Author: Charles Spurgeon

Pray with Spurgeon: God, forgive our complaining

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

If ever, even for a moment, the thought of complaint should flit across our spirit, we beg to be forgiven. Shall a living man complain? Surely it is such a mercy that we are yet alive; that we still have our reason; that we are not cast away for ever into hopeless misery.

It is such grace on your part, that long as we live, we will bless your name, yes, while immortality endures! We desire that on our dying bed, if it should please you, we may die singing. We would wish that our first song in heaven should be “Hallelujah to him who has loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; unto him be glory now and forever.” O Lord, we would bring before you now our sins and our sorrows.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Some wandered in the desolate wilderness, finding no way to a city where they could live.” (Psalm 107:4)

They were lost in the worst possible place, even as the sinner is who is lost in sin; they wandered up and down in vain searches and researches as a sinner does when he is awakened and sees his lost estate; but it ended in nothing, for they still continued in the wilderness, though they had hoped to escape from it.

They found no city. How could they? There was none. Israel in the wilderness lived in tents, and enjoyed none of the comforts of settled life; wanderers in the Sahara find no town or village. Men when under distress of soul find nothing to rest upon, no comfort and no peace; their efforts after salvation are many, weary, and disappointing, and the dread solitude of their hearts fills them with dire distress.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Save on the Spurgeon Study Bible*

This month, the Spurgeon Study Bible is available for 50% off for “Pray with Spurgeon” subscribers (Just use promo code SPURGEON23).

The Spurgeon Study Bible has been such an encouragement to my Bible study and I know it will encourage you. I hope you’ll grab this great deal and add the Spurgeon Study Bible to your library.

Here’s what you’ll find inside…

  • Hundreds of notes taken right from Spurgeon’s sermons
  • A short biography of Spurgeon
  • 20 outlines of his earliest sermons (in his own handwriting)
  • Spurgeon’s illustrations for key themes throughout the Bible.
  • An introduction from Spurgeon for each book of the Bible
  • Available in the CSB, KJV, and Spanish RVR 1960 translations.

This is a great resource. I hope you’ll add The Spurgeon Study Bible to your library today and save!

Buy the Spurgeon Study Bible on Lifeway.com (Use promo code SPURGEON23 to save 50%)

Pastor, no one’s salvation depends on you

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ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

At times I have thought, when I have done preaching, that I have laid down the gospel so clearly, that the nose on one’s face could not be more plain; and yet I perceive that even intelligent hearers have failed to understand what was meant by “Look unto me and be ye saved.”

Converts usually say that they did not know the gospel till such and such a day; and yet they had heard it for years. The gospel is unknown, not from want of explanation, but from absence of personal revelation. This the Holy Ghost is ready to give, and will give to those who ask him. Yet when given, the sum total of the truth revealed all lies within these words: “Christ died for the ungodly.”

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the need to be born again.

To put the matter very simply—did you ever hear of Mr. Rowland Hill’s illustration of the cat and the sow? I will give it in my own fashion, to illustrate our Savior’s expressive words—“You must be born again.”

Do you see that cat? What a cleanly creature she is! How cleverly she washes herself with her tongue and her paws! It is quite a pretty sight! Did you ever see a sow do that? No, you never did. It is contrary to its nature. It prefers to wallow in the mire. Go and teach a sow to wash itself, and see how little success you would gain. It would be a great sanitary improvement if swine would be clean. Teach them to wash and clean themselves as the cat has been doing! Useless task. You may by force wash that sow, but it hastens to the mire, and is soon as foul as ever. The only way in which you can get a sow to wash itself is to transform it into a cat; then it will wash and be clean, but not till then! Suppose that transformation to be accomplished, and then what was difficult or impossible is easy enough; the swine will henceforth be fit for your parlor and your hearth-rug.

