Preaching and Preachers

The Preparation of the SermonBut over and against that you have the position of the Puritans whowere clearly great believers in preaching series of sermons. It is interestingto note, in passing, that though Spurgeon was such a greatreader of the Puritans, and such a great admirer of them, at this pointhe disagreed with them entirely.What, then, does one say about this? All I can say is that it seemsto me to be quite wrong to be rigid in this matter, and to lay down anyhard and fast rule. I cannot see why the Spirit should not guide a manto preach a series of sermons on a passage or a book of the Bible as wellas lead him to one text only. Why not? What is important-and hereI am with Spurgeon whole-heartedly-is that we must preserve andsafeguard 'the freedom of the Spirit.' We must not be in control inthis matter; we must not decide in cold blood, as it were, what we aregoing to do, and map out a programme, and so on. I am sure that thatis wrong. I have known men who have done that. I have known menwho, at the beginning of a season after a vacation, would actually handout a list of their texts for many months ahead and would indicatewhat was going to be preached every particular Sunday during thatperiod of time. I reprobate that entirely and completely. I am notsaying, I dare not presume to say, that this is impossible: under thefreedom of the Spirit it is not impossible, because 'the wind blowethwhere it listeth', We must not say that the Spirit will always,and mustalways, work in one particular way. But, speaking generally, I feelthat to plan and publish such a programme is surely to put certainlimits upon the sovereignty and the leading of the Spirit in thismatter. So, having asserted that we are subject to the Spirit, and thatwe must be careful to make sure that we really are subject to Him, Iargue that He may lead us at one time to preach on odd texts and atanother time to preach a series of sermons. I would humbly claim thatI have known this many times in my experience.There is a volume of sermons preached by me published under thetitle Spiritual Depression. The story of how I came to preach thatseries may help to illustrate this matter. I had actually determineditseemed to me that I was being led in that way, but undoubtedly it189