If there is one thing that rang through out the entire text
of Spurgeon it was the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the true impact that it would
have on a persons life. While I never explicitly saw where he addresses sin and
nominalism in the text he does address the lack of respect for the Gospel that
some people have, or that some have fallen victim to drunkenness. And that
ultimately the answer to those problems is to continue to give the purest form
of the Gospel possible. One thing that he spoke of more than anything else was
how we as ministers are to behave, not as people of the world but as one called
of God to represent him. Spurgeon says, “When we speak as ministers and not as men, as preachers instead of
penitents, as theologians instead of disciples, we fail; when we lean our head
too much upon the Commentary, and too little upon the Savior's bosom; when we
eat too largely of the tree of knowledge, and too little of the tree of life,
we lose the power of our ministry.” It is when we rely upon God and less upon
ourselves that we keep sin and nominalism at bay. Christ and sin cannot live in
the same space such as light and dark cannot.
Spurgeon calls out
to us like a siren to the sailor on the sea, “Keep to the gospel, brethren, and
you will keep to the one universal, never-failing remedy.” This shall keep us
straight and true, while what we crash into shall be none less than our Lord
and savior. As long as I heed his call to follow the Gospel and not divert
course I will stay in line with Christ and feed his people the meat that they
need to survive. In effort to avoid falling into heresy Spurgeon urges, “Preach
the truth with all your hearts as God teaches it to you, and this plague will
be stayed.” That is the greatest thing any preacher can do is not only rely
upon the knowledge one receives from books/commentaries but allow the Lord to
reveal things to you about the text. My ministry context right now is not that
of a traditional pastor I am a small group leader/ pulpit supply preacher. In
either of those instances though I do not want to make less of Christ but
instead make much of Him. And as long as I stay true to the Gospel message and
not preach a different one then that which I have received.
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