So it is with an ungodly man; you cannot force him to do what a renewed man does most willingly; you may teach him, and set him a good example, but he cannot learn the art of holiness, for he has no mind to it; his nature leads him another way. When the Lord makes a new man of him, then all things wear a different aspect. So great is this change, that I once heard a convert say, “Either all the world is changed, or else I am.” The new nature follows after right as naturally as the old nature wanders after wrong. What a blessing to receive such a nature! Only the Holy Ghost can give it.

RESOURCE FOR PASTORS

Thanks to the Christian Standard Bible for sponsoring this newsletter.

As a pastor, you need a Bible translation that new believers can understand and one that every believer can turn to for lifelong discipleship. The Christian Standard Bible is incredible accessible while remaining faithful to the original languages.

Request a free review copy and learn more here.

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

We need to boldly share the Word and devote ourselves to teaching with clarity and excellence. But we have a great assurance that God will accomplish his purposes. It is not up to us.

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 good (even when life is hard)

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

O Lord our God, before we ask anything from your hands, we desire to praise and magnify your name; for you are good in yourself, and in all your thoughts, and all your acts, and in all that you do toward us. You are good when you lay us low, when the bed of sickness becomes hard, and our bones are weary. You are good when you strip us of all earthly comforts; good when we stand at the grave’s mouth and bury our dearest love.

You are in everything good. Shall we not bless the God who takes, as well as the God who gives? We would not follow you as a dog follows a stranger for a bone; but we would love you as loving children, who love even a chastising Father, and have learned to say, “Though he slay me yet will I trust in him.”

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“The Lord… has gathered them from the lands— from the east and the west, from the north and the south.” (Psalm 107:3)

Gathering follows upon redeeming. No matter what divides, the Lord will gather his own into one body, and first on earth by “one Lord, one faith, and one baptism,” and then in heaven by one common bliss they shall be known to be the one people of the One God.

What a glorious Shepherd must he be who thus collects the blood-bought flock from the remotest regions, guides them through countless perils, and at last makes them to lie down in the green pastures of Paradise. Some have wandered one way and some another, they have all left Immanuel’s land and strayed as far as they could, and great are the grace and power by which they are all collected into one flock by the Lord Jesus. With one heart and voice let the redeemed praise the Lord who gathers them into one.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

A challenging call to stop living a comfortable life

Today’s verse of the day reflected on God gathering his redeemed people from “the remotest regions” of the earth.”

Unfortunately, today, we are tempted to hoard our blessings instead of laying our lives down to gather God’s redeemed people to himself. 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.

Buy Something Needs to Change:

*Get the audiobook for free with a free trial of Audible.

Pray with Spurgeon: God’s mercy has no end

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We look back upon the way whereby the Lord our God has led us; how, in the splendor of his mercy, he has kept us, and would not let go away from him; how he has fed us, and would not suffer us to feed upon the husks that the swine do eat. And he has preserved us even to this day, and made with us an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, which neither death nor hell shall ever destroy.

Accept our thanks today; accept the special thanks of some of us who in this season seem overwhelmed with mercy. We do not know where to begin; and if we began where could we leave off, for it is endless mercy, infinite mercy, inconceivable mercy: “Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Let the redeemed of the LORD proclaim that he has redeemed them from the power of the foe.” (Psalm 107:2)

Whatever others may think or say, the redeemed have overwhelming reasons for declaring the goodness of the Lord. Theirs is a peculiar redemption, and for it they ought to render peculiar praise. The Redeemer is so glorious, the ransom price so immense, and the redemption so complete, that they are under sevenfold obligations to give thanks unto the Lord, and to exhort others to do so. Let them not only feel so but say so; let them both sing and bid their fellows sing.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Apply the truth of the gospel to every day life

Today’s prayer asked God to fill us up with peace by reminding us that Jesus died in our place. We don’t have to worry, because we know that we will never die.

This prayer reminded me of a great book, The Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges. In that book, Bridges connects the truth of the gospel to specific situations that we face every day. How should it change our lives this week that Jesus died and rose again for us?

I know that The Gospel for Real Life will help you better understand and enjoy the gospel as it changes every aspect of your life. I hope you’ll buy a copy today.

