Monday, August 9, 2010

A well worn path

Consider two quotes about preaching from well known preachers C. H. Spurgeon and Bryan Chapell:

"There are no dark passageways through twisted mazes of logic to biblical truth that require the expertise of the spiritually elite. There is only a well-worn path that anyone can follow if a preacher sheds some ordinary light along the way." Bryan Chapell in
Christ-Centered Preaching

"Now the learned tell us that the nineteenth century requires “advanced thought.” I wish the nineteenth century was over; I have heard it bragged about so much that I am sick of the nineteenth century. We are told that this is too sensible a century to need or accept the same gospel as the first, second, and third centuries. Yet these were the centuries of martyrs, the centuries of heroes, the centuries that conquered all the gods of Greece and Rome, the centuries of holy glory, and all this because they were the centuries of the gospel; but now we are so enlightened that our ears ache for something fresh, and under the influence of another gospel, which is not another, our beliefs are dwindling down from alps to anthills, and we ourselves from giants to pigmies. You will want a microscope soon to see Christian faith in the land, it is getting to be so small and scarce. By God’s grace some of us abide by the ark of the covenant, and mean to preach the same gospel which the saints received at the first." Charles H. Spurgeon as quoted at The Puritan's Woodshop

We don't need anything novel or new or new-fangled. We need the tried and tested, true gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a well-worn path path to follow. Keep in mind, it's lack of innovation does not equate to lack of transformation; it is the good news of God's transforming grace. Newness is found not in a neoteric 'gospel' created for the contemporary times. Rather, newness in the gospel of Christ is found in the regeneration and resurrection of dead souls.

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