Pastor Ed Romine. First time I've met him in person. We've had a phone call, and we have a bit of interaction on a chat group that we're a part of. He currently ministers in Provo, Utah.
When you hear him speak, you'll say, I didn't think people from Utah sounded that way. He's originally from Texas. So that explains the bit of a twang in his voice. But it's a great privilege to have you with us, brother.
For anybody that's attending here this morning that's not a part of our church, Pastor Romain will be preaching morning and evening tomorrow as well. So our services are at 11 o'clock and then 5 p.m. 5 p.m. He's going to be preaching from Ephesians 2 in the morning and Ephesians 1 in the evening. All right.
Well, it's a joy and honored to be with you all this morning. And it'll be a joy and honor to be with the saints that call themselves Free Grace Baptist Church tomorrow morning and tomorrow evening. I bring you greetings from the First Baptist Church of Provo, Utah. And it is just an absolute joy to be in my third foreign country, and this one's given me less of a culture shock.
My first two were Qatar and Sri Lanka, so there's a lot more commonality. here than there. So with that said, it's just a joy to be here. It is a joy to be with y'all and I pray that this is profitable. And although I'm not preaching the scriptures, I'm gonna let Spurgeon do most of the preaching.
There's a lot of principles that we can gain from church history. And one of my old church history professors at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Robert Caldwell, used to always open up his church history lectures by reading from the scriptures. So I want us to do that this morning.
And if you would, if you're able, please stand and we'll read from Hebrews 13. And I want us to begin in Hebrews 13 verse 7. And we'll read down to verse 16.
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 13:7-16
God's Word says to us and for us through the Apostle Paul, remember those who rule over you who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, consider the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. For we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
Therefore, by him, Let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. This is the word of the Lord, we pray together.
Opening Prayer
Father, we thank you for this passage of scripture. We thank you for the one that was read out of the Corinthian letters as well. We thank you for the ability to sing to you, to praise you, to worship you. And most importantly, we thank you that you have given us your son, that he went outside the gate for us. bearing the reproach of our sin upon himself.
And as we look and remember your servant, our brother Spurgeon this morning, may we remember him well. And may we come away from this time together more conformed to the image of your son, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's in his name we pray. Amen.
You may be seated.
Introduction
So just to show of hands, who here has heard of Spurgeon? Raise your hand. just about everybody in here I know. I'm in a good, reformed Baptist church. And if you didn't raise your hand, one of my goals is after this lecture you'll be able to now and forever raise your hand when somebody asks you that question.
And in certain parts of Christendom that really and rightly value theology. Sometimes church history can be looked down upon. They think, why study church history? We only need the scriptures.
And while that sentiment is well-intentioned, it's not well-informed. It's not wise. Because if they study these scriptures, the scriptures ironically tell us, in the passage that I just read, to remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. And for those who know how to read and interpret the scripture, you may say, well, wait a second, that's talking about your pastors.
And I would say, yes, you're absolutely right. So for those of you that are covenant members of Free Grace Baptist Church, it's instructing you to remember and follow the examples of Pastor Porter and Pastor Butler. But I do not think it's an abuse of this text because it says, whose faith follow considering the outcome of their conduct to reach back and look at what the Holy Spirit's done and said through other faithful members of God's church. Spurgeon actually said, One time that those who will not listen to what the Holy Spirit said through others. have no brains.
I'm paraphrasing him there, but he says, if you don't wanna learn from Christians of the past, you're really quite foolish. So in a very real way, I want us to not be fools this morning by drinking deeply for my brother Spurgeon and being honest with him. So if you do not know Spurgeon, maybe you just know of him from internet blurbs or from just a cursory remark you may hear in Sunday school or a sermon. I want to delve into his life just a little bit to give anybody who may not have raised their hand some understanding of who he was And then I want us, after that, to look at the topic of my dissertation.
And even that, I hope, will be profitable. Many times when a PhD gets up and says he wants to talk about his dissertation, people automatically take that as an invitation to nap. Do not do that. I promise, or at least I'm hopeful, that this will be a good use of our time as we seek to obey Hebrews 13.
So
Spurgeon's Life and Context
Spurgeon was born in the 19th century or the 1800s. He was born June 19th, 1834, and he died January 31st of 1892. I'm not good at math, but I have done the math on this, that would have put him at 57 years old. And his father, John Spurgeon, outlived him by another 10 years.
So that put his death in the year 1902. So that means, guess what, if If you are 34, 35, or excuse me, whatever 1999 is, if you were born in 1999, and then you actually share a century of life with Charles Spurgeon's father, Barely, but you still do, because he made it over the threshold of the 20th century before passing away. Why do I bring that up? We're all tempted to think Spurgeon lived a long time ago.
No, he really didn't. If the Lord had allowed him to live into his 80s, I think if he had taken better care of himself, he would have lived close to the mid-1930s or 40s, which would have put him 10 years shy or closer to when my grandmother was born. So we're really not that far removed from Spurgeon as a matter of fact. So don't think of Spurgeon as some antiquated dinosaur.