Buy The Gospel for Real Life:

Pray with Spurgeon: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Our God, we love you. We can say from our very hearts that we love you. We are not what we ought to be. We often turn aside, but still our heart is right toward you and your covenant; though we be faint, we are yet pursuing. Through infinite mercy our faces are still Zionward; our confidence is nowhere but in our God. “From him comes my salvation.” Glory be to the name of the Lord forever and ever and ever! Our hearts cannot feel all they ought to feel, nor can our tongues express the thousandth part of the emotions of our inmost nature, as we look back upon the way whereby the Lord our God has led us; how, in the splendor of his mercy, he has kept us, and would not let go away from him.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his faithful love endures forever.” (Psalm 107:1)

Thanks is all we can give him, and the least we can give; therefore let us diligently render to him our thanksgiving. Let us be at all times thoroughly fervent in the praises of the Lord, both with our lips and with our lives, by thanksgiving and thanks-living. The Lord is not to be worshipped with groans and cries, but with thanks, for he is good; and these thanks should be heartily rendered, for his is no common goodness: he is good by nature, and essence, and proven to be good in all the acts of his eternity. Compared with him there is none good, no, not one: but he is essentially, perpetually, superlatively, infinitely good. We are the perpetual partakers of his goodness, and therefore ought above all his creatures to magnify his name.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Spurgeon’s word to non-Christians — updated in contemporary English

This passion for the lost permeated every aspect of Spurgeon’s ministry, and it led him to write a book — All of Grace. A dear friend of mine has updated this classic book in contemporary English to make it more accessible for modern readers.

Reading this book will help you as an evangelist — it is an incredible explanation of the wonder of God’s grace that will leave you amazed and eager to serve! As you read Spurgeon’s appeal to the lost, you will be equipped to share with the lost people you know.

This book is also a great resource to read with a non-Christian you know. Buy a copy for someone you know and ask to discuss it together. Especially as we approach Easter, the non-believers around you may be more willing than ever to discuss spiritual topics. You’ll be surprised how eager non-Christians will be to read this book!

Reading All of Grace will bless you in so many ways. I hope you’ll grab a copy of this newly updated edition.

Buy All of Grace:

Pray with Spurgeon: God, you yourself are our greatest joy

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Gracious God, the highest pleasure we anticipate is that of worshiping you to perfection with cherubim and seraphim and all the host redeemed by blood, with legions of angels and creatures innumerable we hope to pour out day without night continually songs of adoring joy, and even now one of our nearest approaches to heaven is in sacred song. O you, our supreme delight, our inheritance, our light, our life, our all; we can truly say we delight in God.

O blessed One, we love your Word, we love your House. And you yourself, what shall we say of you! Take us more and more unto yourself through Jesus Christ the Mediator, and let our hearts be more and more taken up with you.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, wiping out all evildoers from the LORD’s city.” (Psalm 101:8)

When our Lord comes in judgment, this verse will be fulfilled on a large scale; until then he sinks the judge in the Savior, and bids men leave their sins and find pardon.

Under the gospel we also are bidden to suffer long, and to be kind, even to the unthankful and the evil; but the office of the magistrate is of another kind, and he must have a sterner eye to justice than would be proper in private persons. Is he not to be a terror to evildoers?

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Spurgeon’s Earliest Sermons (And Hundreds of Other Resources)*

This month, the Spurgeon Study Bible is available for 50% off for “Pray with Spurgeon” subscribers (Just use promo code SPURGEON23).

One of my favorite features of the Spurgeon Study Bible is the LOST SERMONS. Throughout the study Bible, you can find outlines of some of Spurgeon’s earliest sermons — you can even see them in Spurgeon’s own handwriting!

Up until a few years ago, they had never been published or widely read, and now there are 20 of them available right in your Spurgeon Study Bible. These sermons are saturated with rich gospel content. I know they will bless and encourage you.

The Lost Sermons are just one of the many incredible features to this Study Bible. I highly recommend grabbing one now while they’re 50% off!

