John Albert Broadus: Spurgeon

Well, I'm excited to be with you one more time. We're going to do something a little bit different this evening. I love preaching. I really do. But I am not a preacher by occupation. I am a teacher by occupation and specifically teach church history and teach Baptist history and things like that to seminary students and undergraduates who are preparing for ministry. And so what I would thought what I thought I would do tonight is teach a little bit about the life of one of the most famous Southern Baptists of days gone by, who happened to spend the earliest part of his ministry here in Charlottesville. And so many of you may be familiar with him, John Albert Broadus. who I'm calling the Spurgeon of Charlottesville. And the way that we're going to talk about him is by looking at five different snapshots of seasons of his life or aspects of his life as we talk a little bit about his ministry. Maybe a little bit more interactive than normal. may actually even open it up a couple of times and ask for somebody to to say something. And so, again, don't think this is a sermon. I'm not going to be not going to be too radical here, but we are maybe be a little bit more interactive and we'll open it up a little bit for discussion at the end if you guys want to and be happy to do that. So snapshot number one brought us his early life. John Albert Broaddus may have been the most famous Baptist in America during the last quarter of the 19th century. He was born January 24, 1827 in Culpeper County, Virginia. And though his family was not rich, it was a well-respected Virginia family. And if you know anything about Southern culture, you know that the well-respected was much more important than the rich, especially in the 19th century South. It was a very honor-driven society. It was a well-respected Virginia family that was widely known, both among state Baptists and, frankly, among the wider culture. Broaddus's father, Major Edmund Broaddus, had served in the Army and had served in the Virginia legislature. He had an uncle, Andrew Broaddus, who was perhaps the most well-known Baptist pastor and evangelist in Virginia prior to the Civil War. So we might say back in Georgia where I'm from, we'd say he comes from good stock. Young John was a bright boy and Major Broaddus cultivated his son's intellect in a couple of different ways. Number one, he allowed him to participate in adult conversations. As a member of the Virginia legislature, it was not uncommon for traveling dignitaries to come and stay at the Broaddus house. And from the time he was five or six years old, little John was right there, allowed to listen in to what the adults were talking about. He wanted very much, Major brought us one very much for John to know the ways of the world in the best sense of the term. He also helped John cultivate his intellect by providing him with numerous books and periodicals from a very young age. They were not a rich family, but if little John wanted a book, he got a book. If he wanted a magazine subscription, he got a magazine subscription because his father wanted to cultivate these intellectual interests that his son had. Broadus was also allowed to attend grammar school during his youth. Now, some of you children who might be in public school, you're thinking allowed to attend grammar school. Lord, please rescue me from school. But this was the days before public education. And so it was not uncommon at all for some children to just get a very basic education for a couple of years from their parents, and I literally mean a couple of years from their parents, and that be the only type of education they got. Some of them were functionally illiterate. That was very uncommon in the 19th century South. Well, Major Broaddus not only tutored his son when he was young, but he allowed him to attend grammar school. He paid for him to be able to attend schools and get a classical education. back in this time period. And so, like many classically trained teenagers, Broadus learned Latin and Greek from the time he was 10 or 11 years old. He was reading things like the Greek classics and the Latin classics along with the Bible and things of that nature. And so, for his time period, he would have been a very well-educated young man prior to his career in college. Now, Broadus was converted when he was 16 years old while attending a protracted meeting. Who can tell me what a protracted meeting is? Anybody? We have a different word for it today. Today, we call it revival. How many of you grew up in a church that had revival meetings once or twice a year? I grew up in one of those churches. Now, I like protracted meeting a little bit better, kind of a corny term that we don't use that much, but they dare not call it revival because God's the one who determines when he sends revival and when he doesn't. So what they would call it was a protracted meeting of preaching and prayer and singing, and they would pray that God would bring revival. It was not until the 20th century that they began to call them revival meetings. So he was converted at a revival meeting. He was baptized and