There are a number of sermons which touch on this topic, or deal with it directly, during this season of Spurgeon’s ministry. It is not a change of emphasis so much as a change of tone. He often, throughout his ministry, celebrates the reliability and clarity of the Word of the Lord. In the background here, though, is the Downgrade Controversy, the increasing theological liberalisation of Christianity, revealing where real faith and mere nominalism divide. That context means that some of Spurgeon’s sermons, while remaining essentially pastoral, also become more polemical. Some take on an edge, as this one does, as the preacher considers what it means that “the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” This is our warrant for teaching scriptural truth; this is the claim of God’s Word upon your attention; this gives to the Word of God its distinct character; this makes the truth of Scripture a ground of great alarm to many; and, this makes the Word of God the reason and the rest of our faith. While there is conviction to establish and comfort the child of God, so there is a persistent resistance to and assault upon the errors that were becoming current, and sadly remain so, undermining the confidence that we may and must have in the Scriptures as the breathed-out and written-down Word of God.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/jthe-infallibility-of-scripture

Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!

British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR

American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

A thoroughly experimental sermon, in which Spurgeon takes Job as something of a template for all believers, suggesting that Job was favoured (as others may sometimes be) with particularly vivid impressions of God, some striking sense of his majesty and the glory of his perfections. Such views of the Lord truly make an impression upon us, bringing us low in ourselves. This is no generic sense of lowness, according to Spurgeon, but rather a profound consciousness of sin, which in turn leads to a heartfelt repentance, which our preacher unpacks in some detail. Here, particularly, Spurgeon brings the truth of God’s Word close to home, pressing it into your hearts, and asking how we hope to deal with God if such a man as Job was so profoundly humbled by this glimpse of his glory. Of course, his answer lies in the righteousness of Christ alone, by whom only we can stand accepted before God, our sins put away and a righteousness established for us in which God himself delights. Incidentally, it might be worth a glance at the texts read before Scripture noted, as usual, at the end of this sermon. Usually, it would be a chapter, or a portion of one. On this occasion, it is the bulk of two chapters, with a selection from two others. If nothing else, this reminds us that Spurgeon is conscious of the broader context of the texts which he preaches, and seeks to situate each sermon within the broad sweep of Scripture, the book in question, and the immediate scope of the text itself.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/healing-by-the-stripes-of-jesus

Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!

British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR

American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

This sermon is numerically significant on several levels. It is the two thousandth sermon, the last sermon of Volume XXXIII in the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, and a sermon prepared to be read on the first day of the year of 1888. As so often with these ‘major marker’ sermons (ones that break through particular numerical boundaries), and all the more so when those markers are loaded up like this, Spurgeon deliberately returns to the very core of his ministry and the delight of his own soul—the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. The sermon is itself is of the utmost simplicity, as Spurgeon seeks to come to the text, and to come at the congregation. He shows how, in the verse in question, God treats sin as a disease and provides a cure for that disease in the stripes of the Lord Christ, a disease which is immediately and completely effective wherever it is applied. In truth, Spurgeon never strays very far from this theme, but an occasion like this makes it all the more imperative for him to state once more the touchstone of his ministry.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/healing-by-the-stripes-of-jesus

Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!

British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR

American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

This briefer sermon is ‘intended for reading’, which usually indicates a sick man writing or editing a previous address for distribution. Brevity here does not undermine simplicity, clarity, or pungency! The text is short: “My son, give me your heart.” The sermon is straightforward, looking at the love which lies behind the request for wisdom, then at the wisdom which guides the loving request, and then a pressing application to be wise by attending to this wise admonition. Here the more practical elements of the sermon come to the fore, although—as we often see with Spurgeon—he usually sows fruitful seeds of thought along the way, quite apart from any more formal element of application. The last paragraph confirms our earlier expectations as well as informing our understanding: the sermon is an ‘occasional address’ (delivered on a specific occasion), in this case an appeal for funds for hospitals (when such were typically privately and charitably supported). Now we know not only when the address came, but we appreciate more fully why Spurgeon has been pressing for the heart—because once our heavenly Father has our heart, he has our hands, too, in cheerful dispensation of our good things. In addition, the final appeal is pleasingly quirky—before the plate is being passed round for the collection of money, Spurgeon passes around his own invisible plate, for the collection of hearts.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-heart-gift-for-god

Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!

British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR

American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

By October of 1887 the Downgrade Controversy—the battle against doctrinal decay in the professing church of Christ—was in full swing. Letters had appeared in The Sword and the Trowel over the previous months, and Spurgeon himself had entered the fray through August and into September. The sermon which we consider today is clearly the fruit of that conflict, with Spurgeon feeling “as if the text had been newly written for the present occasion, for it is in every syllable most suitable to the immediate crisis.” That text is Zephaniah 3:16–18, where the Lord calls his people to faithful labour and promises his saving and succouring mercies to them. Spurgeon handles the text by looking at the present trials of God’s people, the glorious consolation which they have in the midst of those trials, and the brave conduct which ought to characterise them in the face of those trials. Many of us see the unhappy inheritance of the theological liberalism which took root at the end of the nineteenth century. While we may not be of the generation which saw the downgrade, we can—if we continue to heed Spurgeon’s call to arms—be a generation which seeks to recover some of the lost ground.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/a-sermon-for-the-time-present

Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!

