ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)
Beloved, we know by observation in our pastoral work that while the mercy of God draws many to him, there are some who are more affected at first by the terrors of the Lord. We have many now, who are members of this church, walking in holiness and in the fear of God, who listened to sermons upon the softer and more tender topics, and were not affected, but who came under the heavy blows of the hammer of God’s law, and their flinty hearts were broken into shivers, and ere long they turned unto the hand which smote them.
God has ordained both the terrors of the law and the tenderness of the gospel, that by means of both men may be saved. Gospel husbandry employs many implements, and there are some lands which will never yield a harvest without much more exercising with the plough than others may require.
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SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)
Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the terrors of judgment and the joy of forgiveness.
You may have seen a well-painted picture called “Waiting for the Verdict.” What interest is displayed on every face! What fear and trembling upon the countenance of the prisoner! In his wife and the friends around him what anxiety is seen! “Waiting for the Verdict” is a sad picture, but what another might be drawn of The Favorable Verdict Received. The prisoner is acquitted! Oh what joy! It is not possible to bring in a verdict of “Not Guilty” for you and for me, for we are undoubtedly guilty. But still it is possible by the processes of substitution and divine grace to bring in a just verdict by which it is witnessed that “There is now no condemnation.”
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Brothers,
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Blessings to your ministry,
Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks
Preaching Pastor of Pillar Church of Washington DC