joined the New Salem church in Culpeper County. He finishes grammar school, spends a couple of years teaching in grammar schools, including a couple of years as a headmaster in small grammar schools, and then he enrolled at Mr. Jefferson University when he was about 19 years old. And shortly before arriving at the university, he began to struggle with a call to the gospel ministry. He abandoned his desires to be a physician, which is what he planned on studying for. And as soon as he arrived here in Charlottesville, immediately began preaching in tiny little Baptist churches within about a day's ride of Charlottesville and that was a very common thing for young men to do in the 19th century and even well into the 20th century. To be gone every weekend classes would end on Friday and you'd immediately hit the road and you'd stay somewhere Friday night and sometime midday Saturday you'd arrive what now would just be you know a three-hour drive or a two-hour drive or whatever and that's where you'd be for the weekend. On Monday you didn't have classes and you would travel back to get to the university and so that's what John is going to do during the time he's at UVA. So that's his background, comes from a Christian family, well-educated young man who has now enrolled in the second or third best university in the state of Virginia. So our second snapshot of his life. I'm just kidding. We all know it is the University of Virginia. Second snapshot of his life is his time in Charlottesville. 1850 was a big year for Broaddus. He graduated UVA with the M.A. And let's talk about that for just a minute. Most young men in the South and in all of America, for that matter, didn't graduate in the 19th century. Most, unless they came from wealthy families, didn't have the money to go to school for four or five years. It was much more common to go to school for a year or two until the money ran out and then you went off to do whatever it was you were going to do in life. So it's unusual that Broadus actually attended all four years earning a master's degree back whenever three years would have earned you a bachelor's and four years would have earned you a master's. So he stays four years, he earns an MA, from University of Virginia, began teaching at a grammar school in Fluvanna, was married to the daughter of his favorite professor. That's a good way to get an A, right? You marry your professor's daughter. And he was ordained to the gospel ministry. So big year, graduate, get married, ordained. You take your first sort of grown up job, if you will, after college. This was also the year that Broadus was asked to supply the pulpit of the Baptist Church in Charlottesville, then called Charlottesville Baptist Church, now the First Baptist Church of Charlottesville. He was supplying the pulpit there and was hired at the end of that first year in Fluvanna, was hired to come back to the university and to teach Latin and Greek. Remember, he had learned these originally as a young man, being classically educated, had continued to study them. At university, he had a knack for languages. Now, when I say that Broadus was filling the pulpit, I do not mean he was serving as their pastor. I mean, he was doing exactly what I'm doing right now. They were without a pastor and they simply invited him to preach and they liked it. And they invited him to come back. And they liked it. And they invited him to come. Well, we'll see where this is going to go. But right now, he's just filling the pulpit that he's basically on two-week to one-month contracts coming in and preaching every weekend. He was a gifted enough preacher that even at this early stage, he started turning down offers to pastor churches in other parts of Virginia and to teach at other colleges in other states. And the reason that he didn't want to do that is he didn't want to leave the university. He had become an adult in many ways at University of Virginia. He had this teaching gig. He was preaching every week, even though he wasn't yet a full-time pastor. And so he was turning down prestigious pulpits and teaching jobs in other places. He did not want to leave UVA. In 1851, despite his youth, he was about 23 and a half years old. And despite his inexperience, Broadus was called as the permanent pastor of the Charlottesville Church. Even then, I should say at that time, I have no idea now, at that time, one of the largest churches in Virginia among the Baptists. And so he was a very young man to take on this pulpit. So there's something special about him. And within a year of becoming the permanent pastor of First Baptist, they had to build a new meeting house. That's what we used to call sanctuaries when we were more biblical. See, now we call them sanctuaries because we want to be all uppity. And that sounds more spiritual. But we used to call a meeting houses because that, by the way, is what this is, right? This is not the church. You're the church. You're just as much the church during the week as you are on Sundays. You're the church gathered on Sundays. And where do you gather? You gather at? The meeting house. So the meeting house was