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.



Sermon of the Week: “Blessing for Blessing”

By / Oct 13

What does it mean to bless God? How is a believer to bless the one who is all-sufficient? By examining Ephesians 1:3-4, Spurgeon highlights the truth that all can bless God if they approach Him with the right heart posture.

God doesn’t need our blessings, but He still desires that we offer them. According to Spurgeon, we can bless the Lord in several ways, including praising God through songs and prayers, spreading His gospel through evangelism, and doing good to fellow Christians.

But what should fuel our praise? Spurgeon urges us to fix our gaze on God for who He is. He especially underscores the fatherhood of God and the sonship of Christ. Meditating on glories and mysteries of the Godhead, and the relationship into which we are drawn through the gospel, is a powerful catalyst for worship.

Spurgeon also asks his listeners to reflect on their past and remember the great mercies of God. When we have a right understanding of His mercies, and have full assurance and intense delight in them, we cannot help but bless God. Has He not saved you from your sins, given you a new heart, adopted you into His family, and prepared a place for you in Heaven? God’s abundant blessings are all around if we just take the time to look.

The greatest blessing we will ever receive is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He paid the debt we could not afford and bore the wrath of God on our behalf so that we might have eternal life with God. “If Christ is mine, all blessings in heavenly places are mine.” God’s blessings are countless, but they find their zenith in Christ.

Excerpt

I seem, to myself, to be talking very drily of things that ought to be swimming in a sea of joy and delight. Beloved, do not let my faint words rob my Lord of any of his glory. He has done such great things for you; bless his name. We cannot stand up, and ask for instruments of music with which to sound his praise; but we can sit still, and each one say, “Blessed be his name! It is all true; he has blessed me; I know that he has. He has blessed me, with a liberal hand, with all spiritual blessings. He has blessed me just where I wanted blessing, where I was poorest in spiritual things. I could make my way in business, but I could not make my way in grace; so he has blessed me with all spiritual blessings; and he has made the garments all the dearer because of the wardrobe in which he has hung them. He has given me these royal things in Christ; and as I look to my dear Lord, and see what there is for me stored up in him, I prize each thing the more because it is in him. Come, Holy Spirit, set our hearts on fire with blessing and praise to God for all the great things that he has done for us!”

Read the rest of the sermon here.



Sermon of the Week: “The Essence of Simplicity”

By / Oct 6

God the Father is waiting with open arms ready to receive you as His adopted child, through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. Will you go to Him? Our blessed Lord Jesus Christ extends a simple offer of salvation. There is no need for pretense; no need for fixing yourself up. You can trust in Jesus now, exactly as you are.

This is the simple essence of the gospel that Spurgeon does not want his listeners to miss. All can come to Christ in whatever state they are, for He has paid it all. No sin is too great, no person is too far gone, no heart is too blackened to receive His mercy. Salvation is dependent on simply trusting in Jesus; it is all that He requires. All that matters is what Christ has done; the condition of the sinner has no bearing on accepting this free grace.

The question is, do you believe that His offer is genuine, or will you turn to your own way? Jesus is delighted to welcome even the most egregious of sinners into His fold. To do so would magnify His grace all the more! Do not reject His loving arms for in them there is hope, peace, and salvation from sins. “O blessed Saviour! O blessed Father who gave his Son to be so blessed a Saviour! O blessed Spirit of the blessed God that led our wicked, proud hearts into obedience and trust in Jesus.”

Excerpt

Still, we will keep to this point— Jesus is worth trusting, worthy of the sinner’s unwavering faith. He is worth trusting, O sinner, because first of all he on whom thou art bidden to rely this day by the command of the gospel, is God himself. Thou hast offended God, and it is God who came into the world to save sinners. Against Christ thy sins were launched as arrows from a bow, but he against whom those bolts were shot has come in the fulness of his power and the infinity of his mercy to save them that believe. Canst thou not trust thyself in almighty hands— almighty to save? Is anything impossible with God? An angel could not save thee, but surely God himself can? How canst thou limit the Holy one of Israel? How canst thou set bounds to boundless love, or limits to limitless grace? If Jesus were man and not God, unbelief would have good excuse; but if the Saviour be divine, where can distrust find a cloak for itself?

