Like many of his eminent spiritual forefathers, Spurgeon is very much a theologian of the Holy Spirit. His communion with, relish for, and dependence on the Spirit of God is often prominent in his sermons, and that is itself a reflection of his whole life. This sermon is concerned with a full and rich trinitarianism, for he wants to ensure that the Holy Spirit receives his proper prominence and honour as the third Person of the Godhead. Concentrating on his title as Paraclete, the preacher...

Like many of his eminent spiritual forefathers, Spurgeon is very much a theologian of the Holy Spirit. His communion with, relish for, and dependence on the Spirit of God is often prominent in his sermons, and that is itself a reflection of his whole life. This sermon is concerned with a full and rich trinitarianism, for he wants to ensure that the Holy Spirit receives his proper prominence and honour as the third Person of the Godhead. Concentrating on his title as Paraclete, the preacher...

Much of this sermon seems to bubble out of the preacher’s heart, gushing forth with less of structure but more of force. It is not without organisation, but his first point concerning the believer’s frequent need of quickening or enlivening is a swirling catalogue of need, flitting from thought to thought as he considers just how dependent we are on the Lord for his mercies. From human need he turns to divine grant, identifying the God of heaven as the one from whom all these mercies flow,...

Spurgeon never goes very far Christ Jesus, in all his sermons or in any sermon. Here he is in his element as a preacher of the gospel of his Saviour: “It is mine to preach a Saviour in whom I believe, whom having not seen I love. I am looking to him now for everything, even as I would have you do. I see in him superlative beauties which I wish you to see, and I worship a divinity in him which I desire you to worship. I preach not to you an unknown God, or an untried Saviour.” You can hear the...

This is, in some ways, a sermon about fear. The introduction is fascinating, setting the scene for what follows by tracing out some of the ways in which change and novelty can disturb and unsettle certain people in particular, with the fears that can dominate some of God’s people. Spurgeon responds with words of consolation, direction, and expectation. The whole is marked by realism about the experience of the saints, compassion toward those who struggle, courage in the face of opportunities...

The people of God ought to pray for saints and for sinners. Spurgeon’s text to enforce this duty is the last phrase of Psalm 141:5, drawn from the Authorised Version: “For yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.” Acknowledging the difficulty of the phrase in the original, Spurgeon takes it in the form in which he finds it in his Bible, and applies it in those two simple directions. In praying for the saints, he teaches us to think in terms of obligation, honour, excellence, and...

This sermon is an estimation and celebration of faith, with an exhortation to it. “How is it possible for the preacher to say too much about faith, or to extol this grace too highly!” asks Spurgeon in his opening sentence. The focus of the sermon is on what it means to be a partaker of Christ. Having set forth something of the sense of that, Spurgeon spends time pressing home the solemn and searching question of whether or not we are truly partakers of the Lord Christ. In his customary...

Spurgeon’s Christianity is marked by a deeply personal and experiential affection for the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the expression of that may be somewhat coloured by his context, the foundation of it is thoroughly biblical. One of the ways in which Spurgeon expresses that affection is in the rich and emotive language with which he speaks of Christ. That shows itself often in his handling of the Song of Solomon, a portion of God’s Word in which Spurgeon delights, and a further revelation of...

This is the last sermon in the volume for 1871, and it was preached on the last day of that year. While Spurgeon very rarely preaches sermons in sequence, he often shows his awareness of sermons recently preached, and of the response that people make to them, often drawing in new themes or reiterating previous ones in order to make a pastoral or polemical point. He does have a penchant for preaching from multiple texts on occasion, as he does here. This particular sermon builds on the...

If you are expecting this to be a polemical blast against infant sprinkling, think again. Of course, Spurgeon remains throughout an unembarrassed Baptist, but his concern is primarily positive: to allure and to encourage us to long for and to labour for true family religion. In five points, Spurgeon walks through his text, showing a whole family hearing, believing, baptised, serving, and rejoicing. He closes with earnest pleas to all who have any family responsibility to plead with and pray...

Taking a phrase that occurs three times in the book of the Psalms—“Let such as love thy salvation say continually, let God be magnified”—Spurgeon asks three simple questions. With regard to the character, who is speaking? With regard to the saying, what are they testifying, and in what spirit? Then, with regard to the wish, why are they so pleading and desiring? Why should godly people desire that the Lord should be magnified? It is a sermon both to encourage and to challenge, for Spurgeon is...

Stirred by the death of a faithful deacon of the church, Spurgeon brings that man’s dying words to his brothers to the congregation by way of a sermon. He sets before them in potent language the potent fact that they have been bought at the price of Christ’s life-pains, that the Son of God shed his precious blood to make them his own. From that flows a plain consequence: if Christ has bought you then you are not your own, but you belong to God in your body and soul. Spurgeon explores both the...