outgrown within a year of brought us his ministry there because brought us held one of those protracted meetings and 40 people came to faith in Christ. And that meant it was time to build a new meeting house during the eight years that brought us was in Charlottesville. He became widely known as one of the best preachers in Virginia and one of the best younger preachers in the entire Southern Baptist Convention. He was regularly invited to be a guest speaker at prominent churches like the First Baptist Church in Richmond, by far the most important Southern Baptist Church in Virginia, and one of the two or three most important churches of any kind in Virginia during this part of the 19th century. He was invited to guest lecture and preach in chapel at schools like the University of Richmond back when that was a Baptist school a long time ago. If you want to hear the gospel at University of Richmond now, you have to go to Campus Crusade for Christ or something like that. But back then it would have been a Baptist school. He frequently wrote articles for the Religious Herald, the Baptist state paper here in Virginia. He also continued to turn down churches all over the eastern seaboard, many prominent churches. He also rejected prestigious positions at universities. Like, for instance, he rejected the position of Classics teacher at Columbian College. He also rejected the presidency of Wake Forest College, now the campus that my seminary is located on, then the campus of Wake Forest College. Anybody know, by the way, the name of Columbian College today? It's George Washington University. was originally a Baptist college, started in 1821. The Baptists could not keep it afloat because the cost of living was going up so much late 19th century in Washington, D.C. So in 1904, the Baptists backed out, the government gave it a little bit of money, and it became George Washington University. But prior to that, it was Columbian College because it was located in Metro, D.C. Broad has thrived as the pastor of a church in a university town when his talents as both a preacher and a teacher were particularly helpful. He was well suited to pastoring in this type of town. He connected well with students and he connected well with normal people. During a time when women were not allowed to attend the University of Virginia, virtually all universities would not have allowed women to get degrees until the late 19th century, Broaddus helped organize the Albemarle Females Institute in 1857. This would have been an all-women's prep school. It would have been the most prestigious college-like school for women in the state of Virginia. And they had many notable graduates, but their most famous graduate was a young girl named what? Lottie Moon, who was converted and baptized under John Broaddus' ministry at the Charlottesville Baptist Church. So he starts the school, he wins her to the gospel. Did you know Lottie Moon was a notorious flirt before she came to Faith and Christ? How many of you have seen pictures of Lottie Moon? I mean, she's about four foot tall and she has one of those looks that could break a brick. Right. I mean, she's just she looks like someone you don't want to cross. There's this great picture of her at Southern Seminary where she's standing with a bunch of Chinese children who she's teaching, and she's got her hand on one of the kids shoulders and she's got the stern look on her face. And I've always thought, what did that poor kid do? She looks like she's getting ready to yank a knot in him. This was a strong woman who we think of. She's the closest thing we have to a saint in the Southern Baptist Convention, like in the Catholic sense. And she was a notorious flirt. But she comes to faith in Christ, is baptized, and mentored by John Broadus at the First Church. Broadus did leave the church briefly in 1855 through 1857 to serve as chaplain at UVA, but he was often unhappy with that work. It did give him the chance to preach every Sunday to the university students back during that time period, but that's really the only interaction he had with them. It was a Sunday morning only type gig, and he missed the day in, day out being involved in people's lives. So while he enjoyed getting to shape the young minds, He really missed being an old-fashioned pastor. So it only lasts a couple of years and as often happens when a notable pastor leaves the church, maybe you've seen this before, someone has a unique ministry in a church, he leaves. What happens to the guy who comes after him? He lasts about that long. So the guy who comes after brought us only lasts a couple of years and the pulpit comes open again and brought us says, pick me, pick me. And the people at Charlottesville say, oh, are at first church, say, oh, we'd love to have you back. And he becomes the pastor of Charlottesville First Church again. So he never really leaves. Because Broadus was so widely recognized as a pastor scholar, pastor slash scholar, he was one of five men chosen by the Southern Baptist Convention to serve on an education committee in 1858. And the purpose of that education committee was to study the