shall those be known whom God hath chosen?  By this result: that they do willingly and joyfully accept Christ, and come to Him with simple and unfeigned faith, resting upon Him as all their salvation and all their desire.  Reader, have you thus come to Jesus?

(Charles Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, page 193-194)

Your Heart Christ’s Garden

Last night I was reading Charles Spurgeon’s Evening by Evening and it was too sweet not to share with you.  He was reflecting on our hearts being Christ’s garden from Song of Songs 5:1, “I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride…” He made 4 or 5 striking points:

a) This garden is a place of separation – A garden is not public space, it is walled in.  A garden is not a common park, it has a hedge around it separating it from the outside world.  This is the same with our hearts.  Once it is Christ’s, He hedges it in and separates it from the world.  My heart is no longer a commonplace for anyone and anything.  Only certain things can enter.  It is no longer part of the world, but separated from it.  Although it is still in the world, it has a specific purpose in relation to the world now.  It stands out, and is seen as utterly unique and separate (alien) from the world.

b) This garden is a place of beauty – My heart is to bear the fullest and richest flowers, buds, seeds, vines, plants, tree’s, etc. because it is Christ’s.  Only the best fruit will due.  The thorns and briar’s of the world have no place in it.

c) This garden is a place of growth – No seed in my heart remains as such, but all grow!  God will see to this as surely as the dew on morning grass.  The fruit in it was specifically made to grow and continue to grow until it blossoms to its fullest at death.

d) This garden has a Keeper – My heart is Christ’s garden, and just as all gardens have a keeper, so does mine.  Christ is this keeper and the Holy Spirit is the morning dew.  He does the work of planting, digging, watering, and nurturing the fruit and soil so that it blossom’s to full capacity at the proper time.  He also digs out certain plants and removes them completely.  This process is often ugly and painful at first, but growth only comes through pruning, and He prunes me with care.

e) This garden was not always a garden – The most significant factor in the fact that my heart is now a garden is that for 20 long years, my heart was a barren wilderness, dead, dry, with no life in it at all.  But Christ, my Keeper came in all His beauty and glory, and at the sight of that glory roses sprang to life through the cracked ground and consumed every part of the wilderness causing it to be what it is now, a rich, luscious garden, for my Keeper’s pleasure.

“Look!”

The following is the story of Charles Spurgeon’s conversion.  Reader beware!  Upon reading, worship will come!

“I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm, one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive Methodist chapel. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. . . . The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last, a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. . . . He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth [Isaiah 45:22].” He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus: “My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, ‘Look.’ Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pain. It ain’t liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just, ‘Look.’ Well, a man needn’t go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look. “But then the text says, ‘Look unto Me’. . . . Many of ye are lookin’ to yourselves, but it’s no use lookin’ there. Ye will never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the father. No, look to him by-and-by. Jesus Christ says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Some of ye say, ‘We must wait for the Spirit’s workin’.’ You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. The text says, ‘Look unto Me.’” Then the good man followed up his text in this way: “Look unto Me; I am sweatin’ and great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hangin’ on the cross. Look unto Me; I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend to heaven. Look unto Me; I am sittin’ at the Father’s right hand. O poor sinner, look unto Me! Look unto Me!” When he had gone to about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes or so he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I dare say, with so few present he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart he said, “Young man, you look very miserable.” Well, I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He continued, “and you always will be miserable—miserable in life, and miserable in death—if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.” Then lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a primitive Methodists could do, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live.” I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said—I did not take much notice of it—I was so possessed with that one thought. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, “Look!” What a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until I could have almost looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to him. . . . And now I can say—

E’er since by faith I saw the stream, Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, And Shall be till I die.”

(C.H. Spurgeon, The Early Years, page 87-88)

“The Lord Our God hath Shewed us His Glory.”

In Charles Spurgeon’s devotional classic Morning and Evening, the morning devotion for July 19 has spoken to many people in many powerful ways.  Here it is for your enjoyment:

“The Lord our God hath shewed us his glory.” (Deut. 5:24)

“God’s great design in all his works is the manifestation of his own glory. Any aim less than this were unworthy of himself. But how shall the glory of God be manifested to such fallen creatures as we are? Man’s eye is not single, he has ever a side glance towards his own honour, has too high an estimate of his own powers, and so is not qualified to behold the glory of the Lord. It is clear, then, that self must stand out of the way, that there may be room for God to be exalted; and this is the reason why he bringeth his people ofttimes into straits and difficulties, that, being made conscious of their own folly and weakness, they may be fitted to behold the majesty of God when he comes forth to work their deliverance. He whose life is one even and smooth path, will see but little of the glory of the Lord, for he has few occasions of self-emptying, and hence, but little fitness for being filled with the revelation of God. They who navigate little streams and shallow creeks, know but little of the God of tempests; but they who “do business in great waters,” these see his “wonders in the deep.” Among the huge Atlantic-waves of bereavement, poverty, temptation, and reproach, we learn the power of Jehovah, because we feel the littleness of man. Thank God, then, if you have been led by a rough road: it is this which has given you your experience of God’s greatness and lovingkindness. Your troubles have enriched you with a wealth of knowledge to be gained by no other means: your trials have been the cleft of the rock in which Jehovah has set you, as he did his servant Moses, that you might behold his glory as it passed by. Praise God that you have not been left to the darkness and ignorance which continued prosperity might have involved, but that in the great fight of affliction, you have been capacitated for the outshinings of his glory in his wonderful dealings with you.”

God’s Great Design in all His works is His Glory

In Charles Spurgeon’s devotional “Morning and Evening” , the morning of July 19 is astounding; he writes this:

“The Lord our God hath shewed us his glory.” (Deuteronomy 5:24)

“God’s great design in all his works is the manifestation of his own glory. Any aim less than this were unworthy of himself. But how shall the glory of God be manifested to such fallen creatures as we are? Man’s eye is not single, he has ever a side glance towards his own honour, has too high an estimate of his own powers, and so is not qualified to behold the glory of the Lord. It is clear, then, that self must stand out of the way, that there may be room for God to be exalted; and this is the reason why he bringeth his people ofttimes into straits and difficulties, that, being made conscious of their own folly and weakness, they may be fitted to behold the majesty of God when he comes forth to work their deliverance. He whose life is one even and smooth path, will see but little of the glory of the Lord, for he has few occasions of self-emptying, and hence, but little fitness for being filled with the revelation of God. They who navigate little streams and shallow creeks, know but little of the God of tempests; but they who “do business in great waters,” these see his “wonders in the deep.” Among the huge Atlantic-waves of bereavement, poverty, temptation, and reproach, we learn the power of Jehovah, because we feel the littleness of man. Thank God, then, if you have been led by a rough road: it is this which has given you your experience of God’s greatness and lovingkindness. Your troubles have enriched you with a wealth of knowledge to be gained by no other means: your trials have been the cleft of the rock in which Jehovah has set you, as he did his servant Moses, that you might behold his glory as it passed by. Praise God that you have not been left to the darkness and ignorance which continued prosperity might have involved, but that in the great fight of affliction, you have been capacitated for the outshinings of his glory in his wonderful dealings with you.”