Rubber Meets the Road

How may a young man know...(Part 4)

...whether he is called or not (Part 4)?

Another exceedingly large class of men seek[s] the pulpit [yet] they know not why. They cannot teach and will not learn, and yet must fain be ministers. Like the man who slept on Parnassus, and ever after imagined himself a poet, they have had impudence enough once to thrust a sermon upon an audience, and now nothing will do but preaching. They are so hasty to leave off sewing garments, that they will make a rent in the church of which they are members to accomplish their design. The encounter is distasteful, and a pulpit cushion is coveted; the scales and weights they are weary of, and must needs try their hands at the balances of the sanctuary. Such men, like raging waves of the sea usually foam forth their own shame, and we are happy when we bid them adieu.

How may a young man know...(Part 3)

…whether he is called or not? (Part 3)


Men who since conversion have betrayed great feebleness of mind and are readily led to embrace strange doctrines or to fall into evil company and gross sin, I never can find it in my heart to encourage to enter the ministry, let their professions be what they may. Let them, if truly penitent, keep in the rear ranks. Unstable as water they will not excel.


So, too, those who cannot endure harness, but are of the kid-gloved order, I refer elsewhere. We want soldiers, not fops, earnest laborers, not genteel loiterers. Men who have done nothing up to their time of application to the college are told to earn their spurs before they are publicly dubbed as knights. Fervent lovers of souls do not wait till they are trained; they serve their Lord at once.

How may a young man know...(Part 2)

...whether he is called or not?

How diligently the Calvary officer keeps his sabre clean and sharp; every stain he rubs off with the greatest care. Remember you are God's sword, His instrument - I trust, a chosen vessel unto Him to bear His name.

It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. For the herald of the gospel to be spiritually out of order in his own proper person is, both to himself and to his work, a most serious calamity; and yet my brethren, how easily is such an evil produced, and with what watchfulness must it be guarded against!

Travelling one day by express from Perth to Edinburgh, on a sudden we came to a dead stop, because a very small screw in one of the engines - every railway locomotive consisting virtually of two engines - had been broken, and when we started again we were obliged to crawl along with one piston-rod at work instead of two. Only a small screw was gone. If that had been right the train would have rushed along its iron road, but the absence of that insignificant piece of iron disarranged the whole. A train is said to have stopped on one of the United States' railways by flies in the grease-boxes of the carriage wheels.

The analogy is perfect; a man in all other respects fitted to be useful, may by some small defect be exceedingly hindered, or even rendered utterly useless. Such a result is all the more grievous, because it is associated with the gospel, which in the highest sense is adapted to effect the grandest results. It is a terrible thing when the healing balm loses its efficacy through the blunderer who administers it.

You know the injurious effects frequently produced upon water through flowing along leaded pipes; even so the gospel itself, in flowing through men who are spiritually unhealthy, may be debased until it grows injurious to the hearers. (8)

Source: Lectures to My Students by Charles Spurgeon

How may a young man know... (Pt 1)

...whether he is called or not?

An intensely helpful and contemplative allocution by Charles Spurgeon regarding the call to Pastoral Ministry. The following excerpts and series is taken from his book, Lectures to My Students.

1 Timothy 4:16
"Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you."

Every workman knows the necessity of keeping his tools in a good state of repair, for "if the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength. Though Michael Angelo, the elect of fine arts, understood the importance of his tools, that he always made his own brushes with his own hands, and in this he gives us an illustration of the God of grace, who with special care fashions for Himself all true ministers.

It is true that the Lord...can work with the the faultiest kind of instrumentality, as He does when He occasionally makes very foolish preaching to be useful in conversion; and He can even work without agents, as He does when He saves men without a preacher at all, applying the word directly by His Holy Spirit; but we cannot regard God's absolutely sovereign acts as a rule for our action. He may, in His own absoluteness, do as pleases Him best, but we must act as His plainer dispensations instruct us.

We shall usually do our Lord's work best when our gifts and graces are in good order, and we shall do worst when our gifts and graces are out of trim.

We are, in a certain sense, our own tools, and therefore must keep ourselves in order. If I want to preach the gospel, I can only use my own voice; therefore I must rain my vocal powers. (7)

Discerning the Lord's Guidance for Your Life

Proverbs 2
...For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding...(6)

1. Does it agree with Scripture or contradict it?
2. Are doors opening or are they hammering shut?
3. Does it make good common sense or are you rationalizing?
4. Have I taken the time to pray and think or am I rushing through this? (Ask God for His input)
5. Do my Christian friends agree with what I'm doing or do they think it's foolish?

The Catholic Gospel - FALSE

By Sandy Nafziger

Raphael was painting his famous Vatican frescoes when a couple of cardinals stopped by to watch and to criticize. “The face of the apostle is too red,” said one. Raphael replied, “He blushes to see into whose hands the church has fallen” (quoted in Warren Wiersbe’s The Integrity Crisis).

You no doubt noticed in the news this week many reports on the widening Catholic sex abuse scandal. More than 170 students across Germany have claimed they were sexually abused along with 60 others recently announced in Switzerland—a pattern which can be traced across the entire globe.

As John MacArthur says, “False doctrine cannot restrain the flesh, so false prophets manifest wickedness.” Catholic theology abounds with false doctrine! We should always be aware of this fact—good doctrine produces good fruit, not bad fruit and bad doctrine produces bad fruit (Matt 7:17-20). False doctrine can lead to depraved moral behavior resulting in severe consequences as seen consistently in the Catholic church. This is why we do our best to teach “sound doctrine” (1 Tim 4:16) at the Hospitality House—yes, doctrine does divide (as it should) but it also unites those who stand firm on God’s Word.

I am not here to bash Catholic’s…we love them, but…there was a Reformation for a reason—the false teaching has not changed in 500 years and Christians must know truth so they can reach Catholic’s with the true Gospel—it’s part of my responsibility to warn (Phil. 3:1-2).

Catholic false doctrine—here are just a few examples. The Bible quotes are from the Roman Catholic Bible proving their own teaching contradicts their own Bible. The paragraph numbers at the end of the RCC (Roman Catholic Church) statements are quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic Bible says, “He saved us, not because of any righteous deeds we have done, but because of His mercy” (Titus 3:5).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (RCC) says that each person attains His own salvation by grace and good works (1477)

Bible: “For you know it was not with perishable things…that you are redeemed…but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pet 1:18-19)
RCC teaches that Mary is the sinless co-Redeemer. “Without a single sin to restrain her, she gave herself entirely to the person and work of her son; she did so in order to serve the mystery of redemption with Him…being obedient she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race” (494)

Bible: “God is one, one also is the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5; 1 Jn 2:1)
RCC teaches that Mary “did not lay aside [her] saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation.” She “is…Advocate…and Mediatrix” (969)

Bible: “Through his blood, God made him the means of expiation for all who believe” (Rom 3:25).
RCC teaches that sins are expiated in purgatory through “a cleansing fire” and that we “must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace” (1030, 31, 1472-75)

Bible: “There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
RCC denies this by claiming the Catholic Church “is necessary for salvation” (846) and claiming “the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst who are Muslims” (841).

Bible: “When you heard the glad tidings of salvation, the word of truth, and believed in it, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit” (Eph 1:13). Those “who believe in His name were begotten not by …man’s willing it, but by God” (Jn 1:13).
RCC teaches “Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration…without which no one can enter the kingdom of God” (1213, 1215).

The RCC and the Bible can’t both be right since they oppose each other in many critical areas. It’s not a matter of semantics, interpretation or context. There is very clear disagreement—you can’t have two different truths about the same thing!