Author: Charles Spurgeon

Pray with Spurgeon: The Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

O Father, in your presence, although we feel at peace with you, we cannot help but lament the many times we have offended you. We also mourn that even now we fall far short of what we owe you. Cleanse us, O Lord, cleanse us with hyssop, and we will be clean; wash us, and we will be whiter than snow. We confess our transgressions, and we will not hide our iniquity; but we look again to the great Sacrifice. Our eyes are on the Lamb that was slain, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Rising up to the sky, sinking down to the depths, their courage melting away in anguish, they reeled and staggered like a drunkard, and all their skill was useless.” (Psalm 107:26–27)

What more can they do? They have used every expedient known to navigation, but the ship is so strained and beaten about that they know not how to keep her afloat.

Here too the spiritual mariner’s log agrees with that of the sailor on the sea. We have staggered frightfully! We could stand to nothing and hold by nothing. We knew not what to do, and could have done nothing if we had known it. We were as men distracted, and felt as if destruction itself would be better than our horrible state of suspense. As for wit and wisdom, they were clean washed out of us; we felt ourselves to be at a nonplus altogether.

Some of us have weathered many such an internal hurricane, and have indeed seen the Lord’s wondrous works.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

You need a dictionary (Seriously, you need a dictionary)

Definitions are important. When reading a book or listening to teaching, we can’t learn or apply anything if we don’t know the words an author or speaker is using.

The Baker Compact Dictionary of Theological Terms by Gregg Allison is an invaluable resource for theological studies, offering clear definitions for the most important words for understanding the Bible and theology. This is an incredible resource for looking up new words that you don’t know and for getting a quick refresher on various theological positions.

Buy The Baker Compact Dictionary of Theological Terms:

Pastor, pray privately (or you won’t be able to pray publicly)

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ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

Habitual communion with God must be maintained, or our public prayers will be vapid or formal. If there be no melting of the glacier high up in the ravines of the mountain, there will be no descending rivulets to cheer the plain. Private prayer is the drill ground for our more public exercises, neither can we long neglect it without being out of order when before the people.

He who has been by communion with God prepared to minister to the people, is usually of all men present the most fit to engage in prayer.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the power and pleasure of God’s Word.

A young man who had never read his Bible was tempted to do so and led to change by the gift of a bookmark presented to him by a relative. The gift was made on the condition that it should be put into his Bible, but should never stop two days in one place. He meant to shift it and not to read the book, but his eye glanced on a text. After awhile he became interested, by and by he became converted, and then the bookmark was moved with growing pleasure.

I am afraid that even some professing Christians cannot say that they shift their bookmark every day. Probably of all the books printed, the most widely circulated and the least read volume is the word of God. Books about the Bible are read, I fear, more than the Book itself.

RESOURCE FOR PASTORS

Special thanks to the Christian Standard Bible for sponsoring the Pastor’s Note newsletter. If you’re interested in exploring how the CSB can bless your church, click here to request a free CSB Starter Kit — packed with information and resources to help you learn more.

Click here to learn more about the CSB (and request a free CSB Bible).

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

We don’t have the resources or strength we need to follow God or live fruitfully, let alone minister and help others to follow God. We need prayer — it is not a formality that we insert into the transition points in our service; it is a necessity. We need prayer. So let’s devote ourselves to it.

If this newsletter is encouraging, please share it with another pastor. You can forward this email to a pastor you know.

If someone forwarded this email to you, sign up to get another one every week. Click here to subscribe.

Blessings to your ministry,

Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks
Preaching Pastor of Pillar Church of Washington DC

Pray with Spurgeon: God is worthy of all praise

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Lord, stir up your people to praise you this day. At this resting place of our pilgrimage, may we celebrate with song. Establish a day of feasting for your people. Come yourself to the feast; then our hearts will be exceedingly glad, and we will sing our praises to the Lord, the ever-blessed God, the Lord God of Israel.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“He spoke and raised a stormy wind that stirred up the waves of the sea.” (Psalm 107:25)

His word is enough for anything, he has but to will it and a tempest rages. It seemed to lie asleep before, but it knows its Master’s bidding, and is up at once in all its fury. The glassy surface of the sea is broken, and myriads of white heads appear and rage and toss themselves to and fro as the wind blows upon them. Whereas they were lying down in quiet before, the waves rise in their might and leap towards the sky as soon as the howling of the wind awakens them.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Tired of praying the same way about the same things?

It’s so easy for our prayer lives to fall into a rut — we pray the same words about the same problems day after day, and that’s boring. When we’re bored in prayer, it’s hard to pray with any kind of consistency or passion. But the Bible has a solution to our prayer problems — praying the Bible.

Praying the Bible is praying God’s own words back to him. When we use God’s Word as the foundation and starting point for our prayers, we pray in a more God-centered way about more God-centered issues.

