A very poor sermon

I read this last night, I think it is worth reading, I believe it touches the root of the preaching:

A Welsh minister who was preaching last Sabbath at the chapel of my dear brother, Jonathan George, was saying, that Christ was the sum and substance of the gospel, and he broke out into this story:

A young man had been preaching in the presence of a venerable divine, and after he had done he went to the old minister, and said, “What do you think of my sermon?”

“A very poor sermon indeed,” said he.

“A poor sermon?” said the young man, “it took me a long time to study it.”

“Ay, no doubt of it.”

“Why, did you not think my explanation of the text a very good one?”

“Oh yes,” said the old preacher, “very good indeed.”

“Well, then, why do you say it is a poor sermon? Didn’t you think the metaphors were appropriate and the arguments conclusive?”

“Yes, they were very good as far as that goes, but still it was a very poor sermon.”

“Will you tell me why you think it a poor sermon?”

“Because,” said he, “there was no Christ in it.”

“Well,” said the young man, “Christ was not in the text; we are not to be preaching Christ always, we must preach what is in the text.”

So the old man said, “Don’t you know young man that from every town, and every village, and every little hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London?”

“Yes,” said the young man.

“Ah!” said the old divine, “and so from every text in Scripture, there is a road to the metropolis of the Scriptures, that is Christ. And my dear brother, your business is when you get to a text, to say, ‘Now what is the road to Christ?’ and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis–Christ. And,” said he, “I have never yet found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if I ever do find one that has not a road to Christ in it, I will make one. I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savour of Christ in it.”

[i]-Taken from Sermon 242, Christ Precious To Believers, preached March 13th, 1859, Spurgeon.[/i]

Amen and Amen.

[color=0033CC]Acts 8:26-34 Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, "Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot." So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the Scripture which he read was this:

"He was led as a sheep to the slaughter;
And as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
In His humiliation His justice was taken away,
And who will declare His generation?
For His life is taken from the earth."*

So the eunuch answered Philip and said, "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?" [/color]

[color=009900] Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.[/color]

[image][img]https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/myalbum/photos/1310.jpg[/img]

[b]We Would See Jesus[/b] C.H. Spurgeon

[b]Description:[/b] Be much in hearing concerning Jesus. Souls by hundreds come to faith in Jesus under a ministry which sets him forth clearly and constantly. Few remain unbelieving under a preacher whose great subject is Christ crucified. Hear no minister of any other sort. There are such. I have heard of one who found in his pulpit Bible a paper bearing this text, "Sir, we would see Jesus." Go to the place of worship to see Jesus; and if you cannot even hear the mention of his name, take yourself off to another place where he is more thought of, and is therefore more likely to be present. Be much in reading about the Lord Jesus. The books of Scripture are the lilies among which he feedeth. The Bible is the window through which we may look and see our Lord. Read over the story of his sufferings and death with devout attention, and before long the Lord will cause faith secretly to enter your soul.

[b]The best sermons![/b]

(adapted from Spurgeon's sermon, "Christ
the Glory of His People" #826. Luke 2:32.

The best sermons are the sermons
which are most full of Christ.

A sermon without Christ....
it is an awful, a horrible thing;
it is an empty well;
it is a cloud without rain;
it is a tree twice dead, plucked by the roots.

It is an abominable thing to give men
stones for bread, and scorpions for eggs,
and yet they do so who preach not Jesus.

A sermon without Christ! As well talk of
a loaf of bread without any flour in it.
How can it feed the soul?

Men die and perish because Christ is not
there, and yet His glorious gospel is the
easiest thing to preach, and the sweetest
thing to preach; there is most variety in it,
there is more attractiveness in it than in
all the world besides!

I believe you are referring to is:

The Song: "He Is"
by Benny Hester

I may be wrong...but I do know that song..it is powerful, moving and characterizes the Lord, thru the entire Bible.

Man I wish I could remember the name of that song.

I recall this song on a CD many folk may not have heard. I'll just drop in part of it...

[b]HE IS[/b]
Aaron Jeoffery

In Genesis, He's the breath of life
In Exodus, the Passover Lamb
In Leviticus, He's our High Priest
Numbers, The fire by night
Deuteronomy, He's Moses' voice

In Joshua, He is salvation's choice
Judges, law giver
In Ruth, the kinsmen-redeemer
First and second Samuel, our trusted prophet
In Kings and Chronicles, He's sovereign

Ezra, true and faithful scribe
Nehemiah, He's the rebuilder of broken walls and lives
In Esther, He's Mordecai's courage
In Job, the timeless redeemer
In Psalms, He is our morning song

In Proverbs, wisdom's cry
Ecclesiastes, the time and season
In the Song of Solomon, He is the lover's dream

He is, He is, HE IS!

Oh that is right!!! How funny I even have that CD!!!
I was thinking about "When God Ran" by Benny Hester...

Well, I got the name of the song right... :-D