From the Heart of Spurgeon

The preacher sets out the spiritual picture of fruitfulness that is known and enjoyed in a time of true revival. It is a carefully balanced sermon, full of confidence in God and so committed to the use of God’s means to accomplish God’s ends, perhaps encouraged by Spurgeon’s own recent experience. He sets out some of the particular blessings of God’s reviving power in the church, reminds us that i...

This is the last sermon Spurgeon preached at the Royal Music Hall in Surrey Gardens. Taking a line through the apostle Paul’s testimony to the Ephesian elders, he summarises the nature of gospel ministry, both feeling and communicating the weight of responsibility not only in those who preach, but also in those who hear. Without bombast, and feeling his great weakness, Spurgeon assures his hearers...

A very pointed sermon about the possibility of grieving the Spirit. Spurgeon shows a tender heart in so speaking, for he first draws attention to the love of the Spirit and the seal of the Spirit. These aspects of the sermon lay the foundation, setting forth the gracious operations of the One whom we grieve when we resist, neglect, or despise his work in us and the church. With this as the backdro...

This may not be the most smoothly-structured sermon, but it pulses with urgency and intensity. The preacher’s concern is an assured faith, the confidence of a sinner who has put his trust in the Jesus of the Bible to deliver him from his sins. Spurgeon asks an important question: do we, in our preaching and witnessing, assume too much? Do we think that everyone understands what faith is, and in wh...

As the church to which he preaches sets out on the building of a place of worship, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, so Spurgeon reminds them that the true church is not made of bricks and mortar, but of living stones, in union with Christ as the Cornerstone. Diverting their attention from the material needs of the hour, he properly points them to the church as the building of God, his particular dwell...

This is one of Spurgeon’s calls to arms: a trumpet sounding to stir the saints to endeavour. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, says the Preacher of Ecclesiastes, and Spurgeon enter’s into the Preacher’s exhortation, and then develops some evangelical arguments—some gospel reasons—why every Christian should take it to heart, and put forth their hand in serving the Lord Almighty...

God never makes pointless and empty promises. If he has promised that he would put his Spirit within us, it must be because it it necessary that the Holy Spirit be so given, and work in our hearts. And that is Spurgeon’s simple proposition: “that the work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary to us, if we would be saved.” He proves this by five strands of evidence, concerning the nature of fa...

Taking his sermon title from a Bunyan character, Spurgeon addresses a sermon primarily to doubting believers. His main point throughout is that faith must look to Christ, while doubt creeps in when our eyes turn to our troubles. This is true in our temporal circumstances, in which we need to remember that we are Christ’s servants, who he is to us, that he is governing all things and has always hel...

Spurgeon tells God’s pilgrims that looking forward is good, but that looking back is also necessary. In this case, he recommends a retrospective on prayer, considering seven particulars about the way in which the Lord has heard the voice and the supplications of his people. As he works his way through the shortcomings of our praying, the abundance of God’s blessing, and the manner in which the Lor...

This sermon is less an exposition of the text, not even an application of it, but more a wholehearted response to it. It is, perhaps, the kind of gospel preaching to which few of us are now accustomed. It is full-orbed, Calvinistic evangelism—a man wholly persuaded of God’s willingness and ability and readiness to save, and therefore determined to obey his Lord’s command and to search out sinners...

Tomorrow's episode is focused on the sermon Compel them to come in, sermon number 227. In anticipation of discussing this wonderfully evangelistic sermon, we thought it would be helpful to release a lively reading of the complete sermon. We pray it is a blessing to you. Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter!  https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings e...

Another sermon in which personal experience adorns divine truth: Spurgeon makes a careful point about the necessity of the Christian’s grief and distress in trials, tribulations and temptations. He explains why such experience is necessary for God’s people, and shows how Christian joy, rooted in enduring spiritual reality, is entirely consistent with such experience. For God’s people burdened by s...

This hard-hitting sermon seems to flow hot from the preacher’s own heart. He brings to bear Christ’s charge to the church in Ephesus from Revelation 2:4, that we have left our first love. There’s nothing soft and cuddly about this sermon: it comes with real and necessary force. There is nothing half-hearted about this sermon: Spurgeon puts himself in the firing line first, and only then does he br...

