This sermon brims over with holy affections. Spurgeon is entranced by the beautiful form of his text and its beautiful content, the blending of the inner and outer man in the possession and expression of wonderful blessings. The Lord himself is the strength and shield of every believer. With sweet certainty, the follower of Jesus can say that we trusted him and received help from him. Our response is deep and true: our hearts greatly rejoice. As so often, Spurgeon wants us to know that the great blessing is God himself, and that to have him is to be blessed indeed. He emphasises the reality of this, the certainty of this—it is no religious fancy, no mere spiritual metaphor. There is similar intensity in the believer’s own attitude toward his Lord: from the very core of our being, we trust in him who is such a God to us. And, of course, the trusting heart is a rejoicing heart, making a proper response to the delights of having God as our God. It is this note of praise, this life of praise, at which Spurgeon aims.

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Holiness is precious to believers, and it is precious to Spurgeon—his concern for vital godliness shines through again and again in his ministry: “Complete consecration of every faculty of mind and body unto the Lord is our soul’s deepest wish.” His text for the occasion is one that have used to undermine the believer’s pursuit of principled godliness: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:14). First, he carefully expounds what it means not to be under the law, but under grace. Second, he encourages the saints with the special assurance that sin shall not have dominion over them. Finally, he underscores the remarkable reason for this statement, explaining the relationship between the two parts. He lifts us above a mere legal obedience to a heartfelt pursuit of godliness: “not work for salvation, but being saved, work; being already delivered, go forth and prove by your grateful affections and zealous actions what the grace of God has done for you.”

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Spurgeon’s handling of the book of Job is always fascinating. He is sensitive to its exegetical challenges, and to the circumstances of its various characters. Here he takes us to Elihu, a man who shows true wisdom in speaking carefully on God’s behalf, telling more truth than any of Job’s other friends, and also ready to correct Job’s misunderstandings and complaints. With lessons for every preacher and for any Christian, Spurgeon helps us to consider the weight of speaking on behalf of the God of heaven, and the necessary disposition for such a work. He also wants us to think about how we ought to go about such a work, and the various elements of character and conduct which give force to the labour. Finally, and briefly, he seeks to demonstrate the very duty he has been pressing upon others by pointed speech on God’s behalf to various classes of hearer who are before him as he preaches. The sermon as a whole is a helpful reminder of the duty and privilege of being advocates for God, in whatever small measure, and a call to engage in that work with a right spirit and aim.

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This is a very practical and personal sermon. It does not delve deep into theological profundities concerning whether or not God can in fact tempt anyone to sin. Rather, it takes the whole petition from the perspective of the frail and feeble sinner who seeks from God his kindnesses and mercies that we might be spared from any circumstances in which we might be led into sin. So Spurgeon first considers the spirit which suggests such a petition, the frame of heart from which such a desire might rise. Then he ponders the potential trials which trouble someone who is praying in this way, the avenues into sin which they want to avoid. Finally, with time running down, the preacher throws out a few practical lessons, more seed thoughts than developed applications. Throughout, a true believer’s sensitivity to sin—even to the prospect of sin—is on careful display. One catches a glimpse into the preacher’s soul, and the holy fear which characterised the preacher and which he pressed upon his congregation. Do we hear many such sermons today, in which a holy horror of sin underlies the whole? Perhaps here is a clue to the blessing that rested on Spurgeon’s ministry.

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This excellent sermon is a study in pride and a lesson in humility. Spurgeon’s first concern is to drive home the lesson that “whatever advantages we any of us possess over our fellow men we have received from God.” He does this by surveying the advantages we enjoy, and tracing them to their source, almost brutally dismantling any notion we might have that we have somehow made ourselves to be what we are or gained for ourselves any of our blessings. This Spurgeon proves by unrelenting logic, applied to the spheres of nature and of grace. The truths so expressed become the foundation for a series of practical lessons, dealing with both our attitudes and our actions, as we are both humbled in ourselves and then turned toward our God and our fellows, and directed in the way in which we should respond to these things. The simple structure—two points, explication followed by application—does not in any way hinder Spurgeon’s pointed and profound handling of the text.

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Isaiah describes the Messiah as one who made intercession for the transgressors (Is 53:12). With this as his starting point, but turning immediately to the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ for his crucifiers, Spurgeon opens the topic out to a consideration of our Saviour’s mediatorial intercession. He asks us first to admire the grace which is shown in Christ’s prayers for transgressors. He shows us how our Intercessor fills us with confidence in himself. He urges us to follow his example, because “the life of Christ is a precept” to his disciples. The whole becomes a powerful study in a compassionate heart and voice, pressing us to understand just how merciful it is in Christ to speak on behalf of transgressors, and asking us whether or not we truly appreciate what that means, both for our own blessing and for our own attitude to others.

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There are vanities and there are verities. There are fancies and there are facts. There are passing things and there are enduring things. There are bursting bubbles and there are lasting beauties. Giving full rein to the force of the apostle’s language, Spurgeon assesses what it means not to look at, to mark, to heed, to consider, the things which can only be seen, which are passing away, whether present joys or sorrows. His language digs in quite fiercely, pressing us to ask how much significance we attach to that which is passing away. Then he turns to the things which cannot now be seen, but which are spiritually substantial, the eternal glories which “gleam afar to nerve our faint endeavour.” Spurgeon says these need to be grasped by faith as we meditate upon them. They must be considered with delight by God’s people, to stir our affections and appetites (though considered with horror by the unconverted, so that they might be turned to Christ before all their delights are ruined forever). They must be dwelt upon with hope, so that we live truly as heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, inheritors together with the saints in light. The striking contrast of the text comes out in the emphatic way in which Spurgeon holds before us the emptiness of a passing world, and the fulness of joy in the world which is to come.

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We return to an earlier sermon for this lively reading, preached during the heady days at Exeter Hall, when Spurgeon was still something of a shock to the London scene. This is a sermon on conformity to Christ Jesus according to the divine plan and purpose. It asks and answers three very simple questions: In what sense is a believer to be conformed to the image of Christ? Why should we be transformed into the image of the heavenly man? And, is it possible to be so conformed? Having set out what it means to be like Christ in his character, suffering, and glory, and giving us reasons to desire and pursue such conformity, the last section is a beautiful portion in which Spurgeon puts some earnest, even desperate concerns in the mouths of various inquirers, in each case giving warm and comforting answers. To be sure, there are warnings in his conclusions, but the sermon holds out a glorious, and gloriously-assured prospect to all who are in Christ now, in whom the Spirit is working and will work likeness to our Saviour.