Sermon of the Week: “Good Cheer for Christmas”

By / Dec 22

What are you feasting on this Christmas? The Christmas feast is a closely held tradition for countless families. Succulent ham, soft buttery rolls, heaps of mashed potatoes, and all the sides one could hope for cover the banquet table on the day of Christmas. Then, friends and family gather around the table to celebrate the coming of their Lord and His abundant blessings. 

But Spurgeon calls his listeners to feast on Christmas, not just with a physical meal, but the spiritual supper prepared for all believers, “[…] I invite you to the best of all Christmas fare—to nobler food than makes the table groan—bread from heaven, food for your spirit. Behold, how rich and how abundant are the provisions which God has made for the high festival which he would have his servants keep, not now and then, but all the days of their lives!”

First, Spurgeon urges all Christians to meditate on the feast Christ has created through His death, burial, and resurrection. All sinners are welcome at the table. No one is too dirty to partake, for the only requirement for a seat at the banquet is faith in the one who prepared it. “Come hither, all ye whose spiritual tastes are purified by grace, and feed upon this choice provision, which shall be sweet to your taste, sweeter, also, than honey and the honeycomb.”

Second, consider the banquet hall. This place of dining is the church gathered together to glorify their Messiah. Although there are distinctions among the body of believers, whether by ethnicity or geography, all who truly hold to Christ are united. “There is but one church in heaven and earth, composed of men called by the Holy Ghost, and made to live anew by his quickening power; and it is through the ministry of this church that an abundant feast is spread for all nations, a feast to which the nations are summoned by chosen herald, whom God calls to proclaim the good news of salvation by Jesus Christ.” Our local gatherings are a foretaste of that grand gathering of the universal church when Christ returns.

Finally, Christian, remember the guests invited to the table. Guests from all walks of life can come and dine. Under Christ, there is no exclusion owing to race, class, or sex. Jesus will never shut the door on those who desire to come and feast with Him. “Still is it true, ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’ Some very odd people have come to him, some very wicked people, some very hardened people, but the door was never closed in any one’s face.”

So, as you gather this Christmas with your loved ones to dine, see a picture of the eternal banquet prepared for you in the halls of heaven. Those banquet doors, which have now been thrown open for you, were opened with the coming of a baby boy, the incarnate deity, Jesus Christ the Lord.

Excerpt:

If you believe in Jesus Christ, all these things are yours. Come, poor trembler, the silver trumpet soundeth, and this is the note it rings, “Come and welcome, come and welcome, come and welcome.” The harsher trumpet of the law which waxed exceedingly loud and long at Sinai had this for its note, “Set bounds about the mount: let none touch it lest they die.” But the trumpet for Calvary sounds with the opposite note; it is, “Come and welcome, come and welcome, sinner, come! Come as you are, sinful as you are, hardened as you are, careless as you think you are, and having no good thing whatsoever, come to your God in Christ!” O may you come to him who gave his Son to bleed in the sinner’s stead, and casting yourself on what Christ has done, may you resolve, “If I perish, I will trust in him; if I be cast away, I will rely on him.” You shall not perish, but for you there shall be the feast of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. The Lord bless you very richly, for his name’s sake. Amen.



Sermon of the Week: “The First Christmas Carol”

By / Dec 12

What do you feel when you remember the story of Christmas? Indifference and a shrug of “same old story that’s told every year”? Or does your heart pulsate with joy as you hear the old story, even escalating into song? The angels sang when they announced the Savior’s birth. Their song was simple, yet each phrase swells with meaning, “the highest notes of the divine scale of praise.”

In this 1857 Christmas sermon, Spurgeon unpacks the angels’ refrain: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14)

“Glory to God in the highest.” At the brink of the entrance of the Savior of the world, the angels offered their highest praise. Not even at the creation of the world were such praises offered. “The whole of God is glorified in Christ; and though some part of the name of God is written in the universe, it is here best read—in Him who was the Son of Man, and, yet, the Son of God.”

