The Ultimatum of God

In the first place preach, and in the second place preach, and in the third place preach.

Believe in preaching the love of Christ, believe in preaching the atoning sacrifice, believe in preaching the new birth, believe in preaching the whole council of God. The old hammer of the gospel will still break the rock in pieces; the ancient fire of Pentecost will still burn among the multitude. Try nothing new, but go on with preaching, and if we all preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, the results of preaching will astound us.

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Have great hope yet, brothers, have great hope yet, despite yon shameless midnight streets, despite yon flaming gin-palaces at the corner of every street, despite the wickedness of the rich, despite the ignorance of the poor. Go on; go on; go on; in God's name go on, for if the preaching of the gospel does not save men, nothing will. If the Lord's own way of mercy fails, then hang the skies in mourning, and blot out the sun in everlasting midnight, for there remaineth nothing before our race but the blackness of darkness. Salvation by the sacrifice of Jesus is the ultimatum of God. Rejoice that it cannot fail. Let us believe without reserve, and then go straight ahead with the preaching of the Word.

The Soul Winner | Charles Spurgeon | p179

Open-Air Preaching: Posts, Quotes, Resources

Everything I've written and will write on open-air preaching I've consolidated for easy reference: Open-Air Preaching. It's available on the side-bar under "Compass." It includes open-air preaching posts, posts on relevant topics and open-air quotes, and a small, but hopefully growing list of resources beyond my blog. These are the resources I feel are worth recommending.

The Dismissal of Open-Air Preaching

I FEAR that in some of our less enlightened country churches there are conservative individuals who almost believe that to preach anywhere except in the chapel would be a shocking innovation, a sure token of heretical tendencies, and a mark of zeal without knowledge. Any young brother who studies his comfort among them must not suggest anything so irregular as a sermon outside the walls of their Zion. In the olden times we are told "Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets, she crieth in the chief places of concourse, in the openings of the gates"; but the wise men of orthodoxy would have wisdom gagged except beneath the roof of a licensed building. These people believe in a New Testament which says, "Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in," and yet they dislike a literal obedience to the command. 

Lectures to My Students (pdf) | Charles Spurgeon

All posts in this Open-Air Preaching series.

Why Jesus Taught In Parables, Part 3

D.A. Carson in The Expositor's Bible Commentary on Matthew, Vol 2 says this in a point concerning Matthew 13:13 (pp 309-310)...

This sheds much light on the parables. It is naive to say Jesus spoke them so that everyone might more easily grasp the truth, and it is simplistic to say that the sole function of parables to outsiders was to condemn them. If Jesus simply wished to hide the truth from outsiders, he need never have spoken to them. His concern for mission (9:35-38; 10:1-10; 28:16-20) excludes that idea. So he must preach without casting his pearls before pigs (7:6). He does so in parables: i.e., in such a way as to harden and reject those who are hard of heart and to enlighten--often with further explanation--his disciples. His disciples, it must be remembered, are not just the Twelve but those who were following him and who, it is hoped, go on to do the will of the Father (12:50) and do not end up blaspheming the Spirit (12:30-32) or being ensnared by evil more thoroughly than before (12:43-45). Thus the parables spoken to the crowds do not simply convey information, nor mask it, but challenge the hearers. They do not convey esoteric content only the initiated can fathom but present the claims of the inaugurated kingdom and the prospects of its apocalyptic culmination in such a way that its implications are spelled out for those in the audience with eyes to see.

Why Jesus Taught In Parables, Part 2

Robert Stein in Jesus the Messiah gives some explanation of Jesus' use of parables (pgs 124-125)... 

Parables are "extended metaphors, which tend to teach a basic point. At times, however, the details of a parable may bear allegorical significance (Mt 13:24-30, 36-43; 22:2-10; Mk 12:1-12)."

"The parables were particularly useful for Jesus as a teaching device. Parables tend to disarm the listeners, for the meaning of a parable is often driven home before they can resist the point being made." (2 Sam 12:1-4, 7; Luke 15:1-32)

"Parables were also an effective way for Jesus to introduce potentially dangerous teachings. To talk about the arrival of the Kingdom of God naturally raised concerns on the part of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Yet the statements that the Kingdom of God is 'like a mustard seed' (Lk 13:18-19) or 'like yeast' (vv 20-21) wer sufficiently enigmatic that the political authorities judged them harmless. Through his use of parables Jesus could speak about politically sensitive issues. As a result, thouse outside his circle of followers could 'listen, but never understand...look, but never perceive' (Mt 13:14). but to those within the believing commjunity such teaching were explained."

Why Jesus Taught In Parables

Robert Stein, in An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus give three reasons (read, p 33ff)...

1. To conceal his teachings from those outside (Mark 4:10-12)

"Time and time again Jeuss found in his audience those who were hostile toward him. The Sadducees saw in him a threat to their sacerdotal system. His attitudes toward their doctrine (Mk 12:18-27) and above all to the abuse in their role of administering the Temple of God (Mk 11:15-19, cf 14:58) were a direct threat to their civil and religious authority (Mk 11:27-33). ...Many of the Pharisees likewise saw in Jesus a threat to their own self-righteousness (Lk 18:9-14) and their religious leadership..."

