Today's Expositor's Quote is the second from Spurgeon's sermon on Matthew 28:18, which reads in part, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations:"
I scarcely ever come into this pulpit without bemoaning myself that ever I should be called to a task for which I seem more unfit than any other man that ever was born. Woe is me that I should have to preach a gospel which so overmasters me, and which I feel that I am so unfit to preach! Yet I could not give it up, for it were a far greater woe to me not to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Unless the Holy Ghost blesses the Word, we who preach the gospel are of all men most miserable, for we have attempted a task that is impossible, we have entered upon a sphere where nothing but the supernatural will ever avail. If the Holy Spirit does not renew the hearts of our hearers, we cannot do it. If the Holy Ghost does not regenerate them we cannot. If he does not send the truth home into their souls, we might as well speak into the ear of a corpse. All that we have to do is quite beyond our unaided power; we must have our Master with us, or we can do nothing. We deeply feel our need of this great truth; we not merely say it, but we are driven every day, by our own deep sense of need, to rejoice that our Lord has declared, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," for we need all power. Every kind of power that there is in heaven and in earth we shall need before we can fully discharge this ministry. Before the nations shall all be brought to hear the gospel of Christ, before testimony to him shall be borne in every land, we shall need the whole omnipotence of God; we shall want every forge in heaven and earth ere this is done. Thank God that this power is all laid by ready for our use, the strength that is equal to such a stupendous task as this is already provided.
Charles Spurgeon, "Our Omnipotent Leader," a sermon on Matthew 28:18, #2465, preached April 29, 1886. The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume 42.
[If Spurgeon was unfit for the task, what about you and me? But the one who calls us says, "My power is made perfect in weakness." May we depend on that power, and not our own, even this Sunday. -- Coty]
Return to Expository Sermons and Worship Resources