From the Heart of Spurgeon: Recent Episodes
Jeremy Walker
We are on a journey to work through the sermons of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, reading one per day.
Join our conversation as we discuss the sermons, week by week, to see the truth he preached about Jesus Christ and Him crucified come from Spurgeon's heart to ours.
This is Spurgeon at his most heartfelt, delighting in grace and urging to holiness. Taking quite a substantial text, and holding fast to its substance and arrangement, he brings us face to face first of all with what we are by nature, what we once were in the evils of our minds, our pursuits, and our hearts. Here he urges us to tears of repentance as he ploughs up our souls. Then he considers what the Lord has done for us, ranging over the wonderful declarations of grace contained in the text, and stirring us up to grateful joy, considering not least the merciful works of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit toward us. Then he brings us to the practical punch, that we should be careful to maintain good works. Here he robustly dismisses any suggestion that this is mere legalistic preaching, making clear that to the unbeliever he calls not to good works, but to Christ only. The exhortation to live as a cheerful servant goes not to the slave but to the son, to those who have been redeemed by grace. Inaction here, careless or passive living, brings dishonour to the Lord who has saved us, and so we must embrace this “faithful saying,” and show by our good fruit the sweetness of our new root.
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Throughout this sermon, Spurgeon complains that he is falling short of the subject which he has taken. I think other preachers, reading and responding to what he says, might long for such a failure as this! The text itself is a casket of pearls, and Spurgeon, after giving us a survey of them, urges us to ponder them more carefully for ourselves: “Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all my heart and with all my soul.” Having considered some of what that means, perhaps the high point of the sermon then comes as Spurgeon considers the fact that this whole-hearted, whole-souled demonstration of practical love comes from the triune God, and is manifest in all the dealings of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Those paragraphs are worth soaking in! Finally, he offers consolation and exhortation to the people of God, as we consider God’s heart toward us and examine our own hearts toward him. The whole closes with a heartfelt plea from the preacher for those who do not yet know God’s love in this way to come to him and receive all that is held out. I would urge you to read the whole sermon. I am persuaded it will do much good to our souls.
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Spurgeon turns us to the field of the lazy man, the vineyard of the sluggard, to learn lessons for our souls and for our lives. While I suppose the sermon could have descended into mere moralism, Spurgeon keeps it from doing so by connecting the life we live to the state of our souls, and by constantly drawing parallels between our attitude to our lives and our attitude to our spiritual well-being. Emphatic about not just the fruitlessness of the natural heart, but about its proper tendency to abound in things vile and pestilential, he urges us to use every proper means to root out what is ugly and to cultivate what is beautiful in God’s eyes. He pleads with us to look to our own fields—our own hearts, the homes over which we are called to govern and in which we serve, the congregations for which we care and the classes which we teach, the towns and cities where we dwell, and the world in which we live. Good intentions produce nothing—the sluggard only wants a little more sleep, a few more minutes in bed, and he will make everything good…but he never quite gets up and gets round to anything. So Spurgeon calls us not to vague assertions of action to come, but of immediate practical engagement, for the sake of our own souls, and the souls of all those around us.
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1 John 5:13 reveals the purpose for which the apostle wrote his first letter: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” Again emphasising that the Scriptures are written by the Holy Ghost for our profit, and to be received as such, Spurgeon then gets closer to his text. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, John has written with a particular purpose, and this is a purpose which we ought to pursue. The bulk of the sermon is given over the first heading, as the same Spirit who gave the Word carries along its preacher, exploring the assurance of the believer in connection with the faith which is in the believer’s heart. This being thoroughly established, Spurgeon also insists that we ought to follow up on John’s purpose. If the apostle so wrote, we ought not to neglect what he has said, and the direction he has given, but rather to rejoice in the prospect and engage in the pursuit of this assurance. It is a rich sermon, doctrinally careful and experimentally full, with a practical edge.
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There are a number of sermons which touch on this topic, or deal with it directly, during this season of Spurgeon’s ministry. It is not a change of emphasis so much as a change of tone. He often, throughout his ministry, celebrates the reliability and clarity of the Word of the Lord. In the background here, though, is the Downgrade Controversy, the increasing theological liberalisation of Christianity, revealing where real faith and mere nominalism divide. That context means that some of Spurgeon’s sermons, while remaining essentially pastoral, also become more polemical. Some take on an edge, as this one does, as the preacher considers what it means that “the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” This is our warrant for teaching scriptural truth; this is the claim of God’s Word upon your attention; this gives to the Word of God its distinct character; this makes the truth of Scripture a ground of great alarm to many; and, this makes the Word of God the reason and the rest of our faith. While there is conviction to establish and comfort the child of God, so there is a persistent resistance to and assault upon the errors that were becoming current, and sadly remain so, undermining the confidence that we may and must have in the Scriptures as the breathed-out and written-down Word of God.
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A thoroughly experimental sermon, in which Spurgeon takes Job as something of a template for all believers, suggesting that Job was favoured (as others may sometimes be) with particularly vivid impressions of God, some striking sense of his majesty and the glory of his perfections. Such views of the Lord truly make an impression upon us, bringing us low in ourselves. This is no generic sense of lowness, according to Spurgeon, but rather a profound consciousness of sin, which in turn leads to a heartfelt repentance, which our preacher unpacks in some detail. Here, particularly, Spurgeon brings the truth of God’s Word close to home, pressing it into your hearts, and asking how we hope to deal with God if such a man as Job was so profoundly humbled by this glimpse of his glory. Of course, his answer lies in the righteousness of Christ alone, by whom only we can stand accepted before God, our sins put away and a righteousness established for us in which God himself delights. Incidentally, it might be worth a glance at the texts read before Scripture noted, as usual, at the end of this sermon. Usually, it would be a chapter, or a portion of one. On this occasion, it is the bulk of two chapters, with a selection from two others. If nothing else, this reminds us that Spurgeon is conscious of the broader context of the texts which he preaches, and seeks to situate each sermon within the broad sweep of Scripture, the book in question, and the immediate scope of the text itself.
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This sermon is numerically significant on several levels. It is the two thousandth sermon, the last sermon of Volume XXXIII in the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, and a sermon prepared to be read on the first day of the year of 1888. As so often with these ‘major marker’ sermons (ones that break through particular numerical boundaries), and all the more so when those markers are loaded up like this, Spurgeon deliberately returns to the very core of his ministry and the delight of his own soul—the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. The sermon is itself is of the utmost simplicity, as Spurgeon seeks to come to the text, and to come at the congregation. He shows how, in the verse in question, God treats sin as a disease and provides a cure for that disease in the stripes of the Lord Christ, a disease which is immediately and completely effective wherever it is applied. In truth, Spurgeon never strays very far from this theme, but an occasion like this makes it all the more imperative for him to state once more the touchstone of his ministry.
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This briefer sermon is ‘intended for reading’, which usually indicates a sick man writing or editing a previous address for distribution. Brevity here does not undermine simplicity, clarity, or pungency! The text is short: “My son, give me your heart.” The sermon is straightforward, looking at the love which lies behind the request for wisdom, then at the wisdom which guides the loving request, and then a pressing application to be wise by attending to this wise admonition. Here the more practical elements of the sermon come to the fore, although—as we often see with Spurgeon—he usually sows fruitful seeds of thought along the way, quite apart from any more formal element of application. The last paragraph confirms our earlier expectations as well as informing our understanding: the sermon is an ‘occasional address’ (delivered on a specific occasion), in this case an appeal for funds for hospitals (when such were typically privately and charitably supported). Now we know not only when the address came, but we appreciate more fully why Spurgeon has been pressing for the heart—because once our heavenly Father has our heart, he has our hands, too, in cheerful dispensation of our good things. In addition, the final appeal is pleasingly quirky—before the plate is being passed round for the collection of money, Spurgeon passes around his own invisible plate, for the collection of hearts.
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By October of 1887 the Downgrade Controversy—the battle against doctrinal decay in the professing church of Christ—was in full swing. Letters had appeared in The Sword and the Trowel over the previous months, and Spurgeon himself had entered the fray through August and into September. The sermon which we consider today is clearly the fruit of that conflict, with Spurgeon feeling “as if the text had been newly written for the present occasion, for it is in every syllable most suitable to the immediate crisis.” That text is Zephaniah 3:16–18, where the Lord calls his people to faithful labour and promises his saving and succouring mercies to them. Spurgeon handles the text by looking at the present trials of God’s people, the glorious consolation which they have in the midst of those trials, and the brave conduct which ought to characterise them in the face of those trials. Many of us see the unhappy inheritance of the theological liberalism which took root at the end of the nineteenth century. While we may not be of the generation which saw the downgrade, we can—if we continue to heed Spurgeon’s call to arms—be a generation which seeks to recover some of the lost ground.
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It is by no means deliberate that the last few sermons have not had the ‘classic’ Spurgeon three point structure, but I hope that it at least undermines the weary assertion that this preacher ‘invariably’ has three points. This sermon has an interesting balance, because it has two main divisions but is still divided into thirds. The sermon finds us on the Emmaus road, with two disciples who are thinking foolishly, “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” Spurgeon is blunt and forceful in dealing with this matter. Speaking first to the true believer, he asserts, first, that unbelief is folly, and, second, that unbelief arises from slowness of heart. The preacher simply explores those two assertions arising from the text, analysing and anatomising our dull hearts. He closes that portion of the sermon with an encouragement—that slowness of heart is not the same as hardness of heart, and that those who weary of their doubts should abandon them for the faith that not only saves but also secures. Then, with that element of the sermon concluded, Spurgeon asks his believing congregation to pray as he speaks directly to the unconverted. The last third of the sermon is a sustained plea to those who do not yet believe, seeking to expose and to correct the folly and dullness that grips such hearts, concluding with warnings and pleadings. The sermon is striking in its directness and in the arrangement which serves as a vehicle for that direct address, looking first the doubting believer and then the unbeliever in the eye with affection and concern, and speaking to the soul.
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“All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.” So writes the man of God in Psalm 25:10, and so preaches the servant of God in this sermon. In another simply structured sermon—remember, Spurgeon deliberately seeks to avoid complexity—he first paints the portrait of the covenanter, the man who keeps the covenant and testimonies of the Lord. As you might imagine, the preacher takes the opportunity to portray a truly Christian man, one thoroughly persuaded of his own sin and misery, but equally delighted with the provision God has made in Christ Jesus for sinners, and so committed to the Saviour and to the way of the righteous. But the man is no static saint: he walks that road, and find it to be paved with mercy and truth, not so much on his account, but on the Lord’s. Spurgeon emphasises that this is the way by which the Lord draws near to the covenanting man, and these are the blessings which he showers upon him. Thus the experience described is less that of the covenanter seeking the Lord, and more the Lord favouring the covenanter. So the preacher both encourages the saint to keep God’s covenant and testimonies, and challenges the sinner as to the misery and emptiness of life without God.
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The simple structure of this two-pronged sermon by no means provides for any shallowness. The bulk of the address is given over to a careful consideration of God's thoughts toward us, thoughtfully mined from the text. In this respect, it is a masterpiece of exegetical clarity, simply considering the implications of the specific words of Scripture, allowing the phrases to have their full weight, and working out not only their obvious meanings but also their more subtle suggestions. The second element of the sermon considers our attitude toward God in the light of his thoughts toward us, and here the tone is more applicatory, wisely suggesting how divine truth calls forth an appropriate response. There are no real verbal fireworks, no sustained flights of soaring rhetoric. Rather, we have sweet and solid gospel logic that carries us smoothly and forcefully toward the ultimate purposes that God in his mercy has for his beloved people.
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The apostle Paul had a holy dread of the Philippians sliding away from the faith of Jesus Christ. Spurgeon says he does not doubt the victory, but neither would he have it lost. Being “in the Lord,” these believers are in their right place, and Spurgeon explains what that means for the Philippians and for others who have entrusted themselves to Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they need to keep their right place. If they are in the Lord, then that is where they need to “stand fast,” in faith, in life, in experience, in holiness, without wearying or warping or wandering. But it is all very well to exhort a saint to stand fast—how is he or she to do so? What motives enable and sustain such endurance in the faith? Spurgeon often challenges us in the light of particular encouragements, or encourages us in the light of particular challenges: here he does the latter, reminding us of our citizenship in heaven, our expectation of Christ’s return and our transformation, and the resources at our disposal in this pilgrimage. So, with our eyes firmly fixed on Christ and the fulness that is in him, we press toward the prize, holding firmly to Christ and his truth, standing fast in the Lord.
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After a brief survey of the ways in which Psalm has been a blessing to true believers through the century, Spurgeon tells us how he intends to use it—to speak on the confidence of the saints, on the courage with grows from that confidence, and the way in which that courage will be tested. Each of those three points hangs upon an element of his text. However, in the background of the whole sermon hangs the fact of the Ligurian earthquake, with an associated tsunami, which struck northern Italy and the French Riviera (including Spurgeon’s beloved Mentone) a few days earlier. It was a significant enough event to mean that the thought of the shaking earth and the roaring seas would have been close to the minds of the preacher’s congregation, increasing their interest and the impact of the truth on their souls. It is, then, not only a fine example of a sermon well-grounded in a text, but also of a sermon which takes account of current events, and uses them to draw the attention of the hearers to eternal truths.
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From time to time Spurgeon preaches a sermon from multiple texts. Some of these are by way of development, some by way of contrast, some by way of confirmation and reiteration. This sermon belongs to that last category. The same phrase occurs in each text: “Lay hold on eternal life.” Emphasising first the vital important of knowing and obtaining this life, and therefore the need for every man to lay hold upon it, the preacher then begins to plead and enforce the exhortation. We are to believe in it as it is presented in the Scriptures and impressed upon us by the Holy Spirit—it must be more than an idea to us. We must possess it, laying hold of it by putting our faith in Jesus Christ and working it out in all our actions. We must watch over it, for it is too easily shrivelled and undermined. We need to fulfil it, living here as those who have this life everlasting in our souls, with its realities conditioning our use of our time and strength. Then, we need to expect it—we must eagerly anticipate it as something that we enter fully before very long. How much do we consider eternal life? Perhaps even as Christians it tends to fade into the background. Spurgeon rescues it from neglect, and sets it before our eyes, front and centre, and very much within present grasp.
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The text is Genesis 32:12, part of Jacob’s prayer to the Lord his God: “For you said, ‘I will surely treat you well…” In Spurgeon’s translation, it is, “I will surely do thee good.” After something of a meditation on Jacob’s privilege, and ours, of having the living God as our God, Spurgeon emphasises the further blessing of being able to come before him in prayer. This leads him into a sermon about praying, the kind of sermon to which he often returns, pressing home not only the wonder but the necessity of calling upon the Lord. Here Jacob’s prayer becomes first our memorial, for we need to remember what the Lord has said, studying out the distinctive elements of his particular promises to us. We ought to consider this prayer next as God’s bond—his promise holding him fast to a particular course of action. Everything that is in God secures the assured outcome. And so this ought to be our plea in prayer also: “You said!” What a childlike plea! How earnest and how expectant! Here is a way to plead which will bring the pledged result to everyone who comes with faith to the God who has promised blessing to those who call upon him. And so we still learn, from Jacob, how to pray.
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Spurgeon’s gospel logic is uncomplicated, in principle and in practice, and it shows here. Our Lord says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” It is clear from this sermon that the straightforwardness of this statement was as objectionable then as now, and caused as many problems. Beginning with a stimulating survey of all the ‘ifs’ in the chapter, the preacher then settles on this simple statement as a very serious ‘if’, having to do with the very question of love in the heart of a man, the presence or absence of faith’s affectionate attachment to Christ as Lord and Saviour. Spurgeon next makes clear that the test of love is judiciously chosen: obedience as a demonstration of love cuts through so much fluff and stuff, and gets to the core of things. Spurgeon explains the wisdom of this test, and why it is such an appropriate and clear indication of whether or not there is love to the Lord in the heart. Running out of time, he gives us just a couple of lines to assure us that love will endure this test, before closing with a brief series of potent applications, exhorting the saints to discover and hold to the commandments of Christ as they come to bear upon us, and challenging unbelievers to face the fearful consequences of declaring that they do not have any love to Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners.
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Here is another probing sermon, profitable even when painful. Here is the Christ walking among the Ephesian church in Revelation 2, first of all perceiving their hearts and lives and concluding that while he knows their works he still has something against them. The Lord therefore issues a prescription, to remember from where they have fallen, and to repent. This leads to our Lord’s persuasion, in which he issues both a threatening warning and a sweet promise. You can see that the intention is not at all to crush, but there is still a challenge to our souls in the first heading, as we are forced to face the possibility of declining love for Christ in our hearts. The prescription comes to us clearly and helpfully, in three yoked commands: remember, repent, and return. Again, this is not difficult to understand, but it is not necessarily easy to obey. Finally, Spurgeon presses in some motives with our Lord’s persuasives, his warning and his promising, both designed to put us back in the way of love. To decline in love to Christ is the Christian’s wasting disease; to grow in love for Christ is the Christian’s foretaste of glory. So we are obliged to look into our own hearts, not in hopeless despair, but in order that we might, at Christ’s direction and invitation, address any drifting away from him whom our souls love.
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I doubt that anyone who reads Spurgeon with any consistency and seriousness thinks of him as a soft preacher. Some may have a notion of him as some genial Victorian pulpiteer, but a few sermons will quickly dispel the image, and reveal a man whose compassion is matched with his conviction, whose kindness is rivalled only by his courage. The result is sermons which bite and sting, and sometimes constitute a sustained assault upon the Christian conscience. This sermon is one such, a penetrating study of Numbers 32:23 and the suggestion that Gad and Reuben might have held back when the time came to conquer the Promised Land. Spurgeon transfers the principle to those professing believers who do not go up to spiritual war with their brothers, who sinned against their brothers and their Lord by the great sin of doing nothing. Spurgeon holds nothing back in pressing this principle into the conscience of his hearers, and our own, by extension. This, he makes clear, is a sin that will find us out. There is, of course, a danger that sermons like this will trouble the feeble and stir up a false guilt, but there is an equal need for sermons which fearlessly probe both our motives and our intentions, and call us to consider whether or not we are serving God and his people as we could and as we should.
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“These are days of great looseness; everywhere I see great laxity of doctrinal belief, and gross carelessness in religious practice. Christian people are doing to-day what their forefathers would have loathed. Multitudes of professors are but very little different from worldlings. Men’s religion seems to hang loosely about them, as if it did not fit them: the wonder is that it does not drop off from them. Men are so little braced up as to conscientious conviction and vigorous resolve, that they easily go to pieces if assailed by error or temptation. The teaching necessary for to-day is this: ‘Gird up the loins of your mind,’ brace yourselves up; pull yourselves together; be firm, compact, consistent, determined. Do not be like quicksilver, which keeps on dissolving and running into fractions; do not fritter away life upon trifles, but live to purpose, with undivided heart, and decided resolution.” So Spurgeon describes the reason for preaching this sermon, and what more can we say by way of introduction? It expresses the preacher’s profound concern and earnest plea. The sermon develops as the sustained exhortation of a pastor confident that the motives which the gospel supplies will be sufficient to establish and encourage the people of God in a lukewarm and watery age.
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Repeatedly, insistently, joyfully, earnestly, Spurgeon pounds away on the same drum: “Rejoice evermore!” His introduction is unusually long, situating, explaining, illustrating, and enforcing the command of the text. Only then does he come to the quality of the joy which a Christian is commanded to feel and express. He moves on to the object of this joy, considering God and his covenant as causes of joy, and encouraging us to stir up joy by holy exercise. Then he gives us more reasons for rejoicing—that it wards off temptation, shuts out worldly mirth, encourages saints, and attracts sinners. In a sense, the sermon is worth reading for the spontaneous outflow of thought and encouragement contained in (or bursting out of!) the introduction. One almost wonders if Spurgeon suddenly took a breath, and realised half his time had gone before he had even begun his first point! With marvellous sermonic control, not rattling things off, but with a kind of condensed fervour, he covers his ground tersely and intensely, pressing home flashes of insight and exhortation. It is a wonderful theme, well-handled both in terms of its matter and its manner.
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Racing through his text, throwing light upon it from various angles, Spurgeon gives us a sermon full of hope, because full of Christ. He begins by showing us that the gospel of faith is evidently a gospel for those who are lost. Then we are reminded that this gospel has to do with Christ Jesus, and him only. The faith which saves makes a particular confession about this Christ. This faith in Christ brings with it a great comfort to enjoy. Faith also has a sure promise to rest upon. There is a rising intensity through this sermon, as Christ comes more and more into view as the object of faith, and the preacher pleads with his congregation to get to grips with Christ as confessing believers and believing confessors. The risen Christ is the only hope of every sinner: “This is the ship which has carried thousands to heaven. We who go on board shall get to heaven by it. If it could go down, we should all sink together; but as it floats safely, we will all sail together to the Fair Havens. There is no second vessel on this line; and there is no other line. This one chartered barque of salvation by a confessing faith now lies at the quay. Come on board! Come on board at once! God help you to come on board at this very moment, for Jesus Christ’s sake!”
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A simple division and a thorough exposition form the bedrock of a sermon urging the saints to pray. Rising from Paul’s plea to the Romans at the end of the fifteenth chapter of that letter, Spurgeon emphasises the need even of an apostle for the intercessions of the saints, highlighting the demands and dangers that he faced, and underlining the humility shown in seeking such help. The bulk of the sermon is then given over to a step-by-step exposition of the prayer requested, Spurgeon breaking down the petition phrase-by-phrase. It is a simple but effective approach, and Spurgeon’s persistent pressing home of its practical lessons prevents it becoming a shallow slide across the surface of the text. The preacher addresses both the general desires and the specific details of the apostle as he asks the saints to engage with him in prayer. Then, briefly but pointedly, he turns to the blessing given in answer to the prayer, urging his hearers to seek the same mercies for the same reasons. As he closes, he brings his applications close to the congregation, reminding them that they too face demands and dangers similar to those of the apostle, and must have the same response: to go to the God of peace to obtain the help that he alone is able to give.
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In this brief address, Spurgeon acknowledges that his text—“Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God”—fits best those who are already saved. However, appreciating that it involves a little straining, he still wants to apply it also to those who are not yet converted. The exhortation as a whole gives us a lively sense of Spurgeon’s appetite for the Lord God, and his appetite for others to have such an appetite. There is a concentration and consecration of all the faculties on the glorious person and personal glory of the God of heaven, a present desire to draw near to him and to enjoy him. Spurgeon more or less runs through the same trajectory for each of the two basic classes of people in his sights as he preaches, pressing upon us all the immediate necessity and blessed prospect of drawing near to God.
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This is another simple sermon in two parts. Whereas the previous sermon offered a stark contrast between the wages of sin and the gift of life, this provides a sequence. After an introduction in which Spurgeon suggests a difference between happiness and blessedness (the former being a good thing, but essentially being of this world, while the latter has a heavenly quality about it), he exposes the world’s suggestions of where blessedness—true and lasting happiness—can be found. Then he turns us to the somewhat surprising text of James 1:12 to look at blessedness in this life and in the life to come. Yes, there are heavenly joys even now for the man who endures temptation—the man who, out of love to God, holds fast in the storm, and whose faith and hope and love are demonstrated to be real and true. And then there are joys to come, the crown of life which the Lord bestows upon those who do not turn away or fall away. Sustained and strengthened by his grace in Christ Jesus for every good work, their heavenly reward shall only make their appreciation of God’s favour all the richer and riper. Spurgeon gets happily expansive, almost carried away, as he considers the blessedness of the blessed in the glory to come, urging all to make sure that they enjoy this crown, awaking in the likeness of Jesus Christ, our resurrected Lord and King.
Podcast 273: A Discourse upon True Blessedness Here and Hereafter (S1874) Jas 1:12
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Spurgeon is not a mindless preacher, stuck in a rut of structure, though he is always recognisably himself in style. Here he begins with a brief introduction, before launching into a study in contrast between the wages of sin, which is death, and the gift of God which is everlasting life in Jesus Christ our Lord. In each case (particularly the first) he goes beyond a scant understanding of the words, and begins to dig out their sense, and press home their substance, and plead in the light of what he has to say. The first part of the sermon is a pressing development of the misery of sin and its consequences, manifestly weighing down the very heart of the preacher as he speaks. In the second half he moves into light and joy, setting forth the wonders of redeeming grace in Christ, and the free favour of God. He closes with applications for the believer, pressing home what it means to receive this life and to live as those who live indeed, but also encouraging every child of God to believe in the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, the same power by which Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. By the grace of God, the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ will yet secure life for those who are dead in ins, to the praise of his glory. It is a simple structure, and a striking sermon, and it should leave us feeling the horrible weight of sin and its awful wages, the wonder of God’s grace in Christ, bestowing life on the hell-deserving.
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Here is Spurgeon at the heart of his ministerial and pastoral calling: glorying in the cross of a crucified Christ. Here is the essential power of all his preaching, and here is the delight of his own soul. Unpacking the sermon methodically, and finding his time running out as he expands upon this theme, Spurgeon begins with the cross itself, and what the apostle meant when he thought of it and spoke of it. He had in mind the fact of the cross, the bare reality of the incarnate Son of God dying for sinners. He had in mind the doctrine of the cross, and all it means, and the cross of the doctrine, the very centre and core of true Christianity. And why did Paul glory in this? Spurgeon ranges across the attributes of God, highlighting the ways in which God is manifested and magnified in the salvation accomplished in the death of his beloved Son, as well as speaking of the particular delights and comforts and stirrings which it brings to those who glory in it. And then, says our preacher, Paul had felt all its impact on his own soul and on his own life. The world had been emptied of all its attraction, all its enticements, all its glories, by the glory of the cross. Oh that the glory of the cross would have the same impact on us today, that the death of Christ would slay in us both self and the world, and so hold our hearts that no-one and nothing else would ever draw us, but that Christ in all the matchless mercy of his atoning sacrifice would be and remain our all-in-all.
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This sermon sounds a note of concern. The Second Letter to Timothy has a consistent awareness of certain threats to the gospel and its ministers, a series of troublesome individuals who assault the truth of Christ and oppose the servants of Christ. Nevertheless, Paul’s “gracious anxiety” does not disturb “the serenity of his faith.” He remains confident that the foundation will stand, because of the seal of God upon his people. With this in mind, Spurgeon first explores the way in which false teachers were overthrowing the faith of some, with warnings for God’s people in every age. He then considers the abiding foundation of God, the purpose, truth, and work of the Almighty, which are not shifted. Finally, he turns to the seal on the foundation stone, the mark which gives us confidence, of divine election with divine sanctification. We are at least as well-stocked today with false teachers as Paul in his day, and Spurgeon in Victorian London. It is therefore appropriate for us to maintain a gracious anxiety for the sake of Christ and his church, but also a serene faith, confident that the purpose of God shall come to pass, the truth of God shall endure, and the work of God shall proceed.
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A simple sermon, and yet one that hits home. The texts is James 1:21–22, and Spurgeon does little more than run through the text, taking each portion as an instruction as to how we prepare for a sermon, engage with a sermon, and respond to a sermon. But to say that he runs through the text is not to suggest that he just rehearses its words. Rather, the point of hearing is doing, a real heeding of God’s word. Spurgeon therefore asks first what are those filthinesses and wickednesses which unfit our souls for listening to the preacher. Further what does it mean to receive the engrafted word with meekness? How does a creature listen to the holy speech of his Creator so as to profit by it? Finally, what do we do afterward? Does the Scripture simply drift away from us, or do we set out to put it into practice, to the honour of God and to the blessing of others? Too often, the people of God undo all the effort of the preacher of his truth and trample on the very word itself. So, let us be hearers, yes, but doers also, and so honour the God who speaks in the Scriptures, and prove ourselves his true children.
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Sometimes people ask a hard question: “Has God forgotten to be gracious?” It is not hard to answer, in one sense, but it shows a certain hardness in their soul to suggest that the unchanging God of grace has somehow altered in himself or ceased to be himself. So Spurgeon demands that we give that question all its weight, drag it into the light, and interrogate the question. By the end of the sermon, the question has become less a challenge to God and more a rebuke to ourselves. Spurgeon puts the question first of all in the mouth of a child of God who is cast down. Then he suggests that it might be found on the lips of a seeking sinner. Finally, and briefly, he wonders how it would play in the heart of a dispirited gospel worker. In each case, he forces us to follow the logic of our own doubts, often showing a merciful lack of mercy in pressing the case toward its ugly conclusion, before turning the question back upon us to expose our unbelief and present God to us in all his unchanging faithfulness and abundant grace. It is not easy to be dealt with so robustly, but Spurgeon evidently believes that there is some value in his rigorous dealings with souls. If we have been tempted to cover up our wounds of unbelief with the plaster of high-sounding words, Spurgeon is going to rip off the plaster and instead apply some astringent medicine to our souls—painful, perhaps, but profitable indeed.
