Bless God for Lack of Worldly Prosperity

Spurgeon: "We bless God, then, for our afflictions; we thank him for our changes; we extol his name for losses of property; for we feel that had he not chastened us thus, we might have become too secure. Continued worldly prosperity is a fiery trial."

I've Got Her!

Charles Spurgeon with the thoughts I have on this my 13th anniversary of marriage to the most beautiful and godly woman I know:

"Matrimony came from Paradise, and leads to it. I never was half so happy, before I was a married man, as I am now. Let the husband love his wife as he loves himself, and a little better, for she is his better half. He should feel, 'If there is only one good wife in the whole world, I've got her.'"

-Quote on page 13 of Date Your Wife.

My God, My Savoir, What Aileth Thee?

Charles Spurgeon on the meaning of Gethsemane:

"How black I am, how filthy, how loathsome in the sight of God, -- I feel myself only fit to be cast into the lowest hell, and I wonder that God has not long ago cast me there; but I go into Gethsemane, and I peer under those gnarled olive trees, and I see my Saviour. Yes, I see him wallowing on the ground in anguish, and hear such groans come from him as never came from human breast before. I look upon the earth and see it red with his blood, while his face is smeared with gory sweat, and I say to myself, 'My God, my Saviour, what aileth thee?' I hear him reply, 'I am suffering for thy sin,' and then I take comfort, for while I fain would have spared my Lord such an anguish, now that the anguish is over I can understand how Jehovah can spare me, because He smote His Son in my stead."

The Gospel Focus of Spurgeon

I am enjoying reading Steve Lawson's newest book in the Long Line of Godly Men Series on Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon has long been one of my favorite preachers. So, this book is a treat as it draws together some of his most prominent themes and experiences in a very readable format.  I highly recommend it.

Sermons Full of Christ

This is a longer quote, but worth taking the time to read:

"I believe that those sermons which are fullest of Christ are the most likely to be blessed to the conversion of the hearers. Let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the gospel. As for myself, brethren, I cannot preach anything else but Christ and His cross, for I know nothing else, and long ago, like the apostle Paul, I determined not to know anything else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. People have often asked me, "What is the secret of your success?" I always answer that I have no other secret but this, that I have preached the gospel,—not about the gospel, but the gospel,—the full, free, glorious gospel of the living Christ who is the incarnation of the good news. Preach Jesus Christ, brethren, always and everywhere; and every time you preach be sure to have much of Jesus Christ in the sermon. You remember the story of the old minister who heard a sermon by a young man, and when he was asked by the preacher what he thought of it he was rather slow to answer, but at last he said, "If I must tell you, I did not like it at all; there was no Christ in your sermon." "No," answered the young man, "because I did not see that Christ was in the text." "Oh!" said the old minister, "but do you not know that from every little town and village and tiny hamlet in England there is a road leading to London? Whenever I get hold of a text, I say to myself, 'There is a road from here to Jesus Christ, and I mean to keep on His track till I get to Him.'" "Well," said the young man, "but suppose you are preaching from a text that says nothing about Christ?" "Then I will go over hedge and ditch but what I will get at Him." So must we do, brethren; we must have Christ in all our discourses, whatever else is in or not in them. There ought to be enough of the gospel in every sermon to save a soul. Take care that it is so when you are called to preach before Her Majesty the Queen, and if you have to preach to charwomen or chairmen, still always take care that there is the real gospel in every sermon."

