From the Heart of Spurgeon

One of the enduring elements of Spurgeon’s public ministry, reflective of his private life, is his delight in and dependence on the Holy Spirit. He mentions him often, prays to him regularly, delights in him personally, and depends on him resolutely. He is a good guide for us, then, concerning intimate knowledge of the Holy Spirit. As often, Spurgeon is not afraid of his own experience, but his starting point and guiding principle is the Word of God, as he considers what it is to have the Holy Spirit dwelling with us and in us. I think that the personality and operations of the Holy Spirit is a fairly significant weak point in modern Reformed evangelicalism, perhaps because of an over-reaction to Charismatic excess, but I also wonder if we have downplayed his presence and influence because we do not know him very well. Whatever the case, Spurgeon is corrective and instructive as he guides us through the truth of John 14:17, helping us to understand who we know, and how, and what it means to have this intimacy with the Third Person of the Godhead. As one who needs him, and wants him more than I have him, I hope it will be a blessing to you. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/intimate-knowledge-of-the-holy-spirit Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Isaiah contrasts the confidence of Babylon with the hope of God’s people. God’s people have a sure and certain hope. False confidences pass away—whether as evidently as the ruins of Babylon have declared, or in any other case. By contrast, our God abides always the same. Even to old age—and this is a particular emphasis of Spurgeon in the sermon, given its textual context—he will carry us. Whatever else may change in us or around us, God himself does not change in himself or in his disposition toward us. And so it remains true that he has made us, both as creatures and as his people. He carries us, and those mercies toward us never alter. He also will deliver us. The structure of the sermon toward the end gets a little ragged, but the point is clear. We have the same God and the same mercy all through life. Spurgeon’s two primary applications go in two opposite directions. The first is to the young, with whom he pleads to begin life with God, in order that they may enjoy him to the end. The second is to the aged, urging them to trust a God who has never let them down. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/idols-found-wanting-but-jehovah-found-faithful Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

This is Spurgeon at his most heartfelt, delighting in grace and urging to holiness. Taking quite a substantial text, and holding fast to its substance and arrangement, he brings us face to face first of all with what we are by nature, what we once were in the evils of our minds, our pursuits, and our hearts. Here he urges us to tears of repentance as he ploughs up our souls. Then he considers what the Lord has done for us, ranging over the wonderful declarations of grace contained in the text, and stirring us up to grateful joy, considering not least the merciful works of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit toward us. Then he brings us to the practical punch, that we should be careful to maintain good works. Here he robustly dismisses any suggestion that this is mere legalistic preaching, making clear that to the unbeliever he calls not to good works, but to Christ only. The exhortation to live as a cheerful servant goes not to the slave but to the son, to those who have been redeemed by grace. Inaction here, careless or passive living, brings dishonour to the Lord who has saved us, and so we must embrace this “faithful saying,” and show by our good fruit the sweetness of our new root. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-maintenance-of-good-works Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-sluggards-farm Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app