Spurgeon of Africa on "Love That Cannot Cease"

Mbewe, The Spurgeon of Africa

We had the delightful experience of hearing Pastor Conrad Mbewe of Zambia, "The Spurgeon of Africa," preach yesterday afternoon at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, Enumclaw, WA. His text was from Romans 5:1-11, particularly on rejoicing in the love of Jesus as the engine of Christian living. He has a rich, resonate East African English voice, full of passion and delight in the gospel. Gillian (6) commented later, "Pastor Mbewe (pronounced Mbay-way) is so clear. I like it that he wants to make what he's saying clear to us."

As a lover of hymns (I don't really love hymns; I love the Savior they adorn), I was moved by how naturally he moved into hymn texts that illustrate the point he was making from the biblical text. He chided us for getting bored with the things of God and the doctrines of grace. "Meditate often on Jesus Christ," he urged us, and be often alone with him, rejoicing in his steadfast love and grace in the gospel. He rebuked us for thinking that the Christian life is a life of formal obligatory obedience; it is a life of rejoicing in the doctrines of grace, in loving Jesus back who first loved us. Listen to his sermon here.

At  one point in h is message, becoming particularly passionate, he broke into lines from George W. Robinson's (1876) hymn:

Loved with everlasting love, led by grace that love to know;
Gracious Spirit from above, Thou hast taught me it is so!
O this full and perfect peace! O this transport all divine!
In a love which cannot cease, I am His, and He is mine.


Heav’n above is softer blue, Earth around is sweeter green!
Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen;
Birds with gladder songs o’erflow, flowers with deeper beauties shine,
Since I know, as now I know, I am His, and He is mine.

Things that once were wild alarms cannot now disturb my rest;
Closed in everlasting arms, pillowed on the loving breast.
O to lie forever here, doubt and care and self resign,
While He whispers in my ear, I am His, and He is mine.


His forever, only His; Who the Lord and me shall part?
Ah, with what a rest of bliss Christ can fill the loving heart!
Heav’n and earth may fade and flee, firstborn light in gloom decline;
But while God and I shall be, I am His, and He is mine.

I just joined his blog and encourage anyone who cares about the gospel and about its spread in Africa to check it out http://www.conradmbewe.com/