He wasn't. He shared a lot in common with us. And when I say he shared a lot in common with us, the 19th century was quite the time to be alive. Spurgeon, during his lifetime, got to see the economic boom of Victorian England.
Spurgeon used the first public toilet, and he thought that was fascinating. Spurgeon used the predecessor to the telephone, and he said, I'm lost in the mystery. And it makes me just wonder what he would think of our smartphones. Spurgeon got to see the introduction of the railroad system.
When he was a young boy, it was horse and buggy. And then by the time he died, there was the beginning of trains and cars being introduced in society. And there was even the advent of recording coming into play. There's old 19th century recordings of like the U.S.
Marine Corps Band, the president's own band. But nobody ever thought to record any of Charles Spurgeon's sermons. It's just a tragedy that we can't hear his voice. However, his son Thomas, we do have a recording of his voice, and I don't know if it's distortion or whatnot, but it's very high-pitched.
And I just think to myself, I hope that's not Spurgeon's voice because I named my dissertation the booming baritone bell of England. And so, you know, I'd have to change the title and a hopeful second edition to the whiny nasally bell of England. But anyway, that being said, Spurgeon is known for his preaching.
Spurgeon's Conversion
He was saved at the young tender age of 14 in a primitive Methodist chapel. He was caught in a snowstorm that day on his way to church. And he was saved through the preaching, and this is not my words, this is Spurgeon's, of a very stupid man. Because the preacher that was scheduled to preach couldn't make it because of the snowstorm.
I'm sure you all know about snowstorms up here. Just imagine both of your pastors at Free Grace Baptist Church not being able to make it. And then the congregation calls upon somebody that doesn't really preach to preach. and they get up there and all they could think of is to go over as best they can what they read in devotionals that morning. Well, that's what happened to that lay preacher.
He preached from Isaiah 45, 22, look unto me all ye ends of the earth and be saved. And all he could think to do was repeat over and over the command of the text. Look to Christ and be saved. Look to Christ and be saved.
There wasn't much in the way of form or content to a sermon. And then Spurgeon had walked into this chapel and there wasn't a lot of people there. It was probably primarily old people on top of that. And then this layman preacher looks out and sees this boy and he says, young man, you look miserable and you will be miserable unless you obey my text.
And at that moment, the scales, Spurgeon says, fell from his eyes and he looked as if he had never looked before. And why do I bring this conversion up first? He said that as if he had never heard the gospel before. He had seen Christ as beautiful and glorious.
Well, here's what you gotta know about Spurgeon. Spurgeon's father, James, or sorry, John, was a Congregationalist minister. His grandfather was also a Congregationalist minister. And he had grown up with both his parents at the beginning, then his grandparents for a few years, probably because of financial hardship, hearing the good gospel.
The Congregationalists back then, even though they baptized infants, they believed the true biblical gospel. weren't hyper-Calvinist, they believed in calling people to repentance and faith. Spurgeon grew up around that, so it's not as though he was in some sort of hyper-Calvinist context where people didn't believe in the call, the personal call to people to repent and believe the gospel. Spurgeon heard many times from learned ministers. Repent.
Believe in Jesus. Trust in Jesus alone. His father and grandfather both were very respected preachers. God used the stupid man, that stupid preacher, to save the Prince of Preachers.
People say, oh, I'm not an evangelist, okay? You're still called to proclaim the gospel. You're still called in a sense, to tell of his excellencies. You may say, I'm not that good with articulating doctrine.
I can't tell you about the works of the Trinity ad intra and ad extra. Say, okay, that's fine, but you still have a testimony of God has saved my soul. So you can share that with folks and you can leave the results up to God as you call men and women and boys and girls to trust in Jesus. That would be one of my applications is you may not be that theologically astute, but you can proclaim his excellencies.
So I don't want you to hear that as me beating you over the head with a stick and making you feel guilty about not evangelizing. But rather, dear saint, although you're called to grow in your knowledge and love with the Lord Jesus, you can start with what you know. God will use it. And then if you're a member of Free Grace Baptist Church, I know you've got officers in your church that will love you, that will shepherd you, and will come along beside you and help you grow.
So with that said, that's one of my applications. be willing to be used by God, and he'll use you just like that lay preacher that Spurgeon called stupid later on. So Spurgeon had a way with the words. He oftentimes would tell you what he thought, and that'll come across later on in the material. But Spurgeon is known, dear friends, as a preacher.
Spurgeon's Rise to Prominence
Spurgeon, by the time he got to his second ministry duty at the New Park Street pulpit, he was 19 years old at the time. And by 1855, Spurgeon had gotten some popularity. They called him the Boy Preacher of the Fens because of where he was born in Cleveland, England. And Spurgeon just rose supernaturally in popularity.
People just wanted to hear this preacher that was non-conformist, meaning that he wasn't a part of the Church of England, the established church, and Spurgeon would preach and people would just flock to hear him. That New Park Street pulpit that had a long line godly men before Spurgeon that pastored it, had really dwindled down in attendance. And within months, perhaps a year of him being there, it got very, very popular. And what would happen by 1855 is that there would be these stenographers within the congregation, about four or five.
