“Rightly dividing the word of truth.”
2 Timothy 2:15.
What is the right way, then, to handle the Word of truth? It is like a sword and it was not meant to be played with. That is not rightly to handle the gospel. It must be used in earnest and pushed home. Are you converted, my friends? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Are you saved, or not? Swords are meant to cut and hack, wound and kill—and the Word of God is for pricking men in the heart and killing their sins. The Word of God is not committed to God’s ministers to amuse men with its glitter, nor to charm them with the jewels in its hilt, but to conquer their souls for Jesus! Remember, dear hearers, if the preacher does not push you to this—that you shall be converted, or he will know the reason why. If he does not drive you to this—that you shall either willfully reject, or cheerfully accept Christ—he has not yet known how rightly to handle the great “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Now, then, where are you personally at this moment? Are you unbelievers, upon whom the wrath of God abides, or are you believers who may lay claim to that gracious word, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believes in Me has everlasting life”? Oh that the Lord would make His all-discerning Word go round this place and strike at every conscience and lay bare every heart with its mighty power! ...
And, oh, beloved, there is one thing that I dread above all others—that I should ever handle the Word of God so as to persuade some of you that you are saved when you are not. To collect a large number of professors together is one thing. But to have a large number of true saints built together in Christ is quite another. To get up a whirl of excitement and to have people influenced by that excitement so that they think, full surely, that they are converted, has been done a great many times. But the bubble, has, by-and-by, vanished. The balloon has been filled until it has burst. God save us from that! We want sure work—lasting work—a work of divine grace in the heart. If you are not converted, do not pretend that you are. If you have not known what it is to be brought down to see your own nothingness and then to be built up by the power of the Spirit upon Christ as the only foundation, O, remember that whatever is built upon the quicksand will fall with a crash in the hour of trial! Do not be satisfied with anything short of a deep foundation, cut in the solid rock of the work of Jesus Christ. Ask for real vital godliness, for nothing else will serve your turn at the last great day. Now, this is rightly to handle the Word of God—to use it to push the truth home upon men for their present conversion, to use it for the striking down of their sins—to use it to draw men to Christ, to use it to arouse sinners and to use it to produce, not mere profession, but a real work of grace in the hearts of men. May the Holy Spirit teach all the ministers of Christ after this fashion to handle the two-edged sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth, Sermon 1217, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 1875.
What is the right way, then, to handle the Word of truth? It is like a sword and it was not meant to be played with. That is not rightly to handle the gospel. It must be used in earnest and pushed home. Are you converted, my friends? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Are you saved, or not? Swords are meant to cut and hack, wound and kill—and the Word of God is for pricking men in the heart and killing their sins. The Word of God is not committed to God’s ministers to amuse men with its glitter, nor to charm them with the jewels in its hilt, but to conquer their souls for Jesus! Remember, dear hearers, if the preacher does not push you to this—that you shall be converted, or he will know the reason why. If he does not drive you to this—that you shall either willfully reject, or cheerfully accept Christ—he has not yet known how rightly to handle the great “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Now, then, where are you personally at this moment? Are you unbelievers, upon whom the wrath of God abides, or are you believers who may lay claim to that gracious word, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believes in Me has everlasting life”? Oh that the Lord would make His all-discerning Word go round this place and strike at every conscience and lay bare every heart with its mighty power! ...
And, oh, beloved, there is one thing that I dread above all others—that I should ever handle the Word of God so as to persuade some of you that you are saved when you are not. To collect a large number of professors together is one thing. But to have a large number of true saints built together in Christ is quite another. To get up a whirl of excitement and to have people influenced by that excitement so that they think, full surely, that they are converted, has been done a great many times. But the bubble, has, by-and-by, vanished. The balloon has been filled until it has burst. God save us from that! We want sure work—lasting work—a work of divine grace in the heart. If you are not converted, do not pretend that you are. If you have not known what it is to be brought down to see your own nothingness and then to be built up by the power of the Spirit upon Christ as the only foundation, O, remember that whatever is built upon the quicksand will fall with a crash in the hour of trial! Do not be satisfied with anything short of a deep foundation, cut in the solid rock of the work of Jesus Christ. Ask for real vital godliness, for nothing else will serve your turn at the last great day. Now, this is rightly to handle the Word of God—to use it to push the truth home upon men for their present conversion, to use it for the striking down of their sins—to use it to draw men to Christ, to use it to arouse sinners and to use it to produce, not mere profession, but a real work of grace in the hearts of men. May the Holy Spirit teach all the ministers of Christ after this fashion to handle the two-edged sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth, Sermon 1217, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 1875.
I sometimes think that, as Christians, the worst thing we ever invented was the seminary.
ReplyDeleteJeff Crippen and I believe that many many people attending evangelical churches these days are not even regenerate.
ReplyDeleteThat's the scariest thing - when people believe that they can be saved without repenting of sin.
ReplyDelete