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Elijah’s plea was simple: “Let it be known that I have done all these things at your word.” Spurgeon turns it in two directions. First, to obedient saints it is a firm ground for prayer. He considers the labouring minister, a whole church, an individual Christian, and—departing slightly from his main heading—he asks how it would be used by a seeking sinner. Second, to those who cannot say that they have acted according to God’s word, it is a solemn matter for question, a means of self-examination. As he sometimes does, he puts the question to the same categories as under his first heading from the different angle: to the worker he asks about our preaching and our living; to the church, he asks about our motives and our holiness; to Christian people, he inquires about arrogance and hypocrisy. He gives more time here again to the seeking sinner, with a couple of hints to those who may be converted, urging them to embrace the will of God in those things which lead to peace. Spurgeon shows us here how to preach a sermon on two levels to a mixed congregation, blending both comforts and challenges to various kinds of hearers. The result is a striking call to humble obedience, applied across the board.
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Our Lord Jesus, insists Spurgeon, was not only a man of sorrows, but a man of joys. He knew joys in his humiliation, and he knows joys in his exaltation. He has distinct gladness as the Mediator. Bubbling over with delight, Spurgeon spreads himself in his introduction, delighting to think of the delight which characterises our Lord in glory. Only then does he turn, with particular concentration, to the substance of his sermon, packing in truth because he has less time than otherwise, condensing his study of the distinctive privilege and character of the saints’ joy, drawn from their entering into Christ’s joy. He holds fast to his text, before expanding upon it in the last few moments of his sermon, as—soaked with Scripture, and with a poetry born of piety—he considers the channels through which the blessings of God flow to us, and then soars into a concluding exhortation to God’s people to enter into the joy which the Lord has secured for us. It is a truly happy sermon, and it breeds the kind of happiness which this world cannot offer, but which is received and enjoyed by all who know Christ Jesus as their God and Saviour, and the Almighty as their Father, through him.
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What may seem to be a slightly twee title contains a very sweet truth: “My God will hear me.” With such a brief phrase, Spurgeon simply unpacks it, weaving together doctrine, experience, and practice. Here is a title to relish, “my God,” with all it means. Then there is an argument to grasp, that because he is God and my God, he will hear me. Then there is the favour involved, that all-hearing, sympathetic, wise, and righteous ear which is open to our cry, to enter into our experience. And do not forget, says Spurgeon, the person who is heard. Here he pleads not only with the believer who already enjoys this sweet silver bell ringing in his heart, but also the troubled and distressed soul, sin-sick and sorrowing, who has come to desire God as Saviour. The God of heaven, kind and gracious, will most assuredly hear the one who cries out of the depths. What a joyful thought to take away, and what a great expectation to possess: “My God will hear me!”
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“The Philadelphian church was not great, but it was good; it was not powerful, but it was faithful.” Does that describe the congregation to which you belong? Drawing from Christ’s words to the church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3, Spurgeon identifies the word of praise which Christ offers, the word of prospect, and the word of promise. As ever, the preacher uses this congregation to hold up a mirror in which we may assess our own reflection. Can we receive such praise for our faithfulness in holding to the Word of God? Have we been faithful with what we have received, and so been granted a prospect of further usefulness? And, with all that, can we therefore rest upon the promise, that having kept God’s word, we shall ourselves be kept from temptation? A typical blend of encouragement and challenge, all soaked in the savour of Christ, gives us an opportunity to examine ourselves, to aspire to greater faithfulness and holiness, and to take comfort in the goodness and mercy of our Redeemer.
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There is a splash of sentiment in this selection, because this is another sermon of Spurgeon’s which I remember reading in preparation for preaching. I recall being struck with the preacher’s delight in the Scriptures, with his happy depth of insight, with the experiential substance of the address, with its theological depth and doctrinal precision, and with the practical vigour of the whole. The title of the sermon gives us its two divisions, and—as he often does—Spurgeon walks through the text, drawing out its particular elements, hitting the key notes with brevity and pungency. Instruction, challenge, and encouragement are all readily blended, with the prominent presence of God in Christ the thread which bind things together, the whole evidently preached with a ready dependence on the Holy Spirit. Re-reading this sermon, I found myself wishing that I could come to it with the same freshness as I did the first time I surveyed it, but I trust that I now have a deeper and warmer appreciation for the truths which it contains, and hope that increasing love for the triune God will make that always and increasingly the case.
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There is a particular trick which our Adversary loves to use both to hinder sinners and to disturb saints, and that is to paint the character of God in the darkest possible shades, to twist and pervert the Almighty and All-Merciful God’s revelation of himself. In this sermon, preached from three texts, Spurgeon sets out, in the best sense, to vindicate the character of God. While still insisting upon the utter holiness of the Most High, Spurgeon nevertheless makes most clear the compassion of the Lord, and his willingness to save, and his pleadings with those who are lost in the misery of sin, and his provision for them in Christ Jesus to find life and joy and peace, through forgiveness. He emphasises God’s delight in salvation, not as a mere idea, but as a sweet reality. As you can imagine, the sermon is peppered with strong reasoning and urgent pleading for sinners who may have the wrong idea of God to understand his gracious heart, as he makes himself known in the Word of God, and to come to him that they might not die, but live.
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Preached at Exeter Hall to a congregation which seems to have consisted largely if not exclusively of young men, an extended introduction about the importance of profitable reading gives way to a punchy series of questions. The first, “What is most essential to be understood in this Book?” gives Spurgeon the opportunity to review the gospel in its essence as contained in Isaiah 53. The second, “What is the test of a man’s understanding the Book?” gives the preacher scope to speak of the receptive reader’s delight in Christ and his truth. Thirdly, the question, “What can be done to obtain such a desirable understanding?” allows our preacher to stir up a spiritual appetite in his hearers, and to urge them to use every proper means to grasp the truth as it is in Jesus. Again, the crafting of the sermon is natural and effective, the three questions providing a platform for the preacher not just to proclaim the gospel but to press it home upon his congregation. The final sentences open a precious window into the preacher’s hopeful heart: “When we meet in heaven we shall praise the Lord for making us understand what we read. God bless you all, for Christ’s sake.” What a sweet and happy prospect for us still!
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This week we finally crest the peak of our reading of Spurgeon’s sermons, crossing the halfway line in our reading through the Passmore & Alabaster collection of his preaching. This address, on love as the first fruit of the Spirit, is a fitting marker for the occasion. The sermon bears many of Spurgeon’s hallmarks: richly doctrinal and practical and experimental; full of a lively sense of the Holy Spirit; rising to a Christ-centred crescendo; pleading for the holiness of God’s people and the salvation of the lost; a thorough sense of the text in its context; an inventive and engaging outline; a delight in the grace of our heavenly Father; a lively hope of heaven; a plain call to penetrating self-examination. In one sense there is nothing remarkable about the sermon. In another sense, the fact that this is a further sermon showing a consistent richness of substance and a sustained intensity of spirituality makes it notable not because it stands out but because it is more of the same, and it warms our hearts.
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Here is another sermon in which you detect notes of what today might be called ‘pastoral theology.’ Spurgeon could preach to preachers, certainly, and you see much of that in some collections of lectures and sermons, especially his Lecture to My Students. However, he also wants those who hear the Word of God to have some understanding of what it is to preach the Word of God. So, earlier in this year, you have his sermon on the pastor’s life being wrapped up with the steadfastness of the saints. Here, he opens a window into what is taking place in the man who preaches and to the man to whom he preaches. How does God fit a man to be a minister of the gospel? What does God do in the heart of a converted man? And, what does that converted man have to do, in terms of his own experience of and response to the work of God? Here then you have two divine operations, one upon a preacher, and one upon a hearer, the second developing into its Godward and its manward elements, and yet never merely theoretical, but constantly brought close to the life of those who preach and those who hear.
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This is a deliberately simple sermon. Spurgeon sets out to answer the prayer of the boy who asked, “Lord, grant that our minister may say something to-morrow that I may understand.” Some might not have turned to Leviticus in order to answer that prayer, but Spurgeon does so in order to “deal with the essence and soul of true religion.” Taking an image that recurs in Leviticus, he speaks here primarily of the attitude of the one who makes the burnt offering, involving confession, acceptance, transference, identification. That vocabulary might not be the simplest, but the explanation of each is plain and pressing, driving at the penal substitutionary atonement (to use a similarly dense phrase!) which lies at the heart of our acceptance with God. Of interest may be the fact that the sermon for the following week (number 1772) he takes the same text and deals with the death of the sacrifice, so that out of one brief verse he unpacks the core of our salvation, as it is accomplished by Christ and the cross and appropriated by the faith of the repenting sinner.
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You might have thought that high doctrine and broad doctrine were contrasts, perhaps one good and the other bad, but in this sermon they are complements, each declaring something wonderful about God’s plan and purpose in salvation. This is something of a throwback, I think, a sermon from the archives, preached at Exeter Hall, probably in the 1850s (published here in 1884). It is a wonderful example of lively, eager, natural evangelistic preaching. Spurgeon loads his sermon with illustrations; his cheerful humour is on full display; his eagerness to make Christ known is unparalleled; his pathos in pleading with sinners is exemplified; his wisdom in addressing doubts and fears is plain. This is the kind of sermon which no preacher should seek merely to mimic, but it is just the kind of ministry to emulate. If we are Christians, let us feel again the sweet force of the gospel, and let it inspire us not only to cling to Christ, but to make him known to others. If we are preachers, let this rebuke us and stimulate us, that we have not so preached and that we should so preach. If you are not yet a believer, then may I urge you to listen to this sermon, to read it all, and to take it to your heart.
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If you are a pastor-preacher, and your heart is where it should be, then this short sermon is likely to resonate with you. However, it may be that, if you are not a pastor, you have rarely or even never thought about the way in which an under-shepherd of Christ’s flock considers the sheep entrusted to his care by the Great Shepherd. This short sermon expresses the deep concern and abiding affection which a true pastor has for the people to whom he preaches and over whom he watches. Spurgeon describes is as the pastor’s life being “wrapped up with his people’s faithfulness.” There is nothing that more grieves him than a departure from the way of truth, there is nothing that more delights him than to see the saints standing fast. He looks at all sides of this experience—those who are not in the Lord at all, those who appear to be in the Lord but are not standing fast, and those who are in the Lord and standing fast, who bring deep joy to an overseer’s heart. This sermon will help you, on the one hand, to consider your own heart; on the other, it might give you a glimpse into the heart of your pastors, and help you to appreciate and to pray for them.
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We have mentioned from time to time the sermonic runs which we find here and there in Spurgeon’s published sermons. This is the end of one such sequence, preached from the second chapter of John’s first letter, and considering the different stages or phases of spiritual maturity. The first sermon on little children was preached on Sunday 18th March; the second on young men was preached on Sunday 8th April. This is the third, concerning the fathers, preached on Sunday 18th November. This brief topical series spanned nine months! On the one hand, it is notable that Spurgeon expected his congregation, in some measure, to keep track of and to remember the previous ministry. On the other, it is helpful to see how carefully and briefly Spurgeon connects each sermon to those preceding it, neither rehearsing the former at extravagant length nor assuming full recall. Each sermon stands largely alone, but benefits from the connection with the others. In each case, Spurgeon more or less walks through the text: here he identifies the people, asks about their distinctive character, and considers the message addressed to them—simple and solid!
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It has become sadly typical to suggest some kind of tension or even opposition between knowing and doing, as if a delight in doctrine somehow chills the soul and cripples the hand, or someone who is earnest and zealous need not or even should not bother themselves with theology. Spurgeon gives the lie to such silliness with this sermon on spiritual knowledge and its practical results. Before he even gets to that specific topic, he is urging us to consider the value of intercessory prayer. Only then does to begin to unpack the value of spiritual knowledge, showing that true knowledge is truly spiritual, and that the saints should desire to be filled with it. Then he comes to the practical results of such knowledge, emphasising that it motivates, transforms, and directs those who possess it. Finally, Spurgeon speaks briefly about the reflex action of knowledge upon holiness, for the holy man is one who increases in knowledge, spurred by appetite and increased in capacity. Thus spiritual knowledge and zealous labour are properly connected, and so we learn better what it means to know and to serve the living and true God.
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Spurgeon is as practical as he is doctrinal and experimental (he often insists on all these being properly represented in public ministry, either within or across sermons). This sermon consists in a great deal of practical pastoral counsel with regard to humility, applying the requirement for humility to our church life, to our behaviour in our afflictions, in our daily dealings with God, and in our seeking forgiveness as sinners (recognising that the last element is more an extrapolation from the text than a explication of it). Perhaps you have read treatments of pride and humility that are clothed in a kind of faux-lowliness. It may well be that Spurgeon struggled with pride (several biographers suggest it was a battle for him) but here he simply goes for the jugular of this sin, putting himself as squarely in the sights of his text as anyone else in the congregation, and preaching with a directness and simplicity that is commendable. Because, as he says, “pride is so natural to fallen man that it springs up in his heart like weeds in a watered garden, or rushes by a flowing brook,” the sermon remains as relevant to me and to you as it did to anyone sitting in the Metropolitan Tabernacle that day in or around 1883. May the sermon do as much good to us as we trust it did to them!
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Because of the manner of his preaching over time, it is not unusual to find Spurgeon creating his own connections, contrasts, and counterpoints. You may find little sermon ‘runs’ as he works through, for example, the stages of Christian maturity in 1 John 2. Sometimes he will say something like, “A few Sabbaths ago we looked at that, but today we must consider this so that we do not lose sight of either.” In this sermon, he is building on a previous sermon, seeking to lift up a particular aspect of truth already addressed and press it home in a particular direction. Is Christ the Beloved of the Father? Then what does it mean for us to accepted in the Beloved Son? Spurgeon suggests that this is more a matter for sweet meditation than for didactic instruction, and so proceeds to unpack his text in a series of thoughts which invariably focus on Christ the Beloved, and what it means for God to receive us for his sake. A note of joyful wonder permeates the sermon, as the preacher—ranging far and wide through Scripture and nature for illumination and illustration—digs ever deeper into the delight of being accepted by the Great Father for the sake of his Beloved Son.
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spurgeon #podcast #fyp #preacher #reformed #Christian #sermon #history #churchhistory #pastor
There is little which excites and delights Spurgeon as much as the preaching of Christ. Christ is not the icing on the cake of his ministry, but its sweet and sustaining bread and butter. There are times when Spurgeon is in poor health or other difficulties, and his preaching sometimes reflects his private struggles; on this occasion, you get a sense of a man whose soul is peaceful and joyful, and who is cheerfully employing his strength in the exaltation of his beloved Saviour. With liveliness and vigour, he presses through his text, each point introduced, expanded, and summarised. In considering the mystery of the gospel, he first simply holds before us Christ, letting us gaze upon our Beloved. Then he digs a little deeper, and reminds us that it is “Christ in you” in whom we take refuge and delight. Finally, he looks up and reminds us what it means to have Christ in his people as the hope of glory. At every stage of this sermon there is a very precious sense of real personality, and of personal relationship. Spurgeon speaks not just of what he knows, but of whom he knows, and we are drawn to see Christ Jesus clearly and happily.
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This is one of the sermons preached “on an evening when the regular hearers left their seats to be occupied by strangers.” Imagine asking some five thousand people to vacate their places, only to see another five thousand pressing in to hear the good news of Jesus Christ! On such an occasion, Spurgeon gives himself especially to explaining, demonstrating, reasoning, pleading, and persuading that sinners will turn to Christ Jesus. Thus he here holds up our Lord Jesus as the “marvellous magnet,” zeroing in on his crucifixion as that reality, that sight, by which he draws men to himself. So he considers first the attractive force which lies in the crucified Saviour himself. Then he asks how this force is exercised, considering the means and the power by which the Holy Spirit draws sinners to Christ Jesus. Finally, he asks what the implications of all this must be for those who are hearing him, pressing home the claims of Christ upon every soul. As you read it you will find that it is not an unusually short sermon, nor is it crassly simplistic. It is lively and it is direct, and the preacher labours to keep every fixed upon the Redeemer. In this, it is an example of truly evangelistic preaching, without bells or whistles, and with no special measures other than this: that Christ is resolutely at the centre and in the forefront throughout.
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There are no themes sweeter than the love of God toward us in Christ Jesus our Lord, and there are few themes upon which Spurgeon is more happy and eloquent. In this sermon he digs into the text of his text, working through the language of love which John speaks. Love begins in and with God: he is its source. That love flows out in the sending of God’s beloved Son to be the propitiation for the sins of his people, and then flows over in the people so loved, filling their hearts and spilling out into the lives of others. Here again you will find a familiar emphasis in Spurgeon, that it is love revealed in the gospel which draws out love and secures obedience, something which the law in itself could never do. But there is more, the love with which we have been loved does not just stimulate love of another kind, but produces love of the same kind, drawing from us a Godlike, Christlike love which operates in a similar direction and fashion. So it is that we need to consider and enjoy that love with which God has loved us in Christ Jesus, in order that we might not only appreciate its benefits for ourselves but also demonstrate it in our responses to God himself and to those around us, both in the church and in the world.
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With a wonderful pastoral sensitivity, Spurgeon preaches a sermon to a congregation which has recently lost two esteemed, elderly deacons. Without artificiality, and without clumsiness, he takes full account of the sorrow of the congregation, while offering them hope and joy in proportion to their grief. He zeroes in on the gladness for which Moses prayers at the end of Psalm 90, looking at the way in which the Lord is able to supply a gladness to balance out sadness, and at the distinctiveness of the gladnesses which the Lord is pleased to grant his praying people. These joys are both real and enduring, and as he contemplates the future—and asks his people to contemplate a future without two eminent servants of God in their midst—Spurgeon does so with eyes lifted to heaven, fixed upon the hand of Almighty God. So he encourages himself, and them, and us, with the prospect of God’s work in and after our days, giving us our own work to do and then smiling upon that work. It is a genuinely encouraging sermon, and I hope that you will find it so.
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“A delicious carelessness of holy confidence.” That is the beautiful phrase which Spurgeon uses to describe the state he encourages in this sermon. Many people are full of care, and the apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, wants them to be without care, not oppressed and flustered by a weight of trouble. And so, following Paul, Spurgeon urges the saints first of all to avoid those states which necessarily involve a burden of care which might be avoided—unwise marriages, immersion in business, public service that overwhelms our capacity, jobs which prevent attending or serving in God’s house, and any forms of speculation (risk-taking, gambling). He also tells us to steer clear of those pursuits which necessarily involve this kind of care: pursuing wealth, craving a reputation, desiring respectability, idolising anything in this life. Finally, and very positively and practically, he urges us to exercise a childlike faith in the ever-blessed God. Don’t drag your troubles, real or imagined, out of the future and into the present; be content with God’s will; be confident in God’s love; believe in the power of prayer. Do not live loaded with care, pleads Spurgeon, but ask first of all how you may live to God’s glory, and you will live as Christ lived—in a delicious carelessness of holy confidence.
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What is your attitude to the law of God? Spurgeon’s is typically Particular Baptist, typically Puritan, with a strong emphasis on the blessings of the new covenant in Christ bringing us into a new, true, happy relation to the law which God wrote on Adam’s heart in creation and inscribed on tablets of stone at Sinai. Spurgeon emphasises in this sermon that the law of God is written now on the tablets of our heart. Having given us a few biblical-theological insights by way of introduction, he brings us soundly into the realm of the new covenant, showing us that the same law given at Sinai is now inscribed into the core of the inner man, and becomes a part of every believer. Then he shows us what this writing is, the whole, unaltered law, written so that memory, will, and affection are fully engaged, and he considers how the Holy Spirit uses various means to keep that writing legible. He thinks of God as the one who alone is entitled and able to write perfectly and permanently upon the human heart, and then briefly closes with the result of this writing. Here he presses home both the radical change which occurs, in terms of battle joined against all sin, but also by way of the new principle of obedience which characterises the regenerate soul. By way of this he points us toward the heaven which is prepared for those who love God, those who are themselves prepared for heaven by a lifelong pursuit of that which pleases him. This sermon is a powerful corrective to those who would put aside the law of God at any point, as well as to those who think to impose and enforce it by any means other than the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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The challenges, rebukes, and encouragements of this sermon all carry their proper weight. Preaching from James 4:2–3, Spurgeon first exposes the poverty of lusting, how all the carnal and self-reliant effort in the world never produces that for which we seek. Then, and painfully, he points out how Christian churches may suffer from spiritual poverty, declining and drifting, neither desiring anything worthwhile nor seeking after it. Such churches are often competing for the wrong things in the wrong spirit, even with bitterness. Where, asks the preacher, is the asking? Where is the praying and the pleading for God’s blessing, and for God’s glory in the blessing? All this leads to stirring encouragements to take God at his word, and to ask rightly of a God who is only too ready to bestow his favours upon those who seek him. Spurgeon really hammers this point home, exhorting us to persistent prayer to the God of heaven, assuring us that the Lord Almighty stands ready to pour out his goodnesses on those who call upon him. So, shall we believe the Word of God? Shall we give ourselves to prayer? Shall we look for the answer, because we are persuaded of what God himself has said?
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It is very easy—perhaps too easy—for us to accommodate the language of the psalms to ourselves, as if we were the primary reference point. Spurgeon here reminds us that, while it is not wrong to see our own experience written in the psalms, nevertheless we are typically pointed first and plainly to Jesus Christ (indeed, it is this which enables us to interpret our own experience, and learn from it). Thus, here, he takes us to our Lord’s deepest trouble, and bids us observe our Lord’s behaviour, then to consider our Lord’s deliverance, then our Lord’s reward for his sufferings, and finally, the Lord’s likeness in his redeemed people. The result is a sermon which is vivid and realistic in its depiction of our Saviour’s distresses, but which also shows the spirit in which he bore those distresses, and the smile of his Father upon his labours. All this puts our own sorrows in perspective, and helps us to understand Christ’s sympathy with us in our distresses, and our confidence that—trusting in him—the God of heaven will also lift us up out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay.
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Sometimes you get a sense of the preacher’s excitement from the very first sentence of his sermon. It is the case here, as Spurgeon bubbles over from the opening line! With such a verse and theme before him, Spurgeon feels his utter inadequacy to express all that is contained in the exceeding riches of God’s grace in Christ Jesus. But, confident that others could preach the gospel better, but could never preach a better gospel, he gives us his best…and what a delight it is! Overflowing with spiritual excitement, his first point really frames the substance along the lines of the text. It is in the second point that his soul begins to soar, telling us that this exceedingly rich grace in Christ is above all limit, observation, and expression, above all our ways of action, our understanding, and all our sins. It is greater than God’s promises, greater than anything we have yet received. It is above all measure! What an incitement to come and trust in the Christ through whom all blessings flow! Finally, Spurgeon sets out to illustrate his text just a little more, trying to add a last few strands of thought concerning the patience, the freeness, the effectiveness of divine grace, and its beautiful endurance, carrying us in to eternity future as we wonder how we shall ever be able to tell not just what we now know, but all that we do not now know, as it is unfolded in ages to come.
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Spurgeon says that this text overpowers him: “It is a gem of priceless value.” Even before he gets to the formal substance of his sermon, his unusually long introduction has turned that gem in the light so that its facets begin to reflect something of the goodness of God, and set us up for the main elements of his address. In fact, he effectively gives us a couple of mini-sermons before he gets to the sermon proper! When he eventually begins to work through five particulars to which he wants to draw our attention, he first considers blessings in their fullness—God as our sun. Then there are blessings in their counterpoise—that God is also a shield. Developing that thought, he then turns us to blessings in their order. Building on that, we have blessings in development and in maturity. Finally, there are blessings in their universality. The sermon is less one of sequence and more one of layering, thought laid upon thought, and insight upon insight, giving us a rich and sweet feast for those who walk uprightly, and closing with urgent entreaties to enjoy and expect the good things that the Lord has laid up for his people.
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This is a sermon full of life and strength preached by a man full of sickness and weakness. The introduction surveys all the key facts contained in the text, giving us the scope of the whole, and then the preacher zeroes in on the reality of the resurrection, unpacking it in its bearing upon other great truths, its bearing on the gospel itself, and its bearing upon us. The sermon is packed full of theology and of Scripture, as Spurgeon uses the opportunity to join the dots for us, connecting the resurrection of Jesus to various other doctrines, demonstrating how it lies at the very heart of all our gospel hope and joy, and then pressing it home in terms of personal expectation and confidence: we must remember this! His last words are a stirring call to grasp that this risen Jesus is ruling still, and that—whatever may be the eulogies, mournful or mocking, pronounced over the religion of Christ—the Saviour who lives and reigns has obtained and must obtain the victory, and we with him. It is a fine sermon for a sick man to preach, no doubt full of comfort to himself, and so flowing forth from his heart to comfort others also.
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This sermon cuts deeply in order to probe carefully. It is Spurgeon in typically and painfully sober mode. The sermon puts to each hearer the question which Christ asked of his disciples at a season of mass desertion: “Will you also go away?” Searching deeply into our hearts, Spurgeon first asks why Christ asked this question of his twelve disciples, looking at the defections which were taking place. Then he takes the question itself, and this is perhaps the most painful element of the sermon, as Spurgeon points out the contagion of desertion, and how it would cut through the twelve themselves, and the importance of a thoughtful and voluntary attachment to Christ himself. After the wound, the balm: our preacher then considers the three elements of Peter’s answer, an answer which we ourselves should give to our divine Leader. So he concludes with the heartfelt plea, “By thy faithfulness, O Lord, keep us faithful!” Is Spurgeon being harsh or hard? Is he trying to unsettle the faithful? Is he deliberately assaulting faith? No, here is a true-hearted minister in difficult times bringing needful warnings to the souls of his congregation, not carelessly undermining but deliberately probing to ensure that we have a good foundation.
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In the aftermath of a particular effort on the part of the Tabernacle congregation, Spurgeon calls on the people to consider the spirit in which they have gone about their business: was their service acceptable to God? He is concerned more with the inward disposition of the heart than with any outward activity, energy, or generosity. So he asks whether our service has been rendered out of a sense of our immeasurable obligation to the Lord. Furthermore, has our service been offered up in the power of divine grace, rather than human nature, even at its best? Have we worked with reverence, a holy shame of face, aware of our own personal sins and the failings of what we bring to the Lord? Have we also come in the spirit of holy cheerfulness, with a godly fear? Finally, are we cultivating a profound sense of the divine holiness, a sense of God as a consuming fire? His point is that, whatever service has been rendered to the Lord, if we take credit to ourselves then we are robbing the altar of God. His closing plea would suit any one of us, as we look back upon whatever we have brought to God in recent days: “Let us bring the sacrifices of the last week to him, with repentance for every fault, humbly pleading that of his grace he will accept it, and earnestly desiring that all we have done may redound to his glory through Jesus Christ his Son, to whom be honour, world without end.”
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This is a shorter sermon, preached on a Thursday evening, and in it Spurgeon contrasts and compares two texts, each speaking of something good. The first is, perhaps, more surprising: it is good when we are afflicted. The second might make more obvious sense to us: it is good to draw near to God. The first is good when it does not sour the sufferer, but forms, spurs, stirs, sanctifies, and instructs the child of God who is afflicted. The second is good because we feel God near us, are moved to greater trust, and out of it we are able to bear good witness to the works of the Almighty. Do we feel the virtues of both sanctified affliction from the Lord and sweet communion with the Lord? Are we prepared to call both of these good? Are we truly thankful for any afflictions God grants for his holy purposes, and for any closeness which he bestows upon us? These are the questions and comforts with which the preacher leaves his congregation.
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This sermon unfolds gradually but surely. We do not know exactly where the preacher will take us, but he is evidently following a planned route, and so we are content to take each development of his theme as he introduces us to it. Considering the fundamental truth that without Christ no Christian can do anything of any spiritual value, Spurgeon first of all considers our Lord’s assertion as an aspiration of hope. Then he feels it as a shudder of fear. It presses upon him and us next as a vision of failure. Then we hear it as a voice of wisdom. Finally, it rings out as a song of content. In this way, the same statement is made of various use to those who are or profess to be followers of the Lamb, and each comes in its turn. Even the sequence is interesting: hope comes first, then warning, then instruction, then comfort and joy, so that we are pointed in the right direction, cautioned with regard to the prospect, but then encouraged concerning the final outcome. There is a great deal of discernment, then, not only in the substance of the sermon but in its arrangement, as we walk away impressed with the need for a known and felt union with our Lord Jesus if we are to be fruitful in his service.
