In partnership with Midwestern Seminary, Reformation Heritage Book has undertaken an ambitious publishing venture: republishing Spurgeon’s sermons. Beginning in 1855, Spurgeon edited and published one weekly sermon, out of his many preached sermons. At the end of the year, all these weekly sermons were collected and published in an annual volume. This continued for 37 years until his death in 1892. But even after his death, there were many more unpublished sermons, so his publisher, Passmore & Alabaster, continued the practice for 25 more years until a paper shortage from World War I ended the venture in 1917. In the end, there were 63 volumes of sermons from the Prince of Preachers.
Though these sermons have been out of print for the past several decades, this fall marks the arrival of the republication of the first set of sermon volumes, the New Park Street Pulpit, vols. 1-6. Lord willing, there will be four more sets released in the next few years, making the collection of 63 volumes of Spurgeon’s weekly sermons available once again to a new generation of Christians.
There are many reasons why someone might invest in these sermons: rich theological reflection, consistent gospel application, instruction in Christian living, and much, much more. I want to make a case that Spurgeon’s sermons should also be read for his faithful exposition of Scripture.
Bible readers have sometimes wondered at Spurgeon’s handling of Scripture. Perhaps in reading one of his devotional works or in examining his “road to Christ” in a sermon, some have found Spurgeon too loose in his handling of Scripture. For these careful exegetes, their conclusion might be that he should be admired more as a preacher than a Bible teacher. Can Spurgeon be a faithful guide for us as an expositor of Scripture?
Indeed, every preacher should be open to critique, and Spurgeon is no different. We should not be surprised to find areas for improvement in any one of his sermons. At the same time, my contention is that Spurgeon had an unwavering commitment to the faithful exposition of Scripture. This can be seen in three commitments he held: to study, to accurate exposition, and to preaching Christ.
A Commitment to Study
Spurgeon was adamant about the importance of study in the ministry. Speaking to his students, he warned them against those who relied on oratory skills to the exclusion of study. Some denominations, like the Quaker or Plymouth Brethren, would take pride in their pastors not preparing sermons and receiving a word directly from the Spirit. But Spurgeon believed that “churches are not to be held together except by an instructive ministry; a mere filling up of time with oratory will not suffice.” The only alternative, then, was for the preacher to be committed to the work of study. Spurgeon’s ministry was steeped in his study of God’s Word, works of theology, biblical commentaries, devotional writings, edifying sermons, religious poetry and hymns, and much more.
To be sure, this commitment to study will look different for every pastor. Spurgeon would have said that his sermon preparation was constant. Every he went, he was always thinking about his sermons, meditating on Scripture, reading books, looking for sermon illustrations, and mulling over sermon outlines (“skeletons,” he called them). But more specifically, Spurgeon’s sermon preparation formally began on Saturday evenings, probably around 6 PM, and it could run late into the night. During this time, he would select a sermon text (after much prayer) and devote most of his time to personal, intense study of each text. Only after that personal study would he consult other sources. He would lay out commentaries and sermon volumes from his favorite preachers and move among his books, gathering insights like a bee among flowers. All this prayer and study would culminate in a half-sheet outline he would bring into the pulpit. Spurgeon’s notes were sparse, but they represented a life devoted to study. As he would say to his students, “All sermons ought to be well considered and prepared by the preacher; and, as much as possible, every minister should, with much prayer for heavenly guidance, enter fully into his subject, exert all his mental faculties in original thinking, and gather together all the information within his reach.”
More evidence for Spurgeon’s laborious study can be found in his writings. In The Treasury of David, a seven-volume commentary of the Psalms, Spurgeon not only provides a robust commentary on all 150 Psalms, but he shares his collection of all the best quotes that he could find from what others have written about the Psalms. These quotes show Spurgeon’s reading to range far and wide from every theological tradition across the centuries of church history. It truly is remarkable. The other work highlighting Spurgeon’s commitment to study is Commenting and Commentaries. In it, Spurgeon provides brief, personal comments on the value and usefulness of 1,437 commentaries for every book of the Bible. Many scholars and preachers, both Victorian and modern, have remarked on how accurate and insightful Spurgeon was in his comments. He was a preacher committed to the diligent study of God’s Word.
A Commitment to Accurate Exposition
Additionally, Spurgeon believed in the importance of faithful exposition. As creative and original preacher as he was, Spurgeon taught his students to be constrained by the text in their preaching. He warned against the dangers of over-spiritualizing the biblical text. “Do not violently strain a text by illegitimate spiritualizing… How dreadfully the word of God has been mauled and mangled by a certain band of preachers who have laid texts on the rack to make them reveal what they never would have otherwise spoken.” Such preaching would either harm the hearers as they lost confidence in their ability to understand the Word of God or discredit the preacher’s ministry as their pride and vanity were exposed. When it came to parables, metaphors, prophecies, and other illustrative texts, Spurgeon urged his students to be discreet and exercise good judgment in their interpretation. Some allegorizing or spiritualizing may be appropriate, but never while ignoring the text in its original context.