-CH Spurgeon, The Soul Winner, p. 35

For Those Suffering

This is from CH Spurgeon's Beside Still Waters: In Days of Trials Some of you are enduring deep affliction. In your extraordinary trial, remember the depth of divine faithfulness. You may be unable to comprehend why, but I urge you to believe in the firmness and stability of divine affection. You will have comfort in proportion to your trials. If you have shallow sorrows you will receive shallow graces. If you have deep afflictions you will obtain deeper proof of God’s faithfulness. I could lay down and die when I think of life’s trials, but like Sarah (Gen. 21:6) I recover and laugh when I remember that the eternal God is our refuge and that underneath are the everlasting arms (Deut. 33:27). God will not fail. God will not take away His hand until He has finished His purpose concerning us. Great trials bring great promises. Much afflicted one, there are great and mighty words that are not meant for saints of easier experiences. You will drink from the deep golden goblets reserved for those giants who can drink a great portion of wormwood, but God will also supply deep drinks of the well-refined wines on the lees (Is. 25:6). Trials greatly enlarge the soul. Thus I do not want, in my better mind, to escape great trials, since they involve great graces. If my strength shall be as my days (Deut. 33:25), then let my days be long and dark, for my strength will be mighty, God will be glorified, and I will be blessed. I earnestly urge every tested Christian to dwell on this truth, for it may be a great comfort. There is love, immortal and unchanging love, in heaven toward you, which will never grow cold. You will be helped. God would sooner cease to be than cease to be faithful. Be of good courage, for today He will strengthen your heart.

Nothing Lacking in Jesus

“As a Savior he is perfect. Being made perfect through suffering, he is able fully to discharge his office. Nothing is wanting in the character and person of Christ in order to his being able to save to the uttermost. He is a Savior, and a great one. You are wholly lost, but Jesus is perfectly able to save. You are sore sick, but Jesus is perfectly able to heal. You have gone, perhaps, to the extreme of sin; he has gone to the extreme of atonement. In every office essential to our salvation Jesus is perfect. Nothing is lacking in him in any one point.”

-CH Spurgeon

God Commands Joyful Worship

Here is a Spurgeon quote from my sermon on Psalm 100:

“Those who serve God with a sad countenance, because they do what is unpleasant to them, are not serving him at all; they bring the form of homage, but the life is absent. Our God requires no slaves to grace his throne; he is the Lord of the empire of love, and would have his servants dressed in the uniform of joy. The angels of God serve him with songs, not with groans; a murmur or a sigh would be a mutiny in their ranks. That obedience which is not voluntary is disobedience, for the Lord looketh at the heart, and if he seeth that we serve him from force, and not because we love him, he will reject our offering.
Let us show to the people of the world, who think our religion to be slavery, that it is to us a delight and a joy! Let our gladness proclaim that we serve a good Master.”

Bookworms

From Spurgeon:

“I have many an old book in my library in which there have been bookworms, and I have sometimes amused myself with tracing a worm. I do not know how he gets to the volume originally, but being there he eats his way into it. He bores a hole in a direct line, and sometimes I find that he dies before he gets halfway through the tome. Now and then a worm has eaten his way right through from one wooden cover to another; yes, and through the cover also. This was a most successful bookworm.

Few of us can eat our way quite so far. I am one of the bookworms that have not got halfway into my Bible yet; but I am eating my way as fast as I can. This one thing I have proved to myself beyond all question; I shall never, never exhaust this precious book. Much less shall I exhaust the wondrous person of my divinely-blessed Lord. He is that bread which came down from heaven. He is utterly inexhaustible.”

HT: Lisa

To Be With Christ is Much Greater Better

In Philippians 1:23, Paul expresses his desire to depart from this life and be with Christ. The reason: because Christ is far better than anything or anyone.

Here is some of Spurgeon's meditation on this verse: “That bare thing, just to be with Christ is all the heaven a believer wants. The angels may be there or not, as they will, and the golden crowns and harps present or absent as may be, but if I am to be where Jesus is, I will find angels in his eyes, and crowns in every lock of his hair; to me the golden streets shall be my fellowship with him, and the harpings of the harpers shall be the sound of his voice. Only to be near him, to be with him — this is all we want. The apostle does not say, “to be in heaven, which is far better: “no, but, “to be with Christ; which is far better,” and he adds no description; he leaves the thoughts just as they are, in all their majestic simplicity. “To be with Christ; which is far better.”

