Spurgeon on Obstacles to Effective Gospel Witnessing - (With Off Site Link)

Adrian Warnock has a small but informative post at his UK Evangelical Blog citing Spurgeon's take on some obstacles to effective gospel witness. The following struck me as one of the more important and relevant items for the church of today:

False security "We ought so to preach as to make every sinner
tremble in his seat; and if he will not come to the Saviour, he ought at least to have a hard time of it while he stops away from Him. I am afraid that we sometimes preach smooth things, too soothing and agreeable, and that we do not set before men their real danger as we should. If we shun in this respect to declare all the counsel of God, part at least of the responsibility of their ruin will lie at our door."

It is so important that the Biblical Gospel be preached without compromise and without a mind to soften it or to exclude items deemed "offensive". The first mistake is taking the position that we are to please men; that we are to tailor the gospel to their liking so that it becomes appealing; that somehow we have the autonomy to make the gospel more palatable to the "unchurched seeker", changing it to fit a culturally relevant mold. If only Christian men would understand that the gospel is God's gospel - it is "the power of God unto salvation". If only Christian men would preach the gospel, and all its implications, unashamedly, free of compromise and with passion from a fiery pulpit. The power of the gospel lies not in hands of men and their ability to communicate it or make it relevant - it lies in God and His sovereignty and providence. This does not mean that He has not chosen us to be effective and powerful witnesses to the gospel. But might we never think that we have the ability, or heaven forbid the authority, to compromise the Biblical gospel by picking and choosing that which we are comfortable with and avoiding that which we feel would not be well-received. The deficiency of the modern gospel, a symptom perhaps of the false response by Christians and Christian leaders to the objections Spurgeon noted, is summarized well in the following quotation. H. Richard Niebuhr, commenting on the tragedy of the 'watered-down' gospel, said that the modern message being peddled is a "God without wrath bringing people without sin into a kingdom without judgment through a Christ without a cross." (Quoted at ©1997-2004 The Baptist Page - www.thebaptistpage.com).

Being mindful of the fact that the biblical gospel is being compromised by a man-altered replacement, and is still besieged on all sides by the enemies of the cross of Christ, might our resolve be this: that we will not preach a God of love unless we also preach of His wrath; that we never avoid the preaching of the wretchedness and sin of man; that we always ensure that those in earshot know of the coming judgment; that we, in all steadfastness and uncompromising conviction, preach Christ crucified as the fully sufficient, once-for-all-time propitiation for our sins; and that God in His Sovereignty and in His time would use His word - whether effectively preached or passionately read - to call men by the power of His Spirit to biblical repentance and a life of obedience. Might we never compromise for the sake of comfort, or willingly avoid for the sake of men, all the glorious truths that make the Gospel great.

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