From the Heart of Spurgeon

Encourage Your Minister (S537)

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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The Warrant of Faith (S531)

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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From Death to Life (S523)

“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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The Bridgeless Gulf (S518)

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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The Power of Prayer and the Pleasure of Praise (S507)

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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Strong Meat (S506)

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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The Gladness of the Man of Sorrows (S498)

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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Gracious Renewal (S490)

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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Life and Walk of Faith (S483)

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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Self-Delusion (S475)

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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