“Peace on earth,” they sang. The Incarnation was the inception of peace between God and man. “There had been no peace on earth since Adam fell. But, now, when the newborn King made his appearance, the swaddling band with which he was wrapped up was the white flag of peace.” The gospel inaugurates peace with God, peace with self, and peace with fellow man.

“Good will toward men,” the chorus rang out. How do we know that the Father has good will toward man? He sent His own Son to the manger and the cross. In Christ, we have a subject that ought to move us to sing for joy, especially at Christmas. “No greater proof of kindness between the Creator and his subjects can possibly be afforded than when the Creator gives his only begotten and well beloved Son to die.”

Christ has come to save! If the angels sang with such joy while ringing in the birth of Christ, how should we, the blood-bought people of God, respond?

Excerpt:
And if you say, “Lord, how shall I know that thou hast this good will towards me,” he points to yonder manger, and says, “Sinner, if I had not a good will towards thee, would I have parted with my Son? if I had not good will towards the human race, would I have given up my Son to become one of that race that he might by so doing redeem them from death?” Ye that doubt the Master’s love, look ye to that circle of angels; see their blaze of glory; hear their song, and let your doubts die away in that sweet music and be buried in a shroud of harmony. He has good will to men; he is willing to pardon; he passes by iniquity, transgression, and sin. And mark thee, if Satan shall then add, “But though God hath good will, yet he cannot violate his justice, therefore his mercy may be ineffective, and you may die;” then listen to that first note of the song, “Glory to God in the highest,” and reply to Satan and all his temptations, that when God shows good will to a penitent sinner, there is not only peace in the sinner’s heart, but it brings glory to every attribute of God, and so he can be just, and yet justify the sinner, and glorify himself.

Read the rest of the sermon here.



Sermon of the Week: “Loved and Loving”

By / Dec 8

In December 1881, while recovering from illness in France, Spurgeon sent his church a sermon to remind them of Christ’s love while he was away. The sermon was titled “Loved and Loving.” Amid trials and difficulties, Spurgeon held fast to the truth that the love of Christ is beyond description, for He is the Infinite One. Jesus sees us, His beloved, and He loves us despite how insignificant we are in comparison. “Though he be infinitely above us,” Spurgeon writes, “yet he delights to be one with all his loving ones, and of his own will he gives himself to us.” Jesus is the greatest proof of the love of the Father, who sent His Son to die for the salvation of the world. Now all people, no matter their sin, can come to the Father through Christ and receive His love, for it is not based on the sinner’s merit but on the Savior’s. “A polluted sinner may love the perfect Savior, for there is no word in Scripture to forbid.”

At the same time, Spurgeon wanted his congregation to be assured of Christ’s love, but not to let that joy lead to apathy. The Christian must be vigilant not to let their feet slip or their gaze drift. The more precious the treasure, the more care we will take in preserving it and maintaining it. “The costly vase, the product of a thousand laborious processes, may be broken in a moment; and so the supreme delight of communion with the Lord Jesus, the flower of ten thousand eminent delights, may be shattered by a few moments’ negligence.”

This Christmas season, how are you rejoicing in the love of Christ, who loved us and came for our salvation? 

Excerpt:

Christ is ours, and we know it. Jesus is present, and by faith we see him. Our marriage union with husband or wife cannot be more clear, more sure, more matter of fact, than our oneness with Christ and our enjoyment of that oneness. Joy! joy! joy! He whom we love is ours! We can also see the other side of the golden shield, for he whom we prize beyond all the world also prizes us, and we are his. Nothing in the universe besides deserves for an instant to be compared in value with this inestimable blessing. We would not change with the cherubim: their chief places in the choirs of heaven are poor as compared with the glory which excelleth,— the glory of knowing that I my best Beloved’s am and he is mine. A place in Christ’s heart is more sweet, more honourable, more dear to us than a throne among the angels. Not even the delights of Paradise can produce a rival to this ecstatic joy— “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.”

Read the rest of the sermon here.



Sermon of the Week: “Christ in You”

By / Nov 24

“Christ in you.” This is a mystery, yet this is how Paul describes the Colossian church and all who have put their faith in Christ. But what does it mean? Spurgeon shines a light on this in his 1883 sermon of the same name.

