From the Heart of Spurgeon

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 itse...

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 preache...

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...

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...

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...

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 b...

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 f...

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 othe...

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 glorie...

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 weig...

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....

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 ri...

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...

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 bo...

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...

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 t...

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 an...

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 prep...

“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,...

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 th...

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 ble...

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. I...

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, an...

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...

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,...