I was first introduced to praying the Bible several years ago in a short book, Praying the Bible by Donald S. Whitney. This book is a short, approachable explanation of why and how to praying the Bible (and how to teach others).

Praying the Bible has absolutely revolutionized my prayer life. I hope you’ll grab a copy of Praying the Bible and enjoy the benefits of building your prayer life on God’s unchanging Word.

Buy Praying the Bible:

Pray with Spurgeon: Sins are forgiven by God’s mercy

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Many of us have fled to Christ, and you have blotted out our sin. We praise you for full remission, freely and graciously given, never to be reversed; for you have said: “I will cast their iniquities into the depths of the sea.” What a joy is this! May your believing people be certain of it. May they know that there is “therefore now no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus.” May their souls rest and triumph in the perfect washing, and the perfect clothing, which Jesus’ blood and righteousness have given to us. And oh that others, who have never yet known your pardoning love, might come to you, and take it, and receive it.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Others went to sea in ships, conducting trade on the vast water. They saw the LORD’s works, his wondrous works in the deep.” (Psalm 107:23–24)

 Beyond the dwellers on the land they see the Lord’s greatest works, or at least such as stayers at home judge to be so when they hear the report thereof. Instead of the ocean proving to be a watery wilderness, it is full of God’s creatures, and if we were to attempt to escape from his presence by flying to the uttermost parts of it, we should only rush into the Lord’s arms, and find ourselves in the very center of his workshop. 

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

God’s grace will grow you. Here’s a practical guide.

God’s plan for our lives is to make us more like himself — that we would live as his children instead of children of the devil. This is our goal, to know our Father and become more like him every day. And the reason we pray for this, is because we can’t grow in godliness without God’s help.

God didn’t just start your salvation, he’s going to complete it as well. And the path to true growth is not just trying harder, but by pressing deeper into the truths of God’s saving, sanctifying grace.

That’s the point of Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners by Dane Ortlund. In this book, Dane (author of Gentle and Lowly) offers a beautiful, biblical picture of what it looks like to actually grow in godliness. The teaching is incredibly practical and will leave you amazed at the wonder of God’s grace to change you.

I hope you’ll grab a copy of Deeper and use it to slay sin in your life, by God’s grace.

Buy Deeper:

*Get the audiobook for free

Pray with Spurgeon: God gives us victory in Jesus

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

There is the natural tendency in us towards that which is evil; and even in the hearts of those who are regenerate, that tendency still struggles for the mastery. “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” But still the battle is often very stern; and in the conflict we are made to cry out, “Oh wretched man that I am.”

Lord, by your grace we hate the very thought of sin. O Lord, we have broken all your commandments. We have not loved you with all our heart and soul and strength; nor have we loved our neighbor as ourselves. We are all condemned by that perfect law; and if a sentence were executed upon us, it would only be great justice. Thanks be to your holy name! Many of us have fled to Christ, and you have blotted out our sin.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices and announce his works with shouts of joy.” (Psalm 107:22)

When God heals our sin, let there be gifts as well as words. Let the good Physician have his fee of gratitude. Let life become a sacrifice to him who has prolonged it, let the deed of self-denying gratitude be repeated again and again. There must be many cheerful sacrifices to celebrate the marvelous help.

“And declare his works with rejoicing.” Such things are worth telling, for the personal declaration honors God, relieves ourselves, comforts others, and puts all men in possession of facts concerning the divine goodness which they will not be able to ignore.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

We need to stop living for ourselves

Today we prayed, lamenting the sin and selfishness that dominates our hearts, and praising God for the deliverance that we have in Christ.

Unfortunately, this isn’t always our experience today. We frequently hoard our blessings instead of pouring them out on others — this is not God’s design, so we can’t keep living that way.

That’s the point of Something Needs to Change by David Platt. This book is an incredible testimony and devotional, sharing both biblical truth about God’s heart for the nations and his plan for your life, as well as David’s own experience coming face-to-face with urgent physical and spiritual need in the Himalayas.

Warning: this book will challenge you and shake you out of your comfort zone. But the good news is that it will make you take up your call to be a blessing to all nations. I know that it will encourage you, so I’ll hope you’ll buy a copy today.

Buy Something Needs to Change:

*Get the audiobook for free.