“The gospel is the grand secret: the mystery of mysteries,” Spurgeon opens. As children of God, we receive Christ, God who became man for our sake. We do not just receive knowledge of Christ, a blessing from Him, or a word from Him. Such things are glorious but fall short of the true gift: Christ Himself. “We rejoice in Christ and nothing else but Christ: Christ and no priestcraft; Christ and no philosophy; Christ and no modern thought; Christ and no human perfection. Christ, the whole of Christ, and nothing else but Christ: here lies the mystery of the gospel of the grace of God.”

To compound this mystery further is the way in which one receives Christ: through the simple act of faith. No heroic feat is needed, no standard of righteousness is required, no sin is to be overcome; salvation is by faith and faith alone. “If you are such a poor believer that you can hardly think of assurance or confidence, yet if you do trust the Lord, as surely as the sun comes in by a narrow crack, so will Christ come into your soul by the smallest opening of true faith.” That God allows us to be heirs of the infinite Christ through faith alone is a wonder that we will ponder for all eternity. 

Excerpt:

Wherefore comfort yourselves with this word, Christ in you means you in glory, as sure as God lives. There is no question about that. Go your ways and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and let men see who it is that lives in you. Let Jesus speak through your mouth, and weep through your eyes, and smile through your face: let him work with your hands and walk with your feet, and be tender with your heart. Let him seek sinners through you; let him comfort saints through you; until the day break and the shadows flee away.

Read the rest of the sermon here.



Sermon of the Week: “Fellowship with God”

By / Nov 17

What difference would it make in your life today if you walked in fellowship with God? Spurgeon found a well of deep delight in his relationship with the Lord. “[…] I am persuaded there are more delights in Christ; yea, more joy in one glimpse of his face than is to be found in all the praises of this harlot-world, and in all the delights which it can yield to us in its sunniest and brightest days.” In this 1861 sermon, the Prince of Preachers urges his congregation to examine their hearts and see if they possess true fellowship with God.

Before sin entered the world, humans enjoyed fellowship with God as the sublime delight of life. Tragically, Adam and Eve forfeited this relationship at the Fall. However, through the cross, followers of Jesus can once again experience close fellowship with the Heavenly Father.

First, Spurgeon examines what it means to have fellowship with God the Father. We have fellowship with the Father in His eternal purpose of redeeming a people for His own glory, and in the objects of our affections; namely, His Son, and His saints. We have fellowship with the Father in that we share what He delights in. What makes Him happy makes us happy.

Second, Spurgeon considers what it means to have fellowship with the Son. Believers join with Christ in His sufferings, and in some respects with all points of His life. We unite with Him in sharing the desires and aspirations He had while on earth. Furthermore, we have fellowship with Him in that He kindles our affections toward Himself. “We have […] fellowship with Christ, since his heart is set in us, and our heart is knit to him.”

Finally, Spurgeon sets forth that real fellowship with God sparks a desire for others to enjoy this same fellowship. When you taste something delicious, you want to share it. Inwardly, you feel moved to invite others to enjoy the experience with you. “You have to try this!” we implore those who have not tasted. “You’re missing out!” True fellowship with God motivates us to go and speak of what we’ve seen.

Excerpt:

“Brethren, we would that you had fellowship with us in the peace we feel with God our Father, in the access which we have to his throne, in the confidence which we have in the truth of his promise, in the overflowing joys we experience when he manifests himself to us! We would that you had our hopes, that you could look forward to death and the grave with the same delight as we can, expecting to be transformed into his image, and to see him as he is! We wish you had our faith, only more of it–that you might have the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen! We wish that you had fellowship with us in prevailing prayer, that you knew how to cast your burdens upon the Lord — that you understood how to bring every blessing from on high, by pleading the merits of the Saviour! We wish to gather up all in one, that in everything which is lovely and of good repute, in everything which is happy, ennobling, divine, and everlasting, you might be made partakers and have fellowship with us!”

Read the rest of the sermon here.



