Search the Scriptures

Spurgeon holds up the Scriptures, in his powerful manner, as the source of Truth and our salvation.

What will the Lord do to bring his people to himself? Whatever it takes! This is a painful and needful mercy, by which the Lord roughly hews those who will not respond to his gentler measures. Spurgeon is dealing sternly with the souls of men in this sermon from Hosea 6, all the while having in the background the desire to see people return to the Lord. With uncompromising honesty he looks at the vain promise which disappoints divine love, as people give some indication of interest or appetite before fading away. Then he considers some of those fearful cuts which the Lord makes to bring down those sinners who resist his more outwardly tender overtures, such as particular providences, or humbling ministries, or inward troubles of soul. When you might hope that he is going to relieve the pressure, he ramps it up, reminding his hearers that to resist the Lord is to be exposed to his judgments, not least when you come before the living God at the great day. But he ends on a hopeful, pleading note. This is one of those sermons in which he loads himself into the sermonic cannon and applies the match, pleading with all who hear to come to the Lord, and urging them to take his hand, or the hand of some other Christian, and follow them to the cross where sin is atoned and peace is made. The sermon reaches a crescendo of earnest desire, and it is hard to imagine anyone not being moved by such a tender and earnest expression of evangelical affection.

The man of God pours out heart and soul to bring people to Christ, as Paul did to the Roman governor. May our response not be like that of Felix!

Spurgeon hates sin, and rightly so. It is, in part, a reflection of his love to Christ, and his love to Christ only increases as he considers the sinfulness of sin. This is a profoundly insightful sermon, with shades of John Owen's books on temptation and the mortification of sin, a sort of anatomy of sin, at least in the way that it tries to draw us into darkness and wickedness. So first we think about the way in which sin deceives, given that its very nature is to assault the truth of God and the God of truth. Spurgeon spends a large proportion of the sermon telling us the kinds of lies which sin whispers in our ears and to our hearts. If we have never thought about this, then the sermon will shock us and teach us. Then we think about the way in which this deceit tends to harden the heart, and again we are in the realm of spiritual experience, and the gradual coarsening of the conscience, the increasing carelessness with regard to conduct, that comes when we listen to sin's lying tongue and begin to act accordingly. Finally, branching out a little from the text, we are urged to fight against deceiving sin by faith, by confession, by tenderness of heart, and by exhorting one another daily—and that means a willingness both to receive and to give appropriate exhortation. We are not a pack of barking dogs, nipping at each other constantly and unkindly, but we are to look out for each other, both as we commit sins and omit duties. Loaded with pastoral wisdom, here is an outstanding reminder of our susceptibility to sin, and our need to be on guard against it.

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Spurgeon addresses the Panic of 1857 that ravaged England and other nations. This is a New Year's message, 1858. Spurgeon attempts to comfort those who have suffered great losses over the year.

This sermon was first delivered on a Thursday evening in the March of the previous year, and then repurposed for reading on the first Lord's day of the year 1890. It is a delight to think that Spurgeon would preach something so sweet and substantial at an ordinary midweek service, and no surprise to find such a topic so well suited to the opening of a year. Here he develops the sermon with us, moving us on from point to point, thinking about the wonder of man blessing the God who blesses, the spirit in which we go about that happy work, the God whom we bless—that Jehovah who has made himself known to us in mercy—, and the self-awareness that we ought to exercise, as we address ourselves in the face of all discouragements within and without, to go on blessing the God of our salvation. Here is a preacher marked by simplicity of speech, plainness of address, and warmth of tone. Here we are stirred not just to think about what it means to bless the Lord, but to get involved with the business, and to get on with it, that the Lord shall not lack a witness to his majesty and mercy from us.