20 February 2011

Let's Not Extol the Exploits of the Old Man

Let's Boast Instead of the Grace that Redeems Us from All Our Sin

Your weekly dose of Spurgeon
posted by Phil Johnson




The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from The Spurgeon Archive. The following excerpt is from "The Old Man Crucified," a sermon delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, on Sunday evening, 11 April 1869.



ur sins must be put to death with every circumstance of shame and self-humiliation.

I must confess I am shocked with some people whom I know, who glibly rehearse their past lives up to the time of their supposed conversion, and talk of their sins, which they hope have been forgiven them, with a sort of smack of the lips, as if there was something fine in having been so atrocious an offender. I hate to hear a man speak of his experience in sin as a Greenwich pensioner might talk of Trafalgar and the Nile.

The best thing to do with our past sin, if it be indeed forgiven, is to bury it; yes, and let us bury it as they used to bury suicides. Let us drive a stake through it, in horror and contempt, and never set up a monument to its memory.

If you ever do tell anybody about your youthful wrongdoing, let it be with blushes and tears, with shame and confusion of face; and always speak of it to the honor of the infinite mercy which forgave you. Never let the devil stand behind you and pat you on the back and say, "You did me a good turn in those days."

Oh, it is a shameful thing to have sinned, a degrading thing to have lived in sin, and it is not to be wrapped up into a telling story and told out as an exploit as some do.

"The old man is crucified with him." Who boasts of being related to the crucified felon? If any member of your family had been hanged, you would tremble to hear anyone mention the gallows; you would not run about crying, "Do you know a brother of mine was hanged at Newgate?"

Your old man of sin is hanged; do not talk about him, but thank God it is so; and as he blots out the remembrance of it, do you the same, except so far as it may make you humble and grateful.

C. H. Spurgeon


11 comments:

Gary said...

Er - wasn't CHS born in 1834? Preaching the Tabernacle in 1809 may have been problematical, then?

Anonymous said...

Wow. That hit me squarely where I needed to be hit.

Anonymous said...

Gary, time travel? Hello!

Tyrone said...

Quite right Gary, he hadn't been born yet!

NoLongerBlind said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Robert said...

Good reminder...we need not be exhorting people to sin all the more that grace may abound. Rather we should be shamed that Jesus took on the wrath of God to save us because of our sin.

donsands said...

The old man was full blown ungodliness. The new man still has struggles, but sins power is broken.
I am able now to walk upon the devils of this world, and am crucified to the world.

But my greatest joy is that I have my name written in heaven. I am one of Christ's beloved, and one day soon I shall see Him, and be like Him, and so I shall be perfectly holy, and will sin no more.

Thanks for the excellent word from Spurgeon. I have met people in the church who do like to boast, and hang their dirty laundry out for others to see.

Doug Hibbard said...

I should've had him preach yesterday morning. I was attempting to make a similar point, but he made it better.

Although not many of my folks are aware of London enough to know what Newgate Prison was. I could have subbed in "The Cummins Unit" (where we execute people in Arkansas) and it would have been fine.

Oh well, maybe next time I'll read Spurgeon first and then preach that morning!

Zachary Bartels said...

"as they used to bury suicides..." Wow, that is amazing stuff...

Susan said...

Wow's the word. Spurgeon, who is like you??

Anonymous said...

Dang. Nothing like gettin' choke slammed by a dead guy...

Sometimes you do get a sense of exulting in past grievances in some testimonies...like Time Hawkins quips after hearing a particularly shocking testimony of redemption we have the tendency to say, "My testimony stinks...I wish used to be a crack head....thanks a lot God...."