Anyone who has run the Christian race for any length of time becomes conscious of their own frailty. Spurgeon does not hold back in bringing us face to face with the reality of our weakness as pilgrims, setting it forth plainly and feelingly. At the same time, he reminds us of the richness of the promise that God gives to his pilgrim people, that he shall match strength to the days he gives us, an...

Conscious of God’s mighty works in other places, Spurgeon here stirs up the members of the church he serves to pray to God to accomplish what he alone can do, to cry out for the Holy Spirit. Spurgeon is emphatic about what the Spirit does and why we depend upon him utterly, and earnest about us getting on our knees to cry out for the mercies which he alone can bestow in bringing Christ into the he...

Preaching at Epsom Racecourse, Spurgeon speaks about what it truly means to run the heavenly race. A great example of ‘situational preaching,’ it grips the mind with its liveliness even without the immediate physical context. Spurgeon insists here not only on the fact that salvation is all of grace, but also that we must preach the absolute necessity of a religious life in order that we may reach...

It might surprise us, but Spurgeon had no high opinion of what many call revival. If it were a genuine work of God, he was all heart, but he had seen too many abuses for him to jump to conclusions. So, conscious of God’s work in America, he sets before us a scriptural notion of revival, identifying the work of God’s Spirit through preaching and praying, identifying the glorious effects of such a w...

Spurgeon is very much aware of his congregation, and of its composition, and its need of instruction. Conscious that he is now preaching to a more settled group, he sets out to teach them some of the basics, beginning with the great reality of the definite work of Christ in laying down his life for his people. Here is a good example of instruction lightened by devotion, of devotion established upo...

Spurgeon preaches this sermon with ministers of lesser gifts and slender means in mind. It is a reminder of the sovereign dispensation of God in the gift he gives to his church, and the grace he shows in so dealing with both those to whom the gifts are given, and those who are so gifted. His applications are, of course, a little broader, but it is stirring reminder that there are many blessings an...

This is one of Spurgeon’s heavier sermons, drawn from the sobering reminder of Ezekiel 33:6 that someone who neglects the watchman’s warning is responsible for his own destruction. Spurgeon considers this in the light of faithful gospel ministry, considering the adequacy of the warning given, exposing the excuses used for ignoring the warning, and pressing home the fearful consequences of such neg...

Having previously considered the command to love our neighbour as ourselves, here Spurgeon considers “the first and greatest commandment”: that we should love the Lord our God supremely and entirely. Again, he is very conscious that this great law contains within it other laws, and presses home both the weight of it and the proper consequences of it, in terms of recognition of our sin and gratitud...

In this sermon, Spurgeon gives his imagination free rein. From a phrase in Hebrews 6:9, he weaves an allegory of things associated with salvation, from before the world began up to the glorification of the believer. The sermon is lively and intense, portraying a great military parade in which Salvation is being carried, and describing both the plan of God and the experience of God’s people as that...

Spurgeon preaches an eminently practical sermon: not “savoury to sickly sentimental Christians,” he says, not just another round of the same doctrines, but the full force of God’s command to mankind to love our neighbour as ourselves. As you might imagine, Spurgeon puts this to good use in instructing saints, humbling unbelievers, and honouring the God whose law this is. As the preacher says, ther...

We know that Spurgeon delights in Christ, and so we are not surprised, but still delighted ourselves, at how readily and eagerly and lovingly he holds up the Saviour to our admiring gaze. Here he speaks of Christ lifted up in terms of Christ’s own glory, the minister’s theme, and the heart’s attraction. Again, he blends deep truths with warm experiences; there is both light and heat for us here. S...

The preacher’s gift for forceful simplicity is again on display here. Spurgeon’s doctrinal clarity comes to the fore as he gives a sweeping overview of sovereign grace at every point of Christian experience. His confidence in the truth is plain as he shows how we are shut up to believing what God has said in this regard. His expectation of engagement is clear as he talks about the influence of thi...