Buy the Spurgeon Study Bible on Lifeway.com (Use promo code SPURGEON23 to save 50%)

Weekend Edition: Help us truly worship God

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PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH (BY SPURGEON)

We ask especially for this Lord’s Day, that we may be in the Spirit, and know the fulness of his quickening power. May we do nothing after the dead manner of formality. May there be no dead hymn, nor dead prayer. Lord, give the preacher life. Oh, give the hearers life. Oh may this be living worship this morning, the bowing not of heads alone, but of hearts, and the closing not alone of the eyes to things that can be seen, but the closing of the eyelids of the thought to everything worldly.

Amen.

CELEBRATING THE CALL TO MINISTRY

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

This month, Midwestern is celebrating Called Out Month — helping you understand and pursue your call to ministry.

They’ve put together some great resources (including videos of great preachers and authors sharing about their call to ministry) and incredible giveaways (including seminary scholarships, free books, and more).

Celebrate Called Out Month right here.

WEEKEND LONG READ (SERMON BY SPURGEON)

Our Lord’s Humanity: A Sweet Source of Comfort

“Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me.” (Daniel 10:18)

it is ever to us the richest and highest comfort, as believers in Christ, that the Lord Jesus is a man; and when he strengthens us it is full often by laying his human hand upon us. He reveals his kinship with us, and our spirit is consoled and strengthened by a sense of his union with us. My one object is, by the Spirit’s aid, to draw water from the ancient well of our Lord’s humanity.

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

A FREE RESOURCE FROM MIDWESTERN

Do You Love the People of God? by Jason K. Allen

Ministry service is glorious, but it can also be uniquely taxing, and only those propelled by a love for Christ and his church survive the long haul.

Read the full article on For the Church

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: God’s mercy flows in a ceaseless river of love

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Most gracious God, we feel this morning as if we must show forth your praise as we remember all your delivering mercy to us. Some of us have now known you for years, and we have had great and sore troubles, but you have established your Word unto your servants wherewith you have caused us to hope. You have led us by various ways, but always by the right way. You hast chastened us sore, but you have not appointed us to death. You have given us marks of your Fatherly love in every touch of your rod, and therefore do we bless your name.

You did bring us through fire and through water; men did ride over our heads, yet you have brought us out into a wealthy place. You have set our feet upon a rock and established our goings, and our soul sometimes wishes that the body would dance before the ark of God, for very joy and gratitude that overflows the soul, and would overflow the body too, until the very flesh should be made to pay homage before the ever-blessed one who has caused his mercy to flow to us in ceaseless rivers of love.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“No one who acts deceitfully will live in my palace; the one who tells lies will not be retained here to guide me.” (Psalm 101:7)

He would not have a liar within sight or hearing; he loathed the mention of him. Grace makes men truthful, and creates in them an utter horror of everything approaching to falsehood.

If David would not have a liar in his sight, much less will the Lord; neither he that loves nor he who makes a lie shall be admitted into heaven. Liars are obnoxious enough on earth; the saints shall not be worried with them in another world.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Study (the entire Bible) with Spurgeon*

Good study Bibles have been an incredible blessing to me throughout my Christian life. They are incredible tools for understanding and applying the Bible.

One of my favorite study Bibles is The Spurgeon Study Bible. This is a great tool for deepening your understanding of Scripture.

Two great features: there are hundreds of study notes taken from Spurgeon’s sermons throughout the Bible, and there are short introductions by Spurgeon on every book of the Bible. This is a great way to get a board overview or detailed reflection, right from Spurgeon, on any section of Scripture.

The Spurgeon Study Bible is a great resource for Scripture study. And for a limited time, they are 50% off when you use promo code SPURGEON23. I hope you’ll grab one today.

Buy the Spurgeon Study Bible on Lifeway.com (Use promo code SPURGEON23 to save 50%)

Pastor, you will never run out of sermons

Get wisdom encouragement for Spurgeon in your inbox every week. Subscribe to the The Pastor’s Note newsletter for free.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

The Great Shepherd of the sheep will grant us an all-sufficiency with which to feed his people. Believing in God all-sufficient, we expect to see our loaves and fishes multiplied; consequently, we do not lay by in store, but deal out at this present all that we have.