Sermon of the Week: “Concerning Saints”

By / Nov 10

“I am no saint,” is a phrase often uttered by individuals reflecting on their past. They take a cursory glance at all the actions and choices they made and know that perfection is far from them. “A true saint wouldn’t act like me,” they may sigh.

But what is a saint? Who is worthy of holding this title? Saints are individuals set apart by the Lord. They are those who have been kept by God from the foundation of the world and placed “into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ.” All who believe in Christ are worthy of the title of sainthood. “Saints, then, are not people who are dead and buried, and are stuck up in niches for us to admire. There are saints, no doubt, before the throne of God; and we, too, are saints here below if we are what we should be, and if we have received that grace which brings with it deliverance from the reigning power of sin, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the heart.” This honor does not depend upon the one holding the title but upon the One bestowing it. They are now “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession,” (1 Pet 2:9, ESV).

Furthermore, saints of God are exalted high above the rest of creation. They are placed first in the office of sainthood by “God’s grace and mercy, because he has done the most for them.” Saints are now a new creation in Christ, and this second creation is greater than the first. “The new creation of saints infinitely surpasses the creation of the world. Saints are even placed higher than the angels who are around the throne of God […]”

So marvel, all you who have placed your faith in Christ, in this high and holy privilege that you have been given. Bear your title with humility and gratitude. Go out and proclaim to the world that this gift is available to all who believe. “Tell them that there is no life like life for God; there is no joy like joy in Christ, no riches like the riches of God’s grace, no heaven like the heaven of dwelling for ever with him.” And let all the saints praise His name.

Excerpt:

God has taken man into the nearest possible degree of consanguinity to himself, and has illustrated this by varied degrees of relationship. He has made us to be his sons and daughters, and as a corporate body he has made us to be the spouse, the bride, the Lamb’s wife. The Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren. Thus are we child, spouse, brother. The nearness of our kin to Deity ought to overwhelm us with humble gratitude and with intense delight. God has done infinitely more for us than for all his creatures besides. Rise as you may in creatureship, even till you reach the cherubim and the seraphim, if they be creatures of his hand; even above these stands the Son of God, — the Son of man,— and we are one with him. Oh, the exceeding riches of the grace and the glory of God in his saints!

Read the rest of the sermon here.



Sermon of the Week: “Morning and Evening Songs”

By / Nov 3

“It is a good rule never to look into the face of man in the morning till you have looked into the face of God; an equally good rule always to have business with heaven before you have any business with earth.” In this week’s sermon, Spurgeon issues a call to praise God for His lovingkindness every morning, and for His faithfulness each evening. God is worthy of the first words of our lips when we rise and of our final thoughts when we lie down. Each day is bookended with worship.

Not only is God worthy of praise, but He deserves our very best. We rob God by offering half-hearted worship. “The very posture of some people indicates that they are going through the hymn, but the hymn is not going through their hearts.”  Spurgeon reminds us that songs are stagnant if the heart is unmoved.

How can a cold heart be kindled to warm and genuine worship? Meditate on the lovingkindness of God, fanning the flames of heartfelt praise. Through Christ’s sacrificial love, sinners are forgiven, transformed, and welcomed into God’s family.  “Was there ever such a word in any language as that word lovingkindness? […] The very heart of God seems written out in this word.” We worship a God who deserves the soul’s freshest devotion and warmest praise in the morning and grateful prayers and reflections come evening.

Excerpt:

Every morning is a sort of resurrection. At night we lay us down to sleep, stripped of our garments, as our souls will be of their bodily array when we come to die; but the morning wakes us, and if it be a Sabbath morning we do not put on our work-day clothes, but find our Sabbath dress ready to hand; even thus shall we be satisfied when we wake up in our Master’s likeness, no more to put on the soiled raiment of earth, but to find it transformed into a Sabbath robe, in which we shall be beautiful and fair, even as Jesus our Lord himself. Now, as every morning brings to us, in fact, a resurrection from what might have been our tomb, and delivers us from the image of death which through the night we wore, it ought to be saluted with thanksgiving. As the great resurrection morning will be awakened with the sound of the trumpet’s far-sounding music, so let every morning, as though it were a resurrection to us, awaken us with hymns of joy.