And these stenographers would each write down to the best of their ability what Spurgeon said in his sermons. And then on Monday morning, Spurgeon would take the morning and the evening sermons edit them for the newspapers coming up. And then he would give the cleanest version. They didn't always get edited, but most of the time they did.
So that's how we ended up getting, they would call these sermons, the penny pulpits in the newspapers. And then at the end of the year, they would be compiled into volumes. And that's how we ended up getting the 63 volume set of Spurgeon's sermons. The first six volumes are called the New Park Street Pulpit.
And then in the seventh volume, it actually switches after the first 20 or so sermons, 100 pages, you'll actually see it switch from New Park Street to the Metropolitan Tabernacle pulpit. The reason why is because in the early 1860s Spurgeon's popularity had grown so much by that time that they actually fundraised, built a new building, put it on Elephant and Castle, and it's been there ever since. It's been through bombings with the world wars and whatnot, but it's still a faithful gospel preaching church to this day under Dr. Peter Masters.
But Spurgeon would have, at the end of every year, these sermons compiled into a book. And there's 63 of these suckers. They're very big and very small print. I think I lost eyesight reading the first six volumes from my own studies.
But if I could encourage you with one thing, If you go away, although I would love it if you bought my book and read it, I would much rather you read Spurgeon's sermons for yourself. That's the best way to get into Spurgeon. Read his sermons.
The Dissertation: Open-Air Preaching
And within these sermons, There are three known sermons preached in the open air. And if you don't know what open air preaching is, it's what it sounds like. It is the preaching of the gospel outside the four walls of a church building. And that can happen on a street.
Sometimes you'll hear it called street preaching. happen on college campuses. It can happen in any open air venue, broadly speaking. And I had gotten involved in my early seminary studies in the street evangelism through the influence of a dear friend who is presently pastoring up in upstate New York. He was going to the undergrad program.
I was getting my MDiv there in Fort Worth. And he got me into open air preaching and at first I was scared to death, who wouldn't be? And as I got more used to open air preaching, just doing it regularly, I came across the fact that Spurgeon was an open air preacher. And when I looked at the research, I realized that nobody had done an academic study upon Spurgeon's open air preaching, just examining it.
And in fact, in the wider world, when I talked to people that you would think would know about Spurgeon's open air preaching, they did not. or if they did it was just very surface level knowledge. So I decided during the second year of my Master of Divinity that if the Lord would open the doors I would like to study Spurgeon's open air preaching. And that gave birth to four years of study at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri and the finished product, oh there went my bookmarker, the finished product is this book which is called, if you've got bad eyesight like I do, The Booming Baritone Bell of England. and the subtitle is The Pedagogy and Practice of Charles Haddon Spurgeon's Open Air Preaching. So this book covers the pedagogy, which is a fancy $5 word for the art of how to teach.
So it covers his teaching and his practice. of open air preaching. Practice, of course, being just how one does it, and Spurgeon's own doing of it, of open air preaching. So as I read through the new Park Street Pulpit, I found three sermons in the open air. So a good portion of my book is given to analyzing those sermons.
So if you've never looked at a PhD dissertation, the outline's very simple. Chapter 1 deals with the review of the literature, which basically shows that I've got a familiarity with all of the literature and I can show why my dissertation topic is needed. If you're doing a PhD in any field, it doesn't matter what it is, you've got to give a real academic contributions. So chapter one's establishing that this is that, and nobody else had done it, and I'm the pioneer in it.
And chapter two deals with the background of Victorian England, of which I've already talked about a little bit. Victorian England was a time when technology was booming, But it was also a time when there was a lot of religious confusion as well. You had the established church, the Church of England, and then you had non-conformist churches. like Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and of course Baptists. And what's so astounding about Spurgeon is he had the largest non-conformist church in the 19th century while he passed with it.
And Spurgeon, dear friends, never let it go to his head, I don't think, for the most part. I mean, we can't judge anybody's heart, but he always seemed to be humble about his ministry. So Spurgeon's rhetoric in his pulpit preaching would oftentimes go like this. This is how Spurgeon would talk.
This is him speaking of the horror of hell. Listen to Spurgeon here. Oh, the wrath to come, the wrath to come, the wrath to come. Who is he that can preach of it?
Horrors strike the guilty soul, and the spirit looketh down and seeth all the fiends of everlasting punishment. Back it recoileth, but die it must. It would barter all it hath to coin an hour, but no, the fiend is got its grip, and down it must plunge. And who can tell the hideous shriek of a lost soul?
It cannot reach heaven, but if it could, it might well be dreamed that it would suspend the melodies of angels, might make even God's redeemed weep if they could hear the wailings of a damned soul. He is trying. to tell people, hell is not a place you want to go. You do not want to be under the wrath of almighty God. And when I looked at that, and then I also saw other passages and like this here, I've got to turn to it because I lost my bookmark.
