Like Fire And Like A Hammer S

Preface

For more than a century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s sermons have been consistently recognized, and their usefulness and impact have continued to the present day, even in the outdated English of the author’s own day.

Why then should expositions already so successful and of such stature and proven usefulness require adaptation, revision, rewrite or even editing? The answer is obvious. To increase its usefulness to today’s reader, the language in which it was originally written needs updating.

Though his sermons have served other generations well, just as they came from the pen of the author in the nineteenth century, they still could be lost to present and future generations, simply because, to them, the language is neither readily nor fully understandable.

My goal, however, has not been to reduce the original writing to the vernacular of our day. It is designed primarily for you who desire to read and study comfortably and at ease in the language of our time. Only obviously archaic terminology and passages obscured by expressions not totally familiar in our day have been revised. However, neither Spurgeon’s meaning nor intent have been tampered with.

Tony Capoccia

Like Fire . . and Like a Hammer

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

JER 23:29-32, 34 “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? “Therefore,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. Yes,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, ‘The LORD declares.’

Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the LORD. “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,” declares the LORD. If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, ‘This is the oracle of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household.

When the Lord spoke by His servant, Jeremiah, His Word was “like fire.” There was something burning about it: human nature did not like it, but human nature was made to feel its force and power. When the false prophets spoke, they would bow and genuflect to the people, and say all kinds of soft and pleasing things; but when Jeremiah spoke, in the name of Jehovah, every word seemed to bring conviction to his hearers. It was the same as when the mighty man lifts up a sledge-hammer, and brings it down with all his force on the stone that he wants to break. The message did not comfort the ungodly, but it broke their hearts, for the prophet was seeking, if possible, to separate them from their sins.

“The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger;” and we are not so foolish that we don’t know what truth it is that cheers and comforts our heart, and what kind of teaching it is that makes us glad in the midst of our discontent. There is way too much teaching, nowadays, that will not comfort a mouse. You could hear it for all of eternity, and never be relieved of a single ounce of life’s burdens. You might come to church, and you might say, “Yes, it is a highly polished sermon; but what is that to a man who has the burdens of life to carry, and the daily battles to fight?” But when you hear the glorious gospel of the blessed God, it lifts you up out of your discouragements, and makes you say, after all, “It is worth while to live, it is worth while to suffer, it is worth while to press forward; for we see the great love the Lord has towards us, and what good things He has laid up in store for those who love Him.” The Word of the Lord is like a fire, for it warms and comforts the hearts of His people.

But God’s Word is like “a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces.” I shouldn’t think that it would be any great education to learn how to use a hammer; I don’t know, maybe it does; but it seems that in order to use a hammer right, one has nothing to do but to strike with it. A person who is trying to break up a pile of rocks, only has to hit them as hard as he can, and to keep on hitting until they are all broken. Brethren, when you preach, take the gospel hammer, and strike as hard as you can with it. “Oh, but I must try to improve the way my hammer looks; it must have a mahogany handle!” Never mind about the mahogany handle; use your hammer for striking, for hammers are not for decoration, they are meant to be used for real hard work. And when you come to use the gospel as it ought to be used, the result is wonderful; it is a rock-breaking thing.

“Oh!” you cry, “there is a very hard-hearted man there!” Strike at him with the gospel. “Oh, but he ridicules and scoffs at the truth!” Never mind if he does, keep on striking him with the gospel. “Oh, but in a certain town, I have wielded this hammer against the rock for years, and nothing has come of it!” Still go on wielding it, for this is a hammer that has never failed yet. Only continue to use it; everything is not accomplished with one stroke; nor with twenty strokes. The rock that does not yield the first time, nor the second time, nor the third time, nor the twentieth time, will yield at last. There is a process of disintegration taking place with every stroke; the great mass is inwardly moving even when you cannot see that it is doing so; and there will come at last one blow of the hammer which will seem to do the deed, but all the previous strokes contributed to it, and brought the rock into the right state for breaking it up at last. Hammer away, then, with nothing but the gospel of Jesus Christ. The heart that is struck may not yield even year after year, but it will yield at last.

Now, put the two together–the fire and the hammer–and you will see how God makes His servants who are to be instruments for His use. He puts us into the fire of the Word; He melts, He softens, He subdues. Then He takes us out of the fire, and hammers us together into a single, compact whole, with strokes that only He can give, till He has made us fit instruments for His use; and He goes forward to His sacred work of conquering the multitudes, having in His hands the polished instrument that He has forged with the fire and the hammer of His Word.