Read the rest of the sermon here.



Spurgeon and the Question of the Preaching Gown

By / Oct 31

This past Reformation Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching at a local PCA church. As a Baptist, it was wonderful to be with those saints and to rejoice in our common Protestant identity and convictions. But, as in previous instances, there was that awkward moment before the service when the pastor asked, “Would you mind wearing the Genevan gown as you preach?” How should a Baptist minister think about such a request?

When Spurgeon visited Geneva in 1860, he faced a similar dilemma. While traveling through the continent, he was invited to preach in St. Peter’s Cathedral, from the same pulpit where Calvin preached during the Reformation. As one who was born in the Reformed tradition and loved John Calvin, he was eager to accept the honor. And yet, before he preached, the elders there asked if he would be willing to preach in “full canonicals.” As a Baptist, a Nonconformist, and a modern Puritan, Spurgeon was especially allergic to anything that smelled of Roman Catholic teaching and practice. How did he respond?

Spurgeon tells the story,

I preached in the cathedral at Geneva; and I thought it a great honor to be allowed to stand in the pulpit of John Calvin. I do not think half the people understood me, but they were very glad to see and join in heart with the worship in which they could not join with the understanding. I did not feel very happy when I came out in full canonicals, but the request was put to me in such a beautiful way that I could have worn the Pope’s tiara, if by so doing I could have preached the gospel the more freely. They said, “Our dear brother comes to us from another country. Now, when an ambassador comes from another land, he has the right to wear his own costume at Court; but, as a mark of great esteem, he sometimes condescends to the manners of the people he is visiting, and wears their Court dress.” “Well,” I said, “yes, that I will, certainly, if you do not require it, but merely ask it as a token of my Christian love. I shall feel like running in a sack, but it will be your fault.”[1]

For Spurgeon, what made the difference was that these elders did not require him to wear the gown but framed it as a matter of local custom, perhaps as a kind of act of hospitality from the visiting preacher. Had the elders said to him, “You cannot preach here unless you wear this gown,” then Spurgeon might well have refused. Like the Puritans before him, the imposition of an unbiblical requirement of all preachers needing to wear clerical vestments meant that he could not submit to that rule in good conscience. But since they were not requiring this, though he felt like he was preaching “in a sack,” Spurgeon was happy to submit to their customs.

In fact, Spurgeon was even happier when he found it where the gown came from: “It was John Calvin’s gown, and that reconciled me to it very much. I do love that man of God; suffering all his life long, enduring not only persecutions from without but a complication of disorders from within, and yet serving his Master with all his heart.”[2] I do enjoy the mental picture of the short, round Spurgeon squeezing into the gown of the slender, gaunt John Calvin!

Whenever I’ve found myself in a similar situation of being asked to wear the preaching gown, my reply is, “Do I have to wear a gown in order the preach the gospel here?” So far, the response has always been, “No, you don’t have to.” To which, I respond, “Then I’m happy to wear it.” Like Spurgeon, as long as they’re not imposing it as an unbiblical requirement, then I’m happy in good conscience to put on a gown and preach in it, even though “I shall feel like running in a sack.”  I haven’t yet encountered a situation where I’ve been required to wear a gown to preach. If that were to happen, I suppose there would be an even more awkward conversation after that. But all this would be a way to uphold the Puritan distinctive of the Regulative Principle, rooted in the Protestant principle of Sola Scriptura. God’s Word alone reigns over the church, and this applies even when you have a chance to preach from Calvin’s pulpit wearing Calvin’s gown.

[1] Spurgeon, Autobiography, 2:372. Emphasis mine.

[2] Ibid.



Sermon of the Week: “Clearing the Road to Heaven”

By / Oct 27

Sometimes, for seeking sinners, the road to heaven seems blocked. They have heard a clear gospel invitation, and desire to accept, but objections bar their path like heavy stones. “I have sinned too greatly to be saved,” they reason. “I have not felt enough remorse.” According to Spurgeon, however, the gospel obliterates these arguments.