feasibility of starting a Southern Baptist seminary. Now, think about this in secular history, 1858. What are they fighting about? North-South? Expansion? Slavery? Things like this were right on the heels of the Civil War. And you know what? Folks in the South were saying, we're tired of sending our kids to Yankee schools. That's what they were saying. Because the kids would come back and what did they sound like? They weren't drinking sweet tea anymore. They'd traded in the grits for the cream of wheat. They came back and they were different. They were different and mom and dad didn't like it. And so they started talking about how we needed our own Southern Baptist seminary. And that leads us to our third snapshot and brought us his life. Southern Seminary in 1859, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was founded in Greenville, South Carolina. The driving force behind the school was a man named James Pettigrew Boyce. He was a South Carolinian who was the same age as brought us. They were born six or seven days apart. Boyce was one of the few Southern Baptists who had a better education than brought us. He had done his undergraduate at Brown University, where he had studied with Francis Wayland, the leading Baptist theologian in America. He'd then done a Master of Divinity, then called a Bachelor of Divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he'd studied with Charles Hodge, who was the leading evangelical theologian in America at that time of any denomination. And so Broadus, excuse me, Boyce has a remarkable education. Like Broadus, Boyce had been both a pastor and a professor. And like brought us, Boyce was a big believer that Southern Baptists needed a more and they needed their own seminary so that they could have a more educated ministry. Because the other side of having all the seminaries in the north is all those poor folks in the south couldn't go. You had to come from a family of means to be able to move to Harvard for three years or to be able to move to Princeton for three years. And so while there was the cultural thing, and I joked about the grits and the sweet tea, and that was definitely there, there was also a desire to have a seminary closer to home in the hopes that more Baptist preacher boys would get a seminary education. So these men have a lot in common. Boyce was the first chairman of the faculty at Southern Seminary. Today, we would call that position the president. And though brought us turned down invitations from Boyce for almost a year, two different occasions turned down invitations. He ultimately relented and joined JP Boyce as one of the four founding professors at Southern Seminary. And so brought us left his beloved university. He left his beloved pastorate and he became a full time seminary professor and brought us and Boyce became lifelong best friends working together to keep that seminary afloat. Because of his education and giftedness, Broadus spent 36 years teaching New Testament, Greek and preaching. You teach New Testament because you know the Bible. You teach Greek because he knew all that Greek from his classical training. And he taught preaching because he could flat preach. You don't let people who can't preach teach preaching. And so he's going to be shaping all these young ministerial students. Now, almost as soon as the seminary opened, The Civil War erupted, or as folks in Virginia may call it, the late unpleasantries. So it begins, which forced the school to close down in 1862. All of the professors served as either chaplains or aides in the Confederate Army, but none of them had greater influence than John Broadus. Number one, he wrote a gospel track titled We Pray for You at Home. The gospel track was distributed to tens of thousands of Confederate troops. Who knows how many soldiers came to faith in Christ as a result of reading this track that was a little bit on the sentimentality, you know, talked about the mamas and the girlfriends praying for your safety and how great it would be to see you at the end of the war. But how much better to see you at the end of the age if you turn from your sins and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior? Broadus served as a chaplain in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, where he preached to as many as 5,000 soldiers at one time. In fact, during the summer of 1863, revival broke out in the Army of Northern Virginia. Hundreds of soldiers came to faith in Christ. Thousands showed evidence of some type of moral change, of course, assuming that many were already Christians. And even those who weren't Christians were perhaps positively affected just by what was going on and things rubbing off on them. And along the short of it is with the encouragement of Stonewall Jackson, of course, earlier and now Robert E. Lee, many soldiers came to faith in Christ through the preaching of Broadus and three other chaplains. After the Civil War was over, the professors reassembled in Greenville and they contemplated shutting down Southern Seminary. And the reason was because the school, like the South in general, was in bad financial state. Some