Maidenbower Baptist Church

A true child of God serves out of love, not for a carnal reward. Nevertheless, the Lord in his mercy makes certain promises toward those who serve well. As we conclude our brief survey of the character and work of deacons, we ask, "What does the church expect of deacons?" The answer is, we expect them to serve, and to serve well. So we must consider first the service that deacons render, and what...

A simple division and a thorough exposition form the bedrock of a sermon urging the saints to pray. Rising from Paul's plea to the Romans at the end of the fifteenth chapter of that letter, Spurgeon emphasises the need even of an apostle for the intercessions of the saints, highlighting the demands and dangers that he faced, and underlining the humility shown in seeking such help. The bulk of the...

Do you not love the broad, deep, clear promises and patterns of God's word? The ones that speak with simplicity and sufficiency to every situation? Here is a wonderful example: "O Lord, be gracious to us; we have waited for you. Be their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble" (Is 33:2). This prayer gives us a comprehensive request for the tender mercies of a faithful God. It...

The Christian life involves a growing depth of experience of and appreciation for the Lord Christ, a growing appetite to be like him. This issues in a spirit of prayer to which wonderful assurances are attached. Here we consider a particular promise about prayer, that the believer should ask as he wills, and it will be done to him; then a particular condition for such prayer, that it must come fro...

In this brief address, Spurgeon acknowledges that his text—"Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God"—fits best those who are already saved. However, appreciating that it involves a little straining, he still wants to apply it also to those who are not yet converted. The exhortation as a whole gives us a lively sense of Spurgeon's appetite for the Lord God, and his appetite for o...

It is easy to reason from poverty that we should hold on to what we have. It is easy to reason from wealth that we should hoard what we have gathered. The divine economy works on a different basis. Proverbs 11:25 contains a promise made, that the soul who blesses will be blessed, that the waterer will himself be watered. We should consider that promise applied to Christian life and service, and th...

This is another simple sermon in two parts. Whereas the previous sermon offered a stark contrast between the wages of sin and the gift of life, this provides a sequence. After an introduction in which Spurgeon suggests a difference between happiness and blessedness (the former being a good thing, but essentially being of this world, while the latter has a heavenly quality about it), he exposes the...

**Due to a technical error there is no video for this sermon.** David—his soul probed and prodded by the Lord—felt his sin to be ever before him. He was afflicted by its grievous roots, its ugly details, its painful effects, its damning strength, and its offensive nature. And what does all this mean for his relationship with God? David knows that God alone can put away sin, and so—his conscience a...

Spurgeon is not a mindless preacher, stuck in a rut of structure, though he is always recognisably himself in style. Here he begins with a brief introduction, before launching into a study in contrast between the wages of sin, which is death, and the gift of God which is everlasting life in Jesus Christ our Lord. In each case (particularly the first) he goes beyond a scant understanding of the wor...

Sin deserves judgment. Your sin deserves God's judgment. In the first chapter of Isaiah, God declares his righteous judgment against the sin of Israel. Taking verse 27 as a general principle, applicable to God's dealings with sinners today, we look at the redemption promised, a ransom price paid, a deliverance accomplished. Then we turn to the redemption described in terms of the justice and right...

Having thought about why the church needs deacons, we turn next to the qualities which a church must look for in deacons. Among the things to look for, a potential deacon must be credible, available, responsible, reliable, practical, charitable and spiritual. These qualities will show themselves in the things to look at: his life, his wife, his home. These are the things a man must be if the churc...

Here is Spurgeon at the heart of his ministerial and pastoral calling: glorying in the cross of a crucified Christ. Here is the essential power of all his preaching, and here is the delight of his own soul. Unpacking the sermon methodically, and finding his time running out as he expands upon this theme, Spurgeon begins with the cross itself, and what the apostle meant when he thought of it and sp...

It is all too easy to despise the needy, especially when they intrude upon us. Christ and his disciples were seeking privacy and peace in the face of their own weariness and trouble, but when they came out of the boat in which they had travelled, they found a crowd waiting. What did the Lord Jesus see? He saw a great multitude, a mighty mass of needy people all seeking help. How did the Lord Jesus...

The Lord Christ should be ever more glorious to us, his blood ever more precious, his salvation ever more wondrous. The simplest truths should delight our hearts. In Hebrews 1:3 we are told that the Son of God incarnate "He had by Himself purged our sins." We must take note of the Actor who does the work, his separation to the work, the essence of the work, the beneficiaries of the work, and the c...

This sermon sounds a note of concern. The Second Letter to Timothy has a consistent awareness of certain threats to the gospel and its ministers, a series of troublesome individuals who assault the truth of Christ and oppose the servants of Christ. Nevertheless, Paul's "gracious anxiety" does not disturb "the serenity of his faith." He remains confident that the foundation will stand, because of t...

The first verse of Psalm 34 gives us a catechism of praise, telling us the who, and the what, and the whom, and the when, and the how of our glorifying God, and the whole psalm provides a catalogue which tells us why we can and should do so: because the child of God can say he heard me, he delivered me, he encouraged me, he protects me, he gladdens me, he provides for me, he inspires me, he judges...

Why does the church need deacons? To answer this question we consider carefully a division of labour established in Acts 6:1–7. The church needs deacons so that the first things might be pursued without distraction—prayer and the ministry of the Word, carried out by servants of the pulpit. The church also needs deacons so that the next things might be maintained without compromise—works of mercy a...

A simple sermon, and yet one that hits home. The texts is James 1:21–22, and Spurgeon does little more than run through the text, taking each portion as an instruction as to how we prepare for a sermon, engage with a sermon, and respond to a sermon. But to say that he runs through the text is not to suggest that he just rehearses its words. Rather, the point of hearing is doing, a real heeding of...

Sometimes people ask a hard question: "Has God forgotten to be gracious?" It is not hard to answer, in one sense, but it shows a certain hardness in their soul to suggest that the unchanging God of grace has somehow altered in himself or ceased to be himself. So Spurgeon demands that we give that question all its weight, drag it into the light, and interrogate the question. By the end of the sermo...

Paul compacts the experience of salvation into one terse declaration. He tells the Galatian Christians what we were (slaves), what we became (sons), what we are now (heirs because sons), and how we entered into this new state: through Christ Jesus. How, then, do we define ourselves? If we are sons, then we should be joyful and obedient because of what Christ has secured for us. If we are still sla...

Having drawn the portrait of a persecutor from Herod's history in Acts 12, we turn now to Simon Peter and those around him. Tracing Peter's experience, we see his threatening imprisonment, his peaceful night, his angelic deliverance, his happy housecall, his eventual report, and his quiet departure. Along the way we learn various lessons, not least about the preservation, peace, and prayers of the...

Elijah's plea was simple: "Let it be known that I have done all these things at your word." Spurgeon turns it in two directions. First, to obedient saints, it is a firm ground for prayer. He considers the labouring minister, a whole church, an individual Christian, and—departing slightly from his main heading—he asks how it would be used by a seeking sinner. Second, to those who cannot say that th...

If you are setting off across the desert, you need water. If you are caught in the desert, you need water. If you have or will have a real thirst, you need water. If you have thirst of soul, you need living water—you need the God of grace to shower forgiveness, peace, joy, and strength upon you. That is the condition to which Christ speaks. To all such he offers a solution: "Come to me, and drink....