So give me one second here. This is in the first sermon given to us in New Park Street Pulpit Volume 1. He says, I will tell you of a decree. He that believeth not shall be damned.
That is a decree and a statute that can never change. Be as good as you please. Be as moral as you can. Be as honest as you will.
Walk as uprightly as you may. There stands the unchangeable threatening. He that believeth not shall be damned. What sayeth thou to that moralist?
O thou wishest thou couldst alter it and say, He that does not live a holy life shall be damned. That will be true, but it does not say so. It says, he that believeth not, here is the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense, but you cannot alter it. You believe or be damned, saith the Bible. and mark that threat of God is as unchangeable as God himself.
This sermon, by the way, is speaking of the immutability of God, the changelessness of God. And he is talking here about how God's threatenings are unchanging, even in eternity. Spurgeon goes on to say here, He says, here's the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense, but you cannot alter it. You believe or be damned, saith the Bible, and mark that threat of God is unchangeable as God himself.
Here we go. And when a thousand years of hell's torment shall have passed away, you shall look on high and see written in burning letters of fire, He that believeth not shall be damned. But Lord, I am damned. Nevertheless, it says, shall be still.
Turn up your eye and still read, shall be damned, unchanged, unaltered. And when a million acres have rolled away and you're exhausted by your pains and agonies, you shall thought that eternity must have spun out its last thread. That every particle of that which we call eternity must have run out. You shall still see. it written up there shall be damned.
Now Spurgeon in his young years took a lot of theatrical liberty, shall we say, in his preaching. He would oftentimes role play as a mother, as a father, even as a slave master, and even as a slave. in order to try to get people to believe in Christ. And I don't necessarily recommend doing that, but that's vintage Spurgeon. That's what he did.
And oftentimes it would get theatrical and saying illustrations like this. I don't think there's actually going to be burning letters in hell. I don't think Spurgeon actually thought that either, but he was trying to make the point of the immutability of God's justice and that you're never going to exhaust God's justice if you exit this life without Christ Jesus, the one who took all of the triune God's just punishment upon the cross for your sinful selves. That's what he's trying to get across to you, dear friends, is because of God's immutability because of his unchangelessness.
Hell must be eternal. Have you ever connected the eternality of hell with the immutability of God? Spurgeon most certainly did. And when I read passages like those that and that we're calling sinners to repent in this pulpit preaching.
I thought to myself, did Spurgeon's open air preaching influence his strong calls for sinners to repent of their sin? So my book argues that very thing. And in the book, I'd go over three sermons of his practice. And those sermons are numbers 39 and 40.
It was a double issued sermon called Heaven and Hell. And that's the one I'm going to talk about today. And then there's also two more that were that I go over that was preached on the grandstand at Epsom over in the UK. That's a big horse race.
He just got up on the podium and started preaching. And those are fascinating sermons as well. And Spurgeon, because of who he was, he would just naturally gain an audience, people. thought oh there's Spurgeon's open air preaching and within moments he would have a congregation that would be triple the size of y'all before me right now. But Spurgeon preached my favorite sermon numbers 39 and 40 called heaven and hell and i lost my bookmark so it'll take me just a moment to get there oh here we are god is kind so this sermon was preached september 4th 1855 and i think i did my math to write my dissertation if i didn't that'll be embarrassing I say here he was 21 years old.
And listen to what he says in his autobiography about this time that he preached. He says, many years ago, I preached to enormous assemblies in King Edward's Road, Hackney, which was then open fields. On those occasions, the rush was perilous to life and limb, and there seemed to be no limit to the thrones. half the number would have been safer. That open space has vanished, and it is since the same with fields at Brixton, where in years gone by, it was delightful to see the assembled crowds listening to the word. burdened with the rare trouble of drawing too many together.
I have been compelled to abstain from these exercises in London, but not from any lessened sense of their importance. So old Spurgeon saying, I don't do it anymore because it would literally cause trouble in the streets. But he says, not because I don't believe in it. When the tabernacle With the tabernacle always full, I have as large a congregation as I desire at home, and therefore do not preach outside except in the country.
But for those ministers whose area under cover is but small and whose congregations are thin, the open air is the remedy, whether in London or in the provinces. Spurgeon records again talking about this event. There were two evenings, June 22nd and September 4th, 1855, when I preached in the open air in a field in Kings Edwards Road, Hackney. On the first occasion, I had the largest congregation I had ever addressed up to that time, but at the next service, the crowd was still greater By careful calculation, it was estimated that from 12 to 14,000 persons were present.
That's a lot of people, isn't it? Spurgeon says, I think I shall never forget the impression I received when before we separated, that vast multitude joined in singing, praise God from whom all blessings flow. That night, I could understand better than ever before while the apostle John in the revelation compared the new song in heaven to the voice of many waters. And that glorious hallelujah, the mighty waves of praise seemed to roll up towards the sky in majestic grandeur, even as the billows of old ocean break up upon the beach.