Look Your Eyes Away!

On January 6, 1850, C.H. Spurgeon was converted. 160 years ago today.

Here are the details as I recall them from chapter 7 of "The Early Years":

Spurgeon was heading to a particular place of worship but was hindered by a snowstorm. He turned into a side street and came to a Primitive Methodist Chapel. There were about 15 people and the normal preacher could not be there due to the snow. A layman stood to peach and Spurgeon says, "He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say." His text was "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." He preached for about 10 minutes and then pointed at Spurgeon and made some comments about his personal appearance and told him to "Look" to Christ. Spurgeon says, "Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away."

Bibline

Spurgeon said of John Bunyan: “His whole being was saturated with Scripture…Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God.”

Preach Christ or Go Home

Love me some Spurgeon. Amen and Amen!

If you are a preacher, I dare you to click the link.

God is in Control!

“I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes – that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens – that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence – the fall of leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche. He who believes in God must believe this truth. There is no standing point between this and Atheism. There is no halfway between an Almighty God, who works all things according to the good pleasure of his will, and no God at all!”

CH Spurgeon

The Silent Steam-Roller

CH Spurgeon addressing his church before a prayer meeting:

Did you observe, last Sunday, a notice at the bottom of a street, at the back of this Tabernacle, warning us in large letters against a terrible monster? Thus ran the oracle: "Beware of The Steam-roller."

I always feel inclined to turn down a side street when I see the red flag and that admonitory sentence; for useful as the steam-roller certainly is, I cannot persuade horses to believe that it is their true friend. On this particular occasion, there was no cause to fear the steam-breathing, coal-consuming leviathan, for its fire was out, its steam was a thing of yesterday, and the creature rested in perfect quiet, under cover of a tarp. It is quite right that even engines should have their Sabbath.

I thought, as I passed it, - a steam-roller at work is the pattern of what a church ought to be; but this particular steam-roller is a type of what many churches are. A church should be “terrible as an army with banners;” but, oftentimes, it is not. “BEWARE OF THE STEAM ROLLER!” seemed rather a humorous notice, under the circumstances. Why, a kitten need not be afraid of the huge machine, or its big wheels, when the fire is out. Satan, who is said to tremble at the sight of a single praying man, might laugh in the presence of some of our churches, for there is no fear of their doing any harm to his kingdom. We must have the steam up if we are to crush the granite, and prepare a highway for our God. The weight of our numbers, and the excellence of our machinery, will go for nothing unless the inward fires are glowing, turning lukewarmness into heat, and impelling every wheel to strong, all-subduing motion.

The steam-roller could do nothing without the stoker, and his coals and fire; and a church can do nothing if love, and fervour, and enthusiasm are not produced in it. It is my longing desire that we may ever be filled with the Divine energy. I see in our congregations, and in our societies, the altar and the wood; but what sacrifice can we offer to the Lord if we lack fire? One of the great uses of a prayer-meeting is to keep the fires burning. By earnest pleadings, we heap on the fuel; and the Holy Spirit comes to us as a heavenly wind, and makes the fire burn vehemently.

There may be wild-fire about, and, if so, I deplore it; but as far as my observation and experience have gone, I am more afraid of the want of fire than of the excess of it. The majority of our brethren are in no danger of becoming fanatical; the danger lies in the opposite direction: they are more likely to have their boilers cold, and their wheels rusted, than to burst with excess of force, or fly to pieces with perilous velocity. At any rate, let us cry for the fire tonight.

Spurgeon Sermons

I can't remember which message it was, but I remember hearing CJ Mahaney give this advice to preachers: Read a sermon by CH Spurgeon on the text you are preaching the night before you preach. I think his point was to help us cultivate humility realizing that our sermons are pretty weak.

I took his advice and have been extremely helped, humbled, and blessed for over 2 years now. I bought the Spurgeon Collection from Ages Library and read a Spurgeon sermon almost every week. Many of Spurgeon's sermons are online (although not all of them) and you can search by Scripture text.