Read the rest of the sermon here.



“My People Pray for Me”: How Spurgeon Asked His Church to Pray for Him

By / Oct 3

“Brothers, pray for us.” So Paul wrote to the churches (Eph. 6:19, Col. 4:3, 1 Thess. 5:25, 2 Thess. 3:1). Though he was an apostle, he knew that he needed the prayers of the saints for his perseverance and the spread of the gospel. Likewise, all ministers today need the prayers of their people. This was a constant theme of Spurgeon’s ministry. Once, when asked by a group of American visitors about the secret of his success, he responded, “My people pray for me.”[1]

But how were the members of the Metropolitan Tabernacle to pray for their pastor? During a prayer meeting in 1881, Spurgeon gave these three ways they could be praying for him, “There are two or three matters for which I desire to ask your earnest prayers just now.”

Pray for the salvation of the lost

Spurgeon feared that his many absences due to illness would drive away visitors, but the opposite had happened. People came to prize his preaching even more so that the Tabernacle was filled with visitors every time he preached. Spurgeon saw this as God’s kind providence, and he urged his people to pray that he would be enabled to preach with power and that the Spirit would save thousands.

Do pray for a very large blessing on the congregation here. In the early summer weeks I thought that this house was not so full as usual, and I was greatly troubled about it; but the fact was that the major part of our friends had taken their holidays early. Of late the crowds have exceeded those of past years, and we are all amazed at the attendance at the prayer-meeting and the lecture. The sickness of the minister, no doubt, tended to make the public fearful of not hearing him, and his continued health has reassured them, so that now our great building will not hold all who come. We have the people to our heart’s content; do you wonder that I tremble lest the opportunity should be lost in any measure ? Do pray that I may preach with power. Plead with the Holy Ghost to convert these eager thousands. Persons of all nations, ranks, ages, and religions come hither. I beseech you, agonize in prayer that they may be saved. Let it not be true, in their case, that we have not because we ask not.

Pray for financial provision for the ministries of the church

The financial needs of the Pastors’ College and the Stockwell Orphanage constantly weighed on Spurgeon. The college represented the Tabernacle’s pastoral training, church planting, and missionary sending efforts. And the orphanage was a cooperative effort among evangelicals, led by Spurgeon, to care for orphans in London. The livelihood and future of these hundreds of young men and orphans rested on Spurgeon’s shoulders. But he did not bear this burden alone. Through the prayers of his people, they bore the load with him, and they brought all their needs to Jehovah Jireh.

Again, all through the summer weather, when friends go out into the country, and to the seaside, they generally forget to send any subscriptions for the Orphanage, College, and other enterprises. This is often a trial of my faith. I see the waters ebbing out, and at times the tops of the rocks are left bare, and I can see the weeds and the mud, and I do not enjoy the sight at all; I had rather see a good depth of sailing water for the fleet of charity. I bless God we have never come into actual debt, but I have wished that there was a little more regularity in the giving. Soon we shall have as many girls as boys in the Orphanage, and I say to myself, “I do not see any more people taking a share in the work,” and the question arises, “However will you keep them?” I do not know, but God does, and there I leave it, believing that he will find the means. It is not like him to cast away any good work that is undertaken for his sake; but still I beg you to pray about it, lest it should be true that we have not because we ask not. I do not speak thus because I have any unbelieving anxiety, but because the Lord has said, “For this will be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.” The College and the Colportage are as much in need of help as the Orphanage, and they are equally useful agencies: I beg you to commend them all to the Most High, for whose glory they exist. By one or by another, by the living or by the dead, by the rich or by the poor, the Lord will provide; but I beg you to join with me in my prayer for these institutions— “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Pray for strength for the pastor to lead and care for the church

As important as the salvation of the lost and the ministries of the church are, Spurgeon never lost sight of his primary calling: to shepherd the huge congregation of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. As a pastor, Spurgeon bore the responsibility not only of preaching, but of membership interviews, church discipline cases, elders’ meetings, equipping new elders and deacons, pastoral visitation, leading prayer meetings and members’ meetings, and much, much more. Additionally, other pastors and churches looked to Spurgeon for leadership and guidance as they faced various challenges. He often felt crushed under the load. No man could do this work on his own strength. He needed the prayers of his people.

