Charles Haddon Spurgeon was one of England’s greatest preachers during the 19th century. He was an orator of great skill. He preached innumerable sermons and wrote prodigiously as well. Vast sums of his sermons still exist today and bring great value and encouragement to those who read them.
He was great through the abounding grace of God. He was great in stature; great in mental power; great in spirituality; great as a preacher and expositor of God’s most holy Word; great in hospitality; great in winning souls to God; great as a writer of Gospel tracts; great as an author of works which will long live, great as a bishop of the Reformed Evangelical Protestant Church of England of which he was a noble defender, great as the first Bishop of Liverpool. I am bold to say that perhaps few men in the nineteenth century did so much for God, for truth, for righteousness, among the English speaking race and in the world as our late bishop.
Men follow men. We must resist the temptation to sacrifice our masculinity for a gender-inclusive form of Christianity that appeals to women and children but alienates men. Men come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and masculinity is not defined by any one particular trait, but we must embrace it if we are to reach men.
Do not be people of God, be men of God. There is a difference, own that difference, and watch men respond.
It is well and good for the preacher to base his sermon on the Bible, but he better get to something relevant pretty quickly, or we start mentally to check out.” That stunningly clear sentence reflects one of the most amazing, tragic, and lamentable characteristics of contemporary Christianity: an impatience with the Word of God.
Indeed, in many churches there is very little reading of the Bible in worship, and sermons are marked by attention to the congregation’s concerns, not by an adequate attention to the biblical text. The exposition of the Bible has given way to the concerns, real or perceived, of the listeners. The authority of the Bible is swallowed up in the imposed authority of congregational concerns.