of you have to be Civil War buffs. I mean, there's no way we can be in Virginia and some of you not be Civil War buffs, right? So you probably know that the states that were worse affected early on by Reconstruction were South Carolina and Virginia was South Carolina because they started the whole thing. Yeah, that's the way the folks in D.C. saw it. And it was Virginia because all those rotten generals in Richmond. And so it was those couple of states that were the worst affected by reconstruction. And for that reason, a seminary in Greenville, South Carolina, was not doing very well. So they thought about shutting it down, but brought us his response to this situation said much about the man and about his support of the seminary. This is what he said, quote, Suppose we quietly agree that the seminary may die, but will die first. So they're going to fight to keep this seminary open. Southern did stay open, but the way it survived was eventually relocating to Louisville, Kentucky in 1877, where it still is today. Relocated for several reasons. Number one, bad economy. Number two, Louisville was centrally located in what was then the habitable United States. And number three, it was an industrial city. And so for all those reasons, they relocated and that's where they are today. During his career at Southern, Broadus wrote a number of important works. He wrote a history of preaching. He wrote three questions on the Bible, which defended the inerrancy of scripture. He wrote a commentary on Matthew, a commentary on Mark, a collection of sermons was published. He wrote Jesus of Nazareth, a life of Christ, wrote a book titled Immersion Essential to Christian Baptism, arguing for a Baptist view of baptism. After his best friend, Boyce, died, he wrote a biography of Boyce, and he wrote A Harmony of the Gospels, where he took those four gospels and wove them together into one story. But by far his most famous book was titled On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons. It was a preaching textbook, and it was the most widely used preaching textbook in America. until around the time of World War II, and has remained continuously in print since 1870, whenever it was first published. There are still schools that use this as their textbook for how to preach, and not all of them are Baptist schools. On the preparation and delivery of sermons was based off of Broadus's lecture notes in his preaching class from the fall of 1865, when the school opened back up after the Civil War. In that preaching class that he based his notes off of, he had one student and he was blind. The greatest preaching textbook written by a Baptist based off lecture notes to one blind student who was able to go to seminary after the Civil War. One of Broadus's greatest trials while he was at Southern. was related to a fellow professor named Crawford Toy, an Old Testament professor. Broadus was the New Testament man. Toy was the Old Testament man. To give you a little bit of background, Toy was from here. He'd grown up in Charlottesville Baptist Church, where Broadus had been his pastor. Broadus had baptized Crawford Toy. He had taught Crawford Toy at the University of Virginia and then at Southern Seminary, where Toy was in the first entering class at Southern. Crawford Toy was engaged to Lottie Moon. But after the Civil War, Toy went and he studied in Germany. And while he was in Germany, he embraced a newfangled idea called Darwinism. He came back to America where he continued to hold to a view of biological evolution, began teaching that in seminary classes, came over the course of six or seven years to reject most of the historicity of the Old Testament. Would have said that they're spiritual stories that teach us spiritual truths, kind of like an inspired Aesop's fables, but that those things really didn't happen like it says they happened. As you can imagine, in 1879, the seminary's trustees asked Toy to resign, and he did. It caused Broaddus great pain to see his protege succumb to liberalism and eventually embrace Unitarian views. Toy went on to teach at Harvard Divinity School and died a member of the Unitarian Church. After Boyce died in 1888, Broaddus was elected to serve as the second president of Southern Seminary, a position he held until his own death in 1895. And so he's one of the key men helping to keep the seminary afloat. And the trustees recognized that and they named him the president. Our fourth snapshot brought us is wider leadership and influence. In addition to his service at the seminary, brought us emerged as one of the two or three key Southern Baptist leaders during the latter half of the 19th century. He was very involved in state convention leadership in Virginia, then South Carolina, then Kentucky. So everywhere he lived, he was involved in state Baptist life. Let me encourage you as you're looking for a pastor to look for somebody who cares about what's happening in the wider Virginia Baptist life. You know, you don't want to look for somebody who cares about being a leader or anything like that. I mean, you know, you don't want that necessarily. But look for somebody