But basically what it is, is one verse, one Bible verse, and then just a whole page of
their comments and commentary.
And people literally will read this and they feel like, "Oh, I spent some time in my Bible,"
because they read one verse and then read all of man's wisdom.
Now look, I did not go hunting and searching for the worst Charles Spurgeon devotional
I could find.
I literally only read one.
I just read one.
I just randomly read one.
I'm telling the truth, and this is why.
It's on a verse from Song of Solomon.
And so I looked at the Charles Spurgeon, and I have just preached on Song of Solomon a
few weeks ago.
So I was interested.
Oh, let's see what he says about Song of Solomon, because, you know, I wanted to preach this
sermon this morning where I explained to you why you shouldn't be reading these devotional
booklets, okay?
I'm going to read for you in its entirety, and then I'm going to show you how it's all
lies.
And this is just the first one that I checked.
It's the only one.
It's not the first one I checked.
It's the only one that I checked.
And I don't even know why anybody would ever listen to Charles Haddon Spurgeon in the first
place since he was a Calvinist.
He wrote a book, and I've heard people say, "Well, I don't really think he was a Calvinist."
Well, then why did he write a book called A Defense of Calvinism?
Is that your first clue?
So here's the one verse, Song of Solomon 5 verse 4.
And if you would turn there, because I'm going to show you how everything he says in this
is a lie.
Song of Solomon 5, 4, "My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels
were moved for him."
That's the one verse, okay?
Now let's listen to what Spurgeon says, "Knocking was not enough, for my heart was too full
of sleep, too cold and ungrateful to arise and open the door, but the touch of his effectual
grace has made my soul bestir itself.
Oh, the long suffering of my beloved, to tarry when he found himself shut out, and me asleep
upon the bed of sloth.
Oh, the greatness of his patience to knock and knock again, and to add to his voice to
his knockings, beseeching me to open to him.
How could I have refused him?
Base heart, blush and be confounded!
But what greatest kindness of all is this, that he becomes his own porter and unbars
the door himself?
Thrice blessed is the hand which condescends to lift the latch and turn the key.
Now I see that nothing but my Lord's own power can save such a naughty mass of wickedness
as I am.
Ordinances fail.
Even the gospel has no effect upon me.
Even the gospel has no effect on me till his hand is stretched out.
What does that even mean?
But anyway, let me come back to this.
I'm sorry.
I'm getting ahead of myself.
Now also I perceive that his hand is good where all else is unsuccessful.
He can open when nothing else will.
Blessed be his name.
I feel his gracious presence even now.
Well may my bowels move for him when I think of all that he has suffered for me and of
my ungenerous return.
I have allowed my affections to wander.
I have set up rivals.
I have grieved him, sweetest and dearest of all beloveds.
I have treated thee as an unfaithful wife treats her husband.
O my cruel sins, my cruel self, what can I do?
Tears are a poor show of my repentance.
My whole heart boils with indignation at myself.
Wretched that I am to treat my Lord, my all in all, my exceeding great joy as though he
were a stranger.
Jesus, thou forgivest freely, but this is not enough.
Grant my unfaithfulness in the future.
Kiss away these tears and then purge my heart and bind it with seven fold cords to thyself
never to wander more.
Feels so much better now.
I mean, what a blessing.
I've really spent time in the word now.
But wait a minute, none of that's biblical.
None of that's even true.
Now it sounded good.
It sounded really fluffy and feathery and friendly and all that.
But let me show you how everything that was in that was a lie.
It's based on a lie.
Look at the verse.
The verse teaches the opposite of what he taught in his devotional.
Because what was his Bible verse?
Is everybody in Song of Solomon 5?
Because I want you to see how this is all lies.
Look at verse 4.
"My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him."
Now what he said, let me just briefly summarize in case you couldn't cut through all the flowery
garbage in that devotional.
What he said was Jesus is knocking at the door, right?
And he's knocking at the door, and I'm in the bed, I'm asleep, I'm lazy, I'm not answering
the door.
So he unbolts the door himself.
He puts the key in the lock.
He opens the door and lets himself in, okay?
That's what Spurgeon said.
Then he related that to salvation saying, you know, basically God does everything in
regard to salvation.
He just lets himself in.
He does everything.
Even the gospel has no effect on me until he reaches in his hand and unlocks the door
and comes out.
But let me show you how his whole story is a lie because look down at your Bible and
tell me if he's letting himself in.
Let's read it.
Beginning in verse number two, I'm in the wrong book of the Bible here.
