ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)
We are made to see that the Lord is God, and that beside him there is none else. Very frequently God teaches this to the minister, by leading him to see his own sinful nature. He will have such an insight into his own wicked and abominable heart, that he will feel as he comes up the pulpit stairs, that he does not deserve so much as to sit in his pew, much less to preach to his fellows. Although we feel always joy in the declaration of God’s Word, yet we have known what it is to totter on the pulpit steps, under a sense that the chief of sinners should scarcely be allowed to preach to others.
Ah, beloved, I do not think he will be very successful as a minister, who is not taken into the depths and blackness of his own soul, and made to exclaim, “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)
Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the preeminence of Jesus.
In white, all the colors are blended. A perfectly white substance combines all the colors of the rainbow merged in true proportion, but green and indigo and red are only the reflections of a part of the solar rays. So John, Peter, Paul are parts of the light of heaven; they are differing colors, and there is a beauty in each one of them. But if you want to get the whole of the rays of light, you must get to Christ, for all light is in him. In him is not simply the red or the blue, but in him is light, the true light, the whole of light.
RESOURCE FOR PASTORS
HUGE thanks to the CROSS Conference for sponsoring Shepherding with Spurgeon for the next few months.
This year’s CROSS Con is taking place right now in Louisville, Kentucky. You can check out the free livestream to hear from John Piper, David Platt, and more. Stay tuned for more information about next year’s conference and how you can use this event to disciple the 18–25 year-olds in your church.