Pray with Spurgeon: We cannot even pray with God’s help

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We thank you, O God, for providing us with a Throne of Grace, which is sprinkled with the precious blood of Jesus. This allows us, the guilty, to come without fear of your wrath breaking forth upon us. We come before you with all our hearts, and we ask you to draw us towards you so that we may run after you. Our desire is towards you and to your fear, but we need the Holy Spirit’s enablement because we are lame, broken, and ready to perish without your help. Please breathe into us the prayers that we need to offer to you and write on our hearts the words we need to speak in your presence.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Let them give thanks to the LORD for his faithful love and his wondrous works for all humanity.” (Psalm 107:21)

It is marvelous that men can be restored from sickness and yet refuse to bless the Lord. It would seem impossible that they should forget such great mercy, for we should expect to see both themselves and the friends to whom they are restored uniting in a lifelong act of thanksgiving. Yet when ten are healed it is seldom that more than one returns to give glory to God. Alas, where are the nine? When a spiritual cure is wrought by the great Physician, praise is one of the surest signs of renewed health. A mind rescued from the disease of sin and the weary pains of conviction, must and will adore Jehovah Rophi, the healing God, yet it were well if there were a thousand times as much even of this.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

God hears your prayers, not because you’re good enough (but because Jesus is)

Today we prayed, knowing that our only hope in prayer is that we would be covered in the righteousness of Christ. This is our only hope with which to approach God. This should give us great hope and confidence as we pray — we do not come in our own name, but in the mighty name of Jesus!

A great, refreshing book that has really helped me learn this lesson is A Praying Life by Paul Miller. This book makes clear that our only hope of acceptable prayers is the blood of Jesus.

A Praying Life is a great, encouraging book on Christian prayer. Reading this book has cultivated Scripture-saturated prayers of childlike faith in my life. Miller describes prayer in a way that is thoroughly biblical and incredible desirable.

I hope A Praying Life will help you deepen your prayer life this fall.

Buy A Praying Life:

*Get the audiobook for FREE with a free trial of Audible. Even if you cancel your subscription, the audiobook is yours to keep!

Weekend Edition: The church is a hospital — may the great physician heal his people

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PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH (BY SPURGEON)

Dear Savior, you know the particular trials and conditions of all your people gathering with our church this weekend; and, we do pray, now deal with each child of yours according to his special need. Great Physician, walk this hospital. Come and look on each special case; and may there be a masterpiece of your heavenly surgery in the case of each one of us.

Many of us need comfort; our heart is cast down within us. There are many of your saints, in whose soul deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls. Command your loving-kindness this weekend, and let your song be with us at this moment.

Amen.

GET A FREE BOOK

Thanks to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Spurgeon College for sponsoring the Weekend Edition.

This month, Midwestern is giving away three copies of Dr. Geoff Chang’s new book, Spurgeon the Pastor. Plus, everyone who enters will receive the first chapter for free! Click here to enter to win.

Spurgeon the Pastor is a great book. When you read this book, Spurgeon becomes your mentor — you’ll learn from his example what a healthy church should look like. This is an incredible resource (and it’s NOT just for pastors!)..

Midwestern has also curated some great resources, including FREE seminary-level video classes. Get all of these resources right here.

WEEKEND LONG READ (SERMON BY SPURGEON)

The Overflowing Cup

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” (Psalm 23:5)

any even fail to be filled because taken to the wrong source. Such are the cups which are held beneath the drippings of the world’s leaky cistern. Men try to find full satisfaction in wealth, but they never do. There is a craving of the soul which can never be satisfied, except by its Creator. In God only is the fulness of the heart, which he has made for himself.

Read the full sermon from the Spurgeon Center for Biblical Preaching at Midwestern Seminary.

A FREE RESOURCE FROM MIDWESTERN

Don Whitney on the Gospel in Spiritual Disciplines

FTC.co asks Dr. Don Whitney, Professor of Biblical Spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, “How is the gospel connected to the daily effort in the spiritual disciplines?”

PREPARE FOR MINISTRY AT MIDWESTERN

What Jesus purchased is precious. We’ve made it our purpose. Midwestern Seminary exists for the Church, and we serve the church by biblically educating God-called men and women to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ. If you’re called to serve the church, train with us, for the Church.

Pray with Spurgeon: Help us to be godly

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Lord, sometimes we have grand ideas; we soar into the pure air of fellowship, but we’re quickly drawn back. Earth’s attractions hold us back, the flesh entangles us, and our infirmities hinder us. Help us, Lord! You who started the work must continue it, or it will never come to completion. Perfect what concerns us. Lord, we desire to be rid of sin. We long for every tendency towards sin to be burnt on the head with the hot iron of your love, so that it must die. Come, great Lord, and wield your scepter over all the powers and passions of our nature. If they need a rod of iron to subdue them, yet do not spare them until grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“He sent his word and healed them; he rescued them from their traps.” (Psalm 107:20)

Man is not healed by medicine alone, but by the word which proceeds out of the mouth of God is man restored from going down to the grave. A word will do it, a word has done it thousands of times. They escape though dangers had surrounded them, dangers many and deadly. The word of the Lord has great delivering power; he has but to speak, and the armies of death flee in an instant. Sin-sick souls should remember the power of the Word and be much in hearing it and meditating upon it.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

A stunning devotional through the Psalms

If you’re looking for new devotional reading for the spring and summer, I highly recommend In the Lord I Take Refuge by Dane Ortlund (author of Gentle and Lowly).