So Spurgeon remembers that night quite fondly. and the reason why he was able to preach that night is because the field was private property so he had full reign and it seems as though that they had actually advertised this one because it seemed to be more of a service But when you look at Spurgeon's pedagogy of open air preaching to his students, he actually assumed that they would be preaching more to passersby rather than always holding services. So think of it more like a Ray Comfort or something like that, where they're just preaching to those who pass by and maybe a smaller crowd.
Sermon: Heaven and Hell (Matt. 8:11-12)
So what is the content of that second sermon well it was from Matthew chapter 8 verses 11 and 12 which says and I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And you can see where he gets his sermon title from, Heaven and Hell. The heaven portion comes from the children that will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And they'll be great feasting, great celebration. And then you can see where the hell portion comes from because those who are outside that glorious celebration where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now, on this sermon. One of the reasons why it's my favorite is because Spurgeon's 21.
He doesn't have all of his theology worked out quite yet. The Prince of Preachers was just that. He was just a young prince. And I want to read this to you because I think you'll find this very interesting.
Spurgeon sounds post-millennium, and I disagree with his logic, but this is Spurgeon here. How often do I hear people say, ah, straight is the gate, narrow is the way, and few that find it. There will be very few in heaven, there will be most lost. My friend, I differ from you.
Do you think that Christ won't let the devil beat him? That he won't let the devil have more in hell than there will be in heaven? No, it is impossible. For then Satan would laugh at Christ.
There will be more in heaven than there are among the lost. Now, where does this logic go wrong? Well, I would submit to you that that kind of assumes the medieval and perhaps even a Victorian understanding of the devil's status in hell. He is not ruling over hell, the demons are not torturing people in hell, but the scriptures say in the final destination, in the final state, that the devil will be in as much pain as any lost sinner.
He'll be under God's wrath too. There won't be any laughing. In fact, they'll probably all be angry at one another, gnashing their teeth at one another, cursing one another. There wouldn't be no celebration whatsoever in hell.
He goes on to say, There will be many in heaven who were drunkards on earth. There will be many harlots. Some of the most abandoned will be found there. Shall anybody ever check us from preaching to the lowest of the low?
I've been accused of getting all the rabble of London around me. God bless the rabble. I love that. If God saved the rabble, then I say, but suppose they are the rabble, who need the gospel more than they do?
Who require to have Christ preach to them more than they do? We have lots of those who preach to ladies and gentlemen. Think Victorian here. It's a class system.
We have many who preach to ladies and gentlemen, and we want someone to preach to the rabble. in these degenerate days. I haven't been around Chilliwack long, but I've been told that there's a lot of homelessness, a lot of drug use. Who's gonna preach to the lowest of the low in Chilliwack? Might it be somebody from Free Grace Baptist Church?
Spurgeon says this, listen to how he encourages people to come to Christ in this sermon. There is one person here tonight who thinks himself the worst soul that ever lived. There is one who says to himself, I do not deserve to be called to Christ, I am sure. Now look at how he talks to this person.
He says, so I call thee, thou lost, most wretched outcast, this night by authority given me of God, I call thee to come to my Savior. Some time ago, when I went into the country court to see what they were doing, I heard a man's name called out and immediately the man said, make way, make way, they call me. And up he came. Now, I call the chief of sinners tonight and let him say, make way, make way, doubts, make way. fears, make way sins, Christ calls me.
And if Christ calls me, that is enough. Go and try my Savior. Go and try my Savior. If he cast you away after you have sought him, tell it in the pit that Christ would not hear you, but that you shall never be allowed to do.
It would dishonor the mercy of the covenant for God to cast away one penitent sinner, and it shall be while it is written. Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham. and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. I know I'm in a theologically minded town, so I'm gonna ask this question this way.
Sovereignty and the Gospel Call
Are you too much of a five-point Calvinist to say amen to what Spurgeon just said? Is your doctrine of God's sovereignty so high that you can't call men to repent of their sin and believe in Christ? To preach to the lowest of the low? Now I'm not calling everybody in here to be an open air preacher.
But everybody in here is called to proclaim the excellencies of our Savior. So in that sense, everyone's a preacher. When's the last time you've called a family member or friend to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? That think of the Lord Jesus Christ as precious.
I just read to you a few sections from the heaven portion. I want to read to you something that when I first read it, The hairs on my arms stood up. Remember I told you Spurgeon was a very theatrical preacher. He never quit being theatrical.
Spurgeon was Spurgeon. God blessed him with a talent. I tell my preaching students, Midwestern, don't do this because you'll fall on your face. But Spurgeon can do this.
He tells of a mother who had a dream. And Tom Nettles, the great Baptist historian who's written a lot on Spurgeon himself, actually says that he's probably talking about his own mother, or at least thinking about his own mother. So keep that in mind. He's talking about hell.
And just like the wrath to come, the wrath to come, the wrath to come, he's calling people to flee. There's a sense in which people ought to be scared of the wrath of God. They ought to fear and tremble before him. Listen to this.
Spurgeon on Hell and Parental Warning
There was a dreadful dream which a pious mother once had. and told to her children. She thought the judgment day was come. The great books were opened. They all stood before God.