Greatly do I need your prayer for the work and ministry of this huge church. What a load rests upon me ! Here are about 5,500 of you, and with all the help I have, I find I have enough upon me to crush me unless heaven sustains me. My brother and the elders do for me what the elders in the wilderness church did for Moses, else should I utterly faint; but the more difficult cases, and the general leadership, make up a burden which none can carry unless the Lord gives strength. I loathe to speak thus about myself, and yet I must, for there is need. Beside all this, there cometh upon me the care of many another church, and of all sorts of works for our Lord. There, you do not know all, but you may guess; if you love me, if you love my Master, I implore you, pray for me. A good old man prayed before I came to London that I might always be delivered from the bleating of the sheep. I did not understand what he meant; but I know now when hour by hour all sorts of petitions, complaints, bemoanings, and hard questions come to me. The bleating of the sheep is not the most helpful sound in the world, especially when I am trying to get the food ready for the thousands here, there, and everywhere, who look for it to come to them regularly, week by week. Sometimes I become so perplexed that I sink in heart, and dream that it were better for me never to have been born than to have been called to bear all this multitude upon my heart. Especially do I feel this when I cannot help the people who come to me, and yet they look that I should do impossibilities. Moreover, it is not easy to give wise advice in such complicated affairs as those which came before me, and I hope I shall never be content without using my best judgment at all times. Frequently I can do nothing but bring the cases before God in prayer, and bear them as a burden on my heart. These burdens are apt to press very hard on a sympathizing heart, and cause a wear and tear which tell upon a man. I only say this because I want more and more the sympathy of God’s people, and perhaps I may not have even this if I ask not for it.

Conclusion

Spurgeon concluded with these words,

If you put me in so difficult a position you must uphold me by your prayers. If I have been useful to you in any measure, pray for me; it is the greatest kindness you can do me.

Pastor, do you ask your people to pray for you? Do they know that you need their prayers? If the apostle Paul needed the prayers of the saints, how much more do you! The ministry of the church cannot be borne alone by the pastor, or even by the elders, but must be carried by the entire church in prayer. Lead your people in this, so that if anyone asks you for the secret of your success, you can joyfully say, “My people pray for me.”

[1] Hayden, Highlights, 49.



Sermon of the Week: “The Still Small Voice”

By / Sep 29

“What are you doing here, Elijah?” God asked as the prophet huddled in a mountainside cave. Burdened, beaten, and broken, Elijah was at the lowest point of his life. He had just witnessed a spectacular display of God’s power. However, this exhibition did not spark the reformation Elijah was anticipating. Instead of a great awakening, the prophet receives a death sentence.

As Elijah cowers in the cave, fearing for his life, the Lord comes to meet him. God did not appear however, in a fire, wind, or earthquake but in a still small voice, and it is this voice that is the focus of Spurgeon’s message.

It is not the howling winds, the roaring fires, or the thunderous earthquakes that made Elijah hide his face, but the still small voice of God. This unobtrusive whisper, Spurgeon says, is generally God’s means of bringing a soul to conversion. The Holy Spirit speaks not with fireworks, but with a quiet, internal call. This call is what leads us to believe the gospel.

Spurgeon recognizes that it is through the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit working in believers’ consciences that they grow in holiness. Often growth in godliness does not happen in dazzling explosions but through the patient, persistent power of the Spirit. Just as Elijah was convicted in his exposure to the living God, so we as believers are brought to conviction and repentance of our sin as the Holy Spirit, over time, opens our eyes to behold our Creator.

