December 31, 2018

“Ye serve the Lord Christ.” – Colossians 3:24   “It is a greater honour to serve Christ in the most menial capacity than to occupy the thrones of the Caesars.”   Charles Spurgeon believed it was an “unrivalled honour and an unsurpassed delight” to be able to “do anything for Jesus.” In light of the great salvation wrought by …

December 24, 2018

“Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.” – Mark 5:19   Truth be told, the story of the Gerasene Demoniac makes for an unusual Christmas sermon. Nonetheless, Charles Spurgeon found that the text hit the mark on December 21st, 1856.   In his …

December 21, 2018

“Jesus – man, yet God; Jesus – allied to us in ties of blood – oh! here is a reason for holy mirth! Here is Christmas all year round.”   Charles Spurgeon loved Christmas, in fact, he once said, “I like Christmas; I wish it came six times a year.” He liked the generosity of “those who …

December 18, 2018

“It is a very great fault in any ministry if the doctrine of justification by faith alone be not most clearly taught.”   For Charles Spurgeon the doctrine of justification by faith was foundational for the Christian life. Like the reformers before him Spurgeon insisted that “We are justified by faith, and not by the works of …

December 13, 2018

“He came unto his own and his own received him not.” John 1:11   “The loss of Nazareth shall be the gain of Galilee.”   Charles Spurgeon lamented that Jesus Christ, “the Lord of prophets, received no honour in his own country.” Indeed, Christ had been “expelled [from] the city by violence, and yet “the patient one turned his …

December 10, 2018

The following lecture was given to faculty and students attending the Midwestern Seminary United Kingdom Study Tour during the Summer of 2018. The Artillery Street Evangelical Church in Colchester is the meeting house in which C. H. Spurgeon underwent his conversion and remains a congregation focused on proclaiming the same gospel message now as it …

December 6, 2018

  Recently I read the new biography of one of my favorite Christian heroines, Susannah Spurgeon. As the wife of world-famous preacher Charles Spurgeon, Susannah’s name has been known for ages, but her story has been hidden in the shadows…until now. Author Ray Rhodes has produced a beautiful book telling this woman’s story; an account that …

December 3, 2018

“He whose brightness is as the morning, wore the sackcloth of sorrow as his daily dress; shame was his mantle, and reproach was his vesture. None more afflicted and sorrowful than he. Yet now, inasmuch as he has triumphed over all the powers of darkness upon the bloody tree, our faith beholds our King in …

November 26, 2018

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they may all be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” – John 17:20-21   For …

November 21, 2018

“If we will only think, we shall begin to thank.”   For Charles Spurgeon, life was to be lived coram Deo, “in the presence of God.” Indeed, Spurgeon believed that “no joy is like the joy of Christ’s presence with his people.” A presence sweet enough to “[drown] every note of sorrow” and tune every heart “to …