God’s Own Gospel Call (sermon 2092)

In 2 Corinthians 5:20, the apostle Paul tells God's people that "we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God." If you want a demonstration of this spirit in a gospel preacher after the time of the apostles, you could not do much better that read this sermon from Charles Spurgeon. He begins by insisting that the voice we must hear in the sermon is not that of the prophet who first spoke these words, nor that of the preacher who repeats them, but that of the God who makes known his own gospel grace: "Incline your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you—the sure mercies of David" (Is 55:3). Here, then, we find—first—two saving precepts, to hear and to come. Then we have, for each precept, a saving promise, each of which Spurgeon explores with spiritual sensitivity and experiential insight. Then, broadening his scope to embrace the direction and tone of the whole chapter, we come to the saving pleadings, the Lord God himself calling on sinners to come, and removing all obstacles and addressing all objections. Spurgeon really climbs inside his text, and makes the voice of God his own, not with the intention of clouding the call of the Lord, but of ensuring that it is indeed Jehovah's voice alone which the congregation hears, and God alone to whom the congregation responds.