who pays attention and who cares and who can tell you what you need to know about what's happening in sister churches in this state and in the Southern Baptist Convention. In 1863, Broadus and a fellow professor named Basil Manley Jr. established the first Southern Baptist Sunday School Board, publishing literature for Sunday schools in Baptist churches. Unfortunately, like just about everything else in the South, worth note, it did not survive Reconstruction. Broadus later helped form a permanent Sunday school board in 1891 and it continues to the present day. That second version today, its name is Lifeway Christian Resources. Perhaps you have some Sunday school classes or discipleship groups or something in this church that uses material from Lifeway Christian Resources. It used to be called Broadman Broadus and Manly, their names put together. And so I have written books that were contributed to books published by Broadman Press named for John Broadus. Broadus continued, excuse me, he wrote articles for denominational and interdenominational publications ranging from meaty theological treatises to published sermons to my favorite devotions for children. For 25 years he wrote children devotionals that came out once a month. One of the greatest scholars among Southern Baptist writing so that children can understand the basics of the gospel because he believed that was an important ministry and I think he's right. He was offered the pastorates of some of the leading Baptist churches in America, now not just the South, But all over the country, he was offered the presidencies of numerous seminaries and universities, perhaps the most famous being University of Chicago, offered him the job as their founding president. He didn't go because the school's leadership was liberal and he did not feel like in good conscience he could go be the president. He also preached, spoke in hundreds of churches all over America. Back then, seminary professors had the summer off, and they would go on the preaching circuit and brought us. Some of the seminary professors would go, and they'd be excited because they'd be invited to preach at First Baptist So-and-So, where maybe there were as many as 150 or 200 members. Broadus was the guy preaching in the churches with a thousand people. That's just what he was doing during the summer, and he was preaching even in northern churches. Broaddus was a frequent speaker on the Chautauqua Circuit. Who knows what the Chautauqua Circuit is? Ever heard of that before? Big deal in 19th century, it's where talented or prestigious individuals would give public lectures and they would travel around from town to town and they would speak in public halls on a variety of topics that may range from religious topics like Broadus was doing to things related to the culture around them. Many famous politicians, perhaps most famously William Jennings Bryan, the great commoner, learned how to be a public speaker on the Chautauqua circuit. And in the days before television and internet and things like that, it was not unusual on a Saturday night for you to go and pay a dime to hear a famous person who was in town talking about some subject that he knew about. John Broaddus was one of the few preachers who was invited to be a part of the Chautauqua circuit, and he used it to share the gospel. John Broaddus also preached on a number of occasions to the entire Southern Baptist Convention at their annual meeting. He befriended some of the most famous Christians of his day, including laymen like John D. Rockefeller, who was a Baptist, not a very good one, but he was a Baptist and he was rich. Evangelists like D.L. Moody counted Broadus as friends and pastors, even in other countries like Charles Spurgeon. In fact, as Broadus became the most famous Baptist preacher in America, he became the closest thing America had to a Spurgeon. He was the only Baptist preacher who people wanted to read his sermons. In other places, people who'd never heard him wanted to read his sermons. If you could have one Baptist preacher come and preach your protracted meeting, or preach the dedication of your new church building, or preach the charge to your new pastor who's being ordained, John Broaddus was the guy who you wanted. He was the most famous Baptist preacher in America. It was a testimony to his preaching skills that he was invited to give the famous Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School. To this day, the most prestigious preaching lectures in the country, every year, someone's invited to teach the students at Yale Divinity School how to preach. Now, we wouldn't care about any of them in the last 50 years because we wouldn't agree it's good preaching. But it's still considered the most prestigious preaching lectures in the country. John Broaddus is the only Southern Baptist. who's ever been invited to lecture the students at Yale Divinity School on how to preach a sermon. He did that in 1889. So again, widely recognized as the best Baptist preacher, even the guys at Yale Divinity School said, if we have to have a Baptist, John Broaddus is the guy we want teaching our