And Jesus Christ said, separate the chaff from the wheat. Put the goats on the left hand and the sheep on the right. The mother dreamed. that she and her children were standing just in the middle of the great assembly. And the angel came and said, I must take the mother.
She is a sheep. She must go to the right hand. The children are goats. They must go on the left.
She thought as she went, her children clutched her and said, mother, can we part? Must we be separated? She then put her arms around them and seemed to say, My children, I would, if possible, take you with me. But in a moment, the angel touched her.
Her cheeks were dry, and now overcoming natural affection, being rendered supernatural and sublime, resigned to God's will, she said, My children, I taught you well, I trained you up, and you forsook the ways of God. And now all 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. Young man, What will you think when the last day comes?
Notice he's preaching to children and probably teenagers in the audience. Young man, what will you think when the last day comes? To hear Christ say, depart ye cursed. And there will be a voice just behind him saying, Amen.
And as you inquire whence came the voice, you will find it was your mother. or a young woman, when thou are cast away into outer darkness, what will you think to hear a voice saying, amen? And you look, there sits your father, his lips still moving with the solemn curse. He goes on to say that for children that die without Christ, the very fact that they heard the gospel from pious parents, and their parents admonished them to believe that will be the children's hell. So, I know that there's children here today, maybe you're an older adult child, and you know in your heart of hearts you've never believed in Christ.
If you continue in that state, One day, this in some way, shape, form or fashion could be true of you. Don't go down into the pit of God's wrath with that nightmare hanging over your head. Having the blessing of a believing parent, but spinning on that blessing.
Spurgeon's Final Sermon
I wanna end with one more quotation from Spurgeon. Can y'all tell I could talk about this all day long? It was probably more of a problem for me than anything else. I just absolutely love church history and I'm particularly partial to our brother Spurgeon.
This sermon was titled, the statute of David for the sharing of the spoils. This is a pulpit sermon. The last sermon he ever preached on June 7th, 1891. And if you want to write it down, the passage is abnormally long for Spurgeon.
Oftentimes, even in the Old Testament, even in narrative passages preached like one verse or part of a verse. This one is, let's see, 1 Samuel 30 verses 21 to 26. He hardly ever preached a pericope, a passage of scripture, this long, but he did this time. It's the very final paragraph that we have that he ever preached Spurgeon says, what I have to say lastly is this, how greatly 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.
Young men, if you could see our captain, you would down on your knees and beg him to let you enter the ranks of those who follow him. It is heaven to serve Jesus. I am a recruiting sergeant, and I would fain find a few recruits at this moment. Every man must serve somebody.
We have no choice as to that fact. Those who have no master are slaves to themselves. Depend upon it, you will either serve Satan or Christ, either self or the Savior. You will find sin, self, Satan, and the world to be hard masters.
But if you wear the livery of Christ, livery is another way to say armor of Christ, Spurgeon says, you will find him so meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls. He is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was his like among the choices of princes. 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. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on His shoulders. If He bids us carry a burden, He carries it also. If there's anything that is gracious, generous, kind and tender, yea, lavish and superabundant in love, you always find it in Him.
These 40 years and more have I served Him. Blessed be His name. And I have had nothing but love from Him. I would be glad to continue yet another 40 years in the same dear service here below, if it so pleased him.
His service is life, peace, joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once. God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus, even this day. Amen.
Pray for your pastors that they finish strong and that they can say something to that effect. But they're not gonna be Spurgeonic. They're gonna be Jim Butler. They're gonna be Cameron Porter.
And if any of you are part of any other church, pray for your pastors that they would finish strong like that, that they would be known as men of the Word who preach the Word, as Paul told Timothy. And may we all be known as people who preach the Word, not in the pastoral sense, but in the sense that we're all called to do in proclaiming His excellences. Would you bow with me in prayer?
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for our brother Spurgeon. We thank you for every faithful man, woman, boy, and girl throughout church history that loved you and served you. May we be found faithful to join that chorus and stand before you in your triune perfection as Father, Son and Spirit clothed in the perfect righteousness of our Savior. And we look forward to that day.
We long for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to persevere. And may we have a wonderful Sunday tomorrow, worshiping you, glorying in who you are. Be with every preacher in this room.
May that man of God be filled with the goodness of your spirit as they preach with boldness, as they preach with clarity, unction, and above the word that you've given us to preach. And for the congregants, I pray that they would listen to their respective preachers well tomorrow morning. And you'd use tomorrow to conform us to the image of your son. We pray all these things in the name of him.
Amen. Thank you, my brother.
Questions and Answers
Well, does anyone have a question? We have a few minutes. If no one does, I have one. So yes, Leslie Lawson.
Can everybody still hear me? Is my mic on? Yeah. All right.