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Love labours. In doing so, it overcomes a multitude of difficulties. It triumphs over those difficulties in a way which demonstrates the heavenly source of its energies. Spurgeon actually begins the sermon with a meditation on the Holy Spirit as the only one who can work true Christian love in the heart of sinners like us. Christian love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. It contends with and overcomes self, other people, the world, and hell. The middle section on the triumphs of love is quite splendid. In each case Spurgeon shows what is the bearing, believing, hoping, and enduring power of love, applying the principle to our dealings both with believers and unbelievers, and then pointing us to Christ Jesus as the enduring example and demonstration of that aspect of love. It is a powerful and probing part of the sermon. The last section is much shorter, but can afford to be, as the preacher is really just tying off the threads which he laid in his introduction, and which have run throughout the sermon as a whole. As an example of sermonic construction, including adaptation in the act of preaching, it is most helpful. But it is more than a model for preaching; it is a call to loving living, and one that is convicting and compelling and comforting.
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Though Spurgeon typically preaches from fairly brief texts, he occasionally takes longer sections, and sometimes—as on this occasion—hangs his thoughts on a single phrase. This is not an easy mode of preaching, as it can lead to strained exegesis, shallow substance, or repetitive or tortured structure. While it helps that the phrase in question is the loaded one, “through faith,” Spurgeon also avoids these traps by setting his phrase in its context, connecting grace and faith. He then proceeds in a manner both systematic and pastoral, drawing on his rich theological heritage and his concern for troubled men and women. First he asks what faith is, and gives some standard answers in a lively fashion. In particular, he weaves in a number of illustrations to take account of the heat and heaviness of the morning in which he preaches, a good example of a preacher responding to his circumstances. Next Spurgeon answers the question why faith is selected as the channel of salvation. Finally, he asks how we can obtain and increase our faith, closing his sermon with some very down-to-earth counsels. This is, then, a sermon in which theological care and practical counsel is closely bound throughout, all intended to bring sinners to the Saviour and assure them of their security in him.
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While Spurgeon usually preaches on single texts he does not invariably preach isolated sermons. On Sunday 5th June, 1881, he preached from 1 Corinthians 3:6–9 about God’s co-labourers. On Sunday 12th June he took up the same theme of labourers on God’s farm, this time from Mark 4:26–29, explicitly linking the two sermons together. If the first sermon showed how far human agency is required in the work of the gospel, and how dependent all results are upon the Lord, the second sermon emphasises how far a holy labourer can go, and how far he cannot go: “the measure and limit of human instrumentality in the kingdom of grace.” As so often, Spurgeon’s structure is fairly simple and repetitive: what we can and cannot do, what we can and cannot know, what we may and may not expect if we work for God, and what sleep workers may and may not take. It is an intensely practical sermon of particular encouragement and instruction to Christian workers—and which Christian ought not also to be a worker on God’s farm?
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Spurgeon regularly throws a little exegetical advice into his sermons, often at the beginning, and he does so here, encouraging his hearers to interpret each portion of Scripture in its context, which he immediately applies to his text, in which Job claims that “the root of the matter is found in me.” Spurgeon first examines this root and defines it in terms of confidence in a living Redeemer. Next, he digs deeper into the matter of something which lies at the root—something which is essential, vital, comprehensive of all the rest. Thirdly, Spurgeon addresses the fact that we can personally discern our possession of this root, not always easily but carefully and comfortingly. Finally, he presses some practical lessons upon our souls, especially considering the way in which we can—in various ways and to various degrees—be guilty of persecuting someone in whom is the root of the matter. It is another example of the remarkable number of directions in which Spurgeon can turn the truth in a single sermon.
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A man’s heart-longings provide an accurate index of his present and future character. Put simply, “Tell me what a man really wants and I will tell you what he is really like and what he will one day be.” Grace gives a man a new and heavenly set of desires for the judgments of God, what Spurgeon calls the saint’s absorbing object. Then he considers the saint’s ardent longing for those judgments. Finally, he points to the saint’s cheering reflections drawn from such desires of the heart. The structure is simple, with that happy repetition which helps both to follow the argument and to fix it in the mind. As so often, Spurgeon moves without fanfare from David’s experience to ours, unpacking the inner life of the believer in every age, giving preachers an example of what it means to enter into the mind and heart of his hearers. Spurgeon also excels in encouragements, which he offers both with regard to what a Christian is now and what he will one day be, so closing the loop of his sermon. And, of course, he wants us to be sure that such longing after God’s judgments makes Christ himself most precious to the saints.
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How much is joy a feature of your life as a Christian? While he recognizes that the fruit of the Spirit is one cluster, nevertheless Spurgeon wants us to focus in this sermon on joy as part of the believer’s spiritual experience. Some have a melancholy disposition which needs to be overcome; others seem to be committed to gloom as a religious essential. Spurgeon would have us understand that joy is a legitimate and inevitable element of the fruit of the Spirit (though varied in the experience of different believers), and also wants us to grasp the singular character of this joy as well as the various forms and circumstances in which a Christian may enjoy it. However, he also includes warnings about the way in which the growth of this spiritual fruit may be hindered, as well as encouraging us to cultivate what he considers to be the obligation of spiritual joy, giving us various reasons why joy is such a blessing which incite us to seek and keep this happy fruit. And there is a practical conclusion, as he calls his congregation to “rise as one man, and sing, ‘Then let our songs abound, / And every tear be dry: / We’re marching thro’ Immanuel’s ground / To fairer worlds on high.’”
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This is the last sermon in Volume 26 of the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit. After a fairly extended introduction in which the preacher sets out to demonstrate that “true penitents do not seek to extenuate or diminish the sin which has been forgiven them, but they own how great it is, and set it forth in all its enormity as it appears before their enlightened eyes,” Spurgeon launches into his main substance. Although it has no publication date, it may be selected for the last sermon of the year because of its retrospective emphasis. Look back, says Spurgeon, to excite adoring gratitude; look back to sustain deep humility; look back to renew genuine repentance; look back to kindle fervent love; look back to arouse ardent zeal; look back to make you hopeful for the salvation of others; look back to confirm your confidence for yourselves. Of course, you need not wait until year’s end for such a retrospective. Every child of God can consider what they were before, and be stirred up to such deep affections.
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In this sermon Spurgeon seeks to plumb something of the depths of Christ’s grief over sin. (Interestingly, the following week, and the following printed sermon, is an effort properly to record the joy of our Lord.) The preacher begins with a brief survey of the three occasions on which our Lord wept, revealing his grief over domestic sorrow, national troubles, and human guilt. It is the second of these to which he turns his attention. Spurgeon first of all assesses the Lord’s inward grief, looking at the heart from which poured forth such tears. While this might horrify some (and please others), Spurgeon also offers a fairly bold rejection of divine impassibility (which he does a few times over the course of the next few sermons, so it is no passing thought). He is not at his clearest at this point in the sermon, both with regard to Christ’s two natures and the nature of God himself, perhaps seeking to communicate something of the depths of the Mediator’s sorrow. But the heart which produced these tears of distress also produced words of sorrow, and these allow the preacher to trace something more of the cause of our Saviour’s anguish of heart. All this leads to a pointed conclusion, in which the Spurgeon holds out not only the horror of condemnation, but also the opportunity to enter into the new Jerusalem through faith in this same Jesus who wept over the earthly city.
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This is one of those sermons which seems to bubble over in a torrent from the preacher’s soul. Rather than broadening out, it narrows down, perhaps a reflection of pressure of time in the preaching, coming to an ever more narrow focus. The sermon begins with the excellence of a humble walk, considering what that means. It moves on to the humble walk as an evidence of salvation, with Christ in his proper place in your heart. This humble walk is also a symptom of spiritual health, calling us to self-examination, including in our response to providences which we may not appreciate. It is also a cause for very great anxiety, by which Spurgeon means that we must take it seriously, because it is too easy to presume upon. Finally, a humble walk is the source of the deepest conceivable pleasure, for “the man that leaves everything to God finds joy in everything.” The sermon is a great example of unpacking a very brief phrase in a thoroughly Christian fashion, pressing it into the conscience in a way that both brings us low and lifts us up.
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This very sweet sermon takes a seminal declaration of gracious forgiveness as the starting point of a very simple treatment of this central theme. After an introduction in which he presses home the need to believe what God says concerning forgiveness, Spurgeon launches into a warm treatment of the measure, manner, and manifestations of forgiving grace. In the first he emphasises the divine largesse, the greatness of God’s heart in putting away sin, the riches of divine grace. In the second, which is much like the first in tone, he calls us to reckon with God acting in accordance with those divine riches. In the third, his emphasis turns to the fact that it is through the redemption in Christ’s blood that these riches of grace are revealed and bestowed. As he concludes, he returns to the thrust of his introduction, asking us whether or not it is right for believers to speak of themselves using the same language as unbelievers, to pray or praise as if we had not received the forgiveness of sins. The preacher calls us to feel the love that arises from forgiven sin, the only proper response to such wonders of grace.
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A typically probing sermon from Spurgeon, who is as tenacious in calling for self-examination as he is earnest in pleading the cause of Jesus Christ. Though he gives a little time to John, it is really only to set up the Baptist as the foil for Herod. At first, Spurgeon speaks charitably of all that Herod did which was “so far, so good.” Then, he speaks honestly of all that Herod lacked, and how—despite some fair appearances—he ultimately had no faith in or attachment to the Jesus whom John preached. Finally, he speaks sadly of Herod’s end, pleading with his hearers not to fall into Herod’s trap. With characteristic precision, Spurgeon probes our souls, forcing us to ask whether or not we are dallying with faithful preachers or truly embracing the Jesus whom they preach. We cannot afford to be merely impressed; we must be converted indeed.
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Here Spurgeon considers two offices of Christ, those of Judge and Saviour, as they are found in him as Mediator. Both, he suggests, have reference to mankind as sinners, and then he unpacks what that means, and the relationship which they have to each other, and how the one leads us to the other. It is, on some levels, a very simple sermon, and yet the tracing out of the two offices—without being overly clever and showy—enables the preacher to press home the realities of both sin and grace, concluding with an earnest plea to come to the Saviour who forgives in order that you might not be judged as you deserve. It is a good example of a sermon which seems quite straightforward on the surface (albeit Spurgeon’s headings require a little more careful thought than is sometimes the case) while having and drawing out depths of understanding beneath it and behind it.
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This rallying-cry is drawn from Moses’ question to Israel when sin was rampant among the people, and the sermon is preached shortly after a general election when men had been choosing a side. Spurgeon uses the political and social climate to impress upon our souls spiritual truth. After drawing attention to the character of Moses, Spurgeon looks at the question and command which issues from him, in terms of decision, avowal, and consecration. He elevates it to the very question of salvation and extends it to every consequent decision which a believer makes in the service of Christ. With characteristic intensity, the preacher calls for an entire commitment to the Lord based on our relationship to him as our Creator, Redeemer, and Preserver, and applies it closely to his own society, and—by extension—to ours, asking about our modes of worship, our casual superstitions, our sinful amusements, and our general tampering with principle. As so often, we are called to repentance and to correction, stirred and drawn by the King whom we serve and the matters which are at stake.
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This sermon digs deep into our attitude to the Word of God. Sometimes Spurgeon draws lines from a text, at other times—as this one—he draws lines through the text, working phrase by phrase through the verses he is handling, explaining and applying as he goes. It is, in one sense, the very demonstration of the principles he is setting forth. Job stated, “My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” From this, Spurgeon asks us to consider Job’s holy life, his tenacity in knowing and doing God’s will, and then Job’s holy sustenance, how his delight in the words of God’s mouth have been food to his soul. As so often, Spurgeon combines rebuke with comfort, exhortation with consolation, both to challenge us with regard to holy living, and to encourage us with regard to the strength God supplies for such a life.
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“Teach me to do your will.” That may seem like a very simple and straightforward prayer, but what does it mean to pray it, and what kind of answer might we expect? Spurgeon anticipates a child of God who seeks to know what is the path of obedience, but is perplexed and distressed. He therefore unpacks this brief petition to show us the character, the substance, and the intent of a prayer that has no taint of a legal spirit. Then he explores the ways in which God might answer this prayer, leading us in the right way by all the means which he has at his disposal to show us what is true and good and right. It is a sweetly pastoral sermon on a number of levels, for it anticipates particular difficulties, offers distinct encouragements, corrects specific misunderstandings, and urges manifest obedience. There is nothing here that is complicated, mysterious, or bewildering. It is sanctified and spiritual sense for holy living in a world in which the right way is not always easy to discern.
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This sermon might be read as a follow-up to that on “The Dromedaries.” If the former sermon is intended to help us find our proper place, the purpose of this “is for every man to have a good spirit in his present place, so as to occupy it worthily.” The preacher says he is less interested here to arrange the people where they might be and more to encourage the people where they are. Thus in broad strokes he addresses six classes of Christian workers: those who think they can do nothing; those who think they are laid aside; those who have only small talent; those who are under great difficulties; those who are not appreciated; and, those who are discouraged because they have so little success. Given that most Christian workers fall into one or more of those categories at any given time, and often over a period of time, there should be something here for every labouring saint.
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This sermon has a curious title indeed, and a somewhat unusual text, too. As he delights to do, the preacher draws a parallel between the Old Testament history and the new covenant experience, in this case the kingdom of Solomon and the kingdom of Christ. After establishing some of those parallels, Spurgeon begins to consider the officers who had responsibility in Solomon’s household, showing that each had a particular charge, each was bound to act according to that charge, and each would receive supplies according to his charge. On the basis of the parallels, Spurgeon—applying throughout and especially at the end of the sermon—urges us to think about the work the Lord has given to us and to others in his kingdom, and to consider how we discharge that work. It is, again, a typical call to action from a man persuaded that it is the privilege of every child of God to serve his King: “Everything for Jesus, the glorious Solomon of our hearts, the Beloved of our souls!”
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Spurgeon himself introduces this sermon with a few words of thanksgiving, and tells us, with characteristic desire, “I thought the best way in which I could express my thankfulness would be to preach Jesus Christ again, and set him forth in a sermon in which the simple gospel should be made as clear as a child’s alphabet.” With this in mind, he turns to the bronze serpent which Moses lifted up in the wilderness, and under five simple headings seeks not only to set forth Christ Jesus as the object of faith, urging him upon sinners, but also to encourage those who know Christ to hold him up themselves. The classic gospel notes of Spurgeon’s ministry ring out again in this sermon, and remind us of his desire to remain always close to the cross in all his preaching. What, then, could be more suitable on such a significant occasion than to go back to the old theme and speak once more of the Son of God’s love and the Saviour of sinners?
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This fascinating sermon begins with a contrast between Abraham and Lot, so much so that Spurgeon reminds us that his text is not, “Remember Lot,” but, “Remember Lot’s wife.” However, by the end of the sermon he has deliberately returned to the first idea, and in between he has made a careful survey of the relationship between Lot and his wife before concentrating on the way in which she perished in her sin. That brings him back to Lot, because one of the themes of this sermon is the way in which the lives of a husband and a wife are closely intertwined, and have a mutual spiritual impact. More specifically, Spurgeon emphasises the responsibility of a godly man to lead his family righteously. A sermon like this involves some ‘reading into the white spaces’ of the history, some holy speculation and careful surmise, but the overall effect is to bring the teaching of this episode close to home, and to force husbands, with their wives, to consider carefully the effect of their example and instruction.
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This sermon carries a fearful amount of weight. Preached at a period when British interests were at a low ebb, British policy abroad seemed to Spurgeon bloody and ugly, when the weather was cold and wet through the summer, he considers the withdrawing of God from sinful nations, sinning saints, and unbelieving sinners. The first element, the national, is a fine example of proper ‘political’ preaching, a Christian bemoaning unrighteousness and injustice in and from the country he loves, and asking what is to be done in response. The second element is almost as forceful, peeling back the folds of our hearts and confronting us with sins and their consequences in the lives even of God’s people, though with gleams of light shining through the clouds, because of divine faithfulness. The third, and briefest, reminds the ungodly that without turning to Christ they will suffer the fearful, eternal punishment of their sin, and so calls on all to seek the Lord. While Spurgeon is always manifestly earthed in his time and place, drawing illustration from it and making application to it, this sermon has a distinct flavour of a man who is very much a pilgrim, but a pilgrim in a particular place and time, seeking to respond as a Christian patriot to the need of the hour.
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Both sobering and cheering, this sermon carries us to the prophet Habakkuk, who saw all the dangers associated with ‘the midst of the years’ and the impending judgments of God upon a sinful, sliding, sleeping people. Transposing it to a church which has enjoyed twenty-five years of God’s blessing in association with the ministry of God’s word, Spurgeon highlights tellingly the prophet’s fear of the slackness and slowness that can afflict us in the middle passage (a clever title, for it also refers to the grief-ridden, wearisome part of the sea voyages of certain vessels, including slavers). He moves on to the prophet’s prayer, that the Lord would revive his own work, and what that means for our own hearts and our knowledge and sense of the living God. Then there is the prophet’s plea, primarily that God would in wrath remember mercy. Then Habakkuk, his heart at rest in his God, returns to his labour and gets on with his work content in the knowledge that God will be his God regardless of what the future holds. It is a potent sermon for those in the middle years of life, or of labour, for churches resting on their lees, for those concerned about the stagnation of religious life in a region or nation. May God set our hearts again to plead for a blessing in the midst of the years!
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This delightful sermon blends the twin beauties of prayer and praise from Philippians 4:6—“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” After an extended introduction which suggests that the preacher’s soul it fully taken up with his topic, Spurgeon first underscores the reasons why Christians should mingle thanksgiving with prayer, urging us to “illuminate your prayers; light them up with rays of thanksgiving all the way through,” so that even if grief and sorrow are the burden of the prayer, it has at least some sparkles of gratitude. Then he turns the same thought in another direction, showing the evil of the absence of thanksgiving in our prayers, showing just how selfish and wilful that ungrateful pleader is. Finally, Spurgeon suggests that, according to the context, peace is the result of mingling thanksgiving with our prayers, together with warmth of soul and expectant hope. The sermon as a whole is not just an incentive to pray, but an incentive to a certain kind of praying, prayer in which pleading and praising are woven together, in which our intercessions are given a sweet aroma by being perfumed with thanksgiving to the God of all mercies. I hope it is as stirring to you as it seems it was to Spurgeon as he preached it.
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The beginning of Volume XXV has curious numbering, reflecting the fact that Spurgeon is very sick in Mentone while these sermons are being produced and published. There are combinations of letters and mediations from his sickbed with shorter sermons preached on different occasions. Most of them, taken together, are the same length as his regular output, but following the pattern can be a touch confusing. These sermons share a certain approach: taking a physical experience and drawing a spiritual parallel. So you have here a nose and eyes! The nose belongs to the child whom God raised from the dead by Elisha, and that child’s seven sneezes become a parable of the simple, unpleasant, monotonous, and sure indications of spiritual life in a newly-regenerated man or woman. The eyes belong to Hagar, and—just as the Lord opened her eyes in the wilderness to see the water which she needed for the life of her and her son—so we need our eyes opened. Spurgeon wonders at what remarkable things we might see if our spiritual eyes could see the past, the future, the angels, or the coming glory. He thinks of the things that darken our eyes to spiritual reality, and yearns for God to open the eyes of the inwardly blind, before thinking of the things which a believer might see at the communion table: Christ near at hand, our standing in Christ, and our happy prospects. May God open the eyes of us all, to see Christ for salvation, and to know our joy in him!
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There is a state of peace and there is a sense of peace. Spurgeon does not confuse or confound the two. In a distinctly pastoral sermon, he begins with the priority of the objective state of peace, secured by Jesus Christ and received and enjoyed by faith in him. He steps us through the stages of our experience in obtaining this peace, not just describing but directing the guilty sinner to Christ. He underscores the certainty and security of a peace granted by God for Christ’s sake. Then he moves to the secondary and subjective sense of peace, grounded in the objective reality of our standing before God pardoned through Christ’s blood and clothed in Christ’s righteousness. Here again the shepherd’s heart is very much in evidence, as Spurgeon thinks about the way a child of God might complain about or query his own feelings. The preacher reminds us that we do not expect to have peace with the devil, with the flesh, with the world, or with our own sin, and so we should not draw the wrong conclusions from those battles. We do have peace with God, however, and we are told what that looks like and how that operates, in our communion with him and confidence in him in all things.
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Perhaps your instinct in looking at this title is to go, in your mind’s eye, to Calvary, and to consider our Saviour hanging between the two transgressors. While you have not necessarily followed the intended trail, you have come to the right place. It is not so much the men on either side whom we consider, but the man on the middle cross, for it is by him that the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. These are the three crucifixions of the title: first, the crucified Christ; then, the crucified world; finally, the crucified believer, whether that be Paul or whomever else. Thus we have set before us the glory of the cross itself, as well as the consequences of that glory for God’s people. So Spurgeon considers the way in which the Christian all too often esteems and courts the world, and asks us to look at the world once more under the shadow of the cross. He also counsels the Christian about the way in which the world will now look at us, and how they will despise and disdain those who live under that same sweet shadow. Here Spurgeon shows us something of what it means to preach a crucified Christ—not simply to rehearse another ‘Calvary sermon’ but rather to demonstrate over and over, in the broad sweep and the fine detail of Christian living, what it means to trust and to follow the Lamb of God who was slain.
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We do not and cannot keep the law of God in order to obtain peace with God. Any such effort is doomed to failure. At the same time, conversion transforms our attitude and relationship to God’s law. Our Father’s rule has become our highest delight. His parental chastisements for disobedience are real, and his fatherly pleasure in obedience is our happiness. It is this latter principle which underpins this sermon: “Those who are children of God should seek after universal obedience to the divine commands.” The bulk of Spurgeon’s treatment of his text is a sweeping assessment of this believing obedience, its blessedness, its necessity, its range, its substance. He then turns more briefly to the excellent result of such conduct, which is a lack of shame. He thinks about this in terms of the believer’s standing before men, when we look at ourselves in the mirror, when we serve the Lord, when we come to our last day, and in all our relation to God himself. Here again he emphasises that it is not our own obedience which we will plead, but the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. That said, there is a peace and strength in a clear conscience which will enable us to come to our Father with confident hope, for the evidence of a right standing before him is a right walk in his sight.
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Spurgeon can be derided as a shallow exegete and a naive theologian, but he is not half so careless or thoughtless as many imagine. Far from being a mere performer, Spurgeon is deeply committed to the truth of God, not least as a true churchman—committed to the house of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. His concern in this sermon is that we understand what the church is in itself, and what she is in relation to God and to his truth. Spurgeon not only steps through his text, developing his case, but builds layer upon layer of pointed application, focusing all the force of the truth he has considered upon the heart. Beginning with a reminder that this letter was written so that Timothy might know how to conduct himself in the house of God, Spurgeon concludes by telling us that we too ought to know how we should behave when it comes to the church. This is a most penetrating treatment of the topic, and calls into question, for every hearer both then and now, whether or not we really know what the church is and ought to be. We often talk a good game when we speak of Christ’s church, but what do our actions really show about our convictions?
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This is a sermon about suffering, a fast-moving treatment of Isaiah 48:10 which puts us right in the furnace of affliction. Spurgeon emphasises God’s purposeful wisdom and grace in bestowing trials upon his saints. Having considered the distinctive way in which God deals with his people, both together and individually, Spurgeon muses on the furnace as the place where we first meet with God, as a place which does not change the election of God, as the emblem of God’s choice, as the workshop of electing love, as the great school in which we learn election, and as the place where God’s higher purposes in election are revealed. Perhaps this sermon was prompted by trials in the church, or in the lives of particular friends, or his own distinct sufferings. Whatever may have helped to stir the preacher’s soul, the result is an address full of sympathetic wisdom, reminding us that the troubles of the saints are not without purpose and point, and that the Lord—in so dealing with us—is acting always in love, to work sin out of us and grace into us.
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This sermon brims over with holy affections. Spurgeon is entranced by the beautiful form of his text and its beautiful content, the blending of the inner and outer man in the possession and expression of wonderful blessings. The Lord himself is the strength and shield of every believer. With sweet certainty, the follower of Jesus can say that we trusted him and received help from him. Our response is deep and true: our hearts greatly rejoice. As so often, Spurgeon wants us to know that the great blessing is God himself, and that to have him is to be blessed indeed. He emphasises the reality of this, the certainty of this—it is no religious fancy, no mere spiritual metaphor. There is similar intensity in the believer’s own attitude toward his Lord: from the very core of our being, we trust in him who is such a God to us. And, of course, the trusting heart is a rejoicing heart, making a proper response to the delights of having God as our God. It is this note of praise, this life of praise, at which Spurgeon aims.
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Holiness is precious to believers, and it is precious to Spurgeon—his concern for vital godliness shines through again and again in his ministry: “Complete consecration of every faculty of mind and body unto the Lord is our soul’s deepest wish.” His text for the occasion is one that have used to undermine the believer’s pursuit of principled godliness: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:14). First, he carefully expounds what it means not to be under the law, but under grace. Second, he encourages the saints with the special assurance that sin shall not have dominion over them. Finally, he underscores the remarkable reason for this statement, explaining the relationship between the two parts. He lifts us above a mere legal obedience to a heartfelt pursuit of godliness: “not work for salvation, but being saved, work; being already delivered, go forth and prove by your grateful affections and zealous actions what the grace of God has done for you.”
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Spurgeon’s handling of the book of Job is always fascinating. He is sensitive to its exegetical challenges, and to the circumstances of its various characters. Here he takes us to Elihu, a man who shows true wisdom in speaking carefully on God’s behalf, telling more truth than any of Job’s other friends, and also ready to correct Job’s misunderstandings and complaints. With lessons for every preacher and for any Christian, Spurgeon helps us to consider the weight of speaking on behalf of the God of heaven, and the necessary disposition for such a work. He also wants us to think about how we ought to go about such a work, and the various elements of character and conduct which give force to the labour. Finally, and briefly, he seeks to demonstrate the very duty he has been pressing upon others by pointed speech on God’s behalf to various classes of hearer who are before him as he preaches. The sermon as a whole is a helpful reminder of the duty and privilege of being advocates for God, in whatever small measure, and a call to engage in that work with a right spirit and aim.
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This is a very practical and personal sermon. It does not delve deep into theological profundities concerning whether or not God can in fact tempt anyone to sin. Rather, it takes the whole petition from the perspective of the frail and feeble sinner who seeks from God his kindnesses and mercies that we might be spared from any circumstances in which we might be led into sin. So Spurgeon first considers the spirit which suggests such a petition, the frame of heart from which such a desire might rise. Then he ponders the potential trials which trouble someone who is praying in this way, the avenues into sin which they want to avoid. Finally, with time running down, the preacher throws out a few practical lessons, more seed thoughts than developed applications. Throughout, a true believer’s sensitivity to sin—even to the prospect of sin—is on careful display. One catches a glimpse into the preacher’s soul, and the holy fear which characterised the preacher and which he pressed upon his congregation. Do we hear many such sermons today, in which a holy horror of sin underlies the whole? Perhaps here is a clue to the blessing that rested on Spurgeon’s ministry.
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This excellent sermon is a study in pride and a lesson in humility. Spurgeon’s first concern is to drive home the lesson that “whatever advantages we any of us possess over our fellow men we have received from God.” He does this by surveying the advantages we enjoy, and tracing them to their source, almost brutally dismantling any notion we might have that we have somehow made ourselves to be what we are or gained for ourselves any of our blessings. This Spurgeon proves by unrelenting logic, applied to the spheres of nature and of grace. The truths so expressed become the foundation for a series of practical lessons, dealing with both our attitudes and our actions, as we are both humbled in ourselves and then turned toward our God and our fellows, and directed in the way in which we should respond to these things. The simple structure—two points, explication followed by application—does not in any way hinder Spurgeon’s pointed and profound handling of the text.
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Isaiah describes the Messiah as one who made intercession for the transgressors (Is 53:12). With this as his starting point, but turning immediately to the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ for his crucifiers, Spurgeon opens the topic out to a consideration of our Saviour’s mediatorial intercession. He asks us first to admire the grace which is shown in Christ’s prayers for transgressors. He shows us how our Intercessor fills us with confidence in himself. He urges us to follow his example, because “the life of Christ is a precept” to his disciples. The whole becomes a powerful study in a compassionate heart and voice, pressing us to understand just how merciful it is in Christ to speak on behalf of transgressors, and asking us whether or not we truly appreciate what that means, both for our own blessing and for our own attitude to others.
