Spurgeon turns us to the field of the lazy man, the vineyard of the sluggard, to learn lessons for our souls and for our lives. While I suppose the sermon could have descended into mere moralism, Spurgeon keeps it from doing so by connecting the life we live to the state of our souls, and by constantly drawing parallels between our attitude to our lives and our attitude to our spiritual well-being. Emphatic about not just the fruitlessness of the natural heart, but about its proper tendency to abound in things vile and pestilential, he urges us to use every proper means to root out what is ugly and to cultivate what is beautiful in God's eyes. He pleads with us to look to our own fields—our own hearts, the homes over which we are called to govern and in which we serve, the congregations for which we care and the classes which we teach, the towns and cities where we dwell, and the world in which we live. Good intentions produce nothing—the sluggard only wants a little more sleep, a few more minutes in bed, and he will make everything good…but he never quite gets up and gets round to anything. So Spurgeon calls us not to vague assertions of action to come, but of immediate practical engagement, for the sake of our own souls, and the souls of all those around us.

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Why people don't come to Jesus, and remedies for them.

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1 John 5:13 reveals the purpose for which the apostle wrote his first letter: "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." Again emphasising that the Scriptures are written by the Holy Ghost for our profit, and to be received as such, Spurgeon then gets closer to his text. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, John has written with a particular purpose, and this is a purpose which we ought to pursue. The bulk of the sermon is given over the first heading, as the same Spirit who gave the Word carries along its preacher, exploring the assurance of the believer in connection with the faith which is in the believer's heart. This being thoroughly established, Spurgeon also insists that we ought to follow up on John's purpose. If the apostle so wrote, we ought not to neglect what he has said, and the direction he has given, but rather to rejoice in the prospect and engage in the pursuit of this assurance. It is a rich sermon, doctrinally careful and experimentally full, with a practical edge.

One of Spurgeon's best sermons.