From the Heart of Spurgeon

Are you a gospel trumpet? That is the dominant image which Spurgeon employs for his sermon from 1 Thessalonians 1:8 about sounding forth the word of the Lord. The sermon builds to some applications which are very specific to the Metropolitan Tabernacle in Spurgeon’s time, and we need to take that into account as we reach them. However, they can easily be turned to help us in our own situations, and the principles which lie behind them are broadly true. So, we are urged to consider the trumpeters themselves, the kind of men who make God’s word to sound out, with Spurgeon ranging across Paul’s description of the Thessalonian believers in his letters to them. This is really a brief study in Christian character. Then we turn to the trumpets, and see how it is that they give forth such a penetrating sound, and here we are in the realm of Christian experience and obedience. Thirdly, Spurgeon insists that there was a pressing present need for just such a trumpet-blast as sounded from the Thessalonian believers, and here the flavour of the hour begins to bleed through, but in a way that I think makes the modern reader add his, “Amen!” to the preacher’s assessment. Finally comes the question of whether or not his immediate congregation had an obligation to sound forth that trumpet-note. While some of the qualities and opportunities Spurgeon identifies are very tightly tied to the Tabernacle gathering, they raise questions and challenges for every church and each believer as to how we respond to the need of the present hour.

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One of the enduring elements of Spurgeon’s public ministry, reflective of his private life, is his delight in and dependence on the Holy Spirit. He mentions him often, prays to him regularly, delights in him personally, and depends on him resolutely. He is a good guide for us, then, concerning intimate knowledge of the Holy Spirit. As often, Spurgeon is not afraid of his own experience, but his starting point and guiding principle is the Word of God, as he considers what it is to have the Holy Spirit dwelling with us and in us. I think that the personality and operations of the Holy Spirit is a fairly significant weak point in modern Reformed evangelicalism, perhaps because of an over-reaction to Charismatic excess, but I also wonder if we have downplayed his presence and influence because we do not know him very well. Whatever the case, Spurgeon is corrective and instructive as he guides us through the truth of John 14:17, helping us to understand who we know, and how, and what it means to have this intimacy with the Third Person of the Godhead. As one who needs him, and wants him more than I have him, I hope it will be a blessing to you.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/intimate-knowledge-of-the-holy-spirit

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This is a lovely sermon, grounded in the Lord’s second appearance to Solomon, and our Sovereign’s answer to his humble servant. Spurgeon takes Solomon’s prayer as a model for our own, and looks to God’s answer as a pattern for our faith to expect. He shows us our proper place in prayer, coming before the Lord, and what that means, and how to find him. He explains that the great desire of the praying man is to be heard of the Lord in our prayer and supplication, and what it really means to be heard. He stirs us up to an assurance of answer to prayer, and the ways in which the Lord gives that confidence to his people. Finally, how should we pray? Spurgeon’s counsels to his own people may need a little massaging to fit us, but it is not hard work! He guides us through Solomon’s petitions and their answers, demonstrating how these are the very things that we desire in the church of Jesus Christ. And so, we are taught to pray, being led to the throne of grace, and with our souls stirred to seek a blessing and to look for its coming from the heart and hand of our gracious God.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/idols-found-wanting-but-jehovah-found-faithful

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Isaiah contrasts the confidence of Babylon with the hope of God’s people. God’s people have a sure and certain hope. False confidences pass away—whether as evidently as the ruins of Babylon have declared, or in any other case. By contrast, our God abides always the same. Even to old age—and this is a particular emphasis of Spurgeon in the sermon, given its textual context—he will carry us. Whatever else may change in us or around us, God himself does not change in himself or in his disposition toward us. And so it remains true that he has made us, both as creatures and as his people. He carries us, and those mercies toward us never alter. He also will deliver us. The structure of the sermon toward the end gets a little ragged, but the point is clear. We have the same God and the same mercy all through life. Spurgeon’s two primary applications go in two opposite directions. The first is to the young, with whom he pleads to begin life with God, in order that they may enjoy him to the end. The second is to the aged, urging them to trust a God who has never let them down.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/idols-found-wanting-but-jehovah-found-faithful

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Charles Spurgeon increasingly inhabited the paradox of which he preached in this sermon: “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2Cor 12:10). How can a man be weak and strong at the same time? How can he be made strong out of his weakness? To answer this question, Spurgeon first turns the words the other way up, and makes them into a warning of sorts, exposing the pretended strength of the strong, whether that is unbelievers who imagine that they can save themselves, or believers who are resting in their own imagined excellences. So the high-minded are humbled, before Spurgeon flips his text into the right orientation and asks about the ‘when’ and the ‘then’ of the verse, asking especially how the weakness of the saints brings us to Christ, and brings Christ to us, in such a way as to glorify the Lord, as empty self seeks the fulness of him who fills all in all. Are you feeling your weakness? Are you weary and washed out in the way? Then do not pretend to be anything else, and do not try and find strength in yourself, but cast yourself upon Christ and find in him the strength which he alone supplies.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/a-paradox-sermon

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