Spurgeon Charles Haddon - Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like the World

ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL

ASHAMED
OF THE GOSPEL

WHEN THE CHURCH BECOMES
LIKE THE WORLD

THIRD EDITION

JOHN MACARTHUR

Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like the World

Copyright 1993, 2010 by John MacArthur

Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth and Associates, Inc.

Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

Cover design: Tobias Outerwear for Books

First printing, third edition, 2010

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations indicated as from NASB are taken from The New AmericanStandard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1995 by The Lockman Foundation and are used by permission.

Quotations indicated as from KJV are taken from the King James Version.

Appendix 4, Carnal vs. Spiritual Wisdom, is an excerpt from A Soliloquy on the Art of Man-Fishing by Thomas Boston, adapted for modern readers. This version, 1993 by Phil Johnson, is used by permission.

ISBN 13: 978-1-4335-0929-2

ISBN 10: 1-4335-0929-6

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-0930-8

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-0931-5

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-2339-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
MacArthur, John, 1939
Ashamed of the Gospel : when the church becomes like the world / John MacArthur. 3rd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4335-0929-2 (hc)
1. Evangelicalism. 2. Church and the world. 3. Modernism (Christian theology). 4. Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon), 18341892. I. Title.
BR1640.M243 2010
270.8'2dc22 2009017997

SH 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To
RICK DRAA
My faithful and beloved friend and servant of the Lord
on my behalfwho for more than thirty-five years
has recorded my voice and spread it across the globe.

CONTENTS

Appendix 1
Spurgeon and the Down-Grade Controversy

Appendix 2
Spurgeon Speaks to Our Time

Appendix 3
Charles Finney and American Evangelical Pragmatism

Appendix 4
Carnal vs. Spiritual Wisdom

I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God forsalvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also tothe Greek.

ROMANS 1:16

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord,nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel bythe power of God... which is why I suffer as I do. But I am notashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convincedthat he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrustedto me.

2 TIMOTHY 1:8, 12

Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterousand sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also beashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holyangels.

MARK 8:38

I first broached the idea of this book to Lane Dennis and Crossway sometime in late 1992. Lanes enthusiasm for the project was immediate and profound. With his encouragement, we shifted into high gear, compiling and editing the first edition within three months after getting the go-ahead from Crossway. No book I have ever written has come together so quickly and so easily. Crossway launched the book in mid-1993 at the Christian Booksellers Association convention in Atlanta. The title has been a mainstay in Crossways catalog ever since, and they have done a marvelous job of maintaining its visibility in the marketplace. Im very grateful to Lane and the staff at Crossway for what they did in 1993 to make it possible to publish this book on such a fast schedule and for all that they have done over the years to keep it in the marketplace.

Lance Quinn (then an associate pastor at Grace Church; now senior pastor of The Bible Church of Little Rock) was a major help to me during the writing of the first edition, proofreading and critiquing chapters during the initial editorial process.

Numerous people at Grace to You also contributed to the project. These include Arline Hampton (who transcribed the sermons from which material for the book was drawn), Mike Taylor (who for more than twenty years managed the editorial department at Grace to You, until the Lord took him to heaven in June of 2009), and Tom Pennington, who stepped into the gap to provide leadership at Grace to You while other key staff were working to meet that short deadline. Toms heightened involvement at Grace to You was one of the most wonderful and far-reaching side effects of the decision to fast-track this book. He spent more than a decade working alongside mefirst at Grace to You, then in the role Lance Quinn vacated at Grace Church when he was called to Little Rock. Like Lance, Tom proved too gifted and too valuable to the kingdom to be kept in my side office. He is now senior pastor of Countryside Bible Church in Southlake, Texas.

Major thanks to Phil Johnson, who did the hands-on editorial work in 1993 to compile and edit these chapters, blending material from more than fifty sermons that I had preached over twenty-five years time. Phil has also edited the updates and the supplementary material for this revised edition. His fingerprints are on every page of the book, and I continue to be thankful for the nearly thirty-year partnership the Lord has given us.

Phil has often reminded me that his well-known interest in Charles Spurgeon began when he edited the first edition of this book. He had never read any of Spurgeons writingsor even a full biography of Spurgeon prior to starting the editorial work on this book. While helping assemble the first draft of Ashamed of the Gospel, he did some research on the Down-Grade Controversy. Once he began reading Spurgeons writings and sermons, he found it impossible to stop. In the years since 1993 he has posted reams of Spurgeon material on the Internet, helping to introduce countless people around the world to the Prince of Preachers, showing how supremely relevant a Victorian Baptist preacher is to whats happening in the church today. The Internets Spurgeon Archive is thus one of the enduring legacies of this book. Phil has assembled the material in Appendix 2 for this new edition.

Finally, thanks to Robert Wolgemuth, who had the vision for a revision and rerelease of this book and who brought the idea of a new edition to Crossway.

PREFACE TO THE
2010 EDITION

What marvel if, under some mens shifty talk, people grow intolove of both truth and falsehood! People will say, We like thisform of doctrine, and we like the other also. The fact is, theywould like anything if only a clever deceiver would put it plausibly before them. They admire Moses and Aaron, but they wouldnot say a word against Jannes and Jambres. We shall not join inthe confederacy which seems to aim at such a comprehension.

CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON

Sometime in the summer of 2007, I picked up a copy of Ashamed ofthe Gospel for the first time in fourteen years and started thumbing through it. Before I put the book down again, I had devoured eight chapters. I was pleased and amazed to see the enduring relevance of the bookespecially since I wrote it to critique the notion that