kids how to preach. Our final snapshot is his theology. I have not saved the best for last. I think that all of it's interesting, but I have saved perhaps the most important for last, because a man is only as gifted a preacher and leader as his theology will allow him to be. If he's got bad theology, then he's not really a good preacher or a good leader. He's a faker or a charlatan, or he's accidentally getting it right. But we're going to see that brought us was not a faker. He was not a charlatan. He didn't even accidentally get it right. Undergirding all of brought us his accomplishments was his theology, which would have been very much within the mainstream of 19th century Southern Baptist life. And I'll mention three things. Number one, regarding the doctrine of salvation brought us held to an evangelical Calvinism, similar to the views of people like William Carey, the founder of the modern missions movement in the English speaking world, a lot of moon, the most famous of Southern Baptist missionaries and his contemporary Charles Spurgeon, the most famous Baptist preacher in the world. In fact, the most famous preacher in the world during his lifetime. brought us what set of Calvinism quote the people who sneer at what is called Calvinism might as well sneer at Mont Blanc. We are not in the least bound to defend all of Calvin's opinions or actions, but I do not see how anyone who really understands the Greek of the Apostle Paul or the Latin of Calvin and Turretin can fail to see that these latter did but interpret and formulate substantially what the former teaches in quote. But for Broadus, don't want to make some of you nervous. Calvinism did not mean a lack of concern for the salvation of the lost. His second emphasis was a commitment to evangelism and missions. Again, this is what Broadus had to say, quote. Now, I say that whatever be true for or against the apostles doctrines of predestination and divine sovereignty and salvation, it is not true that they will make a man careless as to his own salvation or that of others in quote. If I can use a phrase that was popular a generation ago, but I think most of you, if not all of you will understand what I mean. John Broadus was theologically minded, but he was a soul winner. He cared about seeing lost men and women come to faith in Christ. He pled, pleaded, pled. That's not a word. See, I didn't graduate from UVA or I wouldn't have said that. He pleaded with men and women to turn from their sins and come to faith in Jesus Christ. He remained a lifelong advocate of the doctrines of grace, but also an evangelistic pastor. and a staunch advocate of foreign missions. Again, the man who first mentored Lottie Moon, a man who raised money for our foreign and home mission boards, a man who believed that it was not contradictory to believe that God had chosen the people for himself and that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. I don't know what your convictions are, but I think that sounds a lot like the New Testament. Number three, regarding the doctrine of the church brought us was a committed Baptist who held to historic Baptist distinctives like a regenerate church membership, the idea that only those who give evidence that they've been born again should be a member of a church believers, baptism by immersion, the most common thing we think of after fried chicken, congregational church polity, the idea that the ultimate authority under the lordship of Jesus Christ is the congregation itself. and religious liberty for all people, the idea that neither state nor pope should tell someone what to believe, but they should be free to follow the leadership of Christ through Holy Scripture. In a short work, excuse me, brought us to believe that Baptist beliefs were nothing more or less than New Testament beliefs and that these beliefs ought to be defended and commended in a short work titled The Duty of Baptists to teach their distinctive views. This is what he said, quote, Baptists insist on holding to the primitive constitution, by which he means biblical government and ceremonies of the Christian societies or churches, and this on the principle of recognizing no religious authority, but the scriptures themselves and of strict observing all that the Savior has commanded. Now, the Savior says in our text that we must teach them to observe all things whatsoever he commanded. These commandment include matters just mentioned concerning which the people who allow themselves to be called Baptists differ widely from large portions of the Christian world and are persuaded that their own views are more scriptural, more in accordance with the Savior's commands. They must therefore feel themselves required to teach these things as well as others. What's he saying? He's saying. There may not be as many Baptists as there are paid a Baptist, but what is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always what's right. We believe the Bible teaches this is what a church ought to look like. And so if we're going to follow the Great Commission, which is not only go there for and baptize, but it is to teach them to observe