From the Heart of Spurgeon

True Unity Promoted (S607)

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.

 

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

The Centurion; Or, An Exhortation to the Virtuous (S600)

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.

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

 

Preparation for Revival (S597)

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”?

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

A Mystery! Saints Sorrowing and Jesus Glad! (S585)

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.

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

The Lamb—The Light (S583/4)

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.

 

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Baptismal Regeneration (S573)

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.

 

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

The Arrows of the Lord’s Deliverance (S569)

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.

 

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Christ is Glorious—Let Us Make Him Known (S560)

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?

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Nothing But Leaves (S555)

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.

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Suffering and Reigning with Jesus (S547)

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?

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app