Preaching is not child's play!-Spurgeon

Preaching is not child's play!

-Spurgeon, "Paul's First Prayer"

Preaching is not child's play--
it is not a thing to be done without labor and anxiety;
it is solemn work;
it is awful work,
if you view it in its relation to eternity.

When we think that when we speak to you, your salvation
or damnation, in some measure, depends upon what we
say- when we reflect that if we are unfaithful watchmen,
your blood will God require at our hands- O, good God!

When I reflect that I have preached to thousands in my
lifetime, and have perhaps said many things I ought not to
have said, it startles me, it makes me shake and tremble.

No child's play!

Spurgeon, A BLAST OF THE TRUMPET AGAINST FALSE PEACE

"Peace, peace, when there is no peace." -- Jeremiah 6:14.

MINISTERS are fearfully guilty if they intentionally build up men
in a false peace. I cannot imagine any man more greatly guilty of
blood than he who plays jackal to the lion of hell, by pandering
to the depraved tastes of vain, rebellious man.

The physician who should pamper a man in his disease, who should
feed his cancer, or inject continual poison into the system,
while at the same time he promised sound health and long life--
such a physician would not be one half so hideous a monster of
cruelty, as the professed minister of Christ who should bid his
people take comfort, when, instead thereof, he ought to be
crying, "Woe unto those that are at ease in Zion: be troubled,
you careless ones."

The work of the ministry is no child's play!

Much prayer we need that we may be kept honest,
and much grace that we may not mislead the souls
whom we are bound to guide.

The pilot who should pretend to steer a ship toward its proper
haven, but who should meanwhile occupy himself below with
boring holes in her keel that she might sink, would not be a
worse traitor than the man who takes the helm of a church,
and professes to be steering it towards Christ, while all the while
he is ruining it by diluting the truth as it is in Jesus, concealing
unpalatable truths, and lulling men into security with soft and
flattering words.

We might sooner pardon the assassin who stretches forth his
hand under the guise of friendship, and then stabs us to the
heart, than we could forgive the man who comes towards us with
smooth words, telling us that he is God's ambassador, but all the
while foments rebellion in ours hearts, and pacifies us while we
are living in revolt against the majesty of heaven.

In the great day when Jehovah shall launch his thunderbolts, I
think he will reserve one more dreadful and terrible than the rest,
for some arch-traitor to the cross of Christ, who has not only
destroyed himself, but led others into hell.

That's great. Thanks for that.

Life, death, and hell, and worlds unknown!

Spurgeon, "The Mustard Seed" Luke 13:18-19.

I am sometimes afraid that we teachers may
prepare our sermons and addresses too much,
so as to make ourselves shine.

If so, we are like the man who tried to
grow potatoes; he never grew any, and
he wondered much, "for," said he, "I very
carefully boiled them for hours."

So, it is very possible to extract all the
life out of the Gospel, and put so much of
yourself into it that Christ will not bless it.

Life, death, and hell, and worlds unknown,
hang on the lips of the earnest teacher of the
Gospel of Jesus.

The best sermons!

Spurgeon, "Christ the Glory of His People"

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!