How often have we seen men, who have not been moved even by the law of God, as last won to Christ by the gospel–the gospel of free grace and dying love, full forgiveness for the greatest sinners; immediate, irreversible pardon given in a moment to every sinner who believes in Christ! Oh, how this gospel has acted like a fire, and burned up all the sinner’s opposition! How this gospel has also been like a hammer to break down human stubbornness! The gospel of redemption through the precious blood of Jesus, the gospel which tells of full atonement made, the gospel which proclaims that the last penny of the ransom price has been paid, and that, therefore, whoever believes in Jesus is free from the law, and free from guilt, and free from hell–the preaching of the gospel has made men’s hearts burn within them, and has destroyed the control of sin, and made men joyfully flee to Christ.

So, preach the gospel then, the gospel of justification by faith, the gospel of new birth by the Holy Spirit, the gospel of final perseverance through the unchanging love of God. Preach the whole of the glorious gospel of the blessed God, as it is revealed in the promise of grace, and you will be doing fire-and-hammer work that will be of the highest quality.

As God’s Word is like a fire and like a hammer, if we have used it on ourselves, let us try to use it on others. I have an opinion that there are a great many persons in this world, whom we give up as hopeless, who have never been really tried and tested with the gospel in all their lives. I am afraid that there are persons of whom we speak as unlikely to be converted, who have never been fully brought under the influence of the fire of God’s Word, or beneath the fall of the hammer of the gospel. “I brought one person to church,” says somebody. I am glad you have; but have you ever spoken faithfully to that person about his soul? “Well, I don’t know that I have; I have said a little to him.” Have you ever plainly put the gospel before him? “Well, I don’t think he is the kind of person that you speak to about the gospel directly.”

Ah! I see that you thought you were going to burn him without using fire, and to break that rock without lifting the hammer. The fact is, you believed that something better than the gospel fire was needed in his case, or that something gentler than the gospel hammer was needed. Won’t you try that old-fashioned hammer on him? Won’t you try that old fire on him? I have heard of churches where men have said, “There is no good to be done here, no one will change” and I have wondered if they were to try preaching one of the old-fashioned sort of gospel sermons, if they could get Whitefield to preach, or have someone to preach the same truth as Whitefield preached, what results would follow.

When I am told that the hearts of the people are not affected by the preaching in any place, I ask, “But was the gospel preached to them? Was it the very Word of God that was preached?” Our words are like paper pellets thrown against the wall, they effect nothing; but God’s Word is like a shot fired from the world’s largest cannon. When it hits, it crushes through every obstacle, and destroys everything that is opposed to it.

Why don’t we always set the whole truth before those whom we seek to save? I believe that, sometimes, even in Sunday-schools, children are taught “to love gentle Jesus,” and so on, as if that were the way of salvation. Why not tell them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Why is love to take the place of faith? Let it be the same gospel for the children that you give to the adults. Try them with the same gospel, and see what will come of it; and let this work be attempted everywhere.

“But,” says someone, “there are certain places where you can’t do any good if you try to preach the gospel. You must play music to the people, and drum softly to them; and then you must have concerts and other entertainments for them.” Very well, convert sinners that way if you can; I do not object to any method that results in the winning of souls. Stand on your head if that will save the people; but still, it seems to me that if God’s Word is like a fire, there is nothing like it for burning; and if God’s Word is like a hammer, there can be nothing like that Word for hammering down everything that stands in the way of Jesus Christ. Why, then, shouldn’t we continually try the gospel, and nothing but the gospel?

“Well,” says one, “but the poor people are dirty; we must clean them up and fix the places where they are living.” Of course we must; go on with them as fast as you can; the more of such things, the better. There is nothing like soapsuds and new paint for dirty people and dirty places; but you may paint and soapsud them as long as you like, yet that will not save their souls without the gospel of Christ. You may go to them and plead the fact that they shouldn’t get drunk, and I hope you will; the more of it the better. Make them all give up drinking if you can, for it will be a great blessing to them; but still, you have not really done anything permanent if you stop there.

Try the gospel! Try the gospel! Try the gospel! When the gospel was tried against the world in the days of Paul–when the power of the great empire of Rome had crushed out liberty, and when lust of the most abominable kind made the world reek in the nostrils of God–nothing was done but preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and the common people heard of Jesus Christ, heard of Him gladly, and believed in Him; and very soon down went the false gods, down went the brutal lusts of the Roman empire, and a great part of the world was permeated with the gospel; and it will have to be done again, and it must be done again. But remember that it is only to be done by that same Word of the Lord which did it the first time; and the sooner we get back to that Word, the better; and the more we throw away everything else but the simple telling out of that Word, the more speedy will be the victory, and the more swift and sure will be the triumph for our God and for His Christ.

Transcribed by:

Tony Capoccia
BIBLE BULLETIN BOARD
BOX 130
SHREVEPORT, LA 71110
MODEM (318)-949-1456
300/1200/2400/9600/19200/38400 DS HST