all things. Part of teaching them to observe all things means speaking the truth about things like baptism and church membership. and the principle of a free church in a free state. John brought us, in my opinion, combined the very best of orthodox doctrine, evangelistic passion and biblical church practice. These things made him the Spurgeon of Charlottesville. They made him the most popular professor in the Southern Baptist Convention and the most popular preacher among Baptists in America. Would that we see a recovery of these same theological emphases among Southern Baptists today? And would that we see the next pastor of Jefferson Baptist Church be a man a lot like Spurgeon in this day and age? Does anybody have any questions or comments about Charles Spurgeon? I mean, Charles Spurgeon, about John, John Broadus or anybody, anything else that that I've mentioned this evening? Yes, ma'am. Well, I remember that because Savannah is in God's country. Absolutely. So flu, Vanna, flu, Vanna. OK, I'll try to remember that. as I'm leaving Charlottesville. Any other questions or comments at all? Maybe perhaps someone who's not going to correct me. Yes. Yeah. That's a fantastic question, and it's complicated, like it was for many people in the South. Broadus owned slaves. He owned as many as, I think, three slaves at one time. He wasn't like a plantation owner, but household servants. He owned as many as, I think, three or four slaves, as few as one at a time. He believed in a gradual emancipation and that that should happen, and in fact took steps to free his own slaves at various times in his adult life. He opposed the Civil War. He and J.P. Boyce both, and they're in South Carolina where it starts, both of them were opposed to secession. They did not think that was a way to address what they believed were genuine grievances. between the North and the South. They didn't think that was the way to address it, but they were also regional patriots, and so once the vote was taken to secede, they both immediately became champions of the cause, and they joined in again as chaplains, and Boyce was actually an aide to one of the Confederate generals in South Carolina. I can't remember who now. So they both became very involved. So he was someone who owned slaves. He did come from Virginia where that was common and where the middling types like him early on aspired to be like the great plantation lords and things like that. But as he grew older, he did move away from that position gradually, though it's not like he would have been preaching against it, but definitely he was taking steps in his life. Not at all unlike, frankly, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, who we see taking similar, if I can use this phrase, sort of baby steps. at the end of their life, certainly not to denounce slavery, but to try and show that they were not entirely comfortable with what slavery at least had become in the South. That's a very good question. J.P. Boyce was assigned. J.P. Boyce came from the richest family in Charleston. He owned many slaves. So, other questions? Or comments? Well, I have thoroughly enjoyed being here with you for the last couple of weeks. And please know that me and my family are praying for you and trust that the Lord has good purposes for you in these coming days and that he works all things for good for those who love him and are called according to his purposes. So let's close with a word of prayer. Father, we are so very grateful for your past grace. We're thankful for past grace with heroes of the faith like John brought us. We're thankful for past grace in the almost 60 year history of this church, 50 year history of this church. Lord, we're thankful for past grace in the lives of all of us as you have drawn us to yourself. You've adopted us into your family. Lord, we're thankful for this. Father, we are. We are thankful for present grace. We're thankful for the way that you're working in each of us now, Lord, and I'm thankful for the way that I see you working in this congregation, even the last two weeks. And I have met so many people, Lord, who love you and who are seeking your face and seeking your will for their lives and for this church. And Lord, we are hopeful and thankful in advance for future grace. knowing Lord that you will complete the work that you've begun in the people called Jefferson Park Baptist Church and that there is a man out there whether known or unknown who will be the pastor of this church Lord and we pray even for him now and that up until this time you have been preparing him to be the pastor of this church and Lord I pray that you would prepare this people for him and And father, we pray quite literally that it would be a match made in heaven and that you would be working in his life and through this people to turn Charlottesville and the uttermost parts of the earth upside down for the sake of the gospel. Lord, I pray that you would continue to show much grace to this congregation. and give them great wisdom and godliness in the days ahead. I pray these things in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you very much.