I've also be treking with Spurgeon's journey to the Cross in Banner of Truth's Majesty in Misery 3 volume series.

Let These Go Their Way...because Christ...

Spurgeon reflecting on Christ's loving care for His disciples in John 18:8:

And so, some of the benefits of Christ’s death were ours before we knew him, and before we loved him. The reason why I was not damned before I knew the Savior was that he had said, “Let him go his way; I have died for him.” You would have been in hell these twenty years, saint, for you were then unregenerate; but Christ said, “Let him go his way; if ye seek me, he shall go his way, sinner though he be;” and now, when gloomy fears arise, and dark thoughts roll over our mind, let this be our comfort. Sinners we are still, guilty and vile; but the same voice says, “Let these go their way.” It is the “let” of command; and who can hinder when God letteth in this sense? “Let these go their way.” You are going up Bunyan’s Hill Difficulty, and there are lions at the top. Christians, remember this message, “Let these go their way.” You will, perhaps, get into Giant Despair’s dungeon; here is a key that will fit the lock: “Let these go their way.” You will be tumbling about in the Slough of Despond; here is a stone to put your foot on to help you to get out: “Let these go their way.” What for? Because they pray? No. Because they serve God? No; the mandate was given ‘before they did either the one or the other. “Let these go their way,” because Christ died in their stead.

Not Fit for the Dunghill

"A bloodless, Christless gospel is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill; it neither honours God nor converts the sons of men."

-CH Spurgeon (Dark Gethsemane, p. 220)

Spurgeon on the Chief Work of the Holy Spirit

"It is the CHIEF office of the Holy Spirit to glorify Christ. He does many things, but this is what he aims at in all of them, to glorify Christ. Brethren, what the Holy Ghost does must be right for us to imitate: therefore, let us endeavour to glorify Christ. To what higher ends can we devote ourselves, than to something to which God the Holy Ghost devotes himself? Be this, then, your emotional prayer, "Blessed Spirit, help me ever to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ!"

-CH Spurgeon

Read this Slowly: CH Spurgeon in the Garden

Whatever you are doing, please slow down. This is worth stopping everything and taking in slowly. If you cannot stop now, please bookmark this and come back to it when you have time to meditate.
This is from the sermon called, "The Agony in Gethsemane" by CH Spurgeon.

"Again looking at Jesus in the garden, we learn the excellence and completeness of the atonement. How black I am, how filthy, how loathsome in the sight of God, — I feel myself only fit to be cast into the lowest hell, and I wonder that God has not long ago cast me there; but I go into Gethsemane, and I peer under those gnarled olive trees, and I see my Saviour. Yes, I see Him wallowing on the ground in anguish, and hear such groans come from Him as never came from human breast before. I look upon the earth and see it red with His blood, while His face is smeared with gory sweat, and I say to myself, “My God, my Saviour, what aileth Thee?” I hear Him reply, “I am suffering for thy sin,” and then I take comfort, for while I fain would have spared my Lord such an anguish, now that the anguish is over I can understand how Jehovah can spare me, because He smote His Son in my stead. Now I have hope of justification, for I bring before the justice of God and my own conscience the remembrance of my bleeding Saviour, and I say, Canst Thou twice demand payment, first at the hand of Thy agonizing Son and then again at mine? Sinner as I am, I stand before the burning throne of the severity of God, and am not afraid of it. Canst thou scorch me, O consuming fire, when Thou hast not only scorche but utterly consumed my substitute? Nay, by faith, my soul sees justice satisfied, the law honoured, the moral government of God established and yet my once guilty soul absolved and set free. The fire of avenging justice has spent itself, and the law has exhausted its most rigorous demands upon the person of Him who was made a curse for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Oh the sweetness of the comfort which flows from the atoning blood! Obtain that comfort, my brethren, and never leave it. Cling to you Lord’s bleeding heart, and drink in abundant consolation."