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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.
Episodes
Friday Jul 26, 2024
Friday Jul 26, 2024
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.
Read the sermon: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/loves-birth-and-parentage
Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!
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Friday Jul 19, 2024
Friday Jul 19, 2024
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.
Read the sermon: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/strengthening-words-from-the-saviours-lips
Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!
British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR
American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft
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.
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Friday Jul 12, 2024
Friday Jul 12, 2024
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.
Read the sermon: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/strengthening-words-from-the-saviours-lips
Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!
British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR
American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft
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.
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Friday Jul 05, 2024
Friday Jul 05, 2024
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.
Read the sermon: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/conversions-desired
Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!
British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR
American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft
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.
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Friday Jun 28, 2024
Friday Jun 28, 2024
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.
Read the sermon: www.mediagratiae.org/resources/pride-catechized-and-condemned
Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!
British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR
American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft
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.
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Friday Jun 21, 2024
Friday Jun 21, 2024
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.
Friday Jun 14, 2024
Friday Jun 14, 2024
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.
Read the sermon: www.mediagratiae.org/resources/love-to-jesus-the-great-test
Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!
British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR
American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft
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.
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Friday Jun 07, 2024
Friday Jun 07, 2024
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.
Read the sermon: www.mediagratiae.org/resources/how-to-converse-with-god
Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!
British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR
American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft
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.
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Friday May 31, 2024
Friday May 31, 2024
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.
Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!
British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR
American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft
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.
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Friday May 24, 2024
Friday May 24, 2024
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?
Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!
British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR
American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft
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
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