As we go out and share the gospel, we must remember that it is not by our might or skill that the lost are converted. No, salvation in Christ comes only through the “voice of gentle silence,” the still small voice of God.

Excerpt:

We must know this— that God will work by what means he pleases, and next that all means are useless apart from him. All wind, all fire, all earthquake, all power and grandeur, fail unless the still small voice be there and God be in it. The church has had this dinned into her ears, and doctrinally she believes it, but, alas, she practically goes forth and behaves as if the opposite theory were true. She looks for divine results to human causes, and is, therefore, full often deceived. Too much is her dependence fixed upon an arm of flesh, and while this is so we cannot expect to see the bare arm of the Eternal displayed in the midst of our camps.[…]
The Lord would have us know that he works rather by our weakness than by our strength, and often makes most use of us when in our own judgment we have displayed nothing but our feebleness.

Read the rest of the sermon here.



Sermon of the Week: “The Alarum”

By / Sep 22

All who follow Christ for a significant amount of time will battle spiritual drowsiness. Our minds naturally drift to worldly pleasures, and our hearts grow weary as we face life’s trials. In this sermon Spurgeon wants to ring the alarm bell, stirring his listeners to awake from their slumber and praise God with renewed vigor. “Only the wakeful are praiseful,” says Spurgeon.

Why is it imperative for the Christian to stay awake? If Christians become lethargic in their faith, then they will forget to praise God as they ought. They will forget the blessings that He has lavished on them and what He continues to provide. Worse, they might forget Who they worship altogether. Our drifting, prone-to-wandering hearts must be continuously reawakened to  the beauty of the Lord, lest we fall into a spiritual stupor and miss the great opportunity and joy of serving Him.

On a final note, Spurgeon appeals to the one who has not yet given their life to Christ, the unregenerate sinner. He implores them to wake up to their sin and depraved state and place their faith in Christ. Only in Christ can they be saved from the eternal slumber of death and find true life and joy. Only in Christ can they find salvation for their soul.

As Spurgeon calls out for wakefulness in the Christian life, so too, let us ring the alarm bell loud and clear, so that all may hear the Word of God and praise Him to the fullest.

Excerpt

It is bad to awake late, but what shall be said of those who never awake at all? Better late than never: but with many it is to be feared it will be never. I would take down the trumpet and give a blast, or ring the alarm-bell till all the faculties of the sluggard’s manhood are made to bestir themselves, and he cries with new-born determination, “I myself will awake.”


[…]My heart’s desire is that none of us may feel the dreamy influence of this age, which is comparable to the enchanted ground; but that each of us may be watchful, wakeful, vigorous, intense, fervent. Trusting that the Holy Spirit may bless or meditations to our spiritual quickening[…]

Read the rest of the sermon here.



Sermon of the Week: “The Sheep and Their Shepherd”

By / Sep 15

If you were to compare yourself to a creature from the animal kingdom, would you choose a noble, majestic creature, such as the horse or the eagle? Or perhaps one of the strongest, most powerful beasts, like the lion? In John chapter 10, our Lord Jesus likens us to one of the more laughably foolish and feeble beings, the lowly sheep.

But for the Christian, the title of “sheep” does not offend; rather, it consoles and relieves. When Christ is the Shepherd, no one needs to feel insulted to be called a sheep. If we were not shown our own weakness, we would not experience the help and comfort of being shepherded by Christ. Only when we feel the frailty of our condition can we learn to confess our sheepishness and submit to the tender care of the Good Shepherd.

In this 1871 sermon, Spurgeon draws our attention to what it means to be a sheep of Christ’s, the identifying marks of Christ’s sheep, and the privileges that are ours in Christ. His words ring: “Oh, what sweet music there is to us in the name which is given to our Lord Jesus Christ of ‘the good Shepherd’!” Indeed, to the Christian, the voice of the Shepherd is the sweetest sound.