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There are vanities and there are verities. There are fancies and there are facts. There are passing things and there are enduring things. There are bursting bubbles and there are lasting beauties. Giving full rein to the force of the apostle’s language, Spurgeon assesses what it means not to look at, to mark, to heed, to consider, the things which can only be seen, which are passing away, whether present joys or sorrows. His language digs in quite fiercely, pressing us to ask how much significance we attach to that which is passing away. Then he turns to the things which cannot now be seen, but which are spiritually substantial, the eternal glories which “gleam afar to nerve our faint endeavour.” Spurgeon says these need to be grasped by faith as we meditate upon them. They must be considered with delight by God’s people, to stir our affections and appetites (though considered with horror by the unconverted, so that they might be turned to Christ before all their delights are ruined forever). They must be dwelt upon with hope, so that we live truly as heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, inheritors together with the saints in light. The striking contrast of the text comes out in the emphatic way in which Spurgeon holds before us the emptiness of a passing world, and the fulness of joy in the world which is to come.
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We return to an earlier sermon for this lively reading, preached during the heady days at Exeter Hall, when Spurgeon was still something of a shock to the London scene. This is a sermon on conformity to Christ Jesus according to the divine plan and purpose. It asks and answers three very simple questions: In what sense is a believer to be conformed to the image of Christ? Why should we be transformed into the image of the heavenly man? And, is it possible to be so conformed? Having set out what it means to be like Christ in his character, suffering, and glory, and giving us reasons to desire and pursue such conformity, the last section is a beautiful portion in which Spurgeon puts some earnest, even desperate concerns in the mouths of various inquirers, in each case giving warm and comforting answers. To be sure, there are warnings in his conclusions, but the sermon holds out a glorious, and gloriously-assured prospect to all who are in Christ now, in whom the Spirit is working and will work likeness to our Saviour.
This is a notably textual sermon. Of course, Spurgeon always preaches from a text, and typically draws his structure from that text. However, in this sermon, the exegesis of the text lies on the surface of the sermon and more or less provides its structure, rather than lying in the background. With a little clunkiness at times, though with no lack of clarity, Spurgeon steps through the text, demonstrating why it is so significant that the Lord is here identified as the God of peace, and what he has done in bringing Christ from the dead, and why he has done it, with special reference to the intended holiness of his people, concluding on a note of praise. The lack of sermonic polish does not remove the sermonic power, as the preacher brings the truth to bear upon our souls, turning—with his usual relish—to the finished work of Christ in order to motivate and direct the saints in a path of righteousness, made able to walk it by the gracious Spirit.
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This sermon has a slightly different structure to Spurgeon’s usual offerings. It has two main headings, one in which he proves the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saint, and one in which he improves it (in the Puritan sense of seeking to obtain profit from it). Spurgeon is typically rooted to his text, but in this more doctrinal sermon he proves his doctrine by turning to various other Scriptures in order to demonstrate and defend the truth of Christian perseverance. He offers us seven arguments in total before hitting us with two simple lessons to learn, one for believers and one for those still outside the kingdom. A convinced Calvinist, Spurgeon is concerned not only to clear the doctrine from the slurs of Arminians but also from the misunderstandings of other Calvinists, seeking to give us a biblically-proportioned grasp on this wonderful truth, “not the licentious idea that a believer may live in sin, but that he cannot and will not do so.”
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This delightful sermon is taken from Moses’ dying words. Spurgeon asks why, given the danger of proclaiming the happiness of man (because of his tendency to exalt himself), Moses should be carried along by the Holy Spirit so to speak? He suggests that dwelling upon our happiness in the right way should console us in our trouble and inspire us for future service. With that in mind, he urges us to chide ourselves for our spiritual unhappiness, if we are Christians, for we have so many good reasons for joy. We are saved, and that by the Lord himself! We are both shielded by God and divinely armed for our spiritual warfare! Our victory is secure! With the bulk of his preaching time gone, Spurgeon spends the last minutes of his sermon hammering home the blessings of grasping our blessings in Christ, running through the impact on ourselves of enjoying God in this way, culminating in the effect it has through us on others, as we commend the grace of God in the Saviour to sinners. He closes by urging the lost to taste and see that the Lord is good, to realise that we have—in our highest flights of heavenly eloquence—failed to tell them the half of the joy the happy spiritual Israel, a people saved by the Lord.
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In another sermon from Psalm 119, Spurgeon focuses on spiritual quickening—the enlivening and invigorating of his title—by means of the Word of God brought to bear upon our hearts. It is simple and straightforward in its arrangement, as so often with Spurgeon. He first gives us various reasons why we need such quickening. Next, he points out some motives to seek this enlivening and invigorating of the soul. Thirdly, he mentions some ways in which it is worked in our hearts. Finally, he suggests certain pleas for obtaining this blessing, drawn from the psalm itself. It is, of course, a sermon soaked in grace, for Spurgeon is properly persuaded that there is no spiritual life outside of and apart from Jesus Christ himself. It is also a very realistic sermon, for it takes full account of our need of life at every stage of Christian experience. Indeed, the preacher would have us grasp the three needful blessings in three important phases of the reality of spiritual life. First, that sinners might ask the Lord for life (which would itself indicate that life was coming). Second, that, every Christian would be always praying for invigorating grace, stirring the soul. Third, that every child of God would be marked by a lively appetite for ever-increasing measures of his favour, lifting us ever closer to Christ and into nearer fellowship with the triune God.
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Every believer is a student and servant of God, and therefore desires to know God’s word. Here Spurgeon moves from the prayer of such a student—to understand the way of the Lord’s precepts—to the occupation of the scholar—speaking of the Lord’s wondrous ways. Of course, in dealing with these two elements, Spurgeon overflows with gospel delight, taken up with the manner in which God has made himself known in Jesus Christ, and our pleasure in making known God manifest in his Son. But the preacher also wants to drive home that connection between understanding and declaration, between study and service, and so he pleads how the enchantment of divine truth fills our hearts and our mouths with good things. During this season, Spurgeon mentions a couple of times a Tabernacle elder by the name of Mr Verdon, “a mighty soul-hunter before the Lord.” He was one of Spurgeon’s gospel snipers, lovingly picking off the spiritually wounded after a powerful sermon. Spurgeon seems to have mourned him particularly, and this sermon is intended to bring others into the same spirit and employment. Oh, for more Verdons in our churches!
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In this sermon, Spurgeon—as he sometimes does—takes a verse in its context, and then applies it in a different direction. Interestingly, he takes time at the end of the sermon to return to the text as a whole—the parable of the two sons called to the vineyard in Matthew 21—and to give us a brief exposition of the whole. Conscious of the parallels between Israel as called to work for the Lord, and the exhortation to the church of Christ to labour for their Redeemer, Spurgeon takes the command to “go work” in its most evident and pressing sense. He exhorts the people of God to take note of their character as sons, of the labour to which they are called, of the immediacy of the effort required, and the sphere of that investment—our Father’s vineyard. Spurgeon’s clarion calls to Christian endeavour pepper his output, and constitute one of the most noteworthy elements of his public ministry.
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Here is another part of a sequence of sermons, one of five preached over successive Lord’s days on Christ as the end of the law, the conqueror of Satan, the overcomer of the world, the maker of all things new, and the destroyer of death. The relationship is thematic, and the substance is both doctrinal and experiential. In the sermon we will consider, on Christ as the conqueror of Satan, Spurgeon shows, first, his insightfulness in handling the text, peppering the whole sermon with biblical-theological insights and comments, noticing and noting occasional gleams of truth; he shows, also, his profound spirituality in connecting the arc of the experience of Christ as champion of mankind with the experience of Christ’s people in their own experience of grace and combat with the Adversary. Taking four facts from Genesis 3:15, Spurgeon reworks those four aspects in three different layers, one more doctrinal, one more experiential, and one more practical. It is, in short, a masterful handling of the text, brilliant not because of its cleverness but because of its closeness to the heart.
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While Spurgeon is not typically a sequential expositor of Scripture, there are several occasions on which he runs together sermons on a certain theme, or sets them up as counterpoints one to another. This sermon is partner to the previously-published address, “Wherefore Should I Weep?” In that previous sermon, our Lord was seen correcting and illuminating a natural grief. In this, Christ corrects and directs a natural joy into a more elevated course. This, perhaps, is one of the ways in which Spurgeon deliberately maintains balance in his public ministry, aware of its own windings and, it may be, of his own inclinations and predilections. So here he points us toward a joy that needs to be moderated, then identifies a joy which needs to be excited, and then—no surprise if we know Spurgeon!—points us toward Christ as the one who sympathises with us in this highest and purest joy. It is a very sweet sermon, lifting our eyes heavenward and fixing our gaze on the great Giver of the best gifts.
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God’s might is seen in creation, in providence, in judgment. However, while these are all suitable topics for adoration, Spurgeon directs our attention to the works of God in mercy and grace. A lengthier introduction means a certain tautness in the sermon as a whole, as Spurgeon deals with this mighty mercy revealed in our experience, displayed in Christ Jesus, and practically recognised by us all. The first point gives Spurgeon an opportunity to range over God’s dealings with us in various aspects of salvation. The second enables him to focus on the person and work of the Saviour. The third is really a series of pressing applications, revealing the impact which this reality should have on our thinking, feeling, and acting. It is well for us to consider the simplicity of this arrangement, an arrangement which—despite the concentration of his material—enables Spurgeon to roam over a reasonably wide area of Christian faith and life. It is a useful example of fairly terse sermonising, as the preacher packs truth fairy densely but not heavily into brief compass. Of course, the main concern remains its spiritual impact, and that same density puts force behind the pointed counsels with which the sermon concludes.
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This attractively-titled sermon would certainly draw in unbelievers, as well as engaging many Christians. Spurgeon addresses it to all, concluding his sermons with a word to unbelievers who know themselves unhappy or feel themselves happy presently, and to Christians who are either unhappy or happy. The foundation of these applications lies in his two main divisions: living in the Lord’s presence always, and trusting in the Lord’s presence always. For each, Spurgeon unpacks what it means and how it works out. What is particularly striking, in this sermon, is that Spurgeon identifies the contented man, first and foremost, as the Lord Jesus. This enables him to hold the Lord before us for adoration and contemplation, learning from the Saviour himself what it means to walk in happiness before God. Adroitly, Spurgeon moves from Christ’s example to our imitation, pressing the two into each other wisely and well. All of these counsels and comforts bring us to those last brief charges to different classes of hearer, leaving us considering Christ as the Author and Finisher of our faith, and—we might hope—ready to live before his God and ours, and to trust the Lord in all things.
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Spurgeon is in his element when considering the love of God toward us in Christ Jesus, and we find him exulting in that theme here. The structure of the sermon is very neat. Having introduced his theme, he uses his text (1 John 4:19) to provide us first with doctrinal instruction, teaching us about the primacy and impact of God’s love. Then he moves on to experimental information, as the mark and evidence of a right relationship with God. Third, he employs it for practical direction, carrying us to the cross for love and from the cross with love. Finally, he offers this love as an argumentative defence, demonstrating how God’s love gives us an answer for various cavils and challenges which a Christian might face. It is a masterful demonstration of how a particular truth, rich and sweet in itself, can be turned in various directions, and applied in a variety of helpful ways, illuminating the mind, assuring the heart, directing the steps, and equipping for testimony and service. While that might seem particularly clever and orderly, never does the preacher lose sight of the Christ of God and the love which is revealed in him.
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Spurgeon never tired of seeking souls. Every sinner pointed to the cross and brought by grace into Christ’s fold made him eager to more. Neither did he think that this was somehow an unusual or singular desire. As far as he was concerned, every believer should have the same goal, and could anticipate a blessing in its pursuit. I think he feared that these desires might shrivel or deflect. It is, then, no surprise that his sermons often return to this theme, as here. On this occasion, he has two simple points to make: first, that “the life of the believer is, or ought to be, full of soul blessing,” and, second, that “the pursuit of the believer ought always to be soul winning.” Regarding the first, he talks about the benefits that a truly holy man or woman brings to those around them, as the goodness of God spills over from their own into adjoining lives. After the life, says Spurgeon, the effort: here he urges God’s people to seek after souls, as some men seek to win hearts, honours, and wealth. This, he contends, is heavenly wisdom. Not content with general exhortations, he suggests that, in the aftermath of that very sermon, that every hearer determines to win a soul that very night. It is a startlingly personal and immediate conclusion and application, and one which we might readily take to heart.
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Full of rich encouragements centred in Christ’s person, this address brings us to a source of rich assurance in Christ’s own promise to Paul, that the Lord’s strength would be made perfect in his servant’s weakness. The sermon involves a somewhat convoluted approach, in which Spurgeon twists and turns the text through its various shades of meaning, throwing the emphasis upon different words in his text to bring out the nuances. That done, Spurgeon traces a line from Christ through Paul to all the saints, explaining how the all-sufficient grace of God in Christ is perfected, or brought to full expression, in his servants. He emphasises the essential strengthlessness of the creature, and the power of God magnified through that human weakness. That brings him to the blessedness of Christ’s power in his people, concluding with an urgent appeal never to ask the Lord to make us strong in ourselves, but rather to glorify himself in our weakness by manifesting his own strength in us. He goes so far as to say, “beseech the Lord to make and keep you weakness itself, that in you his power may be displayed.” In all his exhortations to Christian endeavour, this preacher never strays from his underlying conviction that we depend utterly upon the God of heaven for all grace and strength.
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Spurgeon was a preacher hungry for souls, and he expected and urged the Tabernacle congregation, and other preachers, to cultivate the same appetite. He was persuaded that the glory of God in Christ was best served by the salvation of sinners, and so he made that the great aim of the congregation. He never lost sight of the fact that the only power by which that end could be attained was the strength of Almighty God. He wanted God’s people to desire and delight in such a prospect, and to engage all their holy energies in its pursuit. Preaching here from Acts 11:21, this was his simple outline, and his earnest plea. We see again Spurgeon’s grasp on both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of men when it comes to salvation, in this case, our absolute reliance upon divine power and our duty to make Christ known in all his saving fulness. It is a sermon which ‘rebukes our slothful ease’ while also exciting us with the happy prospect of seeing the name of Christ exalted in the conversion of sinners.
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This is a penetrating sermon, and perhaps not what you would expect as Spurgeon’s first sermon in the new year of 1876, but perhaps all the more valuable for that. Maybe we would assume that we need to start the year with something uplifting, but Spurgeon has decided to begin with humbling, God helping him. In truth, it is a theme we should appreciate at any time of the year, for pride is a perennial weed in the garden of the soul. So Spurgeon catechises pride, asking a series of questions that derive from his text and its underlying assumption. By the answers, pride is condemned, being exposed for the ugliness it is. Spurgeon’s method enables his hearers and readers to interrogate themselves, asking where pride has crept into our own hearts, where it has taken root with regard either to natural or spiritual distinctions, and the bitter fruits it bears where it begins to thrive. Of course, he does not conclude without some gospel correctives, encouraging us to remember the grace of God, and so uproot pride and bring forth better and sweeter flowers, including that of faith in Christ, recognising that—if no-one has anything in which to boast—then a sinner may come to the Lord for that which he freely gives.
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This sermon is substantially an expression of adoration, in which Spurgeon traces a line from the general ascription of praise by the church to the specific life of a particular church in glorifying God. Our preacher turns our attention first to God himself, to consider his greatness, his goodness,
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and his grace toward us. His readiness to bless is then traced out in accordance with the measure of his power toward us. Next, he asks what is our proper response to such favour, and how it is to be given. Finally, and briefly, we are challenged with regard to our attitude, here and now: can we say “Amen!” to Paul’s doxology? As so often, Spurgeon’s language, rich as it is, seems to struggle to keep up with his affections. His ability to enter into his text, especially on such a happy theme, is a wonderful example of a heart attuned to truth, leading to a sermon full of questions that push the borders of experience and expression. If we do not soar so high ourselves, at least we can appreciate the view from one who does, and be stirred to seek more.
Spurgeon does not confuse the place or sequence of faith and love in our relationship to Christ, but neither does he allow either to recede from their proper place and sequence. The one who has put faith in Jesus will be one who loves the Lord Jesus above all. Saving faith always works by love. What does that mean in practice? It means, first, that love to Christ is essential, a defining mark of true Christianity. It therefore means, second, that love to Christ is the test of whether or not someone is a child of God. It means, third, that every one of us should ask whether or not we are manifesting love to God, according to a biblical mode and pattern. This is the path down which Spurgeon walks us, plainly and practically, pressing it closely home. Our instinct today, as much as ever, is probably to resist absolutes, and to soften the edges of clear truth, either for ourselves or others. Spurgeon does not allow us to evade or avoid the cutting edge of unequivocal scriptural statements: if we do not love Christ, then we do not belong to him. These, then, are needful truths for us to consider, in order that we might properly assess our standing before God, and respond accordingly.
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Here is another sermon on prayer, but this one focusing more on its personal and individual aspects. Interpreting and applying one of Job’s sayings with biblical and pastoral sensitivity (Spurgeon is no mean exegete, and certainly not careless in handing the Scriptures!), God’s servant guides us through a series of observations and directions concerning our approach to God in prayer, both in terms of a more reactive response to God’s truth coming to our souls, and then in our more proactive approaches to the throne of grace. He urges us to make use of both modes in our dealings with God, and then—with his typically Christocentric approach coming to the fore—sets out the ways in which Christ is both God’s Word to us and our response to God himself. It is a sermon full of light and comfort, and a genuine help to those who want to learn how to pray. Spurgeon, himself a man of prayer, is well situated to instruct us in such matters, and to help us think through our patterns and practices in prayer, whether private or public.
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Here is a powerful exhortation for the church to give itself to prayer, not just regularly but also particularly and occasionally, for special purposes. Spurgeon considers the circumstances in which the early church found itself when it gave itself to prayer, and uses that to exhort and encourage churches to do the same. He emphasises the place which the early Christians gave to prayer in their corporate gatherings and how that is reflected in the way in which they gave themselves to seeking God as a congregation, as well as noticing the place and time of the meeting. He urges us to take account of God’s blessing given in response to the pleading of the saints, reminding us that “all through the church of God the true progress is in proportion to the prayer.” I have heard corporate prayer meetings being denigrated as if they are no proper or valuable institution in the life of the church. I have seen churches in which corporate prayer is shamefully minimised or neglected, often reflected in the number and spirit of those who gather. Here is a helpful and robust corrective to all such attitudes, pointing us toward the profitable necessity of prayer by the church, and urging us to avail ourselves of the opportunity of such dealing with our merciful and mighty God.
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This is a lovely, lively sermon, full of sweet practicality. Spurgeon considers the way in which a particular household can become a radiating centre of gospel light in a particular neighbourhood, as grace enters it, grips it, and then gushes from it. It is one of those brilliantly inventive sermons, anchored to the text without being wooden, imaginative without being fanciful, challenging without being crushing. It ought to leave us asking whether or not a home that is genuinely Christian—that is, one in which the household is genuinely governed by God’s grace in Christ, characterised by true and lively faith—is operating as it should in spreading gospel influence in the place in which God has placed us. May it stir each one of us to ask, first, whether or not our homes are gripped as they ought to be by the gospel, and, second, whether or not the gospel is shining out from our homes and bringing blessings to our neighbours! If Christ visits our homes and our hearts, surely this should be the happy effect?
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Spurgeon’s outlines are rarely elaborate, and some are very plain. That is the case here. The fairly developed introduction clears the ground and establishes the scene. Then Spurgeon takes the simple idea of a final separation from his text in Matthew 25, and offers three straightforward thoughts: the division, the divider, and the rule of the division. His language and imagery are lively but not lurid; he does not pull his punches concerning the final judgment, but neither does he ever give the impression that he is revelling in the detail. He speaks of eternal reality with present affection, pressing home the need for his congregation to reckon with the great day. He handles more complicated matters with wisdom and sensitivity. He closes, as we might well imagine, with a potent appeal to come to the God of grace, not at all on the basis of what we have done, are doing, or will do, but in dependence on the Christ of God who can give us a new heart and a new work to do in service to him.
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This sermon is brief enough to make the reader ask about the occasion of its preaching. No explanation is given in the text, though there may be a shade of a hint. Was it some notable occasion? Did the preacher feel particularly weak and afflicted himself? (Spurgeon often tells his congregation if this is the case.) Is he adapting his material for a particular class of hearers who might struggle with more? Whatever the explanation, the result is a little jewel of a sermon, concentrating on the excellencies of Christ in a way adapted to soothe Christians of a fearful cast of mind, terrified by the notion of condemnation. Of course, the security of the Christian in Christ gives way to a plea toward those who are still outside, that they would come to Christ to enjoy the so-great salvation which he alone provides.
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purgeon is happy to preach on preaching, so that the saints under the sound of his voice might know what to expect, and to what they are entitled. He does that in this sermon. Taking the phrase, “Rightly dividing the word of truth” he studies it by way of a series of figures taken from a variety of expositors, each of which sheds its own light on the duty of expounding and explaining and applying the Scriptures. Integrity, honesty, simplicity, clarity, urgency, all come to the fore as Spurgeon explains why it is so important that ministers handle the Word of God as those answerable to God for the souls of those to whom they preach, all considered in the light of eternity. Reading the sermon today is a help to preachers as we consider our duty, and how to discharge it; it is of value to hearers, perhaps to value a faithful ministry—not just despite its probing and pressing nature, but because of it—or to seek out a man who will not play fast and loose with God’s revelation, but handle it faithfully, for their soul’s sake.
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The Sword and the Trowel was Spurgeon’s magazine. The January number for 1875 began with an article acknowledging God’s goodness in providing for the publication of sermons for twenty years, and giving some history of the endeavour (this article is included in this week’s printed sermon). This sermon, preached at the end of 1874, is the pulpit testimony to the same. It is marked by humility and gratitude, and by a delight in the gospel which Spurgeon was privileged to preach. There is here both confidence and conviction: this is the preached gospel which the Lord has blessed, and this is the gospel which the preacher is determined to go on preaching, glorious in its object and inexhaustible in its fullness. So, then, there is no surprise that a celebration of gospel preaching becomes an opportunity, once again, to set forth the unsearchable riches of Christ. The sermon ends with this challenge: “Bestir yourselves, feed upon Jesus, and then take of the good cheer to those who do not know the riches of Christ, and as God gives you grace, go you and fulfil this ministry, and you will then say, as I do, and as the apostle said of old, ‘Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.’ The Lord bless you. Amen.”
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There is joy in salvation. There is joy in God because of salvation, joy for the repenting sinner because of salvation, and joy for the servants of God who are instruments of blessing because of salvation. Spurgeon sees this figured out for us in the story of the prodigal son returning home. Using careful language, he shows us the joy that is in the father’s heart; he rejoices with the son who is welcomed home by his father; he considers the delight of the servants who are given work to do in welcoming and adorning the once-rebellious child. While he is writing long before some modern debates about the affections of God, and should be read as such, Spurgeon shows us that such questions are not new. Even if some will struggle with his language about God’s joy, we need to ensure that we are able to communicate the divine delight over returning sinners, and to appreciate the delight in the hearts of sinners who return, so that we can enter into that delight insofar as we are given the privilege of serving a saving God.
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God is God. Simple as that might sound, it is the profound truth which Spurgeon works out, in measure, in this sermon. Because God is God, and—for believers—especially because he is our God, we are to glorify him in all things. The claims of God are grounded in his being and doing, and then Spurgeon assesses our response to them. So often our attitude is one of disdain or neglect. Where is the honour to which God is entitled from his creatures, his people? And so Spurgeon pleads with us to embrace the claims of God, as not only proper but delightful, ennobling, purifying. It begins with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and works out in cheerful and willing service to the God of our salvation, seeking to honour his claims in thought, word, and deed.
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This eminently practical sermon shows something of the value which Spurgeon places on prayer. Having briefly handled his text in its context, he concentrates on three dangers: hindrances from prayer—those things which keep us from prayer altogether; hindrances in prayer—those things which keep us from really praying when we pray; and, hindrances to the speeding of our prayers—those things which keep us from having access to God, and enjoying answers to our prayers. It is eminently practical and evidently heartfelt. Given the fact that prayer, by its very nature, is so often a battle, these are helpful considerations for us. They keep us from finding easy excuses or offering lazy complaints, and point us back to our own heart disposition, our attitudes and appetites in prayer, and the way in which our prayers are so often and easily undermined by our own carnality and carelessness. This sermon calls us to pray, and exhorts us to pray indeed, making our pleadings with God the very expression of our desires for his glory.
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This is a truly sweet and happy sermon. Do not be put off by the text: “The God of my mercy shall prevent me.” As Spurgeon makes clear, the point is that the God of my mercy shall go before me, shall anticipate me, shall come to meet me. And so he explains the particular nature of the relationship, the grasp that David has on God’s mercy, and the various ways and senses in which the God of mercy, the God of my mercy, anticipates every demand arising out of the genuine needs of every child of God, and meets us at the very point of need. This covers the past, especially in our experience of salvation; it addresses the present, as God sustains and blesses us in all our circumstances; it provides for the future, knowing that to the very end of our days the God of my mercy will guide us. Spurgeon shows himself a masterly preacher here, building in his applications along the way before sending home a few precious truths at the close of the whole. Here are truths rich and sweet to sustain our souls as we press on in the pilgrim way.
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Spurgeon considers Paul a balanced preacher—not a middle-of-the-road preacher, but one who both offers salvation in all its fullness, to be received and enjoyed with assurance, and who warns lest the faith which a sinner professes be something else than the saving faith which clings to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. This, then, is a searching sermon, in which the preacher urges us to consider the nature of the true faith which God gives as opposed to the empty faith which some claim. We need to consider the very nature of that faith, and its relation to Christ Jesus. We need to know why it is so important to consider this question, given how many turn away, how many fall short, how many are hypocrites, how many professing Christians simply show little of the evidences of a child of God. We need to understand what is at stake with regard to heaven and hell. We need to know how to respond. Here, Spurgeon is carefully pastoral: these warnings are not designed to crush true faith, but—in shaking it—to send its roots deeper into God, into his truth, into Christ. So he urges us not to draw back but to press on, to cling to Christ wholeheartedly, and so to enter into rest.
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In appreciating Spurgeon the gospel preacher, we should not imagine that his gospel preaching is somehow shallow or narrow, nor that it lacks anything of the pastoral note. Spurgeon cares for the souls of people. He cares that sinners come into the kingdom; he cares that saints be built up in the kingdom. Again, that latter note does not make him a mere sentimentalist. I am not always persuaded that as many of us would have relished sitting under Spurgeon’s ministry as we might imagine! Here he is perfectly straight with his hearers, without being at all harsh. He first reminds us that God will chide, offering some reasons and explanations as to why that will be so. Then he brings in some particular comforts and consolations, emphasising the kindness, patience, and wisdom of Almighty God. His applications are wide-ranging but pointed and searching. It is a grand example of pastoral preaching, gently yet firmly bringing needed truth to bear.
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You probably have no need to be told that Spurgeon almost instinctively reverts to the pure presentation of the gospel when given the merest opportunity. Here his emphasis is on the freeness of divine grace. Preaching from Isaiah 55:1, he tells us why this is so surprising to fallen man, why it is a necessity (not just from our need, but from the character of the God who saves), and then the salutary influence of this fact—the happy effect of being saved by free grace. As so often, on one level there is nothing particularly novel here, nothing unusual in terms of what Spurgeon says as a preacher. Nevertheless, two things in particular stand out. One is the relentless and intense concentration on this primary idea of freeness, which has the effect of holding it before the eyes so as to drive home the issues. The other, developing from that, is the way in which Spurgeon presses that one truth persuasively into the hearts of his hearers, reasoning and wrestling so that they might grasp the wonderful freeness of God’s great grace in Christ. As hearers, we are made to gaze upon this truth so that, under God, we cannot avoid its marvel. As preachers, we are forced to ask whether or not we are so righteously relentless in pressing home God’s word.
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Podcast 169: Daniel Facing the Lion’s Den (S1154) Dan 6:10
Spurgeon delighted in communion with the Lord. He was manifestly a man of prayer, and he regularly exhorts his hearers and his readers to embrace that marvellous privilege. It is worth noting the title and content of the sermon: this is not about Daniel in the lion’s den, but facing it; it is about Daniel’s commitment to prayer in the face of fearful pressures, of his principled obedience in the face of awful threats. The sermon itself, then, is simple and straightforward. Spurgeon considers Daniel as a man committed to prayer and blessed and prospered by means of his communication with heaven. He then addresses the privileges of prayer, urging us to take advantage of the opportunities we have to come before the Lord. Then there is Daniel’s decision, his attachment to his holy habit of prayer despite all that comes against him. Finally, there is Daniel’s deliverance, not from his trial, but through his trial. The whole becomes an earnest exhortation to pursue the right course regardless of the difficulties which it brings. This is by no means shallow or moralistic preaching, but neither is Spurgeon afraid to take the saints of the Old Testament as examples and encouragements in righteousness, and we should take the model to heart.
