Maidenbower Baptist Church

There are a number of sermons which touch on this topic, or deal with it directly, during this season of Spurgeon's ministry. It is not a change of emphasis so much as a change of tone. He often, throughout his ministry, celebrates the reliability and clarity of the Word of the Lord. In the background here, though, is the Downgrade Controversy, the increasing theological liberalisation of Christia...

Why does someone get baptised? What does church membership declare? How does someone become a Christian, and what does that mean? John gives the answer when he tells us that "as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (Jn 1:12–13). The...

A Christian is a joyful and peaceful person, with a life marked by certainty and security. Christians do not claim easy lives, but they do enjoy happy lives, marked by comforts in life, at death, and beyond death. What are our comforts in life? Though they are too many to catalogue, one way to summarise them is to say that our unchanging God is our unerring guide who gives us an unshaking hope: "F...

A thoroughly experimental sermon, in which Spurgeon takes Job as something of a template for all believers, suggesting that Job was favoured (as others may sometimes be) with particularly vivid impressions of God, some striking sense of his majesty and the glory of his perfections. Such views of the Lord truly make an impression upon us, bringing us low in ourselves. This is no generic sense of lo...

John wants his beloved spiritual children not to be deceived by those who claim righteousness in the heart but show none in the life. He emphasises the Lord Jesus as the standard of righteousness, the Man who showed love to God and to men in all his life. He underscores the fact of righteousness, that a Christian is righteous just as Christ himself is righteous. So what is the proof of that righte...

Everyone is sowing some kind of seed: "he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life" (Gal 6:7–8). Paul exhorts the disciples of Christ to follow their Lord in doing good. This is a holy labour, living as Christ in the power of his Spirit. He offers a needed warning, against weariness and faintness. He supplies a...

This sermon is numerically significant on several levels. It is the two thousandth sermon, the last sermon of Volume XXXIII in the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, and a sermon prepared to be read on the first day of the year of 1888. As so often with these 'major marker' sermons (ones that break through particular numerical boundaries), and all the more so when those markers are loaded up like thi...

What can cause an outburst of holy joy? God himself is the source, the theme, the object of such praise, especially in his gracious dealings with sinners. To get to the root of the matter, we must look first at the blessings bestowed, the great mercy poured out and the pardon of transgressions granted. Then we must look at the scope which is expressed—a mercy as great as the heavens are above the...

It is easy to shame people over prayer; it is harder to stir people to prayer. Daniel's example as an old man in Babylon, a prime minister and a prophet, should help us. Despite his position, pressures, and privileges, he pondered his Bible and was stimulated to pray. Even then, he did not rush into the divine presence, but prepared himself, setting his face toward the Lord God, both body and soul...

This briefer sermon is 'intended for reading', which usually indicates a sick man writing or editing a previous address for distribution. Brevity here does not undermine simplicity, clarity, or pungency! The text is short: "My son, give me your heart." The sermon is straightforward, looking at the love which lies behind the request for wisdom, then at the wisdom which guides the loving request, an...

Solomon, the son of David, stood before the temple as it was filled with the glory of the Lord, and led Israel in blessing the Lord their God. His heart was full with the fact that the Lord God of Israel had "fulfilled with his hands what he spoke with his mouth" to his father David. We can follow this Solomon as he contemplates the promises that God made and the performances which followed, leadi...

By October of 1887 the Downgrade Controversy—the battle against doctrinal decay in the professing church of Christ—was in full swing. Letters had appeared in The Sword and the Trowel over the previous months, and Spurgeon himself had entered the fray through August and into September. The sermon which we consider today is clearly the fruit of that conflict, with Spurgeon feeling "as if the text ha...

Psalm 13 begins low and ugly, but rises to beauty. The pain of the opening verses gives way to the prayer of the second short section, concluding with the praise of the last few lines, from which vantage point we can look back and see several things. First, the direction of praise, which is toward the Lord to whom he has looked and to whom he has cried. The expression of praise is strong and subst...

In this fourth sermon on the means of grace, we have to consider that these things are not merely mechanical. We do not merely go through the motions and collect grace. God's grace is made known in Christ, and our approach must be relational, eager to know more of the Saviour by the means provided for us.

It is by no means deliberate that the last few sermons have not had the 'classic' Spurgeon three point structure, but I hope that it at least undermines the weary assertion that this preacher 'invariably' has three points. This sermon has an interesting balance, because it has two main divisions but is still divided into thirds. The sermon finds us on the Emmaus road, with two disciples who are th...

Why are you not a Christian? We think first of the gracious invitation to the kingdom, the feast of fellowship with God in Christ Jesus, the readiness of our Lord to receive guests. Then we look at the tragic excuses that are so often and so easily made, by us as much as by others. Then we have to press the question home, as we consider the person who invites us, what is at stake, and the uncertai...

In this third sermon on the means of grace, we have to consider that these things are not merely mechanical. We do not merely go through the motions and collect grace. God's grace is made known in Christ, and our approach must be relational, eager to know more of the Saviour by the means provided for us.

"All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies." So writes the man of God in Psalm 25:10, and so preaches the servant of God in this sermon. In another simply structured sermon—remember, Spurgeon deliberately seeks to avoid complexity—he first paints the portrait of the covenanter, the man who keeps the covenant and testimonies of the Lord. As you...

Having seen that our Lord Jesus is the fountain or reservoir of grace, full of grace and truth, next we ask how we come to enjoy the fullness of grace that is found in him. By what means does God show Christ to us? By what channels does God pour out, or communicate to us, the grace that is in Christ? How do we enjoy communion with him? The pattern of the early church is clear, and the pursuit of C...

The simple structure of this two-pronged sermon by no means provides for any shallowness. The bulk of the address is given over to a careful consideration of God's thoughts toward us, thoughtfully mined from the text. In this respect, it is a masterpiece of exegetical clarity, simply considering the implications of the specific words of Scripture, allowing the phrases to have their full weight, an...

The apostle Paul had a holy dread of the Philippians sliding away from the faith of Jesus Christ. Spurgeon says he does not doubt the victory, but neither would he have it lost. Being "in the Lord," these believers are in their right place, and Spurgeon explains what that means for the Philippians and for others who have entrusted themselves to Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they need to keep their ri...

In Christ is all the fulness of God, and grace for grace, and so all that a sinner needs for all of life is found in him. There is grace for living, there is grace for growing, there is grace for serving, there is grace for dying, and there will be grace for glory, too. Let no sinner despair, and let no saint doubt—in Christ is all that we need, by God's gracious design, for all our salvation.