So the downgrade controversy, I just know, I just hit some very brief points in this slide. I wanted to talk more about his open air preaching. The downgrade controversy was the section of his ministry, a portion of his life that a lot of scholars give unto itself, where Spurgeon fault the very association that he was a part of because they were going into very liberal thinking. They were denying the infallibility and the inerrancy of the scriptures. they were denying the miracles in the scriptures, and Spurgeon stood up against that, and he said, no, we are going to believe and trust the Bible.
And what that was, it was the very beginnings of German hierocritical thought seeping into 19th century culture. And by the turn of the century, you had full on German hierocriticism going on. And Spurgeon was ahead of his times fighting that. So it's really, think about in the USA at the Southern Baptist Convention, the battle for the Bible, it was the same type of thing. denying the supernaturality of the book.
And really, we still have vestiges of that left. I might get myself in trouble for saying this, but I don't care. We still have vestiges of that left in the 21st century. If you've ever heard somebody say, oh, well, you know, I believe the Bible, I believe God wrote it and it's inspired, but in order to interpret it, you have to read it like any other book.
Well, that type of mindset came from the very seeds of the downgrade controversy. They robbed the Bible of its supernaturality and they say, oh, you got to treat it like any other book. Thankfully, schools that say that don't carry it out to its logical ends. Most of them, that would be evangelical, especially in the states.
But I really think that we need to get back to not only believing in the miracles of the Bible that it just contains supernatural events, but the very words of the Bible were supernatural. It's not like any other book. It is God's book, and we need to own that and in a sense take pride in that. We've got the only book We've got the only holy book in the world that, by the preaching of it, can change hearts and minds.
And Spurgeon knew that. I've got a whole section. Y'all really ought to buy the book and read it, because there's so much that I didn't talk about. I talk about Spurgeon's hermeneutic, which he was at times inconsistent, But he really had, I'm going to use a big fancy $5 word here, a pre-critical hermeneutic where he essentially sought to see Christ in all of scripture.
And that's what I think we ought to be doing as preachers of the Bible and really as the way layman ought to be reading the scriptures is approaching it like a supernatural book and saying, what can I learn of Christ? How can I see my savior throughout these texts? Does that make sense? Yes sir, when?
He did both, but the ones that we have recorded are more full service because there were stenographers in the audience, but he talks in his autobiography about how he used to do tracting and street preaching, so it's very assumed that he did street preaching in the very... the cord's bothering me. in the sense of just people passing by even before he got famous. When he was converted, he was really zealous. He started out almost immediately tracking and I think if I had been Spurgeon's pastor, I still would have told him to slow down, and I think he got into the pastorate way too early in his first church in Water Beach. He was 17, and I don't think that's good, even for the Prince of Preachers.
I think if he had slowed down and been treated normally, I think he could have been For lack of a better word, the king of preachers. I think it could have been even better. I think that's a good emphasis. People say, well, what about Spurgeon?
You're not Spurgeon. And Spurgeon still shouldn't have done it the way he did it. Exactly. Yeah, I think that's a good reminder, Ed.
Thank you. A question I have is one of Spurgeon's influences was George Whitefield. Yes. And he certainly would have imbibed that same ethic from George Whitefield.
Can you tell us what he thought of Whitefield? So Spurgeon is called the Prince of Preachers. That moniker for him was popularized by a big biography of Spurgeon that I don't like by Louis Drummond. And the biography is titled the Prince of Preachers.
It's a big fat thing. Either one of you guys have it? Yeah, it's out of print, it's not worth the money, because... For a lot cheaper, yeah.
But if you're going to do Spurgeon stage, you've got to, you know, have some passing familiarity with drumming. But that's where the name came from, the Prince of Preachers for Spurgeon. Spurgeon referred to George Whitefield as the Prince of Preachers, and Whitefield did almost exclusively open air preaching because he got ejected. He lived during the time where the Church of England didn't take the too kindly for the people doing outside of their very prescribed liturgy.
And he really, really, really looked to Whitefield as the model example. And I'm writing a book now on Whitefield. It'll be done hopefully before I die. And y'all laugh at that.
I type with one finger, so it's, see, now y'all feel bad, and that wasn't my intention. But, you know, Whitefield had his issues as well in that he was not a member of a local church, I mean, per Baptist convictions. We would say that that's a big issue. He was out open there preaching so much, but Lord willing, I'd like to have a second contribution out there on Spurgeon's Hero and so on and so forth.
So hopefully that'll be done. Don't ask me anything. I'm still learning. So go ahead.
Thank you. Any other questions? At what point in his life, so are you thinking of a time period? Yeah, by the time the downgrade controversy was full on steam, it was not very good.
He was considered an outcast and it caused so much trouble for him that a lot of scholars think that it led to him dying at the, even in the 19th century, the relatively early age of 57. you know, people, they took good care of themselves. They can live up to their 80s back then. With Spurgeon though, when you look at the early years in particular, Everybody loved him. He had other non-conformist ministers that preached when the Metropolitan Tabernacle was established.
He had other non-conformist ministers come preach and bless the physical building. He actually had a Presbyterian man be the principal or superintendent of his pastor's college, which was the first parachurch ministry that he ever started. So that's pretty interesting. Spurgeon was really ecumenical too.