British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR

American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

It is by no means deliberate that the last few sermons have not had the ‘classic’ Spurgeon three point structure, but I hope that it at least undermines the weary assertion that this preacher ‘invariably’ has three points. This sermon has an interesting balance, because it has two main divisions but is still divided into thirds. The sermon finds us on the Emmaus road, with two disciples who are thinking foolishly, “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” Spurgeon is blunt and forceful in dealing with this matter. Speaking first to the true believer, he asserts, first, that unbelief is folly, and, second, that unbelief arises from slowness of heart. The preacher simply explores those two assertions arising from the text, analysing and anatomising our dull hearts. He closes that portion of the sermon with an encouragement—that slowness of heart is not the same as hardness of heart, and that those who weary of their doubts should abandon them for the faith that not only saves but also secures. Then, with that element of the sermon concluded, Spurgeon asks his believing congregation to pray as he speaks directly to the unconverted. The last third of the sermon is a sustained plea to those who do not yet believe, seeking to expose and to correct the folly and dullness that grips such hearts, concluding with warnings and pleadings. The sermon is striking in its directness and in the arrangement which serves as a vehicle for that direct address, looking first the doubting believer and then the unbeliever in the eye with affection and concern, and speaking to the soul.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/folly-of-unbelief

Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!

British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR

American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

“All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.” So writes the man of God in Psalm 25:10, and so preaches the servant of God in this sermon. In another simply structured sermon—remember, Spurgeon deliberately seeks to avoid complexity—he first paints the portrait of the covenanter, the man who keeps the covenant and testimonies of the Lord. As you might imagine, the preacher takes the opportunity to portray a truly Christian man, one thoroughly persuaded of his own sin and misery, but equally delighted with the provision God has made in Christ Jesus for sinners, and so committed to the Saviour and to the way of the righteous. But the man is no static saint: he walks that road, and find it to be paved with mercy and truth, not so much on his account, but on the Lord’s. Spurgeon emphasises that this is the way by which the Lord draws near to the covenanting man, and these are the blessings which he showers upon him. Thus the experience described is less that of the covenanter seeking the Lord, and more the Lord favouring the covenanter. So the preacher both encourages the saint to keep God’s covenant and testimonies, and challenges the sinner as to the misery and emptiness of life without God.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-covenanter

Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!

British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR

American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

The simple structure of this two-pronged sermon by no means provides for any shallowness. The bulk of the address is given over to a careful consideration of God's thoughts toward us, thoughtfully mined from the text. In this respect, it is a masterpiece of exegetical clarity, simply considering the implications of the specific words of Scripture, allowing the phrases to have their full weight, and working out not only their obvious meanings but also their more subtle suggestions. The second element of the sermon considers our attitude toward God in the light of his thoughts toward us, and here the tone is more applicatory, wisely suggesting how divine truth calls forth an appropriate response. There are no real verbal fireworks, no sustained flights of soaring rhetoric. Rather, we have sweet and solid gospel logic that carries us smoothly and forcefully toward the ultimate purposes that God in his mercy has for his beloved people.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/gods-thoughts-of-peace

Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!

British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR

American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

The apostle Paul had a holy dread of the Philippians sliding away from the faith of Jesus Christ. Spurgeon says he does not doubt the victory, but neither would he have it lost. Being “in the Lord,” these believers are in their right place, and Spurgeon explains what that means for the Philippians and for others who have entrusted themselves to Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they need to keep their right place. If they are in the Lord, then that is where they need to “stand fast,” in faith, in life, in experience, in holiness, without wearying or warping or wandering. But it is all very well to exhort a saint to stand fast—how is he or she to do so? What motives enable and sustain such endurance in the faith? Spurgeon often challenges us in the light of particular encouragements, or encourages us in the light of particular challenges: here he does the latter, reminding us of our citizenship in heaven, our expectation of Christ’s return and our transformation, and the resources at our disposal in this pilgrimage. So, with our eyes firmly fixed on Christ and the fulness that is in him, we press toward the prize, holding firmly to Christ and his truth, standing fast in the Lord.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/stand-fast

Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!

British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR

American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

After a brief survey of the ways in which Psalm has been a blessing to true believers through the century, Spurgeon tells us how he intends to use it—to speak on the confidence of the saints, on the courage with grows from that confidence, and the way in which that courage will be tested. Each of those three points hangs upon an element of his text. However, in the background of the whole sermon hangs the fact of the Ligurian earthquake, with an associated tsunami, which struck northern Italy and the French Riviera (including Spurgeon’s beloved Mentone) a few days earlier. It was a significant enough event to mean that the thought of the shaking earth and the roaring seas would have been close to the minds of the preacher’s congregation, increasing their interest and the impact of the truth on their souls. It is, then, not only a fine example of a sermon well-grounded in a text, but also of a sermon which takes account of current events, and uses them to draw the attention of the hearers to eternal truths.

Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/eternearthquake-but-not-heartquake

Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book!

British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR

American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft

Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon

Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon.

Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org

Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app