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Podcast 169: Daniel Facing the Lion’s Den (S1154) Dan 6:10
Here Spurgeon weaves together something complementary in the work of parents and pastors with regard to their children, both physical and spiritual. First of all, working within John’s figure, he applies the words of his text to parents, underscoring the delight that a Christian father or mother feels in the salvation of their sons and daughters, one of the greatest of all earthly joys. Then, he turns to the figure itself as John uses it, speaking of a pastor’s delight in the conversion of sinners, and the profound pleasure that a preacher feels as a spiritual parent when he sees God’s people walking in his ways. He not only expresses but stirs the joy we might feel, urging us to find it by seeking the salvation of those under our care, but also reminding those who profess faith in Jesus Christ of their responsibility so to walk that parents and pastors might feel such delight, and that—ultimately—the Lord himself would be magnified in his children.
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This, says Spurgeon, is a sermon “mainly upon my own behalf, and on the behalf of my brethren in the ministry.” Specifically, and for the sake of the saints, and ultimately for the glory of God, he intends “to excite you to be much in prayer, both for myself and all ministers of Christ Jesus.” Without any kind of self-indulgence, and in a spirit of honesty rather than complaint, Spurgeon builds a compelling case for the saints to plead with God on behalf of ministers of the gospel. He explains why the saints should so pray, and who should be engaged, and when and where this duty might be carried out. Then, both for encouragement and challenge, he underscores the reality of the Spirit’s supply and its consequent blessing, and so presses home the need for that supply in answer to the prayers of the saints. How do you think about your pastors? What do you know of their labour and their need of grace in that labour? How do you pray for ministers of the gospel, and your minister? Spurgeon, neither boasting nor whining, draws back the veil a little on the work of ministry to excite our prayers, and the expectation of God’s answer to them.
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Spurgeon knows how to reason with men, how to plead and persuade as a preacher. This sermon is a fine example of that often-neglected element of ministry. With wisdom from the Word of God, illuminated by the Holy Spirit and proven over long and happy experience, Spurgeon steps through a good selection of the reasons why people do not come to Christ, or think they cannot or have not, and seeks to remove the stumbling blocks. Then, having cleared the road of obstacles, he covers it over with Christ and paves it with promises, so that sinners might go by him to heaven. Both elements are strikingly simple, but wonderfully helpful. Here is the pastor-evangelist indeed, gently but firmly dismantling mistakes and confusions, and introducing—sweetly and straightforwardly—the Saviour and his so great salvation. If we would be physicians of souls, it is well to follow a gifted doctor on his rounds. We could do a lot worse than to learn from Spurgeon how to preach the gospel not by way of general exhortation only, but dealing closely with troubled souls in order to clear their path.
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I should, perhaps, confess that this sermon was particularly attractive to me as a result of my needing to preach on a particular theme at an upcoming conference. Having been considering a related topic, this sermon made my heart sing! Here is Spurgeon the gospeller, Spurgeon the evangelist, Spurgeon as preacher and teacher in sweet harmony. Conscious very much that he is an ambassador of heaven, Spurgeon fulfils that role while, as it were, shedding much light—almost incidentally—upon the nature of his work. He does this all in a way which humbles man (considered either as ambassador of grace or recipient of grace) and which exalts God. And yet, for all his description of what he is doing and what other gospel ministers ought to do, there is no doubt that he is actually doing it. With consummate skill, the sermon builds into a grand appeal to sinners to thrown down their arms of rebellion and take Jesus Christ as Saviour.
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Are you tempted to think, in some way or other, that Christ does not really care for you? Do your present circumstances lead you to fear that he has no regard for your well-being? Against such doubts and fears Spurgeon turns his guns as he reasons with us as to how we should think and what we should believe lest we fall into this trap, describing the genuine regard that our Lord has for his beloved people under all circumstances, and assuring us that this will become apparent to us in due course. He gives us an anatomy of ungodly fear and of God’s own care. Again, here is the blend of tender rebuke and careful encouragement at which our preacher excels; here is that pastoral insight into the hearts of men and that faithful grasp of the heart of God which blend together in preaching to the soul so that we both see what is wrong and are led to what is right.
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This sermon develops, early on, into a broadside against spiritual self-satisfaction. Spurgeon demolishes—with unusual thoroughness—any sense of spiritual smugness, by taking Paul’s desire for holiness as his proper standard, as well as considering other models of godliness and his broader experience of mankind. He digs deep, asking by what routes men attain to such a sense of contentedness with their present condition, and the root of such self-applause. Having done most of the heavy lifting in the first and bulkiest part of his sermon, considering the present life, he then hits us rapidly with the other three points which form the outline of his sermon: how Paul looks on his past with accuracy, to the future eagerly, all the while engaging fervently. For all his evangelistic fervour, Spurgeon never lets slip the connection between salvation and true godliness, and here he urges us not to become complacent with present attainments in holiness, but rather to press onward—while we rejoice that Christ’s work for us is complete, we must recognise that the Spirit’s work in us is ongoing, and labour accordingly as new men in Christ.
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How can you tell when God is among his people in a distinctive way? What are the marks of God’s present favour? What are the indications of reviving among the saints? Using Zechariah 8:21 as his springboard, Spurgeon identifies several of the signs of God’s presence among his people: their great interest in divine worship; their encouragement to one another to use the means of grace; their urgency and immediacy in using these means; their eye particularly on God in these duties; and, their personal resolve and investment in waiting upon the Lord. This preacher has a sweet talent for both cutting and binding up; he knows how to expose and clean the wound, but he also knows how to pour in the balm. He is skilled in drawing us to God in Christ, making the exercises of religion seem sweet and delightful to the awakened soul. Here is a true call to worship indeed, not lacking in rebuke for our coolness and dulness, but painting a happy portrait of a people taken up with God, knowing and seeking and enjoying his ministrations toward them.
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There is a danger in appreciating sermons of robust exhortation, a potential spiritual sado-masochism of sorts, in which we pride ourselves on having received a good whipping, without being any the better for having undergone the experience. One antidote to this is to make sure that the exhortation rides on the back of appreciation, and it is this which Spurgeon does here. He wants us to understand how blessed we are as God’s people, how richly favoured and fed from the royal table, and what that means in terms of our regard for the King’s honour, and how that works out in various spheres of life. That emphasis on blessing is not intended to send us on a ‘guilt trip’ either—it is not mere manipulation to say that if we have fallen short, and our love has cooled, then we ought to repent and do our first works, given how greatly we have been loved and blessed. So, then, let us not indulge ourselves in a bit of self-satisfied self-recrimination, but consider the mercies which God has bestowed, and the honour to which he is entitled from those whom he has so privileged.
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This is Spurgeon at his scripturally-centred best, digging deep into his text to tell us the what, and the when, and the why, and the whom, and the how of true thanksgiving. Wisely and insightfully, he reminds us that this must be the fruit of the reconciled heart, the one that knows its relation to God in Christ, setting out the spiritual prerequisites of a grateful soul. Finally, he records some of the excellent fruits of such a spirit, how it honours God, restrains sin, calms us and cheers us, and makes us useful. This is a preacher who delights in God and in all his good gifts. He is able to survey the eternal goods, the temporal goods, the unknown or unseen or unrecognised blessings, and especially to remind us that even in the worst of griefs and pains and afflictions we have good reason to give thanks to our God. With plenty of space to ponder our own attitudes, to repent of our complaining, and to resolve that we will go forth with a more cheerful zeal, this is an uplifting and valuable sermon for any time and place. For some, it may be a needful rebuke; for others, a particular spur; for some, a delightful encouragement; for all, a profitable lesson.
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Like many of his eminent spiritual forefathers, Spurgeon is very much a theologian of the Holy Spirit. His communion with, relish for, and dependence on the Spirit of God is often prominent in his sermons, and that is itself a reflection of his whole life. This sermon is concerned with a full and rich trinitarianism, for he wants to ensure that the Holy Spirit receives his proper prominence and honour as the third Person of the Godhead. Concentrating on his title as Paraclete, the preacher first explains that name, and then—under pressure of time—turns to the particular nature of the comfort which he brings. His concluding observations bring the matter to bear upon both believers and unbelievers, holding out joy and hope to all who would honour and rely upon the Holy Ghost. The sermon is an antidote both to unscriptural notions of the person and work of the Holy Spirit (with particularly short shrift given to the wilder claims) and to a diminishing of him in the eyes and hearts of his people.
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Like many of his eminent spiritual forefathers, Spurgeon is very much a theologian of the Holy Spirit. His communion with, relish for, and dependence on the Spirit of God is often prominent in his sermons, and that is itself a reflection of his whole life. This sermon is concerned with a full and rich trinitarianism, for he wants to ensure that the Holy Spirit receives his proper prominence and honour as the third Person of the Godhead. Concentrating on his title as Paraclete, the preacher first explains that name, and then—under pressure of time—turns to the particular nature of the comfort which he brings. His concluding observations bring the matter to bear upon both believers and unbelievers, holding out joy and hope to all who would honour and rely upon the Holy Ghost. The sermon is an antidote both to unscriptural notions of the person and work of the Holy Spirit (with particularly short shrift given to the wilder claims) and to a diminishing of him in the eyes and hearts of his people.
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Much of this sermon seems to bubble out of the preacher’s heart, gushing forth with less of structure but more of force. It is not without organisation, but his first point concerning the believer’s frequent need of quickening or enlivening is a swirling catalogue of need, flitting from thought to thought as he considers just how dependent we are on the Lord for his mercies. From human need he turns to divine grant, identifying the God of heaven as the one from whom all these mercies flow, and the channels down which he sends them. Spurgeon points us to the way of obedience, before reminding us of the particular seasons in which we might particularly seek this stirring in our souls by the Holy Spirit. As so often, Spurgeon’s style seems to suit the mood of his sermon, the rhythm and arrangement of his words carrying us along even as readers, prompting us to go to our gracious God for his revitalising influence.
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Spurgeon never goes very far Christ Jesus, in all his sermons or in any sermon. Here he is in his element as a preacher of the gospel of his Saviour: “It is mine to preach a Saviour in whom I believe, whom having not seen I love. I am looking to him now for everything, even as I would have you do. I see in him superlative beauties which I wish you to see, and I worship a divinity in him which I desire you to worship. I preach not to you an unknown God, or an untried Saviour.” You can hear the man’s heart bubbling over with joyful faith which he longs to share, and in such a sermon we come close to the heart of Spurgeon, and see something reflected in him of the heart of Christ for sinners. Revelation, contemplation, instruction and adoration run on each other’s heels through the sermon, and I trust will take root in our hearts as we consider it.
This is, in some ways, a sermon about fear. The introduction is fascinating, setting the scene for what follows by tracing out some of the ways in which change and novelty can disturb and unsettle certain people in particular, with the fears that can dominate some of God’s people. Spurgeon responds with words of consolation, direction, and expectation. The whole is marked by realism about the experience of the saints, compassion toward those who struggle, courage in the face of opportunities and difficulties, and pastoral sense and straightforwardness about not succumbing to our fears. Distinctly helpful is his sense of the blessings that await in moving forward into new spheres, even with their challenges—the eagerness with which we can anticipate good things, and the anticipation that in all that comes to pass, our Lord Jesus shall be magnified in our eyes. In a time that seems to be marked by anxiety and even anger among God’s people, when many cling thoughtlessly to what they think they know even at the expense of good things they have not yet known, Spurgeon’s counsels come with timely force to our hearts.
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The people of God ought to pray for saints and for sinners. Spurgeon’s text to enforce this duty is the last phrase of Psalm 141:5, drawn from the Authorised Version: “For yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.” Acknowledging the difficulty of the phrase in the original, Spurgeon takes it in the form in which he finds it in his Bible, and applies it in those two simple directions. In praying for the saints, he teaches us to think in terms of obligation, honour, excellence, and extent. If this first of his two points takes the lion’s share of the space in the sermon, the second part probably wears the crown of intensity, for here the preacher pleads with his congregation to pray for the lost, bringing only a few but fiery reasons for them to do so. Prayer holds a vital place in Spurgeon’s estimation of his own walk with God, and in his estimation of the life and labour of any faithful and fruitful church. It both feeds into the work of the saints, and flows out of it, stirring us to the very labour which sends us back to the throne of grace for strength and for blessing. At one point, Spurgeon asks, “Do you not think, dear brethren, that if we were each one required upon the spot to give an account of his attention to this excellent duty, we should most of us need to be ashamed? May I venture to put the question to every Christian here, have you rendered to God and his church your fair proportion of intercessory prayer?” Assuming that the question receives the same answer today as it did in 1872, I trust that this sermon will prove as useful now as then.
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This sermon is an estimation and celebration of faith, with an exhortation to it. “How is it possible for the preacher to say too much about faith, or to extol this grace too highly!” asks Spurgeon in his opening sentence. The focus of the sermon is on what it means to be a partaker of Christ. Having set forth something of the sense of that, Spurgeon spends time pressing home the solemn and searching question of whether or not we are truly partakers of the Lord Christ. In his customary fashion, Spurgeon pushes this deep into the conscience of his hearers. Then he subjects us to an unerring test of our participation in Christ—our holding steadfastly to the beginnings or foundation of our confidence. And so Spurgeon points us back to Christ, back to Christ as we first closed with him and clung to him, refreshing our spiritual sight and sense. Not lacking in warnings, but full of sweet encouragements, this sermon opens with the note of faith and closes with the eye of faith fixed upon the Lord.
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Spurgeon’s Christianity is marked by a deeply personal and experiential affection for the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the expression of that may be somewhat coloured by his context, the foundation of it is thoroughly biblical. One of the ways in which Spurgeon expresses that affection is in the rich and emotive language with which he speaks of Christ. That shows itself often in his handling of the Song of Solomon, a portion of God’s Word in which Spurgeon delights, and a further revelation of Spurgeon’s naturally Christ-centred reading of the Old Testament. Reading it in the Puritan manner, primarily if not entirely as an allegorical expression of the love between Christ and his church, in this sermon he uses his text to underline the importance of the presence of Christ with his people, and the yearning we have—or should have—to know his nearness with us. You may not always find Spurgeon’s handling of the text compelling, but I hope you will find the theme of the sermon valuable.
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This is the last sermon in the volume for 1871, and it was preached on the last day of that year. While Spurgeon very rarely preaches sermons in sequence, he often shows his awareness of sermons recently preached, and of the response that people make to them, often drawing in new themes or reiterating previous ones in order to make a pastoral or polemical point. He does have a penchant for preaching from multiple texts on occasion, as he does here. This particular sermon builds on the previous Lord’s day’s sermon, and the promise of joy to come. It zeroes in on the joy that the saints possess, its divine origin and practical value, holding out the blessings to all those who would take them. It is worth remembering that, while Spurgeon is emphatic, insistent and repetitive in his calls for Christian energy and endeavour, he never unyokes that calls from a deep and happy awareness of what God has done for his people in Christ Jesus, and how our ongoing relationship with God in Christ is the source of all our cheerful strength. It is a good sermon with which to close a year, and a good sermon for any time in the year.
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If you are expecting this to be a polemical blast against infant sprinkling, think again. Of course, Spurgeon remains throughout an unembarrassed Baptist, but his concern is primarily positive: to allure and to encourage us to long for and to labour for true family religion. In five points, Spurgeon walks through his text, showing a whole family hearing, believing, baptised, serving, and rejoicing. He closes with earnest pleas to all who have any family responsibility to plead with and pray for those over whom the Lord has given them authority and influence. He paints a beautiful picture of the rapid rush of gospel faith through that little community of the household, and urges us to hope for it and to pursue it. We acknowledge that, even among Reformed or Particular Baptists, there are some slight differences of emphasis in this matter, such as the point at which one might baptise a believing child, but Spurgeon gives us a good reminder that—far from disparaging or denying family religion—Baptists ought to be at the forefront of promoting and pursuing it. This sermon offers a delightful spur to that end.
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Taking a phrase that occurs three times in the book of the Psalms—“Let such as love thy salvation say continually, let God be magnified”—Spurgeon asks three simple questions. With regard to the character, who is speaking? With regard to the saying, what are they testifying, and in what spirit? Then, with regard to the wish, why are they so pleading and desiring? Why should godly people desire that the Lord should be magnified? It is a sermon both to encourage and to challenge, for Spurgeon is constantly showing us the depths of what is being sought, but also asking us repeatedly whether or not we can enter into the character, appreciate the saying, and endorse the wish. On one level, the sermon is not really telling us to do anything; on another, it transforms everything we do, for it revives our energies and directs our expectations. It is, then, aimed very much at the heart, concerning our motives and intents. As such, Spurgeon’s hope is that we will be stirred not only to say, “Let God be magnified!” but also to live out that desire in every sphere.
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Stirred by the death of a faithful deacon of the church, Spurgeon brings that man’s dying words to his brothers to the congregation by way of a sermon. He sets before them in potent language the potent fact that they have been bought at the price of Christ’s life-pains, that the Son of God shed his precious blood to make them his own. From that flows a plain consequence: if Christ has bought you then you are not your own, but you belong to God in your body and soul. Spurgeon explores both the negative side of that and the positive. That leads to a natural conclusion, that those who belong to God ought to glorify God in their bodies as well as in their souls. He closes with some particular reminders and exhortations that it is perfectly proper for the world to keep a close eye upon those who claim to be Christ’s purchased possession, and to expect them to live to the standard of men who follow Christ. To fail to do so is to dishonour the one who bought us. Without for one moment lurching into sentimentality, and holding fast to the plain sense of the words, Spurgeon nevertheless takes advantage of the occasion of the death of Thomas Cook to urge the saints to holiness—a fine example of ‘occasional’ preaching, as well as a clear call for consecrated living.
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A multi-texted sermon, this. When Spurgeon uses this approach, sometimes there is sequence and development, sometimes connection, sometimes contrast in his texts. In this case, he uses Isaiah as quoted by Peter, putting both texts side by side. He does so in order to bring out what he believes to be the true meaning of the passage, or at least the emphasis which he brings to light. And so he considers the withering work of the Holy Spirit, the way in which he brings low the glory of man, exposing our sin and our folly, driving home the sentence of death, in order that the incorruptible seed of the word of God, implanted by the Holy Ghost, may be in us, and abide in us for ever. The great bulk of the sermon is given over to a thorough consideration of the way in which the Spirit of God brings the proud heart low, before a brief, earnest testimony and plea concerning the unwithering and unwitherable seed which the Spirit plants in the hearts of God’s people. It is a fine example of a searching sermon, exposing not only our true need but the false refuges to which we might run, in order to bring a challenge to bear, on the far side of which lies the sweetest comfort for those who flee to Christ for safety.
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This was a landmark for Spurgeon, reflected in the title and substance of his thousandth sermon. Without drawing excessive attention to the occasion, but rather offering a subtle testimony to the mercies of God through the years to this point, and in a tone of humble wonder and sincere appreciation, the preacher emphasises the exceeding abundance of God’s grace in Christ. There is so much, and for so many, for all who come! As a person trusting in Jesus, as a pastor caring for others, as a preacher holding out the Saviour, Spurgeon exults in the generous goodness of God. As you might expect, he employs the text to offer the most wonderful hope to the most needy of sinners, bringing challenge to those who hold off, and comfort to those who come in.
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This is a simple sermon, probably preached by a very sick man. It was printed at the end of a three-month absence from the pulpit at the Metropolitan Tabernacle by Mr Spurgeon, and includes a brief personal note to the congregation at its end, thanking them for their prayers. Although undated, there are intimate touches in it which at least suggest that it came from the period of his suffering. Indeed, the very simplicity of its structure and substance suggests that it may come from the heart of a man who is struggling to do much more than the basics, but who is finding his own comforts, and offering those same comforts to others, from the most basic of truths. With sweet straightforwardness, then, our preacher simply points out the proprietor of the sheep, the marks of the sheep, and the privileges of the sheep, not forgetting—even as he presses home the favours that believers enjoy in Christ—to remind us of our responsibilities to the Saviour, and the need of those who are not yet in his flock to come to the Shepherd that they might receive life from him. Let us not despair of simple sermons, nor assume that sickness spells the end of usefulness, for the Lord is able to show his strength in the weakness of his servants.
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Musing on the benedictions that drop from the lips of a faithful man, and in anticipation of his own absence from the flock at the Tabernacle, Spurgeon turns to the words with which Paul closes his letter to the Romans: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” With an eye to the affection which underpins the apostolic blessing, he dives into the substance of the particular favour which he enjoins upon God’s people, musing upon the grace which is in and through and with Christ, and some of the dimensions of it. This is the bulk of his treatment. More briefly he considers the people who receive the blessing, and how and why we so need the grace of our Lord. Finally, and very warmly, he surveys the sweet results to be anticipated when such a blessing rests upon the beloved of God. Throughout the sermon, and especially having given himself so largely to the first section, one has the sense of a full heart operating under holy constraint, much material and true pastoral affection forced from the heart through the narrow aperture of the preacher’s mouth under pressure of time. It helps us to consider not just how we pray, and with what sense and desire, but also what we can anticipate when the servants of God call down the mercies of the Lord’s on our needy heads.
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Picking up the last episode of the parable of the wedding feast, Spurgeon applies it carefully in his own context, acknowledging that times of spiritual excitement often see false professors joining the visible church. He therefore preaches a sermon intended to provoke heart-searching among his hearers, that they may not be found out in the day of God’s testing. With that in mind, he has five simple headings: an enemy at the feast, the king at the feast, who becomes the judge at the feast, making the enemy the criminal at the feast, who is removed by the executioner at the feast. Spurgeon treads through this structure in ever tightening circles, each one built on those preceding. His final charge and plea is to take heed of the gospel sifting that comes through such preaching, before you come to God’s sifting in the day when he draws near, and find yourself exposed to his judgement. Spurgeon never lets go of the stark distinction of life and death, heaven and hell. That breeds a fierce honesty and an earnest compassion, both of which are on display in this telling sermon.
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This delightful sermon lays hold of Christ in his present power by pointing to the display of that power when, at his coming, he works the transformation of all his redeemed people at their resurrection from the dead. The logic is simple. First, Christ has power to raise all his people and to transform their vile bodies that they may be like his glorious body. The preacher takes some time to describe and explain something of what that display of power must involve. Second, from his text he underscores that the power which he has just described currently belongs to Christ, who exerts that power in raising his people from spiritual death, emphasising something of the parallels between the physical resurrection and the spiritual, and the hope that gives. Finally, and very briefly, he presses home our desire as believers to see Christ subduing sinners, closing with a powerful plea to unbelievers to be subdued, and to find life and peace in so doing. The sermon is remarkable for the way in which Spurgeon is able not only to set before us some of the glories to come, but also to explain the present confidence of those who have such a Saviour.
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This sermon is one in which Spurgeon clings very closely to his text. His three-point outline follows the overall arc of the verses from which he preaches, while under each main heading, rather than arranging some thoughts as he so often does, he rather follows the substance of the biblical wording closely, unpacking it, explaining it, applying it. The result is a sermon as logical as any others in its arrangement, but tied to the text in a way that is fairly distinctive. The substance of the sermon is one of Spurgeon’s particular concerns: the connection between a saved soul and a holy life, the joy that is found in Christ and the righteousness that is pursued in his strength, the happiness that feeds our desire for holiness, and the holiness that increases our happiness. With his customary care to keep the finished work of Christ at the ground and centre of the whole, Spurgeon urges us to purge out all that is displeasing to him, that without malice and wickedness and in sincerity and in truth, we might keep the feast, always feeding upon Christ for our strength and joy.
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Spurgeon is deeply concerned with the prayers of God’s people. The Tabernacle, under his care, was a congregation marked by a prayerful spirit, worked out in various opportunities for intercession, and not least a pattern of regular congregational prayer, with particular seasons for pleading God’s blessing. Behind that appetite for prayer lies a confidence in the God who hears prayer. This sermon is grounded on beautiful convictions about the goodness of God. Spurgeon uses Christ’s comparison between the sinful father who still knows how to give good gifts to his children and the Father in heaven who gives good gifts to those who ask him to assure us that right requests obtain right replies. Then, on the same basis, the best requests are likely to obtain the surest answers. Finally, again on the same foundation, the text itself supplies the best request, and so obtains all needful blessings. The sermon, with its practical applications for a praying people, brims over with confidence in the God whose heart toward his people is full of love, and who will never give a bad thing when a truly good one is pleaded by his beloved children.
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We too easily cease to wonder at the marvel of divine love and the splendour of divine blessing. This sermon, as so many, puts on display Spurgeon’s persistent joy in the salvation of God, in itself and as bestowed upon others. It is one of the sermons in which, rather than deal with a theme suggested by a verse, he engages in close dealing with the text itself—on this occasion, 1 Peter 1:3–5. He simply, sweetly, works his way through the text, exploring the particular favours which the Lord God has bestowed upon his people, culminating where the verse itself begins, with the blessed God, who himself is the portion of his people and the source of all their good. It is our privilege to be so blessed by the blessed God, the Most Merciful and Most Gracious, and therefore right for us to rise up and bless the God of our salvation.
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We ought to have a burning appetite for people to know Christ in salvation. We will do that if we delight in him for ourselves. Spurgeon pre-eminently combines that personal delight and that urgent concern. He therefore sets the Lord Jesus before us in the simplicity of his character as the way from sin and to God, impressing upon us the blessings he brings and constantly persuading his hearers to come to Christ, seeking to attract them with his beauties while also warning them of the dangers of not coming on to the way. The preacher shows his talent for conversational close dealing here—nothing is left in the abstract, nothing is allowed to remain theoretical, but the earthiness of the image lends itself to developing metaphors which call us to come to Christ and keep with Christ in order that we may arrive at heaven at last. As so often, we are left saying, on the one hand, that there is little spectacular in the sermon itself, and yet it is full of Christ Jesus, set forth with a winsome earnestness that we would do well to cultivate.
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This is a sermon both weighty and cutting. Spurgeon evidently feels it as he preaches it, and it comes across in the plainness of his language and the starkness and roughness of the structure. The sermons barrels along, heaping thought upon thought. There is clarity and order in it, but there is also a sort of relentless around a straightforward assertion that two things are to be followed and two things are to be avoided. The preacher takes no prisoners in pressing upon our consciences the need to take seriously the divine exhortations, holding before us both vigorous encouragements and unblushing warnings about the seriousness of the matter in hand. No pulpit comic here, no casual entertainer, but a man in deep earnest about the souls of his hearers, and determined that they should know the way of everlasting life, and be turned away from the path of death.
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Spurgeon’s assessment of Martha and Mary is not just a crass comparison between the two women, but is rather used to throw light on a disposition he perceives in the church as a whole. It may not be the kind of sermon that all men are in a position to preach, for not all are exposed to the range of activity, the range of influence, and the range of censure to which Spurgeon was exposed. That opportunity enables him to ask about attitudes he perceives rising in the church of his day, the kinds of critiques perhaps thrown about in the Christian journals and popular newspapers of his day. He responds and instructs by identifying the Martha spirit and its consequences (being careful to acknowledge what is good by desire or intent in her approach) as well as underscoring the important of the Mary spirit. No-one who recognises the kind of labour in which Spurgeon engaged will accuse him of dismissing Martha’s activism or of pursuing mere pietism in insisting that Mary’s communion with Christ was the foundation of all her usefulness. The warning is still well taken today: that mere activity is not enough; we must be close to Christ.
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This simple sermon gives a good example of preaching from the human experience recorded in the Scripture. It is an approach often frowned upon today (almost any preaching of human life can be easily dismissed as mere moralism) and yet to throws light on our own thinking and feeling when we can see and hear through the eyes and ears of those whose histories are recorded in Scripture. Spurgeon does that well here, using Nathanael as an example of someone in whom the Spirit had been at work to prepare his heart before he actually encountered our Lord for himself. He introduced us to Nathanael, before stepping through Nathanael’s interaction with and responses to our Lord, with helpful insights into human nature that both flow out of and into what happened to Nathanael. These are not left lying on the surface of our minds, but pressed into our hearts by way of instruction and appeal. Spurgeon is concerned for all kinds of hearers, and Nathanael becomes in this sermon a type of a certain kind, turned to good effect as he pleads with those whose hearts have been awakened to something of a sense of their sin and stirred to desire salvation to come to the Saviour.
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Spurgeon always strives to keep divine sovereignty and human responsibility in their proper and scriptural relationship. The principle he derives from Colossians 1:29 is “that the work of Christ in us and for us does not exempt us from work and service, nor does the Holy Spirit’s work supersede human effort, but rather excites it.” He presses that doctrine in two directions, firstly with regard to a man’s own salvation, and secondly with regard to a man’s ministry for the salvation of others. So stated (in Spurgeon’s words) it may all seem a little stark, but he does a masterful job of weaving together the two strands of the Holy Spirit’s powerful operations and the believer’s active dependence upon and response to those operations. The whole rises to something more than an exhortation, something more than an encouragement—it is a charge to the church, in the light of some particular effort then being made, to throw themselves into the work of the kingdom in expectation of the divine blessing. Our situation may be less specific than when Spurgeon first preached, but the sermon is no less worthy of being taken to heart.