You didn't ask for this, but I'm going to give it to y'all anyway. I actually talk about how Spurgeon in chapter two changed his mind towards the Roman Catholic Church. So let me just turn there and this is fascinating because in Spurgeon's early years he was very, very anti-Rome and still was. He didn't recommend anybody go into Rome because it was idolatrous.
But at the same time, he widened enough to even possibly let them in. So let me get to it. I'm almost there. Okay, here we are.
So this is on a sermon given Thursday evening in 1859. He says this. So relatively early on in his ministry too, I've been struck lately in reading works by some writers who belong to the Romanist church with the marvelous love which they have towards the Lord Jesus Christ. I did think at one time that it could not be possible for any to be saved in that church.
But often, after I've risen from reading the books of those holy men and have felt myself to be quite a dwarf by their side, I've said, yes, despite their errors, These men must have been taught of the Holy Spirit. Notwithstanding all the evils of which they have drunk so deeply, I'm quite certain that they must have had fellowship with Jesus, or else they could not have written as they did. Spurgeon was willing to be ecumenical if he really thought somebody truly loved the Lord Jesus Christ. There's another incident in his life where he would oftentimes vacation to Mentone, France.
Mentone is where he ended up dying. He needed to get away from the smoke and fog of England. And there was one time he attended a Roman Catholic mass, and he said, the Roman Catholic priest preached the gospel better than ministers of the Church of England that he had heard. And I thought, well, that's nice.
But he, you know, we don't have a record of that, so we just have to take Spurge's word for it. That being said, he was very willing to be ecumenical, even with Rome if it felt like they were truly exalting the Lord. But even with that said, he still would say, you know, don't go for the potpourri. In another sermon, here's what he says, ease some of your consciences that might be exploding right now.
When you hear of crowds going over to potpourri, do not wonder at it. Potpourri is the religion of depraved human nature put into shape by the devil, and therefore it is no marvel that the nations are fascinated by it. For what they love and what the God of this world sweetens to their tooth must go down with them. Potpourri and other forms of sacramentarianism are a soft bed for idle limbs, and as surely as a lazy man lies down, so surely does a superstitious man take to these systems.
Give a superstitious man the information contained in the Bible and a pair of scissors to cut his coat according to his shape, and potpourri in some shape or other will be the religion which he will cut out for himself. He still didn't like Roman Catholicism and neither should we. At best, it hides the gospel, it makes it not clear. At worst, it completely tears down the gospel and its ecclesiology and the study of the church and its sacramentology, which its views on the Lord's Supper and baptism.
So don't go that way. If you're that way and you live here, I know a great church you can visit tomorrow. Free Grace Baptist Church. Get to know the pastors.
They'll help you out of it. All right, one more question. Actually, Wim, we'll get one more from Laura. It's the book that he authored.
It's called The Booming Baritone Bell of England. And I'm glad it's not the nasally, whiny, Me too, me too. And can you tell I'm a Baptist? I literated the title.
Yeah, we can tell that. That's good. Very good. OK, Wim, last one.
We'll sing the doxology after Wim's question and Ed's answer. Remember, he's here tomorrow all day. We've got both services. We've got a luncheon.
So if you have more questions, I'm sure Ed won't send you away. That's right. Yes. That Spurgeon was going back and forth?
Right. So, oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, Spurgeon was not a hyper-Calvinist. He detested it, as he should, as we all should.
And I know where I'm at in still saying that. Spurgeon did not believe that John Gill was a hyper-Calvinist, even though John Gill had some hyper-Calvinistic tendencies. So that's where... Right, yeah.
High Calvinism, that's the word, yeah. So with that said, I personally enjoy reading John Gill. There's a very nice cloth-bound set coming out. What's the name of the publisher?
Particular Baptist something? Yep, that's it, that's it. And so, you know, they're nice, cost down books, heavy set, you know, if Fido gets a hold of them, it might survive, you know, those types of books. And I would recommend reading John Gill with discernment, but read everybody with discernment.
One of the areas I highly disagree with Spurgeon on, Spurgeon held a Roman Catholic view of suicide, meaning that he believed if you did the deed, it was an automatic ticket to the fires of hell, and there are no exceptions unless They were truly a 19th century idiot. So what we would say is nowadays is if they were truly mentally retarded, he would give exception for them. But if somebody was in their senses, as far as he could tell, and they blew their brains out or something else, he would say they went to hell. And I'm preaching through the Psalms right now, and I just can't. bring myself to agree to that position.
There's a lot of hurt and heartache in the Psalms. So, yeah, that's an area of which I highly disagree with Spurgeon, very much so. There's more, but I want y'all to read Spurgeon, not say you. That's right.
Well, no, no, no, no, read Spurgeon. And then, you know, when you need to go to sleep at night, you can read my book. Well, brother, on behalf of the congregation, thank you so much. Thank you, dear brother.
Very, very edifying. Yeah, I appreciate it. Yes, sir. Thank you so much.
All right, let's stand and we'll sing the doxology.