Some may say that they cannot come to faith because their sin is too great. On the other hand, some hold back because they have never experienced the feeling of despair over their sin. Whether the weight of past sin overshadows the way, or the absence of deep contrition whispers words of unwelcome, they think that they cannot possibly approach the perfect and holy God.

The good news of the gospel is that salvation is not dependent on the condition of the individual. “Know assuredly that the Saviour is greater than thy sin, and his merit is greater than thy guilt.” All are sinful and rebel against God. The only requirement for sinners is to repent and put their faith in Jesus. All that is needed is to do is look to Christ and be saved; it is that simple. Therefore, let all the stones of stumbling be pulverized, because He has done it all.

Excerpt:

You have not to do something for yourself, and then look to Jesus for the rest. Shame upon you for thinking of such a thing! To melt your heart in the furnace of love is a divine work, and Christ must do it. Come, thou stony-hearted sinner, come with the flint and the granite still within thee. Come, though thou canst not feel, and believe that Christ can make thee feel. Come, thou, who hast been annealed like steel in the furnace of transgression and familiarity with sin. Come thou to him, for he is able to give thee a heart of flesh and take away thy heart of stone. I am fully persuaded that those who mourn their want of feeling are the most feeling people in the world; but I will not dwell upon that truth. It is the greatest mistake for us to imagine that we are to make ourselves feel something, and then Christ will save us; feelings of contrition are as much his work as is the atonement for the remission of sin. Christ is Alpha as well as Omega in salvation. You must begin with him, and go on with him, and end with him, if end there ever can be.

Read the rest of the sermon here.



Sermon of the Week: “The Approachableness of Jesus”

By / Oct 20

To meet with the President, one must pass multiple layers of security vetting and background checks, not to mention convincing a plethora of White House staff that your request is important enough to warrant a meeting. Even many members of Congress can’t simply shoot the President a text. The earthly elite are closely guarded from the masses.

But what about the King of kings, Jesus Christ? In 1868, Charles Spurgeon sheds light on the approachableness of Christ in the following sermon.

Although He is the most powerful Potentate, Jesus is not surrounded by Secret Service agents and a twelve-foot fence. He does not reject those who come to Him by faith but instead, welcomes sinners with open arms. His requirements are simple: if you want Him, you may have Him.

No one is too far gone to draw near to Jesus. Your most reckless mistakes do not provoke Him to scorn. There is no need for a self-clean-up before coming to Jesus; in fact, to attempt to do so is a kind of self-righteousness that disdains His sacrifice.

But Jesus Himself kneels down to bring us into His innermost abode. The Savior invites us into “nearest and dearest intimacy” with Him. He is the almighty and all-powerful God, causing fear in even the most stout-minded, but He is also Jesus, our Mediator and Savior, who removes all obstacles and makes us worthy to approach the throne. Christ ushers us into His grandest halls, welcoming even the lowest of sinners as friends.

Jesus meets us with an embrace of compassion. He is patient, kind, and gracious; compelled to move toward sinners because mercy streams from His heart. If we could see Him, we would long to gaze upon Him, in all His beauty, forever. We need not be afraid to approach Jesus; He is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. “There is such mercy to be had,” so come, and welcome!

Excerpt:

“What is the way for a sinner to come to Christ? It is simply this — the sinner, feeling his need of a Saviour, trusts himself to the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the perplexity of my boyhood, but it is so simple now. When I was told to go to Christ, I thought “Yes, if I knew where he was, I would go to him — no matter how I wearied myself, I would trudge on till I found him” I never could understand how I could get to Christ till I understood that it is a mental coming, a spiritual coming, a coming with the mind. The coming to Jesus which saves the soul is a simple reliance upon him, and if, to-night, being sensible of your guilt, you will rely upon the atoning blood of Jesus, you have come to him, and you are saved. Is he not, then, approachable indeed, if there is so simple a way of coming? No good works, ceremonies, or experiences are demanded, a childlike faith is the royal road to Jesus.”

Read the rest of the sermon here.