The Psalms are a masterpiece picture of God’s unfailing grace for sinners. This simple devotional by Ortlund does a great job of opening our eyes to see mercy on every page, in every psalm.

The book walks through all 150 psalms, offering short, simple devotional thoughts for each of them. Adding these short readings to your daily routine will refresh your soul and fill you with love for Jesus. I hope you’ll buy a copy for yourself or someone else today.

Buy In the Lord I Take Refuge:

* Get the audiobook for free with a free trial of Audible. The audiobook will be yours to keep, even if you cancel your subscription.

Pastor, are your services covered in prayer?

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ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

It is to be feared that our exercises are not in every case moulded into the best form, or presented in the most commendable fashion. There are meeting-houses in which the supplications are neither so devout nor so earnest as we desire; in other places the earnestness is so allied with ignorance, and the devotion so marred with rant, that no intelligent believer can enter into the service with pleasure. Praying in the Holy Spirit is not universal among us, neither do all pray with the understanding as well as with the heart. There is room for improvement, and in some quarters there is an imperative demand for it. Let me, therefore, very earnestly caution you, beloved brethren, against spoiling your services by your prayers: make it your solemn resolve that all the engagements of the sanctuary shall be of the best kind.

If unprepared brethren are to be sent into the pulpit to do my praying for me when I am engaged to preach, I do not see why I might not be allowed to pray, and then retire to let these brethren do the sermonizing. I am not able to see any reason for depriving me of the holiest, sweetest, and most profitable exercise which my Lord has allotted me; if I may have my choice, I will sooner yield up the sermon than the prayer. Thus much I have said in order to impress upon you that you must highly esteem public prayer, and seek of the Lord for the gifts and graces necessary to its right discharge.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe God’s discipline.

You see that rough-looking diamond? It is put on the wheel of the lapidary. With much care he begins to turn it and to cut it on all sides. It loses much—much that seemed to itself costly. Do you see it now? The king is to be crowned, the diadem is put upon the monarch’s head with the trumpet’s joyful sound. There is a glittering ray that flows from that diadem, and it comes from that very diamond that was cut just now by the lapidary.

You, Christian, may venture to compare yourself to such a diamond, for you are one of God’s jewels, and this is the time of the cutting process. You must endure it. Be of good courage and do not murmur. Let faith and patience do their perfect work. In the day when the crown shall be set upon the head of “the King eternal, immortal, invisible,” (1 Tim 1:17) one ray of glory shall stream from you, for you shall be his.

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

We must teach our congregations to pray — not as a formality, but as a necessity. We pray before we preach, because we have no wisdom apart from God’s help. We pray while we sing, because we have no joy apart from God. We need him every moment of every day, of course we need him while we gather for worship.

If this newsletter is encouraging, please share it with another pastor. You can forward this email to a pastor you know.

If someone forwarded this email to you, sign up to get another one every week. Click here to subscribe.

Blessings to your ministry,

Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks
Preaching Pastor of Pillar Church of Washington DC

Pray with Spurgeon: God is holding on to you

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We grieve inwardly over those who profess to be your people, yet sin has dominion over them. Lord, when any turn away, we ask ourselves, “Will I do the same?” We know that without your grip on us, we will decline and become like them at last. Please do not allow us to wander; rather, do not let us even consider evil. May we have no god but God, no Christ but Christ, no spirit but the Spirit. May we be absorbed in you! May we live and move in you, not just naturally, but spiritually as well. “Take our poor heart and let it be forever closed to all but thee.”

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; he saved them from their distress.” (Psalm 107:19)

The sinners we have been reading of join the praying legion at last. Saul also is among the prophets. The fool lays aside his motley in prospect of the shroud and betakes himself to his knees. What a cure for the soul sickness of the body is often made to be by the Lord’s grace!

Prayer is as effective on a sick bed as in the wilderness or in prison; it may be tried in all places and circumstances with a certain result. We may pray about our bodily pains and weaknesses, and we may look for answers too. When we have no appetite for meat, we may have an appetite for prayer. He who cannot feed on the word of God may yet turn to God himself and find mercy.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

A real-life Bible study for men

I put together a Bible study workbook to teach men two things:

  1. How to be the husband God has called them to be.
  2. How to study the Bible for themselves.

It’s called The God Centered Husband, it’s a simple interactive workbook that walks through six passages of Scripture. It will help participants understand marriage, manhood, and their call to serve their wives.

Every man lives for something. This Bible study will challenge you to stop living for yourself, your wife, or your career, and live for God more faithfully.

I hope you’ll grab copies for yourself, a small group, or one-on-one discipleship.

Buy The God Centered Husband: