Happy Christmas Charles!

OK, this isn't very original as a blog post (you can read it on about a million other blogs), but I thought I'd post it anyway. I was having a look at what Spurgeon thought about Christmas. Turns out he said this:

We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas. First because we do not believe in any mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be sung in Latin or in English: Secondly, because we find no scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Savior's birth, although there in no possibility of discovering when it occurred. It was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the Church celebrated the birth of our Lord; and it was not till long after the western Church had set the example, that the eastern adopted it. Because the day in not known. Probably the fact is that the "holy" days were arranged to fit in with the heathen festivals. We venture to assert that if there be any day in the year of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which our Savior was born it is the 25th of December. Regarding not the day, let us give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son. - 24/Dec/1871

It also turns out he wasn't a big fan of Father Christmas either (he used the phrase, "deceptive, worldly Santa Claus"! But I'm not going to risk blogging too much about my feelings on that one...

As I often say to my students, who I'm trying to turn into Spurgeon fans, I like to think that if he was still around today, we'd have got on.

Spurgeon IS the man!

Mark Driscoll thinks Spurgeon is "the man." As anyone from Ferndale will know, I agree. MD has declared this week "Spurgeon is the man" week. Shame I only realised on Thursday...

You should have a look at his posts:
Spurgeon is the Man Part 1—Introduction
Spurgeon is the Man Part 2—Spurgeon was a Bible Guy
Update:Spurgeon Prayed, Laughed, Cared, and Evangelized - Part 3

I've learned a lot from Charles (I like to think we'd have been on first-name terms) too. His books "Lectures to my Students" are awesome, and whenever I see a second-hand copy I usually buy it to give away. He's great at pricking the pride and pomposity that preachers can develop. Actually, not so much 'pricking' as 'harpooning.' One of my favourite bits is when he suggested to his church leadership that they should offer a reward to the vandal who smashed some of the church windows because the extra air stopped people nodding off in church. Then he pretty much admits smashing them himself! Brilliant.

He was also a guy who made a stand for the truth. When people weren't staying true to the gospel, he wasn't afraid to say so (it seems like sometimes he went quite far out of his way to have a dig at the pope!). And in 1887 he led his church out of the Baptist Union because of what he saw as a 'downgrade' in their theology, particularly the place they gave to Sripture. I'm always slightly amused when I hear my fellow members of the Baptist Union going on about Spurgeon. He's basically still a Baptist poster-boy, but I'd be interested to know what he'd make of us in the BU if he was around today. If time travel ever gets invented, that's something I'd love to see.

And I love the way he puts things. I often have a rummage for a quote from him when I can't find the words myself. I think this quote might find it's way into my sermon on Sunday...

"Creation is too small a frame in which to hang his likeness. Human thought is too contracted, human speech too feeble, to set him forth to the full. He is inconceivably above our conceptions, inutterably above our utterances."

And finally...

It's taken me about 2 1/2 years, but I've finally finished preaching my way through Ephesians. (In case you were wondering, it took all that time because there were long gaps in between, not because I did it in minute detail!) In fact, it feels a bit strange to have finished it. I had to do the whole of chapter 6 to squeeze it into my last evening sermon, so it's a little bit epic. You can read it as a PDF here:

Ephesians 6

To finish off the sermon, and the book, I found a great quote from C.H. Spurgeon. The whole of Ephesians is soaked in God's grace, and so I think these words from Spurgeon wrap it up well...

“Pause here, my hearer, awhile, and think before this world was made, ere God had settled the deep foundations of the mountains, or poured the seas from the laver of the bottom of his hand, he had chosen his people, and set his heart on them. To them he had given himself, his Son, his heaven, his all. For them did Christ determine to resign his bliss, his home, his life; for them did the Spirit promise all his attributes, that they might be blessed. O grace divine, how glorious thou art, without beginning, without end. How shall I praise thee? Take up the strain ye angels; sing these noble themes, the love of the Father, the love of the Son, the love of the Spirit. “

Spurgeon on the Incarnation

The other week I spoke on Matthew 1v18-25 as part of Ferndale's "We Believe" series. I've just put my notes online here.

At the end I used a quote from one of my dead heroes, local lad Charles Spurgeon. I had to limit myself on the day, but here's a slightly longer quote. It's from a sermon called, "His Name - Wonderful," preached on 19th September 1858. You can read it all (and lots of others) here if you want.

"This is a sight that surpasses all others. Talk ye of the sun, moon, and stars; consider ye the heavens, the work of God's fingers, the moon and the stars that he hath ordained; but all the wonders of the universe shrink into nothing, when we come to the mystery of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a marvellous thing when Joshua bade the sun to stand still, but more marvellous when God seemed to stand still, and no longer to move forward, but rather, like the sun upon the dial of Ahaz, did go back ten degrees, and veil his splendor in a cloud. There have been sights matchless and wonderful, at which we might look for years, and yet turn away and say, "I cannot understand this; here is a deep into which I dare not dive; my thoughts are drowned; this is a steep without a summit; I cannot climb it; it is high, I cannot attain it!" But all these things are as nothing, compared with the incarnation of the Son of God.
I do believe that the very angels have never wondered but once and that has been incessantly ever since they first beheld it. They never cease to tell the astonishing story, and to tell it with increasing astonishment too, that Jesus Christ. the Son of God, was born of the Virgin Mary, and became a man. Is he not rightly called Wonderful? Infinite, and an infant—eternal, and yet born of a woman—Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman's breast supporting the universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother's arms—king of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph—heir of all things and yet the carpenter's despised son. Wonderful art thou O Jesus, and that shall be thy name for ever."