{"id":803,"date":"2011-07-15T04:23:41","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T04:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=803"},"modified":"2011-07-15T04:23:41","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T04:23:41","slug":"the-a-and-the-z-a-sermon-that-has-no-christ-is-a-dead-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=803","title":{"rendered":"The A and the Z &#8211; A sermon that has no Christ is a dead failure."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(by DeWitt Talmage)<br \/>\nChrist is\u00a0<strong>the A and the Z<\/strong> of the Christian ministry.<br \/>\nA sermon that has no Christ is a dead failure. The<br \/>\nminister who devotes his pulpit to anything but Christ<br \/>\nis an impostor. Whatever great themes we may discuss,<br \/>\nChrist must be the beginning and Christ the end.<br \/>\nA sermon given up to sentimental and flowery<br \/>\nspeech is as a straw flung to a drowning sailor.<br \/>\nWhat the world needs is to be told in the most<br \/>\ndirect way of Jesus Christ, who comes to save<br \/>\nmen from eternal damnation.<br \/>\nChrist the Light,<br \/>\nChrist the Sacrifice,<br \/>\nChrist the Rock,<br \/>\nChrist the Star,<br \/>\nChrist the Balm,<br \/>\nChrist the Guide.<br \/>\nIf a minister should live one thousand years,<br \/>\nand preach ten sermons each day, these<br \/>\nsubjects would not be exhausted.<br \/>\nDo you find men\u00a0<strong>tempted<\/strong>?<br \/>\nTell them of Christ the Shield.<br \/>\nOr\u00a0<strong>troubled<\/strong>? Tell them of Christ the Comfort.<br \/>\nOr\u00a0<strong>guilty<\/strong>? Tell them of Christ the Pardon.<br \/>\nOr\u00a0<strong>dying<\/strong>? Tell them of Christ the Life.<br \/>\nScores of ministers, yielding to the demands<br \/>\nof the age for elegant rhetoric, and soft speech,<br \/>\nand flattering terms, have surrendered their<br \/>\npulpits to the devil.<br \/>\nMay Christ be the subject of our talk;<br \/>\nChrist the inspiration of our prayers;<br \/>\nChrist the theme of our songs;<br \/>\nChrist now, and Christ forever!<\/p>\n<p>Philosophy is nothing;<br \/>\ndenominations nothing;<br \/>\nconferences nothing;<br \/>\nassemblies nothing;<br \/>\nourselves nothing,\u00a0\u00a0 \u2026.\u00a0 but CHRIST EVERYTHING<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(by DeWitt Talmage) Christ is\u00a0the A and the Z of the Christian ministry. A sermon that has no Christ is a dead failure. The minister who devotes his pulpit to anything but Christ is an impostor. Whatever great themes we may discuss, Christ must be the beginning and Christ the end. A sermon given up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel-preaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":804,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions\/804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}