"By his use of parables Jesus made it more difficult for those who sought to find fault with him and accuse him of sedition....The parables therefore concealed his message to those outside, but privately, after they were explained by Jesus to his followers, they became revealers of his message."

"Yet we must be honest and admit Mark 4:10-12...seems to say that Jesus withheld his message from those outside not only in order that they would fail to understand but in order that they would be unable to repent and be forgiven."

2. To reveal and illustrate his message to both followers and "those outside" (Mark 12:12) 

"For the original lawyer as well as every reader since, the parable of the good Samaritan illustrates in an unforgettable way what it means to be a loving neighbor, and if one sought an example to illustrate the gracious love of God for sinners, where could one find a better one than in the parable of the prodigal son?"

"At times even those 'outside' did not and could not miss the point Jesus was seeking to illustrate in the parable.

And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. Mark 12:12

3. To disarm his listeners (Luke 7:36-50)

"At times Jesus sought to penetrate the hostility and hardness of heart of his listeners by means of a parable."

OT example - 2 Samuel 12:14, "a perfect Old Testament example of this"

NT examples - Luke 7:36-50, "Here, in order to pierce through Simons hardness of heart and prejudice, Jesus spoke in a parable and hoped to reach Simon."

Luke 15 parables in response to Luke 15:1-2...

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." 3 So he told them this parable...

Robert Flockhart | Need for Hundreds of His Noble Order

I must linger a moment over Robert Flockhart, of Edinburgh, who, though a lesser light, was a constant one, and a fit example to the bulk of Christ's street witnesses. Every evening, in all weathers and amid many persecutions, did this brave man continue to speak in the street for forty-three years. Think of that, and never be discouraged. When he was tottering to the grave the old soldier was still at his post. "Compassion to the souls of men drove me," said he, "to the streets and lanes of my native city, to plead with sinners and persuade them to come to Jesus. The love of Christ constrained me." Neither the hostility of the police, nor the insults of Papists, Unitarians, and the like could move him; he rebuked error in the plainest terms, and preached salvation by grace with all his might. So lately has he passed away that Edinburgh remembers him still. There is room for such in all our cities and towns, and need for hundreds of his noble order in this huge nation of London—can I call it less?

Lectures to My Students, page 251 | Charles Spurgeon

The Great Benefit of Open-Air Preaching

The great benefit of open-air preaching is that we get so many newcomers to hear the gospel who otherwise would never hear it. The gospel command is, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," but it is so little obeyed that one would imagine that it ran thus, "Go into your own place of worship and preach the gospel to the few creatures who will come inside."

Lectures to My Students, p 255 | Charles Spurgeon

The Fountain-head of Influence

Prayer therefore is one half of our Ministry and it gives to the other half all its power and success. It is the appointed medium of receiving spiritual communications for the instruction of our people. Those who walk most closely with God are most spiritually intelligent in "the secret of his covenant." Many can set their seal to Luther's testimony, that he often obtained more knowledge in a short time by prayer than by many hours of laborious and accurate study. It will also strengthen our habitual devotedness to our work as well as our natural capacities for it. Living near to the fountain-head of influence, we shall be in the constant receipt of fresh supplies of light support and consolation to assist us in our duties to enable us for our difficulties and to assure us of present acceptance and a suitable measure of ultimate success.

Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry - at least part of the quote by Joel Beeke, DG Pastors Conference 2011 -- the words that got me are in bold.

The Spirit's Genial Breath

The Spirit is blowing upon our churches now with His genial breath, but it is as a soft evening gale. Oh, that there would come a rushing mighty wind, that should carry everything before it!

C.H. Spurgeon | Revival Year Sermons | p. 9

If God Is Against Us...

Until we come to grips with the fact that there is one unchanging God who has always hated sin and deals with it with the utmost severity, we're not anywhere close to revival. We're going to have to accept the fact that when God is grieved He turns himself and becomes his peoples' greatest enemy.

I still hear people saying, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" But that's not the issue right now. The issue is, "If God is against us, what does it matter who's for us."

Richard Owen Roberts, 2010 Forum on Revival at SBC (original source)

A Dead Calm Is Our Enemy

The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again.

A dead calm is our enemy, a storm may prove our helper. Controversy may arouse thought, and through thought may come the Divine change. 

- C.H. Spurgeon, from Revival Year Sermons

A Springboard to Bending Our Hearts to God

Instead of fighting anxiety, we can use it as a springboard to bending our hearts to God. Instead of trying to suppress anxiety, manage it, or smother it with pleasure, we can turn our anxiety toward God. When we do that, we'll discover that we've slipped into continuous praying.

Paul Miller, A Praying Life, p 69.

There...The Harp Remains In Tune

Here my best joys bear "mortal" on their brow. My fair flowers fade; my dainty cups are drained to dregs; my sweetest birds fall before Death's arrows; my most pleasant days are shadowed into nights; and the flood tides of my bliss subside into ebbs of sorrow. But there everything is immortal. The harp remains in tune, the crown unfading, the eye undimmed, the voice unfaltering, the heart unwavering; and the immortal being is wholly absorbed in infinite delight.

Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening - January 18th "Morning"