Excerpt:

“My sheep,” says Christ. They are his, or in due time they shall become so, through his capturing them by sacred power. As well by power are we redeemed as by price, for the blood-bought sheep had gone astray even as others. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way,” but, my brethren, the good shepherd has brought many of us back with infinite condescension: with boundless mercy he followed us when we went astray. Oh, what blind slaves we were when we sported with death! We did not know then what his love had ordained for us: it never entered our poor, silly heads that there was a crown for us; we did not know that the Father’s love had settled itself on us, or ever the day-star knew its place. We know it now, and it is he that has taught us; for he followed us over mountains of vanity, through bogs and miry places of foul transgression; tracked our devious footsteps on and on, through youth and manhood, till at last, with mighty grace, he grasped us in his arms and laid us on his shoulder, and is this day carrying us home to the great fold above, rejoicing as he bears all our weight and finds us in all we need. Oh, that blessed work of effectual grace!

Read the rest of the sermon here.



Sermon of the Week: “Messengers Wanted”

By / Sep 8

Who is called to proclaim God’s glorious gospel of grace, and who is the message for? God calls all his people to proclaim the gospel so that those who have not accepted Jesus may hear the good news and put their faith in Him. All Christians are expected to share this message; this task is not solely reserved for those who are called into vocational ministries.

“Here am I; send me,” is the theme of Spurgeon’s sermon. This prayer is simple and honest. There is nothing special about the one raising the petition; they simply offer themselves wholeheartedly to God for the purpose of proclaiming His wonderful message. The Christian knows the gospel and its saving power in their life, and they are eager to share it with those around them in whatever vocation God has placed them.

Those who evangelize hope that some will respond in saving faith to the good news of the gospel, but this should not be the Christian’s main goal. All those who follow God proclaim the good news to bring glory to their Savior who redeemed them from their sins. Their posture should be the same as Spurgeon when he cries to the Lord, “Here am I; send me.”

Excerpt:

We would say to every church member, Come, come, you are not to employ a minister to do your work for you, you are not merely to give your half guinea or whatever it may be to the Missionary Society, and say, “I have done all;” no, but you are to answer this question for yourself, Will you go for God? Do you feel that you are sent by him, not to India, not to Jamaica, not to the South Seas it may be, but into those streets of London, into that court where you live. Will you go among those cottages where you dwell, or down in that street where you reside; will you go for God, feeling that God chose you, and that you chose his work cheerfully, and that now, by the grace of God, while you live and until you die, you will deliver the message of the great salvation which Jesus Christ has provided for the sons of men. Thus have we portrayed the men who are needed.

Read the rest of the sermon here.



Sermon of the Week: “The Best Beloved”

By / Sep 3

Jesus is altogether lovely. That is the beautiful truth that Spurgeon wants his listeners to meditate on in this sermon to the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The infinite beauty of Jesus is not only found in His actions — His life, death, and resurrection — but in His character and nature as well. Spurgeon invites his hearers to find their satisfaction in not only what Jesus has done for them on the cross with His atoning death, but to find satisfaction in Jesus Himself. His perfection, grace, justice, and love each store a bounty of beauty to contemplate. All that He is, is more lovely to ponder than the collective thought of the world’s imagination.

Spurgeon declared that Christ’s loveliness will never run dry and believers will meditate on who He is for all of eternity. When believers meet Jesus face to face on that glorious day of His return, they will see true beauty in all its fullness. They will fulfill what David longed to do when he wrote: One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple (Psalm 27:4; ESV).

Excerpt:

Christ is so lovely that all you can desire of loveliness is in him; and even if you were to sit down and task your imagination and burden your understanding to contrive, to invent, to fashion the ideal of something that should be inimitable— ay (to utter a paradox) if you could labour to conceive something which should be inconceivably lovely, yet still you would not reach to the perfection of Christ Jesus. He is above, not only all we think, but all we dream of.
Do you all believe this? Dear hearers, do you think of Jesus in this fashion? We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen. But no man among you will receive our witness until he can say, ‘I also have seen him, and having seen him, I set to my seal that he is altogether lovely.’

Read the rest of the sermon here.