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Catching our ears and our hearts, Spurgeon subverts our expectations with a sermon on overwhelming obligations that is about grace and goodness and gratitude. He carries us to the bright depths of our experience of God’s favour toward us, and lifts us to the heights of praise in response to the divine blessing. He is equally ready to draw attention to our experience, surveying the range of God’s kindnesses toward us, and to look through a more doctrinal lens, contemplating the distinct mercies of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Then, at some length, he probes our souls as a true pastor, being very “personal and practical,” asking a series of very searching questions which challenge us on a number of levels about the response we are making to the benefits which the Lord has bestowed. Again, we have a sermon remarkable for the territory it covers, for the depths it plumbs, for the heights it scans, and for the praise it draws forth.
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Our preacher’s theological convictions and pastoral compassions are on display once more. He opens his text first as a test of our profession of faith. Are we genuinely free of the dominion of sin—we know sin is remaining, but is it reigning? Spurgeon calls us to a stern and searching self-examination in this respect. Next he takes the text as a promise. Again there is both honesty and sensitivity, rooting our freedom from the power of sin in the divine plan and purpose, especially in that God’s people are not under law but under grace. Spurgeon takes pains to explain that the law cannot promote and secure holiness because of the sinfulness of the human heart, but that grace has a power that sweetly constrains to holy obedience. Finally, he takes his text as an encouragement, directing it toward various different characters in his congregation—the careless, the weak, the embattled, the immature, the backslider, and the unconverted. So he takes in more or less all his hearers in a great sweep, pointing these truths particularly at those in particular need.
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Spurgeon is the kind of man who—not least because of the volume of material he produced, as well as the range of issues he addressed in various contexts—can be easily claimed by any number of different people and groups, each of whom are able to find something he said which (more or less, in some way) might appear to support their own distinctive opinions. Certainly he has been claimed by Charismatic Christians, and certainly he is a man conscious of his dependence on the Holy Spirit and often immediately responsive to the operations of the Spirit in a way that can make some Christians uncomfortable. Nevertheless, to take some of those occasions and comments and to turn Spurgeon into something he was not is neither just nor honest. We do not know if there were a specific occasion for this sermon, but it sets forth a robust concern for and critique of those who set ‘signs and wonders’ against the clear revelation of God’s Word. It may be that most of us might take some issue with some of what Spurgeon says, but what is clear is his insistence upon the supremacy of Scripture, and the folly of putting something else in the place of or even alongside the Word of the living God as the source of truth and the guide for a life that pleases the Lord.
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Our preacher has a talent for developing a particular phrase, not necessarily ripping it out of context, but developing a theme or issue from its context. He does that here with the matter of ‘servantising’ (as he calls it), waiting upon the Most High as his servants. So he lays down the foundations of service, then the modes of our service, then he commends such service, and finally he exhorts us to such service. As ever, there is a holy boldness in Spurgeon’s address. We might legitimately suggest that Spurgeon can speak very directly to a very large congregation without necessarily pointing his finger at one or two people, as might happen when dealing with something like inactivity or laxity in a smaller congregation. The flip side of such an assertion is that he is speaking very directly to thousands of people, and he does not pull his punches. As hearers and readers, we feel the force of Spurgeon’s challenge about our service for the Lord; as preachers, we might be reminded of the kind of fortitude that is required to look any number of men and women in the eye, and—with compassion and integrity—point out where they fall short and exhort them to greater endeavour in the Lord’s work.
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The structure of this sermon is particularly interesting, being slightly more developed than Spurgeon’s norm. He begins by unpacking the detail of his text, then focuses on the matter of sanctification, which he then teases out under three headings: the order of a holy life, the rule of that order, and the great Director of that order. There is something typically Puritanical in the identification of the doctrine and then its development and application. That impression is only heightened in the opening point, where Spurgeon really digs down into what elements of order there are in a holy life. He almost exhausts his time, and certainly skews his structure, by spending so much time here, but does then press home the Scriptures as the rule of such a life, emphasising the way in which the Word of God is obeyed with constant reference to God himself (you can almost read the headings in his notes as he rattles through the material!), before some final conclusions and applications. It reminds us that Spurgeon is alive as he preaches, and that the sermon itself is a bridled stallion which sometimes runs away with the best of preachers; nevertheless, there is no waste here, for the preacher responds to the liveliness of his steed, and still manages to finish his course, setting before us particularly something of the beauty of a life of godliness.
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Originally preached for the Young Men’s Association in aid of the Baptist Missionary Society, this sermon has particular reference to and relevance for the young. Of course, Spurgeon is well aware that spiritual vigour has no necessary connection to physical condition, but he points out that older saints may need to be incited to zeal, whereas energy is natural to the young, and young Christians often have a flush of early excitement which it is well to encourage. Fundamentally, then, the preacher urges God’s people to pick up their pace and keep up their pace. He sets forth running as a positive metaphor for Christian life and service. Then, taking account of the challenges, he sets out the runner’s girdle (that he waits upon the Lord) and the runner’s staff (that he shall not grow weary). The result is a sermon that both calls and comforts, that provides its particular precept to the eager soul, its particular probe to the lazy soul, and its particular peace to the weary soul. I hope it will do the same for each one of us in these days, whether we are young or old.
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In a sermon directed to every Christian worker (but in which he wrestles not to sound as if he is speaking primarily to ministers of the gospel) Spurgeon sets out the character and labour of the truly successful worker, the reward that he obtains, and the certainty which he says binds together “the weeping service and the rejoicing success.” It is a good reminder to us that it is not just the work itself, mechanically considered, buts its motives and spirit also which must be considered. It is a great encouragement to us that the one who goes forth humbly and earnestly, from God and for God, will obtain a blessing upon the work. It reminds us that the connection is not of man’s effort but of God’s gift. Perhaps we have yet to go—this will help us on our way. Perhaps we have gone with the wrong attitude—this will correct any coldness of heart. Perhaps we have seen little blessing—this will keep us serving. Perhaps we have mourned over scant fruit—this will give us hope that a harvest will yet come.
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This is a homiletical gem, showing a simple, clear and compelling progression through the sermon: one glorious person, two precious doctrines, three experiences, and four duties. Not every sermon can be so neat, but it is a good example of a memorable and striking organisation, upon which hangs much sweet substance. The preacher’s aim is to set before us the Lord Jesus in the whole of his character and work, and so to behold his glory in such a way that, out of it, we may receive out of his personal fulness the superabundant grace upon which we rely and in which we rejoice. It gives Spurgeon the opportunity to cover a vast amount of territory (some of which he does at a fair gallop) to provide a broad vista, pressing home the truth, drawing experimental lessons, and pressing home Christian responsibilities in relation to the Christ in all his glory. It displays something of Spurgeon’s genius for the setting forth of Christ, both for adoration and for obligation, as we consider him in his majesty, the blessings he brings, and the duties we owe.
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Here is an incandescent sermon in which Spurgeon attempts to show how Christ came to bring fire on the earth. With this image in his mind, he first of all surveys the history of the gospel, beginning with the book of God, then the preacher taken up with the truth, the hearer who feels the heat and light of the good news, and the opposition that is provoked and how the fiery gospel even catches hold in those who oppose. Then he likens the gospel to fire more directly, thinking of how it advances, and comforts, and consumes, and purifies. Finally, he asks what ought to be the effects in us if we have truly caught this flame in our souls? A holy fearlessness, a holy impatience of mere forms and religious proprieties, a holy appetite for prayer, and a holy commitment to Christ’s service. It is the sort of sermon that grieves the reader, for you can only hear the distant rumble of the preacher’s thunder—what must it have been like to hear a man preaching in the power of God’s Spirit, with the storm all full of lightning flashing around you! May the Lord give us something of that same light and heat as we read and hear it still.
Spurgeon is known, even renowned, for preaching from individual texts, often very short ones, even phrases. While some sermons or addresses are linked by their time or place of preaching (think of the lectures to his students), and while it is possible to arrange collections of sermons under certain themes (as many have done, both Spurgeon himself and others since) most of the sermons stand alone by design. This sermon, then, is unusual in that it constitutes part of what seems to be one of the closest things Spurgeon preaches to a series of sermons. This sermon on justification is preceded by one on effectual calling, then followed the next Lord’s day by one on consecration, and the theme deliberately picked up again in a sermon the following year on mature faith, each illustrated by an episode in the life of Abram. So this sermon is notable both in terms of its distinctive relation to other sermons, and the way in which Spurgeon interprets and applies the experience of the patriarch to the believers of his own day. He is unashamed to make clear the commonality between Abram’s faith and life, and ours, and so to make Abram a model for every true believer—to hold him up as, indeed, the father of those who believe.
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This interesting sermon approaches the matter of human sin from an atypical angle: that of our sins of omission (sins of commission are things we do which God commands us not to do, while sins of omission are our failure to do those things which we are commanded or obliged to do). Point by point, Spurgeon peels back layer after layer. He begins with how common they are, rooted in our falling short of the requirement to love God with all our hearts and our fellow men as ourselves. Next he digs down to the causes of these things, showing how we evade or excuse ourselves. Then he presses home the sinfulness of these sins, that they are not to be in any way diminished. Finally, he wants us to understand how sins of omission are damning, not only in themselves, but because they involve the neglect of the very remedy for all our sins which God has provided in Christ. When the gap between the church and the world is growing wider and more distinct, and with the risk of self-satisfaction growing in that space, it is good for God’s people to be humbled by the awareness that—even in the proper pursuit of our duties and obediences—there is something lacking in our best efforts which leaves us in constant dependence upon the mercies of God Christ Jesus.
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This may not be the sermon that you expect. It is not a sermon about old age. The language of grey hairs is taken to represent decay and decline, and applied to spiritual things in individuals. His concern is with people who are sliding into patterns of spiritual slovenliness and sin but who have no sense of such a departure from the path of real and lively religion. Why are they ignorant of this? Spurgeon offers some suggestions. What are the marks of decay and backsliding for which we should look? Spurgeon identifies some features of spiritual decline. Are there are any remedies? As a good physician of the soul, Spurgeon is ready to make some recommendations. It is not an easy sermon, as the preacher blends explanation and application, speaking plainly to expose our sins, cutting close lest anything should escape the knife, but also making sure that there is some gospel balm at the close for the healing of our wounds. Perhaps, though, we do not mind so much when it is Spurgeon, and we can close the book, or pause the podcast? Let us remember that this is faithful preaching, and our own pastors—if they look us in the eye and deal so straightforwardly with us—are doing the same job to the same end.
Here is our pastor-preacher about his favourite business, the lifting up of the name of Jesus Christ. The construction of the sermon is interesting. Spurgeon first insists on the literal meaning of his text, of Christ as Israel’s glory; then he moves to the new covenant, further showing that Christians today have Christ as their glory because they stand in the same relation to him as Israel did under the old covenant; this asserted, in five points he spells out the glory we receive, and see, and give, and reflect, and expect in and from our Lord Jesus; then, he closes with some practical points. How readily do we, as preachers, turn to this topic? Is it our constant joy, reverently, eagerly, humbly, happily, to dwell upon the person and work of Christ, and to extol his name? How readily do we receive this as hearers and readers, delighted simply to contemplate the glory of the Lord of glory, the benefits we enjoy in and from him, the greatness of our so-great salvation? It is good for us to trace both the central theme and concern of Spurgeon’s sermon, and the manner in which he handles it, showing sensitivity and integrity as an exegete, and so ever-ready to exalt the King of kings and Lord of lords.
As so often, Spurgeon is quite content to shift between the natural and the spiritual. I mean, he begins with the basic sense of the Lord’s question to Job, “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion?” (Jb 38:31). Who is able to change, restrain, or overcome the divine government in the natural world? However, Spurgeon elevates the question to the spiritual realm, as illustrative of the operations of the Holy Spirit. On the one hand, his mighty working cannot be prevented. On the other, men in their own strength are able to accomplish no spiritual victories. As well as his customary flashes of practical insight, there are some particular lessons to draw from this. Again and again, we see this inventive and creative but not casual or crass handling of the Scripture. Spurgeon knows well that the question, in itself, belongs naturally to the realm of astronomy, theologically to the doctrine of providence as an expression of divine sovereignty. But experimentally and illustratively, it serves well to remind us of our powerlessness in all spiritual matters, and the gracious operations of the Holy Ghost among the people of God. As such, it teaches us to think carefully not just of what the Bible means, but of how it can be applied. It makes for a lively and striking sermon.
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Spurgeon loves to dwell upon the goodness of God, and it is indeed a worthy theme. He does so in this sermon by taking the Lord’s description of his gracious dealings with Abraham and his descendants, described in rich symbolism in Ezekiel 16, and transposing the whole into a new covenant key. In company with some of the finest preachers God has given his church, Spurgeon delights to do this kind of thing. Some might say that he pushes the parallels too far, but his is an eye that sees through a decidedly Christian lens. He dives down two levels in this sermon: first, he is already working with the symbolism of the text, and then further he takes account of what was typical in God’s dealings with Abraham. It seems little effort for him to see in the symbolic kindnesses and typical favours the Lord bestowed on Abraham and Israel the goodnesses that the Lord has granted to those who are trusting in Jesus under the new covenant. Having set forth these things for us, he quite naturally presses home some practical observations in the light of the good things that the Lord has granted to the privileged man.
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This sermon reveals a somewhat unusual arrangement. Spurgeon typically sets out the skeleton of his sermon in a series of stated points toward the beginning, typically three, sometimes four or more. More occasionally, Spurgeon’s outline is revealed stage-by-stage as he works through his sermon. This address, while by no means lacking structure, does lack that more overt outline, and takes the form of a series of observations upon the Lord Christ’s practice of protracted or extended seasons of prayer. That consideration of the example of Jesus is then followed by applications to the church which is gathering for its own particular season of prayer, following something of the same approach. The tone of the whole is quite meditative and conversational. It reads differently to other sermons, and one wonders whether or not it would have been heard differently, and what difference it might have made to the preacher’s manner and voice, his expression and gesture. We cannot answer such questions readily, but we can still derive much benefit from the sermon, as we are encouraged to give ourselves, as individuals and churches, to extended periods of prayer in seeking the blessing of the Almighty.
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This sermon reveals a somewhat unusual arrangement. Spurgeon typically sets out the skeleton of his sermon in a series of stated points toward the beginning, typically three, sometimes four or more. More occasionally, Spurgeon’s outline is revealed stage-by-stage as he works through his sermon. This address, while by no means lacking structure, does lack that more overt outline, and takes the form of a series of observations upon the Lord Christ’s practice of protracted or extended seasons of prayer. That consideration of the example of Jesus is then followed by applications to the church which is gathering for its own particular season of prayer, following something of the same approach. The tone of the whole is quite meditative and conversational. It reads differently to other sermons, and one wonders whether or not it would have been heard differently, and what difference it might have made to the preacher’s manner and voice, his expression and gesture. We cannot answer such questions readily, but we can still derive much benefit from the sermon, as we are encouraged to give ourselves, as individuals and churches, to extended periods of prayer in seeking the blessing of the Almighty.
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Spurgeon closes a year with a sermon taken from the refrain of Psalm 136: “For his mercy endures forever.” In trademark style, and with the meaning of his text lying on the surface and requiring little explanation, as well as picking up hints and ideas from the rest of the psalm, Spurgeon turns the sermons into a developed meditation and application. He takes the phrase as a song of praise; as a solace with regard to the past, the present, and the future; as a sermon with three points; and, briefly, as a summons to come to the Lord for the mercy held out. For preachers, it shows us an inventive way of handling a text—Spurgeon uses the key phrase as a way of harnessing the whole psalm, giving him scope at the end of the year to range over a wide area. For hearers and readers, it covers so much territory, for the minister turns it to various uses, exhorting, rebuking, comforting, instructing, calling. It need not be a year end for us to derive much benefit from Spurgeon’s consideration of God’s enduring mercy, for this is a theme we need at all times.
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One of the more delightful aspects of Spurgeon’s ministry is his present sense of the person of Christ, the immediacy of his relationship to his living Lord, and the manner in which he communicates that to us. It is the very personal dimension of true Christianity which comes to the fore in this sermon, as our preacher picks up the sweetness of Christ living in his people, and our living by faith in him. Having emphasised the personal connection between Christ and the believing soul, he presses home what he describes as “the interweaving of our own proper personality with that of Jesus Christ”—the closeness of the relationship which we sustain to our Redeemer. Then, of course, because he no mere theoretician, but a true pastor-preacher, he considers the life which results from this union between Christ and his people. His text, he says, “rises before my contemplation like a lofty range of mountains, a very Andes for elevation” and his aim is simply to bring us into the sunlit uplands, even if we cannot scale the highest peaks. It is worth climbing as high as we can!
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The breadth of Spurgeon’s ministry is instructive (bearing in mind that what we have available is only a representative selection, and we are simply sampling that!). His versatility shows itself not just in the way he handles his material, but even also in the material which he handles. So here he deals with self-examination concerning our spiritual fruitfulness, speaking plainly not only concerning the fruit we expect to find in a true saint, but also the reality of pruning in a Christian’s life. Spurgeon is not merely some genial Victorian pulpiteer, dispensing sentimental religious notions. His aim is that we should be true disciples of Jesus Christ, show ourselves and know ourselves to be such disciples, and grow in grace as followers of the Lamb. So here, he does not so much wield the knife as describe how the Lord wields it, teaching us to look carefully at our own souls, and to submit humbly to the heavenly Vinedresser’s dealings with us.
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The sermons Spurgeon preached carry us very high and very low, matching some of the heights and depths of his own experience. Here he is encouraging us with the joy of true religion, and the spirit of the service we render to our Lord and Saviour. In somewhat Puritanical structure, Spurgeon first teases out the primary elements of his text: we serve; we serve the Lord; we serve the Lord with gladness. He then zeroes in on this key idea, and more or less interrogates the notion. Where does this joy come from? Where does it show itself? What makes it so difficult? And, why is it so excellent? Here he is able to bring the truth to bear for instruction and exhortation, for encouragement and challenge. His delight in God and his salvation bleeds out especially under the first main heading, although he is attempting a pastoral balance, recognising the challenges we face and trying to provide sweet spiritual motives for the labour we undertake for our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. This sermon teaches us to trace the streams of joy back to the fountain of God’s saving love, and there to have our hearts lifted heavenward, and our hands strengthened on earth.
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Spurgeon turns his text in several fascinating directions in this sermon, reminding us that the speed at which he prepared does not mean that he was not meditating upon his subject, though his genius clearly lay along particular lines. Using Peter’s statement that “we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they,” he takes it first as an apostolic statement of faith, reminding us of what it does not contain as well as what it does. Second, and perhaps most strikingly, he emphasises that the statement reminds us not so much that it is a wonder that great sinners are saved, but that even outwardly moral and seemingly good people need just the same gospel as the most wretched and evidently needy. Third, he turns to such sinners and reminds them that this is indeed a gospel for them, and that Christ will save all who come to him. On one level it is very simply, on another, it is most thoughtful. Its careful inventiveness is a good example of how we must think and speak—under God—so as to catch the attention and provoke the heart.
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This sermon was not preached at the Tabernacle, but at Surrey Chapel. In it, Spurgeon shows something of his versatility and adaptability, without losing anything of his urgency and vitality. He is as fervent in calling Christ’s people to serve as he is in calling needy sinners to Christ. He sticks close to his text, setting forth Christ in his labour and then bringing an appropriate question and exhortation to the disciples of Christ as to whether or not we are truly following in the footsteps of our Master. He closes the sermon with more direct application to saints, a forceful reminder of our mortality, pressing us to consider the shortness of time. That itself gives rise to that same deep concern for the lost: life is short, time is passing, opportunity flies away—we cannot serve God until we have trusted in Christ. I wonder if, should a preacher emphasise such themes today, he might be labelled as legalistic and morbid! No doubt Spurgeon was in his own day. Do we give him a pass ‘because he’s Spurgeon’? Perhaps worse, do we offer a cool applause to the sentiment without a warm response to the exhortation? Let us, like our Saviour, work while it is day; the night comes when no-one can work.
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In one sense, every true preacher always fails. He knows that he will miss the mark at which he aims, that of properly glorifying God in Christ. The excellence of the preacher consists more in the beautiful target at which he aims and the holy effort with which he strives to reach it; to whatever extent he draws near, it is by the Holy Spirit’s help. That is Spurgeon’s experience in this sermon, one in which he seems particularly conscious of his dependence on the Holy Ghost as he sets forth Christ’s glorious person, the unsearchable riches that belong to Christ, and the divinely gracious intention with which those riches are set forth by Christ’s ministers. The preacher attempts to cover something of the sweep of saving history before bringing the excellences of Christ and the fruits of his work to bear upon the hearts of his hearers. I would rather see and hear a man fail while aiming at such a goal than succeed at anything less—such failure honours the Lord, who uses the weakest of instruments to glorify his own great name!
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There can be few more fearful prospects for a Christian or a church than that of grieving the Holy Spirit. I wonder how many of us ever contemplate this, searching our own hearts and lives, considering the life of the church, and asking whether or not we are guilty of such a sin? Spurgeon reminds us of this horrible possibility, explaining how and why it may come about. He also explores some of the ugly consequences of grieving the third Person of the Godhead, the damage it does in the life of the church and her members. Finally, he urges a personal argument why the saints should not grieve the Holy Spirit. Of course, the preacher’s aim is not merely to bring us down, still less to keep us down. Rather, the desire is to diagnose and to prescribe, to make us aware of the dangers so that we might either avoid them or address them. While some may be prone to assume that they have grieved the Holy Ghost in some way, too quick to jump to this conclusion, it seems likely today that the opposite problem more prevails—that of failing to consider whether or not one of the reasons for the weakness of the church is that we have distressed the Spirit of God. Here the question is put, here a solution is proposed.
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Do you expect a blessing when you pray? Do you expect that blessing to come rapidly? It may be that many of us are in the state of waiting for prayer to be answered, of having long prayed and not yet seen the answer to our prayers. While there is nothing unusual in such delays, this sermon encourages us to consider the state of our hearts in seeking a blessing from God, that “if the whole church…shall be brought to set its face, to be conscious of the deep need of sinners, to confess its own sin, to be mindful of God’s mercy, and to be vehemently, passionately in earnest for a blessing,” we can anticipate the command of mercy, based on the happy relationship between a believer and his God. Furthermore, the preacher urges us to consider the kinds of blessings for which we ought to pray—spiritual delights and heavenly realities bound up with everlasting life. Most Christians grieve over their praying; few would claim to be eminent in the work. Many are, perhaps, accustomed to asking little and expecting slow and slim answers. Here is a sermon to lift up our eyes and hearts, to lift up our petitions, to the throne of grace in anticipation of the blessings we truly need.
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A sermon Spurgeon preached toward the end of one year seems appropriate at any time. He draws on Habakkuk’s declaration of his fear of God and petition for a blessing from the Lord of heaven, that he would in wrath remember mercy. Gripped by divine truth, impressed by recent tragedy, and moved by the Holy Spirit, Spurgeon gives us a straight-down-the-line three-pointer, identifying the alarming voice, outlining an appropriate prayer, and pressing home a potent argument. He seems to have a perpetual appetite for more of God’s grace and glory, and to be able to communicate that appetite in a refreshing and telling way. Perhaps Spurgeon’s urgent exhortations wearied some, but they do our souls good as he insists that we must follow his lead in pleading with God for his blessing on the place where we live and serve.
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This striking sermon seems to arise from questions raised out of the pulpit, about the propriety of “praying for King Jesus.” Working from Psalm 72:15, Spurgeon wants to show us that not only is it proper to pray for Christ, but that it expands, establishes, enriches, and enlivens our praying. As he works through his topic, the preacher helps us to see how putting Christ at the heart of our prayerful desires prevents selfishness and narrow-mindedness, lifts our petitions and our expectations, and offers particular encouragements in prayer. If your prayers, individually or congregationally, too often feel narrow and shallow, crass and constrained, earthy and heavy, then this sermon will be a blessing to your soul.
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Though it does not lack gentleness, this is not a sermon to please the dull and sullen Christian, and there are too many such. People who are happy sleeping in a warm and comfortable bed are not often appreciative of the blast of the trumpet and the call to arms. Spurgeon is concerned at his own sleepiness, and the sleepiness of others. He does a masterful job of portraying the nature and the cause of Christian drowsiness, spending the bulk of the sermon on this point. The he turns to the call and the promise of Christ to the sleeper, to awake, and to receive the light of Christ. As so often, this is not a comfortable sermon, especially to believers. You might easily resent it, evade it, dismiss it, but we ought instead to humble ourselves under it, not excuse ourselves from it, but hear it and heed it.
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Spurgeon often addresses the kind of Christian despondency that breeds a shameful passivity. He opens this sermon with a lengthy introduction bemoaning the low expectations of God’s people—people who yearn for a lively past and have vague hopes for a brighter future, but have given up all present hopes: “Not here, not now, not us!” This is the attitude that calls inaction, patience, and labels unbelief as realism. To counteract this ugly spirit, Spurgeon presses upon us the signs of harvest (and yes, we might long for more of those in our day!); he points out the wants or needs of harvest, the way in which we should engage in a day when there is work to be done; he warns us of the fears of harvest, reminding all his hearers, both converted and otherwise, that time passes and the work undone might be left undone forever. I can imagine the same despondent Christians today saying that Spurgeon’s circumstances allow him to hope in a way that we cannot; in fact, though we may face particular challenges, the very scope of the work ought to rouse our spirits for labour.
This is the kind of sermon that makes us ask, “If Spurgeon thought that he needed to preach this in his own day, what might he have said to us?!” He addresses those “who are beginning to imagine that weakness is the normal and proper state of a Christian; that to be unbelieving, desponding, nervous, timid, cowardly, inactive, heartless, is at worst a very excusable thing.” In Spurgeon’s understanding, this is a fearful and dangerous conclusion to reach. In response, he identifies some of the spiritual cures that faith in God’s Christ has worked in the experience of the church through the ages. Not satisfied with that, he then analyses faith to determine what are the divinely-appointed ingredients in this medicine. He urges us to go the Spirit of God to obtain the medicine, and praises the Physician who can make us strong out of our very weakness. There is no spiritual strength without the faith which God gives. If Spurgeon felt the church’s need in his own day, then we would do well to heed his counsels in our own.
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In 1866, cholera spread rapidly through London, claiming over five thousand lives. Into our own time, bedevilled with debates about Covid-19 and other such diseases—their causes and their cures—, Spurgeon speaks with a voice of spiritual sanity and reason. Here we find a remarkable blend of heavenly-mindedness and earthly sense, a readiness to acknowledge God’s hand in the spread of sickness, an awareness of divine justice and wisdom, an honesty about the potential causes and purposes of such afflictions. In all the often-silly arguments about diseases and vaccines, conspiracies and cures, have we missed the voice of the virus, speaking clearly and penetratingly to mortal men? Spurgeon lifts us above so much of the pettiness and foolishness of the current conversation and focuses our attention on eternity, and the God before whom we must soon stand.
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Joy and peace! Who would not wish to know joy and peace? Spurgeon wants us to know them, but he wants us to know them truly, building upon the right foundation and enjoying the things themselves, and not some cheap and shoddy counterfeits. Therefore he exposes some common errors with regard to joy and peace before going on to deal with the root of true spiritual joy and lasting peace through believing in Jesus Christ for salvation. And so we need to know what that believing means, and what it involves, and to understand that joy and peace always come through believing and are never really found by any other means. With a beautiful simplicity and gospel clarity, Spurgeon shows a pastoral precision in ensuring that the right things are put in the right spiritual sequence and connection. Joy and peace seem in short supply in today’s world. If we want them for ourselves, and if we want others to know them, here we have the guidance we need.
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Do you really care about knowing and doing the will of the Lord? It is easy to be zealous in a few things which fall more naturally into our way of thinking, as Jehu did. But that same Jehu “took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart.” Spurgeon is concerned that many Christian professors fall into the same trap, and so—in this sobering sermon—he urges us to ensure that we are committed to knowing and doing all the law of the Lord with all our hearts. To do otherwise reveals a sickliness at best, a fatal absence of true religion at worst. We must heed all that God has spoken, and make sure that our hearts are right with him. Perhaps some today would dismiss Spurgeon’s employment of Jehu as a negative model as mere moralising. In fact, the preacher shows us how to use such examples to stir and stimulate our souls to watchfulness and self-examination.