I saw in Rome a fountain, which represented a man holding a barrel, out of which a copious stream of water was perpetually running. There never was much at any one time in that marble barrel, and yet it has continued to yield a stream for four or five hundred years. So let us pour forth from our very soul all that the Lord imparts to us. For twenty years and more, I have told out all I know, and have run dry every time, and yet my heart still bubbles up with a good matter. I know some brethren in the ministry who are comparable to the great tun of Heidelberg for capacity, and yet the people do not receive so much gospel truth from them as from preachers of very inferior capacity who have formed the habit of giving out all they have.

We believe that the Spirit of God will be in us a well of water springing up unto everlasting life, and we act according to that conviction. We do not expect to have much goods laid up for many years; but, as we live by daily bread, so upon continually new supplies do we feed our people. Away with the musty, worm-breeding stores of old manna, and let us look up day by day for a fresh supply!

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this quotation in your own preaching to describe Christian generosity.

A cheerful giver is also a willing giver. We are not to be like the young grape that must be pressed and squeezed to get the juice out because it is not ripe. Rather, we ought to be like the honeycomb, dripping spontaneously with fresh honey.

RESOURCE FOR PASTORS

Pursue Your Call to Ministry

This month, Midwestern Seminary is encouraging future pastors to pursue their call to ministry. They’ve put together some great resources to help you understand your own call to ministry or help others unpack their own.

They’re also hosting some great giveaways including seminary scholarships and book giveaways, and more. If you refer a student, they’ll send some free books your way.

Click here to learn more.

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

God’s Word is a never-ending fountain of joy and wisdom. If we give ourselves to preaching our ideas and agendas, we will run out of things to say. But if we devote ourselves to unfolding Scripture, we will never run out of glories to enjoy.

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 has promised us incredible blessings

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

O Lord, we take to ourselves without stealth, but of good and honest right, all the blessings of the Covenant; seeing we are heirs of the Covenant, joint-heirs with Christ Jesus your Son, and therefore our soul exalts in God; for you are ours in Covenant now, and we are yours. You are the Covenant God, and we are the Covenanted ones, a people near unto you, whom your grace has chosen and called and redeemed and set apart unto yourself; of whom you have said, even of all believers: this is “the people I formed for myself will declare my praise” (Isaiah 43:21)

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“My eyes favor the faithful of the land so that they may sit down with me. The one who follows the way of integrity may serve me.” (Psalm 101:6)

What I wish myself to be, that I desire my servant to be. Employers are to a great degree responsible for their servants, and it is customary to blame a master if he retains in his service persons of notorious character; therefore, lest we become partakers of other men’s sins, we shall do well to decline the services of bad characters.

A good master does well to choose a good servant; he may take a prodigal into his house for the sinner’s good, but if he consults his own he will look in another quarter. Wicked nurses have great influence for evil over the minds of little children, and ungodly servants often injure the morals of the older members of the family, and therefore great care should be exercised that godly servants should be employed as far as possible. Even irreligious men have the sense to perceive the value of Christian servants, and surely their own Christian brethren ought not to have a lower appreciation of them.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

God will destroy your idols — here’s how

Today we prayed, reflecting on our covenant with God. We are in a relationship with him, and we must strive to be faithful. We must work to destroy idols — both in our own hearts and all around the world. This process of growing as a Christian to love God more, being redeemed from our love for idols, is an incredible work of God.

That’s the point of Matt Chandler’s book, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel-Saturated Perspective on Change. This book explains the incredible work that God is going to do in your life to redeem everything about you — to destroy your idols and purify your heart.

This book will fill you with thankfulness and amazement at God’s work to save you from the penalty and power of sin every day. It will also help you understand your role in fighting sin.

This is a don’t-miss book to help make you more like Jesus. I hope you’ll grab one today.

Buy Recovering Redemption:

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