A multi-texted sermon, this. When Spurgeon uses this approach, sometimes there is sequence and development, sometimes connection, sometimes contrast in his texts. In this case, he uses Isaiah as quoted by Peter, putting both texts side by side. He does so in order to bring out what he believes to be the true meaning of the passage, or at least the emphasis which he brings to light. And so he considers the withering work of the Holy Spirit, the way in which he brings low the glory of man,...

This was a landmark for Spurgeon, reflected in the title and substance of his thousandth sermon. Without drawing excessive attention to the occasion, but rather offering a subtle testimony to the mercies of God through the years to this point, and in a tone of humble wonder and sincere appreciation, the preacher emphasises the exceeding abundance of God’s grace in Christ. There is so much, and for so many, for all who come! As a person trusting in Jesus, as a pastor caring for others, as a...

This is a simple sermon, probably preached by a very sick man. It was printed at the end of a three-month absence from the pulpit at the Metropolitan Tabernacle by Mr Spurgeon, and includes a brief personal note to the congregation at its end, thanking them for their prayers. Although undated, there are intimate touches in it which at least suggest that it came from the period of his suffering. Indeed, the very simplicity of its structure and substance suggests that it may come from the heart...

Musing on the benedictions that drop from the lips of a faithful man, and in anticipation of his own absence from the flock at the Tabernacle, Spurgeon turns to the words with which Paul closes his letter to the Romans: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” With an eye to the affection which underpins the apostolic blessing, he dives into the substance of the particular favour which he enjoins upon God’s people, musing upon the grace which is in and through and with...

Picking up the last episode of the parable of the wedding feast, Spurgeon applies it carefully in his own context, acknowledging that times of spiritual excitement often see false professors joining the visible church. He therefore preaches a sermon intended to provoke heart-searching among his hearers, that they may not be found out in the day of God’s testing. With that in mind, he has five simple headings: an enemy at the feast, the king at the feast, who becomes the judge at the feast,...

This delightful sermon lays hold of Christ in his present power by pointing to the display of that power when, at his coming, he works the transformation of all his redeemed people at their resurrection from the dead. The logic is simple. First, Christ has power to raise all his people and to transform their vile bodies that they may be like his glorious body. The preacher takes some time to describe and explain something of what that display of power must involve. Second, from his text he...

This sermon is one in which Spurgeon clings very closely to his text. His three-point outline follows the overall arc of the verses from which he preaches, while under each main heading, rather than arranging some thoughts as he so often does, he rather follows the substance of the biblical wording closely, unpacking it, explaining it, applying it. The result is a sermon as logical as any others in its arrangement, but tied to the text in a way that is fairly distinctive. The substance of the...

Spurgeon is deeply concerned with the prayers of God’s people. The Tabernacle, under his care, was a congregation marked by a prayerful spirit, worked out in various opportunities for intercession, and not least a pattern of regular congregational prayer, with particular seasons for pleading God’s blessing. Behind that appetite for prayer lies a confidence in the God who hears prayer. This sermon is grounded on beautiful convictions about the goodness of God. Spurgeon uses Christ’s comparison...

We too easily cease to wonder at the marvel of divine love and the splendour of divine blessing. This sermon, as so many, puts on display Spurgeon’s persistent joy in the salvation of God, in itself and as bestowed upon others. It is one of the sermons in which, rather than deal with a theme suggested by a verse, he engages in close dealing with the text itself—on this occasion, 1 Peter 1:3–5. He simply, sweetly, works his way through the text, exploring the particular favours which the Lord...

We ought to have a burning appetite for people to know Christ in salvation. We will do that if we delight in him for ourselves. Spurgeon pre-eminently combines that personal delight and that urgent concern. He therefore sets the Lord Jesus before us in the simplicity of his character as the way from sin and to God, impressing upon us the blessings he brings and constantly persuading his hearers to come to Christ, seeking to attract them with his beauties while also warning them of the dangers...

This is a sermon both weighty and cutting. Spurgeon evidently feels it as he preaches it, and it comes across in the plainness of his language and the starkness and roughness of the structure. The sermons barrels along, heaping thought upon thought. There is clarity and order in it, but there is also a sort of relentless around a straightforward assertion that two things are to be followed and two things are to be avoided. The preacher takes no prisoners in pressing upon our consciences the...

Spurgeon’s assessment of Martha and Mary is not just a crass comparison between the two women, but is rather used to throw light on a disposition he perceives in the church as a whole. It may not be the kind of sermon that all men are in a position to preach, for not all are exposed to the range of activity, the range of influence, and the range of censure to which Spurgeon was exposed. That opportunity enables him to ask about attitudes he perceives rising in the church of his day, the kinds...

This simple sermon gives a good example of preaching from the human experience recorded in the Scripture. It is an approach often frowned upon today (almost any preaching of human life can be easily dismissed as mere moralism) and yet to throws light on our own thinking and feeling when we can see and hear through the eyes and ears of those whose histories are recorded in Scripture. Spurgeon does that well here, using Nathanael as an example of someone in whom the Spirit had been at work to...