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Spurgeon launches himself into this sermon hard. It is not one of his most polished addresses, but it has a certain raw vigour about it, both for style and for substance, which reminds us of the true strength of his ministry: the God in whom he had such robust confidence. In contrasting walking by faith and walking by sight, he first of all considers what is meant by walking, and how these two principles are therefore going to govern all our life, one way or another, and primarily encouraging the walk of faith. Then he moves on to a more direct contrast, and here he is primarily negative about walking by faith, exposing its vanity and folly. Finally, he urges us to keep the two distinct, and not to mix sight with faith, especially with regard to our understanding of salvation, and our relationship to God. We must not be governed by experience, by feeling, by passing providences, but must be anchored to truth, divine revelation, and hold to the Jesus of the Scripture, set forth in the Bible as the only object of saving faith. For our one hundredth podcast, we do not try to choose Spurgeon at his finest or most palatable, but to offer another representative sermon of a preacher of Jesus Christ who would have his hearers come to and cling to his beloved Saviour.
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This sermon is really a plea for believing prayer. Often, at the beginning of a new year, as well as at other seasons, the Tabernacle was giving itself to earnest prayer for the Lord’s blessing through the coming months. Correspondingly, Spurgeon often calls the church to prayer, as he does here by remind the saints that God has a mighty arm. He wants believers to understand the nature of divine power, but he goes beyond a merely doctrinal enumeration. As a preacher, he presses to the practical: Spurgeon wants us to understand the Lord’s might not just in theory but in practice, not merely as a doctrinal affirmation but as an awesome reality. That leads to the lessons we need to learn still about the strength of God, and here Spurgeon is not far from William Carey. We should expect great things and therefore attempt great things, and as a result we must pray for great things from a great God.
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Nebuchadnezzar’s exclamation is a Christian’s consolation: “Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God” (Dan 3:25). In order to obtain the balm, we need to understand first of all what is the furnace into which the children of God are still cast, what it is that the saints lose in the furnaces into which they are thrown, what the saints do when they are in the furnace, what they cannot lose no matter how high or hot the flames, and the company which they enjoy. The fact that Christ himself draws near when the Christian is so afflicted is the great peace and joy we can genuinely anticipate when we are tried as were Daniel’s three friends: “you must go into the furnace if you would have the nearest and dearest dealings with Christ Jesus.” It is, then, a sweetly comforting sermon, helpfully realistic about the various trials which a Christian might be called to face, and equally realistic about the blessings a faithful believer can enjoy when so tried.
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This heartening sermon focuses on the brief assertion by the apostle Peter that our Lord went about doing good. What a delight it is to consider the character and activity of our Lord under this short description! Spurgeon spends the main part of the sermon in asking what Christ did, how he did it, and why he did it. It really is as simple as that. Then, in a second point, he makes his application: to what extent are we following in the footsteps of our Saviour? This gives us reason to repent over our past, and to consecrate ourselves for the future, in dependence upon God, to go as he went, marked by the same intent, imbued with the same spirit, and moved by the same desire.
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At this point in his ministry, Spurgeon was engaged in a particular battle against sacramentalism, the idea that the means of grace actually and immediately bestowed grace in and of themselves (an idea technically referred to as ex opere operato). So, for example, and as we have already seen, Spurgeon contended against the idea of baptismal regeneration. In Spurgeon’s day, this thinking was becoming more prominent, not least in the Anglican communion, where men like Edward Pusey (1800–1882) were leading lights in the so-called Oxford Movement, under which a ‘high church’ agenda was pursued and various Roman Catholic doctrines and practices were reintroduced into Anglicanism. In this sermon, Spurgeon hits hard at the underlying flaws of this movement, contrasting the unprofitable flesh of carnal externalities with the life-giving operations of the Holy Spirit. While the fruits of Puseyism are still evident around us, the principles set forth by Spurgeon remain vital for the ongoing commitment of Christ’s church to true spirituality and simplicity of worship, and our confidence in the means which God has provided.
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Do you look forward to heaven? Spurgeon urges you to do so, not least because there God will wipe away all the tears of his glorified people. The preacher’s approach to this is inventive and engaging. He first makes it a reminder of the tears that we shall weep until we reach glory, identifying the three bottles of tears that the believer fills up on earth. Then he reminds us of how, even now, the Lord is pleased to wipe tears from the eyes of his people. Thirdly, and extensively, he looks at the ways in which, in the glory to come, God will remove tears, and especially how he himself will accomplish this. Finally, and briefly, he asks simply this: “Will you be in this happy company?” Again, Spurgeon shows his God-given and Spirit-honed skill of turning his text and its applications in multiple directions, to different kinds of hearers, and to a variety of uses, convincing, rebuking, exhorting, and encouraging.
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The surmise with which Spurgeon begins this sermon is that Simon the Zealot earned his surname as an unconverted man, but kept it as a Christian man. And so he considers the ugly zeal of the unconverted person, a misdirected, boastful, ignorant, selective, temporary thing, which makes a man a bully or a persecutor, and has sinister aims. Nevertheless, the fact that he can be zealous for worthless things should make us zealous for the worthwhile, and we should ever hope that a man with that kind of spirit, enlivened by the Spirit of Christ, might find a new and happier channel for his energies. And so we turn to the zeal of a converted person, marked by private and public commitment to the cause of Christ, with grief over its seeming setbacks and lack of progress, and ardent love for the Saviour. It is kept up by an outward look, an inward look, a forwards look, and a Christwards look, stirring the inner man, following the pattern of God himself, of the incarnate Son, of the holy angels, and of the best of men. May God make us all zealous for his glory!
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For a true believer, there are few more distressing conditions than to be ‘sinking in the mire.’ This trouble of soul strikes in various ways: our own unbelief, a lack of assurance, the troubles of the world, our inward corruptions, or devilish temptations. While there may be various reasons for this, God has his purposes, so much so that even his most eminent and favoured people do not escape this experience. We are brought so low—low enough to realise that God alone can deliver us, and to come to him in heartfelt prayer. Spurgeon’s conclusion may seem bland, but in truth it brings us to the very heart of our weakness, the essence of our need, and the beginnings of our relief and recovery: to cast ourselves upon the Lord, now, and without ceasing, until we obtain the blessings we need.
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The breadth of Spurgeon’s ministry is manifest. If he has a hobby-horse, it is Christ crucified, and there is no criticism for that! However, in seeking to make Christ known, for salvation in every part and to the fullest degree, Spurgeon does not sail a narrow channel, but rather covers vast tracts of the ocean of truth. We do not know all that may have stirred and stimulated him, under God, in selecting his sermon texts, but this one has to do with the danger of God’s people having their hearts hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and the remedies for it. Here Spurgeon shows his spiritual wisdom in giving us a chilling description of such decline, a brief anatomy of sin in its deceitfulness, and a stirring exhortation to use the means available to restore our hearts to tenderness in all our dealings with the Almighty.
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This is a delightful sermon, demonstrating Spurgeon’s pastoral skill in turning the same text against different targets. Here the text, “For Christ’s sake,” is shown to be both God’s argument for mercy and our reason for service. In the first case it becomes a particular cause for comfort to those who are seeking forgiveness for their sins through Christ. In the second, it becomes a particular call to labour for those who have tasted divine mercy. As so often, Spurgeon pleads the mercies of God as both a reason to trust him and a reason to serve him, drawing us to Christ for life, and sending us out to live for the Christ who has saved us. May this sermon be the means of blessing those who are coming, and those who are going, for the glory of the Saviour!
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Spurgeon’s new year sermons have a lovely tone to them. Some are more consolatory, others more exhortatory, but all tend to lift up the eyes and fix them on God in Christ, calling the saints to think and speak and act in the light of their covenant mercies in the year that lies before them. This sermon is no different. Spurgeon is well aware that the Adversary will by all means sow the seeds of dissension and division and among the people of God, and so here he reminds us of the unity of the Spirit that we should pursue, that this unity needs to be preserved, guarded, invested in, and that the Spirit’s unity must be kept “in the bond of peace.” All this leads to some practical counsels and encouragements to God’s people—counsels and encouragements which are as significant and valuable today as they were when the preacher first delivered them on the first day of 1865 in London.
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Perhaps you know someone—perhaps you are someone—who has wished to be spiritually worse, that they might know when they are savingly better. It is not as rare a case as we might imagine, and Spurgeon shows his sensitivity as a pastor and his versatility as an evangelist in going after people who have a legitimately good reputation among men, but who are conscious of their unworthiness before God. He uses the example of the centurion with strong faith in Christ to assure such that they can and must come to Jesus Christ in order to be delivered from their sins. This is a lovely sermon, beautifully balanced in its sentiments and structure, full of good sense and earnest pleading. There is encouragement for all to trust in God, and not to imagine that our own merits earn anything or that our demerits forfeit mercy and grace—rather they fit us for it. There is particular encouragement for the reputable sinner. God will take all who come to him trusting in Christ.
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Spurgeon seems to have been blessed with an insatiable appetite for the glory of God, an ever-increasing desire for the power of the gospel to be made known. In this sermon he is seeking to stir up the members of the church to seek after God, reminding them that the necessary prerequisite to two walking together is that they be agreed. That being so, if we want to walk with God—to have God walk with us and to bless us—then we need to be agreed with him. Spurgeon therefore outlines what not only what it means to walk with God, but also the horror of a human religious operation in which there is nothing of the Spirit’s power. That being so, what are the things in which we ought to be agreed with him? Spurgeon offers some searching answers. Finally, what are those things which displease our Lord, and drive a wedge between him and us? How can we expect God to walk with us when we are offending him? Spurgeon leaves each one of us with penetrating questions to answer. Are we ready to pray, “Lord, make me fit to be the means of glorifying you”?
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The death of Lazarus affords Spurgeon the opportunity to consider Christ’s purposes in allowing his beloved people to undergo fearful trials. He thinks of the impact on the apostles as they travel with him, and the way in which this experience would strengthen their faith. He ponders the effect on the family itself, enhancing their confidence in him, assuring them of his real love and power. He assesses the impact that trials can have on those who are looking on, for when others see what Christ has done, they are drawn to him. It is, on some levels, quite a simple sermon. However, it is full of particular encouragements both for God’s people and for others, as we not only see the heart and arm of Christ revealed, but are also given a glimpse into his mind, into his wise and gracious purposes in all the things that come upon us.
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Depending on your eschatology—your view of the last things—and particularly your understanding of the millennium, you will appreciate aspects of this sermon more or less. You might also say that it is far from being Spurgeon’s neatest sermon. What you would, I think, have to confess is that it is full of Christ. We acknowledge that Spurgeon himself would never encourage carelessness in sermon preparation, but we also say with him that a man who shows us Christ can be forgiven much! Here, then, Spurgeon shows us the Lamb as the light of the world to come, in every sense, as well as our needed light on our present pilgrimage. His delight in the Saviour oozes out as he anticipates the coming glory in the presence of the King, and reminds us of how, even upon earth, we can afford to lose everything but Christ, who will never lose those for whom he laid down his life.
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This was one of the most notable sermons which Spurgeon ever preached. Despite his expectation that it might damage or even destroy the circulation of his printed sermons, it sold tens of thousands of copies over the years. It strikes at one particular error, and consistently addresses an underlying problem. The particular error is the doctrine embedded in the Church of England of baptismal regeneration; the underlying problem, and one which Spurgeon addresses repeatedly in the sermon, is that of a lack of honesty and integrity in our convictions and commitments. The sermon is not bitter in tone, but it potently manifests the spirit of a man who is deeply persuaded of the danger of the lie he exposes, and desperate that sinners should realise that it is faith alone in Christ alone by which a sinner can be saved. He wants the people of God actually to know what they believe, and to speak and live accordingly.
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I confess to a soft spot for this sermon. I preached at home a short series of sermons on this passage, eventually repeated at a conference in the US, and still find both the passage itself, and Spurgeon’s treatment of it, sincerely stimulating and spiritually profitable. Spurgeon uses the pathetic king Joash, who failed to shoot his arrows as the ailing prophet, Elijah, required, as a foil for his exhortation to God’s people in a newly-planted church to do all that lies in their power to strive for God’s glory in dependence on God’s promise. His challenge against slack-handedness and his encouragement to wholeheartedness in the service of God still rings true, and still echoes down into our own age with something of its original force and fervour.
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The preacher starts hot and gets hotter in this stirring sermon, setting Christ before the eyes of faith not only in his humiliation but in his exaltation, challenging us to consider Christ enthroned with as much confidence as we rest on Christ crucified. He sets before us Christ in the perpetual activity of his shepherding of his flock, reigning in majesty and with power. From this he further deduces the endurance of the church as Christ’s kingdom—because of her King, she not only exists but endures, and that with a stately calm and security. And so, says Spurgeon, we anticipate and pursue the glory of Christ across the earth. Here he rises to his crescendo, drawing on the imagery of Gideon’s army, and calling on the saints of God to shine and to shout, that Christ may be magnified in the earth. His closing plea is for the support of those who preach, and for the building of churches in which they can preach, urging every saint to throw themselves into the glorious endeavour of glorifying our glorious Christ. What do we do? What do I do? What do you do, to this glorious end?
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Spurgeon was never merely some genial Victorian pulpiteer. For all his compassionate kindness, for all his practical philanthropy, for all his winsome goodness, he was a faithful preacher to the souls of others. So he notices the glints of justice in the Christ who shows such mercy, in his making the fruitless fig tree of Mark 11 to be an emblem of destruction. Spurgeon talks about the kinds of religious people symbolised by such a tree—those who have leaves but no fruit. He points out that only this fig tree was cursed, and demonstrates the Lord’s patience with those who are not fruit-bearing at this time. He insists upon the Lord’s right to expect the fruit of grace where there are the leaves of profession, showing how these must relate one to the other. He also holds forth the horror of condemnation for those who deceive, who have the leaves but not the fruit. This sermon peels back the heart-layers and brings us to humble, and—we might hope—truly fruitful self-examination.
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For many years, Spurgeon preached a new year’s sermon from a text which an Anglican friend would supply. For 1864, the text was full of weight and promise: “If we endure [or, suffer], we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us” (2Tim 2:12). Spurgeon divides the text into two simple parts: suffering with Jesus, and its reward, and denying Jesus, and its penalty. He is careful to explain that it is not merely suffering, but suffering with Jesus, which wins the reward of which the text speaks. He explains what such suffering involves. He is briefer but equally forthright with regard to the denying of Christ and the denial by Christ which follows. We might imagine some feeling that it is an inappropriate note on which to begin a new year, but what better way to consider the days ahead than to be faced with such choices and consequences, that all our decisions and actions might be coloured by a sense of commitment to the person of the Saviour, and a desire to follow him wherever he leads, that we might be at last where he is?
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Preaching shortly after the installation of his brother, James Archer Spurgeon, as the new minister at a place called Cornwall Road Chapel, Charles Spurgeon urges God’s people to encourage one another and their minister. Some seem to imagine that ministers do not need encouragement. Some seem persuaded that ministers should actively not be encouraged! Spurgeon gives the lie to both suggestions, encouraging God’s people to encourage their ministers, and offering some concrete ways in which that can be accomplished. Perhaps Spurgeon’s affection for his brother means that his sermon bubbles over with earnestness, sacrificing something in the way of orderliness. It is notable that Spurgeon preaches this for another congregation, saying things that perhaps their own pastor might have been reticent to address. Maybe this sermon will serve the same purpose for Christians and Christian congregations today—calling God’s people to offer legitimate and substantial encouragements to those who care for their souls.
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One of the books which ministers of a certain age credit with having introduced them to Spurgeon is Iain H. Murray’s Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching. This sermon stands very much in the line of Spurgeon’s ministry on this topic. With the divine commandment of 1 John 3:23 as his text—“that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as he gave us commandment”—Spurgeon looks at the truth that we ought to be believe and then at the warrant for so believing. He contends that the very commandment of God is the warrant, which warrant he sets out to demonstrate negatively and positively. Conscious of the damage that misunderstanding here does to the cause of Christ and the souls of men, the preacher demolishes any preaching that demands any warrant beyond the command of God to come to Christ as he is offered in the gospel. Ironically, he does not, in this sermon, leave himself much time to press home Christ upon sinners! Nevertheless, the consequence is clear: Christ must be preached in all his saving fulness; sinners must be commanded and entreated to come to him as his offered in the gospel.
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“The Lord kills and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and brings up” (1Sam 2:6). How are we to take such a text? Spurgeon suggests two senses, the natural and the spiritual. With regard to the former, he urges the mercies of God upon his hearers, reminding them of them favour that they have known in breath granted, life spared, health restored. But he also takes the text as a metaphor for the spiritual experience of a convert, dying to self and sin in order that we might be raised up together with Jesus Christ. Such an approach allows Spurgeon to cast his net wide, making a variety of applications across the spectrum of his hearers, calling us to thankfulness and soberness as we consider in what gracious ways the Lord deals with us. The preacher’s pointed thoughts and plaintive cries are no less valuable to us today—perhaps even more so, as he calls us back to consider just how intimately the God of heaven is involved in our lives, and to remember just how much we depend upon him.
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This sermon provides us with a further demonstration of Spurgeon’s spiritual awareness. Conscious that he has often blown the silver trumpet of divine mercy, he now seeks to ensure that he is not behindhand in warnings and exhortations. He therefore preaches on the great gulf fixed between heaven and hell. The absolute finality of that great division between everlasting bliss and eternal woe stirs the preacher’s compassion. This is neither a cold theological lecture on the finality of the eternal state, nor a vile railing against God for his injustice in so establishing matters, nor an angry rant against the people the preacher hopes will get what they deserve. With deep feeling and earnest pleading, Spurgeon really and urgently preaches, setting forth the fixed horrors of hell and and the delights reserved for heaven, stirring Christians to speak truth to the unconverted while there is yet a door of mercy open, and urging sinners to turn now to Christ, before the path to happiness is for ever closed off. “I have but preached the law to you out of love,” he concludes: “God knoweth how these hard things, as I speak them, make my heart bleed blood.” If we believe, we too will speak and feel the same; if we do not, such a sermon should persuade us to flee to Christ while we have the opportunity.
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Having recently returned from a visit to the Netherlands in which he was busily-employed, well-received, and much-blessed, Spurgeon calls his people to prayer and to praise. The Scriptures warn us to think soberly of ourselves—no proud boasting, and no false humility. Spurgeon here makes claims that might sound arrogant to us, but he makes them disingenuously, without any hint of arrogance. Taking the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:11–12 to heart, and speaking with a simple sincerity on his own behalf and on the behalf of other ministers, Spurgeon calls upon the saints to give themselves to united prayer, not least for their pastors and preachers, and to offer united prayer, not least for those same gifts of Christ to his church. Finally, he presses home those joyful claims on the hearts of Christ’s people by taking Paul’s language concerning service to himself. Our egalitarian age may well buck at Spurgeon’s sense of pastoral dignity; our anti-authority spirit may well bridle at the notion that a minister is entitled to particular prayer, thanking God for him. But even if we might imagine that Spurgeon over-reaches in one direction, it is at least likely that we fall short in the other. Here is a potent corrective, and an encouragement to God’s people to value the gifts Christ gives to the church.
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Spurgeon is aware of the tides and currents of his public ministry, its particular aspects and emphases. The sermons he selects for printing show the same awareness. He has been trying to address particular pastoral concerns, then moves on to broader themes, and now—in this striking and stimulating sermon—he speaks of the spiritual food given to the spiritually mature. There is some helpful instruction here, some useful prompts to self-examination, and gentle rebuke if we have not used the means God has given, nor attained to the heights to which the diligent might have reached. Here, then, is Spurgeon in a different vein to his more deliberately and directly evangelistic labours, showing his sensitivity to his duty and the different needs of the vast congregation gathered to hear God’s Word. Incidentally, for those reading regularly, this week carries us to the five-hundredth printed sermon, one which Spurgeon marks with a particular address on the word, Ebenezer—thus far has God helped us.
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This bubbling sermon draws on imagery of the royal wedding of 1863 to remind God’s people of the glory of their Prince. Spurgeon considers the Lord Jesus as full of joy both in his relation to God—anointed by him—and in relation to the church—deriving joy from them. He is pastorally sensitive both to the occasion which would have filled the people’s minds, and to the balance of the ministry they have recently enjoyed, with its concentration on some of the weightier elements of Christ’s sufferings. This sermon, then, points them and us toward the joy of Jesus the Redeemer as he not so much anticipates what will come, but revels in what has come, through the appointment of God and his own saving labours. And, of course, Spurgeon wants us to respond to the love and joy of Jesus our Deliverer with love and joy of our own.
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Another lovely sermon which both probes and pleads, which urges and entreats, which challenges and invites. Spurgeon’s capacity to blend such elements together is masterful! In the aftermath of a happy church members’ meeting, Spurgeon encourages God’s people to seek God for grace, that he would renew a right spirit within them. Perhaps this is the key to that balance of tone? He does not urge the saints to renew their own spirits, but to seek that blessing from God. At the same time, he urges upon them various reasons to do it, and so stirs up their hearts. Thus the heart is directed outwards, but it looks to God with vigorous faith. God’s grace is honoured, man’s duty is enforced. May we grasp both as we read and hear these words!
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This sweet sermon has an interesting structure: Spurgeon begins with exposition, unpacking the text phrase by phrase, even word by word. As he does so, he begins to sow in some pointed, practical comments about what it means to receive Christ Jesus the Lord, and to walk in him. Then he moves to advocacy, pleading reasons why having come to Christ, we should cling to Christ, in all aspects and every season of life. Then, finally, there are applications: although he has been practical throughout, now he identifies particular groups who need to hear and heed this message: those who lack communion with Christ, those who lack comfort in Christ, those who fall short in consistency in their walk with Christ, and those who need to close with Christ by faith for the first time. Here is Spurgeon digging into his Bible and bringing forth Christ as its great treasure, and advocating for him, preaching home the blessings of a continually close relationship with the Bridegroom of our hearts.
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Spurgeon addresses Christians, urging them to make their calling and election sure. He speaks much to and of ‘professors’—that is, professing Christians, those who think or imagine themselves to be saints, but are only so outwardly. He hangs his concerns on one text, but really deals with a theme of Scripture, drawn especially from various parables, about the importance of being sure that you belong to Christ. His aim, carefully pursued and pastorally sensitive, is not to create doubts and fears, but to clear away falsehoods, so that those who are saints may be sure that they are so, and those who are not, but for whatever reasons imagine themselves to be so, may no longer deceive themselves, but abandon vain hopes and seek after Christ alone. It is a searching sermon, demonstrating something of Spurgeon’s pastoral faithfulness, seeking to be true to Christ and to the souls of men.
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Spurgeon takes Jonah asleep in the boat as an emblem of both slumbering saints and sleeping sinners, and puts himself to wake both. He is lovingly blunt with both classes of hearer, reminding the Christian that a man who is not wakeful and working when the boat is in the storm can hardly consider himself a healthy believer, and perhaps has even mistaken his own salvation. He calls to the unbeliever to wake from the sleep of death, to remember all those things which demand an immediate response to the heavenly demand to come to Jesus Christ. Spurgeon is the kind of preacher who many know by reputation and imagine that they would enjoy unalloyed bliss sitting under his ministry. However, his is a ministry that searches and stirs as much as it helps and heals, that burns away dross as much as it hammers out the gold. Here we are called to look into the mirror of the Word of God, and ask ourselves if we are truly awake to the Lord’s glory and the concerns of Christ’s kingdom.
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This sermon is a very sweet blend of doctrinal accuracy, evangelistic zeal, and pastoral concern. It is one of those sermons where the preacher seems eager to get to the substance: after a very brief introduction, he dives straight in to the command which Christ issues to repent and believe the gospel. But he does not leave the command lying cold on the slab: he shows how the command explains itself, with regard both to repenting and believing. Here Spurgeon is thorough and careful, distinguishing between the true and the false in connection with repentance and faith. Then he seeks to show the reasonableness of the command, and here he begins to press more closely upon the soul. He closes with an extended enforcement of the immediacy of the matter: Christ’s command allows for no delays from us. Sometimes we separate, or even set against one another, doctrinal precision, gospel fervour, and pastoral wisdom, as if they can barely abide together. Spurgeon shows us not only that this is not so, but that—standing together—these are a potent force.
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True religion is no dark road of self-denying misery, says Spurgeon, however much the worldling may imagine it so, or even hope it to be so. Rather, it brings profound happiness to the man whose own will is sweetly wedded to God’s will. Under God, Spurgeon can bring men to the heights of delectation as well as to the depths of conviction, and here he aims at the former. From Psalm 37:4 the preacher provides us with a sparkling precept and a priceless promise. He urges us to find true and lasting joy as believers in God himself, and then presses upon us the expectation of blessings that accord with our appetites for God’s glory. If the holy demands of previous sermons have left us somewhat breathless, here is sweet air to fill our lungs afresh.
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This is a little curio amidst the sermons, in that it records an interesting voice alongside that of Spurgeon himself. On this particular Lord’s day morning, Spurgeon first delivered an exhortation from 2 Samuel 11:1, warning individual Christians and churches as a whole against the pernicious effects of spiritual lethargy, which leaves us open to temptation and prone to succumb to it. To those of us sunk in the inertia and coddled in the passivity of the present age, it is a needful word. Then, at the end of a sermon, Spurgeon introduces a friend, the Genevan minister and historian Jean-Henri Merle d’Aubigné, whose magisterial historical treatments of the Reformation remain in print, and are wonderful examples of the fruits of diligence over lethargy. Principle and example, blended by friendship, are at the fore on the sober but happy occasion.
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Spurgeon was assaulted both by the Arminians (who typically objected to the vigour of his views on the sovereignty of God in salvation) and by the hyper-Calvinists (who typically objected to the free offer of the gospel in his ministry). Here is an example of Spurgeon speaking both pastorally and polemically, demonstrating and declaring how the will of God and the will of man relate in the matter of salvation. Beginning with the first, he shows from Scripture and experience how salvation must depend entirely upon the will of God. Moving to the second, he then brings particular encouragements to bear upon the hearts of those who desire to know the salvation of God. We do not claim that this is the last word on the matter, or that it is the highest expression of theological nuance, but it is a delightful example of how, pastorally and practically, a preacher of free and sovereign grace can make known the glory of a saving God in calling sinners to come to him.
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Spurgeon has a powerful little collection of sermons called, Trumpet Calls to Christian Energy. This sermon could easily have found a place in that volume. It is the kind of sermon which both empties and fills the hearer, scouring out our complacency and carelessness, and stirring us to wholehearted endeavour in the service of Christ. Spurgeon hits multiple targets, striking hard and fast into the hearts of the saints, but also challenging those who have never given serious thought to their standing with God, and the prospect of his dealings with them on the basis of their sin. This sermon, then, falls firmly into the category of exhortation, and is an example of the very earnestness which it seeks to cultivate.
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This is far from Spurgeon’s most polished sermon, structurally. Some preachers envy Spurgeon’s golden hammer, with which he seems to strike every text so that it falls into three even parts. This one pulls in too many different directions, and its progress is not particularly even. However, it is held together by two threads: adoration of Christ and affection for Christ’s people. That, too, must be recognised. Order and structure, as Spurgeon very much appreciated, are important, and there is no excuse for their neglect in sermon preparation. Nevertheless, even a ragged sermon aimed from the heart to the heart can do much good. That is an encouragement to preachers not to be too much concerned with style and structure over substance, and an encouragement to hearers to be less critics of sermons, more eager hearers of divine truth.
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This is the kind of sermon over which people sneer at Spurgeon, and yet I think they may be doing him a disservice. Even the introduction reveals that he believes that there is more than one way to handle his text, and he makes clear that he has chosen to take it in an illustrative sense, as suggesting the challenges of God’s people about the worship of God on the Lord’s day to keep their hearts fixed on their holy business. We might still allow ourselves a smile as regards his exegesis, strictly speaking, but must we not acknowledge the sense and force of the extended simile, and its appropriateness as an illustration for the spiritual battle over undistracted worship? Taking it on its own terms, there is much here to do us much good.
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If the last sermon focused on our union with Christ and its fruits, this is on our communion with God, particularly the Father and the Son. In it, Spurgeon gets quite carried away—in a generally helpful fashion!—with the nature of the fellowship we enjoy with the Father, as well as with the Son. He then has a little time about the Christian’s desire arising from such fellowship, which is that others might enter into the same fellowship. Here, the preacher loads himself into the cannon, pleading out of his own experience that others will come to enjoy what he himself has tasted and enjoyed at God’s hand. It is a truly experimental sermon, full of deep feeling and earnest pleading.