The importance of reading Scripture in its context is why Spurgeon was also committed to Scripture reading in every church gathering. Spurgeon’s sermons were often based on a single verse of Scripture. But he always included a Scripture reading in every service to complement the sermon text. This would usually be a reading of the surrounding context of the sermon text. Or, there could be multiple readings, with the other reading being from a related text in the opposite Testament.
In these Scripture readings, Spurgeon did not merely read the text but commented on them. He provided brief “expositions,” going verse-by-verse, explaining what each verse meant, and even making brief applications. The reason for all this was to equip his people to read their Bibles for themselves.
We cannot expect to deliver much of the teaching of Holy Scripture by picking out verse by verse, and holding these up at random. The process resembles that of showing a house by exhibiting separate bricks. It would be an astounding absurdity if our friends used our private letters in this fashion, and interpreted them by short sentences disconnected and taken away from the context.
In other words, a proper understanding of individual verses can only happen in the context of each chapter, which is to be understood in the context of the entire book and ultimately in the context of the whole Bible. Of course, to do this well, Spurgeon once again emphasized the importance of study to his students. In his own experience, he found himself preparing for these expositions as much, if not more, than for his sermons. “For the exposition, you must keep to the text, you must face the difficult points, and must search into the mind of the Spirit rather than your own. You will soon reveal your ignorance as an expositor if you do not study; therefore diligent reading will be forced upon you.”
Spurgeon found the discipline of expositing Scripture personally helpful in binding him to the Word of God and not allowing him to rest on his rhetorical abilities. Having set up the sermon with a reading of the biblical context, it would have been wrong for him to preach the text in a totally unrelated direction. Instead, he always sought to have the sermon flow from the text in a way that was obvious to the listener. “The discourse should spring out of the text as a rule, and the more evidently it does so the better; but at all times, to say the least, it should have a very close relationship thereto.” Spurgeon allowed some latitude in spiritualizing, “but liberty must not degenerate into license, and there must always be a connection, and something more than a remote connection – a real relationship between the sermon and its text.” As a preacher, Spurgeon was committed to disciplined and faithful exposition.
A Commitment to Preaching Christ
Finally, Spurgeon was committed to preaching Christ in every sermon. As he famously declared in his first sermon in the newly built Metropolitan Tabernacle, “I would propose that the subject of the ministry of this house, as long as this platform shall stand, and as long as this house shall be frequented by worshippers, shall be the person of Jesus Christ.” Notice that Spurgeon’s commitment was not so much to a message or a set of ideas. Instead, the good news of Christianity is found in the person of Christ. The gospel was intensely personal for Spurgeon, revealing a Savior. This commitment flowed from Spurgeon’s understanding of Scripture.
The Bible culminates with the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Therefore, when read in its proper, biblical-theological context, every text of Scripture points to Jesus. This was the tradition of English Puritanism in which Spurgeon was discipled. The Old Testament, in its narratives, poetry, laws, and prophecies, pointed forward to the coming Messiah. And the New Testament, in the gospels and epistles, revealed Jesus as the Messiah, the fulfillment of God’s promises. Therefore, quoting a Welsh preacher, Spurgeon could say to his hearers,
Don’t you know young man that from every town, and every village, and every little hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London?… And so from every text in Scripture, there is a road to the metropolis of the Scriptures, that is Christ. And my dear brother, your business is when you get to a text, to say, ‘Now what is the road to Christ?’ and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis—Christ…. I have never yet found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if I ever do find one that has not a road to Christ in it, I will make one. I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savor of Christ in it.
Spurgeon’s commitment to preaching Christ was not homiletical but theological. Christ is the central meaning of the Scriptures. Therefore, in one way or another, the preacher should either find a road to Christ or make one. There may very well be worse and better roads to Christ in a text. But if the Scriptures exist to reveal Christ, this commitment to preaching Christ in every sermon is exactly right. This commitment makes Spurgeon a more trustworthy expositor of Scripture, not less.
Conclusion
Spurgeon’s legacy is not of an entertainer or rhetorical performer. Rather, it is of a preacher committed to the accurate exposition of Scripture. Over forty years of ministry, he preached, taught, and wrote on virtually every book of the Bible, and he sought to do so faithfully. It is this commitment to faithful exposition that gives his sermons enduring value and makes him a model for preachers today.
This article was drawn from the preface to the Spurgeon Commentary Collection on the Old Testament by Lexham Press. Click here for more information.