Song of Solomon chapter five verse two, "I sleep, but my heart waketh.
It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh."
Right?
So he's at the door knocking.
"He opened to me my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, for my head is filled with dew,
and my locks with the drops of the night."
So he's outside, right?
It's raining outside.
He's knocking on the door.
He's getting wet.
It's raining.
He's saying, "Open the door.
Open up.
Open up the door."
Right?
Nobody's coming to the door.
She's asleep.
Everybody got it?
Let's keep reading.
"I've put off my coat.
How shall I put it on?
I've washed my feet.
How shall I defile them?
My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.
I rose up to open to my beloved."
Is he letting himself in?
No.
"I rose up to open my beloved, and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet
smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock.
I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone."
Now, is that anything like what he lied and said?
But see, he doesn't give you any of these scriptures in the devotional.
He gives you one verse out of context and then lies about what the story is.
Oh, it's so...
He's like, "My favorite part of the whole story is when he just lets himself in."
Listen, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that's the part that's not even there.
And that's your favorite part, the part God didn't write?
Here's what really happened.
She didn't get to the door in time.
And when she gets there and opens the door, he's gone.
He's not even there.
Let's keep reading.
It gets worse.
"I opened to my beloved," verse 6, "and my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone.
My soul failed when I sought him, but I could not find him.
I called him, but he gave me no answer.
The watchmen that went about the city found me.
They smoked me."
Now, I don't remember that part in his devotional.
"The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me."
Now, this is so different.
It's not even close.
Spurgeon's devotional says, "Yeah, he just unbolts the door, turns the key, lets himself
in.
He's with me now.
I feel his presence."
No.
In the real Bible story, he's knocking at the door.
She didn't get there in time.
She's looking for him.
She can't find him.
She goes searching the whole city.
He's nowhere to be found.
Somebody grabs her and beats the fire out of her and rips her veil off and wounds her.
That's the real Bible story, but you're not getting that in your devotional.
If you would have been reading the Bible like you're supposed to, and you could have just
read Song of Solomon 5, you would have got truth and said you get a lot.
Let's say for a moment that this is having a secondary application, and I'm not saying
it doesn't have a secondary application, of being a picture of salvation, okay?
Jesus is knocking at the door, right?
Then wouldn't the application be, hey, Jesus is knocking at the door, buddy.
You better get saved right now, or it might be too late.
I mean, wouldn't that be something you, if you want to apply this passage to salvation,
the application would be, you know, if Jesus is knocking, you better answer the door right
now because it may become too late where later you want to be saved and it's like you can't
find it.
It's too late.
I mean, wouldn't that be the reasonable application?
And then you're going to, you know, and then you're going to get your, you know, your backside
kicked, you know what I mean, if you don't answer that door.
I mean, that's what the Bible is teaching more than anything.
That's what the passage is really about.
But yet this is just all lies.
You see what I mean?
And this is what people are doing today and that's, they call that spending their time
with the Lord.
Devotional, the term devotional means they're devoting some time to be with the Lord.
You're being with Spurgeon.
He's sucking into that big fat cigar that he used to smoke and he's blowing smoke at
you is what he's doing.
That's not Bible reading.
That's not spending time with the Lord.
That's spending time with a Calvinist.
That's spending time with a false preacher and a popular preacher.
And by the way, have you noticed that all the popular preachers today are all bad?
Because Jesus said that if they hated me, they'll hate you, and Jesus said, "Woe unto
you when all men speak well of you, for so they did unto the false prophets."
Why was Spurgeon so popular?
Why was he the most popular church in the entire city of London?
Why do you have the number one attendance?
I'll tell you why.
Because he was just like the church that has the number one attendance in Phoenix, just
like the church that today has the number one attendance in the Southern California
area, just like the church that has the number one attendance in the Chicago area.
Preaching lies.
Because broad is the way that lead it to destruction, and many there be which go in there at, because
straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth them to life, and few there be
that find it.
And today, independent, fundamental Baptists who hate Calvinism quote this guy all the
time, read his devotionals, look, even in this one he teaches Calvinism, the random
one that I picked, and he completely lies about what the passage even said.
It's based on a lie.
It just is a lie, but didn't it sound pretty fancy?
I couldn't write anything like that.
I mean, you know, people need to see through this stuff though.
And that's why I'm telling you, you need to get your sword drill Bible.
You know, you need to get a plain Bible and just read it and learn on your own with the
Holy Spirit.
Well, let me move on to my next point.
I've got to hurry.