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Because of our union with Christ, we are heirs of God together with him. Spurgeon first of all tries to tease out what that means in terms of a judicial reality, its terms and conditions, its certainties and expectations. He then moves on to view the estates we gain, considering the two elements of the inheritance—the more immediate sufferings that we have with Christ, and then the ultimate glories we have in God himself and all that he gives to us. Finally he administers the blessings, calling us to take up both parts of our inheritance, and reminding God’s people that part of our inheritance is gospel labour and fruit. Again, we see a man wrestling to bring high theology into close contact with us as God’s people, both for challenge and for comfort. As so often, there is a careful balance here both in the handling of the text and its application.
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Here is a very sweet blend of high and warm theology: the omnipresence of God, as grasped by Jacob when he understood that the Lord was truly present with him at Bethel, and what that still means for God’s people today. Spurgeon first uses that episode to demonstrate the fact that God is always present in every place. He then moves on to talk about the spirit or attitude which recognises this weighty reality. Finally, he explains the practical consequences of this conviction that God is everywhere. As so often, there is a measure of penetrating insight not just into the doctrine itself, but also into the way in which that doctrine plays out in the life of a believer. It gives us a window into the heart of the preacher, and tells us something of his own sense. Ultimately, it helps us to appreciate the character of our Lord, who truly and consistently lived before the eye of God.
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In some ways, this sermon serves as a counterpoint to the last we considered, preached on behalf of the Baptist Missionary Society. There are times when it can seem hard to hold Spurgeon’s convictions together, but here he sets forth a most vigorous insistence upon the church of Jesus Christ (properly defined!) as the appointed agent for the accomplishment of Christ’s saving purposes in the earth. Accurately understood and fervently grasped, what the preacher here declares would, and should, change our disposition to the church, binding us to her and bringing us to a high pitch of commitment and service, in order that the gospel being preached in and from the church might secure the glory of God in the earth. Let us read and heed!
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Preached on behalf of the Baptist Missionary Society, this is Spurgeon at his expansive best. Treading steadily through the text itself, Spurgeon studies out the command that the Lord Christ gives to his disciples. Then he moves on to the argument of the text, the holy logic of Christ’s declaration, sending out his people in accordance with the pattern of his own triumph, granting them both the right and the might to carry out their mission. It underscores the breadth of Spurgeon’s concern for the progress of the gospel, both closer to home and further afield, and his confident expectation that those who go in Christ’s name and power shall accomplish his purposes.
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Many of the entries in this section of the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit are records of meetings held for various groupings, or sermons preached by others. We simply choose one of the few of Spurgeon’s sermons, a typically warm and earnest treatment of a promise made through Joel: “For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed” (Jl 3:21). In Spurgeon’s hands, this becomes both a promise of present peace of conscience through the cleansing of remaining guilt and a promise of future perfection by the power of God’s Spirit in our humanity. His intention is to encourage us to strive against sin in confident expectation of the work of God continuing in us until the day of completion.
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Preached on a Monday afternoon by a man overwhelmed by the occasion, by God’s grace Spurgeon rises to it. Here is that famous statement about Christ as the subject of the ministry in the newly-opened Tabernacle, and here a glorious survey of the person and work of the Redeemer, with sweet notes concerning his excellency, his sufficiency, his beauty, the power of Christ crucified when proclaimed boldly and earnestly. If Spurgeon says he is unable to preach as he wishes, me might wish that we were so incapable, for this is a glorious holding up of Christ Jesus, and a powerful plea for all true ministers to go and do likewise, if they would honour God and bless men.
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A penetrating sermon preached in anticipation of the move into the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Spurgeon identifies the need for a comprehensive humility (before, during and after any act of service), thoughtfully talks about the ways in which humility is tested (both by favours given and denied), offers means of cultivating humility, and then calls himself and his congregation to pursue such a spirit as they move forward together. It is a terrifying thing to preach against pride, because pride so easily rears its head in the very act. Spurgeon, whose many advocates often suggest that he must have struggled greatly with pride, shows us that he is aware as any man of the dangers of the heart being lifted up. It is too easy to wonder about his struggles, and to overlook the challenges to our own hearts.
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This delightful sermon on the operations of the Spirit is full, at the front end, of comforts and joys. Spurgeon considers that the Holy Spirit is given as the earnest—the foretaste and guarantee—of heaven to come, and considers what it is about his ministry to us and in us that gives us a true sense of what lies ahead of us as saints. It is a sweet reminder of the spiritual realities enjoyed by the people of God. But Spurgeon is a true evangelist. As well as drawing men to Christ by holding up his beauties and offering his mercies through the Spirit, he also warns men of what it is like to live and die without the Spirit of God. There is a liveliness and an intensity that runs through this sermon: the preacher’s soul is bubbling over as he extols the wonders of redeeming love, and mourns the miseries of those who do not know what it is to have the Holy Ghost dwelling within them.
This sermon on prayer is simple and scriptural, tied tightly to the text. The preacher exhorts us to continue, to watch, and to give thanks in connection with prayer. Sometimes we make prayer an exercise beyond the grasp of an ‘ordinary Christian’, as if one needs a special gift in order to draw near to God, or requires a certain key to open the heavenly lock. Spurgeon’s points are more prosaic and straightforward: continue in prayer, watch in prayer, and give thanks in prayer. That is not to say that any of these things are easy—all require faith, all demand effort. Nevertheless, here is a prescription against prayerlessness and hopelessness and thanklessness, which ought to stir our souls to come to God, to draw near to the throne of grace persistently and consistently, with holy expectation, and with grateful hearts.
Are you grateful for the opportunity to hear the Word of God preached? Do you go to the services of worship with relish? Do you consider yourself blessed by God to sit under the ministry of faithful men? Spurgeon wants to teach us how favoured we are to hear preaching, wants us to understand the responsibility we have as hearers to receive the Word of God with faith, and then urges us to come prepared to hear it—not because God relies on our preparation to make the truth effectual, but because if we recognise the value of our blessings, we will seek to make the most of them. To read a sermon like this puts us at a distance from the actual act of preaching, true, but let us read, and—as God gives us opportunity—to hear our own ministers, with a holy relish for the preaching of the Word of God, man’s privilege and God’s power.
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“Without me, you can do nothing.” Spurgeon preaches these words as someone who believes this both as a man and as a minister, and it is reflected both in what he says and how he says it. He speaks to the saint, to the sinner, and to the saint in relation to the sinner. He assaults the idea of self-sufficiency at every point. Truly the saint can do nothing apart from Christ, cannot begin any work, cannot complete a work begun, cannot do a small work. That being so, how much less the sinner, dead in trespasses and sins. Spurgeon seeks, in dependence on the Spirit, to drive the sinner to self-despair. That sets the scene for his last point, a reminder that all spiritual labour depends on Christ for its success. The sermon is a little uneven in structure, but even that rather proves its own point: it is not human polish but divine power upon which the church relies!
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For so experimental a preacher as Spurgeon, this is an important sermon on the triumph of faith over feeling in the matter of the forgiveness of our sins. From his text, “Make me to know my transgression and my sin,” he draws some consolation for those who are praying such prayers; then there is instruction as to the way God answers such prayers; then there is discrimination between the work of the Spirit and of the devil with regard to the sense of sin; finally, there is exhortation to come to the Christ who can cleanse from every sin. Striking particularly at hyper-Calvinism, and with many plain pastoral counsels, this is a sermon to blow apart some false notions of spiritual experience, and to bring us in faith to Christ for enduring comfort and peace.
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Where does the church of Jesus Christ obtain its power? In prayer to the God of all grace. But what is prayer? Do we really pray? What are we really seeking and expecting? Spurgeon spares us not in this sermon. With penetrating bluntness he exposes the poverty of our praying, addresses our shortcomings, and with straightforward honesty he points us to the remedies we need, and the prospects of blessing held out to us, if only we will go to God to receive them. You may not enjoy this sermon, but heed it well, and you will—you must!—profit by it.
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This is not Spurgeon’s usual approach to a sermon. He opens with a sort of rolling consideration of his text, Philippians 4:11, teasing out some leading thoughts concerning Paul’s learning of this holy art of contentment, and the experience that it encompassed, and the faith that lay behind it. Having completed this survey, Spurgeon applies the text to the rich, to the poor, and to the sufferer. It shows something of the variety of the preacher’s skill to handle the text in a different way, and also shows something of the preacher’s heart for the variety of people under his care, that the different classes of experience should all be addressed, and that we might learn, like Christ, and then like Paul, to be content with the Lord’s dispensations toward us.
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A true gospel preacher never holds back the goodness of the good news. In this masterful blend of faith and feeling in the life of the saints, Spurgeon declares the wonder of knowing that God has cast all the sins of every believer behind his back. This is an objective reality and should be a subjective delight! He teases out what this means for us, first as sinners in relation to God as Judge, and then also as children in relation to God as Father. In this, he shows himself a true shepherd as well as an earnest evangelist. His customary assault upon the hearts of those who are lost does not in any way dilute his typical delight in the blessings of those who have been found.
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Spurgeon’s rich sense of Scripture is on display here. Not many preachers today might think of preaching from Exodus 10:26, that “there shall not a hoof be left behind.” But Spurgeon draws a line between the complete redemption that God accomplished in bringing his old covenant people out of Egypt and the salvation that he accomplishes when he saves each chosen man, all chosen men, and all that is in those he has chosen, as well as the creation itself, through Christ’s great redemption. No doubt many a modern exegete would cast our preacher aside at this point, but there’s a delightful consistency in his approach that helps us appreciate portions of God’s Word in a new light.
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This is a hissing hot sermon: considering the fervour of our Lord, Spurgeon hammers through nine things which reveal the depth of his devotion to the business upon which his heavenly Father had sent him. There is no pause, barely a space to breathe, as the spirit of endeavour which characterised the Great Servant is set before us. It fills us with awe and adoration as we contemplate it. And then, two great pressing conclusions: first, looking at such a Saviour, let us never doubt his desire to save or his willingness to do so; second, looking at such a Saviour, let us never hold back in our own service, called to follow as servants after such a Master as this.
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The preacher sets out the spiritual picture of fruitfulness that is known and enjoyed in a time of true revival. It is a carefully balanced sermon, full of confidence in God and so committed to the use of God’s means to accomplish God’s ends, perhaps encouraged by Spurgeon’s own recent experience. He sets out some of the particular blessings of God’s reviving power in the church, reminds us that it is indeed sovereign grace which is operating, calls for earnest labour in the light of those blessings, and warns us to seize our opportunities to hear and heed the good news as it is in Jesus Christ.
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This is the last sermon Spurgeon preached at the Royal Music Hall in Surrey Gardens. Taking a line through the apostle Paul’s testimony to the Ephesian elders, he summarises the nature of gospel ministry, both feeling and communicating the weight of responsibility not only in those who preach, but also in those who hear. Without bombast, and feeling his great weakness, Spurgeon assures his hearers of his desire to preach the whole counsel of God, and—insofar as he has been enabled to do so—asks how they have responded. Every preacher and every hearer would do well to consider the same kinds of questions.
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A very pointed sermon about the possibility of grieving the Spirit. Spurgeon shows a tender heart in so speaking, for he first draws attention to the love of the Spirit and the seal of the Spirit. These aspects of the sermon lay the foundation, setting forth the gracious operations of the One whom we grieve when we resist, neglect, or despise his work in us and the church. With this as the backdrop, the fact of our grieving the Spirit then becomes all the more pressing and painful, whether as individuals or as congregations. Of course, Spurgeon will not conclude without the reminder that the Spirit of grace is quick to draw near to the humble repenter, so leaving us hope.
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This may not be the most smoothly-structured sermon, but it pulses with urgency and intensity. The preacher’s concern is an assured faith, the confidence of a sinner who has put his trust in the Jesus of the Bible to deliver him from his sins. Spurgeon asks an important question: do we, in our preaching and witnessing, assume too much? Do we think that everyone understands what faith is, and in whom we must rest our faith? Concerned to ensure that such issues are clear, Spurgeon sets forth Paul’s confidence in Christ as a model for our own.
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As the church to which he preaches sets out on the building of a place of worship, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, so Spurgeon reminds them that the true church is not made of bricks and mortar, but of living stones, in union with Christ as the Cornerstone. Diverting their attention from the material needs of the hour, he properly points them to the church as the building of God, his particular dwelling place, and his glorious temple. It is a sweet reminder of the spiritual constitution of the true church of Christ, and perhaps a needful reminder, too, that our first concern is not the material beauty of the buildings in which we meet, but the spiritual beauty of the people who meet there, to the glory of the God whom we serve.
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This is one of Spurgeon’s calls to arms: a trumpet sounding to stir the saints to endeavour. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, says the Preacher of Ecclesiastes, and Spurgeon enter’s into the Preacher’s exhortation, and then develops some evangelical arguments—some gospel reasons—why every Christian should take it to heart, and put forth their hand in serving the Lord Almighty. It leaves us asking not, “What must I do?” but, “What may I do” in considering the opportunities before us to bring glory to God.
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God never makes pointless and empty promises. If he has promised that he would put his Spirit within us, it must be because it it necessary that the Holy Spirit be so given, and work in our hearts. And that is Spurgeon’s simple proposition: “that the work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary to us, if we would be saved.” He proves this by five strands of evidence, concerning the nature of fallen man, the inadequacy of the appointed means, the need for the acts of the Father and the Son to be brought to bear on our hearts, the experience of a true Christian, and the dependence of a believer on the Spirit for every acceptable work. His closing question brings it all to bear: do you have this Spirit at work in your heart?
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Taking his sermon title from a Bunyan character, Spurgeon addresses a sermon primarily to doubting believers. His main point throughout is that faith must look to Christ, while doubt creeps in when our eyes turn to our troubles. This is true in our temporal circumstances, in which we need to remember that we are Christ’s servants, who he is to us, that he is governing all things and has always helped us to this point. It is true also with regard to our spiritual concerns, in which we might have doubts about our acceptance with God, and our endurance to the end. It is in looking to Christ that we are saved, and in looking to Christ that we are kept, knowing ourselves saved.
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Spurgeon tells God’s pilgrims that looking forward is good, but that looking back is also necessary. In this case, he recommends a retrospective on prayer, considering seven particulars about the way in which the Lord has heard the voice and the supplications of his people. As he works his way through the shortcomings of our praying, the abundance of God’s blessing, and the manner in which the Lord dispenses his kindnesses, the preacher gives us reason after reason to love the Lord for the way in which he has heard us, with three sweet applications, regarding our praises, our obedience, and our testimony.
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This sermon is less an exposition of the text, not even an application of it, but more a wholehearted response to it. It is, perhaps, the kind of gospel preaching to which few of us are now accustomed. It is full-orbed, Calvinistic evangelism—a man wholly persuaded of God’s willingness and ability and readiness to save, and therefore determined to obey his Lord’s command and to search out sinners and reason with them, urge them, plead with them, exhort and entreat them, to accept Christ as he is freely offered to them in the gospel, with words and with tears.
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Tomorrow's episode is focused on the sermon Compel them to come in, sermon number 227. In anticipation of discussing this wonderfully evangelistic sermon, we thought it would be helpful to release a lively reading of the complete sermon. We pray it is a blessing to you.
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Another sermon in which personal experience adorns divine truth: Spurgeon makes a careful point about the necessity of the Christian’s grief and distress in trials, tribulations and temptations. He explains why such experience is necessary for God’s people, and shows how Christian joy, rooted in enduring spiritual reality, is entirely consistent with such experience. For God’s people burdened by sorrows and troubles, here is comfort, standing on the rock of truth as the storms of affliction batter our hearts.
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This hard-hitting sermon seems to flow hot from the preacher’s own heart. He brings to bear Christ’s charge to the church in Ephesus from Revelation 2:4, that we have left our first love. There’s nothing soft and cuddly about this sermon: it comes with real and necessary force. There is nothing half-hearted about this sermon: Spurgeon puts himself in the firing line first, and only then does he bring the gun to bear upon the congregation. But who would suggest that there has been no decline in our love for Christ? This is a sermon to bring us low, and then bring us back, God willing.
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Anyone who has run the Christian race for any length of time becomes conscious of their own frailty. Spurgeon does not hold back in bringing us face to face with the reality of our weakness as pilgrims, setting it forth plainly and feelingly. At the same time, he reminds us of the richness of the promise that God gives to his pilgrim people, that he shall match strength to the days he gives us, and so enable us to run with endurance the race that is set before us. These are not soft comforts, but full of good substance, cold water for weary souls.
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Conscious of God’s mighty works in other places, Spurgeon here stirs up the members of the church he serves to pray to God to accomplish what he alone can do, to cry out for the Holy Spirit. Spurgeon is emphatic about what the Spirit does and why we depend upon him utterly, and earnest about us getting on our knees to cry out for the mercies which he alone can bestow in bringing Christ into the hearts of men and making us truly to live for the praise of the glory of God. A wonderful call to prayer!
Preaching at Epsom Racecourse, Spurgeon speaks about what it truly means to run the heavenly race. A great example of ‘situational preaching,’ it grips the mind with its liveliness even without the immediate physical context. Spurgeon insists here not only on the fact that salvation is all of grace, but also that we must preach the absolute necessity of a religious life in order that we may reach heaven at last. Full of exhortations and encouragements, it calls us to genuine endeavour in the heavenly race.
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It might surprise us, but Spurgeon had no high opinion of what many call revival. If it were a genuine work of God, he was all heart, but he had seen too many abuses for him to jump to conclusions. So, conscious of God’s work in America, he sets before us a scriptural notion of revival, identifying the work of God’s Spirit through preaching and praying, identifying the glorious effects of such a work when true, cautioning against errors and excesses, before pleading that God’s people would never obstruct but only labour and plead for such blessings as God alone can give.
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Spurgeon is very much aware of his congregation, and of its composition, and its need of instruction. Conscious that he is now preaching to a more settled group, he sets out to teach them some of the basics, beginning with the great reality of the definite work of Christ in laying down his life for his people. Here is a good example of instruction lightened by devotion, of devotion established upon instruction. Light and heat combine to give us a beautiful portrait of the wonder of redeeming love, in Christ’s purchase of a people for himself.
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Spurgeon preaches this sermon with ministers of lesser gifts and slender means in mind. It is a reminder of the sovereign dispensation of God in the gift he gives to his church, and the grace he shows in so dealing with both those to whom the gifts are given, and those who are so gifted. His applications are, of course, a little broader, but it is stirring reminder that there are many blessings and no excuses in serving such a God and King as we have. Spurgeon’s exhortatory sermons allow both for particular encouragements and particular challenges, and this sermon is full of both.
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This is one of Spurgeon’s heavier sermons, drawn from the sobering reminder of Ezekiel 33:6 that someone who neglects the watchman’s warning is responsible for his own destruction. Spurgeon considers this in the light of faithful gospel ministry, considering the adequacy of the warning given, exposing the excuses used for ignoring the warning, and pressing home the fearful consequences of such neglect. It is as relevant today as ever, for the excuses of men’s hearts do not really change, and neither does the consequence of neglecting the warnings of God’s watchmen.
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Having previously considered the command to love our neighbour as ourselves, here Spurgeon considers “the first and greatest commandment”: that we should love the Lord our God supremely and entirely. Again, he is very conscious that this great law contains within it other laws, and presses home both the weight of it and the proper consequences of it, in terms of recognition of our sin and gratitude for salvation, as well as the life of love we ought to live if we have been redeemed from the sin and shame of disobedience at this point. A great conception of God governs this sermon, and without that we shall never grasp the force of this commandment.
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In this sermon, Spurgeon gives his imagination free rein. From a phrase in Hebrews 6:9, he weaves an allegory of things associated with salvation, from before the world began up to the glorification of the believer. The sermon is lively and intense, portraying a great military parade in which Salvation is being carried, and describing both the plan of God and the experience of God’s people as that plan is worked out in their lives. It may not be the most technically correct sermon you will ever read, but it will do your soul good to consider the wonders of redeeming love!
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Spurgeon preaches an eminently practical sermon: not “savoury to sickly sentimental Christians,” he says, not just another round of the same doctrines, but the full force of God’s command to mankind to love our neighbour as ourselves. As you might imagine, Spurgeon puts this to good use in instructing saints, humbling unbelievers, and honouring the God whose law this is. As the preacher says, there are some hard things for us to embrace, but it is a divine command, and our duty and privilege so to live and so to love.
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We know that Spurgeon delights in Christ, and so we are not surprised, but still delighted ourselves, at how readily and eagerly and lovingly he holds up the Saviour to our admiring gaze. Here he speaks of Christ lifted up in terms of Christ’s own glory, the minister’s theme, and the heart’s attraction. Again, he blends deep truths with warm experiences; there is both light and heat for us here.
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The preacher’s gift for forceful simplicity is again on display here. Spurgeon’s doctrinal clarity comes to the fore as he gives a sweeping overview of sovereign grace at every point of Christian experience. His confidence in the truth is plain as he shows how we are shut up to believing what God has said in this regard. His expectation of engagement is clear as he talks about the influence of this truth. His concern for souls is revealed as he talks about the damnation that unrepentant sinners bring upon themselves.
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It is not always easy to hold together the indicatives of the gospel (what God has done in salvation) with the imperatives of the gospel (the demands of and responses to the gospel). Spurgeon does so here masterfully, holding up the finished work of Christ both for adoration and emulation, as something for us to rest in for our souls and to copy in our lives. It is a stirring call to Christian service, and truly lifts the heart.
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Spurgeon is too faithful an ambassador of Christ to leave the stones of our hearts unturned. This sermon is particularly penetrating, as he surveys the hidden sins that many try to hold in their hearts unknown to others. Pressing hard, the preacher points out the folly, misery, guilt and danger of secret sins, especially in the hearts of hypocrites, but also in the experience of God’s people, before offering the only effective remedy.
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Here we zero in on Christ’s might as Mediator, as the God-man willing and able to accomplish a ‘big picture’ salvation for all his chosen ones, a salvation that is not momentary, shallow, or incomplete, but which really, absolutely and permanently accomplishes their deliverance and assures them of all needful grace to bring them safely to glory. He finds here encouragements for preachers, for prayers, and for all who need a Saviour.
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This wonderful sermon follows on from #93 on “God in the Covenant.” Enthusiastically, energetically, overwhelmingly, Spurgeon sets forth the wonders of Christ in himself, and what it means to know him, and to possess him in the covenant of grace. Pressing home these blessings into the experience of believers, Spurgeon then pleads with those who know Christ in the covenant to act accordingly, and with those who do not to come to him and receive all the mercy that he has to bestow.
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This is a more evangelistic sermon, and as such serves a good purpose for self-examination, as well as helping us to pray for those who preach and hear the gospel, and instructing us as to how we might ourselves press the claims of Christ upon those whom we love. Of course, almost incidentally but substantially, Spurgeon holds up the beauty and the glory of the Christ who is so often slighted and neglected, reminding those who believe of who and why we trust him with our souls.
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Jeremy sat down with John Snyder, cohost of The Whole Counsel podcast to discuss why we enjoy and benefit from reading old writers. The duo also share some of the dangers and abuses of reading old books and sermons.
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Spurgeon is a Particular Baptist, following in the footsteps of those who held fast to the God of the covenant. Here he holds up and holds out the crowning jewel of the blessing of the new covenant: that God becomes our God. Setting this jewel in the context of his covenant theology, he traces out and presses home what it means for God to be the God of his people in the deepest and richest sense.
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Omniscience refers to the perfect and complete knowledge of God. From the simple reminder that God is the all-seeing God, Spurgeon develops not only a general doctrine of God’s knowledge, but also brings it to bear on the heart of every one of his hearers (and readers), before pressing it home with sweet comforts to the godly and faithful warnings to the unbeliever.
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Spurgeon’s simplicity and spiritual sweetness are on delightful display in this sermon on John 17:16, that Christ’s people are not of the world, just as Christ was not of the world. With some surprisingly straightforward insights and a crisp structure, Spurgeon looks at the doctrinal, experiental and practical implications and applications of our union and communion with Christ in this regard.
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When the Apostles preached, they always emphasized the necessity of the resurrection of the dead. Spurgeon challenged his church as to whether or not they really believed in the resurrection. Using a battery of texts, Spurgeon shows us not only the importance of believing in the life to come after death, but the comfort it offers every Christian.
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You may know of Spurgeon’s affection for the great allegory of Christian experience by John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. Here we see something of the debt Spurgeon owed to Bunyan in his imagination. While he hangs it all on the Word of God, Spurgeon uses an illustration or image from Bunyan as the central theme of his sermon, calling God’s people to avoid spiritual sleepiness, and be wakeful and watchful, vital and vigorous, in our Christian labour. It is no toothless homily, no soft and sleep-inducing sermon, but one calculated to probe and prod the dull soul.
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An instructive example of Spurgeon reading his Bible with the expectation of finding Christ. Looking at the Old Testament through the lens of the new, here Spurgeon draws out parallels between the Passover lamb and Christ as the Lamb of God. Having drawn out those connections, he then emphasizes the needs not only to come to Christ but also to keep in Christ, to live by him and in him. Not only does this sermon hold out a sweet and sufficient Saviour, it is a good prompt to us to expect to see Christ in all our Bibles.
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The person and work of the Holy Spirit looms large in Spurgeon’s ministry. While the Holy Spirit’s ministry is implicit in many of his declaration so confidence, here is a wonderful declaration—clear and warm—of the operations of the Holy Ghost in leading us into all truth. Here is some of the blessed supernaturalism of true Christianity, and here is an insight into Spurgeon’s own expectant dependence on the third person of the Godhead.
Perhaps not the smoothest of Spurgeon’s sermons, but nonetheless direct and earnest for that. Contending from church history and revealed truth for the fact that God chooses sinners, in sovereign mercy, for salvation, he turns the doctrine in different directions to challenge, comfort, encourage, exhort and invite. The outcome is a sweet and potent testimony to God’s grace in redemption.
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Combining both a study of the thing with the thing itself, Spurgeon shows us what it means to preach the gospel. His sense of this is properly broad and yet rightly narrow, and at once exposes human pride and imposes a real duty, to be pursued in all humility and dependence on the Holy Ghost. If we want to exalt Christ in our preaching, we would do well to learn what is spoken here.
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This sermon shows Spurgeon's gospel heart and burns with gospel heat: it gives us a window into the conviction, intensity, and fervency of a man taken up with the truth and laboring under a sense of it. It illuminates the mind and warms the affections in equal measure, as Spurgeon lays out the importance not only of preaching, but also of understanding and receiving God's gospel.
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Spurgeon calls Isaiah 43:25 a “salvation text”—a portion of God’s Word that seems particularly suited by God for calling and bringing sinners to himself. With this eager confidence, he labours to speak plainly to the his congregation as sinners who need mercy, delights in the blotting out of transgression in a demonstration of mercy, traces mercy back to its root in the sovereign love of a gracious God, and then holds out the promise of mercy to all who come to Christ.
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Such simplicity, such straightforwardness! Taking Acts 4:13 as his starting point, Spurgeon asks whether or not we show that we have been with Jesus.
He asks what a Christian should be, when a Christian should be so, why he should be so, and how he can be so. Then he holds Christ before us as we see him in the Scriptures, urging principled obedience in the power of the Spirit at all times and in all places, for the sake of our own souls, the honor of true religion, and the glory of Christ himself.
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Based on Hosea 8:12, preached very early in his ministry, Spurgeon plants a flag that emphasizes the clarity and sufficiency of God's revelation of Himself.
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"Christ Crucified" is a stirring sermon of striking tones which helped earn Spurgeon the nickname 'Brimstone' among the cartoonists of the day. After exposing the emptiness of religious formalism and arrogant secularism, Spurgeon makes clear that Christ and him crucified—the doctrines of sovereign grace—is God’s wisdom for salvation. We trace out the structure of the sermon, and aim to grasp something of the preacher’s fervour.
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As we set out to read the sermons of Charles Spurgeon, we must take a moment to and consider the weight of the undertaking we are pursuing, and the best way to go about it. Read humbly. Read expectantly. Cry out from your heart to God to hear his voice and his truth in these sermons.
"The Immutability of God" is the first sermon in the New Park Street Pulpit collection. Spurgeon was twenty years old when it was preached, and had been serving in London for about a year, already attracting much attention by his ministry. The sermon, from Malachi 3:6, presents an unchanging God, identifies “the sons of Jacob” who benefit from his immutability, and considers the benefit they derive—that they are not consumed. Having outlined something of the majesty of the eternal God, Spurgeon drives home his kindness to his chosen people, and urges each one to make the most of the blessings the unchanging God holds out in Christ Jesus.
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Hear the story behind the creation of From the Heart of Spurgeon, what we hope to accomplish with this podcast, and how you can participate, even if reading one sermon a day is intimidating.